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https://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/oct/05/working-life-pets-at-home-maeve-moorcroft | Money | 2012-10-05T05:45:00.000Z | Jill Insley | A working life: the head of pets | "S
orry to keep you waiting. My snake is about to shed." In 25 years of writing this is certainly the most unusual excuse I have ever heard, and Maeve Moorcroft is one of very few people who could get away with it.
Moorcroft is head of pets for Pets at Home, responsible for all areas of health and welfare of the thousands of animals that pass through the doors of the nationwide chain.
I am meeting her the morning after a very difficult evening for both her and Pets at Home: BBC's Watchdog programme had run a lengthy feature on the health of a few of the pets sold by the store. I thought Pets at Home was going to fare quite well after seeing the first segment, which mostly related to a couple of cases of ringworm in guinea pigs; but the second part involved undercover filming in several stores, showing dead fish in tanks. A few looked like they had been dead for several days.
"We were answering calls until 11pm last night," Moorcroft says. As we walk around the head office in Wilmslow, Cheshire, it's clear more are still coming in, and one or two colleagues (you are not allowed to use the word "staff" at Pets at Home, everyone is a colleague) stop Moorcroft for advice or to ask her to talk to the pet owner on the other end of the line.
Moorcroft, who is Irish, qualified as a vet in Dublin in 1990 and spent 10 years working in the Peak District dealing mainly with domestic animals, "with the odd sheep and wildlife emergency thrown in". She met her husband to be, a shepherd who now runs their farm, after treating one of his sheepdogs on New Year's Eve, and now has two sons aged seven and five.
Like many vets, Moorcroft found that the long and often unsociable hours of being in practice did not fit well with having a family. She switched to working for a pet product manufacturer as their veterinary adviser, helping to make sure their products were safe and suitable.
Three years ago she moved to Pets at Home, becoming the first vet to hold the position of head of pets, involved in all areas of health and welfare of the company's pets, fish and reptiles. Among other things, the role involves liaising with suppliers, checking where animals come from, supervising their care in store and overseeing the stores' adoption centres.
She runs a team of about 10, including specialists in reptiles and fish, and two veterinary nurses working in a support role. Given the size of the company – 320 stores employing about 5,500 people with a turnover of £12m a week – this seems quite a modest number.
Moorcroft spends part of the morning answering emails and calls, mostly from the stores or vets contacting her about animals bought from Pets at Home, and is briefed by her team on the progress of a new range of guides published in association with the RSPCA and the licensing of various stores.
The open-plan office she sits in is like no other I've ever visited. There are a couple of dogs meandering between a selection of baskets and bean bags, and nearly every desk includes an aquarium or vivarium holding a wide array of fish, snakes, reptiles and amphibians. Moorcroft's snake, Jean Genie, sits in a tank on her desk.
She moves on to visit a Stockport store with a specialist aquatic centre and featured prominently in the Watchdog programme. The staff are upset, and there is a high manager-to-colleague ratio on the shop floor to reassure staff and deal with customer inquiries.
While Pets at Home disagreed with some of the points made by the BBC programme, chief executive Nick Wood issued a statement saying the company would review its health check training and the frequency of the checks on its fish tanks.
We meet "Fishy" Pete, a marine biologist who is one of Moorcroft's team, to inspect the fish: cold water, tropical and marine. The tanks are spotless and the only inverted fish is one which Pete assures me likes being upside down.
Some vets have a poor opinion of pet shops, and until recently the RSPCA has opposed the sale of animals through a shop environment. Has Moorcroft received flack from her veterinary peers for switching over to pet sales? "Veterinary science is a vocation, and I spent all those years in college because I wanted to help animals. Now I'm in a really good position to do that. Yes I'm one step removed, but I can get things in place to make things better," she says.
Curriculum vitae
Hours Officially 8.30am to 5pm. Five weeks holiday plus bank holidays.
Work-life balance "It's better than when I was in practice, and getting better still because of my veterinary nurses."
Salary The average starting salary for a vet can be anything between £21,800 and £33,500 a year, depending on experience. However, further training and experience can increase the average salary to around £36,500. Moorcroft's salary is equivalent to that of a senior vet, who can earn upwards of £50,000.
Best thing "Getting the chance to influence the health of thousands of animals all around the country."
Worst thing "Laying awake at 4am, worrying about guinea pigs and rabbits." | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/oct/20/open-plan-mews-flat-maureen-doherty-designer-egg | Life and style | 2018-10-20T09:59:03.000Z | Hannah Booth | ‘I love it when the leaves fall in’: the flat that takes open-plan living to extremes | As you mount the narrow stairs up to Maureen Doherty’s home, there is a distinct smoky smell. I am in the home of a style doyenne, so assume it’s one of those fashionable, charcoal-scented candles, burning expensively in a corner. But no. “Cigarettes,” she laughs. Like Doherty herself, it is unexpected: in this sanitised world, who smokes in their own living room? But then, who has an open-plan shower or puts guests up in the bathroom?
Maureen Doherty. Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Guardian
Doherty’s fashion brand, Egg, is the opposite of mainstream. There is a cultish air around both her and her store, a whitewashed former dairy stables in west London. Her loose cotton clothes are inspired by functional workwear: Rajasthani milkmen’s overalls, monks’ trousers from Japan. “I take things that already exist and I twiddle them.” When Theresa May was photographed for American Vogue last year, by Annie Leibovitz, she chose a red Egg coat and cashmere jumper. Prime ministers aside, customers tend to be in the creative industries, including Tilda Swinton, Nigel Slater, Diane Keaton and Maggie Smith. The latter is a friend: Doherty dressed her in head-to-toe Oxfam for her role in Alan Bennett’s film, The Lady In the Van.
The boxed-in kitchen. Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Guardian
Egg’s outlier approach to fashion is mirrored in Doherty’s home and lifestyle. Until recently, she was an itinerant, staying in hotels or with friends, splitting her time between London, Scotland – a country she loves – and France, where her daughter and grandsons live. But when a small, two-storey building adjoining the Egg store became available, she snapped it up and enlisted architect Jonathan Tuckey, known for his interesting reworkings of old buildings, to turn it into a home. The ground floor was a leaking store room and upstairs, which hadn’t been touched since the 1950s, was half a dozen tiny rooms with a false ceiling.
Open-plan shower. Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Guardian
Doherty’s brief was enigmatic and poetic: “I told Jonathan I wanted a hut. It’s my dream to live in a hut near a river.” She sent photographs of huts, baths and gardens, a stone, wood from a Scottish beach, and a white ceramic bowl by her favourite potter, Lucie Rie, which formed the basis of the chalky colour scheme. At first, Tuckey says, “it wasn’t immediately obvious it was going to be somewhere you lived”.
He inserted a series of pale timber “containers” into the building to create a nest of minimalist small spaces, with skylights into the first floor roof and whitewashed walls. The exposed floorboards are stained black. It is a notably un-private space: a door-less shower room with exposed copper pipes overlooks a bathroom on the floor below, and can be opened to the elements via a skylight – “I love it when leaves fall in,” Doherty says. A mezzanine bedroom is open to the living space below, accessed via an open staircase. “I like the space to be one, particularly when I have my daughter and grandsons staying.” Home, she says, should be a social space: “I love a kitchen table, discussing everything over food.” On the ground floor is a neat bathroom, part whitewashed, part white-tiled, and barn doors large enough for a cow to pass through, that open on to the street. It has a bespoke square wooden bathtub, which is removable (it isn’t plumbed in; wall-mounted copper pipes provide water). The space triples as a meeting room and guest bedroom: the day I visit, Doherty’s niece has slept in there, on a mattress on the floor. Black-and-white photographs line the wall.
Up a set of narrow stairs, you enter a living area: an armchair, a reading lamp and a pouffe covered in dog hair sit around an open fireplace. Beyond is a vintage dining table, warped with age, alongside a bank of chalk-coloured chipboard cupboards that house a fridge, cooker/hob and storage. The walls are bare except for a large, colourful painting by Chinese-American artist Walasse Ting. Beyond is a small nook with a desk and a large walk-in closet, which is where Doherty’s young grandsons usually bed down when they come to stay.
The living area. Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Guardian
Since the beginning of Egg, in the early 1990s, Doherty has supported ceramicists, giving them space to exhibit their pieces in her store. In 1998, she gave Edmund de Waal his first show: “Back then, his pots cost £80.” Last month, young makers Max Bainbridge and Abigail Booth, known as Forest + Found, staged a small exhibition.
Doherty’s little corner of London is a rarefied world, with the air of a village high street. It has a shop and a pub that bans mobile phones. In the 90s, it was “alive, full of creative people living on controlled rent”, but is now peopled by the super-rich. Doherty and Egg seem to bring colour, life and a little normality – or what passes for normality here – to the street. People come and go, her dogs mooch around and Egg staff iron clothes outside. “I’ve been here so long, I’m like the concierge. I hold everyone’s keys.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/16/theresa-may-to-confirm-uk-exit-from-eu-single-market-speech | Politics | 2017-01-17T09:29:21.000Z | Anushka Asthana | Theresa May to confirm UK exit from EU single market | Theresa May is expected to use the most important speech of her premiership to confirm that Britain will be leaving the single market while insisting that it wants to remain “the best friend” to European partners.
In remarks that critics will cite as evidence that the government is pursuing a hard Brexit, the prime minister will say there is no option that leaves Britain “half-in, half-out” as she sets out 12 key priorities for the EU negotiations.
Critically, she will insist there will be no compromise over the ability to control borders and regain sovereignty.
Theresa May’s Brexit focus should be on the least harmful way of leaving
Peter Mandelson
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Speaking to an audience at Lancaster House, Westminster, including ambassadors from across the world, May will stress her ambition to reach out beyond the continent to build new trading relationships in a move that suggests the UK will also leave the customs union.
However, the prime minister is likely to restate an argument that she does not see it as an either/or choice and say that whatever final deal on trade and customs duties is struck, lorries will be able to pass through Dover and other ports unhindered, despite warnings from others on the issue.
“We seek a new and equal partnership – between an independent, self-governing, global Britain and our friends and allies in the EU. Not partial membership of the European Union, associate membership of the European Union or anything that leaves us half-in, half-out,” May is expected to say.
“We do not seek to adopt a model already enjoyed by other countries. We do not seek to hold on to bits of membership as we leave. The United Kingdom is leaving the European Union. My job is to get the right deal for Britain as we do.”
Advisers know the speech could have an impact on the value on sterling by confirming that the UK cannot stay in the single market, but May will say that British voters backed Brexit “with their eyes open”.
In a speech that will delight Eurosceptic backbenchers, she will avoid talking about soft or hard options, but instead promise a clean break from the EU.
The priorities include control over immigration and removing Britain from the jurisdiction of the European court of justice plus securing the rights of EU citizens in Britain, committing to retain workers’ rights, building a strong trading relationship with the EU and rest of the world, making Britain an attractive place for investors and students, and preserving the union.
May will say that these negotiating priorities will be driven by four underlying principles: “certainty and clarity; a stronger Britain; a fairer Britain; and a truly global Britain”.
The prime minister will attempt to offer a more positive vision of the situation to other European countries. “Our vote to leave the European Union was no rejection of the values we share. The decision to leave the EU represents no desire to become more distant to you, our friends and neighbours. We will continue to be reliable partners, willing allies and close friends,” she will say.
“We want to buy your goods, sell you ours, trade with you as freely as possible and work with one another to make sure we are all safer, more secure and more prosperous through continued friendship.”
May’s words, which sources say have had significant input from the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, and Brexit secretary, David Davis, is likely to be cheered by MPs who support Brexit. Staff in Downing Street are also said to be positive about the speech, which is expected to be long and detailed.
However, many of May’s opponents, including some within the Conservative party, will despair at the lack of compromise on migration and sovereignty that will mean Britain has no choice but to leave the European single market.
What do you think Theresa May should say in her Brexit speech?
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Whitehall sources suggested that May had been urged to take a harder stance over Brexit by cabinet colleagues who have argued that a rerun of the referendum would result in an even more emphatic victory for Brexit, in the region of 60%-40%. They believe the fact that the predicted economic downturn has not materialised means that voters are increasingly warming to the idea of Britain’s clean break.
The Scottish National party is likely to react with anger to May’s likely decision to ignore their demands to attempt to reach a special settlement for Scotland, under which it could stay a member of the internal market while retaining free movement of Labour.
The first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has warned that failure to heed the desires of the Scottish government, in the face of last June’s remain vote north of the border, could result in a second independence referendum.
Angus Robertson, the party’s leader in Westminster, said: “The prime minister should know that the SNP and the Scottish government are not bluffing; we are deadly serious about protecting Scotland’s place in Europe and I would expect to hear that she is taking this seriously if making keynote speech about Brexit. But I’m not holding my breath.”
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, also hit out at May, highlighting the fact she had been photographed for Vogue magazine: “I assume they are going to change the name to Vague for this edition to match her vision of our future trading relationship with Europe.”
She could get also a critical response from Conservative backbenchers planning to tour radio and television studios on Tuesday to respond to the speech.
Meanwhile, the Swedish foreign minister, Ann Linde, told the Guardian that it was inevitable that Britain would have to leave the single market.
Speaking during a trip to the UK which included a meeting with the Brexit secretary, the Swedish politician said: “The messages I got from ministers is that there is no political possibility [to keep] free movement of people and the European court of justice. It is not possible to be in the single market if those parameters are not there.”
Linde warned that leaving the customs union was not risk free, with an official inquiry in Sweden finding that 2,000 companies said it was particularly difficult to trade with Norway, which is outside the customs union. She said that negotiations could take time, with at least 15 months for exit talks before discussions about a new trade deal after that.
But Linde insisted that she wanted the remaining member states, the EU27, to embark on “constructive negotiations” with Britain as it was in everybody’s interest. She said she hoped that May would strike a different tone on Tuesday than in a speech during last September’s Conservative party conference that
May was given an economic boost before the speech when the International Monetary Fund, which had warned during the referendum campaign of a negative impact from a Brexit vote, upgraded its outlook for the British economy this year.
The IMF said it expected the UK to grow by 1.5%, up from a previous forecast of 1.1%. However, the Washington-based institution cut its forecast for 2018, from 1.7% to 1.4%, owing to uncertainty over Britain’s “unsettled” exit terms.
Investors displayed unease on the eve of May’s speech, with the FTSE 100 index ending a record 14-day winning streak on Monday. The pound dipped below $1.20 at one point as it fell to a three-month low, reflecting concerns that the prime minister would confirm plans for a hard Brexit.
The government will present Tuesday’s speech as its plan for exiting the EU as demanded by Labour during a parliamentary vote. However, the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, argued that a “one-off speech is not the same as a plan for Brexit”.
He argued that May’s priority should be the economy: “Having spoken to businesses, trade unions and communities across the UK, it is clear what they need to hear: that the prime minister will put jobs and the economy first, ensure companies are able to trade without tariffs or additional impediments, that there will be no watering down of key employment or environmental rights; and that we will form a new cooperative relationship with the EU.”
Rupert Harrison, former chief of staff to George Osborne at the Treasury, said he did not believe May was definitively ruling out leaving the customs union, especially in key industries.
“I think there is a possibility the UK will seek to remain in the customs union in some very important sectors where we have integrated supply chains across borders, car manufacturing and aerospace.”
Harrison, now chief macro-strategist at BlackRock said it was “very difficult to imagine how you build an Airbus aircraft without being in the customs union in some way or how some of the big car manufacturers who are shipping parts sometimes several times across borders can continue doing so without being in the customs union.”
However, prominent remain campaigners including former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and New Labour cabinet minister Peter Mandelson voiced dismay at the proposals in the speech. Clegg told the Guardian May was sending the signal that “the needs and aspirations and interests of 16.1m fellow citizens counts for nothing.”
Mandelson said the prime minister was trying to conceal the “difficult choices” Britain would be forced to make outside the single market and the customs union. “Customs barriers add costs and delays which would mean we lose our market share,” he told BBC Radio 4. “A hard Brexit is when financial and other services can’t access the EU market because regulators don’t accept the equivalence of the new UK regulatory regime, when staff needed to fill vacancies are not able to come here. There are no clicky fingers solutions, but not even to acknowledge that there are difficult choices that have to be made, I think is very worrying.”
The former EU trade commissioner said May had to make it “absolutely clear that the country’s interests come first, not partisan interests and she’s got to be a prime minister for the whole of the country, not just those who voted to leave” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/may/28/premier-league-2022-23-fans-verdicts-part-one-arsenal-to-leeds | Football | 2023-05-28T07:00:26.000Z | Observer fans' network | Premier League 2022-23 fans’ verdicts, part one: Arsenal to Leeds | ArsenalThe best campaign in a couple of decades of underachievement. Few were tipping us for the top four, so there’s no shame in being the only club to challenge City’s dominance – particularly impressive given the continued absence of a deterrent against financial doping. There’s no escaping the sense, though, that we might be waiting a long time for a better title-winning opportunity, given our lack of cup and European distractions at the business end. The test now for Mikel Arteta is whether he can improve the squad depth enough for us to arrive in the finishing straight looking less burned out next season. 9/10
Premier League 2022-23 fans’ verdicts, part two: Leicester to Wolves
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Stars/flops Ramsdale, Ødegaard, Saka, Martinelli, Saliba and Zinchenko starred, but really it was a team effort. The only letdown was Vieira’s failure to grasp his opportunities. Fábio’s body language doesn’t exactly scream hunger and desire, but I’m not about to write him off just yet.
Biggest surprise I’ve been saying for years that we wouldn’t achieve top four so long as Xhaka remained at our fulcrum. But with Partey protecting the defence Granit moved into a more advanced role and became everybody’s darling. He saved his best season to last.
Best/worst away fans Best were Bodø/Glimt, despite their loss. Worst? Always Spurs. Most of them were out the door long before the final whistle.
Moments that made me smile Tony Adams on Strictly; Emiliano Martínez’s Villa own goal; Conte’s meltdown press conference; and Newcastle 6-Spurs 1.
Bernard Azulay onlinegooner.com; @GoonerN5
Granit Xhaka: became everyone’s darling. Photograph: Lindsey Parnaby/AFP/Getty Images
Aston Villa
Since November the season has been beyond any realistic dreams. The style and the effectiveness of our football have been a delight and the strategy and tactics from a different textbook entirely. “Unai Emery” could be my first tattoo at 51 (sorry, wife and kids). He’s brought a fractured club together, taught new tricks to senior dogs like Mings and McGinn, and been beautifully humble throughout. A demonstration that hard work and great coaching can achieve almost anything. I’m very confident we’ll squeak into Europe today but, either way, the 90 versus Newcastle and the two first halves against Spurs and Liverpool will never be forgotten. Just wow. 9/10
Stars/flops Douglas Luiz rightly won player of the year despite starting only two of the first seven games. Tyrone Mings ran him very close having been dropped in August. If you want a flop, then it’s the former manager. The list of heroes is long. Ramsey, Martínez, Watkins, McGinn – I could go on naming players with 8+/10 seasons.
Biggest surprise The change in mood. Emery mentions the “connection” with the supporters in every interview. Performances and this all-for-one spirit have aligned perfectly and the fusion is complete. Today’s Villa Park will be electric, and win or lose it will be a love-in – a mile away from the mostly bored, sometimes poisonous atmosphere last autumn.
Best/worst away fans Everton best, Fulham worst. But really they’re all the same (and so are we) – sing when you’re winning, yawn when you’re not.
Moment that made me smile All the players apparently shouting: “Don’t shoot,” at Bertrand Traoré in the 87th minute at Leicester, just before he smashed it into the top corner.
Jonathan Pritchard
Unai Emery: beautifully humble throughout. Photograph: Molly Darlington/Reuters
Bournemouth
We survived. Job done. And barely anyone but us Cherries supporters thought we would. In a season where we were the first team to change our coach, were bought by a new owner, suffered a record-equalling 9-0 defeat and couldn’t get a point for an eternity after the World Cup, that’s an incredible success. Gary O’Neil and his team deserve high praise. We’re very conscious that he lacks experience, and in many games we’ve seen him learning painfully on the job – often, it’s not been pretty. But we got there in the end, and we’re looking forward to another top-flight season. 6/10
Stars/flops Stars: Jefferson Lerma, Marcus Tavernier, Phil Billing, Neto and Dom Solanke. But everyone worked their socks off. Flops: Ryan Fredericks and Junior Stanislas were both too injury-prone and barely played.
Biggest surprise The impact of new owner Bill Foley: ambitious, outgoing and positive. He’s building on the substantial legacy of Max Denim.
Best/worst away fans Arsenal never stopped singing that Saliba song. The worst were Everton, abusing their own players and nearly starting a fight with some of them after the game.
Moment that made me smile Our club social media team produced an end-of-season video compilation of all the pundits saying we would get relegated. What do so-called experts know, eh?
Jeff Hayward Back of the Net podcast; @afcbpodcast
Come on guys, you knew this was coming 😘 pic.twitter.com/k5L0TvqfD9
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) May 14, 2023
Brentford
It’s been magnificent. I predicted, maybe optimistically, that we’d finish a place higher than last season’s 13th. Never did I think we’d thrash United, comfortably beat Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs, and be the only team to best City on their own patch. We’re still in with a shout of Europe with one game to go, so I can forgive our terrible cup runs. You know Thomas Frank is doing a grand job when the so-called big boys come sniffing. As the song goes, he knows exactly what we need. 9/10
Stars/flops Ivan Toney has been the undoubted star, but Brian Mbeumo has come into his own since Toney’s absence. Ben Mee and Ethan Pinnock have been incredible at the back; Rico Henry is arguably the best left-back in the country but constantly gets overlooked for an England call-up. Flops? It’s hard to pick holes but, if I had to, Frank “the Tank” Onyeka hasn’t quite fulfilled his potential.
Biggest surprise Beating Man City in their own backyard. We deserved it, too. I also didn’t foresee pundit Micah Richards finally backing down and admitting we were a decent team after coating us all last season. Fair play.
Best/worst away fans Gillingham brought loads, sang loads and celebrated their League Cup shootout win like they’d won the final. The Priestfield was one of my first away games in the 80s. It’s hard to believe we were close rivals who used to play each other every season since then, until 10 years ago. Fulham were the worst, walking out on 85 minutes when we went 3-1 up, missing Vinícius making it 3-2. A real disrespect to their players. It wasn’t as if they had far to go home either. Weird.
Moment that made me smile Bees fans chanting “Daniel Levy we want you to stay” during the 3-1 victory at Spurs. See also “Frank Lampard we want you to stay” at Stamford Bridge.
Billy Grant Beesotted podcast and blog; @Beesotted; @BillyTheBee99
Rico Henry: best left-back in the country? Photograph: Nigel Keene/ProSports/Shutterstock
Brighton
Incredible, we’re the luckiest fans in the world. Our best-ever finish, Europe for the first time, breathtaking football, a manager hailed by Guardiola as “one of the most influential in the last 20 years” and our owner, Tony Bloom, a lifelong fan who has given all the staff a 20% bonus. Brilliant, just brilliant. 10/10
Stars/flops Roberto De Zerbi is a genius, he’s motivated the whole city – we’ve got loads more and better songs, and the Amex is rocking. It’s heartwarming to see so many youngsters thriving and stalwarts such as Lewis Dunk and Solly March playing out of their skins. Even when we sell players another star pops up. What a time to be alive. Nobody flopped: there probably isn’t one player who hasn’t enjoyed their best season – and it feels as if there is a lot more to come.
Biggest surprise Potter going to Chelsea. Why leave such a well-run outfit for such a shambles? Also, the sheer resilience has been eye-opening: bouncing back from losing 5-1 at home to Everton by beating Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates was quite something.
Best and worst away fans The best were the City fans who clapped Julio Enciso’s wonder goal before it hit the net. The worst? Entertaining Palace gets more stressful and unpleasant every season, obnoxious lot.
Moment that made me smile Putting six past Wolves on my 60th birthday. And the club’s De Zerbi cam on YouTube that follows him on the touchline: he’s all whistling, gestures and knee slides.
Steph Fincham
Roberto De Zerbi: motivated the whole city. Photograph: Jacques Feeney/Offside/Getty Images
Chelsea
An absolute shocker that nobody saw coming. League form was a shambles; it was only the performances in Europe that saved us from total disaster. Sacking Tuchel so early was ridiculous; Potter looked good to oversee a long-term project but couldn’t manage a large squad, find his best XI or find a way through so many injuries; and Lampard was clearly hired to appease fans and put players in the shop window: there’s no other explanation for some of his team selections. 4/10
Stars/flops It’s hard to pick stand-out players, but Thiago Silva was great and Kepa made big saves. Cucurella was the chief flop, constantly out of position, a £62m headless chicken. Hopefully a new manager can sort him out.
Biggest surprise The scale of the implosion, aided by a mad transfer policy and replacing the whole structure from the medical teams to the boardroom – it all felt like a strange business strategy from people who are supposed to be experts in their field. It tore the heart out of the club.
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Best/worst away fans Dinamo Zagreb, all in black, made an impression. The worst were West Ham: a sea of flat caps and crossed arms. Not a good look.
Moment that made me smile Amid the gloom, Spurs, as usual, didn’t let us down. Conte’s press conference where he ripped his squad apart telling the world what we all knew was pure box office. Once a blue, always a blue.
Paul Baker in memory of Trizia Fiorellino
Marc Cucurella: a £62m headless chicken? Photograph: Dave Shopland/Shutterstock
Crystal Palace
It’s a 7.5/10 season of two halves. All Palace fans wanted Patrick Vieira to succeed but there was just no way back for him from the dismal cup campaigns, the run of games without a win or a shot, the joylessness and the collapse in confidence of our flair players. Roy Hodgson’s impact has been immediate: wonderful, attacking football with a team full of freedom to play to their potential and score for fun.
Stars/flops It’s just a matter of time before Marc Guéhi becomes a mainstay of England’s defence. Michael Olise, Cheick Doucouré and Jordan Ayew all impressed, and then there’s Eberechi Eze: a broken man in his substitute appearance at Brighton in March, but just two months later he’s in the England squad. Édouard and Mateta still aren’t convincing up front, though.
Biggest surprise The return of Roy. At the time it felt like his comeback represented the failure of a project that fans had bought into – a new style and new generation. That it took Roy and Ray Lewington to make it click was something no one saw coming.
Best/worst away fans Man United were loud. Everton were silent.
Moment that made me smile The ecstatic, unbridled celebrations at Selhurst when Mateta scored the winner against Leicester with the last kick. It was the end of a terrible run, and a win in Roy’s first game. Perfection.
Chris Waters @Clapham_Grand
90+4. #CPFC | #CRYLEI pic.twitter.com/KfgSA5hiv3
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) April 1, 2023
Everton
Quite the most disastrous season. Everything that could go wrong has. A squad bereft of goals and with a suspect defence was always going to struggle. Lampard was inexplicably retained by Moshiri and the board after an aggregate two-game league and cup 7-1 loss to Bournemouth before the World Cup – and they compounded that decision by not firing him until late January. Dyche has improved results, and our destiny remains in our control, but to even be in this position says everything about the appalling manner in which the club has been run in the Moshiri era. However, a vociferous bear pit at Goodison today will see the fans dragging the club over the line for the second successive season. 1/10
Stars/flops Pickford has excelled and, in my opinion, is the best keeper in the league by some distance. Honourable mention to McNeil in recent weeks. Too many flops, Maupay particularly.
Biggest surprise The board’s decision to vilify their own fanbase, and the regular feed of pro-board, anti-fan messages in favoured print media.
Best/worst away fans Brighton were best, great to see a club being rewarded for doing things well. Newcastle fans the worst, for just being Newcastle fans.
Moment that made me smile Has to be Ben Godfrey winding up Haaland at the Etihad. Haaland lost it and ran away after a crude tackle on Mykolenko.
The Esk TheEsk.org; @TheEsk
Neal Maupay: among Everton’s flops. Photograph: Michael Zemanek/Shutterstock
Fulham
Many “experts” tipped us for relegation, so a comfortable 10th is superb. Marco Silva alone deserves 10/10 – with maybe half a point docked for those Old Trafford shenanigans.
Stars/flops Most have improved immeasurably under Silva (and Boa Morte), notably Tim Ream and Kenny Tete, and the team ethic and spirit was evident from the off as we gave Liverpool a real fright. João Palhinha patrolled midfield magnificently, Bernd Leno kept goal with authority, Andreas Pereira and Willian added application to their skills. Few disappointed, but Mbabu and Chalobah didn’t shine. Top of the flops has to be the appalling use of VAR (Variously Applied Rules). So much for “clear and obvious”; and so much for a coherent and uniform approach. Ironically, the plethora of camera angles has just served to highlight the different assessments of similar incidents, often on the same day.
Biggest surprise Was our squad being so competitive. Newcastle and Arsenal were setbacks, but otherwise we were a match for anyone. And that included City, who needed some generous interpretations of the rules in both games. Less surprising, alas, is the hike in ticket prices for next season at a time when many are finding it tough.
Best/worst away fans Sunderland fans made a lot of noise. Villa’s didn’t.
Moment that made me smile Finishing above Chelsea for the first time since 1983, aided by Carlos Vinícius’s headed winner against them at the Cottage. Having initially struggled as Mighty Mitro’s stand-in, he grew in confidence after that cult-hero moment.
David Lloyd @DMLTOOFIF
João Palhinha: patrolled midfield magnificently. Photograph: Jed Leicester/Shutterstock
Leeds
People could write studies on how Leeds surged to the top, threatening to gatecrash the established elite with a thrilling team, only to throw it all away in two short seasons. Or they can just update the studies already written on Leeds United 2002-2004 with new chapters about blowing it again, in 2021‑2023. Nothing about Marcelo Bielsa makes it impossible for a club to build upon what he leaves, but everything about the way Leeds have been run has ruined what he did for us. The board hired the wrong coach, Jesse Marsch, then bought the wrong players for the wrong tactics. I don’t think it’s coincidence that we’re going down with Southampton, both looking at our Red Bull playbooks with buyer’s remorse. Even if we stay up today – it’s unlikely! – that won’t disguise the failure. 0/10
Premier League 2022-23 fans’ verdicts, part two: Leicester to Wolves
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Stars/flops Wilf Gnonto turned out to be a wonderkid, only signed on deadline day with the club in a flap after loaning Dan James to Fulham to make room for Cody Gakpo (lol). Tyler Adams was good enough, and if he wasn’t injured we might have got to safety. Lots of flops, but Weston McKennie redefined letdown.
Biggest surprise This season is absolute trademark Leeds United Football Club. Not surprised by any of it.
Best and worst away fans Palace were best, because they seemed too surprised about winning 5-1 to gloat much. Manchester City were humdrum.
Moment that made me smile A power surge knocked out VAR comms just after kick-off against Arsenal at Elland Road. Twenty minutes of blissful lo-tech confusion followed. Switching it off then on again was as good a tactic as any Leeds tried this season.
Daniel Chapman thesquareball.net; @MoscowhiteTSB
Wilf Gnonto: turned out to be a wonderkid. Photograph: Malcolm Bryce/ProSports/Shutterstock
Part two: Leicester to Wolves | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/15/great-barrier-reef-coral-bleaching-global-heating | Environment | 2024-04-15T15:00:14.000Z | Graham Readfearn | Global heating pushes coral reefs towards worst planet-wide mass bleaching on record | Global heating has pushed the world’s coral reefs to a fourth planet-wide mass bleaching event that is on track to be the most extensive on record, US government scientists have confirmed.
Some 54% of ocean waters containing coral reefs have experienced heat stress high enough to cause bleaching, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch said.
A global bleaching event is declared when at least 12% of corals in each of the main ocean basins – Pacific, Atlantic and Indian – experience bleaching-level heat stress within a 12-month period. The declaration also requires confirmed reports of bleaching.
Great Barrier Reef suffering ‘most severe’ coral bleaching on record as footage shows damage 18 metres down
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Coral Reef Watch also confirmed the world’s largest coral reef system – Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – had been through its most widespread heat stress event on record in 2024.
The first global bleaching event happened in 1998 with 20% of the ocean’s reef corals exposed to a level of heat stress high enough to cause bleaching. The second event, in 2010, saw 35% reaching that threshold, and the third from 2014 to 2017 peaked at 56%.
Dr Derek Manzello, the Coral Reef Watch director, told the Guardian the current bleaching was likely to surpass the previous most widespread event soon “because the percentage of reef areas experiencing bleaching-level heat stress has been increasing by roughly 1% per week”.
NOAA’s threshold for the onset of bleaching relates to the amount of accumulated heat corals are facing at any given time, known as degree heating weeks (DHWs).
For example, a 1 DHW is accumulated if corals are subjected to temperatures 1C above the usual maximum for seven days. Coral Reef Watch considers 4 DHWs as a bleaching threshold.
Great Barrier Reef suffering ‘most severe’ coral bleaching on record – video
Coral reefs are rich in biodiversity and provide habitat to a quarter of all marine species while covering less than 1% of ocean area. Reefs provide food and tourism income to millions of people and protect coastlines, but are considered to be one of the most vulnerable ecosystems to global heating.
The current global event started in early 2023 and in the northern hemisphere summer reefs across the Americas bleached from record levels of heat stress.
Mass bleaching has been confirmed throughout the tropics, NOAA said, including Florida, the Caribbean, Brazil, many countries across the south Pacific, the Middle East and in parts of the Indian Ocean from Indonesia’s west coast to reefs off east Africa.
Quick Guide
What is coral bleaching?
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Prolonged and severe bleaching can kill corals, but if temperatures fall quickly enough the animals can recover. Research has found previously bleached corals find it harder to reproduce and can be more susceptible to disease after bleaching.
Manzello said global heating had combined with a global El Niño to push up sea surface temperatures. He said predictions made by scientists decades ago about the fate of corals in a warming world were now coming to pass.
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“The bottom line is that as coral reefs experience more frequent and severe bleaching events, the time they have to recover is becoming shorter and shorter. Current climate models suggest that every reef on planet Earth will experience severe, annual bleaching sometime between 2040 and 2050.”
Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a pioneer of coral research who was among the first to link bleaching to global heating, said: “It’s a shock. We clearly have to prevent governments from investing in fossil fuels, or we won’t have a chance in hell [to save reefs].”
11:29
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg received death threats for his work. He kept fighting anyway – video
Earlier this year, Coral Reef Watch was forced to add three new alert levels to its global coral bleaching warning system to represent ever-increasing extremes.
Prof Tracy Ainsworth, the vice-president of the International Coral Reef Society, said the bleaching had extended to some of the most remote places on earth.
“Globally we are failing to protect coral reefs and the communities that rely upon them. This is neglect on a global scale,” Ainsworth said.
The Great Barrier Reef is now suffering its fifth mass bleaching in eight years. Coral Reef Watch data shows 80% of the reef was subjected to bleaching-level heat stress in 2024, the highest extent on record and above the previous high of 60% seen in 2017.
Dr Roger Beeden, the chief scientist at the Australian government’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, said it was more important than ever to see global action on climate change.
“But the prognosis is not good for coral reefs as we know them, and the GBR is not immune. We are certainly not giving up on reefs, but they’re under serious pressure.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2007/oct/23/sport.comment1 | Sport | 2007-10-23T10:53:00.000Z | Scott Murray | The Joy of Six: own goals | 1) Johan Cruyff (AJAX v FC Amsterdam 1972)
It's typical of Johan Cruyff that the one and only own goal he ever scored is the most elegant in the history of football: a Total Own Goal. Here he is (1 min 02 secs) cushioning a deep cross with his chest in a crowded area, then nonchalantly swinging his right leg in an attempt to curl the ball back into the safety of his own keeper's arms. Sadly, his in-built attacking genius appears to have momentarily taken over, as the ball serenely sails into the top-left corner of the net. There's a better-than-evens chance Cruyff has always been secretly pleased with himself for the sick beauty of this.
2) Jamie Pollock (MANCHESTER CITY v Queens Park Rangers, 1998)
If that own goal was typical Cruyff, then this one is typical City. Which other club would effectively be condemned to third-tier football for the first time in their history by their own player? A player who would normally struggle to trap a bag of cement, but suddenly found himself insouciantly flicking the ball over an opponent a la Pele in the 1958 World Cup final? Step forward - no, sashay forward - Jamie Pollock, who Edson Arantes do Nascimento'd the ball over a confused QPR attacker and beat the advancing Martyn Margetson with a perfect looping header. The goal put City 2-1 down in a must-win game, and though Lee 'Superfluous Rs' Bradbury equalised, a draw meant their relegation fate was no longer in their own hands - and sure enough, despite a 5-2 win at Stoke a week later, results elsewhere meant they were down.
3) Tepi Moilanen (FINLAND v Hungary 1997)
It's unlikely the timing of any other comedy cut has been quite as disastrous than this. Deep into injury time, Finland were holding onto a 1-0 lead which would have seen them make the 1998 World Cup qualification play-offs ahead of opponents Hungary. Cue a massive scramble in the box (from 1 min 26 secs here) which ends with the ball being toe-poked past stranded Finnish keeper Tepi Moilanen and towards the line. Luckily for Finland, they'd stationed a defender on the back post; unluckily for Finland, that defender belaboured his clearance straight into Moilanen to send the ball haplessly bouncing back into the net. One minute and 13 seconds later, Finland's dreams were in ruins, and Jari Litmanen joined the list of greats who would never play in a World Cup finals. Whether Hungarians still consider this a stroke of luck is a moot point, however: they were walloped in the play-offs 12-1 on aggregate by Yugoslavia, including a 7-1 home reverse.
4) Franck Queudrue (Bastia v LENS, 2001)
Franck Queudrue suffers from judgment-impairing surges of piping-hot blood to the head more than most, though they usually result in the sort of ludicrous lunges that would shame Dirk Kuyt. But this time he chose to take his ire out on the ball; 40 yards out and facing the far touchline, the Lens defender swings his left leg and balloons a clearance miles into the sky, only to snap-hook the ball and send it arcing over the keeper and into the net. Luckily Lens were three up at the time and would concede no more, but in terms of cocking things up ridiculously under no imminent threat whatsoever - and in a position an attacker would require superhuman powers to score from - only Lee Dixon's famous slapstick blunder against Coventry in 1991 comes anywhere near. Though nowhere near enough.
5) Chris Brass (Darlington v BURY, 2006)
A question for the gods of football: does a man not suffer enough when he hacks a ball up into his own face, sending it pinging back past his startled goalkeeper and into the net for this dark travesty? Does every last remaining sliver of dignity really need to be stripped from him, as he breaks his own nose in the process? Bury turning around a one-goal deficit with two in the last five minutes offers Brass no kind of consolation at all.
6. Janusz Jojko (RUCH CHORZÓW v Lechia Gdańsk, 1987)
Fair enough, it can be hard to control a ball when it's rolling at your feet, but when the thing's stationary and in your hands, there's no excuse whatsoever for dispatching it into your own net. Which is why goalkeepers who have done so have become bywords for hopelessness. Gary Sprake's otherwise solid career at Leeds is nevertheless defined by his Careless Hands incident in front of the Kop in 1967, while Tromsø's Bjarte Flem is synonymous in Norway with shambolic goalkeeping after this infamous farce. But neither incident can hold a candle to the antics of Ruch Chorzów keeper Janusz Jojko - because at least Sprake and Flem were attempting to throw the thing AWAY from their own net. What makes this even worse is that Ruch Chorzów were contesting a relegation decider - one they would lose to suffer demotion for the first time in their history. Jojko never played for the side again. Flem continued his club career, though, as did Sprake, much to Peter Houseman's glee. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/oct/09/wonga-ad-banned-payday-lender | Money | 2013-10-09T13:58:52.000Z | Harriet Meyer | Wonga 'Mr Sandman' ad banned by Advertising Standards Authority | A radio advert by payday lender Wonga featuring rewritten lyrics from the 1950s song Mr Sandman has been banned as "irresponsible" by the Advertising Standards Authority.
The controversial online lender used the song to market its short-term loans, which have an annual interest rate of more than 5,800%.
It rewrote the lyrics to say: "Mr Wonga lend me some dough. Make it the simplest loan that I'll ever know. Give me two choices when I go online. One for how much I want. Two for what length of time. Mr Wonga at wonga.com. You make it easy when the month feels too long. Thanks for everything you've done. Mr Wonga you're number one".
The ASA looked at whether some of the claims in the ad were irresponsible because they gave the impression that taking a high-interest loan could be done lightly. It was particularly concerned that the claim "Mr Wonga you make it easy when the month feels too long" gave the impression that a high-interest short-term loan could routinely be taken between paydays to supplement a monthly income.
The ASA said: "We considered that the claim gave the impression that a high-interest short-term loan was not a financial commitment that required a great deal of consideration and that impression was also compounded by the claims about the simplicity of the application process."
But Wonga said the ad showed that if a customer had visited its website and completed an application, the lender would be able to provide funds "quickly and efficiently".
The ad was investigated after a listener complained that it had been inappropriately scheduled because it was broadcast when it could be heard by children. The ASA rejected this complaint, saying that although the tune was "catchy and upbeat" the content of the lyrics was "unlikely to capture their attention".
Payday lenders have come under fire recently because of their huge interest rates and misleading advertisements which make light of the serious nature of payday loans. Their television adverts have also been criticised for being during daytime, when unemployed and vulerable viewers are most likey to be tuning in.
The City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), will take over the regulation of the payday loan industry in April. Martin Wheatley, chief executive of the FCA, said he did not rule out a total ban on advertising, or tighter restrictions on when and where payday lenders could promote their products. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/17/rightwingers-care-about-inequality | Opinion | 2011-08-17T17:59:00.000Z | John Redwood | Response: It's ludicrous to say that rightwingers don't care about inequality | John Harris, in his column on the Conservatives' response to the riots, misrepresents my views (For a progressive, Cameron is sounding very Thatcherite, 16 August). He asserts: "There is no point in people like me having a pop at, say, John Redwood, for his failure to recognise the importance of inequality." Had he talked to me, or read some of what I have written, he would know that I do think inequality is a vital topic in political discussion.
I have spent much of my life in politics working with colleagues, writing and thinking about how more people in our country can get good jobs, receive good education, and enjoy a better quality of life. Like all members of the main political parties I support taxing the rich more to help pay for the lifestyles of the worse off. I am a softy when it comes to more public money and facilities for the disabled.
Harris says: "Too much of what [David Cameron] said sounded like a rehashed version of the kind of stuff the blessed Margaret uttered back in the 1980s, tangled up with the modern small-statism that runs from the shrill aspects of the press into the rightwing blogosphere." It is irritating beyond measure that some on the left automatically assume many of us that they brand as rightwing have no wish to see the poor prosper or to see equality narrow by raising the living standards of those worst off. They should recognise that in many cases in UK mainstream political debate we do not disagree about the aim – we disagree about the means.
I know of no MP who likes poverty or thinks poverty does not matter. I know of no MP who thinks government should stand idly by and do nothing about poverty. I know of many who, after years of pushing public money at the problem, are asking how can we spend it better? Why are most of the new jobs going to recent arrivals in our country and not to those already here who are unemployed? Why do so many young people in well-financed, inner-city state schools fail to achieve much by way of qualifications?
The true debate lies not over the need to conquer poverty or to narrow extremes of income, but over a couple of important propositions. I do not believe you can make the poor rich by making the rich poor. The problem is the rich do not have to hang around if you seek to make them too poor. They have the best lawyers and accountants. They can go on strike when it comes to investing and developing businesses.
The second source of disagreement is the trickle-down theory. I believe that having more rich people and successful companies here in the UK does allow some of the income and wealth to circulate to the rest of us. We succeed in taking some tax off them; they employ armies of professional advisers, set up businesses and create jobs.
Mr Harris, do not peddle untruths. I care very much about poverty and life chances. That is why I like grammar schools, academies and other means of lifting educational standards. That is why I want to lower tax rates on effort and work. And that is why I urge people not to be jealous of the Premier League footballer, the pop star or the media personality who hits the big time and earns mega-bucks. It gives others something to aim for.
John Harris responds
'Nice of John Redwood to write this response, and it's good to have a debate' | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/14/pm-reaffirms-commitment-to-allow-religious-schools-to-hire-staff-based-on-faith | Australia news | 2023-02-14T06:57:27.000Z | Paul Karp | PM reaffirms commitment to allow religious schools to hire staff based on faith | Anthony Albanese has reiterated that Labor will respect religious schools’ right to select staff based on faith, after widespread backlash from religious groups to a proposal to limit their hiring and firing powers.
On Monday an alliance of religious leaders rejected a proposal by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) to allow religious preference only where “the teaching, observance or practice of religion is a genuine occupational requirement”.
The group, including the Sydney Anglican and Catholic churches, Greek Orthodox church, the National Imams Council, and Executive Council of Australia Jewry, wrote a letter to the attorney general arguing the “severe limits” proposed by the ALRC went beyond its terms of reference.
In January, Guardian Australia revealed the Catholic education sector would oppose the ALRC’s bid to remove existing exemptions to the Sex Discrimination Act that enable discrimination and replace it with a narrower right to give “more favourable treatment on the ground of religion” for hiring employees where it is “proportionate in all the circumstances”.
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The proposal in the ALRC consultation paper would align the federal laws more closely to Victoria and Tasmania, which protect non-teaching staff such as administrative staff from discrimination and allow faith-based discrimination only where it is an occupational requirement.
Parents turn to buy now, pay later schemes to meet Australia’s soaring school costs
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In response to a question about the controversy on Tuesday the prime minister told Labor’s caucus that “we made our position clear a long time ago that faith-based schools can employ people of their own faith”.
Before the election Labor committed to protect all students “from discrimination on any grounds” and to “protect teachers from discrimination at work, while maintaining the right of religious schools to preference people of their faith in the selection of staff”.
In the letter, seen by Guardian Australia, the religious leaders praise the Albanese government for asking the ALRC to balance the right not to be discriminated against based on sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationship status or pregnancy with the freedom of religious schools “to build a community of faith”.
But they said the ALRC proposal would introduce an uncertain “new test into employment law” and put the onus “on the school to prove that it satisfied the test”, acting as a “deterrent” from giving preference to one candidate.
“[Religious schools] do not seek the right to discriminate on the basis of a protected attribute, but simply to be able to employ staff who share or are willing to uphold the religious beliefs of the school,” they said.
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The shadow education minister, Sarah Henderson, and the shadow attorney general, Julian Leeser, accused the government of “breaking their commitment to schools and parents on this issue”.
Leeser told Sky News the ALRC plan could mean schools can only mandate that the “minister of religion and religious education teacher” be of their faith.
A spokesperson for the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said the ALRC inquiry was a “crucial first step” towards implementing its election commitment, but noted the government will not consider its response until it has reported.
“The ALRC is an independent agency,” the spokesperson said. “It is now conducting its inquiry and has not finalised its advice to government.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2019/nov/12/cryptic-crosswords-for-beginners-playing-cards | Crosswords | 2019-11-12T15:59:35.000Z | Alan Connor | Cryptic crosswords for beginners: playing cards | In the example clues below, I explain the two parts of each: the definition of the answer, given in bold type, and the wordplay – the recipe for assembling its letters. In a genuine puzzle environment, of course, you also have the crossing letters, which will greatly alleviate your solving load if you have them. The explanations contain links to previous entries in this series on such matters as spelling one word backwards to reveal another. And setters’ names tend to link to interviews, in case you feel like getting to know these people better.
If you see a word in a clue that can be represented by a single letter somewhere in the world, that may be just the toehold you need.
For example, it shouldn’t take you long to summon a decent guess as to the first letter of the answer to this clue from Qaos:
22ac Jack hopes to work for patriarch (6)
[ wordplay: abbrev. for ‘Jack’+ anagram (‘to work’) of HOPES ]
[ J + OSEPH ]
[ definition: patriarch ]
You’re right: it’s a J, which you then follow by “working” hopes into the rest of the answer, JOSEPH.
ER, Elizabeth Regina. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
“Jack” is a word which helpfully stands out as you read the clue. The same goes for the other face cards, though be warned that “queen” more usually gives you an ER – as seen on postboxes – than it does a Q.
“Ace”, having various other meanings, may take a little longer to spot. It may well be an A, but it more often indicates another slangy term like “super” – or, since it’s the card that comes before two, a ONE. Likewise, “one” can be ACE; here’s Vlad:
21ac ‘Answer attack with force’ (one in US military command) (5,4)
[ wordplay: abbrev. for ‘answer’ + synonym for ‘attack’ + abbrev. for ‘force’ + synonym for ‘one’ ]
[ A + BOUT + F + ACE ]
[ definition: US military command ]
ABOUT FACE, then. Much more occasionally, the suits might be reduced to their initials, as they were in the notation of card games before we all acquired computers with ♣s and ♠s already loaded. Paul uses this device …
5d Is card between pair of diamonds swell? (7)
[ wordplay: IS (‘is’) & example of a playing card, contained by (‘between’) abbrev. for ‘diamonds’, twice (‘pair of’) ]
[ IS & TEN, contained by DD ]
[ definition: swell ]
… in a clue for DISTEND, and if you’re not yet exhausted by caveats, “diamonds” are more typically a hint to include the letters of the slang term ICE.
Talking of notation and those who take their playing cards deeply seriously, here comes the wiliest card trick of them all. In an earlier instalment of this series, one about points of the compass, the setter Chameleon remarked:
Unsure whether or not to be relived to see the dreaded bridge players didn’t get a mention ...
This players in bridge are named North, South, East and West and so “player” or even “hand” might occasionally mean you need to take an N, an S, an E or a W (perhaps leaving you to work out later which of those is needed).
Much fairer to the solver is the practice of pairing up a couple of these and describing them as “opponents” (NE, SW etc) or “partners” (SN, say, or WE). Far fairer still is some mention of a game or a table, to point you in the direction of these directions, as included here by Pasquale:
28ac Wanting to be like opponents at table competing (7)
[ wordplay: abbrev. of bridge opponents + synonym for ‘competing’ ]
[ E & N + VYING ]
[ definition: wanting to be like ]
Finally, the names of card games, from poker to patience, tend to have other meanings and so might be clued simply by “game”; one pair of ambiguities is used by Brendan in this economical clue …
16ac Bridge as card game (7)
[ double definition ]
… for PONTOON.
Beginners: any questions? Seasoned solvers and setters: any favourites or omissions? | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/30/new-zealand-seeks-a-greener-kind-of-tourism-as-it-reopens-borders-after-covid | World news | 2022-04-30T17:20:01.000Z | Tess McClure | New Zealand seeks a greener kind of tourism as it reopens borders after Covid | At the mouth of Milford Sound, the car parks sit empty. Of the 40 spaces reserved for convoys of buses, just two are occupied. The cliffs, rising sheer from dark, still water, are capped by mist, waterfalls unravelling like twine, nothing to interrupt the view. The cruise ships that once appeared over the horizon haven’t visited in years. When the ferry sets off, an entire floor of vinyl seats sits unoccupied.
