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https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/sep/03/dredd-judge-alex-garland-pete-travis | Film | 2012-09-03T15:27:13.000Z | Ben Child | No-nonsense Dredd gives fans nothing to fear | Dredd, which arrives in UK cinemas later this week, has had a chequered path to production: director Pete Travis was reportedly locked out of the editing suite at one stage while screenwriter Alex Garland finished the film. The pair later issued a statement in which they denied Travis had been ousted and put to rest rumours that Garland might seek a co-director's credit. Nevertheless, the whole affair hardly invited optimism.
Whoever's stamp is on the final cut – and Travis was missing from the special screening I attended last week in London, while Garland held centre-stage – there are no signs that the film has suffered from the lack of a unified vision. In fact there is nothing muddled or vague about the second adaptation of the 2000 AD comic strip Judge Dredd to hit cinemas (after 1995's misfiring Sylvester Stallone vehicle). It is the very definition of a lean, direct, no-holds-barred action movie – albeit a stylish and atmospheric one – so much so that some might even leave the cinema wondering if the creative team could have spent a little more time getting under the skin of their hero.
As 2000 AD aficionados will know, that would have been an error. Dredd, which takes place in a sprawling future megalopolis of 800 million people policed by all-powerful Judges, is refreshingly free of the angsty navel-gazing that usually accompanies big-screen comic book instalments, and that's just as it should be. Mega-City One's best known lawman (here played by a Clint Eastwood-channelling Karl Urban) never was your traditional Marvel/DC-style superhero, with a love interest, a private life and a secret list of hangups. If anyone ever did manage to lift that famous helmet and peer through the windows to his soul, they'd be highly unlikely to discover even the merest flicker of doubt or uncertainty. Dredd-style justice means making a split-second decision and sticking to it, even if that means consigning a "perp" to serve the rest of his or her life in a solitary jail cell known as an "isocube". You never look back.
Following that breezy but brutal mantra to the letter, Garland and Travis have given us a tight, 95-minute movie that leaves no time at all for the narrative to get swamped in expansive ideas or emotional intrigue. At one point, after we have witnessed epic scenes of giant buildings being blown apart, criminals splattering on the pavement after 80-storey drops and spectacular gun battles between the law and the bad guys, someone asks Dredd what he's been up to that day. "Drug bust", comes the functional, typically understated reply. The film feels like the extended pilot episode of a really, really good TV series, and that's absolutely fine: it leaves plenty room for the second and third instalments to grow in scope and stature should the first movie prove a success.
Where Dredd exceeds expectations is in its realisation. The drug bust in question centres on a gargantuan tower block ruled by villain Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), who rules with an iron fist while hooking up the inhabitants with (apparently) high-quality supplies of the intoxicant slo-mo. Smoking this stuff causes the user to experience a time-stretched haze in which a second feels like an hour, and so on and so forth. This dreamy, opaque existence is extended to and borrowed for the film's atmospheric sequences, which are peppered with wonderfully washed out musical interludes from Scottish composer Paul Leonard-Morgan. At key moments the very fabric of the universe seems to split and bulge at a molecular level, vividly shifting and refracting before the viewer's eyes. It's brilliantly ambitious stuff that adds a real touch of otherworldly class.
Urban's Judge Dredd doesn't just borrow his gruff brogue from Eastwood: there's a measured minimalism and brooding scorn of unnecessary fuss there too which recalls the latter's best work. Olivia Thirlby is also strong as the psychic rookie Anderson, based on the comic's Psi-Judge Anderson, though again there's not a lot going on under the hood. In fact there are no real grandstanding performances in Dredd, no scenery chewing and little bombastic chest-thumping. It is a long way from the over-the-top, Paul Verhoevenesque sci-fi satire one might have expected, but what it lacks in larger-than-life villains – a staple of the comics – and futuristic silliness (there are no fatties or mutants to be seen) it makes up for with elegant cinematography and cerebellum-twisting special effects.
"So far, the response from Dredd fans that have seen the film has been very positive," Garland told me afterwards. "But actually, they were supportive of the film from day one. I read the 2000 AD message board throughout the production, and always felt they were on our side."
Early reviews suggest that the critics are also supportive. The film, a British production from DNA Films, currently has a 100% "fresh" rating on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, though from a small 12-review sample. Fingers crossed that fans of hard-hitting science fiction will come out to see it, because a world in which more movies like Dredd hit our multiplexes would be a future I think we'd all like to live in.
This article was amended on 4 September. The original stated that Dredd was released next month. In fact it is released this Friday, the 7 September | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/13/top-10-contemporary-short-stories | Books | 2017-09-13T11:57:46.000Z | Jon McGregor | Top 10 contemporary short stories | This summer, I read the entries for this year’s BBC National short story prize, and discussed with my fellow judges the vexed question of how the “best” might be identified.
This was both a pleasure and a serious challenge: the form of the story is so capacious and diverse that at times we were comparing apples and pears, or at least looking at an unfamiliar fruit and arguing over whether to call it an apple or a pear. (Rest assured, though: the challenge is not impossible. An apple is always better than a pear.) You can assess our choices after the shortlist is announced this Friday evening on BBC Radio 4. All five finalists will then be broadcast on successive afternoons on BBC Radio 4 (and made available on iPlayer) starting on 18 September.
But this challenge has been nothing against the request to choose stories to fit the title for this piece. Guardian, please! There are approximately 17m to choose from. Where do I even begin? Where are all the stories I haven’t read, or have loved and then unfaithfully forgotten? (I am a fickle and forgetful reader.)
This list, then, is not hierarchical or canonical. My choices are, simply, 10 tales from this century that I have read and that I think do something interesting or startling or just downright swoony with the form of the short story. Clicking on the titles will lead you to the stories themselves, if you haven’t already read them. I look forward to having my reading horizons broadened in the comments.
1. Victory Lap by George Saunders
Sorry to be so predictable, but I do love George Saunders. With this story, and the rest of the collection it comes from, Tenth of December, he was clearly taking his gifts for voice, character, and satire, and pushing himself to do something much harder and more humane. This story starts awkwardly, in tune with its two gangly teenage protagonists, and stutters through a lovely character study to suddenly burst into an action tale and an unlikely outbreak of heroism. It also offers a dazzling response to the writer’s dilemma of whether to move to a happy ending or a sad ending. On the last page, you can see Saunders looking at the options he has created for himself and simply opening his hands a little wider and saying, ‘Yes, we’ll have both of those.’
2. Pee on Water by Rachel B Glaser
This was my personal standout in the already very strong New American Stories, edited by Ben Marcus. I’m increasingly drawn to any story that has a more expansive sense of a story’s possibility than the “snapshot of life” model insisted upon by the Carver/Hemingway school. This story begins at the dawn of time and ends round about now, which is expansive enough for anyone, I feel. It also has beautiful sentences, and there are not enough of those in the world.
3. Then Later, His Ghost by Sarah Hall
This does one of my favourite things in a story: something you weren’t expecting. It’s an apocalypse tale, of which we seem to have had many lately and for which I am quite the sucker, but it’s a whole other and new form of apocalypse, wherein a howling wind rips everything loose from the ground. A real feat of imagination, and all the more terrifying for being set in the made-newly-strange streets of my Norwich childhood.
4. Fjord of Killary by Kevin Barry
Barry is great at drawing you quickly into the confidence of his voice; the first few sentences of any of his stories have that quality of strapping you in for the ride. “So I bought an old hotel on the fjord of Killary,” the narrator tells us at the outset of this one, and we can already hear the sigh in his voice. “It rained two hundred and eighty-seven days of the year, and the locals were given to magnificent mood swings.” We lean in, and listen on.
