URL
stringlengths 34
373
⌀ | Article Category
stringclasses 126
values | Publication Date
stringlengths 20
25
⌀ | Article Author
stringlengths 3
44
⌀ | Article Title
stringlengths 3
236
⌀ | Article Contents
stringlengths 3
49.8k
⌀ | Data Quality
stringclasses 2
values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/22/ken-loach-cannes-2016-palme-dor-win-i-daniel-blake | Film | 2016-05-22T18:49:15.000Z | Catherine Shoard | Ken Loach stuns at Cannes 2016 with Palme d'Or win for I, Daniel Blake | There were shocks and surprises – and even talk of a renegade jury – at the closing ceremony for the 69th Cannes film festival. Few of the perceived favourites picked up prizes, while some movies derided as turkeys triumphed – and the one-award-per-movie rule also appeared to have been torn up.
I, Daniel Blake review: Ken Loach's welfare state polemic is blunt, dignified and brutally moving
Read more
Ken Loach won his second Palme d’Or – the festival’s highest honour – for I, Daniel Blake, a social-realist drama about a disabled carpenter struggling with the red tape of the benefits system. The director, who turns 80 next month, returned from retirement to make the film, and took to the stage at the Palais to address the audience in French.
“The festival is very important for the future of cinema,” he said, instructing all present to “stay strong.”
Loach continued by saying it was “very strange” to received the award in such glamorous surroundings, considering the conditions endured by those people who inspired the film.
“When there is despair, the people from the far right take advantage,” said Loach. “We must say that another world is possible and necessary.”
Jury member Donald Sutherland praised I, Daniel Blake as “an absolutely terrific movie that resonates in your heart and soul,” backstage during a press conference.
Loach has a very loyal following in Europe: many of his films have premiered at Cannes, while The Wind That Shakes the Barley, about two brothers who join the IRA in the early 1920s, won the Palme d’Or in 2006. Yet few foresaw victory for the veteran dramatist on Sunday.
The film-maker called his second win “extraordinary” backstage. “Our breath has been taken away,” Loach said. “We weren’t expecting to come back. We are quietly stunned.”
Cannes 2016: full list of winners
Read more
The prize for best director was a tie between Graduation, Cristian Mungiu’s Romanian drama about a doctor’s daughter struggling with her exams and Olivier Assayas’s Personal Shopper, a horror starring Kristen Stewart as a recently-bereaved psychic PA in Paris.
The first film was warmly – if soberly – received; the second was greeted with boos at its press screening – although not quite as many as met It’s Only the End of the World, Xavier Dolan’s melodrama about a young man who returns to his family to tell them he’s dying.
That film took the Grand Prix – or runner’s up award – marking the second time Dolan has triumphed, following 2014’s Mommy. In an emotional speech, the 27-year-old French Canadian thanked his producer for “feeling the emotion of the film”.
It’s Only the End of the World review: Xavier Dolan's nightmarish homecoming is a dream
Read more
“Emotion is not always easy to share with others,” he continued. “Violence can sound like a scream. All we do in this world, we do to be loved. Me, especially. To be accepted. The more I grow, the more I direct, the more difficult it is to be understood. I now know who I am.”
Jury member László Nemes, the director who last year won the same prize for the Auschwitz-set drama Son of Saul, called Dolan’s film “a very moving journey,” backstage. “It had ambition - and much risk was taken.
“When it started, you could feel a very specific voice of director,” he continued. “I’m very happy when I see people try to go in very different and personal ways. I think that’s the essence of cinema.”
Dolan used his time backstage to address his critics. “I’ll always read what people think and say,” he said. “This is how I’ve been building my life - I’ve been wondering what people think. If they see black when I see white, there’s a problem.”
Meanwhile British film-maker Andrea Arnold won her third Jury Prize (after Red Road and Fish Tank) for American Honey, a lyrical road-trip across the US. Many had anticipated a more substantial award for the film which, alongside Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, was considered one of the frontrunners.
“When I’m happy I want to dance,” said Arnold in a speech in which she thanked her team.
Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman – a quiet thriller about an actor wrestling with his desire for vengeance after his wife is assaulted in their flat – took best actor for Shahab Hosseini and best screenplay for the writer/director. “I wasn’t expecting a second award for the film,” said Fahardi on stage.
Jaclyn Jose won best actress for her role as an impoverished mother fighting police corruption in Brilliante Mendoza’s Manilla-set crime thriller Ma Rosa. She took expressed shock. “I am so surprised,” she said on stage. “I just walked the red carpet with my daughter.” Jose thanked the festival before dedicating her award “to the Philippines”.
“We found her to be a master of her skills,” said jury member Mads Mikkelsen, backstage, of their decision to award Jose. “It was a beautiful performance for a lead actress. That’s why she got it.”
The jury this year was chaired by Mad Max director George Miller, whose Fury Road was one of the breakthrough films of last year’s festival.
Cannes 2016: Ken Loach wins Palme d'Or – the Dailies film podcast
Read more
His fellow jurors included Nemes, as well as actors including Sutherland, Kirsten Dunst and Vanessa Paradis. Speaking at the start of the ceremony, Miller described the previous fortnight as “exhausting, but one of the best experiences of my life”.
“We must commend the festival for this feast of cinema,” he said. “We passionately and fiercely debated the films. Nothing was left unsaid.”
Backstage speaking to the press, Miller echoed his sentiments made at the ceremony, calling the experience of leading his jury “rigorous and vigorous.”
“Arguably we debated longer than most juries,” he added. “Nothing was left unsaid. And we avoided looking at what other people were saying.”
Divines – about a teenage girl in the Paris suburbs, commended as a successor to La Haine – won the Camera d’Or for best debut. Its director, Houda Benyamina, used her time onstage to ebulliently cheerlead for more female directors.
“Cannes is ours,” she said. “We are here! It’s possible. The fact that a woman won the prize is a curiosity; things have to change. It’s about time.” Benyamina then paid tribute to her female producer, before crying out “Another woman!” and “Vive directors!”
The honorary Palme went to Jean-Pierre Léaud, the veteran French actor best known for his work with François Truffaut. Léaud, now 71, played the character Antoine Doinel in a series of films by the New Wave icon, starting with 1959’s The 400 Blows. The juror Arnaud Desplechin made emotional tribute in his introduction, which was followed by a prolonged standing ovation.
In his speech, Léaud remarked: “Cinema is the only art the captures death at work, like bees we can see dying in a hive.”
Despite the unexpected end, the verdict on this year’s festival was that it passed without the cinematic fireworks of some previous editions, with fewer films debuting on the Croisette likely to be loom large in the awards conversation. Yet the relative peace outside the Palais was a triumph, with heightened security and 500 extra policemen apparently fending off any terrorist threat. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/mar/26/italians-physicists-book-einstein-relativity-theory-hit-carlo-rovelli | Science | 2015-03-26T15:57:15.000Z | Stephanie Kirchgaessner | Italian physicist's book on Einstein's relativity theory becomes surprise hit | A book explaining Einstein’s theory of general relativity seems an unlikely contender for a bestseller. But in Italy, Sette Brevi Lezioni di Fisica (Seven Brief Lessons in Physics), written by a physicist who spends most of his time grappling with the unsolved problem of quantum gravity, took many by surprise recently when it became the highest selling book for two straight months, sharing shelf space in bookstores with Cinquanta Sfumature di Grigio (Fifty Shades of Grey).
The book’s success – it has sold 140,000 copies in six months – has left its author, 58-year-old Carlo Rovelli, “a bit overwhelmed”.
“It has gone much, much beyond the readership that I imagined,” he told the Guardian. “I think that what people like is that it is relatively simple, but there’s a lot of poetry in it – in the sense of trying to show the beauty of nature.”
The book, published by Adelphi in Italy, is as straightforward as its title implies. Rovelli explains scientific theories and concepts that were discovered in the 20th century, including quantum mechanics and black holes. He also describes the problems that have yet to be solved in the 21st century.
In his explanation of the most “beautiful theory” – Einstein’s theory of general relativity – Rovelli writes of space curving, bending and stretching all around us. “I recount the emotion I went through as a student when I started visualising it, and suddenly things started to make sense, like the Earth going around the sun,” he said.
Rovelli believes that sales of the book – which will be published in English by Penguin later this year or early next year, as well as in many other languages – have benefited from the popularity of recent science-themed films such as The Theory of Everything, about Stephen Hawking, and Interstellar.
Rovelli said science had often been viewed with suspicion in Italy because of the influence of the Catholic church, and more broadly in Europe because of “leftwing” arguments that suggest that knowledge based on the study of humanities – philosophy, art, and literature – is superior to scientific knowledge.
“I am from that generation that, when I was a kid, there was much more fascination and much less fear about science. I think people are tired of science-bashing,” he said. “Science is beautiful. It is just knowledge.”
No one form of knowledge – humanistic or scientific – trumps another, he argued. “There is a continuum, there is no contradiction.
“If I read Dostoevsky, I learn more about humans. If I read Einstein, I learn more about nature.”
Rovelli, who lives in Marseille, started writing 10 years ago and said most of his time working on the slim blue book was spent editing, not writing. “One of the reasons the book is short is because I kept correcting and making things shorter. I took away the parts that were boring, not interesting. I think it is important – the way things are written,” he said.
But even if Rovelli’s aim was to make science accessible, he said he could not escape the obvious difficulty of the topics at hand: “I try not to cheat. When it is complicated, I say it is complicated.”
The physicist is getting inundated with calls from publishers asking “what’s next?”. But he is not interested in writing again, for now. “My dream has been to make steps toward a solution to quantum gravity. That is what I want to do. I am a scientist,” he said. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/16/what-do-students-want-from-office-for-students | Education | 2018-01-16T06:45:17.000Z | Harriet Swain | What do students want from the Office for Students? | It has been a rocky start for the Office for Students, the government’s new regulator for the higher education sector in England, launched to champion the interests of students. It has already faced criticism for having only one student on the board and has lost Toby Young, who resigned as a board member after an outcry over tweets that suggested more interest in regulating women’s cup sizes than university teaching quality. So what would students like to see from the body that seeks to represent them?
Peter Anson
Second-year politics and international relations student at the University of Sussex and founder of Liberate the Debate, a ‘free speech’ society
The OfS should do some kind of study on sustainability of student life – the relationship between tuition fees and rent – because this is what affects students. Freedom of speech should be about number eight down the pecking order. It’s important, but students have larger concerns and a lot of those are economic. If those problems are out of the way, then you ask questions about freedom of speech. When students are protesting so much that you are denying access to speakers, you have to ask the university and students’ union what sort of generation of students they are fostering.
La-Vern Tegede
First-year student at the University of Greenwich studying finance and investment banking
A lot of student problems are to do with anxiety – trying to make friends, trying to fit in, trying to keep the balance between work and social life. They should try to help students find that balance and manage their time and priorities. Student finance causes a lot of problems. I didn’t receive my student finance until November so I was struggling for a long time. I was thinking, “what if I can’t pay my rent?” If we were paid our money on time it would cause a lot less stress. Also, I’m partially blind and there was a lot of support I didn’t know about and that wasn’t mentioned until I inquired. That’s quite a big thing. If I were head of a student representation body, the first thing I would do would be to give students as much information as possible.
Riddi Viswanathan
Diversity officer, Manchester University students’ union
The priorities for most students are employability, getting a good degree and having a good time at university. If you just have one student on the board, how are you going to understand students’ interests? The board isn’t inclusive or diverse enough. The OfS is focusing on a consumer market and emphasising competition and choice, whereas most student unions believe in free education, so it is contradicting that, even when talking about value for money. Also there are a number of immigration rules that restrict universities in what they can do, so that contradicts the idea of competition too.
Alex Boulton
Third-year history student and co-editor of Epigram, Bristol University’s student newspaper
Vice-chancellors’ pay and freedom of speech are non-issues. A lot of students want the focus to be on making sure we get value for money and increasing social inclusivity at universities. I get four contact hours a week and it’s hard to justify why we are paying more than £9,000 a year for that. If we thought we were getting value for money, vice-chancellors’ salaries wouldn’t be such a contentious issue. At Bristol we have had a lot of student suicides. Another key thing they should be focusing on is how universities are supporting wellbeing services for students.
Matilda Gomersall
Third-year student at Hereford College of Arts studying for a BA in contemporary design craft
A lot of students don’t feel they get value for money. With the amount of tutoring provided, we feel we are paying just to say we have the degree. There is possibly not enough support for mental health; where there is support, people aren’t informed about it enough to feel comfortable seeking help. I would like a better connection with the arts world. It is hard as an artist to make your way after university. The ways you can turn your practice into working need to be more evident. I would also like to find a way where all students of various disciplines can come together and have an understanding of each other. I think there is a real divide between the disciplines.
This article was amended on 17 January 2018 to clarify that the Office for Students is the regulator for England. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/01/fear-lockdown-social-isolation-friendships-self-reliance | Opinion | 2021-02-01T07:00:00.000Z | Alice O'Keeffe | I feared the social isolation of lockdown most – but I'm tougher than I thought | Alice O'Keeffe | When the pandemic hit, my biggest fear – oddly, perhaps – was not the virus. I had been ill for some extended periods of time before. Illness was familiar territory; I had some sense of what it meant, and how I might get through it. Back then, Covid itself did not feel like an immediate threat to me or to my family. It affected older people, I told myself. As long as my mum didn’t get it, we would be fine.
Social isolation, on the other hand, filled me with suffocating dread. I could not wrap my head around the idea of not seeing my friends, of my kids not seeing their friends. I railed against the lockdown rules, against the scientists, those specky boffins who knew about diseases but had no idea about human nature. Surely they couldn’t actually expect us to get by without our friends. They couldn’t seriously ask me to shut myself away, with only my husband and two primary-school-age sons for company. Just the thought of such a limited social life set my pulse racing. It wasn’t possible. I couldn’t do it. I would go mad. (Melodrama, moi?)
Almost a year on, amid the terrible devastation of the coronavirus itself, we have done it; we are still doing it. I’m not about to say that I’ve enjoyed it – a lot of the time it’s been horrible. It’s stressful and exhausting. The boys squabble a lot. The house is a tip. We’ve given up on niceties: everyone farts, constantly and loudly; everyone gets ratty and frustrated and down, and takes that out on everyone else. The pressure of the situation has been intense. Like everyone else, I’m looking forward to it being over.
But has it been the unadulterated, insanity-inducing torture that I was expecting? No. In fact, when I look back on my early panic, I wonder what it was telling me about my dependence on constant socialising; whether that was quite as healthy as I thought. I would never have voluntarily given it up, but now I have been forced to, I have found … what? I don’t know. On better days, I get tiny glimpses of a kind of quietness, or something hardier, tougher. Steadfastness? Self-reliance? I miss my friends, all the time. But while the pandemic has drastically reduced the quantity of social interaction, I have also found that some friendships have deepened and strengthened.
My dear school-era friends, who are scattered all over the world, are now meeting up for regular Zooms, which we never did before. The local parents I see in the park during our daily exercise have become a lifeline: we know the minutiae of each other’s lives. There is no longer any need to put on a cheerful face for other parents: it is now entirely socially acceptable to answer “awful, actually” when someone asks “how are you?” At a time when everything is uncertain, one thing I feel sure of is that our little community is going to emerge stronger from this crisis.
And I hope that, once we are able to socialise freely again, we will hang on to that willingness to show our vulnerability, to be honest with one another. We are often told we have been living in an age of loneliness, but I wonder whether the opposite has also been true: that we have been overloaded with thin, superficial social connections. The social media age has put a premium on the quantity of our friends, that all-important number attached to our profile. We have been encouraged to feel that, when it comes to friends, more is always more.
Even before social media, the psychiatrist Anthony Storr wrote in his 1988 book Solitude: “The burden with which we are at present loading personal relationships is too heavy for those fragile craft to carry … Love and friendship are of course an important part of what makes life worthwhile. But they are not the only source of happiness.” For Storr, other areas of life, such as work and creativity, are essential for true mental health. The capacity to be alone is, he argued, a sign of maturity.
Looking back now at my pre-pandemic social whirl, that rings very true. It’s tempting to look to other people to define us when we don’t know how to define ourselves. It feels easier to share in others’ creativity, than to develop our own. That kind of dependence actually sets friendships up to fail, because it’s asking too much of other people. Although friendships can nurture and support us, we ultimately have to stand on our own two feet.
So it seems possible – only in certain fleeting moments, you understand – to hope that this period of (weird, noisy, overloaded) solitude may bring some benefits. It may equip us to re-enter the social world stronger, hardier, and more sure of who we are. When I can see my friends in real life again – and that sure is going to be one heck of a party – I hope that I can depend on them less and enjoy them more.
Alice O’Keeffe is a literary critic and journalist, and author of On the Up | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/apr/20/f1-five-things-learned-bahrain-grand-prix | Sport | 2015-04-20T13:24:34.000Z | Giles Richards | F1: five things we learned from the Bahrain Grand Prix | Giles Richards | Rosberg must up his game
Nico Rosberg badly needs to take the fight to team-mate Lewis Hamilton. But he needs to do it on the track to reach a position of strength in their psychological battle having been left behind in that regard after his accusations of selfishness at the Chinese Grand Prix. Most importantly he needs to start this process with qualifying. He has been outqualified by Hamilton at every race this season and, more significantly, twice by Sebastian Vettel. He admitted he made a misjudgment in Bahrain, not doing a hot sighting lap as Hamilton did in Q2 and then could not push on used tyres in his first run in Q3. Having his nose ahead on the grid must be the first step in forcing Hamilton to come at him rather than vice versa.
The Iceman cometh
Having struggled with last year’s Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen is looking altogether more at home in this year’s model. The signs were there in China, where after running a much longer middle stint than his rivals, he was chasing down Vettel for a podium spot before the safety car intervened. Then, in Bahrain, he delivered a masterclass in eking the best from car and tyres. Switching to the medium rubber – theoretically up to two seconds a lap slower than the soft – he might have been expected to lose time to the leaders at his first stop. Instead he matched Hamilton, who was on the faster tyre, which allowed him to stay in touch and chase Rosberg at the end. Even without the latter’s brake problem he would likely have passed him. He expects more from himself and so should we this season.
It’s a three big weeks for McLaren
Fernando Alonso may have scored the team’s highest finish of the season with an 11th place in Bahrain but it was overshadowed by the team being unable to field two cars because of an electrical fault on Jenson Button’s MP4-30. It was a terrible end to a hugely frustrating weekend for the British driver who had suffered failures in both of Friday’s free practice sessions and then failed to set a lap time in qualifying. It was frustrating too for McLaren and Honda and it is almost awkward to watch the team struggle so. They did not enter two cars in Australia either after Kevin Magnussen’s engine failed on the way to the grid so – while Button admits every aspect of the car needs work, particularly downforce – before the next round in Barcelona the team must see it as a matter of urgency to make it reliable.
Williams too must step up
Unthreatened as the third fastest team on the grid is not where Williams want to be. The team are open that their task this year was to consolidate the huge gains they made last year and to an extent they are doing so. They have lost ground to Ferrari, having been palpably the closest team to Mercedes in the closing rounds of last season. The team insist Felipe Massa is in the form of his life and he drove well to recover to 10th in Bahrain, while Valtteri Bottas’s talent is clear, fending off Vettel with aplomb on Sunday but he was almost 40 seconds back from Raikkonen’s Ferrari at the finish. Pat Symonds was proud of the way his team out-developed their opposition last year – they must do the same again.
Must Monza go?
Germany, which has hosted a grand prix every year since 1960, is already off the calendar for this year and in Bahrain, Bernie Ecclestone cast further doubt that Monza – whose contract to run the race runs out in 2016 – will remain a Formula One fixture. “They don’t have an agreement – a bit like Germany,’’ he said. Italy, alongside Britain is the only country to have hosted a race since the world championship began in 1950. Losing it would be unthinkable surely? “I tell you something, I was told that when we didn’t have a race in France. And Germany now. We’ve got some good replacements, haven’t we?” Ecclestone said. But can there really be a replacement for Monza? No. Amid all the talk of dwindling viewing figures and crowds, losing the spectacle of racing at Monza would be folly. A case where for once in F1 the money really should not do the talking. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/careers/2017/dec/01/closing-the-tech-gender-gap-starts-in-childhood | Guardian Careers | 2017-12-01T10:03:49.000Z | Jessica Bateman | Closing the tech gender gap starts in childhood | The tech industry’s gender imbalance is no secret – only 17% of technology specific jobs are held by women. Projects to counter the problem, from conferences to mentorship programmes, are becoming widespread but are usually aimed at women already embarking on careers. Could we be doing more to close this gap during childhood?
There is overwhelming evidence that our early years are crucial in shaping how we see the world and our place in it. From as early as 10 or 11, children already have strong ideas about their gender roles. According to Elle Boag, a social psychologist at Birmingham City University, children as young as seven may have ideas about the different types of job men and women should do.
Factors influencing this are multiple and varied. For example, critics have claimed that gender specific toys can shape girls’ career ambitions, while parents and teachers also play a major role in influencing children’s career choices.
A study by the Institution of Engineering and Technology found parents’ outdated perceptions of jobs for men and women are discouraging girls from pursuing a future in the science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) sector. The research showed that parents were more likely to recommend careers in caring and education for girls.
“We expect boys to be good at maths and PE, even though there’s no biological predisposition there, and girls to be more creative or caring,” said Boag.
She believes it’s difficult for us to avoid doing this, even when we’re aware of it, because of how the human brain works. We create so-called schemas – patterns of repeated behaviour that allow children to explore and express developing ideas and thoughts through their play and exploration – as a way of categorising and understanding the world.
Breaking convention
Projects targeting children at primary and nursery level are still thin on the ground. The biggest nationwide scheme is the government funded Stem ambassadors, which aims to provide children with role models in science and technology. Stem ambassadors will visit schools to give talks, join in with lessons, or work with teachers and governors to help improve the way Stem is delivered in class.
“We really have to push the message that women do these jobs. Children think Stem isn’t for girls because they don’t see girls doing it,” says Helen Heggie, director of StemFirst, the Stem ambassador hub for Lancashire and Cumbria.
Heggie works with teachers to raise awareness of the lack of women in tech, however there’s no guarantee all teachers will be actively looking to address this, or even be aware of the issue. The other main problem is that these programmes, as well as other popular initiatives such as code clubs, are extracurricular. “Often teachers just can’t fit it in,” says Heggie.
Other smaller initiatives include the Wise (Women in Science and Engineering) campaign’s People Like Me programme. Based around research showing girls are more likely to create and articulate their self-identity using adjectives than boys – who tend to talk about themselves in terms of what they do, using verbs – it aims to teach Stem in a more descriptive manner.
A 2014 report published by Wise (PDF) claims this is important because Stem careers education has focused on what these professionals “do” rather than describing the qualities needed to succeed. It’s hoped this will encourage girls to match their own attributes to those needed in science and technology careers.
Social enterprise Stemettes promotes Stem to girls as young as five in a fun, creative way with “hackathons” and networking games. “We hear a lot of girls say they’re not good at maths, or they think it’s a boys’ thing,” says founder Anne Marie Imafidon. “The hacks are the most popular – they get to code something themselves, and that sense of achievement is very powerful. You don’t get that creativity playing with a doll.”
What can parents do to help?
There are still steps parents can take to encourage Stem learning at home through the toys they buy their children. Research by the IET found 31% of Stem toys are listed as “for boys”, compared with just 11% for girls. Manufacturers are actively trying to address this imbalance – newly-released toys aimed at girls include engineering game Goldieblox and FurReal toy pets which children code themselves, as well as new Lego kits geared towards girls.
Many cartoons still lean towards lazy stereotyping – think Dexter in his laboratory with his sister in the background. But Heggie has been involved in developing a new CBeebies programme, Bitz & Bob, with a girl engineer as the main character. “It’s designed to show pre-school children that girls can do science and problem-solving,” she says.
Industry experts also recommend parents and teachers educate themselves about the breadth and variety of tech jobs out there and try to understand the skills involved. “Most of today’s jobs didn’t exist 15 years ago,” says Amali de Alwis, CEO of Code First Girls. “Many of them require analytical thinking, but also creative problem solving. We often don’t realise that creativity and logic go hand in hand, and push children down one route or the other.”
She also believes that coding should be compulsory in schools the same way learning a second language is. “Technology is part of our culture now, so if girls can’t speak its language, how are they going to be future leaders?”
A lot of attention has been given to the trend of gender neutral parenting, but Boag is sceptical about how useful this is. She worries it may just confuse children, especially once they start school and realise other people haven’t been raised in the same way. “It’s better to let children be children, and allow them to play with anything they want,” she says. “Encourage their interests.”
Looking for a job? Browse Guardian Jobs or sign up to Guardian Careers for the latest job vacancies and career advice | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/apr/16/02-olympic-venues-row-security-photography | Sport | 2012-04-16T16:19:56.000Z | Peter Walker | O2 Olympic venue in row over security against legal photography | O2 security guards at the London Olympics venue stop the Guardian from taking legal photographs from public land guardian.co.uk
Media and civil liberties groups have expressed alarm after the managers of an Olympic venue pledged to intercept and question anyone seen photographing or filming the site, even from public land, and defended security guards who wrongly tried to invoke terrorist laws to prevent footage being shot of the arena.
The stance taken by the O2 in Greenwich, south-east London, which will host this summer's basketball, wheelchair basketball, artistic gymnastic and trampoline events, highlights wider concerns that Olympic security operations could see photographers, film crews and even members of the public harassed for entirely legal activities.
John Toner from the National Union of Journalists said he would seek an urgent meeting with managers of the O2, saying their tactics had no basis in law. "I'm stunned, and what they say is utterly outrageous," he said.
While there are strict photography rules inside Olympic venues and on many other private spaces, when standing on public land the press and public have a clear right to shoot still or moving images.
Ahead of the Games, police and the security industry have sought to train staff about this aspect of the law. There have nonetheless been a series of incidents in recent months in which photographers have been challenged while working on public land, especially in London.
As an experiment, the Guardian attempted to shoot video footage of the O2 arena from a public road on its southern edge, only a few minutes' walk from the main entrance.
Very quickly the reporter was challenged by O2 security guards, who made a series of demands with no basis in law. They ordered that the filming stop – "We've requested you to not do it because we don't like it" – and that they be shown any existing footage. Asked on what basis they could demand this, one replied: "It's under the terrorist law. We are an Olympic venue." Another added: "You have, for want of a better word, breached our security by videoing it [the O2]."
At one point they refused to allow the reporter to leave. One said: "It's gone too far for that."
Guards are entitled to challenge suspicious behaviour and call the police. However, they have no additional legal powers on public land. While such overreach is not uncommon it is often followed by a management apology.
An O2 spokesman defended the guards' approach. He said: "On the basis that [the reporter was] filming areas of the O2 that are not usually of interest to the public, our security staff's approach and handling of the situation was entirely appropriate."
It was routine policy to intercept anyone filming the arena from public land, he added: "We work with the media and others to accommodate requests to film in and around the O2, which is situated on private property, but when we observe filming of the O2's infrastructure and access points it is our policy to approach individuals so we can take the appropriate course of action." The same policy was in force with people taking still photographs from public vantage points, he said.
The civil rights campaign group Liberty said it was alarmed. Its legal officer Corinna Ferguson, said: "There's no power stopping a person taking photographs on public land, let alone to arrest them or seize property, without reasonable suspicion they've committed an offence. Police officers or security guards who get this wrong could well find themselves in trouble with the law.
"With all eyes on London during the Olympics what a terrible message it would send if Londoners and tourists face harassment from the authorities merely for snapping the capital's landmarks."
Toner, who set up a meeting last week between journalists and senior Scotland Yard officers leading the Olympic security operation, in part to address such concerns, said: "The level of ignorance displayed by their employees is quite incredible. But for the management to display the same level of ignorance is beyond belief.
"What worries me is that there must be lots of people who will just come along and take pictures of the O2. It's an unusual building. Some will be tourists – are they going to clamp down on tourists? Are they going to alienate visitors with their ridiculous behaviour?"
The O2's policy is all the more surprising given recent guidance issued by the British Security Industry Association. It has drawn up a leaflet for members which spells out the law very plainly. "If an individual is in a public place photographing or filming a private building, security guards have no right to prevent the individual from taking photographs," it reads, adding that filming or taking a photograph "does not in itself indicate hostile reconnaissance or other suspicious behaviour".
Similar incidents with police were relatively common until 2010, when terrorism stop-and-search laws were tightened following a challenge at the European court of human rights. Since then, according to experts, it has mainly been private guards causing such problems.
"Our main worry is the lack of training for some security guards. It seems to be one of the big issues now," said Chris Cheeseman from Amateur Photographer magazine, which has campaigned over photographers' freedoms.
The incident at the O2 was eventually resolved after guards called police, who also asked to see the video footage, citing the Terrorism Act. The reporter was allowed to leave after neither he nor the police could properly operate the camera to replay the footage.
The photographer's experience
As a photographer in the heightened security atmosphere of pre-Olympics east London, Vickie Flores is used to being challenged. But this seemed particularly anomalous: being told she couldn't take pictures of a 60m-high structure clearly visible for miles around.
"Not a week goes by without me being stopped by someone or other. But this one was bizarre," Flores said of her recent encounter with a security guard near the almost-completed Thames cable car system, which will whisk tourists between Olympic venues on opposite sides of the river using gondolas suspended between soaring white pillars.
Flores ignored the direction – she was taking the picture from a public pavement. But she has found such attitudes hardening as the Olympics approach, especially among over-officious security guards.
"I've never been stopped as much as I have in the past six months," she said. "It's happened more than in the rest of my life before. Sometimes I even think, 'Can I be bothered with all the hassle of taking a particular picture, is it worth it?' It's got to that stage." | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/oct/08/blackberry-review-smartphone-buy-opic-is-a-wild-ride | Film | 2023-10-08T07:00:33.000Z | Wendy Ide | BlackBerry review – smartphone ‘buy-opic’ is a wild ride | Tech years are like dog years. Less than a decade and a half has passed since the early 2010 sheyday of the BlackBerry smartphone. But in the accelerated world of technology, the once coveted accessory of any self-respecting business bigshot or self-promoting celebrity (Paris Hilton used to carry five of them at a time) now might as well be an ancient relic.
By any standard, the BlackBerry story is a wild ride – going from a prototype cobbled together from bits of a pocket calculator to a product so addictive that it was nicknamed the CrackBerry; from a share of the US mobile phone market that was at one point estimated at about 40% to virtual oblivion in the space of just a few years. Based on the 2015 book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry, the film, directed by Matt Johnson (The Dirties), is a boisterous account of the boom-and-bust, crash-and-burn trajectory of one of the world’s first smartphones and the chaotic collection of Canadian nerds that created it.
It’s a film, ultimately, about failure and immediately that makes it a far more intriguing proposition
At first glance, for all its dry humour and nervy energy, BlackBerry seems like just another addition to an increasingly overcrowded subgenre: the consumer product development drama – or “buy-opic”, if you will. Films such as Air (the story of Nike Air Jordans), Tetris (the interminable contractual negotiations to secure the rights to the video game), The Social Network (the Facebook phenomenon) and The Beanie Bubble (the understuffed plush-toy craze) work on the assumption that, as consumers, we view our purchasing choices as an extension of our personalities. These buy-opics are not just movies about marketing successes or feature-length product-placement opportunities, they are a snapshot of a wider collective identity. We are what we buy. Or at least what we aspire to buy. And that’s where this picture diverges dramatically from the expected narrative: it’s safe to say that nobody who watches it will leave the cinema and buy a BlackBerry. It’s a film, ultimately, about failure. And immediately that makes it a far more intriguing proposition than all the boardroom backslapping of a movie such as Air.
The BlackBerry story starts in Waterloo, Ontario. Childhood friends Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Doug Fregin (played by director Johnson, who also co-wrote the picture) run a scrappy technology company called Research In Motion (RIM) that manufactures moderately successful pagers and modems. The cinematography – all erratic crash-zooms and lurching, skewed framing – gets the measure of RIM. This is not, in any way, a slick organisation. Johnson draws parallels with the maverick creative energy of indie cinema, casting rising Toronto film-makers as the socially challenged tech geeks on RIM’s staff.
As the film tells it, the company has been spectacularly mismanaged, getting bruised by defaulted deals with bigger, ballsier and way more cynical players in the industry (like much in the film, including the offbeat eccentricity of the key characters, the parlous state of company finances has been rather exaggerated for dramatic purposes). But RIM is on the brink of something big.
Not that you would know it from Lazaridis’s attempt to pitch his new invention to the distracted executive of a potential partner company. In a muttered monotone directed at the carpet, he attempts to sell the idea of a phone that can also send and receive emails. Time grinds to a halt; even the exuberant Fregin glazes over. But something connects with the other man in the room: Jim Balsillie (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Glenn Howerton) is a corporate vulture with the scent of fresh meat. He swoops into the RIM offices a few days later. Lazaridis and Fregin grudgingly accept that a shark-eyed predator in a suit is exactly what the company needs.
The comic potential of the collision of personalities is thoroughly mined: Lazaridis the diffident visionary; Fregin the extrovert oddball; Balsillie the driven, hyperaggressive alpha male. Howerton, in particular, is a revelation, playing the tightly wound Balsillie as a head-butt waiting to happen. The discord between them is initially productive – it’s the engine that powers BlackBerry to success, after all. But, the film suggests, the personality clash was also a distraction, weakening the company at a crucial moment – the launch of Apple’s iPhone.
We have the benefit of hindsight, of course, but even so, it’s hard to watch the final 30 minutes of the film without screaming at the screen and wondering how the smartest guys in Waterloo, Ontario, could have been so incredibly dumb.
Watch a trailer for BlackBerry. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/04/london-bridge-station-revamp-review | Art and design | 2016-09-04T07:00:54.000Z | Rowan Moore | London Bridge station review – not quite the ticket | “Y
ou say to a brick,” said the great American architect Louis Kahn, “‘What do you want, brick?’ And the brick says to you, ‘I like an arch.’” Well, yes, so it did, but that was in the last century. What a brick now likes, to judge by the southern side of the £1bn makeover of London Bridge station, of which the second of three phases opened last week, is to be a thin, stick-on film, a sort of beige decal, on the flank of a vast concrete-and-steel construction. It likes to be decorated with sub-Victorian mouldings shaped out of doughy gloop, and to be oddly crowned by a hi-tech canopy of laboured jauntiness. Or at least this is what brick is being told to be. The things that like to be arches turn out to be skinny pieces of curved, precast concrete, jointed in such a way that they are nothing like the voussoirs and keystone of a real arch and so give no sense of carrying load.
When different batches of brick come out of a kiln, they sometimes do so in different shades, and it is good practice to mix them before they’re laid in order to even out the differences. This hasn’t happened here, with the result that a wall that is meant to be evenly toned ends up, like an imperfect suntan, with two-tone bands of lighter and darker. It’s also nice, when putting something such as a horizontal sign inside the opening of an arch, to make it align with the points from which the arch starts to curve in from its vertical supports. Here, the target is missed by some distance.
It would take a small cost in thought, possibly zero, to have made the new London Bridge exceptional
The whole is an eighth-hearted tribute to the sturdy Victorian railway vaults – sculpted, hollowed-out, cavernous – that used to stand here, and some of which remain in silent rebuke, off to the right. The inevitable array of anti-terrorist bollards that stands in front looks more architecturally convincing. It is more embarrassing for standing next to the base of the Shard, whose detail is more precise, crisp and purposeful.
Which is a shame. The country’s major railway stations, public places experienced by millions every day, deserve more, and the architectural practice Grimshaw, which is part of the conglomeration of businesses credited with creating the station, can do better. Its Southern Cross station in Melbourne, Australia, has a compelling, curvaceous oomph, as did its international terminal at Waterloo, which served the Eurostar trains until they moved to St Pancras in 2007.
The anti-terrorist bollards that look more convincing than the ‘laboured jauntiness’ of the station entrance at the foot of the Shard, ‘whose detail is more precise, crisp and purposeful’. Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer
There is also much to like about the new work at London Bridge, which was always one of the crabbier and more awkward stations in the country. A large new concourse is created at street level, which should make it easier – even if early reports are of “utter anarchy” – to get into and around the station and up to the platforms raised on viaducts overhead. It will accommodate the new Thameslink service, which is the occasion for doing the works. The capacity will increase from 56 million to 70 million passengers a year. There are extra platforms. A work of great scale and complexity has been achieved while keeping the country’s fourth busiest station running, which is not easy.
There is some of the spirit of the Melbourne version of Grimshaw. There is splendour in its abundant volume and in a great plunge through the centre between the viaducts, up which rise long escalators and a great structural steel V. There are mighty concrete columns supporting the tracks above, squat and spreading, where you can feel the weight of the construction. There are the beginnings of the undulations, in the platform canopies, that made the Melbourne station memorable. There is potential for fascination in the glimpses you get of motion, human and mechanical, if you look up and sideways at the multiple layers of tracks, bridges and escalators.
But Grimshaw also designed the revamp of the station in Newport, Wales, a project lucky not to win the 2011 Carbuncle Cup, which achieved a striking form visible only to seagulls (and for some reason uterine) at the expense of happy relationships at the level of the human eye. Some of the Newport station’s spirit has turned up at London Bridge, and it turns what could be a great project into one that is good in parts. Curves don’t quite sweep as they might and edges you might want sharp are blunted. Too much that might align doesn’t, and materials and shapes too often clash.
The platform canopies struggle for their elegance, both against the cladding panels that muffle their structure and against redundant steel frames inserted in the air space, which were bizarrely insisted on by a local planning officer. An old war memorial, reinstated from the old station, finely lettered in cast bronze, finds itself framed with ill-fitting cladding panels, held in place with a firing squad’s scatter of black plastic fixings.
The concourse has the ‘potential for fascination in the glimpses you get of motion, human and mechanical,
if you look up and sideways’. Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer
At this point, credit for the work has to be spread more fairly. This is not the responsibility just of Grimshaw, but of a design team that also includes the management, design and engineering consultancy Arcadis WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff, which is in turn employed by the contractor Costain. It is made under a design and build contract, by which the exigencies of construction usually trump an architect’s pleas for more considered detail.
Nor, even, does the buck stop with Costain, but with a wider culture of delivery. It would take a small cost in thought, possibly zero, to have made the new London Bridge exceptional. Conceivably it could have saved money – there’s probably a cheaper but better way, for example, of honouring Victorian heritage than the parody of the 2D arches. But the corporate systems for projects such as this can’t find room for this kind of consideration.
Demolition is imminent for the station’s 1893 South Eastern Railways offices, left, which will be replaced by ‘an expanse of plaza’. Photograph: Alamy
On the north side of the station, the final phase is under way. Here, shrouds have gone up round the South Eastern Railways offices of 1893, in preparation for demolition. In its craft and detail, in its ability to make different materials and techniques into a cohesive whole, this building has – the present tense can be used, just, for now – the qualities hard to find in the rest of the station. It also makes use of its tricky triangular site to make what has been called Britain’s version of New York’s Flatiron building, which tapers engagingly to a narrow end.
It is going in order to make way for an expanse of plaza, to go with other expanses of plaza around the project. Although the architects insist that this was unavoidable, it’s hard not to wonder whether a bit more thought would have made it possible to open up the bottom levels of the old offices and make them into a public arcade. But it is this kind of thought that the project lacks. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/may/16/internazionale-milan-champions-league-semi-final-second-leg-match-report | Football | 2023-05-16T21:04:37.000Z | Jonathan Liew | Lautaro Martínez finishes off Milan to put Inter in Champions League final | For Internazionale, the road to Istanbul was paved with bad intentions. The exuberance and colour of their first-leg victory gave way to something darker and grittier here: not so much a semi-final as a turf war, the sort of game that is to be endured rather than enjoyed. Here their great city rivals were snuffed out, dismantled piece by piece, and finally picked off via a goal by Lautaro Martínez. Milan is theirs. But the greatest prize of all remains tantalisingly within reach.
Simone Inzaghi’s side will probably go into the final on 10 June as one of the least fancied Champions League contenders in recent history. And from the English perspective there is perhaps a tendency to gaze upon this wrought and wizened squad, with the 37-year-old Edin Dzeko up front and the 35-year-old Francesco Acerbi in the centre of defence, and wonder just how they got this far. But there is also a kind of deadly honesty to them: men of conviction, men of skill and steel, who over 180 minutes simply stood taller and made the braver decisions.
‘Anything can happen’: Inter’s Inzaghi urges belief in Champions League final
Read more
Dzeko was magnificent again: a colossal and utterly disruptive presence who seemed to run long periods of this game with his backside alone. So too Acerbi, a Milan native (and former Milan player) who has beaten bereavement, depression, alcoholism and testicular cancer to reach this point, and for whom this dominant and fearless performance helped to seal the most personal of triumphs. So too Martínez, now just a game away from winning the World Cup and Champions League in the space of six months.
And so to Milan, a crashing disappointment who from the very first whistle last Wednesday never really looked like adding to their seven European Cups. Here again they were painfully lacking in pace and imagination, a team with 57% possession but just one shot in the second half, a team who offered only lethargy where urgency was required, a squad probably too thin and too inexperienced to challenge in two competitions at once.
On the touchline Stefano Pioli, dressed immaculately in a suit and trainers like a man intending to run home from work, raged at the unfairness of it all. This has been a dispiriting campaign for Milan, their Serie A title defence crumbling after the winter break and now even the top four looking like a faint hope. This semi-final represented Pioli’s last chance of salvaging something from the season. Now it too has gone, there will be an increasing chorus of voices wondering whether Pioli is part of the solution or part of the problem.
Lautaro Martínez fires in the second leg winner. Photograph: Alberto Lingria/Reuters
They arrived in hope, buoyed by the return of Rafael Leão on the left wing, suited up for an Inter rearguard. But as the game went on the lack of poise in their build-up was painfully evident, the one-dimensional Olivier Giroud exposed and isolated. Leão had one decent sight of goal all night, a shot dragged wide. Brahim Díaz scuffed a wonderful opening in the first half, and in hindsight that was probably Milan’s best chance of shifting the feel of the tie.
And when Inter got the ball, the field seemed to open out for them in the way it did not for their opponents. They were unchanged, but within that supple, ductile 3-5-2 system they can vary so much. Nicolò Barella played a more aggressive role than he had in the first leg, making late runs into the box, trying to latch onto the second balls from Martínez and Dzeko. Dzeko enjoyed Inter’s best chance of the half, flicking on a free-kick and forcing the supreme Mike Maignan to scrabble the ball away.
The game turned a little scrappy in the second half, dead ends begetting dead ends, wrestles begetting wrestles. Dzeko’s backside was still running the show, at least until Inzaghi decided to substitute it for Romelu Lukaku’s backside. The Curva Nord beat out a frightening tribal rhythm. It felt like a countdown.
Sign up to Football Daily
Free daily newsletter
Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Finally, with 15 minutes remaining, the bomb went off. Inter won the ball too easily on the left, worked it into the area virtually unchallenged, Lukaku and Martínez and Robin Gosens all exchanging it. Finally it came to Martínez, who jammed the ball in at the near post before running over to the advertising hoardings and standing atop them like a god on a pedestal. For the first time Inter could breathe, a gasp of air that felt as fresh and life-affirming as the very first.
Will Pep Guardiola or Carlo Ancelotti endure any sleepless nights? Probably not. But then this is a club that has always done its best work in the shadow of doubt, that is most dangerous at the moment when you dare to write it off. Internazionale are not the world’s greatest football team, but they know who they are. As the flags waved triumphantly, a banner in the Curva Nord toasted gli amici che non di son piu: friends who are no longer with us. By contrast, it feels like one of the European Cup’s oldest friends has risen from its slab. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/11/former-europe-minister-caroline-flint-to-defy-labour-whips-on-eu-bill | Politics | 2017-09-11T07:38:25.000Z | Peter Walker | Former Europe minister Caroline Flint to defy Labour whips on EU bill | Labour’s chances of defeating the EU withdrawal bill in parliament on Monday were dealt a blow after a leading backbencher said she would defy a three-line whip and instead support the government on the issue.
Caroline Flint, formerly Europe minister, who represents the strongly pro-leave Don Valley constituency, said she believed it was an error to oppose the bill at second reading, rather than seek to amend it later.
“I believe Labour’s job is to improve this bill, not kill it as it begins its passage through parliament,” Flint told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“I have to make a decision on this, and these decisions aren’t easy. I have never broken the whip at all but I do believe that in respecting the outcome of the referendum, in respecting what I said to my electors in a general election just a few months ago, it’s important that we get on with the job of making sure we can have as smooth an exit from the European Union as possible.”
The withdrawal bill, which will be debated in the House of Commons until midnight on Monday before a vote on whether it should proceed, is a central piece of Brexit legislation that will bring EU laws and regulations into the UK statute book.
While the government describes it as a vital but largely technical piece of legislation, Labour and the Liberal Democrats argue it gives ministers huge discretionary powers to amend legislation without seeking the approval of parliament.
The Guardian view on EU withdrawal bill: a cynical power-grab
Read more
Under the terms of the bill, ministers can use what is called secondary legislation to change laws unilaterally.
Flint was the first Labour MP to say she would defy the party whip on the vote. She was later joined by Frank Field.
Speaking in the Commons during the bill debate on Monday afternoon, Flint was heckled by Labour MPs when she said she did not regard the bill “as hugely controversial”.She said she accepted the bill’s scope of powers would need attention but said it was not Labour’s job to kill it. “If it was abolishing workers’ rights, abandoning paid holiday and ending pollution control, that would be different but it does not,” she said.
“Whoever was in government we would have to pass a bill of this kind. There can be little disagreement on that unless your ambition is to thwart the result and prevent or delay the UK leaving the EU. I believe Labour’s job is to improve the bill by amending it, not killing the bill at the beginning of its passage through parliament.”
Flint said it was time both leave and remain supporters accepted that their perfect vision of Britain inside or outside the EU was impossible.”Since the referendum vote I have argued leave and remain supporters should bury our difference and get on with it.... We either work to make the best of it or damn it for not being perfect,” she said.
During the first day of the debate on the bill last Thursday, a number of Conservative MPs expressed concern that the bill was handing too much power to ministers, prompting the Brexit secretary, David Davis, to indicate he was willing to offer some concessions.
Flint, who has previously expressed concern at the idea Labour could back the UK remaining in the EU’s single market after Brexit, argued it would be better for Labour to join efforts to try to amend the bill rather than seek to vote it down on Monday.
“Whoever was in government would have to have a bill like this, and I do believe it’s our job to make sure we can improve this bill – it certainly needs improving,” she said.
“But if we were to vote this bill down, if we were to somehow get the votes tonight to kill it, it would cause huge problems. It would end the session of parliament, we’d probably have to prorogue, and they would have to come back with a new bill.
“I don’t believe that affecting that is what the British public want. I think they want us to make sure that we deal with the complexities of this, that we recognise that at the end of the day there will have to be compromises on all sides, whether people voted leave or remain.
“But we need an orderly exit, and part of that is making sure we have the legislation on the statute books that enables us to leave smoothly in March 2019.”
Also speaking on Today the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, said the withdrawal bill was vital for a smooth Brexit. “If we don’t do that then the whole thing will be disorderly and chaotic,” he said. “People who vote against it will effectively be voting to frustrate Brexit by producing a completely chaotic result.”
But Jenny Chapman, a shadow Brexit minister, said the government needed to rethink the bill entirely. “What the government ought to do is take our point about how dreadful this bill is and come back with something more appropriate, that it needs to do the job of Brexit,” she told Sky News.
“We accept that we need to repeal the 1972 act [European Communities Act] and we need to bring EU law into UK law for a smooth exit. What you don’t need, though, which the government is helping itself to, is these sweeping powers for ministers to change primary legislation.”
Chapman added: “It can change anything it fancies with very little justification, and we think it’s wrong, and we don’t think you need it for a smooth Brexit.”
Speaking later on Today, Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC, which is holding its annual conference this week, said the government needed a wider rethink of its approach to Brexit.
“I’m concerned that the prime minister is being held hostage by her hardliners,” she said. “What has become increasingly clear is that we need a transition period so that we don’t go off the cliff edge, and that we need to play by the rules during that period so that we can focus on the long-term deal that protects jobs and rights.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jan/27/spiral-recap-season-six-episodes-nine-and-10-history-repeats-itself | Television & radio | 2018-01-27T22:50:02.000Z | James Donaghy | Spiral recap: season six, episodes nine and 10 – history repeats itself | Actions have consequences in Spiral. For various reasons, Roban, Mayor Mangin and Gilou are humbled this week as past sins come back to haunt them. How they react will define their fortunes as we enter the finishing straight.
The Mercier case
To a backdrop of riots, the big players move their chess pieces around before the final double bill next week. The unrest in Cléry puts the investigation on pause for a while, which frustrates the hell out of Laure. Beckriche correctly urges caution, but we know perfectly well CID don’t do caution. Laure and Gilou decide to park themselves right in the belly of the beast and it is only Tintin’s bravura Super Mario cosplay that saves their bacon as irate youths threaten to torch their van.
The tension in Cléry is not surprising: an unarmed black man fatally shot in the back by police will have that effect. The aftershock from Bakary’s death is felt far and wide. Prompted by his grief (or perhaps the slap in the chops his father gives him), Drissa decides to move into real estate and build a block of flats on the Roma camp that CID flattened. Ironically, it may be this attempt to go legit that proves his downfall. When his boy Koffi menaces the mayor after the move for the camp is scuppered, it spooks her enough to reach out to Herville and tell him everything she knows about the Camaras. When your friends in high places start to turn on you, that is when things get ugly.
Despite what Jolers thinks, though, Drissa is no fool. That is why he has footage of Gilou stealing the gold. The scene at the motorway service station where Drissa plays him the clip felt like Gilou finally using his ninth life. Serious consequences are incoming; it is hard to see even a grizzled survivor such as Gilou emerging unscathed.
Lifesaver ... Fred Bianconi as ‘Tintin’ Fromentin (centre). Photograph: BBC/Son et Lumière/Canal+/Caroline Dubois
The search for Maria hits a snag when she is recaptured by the Moldovan and his wife. If CID don’t get to her in time, she will be sold as a child bride. Finding Maria is the key to all of this. She will be the star witness in any prosecution and that is why you have to worry about her survival chances. Among all the drama, it is easy to forget about the guy who kicked off all this, Laurent Mercier. It is now becoming clear that Mercier was just good police trying to protect a vulnerable girl. Maria’s friend Natalia confirms that Mercier did not touch the girls in the camp – his motives were pure. You can’t often say that on Spiral, even about the good guys.
Joséphine
It is interesting how someone as smart as Joséphine is a slave to her passions like anyone else. The case against Roban and Machard is futile, pisses off the judicial establishment, puts her at odds with Edelman and certainly doesn’t serve the public interest, yet she sees it through doggedly to its inevitable conclusion and failure. “I’d rather die than back down,” she says. While that is absolutely true, ultimately it is destructive.
Spiral recap: season six, episodes seven and eight – Joséphine's revenge
Read more
Roban
He may be dying, losing his faculties and at his wits’ end, but our boy is still the smoothest operator on the show. After Drissa gets a redshirt to cop to the Chinese heist so they can get access to the police files, Roban holds back the info on the phone taps because he is just that much of a gangster. Then, when Joséphine drags him to the magistrate’s court on a charge of perverting the course of justice, he beats the rap without breaking stride. That said, I don’t think I have seen anyone less happy about lying.
Thoughts and observations
Herville talking about the importance of sensitive riot policing as the rioters approach his window to attack the station was top comedy.
Tintin sees Laure and Gilou making out in the bathroom and all those stolen glances and furtive conversations suddenly make sense. Does he confront them or continue silently to pull their arses out of the fire every time they screw up?
You have to love the French: they name estates after Pablo Neruda, districts after Molière, schools after Karl Marx, roads after Émile Zola and lawyers after Albert Camus.