These are the last days of New Zealand’s forced isolation from the world’s tourists, and even Milford Sound/Piopiotahi, considered the crown jewel of New Zealand’s natural landscapes, is sparsely attended. Its beauty has long made it one of the country’s biggest tourism draws. Despite being extraordinarily remote – no mobile phone service or wifi, no clusters of shops and restaurants, one road in and out – Milford Sound welcomed almost 900,000 visitors in 2019, to a settlement with a permanent population of fewer than 200. The year the pandemic hit, it was expected to surpass 1 million.
In a few days, the drawbridge will creak down, and tourists from around the world will be welcomed back. The government has been at pains to attract visitors, with prime minister Jacinda Ardern embarking on her first international trip in two years to say the country was “open for business”.
But it is also in the midst of a reckoning over what its tourism future should look like – and a growing sense that things shouldn’t go back to the way they were.
The central conundrum plagues many scenic tourism spots: people are drawn to isolation, tranquillity, untouched beauty – then their presence can jeopardise the very qualities that drew them there in the first place. In Tripadvisor reviews from Milford’s pre-pandemic days, two themes feature over and over: the beauty of the place, and the peak-season crowds.
Visitors take pictures from a cruise ship in Milford Sound. Photograph: Sanka Vidanagama/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
“The place was heaving,” one tourist wrote. “Literally hundreds of people in all directions.”
“Hordes of people,” said another. “Don’t come here to experience this beautiful place in isolation.”
“It is incomparably gorgeous and awe-inspiring. It is also a tourist machine. Huge numbers of people arrive here daily via buses, planes, cars and helicopters,” a visitor concluded. “Everything that is wonderful and horrible about tourism.”
Over the past decade, New Zealand has become acutely aware of the “wonderful and horrible” of tourism. Before Covid, tourism was the country’s biggest export, accounting for 20% of the export market and approaching 10% of GDP. Returning visitors will be a crucial shot in the arm for cafes, restaurants and tourism operators that have spent two years struggling to survive. But tourism also caused tensions – locals complained of overcrowding, littering, lack of investment in infrastructure to host people, and the fear that fragile natural environments are being permanently damaged.
The era of Instagram and influencers can throw those dynamics into overdrive. Locations moved at warp speed from “undiscovered gem” to endlessly replicated backdrop, engulfed – and often threatened – by eager visitors.
“We want people to come to these incredible places. We want people to experience them. But we also want to make sure that we’re protecting them,” said Kiritapu [Kiri] Allan, minister for conservation and associate minister for culture and heritage. “And that we can hand it over to the next generations in a state that hasn’t been completely destroyed by a human footprint.”
Milford Sound/Piopiotahi is the country’s most famous attraction, but spent years unregulated and overcrowded. Photograph: Tess McClure/The Guardian
Now the government wants to reshape the way the country does tourism altogether. Last July, Stuart Nash, the tourism minister, vowed that the days of unlimited tour buses would never return to Piopiotahi. Beyond that, the site would be a “test case” for the rest of the country, he said, as it tries to remake its tourism sector into a more sustainable, controlled operation, that funds infrastructure in the communities that host it. In Milford, the proposals are significant: controlling entry, capping numbers, charging a standard infrastructure fee for a visit.
Allan said the tensions are stark in Milford, but it’s a national conundrum. “I’m seeing similar strains across the rest of the country.”
In Te Anau, Milford’s nearest town, absence of visitors during the pandemic has driven many businesses to the edge of collapse. About 85% of Piopiotahi’s visitors are from overseas, said Paul Norris, chief conservation officer of RealNZ, which runs ferry tours in the sound. Losing them was an immense economic shock. “It’s been survival mode,” he said. “You can imagine, the last two years, there’s been an awful lot of people who have left the tourism industry.”
“I don’t think it should go back to the way it was. But like everything – behind four or five words, there’s a multitude of layers of things that were happening,” he said. Many of the discussions have been dominated by the peak season, which is really only a few weeks of the year, he added – in the winter months, things are more manageable.
Muriel Johnstone, an elder of Ōraka Aparima Rūnaka, said the fjords are a “cradle of mythology” for the tribe – and its importance to Māori has not been reflected in the way it has operated. “Over many years, mana whenua [those with traditional authority over the land] and others have been concerned by the intensification of tourism,” she said. “Huge uncontrolled growth… has diminished the sense of awe and welcome that used to greet visitors.”
The Mackinnon Memorial at the Mackinnon Pass – reputedly ‘the finest walk in the world’. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
Mana whenua must be placed at the heart of the new vision for Piopiotahi, she said– and it is Māori principals like manaakitanga [hospitality], and kaitiakitanga, [stewardship of the natural world] that can guide it forward.
Out in the basin of the fjord, the ferry does a slow turn, making its way back to the harbour. The water stretches out ahead of it, unbroken. “This is about as good as it gets,” said one man, standing at the railing. In the wake, dolphins ripple through the water. As the boat approaches an enormous waterfall, a boy stands at the bow, feeling the spray on his face. His father stands behind him, taking a photograph. There’s little competition for the perfect shot. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jun/07/ba-boots-bbc-cyber-attack-moveit-who-is-behind-it-and-what-happens-next | Technology | 2023-06-07T13:42:53.000Z | Dan Milmo | BA, Boots and BBC cyber-attack: who is behind it and what happens next? | British Airways, Boots and the BBC have been hit with an ultimatum to begin ransom negotiations from a cybercrime group after employees’ personal data was stolen in a hacking attack.
It emerged on Wednesday the gang behind a piece of ransomware known as Clop had posted the demand to its darkweb site, where stolen data is typically released if payments are not made by the victims.
The group, who signed their darkweb message “friendly clop”, exploited a piece of business infrastructure called MOVEit, software used to securely transfer files around internal networks, to attack the organisations.
Who is behind the attack?
Microsoft has attributed the attack to a group it calls Lace Tempest. The group is known for deploying a strain of ransomware called Clop, and an associated website where it displays its spoils and where it posts stolen details of victims who didn’t pay.
Secureworks, a US cybersecurity firm, said the people behind Clop are Russian-speaking and possibly based in Russia or members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – the grouping of former members of the USSR that includes Belarus, Kazakhstan and Moldova.
“It’s a Russian-speaking organised cybercrime gang, not necessarily all based in Russia, although likely to be in Russia or CIS countries,” said Rafe Pilling, a director for threat research at Secureworks.
What is the gang demanding?
In a message in broken English posted on the Clop darkweb site addressed “Dear Companies”, it said that for companies who use MOVEit “chance is that we download alot of your data as part of exceptional exploit”.
It goes on to ask that users of MOVEit software contact the group via a pair of provided email addresses, which will prompt the sending of a chat URL that will be used – over an anonymised browser network – to start negotiations. The deadline for doing this is 14 June, they say, or else “we will post your name on this page”.
The group indicates that non-compliant hack victims will start to have their data published around 21 June, stating that “after 7 days all you data will start to be publication”.
If an organisation gets in touch they will be shown proof the gang has their data and they will have three days to “discuss price” for deleting that data. The message does not contain a price list or a means of payment.
How did the attack happen?
This was not a conventional ransomware attack, where a gang accesses a victim’s IT networks, effectively locks up their computers via a piece of malicious code and then demands payment to restore access or delete/hand back data stolen during the attack. Instead, this was an attack that exploited a previously unknown flaw in MOVEit and allowed the gang to extract data undetected, without locking up the victims’ networks. Such a flaw is known as a zero-day vulnerability, because of the lack of time between discovery of the weakness and its exploitation by attackers.
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Cybercrime gang hits BA, Boots and BBC with ultimatum after mass hack
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According to Secureworks, the MOVEit attack appears to have been carried out by a dedicated team within the group, specialised in secure file transfers. Similar attacks on file transfer infrastructure have been linked to the group.
Not every victim was a direct user of MOVEit. One of the affected companies was Zellis, which provides outsourced payroll services to third parties. As a result, many Zellis customers had their employees’ personal data being stolen in the attack.
Should the victims pay?
The British and US governments strongly advise against paying cyber ransoms. Last year the UK’s data watchdog and National Cyber Security Centre wrote to legal professionals in England and Wales stressing that law enforcement did “not encourage” the payment of ransoms although payments were not usually unlawful. It is illegal to pay ransoms if the affected entity knows, or has reason to suspect, the proceeds will be used to fund terrorism.
In the US, payment of ransoms is discouraged by the government, but an advisory note from the US Treasury in 2020 emphasised this was “explanatory only” and did “not have the force of law”.
Unlike conventional ransomware attacks, where victims are able to verify whether they have restored access to data after paying the ransom, for “hack and leak” attacks, those who do pay the ransom have to take it on trust their attacker has deleted the data as promised.
In its ransom note to victims, Clop promises not to betray them any further. “Our team has been around for many years. We have not even one time not do as we promise. When we say data is delete it is cause we show video proof. We have no use for few measle dollars to deceive you.”
What should affected individuals do?
“Given the detail of the leaked information, even including banking details, fraud is one of the biggest risks to affected customers right now,” said Nick Guite of the cybersecurity experts SysGroup. “This information is often sold on the darkweb or in databases to criminal groups. They can then use it for identity theft, cloning or malicious phishing attacks to gain even more personal information.
“If your company uses Zellis or has in any way been impacted by this breach, I’d highly recommend contacting an expert. Also, updating passwords and being vigilant for unexpected emails or phone calls will be important.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/dec/21/best-films-of-2022-in-the-uk-no-3-parallel-mothers | Film | 2022-12-21T06:00:03.000Z | Steve Rose | Best films of 2022 in the UK: No 3 – Parallel Mothers | On the face of it, this has all the hallmarks of a vintage Almodóvar film: a focus on women (Penélope Cruz especially), fluid sexualities, deep secrets, clashing colours and to-die-for interiors. But this is also Almodóvar’s most overtly political film to date, dealing head-on with the mass graves and unidentified victims of the Spanish civil war. In his early career, in the shadow of the repressive Franco era, Almodóvar’s raucous, sacrilegious, hedonistic films were political by their very existence, but he has recognised that times have changed, and with the rise of the far right, Spain is in danger of forgetting the lessons it learned painfully not that long ago. So here he is digging them up.
The history is folded in, to a typically Almodóvarian concoction, with elements of thriller, comedy and melodrama. Cruz plays Janis, a photographer who becomes pregnant by one of her subjects, a forensic archeologist who excavates mass graves (and has a wife). In the maternity hospital she meets Ana (Milena Smit), a teenage mother who is also planning to raise her child alone. Neither will have an easy time of it. Their lives, and those of their daughters, become increasingly – some might say improbably – intertwined through a combination of tragedy, solidarity, desire and administrative error. But as usual Almodóvar unfurls his story with such consummate skill, it’s a pleasure to be swept along.
And once again, Cruz is magnificent (she won best actress at the Venice film festival last year for this). Her Janis is a contradictory but all-too-credible mix of determination and vulnerability. She is flawed and flighty and fallible, and arguably pretty evil, but it is impossible to hate any character played by Cruz, and she is never less than compelling. Even just watching her face as she reacts to information she’s reading on a computer screen is captivating.
For some, Parallel Mothers’ strands of modern motherhood and Spanish history felt like an uneasy fit, but Almodóvar clearly sees connections in terms of trauma passed down through generations, women banding together and getting by without men, and secrets that will only fester until they are brought to light. The ambition is admirable: few films this year succeeded in doing half as much, half as well. That 73-year-old Almodóvar can maintain his distinctive cinematic imprint while continuing to evolve is surely a sign of his greatness. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artblog/2008/jun/18/fluxuswasdeclareddeadwhen | Art and design | 2008-06-18T13:00:00.000Z | Owen Adams | All life is art - in Vilnius at least | Fluxus was declared dead when its founder George Maciunas died in 1978. But you try telling that to the people of Vilnius. Next month, the anarchistic ideas of Fluxus will be turned into practice in the Lithuanian capital. Now the movement's central ethos, that all life is art, is at the heart of the city's future plans.
In 1977, Fluxus mail artist Jerry Dreva daubed on a Milwaukee high school the slogan "art only exists beyond the confines of acceptable behaviour". He later explained: "What I'm trying to do is point to a future when art will no longer exist as a category separate from life."
He was echoing Joseph Beuys, who in the statement for his Social Organism (1973) concept, stated: "Only art is capable of dismantling the repressive effects of a senile social system that continues to totter along the deathline: to dismantle in order to build a social organism as a work of art... every human being is an artist..."
As Stewart Home noted, Fluxus and its less humorous, anti-art relative Dada were the real harbingers of punk, more so than King Mob and the Situationist International.
Both punk and Fluxus seemingly died in 1978 when punk sold out to the mainstream and George Maciunas passed away.
But while punk is embodied in new forms, the flow of Fluxus has become a gush. The mixed media mash-ups, pioneered by Fluxus in the 1960s, have escalated and fused with freeform internet communication and its propensity for quick-fire art-life statements, resulting in a fresh Fluxus generation.
In Lithuania, the birthplace of Maciunas and perhaps the most liberated of the post-communist countries, Fluxus ideas are not only embraced by an artists' community, they form the axis of the capital's future development blueprint.
Vilnius will be next year's European Capital of Culture and the government's Culture Live programme mission is "to create a new European cultural experience in which culture is a part of modern life and each individual is its creator... to elevate culture as a virtue in modern society and as the driving force in city development."
The programme "has been kindled by Fluxus movement ideas", where "art is in constant flux, a continuous flow which draws everyone in".
Fluxus is at its most potent a short walk from the centre of Vilnius, in the self-proclaimed Republic of Uzupis, with its lexicon of street sculptures and artists' courtyards, plus a witty anti-totalitarian bill of rights . The anarcho-bohemian enclave celebrated the 10th anniversary of its independence on April Fools' Day last year by giving its angel of freedom sculpture a wash.
As the oldest and grandest quarter of verdant Vilnius, it's easy for any romantic (and Uzupis is full of them) to imagine they are in fin de siecle Paris. Hence the republic's Monmartre (sic) Convention, the inaugural July-long homecoming Fluxus festival when artists from countries such as Finland, Denmark, Norway, Georgia, Switzerland, Japan and neighbouring Latvia join Lithuanians in creating "Fluxus theatre, sailing and flying sculptures, pictures carried by kites and hot air balloons, a giant ribbon of ornaments... and Finnish tango". It's a taster for next year's convention, which will last all summer.
The Fluxus dream didn't die with Maciunas: it is now (sur)reality. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jul/07/johanna-konta-wimbledon-run-continues-maria-sakkari | Sport | 2017-07-07T16:40:41.000Z | Jacob Steinberg | Johanna Konta’s career-best Wimbledon run continues with Sakkari win | After the heavy fall in Eastbourne that forced Johanna Konta’s supporters to become experts on thoracic spinal cord injuries – file them next to broken metatarsals – and an epic win over Donna Vekic that finally brought her Centre Court acclaim, the British No1 needed a relaxing end to a draining week. Fortunately a swift workout with Maria Sakkari turned out to be as stressful as an all-inclusive trip to a luxury spa.
In stark contrast to her ding-dong with Vekic on Wednesday there were times when Konta could have pulled up a sun bed during a composed win over a young Greek challenger whose impetuosity undermined her efforts to stop the sixth seed from becoming the first British woman to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon since the forgotten Laura Robson in 2013. Konta intends to go further than the last 16 of course. She has emerged as the dominant force in British tennis, a development few people saw coming when the 26-year-old languished outside the top 100 two years ago, held back by the doubt that clouded her mind.
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But Konta has worked relentlessly to rid herself of those debilitating nerves. She is uniquely focused, a quality that can often make her seem cold and robotic in public. But it helps her to stay in the moment, which is how she prefers it. She does not worry too much about the future. It matters little to Konta that Britain’s best hope of a first female singles champion at Wimbledon since Virginia Wade in 1977 is the favourite in the betting after the exits of Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova.
“Everyone in the draw is in with a chance of taking the title,” Konta said. “Favourites come and go. They change daily almost. I’m just happy to have made it into the second week. Things move very quickly in tennis.”
After all it is only a week since Konta was spreading anxiety by withdrawing from her Eastbourne semi-final against Pliskova with a sore upper back. There were few signs of any physical problems when she employed contained aggression to dismiss Sakkari 6-4, 6-1 in 74 minutes.
Next she plays the enigmatic French prodigy Caroline Garcia, who was once tipped by Andy Murray to become the future world No1. After an eye-catching run to last month’s French Open quarter-finals Garcia won 6-4, 6-3 against Madison Brengle, Kvitova’s conqueror, to reach the last 16 at Wimbledon for the first time.
The 21st seed will be a threat. “She’s playing with real confidence,” Konta said. “It’s an opportunity to play someone who’s in form and who will challenge me.”
Sakkari, swinging freely but wildly, was unable to detain Konta for long. The 21-year-old had Mark Petchey in her box after asking the former British player to help her become more comfortable on grass, but their partnership was too raw to inconvenience a fit and driven Konta.
1:22
Wimbledon: Andy Murray and Jo Konta both win on day five – video highlights
Shortly after Heather Watson’s defeat by Victoria Azarenka on Centre Court Konta started her match on No1 Court by breaking in the first game. She never looked back. Sakkari unleashed some crunching blows, cracking 23 winners in the breeze, nine of them with heavy forehands, and Konta had to work hard to hold in the sixth game of the first set, saving three break points with solid serves.
Moving brightly, Konta absorbed a lot of power and lured the impetuous Sakkari into going for needlessly big shots. Sakkari disrupted her rhythm with 28 unforced errors that made for a stop-start contest and sent a forehand well wide to hand the first set to Konta in 39 minutes. It was telling that the longest rally of the match was 16 shots, won by Konta with a smart volley.
The crowd was content to see Konta cruising. There was no desire for drama. More erratic clumps from Sakkari allowed Konta, who hit 25 clean winners and served with pleasing accuracy, to break twice in the second set for a 3-0 lead.
Only briefly did Konta’s concentration waver, a double-fault at 4-1 offering Sakkari the last of her six break points, but the world No101 missed a forehand. Konta did not have to wait long for her first match point or for Sakkari to send a backhand long.
Self-effacing to a fault, Konta refused to concede that she is playing anything more than “some good tennis”. But there are plenty who believe it will be enough to carry her to the final on Sunday. And then who knows? | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/oct/26/john-maus-screen-memories-review | Music | 2017-10-26T21:45:12.000Z | Gwilym Mumford | John Maus: Screen Memories review – infectiously mordant synthpop mischief | You’d be forgiven for thinking that Screen Memories, the fourth album from experimental synthpop artist John Maus, would be something of a drag. Recorded over a six-year period, while its creator embarked on a PhD in political science and handbuilt an entire studio’s worth of equipment, the follow-up to We Must Become Pitiless Censors of Ourselves is a treatise on what Maus describes as “the apocalyptic moment … the absurd faith that everything that is uncounted will be counted”. Wade past the verbose mission statements and doom-laden subject matter, though, and Screen Memories makes for a surprisingly buoyant listen, possessing an infectiously mordant sense of mischief. Touchdown and Pets (sample lyric: “All your pets are gonna die”) tiptoe along the same line between pastiche and parody as the work of longtime Maus associate Ariel Pink, though crucially never let the self-aware shtick overcome a keen ear for melody, while there’s genuine poignancy in the album’s more reflective moments, most notably in the sombre synth arpeggios of opening track The Combine. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/dec/10/finn-russell-impresses-as-sorry-northampton-are-demolished-by-racing | Sport | 2021-12-10T22:01:14.000Z | Gerard Meagher | Finn Russell shines in Racing 92’s Champions Cup rout of Northampton | A penny for Warren Gatland’s thoughts. Afforded the freedom of Franklin’s Gardens, Finn Russell delved into his box of magic tricks and produced a masterful performance to steer Racing 92 to an emphatic victory over Northampton. It may not be an entirely fair comparison given Dan Biggar was feeding off scraps but when Russell is in this mood you cannot but wonder what might have been had he worn the British & Irish Lions’ No 10 jersey against South Africa last summer.
He produced the telling pass for four of Racing’s five tries and carved Northampton open with his cunning and craft. It helps to be the lynchpin of a side that boasts so much star power – the outstanding flanker Wenceslas Lauret finished with a hat-trick and on this evidence Racing 92, the three-times Champions Cup runners-up, are going to take some stopping this season. One walloping does not make a winter but the English challenge in Europe is off to an inauspicious start. To compound matters for Northampton, Biggar limped off in considerable pain early in the second half and is a doubt for next Friday’s match at Ulster.
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“I can’t fault the intent, we tried hard but at times we we’re naive, sloppy, at times we were in trouble physically,” said Northampton’s director of rugby Chris Boyd. “We just didn’t get enough of our game on the field, we conceded too many points early and we didn’t stay in the hunt to threaten for long enough at all.”
Facing the team who scored the most tries and the most points last season, despite going out in the quarter-finals, Northampton needed a solid start to settle themselves. They managed precisely the opposite with the hooker Sam Matavesi charged down inexplicably attempting a chip over the defence near his own line.
Five minutes into the match and Maxime Machenaud had scored two penalties. Three minutes later and Racing had their first try – Russell prising open the shellshocked Northampton defence by exchanging passes with Kurtley Beale before releasing Lauret to burst over. Machenaud converted for an ominously early 13-0 lead. Machenaud was on target with another penalty before Russell created Racing’s second try, once more creating the gap with an inside pass to Juan Imhoff, who had the pace to dart under the posts. When Machenaud converted Racing were ticking along at a point a minute.
Juan Imhoff dives between the posts to score Racing’s second try. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho/Shutterstock
Northampton registered their first points just before the half hour with Courtnall Skosan finishing off a fine move – in which Matt Proctor was prominent in the buildup – but Racing responded with try No 3 and a second for Imhoff, with Russell once again the architect. Racing had built up a head of steam with a driving maul and had the penalty advantage when Russell floated an inch-perfect pass to Beale – every bit as measured as that unforgettable bit of skill against England at Murrayfield – before the Australian released Imhoff on the left. Machenaud could not convert this time, meaning Racing took a 21-point lead into the half-time interval.
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Less than two minutes into the second half and Russell was at it again, this time showing his running skills by slaloming down the right wing before freeing Lauret for his second try with a sumptuous offload. Biggar limped off soon after but Northampton, to their credit, responded with a try under the posts through Fraser Dingwall. Machenaud added another penalty and Lauret had his third when Racing and Russell again demonstrated their ability to move through the gears – the Scot freeing Gael Fickou, who breached the Northampton line before finding the supporting Tanga, who shipped on to his fellow back-row. That Lewis Ludlam’s determined solo score was chalked off summed up Saints’ night.
“Just about everybody in that [Racing] team have played Test match rugby and some of them are world-class,” added Boyd. They’ve never won it and I know the club is desperate to win it and they’ve got a roster that could threaten. When you play against a player like Finn Russell it’s not him you’ve got to get at, it’s the ball that he gets [but] he’s a quality player.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/apr/12/sydney-community-groups-unite-to-fight-greed-led-overdevelopment | Cities | 2018-04-12T07:58:53.000Z | Christopher Knaus | Sydney community groups unite to fight 'greed-led' overdevelopment | An alliance of local community groups has formed to combat what it says is rampant overdevelopment robbing Sydney of its heritage, green spaces, and liveability.
The group, named the Save Sydney Coalition, says the city is being ruined by “greed-led population growth” facilitated by developers focused only on easy profits.
The Coalition consists of a combination of 150 individual campaigners, and community, heritage and grassroots groups, and launched outside state parliament on Thursday. The group says it is not against development, but says it has to be contained. Its chief goal is to start a conversation about “how big Sydney should be”, although it says it’s also supportive of affordable housing.
“We want to cease the pace of overdevelopment in the city,” spokeswoman Jane Hunter said. “We’re very concerned about the loss of heritage, the loss of green spaces, and also the inability to really, genuinely consult with people.”
The Save Bondi Pavilion campaign aims to protect the much-loved building from privatisation. Photograph: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images
Earlier on Thursday, premier Gladys Berejiklian made announcements on two significant projects to boost green space and amenities. The first was a $290m plan to preserve more open and green spaces, including the planting of 5m trees over the next 12 years. The funding will also be used to purchase strategic open and green spaces, build 200 new or upgraded playgrounds, and open up more than 80 school grounds to community use.
The second was to use $100m to improve local sporting facilities across the city, funding 120 projects for upgraded ovals, goalposts, kiosks, and dressing rooms.
“We know it is vital people have access to open and green spaces in their communities to improve liveability and provide families with the best possible quality of life,” Berejiklian said.
That announcement was made after considerable criticism of the state government’s multibillion dollar plan to knock down and rebuild Allianz and Sydney Olympic stadiums.
The Save Sydney Coalition launch was attended by actor Michael Caton, who has become closely involved in local community campaigns, including the campaign to save Bondi Pavilion.
In collaboration with Guardian Australia, Guardian Cities is devoting a week to Australian cities. Share your thoughts with Guardian Cities on Twitter, Facebookand Instagram using the hashtag #AusWk | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/11/homelessness-trump-california-activism | US news | 2019-09-11T21:58:47.000Z | Sam Levin | Workers on frontlines of homeless crisis tell Trump: 'We don't need tough talk' | The Trump administration’s threat to crack down on homelessness in California has prompted skepticism and fear from advocates, who said the federal government should provide funding for services and housing – or stay away.
White House officials toured Los Angeles this week to study the crisis in the region amid reports that Donald Trump was pushing for ways to clear the streets of encampments and homeless people.
It’s unclear how the federal government could legally attempt to target people on the streets. But given the administration’s continuing efforts to slash funding for low-income housing programs and social services, and the president’s repeated derogatory attacks on California cities, some advocates for the homeless said they were not confident that the White House would provide any useful support.
“The federal government should behave with compassion. We don’t need Trump’s tough talk to compound the trauma people are dealing with,” said Stephen “Cue” Jn-Marie, a Los Angeles pastor who works with people living at Skid Row, the epicenter of the crisis. “Anyone who comes to Skid Row to ‘crack down’ and not actually deal with the root causes … we’re not listening. I really don’t want to hear what the president has to say.”
Trump, who has made insulting California a consistent campaign theme, told Fox News this summer that he wanted to “intercede” on homelessness, citing San Francisco streets and saying: “We may do something to get that whole thing cleaned up. It’s inappropriate.” He also called the city “disgusting”.
A White House spokesman said on Tuesday that the president had taken notice of the crisis “particularly in cities and states where the liberal policies of overregulation, excessive taxation, and poor public service delivery are combining to dramatically increase poverty and public health risks”. Trump was exploring the subject as a way to highlight the failures of Democratic leaders, according to reports in the Washington Post and New York Times.
Trump is blaming them for a situation he is creating
Jennifer Friedenbach, Coalition on Homelessness
The Rev Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission, a Los Angeles homeless organization, met with some of the Trump officials this week and said he was optimistic. Bales said he would like to see the federal government provide support for building a new shelter and more bathrooms and that the administration leaders he took on a tour of Skid Row seemed focused on offering resources.
“They said: ‘We are just here to help people in any way we can,’ and I take them at their word.”
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland and other California cities all have worsening housing emergencies, with expanding income inequality and the rising costs of housing forcing people to live in their cars, makeshift sheds and growing tent encampments.
“President Trump could address the homelessness crisis as the chief executive of the federal government, which is the same entity that caused the homelessness crisis,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, the executive director for the Coalition on Homelessness, in San Francisco. “He has been slashing programs … and people are out there are suffering that he is responsible for. He is blaming them for a situation he is creating.”
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Trump has pushed major budget cuts for public housing and low-income assistance programs and has fought to curb access to food stamps and other services that can help people avoid displacement.
“We need the restoration of public housing,” said Adam Rice, an organizer with Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA Can), who works at Skid Row and was previously homeless. “Let’s actually have a discussion about homelessness on a national stage.”
Rice and other advocates pointed out that city leaders in LA have repeatedly put resources into sweeps and policing with policies that echo the rhetoric of the president. LA politicians are considering new rules that would further restrict where people can sleep in the city.
Kendrick Bailey, a homeless veteran, keeps cool inside his tent on a street corner near Skid Row in 2017. Photograph: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images
Friedenbach said she would be concerned about any federal efforts that would attempt to forcibly remove people off the streets, adding: “That doesn’t do anything to address homelessness.”
Jn-Marie said it was difficult to know whether to take the president seriously but added: “It’s not past Trump to use people as his political pawns.”
Bales, who met with the administration, said the officials from across a number of federal agencies did not talk about sweeps: “I don’t know about people’s motivations. All I care about is resources coming our way. We are in such a desperate situation. We should accept any help.”
If the Trump administration were genuinely interested in tackling the problem, it could restore budgets and help provide public land for affordable housing for the neediest people, said Pete White, LA Can’s executive director. “If you’re going to come to town, actually be helpful and not harmful.”
White said he was not optimistic: “I think it’s a political play he is making. All of this is a setup for 2020.”
Trump’s anti-homeless rhetoric can have real consequences, White added, noting recent reports of violence and attacks against people in encampments. In the LA region, there have also been growing concerns about “vigilante” Facebook groups where residents harass and shame homeless people, posting bullying and hateful comments.
Paul Read, another local advocate, said it would be powerful if Trump and leaders across California “stand together and speak in unity and say: ‘We need to resolve this and get it done’”. But, he added, “I don’t know if that’s going to happen”. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/oct/30/when-i-travelled-i-hid-my-passport-fassbinder-muse-barbara-sukowa-on-hitlers-legacy-and-hidden-love | Film | 2020-10-30T10:00:09.000Z | Stuart Jeffries | When I travelled, I hid my passport': Fassbinder muse Barbara Sukowa on Hitler's legacy and hidden love | Surely, I suggest to Barbara Sukowa – as she strolls around her garden in Brooklyn and I watch from 3,500 miles away on WhatsApp – it’s time lesbians were shown differently in cinema. Out and proud, not leading furtive double lives. Maybe it’s because they are so often set in the past: The Favourite, Lizzie, Ammonite, Portrait of a Lady on Fire. But Two of Us, Sukowa’s new film, about two octogenarian women in a provincial French town, is set in the present day.
That’s not the key difference, she says. “Portrait was about young attractive women. It has a titillating quality for men.” Two of Us is notable for its lack of sensual moments.
In the film, the Italian director Filippo Meneghetti’s debut, Madeleine and Nina live in adjoining apartments. To the world in general, they are just neighbours. Madeline’s daughter, Anne, cannot bear the truth about her mother’s sexuality. One night, while Madeleine is recuperating from a stroke, Nina creeps into her apartment and cuddles her in bed – their first touch since the love of her life went into hospital. The next morning, Anne comes in, throws back the covers and, scandalised, screams at Nina to leave.
“We see our parents differently,” says Sukowa. “If Anne found her friend in bed with another woman that wouldn’t upset her. But her mother? That’s very hard for Anne to accept.”
Thwarted love… Barbara Sukowa as Nina, right, and Martine Chevallier, as Madeleine in Two of Us. Photograph: TIFF
Meneghetti had long wanted to make a movie about gay lovers thwarted by their families, inspired by a friend, “a very liberal young man with regards to sexuality, but when he found out that his father was gay, he totally freaked out”.
Madeleine’s children, Anne and Fred, cling to the childhood delusion that their parents had a happy marriage. “The son identifies with the father and to learn that his father was basically cuckolded and betrayed is very difficult.”
It is Madeline’s appreciation of this fact that means the couple’s plan to return to Rome, city of their youthful romance where they could live freely, is perpetually deferred.
“She wasn’t able to smash that ideal picture her kids had of their parents’ marriage,” says Sukowa. “It would reveal that a lot of her life was maybe a lie.” For Sukowa, this crisis precipitates Madeleine’s disastrous stroke: the psychic pressure of living with secrets.
There was a lot of anger. We had this saying: Don’t trust anybody over 30. I’m 70 now but I can understand that feeling
Sukowa was born in Bremen in 1950, in a scarred and shamed West Germany. Her grandfather had one arm and she recalls a teacher whose fiance had died during the war. No one spoke of the Third Reich. “There was a lot of noise from reconstruction. People were very busy, but at the same time there was this silence. You were very suspicious about everybody, your parents, your teachers. You thought of every adult: what did you do? There was a lot of shame. We were the perpetrators. When I travelled, I hid my passport.”
She still can’t quite fathom how Hitler came to power or what ordinary people were really thinking. “I have become very doubtful about historic reports. I’ve read so many books and scripts about that time and I still have a hard time coming to a real picture.”
Acting offered the chance to break that silence. “I was involved with directors who were the first to ask the questions about what had happened, people like Fassbinder and Schlöndorff. They were older, but I shared their desire. We were very angry, those of us born after the war. I remember 1968, when we went on the streets to get judges from the Nazi time out of power.
“There was a lot of anger. We had this saying: ‘Don’t trust anybody over 30.’ I’m 70 now but I can understand that feeling.”
Sukowa, right, with Chevallier and director Filippo Meneghetti at the premiere of Two of Us in Paris. Photograph: Laurent Viteur/Getty Images
Sukowa moved to New York, hoping for an artistic rebirth. “I had this weird idea that there would be this great underground progressive theatre and I wanted to test myself with that. It was incredibly disappointing because theatre there was very conventional. In Germany it was much more experimental.”
Instead, she stepped back from acting to raise three children. Sukowa already had a second career, touring the world’s concert halls delivering the spoken, or Sprechstimme, sections of, for example, Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. When she married the artist Robert Longo, she sang in his band the X-Patsys, doing Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash cover versions.
When she did appear in American movies (John Turturro’s Romance and Cigarettes, in 2005, for instance) she was often singing. Small-screen roles have not been in short supply: she had a long-running role in 12 Monkeys, the spin-off from Terry Gilliam’s film, and has just finished the second season of M Night Shyamalan’s series Servant. But meaty roles – such as the lead in Von Trotta’s Hannah Arendt – have required a return to her homeland, where she is referred to as Germany’s Meryl Streep.
She smiles at the similarity. “There are actors who stay with their own persona. Nobody wants to see Humphrey Bogart as an uncool loser. Those are what we call film stars, who live off their charisma. And then there are actors who try to take on different personas. I’m one of those. Meryl Streep is, too.”
Two of Us is released in cinemas and digitally on 13 November | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2016/aug/20/why-the-bechdel-test-doesnt-always-work | Life and style | 2016-08-20T06:00:06.000Z | Samantha Ellis | Why the Bechdel test doesn’t (always) work | When I discovered the Bechdel test – created by graphic novelist Alison Bechdel in her 1985 comic Dykes to Watch Out For – I found it a revelation. The Bechdel test is an irresistibly simple gauge of female representation and gender inequality in film. To pass, a film has to have two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man. The test has been applied to plays too – as with the Twitter campaign @BechdelTheatre.
But although the test is useful, I worry when it is the only thing used to measure the feminism of a film or a play (a use Bechdel never intended). The ridiculously retrograde Twilight, for example, passes (doormat heroine, Bella, talks briefly to her mother about moving to a new town) while Gravity, which has a fierce, clever and interesting heroine, fails. Sometimes women’s conversations about men are feminist. Two women discussing being bullied at work by a man would make for a feminist drama – certainly preferable to a play in which two women briefly compared shoes but spent the rest of the time serving the narrative arcs of the men.
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I’d go further: conversations about fancying or loving or sleeping with men can be feminist too. I don’t believe it is un-feminist to ask how we can have relationships with men (because some of us do want to); to ask what makes a man a feminist and what we can expect from men; to ponder how we can achieve equality in our romantic lives. As I wrote my play How to Date a Feminist, I knew it would fail the Bechdel test because these questions are its major concerns.
So I wanted to think about other ways of challenging myself to make feminist theatre. The ongoing inequality (according to the latest research, women are only playing 39% of stage roles in the UK, writing 32% of the plays and directing 39% of them) inspired the Sphinx test, a series of questions for playwrights to consider. Questions such as: is there a woman centre stage? Is she active rather than reactive? Is she compelling and complex?
I’ve asked myself other questions too. How many of the cast are women, and what percentage of the dialogue do they speak? Do the female characters have agency? Do they make choices? Do they drive their own stories (or, indeed, their cars)? Do they have a strong arc? Are they victims or do they have power or seize power? Do their stories empower them or punish them? Does the play address issues of concern to women, and to feminists? Does the play support the status quo or does it invite the audience to imagine, to think, to make change?
If the play is funny, do the women have any funny lines? One particular bugbear of mine is comic plays where the men monopolise the wit, and the women are earnest, heartfelt or (worst of all) long-suffering. I was determined not to reinforce the madly outdated idea that feminism can’t be funny, so I hope my play passes this test, at least.
The questions don’t stop once a play goes into production – in fact, a director can make a huge difference by reinterpreting a play through a feminist lens, or casting gender-blind. Other questions to ask might be: how many of the creative team are women? Are they respected in rehearsal? Are the actors asked to wear costumes that make them feel uncomfortable? (The Casting Call Woe blog, now an Edinburgh show, is a roll-call of failures on this front.) And how is the play marketed? More than one producer asked if I could call my play something that didn’t involve the word feminist, which they felt was too in-your-face, too political, or too boring-sounding. In the end, keeping the title felt like a feminist statement I could make before the lights even went up on the first scene.
How to Date a Feminist previews at the Arcola theatre, London, from 6 September | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/may/11/var-video-assistant-referees-premier-league-revolution-season | Football | 2019-05-11T21:30:14.000Z | Sachin Nakrani | The revolution will be televised: as the season ends, the age of VAR is nigh | Sachin Nakrani | Sunday’s round of Premier League matches are not only the last of the season but the final ones before video assistant referees – VARs – are introduced to the top flight. It is a moment many are wary of but no one can stop. The revolution is coming and it will be televised.
Football cannot be picky about when VAR is applied – but is one angle enough?
Paul Wilson
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The encouraging news is that work has been under way at Stockley Park, VAR’s west-London headquarters, for close to two years to ensure the system operates successfully during the 380 Premier League games to be played next season. That process has involved live and non-live testing as well as consultations with all parties, including managers and players.
Last week it was the turn of journalists to hear a progress report from Mike Riley, the head of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, as well as experience first-hand what it is like to be a VAR.
Riley is confident the system’s introduction to the Premier League will not significantly disrupt the “pace and tempo” of matches. He is also certain it will vastly improve the accuracy of “factual” calls, specifically regarding offsides.
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As part of the non-live testing process, PGMOL officials have monitored all onside and offside calls that have taken place during the current Premier League season and noted that by match-round 33 there had been 35 such calls that, had VAR been in place, would have been overturned, leading to the “key-match incidents accuracy” of top-flight referees rising from 84% to 87% and that of assistant referees from 79% to 95%.
“Of those 35, 26 have been in matches when the score has been level or there has been a one-goal difference,” Riley said. “That’s why we’re positive about VAR: it will lead to more correct and important judgments.”
The system will not change the subjective nature of many decisions. As well as checking for mistaken identity, VARs also check goals, penalty calls and straight red cards and in each area there can be differing opinions. Hence the requirement of VARs to intervene only if they feel the on-pitch referee has made a “clear and obvious” error. Yet what the VAR may deem to be “clear and obvious”, others may not . As Riley put it: “Subjective decisions ultimately come down to the VAR on the day.”
Referee Roger East consults VAR before disallowing a goal for Southampton in their Carabao Cup tie at Leicester earlier this season. Photograph: Plumb Images/Leicester City via Getty
In regards to live testing, 68 games in the domestic cups have seen the use of VAR. It is the data gathered from this process that, Riley said, shows the introduction of VARs will not have a hugely adverse effect on the flow of top-flight games. On average there were eight checks per game, with the average time of a check being 29 seconds; Riley noted: “The average time taken to celebrate a goal in the Premier League is 62 seconds.”
In a further attempt to maintain the flow of matches, the PGMOL wants VARs to make calls on decisions they feel need to be overturned or reviewed, as opposed to asking the on-pitch official to check the incidents on the screen in the referee referral areas that will be on the touchline at every fixture. Final decisions will rest with the on-pitch referee, however: if he or she does not want to overturn a call, they will not have to.
Premier League needs some remedial work to be ready for VAR next season
Paul Wilson
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There are seven VAR booths at Stockley Park, in one room. At each booth the VAR sits in front of a screen showing the game, with another screen lower down on a three-second delay. To the VAR’s right is a replay operator, whose job it is to provide all the available shots of an incident, while to their left sits the assistant VAR, with a brief to see how the on-pitch referee has dealt with the incident. The VAR also has a green button to “bookmark” an incident to look at later. A red button allows them to contact the on-pitch referee. It is a fast-paced and occasionally bewildering experience. Patience will be key as those involved get to grips with their respective roles, something Riley is sure will occur. “Over time we’ll get better and faster at it.”
Riley’s predecessor, Keith Hackett, is a vocal critic of the way VAR will be implemented in the top flight, with one of his complaints being the lack of clarity regarding how spectators inside the ground will know an incident or decision is being checked or reviewed. In response the PGMOL has made it clear that before the start of next season all Premier League clubs will be required to put something in place at their grounds that will allow everyone inside to know VAR is in play, perhaps via the large screens or a PA announcement. It is also possible a clip of the incident in question could be shown but only after the check or review. All those matters will be discussed at the Premier League clubs’ summer meeting.
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There is also a call from the PGMOL for those concerned to spend the summer swotting up on VAR guidelines and regulations, especially the players who need to remember two things in particular – all goals are checked by VAR and they can get booked if they make the VAR-screen gesture towards a referee or ask him to consult with the VAR in an “aggressive manner”.
Again, however, this creates a subjective grey area – what exactly is an aggressive manner? Does being sarcastic count as being aggressive? No one knows for sure but what is for certain is that from next season the Premier League will change for ever. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/16/scott-morrison-has-agreed-in-principle-to-a-uk-free-trade-deal-whats-in-it-for-australia | Australia news | 2021-06-16T06:54:53.000Z | Katharine Murphy | Scott Morrison has agreed in-principle to a UK free trade deal. What’s in it for Australia? | Free trade deals are always an elaborate dance. Before Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson bumped elbows and enthused about the prospect of tariff-free Tim Tams in a rose garden in London this week, both sides engaged in stagecraft.
There were reports the British trade minister, Liz Truss, planned to sit her Australian counterpart, Dan Tehan, in an uncomfortable chair “so he [had] to deal with her directly for nine hours”. The Australians briefed that Boris needed this bilateral trade deal – his first since Brexit – much more than we did, and we’d take our sweet time to sign up.
In the end, Australia and Britain this week signed up to signing up, reaching an in-principle agreement on the structure of an FTA. The denouement was so rushed that concrete details about the scope of the in-principle agreement remain scant. But let’s work through the known knowns.
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What are the benefits for Australian farmers?
The Morrison government says beef and sheep meat tariffs on Australian exports to the UK will be eliminated after 10 years. Sugar tariffs will go after eight years, and dairy tariffs will go after five years. Short and medium grain milled rice will get immediate duty free access once the FTA is in place.
During the countdown to tariff-free trade, Australian producers will gain incremental access to the British market. Australian beef producers, for example, get immediate access to a duty free quota of 35,000 tonnes (rising to 110,000 tonnes per year in a decade). With sugar exports, producers have immediate access to a duty free quota of 80,000 tonnes, rising by 20,000 tonnes each year.
Blessed are the cheesemakers
Australia says local dairy farmers will also have access during the transition period to a duty-free quota for cheese of 24,000 tonnes. This will rise to 48,000 tonnes by year five.
What about the British farm lobby’s objections?
During the negotiations, the National Farmers’ Union in the UK raised a number of concerns. The NFU pointed out there were different environmental and animal welfare standards in the two countries. It is not entirely clear whether the NFU’s objections have been addressed.
The NFU president, Minette Batters, has said her organisation needs to know more about any provisions on animal welfare and the environment “to ensure our high standards of production are not undermined by the terms of this deal”. Australia says if UK standards prohibit importing hormone injected meat, then we won’t export it to the British market. Tehan, Australia’s trade minister, says “our robust export controls provide the flexibility and assurance to meet a range of importing country requirements, including HGP-free when required”. HGP is hormonal growth promotants.
What does this mean for working rights?
During the trade talks, British negotiators pointed out that Australians can have a working holiday in the UK without having to work on a farm. The UK wanted reciprocal arrangements. This was a problem for Australia because farmers would lose the British backpacker workforce (numbering around 10,000). Farmers are already crying out for workers because the international border remains closed.
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Under the in-principle trade agreement, working holiday makers in the UK have won expanded rights to stay in Australia for three years up until the age of 35. Australia says there will also be a separate agriculture visa established for UK visa holders. In the scramble to deal with the local shortfall of workers, the Morrison government has also unveiled a separate agriculture visa targeted at Asean nations, mirroring the seasonal worker program that already exists for the Pacific.
Working rights, part two
The agreement appears to have broader labour market implications. The UK says Australia has also agreed to drop requirements that firms hire Australian nationals first. The British government says Australia has agreed to mutual recognition of qualifications (this means British lawyers would be able to practice here without re-qualifying and vice versa). Unsurprisingly, Australian unions are already on the warpath about the as yet undisclosed provisions covering people movement.
How about procurement?
Another component of the in-principle agreement that is potentially interesting (and by that, read controversial) relates to government contracts. Again, the available detail is scant, but the UK is talking up an Australian concession (“the most substantial level of access Australia has ever granted in a free trade agreement”) allowing British companies to bid for government contracts.
The UK government says the FTA will create new opportunities for British firms including in transport and financial services, building on the success of companies like Leeds-headquartered Turner & Townsend, who have project managed some of Australia’s biggest public transport infrastructure programs. Presumably this cuts both ways.
Does this agreement include an investor state dispute settlement clause?
Perhaps we should start by explaining what this is. An ISDS is a mechanism in a trade deal that gives foreign investors, including Australian investors overseas, rights to access an international tribunal to resolve investment disputes. These clauses have become increasingly controversial in trade agreements, and there was speculation this agreement would contain one. But Australia says there is no such clause in this trade deal.
In case you need a wee dram to lift the spirits
British coverage of the free trade agreement has focused on cheaper Jacob’s Creek and Tim Tams for all. But Australians will have the benefit of cheaper Scottish whiskey when the 5% tariff comes off imports.
In addition to a cheaper tipple, Northern Ireland exports a number of machines and manufactured goods that are used by Australian miners. Those will enter the Australian market tariff-free.
British passenger vehicles, including SUVs, are currently hit with a 5% tariff when they are exported to Australia. That nuisance tariff will go once the agreement comes into force.
What have people said about the deal?
The deal for a deal has been broadly welcomed by stakeholders. Australia’s deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, who is currently acting in the top job, declared “it’s 10 out of 10 for what happened at Number 10 – Downing Street that is”.
In full Empire mode, Tehan says: “This is a world-class free trade agreement. It rights a historical wrong, when the UK turned to Europe 50 years ago.”
The Queensland veteran Bob Katter is more sceptical. “We won’t have unfettered access to the UK market for our beef, lamb, dairy and sugar for five to 15 years,” the MP said. “There will be three changes of government in the UK in that time, so it doesn’t mean two bob.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/11/no-consensus-how-to-keep-kids-safe-online | Technology | 2024-03-11T15:17:54.000Z | Kari Paul | ‘New text, same problems’: inside the fight over child online safety laws | Sharp divisions between advocates for children’s safety online have emerged as a historic bill has gathered enough votes to pass in the US Senate. Amendments to the bill have appeased some former detractors who now support the legislation; its fiercest critics, however, have become even more entrenched in their demands for changes.
The Kids Online Safety Act (Kosa), introduced more than two years ago, reached 60 backers in the Senate mid-February. A number of human rights groups still vehemently oppose the legislation, underscoring ongoing divisions among experts, lawmakers and advocates over how to keep young people safe online.
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“The Kids Online Safety Act is our best chance to address social media’s toxic business model, which has claimed far too many children’s lives and helped spur a mental health crisis,” said Josh Golin, the executive director of the children’s online safety group Fairplay.
Opponents say alterations to the bill are not enough and that their concerns remain unchanged.
“A one-size-fits-all approach to kids’ safety won’t keep kids safe,” said Aliya Bhatia, a policy analyst at the Center for Democracy and Technology. “This bill still rests on the premise that there is consensus around the types of content and design features that cause harm. There isn’t, and this belief will limit young people from exercising their agency and accessing the communities they need to online.”
What is the Kids Online Safety Act?
Sponsored by the Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal and the Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn, Kosa would be the biggest change to American tech legislation in decades. The bill would require platforms like Instagram and TikTok to mitigate online dangers via design changes or opt-outs of algorithm-based recommendations, among other measures. Enforcement would demand much more fundamental modifications to social networks than current regulations require.
When it was first introduced in 2022, Kosa prompted an open letter signed by more than 90 human rights organizations united in strong opposition. The groups warned the bill could be “weaponized” by conservative state attorneys general – who were charged with determining what content is harmful – to censor online resources and information for queer and trans youth or people seeking reproductive healthcare.
In response to the critiques, Blumenthal amended the bill, notably shifting some enforcement decisions to the Federal Trade Commission rather than state attorneys general. At least seven LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations that previously spoke out against the bill dropped their opposition citing the “considerable changes” to Kosa that “significantly mitigate the risk of it being misused to suppress LGBTQ+ resources or stifle young people’s access to online communities”, including Glaad, the Human Rights Campaign and the Trevor Project.
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To the critics who now support Kosa, the amendments by Blumenthal solved the legislation’s major issues. However, the majority of those who signed the initial letter still oppose the bill, including the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, and the ACLU.
“New bill text, same problems,” said Adam Kovacevich, chief executive of the tech industry policy coalition the Chamber of Progress, which is supported by corporate partners including Airbnb, Amazon, Apple and Snap. “The changes don’t address a lot of its potential abuses.” Snap and X, formerly Twitter, have publicly supported Kosa.
Is Kosa overly broad or a net good?
Kovacevich said the latest changes fail to address two primary concerns with the legislation: that vague language will lead social media platforms to over-moderate to restrict their liability, and that allowing state attorneys general to enforce the legislation could enable targeted and politicized content restriction even with the federal government assuming more of the bill’s authority.
The vague language targeted by groups that still oppose the bill is the “duty of care” provision, which states that social media firms have “a duty to act in the best interests of a minor that uses the platform’s products or services” – a goal subject to an enforcer’s interpretation. The legislation would also require platforms to mitigate harms by creating “safeguards for minors”, but with little direction as to what content would be deemed harmful, opponents argue the legislation is likely to encourage companies to more aggressively filter content – which could lead to unintended consequences.
“Rather than protecting children, this could impact access to protected speech, causing a chilling effect for all users and incentivizing companies to filter content on topics that disproportionately impact marginalized communities,” said Prem M Trivedi, policy director at the Open Technology Institute, which opposes Kosa.