5. The News of her Death by Pettina Gappah
Five women talking in a hair salon while one of them has her braids done: this is all the narrative structure Gappah needs to build a complex social landscape, telling these women’s stories through perfectly pitched dialogue and delicately measured details. The recurring refrain that “Kindness is late” is brilliantly deployed, and the whole story quietly makes the point that hair is always political.
Languorous … Alejandro Zambra. Photograph: Ulf Andersen/Getty Images
6. Thank You by Alejandro Zambra, translated by Megan McDowell
As is usually the case, I’ve only just started reading Zambra after years of being urged to do so. This story, of a robbery that starts off violent before fizzling out into a chat about football and a lift home, is told in a jarringly languorous and anecdotal tone, which both draws you in and leaves you uncomfortably dissonant.
7. The Green Zone Rabbit by Hassan Blasim, translated by Jonathan Wright
This story, from The Iraqi Christ, published by the excellent Comma Press, is by turns terrifying and wonderfully banal. In Baghdad’s Green Zone, Hajjar keeps a rabbit while waiting to be briefed on an operation. The rabbit lays an egg. Things get stranger and darker, and Blasim lays his tale out with a wonderfully dry bar-room simplicity that makes the ending all the more explosive.
8. Track by Nicole Flattery
This recently won the White Review short story prize, and it’s not hard to see why. Written in a misleadingly offhand deadpan, Track covers seemingly familiar ground – an abusive relationship, a young woman adrift in the big city, the pitfalls of fame and money – at such an oblique angle that it demands repeated reading. It’s also very funny, and very sad.
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9. Finishing Touch by Claire-Louise Bennett
I could have chosen any of the stories from Bennett’s debut collection, Pond – and in fact I would urge you to read the collection as a whole, its sum being, unusually, greater than the parts. I have plumped for this simply because it is so painfully funny. The narrator, “determined to host a low-key, but impeccably conceived, soirée”, details at great length her preparations and in the process reveals almost everything about her own hurt and loss. Bennett’s language is an ornate and long-winded riposte to all those pared-back minimalists, and I love it.
10. The Emerald Light in the Air by Donald Antrim
This is a stone-cold masterpiece, as you will see by following the link above. It proceeds with the strange and relentless quality of a dream or fable, while being almost macabre in its realism, and feels like the story Antrim has been writing towards for his whole career. The beauty of it is hard to pin down, but it has a finished and inevitable quality – which it’s occurring to me now could be called soul.
The National short story award will be announced on 3 October on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row.
Jon McGregor’s latest novel is Reservoir 13, published by Fourth Estate, priced £14.99. It is available from the Guardian Bookshop for £12.74 including free UK p&p. The Reservoir Tapes, a specially commissioned series of 15 prequel stories, will run each Sunday at 7.45pm from 1 October on BBC Radio 4. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/mar/08/rioja-more-than-affordable-plonk-fiona-beckett | Food | 2024-03-08T14:00:06.000Z | Fiona Beckett | Rioja’s about much more than affordable plonk | Fiona Beckett on drink | It’s always a dilemma writing about a popular wine, not least because most people like it for what it is, rather than what it could be for people who don’t yet buy into it. Rioja is a classic case in point. What’s the problem, you might ask, with an easy-drinking, mellow red at an affordable price? Well, the answer is that there’s just too much of the stuff about, and there aren’t enough people buying it – sales in the UK, one of the region’s best markets, were down just under 12% in 2022. It’s the older generation (of whom I am one), who know what they like and love a bargain, who go for it, not generation Z, many of whom may not drink wine, never mind rioja, at all.
It’s also far from the full picture, as I discovered at a recent tasting with Master of Wine Tim Atkin, who produces an annual report on the region based on three weeks of solid tasting and more than 1,300 wines. There are now winemakers making rioja at higher altitudes, from different grapes and in containers other than the traditional American oak barrels. In many cases, they’re also releasing the wine much earlier than the typical three- to five-year wait for the better examples. Many of the riojas I tried were vibrantly fruity; most of the 2022 vintages are still to make it on to the shelves while retailers work through their stocks, but the much-acclaimed 2021, which Atkin rates very highly, is available.
You may be aware that red riojas are normally made from tempranillo or tempranillo blends, but many of the most exciting new wines are partially, if not 100% garnacha – the Wine Society has one in its new Generation series for £12.50 (13.5%), though it’s not exactly the most exciting example I tasted. With white rioja, meanwhile, there are also options other than the bright, unoaked citrussy styles and the richer, oaked ones you may be used to. Grenache – this time white – is again playing its part, and I absolutely loved the wine in my pick below.
The bad news is that the best rioja is now attracting some eyewatering prices, putting it on a par with burgundy and barolo. While that’s good for the reputation of the region, it’s less so for less well-heeled wine lovers. Sadly with rioja, you can’t have both the exciting new-wave wines and a bargain. If you’re after the latter, though, let me remind you about a couple of supermarket own-label reservas that I rate: Asda’s Extra Special Rioja Reserva (£9, 14%) and Tesco’s Finest Viña del Cura Rioja Reserva (£10, 13.5%), both of which are 2018s. Just remember, though, that they’re not the full story when it comes to rioja these days.
Five bottles that might tempt you into drinking rioja
Artuke Tinto 2022 £14.50 (or £12.95 in a case of 12) Lea & Sandeman, 13.5%. Very smart, modern, young tempranillo-based rioja.
Tremendus Clarete 2022 £12.38 Les Caves de Pyrene, £12.50 Buon Vino, £13.60 Cave Bristol, 13.5%. 220 Cántaras make some phenomenal skin-contact (AKA orange) wines, but this is their more affordable rosado. Paler and creamier than traditional rioja rosé, but substantial enough to stand up to some pretty feisty food.
Victor Ausejo Parcela 333 Garnacha Blanca 2022 £30 Chesters Wine Merchants, Abergavenny, 13.5%. Wonderfully exotic, unoaked white rioja made from garnacha blanca rather than the usual viura. You get a whiff of white flowers, then white peaches and pears on the palate.
La Dula Sierra de Toloño Rioja 2021 £24.50 (or £21.95 as part of a case of 12) Lea & Sandeman, 14%. One of the exciting new wave of garnachas, though, with its incredibly pure, vibrant fruit, it could almost be a pinot noir.
Carlos Sanchez Bienlarmè Lagrimas Bellas Rioja 2021 £31 Sager & Wine, 14.5%. Fabulously intense, full-bodied, tempranillo-based blend that will definitely keep a few years, but I doubt you’ll manage to hold on to it for that long.
For more by Fiona Beckett, go to fionabeckett.substack.com | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/may/23/top-gears-paddy-mcguinness-andrew-flintoff-chris-harris | Television & radio | 2019-05-23T05:00:36.000Z | Tara Conlan | Top Gear is back: has it found its Clarkson, Hammond and May 2.0? | In the race between Top Gear and its Amazon rival The Grand Tour, the BBC show has shifted up a gear judging by the audience reaction to the first studio recording with new lineup Paddy McGuinness, Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff and Chris Harris.
Since the departure of first Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May in 2015, then their replacements Chris Evans, Matt Le Blanc and Rory Reid, the veteran car show has hit the headlines for the wrong reasons.
With over 350 million viewers worldwide, Top Gear is one of the BBC’s key brands, generating millions of pounds from merchandising and sales for its commercial wing BBC Studios – so this latest retooling is vital to the success of the future of the corporation as it faces cuts and the threat from US giants such as Netflix.