Calvi’s misgivings about his partner in crime are well founded. Jolers is remorseless, moving forward with no exit plan, just one high-risk act after another. The way things are going, I will be surprised if Calvi doesn’t play a part in taking him down. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/17/margot-robbie-harley-quinn-female-dc-comics-book-movie | Film | 2016-05-17T10:47:42.000Z | Ben Child | Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn to lead female-centric DC Comics movie | Female heroes and villains from the DC Comics back catalogue look to be in line for the big-screen treatment, after Margot Robbie pitched the concept to studio Warner Bros.
Suicide Squad's Harley Quinn is the new killer queen bee of superhero movies
Read more
Robbie, whose appearance as Harley Quinn in trailers for David Ayer’s forthcoming Suicide Squad film has created enormous anticipation for the supervillain epic, presented the project to studio executives with an unnamed writer on board. The Australian actor plans to produce the movie and star as Quinn, who in the comics is best known as the Joker’s paramour and partner in crime.
The Hollywood Reporter suggests characters such as Batgirl, Birds of Prey, Poison Ivy, Katana and Bumblebee could all be involved in the new film. DC, whose back catalogue is entirely owned by Warner for big-screen licensing purposes, has had huge success recently with a line of comics and related products aimed at its burgeoning female readership, DC SuperHero Girls.
Could Margot Robbie's all-female superhero movie be DC's trump card?
Read more
The new movie would also recognise the popularity of Quinn, both in multiplexes and in the comics. The character’s adventures currently outsell those featuring Wonder Woman, despite being a much newer title. And Suicide Squad is easily outpacing 2017’s Patty Jenkins-directed Wonder Woman as the great hope of DC fans for a strong outing, following Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’s critical travails earlier this year.
Actor and producer Robbie has been on an upward trajectory in Hollywood since shooting her breakthrough turn as Naomi Lapaglia, the second wife of Jordan Belfort in Martin Scorsese’s black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street. She will next appear as Jane in The Legend of Tarzan, and aims to play the disgraced Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding in a proposed biopic. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jul/02/dear-australia-livestreamed-dispatches-from-a-world-overdue-for-a-reckoning | Stage | 2020-07-02T02:40:55.000Z | Jinghua Qian | Dear Australia: livestreamed theatrical dispatches from a world overdue for a reckoning | Playwriting Australia promoted its new suite of 50 monologues, livestreamed over three nights this July, as “a striking moment of national celebration and reflection”. But the stories are also suffused with grief and desperation, with anxiety and impatience. Addressed as “postcards” to the nation, the monologues serve as dispatches from the pandemic, reflecting on this peculiar moment while also evincing the digitised intimacy that has become one of its signatures.
Thursday night’s program of 18 works includes some monologues that take the brief quite literally and others with a more oblique approach. Many monologues refer directly to lockdowns, and there are two in which the actor personifies the virus itself. Each playwright comes at their chosen topic in very different ways, but colonisation, racism and solidarity are recurring themes, along with a more general sense that the world is overdue for a reckoning.
100 playwrights and actors join forces in new theatre project challenging Australian identity
Read more
Nakkiah Lui’s monologue, performed by Miranda Tapsell, opens the night and it stands out for its powerful evocation of grief, anger and endurance in the face of concurrent apocalypses that swallow each other up like so many nesting dolls. By putting the current crisis in the context of what she calls Australia’s “slow genocide” of Indigenous people, Lui forges hope from the flames: “There was no Australia. No world to lose, no utopia to save.”
For First Nations women, the apocalypse was already here. It’s part of the inheritance. “The world has ended again and again and again” – yet here you are. Later in the program, Anthony Taufa echoes this sense of lineage in Emele Ugavule’s more filmic work, a eulogy to a grandfather who lived through multiple world wars, Tonga’s independence and environmental devastation.
Another highlight is Anchuli Felicia King’s work featuring Catherine Văn-Davies as an auctioneer opening bidding on artefacts of anti-Asian abuse, such as a wall featuring the graffiti “Go home yellow dog” or a rock thrown through a Chinese Australian family’s window. By framing these items as cultural products whose authorship can be mapped to broader movements and fashions, King deftly connects racist violence with its supporting ideology.
Whose cries of “I can’t breathe” result in a state of emergency? Whose suffering is normal?
It’s an inspired and welcome interruption on the dominant narrative in Australia that characterises racism as a series of hate crimes divorced from their political intent. Both Lui and King’s monologues offer a reminder that for many of us, the violence of this particular moment operates within a familiar logic, the novel coronavirus breathing fresh life into tired racial dynamics. Dear Australia, why are you surprised?
The pandemic becomes a character in Willoh S Weiland’s work which puts Kris McQuade in a fetching pink and purple coronavirus costume by Noah Casey. Playing the flamboyant and confrontational virus, McQuade challenges humanity over its hypocrisy as we rush to attack viral infections and scapegoat racial and sexual minorities for their spread when the deadliest plague is social injustice. Taking the format of an open mic bit, the piece offers a macabre riff on the juxtaposition of respiratory illness with lethal police brutality: “Sure, I’m filling random people up with pus but your law enforcement officers are standing on throats.” It leads me to ask: whose cries of “I can’t breathe” result in a state of emergency? Whose suffering is normal? The confluence of the pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests reveals how Black trauma and state violence is taken for granted. It’s the protests that make the headlines, not police brutality. This is the kind of normal that needs to break.
Who's Your Baghdaddy review – a surreal, musical support meeting for Iraq war architects
Read more
Weiland’s piece is the only one in Thursday night’s series that utilises a stage setting with black drapes and a mic stand; most of the monologues are filmed face-to-camera in the actors’ homes or even cars. Low-res, close-up and unfiltered, at times the effect is uncomfortably intimate, verging on claustrophobic. Some pieces make clever use of the medium, such as Dan Giovannoni’s work with James Majoos which uses the Zoom classroom as the setting for teen connection and romance, or Morgan Rose’s piece in which actor Emily Goddard breaks the fourth wall with Fleabag-ish asides before the shot pans out to reveal a surprise. Others feel visibly constrained by the camera.
Just as here theatre making is stripped down and respun into a video format, so too countless other structures have been laid bare or refashioned in ways we had been told were impossible. The pandemic has exposed many powerful lies about work, policing, capitalism, community and care. It offers the world a kind of rupture – but it’s up to us to make the change.
Dear Australia – Postcards to the Nation is live streaming over three nights from Thursday 2 July until Sunday 5 July | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/19/simon-stephens-manchester-home-funfair | Stage | 2015-05-19T19:31:36.000Z | Simon Stephens | Simon Stephens: Manchester is richer than ever in theatrical potential | Two years ago, the theatre director Walter Meierjohann asked me to meet him. He wanted to ask me something. He was rather sheepish about his request. He’d been given my number by Sarah Frankcom, the director of four of my plays and the newly appointed artistic director of Manchester’s Royal Exchange theatre. He was sheepish because he was about to open a new theatre in the heart of the same city. It would be an amalgamation of the old Library theatre and the beloved Cornerhouse; a theatre in a new arts centre that would call itself Home. He wanted me to write an English-language version of Odön von Horváth’s Kasimir and Karoline to open the place. In effect, he wanted to steal me from her.
Of course that’s not true. In the past two years Sarah and Walter have been deeply supportive of one another, and their co-existence is mutually beneficial. They make each other work harder and inspire each other to rise higher. I am honoured to work for both of them and hope to continue to do so. The new energy Sarah has brought to the Royal Exchange and the opening of Home has energised the city’s theatre in a way I’ve never known before.
There is a curious contradiction in an arts centre having the name Home. Isn’t one of the most important functions of art – cinematic, theatrical, visual – to take people out of their homes? Homes are places that are settled and reassuring. I love my home because I love hanging out with my kids and my wife and our cats and eating takeaway curries and watching Modern Family. The function of art is to unsettle and trouble, to provoke and excite, to alarm and inspire. These are fundamental and urgent actions but not necessarily homely ones.
I should know. My friend and mentor Stephen Jeffreys once told me that it is a myth that playwrights need to think up a new subject with every play that they write; rather, we have myths that we return to. His idea has been central to my teaching ever since. My myth seems to revolve around a consideration of exactly what it is to be at home, what it is to leave home and how we might ever return. These questions sit in every play that I have written.
For 20 years I’ve thought of London as my home. I got married in Hackney town hall. My three children are born and bred East Enders. But, if somebody asked me what my hometown is, I think I would still, instinctively, say Stockport. So the idea that an arts centre called Home is opening up a few miles up the A6 is appropriate to me. The idea that it is opening with a play that I have written is flattering.
Home truths and house red: why we love making theatre in Manchester
Read more
I often wonder at the relationship between growing up in Stockport and ending up a playwright. It’s an oddity in a lot of ways. I didn’t go to the theatre a great deal as a teenager. I went a few times. My mum and my uncle were involved in amateur dramatics. I went to see my uncle in Great Expectations at the beautiful Altrincham Garrick theatre. My dad’s mum had a career in the city’s music halls in the 50s. I sang tunes from Oklahoma! to her as she lay on her deathbed and that seemed to make her smile. As a family, we went to Christmas shows. I remember seeing Barnum in the Manchester Palace and being thrilled by the idea of somebody abseiling down on to a stage. But we spent much more time watching television dramas.
Later, I went to see a few plays at the Green Room or the Exchange, but nowhere nearly as often as I went to see bands at the International or the International 2.
Manchester’s theatre-writing tradition isn’t like its music tradition or its tradition for TV drama. I wonder then if the roots of my playwriting in Stockport don’t lie in its relationship to theatrical traditions but in the town itself.
Stockport is a suburb and a satellite of Manchester. As I grew up there, Manchester always existed over the horizon, at the other end of the 192 bus route. Its promise was as strange and alluring to me then as that of Moscow to the Prozorova sisters. It was the city where cool bands played. It was the city of cool record shops, with their terrifying, aloof staff. It was the city that the Smiths sang about, the city that the Fall came from. Stockport, in comparison, was a town on the edge of things, and perhaps that’s where writers are happiest, on the charged edges of places. Looking out at the world, or at least looking for it.
Stockport, in the 80s, had a small-town mentality. I went to an all-boys comprehensive, a school where academic achievement was viewed with suspicion and where girls, with their civilising influence and nicer smells, were absent altogether. I was about 17 before I met more than a couple of people who liked the same music as I did. Perhaps such a mentality was also perfect for the emerging writer. My sense of being a loner was reinforced in a schoolyard where the unconventional was perceived as just being fucking odd. Such a sense of the conventional was ballast to define myself against. Creativity became an act of defiance. Literature and drama carried with them the possibility of escape.
Home is where the art is: narratives of nationhood
Read more
For a bespectacled, spotty, lanky boy with a weird love for the Jesus and Mary Chain, Stockport town centre was also a fine breeding ground for watchfulness. It felt like a violent town to go shopping in. It felt like a violent town to go drinking in on a Friday or Saturday night. I quickly learned to be watchful. It could kick off at any minute. This kind of watchfulness, exercising a sense of what people were about to do next, was perfect playwriting preparation. I pay my mortgage by considering the things that my characters are about to do next. Maybe I learned this as a 17-year-old, at the Merseyway shopping centre at 11.30 every Friday and Saturday night.
And Stockport, in those days at least, was a Conservative town. Perhaps it was here that I came to equate the Tory party with the reactionary, the wilfully ignorant, the violent and the cruel. This is an equation that has never left me and that drives me to tell stories in the hope of dramatising the possibility of justice or compassion.
But it was also the place where I met my best mates. It was the place where my mum would bring me a cup of tea in bed every morning. It was the place where my dad would give me a lift to wherever I wanted to go and buy me the occasional pint. It was where I could hang out with my brother and sister and my extended family, knowing that they accepted me as fully as anybody else. Perhaps it is this contradiction that has allowed me to be a dramatist rather than an essayist. Theatre concerns itself with contradictions. Stockport was great training for keeping my eye alert to them.
The Funfair in rehearsal
I return often now, to see my family, and for rehearsals and to see how Stockport has changed. It has been changed by the changes to Manchester. In the 80s, the edifices of the second world war seemed as legible to me as the promise of a European future. Now Manchester seems a city standing toe to toe with the energy of Hamburg or Barcelona as much as it does the energy of any other English city. And, as London prices itself out of the market of real artistic creativity, this will only accelerate over the next few years.
There is an entire generation of young artists that simply can’t afford to live in London any more. And they are moving, in their handfuls, to Manchester.
No art form is better catered for than the theatre. At the end of the 80s, when I went into Manchester, it seemed as though everybody I met was in a band. Now it seems as if everybody I meet in the city is in their own theatre company or writing their own plays. It feels as if something remarkable might happen here.
‘Theatre concerns itself with contradictions’ … Simon Stephens
I called my version of Von Horvath’s play The Funfair and relocated it from the Munich Oktoberfest to a Platt Fields or Heaton Park travelling fairground. Von Horvath, an inveterate exile, was trying to make sense of the changes that were happening in his home country, as the triumphalist right wing of south Germany rose to what would be deadly prominence.
It gives me no pleasure to open the play in a month when the right wing in England is as triumphant as I can remember it ever being.
I woke up on the morning after the general election speechless with incredulity, as horrified by what the people of my home country had done as Von Horvath was by what the people of his home country were doing in the 1930s. This is what writers often do. We blink in horror as we watch the terrible things that people in the places we think of as our home can sometimes do to one another.
The only consolation might be that now there is a new place for our observations. The gangly, spotty, watchful outsiders of today’s Stockport might have a new focal point for the stories they want to tell. Manchester is richer in theatrical potential than I can ever remember it being. Home is at the heart of that.
The Funfair is at Home in Manchester until 13 June 2015
On 23 May, Home is hosting a Guardian/BAC debate about theatre, nationhood and devolution | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/31/alice-and-the-fly-james-rice-review-novel | Books | 2015-01-31T08:00:04.000Z | Clare Allan | Alice and the Fly by James Rice review – the great cover-up | Imust confess my heart sank slightly when I started reading this debut novel, written from the point of view of a cripplingly shy young man whose life is riddled with phobias and obsessions. Since the huge success of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time there has been a steady stream of novels written in the ingenuous tones of a stream of “damaged” and “different” young people. It’s no surprise that such books are popular: they offer, in highly digestible form, the perspective of society’s outsiders. They expand our empathy, make us feel good for taking the side of the underdog – “so good it will make you feel a better person,” said the chair of the Costa judges of Nathan Filer’s overall winner The Shock of the Fall – and doubtless do much to raise awareness and challenge widespread stigma.
Alice and the Fly appears at first to sit squarely in this genre. Greg suffers from a phobia of spiders - “Them” - both real and hallucinated; he was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of “six or seven”, his mother can’t remember exactly. Bullied at school and woefully neglected at home, he becomes entangled in the web of his obsession with Alice, a girl to whom he has never spoken but who has with a single unthinking smile appeared uniquely to acknowledge his status as a fellow human being. The novel takes the form of Greg’s diary entries, interspersed with transcripts of police interviews, which make it clear from early on that something catastrophic has happened. So far, so broadly familiar, but it soon becomes clear that there is far more to James Rice’s writing.
The great strength of Alice and the Fly lies in its wickedly satirical portrayal of a world in which everyone tries to cover up the emptiness of their existence by means of “metaphorical phantoms”, to borrow Greg’s expression for his imaginary spiders. Greg’s father, a plastic surgeon known as the “Breast Man”, eats dinner with one hand, freeing the other to leaf through a stack of photographs of swollen post-operative breasts. Dinner is blackened salmon served with chipotle squash puree and mango rice, the same every night, as Greg’s mother strives to perfect the menu in time for dinner with friends she wants to impress. A new, hugely expensive sofa has been ordered as well, allowing Greg’s father to absent himself more and more on the pretext of having to pay for it. “The last time we saw my father was Sunday. Mum told me not to tell anyone this. I don’t know who she thinks I’m going to tell.”
Indeed. For who would any of the characters tell about anything that truly matters to them? This is a novel about loneliness, and Rice vividly evokes the isolation of all those trapped inside the need to present a socially valid exterior. There’s the bullied girl from school who transforms herself by means of breast implants and hair extensions, only to be sexually exploited by the boys who used to mock her; Alice herself, who wears dark glasses to conceal the black eye her father gave her; even the ghastly bullies, pouring Tango over Greg’s head in some sort of ritualistic display of mutual heartlessness. But Rice is far from heartless. On the contrary, his writing is fuelled by a powerful sense of empathy, even for those whose aspirations he so expertly ridicules. “We are better than this,” he seems to be saying, which is why, for all the bleakness it portrays, Alice and the Fly is an oddly uplifting novel.
Clare Allan’s Poppy Shakespeare is published by Bloomsbury. To order Alice and the Fly for £11.99 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/19/songhoy-blues-music-in-exile-review | Music | 2015-02-19T19:15:01.000Z | Robin Denselow | Songhoy Blues: Music in Exile review – a Malian band to watch | Songhoy Blues are a young and exuberant Malian band who already have a remarkable history behind them. They fled from their homes in the north when radical Islamists overran the region, and on reaching the safety of Bamako, decided to form a band – at which point their fortunes dramatically changed. They came to the attention of Amadou & Mariam’s manager, Marc-Antoine Moreau, who was looking for musicians who could record with the Africa Express team when they came to town; they also collaborated with Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the AE’s Maison Des Jeunes set. Now comes their first full album, co-produced by Moreau and Zinner, and it’s an impressively varied and rousing set, if somewhat predictable. There’s electric desert blues (Nick), slinky, acoustic ballads (Petit Metier), and reworkings of songs from the Songhoy tradition. A band to watch. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jan/18/im-all-right-jack-philip-french-classic-dvd | Film | 2015-01-18T08:00:08.000Z | Philip French | I’m All Right Jack review – Philip French on the Boulting brothers’ biting state-of-the-nation satire | John and Roy Boulting, the British film-making twins who shared and alternated credits as directors, producers and writers over some half a century, started out on the political left. But largely as a result of their fury over restrictive practices and the disruptive influence of communists in the film unions, they moved over to the right, and in the 50s and 60s they made a string of sour comedies attacking aspects of the British establishment.
The most memorable and directly political, I’m All Right Jack, appeared shortly before the 1959 general election. “Tilting” rather than satire was their word for these pictures, and like most of them, I’m All Right Jack starred Ian Carmichael (later to be a near-definitive Bertie Wooster on TV) as a well-meaning upper-middle-class twit who finds himself embroiled in a conflict between corrupt, conspiratorial capitalists and the idle, dishonest workers led by Fred Kite, a communist shop steward who idolises the Soviet Union. The film opens with a fake VE Day newsreel in which Churchill’s V-for-victory sign is followed by a drunken squaddie (played by perennial British working-class actor Victor Maddern) putting up two fingers to the nation.
The movie is in fact an attack on a corrupt Britain. But whereas management is represented by outright caricatures and the workers are the usual proles of British cinema, Peter Sellers’s Kite, though extremely funny, is closely based on communist officials who crossed swords with the Boultings. His pompous speech and body language are all too real, and in the first role to reveal the depth of characterisation of which he was capable, Sellers finds something both pathetic and dangerous.
The movie has a familiar British face in virtually every part, which suggests that somehow the nation is on trial, as indeed it was. Three years after the Suez fiasco, with Harold Macmillan declaring that “we’d never had it so good” and a chorus of angry young men proclaiming the country’s moral bankruptcy, I’m All Right Jack preserves the Britain of 1959 in amber. The 1982 cover of British Society Since 1945, the latest volume in The Pelican Social History of Britain, has a still of Sellers and Carmichael from I’m All Right Jack on the cover, but nowhere does the book refer to the film. It doesn’t need to. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/feb/28/save-me-review-suranne-jones-drama-benidorm | Television & radio | 2018-02-28T22:00:02.000Z | Rebecca Nicholson | Save Me review – Suranne Jones shines as a grief-stricken mother in a complex mystery | Lennie James as writer and star, Suranne Jones as a desperate mother, and a complex mystery with a missing child at the heart of it – there are so many elements of Save Me (Sky Atlantic) that point towards a Guaranteed Quality TV Moment that it would have been shocking if it failed to live up to expectations. Instead, this is a well-functioning, gripping thriller that sets up a convincing world for its Deptford lothario Nelson “Nelly” Rowe, then threatens to violently dismantle it, piece by piece.
Lennie James: ‘We all need to create demand for working-class actors’
Read more
James is Nelly, a man-about-town who loves drinking and women, of whom there are several in his life, though none are yet wise to his philandering ways. Nelly lives a relatively charmed life in his neighbourhood, breezing around the houses and flats on his estate with a smile on his face for everyone. He’s the kind of decent bloke who steps in at his local when a stroppy student refuses to take his spliff outside, who does his girlfriend’s Avon-like round when she’s too ill. There are signs that life might not be so peachy: the slug of whisky in his morning tea that shows he loves more than an afternoon pint, the temper that flares when things don’t go his way in the pub.
Though Nelly initially gives the impression that he could talk his way out of a paper bag, albeit one with a bottle in it, his happy-go-lucky facade falls away when the police march into his flat and arrest him on suspicion of abducting his estranged daughter. Save Me treads familiar ground in some respects – The Missing and Kiri both pivoted on the mystery of an abducted child – but there are clever layers that give it its own identity. The class conflict between students and locals in the pub is well handled and even funny, particularly in a karaoke scene, which turns the choice of Mumford & Sons into a low-key declaration of war.
Lennie James as Nelson “Nelly” Rowe Photograph: Ross Sinclair/Justin Downing
It is smart, too, to have Suranne Jones’s Claire (Nelly’s ex and the mother of Jody, the missing girl) as a woman who lives a plummy middle-class life, with a swimming pool in the grounds of her massive house in Surbiton. You get the impression that Jones could act grief in her sleep, but she is impressively subtle here, opting for muted panic rather than hysteria. Their relationship adds yet another layer of intrigue. Given their differences, what were they doing together in the first place, and why did she warn police that the affable-seeming Nelly had a cruel streak? Who has made it look as if Nelly kidnapped his daughter, and where is she now? My money is on the husband, so far. It is always the husband somehow.
There are parts that veer towards the cheesy – the all-walks-of-life estate scenes, the slow-mo tai chi, the bullying copper who sneers at Nelly. But the cast is excellent and the central mystery strong. When you’ve got Stephen Graham as a pub regular who almost fades into the background, it’s obvious that his character will have something more to do with it. But the entire cast pulls its weight, from Susan Lynch as the barmaid to Kerry Godliman as the spurned ex. All episodes “drop” online at once, though I suspect it will be more rewarding to let the story unravel week by week, the old-fashioned way, rather than gorging to get to the end.
It’s still bringing in the viewers, but as Benidorm (ITV) kicks off its 10th series, it is now limping towards the sun loungers rather than taking a running jump into the pool. Manageress Joyce is getting married to Monty, whose wedding-planning skills make him an ideal candidate for Don’t Tell the Bride. He plans to tie the knot on a boat, but Joyce gets seasick, and they end up stranded on Peacock Island, with flamboyant and hopefully just plain buoyant Kenneth their only hope of rescue. You could always see the jokes coming from the bar on Benidorm, but this time they are not so much signposted as shouted in increasingly loud English, as if to a Spanish person who doesn’t speak the language.
Benidorm was once a better sitcom than it was given credit for, but its glory days have long since fallen away. This episode was a slog, because, with all the good will in the world, it seemed as if the writers had forgotten to pack the jokes. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/apr/08/ancelotti-nervous-as-real-madrid-and-manchester-city-cross-swords-again | Football | 2024-04-08T16:19:46.000Z | Sid Lowe | Ancelotti nervous as Real Madrid and Manchester City cross swords again | This is Carlo Ancelotti’s 200th Champions League match as a coach, his 1,331st game over a wildly successful career stretching back 30 years at the most high-pressure clubs on earth, and still he is nervous. He has seen it all and has won this competition as a coach four times, more than anyone else ever, including the manager he faces on Tuesday night, but he still can’t help it. Before games, he admits, there’s a moment when the heart rate increases and the sweats start; after them, the best he can hope for is relief.
“Defeat is suffering. Victory is … happiness?” Ancelotti said, as Real Madrid, who consider this trophy their own, prepared to meet Manchester City, who hold it. “No. Unfortunately, that’s not true. It’s a relief. There’s happiness if you win a title, but in individual games [only] relief: for a few days, you’re calmer. But then suffering is part of your work, it’s what keeps you alive: the pressure, the stress.”
It is about how you embrace that, live with it, and Madrid’s manager believes what was missing when his side collapsed to a 4-0 defeat at the Etihad last season was character. “We played without courage, without personality,” Ancelotti said.
Real Madrid wanted to avoid ‘world’s best’ Manchester City, admits Rodrygo
Read more
City, the favourites for the Champions League, and Madrid meet for the fourth time in the last five seasons. In 2020, City knocked Madrid out in the last 16. In 2022, Madrid produced that comeback, another miracle for the ages. Last year, there was something of a mission about Manchester City as they took Madrid apart. For the first 15 minutes, Ancelotti’s team averaged less than a pass a minute. Vinícius Júnior left Manchester declaring: “This can’t happen next year.”
It shouldn’t. Then, with Barcelona walking the league, Ancelotti’s future at the Bernabéu was not secure, but a year on he continues. Madrid are stronger now, the league title close to being reclaimed, and lessons have been learned.
“Courage and personality are fundamental in this kind of game,” Ancelotti said. “The mental element is important: we need personality. But it was not just mentality, character; it was also technical, football. They pressed us high and we did not find solutions, we didn’t manage that. We want to avoid that in this tie.
“We have had time to prepare this. We have prepared well and I trust we will bring out the best in us in every sense: mentally, physically, technically. We have the quality to compete.”
The coach said he wouldn’t do “anything strange”, telling journalists not to worry: “You’re not going to get the starting XI wrong.” He then paused, laughed and added: “Well, there could be …” before concluding: “You might get one name wrong, but no more: the team is pretty clear.”
The one doubt may be over central defence, with Aurélien Tchouaméni likely to start ahead of Nacho Fernández, and Eduardo Camavinga taking his place in midfield. The other central defender will be Toni Rüdiger, who played in the first leg last year, the game finishing 1-1, but not in the second when Madrid were overrun, and has been undisputed this season.
Real Madrid players celebrate after their remarkable comeback knocked out Manchester City in the 2022 semi-final. Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Images/Reuters
“The coach didn’t apologise after the second game last year but he doesn’t need to,” Rüdiger said of his omission. “As a player I have to accept, even if it’s hard. In the first game I think we all did a great job keeping [Erling] Haaland quiet: my teammates controlled the ball and he did not get as many balls as he wished.
Sign up to Football Daily
Free daily newsletter
Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
“He’s definitely one of the strongest [strikers] I have played. If I can say one who is very tough it was Kun Agüero, but it is about Haaland now. He’s not easy to control. He lives off passes from his teammates.”
After the first leg last year photos appeared of Rüdiger sticking his face in one of Haaland’s armpits, more antics from a player who, to the delighted of the Bernabéu, has admitted he is a “little mad”.
“I saw the pictures and the videos,” he said here, “but these aren’t things I plan and I don’t have any plan for tomorrow. It’s just a feeling in the moment. I could tell you that it’s all about the team and things like that, but I will take the duel as personal. It’s me as a defensive player against a super striker.
“We will not only sit back and watch City have possession but that is also part of the game. We will press but there will be phases where we have to defend more and we are willing to do that. Whatever comes our way is part of it.
We have to be positive about getting to the next stage. I feel the confidence, we are in good shape, in a good mood, the team feels like a family and I am very sure we are going to win. It is tough but we are Real Madrid.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/25/wodehouse-prize-for-comic-fiction-joint-winners-hannah-rothschild-paul-murray | Books | 2016-05-25T06:01:32.000Z | Alison Flood | Wodehouse prize for comic fiction declares joint winners | Debut novelist Hannah Rothschild has pronounced herself, in the words of PG Wodehouse, “terribly gruntled” to win an award for comic fiction named after the Jeeves and Wooster creator.
The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild review – Baileys-shortlisted art world caper
Read more
Rothschild was revealed on Wednesday as the joint winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for her first novel, The Improbability of Love. She shares the award with Paul Murray’s The Mark and the Void. Named after Wodehouse, the prize is for a novel that best captures the “comic spirit” of the much-loved novelist.
“It was impossible to separate these two books, because they made us laugh so much. And between them they produce a surfeit of wild satire and piercing humour about the subject that can always make us laugh and cry. Money,” said judge and broadcaster James Naughtie.
Murray’s novel tells of a Dublin banker who decides to rob his employer with the help of a struggling novelist. Naughtie and his fellow judges – Everyman’s Library publisher David Campbell, Hay festival director Peter Florence and comedian and writer Sara Pascoe – called it “an achingly topical, clever, delightful tale of folly and delusion”. Rothschild’s debut, which is also shortlisted for the Baileys women’s prize for fiction, is set in the London art world, and is “a wonderful satire on the art trade, preposterous billionaires, Russian oligarchs and much else, a brilliant conceit faultlessly carried off”, said judges.
The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray review – messy, profound and hilarious
Read more
The prize comes with the added bonus for its winners of a Gloucestershire Old Spot pig named after the winning title, with previous porcine honorees including Snuff, taken from the late Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novel, and Fatty O’Leary’s Dinner Party, from Alexander McCall Smith’s winning title. Organisers confirmed that this year, the first time the prize has been split, there would be two pigs presented to the winning authors at the Hay festival on 4 June. The winners will also both be given Bollinger champagne, and the complete Everyman Wodehouse Collection.
“To use a word that my hero PG Wodehouse invented, I am terribly ‘gruntled’ by winning this prize; sharing it with the great Paul Murray; and by the prospect of drinking Bollinger while reading an Everyman Classic,” said Rothschild. In 1938, Wodehouse wrote in The Code of the Woosters that “he spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”
Murray, who has been shortlisted for the Wodehouse award in the past, said he was “delighted and honoured” to win this year. “I first read PG Wodehouse as a boy and have kept returning to him ever since, longer than any other writer – which makes this award very special,” said the Irish author. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/28/ipcc-issues-bleakest-warning-yet-impacts-climate-breakdown | Environment | 2022-02-28T11:00:42.000Z | Fiona Harvey | IPCC issues ‘bleakest warning yet’ on impacts of climate breakdown | Climate breakdown is accelerating rapidly, many of the impacts will be more severe than predicted and there is only a narrow chance left of avoiding its worst ravages, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said.
Even at current levels, human actions in heating the climate are causing dangerous and widespread disruption, threatening devastation to swathes of the natural world and rendering many areas unliveable, according to the landmark report published on Monday.
“The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, a co-chair of working group 2 of the IPCC. “Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.”
Droughts, floods, heatwaves
In what some scientists termed “the bleakest warning yet”, the summary report from the global authority on climate science says droughts, floods, heatwaves and other extreme weather are accelerating and wreaking increasing damage.
Allowing global temperatures to increase by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, as looks likely on current trends in greenhouse gas emissions, would result in some “irreversible” impacts. These include the melting of ice caps and glaciers, and a cascading effect whereby wildfires, the die-off of trees, the drying of peatlands and the thawing of permafrost release additional carbon emissions, amplifying the warming further.
‘Atlas of human suffering’
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said: “I have seen many scientific reports in my time, but nothing like this. Today’s IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.”
John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, said the report “paints a dire picture of the impacts already occurring because of a warmer world and the terrible risks to our planet if we continue to ignore science. We have seen the increase in climate-fuelled extreme events, and the damage that is left behind – lives lost and livelihoods ruined. The question at this point is not whether we can altogether avoid the crisis – it is whether we can avoid the worst consequences.”
The report says:
Everywhere is affected, with no inhabited region escaping dire impacts from rising temperatures and increasingly extreme weather.
About half the global population – between 3.3 billion and 3.6 billion people – live in areas “highly vulnerable” to climate change.
Millions of people face food and water shortages owing to climate change, even at current levels of heating.
Mass die-offs of species, from trees to corals, are already under way.
1.5C above pre-industrial levels constitutes a “critical level” beyond which the impacts of the climate crisis accelerate strongly and some become irreversible.
Coastal areas around the globe, and small, low-lying islands, face inundation at temperature rises of more than 1.5C.
Key ecosystems are losing their ability to absorb carbon dioxide, turning them from carbon sinks to carbon sources.
Some countries have agreed to conserve 30% of the Earth’s land, but conserving half may be necessary to restore the ability of natural ecosystems to cope with the damage wreaked on them.
Chance to avoid the worst
This is the second part of the IPCC’s latest assessment report, an updated, comprehensive review of global knowledge of the climate, which has been seven years in the making and draws on the peer-reviewed work of thousands of scientists. The assessment report is the sixth since the IPCC was first convened by the UN in 1988, and may be the last to be published while there is still some chance of avoiding the worst.
A first instalment, by the IPCC’s working group 1, published last August, on the physical science of climate change, said the climate crisis was “unequivocally” caused by human actions, resulting in changes that were “unprecedented”, with some becoming “irreversible”.
This second part, by working group 2, deals with the impacts of climate breakdown, sets out areas where the world is most vulnerable, and details how we can try to adapt and protect against some of the impacts. A third section, due in April, will cover ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and the final part, in October, will summarise these lessons for governments meeting in Egypt for the UN Cop27 climate summit.
‘Cataclysmic’ for small islands
Small islands will be among those worst affected. Walton Webson, an ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda and the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, called the findings “cataclysmic”.
He urged the UN to convene a special session to consider action. “We are continuing to head for a precipice – we say our eyes are open to the risks, but when you look at global emissions, if anything we are accelerating towards the cliff edge. We are not seeing the action from the big emitters that is required to get emissions down in this critical decade – this means halving emissions by 2030 at the latest. It is clear that time is slipping away from us.”
Governments in other parts of the world could help their people to adapt to some of the impacts of the climate crisis, the report says, by building flood defences, helping farmers to grow different crops, or building more resilient infrastructure. But the authors say the capacity of the world to adapt to the impacts will diminish rapidly the further temperatures rise, quickly reaching “hard” limits beyond which adaptation would be impossible.
‘Global dominoes’
The climate crisis also has the power to worsen problems such as hunger, ill-health and poverty, the report makes clear. Dave Reay, the director of Edinburgh Climate Change Institute at the University of Edinburgh, said: “Like taking a wrecking ball to a set of global dominoes, climate change in the 21st century threatens to destroy the foundations of food and water security, smash onwards through the fragile structures of human and ecosystem health, and ultimately shake the very pillars of human civilisation.”
What is the IPCC climate change report – and what does it say?
Read more
The report plays down fears of conflicts arising from the climate crisis, finding that “displacement” and “involuntary migration” of people would ensue but that “non-climatic factors are the dominant drivers of existing intrastate violent conflicts”.
But Jeffrey Kargel, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in the US, said: “The current warfare activity in eastern Europe, though not attributable to climate change, is a further caution about how human tensions and international relations and geopolitics could become inflamed as climate change impacts hit nations in ways that they are ill-prepared to handle.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/31/election-donald-trump-world-climate-goals-at-risk-un-chief | Environment | 2024-03-31T11:00:38.000Z | Fiona Harvey | Election of Donald Trump ‘could put world’s climate goals at risk’ | Victory for Donald Trump in the US presidential election this year could put the world’s climate goals at risk, a former UN climate chief has said.
The chances of limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels are already slim, and Trump’s antipathy to climate action would have a major impact on the US, which is the world’s second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and biggest oil and gas exporter, said Patricia Espinosa, who served as the UN’s top official on the climate from 2016 to 2022.
“I worry [about the potential election of Trump] because it would have very strong consequences, if we see a regression regarding climate policies in the US,” Espinosa said.
Although Trump’s policy plans are not clear, conversations with his circle have created a worrying picture that could include the cancellation of Joe Biden’s groundbreaking climate legislation, withdrawal from the Paris agreement and a push for more drilling for oil and gas.
Espinosa said: “We are not yet aligned to 1.5C. That’s the reality. So if we see a situation where we would see regression on those efforts, then [the likelihood of staying within 1.5C] is very limited. It would certainly be a much bigger risk.
‘In a word, horrific’: Trump’s extreme anti-environment blueprint
Read more
“We could see a slowdown, an even bigger slowdown [in action to reduce emissions], which would unfortunately probably take us to an even more terrible scenario, unless we see strong leadership coming from other places, [such as] Europe.”
She said other countries must continue with climate action even if the US were to renege on its goals under Trump, but the absence of the US would be a significant blow. “What happens in the US has a very big impact in so many places around the world,” she said.
It is not all gloom, however. Espinosa was the executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, parent treaty to the 2015 Paris agreement, in 2016 when Trump was elected president. She said that if other countries put up a united front in favour of strong climate action, it could help to counteract the absence of the US.
“When President Trump announced that they would withdraw from the Paris agreement, there was a certain fear that others would follow, and that there would be a setback in the pace of the climate change process. Not only did that not happen but some countries that had not yet adhered to the Paris agreement did so,” she said.
If Trump were to take the US out of Paris in a fresh term, she does not believe others would follow suit. “As of now, I don’t see countries really going back. I think that the process will continue.”
On the contentious issue – particularly for the US – of climate finance, Espinosa said Biden was now facing difficulty in getting climate finance commitments through a hostile Republican Congress.
“We are seeing a lack of leadership, including in the big countries that can make contributions,” she said. “[In the US] I think there is a willingness but there are also limitations. In the EU there has been a long period where they have been discussing the internal frameworks [for climate finance]. At the same time, we have been seeing a reduction of funds going in general to the global south, and very little is going to climate change. It’s really a question of giving it priority.”
She is also concerned that too much of the focus of climate finance and efforts to reduce emissions so far has been on shifting from a reliance on fossil fuels to renewables.
“We are now realising that nature will make or break net zero – decarbonising the energy sector will not be enough,” Espinosa said, calling for more emphasis on the role of nature, to halt deforestation and transform food production, which accounts for about a third of global emissions. “The 1.5C economy can only be achieved by ending deforestation and accelerating the transition to sustainable agriculture and food systems this decade.”
In 2024, most of the world’s population will go to the polls in elections, in the US, Russia, India, the UK and scores of other countries. Climate action will be a contentious issue in many of these elections, as some parties are arguing for stronger policies based on stark scientific warnings, while others oppose such action.
Espinosa warned of the opposition to climate action that is being orchestrated around the world. “In the US, we see a very well organised and very strong campaign intending to reduce the perception of the critical nature of action that needs to be taken.”
To combat this, she called for businesses to play a greater role in pushing for a low-carbon economy. “We need to work closely with the private sector, make them aware of the important opportunities that the new [low-carbon] economy provides. There are profitable investments that protect nature and innovate technologies.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/26/kylie-minogue-dancing-track-of-week | Music | 2018-01-26T11:00:44.000Z | Hannah J Davies | Tracks of the week reviewed: Kylie, Young Thug and Bleachers | TRACK OF THE WEEK
Kylie Minogue
Dancing
The original Kylie (take that, Jenner!) returns with a track that’s a real multitasker. A pop chorus about going out dancing functions as a comment on her own mortality, while countrified verses offer the – surely autobiographical – story of a stormy search for love. Raw yet danceable, it joins Robyn’s Dancing on My Own as one of those songs that’s a total bop but which, after a couple of merlots, might push you into the foetal position.
Preoccupations
Espionage
Canadian post-punkers Preoccupations – formerly Viet Cong before everyone realised that the name was problematic – are back with more Joy Division-lite. Espionage is all unnerving synth, clashing drums and lyrics about “sinking all the way down”, and is described by the band as an ode to “looking inward at yourself with extreme hatred”. Practically cheery for January, then.
Young Thug ft Trouble & Shad Da God
MLK
To mark Martin Luther King Day, Young Thug released this song in which he pays tribute to the civil rights leader … and a Lamborghini, and a woman with a bum so big you can “sit a cup on it”, and, well, you get the idea. But when the instrumental is this good and the politics are this on point (“I pray my deaf brother don’t run into the police/ Cos you tellin’ him to put his hands up, he can’t hear”) you can probably forgive that the rest was probably made by a robot with access to Rap Genius.
Bleachers
Alfie’s Song (Not So Typical Love Song)
Bleachers are that band you’ve vaguely heard of that’s actually just Lorde producer/Lena Dunham’s ex Jack Antonoff, and one that you imagine involves sitting in a New York loft watching John Hughes movies, trying to think of rhymes for “nights”. The only way this derivative ditty made up of moonlight and la la las is going to sound atypical to you is if you’ve been listening to nothing but Egyptian doom metal for the past decade, but respect to Antonoff and his little-known co-writer Harry Styles for being this brazen.
Parliament ft Scarface
I’m Gon Make U Sick O’Me
George Clinton’s Parliament have released their first song since 1980, which sounds like an awful idea. Thankfully, he has stuck to what he does best, offering up an indefatigable, groovy number about the power of bass, minus any nods to Instagram, a Stormzy verse or Ed Sheeran doing a “rap” about a girl he pulled in 2009. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2022/oct/09/10-best-drinking-holidays-uk-whisky-cider-beer-wine-tea | Travel | 2022-10-09T10:00:55.000Z | Sarah Turner | Liquid assets: 10 of the best UK drinking holidays | Hop and cider farm, Herefordshire
One of Britain’s last family-owned hop farms, Townend, still uses donkeys – Herbie and Teddy – to plant its crop each year. The award-winning results are sold to breweries across Britain. The farm, near Ledbury in Herefordshire, has been run by the Andrews family for three generations. Surrounded by 200 acres of hop yards and apple orchards, you can stay at their luxurious self-catering cottage, the Hop Store, which sleeps up to four people. The welcome hamper includes the farm’s own beer and cider.
See townendhopfarm.com. Four nights from £1,295; book at uniquehomestays.com
E-bike vineyard tour, Sussex
Photograph: Peter Vallance/Alamy
The flourishing vineyard scene of the South Downs is the focus of a tour by Cycling for Softies, which lives up to its name by offering e-bikes. Sparkling Sussex partners tours at some of the region’s top vineyards – including Ridgeview and Tinwood – with luxury hotel stays (and the company will transport your luggage between them). The e-bikes ensure that you can cover the 117 miles over five days with ease. Expect peaceful lanes through charming countryside, as well as leisurely rides along riverside and coastal paths. The price includes breakfast and dinner each night, plus the vineyard tours.
From £979pp; cycling-for-softies.co.uk
Tea growing, Cornwall
Photograph: Paul Martin/Alamy
The foothills of Cornwall are home to the UK’s only commercial tea plantation, Tregothnan, near Truro. Planted in 1999, Tregothnan now has more than 150 acres devoted to the reviving Camellia sinensis tea plant. The estate runs masterclasses in tea-growing, along with tuition on sowing, pruning and harvesting. There are also tasting workshops where you can analyse and discuss the different flavours and enjoy lunch and a cream tea – with Tregothnan’s own single-blend brew. Stay at one of their rustic cottages, nestled in ancient plum orchards, on the estate.
Masterclasses from £145, tea growing £235; tregothnan.co.uk
Mead-making, Wye Valley
Made since neolithic times, mead is having a 21st century makeover thanks to two brothers in the Wye Valley and their colony of bees. Based in their taproom in Caldicot, there are day-long courses, both in bee-keeping and how to make your own mead – and you get to go home with 4.5 litres of your own efforts. You can buy traditional 14.5% mead or enjoy the farm’s lighter 4% bottled mead and honey-smoked beer for a less heady hit.
Courses start at £65; wyevalleymeadery.co.uk
Sober tours, Cornwall
Photograph: Cath Shellswell/Plantlife
Founded in 2019, We Love Lucid creates group trips where bonding isn’t based around alcohol. Instead, you can bodyboard in Newquay, learn how to make pasties, enjoy tastings of local alcohol-free gin with juniper, grapefruit, blood orange and cardamom, and stay in a hotel on Fistral Beach. There are similar alcohol-free trips to Spain.
Breaks start at £500; welovelucid.com
Brews by boat, London
Oktoberfest takes to the Thames this autumn with a unique type of boat trip: a floating beer festival. Sommeliers will be on tap to offer drinkers a range of delicious beer styles, from pale ales to porters, sours to lagers and everything in-between – and to talk you through each one. They will also curate a tempting food menu of charcuterie and cheeses from Neal’s Yard Dairy, along with vegan offerings, too.
Prices from £44; londoncraftbeercruise.co.uk
Walking breaks, Lake District
Beer and Boots Walking Weekends are true to their fuss-free name: a group walk focussed on great country pubs. The weekend starts on Friday night with an “icebreaker” pub evening where you get to know your fellow walkers and choose your level of walk for the weekend. On 21-23 October, the break will be based at Strands Inn at Nether Wasdale, a pub and microbrewery in the Lake District. Accommodation is not included but the village has a hotel, bunkhouse and campsite.
Cost £80; walkingweekenders.co.uk
Cider Farm, Herefordshire
Right now, the apple presses at Ty Gwyn are starting production from this year’s batch of apples. The results, aged for more than a year, have won multiple Good Taste awards. You can soak up the atmosphere, along with a cider or two, in the one-bedroom Yarlington Dairy or their glamping-style Cider Shack with a log-burning stove and sheltered outdoor bath.
Two nights from £290 self-catering; tygwynholidays.co.uk
Raasay Distillery, Inner Hebrides
Photograph: Scotland by Jan Smith Photography/Alamy
Head over the bridge to Skye and take the short ferry ride to the Isle of Raasay, which started building its own distillery six years ago. While its first single-malt whisky was maturing, a gin was created. Now both spirits are finally available, using water filtered through the island’s volcanic rock. There’s an impressive range of tastings including ones matured in sherry barrels. Tours start at £15 for adults and there are 12 bedrooms in the distillery.
Stays, including breakfast, from £136; raasaydistillery.com
Gin Distillery, London
Photograph: Justin Gardner
Part of the capital’s culture since the 18th century, gin was mostly distilled in private houses. This hotel in Notting Hill produces its own Portobello Gin from a copper still on site where, as well as citrus and juniper, there’s Indonesian-sourced nutmeg and orris from Italy to bring to the explosion of flavours. And in the hotel’s own “Ginstitute”, guests can create their own gin using a blend of botanicals, as well as sampling some favourite gin cocktails. And, of course, they get to take home a bottle of their own personal blend.
Doubles, room only, from £150; the-distillery.london. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/oct/21/junior-masterchef-weekly-recap-im-about-to-cry | Television & radio | 2020-10-20T20:58:18.000Z | Meg Watson | Junior MasterChef weekly recap: 'I'm about to cry!' | It’s our second week in the Junior MasterChef kitchen, which means we’ve all picked our favourites and Network Ten knows exactly how to exploit that. Hope you enjoy watching Australia’s most beloved children having panic attacks on primetime TV!
It’s OK: Ben is safe for another week. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Junior MasterChef recap: Ben, bees and a disembodied hand dominate delightful first week
Read more
On Sunday night the contestants’ first challenge was the spectre of their own mortality. The judges cosplayed elderly versions of themselves and slowly creeped out of a wooden box – you know, like the dead rising from the grave.
It was an important lesson for the kids: there’s a giant clock hanging above us all, not just in the MasterChef kitchen but in life, too.
Jock pretends to be as old as time itself. Photograph: Network Ten
They love it! Photograph: Network Ten
Just kidding! It was a gimmick for the day’s mystery box.
The kids had to cook using things that were very old (blue cheese, aged beef sirloin, etc) and very young (baby veggies, baby snapper, etc). Some of the kids were pretty grossed out by some of the older ingredients but not Ben. In his own words, he’s “the kid that begs their mum not to get lollies or chocolate – I want pâté and blue cheese!”.
‘Can we get some Bleu d’Auvergne on our next holiday to Albury, s’il te plaît, maman?” Photograph: Network Ten
But his roasted apple with blue cheese ice cream wasn’t good enough for the top four. That honour went to Vienna’s pan-seared snapper, Laura’s baby beetroot galette, Ruby’s savoury choux buns and Filo’s salted caramel apple pie.
Filo had an amazing time because 1) he’s the most joyful boy in the universe and 2) he simply loves pies. “This is a dream for me,” he said, making his pie. “I love pies,” he said, holding his finished pie. “I love eating pies. I love everything about pies.”
This is what I’ll sound like holding my first post-lockdown Four’n Twenty at the MCG.
Get yourself someone who loves you as much as Filo loves pies 🥧🧡 #JrMasterChefAU #MasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/81g6nvW4fe
— JrMasterChefAU (@JrMasterChefAU) October 18, 2020
Ruby, on the other hand, overcame some tough obstacles. First she accidentally candied her beetroot instead of pickling it and had to start all over again. Then she left her oven on too high, putting her choux buns at risk. And through all this she had to deal with judge Andy being dressed like an undergrad film student.
‘Ruby. Ruby, no. Ruby, look at me. OK, you seriously haven’t heard of Jean-Luc Godard?’ Photograph: Network Ten
On Monday night Ruby, Filo, Vienna and Laura went on to cook for immunity. The challenge: a taco cook-along with Andy.
All the kids did an incredible job but Ruby had some trouble again. She accidentally added coriander leaves to her avocado cream instead of just using the stems. The cream was bright green and there was no time to redo it. But she came out on top again. Jock actually preferred her cream to Andy’s! Ruby secured immunity, along with Laura.
‘Ruby, you have left me... À bout de souffle.’ Photograph: Network Ten
For Tuesday’s elimination cook the kids were greeted by a “donut superstar”, Morgan Hipworth.
Morgan is 19 years old and has run his own donut shop since he was 15. Remember, kids: tick tock! Time comes for us all.
Ben thinking about his five-year plan. Photograph: Network Ten
Morgan set two challenges. The first: create a topping and filling for four donuts in 45 minutes. Georgia, Vienna and Carter came up with the best donuts. Then Dev went and banged his immunity gong. That left Filo, Ben, Phenix, Tiffany and Salvo to battle it out in the second round. To avoid elimination they had to create their “dream dish” – something that best represents their values and aspirations.
Filo made an Egyptian feast of expertly spiced fried and grilled prawns. “It’s so nice seeing people learn from my culture,” he said. “It’s one of my favourite things!” Salvo also made a family dish: a prawn and tuna burger, inspired by his time on the Amalfi coast.
Tiffany made a “carnivore dish”, featuring Scotch eggs made with blood pudding and pork crackling instead of breadcrumbs. This was inspired by her changing dietary requirements due to juvenile arthritis; her dream is to open a restaurant that caters to any diet.
Phenix made a coffee cake with walnut crumble because she wants to open a bakery “where you can’t feel bad about anything”. And Ben created an incredibly complex dessert inspired by native ingredients. “When I think of my dream dish I’m really inspired by Aboriginal culture because it’s the oldest culture in the world!!!” he said, beaming.
Ben paying his respects to Indigenous culture 😭👑 #JrMasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/NqczMdRjL7
— AnushkaB අනුශ්කා (@nushyb) October 20, 2020
Ben’s dish was truly ambitious, so naturally something quickly went wrong: his sugar crystallised while he was trying to make toffee. His little face turned even redder than usual and he kept holding his head in his hands while warning everyone, “I’m about to cry! I’m about to cry!”
But it’s OK, he managed to make another one! Everything was fine! I mean, everything was fine for everyone except Salvo and Phenix.
Remember us? Photograph: Network Ten
The tuna in Salvo’s burger was dry and the texture of Phenix’s cake was off. They were both eliminated. Phenix’s bakery where “you can’t feel bad about anything” is off to a very bad start.
What made me feel the most inadequate
Even though he had a slight setback, Ben’s dish was incredible!
Absolutely incredible 🖤💛❤️ #JrMasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/4K5xYfUzq1
— JrMasterChefAU (@JrMasterChefAU) October 20, 2020
It featured sandalwood nut white chocolate ganache, Davidson plum white chocolate jellies, macadamia nut praline, turmeric and vanilla ice cream and at least two other elements that I would need a deep YouTube tutorial on to attempt.