Trivedi said he and other opponents fear that important but charged topics like gun violence and racial justice could be interpreted as having a negative impact on young users, and be filtered out by algorithms. Many have expressed concern that LGBTQ+-related topics would be targeted by conservative regulators, leading to fewer available resources for young users who rely on the internet to connect with their communities. Blackburn, the bill’s sponsor, has previously stated her intention to “protect minor children from the transgender [sic] in this culture and that influence”.
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An overarching concern among opponents of the bill is that it is too broad in scope, and that more targeted legislation would achieve similar goals with fewer unintended impacts, said Bhatia.
“There is a belief that there are these magic content silver bullets that a company can apply, and that what stands between a company applying those tools and not applying those tools is legislation,” she said. “But those of us who study the impact of these content filters still have reservations about the bill.”
Many with reservations acknowledge that it does feature broadly beneficial provisions, said Mohana Mukherjee, visiting faculty at George Washington University, who has studied technology’s impact on teenagers and young adults. She said the bill’s inclusion of a “Kosa council” – a coalition of stakeholders including parents, academic experts, health professionals and young social media users to provide advice on how best to implement the legislation – is groundbreaking.
“It’s absolutely crucial to involve young adults and youth who are facing these problems, and to have their perspective on the legislation,” she said.
Kosa’s uncertain future
Kosa is likely to be voted on in the Senate this session, but other legislation targeting online harms threatens its momentum. A group of senators is increasingly pushing a related bill that would ban children under the age of 13 from social media. Its author, Brian Schatz, has requested a panel that would potentially couple the bill with Kosa. Blumenthal, the author of Kosa, has cautioned that such a move could slow the passage of both bills and spoke out against the markup.
“We should move forward with the proposals that have the broadest support, but at the same time, have open minds about what may add value,” he said, according to the Washington Post. “This process is the art of addition not subtraction often … but we should make sure that we’re not undermining the base of support.”
The bill’s future in the House is likewise unclear. Other bills with similar purported goals are floating around Congress, including the Invest in Child Safety Act - a bill introduced by the Democratic senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and the representatives Anna G Eshoo and Brian Fitzpatrick - which would invest more than $5bn into investigating online sexual abusers.
With so much legislation swirling around the floors of Congress, it’s unclear when – or if – a vote will be taken on any of them. But experts agree that Congress has at least begun trying to bolster children’s online safety.
“This is an emotionally fraught topic – there are urgent online safety issues and awful things that happen to our children at the intersection of the online world and the offline world,” said Trivedi. “In an election year, there are heightened pressures on everyone to demonstrate forward movement on issues like this.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2010/feb/22/baltimore-colts-ravens-bob-irsay | Sport | 2010-02-22T00:05:43.000Z | Martin Kelner | The moving story of the sports fans who refused to let the music die | Martin Kelner | There are probably not too many parallels to be drawn between the NFL and the Premier League, but the problems currently afflicting some English football clubs were neatly encapsulated in a fine documentary on ESPN America about the Baltimore Colts, in which the late owner of the club, the flamboyant, bibulous Bob Irsay, snapped at a TV interviewer: "It's not 'your' club, it's not 'our' club, it's my club. I paid for it." Everything else in the programme, The Band That Wouldn't Die, one in a series of 30 sports documentaries marking 30 years of ESPN, contradicted that view.
The people of Baltimore, into whose own autobiographies the story of the Colts is inextricably weaved, owned the club, not Irsay, in much the same way as Manchester United belongs to Manchester not to the Glazers, Leeds United to Leeds rather than Ken Bates, and Portsmouth FC to Portsmouth, rather than (fill in name of this week's owners here).
Irsay's bluster came in the late 70s, when he was trying to get Baltimore's city authorities to stump up for a new ground to replace the run-down Memorial Stadium. Eventually, in a bizarre cloak-and-dagger operation, the owner hired a fleet of removal vans, had them loaded up in the middle of a snowy night in March 1984, and moved the club to Indianapolis, a remarkable story lovingly told by long-time Baltimore fan Barry Levinson.
Film director Levinson, born in the city in 1942, when it was "pretty much a traffic jam between New York and Washington", as the programme described it, constantly returns to his home town for source material for personal films like Diner, Tin Men, and Liberty Heights, which he fits in between more commercial projects like Bugsy and Rain Man – the ones which I suppose help pay for him to live in northern California rather than Baltimore.
Levinson told the Colts' story through the team's marching band, whose outfits were fortunately at the dry cleaner when Irsay sneaked out of town, and were thus able to be rescued with the help of a compliant shopkeeper. It would obviously have been funnier if the band had discovered their togs were at the cleaners 26 years on, found the ticket and presented it at the shop, only to be told, "They'll be ready on Tuesday", but they were actually retrieved in a covert operation that night.
In an act of pig-headed loyalty only sports fans or religious zealots would understand, the band decided to keep going without a team, playing first in town parades and later at the Cleveland Browns and other football grounds, where their performances cocked a not particularly veiled snook at the NFL.
A parade of colourful characters explained to Levinson what the loss of the Colts meant to Baltimore, variously describing Irsay's midnight flit as "like your wife leaving you" or "losing a best friend". There was some tremendous archive footage, including the Mayor of Baltimore, William D Schaefer, on the morning after Irsay left, enumerating what the loss of an NFL team meant to the city, concluding, "and number three, I hate to see a man cry".
As the news of the team's departure spread through the city, there were many tears. "It hurt," said one fan, "they had taken something dear away from me. We were emotionally attached." The late journalist and author Geoffrey Moorhouse, in his book At The George, about rugby league, wrote that the spot where you first sat or stood with your dad in a sports ground, and returned to once a fortnight, was probably as important emotionally as the house you grew up in.
Witness after witness on the programme concurred, mentioning the added emotional appeal of the music played by the band, especially the Colts Fight Song, which one fan said he was "humming all week" after being taken to his first match by his dad in 1965.
So distraught was another fan that he went to the Memorial Stadium on opening day of the 1984 season – when the Colts were in Indianapolis – and sat alone in his old seat in the empty ground. Ironically, the Baltimore Colts were to an extent authors of their own misfortune, in that the NFL championship final of 1958 in which they beat the New York Giants with a touchdown in overtime, often referred to as "the greatest game of all time", was a sensation on TV and established the value of an NFL franchise to cities throughout the US, ultimately contributing to the loss of Baltimore's.
As the local author Michael Olesker said of the winning moment: "When [Alan] Ameche went into the end zone, he went into the future. That was it. Pro football was married to television from that moment on. It was the perfect game for television."
Baltimore's wilderness years ended with the controversial move of the Cleveland Browns to the city as the Baltimore Ravens. The band, who had kept the faith all along, became the Marching Ravens and wrote words appropriate to the new franchise and as if to prove what Noel Coward wrote about the potency of cheap music, despite having no attachment either to American football or Baltimore, I have been humming the damn thing ever since I saw the programme. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/28/theresa-may-concedes-on-eu-migrants-residency-rights-during-brexit-transition | Politics | 2018-02-28T16:32:50.000Z | Alan Travis | Theresa May concedes on EU migrants’ residency rights during Brexit transition | Theresa May has conceded that EU migrants who come to Britain during the Brexit transition will have the right to settle permanently in the UK, in a major climbdown over future residency rights.
The concession, slipped out in a Brexit policy paper by the Home Office, also makes clear that EU migrants who arrive after March 2019 will be given a five-year temporary residence permit, not the two-year one that was previously proposed by ministers.
The policy paper does, however, make clear that EU migrants who come to live and work in Britain during the transition period will not have the same rights once it ends to bring family to join them as EU nationals already resident in Britain who have secured “settled status”. Instead, they will have to pass a minimum income threshold test, which is currently set at £18,600 for British but not EU citizens.
The three-page policy statement makes clear that EU migrants arriving during the transition period will be given the chance to build up the five years’ continuous residency that is needed to apply to be given the right to stay permanently in Britain. It says those EU citizens and their family members who arrive during the transition period and who register will be offered “a temporary status in UK law that will enable them to stay after the implementation period has concluded – this means that they will be able to remain lawfully in the UK working, studying or being self-sufficient for the five years needed to obtain settlement”.
The policy paper makes clear that those EU migrants who wish to stay for the long term will have to register within three months of arriving. There will also be a three-month “window” at the end of the Brexit transition period for applications to ensure that there is no cliff-edge. Irish citizens will not be required to register.
One major potential sticking point with this fresh British offer is the government’s insistence that citizens’ rights will only be enforceable in UK courts, and not through the European court of justice.
May was accused of pandering to hard Brexiters when she promised during a three-day trip to China this month to “battle the EU” over its proposal to promise long-term residency rights to those who arrived after 29 March 2019.
The official Brexit policy document says the concessions have been made because “it is important to provide certainty to business and those EU citizens who wish to move to the UK during the implementation period as to the terms under which they will be able to remain in the UK and make a life here once the period is over”.
The climbdown is likely to be sharply criticised by hard Brexiters. However, it was welcomed as “a big step in the right direction” by the British Chambers of Commerce, which said it would remove “significant short-term uncertainty for families, businesses and wider communities”.
Adam Marshall, the BCC director general, added: “Business will be pleased that during a time of record high labour shortages, the government is showing a pragmatic approach to immigration. Firms will want to see this realism embedded in future migration policy when the UK leaves the EU.”
The British government hopes that this offer will be matched by a similar move by the 27 EU states to British citizens living in other EU countries. They faced a setback on Wednesday when the draft EU withdrawal treaty made clear that they faced losing their onward rights to live, work or provide services in a third EU state. Jane Golding, the chair of British in Europe, said it would do nothing to allay the fears of thousands of British citizens in the EU27 who depended on free movement across member states on a daily basis.
Campaigners for the rights of EU citizens said they were “very concerned” with the plan to run two different immigrant schemes after March next year. The3million said it would create “a risk of confusion” with landlords and employers and a risk of mistakes by Home Office officials, “and could lead to discrimination against all EU citizens”. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/27/sainsburys-whats-cooking-product-placement | Food | 2013-02-27T09:10:00.000Z | Matt Chittock | Sainsbury's What's Cooking?: Is product placement spoiling foodie TV? | Another day, another new daytime cooking show. But if you're slumped in front of Channel 4 on a weekday lunchtime, you'll notice that What's Cooking? from the Sainsbury's Kitchen is different from the usual TV food fodder. The clue's in the title. What's Cooking? isn't just sponsored by the big-name retailer – it's a format designed to put the brand firmly in the spotlight and push product placement further than ever before.
"It's definitely a different concept to what we've seen," says Rosie Baker, deputy news editor at Marketing Week. "Sainsbury's haven't just taken the content and bolted their name to it – they've been involved in shaping the programme right from the start." This means that while the show looks like your standard-issue Saturday Kitchen clone, Sainsbury's is never far from the screen.
So when visiting chef Rachel Allen whips up a lamb's neck dish, there's a host of the supermarket's own-label products on the table. Likewise, a challenge to make lunch for the member of JLS lurking on the studio couch includes lingering shots of a certain retailer's fresh food aisle.
It isn't always as slick as it might sound. Throughout the first programme, presenters Ben Shephard and Lisa Faulkner looked terrified by the live format, as if they knew the producers and the suits at Sainsbury's would be taking careful notes. They occasionally went off-message too. According to the PR blurb, the programme is broadcast from "a purpose-built interactive studio at a Sainsbury's store". However, no one seemed to have clued Shephard into the correct corporate language. Within the first 10 minutes, he told viewers they were live from "a studio built in the car park of a supermarket" – which lent it all the glamour of an illegally parked burger van.
So why should the fact that Sainsbury's is part-funding a cooking show matter to the average foodie? Well, while you might not be watching What's Cooking? Baker thinks that other brands will be. If it's a success, it'll give commercial TV the confidence to get even cosier with advertisers and spread product placement across the schedules. Marketing agencies might see this as a watershed, but many believe the trend is as toxic to decent TV as horsemeat was to Findus.
Take Jamie Oliver. In more innocent times, even viewers allergic to his Essex geezer schtick could appreciate his passion for food. After all, he was one of the first telly chefs to talk up organic produce and the importance of provenance to what went on the plate. Whenever he talked about "good-quality dark chocolate", you could guess he was using Green & Black's. But thanks to tough Ofcom rules, you could be sure he wasn't getting paid to big up the brand. And anyway, thanks to those same rules, the bar would be coyly turned upside down on his worktop to hide the label.
This all changed in 2008 when Ofcom allowed product placement on UK telly for the first time. After Channel 4 struck a deal with the manufacturer, suddenly Oliver was free to wield pouches of Uncle Ben's rice on Jamie's 15-Minute Meals. A situation like this creates a serious credibility problem. If Oliver was offering the full-frontal product shot treatment to a British beer or a high-end pasta, it would just about make sense. But Uncle Ben's? The brand seems as much a throwback to the bad old days of 1950s US TV as the product-led format itself. Not only does it damage a TV chef's credibility, it leaves ad-sensitive viewers like me scurrying to the brand-neutral BBC.
For Sainsbury's, the real test is whether viewers less allergic to product placement are able to stomach What's Cooking? Baker reckons that if the show can get the all-important tone right, then they might be on to a winner. "This could work because the format directly relates to Sainsbury's expertise," she says. "Consumers aren't stupid. If the format doesn't fit the brand, then this kind of activity doesn't work. However, cooking and Sainsbury's are a credible fit."
All of which means there could be more on the menu. So maybe it's time to permanently turn off Channel 4 and stick to Man V Food on the Good Food Channel. It may be on a commercial station, but at least Adam Richman isn't going to try flogging me indigestion tablets halfway through a challenge.
So what do you think of the new wave of product placement? Will it have you turning off? | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/oct/28/election-race-obama-pennsylvania | Opinion | 2008-10-28T13:00:00.000Z | Jay Stevens | Jay Stevens: Barack Obama struggles to capture the vote in Erie, Pennsylvania | "W
hat are you looking for?" Our heads turned. We were bent over our canvassing packet, trying to figure out where our tally went wrong. Turns out I failed to notice that Patterson was the street after 30th, not 31st. I had messed up the list of doors assigned to us. We'd have to go back. "We're knocking doors for Obama," I shouted back. "Who are you voting for?" He was youngish, maybe mid-thirties, wearing a faded Red Sox baseball cap and standing next to a pickup truck emblazoned with Ron Paul bumper stickers. When he heard my reply, he stiffened.
"I'm sure as hell not going to vote for any nigger!" he shouted and disappeared into his driveway.
This is a real story, and it happened here in Erie, Pennsylvania. It isn't typical of Erie – this was the first and only time something like this has happened in the city since I moved here from Montana and started volunteering for the Obama campaign, but it gives me permission to express the frustration I've felt about the city's tepid embrace of Barack Obama.
Erie sits atop the thumb of Pennsylvania land that reaches up and kisses Lake Erie. The city proper has about 100,000 people; the greater metropolitan area, 240,000. Erie lies at the center of a triangle of northwestern cities: Cleveland to the west, Buffalo to the northeast, and Pittsburgh to the south. Wracked by wind and deep snow in the winter, it's an industrial city – or it was an industrial city. In the 20th century it was a shipbuilding center, a railroad hub and a producer of steel and iron until – like elsewhere in the Midwest – the jobs dried up when the factories went overseas.
Tucked among the parks and lines of single-family homes and cracked sidewalks are the ruins of steel plants and immense warehouses overgrown with weeds. At the end of the school day, kids in Catholic school uniforms crowd the ice cream shop and teen joggers run in packs along park paths. Eerie is quickly becoming a tourist town. The city's main attraction is Presque Isle, a park on a spit of land jutting out into the lake and ringed with beaches and bike paths, and Ohioans, Pennsylvanians and New Yorkers flock on the summer weekends for the water slides, amusement parks and the cool breezes and water of a lake swim. There's a new library on the waterfront where the replica of the brig Niagara floats. It was built to honor the battle of Lake Erie in the war of 1814 where Commodore Perry defeated a British squadron and secured Detroit for the fledgling US. Perry wrote the famous words to his superiors, "we have met the enemy and they are ours," a slogan not befitting the town, which seems more resigned or weary than assertive and accomplished.
This is a union town and a Democratic city, with registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans, 99,500 to 62,000. But it's an aging blue-collar town with a high percentage of Catholics, the kind of place Barak Obama struggled with during the primaries. Senator Hillary Clinton won 62% of Erie's vote during the Pennsylvania primary.
My experience knocking on doors makes it obvious this is the kind of town that should go for Obama in a big way. The main issues? Health care, the economy and the war. In short, they're alarmed by rising health care costs, jobs going overseas, and angry with the Bush administration for tricking us into Iraq. A lot of them depend on disability, Medicare and social security. A lot of them shake their heads over the bail-out. They don't like McCain's talk of lower corporate taxes, his health care plan and his eagerness to take on Iran and Spain. But there are undecided voters abound. And Erie's Obama headquarters have few regular volunteers from Erie itself. Instead to make the door and phone quotas, volunteers drive in on the weekends from New York, Ohio and Pittsburgh.
That's not to say that Erie lacks supporters for Obama. Far from it. Yard signs proliferate. On the phone, the union men are angry with Republicans and fired up to put an ally in the White House. At the doors, Obama supporters greet his canvassers with excitement, perhaps even relief. Still, there's a palpable resistance, especially on the lower west side in the middle-class white neighbourhoods where I spend my Sundays knocking on doors.
"He doesn't inspire me," said one woman, puttering around her yard in the waning days of summer. "I haven't really gone for a candidate in a long time." Who was the last candidate that inspired you? She stopped and mulled this over. "JFK," she said. But what separates the two men, really? Isn't Obama the JFK of the upcoming generation? The answer hangs between us, unspoken.
Another woman, an undecided voter in a Steelers jersey, admits that it's the name that keeps her from opting for Obama. "I mean, 'Obama,'" she says. "It's a lot like, 'Osama,' you know?" I patiently explained Obama's personal history, mentioned that he was brought up by his white grandparents in Hawaii and spent time in Chicago working as a community organiser in neighborhoods struggling with steel plant closings. She smiled, a brilliant flash of white and freckled cheeks, and two golden retrievers came barreling out the door with tails wagging. A child runs around the corner. "I'm sorry, mom," the child said, "they got away from me".
Another man, visibly angry about the bail-out explained his reluctance to commit to Obama this way: "I wish he would talk like one of us," he said. He wanted Obama to talk tougher. He's so ... so ... "Eloquent?" I offered. "Uppity," said the man.
It's not exactly racism – at least, not the virulent kind expressed by the Ron Paul supporter in Pittsburgh – but it's not exactly not racism, either. It's a kind of unspoken uneasiness with Obama's "otherness". It's his name, his skin color and his background - all of which have been distorted and exaggerated in email chains, on conservative radio talk shows, and, lately, fanned by the McCain campaign.
Is this the "Bradley effect" in action? You know, the theory that there's a discrepancy between opinion polls and election results for black candidates, because people are less likely to admit their prejudice to a pollster than act on them in the privacy of a voting both? Not likely: for one, it seems the days of the Bradley effect are long-gone (pdf). For another, conservative rhetoric has armed voters with the vocabulary to express prejudice to pollsters without using racist language. "Uppity," "risky," worries about his "background," are all coded language expressing uneasiness with the Democratic candidate, and reflect a level scrutiny that McCain is largely free from.
Instead, it seems likely that this disquiet at many doors in Erie, and reluctance to eagerly support the Democratic candidate may be the result of a "partially negative view of blacks" that a recent CNN/Yahoo study on race in the 2008 election identified in whites, and a view that may alter the outcome of the election by at much as 6 points in McCain's favor. Again, it isn't out-and-out racism; it's subtler and more malleable, easier to dislodge.
That's the premise of this week's Time Magazine, which examines race in context of this year's election. In its story, "Race and Brain", science provides hope that race can be overcome. It's simple, really. "The more you think about people as individuals," cognitive neuroscientist Liz Phelps was quoted as saying, "the more the brain calms down." Go to the doors, and tell people about Barack Obama's story. Keep going back until either they get it, or they associate Obama with you.
And certainly Time's cover story, arguing that the sagging economy is pushing race prejudice to the side, rings true here in Erie. On my last jaunt through Erie just yesterday and among undecided and "sporadic" voters, the reaction was positive toward Obama and all about the economy.
Yes, a teenage girl shouted at us as we passed by, "I wouldn't vote for him; he sounds like a terrorist!" But consider this: we recognised the two boys sitting with her. They had come down to Obama's Erie campaign office to volunteer. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/aug/08/dj-rashad-died-drug-overdose-autopsy-confirms | Music | 2014-08-08T06:32:35.000Z | Sean Michaels | House artist DJ Rashad died of a drug overdose, post-mortem confirms | Chicago medical examiners have concluded that the pioneering footwork and juke producer DJ Rashad, who died in April, was killed by a drug overdose. A new toxicology report has contradicted the earlier assertion, by Rashad’s cousin, that the musician died as a result of complications from a blood clot in his leg.
Officials confirmed the post-mortem results on Wednesday, stating that Rashad died of heroin, cocaine and alprazolam (Xanax) intoxication.
Rashad, born Rashad Harden, was found by a friend on the afternoon of 26 April at an apartment in Chicago’s West Side. The 34-year-old house DJ was pronounced dead at the scene, and police found narcotics and drug paraphernalia beside the body. His death was ruled an accident.
Rashad’s initial post-mortem proved inconclusive, according to a statement on 27 April. While police told the Chicago Sun-Times that they believed drugs were responsible, Rashad’s label, Hyperdub, conveyed his cousin’s understanding that coroners suspected a blood clot. Rashad was only found with marijuana paraphernalia, Hyperdub claimed, and he had been complaining about an ache in his leg.
Double Cup, Rashad’s final full-length, was selected as one of the Guardian’s top 30 albums of 2013. It was his first full studio album after almost a decade as an underground star. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/mar/26/flo-rida | Global | 2009-03-27T00:07:27.000Z | Angus Batey | Urban review: Flo Rida, R.O.O.T.S | There's no stopping Flo Rida. His 2008 debut single, Low, topped charts around the world, and the Dead or Alive-referencing Right Round, the first single taken from this second LP, has repeated the trick. It doesn't seem to matter
that the 29-year-old Tramar Dillard is stylistically in thrall to other southern US rappers, or that he has little to say that's fresh. The platitudes of the title track, and Rewind's nod to his home state's refugee communities stand out among the strip-club anthems and sex rhymes. His genius lies in pitching his records just right: he injects these songs with enough grit to interest hip-hop fans, without scaring the pop audiences his catchy hooks are designed to ensnare. It's ruthlessly effective, though difficult to love. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/oct/26/trinity-mirror-shares-slump-phone-hacking | Media | 2012-10-26T16:55:14.000Z | Mark Sweney | Trinity Mirror shares drop 18% due to fear of costs over phone-hacking claims | Trinity Mirror's share price slumped as much as 18% on Friday, as jittery investors wiped £25m off its market value over fears the company may have to pay damages over alleged phone hacking.
The Daily Mirror publisher's share price slumped to 50p after 11am, 11p or 18% below Thursday's close, following news emerging from the high court in London. This share price drop wiped about £28m from Trinity Mirror's market capitalisation to £128.8m.
Trinity Mirror's share price rallied slightly later in the day, closing down nearly 16% to 51.25p – giving the company a market capitalisation of £132m, down £25m on the previous day's closing value.
The City took fright after high court judge Mr Justice Vos announced on Friday morning that he planned to manage the four phone-hacking claims filed against Trinity Mirror's newspapers earlier this week.
Vos is overseeing more than 150 civil damages claims for alleged News of the World phone hacking.
Trinity Mirror's share price fell more than 12% on Tuesday after news of the civil claims first emerged.
The company is facing four civil claims by former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson; former footballer Garry Flitcroft; actor Shobna Gulati, who played Sunita Alahan in Coronation Street and Anita in Dinnerladies; and Abbie Gibson, the former nanny to David and Victoria Beckham's children.
Trinity Mirror's recently appointed chief executive, Simon Fox, announced on Wednesday that the company was launching an investigation into the allegations, reportedly after calls for such a move from some of the company's biggest shareholders.
"Even though we have yet to receive the legal claims which have been reported on, it would be irresponsible of me not to ask our lawyers to look into the four claims that have attracted this recent attention," said Fox.
"My clear observations over my first few weeks at Trinity Mirror are that the company operates to the appropriate ethical standards and our editorial procedures and processes are robust. As we have consistently said, all our journalists work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission code of practice."
Fox said that he was "deeply concerned" in the "absence of evidence [how] four unsubstantiated claims can attract publicity of such magnitude".
Investors have become jumpy about any potential threat to the publisher's balance sheet should the civil cases result in damages payments.
Trinity Mirror has consistently denied that its papers were involved in phone hacking. On Tuesday when the civil claims were first revealed, a spokesman said: "As we have previously stated, all our journalists work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct."
The company is profitable, but it does not have the same financial resources as News International, backed by News Corporation, to pay any damages or legal costs relating to alleged phone hacking.
Analyst Jonathan Barrett of Singer pointed out that the company's share price has risen in recent weeks, following the arrival of Fox and the announcement of a cost-saving merger of the national and regional newspaper divisions. Last week, the shares hit 75.25p, their highest point since February 2011.
"I would expect the stock to be volatile while they continue to work their way through the allegations," Barrett said.
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To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jun/29/the-legend-of-tarzan-review-an-inherently-problematic-remake | Film | 2016-06-29T13:02:47.000Z | Jordan Hoffman | The Legend of Tarzan review – an inherently problematic remake | Yes, he does the yell. It comes late in the third act, emerging from off screen, thrown like a desperate, aural Hail Mary, a last ditch reminder that maybe this story about a man with ape-like superhero powers should be a tiny bit fun. But it’s too little, too late. The Legend of Tarzan ends up being a garbled, clunky production that tries to please everyone and ends up pleasing no one.
Director David Yates, who inherited the beloved Harry Potter characters and brought that series home in its final four entries, makes the wise decision to assume everyone knows who John Clayton, Lord of Greystoke, is. The specifics of how he became Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, slips into the narrative in some well placed flashbacks, but this is not an origin story. For that alone we lift our short glasses of dry sack and say chin-chin, as if we were Jim Broadbent in a ridiculous-looking beard (which he wears in his short, bookending scenes, toasting a bounteous expedition and cursing King Leopold II of Belgium).
The story commences after Clayton/Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) is already a legend: raised by apes, beloved by local villagers, able to swing from vines and totes chill with every badass beast on the savanna. Now, he’s living in Greystoke manor with his fiery American wife, Jane (Margot Robbie), and serving as a member of the House of Lords.
Undeniably cool … Djimon Hounsou as Chief Mbonga in The Legend of Tarzan. Photograph: Jonathan Olley/AP
However, powerful forces want to send him back. Broadbent and other captains of industry are troubled by the way King Leopold has cut off access to the Belgian Congo, causing economic unrest. Maybe our boy Clayton can find out what’s going on and stabilise things? (Yes, there’s an old British men v Brussels theme in this film, so fire up your Brexit analogy engines.)
Before we get a chance to suggest that British colonial history isn’t all roses, in walks the film’s get-out-of-jail-free card: Samuel L Jackson’s George Washington Williams. Based on an actual American civil war soldier, author and statesman who visited the Belgian Congo in 1889, Williams pulls the reluctant Clayton aside. Forget the business interests, he says: he believes King Leopold is building his empire on brutal slave labour. It’s a moral obligation that they take this voyage (with Williams standing in for the audience as we travel with Tarzan).
They go, and, of course, they are correct. There are images in this film of dazed Africans chained at the neck, being carted around in train compartments. It comes couched between a jaunty action sequence of vine-swinging and a WWE-style smackdown of dazed baddies from a shirtless wall of muscle, complete with a “bonk!” sound effect in the spirit of the Three Stooges. This 10-minute stretch should be shown in film schools as part of a masterclass on how to blend styles in the least effective and most inappropriate manner possible.
Christoph Waltz, doing his usual kooky bad guy schtick. Photograph: Jonathan Olley/AP
Tone-deafness aside, the film has plenty of troubles. For starters, it doesn’t look good. Most of the scenes with computer-generated animals (lions, elephants and especially gorillas) are in the rain or dark or some sort of mist. Instead of inspiring awe, it led me to take off my glasses and check they weren’t smudged. I don’t know if the recent Jungle Book’s computer whizzes had greater processing power, more time to render their shots or simply more dough, but the difference between the two films is extraordinary.
There’s also the tedium of its rote story. Christoph Waltz, doing his usual kooky bad guy schtick, is King Leopold’s emissary, and he has worked out a complicated plot that involves getting a bunch of diamonds if he hands over Tarzan to Chief Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou), a fearsome warrior who wears the head of a leopard as a cowl and claws over his fists. (Although he has few lines, Hounsou is undeniably cool in a superhero-film kind of way.) Mbonga holds a grudge against Tarzan, which we learn about in flashbacks. We also see glimpses of Tarzan’s early years as an orphan raised by apes, and his time as a feral man-beast.
Kudos to Skarsgård for not pussyfooting around. He doesn’t quite bang on his chest, but he aspirates in a simian fashion; while it’s impossible not to laugh, he basically sells it. Robbie’s Jane (the daughter of an American teacher who tames the wild man before they fall in love) is bright and sunny and, like Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, loath to be considered a damsel in distress.
There is, however, the uncomfortable optic of this glorious white couple being cheered and paraded around by their happy, loving black pals. There are at least half a dozen images begging to be used as internet memes. Admittedly, this is no way to watch a film, but image-making is what it is, and The Legend of Tarzan is going to make a lot of people feel uncomfortable. Moreover, few will come to its aid, because it’s so dull and silly. When Tarzan leads a phalanx of computer-generated wildebeests like TE Lawrence into Aqaba, the audience is not supposed to laugh.
This film was always going to be inherently problematic. If the studio spoke to any 13-year-olds, they would discover that there’s hardly an itch for a Tarzan film, even if it’s that most shimmering jewel: a dormant intellectual property everyone has heard of. The producers have bent over backwards to mitigate unease as much as possible, and not only by keeping Samuel L Jackson in every other scene so we can say: “Well, if he thinks this isn’t racist, it must not be.”
There’s an anti-greed message and a green message and a feminist message, but there are also the asinine Hollywood story beats that must be hit. A zillion tribesmen must cheer when King Leopold’s stooge is defeated, because Belgium never troubled the Congo again, right?
The best way to do a Tarzan film in 2016? Find a new story to tell instead. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/may/20/leinster-success-pursuit-excellence | Sport | 2012-05-20T17:58:13.000Z | Paul Rees | Leinster's success finds base in relentless pursuit of excellence | Next season's Heineken Cup final is in Dublin, fittingly so as Ireland is the country the trophy has called home for five of the last seven seasons. A competition that in its first few years was regarded as a fight between England and France has turned green, along with the clubs in the Aviva Premiership and the Top 14.
Much has been made in England and France about an inherent advantage enjoyed by the leading Ireland provinces. Not only do they not have to worry about relegation with the RaboDirect Pro12 ring‑fenced but qualification for the following season's Heineken Cup is never an issue. They are, it is said, free to concentrate on Europe.
The failure of any of Wales's four regions to make an impact in the Heineken Cup is never cited in evidence, and Scottish sides have only twice made it to the knockout stage. What is also ignored is that Irish sides have won the RaboDirect, formerly the Magners League, in three of the past four seasons. Leinster face Ospreys in the play-off final in Dublin on Sunday.
The notion is that everything for Leinster revolves around the Heineken Cup is anathema to their Lions full-back, Rob Kearney. "The league is our bread and butter," he said. "We were really disappointed at the way our season ended last year. We beat Northampton to clinch the Heineken Cup but then lost to Munster in the Magners play-off final. The league is important to us and we want to do something special."
The Irish sides not only struggled in the early years of the Heineken Cup but failed to attract much in the way of support. The demands of professionalism meant that the Irish and Scots, followed by Wales in 2003, relegated their club system, concentrating their resources on provincial and regional sides.
If Scotland and Wales had identity problems, Ireland's four provinces were steeped in the public consciousness. The Interprovincial championship there had started in the 1920s and they had a stronger base than their Celtic rivals and many English clubs who reinvented themselves by moving grounds, renaming and rebranding.
Leinster in the 1990s attracted crowds of between 500 and 2,000. By 2006, a year when they were routed in the Heineken Cup semi-final by Munster, they had nearly 4,000 season-ticket holders. That number has swelled to 12,500 and their average crowd for a league match is almost 17,000. And, like Munster and Ulster, their supporters travel all over Europe in their numbers.
"When we were driving to the ground on Saturday the pavements were a sea of blue," said the Leinster captain, Leo Cullen. "The support we get is ridiculous. There must have been 50,000 Leinster fans in the ground and what was an already special day was made by their presence. We are delighted to play for them."
As Leinster's support has grown, so they have become a major force in Europe. A team that used to be bullied by Munster and Leicester in the knockout stages has become the first team to win the Heineken Cup three times in four years and has already been installed as the favourites to prevail in the tournament next season.
Ireland tour New Zealand this summer and an article on the official All Blacks website on Sunday likened Leinster to a Super 15 side. "If Irish coach Declan Kidney can lift some of the magic that lurks within the Leinster jersey, then the All Blacks will be on high alert," it ran. "Leinster are the best drilled outfit in the northern hemisphere, sweeping their attack out wide gracefully, mixing it up with some sublime angles and brilliant hands, while being able to spearhead their attack through the heart of even the most resilient defence."
One respondent suggested that Kidney should be replaced by the Leinster coach, Joe Schmidt, a New Zealander. It was a question put on Saturday evening to the Ireland captain and Leinster talisman, Brian O'Driscoll, who was far too shrewd to walk into such a trap, paying tribute to both.
When Michael Cheika left Leinster after their first Heineken Cup triumph in 2009, they were fancied to struggle but Schmidt has taken them to another level. "Michael Cheika changed our mentality," said Cullen. "In 2007 I could not see how we were going to be successful in the immediate future, crashing out of Europe embarrassingly on a few occasions. Joe has brought a relentless pursuit of excellence. He is great for the players and, to quote Bubba Watson, I have not got that far in my dreams." | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/nov/19/key-findings-of-the-brereton-report-into-allegations-of-australian-war-crimes-in-afghanistan | Australia news | 2020-11-19T04:23:57.000Z | Christopher Knaus | Key findings of the Brereton report into allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan | The findings of Maj Gen Paul Brereton, after a four-year inquiry, paint a grim picture of the actions of some of Australia’s most elite soldiers in Afghanistan.
Brereton’s report relates allegations of unlawful killings, blood lust, a broken culture and cover-up.
Here are its main findings.
Dozens of Afghan civilians, detainees allegedly murdered
The report’s most staggering revelation is that 39 Afghans were allegedly murdered by Australian special forces in 23 incidents. Two more were cruelly treated.
The report redacts much detail about the individual alleged incidents.
But we know that none of the alleged killings took place in the heat of the battle. The vast majority are alleged to have occurred while the Afghan victims were detained or under Australian forces’ control.
None of the alleged victims were combatants.
Brereton said that the circumstances of each, were they to be eventually accepted by a jury, would constitute the war crime of murder.
We must act as quickly as possible to set the moral compass of our defence force right
Chris Barrie
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In all cases, the report finds it “was or should have been plain that the person killed was a non-combatant”. The chief of the defence force, Angus Campbell, said that in each case, the intent cannot be in dispute.
“None were alleged to have occurred in circumstances in which the intent of the perpetrator was unclear, confused or mistaken,” he said. “And every person spoken to by the inquiry thoroughly understood the law of armed conflict and the rules of engagement under which they operated.”
One alleged incident, heavily redacted in the report, is described as “possibly the most disgraceful episode in Australia’s military history”.
The ‘blooding’ of young soldiers
The report reveals allegations of the “blooding”, or initiation, of young special forces soldiers.
The report describes a process in which young special forces soldiers would be allegedly instructed by their patrol commander to execute a detainee.
Weapons or radios, known as “throwdowns”, were allegedly placed on the body and a cover story allegedly created to mask the crime and deflect any scrutiny.
A culture of cover-up
A culture of secrecy and cover-up pervaded the special forces, the report found.
Patrols would compartmentalise from their leaders and from one another, hiding their actions on the battlefield from all, it said.
Operational reports were allegedly sanitised to make it appear as though special forces were complying with the laws of engagement.
“Operation summaries and other reports frequently did not truly and accurately report the facts of engagements, even where they were innocent and lawful, but were routinely embellished, often using ‘boilerplate’ language, in order proactively to demonstrate apparent compliance with rules of engagement, and to minimise the risk of attracting the interest of higher headquarters,” the report said.
Sense of entitlement
Special forces saw themselves as above reproach, the report found. They allegedly had a sense they were elite, entitled and beyond the scrutiny of those outside the fence. The normal rules did not apply to them, it said.
The report found younger soldiers viewed their patrol commanders as “demi-gods”. Disobeying their instructions, it was feared, would lead careers to ruin.
Warning signs ignored
The report clearly shows complaints about the Australians’ conduct were made, including by Afghan nationals and local human rights groups.
They were allegedly ignored.
The complaints were treated as Taliban propaganda, or attempts to secure compensation, the report found.
There was also a sense that the “collective sacrifice” of the SAS justified lesser deviations in their behaviour from the norm. David Wetham, the assistant inspector general of the Australian Defence Force, wrote: “It is clear that there were warning signs out there, but nothing happened.”
'A long time for justice': Afghans wait for Australia to right the wrongs of its war
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The oversight systems designed to detect and root out such conduct failed, including because commanders placed too much trust in their subordinates and were protective of them, the report said.
Early assessors of complaints generally approached their task as being to collect evidence to refute a complaint, rather than examine the incident fairly and dispassionately. Inquiry officers did not have the proper level of suspicion or the investigative skills to properly assess complaints, the report found.
Apologies, compensation and reforms to come
On Thursday, Campbell offered his apologies to the Afghan people and its leaders, and to the Australian people. He did not hold back in his description of the alleged killings.
3:06
Australian defence chief releases report into allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan – video
He described the alleged conduct as “shameful”, “deeply disturbing” and “appalling”. Brereton, the inquiry head, described it as “disgraceful and a profound betrayal” of all the Australian Defence Force stood for.
When asked what he would say to the families of the dead, Campbell said: “I am sincerely sorry for their loss and I can imagine the pain, the suffering and the uncertainty that that loss has caused, both at the time and that continued uncertainty of how this happened,” he said. “My sincere apologies to them and a desire to find a way to make recompense.”
Defence is now exploring how it can make compensation payments to the families of the alleged victims.
It is also about to embark on a reform of the special forces and accompanying structures. Campbell has accepted all 134 recommendations of the inspector general, but was at pains to point out that most service personnel who served in Afghanistan were not engaged in such conduct.
The unit citation awarded to Special Operations Task Group rotations serving in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2013 will be revoked.
Those perpetrators still in the ADF may face discharge. Campbell foreshadowed changes to the army’s organisational structure, a process that will be monitored by an independent oversight committee.
He has so far stopped short of saying he will disband the SAS.
In Australia, support and counselling for veterans and their families is available 24 hours a day from Open Arms on 1800 011 046 or www.openarms.gov.au and Safe Zone Support on 1800 142 072. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/jun/27/the-25-best-british-plays-since-jerusalem | Stage | 2018-06-27T05:00:30.000Z | Michael Billington | Knockouts, nobles and nukes: the 25 best British plays since Jerusalem | Enron (2009)
Finance shot to the top of the theatrical agenda in the wake of free-market crises and capitalist corruption. What hit one about Lucy Prebble’s play, charting the rise and fall of a Texan energy company that ended with debts of $38bn, was the element of fantasy in the corporate world. “We’re not an energy company – we’re a powerhouse of ideas,” claimed Enron’s hubristic chief exec. Rupert Goold’s astonishing production heightened the Citizen Kane aspect of a play that beautifully blended political satire and multimedia spectacle.
Off the Endz (2010)
Bola Agbaje first attracted attention with the Olivier award-winning Gone Too Far!, which looked at sibling rivalry. This follow-up was an even richer play that showed a young, high-flying black couple caught in a pincer movement between economic recession and loyalty to a council estate mate just out of jail. As played by Ashley Walters, this last character became a charismatic fantasist tempting the couple with mad money-making schemes. Although Agbaje has been accused by some of stereotyping shiftless black males, it would be fairer to praise her for telling uncomfortable truths.
Sucker Punch
Few writers are better than Roy Williams at using sport as a political metaphor. He did it with football in Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads. This time it was boxing, as we saw two black kids training in a south London gym in the 1980s under the tutelage of its Thatcherite owner. Seemingly liberated by success, they end up as pawns in the hands of white promoters for whom they are meal tickets. Daniel Kaluuya and Anthony Welsh were magnificent as the two fighters and Miriam Buether’s design turned the Royal Court into a boxing ring full of sweat and resin.
Anne Boleyn
Miranda Raison as the lead in Anne Boleyn. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
Howard Brenton, after a long sojourn writing for TV’s Spooks, has turned out a lot of plays in recent years: none better than this one, which offered a radically revised view of its heroine who was seen as Protestant champion rather than sexual predator. Secret meetings with Biblical scholar William Tyndale led her to procure a copy of a book that persuaded the Tudor monarch that a king’s prime allegiance was to God rather than the pope. Staged with Henry VIII at Shakespeare’s Globe, Brenton’s emerged as much the more interesting play.
London Road (2011)
I’ve kept musical theatre out of my list but this verbatim piece, with book by Alecky Blythe and score by Adam Cork, was too outstandingly original to be overlooked. Comprising interviews with the residents of an Ipswich street that had witnessed the murder of five sex workers, it focused less on the horror of the situation than on the healing process. We saw a community reconstituting itself through floral competitions and quiz nights and, under Rufus Norris’s direction, Blythe and Cork brilliantly found a musical pattern in the fragmented rhythms of everyday speech.
One Man, Two Guvnors
Porpoise-like delicacy … James Corden in One Man, Two Guvnors. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
Freely adapted by Richard Bean from a classic Goldoni play of 1746, this provided the funniest theatrical evening since Frayn’s Noises Off or Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests. It was also the making of James Corden who, as a failed skiffle player working simultaneously for a snooty toff and his disguised lover, showed a porpoise-like delicacy and profound geniality that has since served him well on American TV. Much of the evening’s joy was provided by Cal McCrystal’s physical comedy, which required an octogenarian waiter to serve a bowl of soup, fall backwards down a flight of stairs and bounce back like a rubber ball.
Written on the Heart
The 400th anniversary of the King James Bible in 2011 was marked by epic readings, modern updates and this fascinating play by David Edgar reminding us that the Bible is a product of its time and a composite of previous translations. Dramatically, the highlight was an imagined debate between Bishop Lancelot Andrewes and William Tyndale, a radical who wanted the scriptures rendered in a comprehensible vernacular. The moment I remember from this RSC production is when an aged cleric announced that “he who is without love and mercy shall never come to Christ”.
This House (2012)
A lively record of recent history … This House, with Charles Edwards and Julian Wadham. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
James Graham has firmly established himself, in a tradition created by Hare and Edgar, as the liveliest recorder of our recent history. Following plays about the Suez crisis and Thatcher’s childhood, he turned to the perilous survival of the Labour government from 1974-79. This was a brilliant play about the daily process of politics with the government facing either a hung parliament or a wafer-thin majority. Although the play showed the sick and dying wheeled in to vote, it offered a surprising testament to the tenacity of parliamentary democracy.
Red Velvet
Half the battle in drama is finding the right subject. Lolita Chakrabarti hit on an excellent one in recalling the prejudice faced by the African American actor Ira Aldridge when he played Othello at Covent Garden in 1833. His presence caused dissent in the company, hostility in the press and shock in the audience when he passionately kissed Desdemona. The play also reminded us that Aldridge was a theatrical pioneer, and it was fascinating to see Adrian Lester (who was about to play Othello at the National) magically combining innovative realism with 19th-century gestural acting.
Chimerica (2013)
A glorious epic … Elizabeth Chan, Benedict Wong and David KS Tse in Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
There may be a trade war between China and America, but US president Donald Trump has described Chinese leader Xi Jinping as “just great”. That odd love-hate relationship lends extra pertinency to Lucy Kirkwood’s epic play about the parallels and differences between the world’s rival superpowers. In America, she shows a photographer being acclaimed for his tireless pursuit of a supposedly exiled Tiananmen Square demonstrator; in Beijing, a man pays a price for protesting about the smog-induced death of a neighbour. Rather than scoring ideological points, Kirkwood wittily and energetically shows why Niall Ferguson coined the word “Chimerica” to describe two nations joined at the hip.
Handbagged
Marion Bailey and Stella Gonet in Handbagged. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
No one, except those involved, knows what really happened at the weekly meetings between the Queen and Thatcher in the 1980s, but it doesn’t stop people speculating. What was just one episode in Peter Morgan’s The Audience became the subject of Moira Buffini’s hilarious and oddly plausible play. Her thesis broadly is that, given the Queen’s attachment to the Commonwealth, there must have been dismay at her PM’s unwillingness to impose sanctions on apartheid South Africa and at her reluctance to accept majority rule in Zimbabwe. As in all modern plays about the monarchy – including those by Alan Bennett and Sue Townsend – the Queen came out on top.
Visitors (2014)
Barney Norris, then only in his mid-20s, displayed a mature understanding of old age in his debut play. Set in a farmhouse on the edge of Salisbury Plain, it showed an elderly married couple falling into disrepair. Instead of displaying the pity that is often close to contempt, Norris focused on the security of married love and the ailing couple’s delight in a shared past. With beautiful performances by Robin Soans and Linda Bassett, the play won all kinds of awards, evoked memories of the quiet compassion of David Storey and signalled a promise fulfilled by Norris’s next play, Eventide, and his debut novel, Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain.
King Charles III
Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
Is it likely our future king would, within a month of assuming the throne, create a constitutional crisis by refusing royal assent to a parliamentary bill? Once you accepted the premise of Mike Bartlett’s play, it assumed an unstoppable momentum and acquired a tragic grandeur. That was partly because of Bartlett’s canny use of blank verse and evocation of Macbeth and Richard II. But it was also because of a magnificent performance by Tim Pigott-Smith, who sadly died after the play’s run but not before it had been recorded for TV. He invested Charles with a principled anxiety as he declared: “Without my voice and spirit, I am dust.”
The James Plays
Sofie Gråbøl and Jamie Sives in James III: The True Mirror. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian
“A king has no friends,” says James II in the central play of Rona Munro’s ambitious seven-and-a-half-hour trilogy, which reminded us of the inescapable solitude of monarchy. The great virtue of the trilogy, covering Scotland’s history from 1421 to 1488 under the rule of James I, II and III, was its vigorous, unsentimental portrait of a kingdom beset by fractious, feudal in-fighting: as Sofie Gråbøl’s sceptical Dane, marrying into the royal family, asked: “Who would want the job of ruling Scotland?” Jointly presented by the national theatres of Scotland and Great Britain, the trilogy once again showed a female dramatist defying gender stereotypes by displaying an appetite for the epic.
Oppenheimer (2015)
We are no longer surprised to see science on stage. This work by Tom Morton-Smith turned out to be the best play about nuclear physics since Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen. What it caught excellently were the contradictions of the father of the atomic bomb and leader of America’s Manhattan Project. In John Heffernan’s performance, he seemed cold-blooded in his ability to ditch former sexual partners and communist associates yet fervent in his development of the bombs to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All plays about nuclear physics raise moral issues. Morton-Smith’s also created a flawed tragic hero.
People, Places and Things
Fierce social critique … Denise Gough, centre, in People, Places and Things. Photograph: Johan Persson
Sometimes it is hard to separate the play and the performance. Denise Gough rightly won every award going for her portrayal of an actor, fuelled by drink and drugs, who breaks down during a performance of The Seagull and checks into a rehab clinic: it was a brilliant performance in which Gough caught the addict’s mix of vulnerability and obduracy. Credit also belongs to Duncan Macmillan for showing the irony of the heroine’s resistance to the kind of confessional techniques she would have employed as an actor. As well as a fine character study, his play offered a fierce critique of a chaotic society that produces multiple forms of addiction.
The Moderate Soprano
The Sunday Times critic Harold Hobson looked for rapturous, single moments in a play. I had a Hobsonian experience watching David Hare’s play about the foundation in 1934 of a country opera house at Glyndebourne in Sussex. When Roger Allam as John Christie launched into a speech saying that his dream was to offer audiences a glimpse of the sublime, I was moved by his highly unfashionable endorsement of the power of great art. The play also told us a lot about Christie’s devotion to his wife and Glyndebourne’s dependence on European refugee talent, but it was the ringing defence of opera’s potential for ecstasy that made it memorable.
Escaped Alone (2016)
Mundane and apocalyptic … Linda Bassett, Deborah Findlay, Kika Markham and June Watson in Escaped Alone. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
“Posh tosh,” said the critic of the Daily Mail. I’d beg to differ. Like most of Caryl Churchill’s recent work, this one had a packed minimalism. It said a lot in 50 minutes. We listened raptly to the seemingly random chat of four women sitting in a sunlit garden: they dwelt lovingly on old times, broke into a rendering of a 1963 Crystals hit and yet relished the benefits of living today (“whole worlds in your pocket,” said one of mobile phones). Their talk, however, was punctuated by a series of monologues envisioning global catastrophe. The mundane and the apocalyptic sat side by side in a way that was characteristically Churchillian.
Cyprus Avenue
Every so often a play comes along that leaves you profoundly shaken; Edward Bond’s Saved was one, Sarah Kane’s Blasted another. David Ireland’s play was in the same league. It was a study of a Belfast loyalist, rivetingly played by Stephen Rea, who believed that the Protestant cause was being destroyed by “the Fenians” and that his five-year-old granddaughter had the same face as Gerry Adams. While Ireland’s play was about a man uncertain of his own identity, it also vividly demonstrated the madness of sectarian hatred.
Oil
Gnaws at the memory … Yolanda Kettle and Anne-Marie Duff in Oil. Photograph: Richard H Smith
Ella Hickson’s epic boldly pursued one woman’s trajectory through a span of almost two centuries. Starting as a Cornish farmer’s wife in 1889, she ended up in the same county in 2051 depending for survival on a Chinese visitor’s miracle of renewable energy. Along the way, Hickson tackled empire, the environment and, above all, mother-daughter relationships. She seemed to imply that women’s progress was accompanied by a growing loneliness and sense of estrangement from family. Oil is a play that gnaws at the memory.
The Children
Lucy Kirkwood is the only writer to get two entries in this selection. Deservedly so, because this three-character play raised a host of big issues. Set on a Norfolk farm following a nuclear catastrophe, it brought together two long-separated female scientists responsible for building the contaminating plant. In the intervening years, one had borne four children, the other none. This allowed Kirkwood to explore topics including whether parenthood increases a sense of social responsibility and how people in the future will react to the poisoned legacy of the present. A humane triumph.