With the success of the corporation’s golden goose resting on their shoulders, it was no wonder the first recording was “a big deal to us”, as Take Me Out host McGuinness told the audience at the Top Gear studio in an airfield in Surrey.
But the trio not only filmed the show in record time, their rapport with each other and the audience saw them receive a thunderous reception.
The new-look Top Gear features a reengineered studio and a more modern feel. The new presenters mixed hugs between takes with jokes, electric cars with risqué humour. They were not afraid to mention the C word either: at one point McGuinness said he’d been compared to Clarkson and made a reference to the presenter’s departure after punching a producer by joking he had “twatted someone this morning.”
The new hosts seemed relaxed about making mistakes, saying: “No wonder they keep changing presenters” after fluffing a line during the screening on Wednesday night.
Compared with Chris Evans and Matt Le Blanc’s first recording in the same building three years ago, the atmosphere was more relaxed and McGuinness and Flintoff seemed to switch more easily between the script and ad-libbing with Harris and the audience than their predecessors.
The pair knew each other before they were cast in Top Gear and it showed, with their northern humour going down well in the studio.
McGuinness and A League of Their Own star Flintoff have also struck up a camaraderie with old hand Harris. The only survivor from the Le Blanc and Evans era, Harris appears to have taken on the role of the knowledgable father figure, at one point reminding the audience to drink enough water – to which McGuinness shouted: “You sound like a dad!”
Regular viewers need not worry about too many changes to the series though: staples such as celebrities racing round the track, The Stig and travel films still feature.
At the end of the filming, McGuinness said: “Thanks for making us so welcome,” and jumped onto a car to film the applause from the audience. He may need it should there be any negative press reports about the reaction in the studio, as there was in the Sun after Evans and Le Blanc’s first show.
The millionaire DJ and Hollywood star faced intense scrutiny by following immediately in Clarkson, Hammond and May’s footsteps. There was a backlash from some of their fans and they faced a hard task trying to recreate the atmosphere created by their predecessors, which had been built up over years.
But in the chemistry between quick-witted cricketer Flintoff, self-deprecating car geek Harris and wisecracking comedian McGuinness, the BBC may, to its relief, have found Clarkson, Hammond and May 2.0.
That would be a bombshell for The Grand Tour team. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/oct/15/ofm-awards-2017-editors-award-aa-gill | Food | 2017-10-15T10:00:28.000Z | Tim Adams | OFM Awards 2017: Editor’s Award – AA Gill | No opening paragraph of a restaurant review has ever delivered as much shock and sudden sadness as that with which AA Gill began his Table Talk on 20 November last year. His account of a trip to Whitby, to the Magpie Café, “the best chippy in the world”, was also a heartfelt, clear-eyed farewell. He had cancer, “the full English” of the disease, the fact of which, of course, didn’t for a moment stop him from enjoying the Magpie’s proper “round-vowelled tea” and delighting in the fact that Whitby’s older residents appeared to be dressed as the home guard.
In the fortnight that followed, which ended with news of Gill’s death – news which coincided, ever the pro, with his final showstopping byline in a tribute to the better and worse of his experience with the NHS – it was hard to reconcile the life of his writing with the full stop and pending silence he described. Gill always said that he never wanted to be famous, only to be read. Bill Deedes, the Telegraph legend who wrote his own last column the week before he died at 94, was a hero. “I want to go on doing this for ever,” Gill used to say. That final unforgettable bit of Table Talk, and that last column, at the very least made good on that ambition.
It’s fair to say writers are not, by first instinct, always as generous as they might be to other writers – particularly when a feted rival is not in the room. And newspapers tend to collectivise that curmudgeonliness. The fact of this special award celebrating the life and achievement of Adrian Gill, for 23 years the unabashed star of the Observer’s stubbornly successful competitor, is probably therefore as telling a statement of his lasting gift as anything else.
AA Gill dies weeks after revealing he had cancer in restaurant review
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Lynn Barber, writing in this paper, set that ball rolling 17 years ago, confessing a secret passion for Gill’s writing, the love that, at Observer HQ, sometimes dared not speak its name: “You’d think he would go off, writing the sheer quantity he does,” Barber noted, despairingly. “Two weekly reviews (restaurants and TV) for the Sunday Times, plus longer articles for its magazine and GQ – but it’s been seven years now and still no sign. And he writes novels too …”
The remarkable thing was that in all the Sundays in all the weeks and months and years after that profile Gill not only continued with his apparently effortless output, but added other unlikely hats. He became a compassionate and unflinching chronicler of refugee crises and emergency relief zones (as well as being author of a compulsively unhinged agony column as Esquire’s Uncle Dysfunctional). He developed a voice, when the spirit moved him, as the most human of political commentators, latterly in his indelible dismantling of the spirit that moved Brexit, and that clear-eyed valediction to the humanity and privations of the NHS.
Of all his many writing performances, though, it was as a restaurant reviewer that Gill’s timing was most impeccable. He arrived from Tatler at the Sunday Times in 1993 at the precise moment when restaurant culture and food politics and shouty chefs were the new new thing. He installed himself in this world like a renaissance jester, the cleverest voice in the room, delighting in pricking pretension and speaking truth to po-faced power. His column did for food criticism what Kenneth Tynan’s had once done for theatre reviewing and Clive James’s had done for TV – he made it a spectator sport.
This ability was not born of a trencherman’s appetite, rather of an omnivorous curiosity – and for people as much as food. The special magic of his columns, Barber suggests now, lay in the fact that “Adrian was a brilliant talker as well as a brilliant writer – but I wouldn’t say he was a brilliant luncher. He didn’t drink so he didn’t linger like the great three-bottle lunchers of old. And, actually, he didn’t eat all that much either. Unusually for a restaurant critic, he never seemed greedy – or maybe he was saving himself for dinner. He was quite autocratic about ordering. I once ordered the duck confit at the Wolseley (which I often had and loved) and he said I couldn’t have that because they used the wrong sort of ducks…”
AA Gill's best quotes
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Gill was never shy with an opinion. Jonathan Meades was for a long while his polymathic peer on the Times. In later years, after Meades moved to the south of France, the pair of them would meet in London at Daquise, the silver service Polish restaurant opposite the Natural History Museum. Meades counts the ways in which his friend was tough to compete with.
First: “He could write – knowledge of a subject is important, and he had a notable breadth of knowledge, but the ability to write comes first and he wrote supple, rich, nuanced prose of real originality.” Second: “He was generally unimpressed by bullshit and did not take people at their own estimate. PR bumf went in the bin as it always should.” Third, and most critical of all: “He was funny, often laugh-out-loud funny. He described me in a review of a film I made about the Third Reich’s architecture as ‘wearing Herman Goering’s demob suit’. I remember ringing him to congratulate him one Sunday after he had written an elaborate description of a Thames Valley waiter who, he proposed, could, between kitchen and dining room, pop into the loo, unbutton his flies with one hand and have a pee all the while balancing several plates with the other.” And then, finally, of course: “He gave offence gleefully.”
AA Gill at home. Photograph: Martin Argles/The Guardian
Rereading the collection of Gill’s Sunday Times writing, Table Talk, now – if you haven’t, stop here and go and buy it now – is to relive that glee, which sometimes ran away with itself, in cackles of metaphor, but always lasered in on some oddity or delight. The book removed the names of the restaurants Gill skewered, partly, I guess, from a sense of common humanity: nowhere ever needed kicking twice. But also, because the writing – those streams of natter about yaks, or Eminem, or vegetarians or the English (or, unforgivably, the Welsh) generally refused to be located in a particular dining room or tethered to a particular meal. The collected columns were prefaced with a series of favourite amuses bouches:
“The frogs’ legs had been boned,” he wrote of one unfortunate tasting menu. “How much sublimated commis loathing must go into boning frogs’ legs? They tasted like something sour and slimy that had been fished out of a heron’s throat.”