What I’ll be thinking about all week
When Ben started his own chant when things went wrong. A little tip for the next time you’re “about to cry”. :’)
Be your biggest cheerleader 🙌 #JrMasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/ELWu0hHAyr
— JrMasterChefAU (@JrMasterChefAU) October 20, 2020
Junior MasterChef continues on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights on Network Ten. Guardian Australia recaps run each Wednesday | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/04/great-dynasties-marx-brothers | Life and style | 2011-06-03T23:06:34.000Z | Ian Sansom | Great dynasties of the world: The Marx Brothers | The Schönbergs lived at 179 East 93rd Street, in the Yorkville neighbourhood of Manhattan, an area then inhabited mostly by immigrants from Germany and Eastern Europe. Fanny and Levy were from Dornum, in East Frisia. Their daughter Minnie married a man she met at a dance, Samuel Marx, a tailor, from Mertzwiller, in Alsace; the family called him Frenchie. Minnie and Samuel had five sons: Leonard, born 1887; Adolph, born 1888; Julius, born 1890; Milton, born 1892; and Herbert, born 1901. Their firstborn son, Manfred, had died aged just seven months in 1886.
Years later, Adolph recalled their early years. "There were 10 mouths to feed every day ... five boys ... cousin Polly, who'd been adopted as one of us; my mother and father, and my mother's mother and father. A lot of the time my mother's sister, Aunt Hannah, was around too. And on any given night of the week, any number of relatives from both sides of the family might turn up."
It was a happy, hectic household. Adolph played the harp; Leonard was a ladies' man; Milton was light on his feet and wore rubber-soled shoes; Julius was a bit of a grump. And so they became Harpo, Chico, Gummo, and Groucho. They named Herbert after a performing chimp – Zeppo. They were, of course, the Marx Brothers.
Back in Germany, their grandfather, Levy Schönberg, had been a bit of a schnorrer, and a badchen. A schnorrer is a kind of a beggar, but a beggar with chutzpah. And a badchen is a professional jester and entertainer. Levy's wife, Fanny, would play the harp and Levy would perform magic tricks and ventriloquism. According to Stefan Karfer, in his biography of Groucho Marx, what Levy lacked in skill he made up for in "energy, audacity, and speed". By the time he arrived in the New World, he was running out of all three. So the mantle passed to their son, Adolph Schönberg, uncle of the Marx Brothers, who styled himself Al Shean and became a popular vaudeville singer. Inspired by their uncle, and managed by Minnie, the Marx Brothers took to the stage as a musical act.
By the 1920s, they'd added comedy, and their shows transferred to Broadway. Their first feature-length films, The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930), filmed at Paramount's Astoria Studios in New York, were basically raucous romps, though "too joyous for cavilling", in the film critic Pauline Kael's words. With Monkey Business (1931), the brothers moved to Hollywood, and started working with the producer Herman J Mankiewicz. He helped to make their japes into movies.
Gummo, the eldest brother, had dropped out of the act long before the brothers made it to Hollywood. He became a theatrical agent. After the first five films, Zeppo, the youngest, also dropped out, and went to work with Gummo. The Marx Brothers' two greatest films, A Night at the Opera (1935) and A Day at the Races (1937) star just the remaining three brothers, though it remained a family business, with Gummo taking care of legal and financial matters.
Simon Louvish, in his biography of the Marx Brothers, Monkey Business (2000), relates the success of the act to the family dynamic established back on East 93rd Street. "On and on the siblings bicker, vying for parental attention as they tutsi-frutsi each other, like Chico and Groucho, or collaborating, like Chico and Harpo, in their own secret childhood language; Zeppo, the little brother, frozen out; Gummo, the fifth, spare wheel." | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/dec/18/usmnt-jurgen-klinsmann-german-american-players | Football | 2015-12-18T17:08:13.000Z | Jack Kerr | USMNT: does Jürgen Klinsmann pick too many German American players? | Abby Wambach landed a few stinging blows on her way to the exit door this week, opening up about the US men’s national team and the way it was being run under Jürgen Klinsmann.
“The way that he has changed and brought in these foreign guys, it’s just not something that I believe in,” the retiring striker told Bill Simmons on his HBO podcast.
Abby Wambach on how to fix US men's soccer: fire Jürgen Klinsmann
Read more
“I love Jermaine Jones, I love watching him play, and I love Fabian Johnson, but I just think that this experiment that US Soccer has given Jürgen, just isn’t one that, personally, I’m into.”
It was one of Wambach’s punchiest parting shots, though she put her complaint much more diplomatically than many commentators. Does she have a point?
It’s no secret that Klinsmann relies heavily on the sons of US soldiers, men who served in Germany at the tailend of the cold war. He’s not the first US coach to use this type of player, but under him, the practice has been ramped up.
Johnson, Timothy Chandler, Alfredo Morales, John Brooks, Danny Williams, David Yelldell, Terrence Boyd, the recently-capped Andrew Wooton and Bayern Munich’s Julian Green: all were conceived while their fathers were serving overseas, and grew up in Germany.
The man who captained USA at the 1998 World Cup, Thomas Dooley, shares a similar story. As does New England Revolution’s Jones, another member of Klinsmann’s cadre.
The argument of those who don’t like German-born players is paradoxical. How can it be that the sons and daughters of American service personnel, protecting US interests overseas, are not welcome to be part of the family?
Despite the criticism, Klinsmann continues to pick the best side from the players that are eligible and available. And there are more Ger-mericans coming round the bend.
Don’t be surprised, for example, to see Stuttgart’s Jerome Kiesewetter make his debut in the US national side soon. The 22-year-old forward has already played more than a dozen games for the US youth sides. Throw him and Gedion Zelalem into the team, and the US will soon have more players from Berlin than Germany does.
Scouring the diaspora to unearth talent is one of the oldest tricks in international football. And one of the most effective.
A recent line-up for the Philippines featured Pinoys from 10 different countries. Among them was Orange County’s Kenshiro Daniels.
“There are a few that will question some of the squad players not being full-blooded Filipino,” his Australian teammate Iain Ramsay told Vice. “But whether it’s a half, a quarter, three-quarters: we consider ourselves Filipino, and we are honored to represent the country.”
It’s not a coincidence that the Azkals are playing some of their best football in years. Or ever.
At the 2006 World Cup, Croatia’s Josip Simunic got three yellow cards in a match against Australia. It seemed to be an inexplicable piece of refereeing from Graham Poll, until he later revealed what had happened.
Simunic was born and raised in the Australian capital of Canberra, and when Poll heard his Australian accent, he became confused and wrongly awarded the second yellow to the Croatian’s opposite number.
Simunic’s international career was controversial from the moment he was poached by Croatia, and Australia is now to quick to cap-tie players with dual nationalities.
Sometimes, though, it seems countries can take the practice of international recruiting too far. “How Did East Timor Soccer Improve So Much?” asked a recent headline in the New York Times. The answer was as simple it was obvious: “Brazilians.”
East Timor’s national team has naturalized so many Brazilians in recent years that it is now mocked as “the Little Samba Nation”. Both countries are former Portuguese colonies, but there is no significant history of migration between the two countries, and few other links. Fifa is now investigating.
This is football in the age of globalization, immigration and intercontinental ballistic missiles. But for those who still can’t come to terms with Klinsmann’s recruiting, there is an alternative.
Guam – a tiny American territory in the western Pacific - regularly fields more players born in America than USA does. And with the likes of Ryan Guy, once of the New England Revolution, and LA Galaxy’s AJ DeLaGarza on board, it has made some pretty significant steps on the road to Russia 2018. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/society/joepublic/2011/oct/19/ricky-gervais-mong-twitter | Society | 2011-10-19T15:10:19.000Z | Nicola Clark | Ricky Gervais, please stop using the word 'mong' | There is a new buzzword on Twitter. Its meaning is not what it used to be, but it is now being hailed as meaning misguided, foolish and just plain wrong. The word is "gervais".
The reason that people have chosen to launch their new definition of the word stems directly from the reappearance of Ricky Gervais on Twitter and the language he is using.
He left under something of a confused cloud a year ago, stating that he didn't see the point and that if he wanted to speak to other celebrities he could text them.
Fair comment. However, his return has marked something of a watershed for me because having written about his contribution to reducing bigotry and ignorance around disability, the language he is using on Twitter, complete with photos, has made me reconsider my opinion.
He is using the word "mong".
Anyone who is disabled or who loves someone with a disability knows what that word means because they will have heard it used about them abusively at some stage. Along with "retard" and "spaz", it's a prominent verbal feature of the bullies' toolkit.
I'm 45 and I know that. Ricky Gervais is 50, so he will definitely know that – besides, he tackles the issue in an episode of Extras in which a boy with Down's syndrome is referred to as a "mongoloid".
Gervais's younger fans may justifiably claim ignorance about the word, but my 17-year-old daughter knows what it means because it was used about her sister, and she herself was called retarded.
The reason that younger people may not have heard it is because of the excellent work done by the Down's Syndrome Association, among others, which has ensured that the word has been pretty much dropped from use.
As I watched Gervais bring the word to his Twitter followers (who at last count number more than 400,000) and their gleeful repeating of it, I challenged him.
He tweeted to his followers that it was not his intention that the word be linked with Down's syndrome, and that it was only uptight people living in the past who think it means Down's syndrome.
Then he tweeted a definition in an internet dictionary stating that "mong" didn't mean Down's syndrome. I tweeted him one that showed it did. He retweeted that.
I was then bombarded with tweets from his furious fans calling me a "cunt" and a "mong". Cunt doesn't bother me, but using the word "mong" does, because of its references to Down's syndrome.
Comedian Richard Herring, who has written on the subject of disablist language, took up the issue the following morning. He blogged about it and was targeted.
He was also called "mong", as were several journalists who wrote critical pieces about Gervais's new show. Claiming that the word no longer references Down's syndrome is as wrong as it is offensive.
Many people are of the opinion that unless the word is directed at someone with a disability, it isn't abuse. This is misguided for two reasons. First, it doesn't appreciate how the word is being used. If a word referencing disability is applied to mean something ugly, foolish, unpleasant or weird, then it is an abusive epithet promoting a stereotype.
Second, reclaiming a word to lessen its power is a right only available to those to whom the abuse is directed. Disabled people can reclaim the word but a non-disabled man using the word in an abusive way will not be reaping the whirlwind of hatred.
The best comment on the issue remains Herring's, whose Twitter feed is full of abuse – and praise – for making a stand. He said: "Just a thought, but if you think mong only means idiot, why not just use the word idiot?"
Disabled people are targeted and abused and murdered. We can't keep turning our heads from this. It's happening on an unprecedented institutionalised scale and all hate crime begins with verbal abuse.
If you find abuse of disabled people sickening, then please don't use the terminology of bullies and thugs.
Please Ricky Gervais, warm the cockles of my heart and stop using it.
Nicola Clark is a disability rights campaigner, mother to two children with disabilities, and blogger | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/nov/21/sale-of-telegraph-paused-as-consortium-pledges-to-repay-barclay-debts | Media | 2023-11-21T17:07:08.000Z | Alex Lawson | Sale of Telegraph paused as consortium pledges to repay Barclay debts | The auction of the Telegraph newspapers and the Spectator titles has been paused after an Abu Dhabi-backed consortium pledged to repay debts owed by their publishing group’s previous owners, the Barclay family.
RedBird IMI, a joint venture between the American firm RedBird Capital and International Media Investments of Abu Dhabi, announced on Monday that it had stepped in to provide loans to the family, allowing them to pay off their debts to Lloyds Banking Group.
Lloyds put the publishing group’s parent company, Bermuda-based B.UK, into liquidation in June over £1.1bn of unpaid debts, and a sale process officially launched in October. However, RedBird IMI’s announcement has cast uncertainty over the future of the auction process, which is being led by bankers at Goldman Sachs, with first round bids due to be lodged by 28 November.
The Barclay family has until 1 December to complete due diligence with Lloyds and RedBird IMI and repay the debts, ahead of an adjourned court hearing in the British Virgin Islands which would liquidate a company linked to the media group.
On Tuesday, B.UK said that “the boards of the parent companies of Telegraph Media Group Limited and The Spectator (1828) Limited announce that sales processes for each of the businesses shall be paused today until after the next court hearing scheduled for 4 December”.
The terms of the agreement are that RedBird IMI would provide a £600m loan, secured against the Telegraph and Spectator, and “a loan of a similar amount secured against other Barclay family businesses and commercial interests”. RedBird said that it planned to convert the loan into equity at “an early opportunity”.
The agreement with RedBird IMI, led by former CNN president Jeff Zucker, would be scrutinised by regulators, including potentially the Competition and Markets Authority and Ofcom, if – as appears likely – the culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, issues a public interest intervention notice.
If the Barclay family has not repaid the debts by 4 December, it is not expected to oppose the liquidation of the holding company. A sale process would then resume.
Several suitors are understood to be interested in buying the titles, including a consortium led by Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund boss who is a shareholder in the GB News channel, as well as the owner of the Daily Mail and the Metro and National World, the publisher.
The Telegraph titles were bought by Sir Frederick Barclay and his late twin Sir David in 2004. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/jul/04/nicholas-moseley-max-moseley | Life and style | 2009-07-03T23:01:00.000Z | Melissa Benn | Melissa Benn interviews writer Nicholas Mosley | Sitting in his warmly furnished living room in Regent's Park, in central London, Nicholas Mosley evokes an air of elegant bohemianism. A celebrated Booker-nominated novelist, winner of the 1990 Whitbread prize for his richly experimental Hopeful Monsters, he is also a skilled memoirist and has worked as a scriptwriter for the film directors Joseph Losey and John Frankenheimer. Now 86, he has just published a new novel and another memoir.
Educated at Eton and Oxford University, sustained by a private income, a baronetcy inherited in middle age, Nicholas has an air of quiet authority and detachment typical of the well-cushioned upper class but an effervescence all of his own. Almost as soon as I sit down, he says, "It's very fashionable now to say one has had a terrible life. But I have had a rather good one."
This lightness of spirit is all the more remarkable when you consider his background. For Nicholas, the eldest son of Sir Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists and half brother of formula one boss Max Mosley, is not just a member of one of Britain's most renowned and controversial public families, he is that most dangerous of creatures - a writer in, and about, the family.
The Mosleys have been back in the headlines of late. Images of Oswald, strutting down London streets in his black shirt, have resurfaced following the election of two BNP MEPs in June. Max Mosley shot to unwelcome prominence last year after being caught engaging in S&M sex games, and subsequently taking on the News of World over intrusion into his privacy. Last week, he agreed not to stand for re-election as president of motor racing's governing body. This all followed the tragic death of his eldest son, Alexander, 39, in May from an accidental drug overdose.
Of all Oswald Mosley's children, Nicholas most clearly rejected his father's rightwing politics while at the same time acknowledging mixed feelings about those close to him. Yet, in the end, Oswald Mosley chose Nicholas to be his official biographer. The resulting two volumes, Rules of the Game and Beyond the Pale, both published in the 80s, offer a candid account of Mosley's private and public life, which went down well with reviewers.
But the wider Mosley family, including Max, were incandescent. After initially praising the book, privately, Oswald's second wife, and Nicholas's stepmother, Diana, told the press it was "the degraded work of a very little man ... It's all very well having an oedipal complex at 19, a second-rate son hating a brilliant father, but it's rather odd at 60. Nicholas wants to get his own back on his father for having had more fun than he's had."
Max, meanwhile, circulated a dossier of the most damaging reviews, suggesting, says Nicholas now, that "I had deliberately set out to destroy our father. He also said, in effect, that I would die dishonoured, (that) no one would be interested in my dismal love affairs or unread novels." He has wondered since if all this passionate resentment was "a mark of the family's own reluctance to look at any truth about my father?"
The half brothers did not speak for decades, and it is only in recent months that there has been a rapprochement. Nicholas says, "When all that sex business happened, I felt so sympathetic to him, I thought he behaved so bravely [in respect of the court case]. I wanted to write to him and say, 'I haven't heard from you for 30 years but good luck'." He did not, he says, because he was worried that someone might intercept and misinterpret the letter.
"But I did write to Max and Jean when Alexander died. To say how terribly sorry I was. Verity [Nicholas's wife] and I went to Alexander's funeral.
"Then Max pretty well flew straight off to Paris for hours of tough formula one negotiations," he adds, with a noticeable trace of brotherly pride,
Nicholas treats other family ruptures with the same thoughtful levity. He also fell out with his brother Michael for 20 years, over something neither brother can now recall. They are back in touch and have met up. "It seemed crazy not to," he says, adding, with laughter, "of course we got on terribly well".
Nicholas's childhood was, from the beginning, marked by distance from family. The main figure in Nicholas's young life was his "darling nanny". His mother died when he was nine. His father was a rather jokey figure, always hamming it up, fond of teasing wordplay. "But he did not want to involve us in his politics, even when he was in the Labour party [during the 20s]. And we never saw him in a black shirt, ever."
His father became embroiled in fascism when Nicholas was still in his teens. How did he deal with Oswald's infamy? He answers without hesitation: "I was saved from being a fascist by going to Eton. And I was saved from being an old Etonian by having a fascist father. "Eton was full of people from the wrong side, as it were. It didn't worry them. When my father was imprisoned for his far-right political activities, people might pass me and say, 'Hard luck about your father' and that would be it."
He says the same about the army, in which he saw distinguished war service: "It didn't matter a damn if he was in prison, defying the logic of the war. I was in the army. And I was an officer."
Nicholas has fond memories of "freewheeling conversations about politics, philosophy and the meaning of life" with his father, particularly during the war period, when Oswald was interned at Holloway prison.
But father and son clashed when Oswald returned to active politics after the war, standing for election, on an anti-immigrant ticket in Notting Hill, west London in the late 50s when he started "acting like an insecure racist with a virulent chip on his shoulder".
Nicholas, then "at the height of his Christian enthusiasm", went to his father's offices to tackle him, on both his politics and a family matter. "I was full of passion but I didn't know if I was trying to save his soul or my own. When eventually I was let into his office I said to him, 'You are being wicked. You're being insane. Just as you were in the 1930s.'"
Nicholas also told Oswald that he was a lousy and vindictive father. "I had expected a thunderbolt to descend, but my father just said quietly, 'I will never speak to you again.'" They did, but not for many years.
Oswald was serially unfaithful to Nicholas's mother. "He had no guilt or perhaps he simply couldn't feel it. His two passions were politics and the pursuit of women." And Nicholas did get "a little talk" from his father when he was a young man, implying that "infidelity was OK as long as it was only with married women. It was all very Jane Austen." Nicholas laughs now, "because really it was all about money. You couldn't ruin an unmarried girl's chances by sleeping with her."
But he adds, more thoughtfully, "while my father treated [his affairs] like a game, I took it all terribly seriously." This seriousness is evident in his own recent memoir, an exploration of his creative, religious and emotional life after leaving the army. He begins to see that he is repeating a pattern in his father's life, making both his first and second wife unhappy with his twin obsessions: work and other women.
It is only in his second marriage, to Verity, a woman 20 years younger, that Nicholas finds some kind of durable contentment, although even here he is abrasively honest about the marriage's conflicts, including one isolated incidence of violence on his part.
Verity is equally straightforward. When I arrive to do the interview, she says briskly: "Well I will leave you two alone. I am likely to quarrel with everything Nick has to say to you." Yet Nicholas looks up at her with something approaching adoration.
Nicholas has five children, but, understandably perhaps, writes less of his own life as a father. It is one thing to be scrupulously truthful about an already infamous public parent, quite another to drag one's children into the story.
At the close of our interview, he tells me how moved he is by how apparently "faithful and good" the marriages of his own children are, and how he admires them enormously."I don't think I was a good father. I did have all these infidelities. But I like to think I was always honest and open. Children become aware of family troubles anyway. But they can learn: either these can become crippling, or not all that important in time, if confronted."
Nicholas Mosley's memoir Paradoxes of Peace, or The Presence of Infinity, and his novel God's Hazard are published by Dalkey Archive Press, both £10.99. To order a copy for £9.99, with free UK p&p, go to theguardian.com/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846 | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/24/21-bridges-review-chadwick-boseman-sienna-miller | Film | 2019-11-24T12:00:22.000Z | Simran Hans | 21 Bridges review – a pulpy crowd-pleaser | Ray (Taylor Kitsch) and his accomplice Michael (Stephan James of If Beale Street Could Talk) hope to buy and sell 30 kilos of cocaine – but arriving at the pickup point they discover 300 kilos, uncut. Panicked, they gun down the seven cops that arrive on the scene. “This was either dumb luck or a setup!” says detective Andre Davis (Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman, oozing quiet charisma and leonine intelligence). Sienna Miller plays a narcotics expert who talks like a Bronx dame; a set piece takes place at a salsa club in the meat-packing district. There’s a pulpy, comic-book noir to this highly enjoyable thriller, whose rules and parameters are clear. “Close the island. Catch them by 5am,” instructs Davis’s superior, limiting the action to Manhattan after midnight.
Watch a trailer for 21 Bridges. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/14/meerkat-live-streaming-app-ben-rubin | Technology | 2015-03-14T17:22:58.000Z | Rupert Neate | Meerkat: 'Everyone has a story to tell,' says founder of live-streaming app | Ben Rubin hasn’t had much sleep over the last few days, and his legions of newly acquired fans have noticed.
As the Guardian live-streamed an interview with Rubin, the founder and chief executive of hot new Silicon Valley app Meerkat, the most frequent comments from the audience of 51 people were along the lines of: “When was the last time Ben slept?”
To be fair to Rubin, others thought he still looked good. “Ben is HOT,” tweeted Ron Gura, who works at Meerkat’s biggest investor, the Israeli venture capital firm Aleph.
It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks for Rubin, a 27-year-old former architecture student from Israel. He launched Meerkat, which allows Twitter users to stream live video footage from their phones, on 27 February. Within days it was the talk of Silicon Valley, with everyone from famed venture capitalist Saul Klein to actor-turned-investor Ashton Kutcher and skateboard legend Tony Hawk “Meerkating” their lives. There are now more than 120,000 “Meerkaters”.
“It’s been 13 days,” Rubin said during the live-streamed interview, which was carried out on Thursday in the basement of Meerkat’s offices in San Francisco’s South of Market (SoMa) neighbourhood.
Testing out Meerkat: the app that brings live streaming to Twitter
Read more
“We’ve had the Miami Dolphins [NFL team], American Idol … everyone using Meerkat. It’s, like, amazing brands are using it, people with access are using it – reporters, schools, churches doing services, real-estate agents doing showings of apartments.”
Rubin, whose team created Meerkat in eight weeks – almost accidentally as a side project to his Life On Air streaming service – said its aim was to help people share the most exciting or special moments of their lives with friends, admirers, fans or just about anyone who might want to watch.
“We believe that everyone has a story to tell,” Rubin says. “The luckiest person has one thing to tell every day and that’s awesome. If you’re less lucky you have [a story] two times a week.
“If I ask you if there’s something in your eyes that you think is wonderful to do in a shared experience in the next 24 hours, you probably will come up with one thing. It could be a wedding or going to a Kanye [West] show, or interviewing this person, or it could be going to the beach. It could be picking up a puppy to adopt – anything you think that is a powerful shared experience.”
Rubin said he did not care what users shared on Meerkat, and it is important that it is the user who decides what experiences are “awesome enough” to stream.
He says Meerkat is designed to encourage people to share experiences as they happen rather than taking pictures and boasting about them later on Twitter or Facebook.
“[It’s about] taking people that care about you with you, not taking a picture and [saying] here, look what I did,” he said. “It’s here, come with me. I want you to come with me to [technology and music festival] South by Southwest, not look how amazing my life was at South by Southwest.
“Only a few thousand people get to go to South by Southwest. There are probably a million people who are not going to South by Southwest and are interested in seeing some stuff from there. I think we can bridge that gap very easily.”
Rubin says that by using Meerkat, users are telling their followers: “This is something I feel special about … and I want you to come with me to this interview, I want you to come with me to the wedding. I want you to come with me to the apartment showing, or yoga, or class.”
The app has not just been used by friends sharing puppy and cat videos: journalists broadcasted President Obama’s speech at the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches last weekend, and Meerkat has been used to interview a senator.
“It’s a very honest medium,” Rubin said. “There’s a lot to do and we’re only just scratching the surface. The content will evolve from something that is one-directional to something that is two directional. The watchers – the consumers – will actually influence the content itself.”
Rubin said several celebrities have noticed the potential of Meerkat to directly interact with their fans, rather than doing so via TV channels. “A lot of their managers have been in touch. They want to have a relationship [with Meerkat]. They [know that they] can drive their fans crazy in a positive way with [Meerkat].”
He said Meerkat will also help bring people into the heart of politics, breaking news events, concerts and other events that can be hard for people to access in person.
John Ward, a political reporter at Yahoo News, interviewed South Dakota senator John Thune live on Meerkat from his office in Washington DC.
Rubin said Twitter had been very supportive of Meerkat, despite the app appearing to be a direct competitor to Periscope, a live-streaming app recently acquired by Twitter.
“We thought they might be agitated,” Rubin says. “But they have been holding our hands and helping us. They know that our intentions are good. They will play fair as long as we play fair.”
That relationship changed late on Friday night, when Twitter prevented Meerkat from accessing its social graph. That means Meerkat users will not be automatically connected to their Twitter friends with Meerkat.
“We are limiting their access to Twitter’s social graph, consistent with our internal policy,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
Rubin tweeted to complain about Twitter’s action. “[It’s] a sad day for the Twitter developer community who build amazing products that help us connect with each other,” he said.
Meerkat is likely to be the talk of South by Southwest, as Twitter was in 2007 and Foursquare in 2009, as investors and technology watchers seek out Rubin and watch the company’s curated Meerkat live-stream events.
Potential investors have come knocking. Rubin, who was dressed in a bright yellow t-shirt, jeans and plastic sandals, said investors were “all over me”. “I think I’ve archived around $500m [worth of investment offers] in my inbox,” he says.
Ben Rubin is interviewed on the Guardian – on his own app. Guardian
Asked who the potential investors were, he replied: “Everyone you can think of … awesome people. Every email that I send back starts: ‘I cannot believe I’m writing these words to you because you’re my hero. I just can’t believe that I’m writing this email to you, but I’m swamped and we’re focusing on the community and I just can’t talk money right now.’”
Rubin said he was not going to sell out to the highest bidder: “It’s not about the money for us. We’re in this business to make an impact, not to be rich. It doesn’t make sense [to sell out] now; we haven’t [made] any impact.”
He said he owed it to his 11-person team to ensure Meerkat reaches its potential as an independent company. “Everyone in the team the last two years has been going to sleep and waking up knowing that they are doing something that’s going to be big. We deserve to carry on with our vision as much as we can and show what we believe in. Everyone is focused on creating something awesome and magical.”
Another reason for not accepting a takeover bid, Rubin said, is because he “just can’t work for another person”.
“I am unemployable,” he says. “I was at Intel. Everything seemed so broken. After six months, a year, you start to develop this hatred: ‘Why do I need to do that? It’s so stupid.’”
Realising what he has just said about one of the world’s biggest technology companies, Rubin added: “By the way, they [Intel] give amazing conditions, and perks, and great salary and everything.
“I [just] wanted to do so much stuff to make the process better. Big organisations are very slow.”
If he’s not a good employee, is he a good boss? “I have no fucking idea.”
We asked the Meerkat employees watching the live stream if they thought Rubin was a good boss. No one replied either way. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/apr/22/american-psycho-musical-film-morning-routine-patrick-bateman | Film | 2016-04-22T15:44:37.000Z | Dave Schilling | American Psycho's morning ritual: would Patrick Bateman’s routine work today? | American Psycho is 25 years old – but like any true classic no one would know. The novel, film and now the musical are far-fetched satires of America during the 1980s: consumerism if off the hook; Wall Street’s excess is infecting the rest of New York City, and Patrick Bateman, the story’s protagonist, is a crazed narcissistic banker, who sees virtue in his vanity.
In other words: almost nothing’s changed. But there’s another way to read American Psycho: as a postcard from the 90s. The novel is a pop graveyard for the ephemera of that time period – littered with references to brands, products, restaurants, nightclubs and cultural figures that didn’t quite make it out of the 80s.
American Psycho review – Patrick Bateman sings, strips and slashes
Read more
Take the famous washing scene, for example: Ellis takes readers through Bateman’s morning routine, listing the luxury products he uses as markers of status and wealth.
I tie a plastic ice pack around my face and commence with the morning’s stretching exercises. Afterwards I stand in front of a chrome and acrylic Washmobile bathroom sink – with soap dish, cup holder, and railings that serve as towel bars, which I bought at Hastings Tile to use while the marble sinks I ordered from Finland are being sanded – and stare at my reflection with the ice pack still on. I pour some Plax antiplaque formula into a stainless-steel tumbler and swish it around my mouth for thirty seconds.
Reading that scene today, suddenly the story feels dated. Any GQ reader fancying himself a modern man would squirm at the sight of a Vidal Sassoon shampoo bottle. We compiled the other brands Bateman proudly name drops throughout his ritual. Would any Wall-Streeter be able to navigate them today?
Washmobile sink: Bateman washes his face in a Washmobile sink every morning. A quick Google search for “Washmobile” brings up a couple of car washes and a torta stand in Tijuana, Mexico. If I search for “Washmobile sinks”, the first result is a YouTube advert for a mobile sink used by doctors.
Hastings Tile: Hastings Tile & Bath has a functioning website. That’s promising. They have one showroom on East 58th Street in midtown Manhattan. I checked to see if you could buy a Washmobile sink on their website. You can’t.
Plax: You can certainly still buy Plax anti-plaque rinse, but the Patrick Bateman of today would try to find something a tad more organic to clean his mouth, I think. Maybe not Tom’s of Maine, but close. At least, something more expensive than Plax.
Rembrandt: The website for Rembrandt toothpaste looks fake, like one of those placeholder sites for when someone’s domain name expires.
Listerine: Wait, he uses Plax and Listerine?
Probright tooth polisher: A search for Probright brings up an Oral-B electric toothbrush. Is that the same thing?
Interplak tooth polisher: Still exists. Is this guy really going to keep brushing his teeth?
Cepacol: Cepacol’s website offers not only the mouthwash Bateman uses to finish off the waterboarding he’s performed on his teeth, but also throat lozenges. They are “extra strength” and come in cherry, honey lemon, sugar-free cherry, and something called “mixed berry” flavor. I personally don’t approve of berries mixing. Let’s keep our berries separate, but equal.
Vidal Sassoon: Vidal Sassoon, if it ever was a high market brand, is no longer. Today, it’s one of the cheapest shampoos and conditioners you can buy. They sell it everywhere. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Gruene Natural revitalizing shampoo: No such thing any more, but there is a district in the town on New Braunfels, Texas, called Gruene. New Braunfels is the home of former baseball player Lance Berkman and Ferdinand Lindheimer, who Wikipedia refers to as the “father of Texas Botany”.
Bloomingdales: Still around
Bergdorf’s: Still around
Foltene European revitalizing treatment for thinning hair: Still around. In fact, I just bought a whole case of the stuff … for my dad.
Foltene European revitalizing treatment for thinning hair Photograph: Amazon
Vivagen hair treatment: Vivagen is an offshoot of the Redken brand, owned by the L’Oréal Group. You can buy Redken products at JC Penny, which Bateman would not be caught dead visiting.
Aramis Nutriplexx: The most I could find on this was a 1987 LA Times article about how hair thinning treatments don’t work.
Ralph Lauren: Yeah, still around. Let’s move on.
Pour Hommes: It means “For Men”! In French! Whatever the brand was, it doesn’t exist, or it just doesn’t have a website. Which is a bad idea in 2016.
Clinique: As a man in his 30s, I can tell you how important it is to moisturize. Especially here in LA. It’s dry, folks. It’s real dry! Lather up, fellas. This is just my advice to you, as a bro.
Baume des Yeux: This is another product from Pour Hommes that doesn’t exist, but it’s an eye balm.
Kent Brushes: Finally, the Kent brush, which Bateman uses to shape his well-considered head of hair. Kent appears to be an English brand and has a very cool, modern-looking site. The lead image on that site is a banner ad for beard brushes, the perfect accessory for the modern American Psycho, roaming the streets of Brooklyn and craving the taste, not of blood, but of artisanal chocolates from Mast Brothers, a quick pint from The Sampler in Bushwick before heading to Terminal 5, or even a bowl of rice pudding from Rice to Riches in Nolita. Sharon recommends the “Category 5” caramel.
American Psycho, now in previews, opens on 21 April at the Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/mar/20/fa-cup-and-premier-league-10-talking-points-from-the-weekends-action | Football | 2023-03-20T08:00:04.000Z | Guardian sport | FA Cup and Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action | 1) How much longer can Conte stay?
Will Antonio Conte be in charge of Tottenham for their next fixture, on 3 April at Everton? Those in the St Mary’s press room on Saturday evening were in little doubt that his instant-classic rant – two questions batted away during 10 minutes of fury – was a kiss-off, an ejector seat activated. Conte levelled blame at everyone but himself and even threw an olive branch to his predecessors, a list including arch-rival José Mourinho. “They can change the manager, a lot of managers, but the situation cannot change,” Conte declared in a critique of the club’s culture, and by extension, the owners Enic and the chairman, Daniel Levy. It was the players who received the most bilious invective, creating a potentially awkward situation post-international break, should Conte still be around. “They don’t want to play under pressure, they don’t want to play under stress,” he hissed. Listening back to the tape, it was amusing to hear Conte entering the room with a demure apology for being late. John Brewin
Premier League report: Southampton 3-3 Tottenham
1:31
'It's unacceptable': Conte slams Tottenham's culture after draw with Southampton – video
2) Weghorst still not bringing enough
Since joining Manchester United, Wout Weghorst has started every game, his team winning 12, drawing four and losing two. But in that time he’s scored twice, the second in a 3-0 win and the fourth in a 4-1 win. It’s easy to see what he adds, defending from the front while showing aggression and trying hard – contributions that should be the minimum expected from any player – and he also adds height to a short side, useful when defending set pieces and launching clearances over the press. However, United have plentiful attacking options and, though Weghorst is a stopgap pending the summer arrival of a serious striker, they would surely be a more cohesive and dangerous side, now, with Marcus Rashford in the middle of a fluid front three flanked by two of Antony, Jadon Sancho, Facundo Pellistri and Alejandro Garnacho. It’s harsh to say, but a centre-forward who isn’t a goal threat is barely a centre-forward at all. Daniel Harris
FA Cup report: Manchester United 3-1 Fulham
Wout Weghorst takes aim without success. Photograph: Ash Donelon/Manchester United/Getty Images
3) Doyle delight spoiled by City draw
“My wish is that we don’t draw Manchester City,” said the Sheffield United manager, Paul Heckingbottom, a couple of hours before they drew Manchester City in the semi-finals of the FA Cup. And so amid the euphoria of their last-gasp victory against Blackburn, there was disappointment for James McAtee and winning goalscorer Tommy Doyle, who as City loan players will be ineligible to play against their parent club in the semi-final. Were it not for competition regulations, Pep Guardiola would probably be tempted to let McAtee and Doyle get some big-game experience at Wembley. As it is, both players will be there, but only as spectators. Doyle, for his part, was sanguine about the prospect: “If it happens, it happens.” Jonathan Liew
FA Cup report: Sheffield United 3-2 Blackburn
4) Holding role is key with Saliba out
It says everything about Arsenal’s changed priorities that losing William Saliba to a back injury against Sporting in midweek felt more damaging than going out of the Europa League. Where, in the first two seasons under Mikel Arteta, the second-tier competition became a final lifeline in the struggle for Champions League qualification – slipping out of Arsenal’s hands on both occasions – this season’s title challenge made it peripheral. Saliba, by contrast, has been absolutely central to the team’s success this term and the sight of him leaving the field accompanied by medical staff must have left Arteta with a queasy feeling. The Arsenal manager will have been relieved at the way Rob Holding deputised against Crystal Palace, delivering a confident performance alongside Gabriel Magalhães. Other than the lapse at a corner which allowed Jeffrey Schlupp to score a consolation, Arsenal’s defence was solid. While the international break provides some breathing space, Arteta can take solace in having decent cover while Saliba recovers. Will Magee
Premier League report: Arsenal 4-1 Crystal Palace
5) Chelsea need creators to deliver
It’s hardly a secret that Chelsea’s great problem is their inability to turn possession into decent chances, but the stats are nevertheless striking. No player in this Chelsea squad has registered more than two league assists this season. Kai Havertz is their top scorer with seven and Raheem Sterling second in that list with four. Saturday’s draw with Everton was very familiar: lots of pretty possession, but the only real penetration came through the wing-backs. As Reece James and Ben Chilwell return to fitness, that offers a little more thrust, but also takes Chelsea back to where they were under Thomas Tuchel. The incoming Christopher Nkunku may or may not be the No 9 who unlocks everything, but somehow they have to find threat through the middle. They have the creators, but they need to get them creating. Jonathan Wilson
Premier League report: Chelsea 2-2 Everton
Kai Havertz reacts after scoring Chelsea’s second goal in the draw with Everton. Photograph: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images
6) Break threatens City momentum
Manchester City are set for a crucial April after the upcoming international break. It will start with the visit of Liverpool in the Premier League, before both legs of their Champions League quarter-final with Bayern Munich, an FA Cup semi-final and then the visit of title rivals Arsenal. The combined 13-0 scoreline in routs of RB Leipzig and Burnley – including eight Erling Haaland goals – would have been ideal preparation for those upcoming fixtures. Before then, though, the majority of Pep Guardiola’s squad will be heading all over the world to represent their countries. Guardiola, who is in Barcelona and Abu Dhabi during his time off, will be hoping they all return fit and healthy, with the same spirit and quality they have shown in recent matches. Very few things are as useful in football as momentum and it is worth harnessing at such a crucial point in the season. Will Unwin
FA Cup report: Manchester City 6-0 Burnley
7) Has Emery finally found best system?
Unai Emery took over from Steven Gerrard in October, and since then Aston Villa have been better but still erratic, winning two consecutive league games just three times. The problem has not been a lack of good players – the club has plenty – but which of them to deploy, and in what formation. Perhaps, though, the right blend has finally been found, a 4-2-3-1 giving good balance between attack and defence – especially in midfield, with John McGinn and Douglas Luiz driving from deep while Leon Bailey, Emi Buendía and Jacob Ramsey dash and prompt in behind Ollie Watkins. All five were excellent against Bournemouth with Douglas Luiz, Ramsey and Buendía scoring. Emery faces a difficult decision when Boubacar Kamara is fit again – prior to his injury, McGinn was being crowbarred into the team on the right of a 4-4-2. In the meantime the current starting XI, which looks far more flexible than previous iterations, can bed in, allowing those in it the opportunity to make themselves undroppable. Daniel Harris
Sign up to Football Daily
Free daily newsletter
Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Match report: Aston Villa 3-0 Bournemouth
8) Ferguson shows his elite quality
Evan Ferguson’s first touch was perfect to bring the ball under control, his second set him up for a shot and his third was a perfect finish into the corner. The striker did everything in one movement, ensuring the Grimsby defenders were unable to tackle him. He added a second with an efficient drive into the box and a precise shot. The Irish teenager has impressed since making his first-team debut last season but is now firmly part of the squad and is clearly growing in confidence under Roberto De Zerbi. The striker does not turn 19 until the autumn so still has plenty of time to improve but the signs are positive for Ferguson. Brighton owner Tony Bloom says “the world is his oyster” and with the composure he possesses, Bloom might have to fend off some big bids for the Ferguson in years to come. Will Unwin
FA Cup report: Brighton 5-0 Grimsby
9) Henry to join Toney in England setup?
While Ivan Toney had a rare off-day as he hopes to become the first Brentford player to represent England’s senior side since Les Smith in May 1939, it was another of Thomas Frank’s side who caught the eye in the draw against Leicester on Saturday. Rico Henry – the 25-year-old signed from Walsall in 2016 for an initial £1.5m – has developed into a rampaging left-back who looks capable of making the step up to international level sooner rather than later. Gareth Southgate is said to be keeping a close eye on the former England youth player’s progress in a position where he has limited options at present. “I’m sure that Gareth is considering him for the future,” said Frank. “All you can do as a player is keep doing well and adding layers. He’s been very consistent after recovering from a couple of injuries.” Ed Aarons
Premier League report: Brentford 1-1 Leicester
Rico Henry of Brentford in action against Leicester. Photograph: John Patrick Fletcher/Action Plus/Shutterstock
10) Wolves howl over refereeing calls
When do refereeing decisions against your team justify suspicions of a conspiracy? Julen Lopetegui, the Wolves manager, said he could “write a book” about the list of calls that have gone against his team this year. Wolves have been on the wrong end of match-changing decisions against Liverpool in the FA Cup, Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup and Newcastle in the league – never mind Mario Lemina’s red card at Southampton. Howard Webb, PGMOL’s chief refereeing officer, has apologised to the club for the first three decisions. It will be interesting to see what he makes of Junior Firpo’s penalty-area tackle on Nélson Semedo, with Leeds winning 1-0, after the referee Michael Salisbury refrained from checking the pitchside monitor. “At the end of the season things normally even out, but we are very unlucky,” Lopetegui said. “The referee decisions until this moment – it’s incredible.” Peter Lansley
Premier League report: Wolves 2-4 Leeds
Bonus ball: VAR keeps confounding fans
Dull, yet wholly necessary: it can only be more VAR chatter. On Friday night, Elliot Anderson nodded in what would have been his first Newcastle goal. But Paul Tierney, at VAR official Peter Bankes’ direction, determined that Sean Longstaff was offside. Indisputably, Longstaff was stood offside when Alexander Isak initially crossed. He was not, though, interfering, preventing, challenging, gaining an advantage etc. That centre was first blocked by Felipe, before Moussa Niakhaté’s attempted clearance struck Longstaff. Isak then found Anderson. Several minutes later, Tierney determined that neither Forest defender had played the ball deliberately. Subsequently, the play was one “phase” and the goal was disallowed. Observers were perplexed, and the decision only added to the burgeoning sense that VAR’s faults lie less with the technology, and more with those implementing it. What can be done? Mic the officials up for a start. And simplify the rule: Longstaff could simply be deemed offside from the initial cross. It would interrupt the flow a little to start with, but at least everyone would know where they stand. Sam Dalling
Premier League report: Nottingham Forest 1-2 Newcastle
Pos Team P GD Pts
1 Arsenal 28 40 69
2 Man City 27 42 61
3 Man Utd 26 6 50
4 Tottenham Hotspur 28 12 49
5 Newcastle 26 20 47
6 Liverpool 26 18 42
7 Brighton 25 15 42
8 Brentford 27 9 42
9 Fulham 27 1 39
10 Chelsea 27 1 38
11 Aston Villa 27 -4 38
12 Crystal Palace 28 -16 27
13 Wolverhampton 28 -19 27
14 Leeds 27 -9 26
15 Everton 28 -18 26
16 Nottm Forest 27 -27 26
17 Leicester 27 -9 25
18 West Ham 26 -10 24
19 AFC Bournemouth 27 -29 24
20 Southampton 28 -23 23 | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jan/19/wetherspoons-tim-martin-piles-in-to-no-10-hypocrisy-as-sales-crash | Business | 2022-01-19T08:59:43.000Z | Jasper Jolly | Wetherspoon’s Tim Martin attacks No 10 ‘hypocrisy’ as sales crash | The pub chain JD Wetherspoon has criticised the government’s “hypocrisy” for holding parties at 10 Downing Street while restrictions forced pub sales to crash.
Wetherspoon also said the latest plan B restrictions brought in at the start of the Omicron wave of infections in December had depressed sales over the crucial festive period in the hospitality sector for a second year running.
The pub chain, run by chairman and founder Tim Martin, directed its ire at the government over “partygate”.
Wetherspoon said “there would have been a number of advantages for the nation” if pubs had been open on 20 May 2020, the date on which the embattled prime minister attended a “bring your own booze” party in the garden of No 10.
The trading update alleged that Covid-19 controls in pubs at the time “were superior to private parties”. It argued that this was true because no outbreaks of the virus among customers were reported in public health data, although it did not cite any specific evidence for the claim. Scientific modelling has repeatedly suggested that limiting crowded gatherings helps to reduce coronavirus infections.
The update on Wednesday also claimed that staff in Wetherspoon’s pubs “would have easily dealt with the ‘high jinks’ alleged to have occurred at No 10” and that CCTV in central London pubs would have helped “subsequent inquiries” into the parties.
Although the update to the City on Wednesday was not signed, Martin has a long history of using them to hit back at critics or to highlight his personal political agendas, including prominent support for the Brexit vote that ushered Boris Johnson into power.
Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk
In a statement attributed directly to Martin, he said: “The uncertainty created by the introduction of plan B Covid-19 measures makes predictions for sales and profits hazardous.
“The company will be loss-making in the first half of the financial year, but hopes that, with the ending of restrictions, improved customer confidence and better weather, it will have a much stronger performance in the second half.”
Like-for-like sales for the 12 weeks to 16 January 2022 were 15.6% down on the same period a year ago, as the rise of Omicron infections ruined the second Christmas period in a row for British hospitality businesses. Like-for-like sales dropped by 11.7% and total sales by 13.3% year-on-year in the 25 weeks to 16 January, . | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/25/patty-jenkins-hits-back-at-james-cameron-criticism-of-wonder-woman | Film | 2017-08-25T09:03:49.000Z | Gwilym Mumford | Patty Jenkins hits back at James Cameron: 'He doesn't understand Wonder Woman' | Patty Jenkins has responded to criticisms made by James Cameron about her film Wonder Woman, saying that the director has an “inability to understand what [the character] is or stands for”.
James Cameron: ‘The downside of being attracted to independent women is that they don’t need you’
Read more
Cameron made his comments in an interview published in today’s Guardian, in which he calls Wonder Woman a “step backwards” and says that Hollywood’s “self-congratulatory back-patting” over the superhero movie’s success had been misguided. “She’s an objectified icon, and it’s just male Hollywood doing the same old thing! I’m not saying I didn’t like the movie but, to me, it’s a step backwards,” he said.
The director pointed to the character of Sarah Connor from his own Terminator films as a positive example of a female protagonist. “Sarah Connor was not a beauty icon. She was strong, she was troubled, she was a terrible mother, and she earned the respect of the audience through pure grit. And to me, [the benefit of characters like Sarah] is so obvious. I mean, half the audience is female,” he added.
Jenkins responded to the comments in a post on Twitter. “James Cameron’s inability to understand what Wonder Woman is, or stands for, to women all over the world is unsurprising as, though he is a great film-maker, he is not a woman,” she wrote.
pic.twitter.com/8zkJXHLCJW
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) August 25, 2017
Jenkins thanked Cameron for his past praise of her 2003 film Monster, which starred Charlize Theron as real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos, but said that strong women can be portrayed in a variety of ways. “If women have to always be hard, tough and troubled to be strong, and we aren’t free to be multidimensional or celebrate an icon of women everywhere because she is attractive and loving, then we haven’t come very far have we,” she said.
“I believe women can and should be everything, just like male lead characters should be. There is no right and wrong kind of powerful woman. And the massive female audience who made the film [the] hit it is, can surely choose and judge their own icons of progress,” Jenkins added.
Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins: ‘People really thought that only men loved action movies’
Read more
Wonder Woman, which stars Gal Gadot as the Amazonian superhero, was released in June and quickly attracted praise for its feminist stance. The film has also proved a global box-office hit, and is currently the second-highest grossing movie of 2017, behind Beauty and the Beast. A sequel to the film is set to be released in 2019, with Jenkins again directing.
The success of Wonder Woman represents a remarkable comeback for Jenkins, who has not directed a film-since the critically acclaimed Monster, for which Charlize Theron received the 2003 Academy Award for best actress. Jenkins herself has suggested that industry sexism may have been partly responsible for her career difficulties in the years since the release of the film.
“It’s played a part – I’m not offered things that are authentic to me very often,” she told the Guardian in May. “I did not necessarily feel that Hollywood was interested in what I wanted to do. They wanted me to do what they wanted to do.”
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter this week, Jenkins expressed a desire that the success of Wonder Woman would open doors for other female filmmakers. “I hope the success of the film will lead to change and lead to other people getting opportunities. I hope women become a diverse, easy hire for all sorts of jobs in the future,” she said. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2021/jun/09/until-we-face-up-to-the-lie-that-underpins-our-treatment-of-refugees-tharnicaa-and-children-like-her-will-suffer | Australia news | 2021-06-09T00:21:05.000Z | Sisonke Msimang | Until we face up to the lie that underpins our treatment of refugees, Tharnicaa and children like her will suffer | Sisonke Msimang | The photograph of five-year old Kopika Murugappan kissing her three-year-old sister Tharnicaa in hospital undid me. Tharnicaa is crying and the girls look both unbearably sweet and heartbreakingly sad.
The image was taken just before Tharnicaa was flown to Perth from Christmas Island amid fears that she had a blood infection caused by untreated pneumonia. It represented the latest chapter in the family’s arduous detention saga.
It’s easy to see why the little community of Biloela has fallen in love with the Murugappans. Kopika and Tharnicaa have grown up in front of us and we have watched as Tharnicaa has gone from a chubby infant in pretty dresses and headbands to a lean three-year-old, all teeth and smiles. She and Kopika often wear matching clothes and in videos their parents – Priya and Nades – seldom show frustration, even though they have endured more than most of us would manage.
From first fever to flight: timeline of Biloela Tamil mother’s two-week fight for sick daughter
Read more
In the last year the two little girls have become poster children for the ills of Australia’s refugee system. Neither of them asked to be anyone’s poster child, of course. They are living, breathing kids and one of them happens to be very sick. They have not asked for the burden of representing everyone else who is stuck in Australia in an endless loop of temporary visa protection. They are pawns in a game that neither they nor their parents designed.
Their fight has been riveting and it may just pay off. Supported by an army of friends from the Queensland community where they lived before their visas expired, the Murugappans have waged a folksy campaign that has been remarkably effective at winning hearts and minds. Indeed, the home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, has intimated that a deal may be in the works to resettle the family.
If the minister manages to get them out of detention, many Australians will breathe a sigh of relief and consider themselves morally vindicated. Many Australians desperately want to see themselves as decent people, despite the immigration policies their governments have adopted.
This is understandable. No nation likes to think of itself as racist, mean-spirited and xenophobic, even when its policies are clearly all of those things.
Yet securing the release of Tharnicaa and her family will not alter the fact that Australia remains a place where children can grow up in indefinite detention, and it will do nothing to address the fact that 30,000 asylum seekers remain in limbo, living on temporary visas just like the Mungarrapans did before theirs expired and they were threatened with deportation.
Long-term policy reform will only be possible when the public begins to challenge the false narrative that underpins Australia’s attitude to refugees. Much of the present-day vitriol against people arriving by boat began 20 years ago when John Howard and his senior ministers claimed that a group of asylum seekers had thrown a child overboard from a sea vessel as a ploy to force the Australian navy to rescue them.
The public was livid and, even though an inquiry found the claim to have been a lie, the idea that people arriving here by boat are so craven, so singularly focused on duping immigration officials that they are prepared to do anything to get in, is the founding untruth upon which the refugee detention system is designed.
The detention industrial complex that has mushroomed since that day continues to operate on Christmas Island. When Priya’s friends claim that her requests for medical assistance for her daughter were greeted with scepticism, and as a result Tharnicaa’s access to healthcare was delayed, the contours of the children overboard scandal can clearly be seen.
The subtext is that asylum seekers will do anything to secure access to the mainland, even if it means subjecting their own children to trauma.
Far too many people continue to believe this stereotype; that people seeking safety are liars and queue jumpers. In this context a policy landscape designed to punish them for even trying to seek freedom in Australia is perfectly logical.
For two decades now successive governments have vilified and insulted asylum seekers. But, as the case of little Tharnicaa and her family has demonstrated, this approach is wearing thin.
A small community in Queensland has doggedly resisted the government’s narrative about people seeking freedom, choosing to trust their own instincts rather than government assessors.
For the people of Biloela, the Mungarrapans’ status as asylum seekers is incidental. The family of four are their neighbours and friends. The way they tell it, Tharnicaa is neither a poster child nor a symbol, simply a little girl who is sick and tired. In the story they tell, Priya and Nades are neither liars nor terrorists; they are just stressed-out partners like so many of us, parents who need a bit of a break.
The government may release the Mungarrapans on compassionate grounds. If it does, Australians will need to push Scott Morrison to free the other 30,000 people who have waited so long to be free from the legacy of the Howard government’s lie. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/27/world-cup-stadium-quiz | Football | 2018-06-27T10:02:18.000Z | Martin Belam | Where am I? World Cup stadiums quiz | The venues that have hosted epic World Cup matches are as much part of the history of the tournament as the teams and players themselves. But can you identify these 12 World Cup venues from the descriptions of the encounters that took place there?