Consent (2017)
Let you be the judge … Adam James in Consent. Anna Maxwell Martin, Ben Chaplin, Adam James and Priyanga Burford in Consent. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
“Let’s kill all the lawyers,” says Dick the Butcher in Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part Three. Nina Raine doesn’t go that far but she subjects them to fierce moral scrutiny in this probingly intelligent play. In particular, she asks if rape cases should be subject to point-scoring courtroom narratives and suggests that dealing with violent, dishonest people may have a corrupting effect on lawyers. Raine captures the clubbiness of the law and the sadness of a soured marriage while allowing the audience to make its own judgment.
The Ferryman
A box office hit even before it opened, Jez Butterworth’s play deserved the accolades heaped upon it. Combining the gangland politics of Mojo with the rural rituals of Jerusalem, this was a story about the power of unspoken love. Down on a farm in County Armagh in 1981, a reformed IRA activist could never quite articulate his feelings for his brother’s wife while two aunts were haunted by the loss of their loved ones. The political and the personal seamlessly intersected, but it was the power of private passions that fuelled this multilayered award winner.
Barber Shop Chronicles
Bonding at the barber’s … Cyril Nri and Abdul Salis in Barber Shop Chronicles. Photograph: Marc Brenner
Inua Ellams – poet, graphic artist and playwright – had the bright idea of setting this piece in six barber shops in two continents on a single day: as it happens the one in 2012 when Chelsea beat Barcelona in a Champions League semi-final. The beauty of the play lay in Ellams’ ability to see that, for African men, the barber’s is a mix of pub, political platform, social centre and soapbox. The range of subjects covered was astonishing, the language racy and vigorous, and Bijan Sheibani’s production was like a party the audience had been invited to join.
Nine Night (2018)
Like Winsome Pinnock’s pioneering Leave Taking, Natasha Gordon’s exhilarating debut play showed a family acknowledging its Jamaican past while living in the London present. The title referred to the Jamaican tradition of a nine-night funeral wake, but what was cheering about Gordon’s play was its suggestion that you can inhabit two worlds simultaneously. The family’s bright, young graduate was happy to suspend her rationalist scepticism while her aunt – joyously played by Cecilia Noble – took an active part in traditional rituals and still ensured she got home in time for EastEnders. Resentment at Britain’s historic hostility to immigrants was combined with Gordon’s fundamental faith in a twin cultural existence.
Jerusalem is at the Watermill, Bagnor, until 21 July. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/aug/17/mozart-piano-quartets-review-rising-soloists-combine-elegance-and-eloquence | Music | 2023-08-17T14:00:18.000Z | Erica Jeal | Mozart Piano Quartets review | Erica Jeal's classical album of the week | Mozart’s two piano quartets were groundbreaking when they were written in the early 1780s. The addition of viola to the standard piano-trio texture opens up new sonorities, and the writing revels in new possibilities regarding the relationship between strings and keyboard. So should we think of them as extended piano trios or compact piano concertos? This new recording provides material with which to argue either way.
Mozart: The Piano Quartets album cover
The lineup is something of a supergroup of rising soloists - the violinist Francesca Dego, violist Timothy Ridout, cellist Laura van der Heijden and pianist Federico Colli. Together they are as balanced a team as one could ask for, Ridout’s viola singing out as warmly and almost as brightly as Dego’s violin so that their exchanges are ideally weighted. The playing is imaginative and detailed; repeated sections are never done the same way twice, and the four play off each other in adding the odd ornament or decoration. There’s no real star: this is real chamber music. And yet, first among equals, Colli’s piano is the centre of gravity, setting the tone with quiet grace when he’s foregrounded, and sounding characterful and eloquent even when he’s in the background; he never has to push his way through.
The G minor quartet, K478, gets a performance of considerable scope, its fierce opening soon giving way to something lighter, almost playful, but with weightier passages to come: in the overlapping long notes and harmonic wrangling before the return of the main theme the strings take on a thick, almost organ-like tone. The E flat major quartet, K493, brings a first movement that sounds gentle here rather than propulsive, though it never drags. Throughout, the overall tone is one of considered elegance – almost too considered, as just occasionally one almost wishes they would play thoughtlessly for a moment and let the music power itself to its next destination. But this is chamber-music playing that really has something to say, and it’s never complacent.
This week’s other pick
The new release from pianist Anna Khomichko on the Genuin label, entitled Mozart and His Europe, sets three of his piano works including the B flat Sonata K333 in the context of some engaging pieces by his British- and German-based contemporaries Muzio Clementi and the Bach brothers, Johann Christian and Carl Philipp Emanuel. All are played on a modern Steinway, and all are enlivened by Khomichko’s crisp, clear touch. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/14/american-honey-review-andrea-arnold-mislays-map-but-us-roadtrip-still-sweetly-intriguing | Film | 2016-05-14T21:38:57.000Z | Peter Bradshaw | American Honey review: Andrea Arnold mislays map on sweet, indelible roadtrip | Andrea Arnold is the brilliant British film-maker who created two modern gems in the social-realist tradition in the form of Red Road and Fish Tank, and in my view a near-masterpiece in the form of her much-misunderstood Wuthering Heights, a work of such radical simplicity and raw experience it actually seemed to predate the literary work.
Now in American Honey she has created a long, often intriguing and humidly atmospheric film which sometimes dwindles into listlessness. It’s a road movie in the un-accented style of Gus Van Sant – particularly his Elephant and Paranoid Park. The drifting camera shots directed straight up into a blue sky, bisected occasionally with telegraph poles, are very similar to Van Sant’s Elephant. There’s something of Larry Clark or Harmony Korine in the featureless, affectless approach to sexuality.
It’s a film which drifts onward in search for an epiphany which doesn’t quite materialise. It is indulgent, and features a scenery-chewing, furniture-smashing performance from Shia LaBoeuf.
Yet there is much that is valuable in the film: a sense of mood and space, interesting ideas and a tense triangular dynamic between its chief characters. The title is taken from Lady Antebellum’s country single which is collectively, sentimentally sung by the cast towards the end of the film – atypical, to say the least, as most of music they’ve been listening to has been hardcore rap.
LaBoeuf plays Jake, who manages an itinerant “magazine crew” – dirt-poor twentysomethings travelling America in a cramped van, sleeping five or six to a room in scuzzy hotels and selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door to people who might sign up out of pity or just to get them to go away. There’s also money to be made pilfering from the homes of people who let them in to do their sales pitch.
One day Jake recruits 18-year-old Star (Sasha Lane) from outside a supermarket: she leaves her two kids with her mother (ambiguously, she may simply be their older sister) dumping them with her at a line-dancing club.
All the salespeople get to ride in the van, with their luggage in a U-Haul trailer, but Jake travels in a sports car with his hard-faced girlfriend Krystal (Riley Keough) who is the real boss: managing the cash, paying the bills, and coldly humiliating people who aren’t making their sales targets. Jake is teamed up with Star for their sales blitz and is clearly infatuated with her: he is hugely conceited, telling clients that he intends to study “politics” in college and affects a pair of dark trousers with braces that according one onlooker make him look like Donald Trump. But now his own sales figures are suffering, due to his infatuation with Star – to Krystal’s increasing rage.
The emotional tension and possible political satire and social commentary are all suspended in a great deal of sunlit ambient moodscaping and no particular place to go. There is a robbery, and Star at one stage agrees to sex for a lot of money. But there is no conventionally structured cause-and-effect consequence to this. The bus just keeps on rolling and no cops show up. There is fighting, drinking, partying. New people get on the bus and some are left behind. Insofar as the narrative comes to a point it is with a humiliating status-demotion for Jake.
Perhaps there is something naive about this - but there is also a kind of audacity and fidelity to experience. Sometimes life is not built like a house with three acts like three storeys. It is more like a river which flows onward and it seems to me that it is this flow which Arnold is trying to imitate.
The flaws are obvious: it is long, with some improv-ish dialogue, and there is that over-cooked, showy performance from Shia LaBeouf who needed stricter direction. Yet it has style and its image and feel stayed with me. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/11/americanah-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-review | Books | 2013-04-11T08:01:00.000Z | Alex Clark | Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – review | After 13 years in the United States, Ifemelu is about to return to Lagos; but first she must go to the hairdresser's. So far, so run-of-the-mill, for who doesn't want to look their best to greet a crowd of people they haven't seen for a long time? But for Ifemelu, this essential piece of personal maintenance is not exactly straightforward. First, she must take a train out of Princeton, where the few black people she has seen are "so light-skinned and lank-haired she could not imagine them wearing braids", then she must take a cab to an unfamiliar salon, her usual hairdresser being unavailable because she has returned to Ivory Coast to get married; then wrangle over the price; then sit in baking heat for many hours, during which she will be asked repeatedly whether she knows the Nollywood stars on the television and, more alarmingly, whether she can intercede on her Senegalese braider Aisha's behalf to persuade either of her Igbo suitors to marry her.
Hair is a big deal in Americanah (the slang term that Ifemelu's Lagos friends will use to describe her when she goes back to Nigeria). "Why don't you have relaxer?" asks Aisha, to which she replies, "I like my hair the way God made it", meaning that she refuses to straighten her hair by means of chemicals and smoothing irons; but it is also a statement made ironic by its context, given that the pair are in the midst of a disagreement about what colour hair extensions Aisha should use to weave into Ifemelu's braids. "Colour one is too black, it looks fake," Ifemelu tells her, but Aisha merely "shrugged, a haughty shrug, as though it was not her problem if her customer did not have good taste".
What is real, what is fake, how many layers of history and culture it takes to construct a national, or racial, or personal identity, and how contingent that identity is on its immediate surroundings are all questions that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie poses in her third novel; but her real talent is to make those questions seem as if they cannot be contained by neat, orderly language, and instead to animate them, to embed them in messy, difficult lives that are filled with idiosyncrasy and complication and compromise.
Ifemelu has herself created a life based on observing the weirdnesses – mostly painful, sometimes comical – that emerge when different groups of people live together in a system shaped to maintain the dominance of one group over others. Her blog, Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known As Negroes) by a Non- American Black, created so that she could voice her various puzzlements and conclusions about what she saw around her, has become a huge success, managing to keep happy both the kind of readers who routinely use the word "reify" and those who want to chat in more laidback fashion about their experiences. In posts such as Badly Dressed White Middle Managers From Ohio Are Not Always What You Think, about a man who has adopted a black child and finds himself shunned by his neighbours, she chronicles her unexpected discoveries; in more didactic mode, she counsels her fellow immigrants in unabashedly straightforward, no-nonsense terms. Stop telling Americans you are Jamaican or Ghanaian, she writes in To My Fellow Non-American Black: In America, You Are Black, Baby, because "America doesn't care": "You must nod back when a black person nods at you in a heavily white area. It is called the black nod … If you go to eat in a restaurant, please tip generously. Otherwise the next black person who comes in will get awful service, because waiters groan when they get a black table. You see, black people have a gene that makes them not tip, so please overpower that gene."
In the process, Ifemelu has gone from being broke, depressed and alienated to being a condo-owning Fellow at Princeton. She would not wish to return to her early student life in America, when she was forced to help a sports coach to "relax" so that she could pay her rent; when she was utterly bewildered by the customs of the country. But nor is she quite at home with her life as it is; and a kind of weariness, a build-up of "amorphous longings, shapeless desires" has led her to this point of departure.
There are also more concrete reasons: perhaps the example of her Aunty Uju, a doctor who came to America following the death of the military high-up who kept her in fine style as his mistress, but who has found herself incrementally diminished by it; or Ifemelu's failure to find a definitively comfortable fit with her painstakingly moral and politically fastidious boyfriend Blaine; or by the knowledge that she herself feels a disconnect in what she is doing. "You know why Ifemelu can write that blog, by the way?" asks Shan, Blaine's jealous and unpleasant sister. "Because she's African. She's writing from the outside. She doesn't really feel all the stuff she's writing about. It's all quaint and curious to her. So she can write it and get all these accolades and get invited to give talks. If she were African-American, she'd just be labelled angry and shunned." The tension between these two characters has simmered for some time, and this is an explosive moment. But Ifemelu barely reacts, saying only "I think that's fair".
And there is also Obinze, the childhood sweetheart – indeed, once her future husband – whom she left in Nigeria and who shares, as a lesser partner, the narrative. Obinze's experience of emigration has been less successful than Ifemelu's; a brief stint in London sees him working under a false name and paying over the odds for an arranged marriage, only to be arrested on his way to the ceremony and later deported from a country "odorous with fear of asylum seekers". He has also seen friends from home in decidedly elevated circumstances: Emenike, who has married a wealthy lawyer and subsequently "cast home as the jungle and himself as interpreter of the jungle", invites him to a dinner party in Islington, at which Obinze is struck by the unmatched artisan plates that would never be used for guests in Nigeria. More unbridgeable, though, is his fellow guests' inability to understand he is not a refugee: "They would not understand why people like him, who were raised well-fed and watered but mired in dissatisfaction, conditioned from birth to look towards somewhere else and eternally convinced that real lives happened in that somewhere else, were now resolved to do dangerous things, illegal things, so as to leave, none of them starving, or raped, or from burned villages, but merely hungry for choice and certainty."
Obinze's enforced return to Nigeria brings power, albeit through chance connections, so that when, towards the end of the book, Ifemelu arrives in Lagos as an awkward outsider, he is very much part of the new establishment. Whether they are able to retrieve their former intimacy, or whether it has been chased away by the transformations wrought in them by their travels, provides a tentative resolution.
But it is also slightly unsatisfactory, because Americanah is a book that works better when it is in transit, detailing people and situations who are in the act of becoming. Its structure is complex and sometimes unwieldy; there is much looping backwards and forwards in time as Ifemelu sits in the hair salon, and one feels slightly lost once her braids are finished and the narrative has moved on. Similarly, some characters are glimpsed too fleetingly to make a lasting impression; in the case of Ifemelu's parents, for example, this neatly mirrors their daughter's fading memories of them, but it is also tricky for the reader.
Nonetheless, this is an impressive novel – although very different from Adichie's Orange prize-winning Half of a Yellow Sun, it shares some of its freewheeling, zesty expansiveness. But that should not disguise its delicacy; it is also an extremely thoughtful, subtly provocative exploration of structural inequality, of different kinds of oppression, of gender roles, of the idea of home. Subtle, but not afraid to pull its punches. We all wish race was not an issue, says Ifemelu, talking about inter-racial relationships at a polite Manhattan dinner party, the day after Obama becomes the presidential candidate: "But it's a lie. I came from a country where race was not an issue, I did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I came to America." | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2014/nov/19/create-half-crown-braid-two-minutes | Fashion | 2014-11-19T02:56:25.000Z | Christina Butcher | How to create a half-crown braid in two minutes | Here’s a video tutorial for one of my favourite hairstyles, the half-crown braid.
I wear this style a lot because it’s both pretty and practical. You can wear your hair down but the braids keep your hair back and away from your face. Plus it takes less than two minutes to do.
This hairstyle works on both curly and straight hair and you can find my picture tutorial for the half-crown braid in straight hair here.
Start by taking a 1-2 inch section of hair on the left side of your hair above your ear. Split this section in three and make a braid (plait).
Angle the braid back around your head and secure the end of the braid with a small clear hair elastic.
Repeat on the right side, taking a section above your ear and making a braid. Secure the end with a small clear elastic.
Bring one braid across the back of your head and pin in place with bobby pins.
Cross the other braid over the first and tuck the end in behind the first braid. Secure with bobby pins. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/26/nigel-farage-dinner-with-the-donald-joins-trumps-table-at-washington-hotel | Politics | 2017-02-27T00:17:15.000Z | Hannah Summers | Dinner with the Donald': Nigel Farage joins Trump's table at Washington hotel | Nigel Farage dined out with Donald Trump on Saturday night after managing to secure a last-minute invitation to join the US president for an evening meal.
The former Ukip leader was photographed sitting opposite Trump and alongside his daughter Ivanka, her husband and senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner, and the Florida governor, Rick Scott, at the president’s luxury hotel in Washington DC.
Posting the photograph on Twitter, Farage wrote “Dinner with The Donald”. However, onlookers revealed that a place had only been made for him at the table at short notice.
No 10 was quick to play down the significance of the Trump meeting and subsequent dinner at the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, saying that they did not believe the US president would be misled into thinking he was being briefed by Farage on official government policy.
“We have an excellent ambassador who has and does meet the administration, including President Trump,” a spokesman said. “We have formal, well-established processes for communicating with the US administration and those are the ones we use. They know we communicate through the existing channels, I’m 100% certain they are aware of that.”
Journalist Benny Johnson, who said the secret service “swarmed the place” before Trump’s arrival, had been keeping tabs on the group at the Trump International hotel.
Johnson, the creative director of online news outlet Independent Journal Review, wrote on Twitter: “Farage was not invited to this dinner. Squeezed in at last minute.”
In a blog detailing all the events of the evening, the journalist said restaurant staff were given word just before Trump arrived that an extra place needed to be added to the table. Farage was seen greeting Trump in the lobby, who pointed up to his table and appeared to invite him for dinner.
Farage was later “found wandering the lobby of the hotel with a large glass of red wine”. Johnson said: “His teeth are wine-stained, and the British politician is happily swaying and speaking with anyone who approaches him.”
When he asked what it was like to have the president invite you to dinner, he writes that Farage told him: “Well it’s really quite wonderful. But as I’ve gotten to know Donald, it really just does not surprise me. You know what amazes me about your president? He is a regular bloke. Truly. Just a normal chap. Upstairs at dinner, he spoke to the table like any regular guy out to dine with friends and family. There is no pretension at all.”
Johnson pressed Farage for further details on what the president spoke about while eating but he “just laughed and said it was nothing that interesting, with a smirk and a wink.”
Earlier in the day, Farage had backed Trump’s treatment of the mainstream media, heaping praise on his political ally in a television interview. He told Fox News: “They [the media] are simply not prepared to accept that Brexit happened, that Trump happened, they kind of want to turn the clock back. And what they don’t realise is they are losing viewers, they are losing listeners, they are losing this battle big time and I’m pleased the president is not afraid to stand up to them.”
‘Our real friends in the world speak English,’ Nigel Farage tells CPAC Guardian
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington on Friday, Farage said the Brexit vote and Trump’s election had launched a “great global revolution”.
He added: “And it’s not going to stop, it’s one that is going to roll out across the rest of the great world.”
Farage said he was proud to have supported Trump in the election and attacked US mainstream media for being “in deep denial” about Trump’s victory, but said Americans as a whole would grow to appreciate their new leader. “Just as Brexit becomes more popular by the day, President Trump will become more popular in America by the day,” he said.
As Farage made further efforts to align himself with Trump, back in Britain Ukip was dealing with the fallout of its defeat to Labour in the Stoke byelection.
Paul Nuttall says he’s not going anywhere. For once he’s right
Marina Hyde
Read more
The party’s deputy leader, Peter Whittle, admitted it may have been a mistake for the leader, Paul Nuttall, to run for the party in Stoke-on-Trent Central so early in his leadership. Speaking on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show, the London assembly member said “If there was one mistake we made, it was that maybe Paul shouldn’t have run so early. He’s only been leader for 12 weeks. People hadn’t got to know him well enough, I think. We didn’t win this time – there are many by-elections coming up.”
Nuttall, who Whittle said could not appear on the show as he had a holiday booked immediately after the election result, came second in Stoke, barely increasing the party’s share of the vote despite Ukip’s pledge to seize power from Labour.
Whittle dismissed threats from Arron Banks, Ukip’s main donor, to set up another party unless he was made chairman, saying there were other people who would provide money.
Banks has threatened to pull his funding unless he is made chairman so he can “purge” members and stop the party being “run like a jumble sale”. Asked if he did not want Banks as Ukip chairman, Whittle replied: “It would be a very interesting conversation to have. I’ve always been very, very grateful for Arron’s contributions.
“If Arron does take his money away, there are other people. Obviously I wouldn’t want that to happen. These sort of interventions are run-of-the-mill, they happen all the time within our party. It’s part of politics.
“I think the difference is, with us, people tend to see a kind of do-or-die situation in virtually every controversy.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jun/13/rebel-wilson-smh-sydney-morning-herald-denies-outing-same-sex-relationship-questions | Film | 2022-06-13T04:35:42.000Z | Tory Shepherd | Rebel Wilson: Sydney Morning Herald removes column and apologises over reporting of actor’s new relationship | The Sydney Morning Herald has removed a column about Australian actor Rebel Wilson’s new relationship and columnist Andrew Hornery has apologised, admitting he made mistakes in his approach to the reporting.
After complaining on Saturday about being “gazumped” by Wilson revealing Ramona Agruma was her new partner, Hornery wrote a new column on Monday apologising for his reaction and saying he would take a different approach in future. Saturday’s column has been removed and replaced with the new one.
The Herald made mistakes over Rebel Wilson, and will learn from them. Saturday’s piece has been retracted and Andrew Hornery goes into detail here about what we didn’t get right https://t.co/jrnBpbJ4ne
— Bevan Shields (@BevanShields) June 13, 2022
An email he wrote giving Wilson a two-day deadline to respond to his plans to write about the relationship was not meant to be a threat, he wrote, but he could now see why it was seen as one.
Monday’s apology column followed a public backlash to the SMH over its approach to the story.
The Hollywood star revealed on Friday she was in a relationship with US fashion designer Agruma, which prompted an outpouring of well wishes. But controversy erupted after the Herald reported on Saturday that it had contacted her on Thursday, wanting to do the story.
In a note to readers on Monday, the Herald’s editor, Bevan Shields, said the paper did not out Wilson, but “simply asked questions and as standard practice included a deadline for a response”. The ABC radio host Rafael Epstein called that “disingenuous”.
“oh we just ask the questions..”
What exactly do you think she would have thought when you asked the questions?
Disingenuous
Low rent behaviour
How would these journalists and editors feel if these questions were asked about their private life? pic.twitter.com/9MivpB1E1L
— Raf Epstein (@Raf_Epstein) June 12, 2022
LGBTIQ+ Health Australia’s chief executive officer, Nicky Bath, said Wilson was put in “an appalling situation” when the Herald contacted her about her new relationship.
Bath said there was a process people went through to reveal their sexuality and it was an intensely personal and vulnerable time.
“They are personal decisions,” she said. “Who you disclose to first, how you do that, and when you do that.
Rebel Wilson reveals she is dating a woman in Instagram post tagged #loveislove
Read more
“When people do come out, the important issue is that they have made the decision to do so, and have the right support around them to go public on an important part of their life.
“To have pressure put on you to come out is really unhelpful, and will impact on [people’s] mental health.”
On Friday morning, Wilson had posted on Instagram, with the hashtag #loveislove, that she thought she was “searching for a Disney Prince”.
“But maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess,” she wrote.
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On Saturday, Hornery wrote that the paper had emailed Wilson’s representatives on Thursday morning, “giving her two days to comment on her new relationship with LA leisure wear designer Ramona Agruma”.
“Big mistake,” Hornery wrote. “Wilson opted to gazump the story.”
He wrote that “who anyone dates is their business”, but that Wilson “happily fed such prurient interest when she had a hunky boyfriend on her arm”. Wilson would be unlikely to have experienced homophobia, he wrote, and “sexual orientation is no longer something to be hidden”.
On Sunday, Wilson said on Twitter it was a “very hard situation” that she was trying to handle with grace.
Reading the news about @RebelWilson and her horrible dealings with an Australian paper reminds me exactly of the situation with our Steo and the sun newspaper in the UK. How can this be possible today ? Rebel I hope you are ok and you have the strength and love to rise above. X
— Ronan Keating (@ronanofficial) June 11, 2022
In his new column on Monday, Hornery wrote that as a gay man, he was aware of the pain of discrimination, and that he regretted that “Rebel has found this hard”.
He thought Wilson would be happy to discuss her new love, but “we mishandled steps in our approach”, he wrote.
When he emailed Wilson’s representatives last week, he said he had “enough detail to publish the story”.
“However, in the interests of transparency and fairness, before publishing I am reaching out to Rebel to see if she will engage in what I believe is a happy and unexpected news story for her, especially given the recent Pride celebrations,” he wrote. “My deadline is Friday, 1pm Sydney time.”
That framing was a mistake, Hornery wrote on Monday. “The Herald and I will approach things differently from now on to make sure we always take into consideration the extra layer of complexities people face when it comes to their sexuality.”
He also conceded the tone of his Saturday column was “off”.
“I got it wrong,” he said.
Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace 💗
— Rebel Wilson (@RebelWilson) June 12, 2022
Shields wrote that the paper would have asked the same question had Wilson’s new partner been a man. Shields said he had not made a decision about whether or what he would publish, but that any decision would have been informed by any response from Wilson.
“This was not a standard news story,” he wrote. “We wish Wilson and Agruma well.”
Bath said that while society may consider “everything to be right as rain” for LGBTQ+ people, the reality was that “homophobia is alive and well in Australia”.
Rebel Wilson claims male co-star sexually harassed her: ‘It was disgusting’
Read more
“In 2022, to find ourselves in this situation is really disappointing, when we know that people from LGBTIQ+ have elevated rates of mental health [issues],” she said.
She said coming out should be a joyful time for people to talk about who they are, and that process for Wilson had been “tarnished” by the Herald. She pointed to the Australian Press Council’s standards of practice, which refer to the need for respect and consent in discussing a person’s sexual or gender identity.
Bevan
Your paper has no god-given right to know anything about the private life of anyone
I don’t claim to speak on behalf of Rebel Wilson
But for LGBTQIA+ people the consequences of what is nothing more than a hissy fit over who gets to print gossip can have devastating effects https://t.co/mzrpHTsoU5
— Magda Szubanski AO (@MagdaSzubanski) June 13, 2022
To talk to someone about sexuality, identity, or gender issues, call QLife on 1800 184 527 or talk to them online here. For any mental health support, call BeyondBlue on 1300 224 636 or chat to someone on the website | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/22/sweden-reindeer-herders-risk-starvation-climate-change-arctic | World news | 2018-08-22T11:05:04.000Z | Jon Henley | Sweden's reindeer at risk of starvation after summer drought | Sweden’s indigenous Sami reindeer herders are demanding state aid to help them cope with the impact of this summer’s unprecedented drought and wildfires, saying their future is at risk as global warming changes the environment in the far north.
The Swedish government this week announced five major investigations aimed at preparing the country for the kind of extreme heatwave it experienced in July, when temperatures exceeded 30C (86F) and forest fires raged inside the Arctic circle.
But it has yet to come up with any concrete measures for the country’s 4,600 Sami reindeer owners – the only people authorised to herd reindeer in Sweden – and their 250,000 semi-domesticated animals, raised for their meat, pelts and antlers.
The owners are asking for emergency funding to help pay for supplementary fodder as a replacement for winter grazing lands that could take up to 30 years to recover from the summer’s drought and fires.
“We are living with the effects of climate change,” Niila Inga, chair of the Swedish Sami Association, told the SVT news agency. “The alarm bells are ringing. We face droughts, heatwaves, fires. This is about the survival of the reindeer, and of Sami culture, which depends on them.”
The owners are warning that without help some of their herds may not survive the year. They are also concerned that some young reindeer calves may have become so weakened by the prolonged drought they would not be able to follow their mothers to new feeding grounds.
They also want a longer-term government aid programme to help them manage and adapt to the effects of climate change.
Since Sami owners do not own the land their reindeer graze on, Inga told the Local, they need laws allowing them to improve grazing land. Funding is also urgently needed to look into the growing difficulties reindeer have finding the lichen that form a key part of their diet.
Although warmer summers help lichen grow, warmer and wetter winters are increasingly leading to rainfall rather than snow during the coldest Arctic months. When temperatures fall back to below freezing, impenetrable sheets of ice form on ground that would normally be covered by a much softer crust of snow.
This leaves the reindeer, who habitually feed by digging into the snow and then grazing on the lichen beneath, unable to smell the vital food source or dig down to get to it, leading to some herds starving to death.
Scientists have held out hope of finding ways to spread lichen more readily in forests where it would be more easily accessible to the animals, but more funding was urgently needed, Inga said.
Summer temperatures in Sweden usually hover around 23C. The country had to ask for help from Italy, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Poland and France to fight this year’s blazes. Climate change is being felt disproportionately hard in the Arctic, with temperatures climbing at double the rate of the global average.
A spokeswoman said the government was supportive of the herders’ call for emergency winter aid but was waiting to receive the Sami administration’s full report on the consequences of the summer heatwave, expected in the next few weeks. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2012/may/04/local-newspapers-newspapers | Media | 2012-05-04T13:14:00.000Z | Roy Greenslade | Local newspapers' crisis: cutbacks are bad for society - and democracy | Today's extract from What do we mean by local?* is taken from a chapter by Paul Marsden, a former regional newspaper reporter who now teaches at Coventry university.
He took the trouble to update his chapter - so what follows includes new work - but I have inserted a little more of his original research study because it was so interesting...
Yesterday, millions of people cast their vote in the local elections. Some will have seen it as an opportunity to pass their verdict on the coalition government, others to choose the councillor who will best serve their community.
However there is trouble brewing. Behind the wall-to-wall coverage of phone hacking – with the scandals, resignations and apologies it has prompted – there is a much bigger problem for the British press. Large swathes of it are simply disappearing.
The Halifax Courier, Scarborough Evening News, Northampton Chronicle and Echo, Northants Evening Telegraph and Peterborough Evening Telegraph are the latest regional newspapers to be downsized from daily titles to "cat-killer" weeklies.
These are no rural communities where little goes on anyway. Northampton is a town of 210,000 people. Its population could fill Old Trafford three times over.
Not a problem, I hear you say. Why should I care if my local paper disappears? Well here are a few reasons to get you started.
The officials voters elected across the country yesterday will be empowered to open or close schools, libraries and swimming pools, they will set taxes and decide how to spend them and allow people to build in the district.
Naturally, with this power, I'm guessing you would like someone to keep an eye on these public figures. But having attended a fair few council meetings in my time I have to tell you there are far better ways to spend an evening.
Traditionally, this has been the domain of the trusted local hack, sitting through hours of (occasionally) turgid discussion before a decision is reached.
However, without the demands of daily deadlines how many reporters from increasingly stretched newsrooms will be assigned to these roles?
Rather than bothering with hours of discussion why not just phone up the next day and get the important decisions? And this is the point when the public oversight could disappear from local democracy forever.
The problem could become even more acute with potentially 12 new mayors taking over cities across the country [though that now looks unlikely according to yesterday's ballots].
Who is going to keep an eye on all these hugely influential local figures if local newspapers cease to publish daily?
One of my most vivid experiences as a newspaper reporter was investigating Fylde council's finances after it threatened to close two public swimming pools because funding was being cut by central government.
True it was, but the council's case was weakened somewhat when it was revealed their waste department had overshot its budget by £600,000.
To gain this story I investigated and contacted concerned residents. It wasn't until the final budget meeting that local broadcasters pitched-up to see the protests my paper's reporting had whipped-up and surprise, surprise, one of the pools was saved from closure.
This type of reporting is vital in communities. Without it taxpayers would be left to swallow PR rhetoric from their officials because, quite rightly, many people have more pressing things to worry about in times of recession.
What regional reporters think
Having recently completed a survey of experienced reporters it is clear they believe less investigation by newsrooms will inevitably lead to greater opportunity for the public to be misinformed.
One journalist, who specialised in reporting on district council affairs, told me: "[The] quality is getting worse and worse…
"This is bad for society and the industry as a whole in terms of a lack of reporting of current affairs and politics. The shocking level of inaccuracy also gives an inaccurate perception of events to society."
There are also fears the lack of investment in regional titles will inevitably lead to the loss of relationships with key community contacts, who can champion the causes of others.
A daily senior reporter said: "Lack of investment… means newspapers are understaffed, staff are underpaid, under-trained and morale is low. Goodwill and youthful enthusiasm only last so long and do not constitute a business strategy."
The reasons for this were laid clear. Every reporter with daily regional experience answered they worked "more than two hours per day" in excess of their contracted hours, staff had decreased by "10 people or more" at their title during the last five years and that they had a "negative" or "very negative" view of the regional sector.
Another senior reporter on a daily paper said: "Most newspapers are losing staff, readers and profits with no ideas about how to rectify the situation.
"The current economic situation is making things worse and there are few signs that things will improve in this regard. Hence decline will doubtless continue."
A reporter who specialised in off-diary community articles stated that these relationships were not valued highly enough by corporate management.
She said: "Local newspapers need to major on their strengths – community engagement, campaigns, being in touch with what readers need – but don't.
"Papers are run by accountants who don't see the real inherent worth of the product and the people and the communities…
"There is no investment in people, just cutting back, and it shows in the product, the morale of those involved and the sales."
My research has shown the frustration of regional reporters that they are losing their watchdog role. This is being felt all the more because they take the mantle of scrutinising those in power so seriously.
Those I surveyed who have left the industry within the last five years to pursue careers elsewhere cite low pay, long hours, cutbacks in staffing levels, excessive pressure to deliver, becoming "disillusioned with the industry" and the promise of a promotional structure in their new job as their motivation.
Interestingly, those who have left have retained a clear passion for journalism... All said they would "definitely" or "possibly" consider returning to newspaper journalism at some point.
Reasons given for this include a lifelong passion for journalism, the excitement and enjoyment, the kudos of being a journalist, the opportunity to work freelance and the opportunity to be a better journalist than before.
However like in every industry money and secure employment talks. This was demonstrated in a viewpoint offered by a former reporter turned PR consultant.
"[I] saw a very promising young journo covering a council meeting. He was doing shorthand, taking pictures and filming it on his phone. A few weeks later he asked me how to get into PR".
This could well by the epitaph for regional newspapers and their oversight of local democracy unless urgent action is taken to support the industry.
On Tuesday: Searching for a way out of the darkness, by Agnes Gulyas
*What do we mean by local? is edited by John Mair, Neil Fowler & Ian Reeves and published by Abramis. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/aug/03/clive-allison-obituary | Books | 2011-08-03T18:57:01.000Z | Margaret Busby | Clive Allison obituary | In 1967, a new publishing company set out to produce poetry in paperback at affordable prices, starting with three titles: Selected Poems by James Reeves, A Stained Glass Raree Show by Libby Houston and The Saipan Elegy by James Grady. Each cost five shillings and had a ridiculously ambitious print run of 5,000 copies. The idea for the company had been born at a party two years earlier, where I first met Clive Allison, who has died of heart failure aged 67.
We made good the plan after we graduated from university, unfettered by the reality of having neither money nor distribution. At first, Allison & Busby was an evenings-and-weekend venture, while we both earned our livings employed by grown-up publishing houses, in Clive's case Macmillan and Panther Books. In 1969, we took the step of leaving our jobs, setting up office at 6a Noel Street, Soho, in the flat of a friend, Graham Huntley, and going full-time, with the publication of Sam Greenlee's The Spook Who Sat By the Door – a first novel by a black American that had been rejected by everyone else on both sides of the Atlantic, but which we managed to turn into a success.
A&B's was an innovative and unpredictable international list of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and children's books, encompassing Michael Moorcock and CLR James, Buchi Emecheta and James Ellroy, Hunter S Thompson and Val Wilmer, Colin MacInnes and Chester Himes, Jill Murphy and Anthony Burgess, Claire Rayner and Michelangelo, Lautréamont and Miyamoto Musashi, Alexandra Kollontai and Nuruddin Farah. Serious literature and politics brushed shoulders with the odd quirky title that it was hoped might take off and subsidise the rest (Songs to Sing in the Bath, printed on waterproof paper).
Clive was born in Cheam, Sutton, to Mabel and William Allison, on the day of the first wave of flying bombs during the second world war. His literary leanings – and seat-of-the-pants style – developed fast and early. His father, a journalist on various national newspapers, had a daily humour column in the London evening paper the Star, the main character being an inventor called Mister Tulip. Clive's older sister Christine recalls: "There were accompanying cartoons and Clive, as a schoolboy, frequently drew them. He wrote a series entitled 'Just a minute stories' and Clive and I were involved in reading and timing them before they were telephoned through to the newspaper. Our father worked best under pressure so everything was done at the last possible moment." This latter characteristic was one that Clive inherited.
Clive attended Sutton high school, where his strengths were English literature, art and theatre work. At 16 he gained a place at Trinity College, Oxford, to read English. He first spent a year at home drawing, painting and writing poetry. He applied for part-time work with Surrey county council and, having left it rather late, wound up cutting grass verges at inappropriate high speeds and helping with dustbin collections – "where he found his companions as congenial as poetry lovers," Christine remembers.
In 1964, while an undergraduate at Trinity, he self-published an eight-page pamphlet of his own lovelorn poetry, priced at two shillings. The next year he produced three more pamphlets, in a series he called Harlequin Poets: The Shearwaters by Peter Levi, Selected Poems by Richmond Lattimore and The Stalingrad Elegies by James Schevill.
We met in May 1965. My friend Rachel Anderson was celebrating the publication of her first novel, in the garden of 100 Bayswater Road, west London (where her cousins live, and where JM Barrie wrote Peter Pan). The party also marked her engagement to David Bradby, a student at Oxford who became a pioneer of theatre studies. With things in common, Clive and I were introduced; I had left school at 15 and had gone on to read English at London University, where I was editor of my college literary magazine as well as publishing my own poetry. Clive confessed to quoting from my work in his final exams, which I doubt added many marks to his results.
At A&B, Clive's forte was publicity, which he sought with chutzpah and extravagant aplomb; my domain was the back-room editorial grind. Contrary to popular myth, ours was only ever a business relationship (I was married to the jazz musician Lionel Grigson, Clive to Lyn van der Riet, who joined the workforce) and against all odds it endured for 20 years – an exciting if often harrowing adventure. The long-suffering staff invariably went on to greater things. (The first time we could afford an editorial assistant, I picked a new graduate called Lavinia Greenlaw, now an esteemed poet and novelist.)
But times were always tough; it was not unknown for bailiffs to turn up threatening to impound the typewriters. Finally succumbing to the exigencies of being penniless, A&B was taken over by WH Allen and became part of the Virgin group in 1987, although Clive was retained by the new regime for another couple of years. Since then, under different independent management and with a far more commercial ethos, the company has thrived to this day.
In 1989, Clive became proprietor of the Golden Hind, a secondhand bookshop in Deal, Kent, where he had moved from his flat in Covent Garden, and he operated as a bookseller for a decade. Returning to London, from 2000 he turned his hand to work as a paralegal for the company of the solicitor Peter Kingshill (whose daughter Katie was an A&B employee in the 1970s), committed to cases dealing with Travellers and Gypsies.
In 2003 a serious epileptic seizure left him hospitalised for weeks, and he remained under medication for the rest of his life. A recent downturn in health meant that he spent his last birthday again in hospital. Yet he emerged much his old self, ever reaching for a packet of cigarettes, ready to immerse himself in the camaraderie of pubs, vowing to take a computer course to widen his horizons by at last embracing the world of emails. It was not to be.
By turns inspired and infuriating, he seemed almost a fictional character, becoming a larger-than-life caricature of himself, with "mischievous, twinkly blue eyes, crazy hair and corduroy jacket", in the words of Sally Penrose, another A&B alumna. John Latimer Smith, the company's former production manager, bestowed on him the nickname "Mr Toad", after the lovable rogue in The Wind in the Willows. Clive's instincts were invariably maverick, his ideas sometimes brilliant; his personality indomitable.
His marriage ended in divorce. He is survived by Christine and his daughters Polly and Emily from his partnership with Val Horsler.
Clive Robert William Allison, publisher, born 15 June 1944; died 25 July 2011 | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/feb/26/safe-house-review-denzel-washington | Film | 2012-02-26T00:05:30.000Z | Philip French | Safe House – review | Back in 1976 when Len Deighton published Twinkle Twinkle Little Spy, not long after John le Carré gave us Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, there was a competition to provide similarly desperate titles for spy thrillers. The winner, I recall, was "One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Spy". By this token, Safe House, an espionage film by numbers set in South Africa, might have been called "Spy on Kop". Tyro CIA agent Ryan Reynolds, managing the agency's little-used safe house in Cape Town, is suddenly given the task of protecting the agency's most brilliant officer, Denzel Washington, a rogue agent who has just decided to come in from the cold. A rival organisation with moles in the agency's Washington HQ is out to get him, and its thuggish henchmen chase the pair around Table Mountain and out into the veld with occasional pauses to bandage wounds and reload between battles. Eventually, and inevitably, they realise they're both involved in a dirty business that serves no one's interests. There is scarcely anything in the film that touches on South Africa politically, culturally or geographically, and one can only suppose that the script was relocated there to take advantage of local tax breaks. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/feb/20/sir-david-attenborough-to-narrate-bbcs-blue-planet-ii | Television & radio | 2017-02-20T13:15:16.000Z | Jasper Jackson | Sir David Attenborough to return for BBC's Blue Planet II | The new series of Blue Planet will feature Sir David Attenborough’s familiar narration, as the BBC aims to repeat the success of Planet Earth II.
The voice of the UK’s most-loved naturalist will accompany footage filmed over four years when the series airs across seven episodes on BBC1 this year.
The involvement of Attenborough, who turned 90 last May and is regularly rumoured to be on the verge of retirement, is something of a coup for the BBC.
Planet Earth II’s most mindblowing moments
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Combining his practised insight with stunning footage captured using the latest technology helped Planet Earth II draw the largest audiences for a natural history programme for at least 15 years. More than 13 million people tuned in for the opening episode, and the series averaged an audience of more than 10 million.
Attenborough’s reputation should also help international sales of the programme, which is being made in partnership with BBC America, the German broadcaster WDR and France Télévisions.
Although Attenborough was replaced in the US version of the original Blue Planet by the actor Pierce Brosnan, his voice was used on Planet Earth II in the US, and he is seen as an asset in taking the show to overseas markets. At an annual showcase event last year held by BBC commercial arm BBC Worldwide, Attenborough was given a standing ovation by the assembled TV buyers, and Blue Planet II will be unveiled at this year’s event, which started on Sunday.
The original Blue Planet sold in more than 50 countries and a 90-minute edit was made for cinemas. Budget cuts mean the BBC is now under even more pressure to sell its shows abroad. Planet Earth II debuted on BBC America on Saturday, with special content produced for Snapchat released the previous day.
In a statement announcing his part in Blue Planet II, Attenborough said: “I am truly thrilled to be joining this new exploration of the underwater worlds which cover most of our planet, yet are still its least known.”
As with both the original Blue Planet, which was broadcast in 2001, and both series of Planet Earth, the BBC’s natural history team have developed new camera technology and techniques to capture previously unobtainable footage.
These include ultra high-definition “tow cams” that can film predatory fish and dolphins front-on, and suction cameras recording the view from the backs of large creatures such as whale sharks and orcas.
The team have also used the latest marine technology, including two unmanned submersibles, allowing them to record footage from 1,000 metres under the Antarctic Ocean.
The results include footage of newly discovered and never-before filmed creatures, including hairy-chested Hoff crabs, snub fin dolphins that spit water, and a tool-using tusk fish.
The executive producer James Honeyborne described the oceans as “the most exciting place to be right now”.
He added: “New scientific discoveries have given us a new perspective of life beneath the waves. Blue Planet II is taking its cue from these breakthroughs, unveiling unbelievable new places, extraordinary new behaviours and remarkable new creatures. Showing a contemporary portrait of marine life, it will provide a timely reminder that this is a critical moment for the health of the world’s oceans.”
The BBC’s head of commissioning for natural history and specialist factual, Tom McDonald, said the programme would “deliver a new benchmark in natural history film-making.
“Blue Planet II promises to combine the exceptional craftsmanship that our audiences have come to expect from BBC Natural History with genuinely new revelations about the creatures and habitats of the world’s oceans. I have no doubt it will thrill and delight the audience.”
Attenborough previously described Planet Earth II as a form of “two-way therapy” for viewers and the natural world. He wrote in the Radio Times last year that viewers were “reconnecting with a planet whose beauty is blemished, whose health is failing, because they understand that our own wellbeing is inextricably linked to that of the planet’s.”
His involvement with the BBC’s latest aquatic series is especially timely following the decision by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to name its £200m research vessel after the naturalist.
The decision was made after the council rejected the name Boaty McBoatface chosen in an online poll. The council compromised by giving the public’s chosen name to the vessel’s submersible.
The RSS Sir David Attenborough and Boaty McBoatface are expected to begin their research mission in 2019.
Blue Planet’s top moments:
Blue whale
Attenborough accompanies footage of a blue whale with facts and figures about the largest creature on the planet. “Its tongue weighs as much as an elephant; its heart is the size of a car.”
Herring bonanza
Predators from above and below water acting in unison to create a fishy all-you-can-eat buffet off the coast of Vancouver Island.
Sharks visiting an underwater mountain
Attenborough sums up the scene’s appeal in four words: “Sharks … hundreds of sharks.”
A cruel moment
One of those scenes from nature that comes with an entirely necessary graphic content warning: killer whales feeding on young sea lions. The narration is no less distressing, as Attenborough describes how “for whatever reason, the seal pup, still alive, is tossed back and forth for over half an hour.”
The dark zone
Some of the most captivating footage in Blue Planet was filmed far below the surface in the darkest regions of the ocean, where a host of weird and wonderful creatures make their own light. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/sep/07/number-of-britons-facing-significant-internet-outages-doubles-in-a-year | Money | 2023-09-07T05:00:18.000Z | Mark Sweney | Number of Britons facing significant internet outages doubles in a year | The number of Britons who have experienced their internet connection failing for at least three hours has almost doubled in the last year, with irate consumers now ranking broadband outages as a bigger frustration than roadworks or public transport delays.
In the past year, two-fifths (41%) of all UK adults – 22 million consumers – have had their internet disconnected for three or more hours, a significant increase on the 12 million who reported disruption the previous year, according to a report by the price comparison website Uswitch.
A quarter of the British public said they had been left without internet for at least six and a half days over the past 12 months.
The explosion in working from home brought on by the pandemic means there is greater reliance on home internet connections. The study found that 15% of those affected by significant outages were prevented from working, which is estimated to have cost the economy £2bn in lost productivity.
Southampton has been identified as the worst-affected city in the UK, with residents losing on average 63 hours of online activity over the past year. Broadband customers in Newcastle, Birmingham and Liverpool also suffered significant disruption.
This compares with just 13.5 hours offline on average in London, one of the best cities in terms of internet connection stability.
With the UK’s biggest telecoms companies pushing through inflation-busting bill increases of up to 17% earlier this year, the biggest round of price rises in more than 30 years, Uswitch argued that many broadband customers were paying significantly more for less.
Many of the UK’s mobile and telecoms companies have been accused of fuelling “greedflation” by pushing through mid-contract price increases well above the 6.8% rate of inflation.
“Despite major price increases earlier this year, if anything, the issue of broadband outages appears to be getting worse,” said Ernest Doku, a telecoms expert at Uswitch. “This isn’t acceptable in a cost of living crisis, especially the ongoing reliance on home internet for many UK workers.”
Only 22% of consumers received compensation from their internet provider for the disruption, with 48% not aware that, under rules enforced by the regulator, they could be entitled to compensation.
With 73% of survey respondents saying that they find broadband outages frustrating, the problem now ranks above roadworks (72%) and delays to public transport (70%) in the hierarchy of British consumers’ grievances.
Only rude customer service (82%) and queue-jumping (82%) came out higher in the frustration list.
“The good news is there is a lot of competition in the broadband market, including smaller, disruptive providers offering faster speeds at competitive prices,” said Doku.
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UK cities with worst internet disruption
1. Southampton – 63 hours
2. Newcastle – 57 hours
3. Birmingham 47 hours
4. Liverpool – 44 hours
5. Nottingham – 33 hours
Note: Average downtime per resident in hours over the last 12 months.
Source: Uswitch | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/nov/25/the-weeknd-alleges-grammys-corruption-after-nominations-snub | Music | 2020-11-25T10:35:46.000Z | Laura Snapes | The Weeknd alleges Grammys corruption after nominations snub | Canadian pop star the Weeknd has said the Grammys “remain corrupt” after receiving no nominations in the latest awards list for his 2020 album After Hours, nor for 2019 single Blinding Lights, which became the biggest song of the past year.
Writing on Twitter, Abel Tesfaye said the Recording Academy “[owed] me, my fans and the industry transparency”.
Rolling Stone reports that a source “close to the situation” claimed that Tesfaye was snubbed owing to conflict over whether he could perform at the Grammys ceremony as well as the 2021 Super Bowl. It was “eventually agreed upon that he would perform at both events,” they said. “[The Recording Academy] had all these convos with the Weeknd team in the past month, and today on November 24th, the Weeknd had not one nomination and is now completely ignored by the Grammys.”
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Recording Academy chair and interim president Harvey Mason Jr said that voting in all categories ended prior to the announcement of the Weeknd’s Super Bowl appearance, “so in no way could it have affected the nomination process”.
Mason Jr said: “We understand that the Weeknd is disappointed at not being nominated. I was surprised and can empathise with what he’s feeling. His music this year was excellent, and his contributions to the music community and broader world are worthy of everyone’s admiration.”
Tesfaye was not the only snubbed artist to criticise the Recording Academy. Pop star Teyana Taylor received no nominations for her third album, The Album, released this year. Responding to the all-male nominees for best R&B album, she tweeted: “Y’all was better off just saying best MALE R&B ALBUM cause all I see is dick in this category.”
This year’s nominations prompted Nicki Minaj to recall being snubbed in the best new artist category in 2012, a year when she dominated with the pop charts. She tweeted: “Never forget the Grammys didn’t give me my best new artist award when I had 7 songs simultaneously charting on Billboard. They gave it to the white man Bon Iver.”
Meanwhile, Justin Bieber, who received three nominations for material from his fifth album, Changes – best pop solo performance, best pop duo/group performance and best pop vocal album – expressed his discontent that he had not been recognised in R&B categories, having set out to make an R&B record.
Justin Bieber performing at the American Music awards this month. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/AMA2020/Getty Images for dcp
In a statement posted on Instagram, Bieber said that while he was “flattered” to be nominated, “I grew up admiring R&B music and wished to make a project that would embody that sound. For this not to be put into that category feels weird considering from the chords to the melodies to the vocal style all the way down to the hip hop drums that were chosen it is undeniable, unmistakably an R&B album!”
His comments reflect concerns from previous years’ Grammy nominations that the Recording Academy routinely sidelines Black artists to racialised genre categories instead of the so-called “big four” generalist categories, foregrounding stereotypes around identity over musical style.