Or: “The mushrooms wouldn’t have tasted wild if you’d soaked them in ecstasy and given them guns.”
Or: “I had a jelly that involved Campari and fennel. It was a pretty colour, but tasted exactly as I’ve always imagined suicide capsules would: fatalistically bitter and fraudulently medicinal.”
He brought to his vocation not only experience as a cook and a pot washer and a waiter and a maître d’ , but also, of course, as he detailed unsparingly in his memoir, Pour Me, about 15 years of being a failing artist and suicidally successful alcoholic. One result of this, he believed, was that everything he wrote had “very little to do with grammar” and everything to do with knowing what might matter in life.
Marina O’Loughlin, the Guardian restaurant reviewer who has the honour and terror of taking over Gill’s space in the Sunday Times, speaks of “pretty much hyperventilating” at the prospect of trying to fill the pages “tragically vacated by someone who has been a writing hero of mine since the first moment I opened a menu”. Like everyone, O’Loughlin loved his wicked way with a metaphor, “but more than this,” she suggests, was that “Adrian was utterly fearless, not only in the face of sweary chefs and furious restaurateurs – let alone whole irate countries – but also when confronted by the challenge of eating anything, anywhere.”
O’Loughlin is not alone in never forgetting the impression Gill made “by his tale of drinking fresh-flowing blood from a live bull in the Serengeti … And that he did it all with the air of someone who never got so much as a wrinkle in his bespoke suits.”
His column did for food criticism what Clive James’s had done for TV – he made it a spectator sport
As well as that omnivorous curiosity there was his particular way of telling. All great writing, and certainly all great Sunday magazine journalism, aspires to the condition of conversation. It wants to be the best gossipy, confessional, erudite chat. Gill made a triumphant “advantage” of dyslexia, which meant that from the beginning he couldn’t write his column down in any intelligible way, but habitually dictated it, from notes, on the phone. Few writers have ever been more outrageous flirts on the page than Gill was. Perhaps partly because he was dictating to keep the mysterious late-night copytakers entertained, and not just the word-counter satisfied, his voice never seemed to miss a beat. His writing never sounded like writing.
It is partly for that reason, I guess, that when he dropped the news of his cancer so insouciantly into that first line, not just his many friends and colleagues, and the family he so clearly adored, but also everyone who read him, felt they were losing someone close. The irrepressible confidant, whose call you always answer. Martin Ivens, the Sunday Times editor, noted, “He was the heart and soul of the paper … a giant among journalists. He was also our friend.”
That friendship was generously given. Alex Bilmes was a young editor at GQ when he first met Gill – who followed him to Esquire – and recalls that, above all. “We’d have lunch – The Wolseley, mostly, and a few times I was his date for a restaurant review, on which occasions it was difficult not to wince at the terror in the eyes of the front of house staff (one can only speculate at the panic in the kitchen) – and then perhaps we’d wander through Mayfair, maybe stopping so he could buy a stupidly expensive hat for his collection of stupid and expensive hats. But, for the most part, ours was a relationship conducted by phone. We spoke often and at length. And over the years he became more than a colleague. He was a mentor. He advised me, he admonished me, he educated me, and he made me laugh like a naughty schoolboy.”
That laugh, and that heart, still rings true, and survives AA Gill. “Do I ever get bored, blasé, bilious?” he once asked himself of his restaurant habit, before supplying the ready answer. “No,” he said, “hand on heart, I’m always excited about dinner.” In his company, his legion of readers felt exactly the same. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/18/racist-chelsea-fans-push-black-man-paris-metro | Football | 2015-02-18T09:30:05.000Z | Daniel Taylor | Chelsea condemn fans who pushed black man off Paris Métro | Chelsea have strongly condemned a group of their supporters who have been caught on video singing a racist song and preventing a black man from boarding the Paris Métro.
The footage, obtained exclusively by the Guardian, shows the man repeatedly trying to squeeze on to a busy train only to be forcefully shoved out of the door and back on to the platform at the Richelieu – Drouot station before Chelsea’s Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain at Parc des Princes. The fans on the train are then heard chanting a song that appears to be celebrating what has just happened and includes the line: “We’re racist, we’re racist and that’s the way we like it” while a black woman is standing directly in front of them.
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The video immediately sparked widespread condemnation after being posted on the Guardian’s website and could lead to disciplinary action from Uefa if the governing body decides an event that happened away from the stadium is within its remit. Chelsea would feasibly face a fine and a warning.
The club said: “Such behaviour is abhorrent and has no place in football or society. We will support any criminal action against those involved, and should evidence point to involvement of Chelsea season-ticket holders or members the club will take the strongest possible action against them, including banning orders.”
Paul Nolan, a British expatriate who filmed the clip on his phone, told the Guardian that he had arrived on the platform on Tuesday evening after finishing work.
“The doors were open and I could see and hear that a lot of chanting was going on,” he said. “It looked like it was quite aggressive so I just took out by phone to record it.”
He said that the train had been stopped for about three minutes when the man arrived on the platform and tried to get on.
“He was obviously completely shocked when they pushed him off. I don’t think he realised who they were. He then tried to get on again and got pushed off a second time.
“I was just completely appalled by it and so that’s why I tried to catch some of it on my phone, although I was a bit self-conscious as it was getting quite aggressive and I overhead one of the Chelsea fans say something about stabbing someone. I think he was referring to a Paris Saint-Germain supporter who was on the platform.”
Nolan added that others on the platform looked on in disbelief: “There definitely was a culture shock. I heard a couple of French guys saying: ‘I can’t believe this. It’s insane.’”
French police reportedly used teargas outside the match venue amid scuffles involving Chelsea fans before the game.
Anti-racism group Kick It Out condemned the incident and called for Chelsea, and football, to avoid complacency over incidents of a similar nature. Its chairman Lord Ouseley said: “We know that prejudice is on the increase and that in itself leads to hateful attitudes and this sort of conduct.
“I was shocked that Chelsea fans were still behaving like this. I thought the club had made it quite clear and taken action about stopping any repetition, knowing Chelsea, how hard they’ve worked on these matters, with fans as well as players, that it was unlikely to occur.
“The fact it involved an assault as well, of the individual that they pushed off the train, was even more shocking. Clearly it sends out a strong signal to, not only Chelsea, but the whole of football, that you cannot be complacent and think the actions you’re taking are sufficient to deal with the scourge of racism, sexism, homophobia and anti-Semitism. We’ve got to do a lot more and not be complacent.”
Kick It Out hopes anyone implicated is banned from football, not just from Chelsea matches. “We’ll support any prosecution,” Lord Ouseley added. “Anyone who can be identified, if they have an association with the club, the club said it will take the strongest action, which would include banning those people from going to Chelsea football matches.
“I would hope it would extend to banning them from going to any football match. Chelsea need to make it quite clear, once again, that people who carry their prejudices around, please don’t come to football. We need to see that reinforced by all clubs, because it’s happening right across the country, not just one team.
“These attitudes are attitudes that are in our society and football can play a major part in helping to draw attention to ways in which we need to help people to change their attitudes.”
Lord Ouseley is uncertain if Uefa, European football’s governing body which was in charge of Tuesday night’s Champions League tie, can take action.