Where am I? The World Cup stadium quiz
1.I was the site of Cameroon's shock victory against World Cup holders Argentina in the opening match of the 1990 World Cup. Where am I?
San Siro, Milan
Stadio San Paolo, Naples
Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Stadio delle Alpi, Turin
Reveal
2.I am the stadium where Pelé scored his first ever World Cup goal – against Wales in a quarter-final. Where am I?
Estadio Sausalito, Viña del Mar, Chile
Ullevi, Gothenburg, Sweden
Goodison Park, Liverpool, England
Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico
Reveal
3.I am one of only two stadiums to have hosted the final match in two different World Cups. Where am I?
Olympiastadion, Berlin
Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Estadio Azteca, Mexico City
Estadio Monumental, Buenos Aires
Reveal
4.A match in the 1962 World Cup between Italy and Chile was so violent it was named after my city. Where am I?
Estadio Nacional, Santiago
Estadio Carlos Dittborn, Arica
Estadio Sausalito, Viña del Mar
Estadio El Teniente, Rancagua
Reveal
5.I'm the only stadium where a Motown star missed a penalty in an opening ceremony. Where am I?
Stade de France, France
Soldier Field, Chicago, USA
Seoul World Cup Stadium, Seoul, South Korea
Soccer City, Johannesburg, South Africa
Reveal
6.I am the stadium where David Beckham was sent off against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup. Where am I?
Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes
Stade Vélodrome, Marseille
Stade de Gerland, Lyon
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Étienne
Reveal
7.In 1982 I hosted all the matches in the second round "group of death" featuring Italy, Argentina and Brazil. Where am I?
Sarrià Stadium, Barcelona
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid
Estadio José Rico Pérez, Alicante
Vicente Calderón Stadium, Madrid
Reveal
8.I held the very first World Cup final, when the hosts beat Argentina 4-2. Where am I?
Estadio Nacional, Santiago
Stade Olympique de Colombes, Paris
Estádio do Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
Estadio Centenario, Montevideo
Reveal
9.I am the most westerly stadium hosting matches in the 2018 World Cup, sited in a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania. Who am I?
Fisht Olympic Stadium, Sochi
Kaliningrad Stadium, Kaliningrad
Central Stadium, Ekaterinburg
Volgograd Arena, Volgograd
Reveal
10.I am the stadium that only hosted one match – Uruguay v France – in the 1966 World Cup in England. Where am I?
Stamford Bridge
Loftus Road
White City
Highbury
Reveal
11.I hosted the final in 2002, the first time the World Cup had been held in two different countries. Where am I?
Daegu World Cup Stadium, Daegu, South Korea
Nagai Stadium, Osaka, Japan
Seoul World Cup Stadium, Seoul, South Korea
International Stadium, Yokohama, Japan
Reveal
12.I am the stadium where Germany won their first World Cup. It was dubbed a "miracle". Where am I?
Stade Olympique de la Pontaise, Lausanne
Wankdorf Stadium, Bern
Hardturm Stadium, Zürich
St. Jakob Stadium, Basel
Reveal | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/nov/25/wayne-bennett-england-australia-tonga-rugby-league-world-cup | Sport | 2017-11-25T16:03:45.000Z | Aaron Bower | Wayne Bennett: ‘We kept turning up in defence. That won the game for us’ | Wayne Bennett has admitted England have a lot of work to do if they are to beat Australia in Brisbane on Saturday and become the first British side since Great Britain in 1972 to win the World Cup.
After England were almost eliminated in the final seconds when Andrew Fifita was controversially adjudged to have knocked on, Bennett was asked if they were playing well enough to win the final against the favourites. Bennett, as deadpan as ever, said: “Probably not. But we’ll still go to the game.” The England coach was also quick to try to cool any talk over the last-gasp play, which Tonga felt should have been referred to the video referee.
Fifita eventually touched down after a hand from England’s Elliott Whitehead forced the ball loose and Tonga felt play should have been allowed to continue. Bennett, however, disagreed, saying: “Why didn’t he give us a penalty when the ball got stripped from [Jermaine] McGillvary [a minute earlier]? It’s the same thing.”
England survive dramatic Tonga revival to reach Rugby League World Cup final
Read more
His Tongan counterpart, Kristian Woolf, disagreed with Bennett, questioning why the decision was not referred to the video referee given the timing and importance of the decision. “I would have thought in those circumstances, there is no way you don’t have a look at what happened at the end,” he said. “I don’t know if we were robbed, I just cannot believe we don’t have a look at that. You look at other tries 10 or 12 times and you don’t look at that? How do we not go back and look at that last play?”
Bennett was in no doubt why England went through. “They had some chances but we kept turning up in defence, which was great. At the end of the day, our defence won the game for us.”
Woolf agreed and went on to suggest that England could trouble Australia, although the drama in Auckland on Saturday may have an effect. “Australia were outstanding against Fiji, they’re going to be hard to beat, they always are. I’d certainly like to think England could make it a real contest.
“England are going to struggle to get over our game to be honest. We’ve taken a fair bit of energy out of them. It was certainly very physical and they’re going to wake up sore.”
Bennett has at least two worries for the final, most notably concerning the quadriceps injury of his captain, Sean O’Loughlin. There is also a doubt over the hooker Josh Hodgson, who suffered a knee injury and did not come back after leaving the field in the first half. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/mar/29/england-new-zealnd-world-t20-semi-final | Sport | 2016-03-29T17:39:48.000Z | Vic Marks | England look to grass for edge over New Zealand in World T20 semi-final | There are a surprising number of reasons why England might reach the World Twenty20 final, even though, as Eoin Morgan acknowledges, New Zealand “have played the best cricket of the tournament so far”. Among the men the Kiwis are the only unbeaten side.
These reasons range from the scheduling of the tournament and recent history, to sod’s law and superstition. England have been in Delhi for the past nine days, having undertaken only one internal flight from Mumbai since the tournament began. “We are settled here,” Morgan said, “and we are used to the pitch. That will help us.”
New Zealand have played – extremely well – at four venues on surfaces that bear little resemblance to the one at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground. Adapting with characteristic shrewdness, the Black Caps have prospered on bare tracks that have encouraged the ball to spin. They have become low-score specialists; in Nagpur they defended 126 against India; in Dharamsala 142 against Australia; in Mohali, the one pitch encountered with a bit of green grass visible, they had the luxury of 180 on the board against Pakistan; in Kolkata against Bangladesh 145 was more than enough.
How underachieving, behind-the-times England won the 2010 World Twenty20
Read more
Kane Williamson has won every toss, chosen to bat and then his spinners, who were barely household names in New Zealand a month ago, have set to work. It is still hard to believe Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi are the Bedi and Chandrasekhar of the 21st century but, intuitively employed by Williamson, they have had great tournaments. Santner, swift through the air, has seen his left-armers turn sharply; Sodhi’s wrist spinners, delivered from a great height, can go either way. They have yet to be collared.
England know in Delhi there will be minimal turn. On a fresh pitch there remains live grass, a welcome decision taken by the groundsman, who was still watering the surface on Tuesday morning. That grass does not usually offer great deviation for the pacemen but it does generate a little more bounce, which can be attractive to the quick bowlers – and to the batsmen. There is no guarantee the spinners will prevail.
Anticipate that Morgan will bowl first if he wins the toss; so, for a change, might Williamson. Thus New Zealand may have to do some more adapting. They may even consider wheeling out one of their Test supermen, Tim Southee or Trent Boult, who have been hidden under the substitutes’ yellow bibs throughout the tournament. More likely Nathan McCullum, despite being the most economical bowler in the competition, albeit after two games, will give way to Adam Milne. But this is not certain; New Zealand like to surprise.
Then there is the “it’s too damn quiet out there” factor. New Zealand analyse just as voraciously as every other team, if not more so, but one statistic that will not be stressed in their camp is the quirk that after five World T20 tournaments no team have won the cup without losing a game along the way.
There is an echo here of 12 months ago when New Zealand played brilliantly all through the 50-over World Cup before being thumped by Australia in the final in the mildly unfamiliar conditions of Melbourne.
Morgan is the sole playing survivor here of England’s surprisingly successful campaign in the Caribbean in 2010 and he is happy to draw parallels with that triumph. “The main one would be how relaxed everybody is around the group; how much they are enjoying the challenge of playing international cricket. But it is all right having fun and enjoying what you are doing, but if you don’t have that inner drive to improve and win games you are going to stand still. This side has shown strengths, which are similar to 2010.”
While extolling the virtues of his team Morgan expresses mild astonishment that he finds himself in this position. “I can’t quite believe how far we’ve come in our white-ball cricket,” he said. “The guys we’ve selected have done outstandingly well and shown a great attitude to learning. It is not always easy to come up against very strong sides, who knock you back, but every question has been asked of us and we’ve come back with either a counter‑answer or a more aggressive option.”
It is unlikely that too many options have been mulled over by the England management about the make-up of their team for this match. The message will surely be “same team, even better performance, please”. Liam Plunkett’s inclusion at the expense of Reece Topley in the past two matches has sharpened up the pace attack.
It would help matters greatly if they could dispense with Martin Guptill swiftly. He is New Zealand’s leading runscorer in the tournament and over the years he has had a particular affinity for England bowlers clutching a white ball. “It is going to be a tough game of cricket,” Morgan said. “I hope the wicket is as good as it looks and, yeah, may the best team win.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/may/17/lionel-shriver-we-need-talk-kevin | Books | 2011-05-17T06:59:00.000Z | Lionel Shriver | Lionel Shriver talks about Kevin | It has now entered the cultural canon that, on completion in 2001, the manuscript of Lionel Shriver's seventh novel was widely rejected by publishers and literary agents alike. In retrospect, this incidental fact being widely known is alone a little weird. After all, every day writers numbly receive curt, dismissive rejections of work they've slaved over for years. Writers should have some grasp of publishing's brutality, and this morose process of having your beloved creations stepped on and pissed over comes with the territory. Hence people in my occupation are routinely expected, as Kevin would say, to suck it up.
Sorry, did I say "Kevin"? That's what's truly weird: the large number of fiction readers who know exactly who Kevin is, and that number is set to swell once a cinema audience joins the mix. Yet "Kevin Katchadourian" is just a name I picked after combing through the phonebook on an ordinary afternoon.
The premiere of Lynne Ramsay's film of We Need To Talk About Kevin at the Cannes film festival provides an apt juncture at which to celebrate the miraculous power not of film but of fiction. Lo, I have created a monster.
Kevin is a dark book, and many of those initial rejections objected that its narrator, Eva, is "unattractive": a woman uneasy about pregnancy, who feels alarmingly blank after childbirth, and fails to form the bond with her boy that we like to imagine is as instinctive as closing the epiglottis when we swallow. The novel breaks one of the last taboos (and how amazing that at such a late date I found a taboo still standing): a mother disliking her son. Rife with difficult characters and climaxing in a high-school massacre of the sort Americans are rightly ashamed of, Kevin was a poor commercial bet from the get-go.
More, my timing was mythically crap. I submitted the final draft to my New York literary agent right after 9/11, in that hilarious little window when everyone thought Americans would never read or watch anything violent again. Waiting for her response, I recorded in my journal that my new novel "abruptly seems irrelevant and, more dangerously, dated". (Indeed, the week the twin towers fell, New York Times columnist Frank Rich listed Columbine among a catalogue of national issues from "before" that suddenly didn't matter.) Ominously, my usually responsive agent went silent for weeks. Finger-drumming, I wrote presciently to myself: "Should this day, too, pass, with no comment from NY, I have vowed to break my silence and press her for a response. But the responses you have to ask for you don't want."
Xan Brooks gives his verdict on We Need to Talk About Kevin, while assorted bloggers, buyers and blaggers share their thoughts guardian.co.uk
Quite. Finally I got an email – a long, unparagraphed, associative wail of dismay of which I've kept a copy: "For the life of me, I don't know who is going to fall in love with this novel . . . People in the industry are so thin-skinned right now – I just don't think anyone is going to want to publish a book about a kid doing such maxed-out, over-the-top, evil things, especially when it's written from such an unsympathetic point of view." She worried the plot might invite copycat killings. She suggested a rewrite with "a lot more humour (in that way which ONLY YOU can do) instead of one kid from hell who will make people sick just reading about the things he does. Don't make him a mass-murderer . . . And have him actually have a soft spot for his sister because she is easily humiliated and poses no threat." She demanded I pay my photocopying bill.
I paid the bill. I spent the next eight months shopping in vain for a new agent. Finally in desperation I sent the manuscript directly to an editor at a small house who'd published me before. She read it over the weekend, made an offer on the Monday, and that's where the fairytale starts. Offer in hand, I got a wonderful new agent whom I retain today.
Nevertheless, Kevin was a slow burn. The book went to 30 different British houses before the Little Publisher That Could, Serpent's Tail, picked up the title with a tiny advance but great compensatory enthusiasm. Meanwhile, three months after its hardback publication in America – publicity budget: near-zero – an article appeared in the New York Observer describing all these women on the Upper East Side biking a little-known novel to each other and convening coffee klatches to discuss it. "Word of mouth" had begun.
Word of mouth, far more than critical acclaim, is what elevated Kevin to the enduring status he appears to enjoy today, for the novel hit the London Times bestseller list before it won the Orange prize in 2005. Oddly, for a book to do well merely because people like it is surprisingly rare. This novel has been driven from the off not by advertising and publisher hype, but by individual readers who passed it on to friends. Its success is therefore a populist tribute. Even Lynne Ramsay bid for the film rights well before the novel was a commercial hit. She was simply one more reader who discovered the book for herself.
Book clubs have also powered Kevin as he went viral, and I've visited a few, where groups cleave into ferocious camps: one convinced that the boy was evil from day one, the other just as convinced that his mother's coldness was criminally culpable. A fine spectator sport in which I never participate, since what the book means is no longer up to me.
The novel passed the signal sales mark of 1m copies worldwide some years ago, and I've stopped keeping track. It has secured 25 translation deals, including Estonian, Serbian, Arabic and Russian; I collect foreign editions because I enjoy comparing covers. My favourite is the Chinese version: a belligerent, deranged-looking teddy bear. The title has so installed itself in the British cultural lexicon that it's given rise to books such as We Need To Talk About Kevin Keegan and the wittily christened science primer We Need To Talk About Kelvin. And now the movie.
Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, Lynne Ramsay, John C Reilly and his wife Alison Dickey on the red carpet at Cannes Photograph: Ian Langsdon/EPA
What has it felt like, watching a novel travel from pariah manuscript to Cannes? Obviously, publishing the novel at all was a relief. Finally hitting a bestseller list when six previous novels had lost money was satisfying, though in general my experience of "success" has been surprisingly mild; I couch that word in inverted commas out of superstition, and also from dubiety that ever regarding one's self as having summarily arrived is good for one's character. My life is not so different, really, and though I'm less prone to depression I hardly leap out of bed every day bursting with disgusting go-get-'em-girl vim and vigour. (Any writer still wallowing in self-congratulation over the popularity of a novel written a decade ago should be shot.) I've travelled from amazement to incredulity to bewilderment, and at last to bemused detachment.
Yet underpinning all these emotions is gratitude. I owe thanks to a thoughtful, sophisticated readership hungry for challenging subject matter, for honest portrayals of parenthood, and for fiction whose meaning is neither obvious nor morally pat. This peculiar, tortured novel was an unlikely bestseller, and has benefited from numerous individual readers with independent tastes who have hand sold it. I've met many of these readers, and they've confirmed my view that the publishing industry routinely underestimates book buyers, especially women, who don't all want to read girly pap. I'm sometimes asked if I get bored with talking about Kevin, and of course the short answer is yes. Nevertheless, after a long slog in the literary trenches I never take a single reader for granted, and always remind myself that for new readers the unfolding story is fresh.
Most of all, Kevin as a phenomenon long ago ceased to have anything to do with me. I've published two novels since, and I'm stuck into another; fortunately, many Kevin fans have moved on to other novels of mine as well. Meanwhile, Kevin can continue to suck a lychee sadistically in front of his mother after her daughter has lost an eye without any further help from me.
My starkest realisation that this novel has achieved a life of its own was while watching Ramsay's riveting adaptation of the book. Mind, I've been lucky, because Ramsay's version is excellent: well cast, beautifully shot, and thematically loyal to the novel. Settings such as Eva and Franklin's slick, ghastly suburban house in fictional Gladstone look almost unsettlingly close to the way I saw them in my mind's eye.
Before the premiere in France, meeting Ezra Miller, who plays Kevin as an adolescent, was particularly surreal. In social circumstances, he still exudes a seductive eroticism you instinctively want to resist, a beguiling exterior disguising you're-not-sure-you-want-to-know-what, and a subtle manipulative sleaziness that I recognised instantly from the novel. Talking to Ezra in Cannes was so eerily like having a conversation with Kevin himself that at the premiere's after-party I turned to him with narrowed eyes. "You little shit," I said. Rationally I knew better, but something in me truly believed that this kid had killed seven students, a teacher, and a cafeteria worker at his high school, and still thought rather well of himself for pulling the atrocity off.
Allowing herself to look washed-out and haggard, Tilda Swinton is brilliantly cast as Eva, and seems already to have replaced my own flickering image of my narrator. Though the script is sparse, her silences exude an overload of conflicting emotion – a dismay, anguish, loneliness, and fury too dangerously combustible to express. John C Reilly brings to the role of Eva's husband Franklin a weight, presence and warmth that rescues the father from seeming simply a dupe in the face of his son's sunny pretence of being a normal, rambunctious boy. And the two child actors who play Kevin when younger both capture the exasperation with the meaningless adult world that I tried to impart to the novel's character, as well as providing Kevin a seamless physical contiguity as he grows up.
The film's literal manifestations of impulsive, near arbitrary decisions at my computer I found a riot. I picked the dorky name of Eva's squalid place of employ out of the air one day, yet the production team had to carefully paint a real sign over a real shop premises reading "Travel R Us". I snatched the name of the walk-on who runs that shabby travel agency with equal flippancy, yet there she is, in all her three-dimensional glory, with "My name is Wanda" pinned to her dress. Both comical and a little scary, my apparent capacity to conjure the solid from mere caprice suggests a power I'm not sure anyone should enjoy.
The film is an interpretation of the novel, of course, and Ramsay was obliged to edit out multiple scenes, lest the film run to 10 hours. But here's what's fab: the book still exists, inviolate. All the dialogue Ramsay eliminated is still in the book. All the scenes she couldn't dramatise are still in the book. All the literary reflections that have evaporated into a wordless interplay of colour and space are still in the book.
I've often marvelled at the ability of visual artists to let things go – to craft unique objects, to which they surely become attached, yet which they sell off and may never see again. By contrast, the medium in which I work allows simultaneously for generosity and piggy hoarding. I've given my book away to a director, producers, and cast; to dozens of translators whose skills this unilingual moron has to take on faith; and to countless readers, who have breathed their own life into the story and brought their own analyses to bear on the characters. Yet no matter how many copies my publishers sell, I get to keep mine, filed by chapter on my hard drive. In kind, fans of the novel shouldn't fear the film, which may contribute stunning visuals to the tale, but can't rob anyone of the original book. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/29/i-knew-my-son-had-gone-michael-rosen-on-the-moment-that-changed-his-life-extract | Books | 2023-01-29T08:00:44.000Z | Michael Rosen | ‘I knew my son had gone’: Michael Rosen on the moment that changed his life – extract | I’ll start by telling you a story. I’m telling it to you so you know what happened. I’m also telling it to you because it helps me to tell it. And because it helps me, I am saying that if anything like this has happened to you, it may well help you to do the same: to tell your story. You can do this in any way you like. The important thing is to tell it.
The story begins at Paddington Station in 1999. From there, I ring home to see if my son Eddie is in. He’s nearly 19. Sometimes he’s there and sometimes he stays with his girlfriend. If he’s not there, I might go and visit someone else. If he is there, I’ll go home and we can have a chat.
‘I have sad thoughts every day. I try not to be overcome by them’: Michael Rosen on coping with the death of his son
Read more
It turns out that he is at home. But he’s not feeling too good, he says. A bit of a headache. I tell him to take some paracetamol and I’ll be home in about an hour. Sure enough, I’m home in about an hour. He doesn’t seem too bad. Must be one of those things my mother used to call “a chill”, I think. I tell him that I’ve worked a thing into my show for children where I tell them a story about when he was a funny, naughty toddler, then, I say, I follow it with a story about how he grew and grew and grew until, as he is now, he became bigger than me. And something else: now he can pick me up and whirl me round and round until I shout, “Put me down, Eddie! Put me down, Eddie!” It works. To little children, as I mime the contrast between chasing after the naughty little toddler Eddie and being swung through the air by the giant Eddie, it seems miraculous that one day they could be bigger than me. I think it’s a miracle too. Eddie seems to enjoy the story.
He doesn’t go to bed. We sit in the living room. He’s written a play and we talk about how we could get some people together to do a kind of acted-out reading. He stretches out on the sofa – he really is bigger than me – and says that he feels a bit weird. I feel his head. It’s hot. I remind him that he can alternate between paracetamol and ibuprofen and line up the boxes for him, warning him not to overdo the dose.
He stretches out on the sofa – he really is bigger than me – and says that he feels a bit weird. I feel his head
He says he’s going to bed now, but he’ll have some ice-cream first. I ask him if his neck is stiff. It’s something I’ve done with the children for the previous few years since meningitis has come up on the radar. No, he says, he doesn’t have a stiff neck.
Someone’s sent me a book of riddles that’s just come out. I’ve got it because a riddle I’ve written is in the book. I read it to him. He gets it. It’s daft. The answer, he says, is “your bum”. Those are the last words that I ever heard him say.
When I go to bed, I put my head round the door. He’s lying on his back in bed. “You OK?” I ask. He nods without making a sound. I check that he’s got the paracetamol, ibuprofen and a glass of water by his bed and then I go to my room and turn in.
In the night, I hear him get up and go to the loo. I have a feeling of irritation that I’m awake. I’ve got to get up early and I don’t want to feel tired. I fall back asleep.
I’ve got to get on the road pretty early so I’m up at six. I pop my head round the door to check how he’s been in the night. “I’ve got to go, Edz,” I say. “I know it’s early.” I remind him to double-lock the door on his way out. He doesn’t answer. I feel his head. It’s cold. He’s still. Unnervingly still. I nudge him. He feels like a rock. There’s no movement, no life. I know – but don’t know – that he’s dead. I shake him, shouting out to him, “Eddie! Eddie!” There’s no reply. I rush to get the phone, ring 999, ask for “Ambulance”. I describe what’s happened.
“Pull him out of the bed,” the voice says, “pull him on to the floor, lie him on his side.”
I grab hold of him, and do what I’m told. It’s hard. He weighs more than me. As I pull him, I see that his arm is stiff, at an angle, as if it’s in a plaster without any plaster on it. His armpit has strange red stripes. I get him on to the floor, and when I lie him on his side, a bit of pale red fluid comes out of his mouth on to the carpet.
He feels like a rock. There’s no movement, no life. I know – but don’t know – that he’s dead
I get back on the phone, I tell them what I’ve done and what I’ve seen.
The voice says, “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
I’m alone with Eddie in the room. I think he’s dead. I know he’s dead. I think that the ambulance people will come and they’ll do something that will make him come alive.
I don’t remember the next few minutes. I remember at one point thinking or saying, “Why have you done this, Eddie?” as if he had done this thing to me. I’m almost ashamed to admit it, though. Why or how could I have thought at that moment that I was in any way involved in him getting whatever it was that had killed him? I guess it’s part of how we see the death of those we love: we see them withdrawing their love from us. If ever, in our past, people withdrew their love from us as some kind of punishment, then someone dying can feel like that too.
The ambulance people call, I let them in, they dash upstairs, their bulky uniforms filling the space. They kneel over Eddie, and in a few seconds, one of them says, “He’s dead.”
It emerges that what’s killed him is meningitis, or to be more precise, meningococcal septicaemia. I think of the posters I’ve seen at the GP surgery. Headache, fever, stiff neck, sickness, rash – do the test to see if the rash stays even when you press it with a glass. He had no rash, I say to myself. I didn’t see a rash. He didn’t see a rash. People fill the house, turning up with food and cards. We try to comfort each other. They sit and talk.
How do you get better from something as total and as devastating as this? If I can magnify the pain once more, I’ll say this: Eddie had become one of those people in a family who is a pivot. There are different parts to a “blended” family or “network” family (siblings with different mothers or fathers), so one sibling might not link up with another part very closely. There may be ways in which one sibling chafes against another. Eddie had stood at some centre point where all the siblings pivoted around him. He was the one person equally beloved of all of them. He could sit on the sofa between two who were angry with each other and they would each be happy to snuggle up with him and joke with him. I had thought it was magical. I didn’t know how he did it. I cherished it more than anything else in the world. And now there was a hole. There was a gap on the sofa. How would I cope with it?
Sign up to Bookmarks
Free weekly newsletter
Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
And now there was a hole. There was a gap on the sofa. How would I cope with it?
What follows is not a menu. It’s not a prescription. I know better than many that being told how to mourn is one of the most irritating things in the world. We each have to find our own ways of doing it. We can watch what others do, listen to what people say, but in the end we have to make it work for whoever we are and whatever life situation we’re in. And there’s another thing: by making it your own, you have the sense that it’s you doing it, you’re the “agent”. You can take pride in your own ability to do something in the face of the impossible. Just following someone else’s plan won’t do that for you.
So I offer you what I did as a set of things to think about, ignore, adapt, change, or do what you want with. I hope they give you ideas for what you might want to do if you’re faced with loss or grief. Just that.
I spent a long time finding out about meningitis. I was desperate that this “thing” shouldn’t sit in my mind like a mysterious phantom that had appeared in the night and sucked the lifeblood out of my son. I wanted to know all that doctors know.
How did that help? It put what had happened into the context of the human race. It showed that Eddie’s death wasn’t just or only something that had happened to me, to his family, to his friends. It was something that happened to the human race and was part of the human story. We live with bacteria. Bacteria live with us. This is how it’s been for millions of years. We evolve with each other. The death of Eddie was a moment when the bacterium was so successful it failed: it killed its host and then died with it. To know these things helped me, and still does. It’s the only way I can make sense of it. Any other way feels to me senseless. I don’t believe in a fate or destiny that governs us. I don’t believe that it’s the will of a being outside life on Earth. I don’t even think any kind of “will” comes into it. It’s biology.
I also wanted to know about other people who had died of meningitis. That’s because I didn’t want to feel alone with this thing. And I wanted to know how people were coping with losing someone in this way. Who? Where? When? How? The internet had just got going. In fact, the computer I had was entirely down to Eddie. He had helped me choose it, set it up and had played games on it. Now I searched and made contact with others who had lost loved ones with meningitis.
I also wanted to know about other people who had died of meningitis
I particularly wanted to know of nearly-19-year-olds. I wanted to know that I wasn’t unique in having missed that it was meningococcal septicaemia. I felt lonelier than I had ever felt before when I thought of myself going into his room and finding him dead or if I thought of myself as the only person in the world who had done that. That’s a nearly unbearable thing to feel. I found out, of course, that I wasn’t alone in that experience either.
More personally, Eddie’s mother and I decided to go to Paris. I’m not sure how or why that idea evolved. Perhaps it was the kind offer of one of my oldest friends, François, who I first met when I was a teenager. It seemed to make sense to talk to each other away from other people, in a place that was full of sights and smells that we both liked. There was no way that we were going to start up a relationship again. It wasn’t like that. For me, it was to do with trust and solidarity in the face of the fact that we both adored Eddie and were now utterly bereft.
François had just taken on a flat in Montparnasse, it was empty, newly painted and polished. All it had was a table, chairs and a couple of beds. It was hollow and echoey. The lights from the street decorated the walls.
In the daytime, we walked about randomly looking at street markets, buildings, the river. We weren’t revisiting a place we had shared. If anything, it was new. I have no idea why all this felt soothing to me but it did. One time, we walked past the entrance to the Montparnasse cemetery. Neither of us knew at that moment what kind of cemetery it was but on a whim, we decided to walk in. In fact, it’s one of Paris’s two huge secular cemeteries, full of monuments to some of France’s most famous people – or indeed, people from other countries who’ve died in France. Walking about among them was a strange relief. I think it made me think of Eddie as gone and now in some way in the company of the dead. I don’t believe in the afterlife, so what I mean is that just as there were monuments and stones there, with people visiting them, so I was already beginning to make monuments and inscriptions in my head. Not real ones. Not even blueprints for one that we might make. The imagined place in my head, the place that was Eddie, was like one of the tombstones in the cemetery.
The word ‘companionable’ came to mind. I felt like I was in good ‘company’
Because we had no guide or plan, we randomly and pleasingly “met” the historic figures there, people we knew from our studies or interests: the poet Charles Baudelaire; the feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir; the singer Serge Gainsbourg, whose stone was littered with cigarettes in a kind of tribute; Guy de Maupassant, whose stories I had read in my French class; the surrealist couple Juliet and Man Ray, whose inscription was: “Unconcerned but not indifferent”. What did that mean?; and hundreds more. This may sound strange, but it felt friendly. The word “companionable” came to mind. I felt like I was in good “company”.
At one point, by a high wall, we came across a woman crying. There were flowers and photos on the grave. We stood with her. She spoke to me. She said that the grave was for her son but I noticed that she could hardly speak through her crying. I said that we had just lost our son too. I told her it was an illness. She said that her son died in an accident. When? I asked her. Ten years before, she said. A wave of feeling came over me. The moment she said that, I felt a mix of sorrow and fright. It was desperately sad that this woman was so consumed by grief, but it frightened me that she was this sad so long after the event. I then thought something that may seem heartless. I said to myself – I most certainly didn’t say it out loud – “I don’t want to be like her in 10 years’ time.”
To tell the truth, I was afraid that I would be. I felt like her in that very moment, my mind full of Eddie, thinking every minute about not having him there, and knowing that I would never have him there again. I felt like this woman sounded. But would I feel like that in a year’s time? Ten years’ time? I hoped not. I wished the poor woman well and walked on.
Getting Better by Michael Rosen (Ebury, £16.99). To support The Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/sep/21/second-car-insurance-no-claims-bonus | Money | 2018-09-21T11:27:53.000Z | Anna Tims | Why can’t I get a no-claims bonus on my second car? | I bought a second car and found an insurance quote. I sent a copy of the insurance certificate for my other car showing 10 years’ no-claims discount (NCD) but was told I would have to pay almost £90 more because I needed to build up an NCD on my new car. How can I have 10 years driving one vehicle and none driving another?
VW, Leicestershire
Unfortunately, that’s the way it works. Although you’d think an NCD reflected your skill as a driver rather than what wheels you drive, it actually applies to a single vehicle. You can usually transfer it if you replace a car but not add it to a second car.
There are insurers who will allow you to mirror your NCD on a second car if you buy a multicar policy, so it would be worth asking the insurer of your other car what they can offer.
Otherwise, shop around for a deal on both vehicles when your existing insurance comes up for renewal.
If you need help email Anna Tims at [email protected] or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number. Submission is subject to our terms and conditions | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/12/artichoke-recipes-baked-sea-bass-brown-rice-peppers-peppercorn-aioli-anchovy-butter-yotam-ottolenghi | Food | 2017-08-12T08:00:39.000Z | Yotam Ottolenghi | Yotam Ottolenghi’s artichoke recipes | There are three ways to get to the heart of a globe artichoke. One is to do all the work yourself; to roll up your sleeves and get on with the task of chopping and trimming the outer leaves until you reach the heart and remove the choke. The second is to make a meal out of reaching the heart, picking away at those leaves and using them to scoop up all sorts of dips, until the heart reveals itself, prize-like, at the end. And the third way is to outsource the job entirely and start with jarred or frozen artichoke hearts. The advantage of this last approach is that you can be liberal with how many you use in a dish, plus it leaves you with plenty of creative energy to play with at the stove. So, today, three very different recipes for however you choose to get to the heart of the matter.
Brown rice ‘paella’ with roast artichokes and peppers
This is one to take to the table in the cooking vessel. Serves four.
500ml vegetable stock
1 large dried ancho chilli
75ml olive oil
½ onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp cumin seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
2 tsp caraway seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
2 lemons, 1 finely peeled and juiced, to get 1½ tbsp, the other cut into quarters, to serve
Salt and black pepper
400g short-grain brown rice
6 romano peppers, stems, pith and seeds discarded, flesh cut into 1cm x 8cm strips
1 tbsp honey
4 sprigs thyme
200g jarred artichoke hearts in olive oil, drained and cut in half lengthways
3 tbsp flaked almonds, lightly toasted
5g parsley, roughly chopped
Heat the oven to 210C/410F/gas mark 6½, with a rack near the top.
Warm the stock in a saucepan on a medium heat for three minutes, then turn off the heat, add the ancho and leave to soak for 30 minutes. Once soft, remove and roughly chop the chilli, then return it to the stock.
In a large, high-sided saute pan for which you have a lid, heat two tablespoons of oil on a medium-high flame and, once hot, fry the onion, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, lemon peel and a teaspoon and a quarter of salt for four minutes, stirring often, until soft and golden. Add the rice, stock and 1.1 litres water and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to medium-low, cover the pot and leave to simmer for 70 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rice is cooked.
Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables. Toss the pepper strips in three tablespoons of oil, the honey, thyme, half a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper, then spread out on an oven tray lined with greaseproof paper and roast for 15 minutes. Remove the peppers, change the oven setting to grill and turn the heat up to 220C. Lay the artichokes cut side up on top of the peppers and grill for 10-12 minutes, until the artichokes are slightly crisp and browned.
Remove and discard the thyme from the rice pot, then stir in two-thirds of the vegetables. Arrange the final third on top of the rice, cover the pan and return to a medium-high heat for five minutes, to warm through. Drizzle over the lemon juice, scatter with the almonds and parsley, put the lemon wedges around the edges and serve.
Boiled globe artichokes
Not so much a recipe as an artichoke manual. Dip the leaves in the pink peppercorn aïoli or anchovy butter that follow, or just make a quick vinaigrette instead. Serves six.
2 bay leaves
2 lemons, halved
Salt
6 large globe artichokes (about 2kg)
Fill an extra-large saucepan with enough water to come halfway up the sides. Add the bay leaf, squeeze in the juice of all four lemon halves, then add the skins and half a teaspoon of salt. Remove the stems from the artichokes then add them and the artichokes to the water. Use a lid smaller than the pan (or a heat-proof plate, if that’s easier) to weigh down the artichokes and keep them submerged, then bring to a simmer and cook for an hour, until a skewer goes easily through the heart and the leaves peel off easily. Drain into in a colander, keeping the artichoke tips facing downwards, and leave for five minutes, then transfer to a platter. I also like to eat the stems, but you may have to remove the sinewy outer layer of skin first.
Pink peppercorn aïoli
If you make this, chances are you’ll have a bit left over, but that’s no great hardship: it keeps in the fridge for up to five days and is great on hot or cold roast chicken and vegetables. Serves six-plus.
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2 large egg yolks
½ tsp Dijon mustard
1½ tbsp white-wine vinegar
1 orange, peel finely grated to get ½ tsp (avoid the bitter white pith), then juiced, to get 1 tbsp
Salt
250ml sunflower oil
1½ tbsp pink peppercorns, lightly crushed with your fingers, plus extra to sprinkle over just before serving
Put the garlic, egg yolks, mustard, vinegar, and orange zest and juice into a food processor with a half-teaspoon of salt. With the motor running, slowly add the oil in a slow, steady stream, until the aïoli is emulsified, thick and creamy. Transfer to a small bowl, then fold in the peppercorns. Sprinkle over a few extra peppercorns, and serve with the artichokes.
Anchovy butter
This is best served straight away, or at least within a couple of hours, because it sets hard when refrigerated and the anchovy flavour tends to take over. Serves six-plus.
200g unsalted butter at room temperature
30g anchovy fillets, drained and roughly chopped
1 tsp aleppo chilli flakes
1 lemon, zest finely grated to get 1 tsp, and juiced to get 1 tsp
Salt
Blitz everything in a food processor with a third of a teaspoon of salt until smooth. That’s it.
Baked sea bass with artichokes and peas
Yotam Ottolenghi’s baked sea bass with artichokes and peas. Photograph: Louise Hagger for the Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay, assisted by Agathe Gits
Serve this at the table in its baking dish. Serves four.
2 lemons, skin peeled in long strips, plus 120ml lemon juice
4 large globe artichokes
10 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tbsp picked thyme leaves
10g sage sprigs
90ml olive oil
Flaky sea salt and black pepper
2 small sustainably sourced sea bass, gutted and scaled (about 500g each)
150g frozen peas, defrosted
1 small preserved lemon, deseeded, skin and flesh crushed in a mortar (30g)
10g mint leaves, finely chopped
Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6. Put the lemon peel and 100ml lemon juice in a medium bowl, ready for when you trim the artichokes.
Cut off and discard all but 3cm of the artichoke stalks and remove the tough outer leaves by hand. Once you reach the softer leaves underneath, use a large sharp knife to cut across the flower, leaving you with just the bottom quarter. Use a small sharp knife or vegetable peeler to remove the outer layers of the artichoke until the base is exposed. Scrape out the hairy choke, cut the artichoke into 0.5cm-thick slices and put in the lemon bowl (this will stop the artichokes discolouring).
Yotam Ottolenghi’s avocado recipes
Read more
Stir in four-fifths of the garlic, the thyme, sage, two tablespoons of olive oil and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, then tip the lot into a 35cm x 25cm ceramic or glass dish. Pour over 200ml water, then push the mix to the sides of the dish, leaving the centre clear for the fish.
Score one side of each bass about four times, 2-3cm apart, then lay the fish scored side up in the middle of the dish, so they’re surrounded by the artichoke mixture. Drizzle over two tablespoons of olive oil and a teaspoon and a half of sea salt, then roast for 25 minutes, stirring the vegetables two or three times, until the fish is cooked through and the artichokes are soft.
While the fish is cooking, heat the remaining two tablespoons of oil in a medium saucepan or frying pan, then add the last two cloves of sliced garlic and cook on a medium heat for three minutes, until golden. Add the peas, cook, stirring, for a minute, until hot, then add the preserved lemon. Mix in the mint, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and a generous grind of pepper, then spoon the mixture over the artichokes and gently stir in. Drizzle the remaining 20ml lemon juice over the lot and serve hot.
Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report | Environment | 2018-10-08T06:23:50.000Z | Jonathan Watts | We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe, warns UN | The world’s leading climate scientists have warned there is only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.
The authors of the landmark report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released on Monday say urgent and unprecedented changes are needed to reach the target, which they say is affordable and feasible although it lies at the most ambitious end of the Paris agreement pledge to keep temperatures between 1.5C and 2C.
The half-degree difference could also prevent corals from being completely eradicated and ease pressure on the Arctic, according to the 1.5C study, which was launched after approval at a final plenary of all 195 countries in Incheon in South Korea that saw delegates hugging one another, with some in tears.
Quick Guide
What difference would restricting warming to 1.5C make?
Show
We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero or face more floods
Nicholas Stern
Read more
“It’s a line in the sand and what it says to our species is that this is the moment and we must act now,” said Debra Roberts, a co-chair of the working group on impacts. “This is the largest clarion bell from the science community and I hope it mobilises people and dents the mood of complacency.”
Policymakers commissioned the report at the Paris climate talks in 2016, but since then the gap between science and politics has widened. Donald Trump has promised to withdraw the US – the world’s biggest source of historical emissions – from the accord. The first round of Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday put Jair Bolsonaro into a strong position to carry out his threat to do the same and also open the Amazon rainforest to agribusiness.
The world is currently 1C warmer than preindustrial levels. Following devastating hurricanes in the US, record droughts in Cape Town and forest fires in the Arctic, the IPCC makes clear that climate change is already happening, upgraded its risk warning from previous reports, and warned that every fraction of additional warming would worsen the impact.
Scientists who reviewed the 6,000 works referenced in the report, said the change caused by just half a degree came as a revelation. “We can see there is a difference and it’s substantial,” Roberts said.
At 1.5C the proportion of the global population exposed to water stress could be 50% lower than at 2C, it notes. Food scarcity would be less of a problem and hundreds of millions fewer people, particularly in poor countries, would be at risk of climate-related poverty.
Attendees take a photo before the opening of the 48th session of the IPCC in Incheon. Photograph: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images
At 2C extremely hot days, such as those experienced in the northern hemisphere this summer, would become more severe and common, increasing heat-related deaths and causing more forest fires.
But the greatest difference would be to nature. Insects, which are vital for pollination of crops, and plants are almost twice as likely to lose half their habitat at 2C compared with 1.5C. Corals would be 99% lost at the higher of the two temperatures, but more than 10% have a chance of surviving if the lower target is reached.
Sea-level rise would affect 10 million more people by 2100 if the half-degree extra warming brought a forecast 10cm additional pressure on coastlines. The number affected would increase substantially in the following centuries due to locked-in ice melt.
Oceans are already suffering from elevated acidity and lower levels of oxygen as a result of climate change. One model shows marine fisheries would lose 3m tonnes at 2C, twice the decline at 1.5C.
Sea ice-free summers in the Arctic, which is warming two to three times faster than the world average, would come once every 100 years at 1.5C, but every 10 years with half a degree more of global warming.
The final tick box is political will
Jim Skea
Time and carbon budgets are running out. By mid-century, a shift to the lower goal would require a supercharged roll-back of emissions sources that have built up over the past 250 years.
The IPCC maps out four pathways to achieve 1.5C, with different combinations of land use and technological change. Reforestation is essential to all of them as are shifts to electric transport systems and greater adoption of carbon capture technology.
Carbon pollution would have to be cut by 45% by 2030 – compared with a 20% cut under the 2C pathway – and come down to zero by 2050, compared with 2075 for 2C. This would require carbon prices that are three to four times higher than for a 2C target. But the costs of doing nothing would be far higher.
“We have presented governments with pretty hard choices. We have pointed out the enormous benefits of keeping to 1.5C, and also the unprecedented shift in energy systems and transport that would be needed to achieve that,” said Jim Skea, a co-chair of the working group on mitigation. “We show it can be done within laws of physics and chemistry. Then the final tick box is political will. We cannot answer that. Only our audience can – and that is the governments that receive it.”
He said the main finding of his group was the need for urgency. Although unexpectedly good progress has been made in the adoption of renewable energy, deforestation for agriculture was turning a natural carbon sink into a source of emissions. Carbon capture and storage projects, which are essential for reducing emissions in the concrete and waste disposal industries, have also ground to a halt.
Reversing these trends is essential if the world has any chance of reaching 1.5C without relying on the untried technology of solar radiation modification and other forms of geo-engineering, which could have negative consequences.
A nearly ice-free Northwest Passage in the Arctic in August 2016. Photograph: VIIRS/Suomi NPP/Nasa
In the run-up to the final week of negotiations, there were fears the text of the report would be watered down by the US, Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich countries that are reluctant to consider more ambitious cuts. The authors said nothing of substance was cut from a text.
Bob Ward, of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, said the final document was “incredibly conservative” because it did not mention the likely rise in climate-driven refugees or the danger of tipping points that could push the world on to an irreversible path of extreme warming.
The report will be presented to governments at the UN climate conference in Poland at the end of this year. But analysts say there is much work to be done, with even pro-Paris deal nations involved in fossil fuel extraction that runs against the spirit of their commitments. Britain is pushing ahead with gas fracking, Norway with oil exploration in the Arctic, and the German government wants to tear down Hambach forest to dig for coal.
At the current level of commitments, the world is on course for a disastrous 3C of warming. The report authors are refusing to accept defeat, believing the increasingly visible damage caused by climate change will shift opinion their way.
“I hope this can change the world,” said Jiang Kejun of China’s semi-governmental Energy Research Institute, who is one of the authors. “Two years ago, even I didn’t believe 1.5C was possible but when I look at the options I have confidence it can be done. I want to use this report to do something big in China.”
The IPCC global warming report spares politicians the worst details
Bob Ward
Read more
The timing was good, he said, because the Chinese government was drawing up a long-term plan for 2050 and there was more awareness among the population about the problem of rising temperatures. “People in Beijing have never experienced so many hot days as this summer. It’s made them talk more about climate change.”
Regardless of the US and Brazil, he said, China, Europe and major cities could push ahead. “We can set an example and show what can be done. This is more about technology than politics.”
James Hansen, the former Nasa scientist who helped raised the alarm about climate change, said both 1.5C and 2C would take humanity into uncharted and dangerous territory because they were both well above the Holocene-era range in which human civilisation developed. But he said there was a huge difference between the two: “1.5C gives young people and the next generation a fighting chance of getting back to the Holocene or close to it. That is probably necessary if we want to keep shorelines where they are and preserve our coastal cities.”
Johan Rockström, a co-author of the recent Hothouse Earth report, said scientists never previously discussed 1.5C, which was initially seen as a political concession to small island states. But he said opinion had shifted in the past few years along with growing evidence of climate instability and the approach of tipping points that might push the world off a course that could be controlled by emissions reductions.
“Climate change is occurring earlier and more rapidly than expected. Even at the current level of 1C warming, it is painful,” he told the Guardian. “This report is really important. It has a scientific robustness that shows 1.5C is not just a political concession. There is a growing recognition that 2C is dangerous.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/oct/08/yusra-mardini-on-the-swimmers-the-netflix-drama-of-her-life | Film | 2022-10-08T14:00:30.000Z | Alice O'Keeffe | ‘We were taught to be winners’: refugee turned Olympian Yusra Mardini on the Netflix drama of her life | Halfway across the Aegean Sea, the motor on the boat carrying sisters Sara and Yusra Mardini away from war-torn Syria suddenly stalled. They had boarded the leaky rubber dinghy, designed to carry seven people, with 18 other refugees determined to make the journey from the Turkish coast to Europe, via Greece. As the overcrowded boat started to take on water, Sara knew that they had to reduce the weight onboard. Clinging to a rope, she leapt into the sea, closely followed by Yusra. The young sisters then spent three hours swimming alongside the boat, icy waves slapping them in the face. Incredibly the boat made it to the Greek island of Lesbos. All of the passengers survived.
There was a reason the sisters felt confident enough to leap into the water that day: they had a lifetime of swimming training, thanks to their coach father, Ezzat. Yusra had competed for Syria in the world championships, travelling to Dubai and Turkey to take part in competitions. “I was always special, all of my life,” says Yusra today. “I had so many Syrian records, everyone knew who I was. My sister, too. We had had a leadership role since we were young, we were taught how to be winners, to lead, to come up with ideas out of nowhere.”
Until the Syrian civil war broke out in March 2011, the Mardini family – Sara, Yusra and Ezzat, physiotherapist mother Mervat, and little sister Shehad – lived a comfortable life in Daraya, a suburb of Damascus. Even then, the war didn’t disturb their lives too much – amid demonstrations and crackdowns the sisters continued to train in their local pool. But by August the following year, the conflict was becoming impossible to ignore. There was fighting and heavy bombing in Daraya. Over the next few years, amid increasing chaos in the area, the family’s house was destroyed, and Ezzat was detained and tortured by paramilitaries in a case of mistaken identity. One day an unexploded bomb landed in the pool where Yusra was training. Sara was convinced that to have a future, the sisters needed to leave. By August 2015 their parents had agreed to send them on the perilous journey to Europe, first flying to Istanbul, then paying traffickers to take them to Greece, and overland to Germany.
The Swimmers, with Manal Issa as Sara Mardini (far left) and Nathalie Issa as Yusra Mardini (also in the water).
Photograph: Laura Radford/Netflix
The sisters did indeed reach Germany, after a long and traumatic journey. There, they made contact with the swimming club near the refugee centre where they were living. The coach at the pool, Sven Spannenkrebs, not only agreed to let them train, but managed to get Yusra on to the newly formed refugee team for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Just a year after that near-deadly boat trip, Yusra was in Rio, where she made headlines around the world by winning a heat.
Now aged 24, Yusra recalls what happened next. “My life basically turned upside down,” she tells me on a video call from her home in Berlin, her open and expressive face framed by dark-rimmed glasses. Yusra was subject to a whirlwind of global acclaim; she met Barack Obama and the Pope, and was appointed the youngest ever goodwill ambassador for the UN’s Refugee Agency (UNHCR). She had been approached even before the Olympics by producers wanting to put her life story on screen. She turned down all the offers: “Going to the Olympics was my dream, and I wanted to focus on that.”
Yusra Mardini delights with butterfly heat win for Refugee Olympic Team
Read more
She travelled the world, speaking about her experiences and meeting other refugees, appointed a management team to represent her, and agreed to a ghostwritten autobiography, Butterfly, which came out in 2018. She now has a worldwide following. Her Instagram account (354,000 followers) documents her swimming, her campaigning work on refugees’ rights, and her love of fashion. “One day I want to start my own fashion brand,” she says, and there is enough steel in her sparkly smile to leave you in no doubt that she will.
After repeated approaches from the freelance producer Ali Jaafar – “He just did not give up” – she eventually agreed to a film adaptation (as she points out: “Who would be crazy enough to say no to a film about your life?”). The Swimmers, which premiered last month at the Toronto film festival, screens today at the London film festival and streams on Netflix next month, was made by Working Title, the British company responsible for feelgood hits including Love Actually and Bridget Jones’s Diary (a decisive factor for Yusra: “It’s one of my favourite movies!”). It is a production involving some of the biggest names in British stage and screen, from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child scriptwriter Jack Thorne to executive producer Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot). It was directed by Welsh-Egyptian Sally El Hosaini, acclaimed for her debut, My Brother the Devil.
The Swimmers is skilfully put together with a mass audience firmly in its sights. It marries the light of Yusra’s success with the dark of their experiences: we join Sara and Yusra in that sinking boat, of course, but also witness a sexual assault on Yusra by a trafficker, the endless, soul-sucking immigration queues, the bleak grey detention centre where they have to share cell-like living quarters in an industrial hangar following their arrival in Germany. Fellow travellers on their odyssey across Europe will get lost, get deported. Their aspiring DJ cousin Nizar, who accompanies them on their journey, ends up depressed and desperate to go back to Syria. “Lots of people don’t have a happy ending. We wanted to tell this story so that everyone can think about them, too,” Yusra says. “The goal of this movie is way bigger than my story – we want it to make an impact on the world.”
Sara, left, and Yusra Mardini at the Toronto film festival last month. Photograph: Valérie Macon/AFP/Getty Images
The film follows Yusra and Sara – their sisterhood, in good and bad times. We see them dancing to pop anthems in a Damascus nightclub – a scene based on the 16th birthday party that Sara threw for her younger sister before they left for Europe. “The whole club was full of our friends,” Yusra remembers, “and Sara’s friend was the DJ. It was a really nice party, and has really stuck with me.” It was important to Yusra and to El Hosaini that the film should challenge stereotypes about Arab women and show the reality of teenage life. “Believe me, the parties in Damascus are bigger than the ones in Berlin. We party and have a good time with our friends – the only difference is that in the west you get music from Spotify and Apple, while we use free websites. Teenagers’ interests are the same everywhere.”
The drama hints at, but skirts around, the fact that Yusra’s sudden fame caused complications in her relationship with her sister, and it certainly was no magic cure for the pain of exile. To add another layer of sororal intensity, the pair are played by real-life acting sisters Manal and Nathalie Issa. “Sara and I, we have been creative since we were young,” says Yusra. “It’s the same with Nathalie and Manal. That was the beauty of it because they come from a similar background, they knew exactly what we went through as girls. That’s what made it so amazing. Every time we watch it, we cry.”
In the film, Sara (Manal) is a headstrong party animal, sulky and leather-jacketed, the driving force behind the plan to leave Syria. She finds her own sort of redemption by abandoning swimming to go back to Greece, to the very beach in Lesbos where she landed just over a year earlier, to provide humanitarian assistance to desperate people arriving on the shore. Yusra (Nathalie) is a less abrasive character, who survives by means of a laser-like focus on reaching the Olympics.