The Killers, also snubbed for their 2020 album Imploding the Mirage, took a more tongue-in-cheek approach to their complaint. “OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS,” the group tweeted. “WE WON THE GRAMMYS, GOT LOADS OF LEGAL VOTES. BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. DOZENS OF BALLOTS WERE SENT TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER ASKED FOR THEM! #RIGGEDGRAMMYS #WEWON
Beyoncé tops 2021 Grammy nominations in strong field for women
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The nominations for this year’s Grammys – whose winners will be announced on 31 January – have been met with a mixed response. This year marks the first time that women have populated all five nominations for best rock song, and for best country album (with the inclusion of Little Big Town, a mixed-gender group) – both welcomed as progress from a sclerotic institution.
But critics and music fans expressed confusion at the best album category, in which assumed nominees such as Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa shared space with a deluxe edition of US psychedelic band Black Pumas’ 2019 album and little-known British musician Jacob Collier. Fiona Apple and Bob Dylan, widely considered to be in line for nominations for their respective 2020 albums Fetch the Bolt Cutters and Rough and Rowdy Ways, were excluded from the category. Many thought the late rapper Pop Smoke was also snubbed, receiving just one nomination for best rap performance. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/17/michelle-mone-admits-she-stands-to-benefit-from-60m-pounds-ppe-profit | UK news | 2023-12-17T19:37:04.000Z | David Conn | Michelle Mone admits she lied to media over links to PPE firm | The former Conservative peer Michelle Mone has admitted that she lied when she denied repeatedly having been involved with a company that made millions of pounds in profits from UK government PPE deals during the pandemic.
Mone said she “wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes” and had not told the truth about her involvement to protect her family from press attention. When it was put to her that she had admitted lying to the press, Mone replied: “That’s not a crime.”
Guardian investigations found Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, were involved with the company PPE Medpro, which was awarded contracts worth £203m in May and June 2020 after she approached ministers, including Michael Gove, with an offer to supply PPE.
The National Crime Agency is conducting an investigation into alleged criminal offences in the procurement of the contracts by the company.
How the Michelle Mone scandal unfolded: £200m of PPE contracts, denials and a government lawsuit
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Responding to Mone’s comments to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, the shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said: “Our message to those people who sought to use the pandemic to get rich quick [is]: we want our money back.”
Labour has also called on Gove to appear before MPs to face questions over the scandal.
In a film uploaded to YouTube last week, paid for by PPE Medpro, which featured the first public interviews with Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, since the NCA began its investigation, the film’s presenter, Mark Williams-Thomas, said the couple were facing criminal allegations of conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation and bribery. They both deny wrongdoing.
In the Kuenssberg interview, Mone, who was involved with the lingerie company Ultimo before David Cameron appointed her to the House of Lords in 2015, admitted that she and Barrowman, through their lawyers, repeatedly falsely denied they had any connection to PPE Medpro.
She said she regretted having done so: “We’ve done a lot of good, but if we were to say anything that we have done that we are sorry for, and that’s … We should have told the press straight up, straight away, nothing to hide … I was just protecting my family. And again, I’m sorry for that, but I wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. No one.”
Kuenssberg said: “You’ve admitted today that you lied to the press and you essentially lied to the public.” Mone replied: “Saying to the press, ‘I’m not involved’, to protect my family, can I just make this clear, it’s not a crime … I was protecting my family.”
In November 2022, the Guardian revealed that leaked documents produced by HSBC bank indicated that Barrowman was an investor in PPE Medpro, and that he was paid at least £65m from its profits. The documents indicated that he then transferred £29m to an offshore trust, the Keristal Trust, of which Mone and her three adult children were beneficiaries.
In their BBC interview, Barrowman acknowledged publicly for the first time that the company had made a profit on that scale, and that he had transferred money to the Keristal Trust. “Medpro made a return on its investment of about, realistically, about 30% [approximately £61m],” he said.
The couple acknowledged that Barrowman had transferred money into the trust, and in the interview, Mone referred to the figure of £29m.
Barrowman said: “I’m an Isle of Man resident. The money comes to the Isle of Man because that’s fundamentally where I live. It goes on my tax return, and like all my sources of income that I’ve generated over many years. It goes into trust for the benefit of my family.”
Kuenssberg asked if any of the profits were used to buy a boat. Barrowman bought a yacht in May 2021, for £6m, which was renamed Lady M. In August 2021, Mone posted on Instagram a picture of herself and Barrowman on the yacht, with the words “Business isn’t easy. But it is rewarding.”
Barrowman said the PPE Medpro profits were not used to buy the yacht. Mone said: “It’s not my yacht. It’s not my money. I don’t have that money and my kids don’t have that money, and my children and family have gone through so much pain because of the media. They have not got £29m.”
Mone was pressed on why she did not mention PPE Medpro in her register of financial interests as a member of the House of Lords. She said the Cabinet Office had advised her that she did not need to. A government spokesperson said in response: “We do not comment on ongoing legal cases”.
Labour has sought to pile pressure on the government since the revelations. The shadow Cabinet Office minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, called on Gove to face questions from MPs.
In a letter to the levelling up secretary, he wrote: “This series of events has led to civil litigation and a National Crime Agency investigation. Yet these ongoing matters should not preclude you from addressing questions about your own involvement and the role of the government.
“Events so far expose a shocking recklessness by the Conservative government with regard to public money, and a sorry tale of incompetence in relation to the so-called ‘VIP Lane’ for procurement during the pandemic.”
The Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokeswoman, Christine Jardine, said Mone’s admission was “jaw-dropping”.
In a statement, the NCA, which investigates serious and organised crime, said its investigation, opened in May 2021, was looking into “suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro”.
The government is also suing for the return of the £122m it paid for protective surgical gowns, alleging that they were unsafe to use. PPE Medpro is defending the legal action. Speaking after Mone’s interview, Streeting said a Labour government would appoint a Covid corruption commissioner to recoup some of the £8bn lost to fraud during the pandemic.
“There’s a fundamental point of principle here, which is in the midst of a deadly pandemic, when so many people rushed to help others in all sorts of ways … there were others who saw the pandemic as an opportunity to make a quick buck at someone else’s expense,” he said. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/23/colorado-shooting-gun-safety-groups-congress | US news | 2021-03-23T19:59:19.000Z | Tom McCarthy | Biden urges gun reform after Colorado shooting: 'Don't wait another minute' | After recording a year with the lowest level of public mass shootings in more than a decade, the US suffered its second such incident in less than a week on Monday night with a shooting at a Colorado grocery store that killed 10, including one police officer.
Boulder shooting: suspect and 10 victims named by police
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Joe Biden addressed the shooting on Tuesday, calling for swift legislation to be passed, and once again lowering the White House flag to half-staff after he had called for it to be lowered after last week’s mass shooting in Atlanta.
The president called on Congress to close the loopholes in the background checks system and to once again ban assault weapons. He specifically urged the Senate to pass the two background checks bills that the House approved earlier this month.
“I don’t need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take commonsense steps that will save lives in the future,” Biden said. “This is not and should not be a partisan issue. It is an American issue.”
It is unclear whether the bills can make it through the evenly divided Senate, given Republicans’ general opposition to gun restrictions.
Asked whether Biden was considering executive action to address gun violence, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said the president was considering a number of options.
“There’s an ongoing process, and I think we feel we have to work on multiple channels at the same time,” Psaki said.
Gun safety advocates including Barack Obama also called for immediate action by Congress to address the resurgent national epidemic as the country emerges from a year of lockdowns and social distancing sparked by the coronavirus pandemics.
This is not and should not be a partisan issue. It is an American issue
Joe Biden
In remarks at the White House, Biden called for a new ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and said the Senate “should immediately pass” legislation to close loopholes in the background checks system for the purchase of guns.
The Republican minority in the Senate is highly likely to block any action on gun control. Nonetheless, senators on the Democratic side echoed Biden’s call to action.
“This is the moment to make our stand. NOW,” tweeted Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut, where a shooter killed 26 people at an elementary school in 2012.
A male suspect was arrested at the scene, a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. He was named on Tuesday, as were the 10 victims.
“This is a tragedy and a nightmare for Boulder county, and in response, we have cooperation and assistance from local, state and federal authorities,” said the Boulder county district attorney, Michael Dougherty.
People watch as Louis Saxton plays his cello to honor the 10 victims of a mass shooting at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Photograph: Jason Connolly/AFP/Getty Images
The Colorado attack brought the week’s death toll from mass public shootings to 18, after a gunman killed eight people at three Atlanta-area spas last Tuesday. Six of those victims were women of Asian descent, and that attack produced a national demand for reckoning with discrimination and violence directed at Asian Americans.
While racist scapegoating by Donald Trump and others sparked thousands of attacks against Asian Americans during America’s pandemic year, 2020 was an unusually quiet one for mass public shootings, according to a database maintained by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
There were 10 such shootings in 2018 and nine in 2019, according to the database, which tracks public incidents in which at least four people died, not including the shooter.
The US suffered only two such incidents in 2020 – both at the start of the year, before the spread of the coronavirus led to local economic and school shutdowns and related restrictions.
Gun sales surged during the pandemic, leading to fears of a return of mass gun violence after coronavirus restrictions eased. Those fears appear to have been fulfilled already.
“We have had a horrific year as a country, as a world,” Colorado’s state senate majority leader, Stephen Fenberg, a Democrat, told MSNBC. “It had finally started to feel like things are getting back to ‘normal’. And, unfortunately, we are reminded that that includes mass shootings.”
The police officer killed in the Colorado store attack, Eric Talley, 51, the father of seven children, was the first to respond to reports of shots fired at the store, authorities said.
The attack came just days after a judge blocked Boulder from enforcing a two-year-old ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines in the city.
“The court has determined that only Colorado state (or federal) law can prohibit the possession, sale and transfer of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines,” wrote the county judge, Andrew Hartman, according to the Denver Post.
While no state is untouched by mass shootings, Colorado has had an especially difficult history of such incidents, beginning with an attack on students at a high school in Columbine in 1999 that killed 13. In Aurora in 2012, a gunman fired at a crowd watching a Batman movie, killing 12 and wounding 58.
As previously scheduled, the Senate judiciary committee held a hearing on Tuesday on “constitutional and commonsense steps to reduce gun violence”. Gun safety legislation has failed to gain traction in Congress despite wide public agreement about certain safeguards such as universal background checks.
“To save lives and end these senseless killings, we need more than thoughts and prayers – we need federal action on gun safety from the Senate, and we need it now,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “That work begins with this hearing, and we cannot rest until we pass background checks into law.”
Murphy, who does not sit on that committee but who mounted a nearly 15-hour filibuster on the Senate floor in 2016 to advance gun safety legislation after 49 people died in a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Florida, called on colleagues to finally address gun violence.
Murphy invoked Monday’s shooting in Boulder, a mass shooting at a Florida high school in 2018 that killed 17 and the mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
“No more Newtowns. No more Parklands. No more Boulders,” he tweeted. “Now – we make our stand.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/sep/10/low-income-families-private-housing-rent-benefit-freeze | Society | 2015-09-10T02:45:53.000Z | Patrick Butler | Low-income families in private housing face large benefit shortfalls | More than 300,000 low-income working families face a housing benefit shortfall, leaving them in some cases hundreds of pounds behind on rent each month by 2020 as a result of government plans to freeze support.
Research by housing charity Shelter predicts that 80% of working English households claiming support to help meet soaring private-sector rents will be affected by the four-year housing benefit freeze announced in July’s budget.
The cash shortfall will affect families living in places not traditionally associated with high rents, such as Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol, as well as expensive postcodes in London and the south-east.
The research estimates typical rents for a two-bed home at the lowest end of the market in each local authority area in 2019-20, and compares this figure with maximum local housing allowance (LHA) rates for each area, which will be frozen from April 2016. The LHA is used to work out housing benefit for tenants who rent privately.
The gap between LHA rates and rents will be extreme in high-rent areas such London. In Westminster, for example, Shelter estimates rents on a two-bed flat could rise to £415 a month above current levels in four years’ time. The gap faced by households renting privately and getting LHA in this market, working or jobless, will be £1,440.
But the study also shows that the monthly gap between private rents and LHA on two-bed homes in the cheapest areas of each authority will be significant in growth areas such as Cambridge (£529), Manchester (£240), Bristol (£236), Luton (£155) and Birmingham (£107).
Many of these places “are key job-creating cities, central to employment growth. Many of the working families affected need to live in the vicinity of these places because it’s likely to be where their jobs are,” the study says.
“This isn’t about expensive postcodes where you would expect rents to be expensive but the much wider problem of the ridiculous cost of housing and a private rental market that is not fit for purpose.”
Shelter fears that with average earnings unlikely to keep track of rent increases in many areas, households unable to cover significant shortfalls in housing support will be forced to either move to a cheaper authority, share homes with other families, or downshift into accommodation too small for their needs.
Campbell Robb, the chief executive of Shelter, said: “This could push hundreds of thousands of working families already struggling to keep up with relentless rent rises and benefit cuts to breaking point.
“For those who will be hit by the freeze, housing benefit will fail to bridge the growing gap between climbing private rents and incomes that simply can’t keep up.”
Of England’s 326 local authorities, Shelter estimates 3% will see a projected affordability gap of more than £500 a month in the bottom quarter of the market by 2019-20, 15% more than £200, 30% more than £100, and 52% more than £50. In 18% of areas, mainly in the north and Midlands, there will be no gap.
One possible consequence of the freeze could be to force landlords to lower rents, although Shelter points out that the government has introduced four separate measures to reduce LHA since 2012, but none of these have succeeded in arresting rising private-sector rents in areas of high demand.
Shelter fears that in areas where young professionals who cannot afford to buy a home are queueing up to rent, landlords may withdraw from the housing benefit market altogether.
Annual rent increases in the bottom quartile of areas like Hackney in east London, Bath, Warwick, Manchester, Cambridge and Bristol averaged over 5% a year between 2011-12 and 2014-15. Private rents have increased in 79% of England since 2011.
The study’s projected rents are calculated on an assumption that bottom quartile rents will continue to rise between now and 2020, but at 85% of the rate seen over the past five years.
More than 4m households in England received full or partial housing benefit in England (4.8m in the UK), at an annual cost of £24bn, latest figures show. Private-rented sector household claimants are the fastest growing cohort of this group accounting for a fifth of the total number. Private-rented sector claimants are normally only allowed to rent in the bottom 25% of each local rental market.
The Shelter research is based on official Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data. It identifies the number of households receiving housing benefit in May 2015 who rent privately, are in work, have dependent children and live in an area of the country that has seen rents rise in the last four years.
Tenants in social housing are not affected by the LHA changes.
The charity fears that housing benefit is becoming increasingly detached from both family circumstances and the reality of the private rental market. It said: “Freezing housing benefit without tackling the sky-high cost of housing in this country does nothing but fan the flames of our deepening crisis.
“The only way for the government to break this cycle is to invest in building homes that people on lower incomes can actually afford.”
A government spokesman said: “Our reforms are designed to ensure that people on benefits face the same choices as everyone else.
“We continue to spend around £24bn on housing benefit each year and have already provided local authorities with £500m of funding to support people transitioning to our welfare reforms, with a further £800m to be provided over the course of this parliament.
This article was amended on 14 September 2015. An earlier version said “none of these have failed to arrest” rising rent levels where we meant “none of these have succeeded in arresting” rising rent levels. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/dec/05/portugal-coach-santos-unimpressed-with-ronaldos-reaction-to-substitution-world-cup | Football | 2022-12-05T14:24:38.000Z | Ben Fisher | Portugal coach Santos unimpressed with Ronaldo’s reaction leaving pitch | Fernando Santos has said he was deeply unimpressed with Cristiano Ronaldo’s behaviour as the forward left the pitch against South Korea and refused to guarantee that the 37-year-old would captain Portugal in Tuesday’s last-16 tie against Switzerland. The head coach insists Ronaldo has been dealt with following his latest outburst but considers the case closed.
Ronaldo reacted angrily after being withdrawn midway through the second half of Friday’s defeat by South Korea. He put an index finger to his lips as he left the field and later said he was irked by the opposition striker Cho Gue-sung for asking him to speed up his exit. “Before my substitution, one of their players was telling me to leave quickly,” Ronaldo said. “I told him to shut up, he has no authority, he doesn’t have to say anything.”
Asked about Ronaldo’s substitution at a press conference on Tuesday, Santos said: “Have I seen the images? Yes, I didn’t like it, not at all. I didn’t like it. I really didn’t like it. But from that moment onwards everything is finished regarding that issue. These matters are resolved behind closed doors. It’s resolved. Full stop on this matter and now everyone is focused on tomorrow’s match.”
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Santos would not confirm whether Ronaldo would captain Portugal. “I only decide who is going to be captain when I reach the stadium,” Santos said. “I still don’t know what the lineup will be. That’s what I’ve always done and that’s what I’m always going to do and it’s going to be the same tomorrow. The other topic is solved. We have fixed that in-house and that’s it.”
Ronaldo became the first male player to score in five World Cups when he converted a penalty against Ghana in their Group H opener. A free agent after leaving Manchester United, he is giving serious thought to a lucrative offer to join the Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr. Ronaldo has received a formal proposal that would pay almost €200m (£173m) a season on a contract until 2025.
Cristiano Ronaldo
“That is his decision – that’s what he has to deal with,” Santos said of Ronaldo’s future. “We are totally focused on the World Cup. That’s all that we spoke about.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/mar/15/the-school-for-scandal-review-theatre-by-the-lake-keswick | Stage | 2024-03-15T13:14:45.000Z | Mark Fisher | The School for Scandal review – an overblown attempt at wit | You can see the temptation. You have an almost 250-year-old comedy with antique language and an obsession with gossip that could concern nobody but the idle rich. Why wouldn’t you try to jazz it up a bit?
That seems to have been the thinking of director Seán Aydon in this laboured touring production for Tilted Wig. Rather than trust Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s play to be funny on its own terms, he soups up the opening scenes with so much overstated clowning they verge on unintelligible.
It looks gorgeous thanks to Sarah Beaton’s 1950s set and costume design, infused with a Kodachrome warmth in its saturated pinks, oranges and blues. And when the actors strike fashion-magazine poses, all angular arms and extended legs, they add to the period glamour.
But when the poses become locked, the actors turn into cartoon grotesques, barking out their lines to EMPHASISE every OTHER word as if to shriek the comedy into life. It is hard to listen to and, worse, it flattens Sheridan’s wit. All the precisely coordinated choreography under movement director Stephen Moynihan counts for nothing.
Reprobates … Emily-Jane McNeill, Garmon Rhys and Alex Phelps. Photograph: Robling Photography
You would blame the cast if only the same actors did not go on to prove themselves rather good when doubling in the principal roles. There is still too much shouting, but once they stop trying so hard, the production settles down into a modestly amusing romp of romantic subterfuge and mistaken identity.
Joseph Marcell, the one actor who does not double, is also one of the least emphatic and easiest on the ear. Playing Sir Peter Teazle, the elderly gentleman hoping in vain to keep his new young wife under his thumb, he has the air of a man who is constantly one step behind. Lydea Perkins as that wife is very much on the front foot, not even pretending to care for him as she fritters away his fortune. She is elegant and disarmingly frank.
Strong too is Tony Timberlake as Sir Oliver, the wealthy uncle of reprobate brothers Charles and Joseph (Garmon Rhys and Alex Phelps) who keep up a suave appearance even as their panic escalates. A late return of the overblown supporting characters makes you admire their subtlety all the more.
At Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, until 16 March. Then touring until 8 June | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/08/trump-inflates-with-pride-to-claim-backing-of-new-england-patriots-star | US news | 2016-11-08T08:17:04.000Z | Ben Jacobs | Donald Trump inflates with pride to claim backing of NFL star Tom Brady | Donald Trump may not have had any celebrities appearing his behalf on Monday night – but he told a crowd of more than 10,000 that he was backed by the New England Patriots star quarterback, Tom Brady, and their head coach, Bill Belichick.
In a local interview earlier on Monday, though, Brady said he hadn’t voted yet – “I am going to vote today or tomorrow” – and played coy on who he might vote for: “Next week I’ll tell you.”
Speaking in Manchester, New Hampshire, in an arena lit with laser lights and smoke machines, the Republican nominee took the stage in his penultimate event before election day to announce the support of two of the most beloved sports figures in New England.
Trump has long bragged that Brady, a two-time NFL MVP and four time Super Bowl champion, “is a great friend of mine”. Brady was suspended for four games at the start of the 2016 season for his role in the Deflategate scandal.
The Republican nominee told the cheering crowd on Monday night that Brady called him earlier in the day to say: “Donald, I support you. You’re my friend and I voted for you.”
The quarterback was photographed in 2015 with a Make America Great Again hat in his locker. Brady also said in an interview in December 2015: “Donald is a good friend of mine. I have known him for a long time. I support all my friends.” However, Brady’s wife, Gisele Bundchen, last week denied that the couple would vote for Trump in a comment on her Instagram page.
The Republican candidate also boasted of his support from the Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick. The famously taciturn and obsessive coach has won four Super Bowls with Brady as his quarterback and is considered one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. Belichick’s girlfriend posted a picture on Instagram of Trump and the NFL coach in the spring, describing the Republican nominee as “our good friend”.
Trump announced after the Brady endorsement that Belichick “wrote me the most beautiful letter”. The Republican nominee said he called back Belichick and asked he could read it on stage and Belichick wrote an even nicer letter in response, which he read on stage.
The letter as Trump read it said: “Congratulations on a tremendous campaign. You have dealt with an unbelievable slanted and negative media and come out beautifully. You have proved to be the ultimate competitor and fighter. Your leadership is amazing. The toughness and perseverance you have displayed in the past year is remarkable. Hopefully the results in tomorrow’s election will give you the opportunity to make America great again.”
Trump has long touted the support of a number of current and former professional athletes, and campaigned with some ex-college sports coaches including the former Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight and ex-Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden.
At the same time Trump has repeatedly condemned Hillary Clinton for using celebrities to campaign on her behalf, including Jay-Z, Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen. He told the crowd in Manchester that it “was demeaning to the political process”.
On Monday night Trump didn’t embrace everything about Massachusetts and New England, though. He attacked the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, a Hillary Clinton supporter, as Pocahontas and proclaimed: “I’ll make you a deal, you can have Pocahontas and I’ll have Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.”
He also seemed to endorse the former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling as candidate to run against Warren in the 2018 Senate election. Schilling has made a number of racially charged comments in recent years including comparing Muslims to Nazis. Earlier on Monday Schilling tweeted praise for a shirt that called for the lynching of journalists. Schilling was also involved in a failed software company subsidized by the state of Rhode Island which cost taxpayers there tens of millions of dollars.
A spokesman for the New England Patriots did not immediately respond to a request for comment. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jul/31/uk-serbophilia-ejup-ganic | Opinion | 2010-07-31T13:00:51.000Z | Colin Graham | Deep-rooted Serbophilia in the UK? Hardly | Colin Graham | While Serbia may no longer be the pariah of Europe, given the manifold attempts its current government has made to mend fences with its neighbours and other European nations in recent years, it still appears to be something of a black sheep if the rather dismissive verdict against its request for the extradition of former Bosnian president Ejup Ganić is anything to go by.
When Ganić was arrested at Heathrow airport in March, after Serbia brought charges against him relating to an attack on Yugoslav army troops in Sarajevo in 1992, which left several dead, some voices cried foul and insisted that a "deep-rooted" Serbophilia was at work in the UK. Given that Ganić's supporters have expressed themselves as being "satisfied" with the ultimate outcome, surely we can now put such spurious claims to bed.
Having been resident in Belgrade for over two years, while making fairly frequent trips back to the UK, I can argue with some confidence that not only is UK-based Serbophilia not at all "deep-rooted", it would have considerable trouble getting off the ground in the first place given that so many British citizens struggle to even find Serbia on the map. Indeed, this suggests, if anything, that something of a residual phobia exists in the UK in relation to the Balkan country given the savage events of the 1990s.
The presiding district judge in the case, Timothy Workman, ruled that the allegations made against Ganić by Serbian war crimes prosecutors were in all likelihood the result of "political" motivations at work. This conveniently ignored the fact that "politics" has informed pretty much every trial involving war crimes since they first became a matter for international courts.
Weren't even the Nuremberg trials over-loaded with political considerations? Of course they were, and there was no harm in it either. One of the key purposes of hearing evidence against Goering et al and then executing them for their murderous deeds, was, after all, to kickstart a process of denazification not only in Germany but by implication in the rest of Europe as well.
The very definition of "war criminal" has been up for grabs since Nuremberg and has been laden with political slant with every passing relevant controversy. The US president LB Johnson was considered one by anti-Vietnam war protesters during the 1960s, with their chant "Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today!" ringing loudly through history to this very day. Even the eminently charming Tony Blair has been labelled a war criminal by those at the receiving end of his policies in Iraq, Afghanistan and, yes, Serbia.
Judge Workman walked a treacherous tightrope during his summation when he dismissed the notion that the Serbian war prosecutors had been "incompetent", while at the same time suggesting that they had allowed "political" matters to cloud their judgment when making the application for Ganić's extradition. One would have thought that any lawyer permitting his or her ideological passions to get in the way of the legal process would not really be doing their job very competently.
As things stand, the case against Ganić will not be heard, so we are not in a position to judge his innocence or otherwise during the events in Sarajevo in May 1992. But we can ask one pertinent question: will Serbia – which has been harangued from all sides because of the slaughter in its name during the 1990s wars – ever be granted proper redress for the crimes its people also suffered at the time of these horrific conflicts?
Since being elected in 2008 in the face of radical rightwing opposition, Serbia's liberal coalition government has done its utmost to repair the damaged reputation it suffered during Slobodan Milošević's reign. Its handling of the arrest of Radovan Karadžić in Belgrade in 2008 in the face of aroused passions and violence was both cool-headed and, yes, about as apolitical as you could expect in the circumstances. No one, aside from the local nationalists, censured Serbia's war crime prosecutors for any political bias they may have harboured.
One simple observation during that heady time largely went unremarked upon by the western media. It was that the man who held up the picture of Karadžić, alias Dr Dragan Dabić, thus sending shockwaves across the world, was Rasim Ljajić, president of Serbia's National Council for Co-operation with the Hague Tribunal. Ljajić is a Muslim, a Bosniak, and a symbol of Serbia's new dawn where tolerance is by the day overpowering ignorance and the brutality of the recent past. But no one in the UK seemed to be particularly bothered by that fact in the summer of 2008. So much, then, for Serbophilia. The phobia, however, is still alive and well. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jul/06/portugal-2-0-wales-euro-2016-semi-final-player-ratings | Football | 2016-07-06T21:03:39.000Z | Alan Smith | Euro 2016 semi-final player ratings: Portugal 2-0 Wales | PORTUGALRui Patrício 6
Saved comfortably from Bale midway through the first half and had very little to do throughout. Made a couple of solid, but straightforward saves from long range late on.
Cédric Soares 6
Pushed on quite a bit, sending in numerous good cross from the right. Took a pointless shot from 35 yards over after half an hour but he solid without possession.
Bruno Alves 5
An obvious downgrade on Pepe, his lack of speed was exemplified by Robson-Kanu speeding past him so easily after 25 minutes. Yellow carded in the second half.
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José Fonte 7
Did well to intercept a Robson-Kanu cross from the right with King lurking menacingly behind. Had a good attempt entering the final 20 minutes, heading a corner just wide.
Raphael Guerreiro 6
Provided the delivery for the opening goal and pinned back Chris Gunter sufficiently, which was tactically at least quite important. Had a simple evening in terms of defending
Danilo 6
Coming in for William Carvalho, he took a while to get going. Made a naive sliding challenge to allow Bale speed past in the first half but also went close to scoring a third.
João Mário 6
Had a low shot from just inside box dragged wide after 16 minutes and fluttered about midfield with plenty of intent – though the end product was often lacking.
Renato Sanches 6
Appeared quite unhappy to be taken off 17 minutes from the end but that was more down to his performance than the manager’s decision. Bright start but faded rapidly.
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Barney Ronay
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Adrien Silva 6
Provided a teasing cross for Ronaldo from the left wing late in first half and was comfortable in possession without any truly blistering moments.
Nani 7
Not especially prominent in the opening half but he got a stretched leg to Ronaldo’s scuffed shot after getting a yard in front of Collins to score the second – his third of the tournament.
Cristiano Ronaldo 8
Early claim for a penalty waved away but made his impact count eventually with that typically brilliant header. Also had an assist – from a scuffed shot. Set a leaders’ example.
WALES
Wayne Hennessey 5
Not much he could have done for either goal, particularly the second which was from such close range his time to react was minimal, but parried a couple of later shots nervously.
Chris Gunter 5
The wing back could not get forward as often as in other games, giving perhaps his least impressive performance of the tournament. Did OK defensively but ultimately muted.
James Chester 5
Comfortable first half but it went wrong after the interval when losing Ronaldo from the corner for the opening goal. He was booked just after the hour for a foul on the same player.
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Ashley Williams 6
Made a delicious tackle on Ronaldo inside three minutes, sliding in and winning the ball with his right boot, that looked to set the tone early on. Caught out of position for second goal.
James Collins 6
Lucky not to concede a penalty when heading away Cédric Soares’ cross with Ronaldo about to leap, putting a hand around his neck, but was aerially dominant before being taken off.
Neil Taylor 6
Handled Sanches well but, much like Gunter, his attacking opportunities were limited. Perhaps it was caginess but Wales suffered by him being penned back.
Joe Ledley 6
Clever corner to Bale early on, which the Real Madrid striker drove over. Worked tirelessly in midfield but was sacrificed less than an hour in for the more attack-minded Sam Vokes.
Joe Allen 5
Conceded two early fouls, the second leading to a booking seven minutes in and never really took control. After a fine tournament, it was a disappointing note to end on.
Andy King 6
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He was never going to be a direct replacement for Ramsey because they are such different players but worked hard and got forward. Almost got on to a low cross from Bale early on.
Hal Robson-Kanu 6
Carried through plenty of confidence from that performance against Belgium and gave Bruno Alves a tough time at the start but was spent by the hour and swapped with Simon Church.
Gareth Bale 7
Lively from the off, making a darting run past Danilo. He threatened from range on numerous occasions but was never allowed close enough to do real damage. Still Wales’ best player. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/27/poor-working-families-losses-benefit-cuts-ifs | Society | 2017-04-27T16:57:27.000Z | Patrick Butler | Poor working families face big losses from benefit cuts, says IFS | Low-income working families face significant reductions in income as a result of planned cuts to benefits, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
The thinktank says the freeze in benefit rates and cuts to child tax credit, coupled with the rollout of universal credit, which has become less generous as a result of changes to work allowances, signal “large losses” for low-income households.
If the cuts announced in 2015 were fully in place now, nearly 3m working households with children on tax credits would be an average of £2,500 a year worse off, with larger families losing more.
The scheduled cuts for lower-income families come alongside tax breaks worth £5bn a year that predominantly benefit middle- and higher-income households.
The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, said the IFS analysis showed the Conservatives posed a “clear threat” to working people’s living standards, while the Liberal Democrats claimed the “savage cuts” would leave millions of households worse off.
McDonnell said it revealed the “stark choice” facing voters between a Labour party that would stand up for the many and a Tory party that only looked after the privileged few: “The Tories pose a clear threat to working people’s living standards. Under Tory proposals cuts to in-work support will leave working families with children an average of £2,500 a year worse off.”
Although the average impact of tax and benefit changes since 2015 has been relatively small so far, planned benefit cuts will reduce government spending by about £15bn a year in the long run, with the poorest working-age households facing losses of between 4% and 10% of income a year, the IFS says.
The impact of the planned cuts on the poorest working-age families over the next five years will be much greater than those imposed during the 2010-15 coalition government. Pensioner households are mostly protected from future benefit cuts.
Tom Waters, a research economist at the IFS, said: “As suggested by the 2015 Conservative manifesto, the government have announced income tax cuts that mostly benefit middle- and higher-income households and working-age benefit cuts that mostly hit lower-income households. But while the tax cuts have largely already been delivered, most of the benefit cuts are yet to take effect.”
The Lib Dem spokeswoman Susan Kramer said: “Theresa May’s plans for a divisive hard Brexit and savage cuts to benefits will leave millions of working families worse off. Three million households will be hit to the tune of £2,500 a year as a result of cuts to tax credits, rising prices and the falling pound.
“The Brexit squeeze will hit people in the pocket across the country, with the poorest families hit hardest.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/30/queensland-cocaine-seizure-police-charge-men-gladstone | Australia news | 2024-04-30T08:32:40.000Z | Rafqa Touma | Three men charged after 500kg of cocaine worth $160m seized in Queensland | Police have intercepted one of Queensland’s largest cocaine imports, seizing more than $160m worth of the illicit substance.
The Australian federal police (AFP) busted 500kg of cocaine from a mother-daughter ship operation, intercepting three men at the Boyne Island boat ramp late on Sunday night after they allegedly travelled to an offshore cargo ship to collect the cocaine in an 8.2 metre fishing boat.
The AFP said it found 15 black and yellow bags holding 32 1kg blocks of a powdered substance that tested positive for cocaine, with an estimated street value of more than $162m.
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The men, aged 27, 45 and 66, were known to police and monitored by the AFP when they drove from NSW to Gladstone, in central Queensland, in April. They have been charged with possessing a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border-controlled drug.
“It was a very large seizure, one of the largest in Queensland,” AFP Cmdr John Tanti told reporters.
“The alleged attempt to collect cocaine from the ocean shows the extreme lengths criminals will go to in order to attempt to bring illicit drugs into Australia.”
The AFP said it found 15 black and yellow bags were holding 32 1kg blocks of a powdered substance that tested positive for cocaine. Photograph: Australian Border force
Investigations into the origin of the drugs are ongoing, with AFP asserting the amount had “potential to facilitate more than two million individual street deals and cause tens of millions of dollars in harm to the Australian community”.
The port in Gladstone is closely monitored, as large-scale imports enter frequently, Australian Border Force Cmdr Jim Ley said, but locating the eight-metre fishing boat was a “massive effort”.
“That is a testament to the combined capabilities of Australian law enforcement.”
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High tide: why are cocaine bricks washing up on Sydney beaches?
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The three men will face Gladstone magistrates court on 19 July, with the charge carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison.
It comes just weeks after two other unrelated charges over cocaine importation plots into Queensland – a Victorian man charged over alleged involvement in a criminal syndicate that imported 289kg of cocaine, and a Queensland man charged after being accused of trying to import two tonnes of cocaine over the past year.
It also follows a Brisbane man being charged over a botched international drug trafficking plot to import 900kg of cocaine into Australia, after bricks of drugs washed up on New South Wales beaches.
– With AAP | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/09/-sp-a-century-of-the-selecao-the-remarkable-story-of-brazilian-football | Football | 2014-06-10T09:17:00.000Z | Jonny Weeks | A century of the Seleção: the remarkable story of Brazilian football | Chapter One: Exeter City?
From the weathered stands at St James' Park in Exeter, the song is sung with great pride: 'Have you ever, have you ever, have you ever played Brazil?' It's a chant which is typically greeted with bemusement by traveling supporters oblivious to its significance. That a success-starved club in the fourth tier of English football would pose such a question must seem ridiculous. It's not as if Exeter City have ever played Brazil, have they?
Chapter One of our series tells the curious tale of a game staged in front of 3,000 spectators at Laranjeiras stadium in Rio de Janeiro on 21 July, 1914 ... a game in which two goals were scored and much blood was shed ... a game which would kick-start Brazilian international football and precipitate unparalleled success for the Seleção.
Chapter Two: Maracanazo
When Moacir Barbosa Nascimento lit his barbecue, he hoped to incinerate all memories of what had happened thirteen years prior. The wooden goalposts from Maracanã stadium were his chosen fuel, but even as he watched them burn he knew redemption would forever escape him. Barbosa had been the goalkeeper for Brazil against Uruguay in what was, in all but name, the World Cup final of 1950. Brazil had needed only a draw in their final pool match to claim the Jules Rimet trophy on home soil. They were the overwhelming favourites and 200,000 people flocked to the stadium in Rio de Janeiro expecting to see them triumph.
Chapter Two of our series tells a story which has haunted Brazil for the past 64 years. The national team may have won five World Cups in the years that have followed, but the nation will never forget the events of 16 July, 1950.
Chapter Three: Little canary
Imagine the Brazilian football team turning out for this summer's World Cup dressed in white. It may seem absurd, but those were in fact Brazil's original colours. It wasn't until 1953 that Aldyr Garcia Schlee designed the now famous yellow football kit as part of a national competition held in the wake of Brazil's 1950 World Cup defeat to Uruguay. His simple design beat submissions from 300 other entrants.
Chapter Three of our series examines why Canarinho – 'little canary' – as the kit is known, is almost universally adored. Its evolution through the decades has seen many highs and a few lows, yet it remains a symbol of design and sporting excellence – a proud emblem of Brazilian culture. How ironic, then, that Schlee was a passionate Uruguay fan.
Chapter Four: Joga bonito
Nine slick passes from back to front, a slaloming run, that gloriously insouciant lay-off and an unstoppable shot with the outside of a right boot; Brazil's unforgettable team goal scored by Carlos Alberto against Italy in the World Cup final of 1970 has been lauded as one the greatest goals in World Cup history, if not the greatest goal ever scored. It is the epitome of joga bonito – the art of playing beautifully.
Part Four of our series explores the defining characteristics of Brazilian football. What is so special about Brazilian footballers? And can the current Seleção squad play with freedom and swagger despite the burden of expectation at this summer's World Cup? | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/23/seashaken-houses-by-tom-nancollas-review-lighthouse-keepers | Books | 2018-11-23T09:00:06.000Z | Tessa Hadley | Seashaken Houses by Tom Nancollas review – a hymn to the lighthouse keepers | Tom Nancollas trained as a building conservationist and fell in love with lighthouses, their heroic form and history – particularly the lonely rock lighthouses that aren’t built on coasts or islands but “appear to rise, mirage-like, straight out of the sea, their circular foundations often unseen”. His book isn’t a compendious overview but a selective and more personal account of eight particular rock lighthouses, in nine chapters. Each separate chapter, as well as addressing the particularity of one place and one history, tells a different part of the overall story – early efforts and failures, the changing design of the lights themselves, the life of the keepers. It’s a well made and well ordered book, in keeping with its subject.
This feels like a good moment, amid some murky and disenchanting sexual politics, to remind ourselves of an achievement so unequivocally positive and so very masculine. Even the most innocent descriptions of lighthouses can’t help sounding like gendered metaphor – that vertical thrust, those unseen “circular foundations”, the building arising like a “sublime intervention into nature” out of the indifferent chaos of the surrounding sea. Of course the lighthouse shape wasn’t chosen because it was phallic, but because it was an engineering solution to a particular problem. Inevitably, though, Nancollas’s story is of men’s efforts, men’s obsessions, men’s sheer pig-headed determination to save lives by achieving what seemed impossible: as engineers, inventors, construction workers, lighthouse-keepers. There were sometimes wives and children in the on-shore lighthouses, and in the Wirral in the 18th century an unusual tradition of women keepers. In another world, women might have been the engineers and inventors too, but between 1698 and 1905, when “a total of 27 rock lighthouses were constructed to mark the most dangerous hazards to shipping in the seas around Great Britain and Ireland”, it was a man’s world.
Rising mirage-like, out of the sea … Longships lighthouse, Land’s End, Cornwall. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA
James Kavanagh, for example, was a Wicklow master mason of “fabulous singlemindedness” and charisma, foreman in charge of building the Fastnet lighthouse off the coast of west Cork, due south of Ireland’s tip, the last and biggest rock lighthouse of them all. From 1896 to 1903, for as long as the Fastnet was under construction, Kavanagh refused to go ashore; he lived with his men (who more sensibly took leave in rotation) in a small barrack built on the rock, only returning to his family when work closed down for winter. Kavanagh insisted on setting every piece of stone in place with his own hands, rising at dawn, working till dusk, sharing in all the men’s dangers. There’s a photograph of him – somehow surprising, like finding a photograph of a mythic figure: he’s stout, in a light-coloured jacket, with what looks like a plan in his hands. “He set the last stone on 3 June 1903, at the age of 47,” and a month later, with “seven years of ascetic living pent up inside him”, apoplexy struck him dead. Is such self-sacrifice noble, or quixotic? Nancollas compares his dedication to the early Celtic Christians who retreated to hermitages on remote islands around Scotland and Ireland. Kavanagh left behind a wife and eight children, the youngest not yet a year old. But he also left behind the lighthouse, and the world was the safer for it.
Somehow Nancollas makes a gentle and tentative story out of all this splendid dedicated effort; he’s not afraid to own up to his own chills and fears and shyness. He’s sympathetic to hints of haunting too: at Haulbowline, sited at the entrance to Carlingford Lough on the border in Northern Ireland, a parish priest was brought over in the 1950s to consecrate the lighthouse, when the keepers complained of “shimmers of light playing strangely on the lighthouse walls”. There are no keepers any longer, all the lighthouses are automated, an inevitable latest twist of technological advance. Now most lights work on solar power, a few still on generators; lighthouses on the Kent coast used steam-driven electro-magnetic generators 50 years before the country was widely electrified. Before that they used candles, then lamps burning spermaceti oil; the strength of the lights could be strengthened many thousands of times over by cunningly designed refractors and lenses. Each lighthouse had its own coded signal, flashing red and white.
Often Nancollas can only view the lighthouses from land, or from a boat, at a safe distance; on occasion he gets to go inside. There’s something almost Crusoe-like in how lovingly a comfy domesticity was replicated in these lonely pillars far out to sea. Once the Bell Rock off Arbroath in Scotland had a library and opulent guest room; an iron gantry in the lantern on disused Perch Rock is supported on iron colonettes in a classical style. The interiors are often desolate now, bodged through to fit new machinery, stripped of the old oak furniture that was made with curved backs to fit snugly against the walls of the round rooms. The Fastnet lighthouse is well kept though, and in his final chapter Nancollas is taken over by helicopter with Dave and Neilly for the routine overhaul of a generator, which will take five days – Dave is a fitter for Irish Lights like his father before him. Lighthouses run in families: Robert Louis Stevenson’s grandfather was one of the great lighthouse engineers, sons and grandsons following him into the trade.
Seashaken Houses: the stark loneliness of lighthouses – in pictures
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Sweeping the floors on Fastnet and washing up, Nancollas gets some taste at last of the strangeness of lighthouse life; danger mixed with boredom; the extremes of exposure combined with a quiet dailiness. He can study the sea from the lighthouse balcony, “really look at it, watch it behaving in a way you don’t really see from the shore” and breaking “around the reef in repeating patterns that reflect the submerged geology around the rock’s waist”. At night in his bunk he hears the sea crashing against the walls and seems to feel a tremor. It’s now known that lighthouses do move and bend under the sea’s extreme pressure, and modern physics can explain what the engineers arrived at through trial and error: why that tapering pillar is the perfect shape to endure through the worst the sea can throw at it, footed deep into the natural rock, its granite stones dovetailed to fit together horizontally and vertically.
In 1707 when four naval warships went aground off the Scilly Isles, 2,000 men died in a single night; in 1847 when the packet ship Stephen Witney was wrecked off west Cork, 18 survived out of 110 – and so on and on. (Some locals didn’t mind the wrecks and their spillage, either.) Of course the lighthouses could never stop all the wrecks, or tame the sea, but they made a vast difference, and still do. This book is a hymn to the almost superhuman ingenuity, expertise and labour of the men who worked to made the wild seas safer.
Seashaken Houses is published by Particular. To order a copy for £14.95 (RRP £16.99) go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/aug/17/lionesses-semi-final-watched-by-73m-as-fans-lament-lack-of-places-to-watch-final | Football | 2023-08-17T19:33:44.000Z | Rachel Hall | Lionesses’ semi-final watched by 7.3m – but few viewing events for final | The Lionesses drew an average of 4.6 million viewers during their World Cup semi-final, yet fans are disappointed that councils have failed to respond to the team’s success by putting on free public viewing parties for the final.
The BBC said a peak audience of 7.3 million tuned in to watch England beat Australia 3-1 on Wednesday, despite the time zone difference resulting in an 11am kick-off time.
Many more are expected to watch the team in the final against Spain on Sunday, again at 11am BST, hoping to witness England’s first World Cup victory since the men triumphed in 1966.
The peak audience for the Euros final in 2022, which the Lionesses won, was 17.4 million, while 11.7 million viewers tuned in for the Lionesses’ previous World Cup semi-final in 2019.
However, few cities appear to be hosting public viewing events that would make it cheaper and more accessible for families to watch the final.
The Greater London Authority said it was unable to host a public event in Trafalgar Square because of essential maintenance work, and is promoting a screening run by the All Points East festival in Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets.
Birmingham city council said all events would be hosted in local bars and restaurants. Newcastle city council said the NE1 initiative, which is funded through local business rates, will put on a public viewing screen in the city centre.
Manchester is one of the few cities to put on a council-run and funded screening event, with a first come, first served 6,000 capacity fan zone in Piccadilly Gardens announced on Thursday. However, Bristol city council said it had no screening facility available to show the game as the one in Millennium Square was out of action.
The Lionesses celebrating a goal during the World Cup semi-final against Australia on Wednesday. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Stacey Pope, associate professor at Durham University’s department for sport and exercise, said her research had shown that people became fans of women’s football because it was seen as “welcoming to women and children … safer, with less vulgarity, drunkenness and physical aggression” than the men’s game.
“It would be a real shame if we don’t capitalise on this opportunity and provide as many spaces as possible to watch the final that are safe and inclusive,” she said.
“We have seen how screening matches helps to bring people together, celebrating as a communal event and fostering a sense of national pride and identity.
“It is taken for granted that men’s England matches will be widely screened, so there needs to be some level of parity here. Otherwise, not only is this potentially a missed opportunity but it also downplays the importance of the England women’s team.”
Grassroots football clubs said they were organising their own events to fill the void. Sara Sanders, who coaches girls aged four to 14 at Stockport Dynamos, has hired a venue to provide a safe space for the girls. “We’ve got too many to fit anywhere else,” she said.
England fans erupt in London after first goal in World Cup win over Australia – video
She was grateful to a local retailer, Sokker Girls, for reserving tables in a bar, enabling girls to attend without having to buy food or drinks, but felt that the local authority could have done more.
“It’s a shame there’s not more locally, centrally organised,” she said. “We’ve got big open spaces that can be utilised.”
Shahid Malji, who runs the grassroots Super5 league in east London, recalled that there were a huge number of open events for the men’s Euro 2020 final against Italy.
“I haven’t seen the same effect for the women’s World Cup games. For families who love watching football together and a fanbase environment, this is a bit disappointing.”
Players in the Women’s National League, representing the third to sixth divisions in female football, have launched a petition, which has gained more than 1,000 signatures, urging their clubs to postpone afternoon matches so they can watch the final.
Lionesses roar on to World Cup final showdown with Spain - Women’s Football Weekly
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One regional league player, who asked for anonymity, said: “Everyone’s onboard, supporting the Lionesses, but players, fans and volunteers in women’s football are the ones that are being isolated.
“There’s such a gap with how the men’s team are treated. Imagine if we win the World Cup, we can’t celebrate even though we’ve just made history – that’s insane.”
Ahead of Sunday’s final, the three Boxpark fan zones in London – Croydon, Wembley and Shoreditch – sold all their 2,500 tickets in just eight minutes.
The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) has called on the government to loosen licensing rules for opening hours and alcohol sales for the final, as most are unable to serve alcohol until 11am and some are restricted until midday.
On Thursday evening, the levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, said he had written to the leaders of all the councils in England asking them to do everything they could to help pubs that want to open for the final.
“The whole nation is ready to get behind the Lionesses this Sunday in what is England’s biggest game since 1966,” he said.
“I’ve asked councils to do everything they can to help pubs get open earlier on Sunday, so people can come together and enjoy a drink before kick-off for this special occasion.”
A senior bishop from the Church of England said it was “fine” for churches to move morning services to accommodate the final. The Right Reverend Libby Lane, Bishop of Derby and the Church of England’s lead bishop for sport, said people should choose the service that is “right for them” in order to watch it.
The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has also called for a celebratory bank holiday if England win. The government said it was not planning an extra bank holiday, but would find a “right way to celebrate”. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jan/12/steve-mcqueen-baftas-lack-of-diversity | Film | 2020-01-12T18:00:41.000Z | Lanre Bakare | Steve McQueen: lack of diversity could ruin Baftas' credibility | Steve McQueen has said the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) risks becoming irrelevant, redundant and of no interest or importance unless it undergoes reform to avoid a repeat of this year’s nominations where there was a lack of diversity in many of the principal categories, including all the main acting awards.
The director, who has won two Baftas – one for his debut feature film Hunger in 2009 and another for best film in 2014 for 12 Years a Slave – told the Guardian that the British film awards could become obsolete if it fails to recognise diverse talent.
“After a while you get a bit fed up with it,” he said. “Because if the Baftas are not supporting British talent, if you’re not supporting the people who are making headway in the industry, then I don’t understand what you are there for.
Baftas 2020: British film awards on back foot after diversity row
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“Unless the Baftas wants to be like the Grammys, which is of no interest to anyone, and has no credibility at all, then they should continue on this path,” he added, referring to the criticism of the Grammys for consistently snubbing black talent. “If not then they have to change. Fact.”
McQueen said there was a vast amount of British talent that could have been nominated this year including Marianne Jean-Baptiste for In Fabric, Joanna Hogg for The Souvenir, Cynthia Erivo for Harriet, and Daniel Kaluuya for his performance in Queen & Slim. “But not even just British talent, it’s talent in general,” he said, using the example of Lupita Nyongo’o not being nominated for Jordan Peele’s Us. “It’s crazy.”
In response to the backlash on Monday after the nominations were announced, Marc Samuelson, chair of Bafta’s film committee, called the lack of diversity infuriating and said the awards could not make the industry do something about it. His comments echoed Bafta’s deputy chairman, Krishnendu Majumdar, who said the lack of female nominees in the best director category was an “industry-wide problem”.
McQueen said the argument that the lack of nominations could be explained as mostly an “industry problem” was nonsensical. “When these films are being made to critical acclaim, they’re not even being recognised – that’s nonsense.”
The director’s comments follow a week of criticism for Bafta, which announced on Thursday that it would undergo a review of its voting system after another year when its main acting awards will all be competed for by white talent. In 2018, a report revealed that 94% of all Bafta film award nominees had been white.
The criticism also came before the Oscars nominations on Monday, as attention turns to Hollywood, which has its own long history of diversity issues. In 2015, the Oscars – along with all the leading film and music awards – were heavily criticised for a lack of diversity among nominees, only 12 months after a “breakthrough” year when 12 Years a Slave won best picture. In 2016 – after another year of all-white nominees in the acting award, which led to a threatened boycott by Spike Lee, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Will Smith – the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced it would review its membership process. The Academy eventually pledged to double female and minority members by 2020.