He added: “I think Uefa will inevitably look at it. It happened outside of the game, on a public transport system. Football, while it has to deal with those fans in a proper way - and the club is saying that it will - realistically you cannot simply look at it in a footballing context and make Uefa responsible for people who are travelling. The responsibility goes to the club and their travelling supporters.”
Chelsea fanzine editor David Johnstone believes the incident could have severe consequences for the club’s reputation. “Because of the actions of possibly half a dozen people on a Metro train in Paris all the supporters are going to be labelled as racist,” he told BBC Radio Five Live.
“I think the majority of Chelsea supporters are disgusted by what’s happened. The 2,000 who were in Paris today support a Jewish-owned football team where the majority of players are black and foreign.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/18/chinese-president-xi-jinping-vows-to-adjust-excessive-incomes-of-super-rich | World news | 2021-08-18T16:50:27.000Z | Phillip Inman | Chinese president vows to ‘adjust excessive incomes’ of super rich | China’s president has vowed to “adjust excessive incomes” in a warning to the country’s super-rich that the state plans to redistribute wealth to tackle widening inequality.
According to reports in state media, Xi Jinping told officials at a meeting of the Chinese Communist party’s central financial and economic affairs commission on Tuesday, that the government should “regulate excessively high incomes and encourage high-income groups and enterprises to return more to society”.
The commission said it would pursue its “common prosperity agenda”, which has become the main focus of China’s policymaking after reports of discontent within the party’s central committee over the rise of a new class of wealthy entrepreneurs.
The policy goal comes amid a sweeping push by Beijing to rein in the country’s largest private firms in industries, ranging from technology to education.
Analysts said it was notable that the gaming and social media firm Tencent, one of China’s biggest tech groups, said it would expand its social commitments as it reported a jump in second-quarter profit.
The Tencent chief executive, Pony Ma said the company was in business to help wider society by “deploying our technologies and expertise to help small and medium-sized businesses, public services and corporations collaborate internally and connect with their users externally”.
Earlier this month, the company’s games were branded “spiritual opium” in state media, prompting it to tighten controls on children accessing them. Yet despite fears of the impact of a regulatory crackdown, Tencent bucked expectations with net profits rising 29% for the three months to June to $6.6bn (£4.8bn) after a 20% increase in revenues.
Since last November, when regulators prevented the tech company Ant, 33% owned by its sister company Alibaba, from floating on the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges – a move that would have cemented the position of its boardroom chair, Jack Ma, as one of the world’s richest men – the Chinese Communist party has sought to crack down on the almost weekly creation of billionaire company bosses.
Stocks on the Shanghai exchange have fallen since a peak in February after a string of similar regulatory clampdowns on the financial sector and penalties on industries forced to comply with tighter environmental rules.
As a result, the country’s richest tycoons have already seen their wealth shrink. The combined net worth of the two dozen Chinese billionaires in tech and biotechnology whose holdings are tracked by Bloomberg dropped 16% since the end of June, according to analysis by the Financial Times.
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Zhong Shanshan, the head of the bottled water company Nongfu Spring, last year overtook Jack Ma and Pony Ma as the richest person in China. He has a fortune of more than $72bn, about $24bn more than Jack Ma.
Xi, under pressure to answer critics who say he is soft on excessive pay and ostentatious displays of wealth, is expected to expand wealth taxes and raise income tax rates to achieve an “olive-shaped” income distribution that reduces the number of low-income and high-income groups.
Some reforms could be far reaching, including higher taxes on capital gains, inheritance and property. Higher public sector wages are also expected to be part of the package to limit rampant bribe-taking and corruption involving public officials. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2014/jul/17/divine-drag-queen-muse-documentary-designer-james-long | Fashion | 2014-07-17T13:57:02.000Z | Lauren Cochrane | Divine: the drag queen muse who is 'still so relevant now' | I Am Divine comes out tomorrow – a documentary about the drag queen otherwise known as Glenn Milstead. Best known for starring in John Waters films in the 70s and 80s – wearing many a memorable outfit – London designer James Long used her as muse for his autumn/winter 2013 collection. Here, he talks about Divine inspiration.
"I first saw Divine in Hairspray when I was a kid. Me and my sister used to watch it on repeat and dress up like her. Later, when I lived in New York, I lived right near Studio 54 and got obsessed with all the characters. I love that picture of Divine and Grace Jones turning up there. I find the relationship she had with John Waters really inspiring – it was a bit like Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith. They just egged each other on, causing trouble and making ridiculous things happen.
Divine in the documentary I Am Divine. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
John Waters pushed her to be a star, like Andy Warhol made his superstars. One of my favourite moments is when she doesn't get the Cha Cha heels in Female Trouble, in the green nightdress and the fluffy blue slippers. Pink Flamingos is the strongest look probably and drag queens still reference her eyebrows now.
Everything I do is personal so when I really love someone I want to pay homage. All the patterns in the knits for that collection come from colours of different stills, from watching Polyester. It was a really fun collection to do – we were rolling around with laughter most of the time. The jumper done in the image of Divine gave me connections to so many people – Rick Owens and Kim Jones bought it. She's still so relevant now because she's so unique. There will never be another Divine." | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/oct/24/manchester-united-shambolic-investments-lack-grand-design-jose-mourinho | Football | 2018-10-24T10:32:46.000Z | Jonathan Wilson | Manchester United’s shambolic investments lack a grand design | Jonathan Wilson | The problem with modern European football is how stratified it has become. With resources now divided so unequally, how, realistically, are the lesser sides in the group stage supposed to compete when playing the elite? Little wonder then, that plucky Manchester United, the poorest little richest club in the world, were so thoroughly outclassed by Juventus at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
What’s a José Mourinho to do? As he pointed out post-match, Juventus have lots of good players. He spoke of “amazing Chiellini” and “amazing Bonucci”. That’s Giorgio Chiellini, bought for £4m in 2005, and Leonardo Bonucci, initially signed for £14m in 2010, although having been sold to Milan for £37m in 2017, he was brought back in the summer as part of a swap deal for a notional value of £31m. That is a net transfer cost of £12m for the pair – that’s an awful lot of bottles of You-C1000, even in the vibrant Indonesian isotonic drinks market. Little wonder United cannot compete, and are reduced to spending £60m on Victor Lindelöf and Eric Bailly.
Or take Cristiano Ronaldo. For all the talk surrounding him and a return to United in the summer, there was no way that Ed Woodward was going to sanction a £103m deal for a 33-year-old. All the financial services in Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Tanzania conducted through AFB couldn’t pay for that. Although they did help pay for Romelu Lukaku, brought in for £75m plus a further potential £15m in add-ons, in 2017. Mourinho seems to have decided the Belgian is so valuable he is not to be risked in match situations, and so stations him far away from the rest of the side, high up the pitch where he is less likely to be involved in the actual action.
Or there’s Rodrigo Bentancur, the clever, tough Uruguayan who controlled Tuesday’s game from the back of midfield. Brought in from Boca Juniors for £8m in 2017, he was never within United’s budget.
Sbenu might sell a lot of casual footwear but South Koreans aren’t millipedes – they only have one pair of feet each. And so they were reduced to the bargain basement bucket of Paul Pogba, still the most expensive midfielder in the world at £89.3m.
Absurd though Mourinho’s protestations that United cannot compete might have been, beneath his bluster there is the kernel of a point. As he wagged three fingers in the vague direction of the Juventus fans, you wondered exactly what point he was making. Mourinho has a lot of three-fingered gestures. Was he reminding them of the three trophies he won (if you count the Community Shield – and he does) in his first season at Old Trafford, or of the three league titles he won at Chelsea, or of the treble he won as Inter manager? Or was he reminding everybody that United signed only three players in the summer – Fred, Diogo Dalot and Lee Grant – none of whom played against Juventus?