For Yusra, the film reflects something accurate about her relationship with Sara. “I was always training, and she too, but she was more open-minded and curious about life – I had my own goals and my own system, and I was following that step by step. She was more spontaneous about life, which taught me a lot.” She sees the film as a fitting tribute to Sara’s guiding role in her life. “We went through everything together – who would you trust more than your sibling to go through that with? I shared my whole life with her… I always copied her because she was a hero to me.”
Nathalie Issa as Yusra Mardini in The Swimmers. Photograph: Netflix
In past interviews, Sara has told a more complicated story. She has said that she loved swimming just as much as Yusra, but was forced to abandon it once she got to Germany because of a shoulder injury, and “physical and emotional pain”.
In a shocking development that is relegated to one frame in the film’s closing credits, Sara was arrested in 2018 while doing humanitarian work on Lesbos. She was kept in jail for more than three months, charged with spying, smuggling and belonging to a criminal organisation – charges Amnesty International has described as “trumped up” and “farcical”. Sara is now facing a maximum prison sentence of 25 years. In November 2021, a Greek court adjourned the case, and according to Sara’s co-defendant, Seán Binder, further delays could mean that the case drags on for more than another decade. “The delay seems to be a tactic to punish legitimate rescue operations,” he writes in an email. “This prosecution is effectively persecution. We’ve faced huge financial, personal and psychological strain since this began. But even more frighteningly, if we can be criminalised, then anyone who helps [refugees] can be.”
In a Ted talk in 2019, Sara spoke about the psychological toll that the situation had put on her: having survived the war and escape from Syria in good health, after her arrest she was diagnosed with PTSD and depression. When I ask Yusra about how her sister is now, her eyes flicker to the corner of the screen and her face clouds over. “It’s scary for her to start with anything, because she doesn’t know what’s going to happen in the future,” she says. What is the latest development with the case? “You’ll have to speak to her lawyer… I can’t really talk about her experience to be honest. I think she should be speaking about it, but she chose not to speak to media right now because she’s taking care of her mental health. She’s just… taking some time off.”
Yusra thinks that the film is positive for Sara, too. “She’s taking it all in, enjoying that the movie is going out. It could be hard for her because now lots of people know what’s going on. I hope it will be over soon and the movie will push things in the right direction for her and the other people involved.” When I ask about the impact of Sara’s arrest on Yusra and the rest of her family, she makes it clear that it’s too difficult for her to talk about. “My family and I would like to keep that part private.”
Watch a trailer for The Swimmers.
We move on, and soon Yusra is back to her excitable self, chattering about future plans. With the focus and determination that characterised her athletic career, she is forging ahead, and plans to do a degree in film and TV production. “I’m interested in fashion, acting, and the entertainment world. Those are my ambitions for now, but they change very quickly to be honest.” One constant is her work on refugee rights, with the forthcoming launch of a charitable foundation in Germany and the US aiming to help refugees through sport and education. “I will always work for refugees because I will always be one – even though I just got my German passport.”
As a child, before the war, Yusra’s ambition was to represent Syria at the Olympics. She got as far as qualifying for the team for Tokyo – but decided to rejoin the refugee team instead. I wonder whether that was a tricky political decision. “I always represent Syria in everything I do, but refugee is my identity now.” With the film and the foundation soon to launch, her eyes are, as ever, fixed on the horizon. “I’m excited to start a new chapter where I can literally help refugees, not just speak about it. Perhaps I will be able to replace those tents [in refugee camps] with buildings. Maybe I will be the person politicians finally listen to – who knows?”
The Swimmers is released in selected UK cinemas from 11 November, and on Netflix from 23 November | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/dec/20/christmas-chocolate-dessert-recipes | Life and style | 2013-12-20T21:00:00.000Z | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall | Choc troops: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's alternative Christmas treats | Now bring us some figgy pudding!" goes the carol, but not everyone is enamoured of boozy, spicy, fruity Christmas pud; or, indeed, of oozy, super-sweet mince pies. Even those who love them will not want to indulge more than a couple of times over the holiday period, so whether it's to offer as an alternative on the big day, or to cater for a Boxing Day or New Year crowd, you'll need something else by way of a sweet treat. And it had better be good. It is Christmas, after all.
Well, I can pretty much guarantee that if you bring them a chocolate pudding – especially a rich, dark and sophisticated one – they won't be disappointed. This is not just because chocolate is so widely loved, and a pretty safe bet. It's also a fantastic ingredient to shuffle into the Christmas culinary chaos because it has so much deep, pleasing flavour. Foil-wrapped chocolate coins and melting tree decorations aside, real, cocoa-rich chocolate is complex, deep and slightly bitter: just the kind of thing you need in a punch-packing pudding in the high season of hearty.
You don't always need actual chocolate to make a great chocolate pud. Cocoa powder, formed from roasted cocoa beans after the cocoa butter has been extracted, is intensely chocolatey but not at all sweet. In sponges or cakes, where you want the finish to be light and fluffy, but still delicately moist, cocoa is ideal; it acts like a super-chocolatey flour. (Melted chocolate doesn't always work so well in sponges, giving a heavy and rather unyielding finish.)
When it comes to rich, creamy mixtures, however – brownies, mousses, dense, almondy cakes and ice-creams – a good dark chocolate is what you want. It will melt and meld deliciously with all those other indulgent ingredients. For cooking, I generally use chocolate with 70-75% cocoa solids. It's easy to buy bars with a much higher cocoa solid content, but such intense stuff can be too strong and bitter (though I have used 85% very successfully in brownies, where it cuts through all the butter and sugar). Bear in mind, though, that the figure for cocoa solid content can be a bit of a red herring: it's not in itself a guarantee of quality, and I've eaten chocolate with very high cocoa solids that was still bland and waxy. As with any ingredient, properly good chocolate is about the calibre of the raw materials: the cocoa beans and how they were produced, roasted and processed.
My friend Claire Burnet, who runs the Dorset-based artisan chocolate company Chococo, knows all the tricks of the trade. "Cheap chocolate often has some of the cocoa butter removed and replaced with cheaper vegetable fats, including palm oil," she tells me, "whereas top producers actually put extra cocoa butter back in."
Cocoa is packed with a huge range of aromatic compounds, and in good dark chocolate those flavours are there in abundance. Taste your chocolate before you cook with it – it should release waves of flavour on your tongue: nutty, toasty, vanilla, fruity, coffee-ish. For a dish such as today's clementine one, the chocolate has to stand out in its unadulterated form, so it's got to be good. But even in a pudding or mousse, any extra money you spend on top-notch choc will be paid back in sumptuous flavour.
Clementines with marrons glacés and chocolate
You could put a box of marrons glacés (candied chestnuts), a bowl of clementines and a couple of bars of dark chocolate on the table after dinner and let your guests tuck in. You won't get many complaints. But if you take the 10 minutes or so needed to put those ingredients together into this extravagant fruit salad, you'll get a round of applause. Quantities are per person.
2-3 squares dark chocolate, 70-75% cocoa solids
2 clementines (or tangerines), chilled
1 large marron glacé
Break up the chocolate into small pieces, and put it into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of just simmering water – ensure the bowl is not touching the water – and leave to melt, stirring once or twice.
Meanwhile, peel the clementines. With a small, sharp knife, remove as much of the white pith and membrane as possible. Use a large, sharp knife to slice the clementines into 5mm-thick discs. Reserve the small end bits.
Arrange the slices evenly over each plate. Crumble the marrons glacés on top, then trickle the molten chocolate over the cool fruit, where it will quickly set into gorgeous whirls and ribbons. Squeeze the juice from the reserved end bits over the top and it's ready to go. Delicious with a glass of chilled champagne.
Chocolate, brandy and star anise ice-cream
This lovely, grown-up ice-cream comes from Gelf Alderson, chef and senior tutor at the River Cottage HQ cookery school. Makes about 800ml.
3-5 whole star anise
200ml whole milk
300ml double cream
Finely grated zest of 1 large orange (optional)
1 vanilla pod, split
4 large egg yolks
100g caster sugar
200g dark chocolate (70-75% cocoa solids), finely chopped
75ml cider brandy or calvados
Bash the star anise in a pestle and mortar – you want to reduce them to chunky bits, not a powder. Tip into a pan with the milk, cream and orange zest, if using. Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod and put seeds and pod into the pan. Bring to just below boiling point, then set aside to infuse for 15 minutes.
Beat together the egg yolks and sugar until well combined. Strain the hot cream through a fine sieve over the eggs and sugar, whisking all the time. Pour the mixture into a clean saucepan and cook gently, stirring all the time, for a few minutes, or until the custard has thickened. Don't let it boil or it will split.
Remove the thickened custard from the heat and add the finely chopped chocolate. Stir gently until the chocolate has melted. Stir in the cider brandy, strain through a sieve into a clean bowl, then set aside, with a piece of clingfilm or baking parchment on the surface to stop a skin forming, until cool.
Churn the custard in an ice-cream maker until soft-set, then transfer to the freezer to freeze solid. Alternatively, pour the mixture into a plastic Tupperware-type container and freeze for about an hour, or until the sides start to get solid. When this happens, mash up the mixture with a fork, mixing the frozen sides into the liquid centre. Put it back in the freezer for another hour, and repeat at hourly intervals until soft-set, then let the ice-cream set solid. Transfer to the fridge 30 minutes before serving, to soften a little.
The Grenada Chocolate Company's bars are an excellent choice, and ethically produced (they are even exported to Europe via sailing ship). Claire also recommends Marou, a Vietnamese single origin brand.
Hot chocolate toffee banana pudding
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's hot chocolate toffee banana pudding: 'A great crowd-pleaser.' Photograph: Colin Campbell for the Guardian
Made with ingredients most of us have knocking about at Christmas, this glorious fusion of banoffee, sticky toffee and chocolate sponge is easy to put together and a great crowd-pleaser. Serves six to eight.
100g softened butter, plus extra for greasing
3 medium-ripe, medium-sized bananas
100g self-raising flour
50g ground almonds
30g cocoa powder
100g caster sugar
2 large eggs
75ml milk
For the toffee sauce
100g soft dark brown sugar
40g butter
200ml double cream
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Lightly butter an oven dish that's 17cm x 27cm and at least 5cm deep. Put the ingredients for the sauce in a small saucepan and heat gently, stirring often, until the butter has melted and you have a smooth brown toffee sauce. Set aside.
Peel the bananas and halve each one across the middle, then cut each in half again lengthwise, so you have four pieces from each banana. Arrange in the buttered dish, and pour over the sauce.
Mix the flour, almonds and cocoa powder, and set aside. Beat together the butter and sugar for several minutes until very pale, light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of the cocoa mixture with each, then fold in the rest of the cocoa mixture. Add the milk to form a batter with a soft dropping consistency. Dollop this over the bananas and toffee, and carefully spread it out: it should just barely cover the sauce, so don't worry if some is still visible at the edges. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the sponge is firm on top and the sauce bubbling up around the edges. Poke a skewer into the middle of the sponge, to check it's cooked through. Leave to settle for a few minutes, and serve piping hot with cold double cream. Serve it with the sponge uppermost, or flip the portions as they come out of the dish, so the bananas and toffee take top spot.
Go to rivercottage.net for the latest news from River Cottage HQ.
This article was edited on 13 January 2014. The original recipe for clementines with marrons glacés and chocolate mistakenly said to cut the fruit into 5cm-thick slices. This has been corrected. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/sep/14/channel-4-privatisation-60-production-companies-indie-producers | Media | 2021-09-14T12:12:24.000Z | Mark Sweney | Channel 4 privatisation ‘could shut up to 60 production companies’ | As many as 60 British TV production companies could face going out of business if Channel 4 is privatised, according to a report published as the government closes its public consultation into the potential sale of the broadcaster.
Channel 4’s unique status, established in 1982 as an editorially independent broadcaster to provide a culturally challenging alternative to BBC One, BBC Two and ITV, makes it vitally important to hundreds of independent television producers across the country.
It is publicly owned but commercially funded, mostly through TV ad revenue, and is not required to turn a profit or focus on dividends for shareholders.
Emma Raducanu’s US Open win serves up audience of 9.2m for C4
Read more
However, in June the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, announced plans to privatise the broadcaster and will today insist it stands to benefit from a change of ownership. A 10-week public consultation on the proposals closes at 11.45pm on Tuesday.
Dowden has guaranteed that a new owner of Channel 4 would have to continue to make unprofitable public service programming and support the independent TV production industry, but said that a deep-pocketed investor would enable it to secure more broadcasting coups such as airing Emma Raducanu’s victory at the US Open.
“If we choose to proceed with a sale, I will make sure Channel 4 remains subject to proper public service obligations,” Dowden will say at a speech at the Cambridge Media Convention on Wednesday.
“If Channel 4 wants to grow at some point it will need cash. It won’t be able to compete with the streaming giants. It did a fantastic job at broadcasting the Paralympics. Channel 4 was able to bring the entire country together to cheer on Emma Raducanu. We’ve needed these national moments this last year, and we need more of them on free-to-view television.”
For the government to generate a significant return on the sale it would have to relax Channel 4’s remit, such as allowing it to make its own shows, according to a report by Ampere Analysis that says the broadcaster’s £660m annual budget for commissioning TV productions is likely to be a key cost-saving target for any new owner.
“If the government looks to relax Channel 4’s remit to derive more money from privatisation, then that would have a substantial negative impact on the UK production sector,” said Richard Broughton, an analyst at Ampere. “Channel 4 works with more small production companies than any other broadcaster, we estimate 200 over the last two years, and a privatised Channel 4 would likely leave many financially challenged.”
An analysis of those 200 production companies found that almost 140 relied on Channel 4 for half or more of their TV production work.
“Regional production companies are more likely to be reliant on Channel 4 projects,” said Broughton. “A sale of Channel 4 alongside a relaxation of its remit would therefore undermine the UK government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda.”
Channel 4’s own research estimates that up to 1,300 jobs would be lost from businesses that the broadcaster deals with, such as production companies, if it moved out of public ownership.
Pre-Covid, Channel 4’s total programming budget stood at £660m, with almost £500m of that on original shows such as It’s a Sin and Gogglebox.
However, the report argues that a new owner would aim to cut 40% to 50% of Channel 4’s programming budget to boost its roughly 8% margin closer to the level of commercial peers across Europe, which operate at about 15% or higher.
“A reduction in spend on original productions could jeopardise 50 to 60 small production companies,” said Broughton. “And potentially more if a buyer is particularly risk averse and looks to commission more from larger producers.”
Broughton said Channel 4’s cost-cutting actions during the pandemic provide evidence to any potential buyer that slashing the content budget can provide immediate financial returns.
Last year, Channel 4 made £150m in cuts, almost all of it from the programming budget, as the pandemic stopped productions and TV advertising revenue declined steeply. The broadcaster went on to report a pretax “surplus” of £74m, the largest in its 38-year history, as the TV ad market bounced back.
Channel 4 paid Amazon, the exclusive UK rights holder to the US Open on its subscription streaming service, a seven-figure sum for the rights to air the US Open final free-to-air. The deal, which Channel 4 made no return on as it airs Amazon’s feed ad-free, drew a peak audience of 9.2 million viewers and 40% of the total UK viewers watching TV at the time.
Critics of Dowden’s comments say that a new owner could still meet its PSB obligations while still dramatically cutting the total programming budget, commitment to spend outside London and reduce Channel 4’s newly-established presence around the country.
Last month, former Channel 4 chairman Lord Burns and former chief executive David Abraham said key public service content at the broadcaster, such as the Paralympics and news and current affairs, would probably be slashed by a new owner as they do not make a profit.
Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk
“Under private ownership, Channel 4’s fiduciary duty would be to maximise returns to shareholders,” the broadcaster said in its full response to the government’s consultation which it published on Monday. “This dynamic can be seen in other commercially funded, but privately owned public service broadcasters like ITV. A private owner would have a natural and legitimate incentive to seek both to dilute the more commercially onerous parts of the channel’s remit.”
Ampere estimates that without any change to Channel 4’s current obligations the government can expect to raise only £400m to £500m from privatisation. The last government attempt to sell Channel 4 in 2016 saw a £1bn price tag attached to the business.
Potential suitors this time around reportedly include the US pay-TV giant Discovery – which was considered a favourite last time before the government scrapped its privatisation plans – and ITV. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/nov/03/sheffield-police-investigating-three-reports-of-spiking-with-needles | UK news | 2021-11-03T11:45:09.000Z | Mark Brown | Sheffield police investigating three reports of spiking with needles | Police in Sheffield are investigating three reports of young women being spiked with needles last weekend, warning those responsible that they are endangering the lives of innocent people and face long jail terms.
In recent weeks there has been a big rise in the number of spiking cases, resulting in demonstrations last week at more than 40 university towns and cities across the UK.
In Manchester, addressing a crowd of about 1,000 young people, Lucy Nichols described a “spiking epidemic” sweeping the UK.
“Every single woman here will have a story about them or one of their friends being spiked,” she said. “Now we can’t even do the age-old trick of covering up our drinks, because they are spiking us with needles now too.”
South Yorkshire police said they were investigating three reports of women being injected with a suspected syringe while they were on a night out in the city.
Demonstrators take to streets across UK to protest against ‘spiking epidemic’
Read more
The first case was in a city centre club in Eyre Street at 2am on Saturday, when an 18-year reported being injected. She became ill and was taken to hospital and has since been discharged. At the same location, at 4am on Monday, a 19-year-old woman was also injected with a suspected syringe. She was taken to hospital where she remains in a stable condition.
The third report was from an incident at a club in Carver Street on Saturday, involving an 18-year-old woman. She became ill and was taken to hospital from where she has been discharged.
Police said independent investigations were under way into all three incidents and inquiries “continue at pace” to trace those involved. “While we are not ruling anything out, evidence so far does not suggest that these crimes have a sexual motivation.” they added.
DCI Benjamin Wood said he understood how worrying the reports would be. “Everyone should be able to enjoy our night-time economy without the fear of being harmed,” he said. “Please know that we are thoroughly investigating each and every incident reported to us. Please continue to report to us if you think you have been spiked or if you notice any suspicious behaviour while you are out – we are here 24/7 to listen to you and support you.
“If you have been spiked, it is not your fault in any way and it is nothing you should feel ashamed of. The blame lies solely with those committing this type of crime.”
Addressing the perpetrators, he said: “It is not a joke. It is not a bit of fun. Consider the results of your careless and cruel actions: you are endangering the lives of innocent people who just want to go out and have fun with their friends. You are putting them at risk of serious illness, injury or assault.
“You are committing a serious crime, which could result in you being put behind bars for more than 10 years.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/sep/29/ryder-cup-golf-europe-us-day-one-report | Sport | 2023-09-29T17:14:22.000Z | Ewan Murray | US Ryder Cup hopes in Roman ruins after Europe make history on day one | American hopes of retaining the Ryder Cup lay in Roman ruins after Europe delivered a clean sweep in the opening session for the first time. As shadows lengthened, hopes grew for those in United States colours. The combined actions of Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm and Justin Rose kept Zach Johnson’s beleaguered team at arm’s length.
Europe head into day two of the 44th Ryder Cup with a 6½–1½ advantage; not insurmountable but enough to trigger mild panic in the US locker room. Optimism had turned to despair. History is on Europe’s side; 10 of the 12 teams who have led by three or more after day one have lifted the Ryder Cup.
Hovland and Åberg are Europe’s odd couple in Scandinavian buddy movie
Read more
Europe’s foursomes specialism is such that 4-0 in the morning could not be classed as a huge shock. The fourball element was considerably tighter. Gripping, in fact, with all but one match reaching the 18th hole. Europe’s attitude ultimately shone through.
The canter was produced by Rory McIlroy and a partner, Matt Fitzpatrick, who morphed into Matt Fitzmagic. The Yorkshireman had not won a Ryder Cup point before arrival at Marco Simone and duly played like a man possessed. With Fitzpatrick holing putts from different postcodes, Europe rampaged to six up after seven holes. McIlroy’s score had counted only once in that run. Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele subsequently proved a minor annoyance to the Europeans but a 5&3 outcome was reflective of the gulf between pairings.
High drama arrived elsewhere. When Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth moved one up on Hovland and Tyrrell Hatton, it was the first time the Americans had led a match in this event. This was at 2pm; the first tee time was 7.35am. As Thomas and Spieth moved two up after 13, the US had a pulse. Europe won the 14th and 16th – where Thomas missed from close range – before Hovland curled in a wonderful 20ft putt at the last. Halved match.
Enter Rahm. He and Nicolai Højgaard were two up on Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler after eight but the Americans jabbed back. Rahm squared the match by chipping in for an eagle two on the 16th. Scheffler’s birdie on the penultimate hole restored the US advantage.
Rahm saved the best until last, the Masters champion leaping with joy after converting from the front of the 18th green for another eagle. The US had taken just half a point from another game they seemed sure to win.
Johnson had cause to place his faith in Wyndham Clark and Max Homa. They were two up on Rose and Robert MacIntyre with as many holes to play. Rose, the most experienced man on the European team, finished birdie-birdie to break US hearts. With eight matches of this Ryder Cup completed, the visiting team were still to win one of them.
Jon Rahm and his caddie celebrate on the 16th green during the Friday afternoon fourballs. Photograph: Patrick Smith/Getty Images
The morning pace was set by Rahm and Hatton. They were two up on Scheffler and Sam Burns by the turn. A birdie at the 11th and eagle on the 12th handed Europe a margin for error they never looked likely to need. Rahm and Hatton closed out a 4&3 win to place the first point on the board.
Hovland and Ludvig Åberg triumphed over Homa and Brian Harman in a match that was only marginally more competitive. Europe won four of the first six holes – and lost the other two – to sit two up. Hovland set the tone by chipping in at the first. “Not bad for a guy they say can’t chip,” said Shane Lowry. The 4th was to prove the last hole the Americans would claim. By the halved 15th, hands were shaken.
There had been some rumbles of discontent over the wildcard selection of Lowry. The Irishman therefore arrived in Italy with a point to prove. So far, so good; Lowry and the debutant Sepp Straka were 2&1 winners over Rickie Fowler and Morikawa. “The crowd got on our side fairly quickly,” Lowry said. “You could hear the roars just echoing around the course and it was a very special morning of golf.”
Fleetwood Mac completed the whitewash. Pre-tournament whispers of this pairing proved more than a rumour. McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood had obvious chemistry as well as compatible golf games on the way to seeing off Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, 2&1. McIlroy’s laser-like iron shot to tap-in range from the 17th tee completed the job. “Without being cheesy, think it’s a dream to play with Rory McIlroy in front of so many people,” said Fleetwood. “Going out there with him in a Ryder Cup is very, very cool.
Froth and hysteria add to myth of the dreaded opening shot at Ryder Cup
Read more
“We played well together. It is a very high-pressure situation but having someone that you have known for so long that you’re close to and that it’s easy with makes a huge difference.” The obvious message from Luke Donald, Europe’s captain: don’t stop. For the first time in his career, McIlroy has two Friday victories in a Ryder Cup.
This foursomes rout left Johnson with questions to ponder. He was inevitably criticised for leaving Koepka, Thomas, Spieth and Clark out of the morning session. The bigger picture was perhaps the more pertinent one. Most of the US players had not sampled competitive golf between the conclusion of the Tour Championship on 27 August and this Ryder Cup. Rustiness felt inevitable.
The winner of this great sporting spectacle currently feels that way. But only currently. The studious Donald will know this only too well. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/09/boris-johnson-held-unofficial-talks-with-president-of-venezuela-in-february | Politics | 2024-03-09T20:38:27.000Z | Nadeem Badshah | Boris Johnson ‘held unofficial talks with president of Venezuela in February’ | Boris Johnson flew to Venezuela in February for unofficial talks with its autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, according to reports.
The former prime minister spoke to the Venezuelan president about the war in Ukraine, amid concerns that the socialist republic could supply weapons or military support to Russia, according to the Sunday Times.
He also discussed the conditions for normalising relations with the UK, which does not accept the legitimacy of Maduro’s administration. Maduro has been in power for 11 years.
Johnson’s office told the Sunday Times that the foreign secretary, David Cameron, was aware of the visit and that Johnson also spoke to Colin Dick, the most senior British diplomat in the country.
A Foreign Office source said Johnson notified Lord Cameron of the summit en route, saying: “It was a private visit but Boris texted the foreign secretary on the way.”
As it was not an official discussion, permission was neither required nor sought.
The talks are unorthodox given the state of bilateral relations and wider uncertainty about western relations with Venezuela, which will hold presidential elections on 28 July.
The South American country has the world’s largest oil reserves. It has been a supporter of President Putin and blamed the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Nato.
Johnson, 59, is understood to have boarded a private jet in February from a family holiday in the Dominican Republic to a location outside Caracas, where he spent less than 24 hours.
His spokesperson said: “Boris Johnson met Venezuelan government officials with active support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the knowledge of the foreign secretary, in order to emphasise the need for Venezuela to embrace a proper democratic process.
“He repeatedly made clear there can be no hope of normalisation in relations until Venezuela fully embraces democracy and respects the territorial integrity of its neighbours. He also set out the case for the cause of Ukrainian victory to the government of Venezuela.”
Sign up to First Edition
Free daily newsletter
Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
The FCDO was contacted for comment.
Last month, human rights groups called for the Venezuelan government to halt a crackdown on civil society after it jailed prominent lawyer Rocío San Miguel and then banished a UN human rights office from Caracas for criticising her arrest.
“The expulsion of the UN high commissioner and his office is the latest attempt from the government to isolate itself from international scrutiny on its human rights record,” said Valentina Ballesta, Amnesty International’s researcher for South America. “The international community must not give up on shining a spotlight on this issue.”
Maduro and other senior Venezuelan officials have been accused by the UN human rights council of committing crimes against humanity, including torture, kidnapping and extrajudicial killings. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/21/motherhood-exhausting-feminists-1970s-exhibition | Opinion | 2023-11-21T12:20:19.000Z | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett | Motherhood is exhausting - but this week I was reminded that we’ve come a long, long way | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett | ‘S
ay what you want about millennials, but this is a generation of hands-on dads.” If you’re a parent on Instagram, you have probably seen a video using this template by now. Against a background of saccharine music, users show their male partners lovingly interacting with their children. It’s cheesy and self-congratulatory, and if I did it to my husband I think he would be utterly mortified. But there’s also something cheering about it. This is a generation that has been bashed by its predecessors for supposed entitlement, so such videos represent a gentle, if sentimental, rebuke – an assertion that we are doing things differently when it comes to childcare.
And we are doing things differently, there’s no doubt about it. Millennial dads show up for their kids. They spend three times more time with their children than previous generations, and whereas in 1982 almost half of dads (43%) admitted to never having changed a nappy, that figure had fallen to 3% by 2000. Indeed, you could go so far as to say that refusing to change a nappy – or complete other childcare tasks – would be met these days with the utmost scorn, not just from women, but from other men. It would have been highly unusual for a woman of our mothers’ generation to expect such support and input from a male partner. Some did exist: they were called “involved fathers” because the norm was to leave the children to the woman and, though the term still exists, it is highly likely to provoke an eye-roll, as is the suggestion that dads are merely “babysitting” their own kids.
That is a sea change, and in the space of one generation we have come a long, long way. Watching BBC archive interview footage from 1973, I was reminded of the retrograde attitudes towards women and work in our mothers’ lifetimes. The vox pop question is posed: “Is a woman’s place in the home?” and the responses, from men and women alike, are predictably unreconstructed. “I don’t believe in women’s lib from sheer biology,” says one woman. “They get too domineering, if you give them too much money,” says one man. “It should be the man who earns the money.”
This week I went to the Women in Revolt! exhibition at Tate Britain, a survey of feminist art and activism between 1970 and 1990. At that time the introduction briefs us – indeed, as for so much of the last century – women were still “second-class citizens”, with no maternity rights or protection from sex discrimination. There were no rape crisis units or domestic violence shelters, and if you were married you were your husband’s legal dependant. Until the law changed in 1991 he also had the right to have sex with you whether you consented or not.
Walking around and looking at the art that sprang from this parlous set of circumstances was unexpectedly emotional. It opens with a rather depressing painting by Maureen Scott, titled Mother and Child at Breaking Point (1970) – as many no doubt were – and from there takes us through a UK history of the struggle for female liberation in the face of male oppression, much of which relates to work and childcare.
A survey of the daily routines of female workers at a metal-box factory in Bermondsey, produced by Margaret Harrison, Kay Hunt and Mary Kelly, made for sobering viewing: a litany of menial and childcare tasks, plus the making of all of one’s husband’s meals, followed by a factory shift. The Hackney Flashers’ work Who’s Holding the Baby? lays bare the awful state of late 1970s and early 80s childcare, and the isolation that many mothers faced. The artwork was part of a campaign for more shared care and better childcare provision, and includes a newspaper front page about a young mother who threw herself from a tower block with her two-year-old son in her arms.
A moment that changed me: I heard people sneer at me – and my mummy guilt turned to anger
Read more
There is a bleakness to some of the work. But I was left feeling inspired and hopeful that so many women in challenging circumstances were able to channel their anger into art and activism – often while also shouldering the lion’s share of the childcare. I left with a feeling of gratitude for our feminist forebears, including the women of Greenham who envisaged a nuclear- and war-free world for their children, and the feminist campaigners whose commitment to anti-racism, LGBT+ rights and disability rights have helped shape society today.
Yet in the days since I’ve also been troubled by the question of how much has really changed, at least for mothers. Huge strides have been made in terms of equal rights, and men are certainly taking on more of the childcare. But housing is so expensive that it requires two incomes, and working mothers are still performing the bulk of domestic labour, with many reaching breaking point during the pandemic.
I don’t mean to sound downbeat, but the Republic of Parenthood isn’t all sunny uplands, despite what the cheesy Instagram reels may have you believe. Someone really needs to do a spoof showing a man scrubbing the toilet and performing the other menial domestic tasks that motherhood involves, for a start. In fact, it’s the comedy that millennials are producing – in the form of reels, podcasts, and standup routines – about the daily battles and chaos of parenthood that give me the most hope. Perhaps they’ll grace the walls of a gallery some day.
What’s working
My son, who took his first steps at a corrected age of 17 months, is now walking confidently and steadily, though I’m secretly pleased that he still loves to hold my hand rather than running off over the horizon. I am so proud of him.
What’s not
The weather. Never is the absence of places to go with a toddler more apparent than during the cold, dark days of November when the rain is pouring down and your child is stuck inside climbing the walls. I can’t work out why there aren’t more parent-friendly cafes with playrooms. The ones we’ve been to are great and seem to be thriving, so there’s clearly a market there.
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/27/marquez-overtakes-cervantes-as-most-translated-spanish-language-writer | World news | 2023-03-27T05:00:40.000Z | Sam Jones | Márquez overtakes Cervantes as most translated Spanish-language writer | The solitary denizens of Macondo appear to have proved too much for a famously insane knight errant, according to research that shows Gabriel García Márquez has overtaken Miguel de Cervantes to become the most translated Spanish-language writer of the century so far.
However, the genius who gave the world Don Quixote – and with him the first modern novel and a byword for impractical idealism – can take comfort in the fact that he remains the most translated writer in Spanish over the past eight decades.
The findings emerged after the Instituto Cervantes, which promotes Spanish language and culture around the world, began crunching data to put together its new World Translation Map.
In order to build up a picture of which Spanish-language writers were being most widely translated into 10 different languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Swedish – the institute consulted the Online Computer Library Center’s WorldCat database, which contains 554,858,648 bibliographic records in 483 languages.
Using that data, it has put together a searchable map of works translated from Spanish between 1950 and the present day. The start date was chosen to take into account el boom, when Latin American writers including García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes and Julio Cortázar broke through to worldwide acclaim in the 1960s and 1970s.
Raquel Caleya, head of culture at the Instituto Cervantes, said the map would be enlarged in the future to take as many languages as possible.
“The idea was to distill all that data to make that information available and searchable for the public,” she said.
“We wanted to help researchers – and anyone else – to analyse and visualise large quantities of information in a more efficient way. It will allow us to know what people are reading, what they’ve read – and to pay tribute to the all the translators who are working to disseminate books translated from Spanish since 1950.”
Caleya said that as well as identifying trends, the map would also help the Instituto Cervantes to develop policies to make sure authors writing in Spanish are accessible to readers all over the world.
A glance at the 10 most translated authors across all 10 languages from 2000 to 2021 shows García Márquez at number one, followed by Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges, Mario Vargas Llosa, Cervantes, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Luis Sepúlveda, Roberto Bolaño and Javier Marías.
However, the results over the map’s entire timeframe look rather different. Cervantes pips García Márquez to the top spot, with the late Colombian Nobel prize winner finishing ahead of Allende, Borges, Vargas Llosa, Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Fuentes, Pérez-Reverte and Ruiz Zafón.
The 2000-2021 map also reveals interesting differences between languages. The Chilean-French film-maker and writer Alejandro Jodorowsky is the most translated Spanish-language writer in French, while the two writers most translated into English are Allende and the Spanish children’s author Isabel Sánchez Vegara.
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, who used his gourmand detective Pepe Carvalho to chronicle a changing Spain, makes the top 10 only in Italy, where Andrea Camilleri named his own detective, Inspector Montalbano, in honour of the Spanish writer.
Caleya said that while Allende was doing very well in the rankings, women as whole were very under-represented on the map. Its top 10 female authors are: Allende; Sánchez Vegara; Saint Teresa of Ávila; Laura Esquivel; Alma Flor Ada; Anna Llimós Plomer; Almudena Grandes; Paloma Navarrete; Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Zoé Valdés.
“I do miss the women, which is why we’d like to look for and find more, although there are some in the rankings,” said Caleya.
She said it was also interesting to see how the big names of el boom had fared over the years.
“You can also see that some boom authors age better than others depending on how much they’re still being translated,” she said. “Julio Cortázar was very translated at one time and then that went down. Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel prize, but even before that, everything he wrote was being translated. The Nobel is still great global publicity.”
As well as trends – a 20% rise in translation of Spanish-language authors in 2003, which could be attributed to the interest generated that year by the death of Vázquez Montalbán and Pedro Almodóvar winning an Oscar for his screenplay for Talk to Her – other factors are in play.
“One Hundred Years of Solitude was a phenomenon in its own right, but when Bill Clinton said Gabriel García Márquez said was one of his favourite authors, that had an effect,” said Caleya. “It’s a bit like when Clinton said the best sunset in the world was in Granada – and Granada filled up with Americans.”
The World Translation Map, which has been created in collaboration with the Spanish government’s directorate for Books and Reading Development and the National Distance Education University’s Digital Humanities Laboratory, will be unveiled in Cádiz on Wednesday at the ninth National Spanish Language Congress.
However the map evolves in the future, Caleya is certain that one author and his best-known work will always remain fixed points.
“The Quixote is a universal classic, but if many of the works of our creators writing in Spanish in our century also become universal classics, then that’s very welcome,” she said. “But the Quixote is unbeatable and always will be – no matter how many Nobels there are.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/18/tories-end-onshore-windfarm-subsidies-2016 | Environment | 2015-06-18T08:40:48.000Z | Patrick Wintour | Tories to end onshore windfarm subsidies in 2016 | The Conservatives will end subsidies to onshore windfarms from 1 April 2016, a year earlier than set out in the previous Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition agreement.
There will be a grace period for projects that already have planning permission, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said.
Labour claimed the announcement jeopardises 1,000 wind turbines that are awaiting planning permission and cannot make a profit without a government subsidy.
The onshore wind industry attacked the move as a costly political intervention, while trade body RenewableUK called for an urgent meeting with the new energy secretary, Amber Rudd, to discuss the implications of the announcement.
Rudd and the communities secretary, Greg Clark, are also to press ahead with plans to give local communities – rather than national government – the right to veto windfarms.
There will also be two new “planning tests” so that councils can only approve windfarms on sites that have been clearly designated as part of a local or neighbourhood plan, and where the proposed project has the backing of the local community.
Solar panels on a roof in Totnes, Devon. Amber Rudd claims solar power is just as cost-effective as onshore wind. Photograph: David Pearson/Alamy
The funding for the subsidies comes from the “renewable obligation”, which is funded by levies added to household fuel bills.
Rudd said her announcement should not come as a surprise to the industry since David Cameron had said the subsidies would be ending early and the change had been clearly signalled.
She told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “This cannot come as a surprise to the industry. It was alerted by previous Conservative energy ministers and by the prime minister.”
She said she was engaged in discussion with the Scottish government, which has warned it may seek a judicial review of the decision.
And Rudd insisted the change to the timetable would not mean the government could not meet its targets for renewable energy by 2020, saying there were enough decisions in the pipeline to ensure such targets were met.
But the European commission warned on Tuesday that the UK was set to miss its key EU renewable energy target for 2020, and told the government it should review its policies to get back on track.
The Scottish government’s energy minister, Fergus Ewing, has said it is irrational to reduce or scrap onshore wind subsidies. He claimed, citing figures from Scottish Power, that British consumers could end up paying between £2bn and £3bn more in bills. Scotland would be home to 70% of planned future windfarms and the Edinburgh government claims it has not been consulted by the UK government.
People’s fuel bills will increase directly as a result of this government’s actions
Maria McCaffery
Downing Street dismissed the commission’s warning and denied claims that scrapping subsidies could cause bills to rise. “The priority is making sure we keep bills down for consumers and families and making sure communities have more of a say over what happens in their area,” Cameron’s official spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Rudd rejected protests from the industry that she was intervening just when it was on the way to maturity. She said solar was just as cost-effective and had nearly reached grid parity.
She said: “We have to create a balance between supporting the industry, reaching our targets and looking after the taxpayer.” By 2020 she said windfarms would provide 10% of the energy the UK needed.
She also confirmed she was content for the Chinese government to invest in new nuclear plants in the UK, despite its questionable nuclear safety record. She said Chinese investors would be subject to UK nuclear safety regulation standards.
Caroline Flint, the shadow energy secretary, said renewable energy investment was undermined by the mixed messages of Cameron’s last government, and “sadly that looks set to continue”.
“Onshore wind is the cheapest and most developed form of clean energy and there are 1,000 projects whose investment plans could be affected by the latest moving of the goalposts. Ministers need to make clear which projects exactly the grace period will apply to,” Flint said.
In an attempt to show that Cameron was not abandoning the green agenda, the Tory 2015 manifesto also agreed to press ahead with an intensification of offshore windfarms.
A windfarm off the coast of North Wales. Photograph: Alamy
Energy is a UK government responsibility, but Ewing earlier this month wrote to Rudd, saying: “It is disappointing that I have not had the opportunity to engage with you on this ahead of it being a matter for speculation in the press.
“We have not received any information from your department on the possible options you are considering or what analysis has been done to assess the impact on projects in Scotland.”
Ewing warned that changing previously agreed subsidies would cause a crisis of confidence with business.
His letter said: “Any lack of clarity on the UK government’s intentions has the potential to stall a very substantial pipeline of investment in the UK and Scotland and dent [our] reputation with developers and inward investors.”
Environmentalists and the wind power industry accused the government of attacking the cheapest form of renewable energy, and said the move would send a “chilling signal” to investors.
Maria McCaffery, chief executive of RenewableUK, said: “The government’s decision to end prematurely financial support for onshore wind sends a chilling signal not just to the renewable energy industry, but to all investors right across the UK’s infrastructure sectors.
The green Pope: how religion can do economics a favour
Read more
“It means this government is quite prepared to pull the rug from under the feet of investors even when this country desperately needs to clean up the way we generate electricity at the lowest possible cost – which is onshore wind. People’s fuel bills will increase directly as a result of this government’s actions.”
RenewableUK also said senior economists in the sector had calculated
that billpayers could end up paying £3bn more because of
commitments to meet binding targets.
Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, said pulling “support for [the] cheapest low-carbon power” was a fail by the government.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem former energy and climate change secretary, said: “Anti-wind power Tories will put up electricity bills, cut green jobs and reduce investment.”
Windfarm subsidies: political interest trumps the national interest
Damian Carrington
Read more
The announcement comes on the same day as the pope is to deliver his encyclical on the environment, which, environmentalists hope, will add momentum for a strong climate deal at a crunch UN summit in Paris this December.
The Green party’s leader, Natalie Bennett, said: “The government’s plans to end subsidies for onshore wind farms are short-sighted and irrational.”
Emma Pinchbeck, head of climate and energy policy at WWF UK, said: “The proposed cuts to onshore wind will drive out investment in the cheapest form of renewable electricity and put up energy bills.”
She added: “The prime minister is showing leadership on securing a global agreement on climate change [in Paris]. The government needs to close the gap between this international commitment and their domestic policy decisions if it is not to undermine his credibility on the international stage.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artblog/2008/jul/21/whicharetheworldsugliestbuildings | Art and design | 2008-07-21T11:15:00.000Z | Jonathan Morrison | Which are the world's ugliest buildings? | Butterflied roofs should be avoided at all costs ... St George Wharf, London
Something magical happens when dictators and architects fall in love. The offspring, these days, is usually triangular.
Dictators understand the power of architecture. Saddam Hussein was an enthusiastic patron, and particular fan of marble. Hitler's favourite was the architect Albert Speer. Norman Foster recently built the Orwellian-sounding (and very triangular) Palace of Peace and Reconciliation for the dodgy regime in Kazakhstan. Take a look. Remind you of the all-seeing eye much?
Architects, left to themselves, mostly produce wonderful buildings with one eye on the sensibilities of the man on the street. Give them a tyrannical patron, and all sense of proportion - the human scale - vanishes. Just look what the North Koreans built: the Ryugyong Hotel.
"The more centralized the power, the less compromises need to be made in architecture," said Peter Eisenman when asked why architects like working for dictators. Let's hear it for compromise and decentralisation, then. The main aesthetic crime committed by the Ryugyong Hotel - as by most dictators' commissions - is its sheer monumentality: it's just so unnecessarily huge. Such colossal buildings seem to crush the human spirit, and do so knowingly. Then again, only an oversized ego builds oversized buildings - as if trying to reduce everything else to the significance of an ant farm. In architecture, ugliness and contempt are synonyms. This is a building that clearly hates people.
Is it the world's ugliest building? It'll make most lists - but there's a lot of competition. For my money, the world's five worst have got to be:
1. House of the Republic (now Palace of the Parliament), Bucharest
Nicolae Ceaucescu's monumental folly still holds world records for the largest civilian administrative building, most expensive administrative building, and heaviest building in the world. Constructing it required demolishing much of Bucharest's historic district, including 19 Orthodox Christian churches, six Jewish synagogues, three Protestant churches, and 30,000 residences. It's still unfinished.
2. Buckingham Palace, London
Home to the second-longest lasting unelected head of state in the world, let's face it, it's monolithic and could have been built by Stalin. Nash no doubt did his best to beautify a pig, but a pig it remains.
3. Ryerson University Library, Toronto
Proving that democracy can also be brutal (just ask the Iraqis), this 11-storey tower looks more like a second world war fortification than a temple of learning. The sort of place you wouldn't want to be late returning books to.
4. Any McDonald's drive-thru, anywhere
They are to architecture what the Happy Meal is to nutrition. And they're always the same. Everywhere. Around the world. No matter where they've plonked them. Vernacular? What's that?
5. St George Wharf, London
Butterflied prawns are good, butterflied roofs are not. What were they thinking? Occasionally voted the UK's most hated building, it probably wouldn't look out of place in Shanghai.
So - what have I missed out? | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/31/boris-johnson-imperial-measures-unfathomable | Opinion | 2022-05-31T14:13:39.000Z | James Vincent | Boris Johnson’s move to bring back imperial units is pure piffle – and simply unfathomable | James Vincent | Starting a fight between metric and imperial units of measurement seems, at first, like an odd choice for Boris Johnson. From a political perspective. The move is obviously pure piffle: a dumbshow designed to placate (or at least entertain) the conservative base while distracting and antagonising rivals. But knowingly or not, by reigniting what 19th-century observers once called the “Battle of the Standards”, Johnson has tapped in to a long and wild history of anti-metric feeling that encompasses xenophobia, pseudoscience and fears over lost political sovereignty.
My own introduction to the subject came a few years ago when researching the history of measurement. I’d travelled to Paris to see the original metre and kilogram standards, kept under lock and key in France’s national archives alongside the last letter of King Louis XVI and the original engraving of the declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen. There, I learned how the history of the metric system is entwined with the events captured in these documents: the end of the French monarchy and the beginning of French republicanism.
Prior to the introduction of metric units, France’s system of measurement was in disarray. The right to define units of length, capacity and weight was a privilege of the nobility, which led to a profusion of units, often traded under different values while retaining the same name. “[T]he infinite perplexity of measures exceeds all comprehension,” the English agriculturist Arthur Young commented when visiting the country in 1789. “They differ not only in every province, but in every district and almost in every town.” This metrological excess not only stymied economic growth, but enabled widespread cheating and exploitation of the peasantry.
As a result, reforming weights and measures was high on the revolutionary agenda, and seen as a way to restore power to the ordinary woman and man. The French intellectual elite, the savants, decided that instead of using units of length like the pied du Roi (which literally means “the foot of King” and is traced back to the rule of Charlemagne), France would have the metre; a unit derived from the latest scientific research and defined as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole. Here, the political intent of the metric system becomes clear: instead of trusting to the disembodied authority of a long-dead king, the revolutionaries chose to embrace rational knowledge and the shared inheritance of the Earth.
Naturally, this was the cause of a great deal of suspicion in the UK. And in the following century, as metric units spread across Europe and the debate over their adoption gained momentum in the UK, anti-metric campaigners marshalled all manner of bombastic arguments. They decried the metric system as overly complex, unnatural; the product of atheist revolutionaries, and – worst of all – foreign.
Boris Johnson to reportedly bring back imperial measurements to mark platinum jubilee
Read more
After a vote for metric conversion nearly passed through the House of Commons in 1863, an editorial in The Times warned that adoption of the metre and kilogram would fill every household in the land with “perplexity, confusion, and shame”. “It is of no use to urge that other countries have undergone this revolution, and survive,” thundered the author. “What are France, the Zollverein, and Portugal to us? They are accustomed to revolutions, earthquakes, and wars.” Sadly, such exceptionalism and xenophobia hardly sound out of place today.
Other arguments arrayed against metrication ranged from the obscure to the practical. One popular theory was that the inch was a divine unit of measurement bestowed upon humanity by God; its value encoded into the dimensions of the Great Pyramid at Giza to last all time. Others noted the practical benefits of units that divide easily into halves, thirds, and quarters (an undeniable advantage at a time when many consumer goods were not pre-packaged). Ultimately, though, the real reason the UK retained the imperial system is captured in the name itself: it was the economic weight and geographic span of the British empire that ensured that the threat posed by foreign measures could be safely ignored.
There are obvious reasons to cherish and respect imperial units of measure. They have a rich history; their origins date back hundreds of years before the empire ever existed. And their cultural significance remains undimmed in many areas of life. Very few of us would countenance the removal of pints from pubs, for example. But touting the “return” of imperial units to shops is just disastrously retrograde. The logistical burden it would place on supermarkets could lead to increased prices at a time when many household budgets are already stretched thin, while polls show that younger generations are increasingly happy with metric measures. By kindling this debate, Johnson and the Conservative party have certainly keyed in to an emotive and overlooked aspect of our history. But the return of imperial measures is simply unfathomable.
James Vincent is a journalist and author. His first book, Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement will be published shortly | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/feb/24/ukraine-society-kiev-protests-natalya-vorozhbit | Stage | 2014-02-24T13:27:31.000Z | Natal’ya Vorozhbit | Natal'ya Vorozhbit's play for Ukraine: 'We want to build a new and just society' | Today – 22 February – it is particularly hard to write. Too many things have happened in one day: Yanukovych's impeachment; the crowds entering and walking about in his luxury palace in Mezhigorye; Yulia Tymoshenko's release; the police's admission of guilt; the return to the 2004 constitution …
Only three days ago, such things would have been unimaginable. Three days ago, protesters were being murdered. On the night of 18 February the town shuddered with explosions almost every minute. On the 20th, snipers shot at living targets on the Maidan (Independence Square). A bright sun shone – the better for them to see their targets. And today we should be celebrating victory, but we aren't. For the second day we are saying farewell to fallen heroes on Maidan. Saying farewell to the "heavenly hundreds" – for that is what the people are calling them. It's hard to imagine anything more emotional, more overwhelming.
Three months ago, on 21 November 2013, a process began in the Ukraine that has had many different names. Some people have called it a revolution, some have called it protest, a revolt against the authorities, a fascist plague, the return of the Cossack Host, an antisemitic plot, a Jewish plot, a Russian plot, the fight for Ukrainian identity.
The main square in Kiev, the Maidan, became the heart of this process. It was to this place that people came, and are still coming, from all over Ukraine. They lived here for three months – here they stood – cold, hopeful, disillusioned – and here they died. Here they held weddings, they fought and they bade farewell to their dead. And what for? Who were these people? It was us. We were these people.
Natalya Vorozhbit in Ukraine. Photograph: Natalya Vorozhbit
On 22 November we came together to protest peacefully against the president's decision to choose a customs union with Russia over European integration. What does a customs union with Russia mean for the Ukraine?
Only a loss of independence, censorship, dictatorship, a return to the hated Soviet Union. Putin's government is a government of darkness. Our protest was peaceful for two months. It remained peaceful even after the special forces drove off students with bloody force. But the aims of the protesters on the Maidan had naturally changed and had become more definite by then. We wanted the guilty to be punished, we wanted political prisoners to be freed.
None of our requests were being granted. A period of repression began, of persecution, the beatings of protesters and the introduction of harsh and inhumane laws. There were a few attempts to break up protests with force.
With wooden sticks and shields, Ukrainians defended their right to free expression. Churches rang their bells and Kievans came out in the middle of the night to defend the Maidan, the symbolic place of our protest – and we defended it sucessfully. On 19 February the first shots rang out – snipers shooting down protesters trying to make their way to the Presidential Administration Building.
The rows of special forces wouldn't let them pass and the more radical protesters tried to push past with force. It was a bloodbath. It's a few days ago now, but we are still finding the mutilated corpses of protesters. They wanted to frighten us. But there was no way back by now. I want to stress that no one political party led or leads the Maidan protests. None of the opposition politicians became leaders on the Maidan.
Throughout the whole three months, my theatre colleagues and I gathered interview material for a play. We talked to people with every possible viewpoint: students, Cossacks, radicals, doctors and volunteers, we listened to each other. We are now using these interviews to put together a production.
The first staged reading will be in Moscow on 11 March. Our task has been to capture the reality, to challenge stereotypes and open people's eyes to what is happening in Ukraine, as outside Ukraine there are so many misconceptions.
Theatres in Poland and Germany are already waiting for this material and we will definitely show it in Kiev. There were so many writers, musicians, artists and directors all working on the Maidan. The level of involvement was striking. We were performing our duty to society, as well as to art.
Along with other Kievans we brought food and warm socks to Maidan, we built barricades. Simply because there are things that you just have to do – you can't not do them. You couldn't not come to the Maidan, or abstain from the fight with a criminal government and a corrupt state. I feel bound to declare that we are not terrorists, nor are we extremists or nationalists. We want to build a new and just society with humane and democratic legislation, we want to be proud of our country, to develop its culture and look after its old people and live in a lawful state. We have none of these rights now. Does that make us idealists? Yes. Only idealists will succeed. But we aren't irresponsible: we understand that success comes with heavy responsibilities.
It will be a struggle to realise our dreams. We live among the ruins that we have inherited. We have no experience. There is plenty to trip us up. It might be easier not to succeed, then we could just shrug our shoulders and say we'd tried but we were beaten down … But we will succeed, and huge responsibility will fall on us. We'll be disillusioned, without a doubt. It will be easy for others to sneer and say, look where you've got with your protests and revolutions.
Yes, we'll have to answer for our victory for a long time. But we will try and we will learn. It's the inevitable process of evolution. Our children will have easier lives. That's my religion now.
I keep saying "we". I suppose it isn't right. I should really only speak for myself. But during these three months we really did become "we". I no longer feel an isolated individual.