Todd Phillips’s Joker led the Baftas field this year with 11 nominations, with many films featuring BAME and female talent missing out, including The Souvenir and Greta Gerwig’s Little Women – neither of whom featured in the all-male best director category.
In an email to voters, Samuelson and Bafta chief executive Amanda Berry said the nominations were “frustrating and deeply disappointing” and confirmed they would review all aspects of the voting process and listen to all interested parties in order to tackle the root cause of underrepresentation in Bafta nominations.
3:56
How can we make award shows more diverse? – video explainer
Bafta voting is divided into two rounds: nominations and then a final say on the shortlist. At present, the four main acting categories are nominated by the full membership, with specific “chapters” – made up of specialists from Bafta’s 6,700 members – choosing nominees for other categories such as best director, score and screenplay. After the nominations are complete, all Bafta members vote on the main awards, with some specialist juries and chapters deciding the winners in certain categories.
Berry said on Monday: “It’s clear there is much more to be done and we plan to double-down on our efforts to affect real change and to continue to support, and encourage the industry on the urgency of doing so much more.”
Other prominent British actors have voiced their disappointment with Bafta. Erivo, who was directed by McQueen in the Bafta-nominated film Widows, said she was asked to sing at the ceremony on 2 February, even though she had missed out on a best actress nomination. Erivo turned down the invitation.
“I felt like [the invitation] didn’t represent people of colour in the right light,” she told the US entertainment website Extra. “It felt like it was calling on me as an entertainer, as opposed to a person who was a part of the world of film, and I think that it’s important to make it known that it’s not something that you just throw in as a party trick, you know?”
Erivo said the many actors of colour who worked hard in 2019 deserved to be celebrated and she also criticised the lack of nominations for any female directors. “And no women directors? It just was like, c’mon,” she said.
McQueen said the issue was a wider one in British culture and that “black British talent gets very much overlooked” and at times had to go to the US in order to get recognition. “Don’t forget Cynthia [Erivo] debuted in the West End in The Color Purple and got very bad reviews and then got an amazing response in New York,” he said. “So maybe that’s it? Maybe you need to go to the States before you get recognised in your own country.”
When asked if he thought the lack of recognition could lead to a BAME talent drain to the US, McQueen said: “It’s happening anyway, that’s not news. Everyone knows that narrative. But there’s obviously a problem, a massive issue and it’s right in front of us. It’s right there and unless it is looked at, people are just not going to bother. People will go elsewhere.
“With the Baftas, if [film-makers] are not recognised visually in our culture, well what’s the bloody point? It becomes irrelevant, redundant and of no interest or importance. End of.”
The Bafta film awards will take place on 2 February at the Royal Albert Hall, London. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/29/tributes-funeral-irish-journalist-pierre-zakrzewski-ukraine | World news | 2022-03-29T12:39:34.000Z | Lisa O'Carroll | Tributes paid at funeral to ‘inspirational’ Irish journalist killed in Ukraine | An Irish journalist killed alongside a Ukrainian colleague when their Fox News team came under fire near Kyiv paid “a terrible price” for his love of “truth telling”, the congregation at his funeral mass has heard.
Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, a cameraman and Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, 24, died in gunfire earlier this month in Horenka, on the north-west outskirts of the Ukrainian capital. The British correspondent Benjamin Hall was injured in the attack.
Ireland’s foreign affairs minister, Simon Coveney, and aides-de-camp representing the president, Michael Higgins, and the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, attended the mass as did diplomats representing the US, Ukrainian, Polish and French embassies.
“Truth-telling is a work of love, and love always comes at a price, and what a terrible price,” Father Kieran Dunne told the congregation in Dublin on Tuesday.
Friends and family carry the coffin out of the church following the funeral mass. Photograph: Damien Storan/PA
Zakrzewski is one of 12 journalists killed since the Russian invasion began, with 10 others injured, according to Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general. “Revealing the truth about Putin’s aggression is getting increasingly risky and dangerous,” she said.
Several speakers paid tribute to Zakrzewski’s colleague Kuvshynova.
Zakrzewski’s cousin Krzys said: “Lord, we pray that you protect media personnel and journalists who stand up for the truth by speaking the truth. Enable them to be the voice of the voiceless and give a face to the faceless,” said Zakrzewski’s cousin, Krzys.
Tim Santhouse, a Fox News producer, said Zakrzewski was “one of the main reasons” he had joined the broadcaster, impressed by his steely determination to get through customs with his large pack of camera equipment and give voice to the voiceless, bringing news from Afghanistan and other war zones to a worldwide audience.
“He appreciated the life others lead and considered things from their point of view, especially those who were in his viewfinder,” he said.
As a war photographer, Zakrzewski covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria for Fox, according to a memo sent to employees by Suzanne Scott, the chief executive of Fox News Media, after his death.
His brother Stas told how “Pierre had refused to be constrained by a traditional education and instead chose to teach himself about the world and politics through travel” to Europe in his teens, and then beyond, to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India where his photography interests dovetailed into journalism.
He was “highly inspirational to his friends and family” and taught people “to think outside the boundaries”, his brother said. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/03/northern-ireland-government-to-reconvene-after-two-year-dup-boycott | Politics | 2024-02-03T14:33:23.000Z | Rory Carroll | Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill appointed first minister as Stormont reconvenes | Northern Ireland’s devolved government has reconvened and appointed Michelle O’Neill as first minister in a historic moment for Sinn Féin and Irish nationalism.
The Stormont assembly nominated the County Tyrone republican as the region’s first nationalist first minister – and the first non-unionist executive leader since the partition of Ireland in 1921.
O’Neill avoided triumphalism and made no explicit mention of Irish unity in an inaugural address that focused on reconciliation and bread-and-butter issues.
“Wherever we come from, whatever our aspirations, we can and must build our future together,” she said. “We must make power sharing work because collectively, we are charged with leading and delivering for all our people, for every community.”
The appointment of a republican first minister represented “a new dawn” unimaginable to previous generations that grew up with discrimination against Catholics, said O’Neill. “That state is now gone.”
O’Neill will jointly lead the executive with Emma Little-Pengelly, a Democratic Unionist who was nominated deputy first minister, a post with equal power but less prestige.
The newly appointed first minister, Michelle O'Neill (left), and deputy first minister, Emma Little-Pengelly. Photograph: Northern Ireland Executive/PA
The devolved government reconvened after the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) walked out of Stormont on 3 February 2022 in protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements that it said undermined the region’s place in the UK. The party agreed to end the boycott this week after its leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, wrung concessions from the UK government that smoothed the so-called Irish Sea border.
O’Neill, Sinn Féin’s deputy leader, became first minister in accordance with a May 2022 assembly election in which the republican party overtook the DUP as the biggest party, a seismic symbolic and psychological shift.
The former DUP leader, Edwin Poots, was elected as speaker by members.
O’Neill had played down constitutional issues in the run-up to the sitting but earlier this week Sinn Féin’s leader, Mary Lou McDonald, said Irish unity was now within “touching distance”.
Sinn Féin, the DUP, the Alliance and the Ulster Unionist party will share ministerial positions using the D’Hondt mechanism based on party strengths, with the exception of the justice ministry, which is decided using a cross-community vote. The Social Democratic and Labour party will form the executive’s opposition.
The executive faces a daunting list of problems including a fiscal crisis, crumbling public services and eroded faith in democracy.
Stormont’s restoration will release a £3.3bn package – including pay rises for public sector workers who have staged multiple strikes – that the UK government had made available, conditional on the revival of institutions set up under the 1998 Good Friday agreement. Donaldson said the parties would seek additional funding from the Treasury. “The finance piece is unfinished business which we intend to finish.”
Business leaders and the Irish government have welcomed the return of power sharing, saying it should provide stability after years of Brexit-related convulsions.
The new rules to smooth trade across the Irish Sea were unveiled by the government on Wednesday. The measures remove routine checks on goods from Great Britain that are destined to remain in Northern Ireland and replace them with a “UK internal market system” for goods that remain within the UK.
The House of Commons approved the changes on Thursday without a formal vote, despite Brexiters’ concerns about the region remaining under EU law. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/aug/03/womens-world-cup-2023-australia-vs-denmark-lineup-sam-kerr-injury-position-replacement-tony-gustavsson | Football | 2023-08-03T01:51:44.000Z | Kieran Pender | Matildas face jigsaw puzzle with Sam Kerr to make Women’s World Cup return | Kieran Pender | How things change in 90 minutes. Ever since Australian captain Sam Kerr injured herself in a warm-up on the eve of the Women’s World Cup, the nation’s attention has been squarely focused on the striker’s left calf. The hopes of 26 million people resting on two muscles: the gastrocnemius and the soleus.
Kerr-watch has been a rollercoaster of emotions. At first there was anger in some quarters over the way the news had been withheld, after Kerr attended a press conference 24 hours ahead of the Matildas’ opening match and did not say a word about being absent. Then came hope – the Matildas are a team of 23, they insisted, and the squad would step up in their captain’s absence.
Denmark brace for Matildas’ captain Sam Kerr and big crowd in World Cup last 16
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Next came despair. A shock loss to Nigeria left Australia on the verge of an early exit – the prospect of failing to reach the knockout round, for the first time since 2003, at this historic co-hosted World Cup. Then came relief – Kerr was back, she declared two days before the team’s final group stage encounter against Canada.
Uncertainty followed, after coach Tony Gustavsson was non-committal about her availability for the must-win clash. Even in the hour leading up to kick-off, Australia was preoccupied with Kerr’s status – she was on the bench, but available, Gustavsson had said. But then Kerr failed to warm-up, despite sporting bright pink boots.
All that in just 12 days – a minor national obsession with no clear resolution. What did it all mean – the pronouncement of fitness, the lack of warming up? If Australia were chasing the do-or-die match with half an hour on the clock, would Kerr become a super-sub?
We will never know the answer to that question (Gustavsson suggested afterwards that she was fit for a limited role). The Matildas blew Canada away, earning a week’s rest before they face Denmark on Monday. But such was the calibre of the victory, it now leaves the Matildas with a dilemma: how does Kerr return to the line-up, without disturbing the formation that delivered the team’s most comprehensive win in World Cup history?
The Chelsea striker is expected to be fit to play against Denmark, although a full health update may not be forthcoming until match-day, given the mind games Gustavsson has so far deployed. The safest option would be to bring Kerr off the bench midway through the second half; that would manage her minutes, allow the line-up that played so brilliantly against Canada to remain intact, and offer firepower late in the game. Kerr might come on for Emily van Egmond, with Mary Fowler dropping back slightly.
If Kerr is fit to start and Gustavsson considers the importance of the clash warrants her inclusion from the first whistle, then the Swedish coach will have a difficult decision to make. In the pre-tournament warm-up match against France, the Matildas played with Kerr and Caitlin Foord upfront together. But against Canada Foord was shifted to the left, where she combined to lethal effect with Arsenal teammate Steph Catley. Disrupting that partnership would seem ill-advised.
Another option would be for Kerr to start alongside Van Egmond or Fowler, with the other coming on as a replacement at the hour mark. Fowler has combined well with Kerr for the Matildas in the past, including during victories against England and the Czech Republic this year. Typically the Manchester City player drops deeper and plays through the space Kerr creates. But Van Egmond has offered plenty since rejoining the starting line-up against Nigeria, and brings plenty of big match experience.
There is, then, no clear-cut answer. Keeping Kerr on the bench, if she is fit to start, would be a bold gamble. So too would changing up a team that has just put four unanswered goals past a side ranked seventh in the world.
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Kyah Simon could make a long-awaited return for the Denmark game. Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
Kerr is not the only member of the attacking cavalry returning to the Matildas’ aid. Kyah Simon was picked in the squad despite still recovering from a long-term ACL injury, and was not expected to be available until later in the tournament. There have been hints that the veteran is getting closer to returning; probably as a late substitute if the Matildas are chasing the game.
Indeed Gustavsson has frequently referenced Simon’s penalty taking ability when defending the selection, suggesting she may be a 119th-minute addition to a game that goes down to the wire. Perhaps the Matildas remain scarred from the nightmare in Nice in 2019, when the team lost to Norway on penalties during the round of 16. Simon’s spot-kick ability serves as a safety blanket for the team.
The return of Kerr and possibly Simon bolster the Matildas’ attack at a critical moment, as they begin a sudden-death journey that could take them deep in the tournament. But the availability of Australia’s talismanic goalscorer also poses dilemmas for coach Gustavsson. The problem of integrating the “best striker in the world”, in the words of Denmark’s coach, is certainly a good problem to have. But it is a jigsaw puzzle nonetheless – a high-stakes one at that. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jun/29/jean-todt-bernie-ecclestone-f1-engine | Sport | 2015-06-29T17:56:05.000Z | Paul Weaver | Jean Todt clashes with Bernie Ecclestone over V6 engine | Bernie Ecclestone and Jean Todt, two of the biggest names in Formula One, have clashed over the former’s criticism of the sport’s 1.6-litre V6 power unit.
Ecclestone, the chief executive of the Formula One Group, described the engine introduced last year as “a shitty product”. But Todt, the president of the FAI, its ruling body, said: “If he has some complaints, which may be right, it’s something we should address internally and not make it public. All the credit and money he has got, he deserves it, but I would hope he will be more positive about the product [in the future].”
The two men have not always agreed on the direction F1 has taken. And Todt would also like to see the timing of races changed from lunchtime to early evening. He said: “Maybe we should decide that rather than the race at 1pm or 2pm in Europe during the summer, if you ask my opinion, I would prefer to have it at 6pm in the evening. That way people can then go to the beach, arrive home and see it.”
Referring to his relationship with Ecclestone, Todt added: “I know Bernie very well. I know he may tell you I am his best friend then five minutes later to somebody else I am the worst idiot he has met in his life. I live with that.
“The only thing is, I will not get into that. It just creates some unnecessary gossip. I don’t have any problems with him getting more involved, as he has to if it is bringing something on board.
“ If it is not constructive, you should not do it. But it is his style. Do I intend to change him? I don’t intend to change him.”
Ferrari, meanwhile, should call time on Kimi Raikkonen’s F1 career, according to his former team-mate, David Coulthard.
Raikkonen, world champion in 2007, was outclassed by his team-mate Fernando Alonso last year, when he failed to win a single podium place. He started this season in better form, and was second in Bahrain. But weak performances in the past two races, in Canada and Austria, have once again placed his drive under threat. And he is being outdriven by his team-mate once again – this time Sebastian Vettel.
“I think it’s time for change,” said Coulthard, who drove alongside Raikkonen for McLaren between 2002 and 2004. “I’m not anti-Kimi at all but having lived through that experience myself, there’s a point in your career where you just stop getting better.
“ It happened to me in my career. I was never the best driver, but there was certainly a point at the end where you just lose the edge. Right now if Kimi goes and wins the next race we’ll all be super-excited, because we need that. But Vettel’s come in and immediately established himself.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/14/red-faces-in-ireland-over-coronation-quips-by-leo-varadkar-partner | UK news | 2023-05-14T15:30:31.000Z | Rory Carroll | Red faces in Ireland over coronation quips by Leo Varadkar’s partner | When Ireland’s leaders attended the coronation of King Charles III, it was hailed as a milestone in relations between Dublin and London.
The Irish president, Michael D Higgins, the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and Sinn Féin’s deputy leader, Michelle O’Neill, set the precedent – their predecessors had shunned previous coronations – to show respect to their neighbour.
Varadkar’s partner, Matt Barrett, however, did not get the memo. In the VIP motorcade and in Westminster Abbey, he posted a series of irreverent comments on Instagram to his private group of more than 350 followers.
“Holy shit I think I’m accidentally crowned king of England,” he posted from the taoiseach’s car as they approached the abbey on 6 May.
The posts, reported in the Irish Times on Saturday, have embarrassed the government and landed Varadkar in a fresh diplomatic blunder.
Once inside the abbey, Barrett, a consultant cardiologist, ignored an injunction in the order-of-service booklet to switch off his phone and posted jokes and observations on the ceremony.
A paragraph from page 38 in the booklet caught his eye. “The queen’s sceptre and rod are brought from the altar by the Right Rev and Right Hon the Lord Chartres GCVO and the Right Rev Rose Hudson Wilkin CD MBE, Bishop of Dover. The queen touches them in turn,” it said.
Barrett posted a photo of it with a green line around the last sentence. “Sounds like the script to a good night out, tbh,” he said.
In the list of participants, he noted the Right Rev James Newcome, who has the title Clerk of the Closet. Barrett highlighted this, saying: “Had this job until my early 20s.”
Later he posted a photograph of Charles wearing his crown and compared it to the sorting hat in the Harry Potter books. “Was genuinely half expecting it to shout ‘GRYFFINDOR,’” he wrote.
Some commentators said Varadkar, who caused a flap in March by joking about Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, had not added to the Irish delegation’s dignity by being filmed picking his nose.
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“Their morning went from Hankiegate to Instagate,” said the Irish Times columnist Miriam Lord. Barrett’s interventions undercut the attempt to apply post-Brexit balm to diplomatic relations, she said. “Strange behaviour from someone who is there as the guest of the person representing Ireland at this important state occasion and whose presence is seen as a symbolic gesture marking this state’s improved relationship with Britain.”
The taoiseach’s office made no immediate response.
Paul Costelloe, an Irish designer with links to the royal family, told the Sunday Independent the comments were insulting to Britain. “You can say it’s amusing but it’s just terrible,” he said. “Obviously, Matthew thought it was a great joke.”
Costelloe urged Barrett to apologise and said Varadkar should have told his partner to turn off his phone. The British now had material to say the Irish did not know how to behave in such circumstances, he said. “I just hope the English press don’t get hold of it.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/17/tiktok-children-exposed-to-spicy-adult-fiction-booktok-influencers | Books | 2024-02-17T17:41:20.000Z | Lucy Knight | Children exposed to ‘spicy’ adult fiction by BookTok influencers | Parents, publishers and booksellers have generally welcomed “BookTok”, the videos on TikTok promoting literature. In an age when many worry about children spending too much time in front of a screen, reading has become “cool” on the platform.
But a trend for “spicy” (ie sexy) books has led to fears children may be reading titles with adult content.
Romance fiction is the genre most discussed on the app, with users referring to tropes such as “enemies to lovers” or “forbidden love”.
Many of the books popular with BookTokkers, such as Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series, are aimed at teenagers. Other titles, such as the Maple Hill Series by Hannah Grace, The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood and The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas, have adult themes.
These books have pastel covers with cute cartoonish drawings, so some adults might mistake them for young adult fiction and not realise exactly what children are reading.
Young-adult author Alexandra Christo said: “There is a rise of younger readers engaging with ‘new adult’ or adult books because now it is easier to find them with the success of social media marketing.
“A greater issue is the definition of what is or isn’t an adult book has been blurred with many books using marketing based on similar tropes across audiences, making things confusing for potential readers.
“When clips and content are often short, focusing on fun tropes without getting into real specifics, it’s hard to know who the intended audience is for any given book.”
Going under the name @lunaalovegood.hp is one popular ‘BookTokker’
Schools have become aware teenagers are being drawn to such books, and at least one London headteacher has written to parents urging them to check whether their children are reading age-appropriate books.
Booksellers have also been trying to make clear when books contain adult content. On the Waterstones online listing of Icebreaker, the first in Grace’s Maple Hill Series, the first review is by one of the shop’s booksellers and says that the novel is a “Spicy romance for readers 18+”.
US retailer Target includes a “parental info” tab in its listing. “Parents need to know that Icebreaker is a light college romance with a lot of very graphic, detailed descriptions of sex between main characters,” the description reads. It goes on to list the sexual acts that are described in the novel, as well as listing some of the expletive terms used and other content warnings such as a character’s disordered eating.
BookTokker Jasmin Mann said: “Books often go viral on BookTok with a mass of creators sharing what they love about the books and one of the key describers is ‘spicy’. But there is a sliding scale of what that means.”
Her own first exposure to “spice” was through the books she read as a teenager. “Coming from an Indian background, it’s not often discussed so my books were my only real exposure to it. So as long as creators and publishers are proactively indicating just how spicy a book is, I don’t think exposure is a bad thing,” she said.
Christo said she has noticed “a surge” in teens asking for content warnings and “spice ratings” (usually using chilli emojis). “Rather than seeing teens recommend spicy books, I’m seeing more and more asking for books with less spice,” Christo said.
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Thriller writer and journalist Kat Rosenfield criticised a bookseller on X last year for sharing a video offering alternatives to teenage readers who want to read adult books. “Imagine being a normal teenage girl, just trying to buy some good old-fashioned smut” and “getting shooed out of the romance section”, she tweeted.
“It’s normal and healthy for teenagers to be interested in sex, and there’s no safer way to explore that interest than by reading stories about it,” she added. “The problem is not the kids who are reading spicy books. It’s the ones who don’t – or can’t – read at all.”
Grace and Armas’s UK publisher Simon & Schuster said: “It is important to us that our books find their way to the right readers, and we’re conscious of age-appropriateness as part of that. We include warnings of explicit content and make it clear when books are for adult readers.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/may/21/card-automated-payments-overtake-cash-first-time-payments-council | Money | 2015-05-20T23:01:06.000Z | Hilary Osborne | Card and automated payments overtake cash transactions for the first time | Cash was overtaken by other payment methods for the first time last year, according to figures – but it remains king with consumers, despite innovations that make it easier to pay online and by card.
The Payments Council said businesses, consumers and financial organisations together made 18.3bn cash payments during the year, versus 19.8bn non-cash payments. Cash payments made up 48% of the number of transactions, with automated and card payments accounting for the rest.
Overall debit cards accounted for 24% of payments, followed by direct debits, at 10%. Cheques, at one point predicted to die out entirely, still accounted for 2% of the market.
However, among consumers taken alone cash remains the most popular way to pay, despite the continued roll-out of contactless payments and other innovations which make it easier to dispense with notes and coins.
Private individuals were responsible for 99% of the cash payments made during the year and chose coins and notes for 52% of their transactions recorded by the Payments Council. They made 26% of purchases on debit cards.
While 1.6 million consumers predominantly used cash, representing 3.1% of all adults, there were 2.3 million consumers who rarely used it. Nearly 40% of those who depended on cash were aged 65 or older, while half of those who used it infrequently were aged under 35.
A quarter of all cash payments by consumers were for a value of £1 or less, while 56% were for £5 or less.
The organisation, which represents the payments industry, said it had not expected cash to be overtaken by non-cash payments until next year, and it forecast that by 2024 it would be used for just 30% of payments.
Figures from the cash machine network Link showed the number of ATMs across the UK increased in 2014 to a new peak of 69,382, of which 50,506 were free to use. Cash machines were used 2.8bn times during the year to withdraw a total of £189bn.
David Hensley, director of payments industry body Cash Services, said: “Cash remains a vital part of our day-to-day lives and is still the most attractive or only option in lots of situations. We continue to value notes and coins so highly for their familiarity and widespread acceptance.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/11/boy-better-know-at-wireless-review-grime-pharrell-skepta | Music | 2016-07-11T12:21:10.000Z | Sam Wolfson | Boy Better Know at Wireless review – grime breaks through the festival headline barrier | Britain’s grime scene, once viewed as a resolutely underground endeavour with little commercial potential, has, over the last couple of years, seen all kinds of surprising success stories, from Stormzy’s chart hits to Beyoncé dancing to Skepta on her tour. Yet it is still a major milestone for Boy Better Know, grime’s most successful crew, to be headlining a festival of 50,000 people. Wireless might not be the most prestigious event this summer, but it normally draws huge US stars such as Drake, Kanye and Rihanna. This show has the potential to be a cultural moment akin to Jay Z headlining Glastonbury in 2008: a subculture moving into the British mainstream.
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BBK, as their fans and merchandise call them, formed in 2005 from the embers of grime crew Meridian Gang. They have, at various points, been a T-shirt brand, a record label and a mobile phone network. But in its current form, it is an amorphous collective led by two of grime’s biggest stars, brothers JME and Skepta, as well as founding members Jammer, Shorty, Frisco and other artists from the scene who are keen to collaborate.
That means the set takes a kind of school concert format. JME runs through Man Don’t Care, a track full of impressive lyrical somersaults from his recent album, before joining Lethal Bizzle for a wild’ n’ out performance of 2004’s Pow! (Forward), a song so riotous it was infamously banned from being played in some nightclubs. After 90 seconds or so, Skepta emerges from behind an onstage public telephone box (the 00s kind, which you could send texts from) to perform That’s Not Me, his 2014 smash hit credited with reviving the genre.
Pharrell Williams and Skepta perform at Wireless festival, London. Photograph: Joseph Okpako/WireImage
And so it goes on, taking a tour through grime’s greatest hits from the past 15 years. Despite rumours of a Drake appearance, the show is thin on big guest turns. Yes, Pharrell comes out to initial screams, but his verse on Skepta album track Numbers is low on energy. Yet when lower-level BBK member Solo45 comes out to do his garish football track Feed ’Em to the Lions, there is pandemonium.
The setting is not perfect. Grime thrives in enclosed spaces and the claustrophobic crush of the crowd. It’s somewhat unconvincing hearing Skepta rap, “It ain’t safe on the block, especially for the cops” with a neon lit “PIZZA AND GARLIC BREAD” sign behind him. The necessities of a main-stage set – synchronised graphics and a strict curfew – also prevent wheel-ups (a mainstay of a grime set where a song is cut after a couple of lines and played again from the start to increase anticipation) and the kind of spontaneous freestyles that can make live grime feel like alchemy.
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Still, you feel a bit bowled over by the occasion rather than the specific performances. A few years ago it was difficult to put a grime show on in London, as police would use form 696 which asked what type of music genre was being performed, which in effect closed down grime gigs hours before they were supposed to start. Now there are so many people watching JME perform tracks he only released on his Myspace that three huge screens and a disabled viewing platform are required.
Most hearteningly, the biggest hits of the night are songs that have rarely bothered late-night radio, never mind the charts. Spaceship Freestyle, a track that first emerged in 2005 as a pirate radio rip, sends limbs flying, thousands of gun fingers in the air, with home counties teenagers mugging like they were in a Snoop Dogg video. Murkle Man, from the same year, is treated in the same way the Eagles would treat Hotel California – with fireworks, special graphics and huge cheers of appreciation from the crowd. There’s a unifying feeling that everyone here must have downloaded the same mixtapes and hunted out the same YouTube rips. What was once a solo bedroom experience tonight becomes a mass congregation.
The highlight comes on the last song, Skepta’s Man, a song about staying friends with the people you grew up with and not bothering with the new ones that come as a result of fame. As the opening bars ring out, the stage is rushed with performers, friends and friends of friends. Apparently BBK had 140 people on their guestlist, and most of them appear to be on stage, all bellowing the refrain: “I only socialise with the crew and the gang.” Squad goals indeed. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jan/12/junior-doctors-strike-begins | Society | 2016-01-12T12:29:20.000Z | Jessica Elgot | BMA tells striking junior doctors to defy Sandwell hospital orders to return | Junior doctors were told to defy orders from a West Midlands hospital to return to their wards just two hours into a strike because of pressure on services.
In the first strike by hospital doctors in 40 years, as many as 38,000 members of the British Medical Association (BMA) across England began the action at 8am on Tuesday. The 24-hour strike over a new pay and working hours contract proposed by the government has meant hospitals have rescheduled about 4,000 non-emergency operations, 13% of the normal daily total.
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The doctors have agreed to provide emergency care for the first of two planned strikes this month but have threatened to withdraw those services in a third strike in February.
Within two hours of the start of the strike, Sandwell hospital in West Bromwich said it had declared a level four incident and told its junior doctors they must attend work. The BMA, however, said they should refuse to do so until the seriousness of the situation had been established through the correct process.
The hospital later stood down its request for doctors to return and said the order from the trust had not been politically motivated.
The original letter from the trust, dated Monday, told doctors rostered on for Tuesday that they should report for duty and said the hospital was already at escalation level four. “There are over 50 additional adult beds open with further medical outliers in surgery,” it said.
Letter to junior doctors from Sandwell Hospital: pic.twitter.com/dFolyXQyVz
— Shaun Lintern (@ShaunLintern) January 12, 2016
Dr Roger Stedman, medical director at Sandwell and West Birmingham hospitals NHS trust, said Sandwell had had very high numbers of patients come to the hospital, and fewer than usual discharged. Staff striking at Birmingham City hospital were unaffected, he added.
Several junior doctors working for the trust questioned why the situation had been labelled an emergency, other than to undermine strike action.
“We received the letter emailed to us this morning, but it was dated yesterday and it said the situation had been ongoing for some days,” one doctor, who wished to remain anonymous, said. “We were not called in at the weekends to provide extra cover to discharge patients, so why are we getting called in now?
“This kind of situation happens all the time, especially in winter, over the whole NHS,” he continued. “You’d expect it to happen several times a year. It’s not at all unusual. I would imagine it’s the same situation with hospitals across the country. So it’s odd that this has happened to junior doctors on the day of the strike, when the issue of discharges has been going on for a few days.”
Doctors and supporters outside Sandwell hospital. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Dr Anne De Bray, who has worked at the hospital for a year, said: “My first reaction was to cry when they called us back in.
“It’s been well planned. They said they would call us individually if they needed us to come back into work. Instead they’ve emailed us a letter that was dated yesterday, 15 minutes before our picket line was due to start.
“I just think they’ve not done it through the proper channels. If there had been a major incident like a terrorist attack or road accident we would drop our placards and head in.”
Another junior doctor, who did not want to be named, added: “It is disgraceful they’ve tried to trick us back into work. The sad thing is some doctors would have fallen for it and gone back in. There is no major incident. It is just busy, which they have known about for a long time so they had plenty of time to put arrangements in place.”
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The BMA advised doctors not to return to work unless there was “a major unpredictable incident ... taking place for a specific trust.”
Shortly after 4pm, the hospital’s chief executive, Toby Lewis, said the hospital had managed to cope with the increased numbers and said he had agreed to stand down the requests for trainees to come in.
Sandwell has fiercely denied it has any political motivation. “The trust is not party to the national dispute in any way,” Lewis said.
“The decisions made were made locally, and based on judgments about current and foreseeable pressure – a recognised basis for incident management. It would be irresponsible to wait for a position that was not recoverable and then act.”Earlier, Prof Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS medical director, told hospitals they should order doctors back to work if services became dangerously overstretched.
In a letter to NHS trusts published by the Telegraph, Keogh said on Monday that doctors should be told to return if there was an “exceptional and sustained deterioration in performance”, which the BMA said was meddling with doctors’ right to strike.
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Dr Johann Malawana, the chair of the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee, said Keogh’s letter was a “last-minute, inept and heavy-handed attempt to bully junior doctors lawfully taking industrial action back into work”.
The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, told the BBC he was disappointed the strikes had gone ahead. “This is a wholly unnecessary dispute,” he said. “We want all NHS patients to have the confidence that they will get the same high-quality care every day of the week.
“At the moment, if you have a stroke at the weekends, you’re 20% more likely to die. That cannot be right. The right thing to do is to sit round the table and talk to the government about how we improve patient safety and patient care, not these very unnecessary strikes.”
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, urged ministers to apologise for the failure to avert a strike. In a post on Facebook, he wrote: “No NHS worker takes lightly the decision to strike, but the blame must be laid at the door of this government for the way it has treated doctors and now seeks to smear them in the press. It is time for this government to apologise to junior doctors and negotiate a fair deal that gets our NHS working again.”
A junior doctor holds her baby and a placard outside Kings College hospital in London. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images
Sir Robert Francis QC, who led the inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire scandal and is a non-executive director of the Care Quality Commission, said industrial action would compromise patient safety.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The only way that matters can be solved for doctors and patients is for talks to continue and for emergency care not to be withdrawn.”
Francis also said the government should listen to doctors and explain their offer more clearly.
“I quite understand why many of them [doctors] feel angry. They need to be listened to. One thing I would ask is done is that a better explanation is given to them all as to what the effects of any offer being made on them is personally. I’m not entirely confident that that has yet happened.”
The BMA said it had been forced to act after ministers refused to heed its concerns that the new contract proposed by Hunt would be unfair on doctors and compromise patient safety. About 98% of its members backed strike action in a ballot in November.
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They are opposed to Hunt’s plan to classify Saturday as part of a junior doctor’s normal working week, for which they are paid at only the basic rate. He also wants to see weekday evening hours classified as normal time extended from 7pm to 10pm, but junior doctors fear this will lead to cuts in their pay.
Junior doctors are striking for us all – to save the NHS and to make a stand
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Hunt has offered to raise junior doctors’ basic pay by 11% to offset the loss of overtime they currently earn for working in the evening and on Saturdays, and has promised that no junior doctor will be worse off under the new contract, which is due to start in August.
A new opinion poll suggests that despite Hunt’s efforts to portray the walkout as politically motivated and based on misinformation from the BMA, the public is largely behind the strike. An Ipsos Mori poll for the Health Service Journal found that 66% of 869 people support action such as that planned on Tuesday – in which juniors due on duty in emergency care still turn up to work – with only 16% completely against.
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said that while she sympathised with the junior doctors, industrial action would cause “a great deal of distress for many patients, who continue to be caught in the middle of this dispute”.
She urged the BMA and ministers to resume talks as soon as possible to agree a deal before the second of three planned strikes, from 26 to 28 January. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/29/keir-starmer-support-politician-national-mood | Opinion | 2021-09-29T17:29:37.000Z | Aditya Chakrabortty | Now we know: Keir Starmer won’t generate a surge of support | Keir Starmer’s speech this afternoon was billed as his “make or break”, his “turnaround” moment, the biggest hour of his career. As if it would be the talk of the school gates, top of the agenda at every Wetherspoon’s.
As if. In a week when there have been punch-ups on forecourts and soldiers readied to drive petrol tankers, a 90-minute soliloquy by any opposition politician is barely going to register in the public consciousness. That is perfectly natural; far more troubling is how little the public’s concerns impinged on the consciousness of anyone in the conference hall.
The Labour leader rattled through a perfunctory list of the factors behind the giant cost-of-living squeeze – fuel bills, empty supermarket shelves, the imminent cut to universal credit – and blamed the lot on the government, while giving little indication of what he would do differently. Then he settled back into the well-worn patter of failing Labour leaders, from Gordon Brown to Jeremy Corbyn: conference, let me tell you who I am.
For their part, most delegates dutifully stood and applauded every couple of minutes, alternating with hecklers. It was a kind of pantomime, in which Starmer put in a decent performance in front of an audience visibly wishing him well. It should garner him kindly headlines, but it will be long forgotten by the time Boris Johnson opens his mouth next week in Manchester.
“It will not take another election defeat for the Labour party to become an alternative government,” declared Starmer. Yet no one I’ve spoken to in his party – whether on its right wing or its left, whether MPs or advisers or council leaders – expects him to win the next election.
“It is Schrödinger’s cat,” one of Labour’s most powerful local government bosses told me after watching his leader on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday. “He is asked about an election that he will never win, and refuses to disclose policies that he will never enact.”
What we have seen in Brighton most of this week is not a Labour army preparing for almighty battle, for bloody noses and crack’d crowns. It is a party caught plotting, looking past its current leader and idly eyeing up possible replacements. “Make or break?” said one seasoned MP and a former frontbencher. “He’s already broken. He has been since losing Hartlepool, only just getting over the line in Batley and then getting buried in Amersham,” he said of the three spring byelections.
Outside the conference hall Starmer is a loser, runs the argument, so he must be a goner. And on both wings of the party, they sigh: we never imagined he could be so bad at politics.
Such pre-emptive obituaries of a politician only a year into the top job are rather too definite. The next few weeks could prove crucial in shaping our politics. Just after the benefit cuts and end of furlough comes what could be a tough budget and spending round.
Given how close these events are and how profound they will prove, Starmer should have spent a lot more time addressing them. At a time when it’s as hard to score a gallon of diesel as it is to see your GP, and even friendly newspapers implore the prime minister to “prenez un Grip”, Johnson is by no means guaranteed his longed-for decade at Number 10. Nevertheless, it is now impossible to imagine his Labour counterpart ever commanding a surge of enthusiasm or interest, even from the ground troops who will eventually go door-knocking for him. The top seafront attractions this week have been a past leader, in Jeremy Corbyn, the deputy leader (Angela “scum” Rayner) and a would-be leader (Andy Burnham).
The great ghost haunting Labour this week was that of a leader who left almost a decade and a half ago. Starmer now has Tony Blair’s speechwriter, one of his communications officials and his great consigliere, Peter Mandelson. The references to Blairism in Starmer’s speech got increasingly arch. “Education is so important I am tempted to say it three times!” ran one joke. For the Blairites, the secret to electoral success is to be seen to be antagonising your own party. Those advisers will have been rubbing their hands each time a heckler shouted about nurses’ pay.
The observers who have wondered this week just why the leader is fussing about party rules rather than fuel bills, and attacking Corbyn not Johnson, miss the point – this is how Starmer’s team believes the electorate will be won over. It is what they call “doing a Kinnock”, a reference to Mandelson’s first boss in politics. Except it didn’t win any elections for Neil, and it won’t for Keir.
Nobody has outlined the dangers of this strategy better than the late Stuart Hall. In his classic essay, The Crisis of Labourism, written in 1984 shortly after Neil Kinnock was elected Labour leader, Hall noted that the new man “shows little sign as yet of becoming a popular political force, as opposed to a (not very successful) electoral machine. Apart from the issue of the health service,[he] has shown little understanding of the need to confront the real basis of Thatcher populism in the country at large… [Kinnock] has no feel for the language and concerns of the new social movements, and that is dangerous.” Without that, warned Hall, Labour would ossify into mere bureaucracy.
Swap Kinnock for Starmer and Thatcher for Johnson, and you have about as good a summary of our moment as any that will be published this week. The great paradox is that it is Old Etonian Johnson who sits atop a social movement. He has morphed the Tory party into the Brexit party, his regime feeds off the splenetic energy of talk radio, and his advisers know precisely which stories to feed the Telegraph’s desire for competitive victimhood.
Never mind that this is a party funded by shadow bankers and trumpeted by media oligarchs, and whose core voter is a wealthy pensioner in the home counties; Johnson wants to build a hegemony that stretches up through the Midlands to the north-east, and whose chief identity is a post-Brexit, weaponised Englishness.
He acts the tousle-haired insurgent. Starmer, by contrast, spends his days auditioning for the role of red-faced, purse-lipped manager, perennially disappointed in us, his ungrateful customers. “Labour is under new management,” he declared last summer. At times today, it felt as though we were sitting through the best speech ever delivered by the head of the Crown Prosecution Service. But a politician’s speech, reading the mood of the moment or weaving his own story into that of the country? Not that.
Leave aside the obvious irony of the party of Labour bragging about its managerial “competence”, it is badly out of sync with both the realities and the rhetoric of the “fuck business” era. Starmer rules out nationalisations; the Tory government takes over yet another rail firm. A Survation poll presented at Brighton shows that 69% of potential Labour voters agree that “the economy is rigged against ordinary people”, while 74% want more public ownership of assets. These voters would run a mile from anything termed “radical”, but in practice those are the policies they pick. The mood for what the LSE professor Jonathan Hopkin terms “anti-system politics” is still very much alive. Sadly it is being served by Johnson’s Tories, not Starmer’s Labour. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/14/facebook-george-soros-pr-firm-discredit-critics-crisis | Technology | 2018-11-15T03:25:19.000Z | Julia Carrie Wong | Facebook reportedly discredited critics by linking them to George Soros | Facebook hired a PR firm that attempted to discredit the company’s critics by claiming they were agents of the billionaire George Soros, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Soros is a Jewish philanthropist who is the frequent subject of antisemitic conspiracy theories. At the same time, the social media company urged the Anti-Defamation League to object to a cartoon used by anti-Facebook protesters over its resemblance to antisemitic tropes.
News of Facebook’s aggressive attempts to undermine critics came in a damning report by the New York Times, detailing how Facebook executives have struggled to manage the numerous and severe challenges confronting the company, all while lashing out at critics and perceived enemies.
Facebook threatens democracy, says Soros-backed foundation
Read more
Rashad Robinson, the executive director of one of the groups targeted by the PR campaign, Color of Change, called the antisemitic smear “outrageous and concerning”.
Amid growing pressure from lawmakers over its role in Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Facebook increasingly turned to Definers Public Affairs, a Washington DC based political consultancy founded by Republican operatives and specializing in opposition research, according to the report.
One of Definers’ tactics was to publish dozens of negative articles about other tech companies, including Google and Apple, in order to try to distract attention from Facebook’s public relations woes. Definers published the content on NTKNetwork.com, a website that looks like a news site but is actually run by the PR firm. The narratives pushed on NTK Network were often picked up by conservative sites such as Breitbart.
Another tactic was to cast Soros as the driving force behind groups critical of Facebook. The firm circulated a research document connecting Soros to “a broad anti-Facebook movement”, the Times reported, and pressed reporters to look into financial links between Soros and groups such as Freedom from Facebook and Color of Change.
Soros, who was born in Hungary in 1930 and made a vast fortune as an investor, is a major funder of liberal and pro-democratic causes. He has long been the target of antisemitic attacks from the rightwing fringes, but such conspiracy mongering has been increasingly adopted by mainstream Republicans.
The anti-Soros drumbeat reached something of a fever pitch in the weeks before the midterm elections, as conservative politicians and news outlets advanced baseless allegations that he was behind a caravan of Central American migrants traveling through Mexico. Soros was one of the targets of a rash of mail bombs that were sent to critics of Donald Trump in October.
George Soros has been the frequent target of antisemitic conspiracy theories. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Joe Gabriel Simonson, a reporter for the rightwing news site the Daily Caller, tweeted on Wednesday that he had been urged to include “bring up Soros/‘Soros tactics’” in an article about Facebook earlier this year.
“The PR guy did keep bringing up Soros,” Simonson wrote. “This was like 6 months ago too so it was even odder.”
Robinson, whose organization has run online campaigns criticizing Facebook over racial discrimination in housing ads, privacy and surveillance, racist hate speech, and other issues, said he was deeply troubled by the report.
“This narrative has really dangerous antisemitic undertones about Jewish people controlling the world,” Robinson told the Guardian by phone. “It’s also deeply anti-black – the idea that our strategies, our ideas, our vision are somehow built off some puppet master … That Facebook would employ a rightwing firm to say that is deeply troubling.”
Color of Change is a not-for-profit civil rights organization. It receives some money from Soros, Robinson said, in addition to many other funders, including Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz’s foundation, the Open Philanthropy Project. Robinson also said that over the past year, he has been asked numerous times by journalists about funding from Soros.
“No one at the end of a call says, ‘Are you funded by the Ford Foundation?’” Robinson said.
Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.
Soros has been openly critical of Facebook and Google. “The internet monopolies have neither the will nor the inclination to protect society against the consequences of their actions,” he said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. “That turns them into a menace and it falls to the regulatory authorities to protect society against them.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/may/03/obituaries.anneperkins | Politics | 2002-05-03T17:30:12.000Z | Anne Perkins | Barbara Castle: Obituary | Barbara Castle, Labour's Red Queen, the woman Michael Foot called 'the best Socialist minister we've ever had', has died, aged 91.
Clever, sexy and single-minded, author of some of the best political diaries of her time, she was the most important female politician the Labour movement has yet produced, a unique witness to and participant in the 20th century history of the left.
From the pre-war unity campaign against fascism via the early issues of Tribune to the Bevanites in the 50s, taking in Cyprus and the Hola camps in Kenya,and climaxing in the heart of Harold Wilson's government she was an unflagging champion of an ethical socialism which she believed should shape every aspect of life. She was the leading woman of the left who, in one of the ironies of 20th century politics, paved the way for Margaret Thatcher, the leading woman of the right, to capture the commanding heights of government.
In a political career which began with the miners' lock-outs of the early 1920s and only ended with her death yesterday, she combined a hard-headed pragmatism without compromising a passionate belief in the transforming power of socialism. Her ambition, she said, was 'to inch people towards a more civilised society'. She was brave and determined, the heart throb of the constituency labour parties for nearly 30 years, but her career foundered on an inability to master the key political skill of building support where it counted, in the parliamentary party. She claimed to find making political alliances demeaning; her critics found her wearisomely egocentric. Even her friends distrusted her temper.
The last five years brought her an Indian summer of popular favour as her distaste for Blairism made her the heroine of the same right-wing press which cheered her departure from the Cabinet in 1976.
Barbara Anne Betts grew up in the secure environment of a family with a need for belief. The socialism of the independent labour party was the main, but not the only, religion of the household. Her mother Annie, a Labour councillor, was a devotee of the romantic William Morris; her father, Frank, was a tax inspector, a poetry-writing intellectual who filled the columns of the The Pioneer - the journal of the Independent Labour Party which he edited in the late 1920s and early 30s - with art criticism and politics in equal measure. He nurtured young talent like Vic Feather, thus enabling the future general secretary of the TUC to dismiss Barbara, when she was Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity fighting her doomed battle for trade union reform, as 'a lass he knew when she was still in dirty knickers'.
Although she was never untruthful about her own past, it was rather less proletarian than she would have liked for a party suspicious of middle class intellectuals. She toiled through Bradford girls' grammar school, and followed her older, more brilliant, sister Marjorie to Oxford (there was also a brother, Tristram), where she made the daring choice of sex and practical politics over economics and philosophy. She graduated with a third class degree and a sense of intellectual inadequacy which drove her to work with almost damaging diligence throughout her political career.
Determined to be a journalist and a politician, the Depression forced her briefly to earn a living selling dried fruit from a mobile display in a Manchester store while, in her free time, setting out to save the Labour Party from the betrayal of Ramsay MacDonald's National Government. Soon after Oxford Barbara fell in love with the leading Socialist intellectual and journalist, William Mellor. He was married with a young child, but for more than ten years, they pursued a tempestuous, semi-public affair, their passion spent equally between each other and the politics of the Left. But although she knew of the affair, Mellor could never bring himself to leave his wife. He died, suddenly, in 1942.
Barbara found other friends, notably her immediate junior at Oxford, Michael Foot. Later, Foot happily indicated they shared more than Marx and Dickens in front of the gas fire of a small flat in Bloomsbury, but she angrily denied there had ever been an affair and Foot, professing mild surprise, loyally retracted.
Together, in 1937, they helped launch Tribune, which was edited by Mellor until he fell out with Tribune's financial backer, Sir Stafford Cripps. The paper whose declared mission was to recreate Labour as a truly socialist party, was also Cripps' personal contribution to the left's campaign against rearmament and in favour of a united front against fascism, and it was soon in sustained conflict with the leadership which in turn was increasingly making common cause with the Churchill wing of the Conservative Party. Cripps sent Barbara off to Moscow, from where she reported, without irony, on the new assurance of Russian women in the age of Stalin.
Determined not even war could interrupt her pursuit of a political career, she rejected more exotic offers to became a temporary civil servant while she hunted for a parliamentary seat. In 1943, she made her first speech to party conference, accusing the leadership - accurately - of preparing to compromise on the timing of the implementation of the Beveridge report. "We want jam today, not jam tomorrow," she warned.
It was a popular cry on the Daily Mirror. Its night editor was Ted Castle: he put the story on the front page. After a courtship of proselytising together for Beveridge on street corners and in parish halls, they were married and stayed so, through some rough times, for 34 years.
In 1944, after a mutiny by the women in the party who insisted that at least one woman candidate be interviewed, she was selected for one of the two Blackburn seats, beating three men for a constituency she represented until her retirement from Westminster in 1979.
As soon as she got to Westminster, Sir Stafford Cripps asked her to be one of his parliamentary aides. Attlee notoriously underpromoted young and left-wing politicians, and when Cripps moved on from the Board of Trade to take over as Chancellor, she was left behind to work for his successor, Harold Wilson. She often disapproved of Wilson's rapacious ambition, but it was the start of the most important political relationship in her life. She nominated him for the leadership when he challenged Gaitskell unsuccessfully in 1960 and again when he won, after Gaitskell's death in 1963.
When Labour was finally returned to power in 1964, her reputation was for division within the party and personal vituperation against enemies outside it. Probably the only leader who would still have given her a department to run was her old friend Harold Wilson. He squeezed her into his first cabinet at the Department of Overseas Development - a department whose creation she had often advocated - and gave her the opportunity to reinvent herself, at the age of 53, as one of the most effective Cabinet ministers of her generation.
With no ministerial experience and a department to be chiselled from the stoney faces of the Foreign, Colonial and Commonwealth Offices, she sent her private office staff round to the Fabian Society to collect every available copy of a pamphlet she had written on international development and instructed them to treat it as a blueprint. Within a year, she had successfully established her department and secured its budget, and demonstrated a flair for the photo-opportunity desperately needed by a government already wracked by internal tensions and an economy in crisis.
Wilson promoted her to the Department of Transport (even though she couldn't drive) where her dominant traits as a minister became clearer: she demanded total support from her civil servants ñ in a very public battle of wills, much effort was devoted to trying to move her permanent secretary, Sir Thomas Padmore; she had a good eye for what was both desirable and achievable, and the left's unshakeable belief in the power of government to plan from the centre. In her two and a half years at Transport, she transformed the culture of motoring with the introduction of the breathalyser and the seatbelt.
But with the economy still perilously fragile despite the devaluation of 1966, Labour was locked in its long and ultimately failed attempt to control inflation while maintaining full employment. A pay policy was unavoidable, but equally unpopular.
Wilson wanted Barbara to bring her dynamism and popularity to selling the pay restraint to an increasingly nervous PLP. He created a new department for her, Employment and Productivity. And she was brought into the heart of government as First Secretary, a title generously foregone by another political intimate, Dick Crossman. It was the pinnacle of her career and from it she heroically flung herself, convinced of her own rightness, down into the deep gulley of union reform.
Convinced a statutory pay policy was an instrument of socialism, a brake on the industrial might which won inflationary pay claims at the expense of the economy and of weaker unions, she was brought up short by trade unions which were totally resistant to any restraint on free collective bargaining.
Under pressure from the Tories and wrapped in an unshakeable confidence in the duty of government to bring order to the chaotic state of British industrial relations, Barbara attempted to deliver a socialist solution ("The trouble with Barbara is that she thinks anything she does is socialism," sniffed a contemporary.) In Place of Strife was the inflammatory title of a white paper which proved to be the most divisive attempt at legislation for 35 years. Although there were many worthy proposals intended to strengthen trade unions, all anyone saw were plans for compulsory strike ballots and a cooling off period, both to be underwritten by sanctions. Barbara, who believed she could make anyone love her given time, wanted a long evangelical campaign to build up popular support. Roy Jenkins, the Chancellor, was desperate for some reassuring morsel to feed the bankers hungrily circling the floundering pound. She was forced to accept a short bill to enact only the penal clauses.
In the face of a campaign illuminated by the startling duplicity of senior colleagues, including the then Home Secretary, James Callaghan, and an entirely hubristic challenge from the unions, pathfinding for the Thatcher assault on trade union rights ten years later, Barbara and Wilson rashly made the legislation an issue of confidence.