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But the point, really, is less the lack of investment last summer, unhelpful though that undoubtedly was, and large though that fact clearly looms in Mourinho’s mind. It is the shambolically bad investment since Sir Alex Ferguson left the club in 2013. Old Trafford has been allowed to fall shabby, something that is as true of the scouting as it is of the facilities for fans as it is of the wifi (as Paul Pogba found to his cost during the defeat to Derby) as it is of the squad.
José Mourinho: Juventus are at ‘different level of quality and stability’
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It is not necessarily the amount that has been spent as where it has been spent. What is the philosophy behind this squad? There are expensive bits here and there, the occasional eccentric extension, but no grand design behind it. In his third season at the club, Mourinho must take some responsibility for that, but only some.
Whether he is getting the best out of what he has is another issue altogether. United were again astonishingly passive, allowing Juve 71% possession in the first half, sitting off and watching them play. Paulo Dybala, dropping deep from a centre-forward position, caused constant problems, with Lindelöf and Nemanja Matic seemingly unable to work out who should pick him up, an issue that led directly to the goal.
Although it was only 1-0, Juve could easily have been two or three up before United, forced, as they had been against Newcastle and Chelsea, to chase the game, finally began to pose at least some threat. Perhaps to play with that level of purpose from the start would leave them too ragged over a full 90 minutes, but the current tentativeness is not working either.
And sooner or later that is going to have an impact on the one aspect of the club that is going well. How long, after all, will the customers of Banif Bank in Malta or BIDV in Vietnam be happy to do their business in the name of a team that has won only one of its last seven games? | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jul/05/tree-of-codes-review-wayne-mcgregor-olafur-eliasson | Stage | 2015-07-05T13:48:31.000Z | Judith Mackrell | Tree of Codes review – visual wizardry and pizzazz in sexy modern ballet | Tree of Codes review – all action and no consequence
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It was only by an accident of scheduling that Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project ended up as the visual backdrop to the Merce Cunningham Event, performed at the Tate Modern in 2003. As serendipitous as it was, however, the setting worked a magical chemistry with the dance, as the cosmic sorcery of Eliasson’s giant sun created a glowing, unsettling atmosphere for both audience and performers to inhabit. Since then, I’ve wondered what Eliasson would do if he was commissioned to create a stage design for dance. Now Manchester International festival has obliged, by uniting him with Wayne McGregor for the multimedia piece Tree of Codes.
There seems to be a lot more technology and pizzazz here than at the Tate show. Eliasson has orchestrated a complex system of mirrors, scrims and light that reinvent the performance space, generating multiple reflections of the dancers, throwing images of the audience back on themselves. Windows and doorways open up to create worlds within the stage, coloured lights revolve like orbiting planets.
Tree of Codes. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
The inspiration for this visual wizardry is the 2010 book by Jonathan Safran Foer, from which the production also takes its title. Tree of Codes was “written” in response to the book The Street of Crocodiles, by Bruno Schultz. Rather than rewriting the original text, Foer literally carved out his own version of it, cutting holes in every page and leaving isolated words, phrases and empty gaps to reconnect in their own poetic dance.
Just as Eliasson reflects Foer’s deconstructed text with the disorienting effects of his design, much of McGregor’s choreography hovers within a strangely ambiguous space. McGregor has his 15 performers dancing with their own reflections, or reduced to ghosts, their bodies made visible only by the lights that glimmer from their costumes. He deliberately fragments the choreography so that it jump cuts between clusters of propulsive, closely twined movement and small shards of narrative. We see a couple tussling, as if competing for light and air; a woman trying to shuck off her partner’s protective embrace – yet we can only guess at the stories that move them.
Q&A: Wayne McGregor
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McGregor’s choreography comes saturated with small clever detail and an intriguing layering of classical and contemporary styles. (The cast combines dancers from his own company, Random Dance, with members of the Paris Opera Ballet.) Yet for all its polish, it is disappointing how few dance images stand out and how few linger on in the memory. Part of the problem may be the episodic nature of the choreography, which means there is no overarching structure to draw us in: but a more fundamental issue is that it has only a fuzzily intermittent chemistry with its accompanying score.
Jamie xx clearly had fun composing the music for this production, experimenting with trancy vocals, drifting strings, electronica and drums. The cumulative effect, however, is intelligent muzak: pleasant to listen to, but emotionally and stylistically uncommitted. It is striking that the most exciting section of the evening comes when Jamie xx drills his music down to fierce percussive cadenza that raises the pulse of the dancing and adds visceral urgency to Eliasson’s climactic whirl of mirrors and light.
Tree of Codes – a sexy, sophisticated and, above all, inclusive hybrid of forms – is the perfect festival event. But it is superficially spectacular rather than stirring, and as dance it falls a long way short of the McGregor’s excellent best. I’m left feeling impatient for a time when he and Eliasson will be reunited on a project that will explore the depths of both their talents.
At Opera House, Manchester, until 10 July. Box office: 0844 871 7654.
Manchester international festival 2015: your guide to every event | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/22/russia-and-syria-step-up-airstrikes-against-civilians-in-idlib | World news | 2019-07-22T17:20:37.000Z | Martin Chulov | Russia and Syria step up airstrikes against civilians in Idlib | At least 33 people were killed and more than 100 wounded by an airstrike on a marketplace in northern Syria on Monday, as a Syrian and Russian bombing campaign against civilian sites in the rebel-held province intensified.
Witnesses and monitoring groups reported widespread destruction across two residential blocks in the centre of Maarat al-Numan, with many people reportedly still buried under an apartment building as night fell.
Rescue efforts were frequently stopped as jets circled the town in the south of Idlib province, the last corner of the country to remain in opposition hands after eight years of war. The past four months have taken an especially brutal toll across much of the province with the Russian-led bombing decimating civilian infrastructure.
Hospitals, market places, schools and centres for the displaced have been systematically targeted in towns and cities that remain in opposition hands. UN agencies and NGOs say at least two dozen hospitals and medical clinics have been destroyed by airstrikes, some hit multiple times until treating patients became impossible.
More than 3 million people are now crammed into Idlib province, many of them having fled fighting elsewhere in the country. Among them are extremist fighters and jihadists who have subverted the anti-Assad insurgency and lorded over civilian populations. The presence of jihadists has been used as a pretext by Russian and Syrian forces for the scale of the bombing in Idlib.
An air campaign, launched on 29 April, was supposed to have been in support of a ground war in southern Idlib, led by the Syrian Army. However, since the offensive began, regime forces have made little progress, even with total air superiority.
Rebuilding Aleppo: 'We cannot preserve the place but we can save our memories'
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The stagnant battle lines have reportedly led to frustration in Moscow, whose support for the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, has remained resolute for the past five years, but has been tested as regime loyalists have failed to seize ground.
The fate of Idlib is central to the outcome of the war, which had killed more than 500,000 people when monitoring groups stopped counting three years ago. Since then, a fight that started as a push to oust Assad has morphed into multiple conflicts, led to the displacement of more than half the country’s population, who now have nowhere left to run, and drawn in neighbouring and regional states, who all want to shape the war’s aftermath in their interests.
Turkey, a significant backer of opposition groups in Idlib since the outbreak of anti-government clashes in mid-2011, has proposed a summit with Assad’s two main backers, Russia and Iran, in another attempt to douse the violence. Numerous multilateral peace initiatives have failed over recent years as one of modern history’s most intractable conflicts continued to ravage Syria and destabilise the region and beyond.