Natalya Vorozhbit is a Ukrainian playwright and scriptwriter. Her play The Grain Store, which explores a Stalinist genocide-famine that killed seven million people in Ukraine and its neighbouring lands in the 1930s, was performed by the RSC in 2009. Her adaptation of a Gogol short story Viy has been staged in many theatres in Russia and Ukraine.
Translated by Sasha Dugdale | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/mar/06/george-michael-outed-review-this-will-make-you-love-him-even-more-than-you-did-as-a-screaming-teen | Television & radio | 2023-03-06T22:00:18.000Z | Chitra Ramaswamy | George Michael: Outed review – this will make you love him even more than you did as a screaming teen | Los Angeles, 9 April, 1998. Two days after George Michael is arrested by an undercover police officer for performing a “lewd act” in a Beverly Hills public toilet. His cousin, Andros Georgiou, rushes from London to be by his side. Outside Michael’s house, more than 50 international camera crews are gathered. There are helicopters overhead; paparazzi everywhere. Georgiou circles the block trying to phone his cousin. Finally Michael answers and apologises for not picking up. He was blow-drying his hair. One of many details in George Michael: Outed that made me love him even more than I did as a screaming teenage girl. Which is a lot.
Inside, Michael explains to his people that he, as Georgiou puts it, “had a few glasses, got a bit horny, and fancied a bit of sex”. Hardly the stuff of the scandal of the decade, but these were viciously homophobic times, as the first episode of this two-part documentary barely needs to reminds us. The tabloids were king, and outing people in the public sphere became a national blood sport. Which is the true scandal of this story. If Outed had a hysteria-inducing headline it might be “Tabloid’s Shame”.
Outside remains the most gloriously proud screw-you disco hit in the history of pop music
It’s zippily told, if almost too entertaining, as the action toggles back and forth between the start of Michael’s career in the 80s, and his arrest a decade later. The kick-ass making-of-a-gay-icon stuff, when he singlehandedly turned the situation around with Outside, which remains the most gloriously proud screw-you disco hit in the history of pop, is saved for the second episode. Perhaps the most powerful effect of Outed is to make you want to immediately revisit Outside. Don’t resist the urge.
It was an open secret that Michael, who died in 2016 on Christmas Day at the age of 53, was gay. His ex-partner Kenny Goss recalls how, when they started going out in 1996, they would walk into the Ivy holding hands. “He was wearing espadrilles and three-quarter length jeans,” is how DJ Fat Tony puts it with an ironic smile. “All the signs were there.” The media made it impossible for Michael to come out, then had a field day mocking him for hiding after he was arrested. Fleet Street was a brutally homophobic place where, as one ex-Daily Mirror journalist puts it, the “shirt-lifting jokes” came thick and fast and “if you were homosexual you had to keep it quiet”. Still, the complete remorselessness of certain former editors remains breathtaking to behold. “We had a motto at Splash News,” says Kevin Smith, founder of the publication that broke the story of Michael’s arrest, behind the wheel of his convertible Bentley. “Your misfortune is our fortune.” “That’s a great headline,” says former deputy editor of the Sun and News of the World, Neil Wallis, slapping the Sun’s famous “Zip Me Up Before You Go Go” edition which contained nine pages on “the fatal flaw in the man who wanted to be Mr Perfect”. “What did he expect?” Wallis concludes, invoking the classic tabloids-are-a-mirror-reflecting-society argument. “If you do this sort of thing, it will come out.”
Michael (left) with Andros Georgiou. Photograph: Andros Georgiou
This was (and clearly still is, for some) the world in which Wham! became the biggest band in Europe and Michael was marketed as its ultimate Smash Hits-approved pin-up. And he had grown up with a mother who “had a fear of me being gay” and a father who “wouldn’t even have considered that he could have a gay son”. “The first thing he says, and I’ll never forget it,” says Goss, recalling when he saw Michael after the arrest, “is ‘thank God my mother is not alive to see this’.” As Michael – and I would have liked to hear more from him in the first episode – put it in a radio interview: “If you have the option of hiding when you’re more successful than you ever dreamed you were going to be, what the fuck are you going to do?”
Then came the Aids epidemic. “Everyone wants to touch a pop star,” says Wham!’s manager, Simon Napier-Bell. “Everyone equates Aids as something you can catch by touching someone. How can a pop star say he’s gay?” It was in this frenzy of moral panic that the tabloids began outing people. All the gay men who appear – a former RAF medical officer, social worker and Conservative MP – start crying when they recall the impact of being outed at the time.
As the front pages emblazoned with George’s Shame rolled off the presses and the homophobic jibes spewed forth, Michael responded with pure pop star grace. “‘We’re going out for dinner’,” Georgiou recalls him saying that night in Los Angeles. “He said: ‘Let’s just front this up. I’m not hiding.’ Most people would have locked themselves away.” Georgiou’s eyes begin to glisten. “I’m still so proud of him for that.” Me too.
Sign up to What's On
Free weekly newsletter
Get the best TV reviews, news and exclusive features in your inbox every Monday
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
George Michael: Outed aired on Channel 4 and is on All 4. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/16/eu-declares-war-on-plastic-waste-2030 | Environment | 2018-01-16T15:50:22.000Z | Daniel Boffey | EU declares war on plastic waste | The EU is waging war against plastic waste as part of an urgent plan to clean up Europe’s act and ensure that every piece of packaging on the continent is reusable or recyclable by 2030.
Following China’s decision to ban imports of foreign recyclable material, Brussels on Tuesday launched a plastics strategy designed to change minds in Europe, potentially tax damaging behaviour, and modernise plastics production and collection by investing €350m (£310m) in research.
Plastics found in stomachs of deepest sea creatures
Read more
Speaking to the Guardian and four other European newspapers, the vice-president of the commission, Frans Timmermans, said Brussels’ priority was to clamp down on “single-use plastics that take five seconds to produce, you use it for five minutes and it takes 500 years to break down again”.
In the EU’s sights, Timmermans said, were throw-away items such as drinking straws, “lively coloured” bottles that do not degrade, coffee cups, lids and stirrers, cutlery and takeaway packaging.
The former Dutch diplomat told the Guardian: “If we don’t do anything about this, 50 years down the road we will have more plastic than fish in the oceans … we have all the seen the images, whether you watch [the BBC’s] Blue Planet, whether you watch the beaches in Asian countries after storms.
“If children knew what the effects are of using single-use plastic straws for drinking sodas, or whatever, they might reconsider and use paper straws or no straws at all.
“We are going to choke on plastic if we don’t do anything about this. How many millions of straws do we use every day across Europe? I would have people not use plastic straws any more. It only took me once to explain to my children. And now … they go looking for paper straws, or don’t use straws at all. It is an issue of mentality.”
He added: “[One] of the challenges we face is to explain to consumers that arguably some of the options in terms of the colour of bottles you can buy will be more limited than before. But I am sure that if people understand that you can’t buy that lively green bottle, it will have a different colour, but it can be recycled, people will buy into this.”
We need to talk about plastic bottles Guardian
As part of its strategy, the EU will carry out an impact assessment on a variety of ways to tax the use of single use plastics, although details on potential models were notably lacking from the published strategy documents.
Last week, the budget commissioner, Günther Oettinger, claimed that a levy on plastics could be one way in which Brussels could fill the €13bn hole in its budget left by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
“Let’s study this,” Timmermans said. “In a perfect world the revenues of this tax will decrease very rapidly, we have to check in an impact assessment whether this is a sustainable form of income also for the EU’s finances. I think there is a lot of support out there.”
The place where plastic is a dirty word
Patrick Barkham
Read more
The EU wants 55% of all plastic to be recycled by 2030 and for member states to reduce the use of bags per person from 90 a year to 40 by 2026.
An additional €100m is being made available on top of current spending to research better designs, durability and recyclability and EU member states will be put under an obligation to “monitor and reduce their marine litter”.
The commission said it will promote easy access to tap water on the streets of Europe to reduce demand for bottled water, and they will provide member states with additional guidance on how to improve the sorting and collection of recyclable plastic by consumers.
The EU’s executive is also to propose new clearer labelling for plastic packaging so consumers are clear about their recyclability, and there are plans to ban the addition of microplastics to cosmetics and personal care products, a move that has already been taken by the UK government.
New port reception facilities will seek to streamline waste management to ensure less gets dumped in the oceans under a directive already published.
“More and more it is becoming a health problem because it is degrading, going to little chips, fish are eating it and it is coming back to our dinner table,” said European Commission vice president Jyrki Katainen on Tuesday.
While the EU’s initiative was thick on pledges, and short on detail on how to force member states to act, Timmermans insisted the bloc was serious about the challenge facing them.
Every year, Europeans generate 25m tonnes of plastic waste, but less than 30% is collected for recycling. Across the world, plastics make up 85% of beach litter.
Plastic waste on the shore of the Thames Estuary in Cliffe, Kent. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Timmermans praised Theresa May for her recent strategy on plastics, despite criticism elsewhere that it lacked teeth. He noted, however, that charges on plastic bags, while “presented as a national measure” were “based on a European directive”. A spokesman for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs responded that the UK had proposed the charges on bags before a EU directive had been proposed.
May’s plastic plan is big on gimmicks, but it won’t cut waste
George Monbiot
Read more
Catherine Bearder, a Liberal Democrat member of the environment committee, said: “The EU strategy is far from perfect, but it’s better than what the UK government is offering. Theresa May would have you think she is the fairy godmother of plastics – but she isn’t. I will be long dead before the end of Mrs May’s strategy. I hope the oceans won’t be too.”
Timmermans nevertheless said he believed that the UK’s attitude on plastic was ahead of many member states, and that he was confident that the UK would not undercut any Brussels initiatives after Brexit.
He said: “If you saw the impact that Blue Planet had on the public opinion in the United Kingdom, immediately leading to a reaction by the British government, I think this can happen in most of our member states
“It’s urgent because of the change in the Chinese position. We can’t export these plastics any more to China. The knee-jerk reaction is that we will have to burn or bury it here. Let’s use this opportunity to show we can also recycle it here.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/20/theresa-may-accuses-boris-johnson-of-abandoning-global-moral-leadership | Politics | 2021-01-20T00:32:28.000Z | Jedidajah Otte | Theresa May accuses Boris Johnson of 'abandoning global leadership' | Theresa May has accused Boris Johnson of abandoning Britain’s “position of global moral leadership”, in her most unrestrained attack on her successor yet.
Writing in the Daily Mail ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, the former prime minister had stern words about both the outgoing US president, Donald Trump, and her successor.
May said that, in her view, Johnson has failed to honour British values by threatening to break international law during Brexit trade negotiations and backing out of the foreign aid target, writing that these two manoeuvres had not “raised our credibility in the eyes of the world”.
“Threatening to break international law by going back on a treaty we had just signed and abandoning our position of global moral leadership as the only major economy to meet both the 2% defence spending target and the 0.7% international aid target were not actions which raised our credibility in the eyes of the world,” she wrote.
In her article, May appeared to remind Johnson that he needed to live up to “our values” to have any aspirations for a truly “Global Britain” to play a key role on the international political stage, and urged him to adopt compromise.
“We have been sliding towards absolutism in international affairs: if you are not 100% for me, you must be 100% against me,” she said. “Compromise is seen as a dirty word.”
“We must reject a scene in which a few strongmen face off against each other and instead bring people together in a common cause. But to lead we must live up to our values.”
May and Johnson have clashed repeatedly in the Commons over the past year and a half, particularly over Brexit talks involving Northern Ireland and the Good Friday agreement.
Likening the storming of the US Capitol to “attacks on our own democratic institutions” such as the murder of PC Keith Palmer, who died during the 2017 Westminster terror attack, May condemned Trump for having “whipped up” a violent mob and described the election of a “decent” Biden as the next US president as a “golden opportunity” for Britain to become a force for good in the world again.
“What happened in Washington was not the act of a lone extremist or a secretive cell, but an assault by a partisan mob whipped up by an elected president. I know from experience that leaving power is not easy – especially when you feel that there is more you want to do.”
May was the first foreign leader to meet Trump in the White House in 2017.
This article was amended on 20 January 2021. An earlier version said Theresa May “was the first foreign head of state to meet Trump in the White House in 2016”. The UK prime minister is the head of government, not the head of state; and the meeting took place in January 2017. These errors have been corrected. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/apr/30/saracens-billy-vunipola-arrest-maro-itoje-rugby-union | Sport | 2024-04-30T17:37:50.000Z | Gerard Meagher | Saracens face fresh blow after Vunipola arrest with Itoje set for suspension | Saracens’ woes have been compounded after Billy Vunipola’s arrest in Mallorca with Maro Itoje facing the prospect of a suspension that could rule him out for the club’s end-of-season run-in.
Only 24 hours after news of Vunipola’s arrest emerged, Itoje was cited for a dangerous tackle during Saracens’ 15-12 victory over Bath last Friday. Itoje was on Tuesday night due to appear at a disciplinary hearing with an announcement expected on Wednesday morning.
English rugby must wear salary cap and resist temptation to remove it
Read more
Vunipola, meanwhile, is due to face the music on Wednesday as he makes his first appearance at the club since he was tasered and arrested at a nightclub in Mallorca on a team bonding trip over the weekend. The No 8 paid a fine of €240 (£205) after his arrest on suspicion of a crime of disobedience and assaulting a police officer following an express trial in Palma before flying back to Stansted on Monday. He was also handed a four-month suspended prison sentence.
It is understood the players had a day off on Tuesday, but Vunipola is expected back at the club on Wednesday rather than being given an extended leave of absence.
Itoje was sent to the sin-bin for his tackle on Alfie Barbeary on Friday by the referee, Luke Pearce, but the citing officer has deemed the incident worthy of a red card. If the charge is upheld Itoje faces an entry-point ban of six weeks as contact was made with the head – a suspension that would rule him out of the first two Tests of England’s summer tour of Japan and New Zealand.
Billy Vunipola is expected back at Saracens on Wednesday after his arrest in Spain. Photograph: Bob Bradford/CameraSport/Getty Images
The 29-year-old can expect mitigation, however, and a three-week ban, reduced to two on the basis he attends “tackle school” is a foreseeable outcome. That would still end Itoje’s domestic campaign as Saracens have two regular season matches remaining, though they currently sit in second place in the Premiership and are well-placed to reach the playoffs.
With Itoje’s availability for the run-in cast into doubt it remains to be seen what action Saracens will take against Vunipola. If they opt against imposing a ban on him, the Rugby Football Union could yet charge him with conduct prejudicial to the game.
The union could go as far as to dole out a suspension but working in Vunipola’s favour, it is understood that the warning he received in April 2019 for comments on social media that appeared to support Israel Folau, who had made homophobic remarks, is deemed to have expired.
Sign up to The Breakdown
Free weekly newsletter
The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewed
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
If Vunipola is banned he too could miss out on the run-in and what will be his final matches with Saracens as he prepares for a move to Montpellier in the summer. The Top 14 club are still fully expected to go ahead with the deal despite Vunipola’s misdemeanour in Mallorca.
The incident came to light along with CCTV footage in which Vunipola can be seen laughing while topless and surrounded by police and the bar’s security staff. He was stunned with a Taser twice after the first attempt struck his wallet before being escorted to Son Espases hospital at about 4.30am on Sunday morning.
On Monday, Vunipola apologised and said it was an “unfortunate misunderstanding” while Saracens said in a statement: “Saracens is aware of an incident involving Billy Vunipola in Mallorca. We will of course deal with this incident internally, and will not make any further comment until then.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/dec/02/tesco-to-pay-back-585m-of-covid-business-rates-relief | Business | 2020-12-02T19:35:30.000Z | Mark Sweney | Tesco and Morrisons to repay £850m of Covid business rates relief | Two of the UK’s biggest supermarkets have bowed to pressure and are repaying more than £850m in business rates relief they accepted from the UK government to help the supermarkets deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
In a surprise move, Tesco announced its decision to repay £585m on Wednesday morning. Morrisons followed suit, saying it would repay its £274m of financial support on Wednesday evening.
The government introduced the 12-month business rates holiday in March because it feared the pandemic would strain retailers’ finances, potentially threatening their ability to feed the country. However, the reality proved very different, with big supermarkets enjoying a sales boost, albeit with higher costs.
They have been under growing pressure to return the cash to the government, especially when they have paid out big dividends to shareholders. Tesco paid its investors £315m in October .
Tesco said “every penny” of the rates relief had been spent on responding to the pandemic, but that in making the repayment it was “conscious of our responsibilities to society”. It has said the pandemic added £725m to its costs. Morrisons said its costs had risen by £270m.
Supermarkets should pay back £1.9bn Covid business rates relief, say MPs
Read more
In total, the big six supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl – were in line for £1.9bn in business tax relief during the current tax year, according to figures from Altus Group, a property adviser.
The discounter B&M received a £38m business rates holiday in the first half of its financial year, and has paid out a special dividend of £250m after doubling its profits during the pandemic. .
Tesco’s chairman, John Allan, said: “The board has agreed unanimously that we should repay the rates relief we have received. We are financially strong enough to be able to return this to the public and we are conscious of our responsibilities to society.”
He added: “We firmly believe now that this is the right thing to do and we hope this will enable additional support to those businesses and communities who need it.”
The big supermarkets have been heavily criticised for taking the payouts amid concerns that taxpayer money could have been directed to sectors that really needed the financial support, such as entertainment and hospitality.
Even rival retail executives have weighed in. Last week the chief executive of online electrical retailer AO.com suggested supermarket executives “ask their mum” about whether they should repay their business rates relief.
He said AO had recorded bumper sales of freezers and TVs this year and had handed back its £300,000 of business rates and furlough support because he wanted to “be proud of the decisions we’ve taken”.
Tesco said the government made the right decision to offer the support at the beginning of the pandemic, when the supermarkets’ supply and delivery systems faced being overwhelmed by panic-buying and mass sick leave among staff.
“[There was a] real and immediate risk to the ability of supermarkets to feed the nation,” it added.
But Tesco’s new chief executive, Ken Murphy, said “some of the potential risks” were “now behind us” and that handing the money back was “absolutely the right thing to do”.
Tesco's £315m dividend must look indecent to Covid-hit hospitality firms
Nils Pratley
Read more
The other supermarket chains will now be under even more pressure to follow suit. Sainsbury’s and B&M declined to comment while Asda did not respond to a request for comment.
The Co-op said the amount it had spent on protecting staff and customers outweighed the savings it had made, but added that it would “consider the government support we’ve received at year end”.
Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk
A spokesman for the John Lewis Partnership, which owns Waitrose, said it was grateful for the financial support “because we have lost significant sales while our John Lewis shops have been closed, and have invested heavily to keep our partners and customers safe”.
He added: “The outlook remains incredibly uncertain and government support remains crucial to help us navigate the crisis.”
Shares in Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and B&M all fell on Wednesday as a result of the Tesco move. Morrisons’ announcement came after the market had closed.
The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, welcomed Tesco’s move on Twitter and called on other big supermarket chains to follow suit. He added: “The money should be earmarked for tier 3 areas and the 3 million people excluded from public support.”
The Scottish government welcomed Tesco’s move, saying the estimated £60m to be repaid in Scotland would now go to the businesses “hardest hit” by the pandemic.
The business rates holiday: how much is it worth*?
Tesco £585m
Sainsbury’s £498m
Asda £297m
Morrisons £279m
* In a full year. Source: Altus | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2022/nov/02/australia-face-tall-but-not-mathematically-impossible-task-to-keep-t20-hopes-alive | Sport | 2022-11-02T00:04:56.000Z | Geoff Lemon | Australia face tall but not mathematically impossible task to keep T20 hopes alive | Geoff Lemon | And now, the end is near. And so we face the final curtain. A bit dramatic for the end of the group stages of a Twenty20 World Cup, but soon eight teams out of a dozen will be heading home or to their next assignments, thinking about what might have been and the disappointment of what wasn’t. And in Group 1, at least, the matter of which two teams get to stay a little longer will come down to pure and beautiful arithmetic.
Arriving at this tournament, England and Australia would have been worldly enough to know that they couldn’t expect to walk out of this group. They were diplomatic enough to cite every opponent as a tough competitor who could beat them on a given day. They were seasoned enough to know that this was true. And in their hearts, they would still have known that they should be the two to progress. The two biggest and best-resourced teams, one the host, the other the pace-setter in short form cricket for the last seven years.
England keep T20 World Cup hopes alive with victory over New Zealand
Read more
Australia weren’t expecting to get thrashed by a New Zealand side that routinely folds against them. England weren’t expecting to get jumped by Ireland and a spot of Melbourne rain. So with one game left to play, the big dogs sit level with New Zealand on wins, losses, and washouts, separated only by net run rate: the measure of how quickly a team scores its runs compared to how quickly it concedes them.
Ahead of their final round, let’s take care of the caveats. Yes, Ireland have built a good side after the departure of the golden generation players who won their country full member status at the ICC. There is an Irish giant-killing history at World Cups, and they could beat New Zealand on Friday. Yes, Afghanistan will be playing on a used Adelaide Oval pitch, and can deploy quality spin against an Australian team that still has weaknesses against it. Yes, Sri Lanka on a good day are more than capable of beating England in Sydney on Saturday, even if their bad days have been prevalent in this tournament.
And with all that said, none of those things are likely to happen when those teams face off in Adelaide. If New Zealand, England and Australia all bank an expected win, New Zealand stay top of the table, thanks to two big margins to start the tournament that gave their rate a supercharge. For England to bridge that gap would mean beating Sri Lanka by about 140 runs or chasing a score in five overs. Put that in the category of theoretically possible but functionally impossible, the same as the minute but extant chance that either Sri Lanka or Ireland could still make the semis with a combination of multiple upset results and absurd run-rate shifts.
What is possible, and for that reason a lot of fun, is that Australia supplanting England is possible. In a normal range of scores, with a variance of one or two runs, Australia would need to beat Afghanistan by about 62 to catch England’s rate. So if England win, Australia need to be 62 runs beyond their margin. If bowling first, it’s not just about keeping the opponent to a low score, but the high-speed pursuit. If Afghanistan make between 100 and 160, Australia have between 12.2 and 13.1 overs to level England, plus whatever margin England could achieve.
Sign up to The Spin
Free weekly newsletter
Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week’s action
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
It’s a tall task, and the ramifications of Australia letting Ireland back into the game from 25-5 on Monday night become all the more stark. But it is possible. And the extra fun part is that Australia play on Friday, England on Saturday. So the Australians will have to go absolutely hell for leather, needing to exceed England’s mark but not knowing by how far. And if they do, England will have to thrash a talented team to catch up. It will change batting orders, tactics, the whole dynamic, in ways that also give underdog teams an opening. It keeps the group alive to the last game. As long as New Zealand do their job against the Irish, then finally this world will have something for the arithmeticians. Divide, subtract, and conquer. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,,1300914,00.html | Film | 2004-09-10T00:00:00.000Z | Steve Rose | Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy | Will Ferrell doesn’t really have the teeth to be a news anchor, but his self-deprecating charm and William Shatner-like enunciation carry off this 1970s comedy with ease. Leader of a quartet of vain, sexist, cerebrally challenged studio presenters, Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy is living the dream at San Diego’s top news channel, until his boss brings in - gasp - a woman : the perky but capable Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate).
Having set up this gender political showdown, though, the story starts to wander off course. It feels as if everybody had a lot of fun sitting round thinking up silly character names and gags about aftershave (“It’s called Sex Panther ... it’s made from little pieces of real panther”), but nobody could be bothered to stay late and finish the script. Which might explain why the climax involves a subtitled conversation between a dog and a bear.
It’s still funny but do these people realise how close to their characters they are? It seems like you can’t get a comedy made in today’s Hollywood unless you’ve got one or more of what’s being dubbed “the frat pack”: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, Owen and Luke Wilson - almost all of whom appear in this film. Perhaps we should just lighten up and have a laugh, but it smacks of missed opportunities, rather than equal ones. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/25/suspect-brooklyn-bling-bishop-robbery-killed | US news | 2024-01-25T17:49:17.000Z | Sam Levine | Man wanted in Brooklyn ‘bling bishop’ robbery killed by US marshals | Law enforcement officials shot and killed a man who was suspected in a 2022 robbery of nearly $1m in jewelry from a Brooklyn bishop that was captured on a live stream.
US marshals attempted to detain 41-year-old Shamar Leggette in a New Jersey hotel on Wednesday afternoon, according to NBC New York. Leggette was killed after shooting at the marshals, two senior law enforcement officials told the outlet. He was listed as one of New York state’s most wanted fugitives.
In July 2022, Lamor Miller-Whitehead, known as the “bling bishop”, was in the middle of a livestreamed sermon in Brooklyn for his Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries, when three armed thieves walked in and demanded jewelry and other goods.
Lamor Miller-Whitehead, a preacher known for his close friendship with New York City’s mayor, was robbed of more than $1m worth of jewelry in July 2022. Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP
They reportedly made off with $1m in jewelry, including luxury watches.
Two men were charged in 2022 with the robbery. Leggette, the third suspect, had remained at large. On Wednesday, Miller-Whitehead said in an Instagram video that Leggette had put a gun in the face of his wife and eight-month-old daughter, according to the New York Post. Leggette had a history of robberies: he previously served nearly seven years in prison for robbery, attempted murder and weapons possession, according to the Post.
“So this is the guy that was at large, and he came and put the gun to my head and ripped my clergy collar off and ripped my chains off, and he was just brutal,” Miller-Whitehead said in the Instagram video.
Miller-Whitehead, who is a friend of the New York City mayor, Eric Adams, was himself arrested in December of 2022 for fraud, extortion and false statements. The indictment alleged that he took $90,000 in retirement savings from a parishioner, promised to help them buy a home and then spent the money on luxury items. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/27/albanese-government-not-engaging-deeply-and-honestly-over-ndis-overhaul-queensland-premier-says | Australia news | 2024-03-27T08:03:49.000Z | Sarah Basford Canales | Albanese government not ‘engaging deeply and honestly’ over NDIS overhaul, Queensland premier says | The Albanese government has been accused of not engaging “deeply and honestly” with states and territories over plans to overhaul the NDIS after a landmark report recommended sweeping changes to restore confidence in the scheme and curb growing costs.
The annual budget for the scheme, which provides crucial supports for more than 600,000 Australians with a disability, is expected to rise to more than $50bn in 2025-26.
The NDIS review, handed down in December and tasked with solving the fast-rising dollar figure among other things, recommended more disability services be provided outside the scheme to relieve the government’s budgetary pressures by lowering the compounding number of new entrants.
Bill Shorten to introduce NDIS reform bill as fight looms with states
Read more
Those services, referred to as foundational supports, would be picked up by the states and territories, with many to be set up within existing settings, such as play groups, early childhood education, and schools.
Anthony Albanese landed an initial deal in December to split the cost of those foundational supports in return for granting the states and territories a further three years of GST funding.
But speaking after the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, introduced a new NDIS bill on Wednesday, the Queensland premier, Steven Miles, said there had been “some flawed communication” between the commonwealth and state and territory governments over whether the jurisdictions would “shoulder any further burden”.
“There has certainly been a sense from our officials and our ministers that the Australian government isn’t engaging as deeply and as honestly with us. And, of course, that causes suspicion. Our suspicion is that they are trying to push costs down back on to the states,” he said.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
The New South Wales deputy premier, Prue Car, also told the ABC on Wednesday the states and territories “really need better consultation from the commonwealth government” on the proposed changes. State premiers and chief ministers had written to the federal government urging it to delay the bill until further discussions.
The bill introduced by Shorten will tweak key definitions that will overhaul how participants receive planned budgets among other changes.
Shorten hit back at suggestions the federal government is keeping the leaders – all but one of which are from Labor – in the dark.
“The alternative would have been to hang on to this bill until budget, and all of a sudden, we’d have had just a couple of weeks to deal with it before winter … We couldn’t win, either we rushed it now or we’re accused of rushing it later,” he told the ABC.
“We’re not asking the states to do any more for their citizens with disabilities than they’re already statutorily required to do. But I accept that different states have wound back some of their disability services apparatus. So we’ve got to work with them.”
The federal government has also invested $11.6m over two years to fund work to create and implement the foundational supports strategy, developed under the social services minister, Amanda Rishworth.
Sign up to Morning Mail
Free daily newsletter
Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
It’s understood the strategy will be considered by national cabinet in the second half of 2024, ahead of a phased approach to implementation.
Greens and disability groups criticise federal government gag on NDIS talks
Read more
The Greens senator Jordon Steele-John backed delays to passing the bill until an inquiry can be held into its implications for those accessing the scheme.
He added he would work with the disability community, which was frustrated about the political bickering over funding for the scheme and disability services outside the NDIS.
“We will not get good results for disabled people if a bunch of non-disabled ministers, federal or state, get together in a room and decide for us what is best for us,” Steele-John said.
“We need to have the principle of ‘nothing about us, without us’ genuinely at the heart of this.”
– Additional reporting by Andrew Messenger, Benita Kolovos and Amy Remeikis | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/dec/08/seth-rogen-james-francos-naked-and-afraid | Television & radio | 2014-12-08T18:19:12.000Z | Jennifer Gerson Uffalussy | Seth Rogen and James Franco's Naked and Afraid: bro-ing out in the buff | Seth Rogen and James Franco continued their shameless and seemingly incredibly enjoyable promotion of their new movie The Interview on Sunday night by appearing on the Discovery Channel’s survivalist reality show Naked and Afraid. It quickly became apparent, however, that Rogen and Franco would not be completing the show’s normally rigorous challenge of lasting in the wilderness without food, water, shelter, or, of course, clothing. Rather, the two participated in a clever spoof of the show’s overly serious and die-hard tone.
Things took a turn for the ridiculous from the beginning: while the traditional format of the show pairs one man and one woman together for the 21-day challenge, Rogen and Franco were both disappointed to learn that they were not going to spend the better part of a month traipsing through the woods with a naked, sinewy female companion but rather one another. (“You’re supposed to be a hot Australian survivalist!” says Franco upon seeing the naked Rogen.) Franco assures us that if he weren’t famous, he would be naked all the time. After taking what they determined to be the necessary, requisite minute to get all the looking at the other naked out, and learning to love and embrace their respective body types, the real “challenge” began.
The problem being, of course, that neither actor had the survivalist skills necessary to compete on the show like a real contestant. Rogen’s qualifying experience was noted as having attended Jewish summer camp and learning traditional Hebrew songs will sleeping in a comfortable bed, while Franco asserted his own abilities based on the types of roles he has played: “I’ve played a knight, I’ve been a boxer, I’ve cut my own arm off, I flew around on a glider and fought Spider-Man. Like, I am well, well equipped for this thing.” For their one survival item each, Rogen brought a role of toilet paper, while Franco brought sunglasses and mugs continually for the camera, giving his best Spring Breakers faces while in the buff.
The brief mini-episode, clocking in at under 15 minutes and serving as a glorified lead-in to the network’s Eaten Alive programme, in which a man promised to be swallowed whole by an anaconda on live television, kept things light and laughable, subsisting mainly on scatological jokes ranging from insistent diarrhea to the risks of drinking “poo water” (which, predictably, causes the former). They cuddled to stay warm at night, they failed to build a fire from toilet paper and sunglasses, they broke the fourth wall and constantly begged the cameramen for food, fire and advice.
On their special episode of Naked and Afraid, Rogen and Franco did what they did best, which was bro it out together and mock their own carefully created slacker personas. Though predictable, it made for entertainment infinitely more satisfying than “drinking the poo of many animals”. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/27/andy-murray-milos-raonic-australian-open-tennis-semi-finals | Sport | 2016-01-27T22:00:24.000Z | Kevin Mitchell | Andy Murray needs to focus on Milos Raonic after off-court distractions | Andy Murray has spent years wrestling with his emotions but after what he agrees has been the most tumultuous week of his career, he reckons he is in good mental shape to make a grab for the Australian Open title that has slipped through his fingers with varying degrees of despair in four finals.
When he plays Milos Raonic in the semi-finals , he will need a clear head if he is to reach a fifth title-decider. “Things have obviously happened with family at other stages,” he said, referring to the collapse and subsequent recovery of his father-in-law, Nigel Sears, in the stands last Saturday, “but not in the middle of a grand slam and with Kim obviously heavily pregnant, as well. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. The last few days were difficult, for sure.”
Friday’s match with Raonic will be his 18th grand slam semi-final – equal with Boris Becker and three more than Fred Perry – and he will find the Canadian a much-changed player from the injury-hindered one he beat on clay in Madrid last year.
Andy Murray downs David Ferrer to advance to Australian Open semi-final
Read more
But that difficulty pales into insignificance alongside the anxiety that has invaded Murray’s world here. With his brother, Jamie, and his mother, Judy, here to support him, he has been able, in the main, to concentrate on his tennis – even though he admitted he would “definitely” have quit the tournament had Sears’s blackout proved to be more serious than it was, requiring him to stay overnight in a local hospital before he flew home on Monday.
How has he coped? “I’m not particularly proud of the way I’ve handled myself on the court and I don’t think that my behaviour on the court has been impeccable,” says Murray.
“I’ve showed a lot of emotion on court and getting upset from the beginning of matches. One thing I’ve done very well is fight for every single point, not given away games and stuff. Even when I’ve been broken, I’ve fought hard in the next game and made it very difficult for my opponents.
“Although I’m not exactly being very positive with myself, I’m still making it very difficult for my opponents and fighting hard for every point. So that’s good. I’m more proud of how I’ve handled myself away from the court. I think I’ve dealt with everything away from the court better than I have on it, probably.”
He admits his mind wandered during his win over Bernard Tomic, before he regathered his composure to advance in the draw. “The match against Tomic, definitely of the four matches in the evenings, for sure [his concentration levels did suffer]. I do think what it would be like to be home just now. Each day that passes I’m closer to that, which is positive. And with each day that passes, it’s also closer to the birth as well, and I get more anxious about that as well, so hopefully everything’s all right in the next few days.”
During Great Britain’s Davis Cup victory over Belgium in Ghent, Murray knew the load was right on him, and he had to strive for professional calm. Did he feel the same here, away from the team environment and responsible only for himself?
“I think it is possible to do it in a grand slam. I think in certain situations I have shown it. The Wimbledon final, the last game of that match, in terms of how I was, like, how it would have appeared to everyone else. I looked fairly calm on the outside – not necessarily how I felt on the inside.
“People also read into those things more. Like, if someone shouts, then they think, oh, that means they’re mentally weak or whatever, or getting really frustrated. But it’s not always the case. There are a lot of players who get extremely frustrated on court and won’t say a word – and it’s not always positive for them. People don’t know.
“Commentators like to speculate what someone is thinking about at different stages on the court. They have no idea what each individual is thinking.”
This is not to give the impression Murray is in a dark place. He was encouragingly upbeat and, when told that a pair of expatriate Scottish ladies called Linda and Agnes have become instant TV stars during the tournament and would like to meet him, he said: “I wasn’t aware of that. Nobody had told me about that. Yeah, I’d be more than happy to meet any of the fans, especially ones who’ve travelled to come and support me.”
Back to business. Murray and Raonic both went four sets in their quarter-finals, Murray accounting for the most stubborn man in his sport, David Ferrer, and Raonic recovering from a slow start to get the better of the ever-eccentric and dangerous Gaël Monfils, who was so determined to do well here he left his mobile phone at home in France.
“I think today was probably the best match I played,” Murray said, “especially in the second and third set. I started hitting the ball better from the back of the court. It was extremely hot in the second set.
“At the end of the set, especially, there were a lot of long rallies, long games, and physically it was tiring. Once I got through that initial fatigue, I started to feel a bit better.
“Raonic is a big server and tries to play short points. He has started this year extremely well. He was unfortunate last year with some injuries, had a few physical issues. I played him in Madrid and he was struggling a bit.
“Then I think he had the surgery on his foot and missed the French and Wimbledon. He’s obviously fit and healthy now and playing well.”
Raonic says of the challenge Murray poses: “Even before I went on court today I was paying attention to what he was doing. Because, far from where we were 14 months ago, we’re both very different and I think improved players from then.
“I have certain aspects that I would like to manipulate and use in my game, and I’m sure he’s going to try to do a lot of different things, too. I think it’s going to be a race to who can get in their own comfort zone first.”
Murray doesn’t actually reside in a comfort zone. His is an agitated state, rarely more so than in this tournament. But the Canadian, a somewhat remote figure, strives for peace in his own way. One of his favourite art installations is Ai Weiwei’s Forever Bicycles. It is showing at the National Gallery of Victoria, where he was spotted wandering around in very non-tennis mode this week.
“I can be very obsessive when it comes to the process and what I need to do for the next match,” he says. “I am constantly considering things. That was a nice escape from myself, and I got to participate in something that I really enjoy, a passion that’s definitely grown for me over the last two years.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/21/nestle-warns-of-new-price-rises-as-inflation-soars | Business | 2022-04-21T11:10:38.000Z | Sarah Butler | Nestlé says more price rises are coming after 5.2% increase | Nestlé, the owner of KitKat, Häagen-Dazs and Felix cat food, raised its prices by 5.2% in the first three months of this year and has said rising costs will force another increase soon.
Mark Schneider, its chief executive, said: “Cost inflation continues to increase sharply, which will require further pricing and mitigating actions over the course of the year.”
Nestlé is the latest major brand owner to issue a warning about the impact of rising prices of raw ingredients combined with higher energy, fuel, labour and transport costs. Greggs the bakers, the consumer goods maker Unilever and the fashion chain Next are among those who have said more inflation is on the way.
The three Fs: why UK farmers fear the soaring cost of fertiliser, feed and fuel
Read more
Fears of shortages of cereals and sunflower oil from Ukraine as well as petrochemicals from Russia have added to existing inflation caused by soaring energy and fuel prices and a bounceback in demand since pandemic restrictions eased in many parts of the world.
Schneider said Nestlé had seen “strong organic sales growth” as it had increased prices “in a responsible manner” in the three months to reflect significant cost inflation. The company confirmed it expected to meet full-year sales and profit targets amid sustained consumer demand.
Prices rose most for Petcare products, up 7.7%, followed by water, up 7.2% while confectionery rose 3%. Underlying sales, excluding the Russian region where the group has halted sales of non-essential goods, rose 7.6%.
Purina PetCare was the largest contributor to underlying growth, with sales rising by more than 10% in Europe as the pandemic-led rise in pet ownership rolls on. Sales of confectionery including KitKats rose by more than 10%.
Matt Britzman, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Hiking prices to keep things moving in the right direction in the wake of input cost inflation certainly won’t be a course of action management want to have to take. But nonetheless, it’s the position Nestlé finds itself in and doesn’t look likely to go away anytime soon.”
He said Nestlé’s sales were being helped by the recovery of cafe and convenience store sales which were affected by pandemic restrictions last year, but that effect was likely to unwind in future.
Britzman added that Nestlé had yet to see any real impact from changes in consumer behaviour from the cost of living crisis which might prompt a switch away from international brands to cheaper supermarket own-label goods. | Full |
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/nov/12/popandrock28 | Music | 2006-11-12T02:08:30.000Z | Jon Savage | Jon Savage on the life and death of Joe Meek | On 12 August, 1966, the Tornados released their last ever record with Joe Meek. Beginning with the sound of waves and seagulls, 'Is That a Ship I Hear?' bore all its producer's hallmarks: the boot-stomping drums, the extraterrestrial keyboard sound, and fierce, fierce compression. Like its predecessor, 'Pop-Art Goes Mozart', it was constructed around a gimmick. Meek hoped that the title and the ocean effects would convince the DJs on the pirate stations - Radio Caroline, Radio London, Radio City et al - to put his new record on heavy rotation. Just when the pirates' influence on the British charts was at its height, it seemed like a good angle.
However, this was not the Tornados' time. On 12 August, Revolver was on its first week in the British record shops. Blonde on Blonde was issued on the same day as 'Is That a Ship I Hear?'. While the Dylan album got detailed track by track rundowns in the British music press, the Tornados got short shrift: 'a whistleable little melody of promise'; 'good of its kind and doubtless a hit three years ago, but not for today's market'. It had been a long slow fall since 'Telstar', number one in the UK for five weeks in autumn 1962: the group hadn't had a hit since late 1963 and there were none of the original members left.
Yet while 'Is That a Ship I Hear?' was a shameless attempt to ride the pirate wave, the flip was something quite different. 'Do You Come Here Often?' begins as a flouncy organ-drenched instrumental and stays that way for over two minutes. By that time, most people - had they even bothered to even turn the record over - would have switched off. Had they remained they would have heard two sibilant, obviously homosexual voices bitching, well, just like two queens will.
The scenario is the toilet in a London gay club, possibly the Apollo or Le Duce. The organist is still pumping away, but that's only background, as the sound dims and the bar atmosphere comes in.
'Do you come here often?'
'Only when the pirate ships go off air.'
'Me too.' (giggles)
'Well, I see pyjama styled shirts are in, then.'
'Well, pyjamas are OUT, as far as I'm concerned anyway.'
'Who cares?'
'Well, I know of a few people who do.'
'Yes, you would.'
'WOW! These two, coming now. What do you think?'
'Mmmmmm. Mine's all right, but I don't like the look of yours.'
(A sniffy pause)
'Well, I must be off.'
'Yes, you're not looking so good.'
'Cheerio. I'll see you down the 'Dilly.'
'Not if I see you first, you won't.'
Exeunt, to swelling organ.
This brief but diverting exchange has the ring of authenticity. Its bickering is not just beastliness but the most important component of the camping which, as English academic Richard Dyer writes, is 'the only style, language and culture that is distinctively and unambiguously gay male'. In its social mode, camp privileges a caustic wit, best expressed by the quick-fire verbal retort, partly as a form of aggression, partly as a form of self-mockery, partly as a form of self-defence. It's an insider code that completely baffles the heterosexual majority, as it's meant to. (Why are they being so horrible to each other? Because it's good sport, and good practice for when you really need it.)
Like the Negro 'dirty dozens' - the ritualised insults of the Twenties and Thirties that have become embedded in rap - the camping spotlighted on 'Do You Come Here Often?' represents a complicated response to a hostile world. Its poisoned psychological arrows can help to control and neutralise the threat of homophobic violence: many bullies are right to fear the queen's forked tongue. Camping can provide a bulwark from which the gay man can sally forth into the world at large: it freezes the typecasting of homosexuals as effeminate, internalises it, and then throws it back in the face of the straight world as a kind of revenge.
However, that long 'mmmmmm', reverberating right through the diaphragm down to the male G-spot, gets to the heart of the matter. Meek's queen bitches are briefly united by an unstable mixture of camaraderie and competitiveness. Ever hopeful, ever alert, the gay man in cruising mode is relentless in pursuit of cock: the usual social rules go right out of the window. Sex drives the gay scene, its iconography, its economy, its inner and outer life. Meek's scenario highlights that heart-stopping instant, that highwire walk between acceptance and rejection that every gay man knows: when the Adonis turns into a Troll - not just the object of your desire but your own self.
'Do You Come Here Often?' was an extraordinary achievement: the first record on a UK major label - Columbia, part of the massive EMI empire - to deliver a slice of queer life so true that you can hear its cut-and-thrust in any gay bar today. Before 1966, homosexuality had been hinted at in odd mainstream records like Donovan's 'I'll Try For the Sun' or the Kinks' 'See My Friends', indeed had saturated Meek epics like 'Johnny Remember Me', but the allusions had been veiled. They didn't offer an insider viewpoint, just a mood or a stray word that seemed to briefly open a door usually locked and barred.
Since the early Sixties, there had been a trickle of products aimed at a market that was so off- the map as to be beyond marginal. Apart from Rod McKuen's vague but signifying spoken-word albums such as In Search of Eros , all of them were on tiny, fly-by-night labels. They took two different forms. Some took the Rod McKuen path: the sad young men, fated to wander through the twilight world of the third sex, condemned, like Peter Pan, to always be on the outside looking in. Their sensitive meditations on lust and loneliness were dramatised by covers of show tunes.
While these tragic figures, in accepting their exiled status, took care to be non-specific, the period's other archetypes were far more feisty. Unlike their more sober compatriots, drag queens could not pass, and so camping was honed into a corrosive chatter that could strip paint at 10 paces. Dovetailing into the market for outrageous adult albums by the likes of Rusty Warren ( Banned in Boston! ), nitroglycerin queens like Rae Bourbon, Mr Jean Fredericks and Jose from the Black Cat offered frank meditations on queer life: 'Nobody Loves a Fairy When She's 40', 'Sailor Boy', et al. Too real and too ghettoised, none had a hope of finding any wider distribution.
There were firm reasons for this state of affairs.
Although the law that would decriminalise it was passing through Parliament during 1966, homosexuality was still illegal in the UK, as it was in the US: punishable by prison and social ostracism. However, laws do not always reflect contemporary realities, and gay people continued to conduct their illegal sexual and social lives. For older men like Joe Meek, pleasure might have been irrevocably stained by guilt but, for the upcoming generation of 20 year olds, the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 was an anachronistic irrelevance. Fuck Lily Law and her evil twin, Laura Norder.
In fact, Joe Meek was unusually privileged, if only he had been able to take some comfort from that realisation. The music industry was one of the few places where gay men could be themselves, and indulge their sexual predilections in a way that was economically viable. Forty years ago, it was far from being the respectable career option that it is today, and indeed derived much of its energy from its outcast status. This was a natural consequence of its roots in showbusiness and theatre, but even more basic was the way in which the sexual and social aesthetic of genuine innovators such as Larry Parnes alchemised the raw material of working-class adolescents into hit parade gold. From 1957 on, Parnes bossed British rock'n'roll, and transformed all his Reginalds and Ronalds into a new Olympus peopled by emotional deities-cum-archetypes like Billy Fury, Dickie Pride, Vince Eager, Georgie Fame. His sensibility, and that of many who followed him, transmuted gay lust into the erotic longing that excited the passions of the young women who pushed these idols into the charts.
Meek arrived as the period's foremost independent producer with John Leyton's summer 1961 smash, 'Johnny Remember Me', an eldritch spasm that epitomised the heightened melodrama of teenage emotions. (Meek used to speed up all his records to achieve that very effect.) It also acted as a metaphor, for those who chose to hear, for the sense of loss and disassociation that many gay men then felt. 'Telstar' confirmed his elite sta tus and, although superseded by the Beat Boom, he was able to pull out huge hits such as 'Have I the Right?' by the Honeycombs, a summer 1964 number one and an oblique comment on his own blocked right to sexual and emotional fulfilment.
This was his last chart-topper, but Meek adapted to the prevailing conditions better than most of his contemporaries. Although identified with Fifties rock'n'roll - Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran in particular - he was too restless and forward-thinking to get totally trapped in the past. He made a stone freakbeat classic with the Syndicats' 'Crawdaddy Simone', a Brit R'n'B record so frenzied that it put the Yardbirds' rave-ups to shame. His 1966 singles with the Cryin' Shames featured the sinuously menacing garage stomper, 'Come on Back', while the overwrought vocal contortions of 'Please Stay' - Meek's last ever hit - attracted the attention of Brian Epstein.
Although he found it difficult to place many of his productions during 1966, Meek was far from being a spent force: his interest in the possibilities of sound remained vital. He also remained a player among the British music industry's gay mafia. During the brief entente cordiale that followed 'Please Stay', Meek accompanied Brian Epstein to witness Bob Dylan's June 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert from the Beatles' box. When the freezing of all 'Telstar' royalties thanks to a copyright dispute threatened to render him bankrupt later in the year, Meek was thrown a lifeline by the EMI chairman, Sir Joseph Lockwood, who offered him a job as an in-house producer.
'Do You Come Here Often?' also emerged into a more open cultural climate. The playwright Joe Orton had used camp's caustic cadences in his smash 1964 West End success Entertaining Mr Sloane : this was the key weapon in his desired 'mixture of comedy and menace'. The extremely popular BBC radio serial Round the Horne featured two flagrant queens talking in the gay argot of the time. Executed by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams, Julian and Sandy's quickfire Polari - that mixture of gypsy language, cockney backward slang, and thieves' cant - slotted right into the verbal surrealism that the Goons had made the hallmark of British comedy.
At the beginning of the decade, Meek had entitled his futuristic but stillborn space concept album I Hear A New World . Music is always ahead of social institutions, and the new world that Meek had dreamt of became tangible after 1963. The Beatles' unprecedented success marked the death knell of the Fifties hegemony, and during the next few years, the agitation for social and sexual liberation gathered pace throughout the Western world: the civil rights struggle, the women's movement, the campaigns for homosexual equality in America and Britain. The long years of stasis and repression banked up the flood, and it was ready to burst.
The most obvious sign of this uprising was teen fashion's hothouse blooms, as young women went Op and young men squeezed themselves into striped hip-huggers and polka-dot shirts - topped off with Prince Valiant bangs. 1966 saw the full mainstream media recognition of Swinging London and its associated fashion, mod. Trumpeting the 'revolution in men's clothes', Life's 13 May cover showed four young men, making like Brian Jones in front of the Chicago skyline. The cutaway teal corduroy jackets, Rupert Bear check trousers and fruit boots were not standard male gear, and the copy played up the freak-ish angle: 'The Guys Go All Out To Get Gawked At'.
Mod's hint of mint was not entirely in the heads of hostile observers. Peter Burton, who ran London's Le Duce in those years, remembered the crossover between the mods and his young gay clientele: 'both groups paid the same attention to clothes; both groups looked much alike.' Not surprising really, as their clothes came from the same shops - initially Vince in Carnaby Street (whose catalogue of swim- and underwear could almost be classified as an early gay magazine) and eventually from the John Stephen shops in the same street. Both groups took the same drug - basically 'speed', alternatively known as 'purple hearts', 'blues', 'doobs' or 'uppers'.
In February 1966, the Kinks had a huge UK hit with their dissection of this Carnebetian army. They backed up the risque 'Dedicated Follower of Fashion' - 'he pulls his frilly nylon panties right up tight' - with some extraordinary costumes, like the thigh-length leather waders sported with such gusto by Dave Davies. On the flip was one of the period's definitive statements of outsider pride, 'I'm Not Like Everybody Else', to be racked up against other garage band staples like the Yardbirds 'You're a Better Man Than I' and the Who's 'Substitute'. These calls for non-conformity and the acceptance of difference were becoming more and more strident.
This urgency defined pop's cutting edge during the first half of 1966: the unforeseen complexities and demands of 1965's emblematic records were amplified, their abrasion and innovation honed to a razor-sharp point. 1966 was a hot year, crowded with clamour and noise as seven-inch singles were cut to the limits of the then available technology. Hit 45s by the Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Supremes, James Brown, the Byrds, the Who, Junior Walker, Wilson Pickett, and Bob Dylan were smart and mediated, harsh and sophisticated, monomaniacally on the one or, raga-like, right out of Western perception into the eternity of one chord.
A blistering hostility was in the air on 12 August, so much so that you could taste it. That day the Beatles faced the first concert of their third American tour, an event marred by the controversy surrounding John Lennon's comment that the group were 'more popular than Jesus'. The formerly inviolable avatars of youth were suddenly vulnerable as DJs burned Beatles' records and the Ku Klux Klan threatened.
Time magazine's 12 August cover - 'The Psychotic and Society' - featured Charles Whitman, the sniper who installed himself in the clock tower at the University of Texas and, without warning, killed 15 and wounded 31 people. The horror triggered an anguished self-examination: Whitman's 'senseless mayhem' was not an aberration but intimately linked to American society. 'Potential killers are everywhere these days,' a psychiatrist warned; 'they are driving their cars, going to church with you, working with you. And you never know it until they snap'.
Across the Atlantic, 12 August saw 'the worst crime London has known this century'. Around 3pm, three police officers stopped a suspicious looking van near Wormwood Scrubs prison, north of the mod stronghold Shepherd's Bush. All three were gunned down by the vehicle's three occupants. A 10-year-old boy saw the whole thing: 'I saw a man shoot the policemen,' he told the newspapers; 'it was horrible and I was so scared.' Cop-killing was a huge taboo, and the nation recoiled.