Egged on by an enthusiastic press (with the exception of the Guardian) Barbara took the battle to seaside resorts and spa towns around the country in a dramatic and hugely popular appeal to individual union conferences. In barrister's black, the taut passionate figure aroused the admiration of millions. But trade unionists, led by Vic Feather at the TUC , found her ignorant, inflexible and hectoring. Friends on the left could not understand why she was doing the Tories' work for them. And Wilson's more ambitious enemies - of whom there were many if never quite as many as he thought - planned for what they were sure was his imminent downfall.
There were genuine fears the party could be split into union-sponsored and independent MPs, another 1931. The Cabinet - ultimately even the chancellor - deserted the bill. Wilson and Barbara were forced into humiliating defeat behind a fig leaf "solemn and binding" agreement that the TUC and the unions would work together to try to restrain the unofficial strikes which were undermining economic recovery.
Barbara's stock crashed to earth. But the ramifications went far beyond personal disaster. The episode accelerated a renewed alienation between party activists and the leadership. Local parties became vulnerable to infiltration by Trotskyite groups like Militant preaching the politics of betrayal. The leadership of the left - never quite within Barbara's grasp - was now torn between Michael Foot and Tony Benn.
The unions, after Edward Heath's failed attempt at union legislation which was uncomfortably close to Barbaraís own, agreed the social contract, a promise of voluntary pay restraint in return for legislative favours from a future Labour government.
Back in power in 1974, Wilson loyally put Barbara - who had been thrown off the elected shadow cabinet in 1972 - into the Department of Health and Social Security. Here, in a period of government often overlooked, she launched a last effort to push back the frontiers of the welfare state.
But although it was marked by notable achievements like the introduction of Serps, the scheme for second pensions which was intended to transform the old age of millions of low-paid, she squandered her last political capital on an ideological battle over pay beds in the NHS. This time, the backbenches and the unions cheered her on. But it was at a heavy cost to the health service: at one stage all hospital doctors, from the most junior to the most senior, were involved in industrial action which closed accident and emergency wings and tainted industrial relations for years afterwards. Before she could bring in the legislation for which she had fought so hard, Wilson resigned. His successor, Jim Callaghan, sacked her with unexpected brutality and her pay bed reforms ran slowly into the sand. By 1979 only a quarter of all paybeds were phased out, while the private sector outside hospitals blossomed unrestrained.
There were other, more subtly achieved and lasting successes. Although she always rejected single issue politics as a distraction from socialism (like Margaret Thatcher, she was a politician who was also a woman - tough, flirtatious, vain, often hot tempered, capable of tears in moments of drama - rather than a woman politician) and she brutally dismissed recent attempts to make Westminster a kinder, gentler place, her most enduring achievements came on behalf of women. Equal pay was the most notable, slipped past a reluctant Roy Jenkins in a late night bid in 1970 to avert a backbench revolt. She won other vital concessions for women in pensions reforms. She introduced child benefit and insisted it went into the purse not the wallet.
Even when she gave up the Commons in 1979, she could not give up politics. After a lifetime's opposition to the European Union, she became the leader of the Labour group in the European parliament where for another ten years she harried commissioners on the Common Agriculture Policy before finally demanding a seat in the Lords of the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock. She remained an active and determined campaigner for pension rights (the Chancellor, Gordon Brown called her 'my mentor and my tormentor') and against animal cruelty until her final illness.
Her passion for politics was given full rein in her final incarnation as national treasure. As the figurehead and part-inspiration for the 1990s campaign to restore the link between pensions and earnings which she had introduced 20 years earlier, she finally won the near-universal applause of which she had so long dreamed.
Committed to the socialism of her youth, she hated what she thought Tony Blair was doing to the party. But her loyalty to the Labour movement was unfaltering. And contemporaries, infuriated by her single-minded and relentless pursuit of her objectives in government, recalled in the cosy glow of nostalgia her huge appetite both for life and for the fight, a woman who delighted in dancing with the enemy at night before spearing him with her invective the next day.
She and Ted, who died in 1979, had no children, but were devoted to their nieces and great nieces and nephews.
Barbara Anne Castle (Baroness Castle of Blackburn), born October 6 1910; died May 3rd 2001
Anne Perkins' biography of Barbara Castle will be published in autumn 2003 | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/oct/07/start-ethical-business-financially-successful-socially | Money | 2017-10-07T06:00:14.000Z | Donna Ferguson | Start your own ethical business – it could make a world of difference | When John Bird launched the Big Issue in 1991, he had no idea how to make money ethically – or how successful his magazine would turn out to be.
“I wanted to create a sustainable alternative to begging, crime and prostitution for people stuck on the streets,” he says. “But I was not a saintly person. I’d go out, get drunk and roll into the office late and stinking. I employed people who, like me, had a history of drugs, crime and violence, and some of them ripped us off. I blundered from one mistake to another.”
Within a year his backer, the Body Shop co-founder Gordon Roddick, had told him the magazine must break even or it would be shut down. “All these people who worked in advertising had told us they would buy loads of our ads – and they lied. So I decided to change the business model.”
He doubled the price of the magazine and cut his costs by reducing the size and quality of the paper it was printed on. He also made 10 people redundant. “We were top-heavy with homeless people who then didn’t turn up, would fight with each other or were too depressed to work. I realised I needed to mix up our homeless employees with professional people who had a good heart and could help us to build a sustainable business.”
Fast forward 26 years and the Big Issue is the most widely circulated street newspaper in the world with more than 200m copies sold. To date it has helped at least 92,000 homeless people earn more than £115m.
Ethical businesses usually value finance less than other businesses. But financial sustainability is paramount
If you have always dreamed of starting up an ethical business that, like the Big Issue, challenges perceptions and changes lives for the better, research indicates now may be a good time to do it. At £38bn, the UK’s ethical goods market has quadrupled in size since 2000, with sales rising by 8.5% a year. A third of consumers now choose to buy from brands they believe are doing social or environmental good, according to a recent study of 20,000 adults by Unilever that mapped participants’ claims against their actual purchase decisions.
Research published this week by Triodos Bank – to mark the start of Good Money Week, which kicks off on Sunday and runs until 14 October – found that two-thirds of investors would like their money to support profitable companies which make a positive contribution to society and the environment.
The advertising guru David Jones, author of Who Cares Wins: Why Good Business is Better Business, says the big drivers of the change in consumer attitudes are millennials, whom he calls “the most socially responsible generation that has ever existed”. Millennials are twice as likely as the overall investor population to invest in companies with social or environmental goals, according to Morgan Stanley, and nearly three-quarters are willing to spend more on a product if it comes from a sustainable brand, compared with two-thirds of the general population.
But making money ethically is no mean feat – as Bird knows only too well: “It’s easy to run a business that is honourable, ethical and unsustainable, but what’s the point of that?
“What we tried to do with the Big Issue was be as sustainable as possible. We knew people were relying on us for their livelihood … I made enormous mistakes, but I learned from them. Before you set up an ethical business you need to ask yourself: is this a business or a charity? Are you going to be both ethical and effective? Are you selling something people will buy?”
The Cafédirect chief executive, John Steel, says the key to running a successful ethical business is to recognise that it can be a force for good rather than a selfish deliverer of money for the few. “Usually, ethical businesses are less financially driven and value finance less than other businesses. But financial sustainability is paramount,” he says.
Colm Curran, director of the ethical English chocolate producer Seed and Bean, says recruiting people with the right attitude is a priority. “Your values need to be part of the culture and everyone, not just senior management, needs to buy into them. You have to stay true to your brand, which means doing a lot more work complying with regulations and vetting your supply chain. That costs time, effort and money, but it creates brand loyalty.”
Is it possible to be a landlord and make money ethically? Sarah Fishpool thinks so. She owns three buy-to-let properties and founded the Ethical Landlords Association in response to the growing housing crisis. “I found myself questioning whether I was doing the right thing in renting out my properties.”
She set up the association to promote an ethical approach to the rental sector by encouraging landlords to offer renters more security through longer tenancies and notice periods for good tenants. She is particularly against revenge evictions: “Tenants should not be given notice unless it’s for a sound reason like rent arrears, antisocial behaviour or a breach of the tenancy agreement.”
Members must sign up to the association’s charter. So far only 30 landlords have joined, but she is hoping more will do so over the next year. “There’s a perception that landlords are only out for themselves,” she says. “But many are ethical and compassionate people who recognise that a relationship of trust and mutual respect is of value to them and their tenants.”
Fishpool says landlords who treat tenants ethically will be rewarded with renters who pay on time and look after properties well. “I think the rental sector is needed. But landlords should respect the fact that their properties are their tenants’ homes and they have the right to feel happy and secure there.”
Organisations set up to promote ethical entrepreneurship include Power to Change, a charitable trust that supports and develops community businesses in England, and Big Issue Invest, a fund that social enterprises can apply to for finance. Bird says it is one of his proudest achievements, although he had never intended to blaze a trail for other social enterprises: “I was always out to destroy capitalism, not repair it.”
Now 71, Bird recently joined the House of Lords and is attempting to dismantle the root causes of poverty from within. “My aim is to be the itchy arse of the establishment and prevent the next generation of Big Issue vendors from ever existing.
“As far I’m concerned I’ve only moved an inch down the road over the past 26 years. I’ve not even got started yet.”
Green returns
Sophie Whyte: ‘It’s important to put your money in the right place, I think, because money drives change.’ Photograph: Mark Bickerdike Photography
Sunday 8 October marks the start of Good Money Week, an annual campaign to raise awareness about the benefits of making ethical investments.
“For me it is important to live sustainably and support the right kind of business,” says Sophie Whyte, a 37-year-old senior research fellow at the University of Sheffield.
She has put her savings into ethical Isas at Triodos Bank. “I’m saving to buy a nicer house,” she says.
As an avid rock climber, the natural world is very important to her. “It’s important to put your money in the right place, I think, because money drives change. My personal concerns are environmental – I cycle, and take the train to Europe when possible rather than flying – so I wanted my savings and investments to reflect that.”
Whyte has put most of her savings in a low-risk, ethical cash Isa earning 0.9%, and has more than doubled the £8,000 in her ethical stocks and shares Isa since 2013.
“I chose Triodos because I wanted an ethical bank that has an ethical approach,” she says.
“I found the process of choosing an ethical investment fund quite simple once I had made that decision.”
How it should be is how it is in Brighton
Staff outside the hiSbe store in Brighton. Photograph: hiSbe
When Ruth Anslow and her sister Amy came up with the idea of opening their own ethical community supermarket, hiSbe, in Brighton, they soon realised they needed help to make it happen.
“First we wrote a set of values for our business. Then we set up a website, Twitter account and blog, and used that to connect with people,” says Ruth. She researched the market for ethical food stores and asked owners of similar businesses for feedback on their business model. “There’s a spirit of generosity among ethical businesses. We’re not in competition – we’re all on the same page.”
After building up a following for the brand online, they realised crowdfunding would be a good way to launch the business. “We offered people vouchers they could only use in a store that didn’t yet exist and raised £30,000. Then we leveraged that support to win over other investors by demonstrating there was a customer base ready and waiting.”
The campaign also attracted the attention of John Bird’s old partner Roddick, who began mentoring the pair.
HiSbe, which stands for “how it should be”, opened its doors four years ago and now employs 11 people. Last year it turned over £1.2m, but instead of allocating a large proportion of that money to marketing or shareholders, Anslow pays her staff a proper living wage and passes more of the money she makes back along the supply chain to local farmers and suppliers.
Yet the prices they charge customers are affordable and comparable with big supermarkets, she says, even though they have higher costs and offer higher quality ethical produce. As a result, hiSbe made only a small – but significant – profit of £35,000 last year. “I used to earn a big salary in my last job and that didn’t make me happy. What makes me happy is being connected to a purpose and my community and having an impact. I want to die knowing I helped transform the food industry ... and quite honestly, not a lot else matters to me.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/dec/06/john-lewis-to-offshore-contact-centre-jobs-as-uk-staff-laid-off | Business | 2019-12-06T14:13:23.000Z | Miles Brignall | John Lewis to offshore contact centre jobs as UK staff laid off | John Lewis is relocating call-centre jobs to the Philippines as part of a cost-cutting move that has already led to 300 UK workers being laid off just before Christmas.
Staff at John Lewis’s outsourced call centre in Plymouth were told in October to expect large-scale redundancies on 20 December. The Guardian has been told by staff that at least 20% of that work is being switched to contract workers in Manila, with the offshoring of further roles in the pipeline. The department store group said that 14% is being switched to the Far East.
More than 300 staff at the Plymouth call centre, which is owned and run on John Lewis’s behalf by the US outsourcing giant Sitel, have either left or been made redundant.
John Lewis has denied it is moving substantial numbers of the Plymouth jobs to the far east but admitted that it expanded its Manila operation in March. It now has 180 staff handling “non-verbal” John Lewis customer service queries.
Two months ago, John Lewis announced a restructuring in an effort to save £100m a year. One in three senior head office management posts – 75 out of 225 – are going. The department store group had just reported its first ever loss, of £26m in six months.
Sacked staff at the Sitel Plymouth site, some of whom have worked on the John Lewis contract for two years, are furious after being asked to train workers in the Philippines on how to take over their roles.
“Technically, John Lewis can say it is not doing this as all the staff are employed by Sitel,” one told the Guardian. “When anyone calls John Lewis customer services, it is us that answers the phone. While a lot of the call work is staying in the UK, all the email contact and much of the other work is [being] or has been moved to the Philippines.
“Colleagues are feeling badly let down by the company. The stupid thing is that we all know that it will come to back to haunt John Lewis as customer service standards will slip even further.”
Another worker said: “It seems ludicrous. People have trained for the last year or two to get to grips with the complexity of the John Lewis customer services systems. New people with no cultural experience will be starting from scratch in the Philippines.”
Charlotte Holloway, the Labour candidate for Plymouth Moor View, said: “To be laid off five days before Christmas is a real kick in the teeth. To then learn that your job is being moved to the far east to save money is a double blow. It’s hardly in keeping with the ethos of John Lewis. I really hope the retailer reconsiders this decision that will have a big effect on the local economy.”
Sitel declined to comment. A John Lewis spokeswoman said: “The reduction of the scale of our operations at the site in Plymouth is in no way related to the small operation which launched from an international Sitel site over a year ago. The changes at the Plymouth site are part of a wider strategy to strengthen the capacity of our UK in-house contact centres, which are run by John Lewis Partners.”
This is not the first time the company has been involved in a controversial outsourcing deal. In 2015, it signed a five-year contract for Capita to provide online aftercare from a contact centre in Glasgow. Customers reported a decline in service standards around the same time. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/29/life-as-an-nhs-nurse-in-the-1990s | Society | 2018-06-29T07:00:33.000Z | Jude Rogers | Life as an NHS nurse in the 1990s: ‘Patient expectation has risen’ | Iwas studying philosophy in university when I decided to completely change tack with my career. It was this impulsive, intuitive feeling – where am I going with this? I’d had nurses in my family, and that career path resonated with me: working with people, doing something dynamic and challenging that’s not stuck in an office, a career which has a future where you can really make a difference. That last point was the key for me.
I carry one very early, personal experience in nursing with me every day. My mother was diagnosed with metastatic [incurable] cancer when I was 22, and she was being treated in the hospital where I’d just started work as an oncology nurse. She refused chemotherapy, and I’d see her in my lunch breaks and after my shifts, so going back to work after she died was very tough. That time taught me that it’s so important to listen to a patient, to be in that moment, and that simple gestures of care can be so important.
Life as an NHS nurse in the 1980s: ‘Nursing requires a particular personality’
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For nursing to work properly, by which I mean compassionately, you have to have time. People don’t fit into boxes. Because of waiting targets and turnover volumes today, we have to consistently justify time spent on individuals. The hardest thing for me is when operations are cancelled or procedures can’t go ahead, and you have to tell that to a person waiting to hear if their cancer has spread. Not being in control of that is very hard. No amount of training can make up for it.
The demographic being treated by the NHS has changed so much since it began. We have an ageing population now, and so many chronic and long-term illnesses. The templates we have for clinic care are also very archaic: some people need less than five minutes, some people need more. Patient expectation has also risen, which is not a bad thing, but this means care takes longer. Will Brexit affect nursing? I think so. We have a huge vacancy of nurses in England and I work with several nurses from other parts of Europe and further afield. The nursing shortfall is also due to years of short-term planning, so any further shortage will have a ripple effect and repercussions on patient safety.
The best part of my job is the interaction with people. I’m in a position to make a difference to people’s lives every day – that’s very rewarding. My advice to anyone wanting to start out now, though, would be to take your time. There’s a tendency to want to fly to the top of the career ladder straight away, but nothing will replace the expertise I got from the 10 years I spent on wards at the start of my career. We also need to make nursing a more attractive prospect career-wise, and building in much clearer paths for professional development, which nursing doesn’t have in the same way as other medical careers. Recognition is so important too. If staff feel valued, that translates to better patient care, and everyone prospers.
Life as an NHS nurse in the 1940s: ‘You have to forget about yourself’ | Full |
http://www.theguardian.com/katine/blog/2009/may/01/tournament-explainer | Katine | 2009-04-30T23:01:00.000Z | Liz Ford | Explainer: The Katine football tournament | What's going on?
On June 6, 48 teams from the rural district of Soroti, in north-east Uganda will compete in a week-long football tournament, which will be held in Katine, where the Guardian is tracking development work being carried out by the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) and funded by readers' donations and Barclays. The sub-county of Katine is one of seven in the Soroti district.
Who is organising the football event?
The tournament is being organised by the Guardian, COSSEDA, a German-based organisation that seeks to build bridges between Europe and Africa for economic development, the Soroti Rural Development Agency, the Teso League Project, the Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) and Amref. Barclays is arranging for the Premier League trophy to be flown out to the district to mark the launch of the event.
How will the tournament run?
Twenty four teams have been drawn from Katine sub-county, and 24 from the six other sub-counties that make up Soroti.
Each team has paid to register and has slotted into one of four age groups – under 10s, under 14s, under 18s and over 18s.
Four teams from each of Katine's six parishes – one in each age group – have registered for the tournament. The other six sub-counties have entered one team from each age group.
The 12 teams in each age group will be divided into three sub-groups of four teams, which will play each other. The top two teams in each of these sub-groups will advance through to the elimination rounds, culminating in a final for each age group on June 13.
Prizes will be a cow for the two winning teams from the older age groups and a goat for the younger winners.
What preparations are being made for the event?
Next week all the teams will converge on Soroti secondary school for a week-long football training academy. Each team will receive football skills training, along with training in leadership and life skills, peace building and conflict management. PE teachers from schools in the district have also been invited to attend the academy so they can carry on coaching in the weeks leading up to kick-off.
Football pitches around Katine are being upgraded to FUFA standards. Surfaces are being smoothed, obstacles, such as pit latrines, removed, goal posts purchased and pitch markings chalked.
Leather footballs are being donated from Alive & Kicking, an NGO that manufactures hand-stitched sports balls in sub-Saharan Africa as a way of providing jobs for unemployed adults and balls for children to play with. It also promotes health awareness through sport.
Each registered team participating in next week's training camp will be given a ball.
How many people are expected to watch the matches?
Thousands. We expect the event will attract as many as 20,000 people over the week – a fair number are expected to be women.
Why a football tournament?
The reason for the tournament is two-fold. Firstly, football is a passion in rural Uganda – it's one of the most popular and social pastimes. As such the tournament has been received enthusiastically in the district.
Secondly, football has been identified as an important tool in development, particularly in areas touched by war and insurgency, like Katine.
The value of sport was recognised by world leaders at the UN millennium summit in 2000, which prompted the establishment of an inter-agency taskforce on sport for development and peace to review how sport was used in the UN's work.
Not only is football a leisure activity it is also seen as a way to promote healthy lifestyles, discipline, teamwork and other areas of social development. For NGOs, sports events offer an opportunity to promote messages about the importance of education and health, particularly raising awareness of HIV/Aids. Amref believes the tournament will help it promote healthy living to a much wider audience.
Sport has also been successfully used to help reintegrate young people who have been involved in conflict back into their communities. A UN study on the impact of armed conflict on children found that the intellectual and emotional stimulation sport provides draws them out of violent routines and offers structure to their lives.
The Soroti region of Uganda, once a prosperous area, has been hit by war, cattle raids and insurgency over the past two decades. In 2003 the Lord's Resistance Army, which has been waging a war against government forces in the north of the country for more than 20 years, invaded Katine, causing many to flee their homes. It is now seen as a post-conflict region, although it is areas further north that have received international attention, and the donor funding that goes with it, to help with development. It is hoped the football tournament will instil a sense of hope and pride among villagers.
Are women taking part?
Due to cultural sensitivities in the area, the tournament is open only to boys and men. But other sporting activities specifically for girls and women will run alongside the football competition.
How much will it cost?
We need to raise £25,000 for the tournament. Thanks to your generosity over the first 18 months of the Katine project we are now on course to hit the £2.5m Amref needs to carry out the development work in the sub-county. We're hoping you will lend your financial support for this event.
Your money will be used to upgrade pitches, run the training academy, help with transport costs and the price of football kits, as well as health resources. A detailed budget breakdown outlines how the money will be spent. The budget total is around £30,000, but the Guardian is making an initial donation of £5,000 to cover incidental costs.
What legacy will the tournament leave in the area?
It is hoped the tournament will revitalise sport across the Katine sub-county and put in place structures that allow similar competitions to be organised in the future. All teams will be allowed to keep their kits and balls and the improved pitches will provide a place for people to meet and continue building their skills. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/apr/16/thatcher-home-care-workers-standards | Society | 2013-04-16T12:30:01.000Z | Brendan Martin | Thatcher had a level of care that local authority workers simply can't provide | Brendan Martin | I'm sure I was not the only one touched by the photograph of Margaret Thatcher sitting on a London park bench with her carer.
The carer – identified only as a New Zealander called Kate – was reported as having read to Thatcher and kept her mind going. "She was God's gift to Margaret Thatcher", according to Thatcher's friend, Lady Powell.
But God doesn't provide care workers, and the cruel irony is that older people without the means to pay for personal assistants are often denied the support and dignity that was afforded to Thatcher in her final months and years.
Indeed, the outsourcing of home care, its hopelessly inadequate public budgets, and the low pay and precarious employment suffered by home care workers themselves are among Thatcher's most lasting legacies – made worse by her successors.
Of the home care workers surveyed by public service union Unison last year, 80% "reported that their schedule is so arranged that they have to rush their work or leave a client early to get to their next visit on time". Most "did not receive set wages", and were not paid for travel time between clients – "potentially a breach of the minimum wage law".
More than half said their terms and conditions had worsened in the preceding year, and almost 50% said they were "not given specialist training to deal with their clients' specific medical needs, such as dementia". I'm guessing that Thatcher's carer had received such training. But what about older people who cannot afford to pay for it directly?
In November, Unison launched an ethical care charter aimed at moving home care workers' terms and conditions towards the standards needed for them to be able to provide high-quality care.
Unison's three-tier charter asks, first, for employers to end 15-minute visiting slots and pay for travel time. The second stage entails employers axing "zero-hours" contracts – where staff can be given no hours and no pay. Such contracts were once the preserve of unskilled workers in the hospitality industry, to deal with peaks and troughs in demand, but they have become the norm for care workers. To achieve the third stage, employers need to pay care workers the living wage.
Nearly six months on, not a single council has signed up. Some, such as the London borough of Southwark, are seriously considering it, while, in a small breakthrough last month, the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action, which represents charitable home care providers, made the pledge.
But the campaign is coming up against local authority commissioners unable or unwilling to raise the bar. SOS Homecare, an agency in north-east England, said it would "love to pay [its] staff the living wage", but has had its local authority fees frozen for four years. Perhaps Unison should ask Lady Powell to help. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/dec/04/christmas-pud-ditched-for-panettone | Food | 2023-12-04T15:36:40.000Z | Rachel Hall | Upmarket UK retailers ditch Christmas pud for panettone | Shoppers at upmarket British retailers are eschewing the traditional Christmas pudding in favour of panettone for a lighter festive dessert this year.
Panettone has been steadily growing in popularity in the UK in recent years, but retailers said demand for the Milanese bread had soared this winter.
Selfridges said it expected to sell three times more panettone than Christmas puddings after selling more than ever last Christmas, with sales up almost 25% on 2021.
Waitrose said the Italian classic was outselling Christmas pudding, with demand up 40% on this time last year, though the supermarket noted it was expecting a late surge in Christmas pudding sales.
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A spokesperson for Selfridges said: “Just five years ago, most Brits would struggle to pronounce panettone or even know what it was. However, it can now be found on retailers’ shelves across the UK, and we expect to sell 120% more this Christmas.”
Panettone, which is made from sweet dough that has been cured sourdough-style to give it a light, fluffy centre, which is then studded with candied fruit, was first made by Milanese bakeries to celebrate the arrival of the Christmas season.
Although there is a traditional recipe to follow, Selfridges offers six different types of panettone, including salted caramel and chocolate orange. The retailer sells a £150 panettone hamper, which it says is “packed with inventive iterations” and has also added the cake’s flavour to many other products including chocolate and tea and even introduced a panettone advent calendar.
Selfridges’ website describes panettone as “a new undisputed champion of Christmas grub”, adding that “it’s all about panettone this year”.
Andrew Bird, the head of food at Selfridges, said: “Panettone’s delicious, sweet taste and fluffy texture make it popular with all the family, and it has certainly become a festive favourite with our customers.”
Selfridges suggests serving panettone for breakfast during the festive season, paired with afternoon coffee, or as a lighter alternative to Christmas pudding.
Waitrose has expanded its range in response to growing demand for panettone. This year, it launched the “cinnamon bunettone” — a cross between a panettone and a cinnamon bun, which the retailer says is one of its bestselling Christmas cakes.
An Asda spokesperson said the supermarket had seen growing interest in alternative Christmas dinners; for example, demand for beef wellington during the festive period rose by 1,235% last year.
Asda said its five panettone lines have sold £225,000 so far, an increase of £35,000 on last year, but added that its eight Christmas pudding products had sold £645,000 so far, up £120,000. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/oct/25/trueman-and-the-arsonists-simon-stephens-roundhouse | Stage | 2023-10-25T12:58:26.000Z | Arifa Akbar | Trueman and the Arsonists review – timely revival of 50s dystopia | There is a great timeliness to this revival of Max Frisch’s 1953 dark comedy, Biedermann and the Arsonists, about a dystopia in which firestarters are running amok. A city is ablaze and its authorities are on the chase for whoever is lighting the fires. The symbolism of oil drums on stage resonates deeply in our time of climate emergency.
Indie-band cool … Trueman and the Arsonists at the Roundhouse. Photograph: Harry Elletson Photography
Adapted by Simon Stephens and accompanied by Chris Thorpe’s songs, the plot shows how passivity fuels wrongdoing: Joseph Smith (Tommy Oldroyd), disguised as a homeless man in stripy prisoner’s clothing, inveigles himself into the home of the wealthy Trueman (Adam Owers) and his wife (Nadine Ivy Barr). Their middle-class, corruptly capitalist, guilt leads them to turn a blind eye to all the signs that an arsonist – and his sidekick (Angela Jones) – are living in their midst.
This might have become a powerful metaphor for the wilful blindness to climate catastrophe in some quarters of our world (there is a discussion with Just Stop Oil in one after-show talk), or even the western response to the situation in Gaza. The potential for seeing such real-world resonances is there, but the drama here lacks potency.
There is little world building – where are we and what are the motives of these arsonists? – and the absurdism does not come alive, feeling too much like contrived kookiness. The songs seem shoehorned in rather than evolved out of the drama, although there are lively performances by the young actors from represent theatre company.
Directed by Abigail Graham, a drummer (Lucy Yates) and guitarist (Aaron Douglas) stand in for Frisch’s Greek chorus of firefighters. They emanate indie-band cool and create foley sounds too which are comic (loud munching when Smith is eating food) although they repeat that joke. But the songs, at best, sound samey, while the weakest are soporific.
Characters are cartoonish, which works well for Smith as a comic-book baddie but Trueman’s switch from outraged homeowner to acquiescent ally to the interlopers in his attic does not seem credible or coherent.
There are efforts at Pinteresque menace (with some resemblance to The Birthday Party, written four years after Frisch’s play) but those too are under-charged. When the fires burn and the sirens begin to wail, we do not feel the urgency.
Trueman and the Arsonists is at the Roundhouse, London, until 8 November. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/aug/21/fulham-millwall-championship-match-report | Football | 2019-08-21T21:51:00.000Z | Dominic Fifield | Ivan Cavaleiro double leads ruthless Fulham’s romp against Millwall | This was the night Fulham bared their teeth back in the Championship. Their front three had always felt the envy of the division but in running amok so ruthlessly to dismantle a normally robust Millwall team they reminded fellow contenders of their pedigree. There may be no living with Aleksandar Mitrovic, Anthony Knockaert and Ivan Cavaleiro at this level.
The trio all scored in a lopsided contest with Fulham completing 934 passes and enjoyed 89% possession in the first half. To have clawed that back closer to 85% by the end – “Is that all?” said Millwall’s Neil Harris, jokingly – felt like a minor triumph for the crestfallen visitors but the passes figure still represented a record since Opta began collating such data in the second tier in 2013.
Scott Parker was thrilled by his team’s domination, orchestrated masterfully by Thomas Cairney, but will have taken most heart from the bite that set them apart. The signings of Cavaleiro and Knockaert will prove masterstrokes.
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“We knew what we were getting from the players we’ve signed,” he said. “It doesn’t guarantee you success but you limit the risk. That’s credit to the owner and to Tony Khan who identified the mistakes we made last year in terms of recruitment. We ticked boxes this year.”
Perhaps Millwall could have been more tenacious – they are usually a team capable of weathering storms and still prospering – but this was an uncharacteristically timid display. They watched Fulham ping their passes, dropping ever deeper until a visiting full-back was inevitably isolated and bypassed by a slippery winger. Matt Smith’s arrival briefly offered some respite but this was an insipid performance that courted disaster.
Fulham’s front three will trouble better opposition than Millwall. Cavaleiro forced them ahead with a goal as eye-catching as his winner at Huddersfield last week. The Portuguese was permitted too much space by Mahlon Romeo before darting back across the box past Connor Mahoney’s tentative challenge. Once he had squeezed out sufficient space, he whipped a shot emphatically beyond Bartosz Bialkowski.
The Wolves loanee would add a second, collecting another beautifully weighted Cairney pass to round the goalkeeper. In between, and not to be outdone, Knockaert had emerged through the clutter in the six-yard box to nod in Cavaleiro’s centre. There were 26 passes in the buildup to the Frenchman’s goal, the move involving all 11 players, with Millwall left dizzy by the paceFulham moved the ball.
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The only surprise was that Mitrovic had to wait so long before scoring. He was tripped by Bialkowski after a heavy touch at Harry Arter’s dragged shot, with the penalty battered in with glee.
“Their fans must be thinking: ‘What are we doing in this division? We should be in the Premier League,’” Harris said. On this evidence Fulham’s stay will be brief. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/mar/18/the-durrells-review-keeley-hawes-is-marvellous-in-this-sunny-undemanding-drama | Television & radio | 2018-03-18T21:00:13.000Z | Sam Wollaston | The Durrells review – Keeley Hawes is marvellous in this sunny, undemanding drama | Back to Corfu then, for The Durrells. Gerry has adopted a pair of flamingos to add to his menagerie. They look like a very pale and lanky British couple on the first day of their hot holiday. Get some lager in you, and then fall asleep in the sunshine.
Actually they should get some shellfish in them, shouldn’t they, if they want to go pink? That is what Gerry is doing: studying the effect a flamingo’s diet has on the pinkness of its feathers.
Larry is on to novel number three, although the writing career is not going well. He trips over one of Gerry’s animals – the dog – and injures his leg. Margo has dumped her boyfriend, Zoltan, because everyone begged her. Mrs Durrell, too, has given up on love and is considering taking up the harp instead. Or the cello. Something large and dependable, but most definitely with strings attached.
Oh dear, apart from the animal husbandry, has Corfu circa 1930-something become Not Love Island? No. Leslie has three girlfriends on the go as he tries to make up for all the times he had no girlfriends.
This – Leslie’s polyamory – is the main source of comedy in the episode. Of course Mrs D – and the others – can’t help interfering. And it all goes disastrously, hilariously wrong, so that in the end the three girlfriends – Daphne, Tsanta and Dionisia – all come to tea on Sunday and it becomes one of those farces where people (girlfriends) have to be kept apart while someone else (boyfriend Leslie) has to attend to them and be in three different bits of the house at the same time.
He fails, of course, and they meet. Poor Leslie ends up with no girlfriends once more. Meanwhile, Aunt Hermione turns up again, Margo gets into soap sculpture and family friend Florence fails to bond with her baby. There’s some gentle cultural misunderstanding, a little light word play: Adonis/a Dennis, paupers/porpoise, that kind of thing, and Mrs D threatens to put the pelican into a pie. Like a pecan pie with added eli in the filling … Apologies, the gentle wordplay is contagious.
All a little tame, maybe. Certainly The Durrells is not demanding, but nor does it have pretensions of profundity. It is soap sculpture, but rather better than Margot’s – quality soap. You might not even recognise it as soap. Jolly performances, too. I still find it hard to believe that Mrs D is played by the same person as DI Lindsay Denton in Line of Duty: I guess that is what is known as range, and acting, at which Keeley Hawes is bloody marvellous. On the whole, The Durrells is easy, sunny and nostalgic, and rolls along charmingly.
For something gloomier and grittier, here’s 13 Commandments (Channel 4, then All4), which begins with the horrible and gruesomely graphic murder of a young Muslim woman in Aalst, East Flanders. Yes Belgium. It’s the new Scandinavia, have you not heard? Belgian noir: crime drama, not dark chocolate.
It was an “honour” killing, the woman was pregnant by the wrong person, and an uncle comes over from Turkey to slit her throat. But that’s just the catalyst for a serial criminal to start on a righteous crime spree, based on the Commandments as delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai. First off, the Turkish uncle is set on fire in a car park with: “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me” scrawled on the wall. Well, given the purpose of his visit, I don’t mind too much what happens to him, to be honest.
So it’s kind of like the movie Seven (a connection it does at least acknowledge), in Flemish, with subtitles. Not the most original of premises then, but the two cops investigating – Peter (Dirk Van Dijck) and Vicky (Marie Vinck) are interesting, if again not unprecedented. An unlikely pairing, tricky pasts/home lives, health issues (physical and mental), unconventional methods, all that. There’s also a comedy doofus cop for some relief from all the grimness.
But hang on, 13 Commandments, you say? It’s been a while since I looked, but weren’t there just 10? That is different. I guess we are going to get some more. Perhaps there will be an extra tablet thrown in? Thou shalt not be constrained by the Decalogue. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/sep/09/peter-lindbergh-obituary | Art and design | 2019-09-09T11:18:01.000Z | Veronica Horwell | Peter Lindbergh obituary | The portrait photographer Jane Bown used to grumble that nobody had faces any more, that people had become afraid to let the camera capture their true character in their visages. But the photographer Peter Lindbergh, who has died aged 74, could persuade even those whose image was their fortune – actors, musicians, fashion models – to show their real face to his lens, to reveal their identities and natural forms.
Lindbergh probably did not mean to change, radically, how fashion was shown in print, bringing it closer to the black-and-white photography he admired, Dorothea Lange’s portraits of the American poor, and photojournalism à la Henri Cartier-Bresson, but that’s what happened.
Not all at once, though. He began to work for US Vogue in the mid-1980s, and told its editorial director, Alex Liberman, that he didn’t like the way the women on its pages seemed to be there to display their husbands’ wealth. Liberman challenged him to show what he liked instead, and in 1988 Lindbergh did just that, shooting half a dozen models in nothing but white shirts and a happy mood messing about on Santa Monica beach, adding only a little light to the scene. The images were glorious, about how you wanted to feel more than how you desired to appear, but Liberman and the then editor, Grace Mirabella, consigned them unused to a drawer.
In 1988 Lindbergh shot half a dozen models in nothing but white shirts and a happy mood messing about on Santa Monica beach. The images were rejected by US Vogue at the time, but rediscovered by the new editor, Anna Wintour, in 1990. Photograph: © Peter Lindbergh
Soon after, Anna Wintour succeeded Mirabella, found the rejects, and one cropped image made it into the magazine; she commissioned from Lindbergh her first cover, November 1988, of a model, Michaela Bercu, in couture jacket and cheap jeans slung low to expose a soft, bare belly. It broke all rules: Bercu’s hair was blown about, her eyes were almost closed and she was smiling, she wore marginal makeup and zilch jewellery. The worried printers rang Wintour to ask if there had been a mistake: was that the right pic?
It so was. When Liz Tilberis, editor of UK Vogue, asked Lindbergh to shoot the woman of the decade for a January 1990 cover, he replied there couldn’t be just the one. So he got a couple of the beach band back together for a shoot in downtown Manhattan, and added newcomers. Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, and Christy Turlington were shown as their forceful selves, all “quite undone … like being photographed right when you wake up in the morning”, according to Crawford.
The tight grouping has been imitated by many hen-party snaps since: Lindbergh caught early the new social phenomenon of all-female parties out for their own good time. His portraits of men are just as below-the-skin deep, but “women are more open and courageous, they have more guts and take many more risks”.
How he achieved the truth in his pictures explains his success. Several famous images, such as of Kate Moss no longer capitalising on her youth, came out of long conversations with the model, asking how she felt about life, about herself. “I look at women for who they really are,” he said, “perhaps this is what leads them to trust me.” Those women then willingly revealed characterful faces, aged hands, bodies that might be judged imperfect.
Kate Moss, Upstate New York, 1994. Lindbergh had long conversations with the model, asking how she felt about life, about herself. Photograph: © Peter Lindbergh
The third of his Pirelli calendars, in 2017 (following those in 1996 and 2002) approached the actors Helen Mirren and Charlotte Rampling with the same kind candour as the young Lupita Nyong’o. Lindbergh said: “This should be the responsibility of photographers today, to free women, and finally everyone, from the terror of youth and perfection.”
He also had a novel eye for locations, often industrial or on the rough side of town (the designer Donna Karan recruited him early on for her campaigns because he saw New York afresh), and a narrative drive. His ad work for, among others, Dior, Armani, Prada and Calvin Klein told stories about places and people, not just products, as did his work for musicians such as Tina Turner and Beyoncé.
His pictures look like film stills, with action and time stopped, and he also directed several successful documentaries, including Inner Voices (1999), winner of best documentary at the Toronto film festival the following year, and a film about his friend the choreographer Pina Bausch (2002).
It had taken a long and wide apprenticeship to life as well as art for Lindbergh to establish himself. He was born Peter Brodbeck in Leszno, a Polish city then annexed to Nazi Germany, and his German family fled west near the end of the war, settling in the industrial landscape of Duisburg. Schooling was minimal: he left at 14 and worked as a window-dresser in a local store chain. He later loved arranging backgrounds for shoots, layering found objects and drapes with all technical details showing.
The actor Debbie Lee Carrington and model Helena Christensen shot in El Mirage, California, 1990, by Peter Lindbergh. Many of his images looked like film stills. Photograph: © Peter Lindbergh
He had a clear artistic gift and pursued it, moving to Lucerne, then to Berlin, where he took classes at the Academy of Fine Arts, then Arles, the chosen city of his favourite painter, Van Gogh; he hitchhiked around Spain and Morocco.
Returning to Germany, to study art at the Kunsthochschule in Krefeld, he had showed in galleries before discovering a delight in photography when taking pictures of his brother’s children. He found a job as assistant to the photographer Hans Lux, then opened his own studio in Düsseldorf in 1973, during which time he changed his name to Lindbergh, after finding there was another photographer named Brodbeck. In 1978 he began to work for Stern, the German equivalent of Life and Paris-Match, the magazines whose pictures had shaped his aesthetic, and joined other Stern photographers, including Helmut Newton, in the international glossies, establishing his base in Paris.
Charlotte Rampling photographed in London, 2016, by Peter Lindbergh for the 2017 Pirelli calendar. Photograph: © Peter Lindbergh
Lindbergh’s goodbye was the current cover of UK Vogue, guest-edited by the Duchess of Sussex: portraits of 15 women, among them the activist Greta Thunberg; the New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern captured by video link (although Lindbergh always preferred actual film to digital work); and original muse Turlington. All raw, and all different.
Lindbergh’s first marriage to Astrid ended in divorce. He is survived by the photographer Petra Sedlaczek, whom he married in 2002, and by four sons, Benjamin, Jérémy, Simon and Joseph.
Peter Lindbergh, photographer, born 23 November 1944; died 3 September 2019 | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/15/the-civil-dead-review-deadpan-ghost-comedy-of-wannabes-trying-to-make-it-la | Film | 2024-01-15T09:00:09.000Z | Peter Bradshaw | The Civil Dead review – deadpan ghost comedy of wannabes trying to make it LA | Here is a quarterlife-crisis comedy written and performed by YouTube comics Clay Tatum and Whitmer Thomas; it is shruggingly deadpan and throwaway, but with a real satirical point and it is genuinely and unexpectedly bleak.Tatum plays a version of himself: Clay, a guy who has come to LA to make it as a photographer. He’s had work published but has real problems paying the rent and has got involved in an illegal fake sublet scam. Out of the blue, an old high-school acquaintance appears; this is Whit (Whitmer Thomas), a needling, wheedling guy who has come to LA to break into acting. Whit wants to hang out with Clay but he’s someone that Clay doesn’t especially want to befriend.
What makes it more awkward is that Whit is a ghost. He is actually dead, and only Clay can see him. He cannot walk through walls or float around, but he has the superpower of invisibility, so Clay does warily permit Whit to accompany him to a high-stakes LA poker game to let him cheat – but he has a rising panicky sense that his new ghost-non-pal wants to hang out with him for the rest of his days. Whit says he can’t remember the moment of his death and does not have a clear most-recent memory of his living existence.
Whit’s actual death is not too far from the career death or social death that so many people come to Los Angeles to endure. For his part, Clay himself keeps claiming to be a friend of superstar Andy Samberg who has apparently vaguely promised Clay work taking set photos, work that has not materialised. So the film also invokes the friendship death that former high-school contemporaries experience when they meet up again in their 20s and realise they have nothing in common – and there is also the artistic or creative death experienced by young performers in LA, creating YouTube comedy or doing one-man or one-woman shows but who feel that, like ghostly Whit, no one can hear them. It’s a mordant piece of pessimism.
The Civil Dead is released on 19 January in cinemas and on digital platforms. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/sep/18/comment.usa | Opinion | 2006-09-17T23:08:13.000Z | Gary Younge | Gary Younge: What's the matter with voting Republican if you're poor? | In a sense I have always felt something of a kinship with the coloured race because its position is the same as mine," says Ignatius J Reilly, the hopeless protagonist of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. "We both exist outside the inner realm of American society. Of course, my exile is voluntary. However, it is apparent that many of the Negroes wish to become active members of the American middle class. I cannot imagine why. I must admit that this desire on their part leads me to question their value judgments. However if they wish to join the bourgeoisie, it is really none of my business. They may seal their own doom."
As any neocon will tell you, there is nothing quite so frustrating as trying to liberate people who just do not appreciate the freedom you have in store for them. Nor is there much joy in expressing solidarity with people who want nothing to do with you. The "historic" alliances that have been announced between workers, peasants, students, women and gays would indeed have changed history. Sadly, the vast majority were never truly forged.
Nowhere does this contradiction seem more acute than in the fortunes of the Democratic party, which has stood with the professed aim of representing the economic interests of poorer Americans over the past 40 years.
According to recent US census figures, since President Bush assumed power in 2000 poverty has risen by 7%, the proportion of those without healthcare has risen by 9%, and median household income has fallen by 3%. But where the poor are most numerous, it seems the Democrats are weakest. The 10 states with the lowest household median income, where people are least likely to have healthcare and most likely to live in poverty, all voted Republican in 2004. Not only are they poor, but they're getting poorer. The five states with the steepest falls in income backed Bush.
Indeed, if anything the Democrats' base seems to be among the wealthy. The same census figures showed that seven of the 10 states with the highest median incomes voted Democrat, and citizens who lived in Democrat states were less likely to live in poverty and more likely to have health insurance. And these states are getting wealthier. The five with the sharpest increase in income all voted Democrat in 2004.
Bill Clinton won in 1992 with the dictum "It's the economy, stupid". But what to make of a political culture where poor states elect the party that represents the interests of the rich and vice versa?
This is not a new question but a perennially pertinent one, because it has shaped an understanding of US politics since the late 60s. It underpins the assumptions that send Bush clearing brush for the cameras and the reason why accusations that Kerry "looked French" resonate.
In his book What's The Matter With Kansas?, Thomas Frank described the tendency of working-class people to vote Republican as a form of derangement. He said that the working class had been hoodwinked into voting against its economic interests by "values" issues such as abortion and gay rights.
There were two main problems with this argument. First, it suggested that poor people are incapable of working out what's best for them. Second, it gave undue emphasis to economic interests, as if they should always take primacy at the ballot box. My guess is that Frank, along with many readers of this paper, vote against their economic interests when they vote for a government that will raise taxes and redistribute wealth. It doesn't follow that, because poor people also put different priorities (opposing gay marriage or abortion) with which we disagree ahead of financial wellbeing, we are principled and they are patsies.
But there was, as it turned out, another flaw with Frank's book. The central premise on which it was written was debatable, if not debunkable. Last year Larry Bartels, a professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton, wrote a paper called: What's The Matter With What's The Matter With Kansas?. (It is a testament to the influence of Frank's work that those who seek to subvert its message must first subvert its title.)
The white working class, insisted Bartels, hadn't abandoned the Democratic party, and neither their moral values nor their religion distracted them from their economic interests. Bartels's argument was not quite as devastating as he claimed (Frank's facts stand up if you assess class by educational attainment rather than income), but it undermined the key assumption that poor white people vote Republican. They don't. According to CNN polls, 63% per cent of those who earn less than $15,000 a year and 57% of those who earn between $15,000 and $30,000 voted Democrat. The poorer you are, the more likely you are to vote Democrat.
So how are we to understand the fact that the poorest states voted for Bush? Soon after Bartels's paper came another by four academics, subtitled: Rich State, Poor State, Red State, Blue State, What's The Matter With Connecticut?. It revealed that rich people in poor states are more motivated to vote Republican, whereas in wealthier states there is a lower correlation between income and voting preference. In other words, thinking of the American political landscape in terms of different states (remember the map with the Democrat blue on the edges flanking a sea of Republican red?) hides the often far more important differences within states.
So what's the matter with all these analyses? First of all they seem to step over a huge elephant in the room - namely race. There is a reason why we are only talking about white working-class voters: black people, regardless of income, overwhelmingly vote Democrat. Indeed, were it not for black people, the Democrats would have won the presidency only once, in 1964. That was the year President Lyndon Johnson signed the civil rights act, turned to an aide and said: "We have lost the south for a generation." We are well into the second generation now, and the racialised politics of the south seem to be influencing the rest of the country rather than the other way round.
In other words there is a clear racial attachment that white voters have to the Republican party that does not override income but certainly qualifies it. No understanding of why so many of them vote Republican can examine class as though it is distinct from race.
Second, they assume a greater class attachment to the Democrats than the party deserves. Unlike the Republicans, who openly lobby for the class interests of their supporters and deliver on them, Democrats do not promise substantial changes to the lives of ordinary working people in America and rarely deliver even on the symbolic ones.
Which brings us to the final problem. The strongest correlation between income and voting is not whom you vote for but if you vote at all. The more you earn, the more likely you are to turn out. According to the census, 81.3% of those who earned $100,000 or more turned out in 2004; the figure for those who earned less than $20,000 was 48%.
That's because the rich have something to vote for. They have two parties; the poor here have none. Ultimately, the question of what's the matter with Kansas or any other state must in no small part be answered by yet another one: what's the matter with Democrats?
[email protected] | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/12/sunaks-focus-may-be-on-china-but-its-europes-security-that-is-vital-for-the-uk | Politics | 2023-03-12T22:30:00.000Z | Dan Sabbagh | Sunak’s focus may be on China, but it’s Europe’s security that is vital for the UK | The refresh of the integrated review of defence and foreign policy comes only two years after the original, and if Labour were to win the election it may only last a similar amount of time. Nor would it have happened if it hadn’t been for Conservative chaos, as reopening the review was the brainchild of the short-lived Liz Truss.
To be fair, the war in Ukraine has upended previous assumptions, but this is not really the path taken by Rishi Sunak. A large part of what is announced focuses on China and the emerging Australia, UK and US “Aukus” partnership to provide Canberra with nuclear powered submarines to give naval technological parity with Beijing.
Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has been given £5bn extra over two years, with £3bn of that going into investing in Britain’s nuclear capability, in part to facilitate the submarine build programme. Another £2bn is to restore stockpiles of ammunition sent to Ukraine and rebuild weapons supply chains, in other words a stopgap, and rather less than Wallace would have wanted.
It hardly amounts to a strategic reassessment of the purpose of Britain’s military and security. Rather it amounts to a determination to stay faithful to the “Indo-Pacific tilt”, a vague notion that has amounted to deploying Britain’s working aircraft carrier to the South China Sea as well as the ongoing effort to build a new nuclear powered submarine for Australia.
The events of the past year have reinforced the idea that Russia is, as Boris Johnson’s original integrated review had it, a “threat”. It was already a country that had sought to carry out nerve agent poisonings on British soil, corrupted the English legal system for its own ends, and whose hackers whether criminal or political pose a threat to government and business in the UK. Then it invaded Ukraine.
But although the language emerging from Downing Street tonight describes Russia as posing a “fundamental risk” to European security and the goal is to “deny Moscow any benefit” from the attack on Ukraine, it will be the language around China that will attract the closest political scrutiny, even if that is far less important.
China, previously “a systemic competitor” – a phrase generally useful, if unmemorable – has upgraded to presenting an “epoch-defining challenge” – as a nod to the Conservative backbenchers who had wanted Beijing to be designated as a threat, similar to that used to describe Russia.
This, in fact, was Truss’s reason for reopening the integrated review, to make such an aggressive re-designation that would only have further inflamed already fraught relations with Beijing. Epoch-defining is a large notion, not least because epochs tend to be very long, while integrated reviews emerge every two years, and if Labour wins, the party is likely to want to refocus on Russia, if that is, the US allows them.
Nevertheless “epoch-defining” also suggests the world is becoming a different kind of unsafe place. Islamist fundamentalism is in retreat, fallen sharply after the territorial defeat of Islamic State and the killing of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In its place is a rapprochement between Russia and China, state actors with larger budgets, more weaponry and sophisticated tools at their disposal.