Ankara’s interests have increasingly been defined by its fears of Kurdish groups in northern Syria, which are allied to Kurds fighting an insurgency in south-eastern Turkey. A Turkish military operation in the town of Afrin early last year pushed Kurdish groups away from the border and Ankara now eyes the town of Tel Rifaat, where a significant Kurdish presence is seen as an obstacle to its ambitions of safeguarding several hundred miles of its border with Syria.
Splintered throughout much of the war and abandoned more recently by regional patrons, including Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, opposition groups can no longer win the war. Assad, though nominally in a winning position, owes his ascendancy to Moscow and Tehran, both of whom have been staking out their claims on postwar Syria as the war has slowly wound down.
Iran, which provided proxy ground forces that were instrumental in the recapture of Aleppo in late 2016, has not committed substantial forces to the Idlib front, and is increasingly at odds with Moscow over how to deal with the province.
Turkey, while acquiescing to a limited Russian-led operation in the south of Idlib province, has insisted it would not shoulder the burden of a massive inflow of refugees in the event of a coordinated ground push. Its calls for a fresh summit add weight to assessments in the region and Europe that the battlefront has reached a stalemate.
“We say to Assad and his friends that their obvious attempts to obliterate civilian life have failed this far and will fail again,” said a senior Turkish official. “They have lost in Idlib, and will continue to lose. They cannot bomb their way into victory. Only infamy.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/mar/31/bruce-lehrmann-defamation-trial-network-ten-asks-to-re-open-its-defence-citing-fresh-evidence | Media | 2024-03-31T22:50:16.000Z | Amanda Meade | Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial: Network Ten asks to reopen its defence, citing ‘fresh evidence’ | Network Ten will ask the federal court to reopen its defence on Tuesday at an emergency hearing scheduled less than two days before the judgement in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case is due to be handed down.
Justice Michael Lee was scheduled to deliver his judgment in the federal court in Sydney at 10.15am on Thursday 4 April in the defamation case Lehrmann brought against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.
Now Lee will hear Ten’s argument for reopening its case in light of “fresh evidence”, according to the interlocutory application filed on Sunday afternoon.
Guardian Australia understands the evidence includes an affidavit with new information about Lehrmann’s dealings with the Seven Network’s Spotlight program.
Lehrmann gave an exclusive interview to Liam Bartlett on Spotlight in return for more than $100,000 towards his Sydney rental accomodation.
Last week a former Spotlight producer, Taylor Auerbach, issued defamation proceedings against Lehrmann after the former Liberal staffer made statements to the press which implied the producer lied about what took place when Seven was courting Lehrmann for an interview.
It was reported last week that Spotlight had put almost $3,000 on a Seven credit card to pay for Thai massages for Lehrmann and a producer.
“It’s an untrue and bizarre story from a disgruntled ex-Network Seven producer,” Lehrmann told News Corp last week. “Network Seven [has] only ever covered reasonable travel for filming and accommodation.”
Auerbach’s solicitor Rebekah Giles reportedly said in a concerns notice that Lehrmann’s comments about her client were false and conveyed a defamatory imputation.
Ten’s barrister, Matt Collins KC, is seeking “leave to re-open the First Respondent’s case for the purpose of adducing fresh evidence”, the application said.
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Lee will hear the interlocutory application at 5pm on Tuesday when he will rule on whether to allow the fresh evidence to be presented by the defence.
The sensational development at the 11th hour comes more than three months after the five-week trial wrapped up in late December.
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If Lee allows the fresh evidence to be adduced it will almost certainly see the judgement date rescheduled.
Lee will rule on whether the former Liberal staffer was defamed by Wilkinson and Ten when The Project broadcast an interview with Brittany Higgins in 2021 in which she alleged she was raped in Parliament House
The Project did not name Lehrmann as the Liberal staffer at the heart of the allegation, but he claims he was identifiable in the broadcast.
Lehrmann maintains his innocence. In a criminal trial in 2022 he pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred.
In December of that year, prosecutors dropped charges against him for the alleged rape of Higgins, saying a retrial would pose an “unacceptable risk” to her health.
Lee, who said he would begin writing the judgment the day after the trial ended, had to consider more than 15,000 pages of transcript and 1,000 separate exhibits, including hours of CCTV footage as well as audio and video recordings. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/sep/11/the-great-meter-mix-up-are-you-paying-for-your-neighbours-gas | Money | 2023-09-11T08:00:15.000Z | Anna Tims | The great meter mix-up: are you paying for your neighbour’s gas? | The British Gas bill came out of the blue. It demanded £10,529 for a month’s worth of electricity and required payment within 10 days. Jessica* rents a modest flat in London and is a customer of E.ON Next. Her E.ON bill for the same month was £50.60.
“We moved into the flat two years ago when it was supplied by EDF,” she said. “We switched to E.ON six months later and have been paying them by direct debit ever since. We have never been customers of British Gas.”
During repeated calls to British Gas, Jessica says she was told that her electricity supply was registered to British Gas and that the bill, charged at a business tariff, was legitimate.
“I showed them photographic evidence that we are not with British Gas, but they said that we need to pay the bill unless we somehow obtain proof that the meter they are charging us for doesn’t exist.”
British Gas told the Observer that a business account it supplies is registered to Jessica’s address at Flat 3 on the industry database. The meter supplied by E.ON and paid for by Jessica is, it claimed, registered to Flat 5 – a number that does not exist in the building. The company claims it had been sending previous bills to the wrong address, which is why Jessica first heard of the alleged debt in January.
Jessica is one of countless householders to receive shock bills for a stranger’s energy because of errors on the industry database that matches energy supplies with addresses.
Each property has a unique reference number that identifies the postal location of each gas and electricity supply, so that, in theory, energy companies know which address they are supplying. However, customers can’t check the number for themselves because it only appears on their bills, not on their actual meter. This means that some householders are inadvertently paying the wrong supplier for their energy.
Residents in recently built or converted blocks of flats are most likely to be affected by meter mix-ups because meter point reference numbers may be registered before the new postal addresses have been confirmed.
Sue Lowndes found herself stuck in limbo between four suppliers after moving into a newly converted flat in 2020. For two years, she paid British Gas for her electricity, then bills to her address, in a neighbour’s name, began arriving from Scottish Power.
Scottish Power claimed it had been providing her energy, but sending bills to a different flat. It then transpired she had been a British Gas customer after all, but her supply had erroneously been transferred to Ovo
“British Gas said not to worry as I was paying my bills by direct debit and Scottish Power said there was a mix-up which they would resolve,” she said. “The bills continued to arrive, then last December I received a letter from British Gas saying that they were sorry I was leaving them and cancelling my direct debit.”
Lowndes was informed that because of a meter reference mix-up, she had been paying British Gas for a neighbour’s supply. Bills then began arriving from British Gas addressed to a stranger, while Scottish Power continued to send demands to her flat in the name of her neighbour, who had since moved away.
The mystery deepened when a cheque for a £2,035.89 “refund” arrived from British Gas. Lowndes was then told that her flat was, in fact, registered with E.ON and that she had never been a British Gas customer.
A four-month investigation by the Observer discovered that at least three flats in Lowndes’s block had been registered against the wrong supply, meaning that residents were being charged for their neighbours’ electricity. British Gas had charged Lowndes for the supply to a neighbouring flat for 18 months. The cheque was to refund these payments.