'Do You Come Here Often?' partook of that season of violence, as did its author. Its candid dialogue uncovered a deep seam of outcast aggression. Camp's downside is that, unless employed with a light touch and a sure understanding of the game's rules, its ritualised viciousness can reinforce the hostility of the wider society. Peter Bur ton remembered that when he was entering the gay scene in the mid-Sixties, nothing 'was more daunting as an encounter with some acid-tongued bitch whose tongue was so sharp it was likely to cut your throat. These queens, with the savage wit of the self-protective, could be truly alarming to those of us of a slower cast of mind.'
Internalised homophobia fuels the twisted expression of an outcast's low self-esteem: instead of fighting the oppressors, why not fight those nearest to hand? Donald Webster Cory's groundbreaking 1951 survey, 'The Homosexual in America', had clearly identified poor self-esteem as one of the greatest threats to gay men's mental health - infecting every aspect of life - but it was difficult, given society's attitudes, to break the cycle of prejudice and self-hatred. Despite his bravado, Meek felt his homosexuality as a deep source of shame. He was too stubborn to tell it otherwise than it was but, ultimately, 'Do You Come Here Often?' presented gay life as a nitroglycerin nightmare.
Born in April 1929, Meek was sensitive, almost clairvoyant, but highly volatile. Brought up as a girl for the first four years of his life by a mother who had hoped for a daughter, uninterested in most boyish pursuits, Joe was called a sissy and left alone by most of his peers. This difference, coupled with his hair-trigger temper, led to the start of the persecution (both real and imagined) that lasted for the rest of his life.
As soon as he could, Meek fled rural England for London, but in the late Fifties, despite his reputation as one of the best sound engineers in the capital, he remained haunted by the fact that his emotional and sexual orientation was illegal. This laid him open, as it did generations of gay men, to ridicule, arrest, imprisonment, violent attacks and - perhaps worst of all - blackmail. In November 1963, Meek was arrested for cottaging, importuning in a public toilet: the news of his conviction made the front page. His friends were amazed. Joe could have had all the young men he wanted, as they were queuing up to be recorded by him: they concluded that he actually liked the risk.
It didn't help that Meek was spooky: obsessed with other worlds, with graveyards, with spiritualism. He claimed to be in regular contact with Buddy Holly through the spirit world, while the negativity that he experienced clung to him like worn-out, not yet shed skin. Charles Blackwell - who arranged 'Johnny Remember Me' - remembered Joe as scarier than Phil Spector: 'He was a split personality. He believed he was possessed, but had another side that was very polite with a good sense of humour. He was very complicated.' Meek terrified the usually confident Andrew Loog Oldham: 'He looked like a real mean-queen teddy boy and his eyes were riveting'.
By mid-1966, Meek's mental state was worsening as his heyday receded into the past. Giving free rein to his instincts with 'Do You Come Here Often?', he gained satisfaction from exposing a reality long suppressed. But this was a small victory, a transient revenge, as the forces ranged against him gathered speed. Jekyll overtook Hyde, as his money troubles and declining fame caused him to up his pill intake and to dabble further in the occult. He was beaten up and his prized Ford Zodiac trashed. He was also threatened by gangsters who wanted to take over the Tornados' management. His paranoia was justified; his loneliness became all-consuming.
Meek's slide into the depths of decline was played out against a minatory pop climate. Disturbance had already hit the US top 10 that summer with Napoleon XIV's banshee 'They're Coming to Take Me Away' and Count Five's 'Psychotic Reaction'. During September and October, the pure punk propulsion of Love's 'Seven and Seven Is', the Yardbirds' 'Happenings Ten Years Time Ago' and the Rolling Stones' 'Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?' rode the year's white line fever right off the rails. The last was an amphetamined apocalypse, glossed thus by Andrew Loog Oldham: 'The Shadow is the uncertainty of the future. The uncertainty is whether we slide into a vast depression or universal war.' Later that autumn, David Bowie's 'The London Boys' and the Kinks' 'Big Black Smoke' delivered bleak cautionary tales of speed psychosis. Meek's own productions - the few that were actually released - had already reached new levels of pill-saturated oddity: the bizarre helter-skelter rhythm of Jason Eddy and the Centremen's 'Singing the Blues', the nuclear-winter visions of Glenda Collins's late protest, 'It's Hard to Believe It'.
Like the Marvelettes sang, the hunter gets captured by the game, and, in January 1967, Meek's game was up. While his last ever single, the Riot Squad's 'Gotta Be a First Time', was dismissed as 'a corny bit of beat', he was implicated by association with a gruesome gay crime dubbed 'the Suitcase Murder'. Although the hapless producer had nothing to do with the young victim's dismemberment, the police interest tipped him over the edge. On 2 February, he burst into a friend's house all dressed in black, claiming he was possessed. The next morning, the 18th anniversary of Buddy Holly's death, he blasted his landlady with his shotgun before eating the barrel himself.
Joe Meek's was an extreme pathology, to be sure, with its incredible highs - just listen to the aerated hysteria of John Leyton's 'Wild Wind' - and annihilating lows, but what remains shocking is just how much his suicidal impulse was shared by many gay men of his generation. In his diary for
11 March 1967, Joe Orton wrote about a conversation he had with his friend Kenneth Williams, by then a national figure in the UK for his appearances in Round the Horne and the Carry On film series. Orton found Williams 'a horrible mess' sexually: 'He mentions "guilt" a lot in conversation. "Well, of course there is always a certain amount of guilt attached to homosexuality".'
Williams talked to Orton about a friend who had been caught soliciting: 'Found in a cottage she was,' he said. 'They gave her a choice of gaol or a mental home. She chose the mental home. "Well," she said, "there's all the lovely mental cock. I'll be sucking all the nurses off. I'm sure it'll be very gay." Kenneth said this man went into the mental home and was given some kind of treatment "to stop her thinking like a queen". The man apparently was very depressed after this and committed suicide. Kenneth then spoke of all the people he'd known who killed themselves ... he told all the stories in a way which made them funny, but it was clear that he thinks about death constantly.'
By early 1967, Orton was so successful and well-regarded that he had access to the new elite. He was approached by Brian Epstein to write the screenplay of the Beatles' third movie, which he titled 'Up Against It'. His diary entry for 24 January describes meeting Paul McCartney and listening to a pre-release copy of 'Penny Lane' and 'Strawberry Fields Forever'. As the public avatar of the new, aggressive homosexuality and, in private, an enthusiastic sex hunter - one of his most memorable diary entries concerned an orgy in a public toilet in Holloway Road in north London, just down the road from Meek's studio - Orton totally rejected Williams's sexual guilt as the holdover from a bygone era.
But even he could not escape its shadow, embodied by his older partner, Kenneth Halliwell. As the playwright's star rose, the balance of their 15-year relationship tipped irreversibly. The more that Orton flaunted his promiscuity and revelled in his success, the more depressed and inhibited Halliwell became. On 9 August 1967, he murdered Orton with nine frenzied hammer blows to the head, and then swallowed 22 Nembutals. Their bodies were found side-by-side in their shared bedsit.
Eighteen days later, the body of Brian Epstein was found in the locked bedroom of his Belgravia house. The cause of death was, according to the coroner's report, 'poisoning' by Cabrital - a kind of sleeping pill. Epstein's mental state had deteriorated since August 1966, after the Beatles' stopped touring: he hadn't been able to attend their last ever show at San Francisco's Candlestick Park because his then current boyfriend, a hustler called Diz Gillespie, had robbed him of money and valuable documents. According to his attorney and close friend Nat Weiss, that accounted for 'his first major depression: that was the beginning of his loss of self-confidence.'
The deaths of Meek, Orton and Epstein occurred just at the point when the freedoms of the Sixties were institutionally recognised, in Britain at least. As well as the relaxation of the laws on abortion and divorce, the famous 1885 statute that had done for Oscar Wilde and several successive generations of gay men was finally overhauled. The Sexual Offences Act, which became law right at the end of July 1967, substantially decriminalised homosexuality: allowing for the existence of gay social and sexual relationships, it removed the threat of blackmail and enabled the first, very basic steps to be taken towards the ultimate goal of total parity.
'Hey, you've got to hide your love away,' John Lennon had sung in one of the Beatles' most poignant songs, and, for almost every adult gay man born before the mid-1940s, the strain of having to do so was psychologically disastrous. In far too many cases, the result was alcoholism, drug addiction, compulsive cruising, crippling guilt, an inability to form lasting emotional relationships - a monstrous waste of lives.
Reactions to the new law within the gay underworld were not always positive: a renewed bout of 'queer-spotting' in the media unleashed all the old venom about bestial 'buggers'. The historian Jeffrey Weeks remembered meeting men who were 'actively hostile, nervous that the new legality would ruin their cosily secret double lives'. In the same way that the gay underworld had existed despite, if not in defiance of, the law, then the long fought-for turnaround towards partial acceptance would not easily erase the decades of vitriol and prejudice. 'We'll be free,' Kenneth Halliwell had exclaimed to Joe Orton in late July, but it wasn't that simple.
Nearly four decades on, 'Do You Come Here Often?' remains sad, eerie, funny, and true: you can still hear its vivid vituperation in the gay hardcore dance records of the 21st century. By the same token, it is time-locked, a bulletin from a pivotal point in homosexual history: that moment when an oppressed minority began to claim its rightful place in society. However, that struggle was not without its sacrifices. Like Orton and Epstein, Meek would not live to see the sun, and his August 1966 single remains testament to the lethal power of the homophobia that, once rampant in Western society, is still virulent. Guilty pleasures can kill.
· 'Do You Come Here Often?' is available on Queer Noises, an anthology of gay records from 1960-78 curated by Jon Savage, out now on Trikont. A great collection of Meek's recordings, including most of the other records referred to here, is available on The Alchemist of Pop: Home Made Hits and Rarities 1959-1966 (Sanctuary UK 2xCD). An expanded version of this article originally appeared in Black Clock (California Institute of the Arts) Issue 4: Guilty Pleasures. Thanks to Steve Erickson
Hey Joe
The sixties' space cadet
Since his death, Joe Meek's reputation as a pioneer of space-age pop and an eccentric English Phil Spector has grown apace. But in the early Sixties the record industry hardly knew what to make of the man who made a series of hits from his home studio at 304 Holloway Road in north London.
Born in 1929 in the Forest of Dean, he developed an early obsession with gadgets which he nurtured while working for the Midlands Electricity Board and which found full rein when he started to make records in 1956. The best-known of these - John Leyton's 'Johnny Remember Me', the Tornados' 'Telstar' - sounded like nothing else and, far ahead of George Martin, Meek used the studio as an instrument, taking mixing desks apart, playing tapes backwards and adding washes of sci-fi inspired effects. The fact that in his studio people played guitar in the bathroom while others sang on the stairs only adds to the fun.
Scorned by the mainstream, Meek launched his own label, so becoming an indie pioneer in yet another field. Members of Meek's house bands became huge stars a decade later - Ritchie Blackmore, who played the guitar solo on Heinz's 'Just Like Eddie', went on to form Deep Purple, along with the Syndicats' Roger Glover, whose guitarist, Steve Howe, joined Yes. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/22/new-jersey-fish-hawk-power-outage | US news | 2023-08-22T14:04:50.000Z | Oliver Milman | New Jersey community loses electricity after bird drops fish on to power lines | An unusual suspect is being sought by police for a power outage in New Jersey: an osprey that dropped a fish on to power lines, causing a nearby community to temporarily lose their electricity.
A fish that fell from the grip of the bird in question landed on a transformer in Sayreville, New Jersey, on 12 August, causing the coils within it to become misaligned, according to Jersey Central Power & Light, a utility company.
This caused about 2,000 people to lose power, the company said. While animals can sometimes cause power outages, “fish are not on the list of frequent offenders”, a company spokesperson said. “We also send our thoughts to the osprey because if you’ve ever dropped your ice-cream cone at the fair, you know the feeling.”
It’s suspected that an osprey was responsible for the unexpected, fishy interruption. The fish’s scales appeared punctured, likely by talons, and it is thought that it was then dropped over the power lines.
Ospreys were previously endangered in New Jersey but are now recovering, with 733 nesting pairs of the large, fish-eating raptors documented across the state in a survey last year. Jersey Central Power & Light said that it regularly inspects its equipment to see if ospreys have nested there, relocating them if necessary.
Police in Sayreville, somewhat tongue in cheek, posted a suspect sketch of an osprey on Facebook, along with a picture of the fish, which was given the name Gilligan, with a “police line do not cross” tape in front of it.
“Please let us not forget the victim in this senseless death,” the police force posted. “Gilligan was a hard working family man. He was a father to thousands of children. The suspect was last seen flying south. If you see him do not try to apprehend him. Although he isn’t believed to be armed he may still be very dangerous.”
Sign up to First Thing
Free daily newsletter
Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
This article was amended on 24 August 2023. An earlier version referred to a “transponder”, rather than a transformer. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/may/29/wayne-rooney-brings-empathy-and-progress-as-dc-united-head-coach | Football | 2023-05-29T08:00:12.000Z | Graham Ruthven | Wayne Rooney brings empathy and progress as DC United head coach | Of all the intimate details that surfaced during the Wagatha Christie trial, DC United fans most likely took note of one point in particular. According to text messages read out in court, Coleen Rooney never much liked Washington DC, which she called “a nice place to visit, but different to live.” Her husband, however, appears to have a much stronger connection to the city and its club.
After two seasons with the club as a player, Wayne Rooney is DC United’s head coach. The former England captain was linked with several jobs – most notably at his boyhood club, Everton – after getting his managerial start at Derby County. A return to Major League Soccer, however, appealed most of all despite DC United sitting second-bottom of the Eastern Conference when he arrived last season – they’d also suffered their worst-ever MLS loss just days before Rooney was appointed.
DC United still finished bottom of the East in 2022, raising doubts over Rooney’s suitability for the job, but this season has been more encouraging. Fifteen games into the season, the club occupy a wildcard playoff place. The rebuild of DC United’s squad is going well and Rooney’s team are playing some good stuff too.
Rooney has carried over much of what worked for him at Derby County where a perilous financial situation forced him to use youth, mostly because almost every other player had been sold to ease bankruptcy concerns. In challenging circumstances, though, Rooney built a vibrant, energetic team who fought for a fanbase that felt the world had turned against them. Youth has been an important part of what Rooney has built in MLS too.
“There’s no point in having an academy if you’re not going to use it,” said Rooney. Teenagers Kristian Fletcher and Matai Akinmboni were promoted to the first team not long after Rooney took over while Theodore Ku-Dipietro (21) and Jason Greene (20) have received regular game time this season. “I always think to bring academy players up brings a good energy,” the Rooney added.
This isn’t to say Rooney hasn’t also used experience – 30-year-old Tyler Miller, Mateusz Klich and Christian Benteke (both 32) lead DC United for minutes in 2023. But there are similarities between the age profile of his current team and the Derby County side that battled fiercely against relegation from the Championship in 2021-22 – DC United’s average age in 2023 is 23.1 while Derby’s in 2021-22 was 22.9.
More similarities can be drawn. DC United embarked on a three-game winning streak in April once Rooney fully leaned into playing into a physical centre-forward (Benteke) with width from two advanced full backs (Ruan and Pedro Santos), the same blueprint that worked well for him at Derby County.
DC United aren’t a possession-orientated team. Only six MLS teams are averaging fewer passes completed per 90 minutes (336) than Rooney’s side this season. Since the switch to a 3-5-2 in April, DC United have dropped even further – to dead last – for passes completed per 90 minutes, but their Expected Goals (xG) per 90 minutes has grown by nearly 25%. Benteke has scored three times in five games.
It may not be the most modern approach, and it could put a ceiling on what DC United can achieve over the course of a full season but, after three years of missing out on the playoffs, any progress is welcome. This is, after all, a franchise that has recently lacked direction. Rooney can only address so much, but DC United are finally heading upwards again, even if some inconsistency remains.
Great players often find the transition into management frustrating due to an inability to handle lesser players – that certainly seemed to be true of Thierry Henry at Montreal. Rooney, however, seems to have a good grasp of man management. He has focused on immersing himself in DC United’s culture to such an extent that he reportedly even considered living with some of his players. It’s unclear whether Benteke would have taken the top or bottom bunk.
Sign up to Football Daily
Free daily newsletter
Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Under Rooney’s predecessor, Hernan Losada, the locker room culture crumbled. The Argentinian departed amid suggestions of internal tension, but Rooney has helped restore the spirit within Audi Field. The 37-year-old has a natural empathy that has rebuilt the confidence of several of his players this season.
That empathy perhaps doesn’t extend to referees who have frequently taken fire from Rooney. “Maybe I shouldn’t ask questions,” he vented after a frustrating loss to Columbus. “I don’t think anything was given to us tonight. It’s a difficult job for the officials, but maybe it’s different here.” The fire that made Rooney such an explosive player is still there now he’s a manager. It’s this quality that inspires players to fight for him.
Rooney (who will be MLS All-Star XI head coach against Arsenal this July) wants to be a Premier League manager at some point in the future. “That’s a goal for me, but you need to put the work in,” he said. Unlike some of his English ‘golden generation’ peers, though – see Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard – he is learning the managerial craft away from the glare of his homeland’s media. Gerrard and Lampard were fast-tracked into Premier League jobs before they were truly ready for them. Rooney is seemingly determined to avoid making the same mistake. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/dec/22/pandemic-scott-wants-to-shapeshift-into-post-pandemic-personal-responsibility-scott-because-thats-where-the-pm-thinks-the-zeitgeist-is | Australia news | 2021-12-22T09:02:56.000Z | Katharine Murphy | Pandemic Scott wants to shapeshift into Post Pandemic Personal Responsibility Scott | Katharine Murphy | At one level, it feels pedantic, three days before Christmas, to be debating the difference between a formal mask mandate and a strong recommendation to wear a mask.
But this distinction is important when public health risks are real, and governments of Australia have spent much of this pandemic congratulating themselves for listening to experts and following the health advice.
If you’ve missed the mask fracas, let’s summarise it quickly.
New South Wales is experiencing a surge of new infections as people head off for their summer break, but the premier, Dominic Perrottet clearly does not want to impose a general mask mandate.
Scott Morrison has been backing in the NSW premier, trialing a new mantra. The prime minister says people need to take personal responsibility for managing their own risks rather than wait passively for instructions.
Scott Morrison insists mask mandates not needed despite health advice to make them compulsory indoors
Read more
In the context of moving from pandemic to endemic, Morrison’s point is valid enough. People do need to exercise more personal responsibility as we make this transition.
But the current health advice is just that: current. It reflects current risk assessments. It reflects what is known right now about the threat posed by the Omicron variant and what remains unknown.
Are we there yet isn’t the test. The advice reflects on-balance judgments by experts about present risk. When the risks are life and death, the nuances have meaning. They matter.
So let’s be clear because the health advice is very clear.
The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) has recommended that face masks be worn in indoor settings “particularly in high-risk settings”.
The advice also says “masks should be mandated in all indoor settings” including retail, hospitality and entertainment.
1:41
Covid update: Morrison refuses to mandate masks as chief health officer says 'wear a mask’ – video
The experts say implementation of mask-wearing measures “should occur prior to Omicron case escalation to have maximum benefit” – which is a polite way of saying do it. Now.
Do not mess around. Get the masks on your people. This is not a drill.
Given compulsion is a way of being clear with people – a way of telling people preventive behaviour has value – some jurisdictions have already imposed mandates in line with the AHPPC guidance.
But despite possessing that very clear advice, Morrison walked out of a meeting of the national cabinet on Wednesday afternoon and declined to use the word mandate in relation to mask wearing.
Now the prime minister did strongly encourage people to wear masks in indoor settings. At the end of his remarks, he also demonstrated putting on his mask before he retreated indoors (see what he did there) to his office.
But the prime minister vaulted right over the “M” word. “Ms” were for someone else. Some other nanny state-ist busybody. Not him.
Morrison told reporters any “public health social measures” (regulations or directions in other words) were “always determined by states and territories … not by the commonwealth government”.
Technically this is true. The states do issue the directions (although the commonwealth has invoked its own seeping biosecurity powers to manage this crisis).
But Morrison’s new script is not only selective – it erases the custom and practice of the very recent past. The prime minister has never been shy of telling the premiers and chief ministers what he thinks they should be doing in the interests of their constituents.
Morrison also, famously, pushed mandatory vaccinations for workers in the aged care sector – and not in another lifetime. That campaign was only six months ago. In that particular example, the prime minister’s enthusiasm for mandatory vaccinations was so profound he front-ran the health advice. The health advice eventually caught up.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Given the AHPPC had advised mandatory mask wearing, and the prime minister wasn’t echoing that recommendation, Morrison and the chief medical officer Prof Paul Kelly were asked on Wednesday afternoon whether or not the health advice had changed?
Kelly said: “The health advice is wear a mask.” So, no, in other words. The health advice had not changed.
What’s changed is the politics.
Perrottet doesn’t want to impose a mask mandate unless he absolutely has to – and Morrison needs, somehow, to balance the present public health risks with his re-election messaging.
Two years into this pandemic, Australians are fatigued. Everyone wants this crisis to be over. People are craving a normal Christmas. Understanding this, Morrison has been warming up for a re-election pitch in the opening months of 2022 which is about getting government out of people’s lives.
Pandemic Scott wants to shapeshift into Post Pandemic Personal Responsibility Scott because that’s where he thinks the zeitgeist is – at least the zeitgeist of the people who will determine the outcome of next year’s election. You don’t have to be Einstein to work out Morrison advocating an enforceable mask mandate three days before Christmas doesn’t align with that objective.
But in trying to avoid one problem, Morrison is creating another.
It’s been a hot mess of a week, navigating the Omicron outbreak in the era of ‘personal responsibility’
Brigid Delaney
Read more
Morrison is lecturing Australians about taking personal responsibility, while opting out of one of the clear responsibilities of the prime ministerial office – backing in his health advisers at a critical moment with one clear message.
Perhaps Morrison will luck out. Perhaps the Omicron variant will be mild enough to facilitate the desired prime ministerial shapeshift. Or perhaps it won’t.
It’s one hell of a gauntlet to run. In the coming weeks, we’ll see how it pans out.
In the meantime, if you just need simple information about what to do to keep yourself and others safe over the next few days as you race about preparing Christmas (and most of us appreciate facts) – be in no doubt what the expert heath advice is.
If you are indoors, in a crowd, wear your mask. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/apr/18/england-germany-champions-league | Football | 2024-04-18T22:28:28.000Z | David Hytner | English clubs’ hopes of extra Champions League spot hanging by a thread | The Premier League’s hopes of securing an extra spot in next season’s expanded Champions League are hanging by a thread after the exits of Manchester City and Arsenal from this season’s competition on Wednesday were followed by those of West Ham and Liverpool from the Europa League on Thursday. Germany are the strong favourites to pip England to the prize.
The situation has ramped up the pressure in the battle between Aston Villa and Tottenham for a fourth-placed Premier League finish. Villa are fourth, three points ahead of Spurs, who have a game in hand.
‘It’s why we went abroad’: Kane relishes semi-final clash with Real’s Bellingham
Read more
England have four guaranteed spots in next season’s Champions League which will go to the top four finishers in the Premier League. But with two European leagues to be rewarded with extra places in the new-look 36-team Champions League for 2024-25 – the beneficiaries will be determined by clubs’ performances in all three European competitions this season – the hope has been that fifth in the Premier League could bring a bonus. It is increasingly unlikely.
Italy are assured of one of the two extra spots after the performances of their clubs in Europe this season, with the second coming down to a fight between England and Germany, although France’s Ligue 1 retains an outside shot.
The pendulum has swung towards Germany and away from England, particularly after Bayern Munich got past Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-final and Bayer Leverkusen did likewise against West Ham at the same stage of the Europa League.
With City going out of the Champions League quarter-finals to Real Madrid on penalties and Liverpool coming up short against Atalanta in the Europa League last eight, England have only one club left in Europe – Villa, who beat Lille on Thursday night after a penalty shootout in their Europa Conference League quarter-final.
For England to leapfrog Germany and hold off the possible threat of France, they would almost certainly need Villa to win both legs of their semi-final against Olympiakos and the final. They would also most likely need Bayern, Borussia Dortmund – who got past Atletico Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday – and Leverkusen to crash in their respective semi-finals.
France’s hopes, in all probability, would rest on Paris Saint-Germain winning both legs of their Champions League semi-final against Dortmund and the final. They would also surely need Marseille to win both legs of their Europa League semi-final against Atalanta and the final. In that eventuality, they would overhaul England.
Sign up to Football Daily
Free daily newsletter
Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Clubs score two Uefa coefficient points for a win, one for a draw and nothing for a defeat. Penalties are not taken into account, meaning City scored one point for the ‘draw’ after 120 minutes against Madrid. There are also bonus points for getting to certain stages of competitions, with clubs at this stage getting one per round that they reach. All of the points from a nation are added up and divided by the number of teams they have competing in Europe to get their coefficient average.
After Thursday’s ties, Germany have 125.5 points for a coefficient of 17.929 from their seven clubs while England have 139 points for 17.375 from their eight. France have 96.5 points for 16.083 from their six. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/dec/01/bbc-north-england-peter-salmon | Media | 2014-12-01T15:19:17.000Z | Tara Conlan | BBC claims viewers in north of England think they are now better represented | Viewers in the north of England now think they are better represented on the BBC than audiences in the rest of the UK, according to the executive in charge of the corporation’s Salford operation.
With more programmes being made in the area, such as the dramas Inspector George Gently and Last Tango in Halifax, viewers in the north feel their region is portrayed more on screen than they did in 2011, BBC England director Peter Salmon claimed on Monday.
New figures from the BBC show that prior to several thousand of the corporation’s London-based staff moving to its new northern headquarters in MediaCity UK, the BBC’s internal score for the portrayal of people in the north of England was 6.30, compared with 6.48 for the rest of the UK.
Three years later, and the portrayal scores are 6.31 for the north of England and 6.29 for the rest of the UK. The highest scores come from north-west viewers, 6.48.
A number of London-based departments, including sport, children’s and parts of Radio 5 Live, moved to Salford three years ago and key programmes such as Blue Peter and Match of the Day are now produced there.
Salmon said he thought the corporation has “reversed a long-term decline” in television production in the region, with the BBC increasing its presence in the area now that ITV is more of a “global organisation” than it used to be.
Speaking to journalists at a Broadcasting Press Guild breakfast in London, Salmon said he thought that due to the market, independent production companies too were more “interested in the west coast of America than the east coast of England”.
Around 3,000 BBC staff now work in Salford. Some of them moved from London and were given relocation allowances, which have now finished.
However, “it’s not been difficult to recruit people”, Salmon said, adding he thought, “there’s a lot of snobbery” from people in the south of England when talking about moving to the north. He said of his staff that “to me it’s up to them where they live”.
During the move, Salmon hit the headlines after he decided not to move his main home from London to the north-west and was accused by Have I Got News for You producer Jimmy Mulville of “leading from the back”.
However, Salmon said that where he lived was not an issue, declining to reveal whether he had bought a property near MediaCity.
“I don’t think it’s important to the job,” he said, adding that he thinks where people live is “not an issue now” that Salford is up and running.
Salmon said the main part of his job as director, England, is to use the lessons from Salford to build up the other BBC centres in England in Birmingham and Bristol. Another of his goals is to help find new comedy from outside London.
He added that he started the comedy festival in Salford when the BBC moved there “maybe because the weather’s so awful”, when he spoke to people in the area, they said a good laugh was “right at the top of people’s agenda”.
Salmon said that if he could find the next Last of the Summer Wine, Royle Family or Mrs Brown’s Boys, “I could retire happy”.
To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”.
To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2008/nov/06/stevecram-sunderland-sunderlanduniversity | Education | 2008-11-06T11:41:23.000Z | John Crace | Going the extra mile for Sunderland | There aren't many university chancellors who can say their specialist subject is the local football team. But last year Steve Cram did just that. Appearing on Celebrity Mastermind, the former 1500m world record holder and chief BBC athletics commentator chose to answer questions on Sunderland football club.
Cram got just one wrong, mixing up the Texaco Cup with the Anglo-Scottish Cup, and impressed the hell not just out of question-master John Humphrys, but a far tougher bunch of judges - the Mackems themselves. After the show was aired, the Sunderland supporters' message boards were white hot. The boy done good.
Not that it should have been a surprise. Cram has never been anyone's fool and his whole career has been based on being properly prepared and doing his homework. And given that he's been a lifelong Sunderland fan, there was little chance of him screwing up.
Cram has the north-east in his blood. He was born there, went to school there, ran for the local athletics club and still lives there with his two kids. He received his sports science degree from Sunderland in 1983, was awarded an honorary fellowship from the university three years later and, in 1994, became honorary president of the alumni association.
So when David Puttnam decided to step down as chancellor earlier this year, Cram was a clear front-runner to replace him.
University chancellors tend to come from the ranks of the great and the good: distinguished men and women who grace the university a couple of times a year to sprinkle their stardust on ceremonial occasions.
Cram sees his role as rather more hands-on. "I don't want to be just some kind of remote figurehead," he says. "I want to get stuck in to help raise the university's profile."
Only this week, he has been out and about inspecting progress on CitySpace, the university's £11m sports facility that's due to open next autumn. It has inevitably been hyped as a key resource for the north-east in the build up to the 2012 Olympics.
In some ways, this is exactly the kind of project you would expect Cram to get involved in, as his name carries a lot of clout among the heavyweights of sports administration: yet he is keen not to be pigeonholed.
"I'm as passionate about education as I am about sport," he says. "I want to help get the message across that the university is as much for the local population as it is for other people.
"Among some parts of the community up here, there's still a feeling that higher education is only for a certain minority of the population. I would like to be a spokesman for the idea that the university is for everyone."
Cram has nailed his colours very firmly to the Sunderland mast. With his open support for the football team and now his acceptance of the chancellorship, you could say that the other local premiership team, Newcastle, are 2-0 down.
"Look, I've never kept my support for Sunderland a secret," he laughs, "and let's face it, I was never going to be asked to be chancellor of Newcastle."
He pauses, as if remembering that a little diplomacy might be called for in his new role. "We have local rivalries," he adds hastily. "But we've all got the north-east's interests at heart."
The boy will do just fine. Just so long as he remembers to keep a straight face when Newcastle get relegated. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jul/21/bbc-pay-damages-ex-royal-nanny-bashir-diana-interview-tiggy-legge-bourke | Media | 2022-07-21T10:23:41.000Z | Jim Waterson | BBC to pay damages to ex-royal nanny over Bashir’s ‘deceitful’ Diana interview | The BBC has agreed to pay substantial damages to the former royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke after false allegations she had an affair with Prince Charles were used to obtain Martin Bashir’s 1995 interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.
Legge-Bourke’s solicitor, Louise Prince, told the high court the allegations caused “serious personal consequences for all concerned”.
As well as the allegation of the affair, the court was told Legge-Bourke was falsely accused of becoming pregnant with Charles’s baby and having an abortion.
Prince said Legge-Bourke, now known as Alexandra Pettifer, had not known the source of the allegations over the past 25 years but that it was now likely the “false and malicious allegations arose as a result and in the context of BBC Panorama’s efforts to procure an exclusive interview with Diana, Princess of Wales”.
Bashir is alleged to have spread the fake accusations in his successful attempt to win Diana’s trust and convince her to sit down for the Panorama interview. In an effort to get access to the princess, the journalist also created fake bank statements and suggested people close to Diana were selling stories to newspapers.
Originally hailed as one of the all-time great journalistic scoops – with Diana sharing the details of her failed relationship with Prince Charles in front of tens of millions of people – the Panorama interview is now considered so toxic that the BBC director general, Tim Davie, has pledged never to show it again.
Davie on Thursday apologised again to the royal family for the “deceitful tactics” used by the BBC in pursuit of its interview and “for the way in which Princess Diana was deceived and the subsequent impact on all their lives”.
He said it was a matter of regret that the BBC did not properly pursue accusations about the interview when they were first made in the 1990s.
“Had we done our job properly Princess Diana would have known the truth during her lifetime. We let her, the royal family and our audiences down.
“Now we know about the shocking way that the interview was obtained I have decided that the BBC will never show the programme again; nor will we license it in whole or part to other broadcasters.
“It does, of course, remain part of the historical record and there may be occasions in the future when it will be justified for the BBC to use short extracts for journalistic purposes, but these will be few and far between and will need to be agreed at executive committee level and set in the full context of what we now know about the way the interview was obtained. I would urge others to exercise similar restraint.”
The settlement with Pettifer was announced at the high court on Thursday. She became a public figure during the 1990s while looking after the Duke of Cambridge and Duke of Sussex as children during the period that their parents were divorcing.
In a statement, Pettifer said: “I am disappointed that it needed legal action for the BBC to recognise the serious harm I have been subjected to. Sadly, I am one of many people whose lives have been scarred by the deceitful way in which the BBC Panorama was made and the BBC’s subsequent failure to properly investigate the making of the programme.
“The distress caused to the royal family is a source of great upset to me. I know first-hand how much they were affected at the time, and how the programme and the false narrative it created have haunted the family in the years since. Especially because, still today, so much about the making of the programme is yet to be adequately explained.”
Her settlement is the latest in a series of payouts relating to the interview, which have collectively cost the BBC millions of pounds in compensation and legal fees.
Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am BST
Matt Wiessler, a graphic designer who was blacklisted from the industry after creating false bank statements on Bashir’s orders, was awarded hundreds of thousands of pounds. Diana’s former private secretary Patrick Jephson received a substantial sum that he has donated to charity, while the BBC has also made a donation to charity by way of apology to the royal family. Negotiations with one other individual affected by the interview are believed to be ongoing.
Bashir used his interview with Diana to become a global star, later interviewing the likes of Michael Jackson and then working in the US, where he was a fixture on television news networks. Lingering questions over his journalistic ethics were ignored when he returned to the BBC as a religious affairs correspondent in 2016.
However, the 25th anniversary of the Panorama interview in 2020 prompted a reappraisal of the programme, with Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, pushing for a full investigation into how it was obtained. Journalists used freedom of information requests to obtain internal BBC documents that showed the corporation knew of claims about Bashir’s wrongdoing shortly after broadcast.
Bashir quit the BBC in 2021, citing poor health, before the publication of a damning independent report by Lord Dyson. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/mar/20/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart-dynasties | Music | 2010-03-20T00:09:02.000Z | Ian Sansom | Great dynasties of the world: The Mozarts | In 1756, Leopold Mozart, a violin teacher from Salzburg, and his wife, Anna Maria Pertl, had a son, their seventh child, whom they named Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus. The Mozarts lived in a small flat with ceilings so low that the rooms, according to one biographer, resembled "the filling in a sandwich". Squeezed happily together, the Mozarts also celebrated in 1756 the publication of Leopold's Treatise on the Fundamentals of Violin Playing. It seemed as though Leopold might have a great career as a pedagogue before him. As it turned out, it was his son who was to become his life's work.
Only two of Leopold and Anna's seven children survived – Wolfgang (pictured) and his older sister, Maria Anna (known as Nannerl). Leopold taught the young Mozarts everything he knew and from an early age they showed great musical promise – promise that, Leopold realised, could be turned into money.
The musical Mozart family began touring. Nannerl was accomplished, but it was the little lilac-coated Wolfgang who was the family's star performer. "All the ladies are in love with my boy," boasted proud Leopold, who acted as manager and mentor, and sold souvenirs as they travelled relentlessly round Europe. Together they toured Germany, Belgium, France, Holland, Switzerland, Italy and England, seeing off various bouts of small pox, rheumatic fever and typhoid. The Mozarts were troupers.
The relationship between the Mozarts has often been retold, but can still best be traced through Emily Anderson's multi-volume translation of their letters, The Letters of Mozart and his Family (1938). The letters between father and son are particularly revealing: they have become, in the words of one critic, "the raw material for analysis". Psychoanalysts both amateur and professional might indeed have much to say about this extraordinary cache of family documents – Leopold was a great hoarder – which reveal a dictatorial father, a rebellious son and a family love of scatological humour. The Mozarts, in their letters, certainly seem odd, intense, and overly involved.
But John Rosselli, in his book, The Life of Mozart (1998), points out that we entirely misunderstand the family dynamic if we expect the Mozarts to behave in "modern British or American fashion, as one distinct individual facing others". The Mozarts, Rosselli claims, saw themselves as a family body of which they "were inescapably a part, even when they were angry with each other."
And they were often angry. And scolding. And full of reproach. When Mozart set off on tour without his father, for example, Leopold cautioned, "There must be attention and daily concentration on earning some money, and you must cultivate extreme politeness in order to ingratiate yourself with people of standing."
Father and son inevitably drifted apart. But in his last letter to his father, from Vienna in 1787, Mozart writes imploringly, inquiring of his father's sickness, "do not keep it from me, so I can be in your arms as quickly as is humanly possible".
In the second edition of his violin treatise (1769), Leopold promised to write an account of the genius of his son, announcing him to the world. He never got round to it. The music, of course, speaks for itself.
Inevitably, Wolfgang's own children would never shine as brightly as their brilliant father. Only two of the six children from his marriage to Constanze Weber outlived him. Karl Thomas Mozart was an accomplished pianist, but did not perform professionally; his brother, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, showed great potential as a composer, but was forever overshadowed by his father. On his tombstone was etched: "May the name of his father be his epitaph, as his veneration for him was the essence of his life."
Ian Sansom | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/may/03/shopping-centre-firm-intu-warns-of-big-drop-in-rental-income-debenhams-arcadia | Business | 2019-05-03T07:34:58.000Z | Kalyeena Makortoff | Shopping centre firm Intu warns of big drop in rental income | The shopping centre landlord Intu has warned of a bigger drop in rental income this year as struggling retailers shut shops at a faster rate than expected.
The Trafford Centre owner said Brexit uncertainties were also having an impact on letting demand and that it would suffer from a further rise in company voluntary arrangements (CVA) – an insolvency process used by struggling firms to shut underperforming stores and cut rents.
Its shares dropped 8% to 92p. Two years ago they were changing hands at 279p, now they are worth less than 10% of their pre-financial crash peak.
Thousands of UK shops left empty as high street crisis deepens
Read more
It is understood that the company failed to factor in potential shop closures by Debenhams and Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia as part of its previous forecasts. Debenhams last week revealed plans to close 22 department stores. None on its current list are in Intu centres, the landlord said, but more are expected.
Debenhams accounts for 3% of Intu’s rent roll, with around 11 stores in its centres. Topshop owner Arcadia accounts for about 4% of its rents and is Intu’s second largest tenant after next with about 35 outlets.
“We expect the remainder of 2019 to be challenging due to a higher than expected level of CVAs and a slowdown in new lettings as tenants delay their decisions due to the uncertainties in the current political and retail environments,” Intu’s chief executive, Matthew Roberts, said.
“As such, we have revised our approach to how we guide towards our year-end like-for-like net rental income to factor in expected CVAs and have adjusted our 2019 guidance accordingly to minus four to six per cent,” he added.
Intu, which also owns the Merry Hill centre in the West Midlands, the Gateshead Metrocentre and Braehead in Glasgow, had previously forecast a drop of only -1% to -2%.
Roberts said Intu has seen a steady “drip” of CVAs having recent lost Giraffe, Paperchase and New Look stores. But he told the Guardian there might be an upshot for Intu in the long-term.
“Take a business like New Look, we lost a quarter of the stores we had with New Look...and what they’ve done is get rid of their loss making stores across the country, consolidated it down to a smaller chain, someone has put some money in and they’re now investing again back into our stores,” Roberts said.
“So the New Look business is much healthier than it was 2 years ago and we’re benefiting from that.”
The former finance chief says tenants are also playing “a canny game. “They are thinking... well Intu may get some space back, why don’t we hang for 3 or 6 months and see if they’ll give us a cheaper rent than we might otherwise have taken.”
The company published the market update before its AGM on Friday.
Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk
Intu has struggled amid a growing retail crisis, which has also hit its rival Hammerson. Hammerson last year abandoned its plans for a £3.4bn buyout of Intu after pressure from shareholders.
Figures released by the Local Data Company earlier this week showed that the number of shops lying empty soared by more than 7,500 last year. Retail chains hardest hit included Poundworld, Maplin, Toys R Us and Multiyork, which fell into administration.
There has been no let-up in 2019, with Debenhams and Topshop boss Green’s Arcadia empire expected to close dozens of stores. Marks & Spencer is also in the process of closing 100 shops by 2022.
Intu’s latest market update is the latest to spook investors, having announced a big write down in property values back in February.
Neil Wilson, a chief market analyst for Markets.com said: “Intu’s warning underlines the pressure on the retail sector right now.” He said a drop in new tenants is one of the most worrying trends, signalling “a broad decline in sentiment”.
Intu said occupancy rates for the three months to March had fallen from 96.1% to 95.6%.”
“We may also suggest it is part of the big structural shift that will see fewer stores on the high street forever,” Wilson said. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/01/painful-ofsted-report-in-herefordshire-leads-to-calls-for-resignations | Society | 2022-10-01T11:15:48.000Z | Louise Tickle | ‘Painful’ Ofsted report in Herefordshire leads to calls for resignations | Councillors called for heads to roll at an extraordinary general meeting held to discuss Herefordshire’s failing children’s services after an Ofsted inspection slated its social work as “inadequate” in all areas.
After a slew of damning high court judgments since 2018 that detailed how Herefordshire social workers had breached children’s human rights, the criticisms in a recent Ofsted report were described by councillors as “painful”, “extremely upsetting”, and “harrowing”.
The report’s opening paragraph states: “Children and young people in Herefordshire are not protected from harm.”
In the five years leading up to August 2021, Herefordshire council paid out £290,000 in human rights damages to children and families it had harmed, according to a freedom of information response from the council. Financial compensation is rarely awarded even in cases where liability is proved.
Families sitting in the public area of the council building on Friday cheered as councillor Carole Gandy told the meeting that the report was “very difficult reading and makes me very angry … we have failed to keep many of our children safe [and] we are in the last chance saloon”.
The leader of the Liberal Democrat group, Terry James, said parents who had tried to ask oral questions at the start of the meeting had been shut down. “Families have been intimidated into not attending,” he said, “and most of their questions have been ruled out of order. We are destroying their lives.”
He said he had recently had to rush back from chairing a meeting to see a mother who had tried to kill herself. “Her daughter was in hospital, with anorexia, and they were still being bullied by social workers,” he said.
Hannah Currie, 38, whose five-year-old son has just been adopted, said: “If you’re a parent, you’re just seen as angry or unruly. They build a case against you, and there’s no support. When you challenge social workers, you get managers saying: ‘I will not engage with you.’”
Angeline Logan, 34, a mother who has experienced allegations of fabricated and induced illness, which were not found to be established by a family court, has founded a pressure group called A Common Bond.
She called for Darryl Freeman, the director of children’s services, David Hitchiner, the council leader, and Diana Toynbee, the cabinet member for children and families, to resign. “They’ve failed the children of Herefordshire,” Logan said.
It was the third extraordinary general meeting to be called since 2018, when Herefordshire’s children’s services were rated as “requires improvement” by Ofsted. The second EGM was called last spring after the publication of a judgment in which the high court judge Mr Justice Keehan deplored the decision of the then director of children’s services, Chris Baird, to authorise the life support machine of a seriously ill child in care to be switched off, knowing that her mother was on the way to the hospital to say goodbye. The mother did not arrive in time.
Sign up to First Edition
Free daily newsletter
Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
After the “inadequate” rating by Ofsted, the education secretary issued Herefordshire council with a statutory direction , installing Eleanor Brazil as commissioner and charging her with assessing whether the council had the capacity to improve.
Her judgment will determine whether Herefordshire’s children’s services department is ultimately taken over by central government. Her report is due by 12 December.
Toynbee said she accepted Ofsted’s criticisms and apologised to all Herefordshire residents for the council’s failings. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/04/theresa-may-gove-extremism-schools-trojan-horse | Politics | 2014-06-04T00:25:18.000Z | Richard Adams | Theresa May calls on Michael Gove to act on extremism in schools | The home secretary Theresa May has gone public with direct criticisms of education secretary Michael Gove's handling of the Trojan Horse affair – suggesting an internal cabinet tussle over who can be toughest on threats of extremism.
In a letter released on Tuesday night, May upbraided Gove for the Department for Education's handling of allegations regarding Islamists in Birmingham schools for what she called "the inability of local and central government to tackle the problem effectively".
In the letter May asks Gove: "Is it true that Birmingham city council was warned about these allegations in 2008? Is it true that the Department for Education was warned in 2010? If so, why did nobody act?"
May went on to tell Gove: "It is clear to me that we will need to take clear action to improve the quality of staffing and governance if we are to prevent extremism in schools."
She said: "The publication of a code of practice for supplementary schools was an agreed Extremism Task Force commitment and we agreed at the conclusion of the ETF's work that the code should be voluntary.
"However, since the publication of the ETF report in December there have been serious allegations of extremism in some Birmingham schools and accusations about the inability of local and central government to tackle the problem effectively.
"In this context, I am not convinced that a voluntary code is sufficient and I believe it would be sensible to include the option of developing a mandatory code in your consultation document."
She said the consultation document should be clear that "nobody should be forced to dress in a particular way" but warned against changing the task force's agreed definition of Islamist extremism.
"The consultation document should be clear that nobody should be forced to dress in a particular way. We do, however, need to recognise that many moderate Muslims, as well as people of other religions, believe that covering one's hair is a religious requirement and some parents will therefore want their children to do so.
"The text on dress requirements should therefore not be part of the extremism definition but, consistent with the Government's already-stated position on the burqa, we should state clearly that nobody should be forced to dress in a particular way." | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/nov/24/partner-burnt-out-carer-mental-illness-mariella-frostrup | Life and style | 2013-11-24T09:08:00.000Z | Mariella Frostrup | My partner is burnt out from being my carer during my mental illness | Mariella Frostrup | The dilemma I've been with my partner for seven years. I have suffered from mental illness for most of that time. I'm making a good recovery now, but my partner is burnt out from supporting me while I was ill. We still love each other enormously, but she says she isn't sure whether she can have a "normal" relationship with me now – she doesn't know if she can transition from being more than a "carer". I can't go back and fix the damage my illness has done and I'm putting all my efforts into being well, and being there for her, but I don't feel it is enough. I don't know how to help her move past it, or how to heal the huge amount of resentment she feels towards me. I love her with all my heart and it seems tragic to lose her when we are (at our best) so good together.
Mariella replies Aren't we all! We rub along nicely when the going is good but, unfortunately, it's the rest that pulls us apart. It no doubt seems unfair that just when you have learned to navigate the emotional turbulence of your debilitating illness you face the prospect of losing your anchor.
As you've discovered, weathering difficulties in a relationship draws on specialist skills that can leave the carer feeling washed up and redundant when tranquillity is restored. A nurse's outfit is really only sexy in the bedroom. On a day-to-day basis it loses its allure.
Most of us are conditioned to be attracted to certain types and thrive in a particular dynamic. It's often only when we shed those pre-settings that we experience truly rewarding relationships. In adulthood steering a malfunctioning relationship towards new horizons can feel like an insurmountable challenge. We are creatures of habit, particularly when it comes to the bad ones, and struggle to adjust when called upon to expand beyond behavioural settings hardwired in our youth. As with every emotional tic in adulthood, the roots go back to our formative years.
As the child of an alcoholic father, I took two decades to be attracted to a man who didn't need saving. Choosing the wrong mate time after time based on criteria that we are unaware is blueprinted into us is an all too common experience. We are conditioned to perform particular roles, as you see in families all the time: the unruly one, the caring one, the quiet one, the clingy one. Over time we become addicted to the reaction that performance elicits from those around. It's particularly in evidence when it comes to with the whole nursing and co-dependent business.
Women seem particularly attuned to seeking out not partners but rehabilitation projects, though there are plenty of men who reprise the pillar of strength routine when they could do with support themselves. Learning to appreciate a relationship based on equality of care and mutual support can take practice. I've watched too many couples miraculously negotiate tough times – from addictions and serial adultery to bi-polar disorder – only to fall apart once the normality they aspired to becomes reality.
Some people thrive on strife and stress, while others prefer total tedium. The territory in between those two polar opposites is vast and underpopulated. Our tendency to slip into predetermined patterns isn't reserved solely for those facing the big issues, from mental illness to addiction, bereavement to ill health. In many long-term relationships we lose our ability to see partners for who they are, seeing only who they are around us. Familiarity does breed contempt, and in every partnership you need to find ways to reinvent your interacation with each other and retain the ability to surprise. No doubt you're so relieved to see daylight you are cruising tentatively along enjoying the ebbing forces of your mental disorder. You say all your energy is going into your recovery, but now you need to redirect some of it into your relationship. Seduce your partner into seeing you not as a patient requiring care, nurture and support but as a man able to survive and flourish without her if necessary, but with her if possible.
Experiencing your relationship with another human (other than your children) as a burden of responsibility, rather than a positive choice, is not conductive to long-term happiness. Being a carer is an exhausting role and leaves little room for excitement, romance or respect to flourish, elements compulsory for any relationship to fizzle along, let alone burn bright.
It sounds like this woman of yours could do with an excess of attention on her for a change and that may require you to step up from your previous passive role. To make a full recovery you have to be able to survive and thrive independently. Happily that's exactly how to show your partner you are not simply the man she thinks you are. Go to it!
If you have a dilemma, send a brief email to [email protected]. Follow Mariella on Twitter @mariellaf1 | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/mar/19/jonathan-majors-lawsuit-grace-jabbari | Culture | 2024-03-19T23:29:31.000Z | Léonie Chao-Fong | Jonathan Majors sued by former girlfriend for assault and defamation | Jonathan Majors’s former girlfriend has filed a lawsuit accusing the Creed III and Marvel actor of battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution and defamation.
Majors, 34, in December was found guilty of misdemeanor charges of assault and harassment in connection to a March 2023 altercation with his then girlfriend, the actor and dancer Grace Jabbari. Sentencing for the criminal case is set for 8 April.
In a civil lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, Jabbari claimed Majors subjected her to “a pattern of pervasive domestic abuse that began in 2021 and extended through 2023”, according to legal documents obtained by the Guardian.
The lawsuit accuses Majors of exhibiting “concerning” behavior towards Jabbari as early as September 2021 including “verbal assaults and frightening anger”, before allegedly escalating to physically attacking her in July 2022.
The lawsuit claims Majors physically attacked Jabbari again in September 2022, causing “serious injuries to her body. Soon after, Grace disclosed the physical abuse to a member of Jonathan’s management team in an effort to get him help. Majors was furious when he learned that Grace had outed him as an abuser.”
Jonathan Majors accused of physical and emotional abuse by two more women
Read more
The suit also alleges that Majors “resorted to very publicly abusing her reputation” and that he had called her “a liar at every turn … with the goal of convincing the world that Grace is not a victim of domestic abuse but instead a crazy liar”.
The civil suit, which demands a jury trial, accuses Majors of battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution and defamation. Jabbari is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
Priya Chaudhry, Majors’s lawyer in the criminal case, said in an emailed statement that the lawsuit “is no surprise. Mr Majors is preparing counterclaims against Ms Jabbari.” She did not elaborate.
“It takes true bravery to hold someone with this level of power and acclaim accountable. Bravery that Grace Jabbari has demonstrated at every stage of the legal process,” a statement by Jabbari’s lawyer, Brittany Henderson, said. “We strongly believe that through this action, truth and transparency will bring Grace the justice that she deserves.”
The civil suit comes nearly one year after Majors was arrested in New York on allegations that he choked, assaulted and harassed Jabbari. The actor had hoped the criminal trial would vindicate him and restore his status as an emerging Hollywood star. He was ultimately convicted of third-degree assault and second-degree harassment. Hours after the verdict, Marvel Studios and the Walt Disney Co dropped him.
In February, two more women came forward to accuse Majors of physical and emotional abuse.
In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit the Men’s Advice Line or Women’s Aid. In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/22/italian-president-meets-party-leaders-to-explore-coalition-options | World news | 2019-08-22T19:59:33.000Z | Angela Giuffrida | Italy's president gives parties four days to form stable government | Italy’s president has given the country’s main political parties four more days to negotiate the formation of an alternative government after the collapse of the stormy alliance between the far-right League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S).
Sergio Mattarella said on Thursday night that the crisis must be “resolved quickly” and that without a solid majority the only other option would be new elections.