This thinking underlies Sunak’s announcement to recommit to a target of lifting defence spending to 2.5% of GDP “in the longer term”, similar to what was announced by Johnson at the last Nato summit in June, one of his last acts before his premiership collapsed. Johnson, however, put a target date – 2030 – on when the pledge would be met, and Sunak hasn’t.
This would add a little over £10bn in real terms to the defence budget, nearly £50bn this year, money that would have to come from other public services.
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As rearmaments go, it is more gradual than in some frontline states, such as Poland, which intends to go to above 4% of GDP. But it is more proportionate than Truss’s short-lived aspiration to take defence budgets to 3% in a notoriously profligate department; 2.5% would restore defence spending to level it was at under Labour.
But quite what the fresh language means for Britain’s policy approach to China specifically is less clear. Further boosting Britain’s tiny military presence in the Indo-Pacific is not obviously good value for money for the UK’s stretched armed forces – and for now, at least, the primary threat from Beijing to Britain is its ceaseless desire to steal intellectual property, not a military one.
A cautious reinvestment in British military capability ought be focused on helping Ukraine and frontline Nato states protect themselves, for example in Estonia where the UK chose to withdraw the extra British forces it had briefly based there after the assault on Ukraine. It is the security of Europe that is strategic to Britain, despite post-Brexit fantasies to the contrary. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/oct/06/the-father-review-alzheimer-s-kenneth-cranham-claire-skinner-florian-zeller | Stage | 2015-10-06T11:17:04.000Z | Michael Billington | The Father review – ingenious Alzheimer’s drama with echoes of Lear | Florian Zeller’s play has enjoyed a triumphant progress from the Ustinov Studio, Bath, to the West End via north London’s Tricycle theatre. Although it has been a touch over-praised, it is a highly accomplished piece of writing that, in the course of 90 minutes, gives great insight into what it is like to lose one’s mind to Alzheimer’s.
Postcards from Orton, pointers from Pinter: Kenneth Cranham looks back
Read more
Zeller, a French dramatist vividly translated by Christopher Hampton, allows us to see events from the perspective of his 80-year-old hero, Andre. We share all Andre’s uncertainty about life’s multiplying confusion. Is the action taking place in Andre’s Paris flat or that of his daughter Anne? Is Anne about to abandon him to live in London with her lover or does she solicitously take her old dad under her wing? And why does the furniture, in Miriam Buether’s immaculately chic design, gradually disappear to leave Andre inhabiting a spartan void?
All this is ingeniously done but the virtue of Zeller’s play is that it shows Andre, while inhabiting a world of contradictions, capable both of a fierce lucidity and a senile cantankerousness. He instinctively grasps the resentment shown towards him by Anne’s partner, Pierre. He grieves over the loss of his missing, possibly dead, other daughter, Elise. And when he is introduced to an attractive young carer, he both flirts with her and attacks the patronising way she feeds him pills as if he were a child. What Zeller catches admirably is the way Andre, a retired engineer, still clings to an authority he is no longer capable of executing.
Losing control … Kenneth Cranham (Andre) Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
The Father five-star review – a savagely honest study of dementia
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Once or twice the play, with its rapid succession of short, swift scenes, feels as if it is demonstrating its points. There is also, in the calculated unreliability of the action, a rather too conscious homage to Pinter. But the play eventually goes from the intellectually teasing to the emotionally moving in its reminder of the cyclical nature of human existence: that we often end up, as we began, pining for our mother and being taken for walks. The shadow of King Lear is never far away: especially the idea that “when we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools” and that we die in much the same way.
Kenneth Cranham is superb as Andre. By never asking for our sympathy he naturally receives it. He is unafraid to show us that Andre is awkward, difficult, demanding and used to exercising control. At the same time, he shows us Andre’s vulnerability, dependence and growing fear that nothing in his world makes sense. Most of the other roles have been recast since Bath but Claire Skinner catches precisely Anne’s air of fatigued concern, Nicholas Gleaves is all attenuated exasperation as her partner and Kirsty Oswald as the carer shows how initial amusement at her eccentric charge quickly fades.
James Macdonald’s direction fastidiously charts the minute shifts of tone and, while I suspect the play may have worked even better in an intimate space, it is one that enlarges our understanding and extends the boundaries of compassion.
At Wyndham’s theatre, London, until 21 November. Buy tickets at theguardianboxoffice.com or call 0330-333 6906. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/11/interstellar-science-deliberately-speculative-says-christopher-nolan | Film | 2014-11-11T10:08:30.000Z | Ben Child | Interstellar science 'deliberately speculative' says Christopher Nolan | Christopher Nolan has defended the science behind his blockbuster space drama, Interstellar, while admitting that many of the phenomena in the movie are deliberately speculative.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, Nolan was asked to comment on criticism of his film’s depiction of interplanetary space travel. Both professional and amateur critics, including astrophysics professor Dr Roberto Trotta, of Imperial College London, have hinted that the film has as many plot holes as wormholes, but Nolan said he was comfortable with Interstellar’s scientific credibility. “My films are always held to a weirdly high standard … [that] isn’t applied to everybody else’s films, which I’m fine with,” said Nolan. “People are always accusing my films of having plot holes. And I’m very aware of the plot holes in my films and very aware of when people spot them – but they generally don’t.”
The cast of Interstellar talk to Catherine Shoard Guardian
The film-maker worked closely with theoretical physicist Dr Kip Thorne when developing Interstellar. Nolan admitted “cheating” on the science for the sake of the audience’s enjoyment on occasion, but said critics should read Thorne’s book The Science of Interstellar.
One criticism from multiple quarters has been the film’s suggestion that during one hour that Nolan’s astronaut visits the exoplanets seven hours would pass on Earth. “That’s completely accurate,” the British director said. “Those issues are all buttoned-up,” he added, saying that Thorne’s book about the film distinguishes between the accurate science and the speculation.
Nolan added: “There have been a bunch of knee-jerk tweets by people who’ve only seen the film once, but to really take on the science of the film, you’re going to need to sit down with the film for a bit and probably also read Kip’s book.”
Meanwhile, in a boost to his scientific credibility, the tech magazine Wired announced that Nolan will guest-edit its December issue, following in the footsteps of film-makers such as James Cameron and JJ Abrams. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/dec/11/selfies-2013-the-best-worst-most-revealing | Art and design | 2013-12-11T16:30:00.000Z | Stuart Heritage | Selfies of 2013 – the best, worst and most revealing | This was the year that the selfie reached saturation point. Celebrities took them. Politicians took them, often – as with Obama this week – during the memorial services for other politicians. You're probably only half concentrating on this now, because you're too busy pouting into an iPhone in a dangerously unnatural position so that you can get both your haircut and cleavage into frame. Oxford Dictionaries named "selfie" as its word of the year. You've read so many faux-sociological rationalisation pieces about selfies that you reached a sort of codswallop event horizon. But who took the best selfies? Which selfies deserve to receive an entirely fictitious trophy? Ladies and gentlemen, here are the winners of the 2013 Guardian selfie awards.
Best selfie: Spaceman
People take selfies for two reasons: one is to say "Look! My hair isn't a total pile of bum today", and the other is to say: "I was here". You may as well not bother taking any more of the latter, because astronaut Luca Parmitano has you beat. When he takes selfies, they're of spacewalks. Behind him, the cold void of space. Reflected in his visor, Earth in all its shimmering glory. This is as good as a selfie will ever get. At least we can console ourselves with the fact that he's definitely doing a duckface inside his helmet. Definitely.
Most uncomfortably intimate pseudo-selfie: David Cameron
Alice Sheffield with David Cameron.
Technically, this isn't a David Cameron selfie. He doesn't do selfies, unless he's at Nelson Mandela's funeral and Barack Obama really wants him to. No, technically this is a pic of Cameron's sister-in-law Alice Sheffield. However, Cameron appears in the background, sleeping. And what did it teach us about Cameron? That he's very much a barefoot, fully clothed, over-the-sheets sleeper who likes to nap with his mouth locked into a perpetual yawn. And if that isn't reassuring to hear as a voter, then who knows what is?
Worst tattoo of an eye to be debuted on Instagram: Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber's knight tattoo. Photograph: Instagram
One reason people don't get tattoos is because they're scared that one day they'll come to regret it. Justin Bieber has no such qualms. And why would he? After all, fashion is temporary, but massive, creepy, impractically placed tattoos of your mother's eye looming out at you above drawings of constipated-looking medieval knights in spiky armour are permanent.
Most revealing iPhone cover: Lena Dunham
Lena Dunham Photograph: Instagram
You could sit a billion monkeys at a billion easels for a billion years, and none of them would ever come up with a more Lena Dunham-looking iPhone cover design than the one she unveiled on Instagram in May. A sort of pastel-coloured piece of fan-art based on Wes Anderson's third-best film, it couldn't represent her personality any more if it was made entirely out of broadsheet thinkpieces about gender and privilege. Congratulations, Lena!
Most iconic selfie: Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian takes a selfie of her bum. Photograph: Instagram
When you think of 1945, chances are you think of the soldiers raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the battle of Iwo Jima. When you think of 1989, you think of the lone man standing in front of the tanks in Tiananman Square. And now, when you think of 2013, you'll for ever think of Kim Kardashian taking a picture of her arse in a mirror. It's Marilyn Monroe's skirt blowing up. It's Muhammad Ali riddled with arrows on the cover of Esquire. But it's better than those, because it's about Kim Kardashian's bum. Don't try to fight it. That's just how history works.
Worst-advised attempt to copy Kim Kardashian's shtick: Geraldo Rivera
Geraldo Rivera Photograph: Facebook
History may never get to the bottom of why Geraldo Rivera, the luxuriously moustached 70-year-old American journalist and author, chose to take a nearly nude photo of himself and publish it on Twitter this year. Perhaps it was the primal roar of an alpha male. Perhaps it was a challenge to all those younger journalists threatening to usurp him. Perhaps he just really, really wants to be Kim Kardashian. Either way, he did it. All we can do is be thankful that his towel wasn't half an inch lower.
Recognition of services to celebrity duckface: Helen Flanagan
Helen Flanagan Photograph: Instagram
Duckface – the exaggerated pout that selfie-takers wrongly adopt in an misguided bid to make themselves look more sexually attractive – has many advocates. But none of them are a patch on actor and semi-permanent Sidebar of Shame resident Helen Flanagan. Her Instagram account is a kaleidoscope of duckface. There's a very real chance that, at one tragic point in her life, the wind changed and now she's stuck like that. But even so, this award is well deserved.
Best selfie of someone who doesn't exist: Trevor, GTA 5
Trevor, Grand Theft Auto Photograph: Grand Theft Auto
When they weren't murdering old ladies or screaming swearwords into their bluetooth headsets like a gang of murderous wasps, players of this year's Grand Theft Auto 5 could, if they chose to, make the game's characters take selfies on their iFruit phones. Many of them found their way online. This, in particular, is the perfect representation of the GTA experience, and for that it should be applauded.
Creepiest selfie: Japanese made-up girlfriend guy
Japanese made-up girlfriend guy Photograph: Instagram
It's always sad to reinforce a negative stereotype of an entire country, especially when that country is as flat-out wonderful as Japan. But then a man will paint the nails on one of his hands, feed himself food with it and take a selfie with the other hand to give the illusion that he has a girlfriend, and you'll feel all icked out. There's a chance that this is all just a comment on the fluid nature of veracity on the internet but, still, ick.
Best offspring selfie: Obama daughters
Sasha and Malia Obama. Photograph: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images
As Mandela Selfiegate has ably demonstrated, Obama hasn't quite got the hang of selfies yet. But his daughters Malia and Sasha? They're nothing short of world class. Look at them at Obama's inauguration this year. There's face-pulling, there's a sort of vaguely street peace sign, there's a complete and total lack of recently deceased figureheads for racial equality. It is textbook, and they deserve this award.
Worst rolemodel selfie: Rihanna and the loris
Rihanna with her loris in Thailand Photograph: Instagram
2013 wasn't just the year of the selfie. It was also the year of the dangerously inappropriate celebrity pet. First Bieber had his monkey, then Rihanna followed suit by posing on Instagram with a slow loris. Perhaps Rihanna didn't realise that the loris is a protected species, and that her photo would prompt a crackdown on Thailand's illegal slow loris trade, but now every young girl wants a loris for Christmas. They'll probably be extinct by Easter. And it'll all be your fault, Rihanna.
Least appropriate selfie: Bridge girl
Brooklyn Bridge tourist. Photograph: Paul Martinka
The first rule of selfies is that there's a time and a place to take them. That time and place almost definitely isn't when a man is threatening to jump to his death from the Brooklyn Bridge. And yet that didn't stop one intrepid selfie devotee from doing exactly that earlier this month. It'd be hard to know what she was thinking when she took this, except it was almost definitely: "more duckface".
Most unexpected selfie: The Pope
Pope Francis has his picture taken inside St Peter's Basilica with some young people on a pilgrimage. Photograph: AP
At this point, we can all agree that Pope Francis is the coolest pontiff in history. He's humble, he's determined to force the Catholic church into accepting his model of social philanthropy and, boy, he knows how to take a badass selfie. Imagine the last pope looking so at ease had these youngsters packed around him and started leaning into frame. It's a truly horrible thought. And yet Pope Francis pulls it off perfectly. Perhaps one day he'll overstep the mark and skateboard to the Vatican listening to Skrillex on his Beats by Dr Dre headphones, but for now he's doing just fine.
Best action selfie: Kayleigh Hill
Kayleigh Hill taking a selfie mid-tackle.
It's the final of the College World Series. Kayleigh and her friends put out a call to action on Twitter: "If everyone chips in to the $1,500 fine between me Emily and torrie, we will run on the field. Guys I actually really wanna." What happened next has already become selfie lore. Kayleigh tears on to the pitch and takes a series of incredible selfies as security bundles her to the floor. If it wasn't for that poxy astronaut, this would have easily been the selfie of the year.
Lifetime selfie achievement award: Mrpimpgoodgame
Two of mrpimpgoodgame's Instagram selfies
Mrpimpgoodgame, real name Benny Winfield Jr, declares himself as the "Leader of the selfie movement" on Instagram. It's not hard to see why. So far, Winfield has taken 291 selfies. They are all the same. In every single one he's holding the camera at exactly the same distance, and smiling exactly the same smile. Sometimes he'll be wearing a hat, or a nice pair of glasses, but mainly it's just his face, gazing back at us. When any of us take a selfie, we're really doing it for him. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2014/jul/16/grey-boring-tory-reshuffle-not-seems-michael-white | Politics | 2014-07-16T08:31:01.000Z | Michael White | A grey, boring Tory reshuffle? Not quite all it seems | Michael White | David Cameron's government reshuffle is getting such a hostile press in much of Fleet Street today that there must be more to be said for it than looked apparent at the halfway stage yesterday. And so there is. Disenchanted voters in 2010 wanted a clear-out of the "old politics". One way or another, they've certainly got an experiment on their hands now. Will they be grateful on polling day in 10 months' time?
Despite the post-coalition electoral calculations – the Guardian notes them here – this is a centralisers' reshuffle, a victory for senior civil servants and crocodile-strangling Australian election strategists over what remains of the party faithful and over armchair political strategists in the newspapers, for the No 10 machine over the Whitehall baronies.
That quasi-presidential imperative has been visible since Margaret Thatcher's heyday and was accentuated in the Blair-Brown hegemony. But the speed at which Cameron has promoted the post-expenses-scandal class of 2010 MPs – men and women who were still driving buses or, more likely, banks five years ago – is breathtaking. Smart people, as they would admit, can't complain about kicking their heels on the backbenches.
So it is also an experiment in government, one that will pitch youth, energy and (mostly, but not always) loyalty against the more experienced wiles of the Whitehall mandarins. No guessing who Paddy Power should shape his betting odds to favour in such a contest.
Lynton Crosby, the election guru credited with persuading Cameron to sack "Toxic Mike" Gove as education secretary, is a pussy in comparison with the cabinet secretary, Jeremy Heywood, who used the occasion to scalp his knightly rival, Bob Kerslake, while attention was focused elsewhere.
Contrary to expectations, Gove's removal was the reshuffle's killer fact, outshining the over-hyped promotion of women ministers and the shift to the right on Europe and the related human rights issue.
Turning the cabinet's most vocal pub brawler (and pal) into a Trappist chief whip shows that Dave Flashman has not renounced his sadistic sense of fun, though a chief whip is always well-placed to organise a spot of revenge, as Thatcher discovered too late in 1990. Gove's patron, George Osborne, is just better read than Dave.
What Gove's demotion did was to outrage Fleet Street and backbench zealots for many of whom the state education system is a laboratory for testing theories rather than something they know first-hand. Gove's needless fight with Theresa May showed an unwise addiction to headlines as well as to theories. Much as Jeremy Hunt was sent to health to calm it down, so Nicky Morgan – here's Rowena Mason's version of her impressive CV – is going to education to do just that.
Quite right too. I wouldn't make much of Morgan's vote against gay marriage. She's a serious Anglican (Tory cabinets should always contain one) and that's CoE's party line. I barely know her, but she seems OK, normal even. Her husband is looking after their son, her career before his.
But the educational establishment – the "Blob" to Gove-ites like ex-adviser Dominic Cummings – is back in charge. "Yes, minister, of course, minister." This may be no bad thing, as well as an opportunity to take a more dispassionate look at academies.
Fleet Street complains that Hague had lost his Eurosceptic zeal and that the new foreign secretary, Phil Hammond – Quentin Letts's condescending profile in the Mail is fun to read – who once voiced a " reform or quit" view on EU membership, should be much tougher. I don't read it that way at all. After all, Cameron has dispatched Lord Jonathan Hill, another pragmatic Tory backroom boy, to be Britain's EU commissioner.
A veteran of John Major's fights in Brussels, Hill knows his Euro-stuff. Being unflashy enough to provoke "who he?" cries in the Tory press (he's actually been around for decades) is a good sign and I am not sure the Guardian is right to be dismissive either. Is he less well known in Brussels than Cathy Ashton was? Isn't Hill a man Mr Juncker can do business with?
Hammond's promotion provides Cameron with negotiating cover as well as being there to take the blame if things go wrong with Britain's famous renegotiation –handy when Hammond is tipped by some as the dark horse leadership candidate – John Major to Osborne's Hurd and Boris Johnson's Heseltine blond. We shall see, as we will with so many other new and promoted faces at the Commons dispatch box.
You can never tell who will prove to be good as a minister until they try, who has the right combination of leadership skills, judgment, capacity for hard work and low cunning. Norman Tebbit evolved quickly from backbench hooligan to heavyweight, Peter Mandelson turned out to be an effective minister as well as spin doctor.
Running a finger down the Guardian's list of ins and outs, I notice that grumpy Michael Fallon, a great survivor (the under-priced Royal Mail sale was his latest car crash), finally makes the cabinet as defence secretary. He and I were arguing about some Thatcherite nonsense in the bar of Brighton's Grand Hotel moments before the IRA bomb wrecked the place in October 1984.
Fallon was still there and survived unscathed. I had chosen to walk out through the soon-to-collapse front doorway five minutes before it came down. How galling it must be for him to reach the cabinet table on the same day as nice (Baroness) Tina Stowell, who worked – efficiently – in a modest capacity for John Major, not Fallon's kinda guy.
As the new attorney general, replacing the sage and emollient Dominic Grieves, Jeremy Wright's appointment may be the one to watch – the Guardian's wary view is here – because his arrival appears to clear a major obstacle to Britain leaving the European court of human rights (ECHR) over its sometimes silly rulings. But hang on, wasn't Ken Clarke also a Midlands criminal barrister in his youth, as Wright was until his election in 2005? He was, and Ken says leaving the ECHR – which war-weary Britain devised – is "unthinkable". He's right.
Two names not on the list are worth noting. Liam Fox's puffed up vanity prevented him from accepting Cameron's lifeline to a political recovery, the No 3 spot at the Foreign Office. Good. As a stalking horse for the Tory right he will not do too much harm to anyone, except possibly to himself.
But how on earth did hapless Grant Shapps, rarely allowed near a live mic nowadays, survive as Tory chairman in an election year? Probably because Dave and George plan to be their own joint-campaign chairmen, much as Tony and Gordon were.
That leaves only Liz Truss to warrant a name-check. Despite his promising farming CV, Owen Paterson proved an unfortunate choice for environment secretary, lacking the right skills mix – see above – and managing to annoy farmers as well as flood victims, Greens and badgers. Truss steps in to the green wellies where angels may fear to tread – but she won't. Not lacking in self-belief is Liz.
Her political history should have red flashing lights all over it, lights that Cameron has chosen to ignore, much as he did with Andy Coulson. He must like her. Read Rowena Mason's potted biography here , then pad it out with the Mail's more brutal hatchet-job here.
The ambitious child of leftwing CND parents who became a Lib Dem (her monarchy-bashing phase) at Oxford, a Tory in her 20s, on Dave's A-list by her 30s, elected in 2010 in rural Norfolk despite not telling the "Turnip Taliban" locals who picked her about a messy affair with her MP boss.
My, that's a lot to work on and there's plenty more. Quite a firebrand to work with too, so they say. So let's not hear any more about this reshuffle being made up of faceless men and women with no political character. Truss is a gift to Fleet Street. Is it grateful ? No, of course not. Watch out, badgers! | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/02/reducing-hs2-train-speed-would-cut-emissions-and-noise-report-finds | Environment | 2016-02-02T09:40:57.000Z | John Vidal | Reducing HS2 train speed would cut emissions and noise, report finds | A small reduction in the top speed of trains on the planned high-speed line between London and Birmingham would increase journey times by just 4.5 minutes, but would massively reduce carbon emissions and noise, independent analysts have told MPs scrutinising the multibillion-pound scheme.
Research commissioned by objectors to the 117-mile HS2 line through the Chilterns shows that if trains were limited to 300 kilometres an hour rather than the proposed 360km/h, they could save hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2. Britain is committed to reducing emissions under UK law and the new Paris climate deal.
In addition, many communities along the route, which is eventually planned to reach northern England, would see a reduction in noise levels by up to 30% from up to 18 trains an hour, they say.
“The 23% energy saving achieved by reducing the maximum HS2 speed to 300km/h would translate to an equivalent saving in carbon emissions. HS2 Ltd’s own projections indicate that the HS2 scheme will give rise to a net carbon emission of 2.1 to 2.6m tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent over a 60-year period,” says the report by SLR Consulting and a team of experts, commissioned by the HS2 Action Alliance (HS2AA).
The total emissions could be as high as 6.5m tonnes due to underestimates, claims the report, delivered to the transport select committee on Monday.
No other country runs high-speed trains at more than 300km/h, which is now the accepted norm in China, France, Germany and Japan, the report said.
“To run trains at 300km/h would not only save energy, but reduce costs for maintenance of rolling stock and infrastructure and provide some reduction of route construction costs. A lower top speed provides significant advantages,” the report states.
HS2 Ltd has made its economic case to government by claiming that the high-speed line will lead to a significant decrease in air, car and freight travel. But the consultants, who are independent of the communities objecting, argue that their assumptions are wrong and that the true emissions of the line could be substantially greater than government has been led to believe.
“We believe these assumptions currently overstate the magnitude of modal shift [in transport] that will be achieved. The assumptions of HS2 are very unclear,” they say.
Acoustic experts added that trains running at more than 300km/h make disproportionate noise because aerodynamic noise becomes more influential at this speed.
“The sound energy being produced by passing trains at 300km/h [is] actually only 25% of that produced at 360km/h. This would represent a substantial benefit. A reduction in maximum design speed to 300km/h would bring about a six decibel reduction in noise level. At speeds over that, not only are overall [noise] levels higher but acoustic screening from barriers is likely to be less effective,” says the acoustic report.
A spokesman for HS2AA said: “In 2013, transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said cutting minutes off the journey time between London and Birmingham was ‘almost irrelevant’, saying that the route was essential for Britain’s future competitive edge. If that is correct it is hard to argue against a reduction in speed so the train runs as fast as a Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) in France.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/nov/10/roger-bright-crown-estate-landlord-by-royal-appointment | Business | 2011-11-10T20:00:00.000Z | Julia Kollewe | Roger Bright of the crown estate: landlord by royal appointment | The crown estate – property manager to the monarchy – has quite a portfolio: £7bn of assets ranging from some of London's swankiest shopping streets to a retail park in Slough and from a forest in Somerset to almost the entire seabed around Britain's shores. It is also an organisation that has undergone a quiet revolution over the last decade.
Once run like a gentleman's club from opulent Carlton House Terrace, a Grade I listed John Nash building near Buckingham Palace, its transformation began when former ICI boss Sir Denys Henderson became chairman in 1995 and was given another boost when Roger Bright – a civil servant who had worked at the Department of the Environment, the Housing Corporation and the FSA's forerunner, the Personal Investment Authority – took the reins as chief executive in 2001.
This week the crown estate, the biggest landlord in the heart of the West End, unveiled Quadrant 3, the most ambitious part of its £1bn revamp of Regent Street at the site of the former Regent Palace hotel. The building includes a large branch of US retailer Whole Foods, opening onto the newly pedestrianised Glasshouse Street, along with other shops and two restored Art Deco restaurants, and will be the largest office-led development to come to market in the West End next year.
Bright, now 60 and due to retire next month, was in charge when Carlton House Terrace was sold in 2006 to the billionaire Hinduja brothers, and the group moved to a blander, modern, open-plan building off Regent Street.
Bright affectionately remembers all the "nooks and crannies" of the 1820s house, but has no regrets about the move. "It was indeed a beautiful building, but it was increasingly impractical as a place for us to do business. I was keen to take the business forward and modernise it … it wasn't really conveying the right impression about the direction I wanted to take the business in." He has tried to shake off the organisation's stuffy image and turn it into a full-blown asset manager. "We are certainly historic, but not static," he insists.
The crown estate traces its history back to 1760, when George III handed over the management of his hereditary lands to the government, and his right to any profits, in return for an annual income in the civil list. Since then, the crown estate has run the royal lands and paid all its revenue surpluses to the Treasury (a record £230m last year), although every new monarch has to decide whether to confirm this arrangement. Under a new sovereign grant, the Queen will receive 15% of the crown estate's annual profits instead of the civil list in future, but this will not affect the organisation, Bright insists.
While he speaks to the Queen occasionally, Bright says neither she nor the government intervenes in the crown estate's affairs. The Treasury has, in theory, "power of direction" over the estate, but it has never been used.
Despite the darkening economic skies, Bright is not worried about the timing of Quadrant 3, although he admits that "demand is inevitably quite thin" at the moment. "If your business is robust enough to enable you to be counter-cyclical, that's a good place to be. We have this unusual status in that, although we operate in the commercial marketplace, we are a public body, so we don't have to constantly worry about the share price. We're also not geared, so we don't have to worry about borrowing. We pressed the button on the Quadrant in 2008, which was one of the toughest stages in recent years in the market, when a lot of developers had to pause."
Commercial approach
Some have accused the crown estate of taking an overly commercial approach and betraying its public-realm responsibilities. Last year, Bright faced the wrath of some of his residential tenants at a Commons treasury committee hearing. "We got a lot of criticism at the time. All the seats in the public gallery behind me were occupied by our tenants with badges on their lapels saying 'Our homes are not for sale'," he remembers.
The crown estate wanted to sell the homes of hundreds of key workers such as teachers, nurses and firefighters in London for a mooted price of £250m. After a storm of protests from residents, some of whom had lived in their homes for more than 40 years on low rents, the group sold the four housing estates for £141m to the Peabody Trust housing association. The deal guaranteed rents below market levels and reserved nine out of 10 new lettings for key workers. Bright reckons it struck the right balance between "commercialism and stewardship".
At about the same time, he came under fire from energy companies, which accused the estate of charging overpriced rents for the use of the seabed, thereby hindering the development of offshore gas storage projects. After an investigation, the Treasury concluded that the organisation had "consulted extensively about... all of its offshore energy programmes".
Bright says: "That criticism has largely gone … The rents that we charge for offshore energy are certainly designed to be sustainable. We are the monopoly owner of the seabed so we have to be extremely careful to make sure that we don't abuse that position. Our rents are set at a pretty low percentage of turnover."
The crown estate is investing in offshore wind farms itself, and held the first wave and tidal leasing round in the world near the Orkneys last year. Income from renewables such as wind could soar to nearly a third of its portfolio, or about £200m a year, from 5% now.
The estate's eclectic portfolio includes many of Britain's finest buildings, along with farmland, forests and coastlines. Under Bright's stewardship, it has been gradually scaling back its central London exposure from 80% of the portfolio to around 66%, by buying shopping centres in Oxford and Exeter and more than a dozen retail parks around the country.
Bright has always wanted to match the best property companies, despite the constraints imposed on the organisation under the 1961 Crown Estate Act. It cannot borrow, invest in shares or overseas property and must have all its holdings in land, gilts or cash. In 2009/10, profits dropped for the first time, mainly because the crown estate's cash had to be held on overnight deposit which paid paltry interest of around 0.5%-1%. The government has relaxed the rules, so capital reserves can now be held on deposits up to 12 months.
Bright considers the redevelopment of Regent Street as one his finest achievements.
Working in tandem with Westminster city council, Transport for London and the Greater London Authority, the crown estate has pedestrianised several side streets, widened pavements, and introduced a diagonal crossing at Oxford Circus and new traffic islands at Piccadilly Circus, along with two-way traffic on Piccadilly, Pall Mall and St James's Street. "Those three roads, when they they were all single working, were a bit like a race track – a hangover from 1960s road traffic engineering. It rather cut off St James's," says Bright.
But the next big Crown estate project – a 10-year, £500m redevelopment of St James's – will be in the in-tray of his successor, Alison Nimmo – a regeneration specialist who has been hired from the Olympic Delivery Authority.
CV
Born 2 May 1951, Portsmouth
Lives Farnham, Surrey, with his wife, Susan. Has two sons and a daughter, and three stepchildren
Education Modern languages at Christ's College Cambridge
Career 1973-91, various positions in the Department of the Environment; 1991-95, deputy chief executive of the Housing Corporation;
1995-98, joined Personal Investment Authority as head of finance and operations, then chief executive;
1998-99, head of investment business at the Financial Services Authority;
June 1999, joined the crown estate as director of finance and administration; appointed chief executive in 2001
Interests Walking, gardening, music, reading, holidays in France | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/15/freshwater-akwaeke-emezi-book-review-nigeria | Books | 2018-11-15T09:00:29.000Z | Ayòbámi Adébáyò | Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi review – a remarkable debut | “H
ow do you survive when they place a god inside your body?” This surprising question animates Akwaeke Emezi’s remarkable debut, pulsing through every phase of its heroine’s arduous but luminous journey with and towards her multitudinous selves. Conceived as an answer to her Catholic father’s prayers, Ada is a response from an Igbo deity – Ala – whose ways and worship her father has all but forgotten. Thus, this bildungsroman about a character whose essence is rooted in Igbo cosmology begins by inextricably linking her consciousness with cosmic forces that existed long before she was born.
Ada is the second child of Saul, a Nigerian doctor, and his Malaysian wife Saachi, a nurse. When Ada is still a child, Saachi leaves to work abroad, first in Saudi Arabia and then in the UK. Although she visits her family in Nigeria once or twice each year, she will never again live in the home she once made with her proud and impatient husband. At 16, Ada also leaves Nigeria, for the United States, where she spends her turbulent college years in Virginia. All the while, there is a claim on her head , “for being born incorrectly, for not returning, for crossing the ocean sifted with death”. While the effects of this claim might read like a curse, they are really a manifestation of a demand that she follow a predestined path. Ada is an ogbanje, a spirit child who is born repeatedly to the same parents, taunting and torturing them with many reincarnations. While most ogbanjes die as children, Ada survives into adulthood, constantly struggling against a pull towards self-annihilation.
In Virginia, Ada meets Malena, a Dominican girl who recognises her internal struggles without dismissing her experience as a psychosocial identity crisis. This external validation gives her selves some relief, because for them the “worst part of embodiment is being unseen”. While Ada’s life in the US is filled with both significant and fleeting relationships, including a short-lived marriage, the most intense and consequential is the one she has with her many selves. It is in the phantasmagoric dramatisation of this dynamic that Emezi’s surreal prose shines.
Asughara’s hunger for sensuous experience is a brutal force. She races through sexual encounters with hedonistic fervour
The novel begins with the first-person collective voice; “We” introduce Ada and map her trajectory from childhood in Nigeria through to her time in college. This We is the voice of all the personages that make up Ada. In the sections of Freshwater narrated with this technique, the voice is poetic, often incantatory. Its tone is mythic and remains assured even as Ada’s family becomes fractured by incremental measures during her childhood. There’s a definite change when Asughara, one of Ada’s selves, takes over the narrative, and with it a shift of viewpoint in Ada’s life. Asughara’s voice is colloquial and intimate, delightfully and distinctively Nigerian.
Although she has been a part of Ada all along, Asughara comes to the fore after a traumatic event and declares on arrival, “I already knew Ada was mine: mine to move and take and save.” Revelling in her possession of a human body, Asughara’s hunger for sensuous experience is a brutal force unmediated by human concerns about emotional consequences. She races through sexual encounters with hedonistic fervour, wreaking havoc on Ada’s relationships.
Eventually, a frustrated Ada decides it is time for Asughara to leave. By this time, Ada is aware that there is also a delicately masculine self in “the marble room of her mind”, and has named this gentler self Saint Vincent. In one of the most fascinating chapters, Ada confronts Asughara, intent on getting rid of her. Feeling betrayed, Asughara interprets this as attempted murder. Saint Vincent intervenes, telling Ada: “Asughara loves you.” It’s a testament to Emezi’s skill that this simple declaration rings true. Although enraged by Ada’s betrayal, when Asughara then pulls Ada towards suicide after years of self-harm, it is clear that this isn’t a vengeful move, but an attempt to save Ada and somehow alleviate her psychic pain.
When Ada finds a measure of peace, it is not a consequence of eliminating any of her selves: instead, it emanates from accepting that she is “a village full of faces and a compound full of bones, translucent thousands”. When we return to Nigeria, the narrator is Ada: not the tortured Ada who made her way tentatively into earlier chapters in the form of poems and diary entries, but a voice infused with We’s poetic cadence and Asughara’s blistering yet intimate tone. It is a fitting culmination for the extraordinary journey Freshwater charts, a manifestation of Ada’s realisation that she is irrevocably an amalgamation of all her varied and even divergent selves.
Ayòbámi Adébáyò’s Stay With Me is published by Canongate. Freshwater is published by Faber. To order a copy for £8.80 (RRP £10) go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/08/richard-dawkins-fairytales-pernicious-wrong | Books | 2014-06-07T23:05:44.000Z | Marina Warner | Richard Dawkins is wrong to dismiss the power of fairytales | "W
onder tales" might be the better term: fairytales inspire both wonder as astonishment and as a form of questioning. They're thought experiments, revolving possibilities. They're close to make-believe play, when children project dramas and outcomes, using what material there is to hand to imagine the script.
In the case of fairytales, the material is super-rich: the stories crystallise the accumulated knowledge of the past into brilliantly coloured, sharply outlined, yet often baffling motifs: the glass slipper; the cannibal ogress and the child-bird she wants to cook; the mermaid who gives up her voice for love; the girl who runs away disguised as a donkey – and yes, Dawkins's example, the frog who wants to sleep on a princess's pillow. These are wonders, disturbing and astonishing, yet encoded, oblique renderings of experience.
Fairytales, still, are all about things that are happening. They tell of child slaves, buying and selling women, abduction, tyranny, poverty, hunger and family conflicts. There are jealousy and greed and brutal, power-mad despots. The "once upon a time and far away" of the setting wraps hard facts and raw truths in fantastic, sometimes absurd dress, and then (and this is the greatest wonder of the form) the stories offer hope of redress and justice – the biter bit, the tyrant brought low.
When Dawkins remarks that besides science, everything else is "a second-rate explanation of existence", he can't really mean what this implies: that imaginative culture, however speculative and unverifiable, has little illuminating effect. You can criticise fairytales for a lack of ethics (does Aladdin deserve his fortune?). You can criticise this version or that for vile ideology (antisemitism in Grimm; female beauty as the ultimate good; rank consumerism; delight in cruelty). You can deplore the wishful thinking as peddling illusions. But literature and story-telling are in the paradoxical business of making things up to make us feel a little better, even as they confront the worst.
Dawkins's attack on fairytales has been reported unfairly – he was musing rather than laying down the law. But you can't attack the wonder tale for reinforcing belief in God! On the contrary, the agents of fairytale enchantments – Puck, genie, fairy godmother – act outside any existing scheme of moral or religious salvation. Besides, magic has its own history and belief its seasons, and children today are very canny – they know the difference between believing in earnest and believing in play. The crowd queuing at King's Cross to push the luggage cart through the wall to Platform 9¾ and board the train to Hogwarts don't believe it's there; but they revel in the pleasure of let's pretend.
Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale by Marina Warner is published later this year | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/12/iran-agrees-deal-with-un-on-monitoring-of-nuclear-programme | World news | 2021-09-12T12:59:15.000Z | Patrick Wintour | Iran agrees deal with UN on monitoring of nuclear programme | Iran has agreed to allow UN nuclear inspectors to install new memory cards into its cameras monitoring the country’s controversial nuclear programme in a move that could keep the inspection process on life support, and even ease a path towards a lifting of US sanctions.
Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, struck the deal in Tehran on Sunday after two hours of talks and will report to the IAEA’s board meeting on Monday.
His breakthrough makes it less likely European states and the US will table a motion of censure against Iran that would have been passed to the UN security council.
Grossi had been preparing to report to the IAEA that his ad hoc agreements to monitor the nuclear programme struck in February had in effect collapsed. Iran, now led by a new more hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi after elections in June, had been blocking a visit by Grossi, leaving European states little alternative from their perspective but to censure Iran.
The head of the Iranian atomic energy association, Mohammad Eslami, said he had held constructive talks with Grossi and as a result new memory cards would be installed. The existing cards showing Iranian activity at its main nuclear sites will be kept in Iran under what is described as a joint seal. It has also been agreed the cameras can be serviced. No further details were given in the joint statement apart from that the two sides had reached an agreement on how this was to be done.
Grossi will return to Tehran at a later date for what was described in a joint statement as “high-level consultations with the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
The talks will aim to revitalise what had previously been an intrusive inspections process. The Iranian parliament in February, putting pressure on the previous administration led by Hassan Rouhani, had ordered the government to withdraw from the agreement covering the UN inspections.
This left the IAEA increasingly in the dark on how Iran was developing its nuclear programme. Tehran had admitted it was using more sophisticated centrifuges to a purity of 60%. The deal lets Iran produce enriched uranium but only at an underground plant at Natanz and only with first-generation IR-1 machines, which are far less efficient. It also caps the purity to which Iran can enrich uranium at 3.67%.
Grossi said he would be returning to Iran for further talks to build trust between the IAEA and the new government.
On his return to Vienna, Grossi said the agreement on servicing the IAEA cameras meant continuity of knowledge for his inspectors, which was about to be lost, would be retained even though his inspectors would not have immediate access to the film on the camera. He said: “We will be able to keep the information needed to maintain continuity of knowledge.”
He added that the IAEA was “getting to the point where we needed immediate rectification, and this agreement gets us just that”. He described the agreement as a stopgap, but insisted it would be implemented within a few days.
Admitting that over recent weeks “there had been a major communication breakdown with Iran”, he said his meeting on Sunday in Tehran also led to an understanding that there would be further, broader meetings with the new administration at higher levels in which he would be free to raise other long-standing issues, including unexplained nuclear particles found in some sites. “Nothing will be sidelined and nothing hidden,” he said.
Tehran’s increasing brinkmanship had antagonised Russia, a natural ally, and also led to growing pressure on the US from Iran’s chief regional adversaries, Israel and Saudi Arabia, to admit the talks on the revival of the nuclear deal were at a dead end, thereby requiring a new more aggressive strategy.
The US special envoy on Iran, Robert Malley, had held talks in Moscow and Paris last week ahead of the IAEA board meeting. The UK was represented at the Paris meeting by its former ambassador to Iran, Robert Macaire, an indication that the British diplomat is going to stay with the Iran file even though he left the embassy in the summer.
A censure motion at the IAEA board meeting would have seriously jeopardised the stalled talks between the US and Iran on the US lifting most of its sanctions in return for clear Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal signed in 2015. Those talks have been on hold since Raisi’s election, partly because he needed to appoint a new negotiating team.
The former Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, has been replaced by Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, but there was little from Iran on whether it wanted to restart the negotiating strategy. The US claimed the talks had in principle reached a wide-ranging agreement on the lifting of sanctions, a move that would also lead to the release of as many as 10 dual-nationals. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/15/musicalize-gig-promoters | Music | 2015-07-15T08:00:03.000Z | Ian McQuaid | Musicalize: doing it for the fan and sticking it to the man | Next Friday, 50 Cent – boxing promoter, soft-drink tycoon and, incidentally, one of the biggest hip-hop artists of all time – comes to the 02 for his first UK show in nearly half a decade. On the surface, it’s nothing remarkable, but the gig isn’t being bankrolled by an events behemoth like Live Nation; it’s being put on by an indie promotions company created by two young music fans just four years ago.
Musicalize was founded in 2011 by Ben and Sophie Anderson, a husband-and-wife team who had seen their fill of live events where hyped unsigned artists were let down by woeful production values. They decided to put on their own events instead. “We had no music industry experience,” says Ben, “but we thought: ‘How hard can it be?’”
It helped to have friends in high places. The Andersons befriended tastemakers including SBTV’s Jamal Edwards and a pre-fame Ed Sheeran, while Ben’s sister Sian is a 1Xtra presenter. But they wanted to create a space where industry insiders and fans could enjoy new music together, ideally in a slick venue. Their events lean heavily on a “networking” element, which has helped them build a solid fanbase and sell out shows by everyone from grime artist Ghetts to US stars Lil Kim, Eve and Ciara.
The other Man: Musicalize ally Ed Sheeran. Photograph: Keith Trodd
However, trying to establish a successful promotions company that puts on US and UK R&B, hip-hop and grime – the sort that would have been dubbed “urban” back in the stone age – isn’t without its difficulties. The notorious Form 696, a licensing requirement that demands that promoters detail the genre of their music event, seems to magically appear whenever largely black crowds are due to be in attendance.
Musicalize, however, has approached this hindrance in a more democratic way. In May 2013, when it was told it couldn’t put on K Koke, a young north London rapper the police had tried (and failed) to charge with attempted murder, its response was to march down to the local nick to negotiate. “In the case of K Koke, we got him to sit down with the licensing team,” says Ben. “He understood that [the police] wanted reassurance that anyone from his former life wasn’t going to show up. In the end, we got the go-ahead for one of his first London shows. The people who want to cause trouble are rarely the same people who pay to go to hip-hop shows and the police eventually acknowledged that.”
A lack of experience and a lot of front clearly still count for something. “Our naivety helped us,” agrees Ben. “We’d be told by industry people that we couldn’t have a grime show in central London, but we’d just go ahead and do it.” It was this same straight-talking that saw him phone up Ed Sheeran after Sheeran had dropped his first number one album and asked him to play a charity show with them. Sheeran said yes and Musicalize knew they’d arrived. In the face of calculated brand marketing, Musicalize’s approach is refreshingly old-fashioned and more in line with the music fan than business man. Live Nation and co should listen up.
50 Cent & G-Unit perform at The O2, SE10, on 17 July | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/apr/14/labrinth-sia-diplo-present-lsd-review | Music | 2019-04-14T07:00:45.000Z | Peter Robinson | Labrinth, Sia and Diplo Present… LSD review – streaming supergroup underwhelm | It works on paper. Combine three star musicians whose names make for an eye-catching acronym and whose varied talents seem to have kept half the charts afloat for the last decade, throw in some psychedelic imagery, then watch those streams roll in. There are moments when this streaming era supergroup hit the mark, as in the doo-wop laced Thunderclouds and glitchily absorbing Angel in Your Eyes. Widescreen pop moment Genius, which kicked off the LSD project last May, still packs a big punch, though perhaps not to such an extent that it warrants two inclusions, one in the form of a perfunctory Lil Wayne remix, on a slim volume of whose 10 tracks seven have already been released.
Elsewhere LSD underwhelms, even if you accept that three of the world’s most interesting musicians would always struggle to create something greater than the sum of its parts. It would be unkind to think of this as a total vanity project – it’s clearly intended to sell. Mind you, at least vanity projects generally carry a sense of artists finding space to spread their creative wings. Not an entirely bad trip, but not one its makers should be in any hurry to repeat.
Watch the video for Thunderclouds by LSD. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2018/may/30/hostile-environment-what-social-landlords-need-to-know | Housing Network | 2018-05-30T06:33:44.000Z | John Perry | The hostile environment: what social landlords need to know | John Perry | The problems experienced by the Windrush generation highlight the effects of the “hostile environment” created by Theresa May when she was home secretary. Anyone needing rented housing is affected, alongside those going to hospital or applying for a job or bank account. Social housing applicants have long had to comply with eligibility rules but landlords in England now have to check their right to rent. Rough sleepers and those in poor-quality rented accommodation can be affected by Home Office enforcement action. How can social landlords respond? Here are seven tips.
First, it’s vital that housing staff know the rules or can get expert guidance. We at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) have received reports of people being told they are not eligible for social housing because (for example) they are EU nationals or have limited leave to remain. Many people in these groups are eligible and will continue to be after Brexit. You can find all the rules on the Housing Rights website run by the CIH and BME National. Remember that there may be different rules for housing allocations, homelessness and benefits.
Right to rent immigration checks put vulnerable people at risk
John Perry
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Second, you mustn’t discriminate. You can’t ask someone for proof of identity or entitlement to live in the UK solely because of their ethnicity, their name or the language they speak. Your rules must treat everyone equally. The Right to Rent scheme has led to discrimination by landlords, as revealed by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and the Residential Landlords Association. As well as not discriminating yourself, you should help those seeking to challenge discrimination if they report it.
Third, be aware of the obstacles people face in proving they are entitled to be in the UK. The Windrush victims were told to get their documentation in order, but this is costly (getting citizenship requires fees of more than £2,000 per person), and for older people – including those who have lived here all their lives – proving entitlement can be difficult. Documentation requirements vary and there are no required documents for housing eligibility, so you have to make reasonable use of what proof people have.
Fourth, we know that the Home Office often gets things wrong: there is no need to contact the department on a routine basis, nor take its advice on housing entitlement, which is not covered in its rules. Many of the Windrush cases were turned away because the Home Office said it had no record of them and left landlords and employers to assume they didn’t have a right to be here. We’ve just updated the Housing Rights website with the latest changes made by the Home Office and the Department for Work and Pensions: longstanding migrants or their children can now get help from a dedicated Home Office unit.
Fifth, it’s the most vulnerable people who are most affected: those who have experienced domestic violence, those trafficked for work or working in the hidden economy, older people, asylum seekers challenging Home Office decisions, and many more. If these people turn to local councils or social landlords for help, will they get it? Again, the Housing Rights website helps identify ways in which vulnerable people can be helped and the exceptions that might apply.
Sixth, are you an adviser to private renters or do you do enforcement work, for example against rogue landlords? There is a risk that enforcement of proper conditions gets entangled with enforcement of immigration rules. Your work should emphasise the former – you’re there to support tenants. If you find intolerable conditions where tenants have to be moved for their own health or safety, are you going to put them on the street (where they will be worse off) or are you going to look for options for their re-accommodation, regardless of their immigration status?
It's time to address the racial injustice in Britain's social housing
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Finally, do you assist rough sleepers and other destitute people, who of course may be in that position because they can’t get work or benefits? Some who are not UK nationals may want to return to their country of origin, but don’t assume this or hand their details to immigration enforcement officers: rounding up rough sleepers from the EU, for example, may be unlawful. As a social landlord, a better approach is to work with charities to provide free accommodation to destitute people who can’t get benefits – the Joseph Rowntree Foundation guide How to improve support and services for destitute migrants shows you how.
Of course, everyone working for social landlords should comply with the law, but to do this you need to be fully aware of people’s housing and benefit entitlements, as well as of the restrictions that limit your work. Bear in mind that most of the hostile environment measures hit those who are poor and vulnerable hardest.
John Perry is a policy adviser at the Chartered Institute of Housing
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/15/the-guardian-view-on-british-tv-drama-a-new-golden-age | Opinion | 2021-12-15T18:25:21.000Z | Editorial | The Guardian view on British TV drama: a new golden age? | Editorial | Speaking at the Royal Television Society’s autumn conference, the former media minister John Whittingdale suggested that the dominance of global streaming giants such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney was endangering the future production of distinctively British content. In future, public service broadcasters would need to be legally directed, he suggested, to create programmes embodying a kind of “Britishness” exemplified by old favourites such as Dad’s Army or Only Fools and Horses.
As critics such as the historian David Olusoga have pointed out, attempting to define a supposedly core Britishness in a multicultural, evolving society would be a highly contentious exercise. It would also be a futile one in an industry that is entering a fast-moving, exciting and unpredictable golden age. Startling figures released this week underline that investment from the streamers is helping to transform the scope, ambition and range of TV and film production. Traditional broadcasters such as Sky and the BBC are following suit, spending more on big-budget content. As the year comes to an end, overall investment in shows costing at least £1m an episode is two-thirds greater than the previous record set in 2019 – before the pandemic. Netflix intends to double the size of its Shepperton studios in Surrey. Disney, at Pinewood studios, and Apple, in Aylesbury, are also expanding their footprint. During the course of the past year, the UK has hosted close to 200 major TV and film productions, including the home-grown Doctor Who, Shetland and Ghosts.
Public service broadcasters have a special responsibility to attend to the state of the nation and must always be given adequate resources with which to do that. Small-scale creativity and innovation must also be protected in an age of big-budget production. But portraying “Britishness”, in this transformed landscape, is becoming a perpetual work in progress. A transatlantic focus on greater diversity has led to milestone portraits of multicultural Britain in which, for example, black lives and experience have been belatedly foregrounded.
Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You – on the BBC and HBO – and Steve McQueen’s Small Axe films for the BBC broke new ground in this regard. Luther, the detective series starring Idris Elba, also broadcast by the BBC, is now to be made into a film by Netflix. The hit Netflix drama Bridgerton is more in the “made-for-global” category, but – filmed in Bath and produced by a black American – it showcases both Regency England and a full range of contemporary British acting talent.
Interviewed in the Radio Times earlier this month, the former Doctor Who actor David Tennant joined Mr Olusoga in questioning the government’s desire to protect nebulously defined “British values” in television programming. They are right. At this time of new possibilities, proliferating platforms and cultural cross-fertilisation, the last thing our broadcasters need is a nostalgic attempt to force the future of high-end British drama to conform to a narrow, selective version of the past. | Full |
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