“But that path cannot be travelled lightly,” he said after a day of meetings with leaders from the League, M5S, the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), Forza Italia and the smaller far-right party, Brothers of Italy.
Mattarella said he will host new consultations on Tuesday in order to “make the necessary decisions”.
“Only governments that obtain the confidence of parliament with group agreements on a programme to govern the country are possible,” he added. “I am told that initiatives have been initiated between parties. I have the duty to request prompt decisions.”
Outgoing prime minister Giuseppe Conte ended the 14-month alliance between the League and M5S on Tuesday after the League’s leader, Matteo Salvini, declared the partnership unworkable earlier this month as he manoeuvred to exploit his high popularity and bring about snap elections.
But what kind of shape a new majority would take looked more unclear on Thursday afternoon after Nicola Zingaretti, the PD leader, laid down tough conditions for a potential alliance with long-time foe, M5S. Fearing the partnership, Salvini also appeared to backtrack after his talks with Mattarella. He said he still wanted elections, but that the League could also resume governing with M5S as long as it got things done.
“There was a stalled government that stalled the country,” Salvini said. “If they want to restart the government and the country, I am here, without looking back … if there’s a different team that get things done, I won’t hold a grudge. An M5S-PD agreement would mean returning to ‘the old politics’.”
Luigi Di Maio, M5S’s leader, emerged from his talks with Mattarella saying his party was striving for a solid majority, without stipulating with which party.
“We won’t let the ship sink, or Italians will pay,” he said.
After his meeting with Mattarella, Zingaretti said he was willing to explore a government with M5S but not at any cost. One of his conditions would be M5S agreeing to scrap the draconian anti-immigration bill passed with the League. He has also objected to Conte leading their potential alternative government. Other stipulations include a commitment to remaining in the EU, changes to social and economic policy and a focus on sustainable development.
“We need a turning-point government, alternative to the rightist parties, with a new, solid programme, an ample parliamentary base, which will restore hope to Italians,” he said. “If these conditions do not exist, the natural outcome of the crisis is an early election for which the PD is ready.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/feb/12/starstruck-the-bizarre-twist-on-stars-in-their-eyes-that-will-make-your-soul-feel-empty | Television & radio | 2022-02-12T07:00:02.000Z | Joel Golby | Starstruck: the bizarre twist on Stars in Their Eyes | Do we really deserve good TV? It’s a question I have been mulling over since being subjected to Starstruck (Saturday, 8.30pm), ITV’s bombastic new panel show designed for five or so million people to eat a takeaway to. It’s an over-glossy mashup of Stars in Their Eyes and The X Factor, which is very, very bad in a way that makes my soul feel quite empty and my mind quite blank. Is it just the presence of Olly Murs as the host that is doing this, or is there something even more ghoulish and hollow baked into the very format of it? The only way to find out, sadly, is to make me watch an entire hour of it so you don’t have to. This is the first time since writing this column that I am going to actively ask for danger money.
Here is the format of Starstruck: instead of letting one singer trot out and do a celebrity tribute act, three complete strangers come out and sing the same song together at once – so three Freddie Mercurys might sing I Want to Break Free, line-by-line or three Ariana Grandes might squabble over a rendition of One Last Time. There is something very mildly interesting about watching three singers try to perform a cohesive song while also trying to outshine each other at the same time – fans of the Kitty Brucknell series of The X Factor will recognise this delightful energy from the group songs that used to open the show – but that’s where the entertainment begins and ends.
Team Freddie: Joe, Rob and Michael perform. Photograph: Guy Levy/ITV
To judge the performances, ITV has assembled one of the strangest and most erratic judging panels I’ve ever seen on TV (we were warned when Amanda Holden started judging Britain’s Got Talent that this would happen to judging panels, but we refused to listen): Beverley Knight, an immaculately styled Jason Manford, Sheridan Smith and Queen singer Adam Lambert. Between them, they do all the TV judging tics and tropes they are meant to do – they put both palms flat on the table and lean forward, mouthing: “OH MY GOD!” to another judge. They clap above their head while standing up inelegantly in an outfit that is not designed to be stood up in, and hold their temples in sheer astonishment after hearing half of one opening note. They give each of the three teams effusive, breathless compliments, then at the end of the show the members of one team sing off against each other and the best performer goes into some abstract, distant “final”.
The problem here is that a lot of the singers aren’t actually very good, so to hear the judges outrageously praise them rings utterly, dreadfully hollow. I am not going to name names, but at least three performers in the opening show deliver woefully flat notes (they only have to sing one-third of a song each! They’ve had all week to practise! Why are they still rubbish?) and a couple of them are quite noticeably out of time. I mean, this is fine – these are not sins – but if an idiot with a tin ear (me) can hear it, so can an audience at home. So when Adam Lambert throws both arms up in the air and says: “That. Was. Amazing!” and Beverley Knight says it was like “looking at someone famous”, you sort of go: well, it wasn’t, though, was it? They’ve spent more than six hours in hair and makeup and they are doing it on TV, and millions of people can see that it wasn’t very good. So why say it was good? Why is everyone in the studio clapping as if it were good? Why is Olly Murs laughing? He shouldn’t be laughing. He shouldn’t be encouraging these people.
One immutable truth about this country is: we always think someone absolutely smashing it at karaoke is entertaining, and we will until the sun engulfs the Earth. But I can’t help feeling that Starstruck has been completely informed by the bombastic Saturday night TV that has come before it – that golden The X Factor run! The half-term-saving Britain’s Got Talent series! Dancing on Ice! The Masked Singer, almost! – in a way that feels as if it’s shaping future iterations of this, too. In 10 years’ time, ITV will still have a Saturday night singing show. In 20 years, too, and 30 more after that. What caricatures of TV panel judging will we be watching by then, I wonder? | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/dec/03/ed-stourton-radio-4-sunday | Media | 2009-12-03T15:37:58.000Z | John Plunkett | Ed Stourton to host BBC Radio 4's Sunday | Ed Stourton, who was dropped from BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier this year, is to present the station's Sunday-morning religious news programme, Sunday.
Stourton will succeed Roger Bolton, who is stepping down after more than 10 years in the job. Bolton will continue to present Radio 4's listener response programme, Feedback.
"What an exciting time this is to inherit Roger's chair," said Stourton. "The place where religion meets news and current affairs matters more today than it's ever done."
Stourton, who was replaced on Today by Justin Webb, only discovered he was being dropped from the programme when he received a phone call from a newspaper journalist.
He has been a regular presenter on Sunday in recent years. The programme has an average weekly audience of around 1.6 million listeners a week.
Christine Morgan, the executive producer in charge of religious programmes on Radio 4, said: "We are delighted that Edward will be leading the programme at a time when religion is so high on the news agenda and there is such a wide interest in issues around belief. He brings vast religious knowledge and experience to the programme."
Stourton, who was a presenter on Today for nearly 10 years, can still be heard on the programme reporting on foreign affairs.
He also works on Radio 4's The World At One and The World This Weekend, and has fronted a discussion show, Iconoclasts. He will join Sunday early next year.
To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.
If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/11/how-3d-printers-became-hollywoods-favorite-gimmick | Film | 2018-06-11T14:57:57.000Z | Jordan Hoffman | How 3D printers became Hollywood's favorite gimmick | Screenwriters in a jam can hit a new panic button. It’s the switch on the nearest 3D printer. This nifty new technology, which took its first substantial silver screen bow in 2006’s Mission: Impossible III, has surfaced in three recent motion pictures. And in each case not a moment too soon. It’s enough to make you think there’s a contraption somewhere in the Hollywood hills that spits out storytelling solutions.
Hotel Artemis review – Jodie Foster fixes criminals in scrappy sci-fi curio
Read more
Think back to early February and the release (more like escape) of The Cloverfield Paradox, a movie that announced itself fully formed on Netflix the night of the Super Bowl. It’s set 10 years in the future, aboard a space station (and in a parallel universe? Or were we the parallel universe?) where things go haywire in a knockoff Alien manner. A Russian engineer loses his mind a bit when he discovers interplanetary parasites under his skin (you blame him?) and when he is “contacted” by his alternate (evil?) self, he renders up a 3D-printed gun and bullets. He dies before anyone can ask “How did you get a gun schematic programmed in there?” Oh, if only John Malkovich had access to a gizmo like this – he wouldn’t have spent so long molding a plastic pistol to get past Clint Eastwood and assassinate the president in In the Line of Fire.
The just-opened Hotel Artemis, a John Wick-meets-Marvel’s Night Nurse movie about a black market hospital for criminals, is also set 10 years in the future. Jodie Foster (whose last film, Elysium, was also a medical sci-fi actioner, so fingers crossed for that hat-trick!) runs the place, and one of the gadgets she’s got is a 3D printer for internal organs. (I imagine a hospital owning one is like motels from the 1980s proudly declaring “Yes, we have HBO!”)
In an attempt to keep this somewhat rooted in reality, the machine can only reproduce what’s fed into it. So if a heavy smoker offers up a lung, its duplicate will be just as dark and damaged. I mean, even on Star Trek a dermal regenerator could only do so much.
The biggest doozy, however, comes in this past weekend’s number one film, Ocean’s 8. Set in the here and now, the slick female-led ode to photogenic larceny is a sister film (literally! Sandra Bullock plays George Clooney’s sister) to the previous, popular Ocean’s integer movies. It has its pros, namely the look, the attitude, the costumes and Anne Hathaway playing a tweaked version of her own persona. It also has its weaknesses, specifically a master plan that isn’t all that masterly.
Bullock’s Debbie Ocean spent five years in the clink mapping out the perfect crime, and so much of it is uninspired. (The best part, visually, is Awkwafina zipping in and out of a security camera’s gaze in a swift manner. This takes five years to plan?) Part of Debbie’s scheme is just, uh, hoping a washed-up clothing designer with no criminal background will want to join the team, plus a backup plan that their mark (who is very wealthy and doesn’t need a big score) will also, you know, want to join the team. I mean, I get it: Rihanna, Mindy Kaling and Cate Blanchett are really cool. I’d want to join the team, too. We all would! But is this enough?
The crux of the plan involves swapping out the world’s largest and most heavily guarded diamond necklace. How to do that? Well, that will take some crafty diversion tactics (set to some boutique hotel-ready breakbeats) but also a fundamentally lazy one. Once Helena Bonham Carter’s magical camera-glasses can scan and upload the dimensions of the necklace to the team, all you need to do, apparently, is hit “go” on a 3D printer and you’ve got one that’ll fake everybody out.
I suppose it is possible that a 3D printer could get a job like this done. My only personal experience with this technology was at a party where a friend’s husband had one – he said he’d make me a little dragon for my desk, but by the time I was ready to leave only a third of it was completed. (It was just a head and a neck, then some plasti-mush.) What’s more depressing, though, is that it just screams shortcut. And screams it rather boringly.
We all laughed when Jeff Goldblum uploaded a virus from his Macbook to the Independence Day mothership at a time when wifi was still a dream. Back then you could barely play Hunt the Wumpus on a Mac if the floppy (that’s right I said floppy) was meant for a PC. But that didn’t stop the onslaught of bad computing protocols in adventure cinema that plagued us in the early years. Until 3D printers are inexpensive enough for everyone to have their own, we should expect a lot more of these prefab narrative tricks. There’s a new Mission: Impossible movie in just a few weeks. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/05/uk-service-sector-brexit-pound-uk-economy-car-sales-august | Business | 2017-09-05T17:25:29.000Z | Phillip Inman | UK service sector growth slows as car sales fall dramatically | Business leaders have blamed the uncertainty created by Britain’s vote to leave the European Union for the slowest pace of output growth in the services sector for almost a year.
Financial data provider Markit said Brexit uncertainty and higher import costs arising from the slump in the pound were behind the stumbling performance of the UK’s largest business sector last month.
In the first half of the year the services sector, which accounts for almost 80% of economic activity, kept the UK from slipping back into recession.
UK construction 'flirting with recession' as Brexit uncertainty bites
Read more
But a decline in real wages growth after a spike in inflation and the reluctance of households to accumulate debt at the pace seen in the first half of 2017 appeared to have hit the demand for services.
Markit said its purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the sector fell to 53.2 points in August from 53.8 the previous month amid signs that “Brexit-related uncertainty continued to undermine business confidence”. Anything above 50 indicates expansion.
Without a strong rebound over the next few months, analysts said the UK could be heading for another quarter of 0.3% GDP growth and an annual figure that struggles to get above 1%.
The survey followed news of a dramatic fall in car sales during August that analysts warned was connected to household concerns over the outcome of Britain’s talks with the EU.
Private car sales fell by 9.9% in August, compared with the same month last year, to leave the overall annual drop at 6.4%.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said August was traditionally a month for low car sales before the September number plate change. The car industry body said the 76,000 sales still represented the third biggest August in 10 years.
Howard Archer, chief economic advisor to the EY Item Club, said car industry sales were declining from all time highs, but nevertheless August’s figures represented the fifth month of falling sales and pointed to “a clear loss of momentum in the sector”.
Last month Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT, warned that motor manufacturers feared the industry’s revival over the past couple of decades could be put at risk by Britain’s departure from the EU.
He said: “A lot of people have spent the best part of decades turning round the industry, when you think back to how it was characterised in the 70s, 80s and into the 90s. It is very different now. It has had very difficult times and it is a cyclical industry, and there is a fear that that success could be put at jeopardy.”
The fall in car sales and weaker services sector growth is “more evidence that the hit to real incomes from sterling’s depreciation and heightened uncertainty about the economic outlook — both attributable to Brexit — are holding the economy back”, said Samual Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Markit said that on a more positive note, the largest majority of services firms since July 2015 reported that work backlogs increased in August. And in response, firms hired the most workers in 19 months and offered slightly higher wages to retain key staff.
But the new orders index declined to 54.2 in August from 54.7 in July, signalling continued weakness in demand.
Chris Sood-Nicholls, head of global services at Lloyds Bank commercial banking, said: “Brexit brings an added layer of complexity and uncertainty, with many investment decisions going on hold. This uncertainty is also impacting sentiment and making it difficult for businesses to plan long term.”
He said the continued weakness of sterling continued to drive price increases and consumers and businesses were feeling the pinch.
“It’s difficult to see anything immediately on the horizon that will nudge the index out of its fairly flat performance,” he said.
Jeremy Cook, chief economist at foreign exchange dealer WorldFirst, said that together with the PMIs for manufacturing and construction, “the services number indicates a quarterly UK GDP rate of 0.3% – and slowing all the time”.
He said: “Brexit uncertainty, higher costs and lower investment are slowing UK output to a chronic crawl. The summer months may have been warm but the recessional risks for the UK economy are only increasing as we move into autumn.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/09/boris-johnson-cameron-cant-cut-immigration-and-stay-in-eu | Politics | 2016-05-09T13:02:44.000Z | Anushka Asthana | Boris Johnson: Cameron can't cut immigration and stay in EU | Boris Johnson accused the prime minister of undermining trust in democracy by repeatedly promising to cut net immigration to the tens of thousands, despite it being impossible to achieve that as long as Britain is in the EU.
The former London mayor used a speech designed to make the “liberal, cosmopolitan” case for Brexit to launch an attack on David Cameron, who he said had failed to achieve any significant reforms in Brussels.
Johnson’s comments came just hours after the prime minister used his own speech to make the controversial claim that leaving the EU could increase the risk of war.
Johnson said: “It is deeply corrosive of popular trust in democracy that every year UK politicians tell the public that they can cut immigration to the tens of thousands – and then find that they miss their targets by hundreds of thousands.”
The Tory MP, one of the leading figures campaigning for an out vote in the EU referendum, cited a speech given by Cameron in 2013 at Bloomberg in which he said the EU needed “fundamental, far-reaching change”.
He highlighted the fact that Cameron said he was willing to campaign to leave if he failed to achieve fundamental reform and full-on treaty change.
“And that is frankly what the government should now be doing. If you look at what we were promised, and what we got, the government should logically be campaigning on our side today,” added Johnson, arguing that it was “bizarre” for the remain camp to claim that we were living in a reformed EU.
“There has been not a single change to EU competences, not a single change to the treaty, nothing on agriculture, nothing on the role of the court, nothing of any substance on borders – nothing remotely resembling the agenda for change that was promised in the 2013 Bloomberg speech.”
He joked that calling it a “reformed EU” might be an offence against the Trades Descriptions Act, “or rather the EU unfair commercial practices directive that of course replaced the Trades Descriptions Act in 2008”.
Johnson also directly took on Cameron’s earlier speech, saying: “I think it is very, very curious that the prime minister is now calling this referendum and warning us that world war three is about to break out unless we vote to remain. I think that is not the most powerful argument I’ve heard.”
Johnson then added: “If you want an example of EU policymaking on the hoof and EU pretensions to running defence policy that have caused real trouble, then look at what has happened in the Ukraine.’’
Cameron had said: “Can we be so sure that peace and stability on our continent are assured beyond any shadow of doubt? Is that a risk worth taking? I would never be so rash as to make that assumption.”
The prime minister added: “As I sit around that table with 27 other prime ministers and presidents, we remember that it is pretty extraordinary that countries are working together to solve disputes and problems. We should listen to the voices that say Europe had a violent history, we’ve managed to avoid that and so why put at risk the things that achieve that?”
Johnson’s remarks about Ukraine were pounced upon by sources at the Stronger In campaign, who said that the Conservative MP had aligned himself with Ukip leader Nigel Farage, Russian president Vladimir Putin and the leader of France’s National Front, Marine Le Pen.
Johnson rejected the claim that Brexit campaigners were anti-Europe. “I can read novels in French and I can sing the Ode to Joy in German and if they keep accusing me of being a Little Englander, I will,” said Johnson, before offering reporters a verse in the language.
“Both as editor of the Spectator and mayor of London I have promoted the teaching of modern European languages in our schools. I have dedicated much of my life to the study of the origins of our common – our common - European culture and civilisation in ancient Greece and Rome.”
He said it was “offensive, insulting, irrelevant and positively cretinous to be told – sometimes by people who can barely speak a foreign language – that I belong to a group of small-minded xenophobes”.
Instead, Johnson claimed that Brexit was the “great project of European liberalism”.
“And I am afraid that it is the European Union – for all the high ideals with which it began, that now represents the ancient regime.”
Asked if he would serve in a Cameron cabinet following such a vociferous attack on his Conservative colleague, Johnson swerved the question. He responded that he was a “humble ex-municipal toenail” who was now determined to serve only one cause – his desire for Britain to vote to leave the EU on 23 June. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2021/nov/07/we-can-be-confident-there-have-been-far-more-than-5-million-covid-deaths | From the Observer | 2021-11-07T10:00:15.000Z | David Spiegelhalter | We can be confident there have been far more than 5 million global Covid deaths | David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters | On 1 November, news organisations reported the global Covid-19 death toll had exceeded 5 million. But, as these articles highlight, this figure is likely to be a massive underestimate.
Johns Hopkins University collates official daily statistics on Covid deaths, but there is no unified global definition: Belgium’s high reported death rate partly reflects its including all probable Covid deaths in all settings, while Hungary only publishes hospital deaths with a positive test. Turkmenistan and North Korea have, apparently, not experienced a single Covid death.
The UK surveillance death count based on positive tests was around 140,600 on 1 November, but the number of death certificates mentioning Covid is considerably higher, at about 164,500. Even that higher figure could be too low, with under-diagnosis of this new disease in early months.
A more robust method is to estimate the “excess” over the number who would have died in normal times. Of course, pandemics may increase deaths from other causes, say through disruption to healthcare, although restrictions and behavioural changes can reduce deaths too. The Office for National Statistics uses an average between 2015 and 2019 as a baseline and in recent weeks finds a worrying excess of many hundreds of deaths not involving Covid. However, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries adjusts for a changing population to create an alternative baseline, which yields fewer than 100 non-Covid “extra” deaths in the latest week.
To get an uncertain answer to the right question, the Economist built a model to estimate global excess deaths. Russia has reported 230,000 Covid deaths, but may have about four times as many excess deaths. Devastated by the Delta variant, India’s estimated excess mortality is around 10 times higher than its Covid surveillance death count of 460,000, although the uncertainty interval is wide (three to 16 times higher). Inadequate death registration hampers this analysis – the UN statistics division estimates fewer than seven in 10 territories have over 90% coverage.
The Economist’s model estimates 10 to 19m extra deaths around the world during the pandemic. Five million deaths is a grim milestone, but humanity passed that long ago.
David Spiegelhalter is chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at Cambridge. Anthony Masters is statistical ambassador for the Royal Statistical Society | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/26/the-failure-of-david-camerons-migration-policy-has-been-spectacular | World news | 2015-02-26T10:59:11.000Z | Alan Travis | The failure of David Cameron's migration policy has been spectacular | The failure of the Conservatives to hit their target to reduce net migration to the “tens of thousands” by this year’s general election ranks amongthe top five Whitehall policy failures in the 25 years since the poll tax.
Yet Conservatives and Labour have indicated in the past six months that they are both toying with the idea of renewing the target, albeit in different forms – some excluding overseas students – after the election. Why on earth would they want to do that?
The failure of the policy has certainly been spectacular. In 2010 David Cameron made a “no ifs, no buts” promise to reduce annual net migration below 100,000. He goes into the election with the politically sensitive figure at nearly 300,000.
Net migration to UK higher than when coalition took office
Read more
At the start of the coalition government, net migration – the numbers of people coming to live in the UK for more than 12 months minus the number going to live abroad for longer than a year – stood at 244,000.
The home secretary, Theresa May, has introduced a battery of bills to squeeze nearly every form of migration from outside Europe. That squeeze has included an ineffective cap on skilled migration which has been bypassed by other routes, the introduction of an £18,600 earning threshold for family spouses and, most controversially of all, curbs on student migration, especially to further education colleges and English language schools and by closing the post-study work route.
As Britain’s austerity programme began to bite and unemployment rose the drive to cut migrant numbers began to yield results. At first the number rose to a new peak of 263,000 in June 2011 but then it fell for five consecutive quarters until in September 2012 the rolling annual net migration figure reached just 154,000.
It looked, at the time, as though the target of reducing it below 100,000 by the time of the next election was going to be within easy reach albeit with a high price paid by thousands of divided families, colleges, and businesses. Universities UK say that the number of Indian students has fallen by 56% over the past three years alone.
But just as the prize seemed to be in sight, factors beyond May’s control began to kick in.
The eurozone crisis intensified just as the British economy began to enjoy a faster rate of growth than in particular southern European countries such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece.
More migrants started to come from within the EU as austerity increased labour mobility within the free movement rules. The renewed rise in the net migration figure was also fuelled by the fact that fewer migrants already working in Britain were going back home.
That has largely continued to be the story ever since with a new 168,000-strong wave of Polish and east European migration seen in the last year, according to the labour market statistics.
But despite the Conservative rhetoric to have brought non-EU
migration under control the increase in net migration is not just from within the EU. Net migration from outside the EU rose 53,000 on the latest figures, even higher than 32,000 increase from within the EU. The rise in net migration to the UK cannot be wholly attributed to the free movement rules of the EU, as Conservative ministers and Ukip have repeatedly claimed.
The political irony is that George Osborne’s economic recovery, partly fuelled by the mass levels of migration of the past 20 years, has proved the key factor in burying the main objective of May’s immigration policy. Cameron now even boasts that Britain has become the “jobs factory of Europe”.
As with all immigration stories – personal and political – the reality of adopting a totally arbitrary target for net migration has been a lot more complicated than that. The coalition government, for example, has done little, despite its rhetoric, to deal with the impact of mass immigration at a local level with its deep cuts in local government spending hampering the attempts of communities to adapt to rapidly changing populations.
Nevertheless, Cameron is keen to repeat the exercise. In his big immigration speech before Christmas he said the target was worthwhile because it measured the overall impact of migration on the country. But he promised that in future the net migration target will come in a new, improved form with “additional metrics that so that people can clearly chart progress on the scale of migration from outside the EU – and from within it”.
May has unsuccessfully tried to float the idea of a separate zero net migration for students to be included in the Tory manifesto. Cameron has talked of the introduction of an earnings threshold for British citizens wanting their EU wife or husband to join them here.
Yvette Cooper has promised that Labour will scrap Cameron’s single net migration target on the grounds that it has “completely distorted” the government’s immigration policy. But then at last autumn’s party conference she indicated she would like to see much more strictly defined targets and controls but which, crucially, would exclude international university students. “What you should instead have is a series of different controls and targets for different kinds of immigration.”
It is easy to see why the two main parties, anxious in their own ways about the Ukip threat should want to retain some form of net migration target. When Cameron launched his “six priorities” for the election campaign in January and it became clear that immigration was not one of them, the Sun said: “You have to wonder if he really wants to win.” The politicians know migration targets will not work but now falsely believe they are essential to convincing the voters they can get immigration under control. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/feb/25/architect-decimus-burton-utter-originality-and-unselfconscious-perfection | Art and design | 2023-02-25T16:00:06.000Z | Rowan Moore | Architect Decimus Burton: ‘Utter originality and unselfconscious perfection’ | If Decimus Burton had only designed one building, and that had been the Palm House at Kew Gardens, he would deserve to be famous. It is a pioneering work of steel and glass, built in collaboration with the Dublin ironmaster Richard Turner, completed three years before the celebrated Crystal Palace of 1851, its swelling, doubly curving bubble of glass more beautiful and – unlike the latter – still standing.
Decimus Burton (1800-1881). Photograph: Chronicle/Alamy
As the great Observer critic Ian Nairn put it, the Palm House is a work of “utter originality and unselfconscious perfection … nearer to a beautiful animal or to one of the plants it encloses than to the fumbling, guilt-laden compositions of architecture”.
But Burton, precocious and prolific, created very many more projects than this. He designed a house for his father, a successful builder and developer, at the age of 18. From his 20s onwards he helped to shape the 19th-century institutions that are still with us: the seaside resort, with his plans and buildings for Fleetwood in Lancashire and St Leonards in Sussex; London Zoo; public green spaces such as Phoenix Park in Dublin and parts of Hyde Park; and the private members’ club in the form of the Athenaeum in London.
That he’s not better known is partly due to the apparent conservatism of his preferred style: a neo-classical architecture of pillars and pediments, similar to that of the older John Nash, that was derided as “pagan” by the gothic revivalist architect Augustus Pugin, who designed much of the Palace of Westminster.
He was possibly too successful for the good of his reputation, provoking accusations that he sacrificed quality to quantity. He was polite and considerate – whereas Pugin was cantankerous – and professional and competent, unlike the jerry-building Nash. Sometimes, if you want to go down in history, it helps to be a bit of a pain.
Victorian architecture’s lost giant, Decimus Burton, finally regains recognition
Read more
Burton’s classical buildings are generally pleasing and generous, good-natured settings for leisured lives in the likes of St Leonards and Tunbridge Wells. Yet, especially with the Palm House and other buildings at Kew, he could be more innovative than his rivals and critics. Possibly he was accidentally avant-garde, driven primarily by the practical need to find the best technique for a given problem.
Working with plants and animals brought out the best in him, pushing him to levels of invention humans didn’t require. A personal favourite is his giraffe house at London Zoo, a simple arched structure adapted to the proportions of the long-necked beasts, which makes it special. It’s the work of an architect who should be remembered. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/commentisfree/2021/apr/30/sadiq-khan-is-way-ahead-but-the-london-mayoral-elections-are-still-full-of-jeopardy | UK news | 2021-04-30T14:59:00.000Z | Zoe Williams | Sadiq Khan is way ahead – but the London mayoral elections are still full of jeopardy | Zoe Williams | Local elections give me the blues. All political parties talk down their chances ahead of them, then a bunch of psephologists weigh in to describe what normal results look like at this stage in the electoral cycle, as if anything were normal nowadays. Local elections remind me of Emmerdale – not enough happens, but what does is way too complicated.
The London mayoral elections, on the other hand, unfold like a novel – a neatly bracketed timeline (they only started in 2000), with great big characters and the most bizarre, upside down consequences. No London mayor has enough power to solve the housing crisis, which is what all Londoners, renters at least, really think about; yet the office can bestow enough significance on an insignificant person that he can accrue the power to ravage the nation.
A mayor can do a radical thing and make it seem normal overnight (congestion charge?). Or they can do nothing at all, and mysteriously take credit for the good that was done before them, with some sleight of hand and a bit of alliteration (“Boris” bikes).
Something about the conception of the office in 2000 created an inversion from the start, which never lifted. It was all a bit sudden and felt a bit more about showbiz than rooted London governance. Before he assumed the office, Ken Livingstone said it was “a bloody stupid idea”. The upshot was the more responsible the politician in charge, the less of a splash they made.
Livingstone, while mayor, was untouchable: he didn’t even need a party to win a landslide. People just liked the look of him, and kept liking it, until they liked Boris Johnson more. Politically, it made no sense, because it was all about the characters. But the characters made no sense, either. They were forged, magnified, altered by the race: Zac Goldsmith entered the 2016 election as a likable enviro-toff, but left it disgraced by a campaign that even his fellow Tories denounced as “racist” and “repulsive”. Sadiq Khan entered office as a loyal New Labour lieutenant, maybe a bit boring; he fights to hold it now as a firebrand of the capital’s values – multiculturalism, modernity, empathy.
Khan’s dominance in the polls, at 20 points ahead, might make 2021 seem too predictable to be interesting. But all you have to do is imagine Laurence Fox performing even fractionally better than he deserves, and it’s all the jeopardy this drama requires.
Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/16/uber-self-driving-cars-california-illegal-unethical-tactics | Technology | 2016-12-16T11:00:01.000Z | Sam Levin | Self-driving cars: Uber's open defiance of California shines light on brazen tactics | Uber has launched an aggressive battle with California over its controversial self-driving cars, with regulators and consumer advocates accusing the corporation of flagrantly violating the law, endangering public safety and mistreating drivers.
The intense fight with the state – which ignited hours after numerous self-driving cars were caught running red lights in Uber’s home town – has exposed what critics say are the unethical and illegal tactics that the company has repeatedly used to grow its business.
Uber blames humans for self-driving car traffic offenses as California orders halt
Read more
The ride-sharing company, which launched semi-autonomous vehicles in San Francisco without permits this week, was ordered by the California department of motor vehicles (DMV) to immediately remove the cars from the road or face legal action.
But Uber, which has not publicly responded to the state’s demands, blamed the traffic light violations on “human error” and suspended the drivers who were monitoring the cars. This bold deflection of blame further highlights the corporation’s refusal to take responsibility for potential faults in its technology and raises questions about the dangers of prematurely rolling out self-driving vehicles.
“How many people are they going to kill before they understand they’re not doing the right thing?” said John M Simpson, privacy project director with Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit that has called for Uber to face consequences for side-stepping regulations. “If you’re going to use public highways as your own private laboratory, you’ve got an obligation to follow the rules.”
Uber’s open defiance of California regulators marks the latest case of a “sharing economy” corporation ignoring government under the guise of “disruption” and “innovation”. Uber has long claimed that it is a technology “platform” and not a transportation company and thus does not have to classify its drivers as employees or follow traditional taxicab regulations.
That strategy has resulted in more than 70 lawsuits in federal courts and hefty settlements, along with claims from opponents that the company is abusing workers’ rights and failing to ensure the safety of riders.
The San Francisco self-driving car scandal centers on Uber’s Volvo XC90s, which can navigate on their own while licensed drivers sit at the wheel and take control when necessary. The company first piloted semi-autonomous vehicles in Pittsburgh in August.
In Pennsylvania, some drivers responded to the program with shock and concern and wondered how quickly they could lose their jobs to full automation.
The abrupt rollout in San Francisco and subsequent suspensions has led some California drivers to question whether Uber will toss them aside when the technology malfunctions or drivers aren’t properly trained and make a mistake.
Uber self-driving car drives through red light in San Francisco Guardian
“Uber itself is a very unethical company,” said Travis Taborek, a 26-year-old Bay Area resident, who drives full time for Uber and its competitor, Lyft. “If you launch technology like this on the scale of a city, then you need to go through proper channels. That’s how people are protected.”
In the long term, he added, “I am concerned self-driving cars are going to put a lot of people out of work.”
One San Francisco Uber driver, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, followed a self-driving car for about 15 minutes on Wednesday and filmed its movements. The footage shows multiple minor violations or potentially dangerous moves, such as failing to fully brake at a stop sign or cutting off a bus.
“I’d expect better behavior from a company with such clout in the transportation industry,” he said.
Uber has argued that it does not need permits since its cars aren’t fully autonomous, though the DMV noted that 20 companies have followed proper procedures and were approved to test self-driving vehicles in California.
Uber did not respond to repeated inquiries about the state’s order and lawsuit threat. In a statement to the Guardian, a spokesperson claimed that two cars running red lights were not part of the pilot and weren’t carrying customers.
“These incidents were due to human error. This is why we believe so much in making the roads safer by building self-driving Ubers.” A spokesperson also claimed the cars require “human monitoring and intervention in many conditions, including bad weather”.
An Uber driverless car is displayed in a garage in San Francisco. Photograph: Eric Risberg/AP
Experts note that Uber has an obvious financial interest in a system with minimal regulations. By ignoring California regulators, the corporation is attempting to preemptively create a framework in which self-driving cars are treated similarly to traditional vehicles, said Arun Sundararajan, a New York University business professor and expert on the sharing economy.
“The act of asking for permission is sort of a tacit admission that this needs to be regulated,” he said. “They are playing a long game here … They’re trying to define what the regulatory space is going to look like.”
Michael Gumora, a longtime San Francisco Uber driver who runs a website called RideshareReport.com, said it was a public relations ploy to announce suspensions and say the drivers erred when the automation system clearly didn’t work properly.
“It’s a human error, but the vehicle and the technology didn’t compensate,” he said. “The technology itself wasn’t able to avoid running the red light.”
Taborek said publicly admonishing the operators was another example of Uber mistreating drivers. “I would take anything Uber says with massive grains of salt ... I’d be willing to bet good money that the technology is at fault.”
Uber’s response is reminiscent of statements from Tesla earlier this year after a driver using its “autopilot” technology died in a crash. The corporation denied responsibility and defended its technology even though the car’s system failed to detect a truck in front of it.
“You put unsafe vehicles on the road and then you blame a human,” said Simpson, who argued that San Francisco police should respond to Uber’s rogue operations by impounding the vehicles operating without a permit.
Consumer Watchdog also called for criminal charges against Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick for violating DMV requirements.
“This is essentially driving without a license,” Simpson said. “It’s really unconscionable.”
Contact the author: [email protected] | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jun/21/30-minutes-with-joshua-jackson | Film | 2012-06-21T19:30:02.000Z | Xan Brooks | Joshua Jackson: 'If I'm satirising anything, it's the trap of my own mind' | Hi Joshua, I'm picturing you sat in some sterile distributor's office.
No, I'm in my house in Los Angeles. That's a lot better than some distributor's office, let me tell you.
Let's talk about the character of Jeremy in Lay the Favourite (1). He's like the lone innocent in a gang of rogues.
Yeah, he's the babe in the woods, he's outside the gambling arena and allows the Rebecca Hall character to connect to a different kind of life.
Are you a big gambler yourself?
I've gone to Vegas, played a bit of poker. The Ocean's 11 (2) lifestyle is a lot of fun. But I know when to quit. My theory is that when the money starts coming out of your pocket, it's time to stop. What I like about Lay the Favourite is that it shows gambling as a profession, as this real grind-it-out job, with no glamour about it at all.
Tell me about your own grind-it-out career on US TV.
I've working on this show called Fringe (3). I don't know how much you know about it, but it's this huge, outlandish science-fiction spectacle. The whole thing is a lot of fun, very inventive. But it's a huge commitment too. When you're working on a television series, you only get a very short off-season. The scheduling of TV is relentless. So you go and audition for film roles but sometimes, even assuming you get them, the dates don't work out, because they won't film it during your down time.
So you think that films are basically better than TV?
Not necessarily. TV, particularly network television, gives you a much greater opportunity to tell a long-form story, to develop a character and keep it detailed. Film, by its nature, is more finite. But yes, I do miss the collaborative nature of film. Because, at the end of the day, you're still working on a TV show and the meter is running. You have to get each episode right and get it delivered in time for the air-date. And if it's not right, too bad, it still has to go on air.
You got your big break playingPacey Witter on Dawson's Creek (4). Do you look back on those days with a wince?
I look back on the haircut, the bad skin and the breaking voice with a wince! I guess I look back the way other people look back at their college years. Dawson's Creek was my college experience.
You've also been keeping the character alive through Pacey-Con (5).
Yeah, I'm keeping him alive in a way that I didn't quite think through. I don't know what I'm doing; you tell me. It's just that, in my life, I've found that show is so damn important to so many people. I hope people appreciate my stance with Pacey-Con. I'm not out to kick the guy when he's down.
Hmm. You've described Pacey Witter as "the greatest television character of all time" and discussed launching a range of spin-off merchandise, such as The Tao of Pacey.
OK, yeah. But if I'm satirising anything, it's the trap of my own mind. It's so difficult to process success when you're young. I'm not surprised that some people never readjust and move on. But that's the trap. Because if you don't, you're dead. If you don't grow as an actor, you really shouldn't be working. So I want to move on and I want to be challenged. I mean, OK, Lay the Favourite is a pretty light movie. But it's still a film by Stephen Frears, with a great cast. You can't walk on set and start fucking around.
You worked on the London stage back in 2005 (6).
Wow, was that seven years ago? I've now reached the age when seven years goes by like that. I've gone from being the youngest guy on set to being the old timer who people come to for stories.
I'm still trying to figure out if you're American, Canadian or Irish (7).
I'm all three, triple nationality. If I had to choose, I think I'm mostly Canadian. As much as I feel a part of American life, there are still aspects of this country that make me glad to be Canadian.
Such as?
The political structure. America is just more geared to the right. Our conservatives, generally speaking, would still be seen as liberal in the States and our socialists would be seen as communists. All of that makes me proud to be Canadian.
In the meantime, you divide your time between a house in Los Angeles and a house in Paris.
In theory! In practice, I spend at least nine months a year in LA. But Paris is a magical place. And living with a woman who speaks French is wonderful (8) and really breaks down the barriers and opens up the city. Ideally, I'd spend a lot more of my time in Europe.
Maybe come back to London?
Well, it's up to you to put the word out. I'd love to do some more theatre. So start the groundswell. I've got an off-season coming up. I can be there in November.
Lay the Favourite is out now on general release.
FOOTNOTES
1) Jackson co-stars with Rebecca Hall, Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Stephen Frears's Vegas-set gambling caper.
2) He cameoed (as himself) in Steven Soderbergh's 2001 blockbuster.
3) JJ Abrams's paranormal drama about FBI agents who investigate mysterious ripples from a parallel dimension. Not to be confused with The X-Files.
4) Wildly successful teenage coming-of-age series that ran from 1998-2003. Jackson played Pacey, wild-card sidekick (and later romantic rival) of geeky, straight-arrow Dawson Leery.
5) Jackson's rueful one-man retrospective, staged as an illicit guerilla offshoot of Comic-Con in San Diego.
6) Opposite Patrick Stewart in David Mamet's A Life in the Theatre.
7) Born in Vancouver to a Texan father and an Irish mother.
8) His partner is Diane Kruger, star of Troy and Inglourious Basterds. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/jan/10/uk-rapper-skepta-apologises-holocaust-imagery-in-artwork-gas-me-up-diligent | Music | 2024-01-10T10:32:01.000Z | Ben Beaumont-Thomas | UK rapper Skepta apologises after criticism of artwork for evoking Holocaust | The Mercury prize-winning British rapper Skepta has apologised after artwork for his single Gas Me Up (Diligent) was criticised on social media for having unintentional but palpable allusions to the Holocaust.
The artwork features a group of people in matching overcoats with shaved heads, and the words “gas me up” tattooed on the head of one of them, perceived as reminiscent of the head-shaving, tattooing and gas chambers used in Nazi death camps. “Gas me up” is slang for hyping someone up or praising them.
The image caused offence on social media, and Skepta soon removed it. He wrote on X: “I’ve been waiting to drop Gas Me Up (Diligent) since teasing it April last year, worked hard getting the artwork right for my album rollout which is about my parents coming to the UK in the 80’s, Skinhead, Football culture and it has been taken offensively by many and I can promise you that was definitely not our plan so I have removed it and I vow to be more mindful going forward.”
In another tweet, he added: “I can honestly see how my single artwork without context can be deemed offensive, especially in a time like this but again that was not my intention. But after some thought I don’t feel like I could continue being the artist you all know and love if my art is policed, I have to quit if I can’t express my art as I see it.” He said Gas Me Up (Diligent) would be released on 26 January as planned, though hasn’t said if it will carry the offending artwork.
He shared a mood board of images that informed the artwork and the broader “1980’s UK story” for forthcoming album Knife and Fork, featuring a number of images of British skinheads as well as multiracial fans of the 2 Tone movement. The skinhead images carry with them their own provocation, given the sizable racist and far-right contingent to the movement in the 1980s. One person also wears a tattoo that resembles an eagle insignia used by the Nazi party.
I can honestly see how my single artwork without context can be deemed offensive, especially in a time like this but again that was not my intention. But after some thought I don’t feel like I could continue being the artist you all know and love if my art is policed, I have to… pic.twitter.com/59oUOPe8Hp
— Big Smoke - (@Skepta) January 10, 2024
Born to Nigerian immigrant parents and raised in Tottenham in London, Skepta, real name Joseph Adenuga, is one of Britain’s most commercially successful and critically acclaimed rappers, celebrated for helping to pioneer grime music and for a remarkable second flush of success from the mid-2010s onwards. Last month he was named the greatest British rapper of all time by the British arm of pop culture website Complex.
His last two albums, Konnichiwa and Ignorance Is Bliss, both reached No 2 in the UK charts, with Konnichiwa winning the Mercury prize. In 2018 he had a global hit Praise the Lord (Da Shine), an A$AP Rocky track he produced and rapped on. More recently he has exhibited his paintings at Sotheby’s and also made a foray into DJing and producing house music – he had a club hit in 2023 with the Amy Winehouse-sampling Can’t Play Myself (A Tribute to Amy).
As well as the long-awaited Knife and Fork, Skepta is preparing to release Tribal Mark, a short film he co-directed with Dwight Okechukwu. Promotional materials describe it as “an origin story, signalling a wider cinematic universe which will centre on our anti-hero character, Tribal Mark, and his role within the undercover Black Secret Service – with more to be revealed later this year”. The film features a 90% global majority cast and crew. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/21/country-diary-on-the-trail-of-the-elusive-breckland-pingo | Environment | 2023-08-21T04:30:06.000Z | Kate Blincoe | Country diary: On the trail of the elusive Breckland pingo | Kate Blincoe | My son leads the way, setting a fast pace, while my daughter wants to stop and look at everything – a tiny froglet crossing our path, a peacock butterfly that settles on her hand. Our first pingo was quickly followed by our second, third and fourth, as we pushed further into an unknown landscape.
In the ice age, as glaciers retreated, areas of water remained frozen underground, hard lens-like discs of ice shrouded in soil. When it thawed, the soil sank down, leaving shallow hollows that then filled with water to become a rare type of pond. Known as kettle ponds or pingos, Norfolk’s Breckland is pocked with hundreds of them, forming a swampy, nature-rich wetland habitat that can be explored on the Great Eastern Pingo Trail.
‘My daughter wants to stop and look at everything – a tiny froglet crossing our path, a peacock butterfly that settles on her hand.’ Photograph: Kate Blincoe
The word pingo is Inuit for a hill that has an ice core. Around the UK, most pingos have been lost to agriculture and land drainage. Bounded by arable land and forestry, the route immerses us in lush green as we part ferns to continue our path along a disused railway and a Roman road.
This is heaven for dragonflies and damselflies, and the air is busy with so many species and colours, from electric blue, emerald green and rusty red to the heavy brown hawkers. Like pingos, dragonflies have a long history. About the time coal was formed, 300m years ago, their evolutionary ancestors were on the wing in swampy habitats just like this.
Thompson Water opens up before us, part of this rich mosaic of land and water. A team of volunteers works relentlessly to eradicate the invasive plant Crassula helmsii from the ponds here. It’s a major threat for UK wetlands because it grows vigorously, forming dense mats that reduce oxygen levels and kill native flora. It needs to be painstakingly removed by hand.
In recent years, ghost pingos, those that were lost to the plough, are being restored. It’s alchemy. By uncovering the original sediment at the base of the pool, the hidden seed bank is reactivated, returning the ancient plants to life.
We reach the end of the trail feeling as if we have travelled back in time to a lost, nature-filled past.
Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jul/09/poldark-star-aidan-turner-shirtless-scene-more-empathy-women | Television & radio | 2019-07-09T05:01:43.000Z | Nadeem Badshah | Poldark star says shirtless scene gave him more empathy for women | The Poldark actor Aidan Turner has said his famous shirtless scything scene in the BBC One drama made him appreciate how women feel when objectified.
The 36-year-old, who shot to fame in the series based on Winston Graham’s books, became a small-screen heartthrob when the topless scene was broadcast four years ago. Radio Times readers voted it the TV moment of 2015.
Turner said while he never felt personally objectified, it enabled him to have more empathy towards women who have found themselves in a similar position.
The Irish actor told the Radio Times: “I’m a man. It’s just not the same. It’s a completely different world for me. I walk down the street, I don’t ever feel scared. There are women who feel scared every day. It’s a very different world for me.
“If I go to a BFI screening and 20 women come up and they want selfies, it can sometimes get a little hands-on. But I never feel like my safety is in question. I never feel like I need to get out of there. I don’t get scared, so it’s different. Whereas a woman might, if it happened with 20 guys crowding around her.”
The fifth series of Poldark begins on Sunday at 9pm on BBC One and will run for eight episodes.
Turner said the public were generally kind to him and he did not receive too much hassle from admirers and people who recognised him.
“When the show is on television you get recognised a bit more,” he said. “That’s the great thing about audiences: they’re brilliantly fickle. They’re gorgeously fickle. We all are. You’re popular when you’re on television but when you’re not no one really cares about you. So that’s useful, I suppose.
“I certainly don’t get hassled. Maybe on a Friday or Saturday night in a pub at one o’clock in the morning – people have a few drinks, all it takes is for one person to see you and then tell their mates – but people are generally really kind. I’m grateful for it.”
The fifth series is expected to be the last, though the writer Debbie Horsfield has said there is a possibility the show could return as there are still five books of the 12-part series left to cover. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/01/rishi-sunak-cop28-prime-minister-delay-petrol-car-ban-un-climate-summit-dubai | Environment | 2023-12-01T18:46:17.000Z | Aletha Adu | Sunak accused of retreating from global climate leadership at Cop28 | Rishi Sunak has been accused of “shrinking and retreating” from global leadership as he used the Cop28 summit to claim that “climate politics is at breaking point” because of the costs of net zero.
While many other world leaders, including King Charles, spoke of the urgency of action on the climate, the prime minister used his brief appearance at the summit in Dubai to promote his approach to slowing the pace of net zero policies and reducing pressures on family finances.
Sunak said “not a single person” among world leaders at the summit had challenged him over a delay to banning petrol cars, after he switched to a more “pragmatic” approach to net zero targets several months ago. He said Britain was a leader on the climate and it was time for others to do more, saying other countries were “grateful” to the UK for what it had done so far.
Sunak’s tone at the summit attracted criticism from charities, who accused him of “misreading the room”, while some Conservative politicians said he was risking the UK’s leadership position on the issue. Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said Sunak’s words showed that the “smallness” of his politics was affecting his ability to show a “seriousness and a want to lead” on the climate.
2:16
'The Earth does not belong to us': King Charles addresses Cop28 climate summit – video
The prime minister’s messaging also stood in stark contrast to that of Charles, who gave the keynote speech. Noting that this was the hottest year on record, the king spoke of his worry that the pace of action was not quick enough, and told the summit: “Records are now being broken so often that we are perhaps becoming immune to what they are really telling us. We need to pause to process what this actually means: we are taking the natural world outside balanced norms and limits, and into dangerous, uncharted territory.”
In a further embarrassment for Sunak, the monarch also wore a tie bearing the Greek flag throughout the day and for their meeting, at the end of a week in which the prime minister cancelled a meeting with his Greek counterpart over his request for the return of the Parthenon marbles. No 10 declined to comment, saying it was a matter for the palace, but Greek media interpreted the king’s move as tacit backing for Athens’ position.
Sunak stayed just eight hours in Dubai and appeared irritated by questions about his commitment to climate goals, despite having watered down the UK’s targets, changed the definition of climate aid in order to meet his target of spending £11.6bn over five years, and committed to new oil and gas development in the North Sea.
Sunak speaking to the media during a press conference at the Cop28 summit on Friday. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
He claimed that the cost of the transition to net zero put public support for tackling the climate crisis at risk, and argued that what he called his pragmatism over the issue was not extreme or out of step with other countries.
His speech to world leaders stressed that the UK was “totally committed to net zero”, but in a press conference he focused on urging other countries to be more ambitious, while saying the UK was “doing more than everyone else”. Referring to his delayed ban on petrol and diesel vehicles, he said: “Hand on heart, 100%, not a single leader that I have spoken to today has spoken about that. Do you know why? Because most of their targets are less ambitious than the UK’s.”
He said the 2035 date for phasing out petrol and diesel cars was in line with other developed countries. He said it “demonstrates just how distorted this debate has become”, adding: “I shift a date to be in line with basically every other country, and it’s somehow portrayed as some extreme measure.”
Starmer accused Sunak of “shrinking and retreating” from leadership on the global stage at Cop28. “For the prime minister to reduce this down in the way that he does, the smallness of his politics is becoming a feature of his politics,” he said. “We saw it with the Greek prime minister. We saw it with some of the lines that he was putting out about ‘eco-zealots’ as he got on the plane to come here. This is not something to shrink from, not something to retreat from.”
Keir Starmer holding a media briefing in Dubai on Friday. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Chris Skidmore, the Conservative former energy minister and adviser on net zero, told the Guardian it was “true the UK is a climate leader”, as it had led the G20 in halving emissions since 1990, been the first G7 country to commit to net zero and had the most ambitious nationally determined contribution of any nation.
Sign up to First Edition
Free daily newsletter
Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
He went on: “But that doesn’t mean that we should stand still. As my mission zero review showed, net zero is the economic opportunity of the decade to deliver inward investment, regional growth, new jobs and greater exports, worth around £1tn by 2030. But if we aren’t prepared to lead any more, another country will take our place and reap the economic reward of leading the energy transition.
“That’s what the US is attempting with its Inflation Reduction Act, or the EU with their green deal. We are at risk that by standing still, we will fall behind. There are no prizes for coming second, as there is no future economy without a green economy.”
What Sunak claims about the UK’s climate record – and the reality
Read more
The former environment minister Zac Goldsmith, who resigned while accusing Sunak of being “uninterested” in green issues, was more critical, telling Sky News: “There’s no doubt our standing has diminished considerably in recent months. The UK is just not seen by our allies – big and also small island members of the Commonwealth – as a reliable or serious partner.”
Charities and environmental campaigners were unimpressed by Sunak’s claims to be leading the world on the climate. Rebecca Newsom of Greenpeace UK said it was “an old hit we’ve heard one too many times”. “He masquerades like a headliner while reprising a sorry medley of net-zero policy rollbacks while keeping silent on the biggest issue that will make a difference to cutting emissions at this conference: a global phase-out of fossil fuels,” she said.
“Compared with the hundreds of billions needed to support the poorest countries, the £1.6bn announced today barely touches the sides, and it’s clear that only around half of it is new money.”
Tessa Khan, the executive director at Uplift, an organisation campaigning for a fossil fuel-free UK, said the prime minister had “completely misread the room”.
“While the head of the UN implores countries to urgently phase out fossil fuels, the UK is one of just a handful of wealthy nations that is continuing to greenlight major new oilfields,” she said. “Rishi Sunak’s disinterest in tackling the climate crisis plays badly with voters at home, but to play dumb at Cop and ignore the UK’s role in literally adding fuel to the fire, for example by approving the massive Rosebank oilfield, is diplomatically embarrassing.” | Full |
Subsets and Splits