So tangled is the database that even the energy companies couldn’t work out who Lowndes’s supplier was. Scottish Power initially claimed that it had been providing her energy, but had been sending bills to a different flat. It then transpired that she had been a British Gas customer after all, but her supply had erroneously been transferred to Ovo, which also billed the wrong address.
All the while, four-figure bills in strangers’ names continued to arrive from Scottish Power. The latter claimed that the problems began when E.ON installed the flats’ electricity meters after the block was converted and registered Lowndes’s meter to the wrong address on the central database. E.ON declined to comment. Lowndes has now been transferred back to British Gas and is awaiting an updated bill.
Under back-billing rules introduced by energy regulator Ofgem, companies are not allowed to charge customers retrospectively for more than 12 months of gas and electricity if they failed to issue correct bills at the time. Lowndes will only therefore be liable for energy supplied over the past year.
Jessica’s battle is still continuing. British Gas requires the management company to confirm which meter is supplying her flat before it will cancel the bill and amend the database. Three months on, the management company has failed to do so.
Customers who suspect that they are being billed incorrectly can take unresolved complaints to the Energy Ombudsman, which told the Observer that billing, including meter mismatches, is the most common category of complaint it receives.
Ofgem said that under supplier licensing conditions, energy companies must take all reasonable steps to reflect accurate meter readings in bills and that it takes action if data received from suppliers and the ombudsman suggests there are significant issues affecting customers.
Identifying your individual meter is one important step. Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA
The key numbers you need to know
Energy meter numbers are reference numbers that identify a household’s gas and electricity supply on a national database. The meter point administration number (MPAN) refers to the electricity and the meter point reference number (MPRN) refers to gas. As they match the energy supply to an address, they only change if you move home. Energy companies will need these numbers to confirm your location if you are switching supplier or moving home. They can be found on utilities bills, but not on your meter.
If you don’t have a bill, contact your supplier to ask for the numbers. If you don’t know who your supplier is, you can contact the relevant network operator to find out.
A meter serial number (MSN) identifies the meter rather than the address. They are printed on the meter itself, as well as bills. Check the MSN on the bills matches the MSN on the meter to ensure you are not being billed for someone else’s energy.
However, this may not resolve the problem because if the meter has been registered to the wrong address, it won’t stop you being billed for someone else’s supply. To check which address it is registered to, you need the MPAN.
If a billing dispute is not resolved within eight weeks, you can complain to the Energy Ombudsman.
* Name has been changed | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jan/25/week-britain-28-jan-brown | UK news | 2011-01-25T14:03:42.000Z | Derek Brown | A stage worthy of Babel | Is it necessary fully to understand Elizabethan English to enjoy the works of Shakespeare? Surely not. Acting's the thing, with tone and gesture conveying at least as much as words.
That's a contention that will be tested to the utmost next year, when the Globe theatre on London's South Bank will present all 38 plays, not one of them in English. The Tempest, for example, will be staged in Arabic, Titus Andronicus in Cantonese, Troilus and Cressida in Maori and The Taming of the Shrew in Urdu.
Most audaciously of all, Love's Labour's Lost will be performed with no words at all, but accompanied by sign language.
This splendid project will be the Globe's contribution to next year's Cultural Olympiad, the arty accompaniment to the Olympic Games. The season will be, in the words of the theatre's artistic director, Dominic Dromgoole, "a terrifically clear and simple and slightly bananas idea".
As he points out, Shakespeare is not a national possession. His works have been translated into scores of other languages, and indeed have become a world language in their own right.
With its unique international festival, the Globe will be marking its own 15th anniversary. The open-air Elizabethan theatre was reproduced after a lifetime's dedicated campaigning by the American actor Sam Wanamaker and has become a much-loved London landmark.
Now the theatre hopes finally to fulfil Wanamaker's vision, by building a smaller indoor theatre for winter productions – just as Shakespeare's own company, the King's Men, had 400 years ago.
Bird numbers falter
Dismaying news comes from the British Trust for Ornithology, whose latest research indicates that wild bird populations are plummeting. Although seabird numbers are holding up, several species of land-based birds are in trouble. They include farmland birds such as the grey partridge, turtle dove, corn bunting and yellow wagtail, whose numbers have declined by more than 70% since 1970.
Woodland birds have fared even worse, with species like the wood warbler, willow tit, tree pipit, lesser spotted woodpecker and bunnock showing huge falls. Even the blackbird and the song thrush, once a common countryside sight, are in steep decline.
There is no simple explanation for the avian catastrophe, though some familiar causes are known: habitat change, poor weather, overgrazing by deer, and more intensive farming. But whatever the reason, the decline has alarmed leading bird charity the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which says that a "staggering" one-fifth of all 250 regularly occurring British birds are now on its red list of species whose conservation is causing concern.
Hooked on squid
Our birds may be in trouble, but life is looking up for our fish, according to our leading supermarket chains. They are reporting soaring sales of so-called alternative fish, including pollack, dab, mussels, squid and sardines, in place of the once-staple cod, haddock, tuna and (farmed) salmon.
The switch in customer preference was apparently sparked by Channel 4's television campaign, Fish Fight. It highlighted the wastefulness of "discard" fishing practices, which involves throwing back dead and dying fish that are surplus to catch quotas, or else unwanted by fishmongers and supermarkets.
Celebrity chefs like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver have taken up the cause by encouraging consumers to be more adventurous in their choice, and demonstrating how to prepare and cook produce like mussels and squid. The giant supermarket chain Tesco said it had since seen sales rises of between 25% and 45% for fish like pollack, brown crab, sprats and whiting.
The love of Lennon
A collection of John Lennon's voluminous correspondence is to be published in October next year to mark the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' first smash hit, Love Me Do. The publishing rights to the letters have been sold by Yoko Ono to the Orion company, for a fee thought to be more than £500,000 ($800,000).
The letters include notes to newspapers and record companies as well as private missives to friends. Many are illustrated with original drawings.
"These letters have never been collected in only place before, and for the most part they have never been seen before," said Alan Samson, who made the winning bid for Orion.
"The only reason people have gone crazy for it is the fact that there are half a dozen icons of the 20th century – Marilyn Monroe, Kennedy, Elvis – and Lennon is one of them."
Teacher tweet alert
Teachers, like other professionals, have time off. Or do they? The teaching union, NASUWT, claims that headteachers are trawling the internet for evidence of what they consider bad or inappropriate behaviour by their staff in off-duty hours.
Teachers found posting indiscreet photographs taken on holidays or nights out are facing disciplinary action or warnings in school, say union officials. They say the General Teaching Council's code, introduced in 2009, is leaving teachers open to "intense scrutiny" of their private lives.
Mick Lyons, a NASUWT executive member, commented: "It has become common for heads to trawl through the internet and use what they find to discipline teachers. Other teachers are venting their spleen about their jobs on the internet, and this is rebounding on them.
Adoption rate falling
There needs to be a sharp increase in adoptions to keep children out of care, according to the outgoing chief executive of the charity Barnardo's, Martin Narey. He has criticised some unnamed local authorities and adoption agencies for their "prejudice" against allowing white couples to adopt children from ethnic minorities.
"The law is very clear," he said. "A child should not stay in care for an undue length of time while waiting for adoptive parents of the same ethnicity. But the reality is that black, Asian and mixed-race children wait three times longer than white children."
He said that the adoption rate was at a historic low, and had all but disappeared for babies, in spite of being a "vital tool in the child-protection armoury".
New Holmes gets nod
Eighty-six years after he last appeared between hard covers – and 119 years after he toppled into the Reichenbach Falls – Sherlock Holmes is to make a literary comeback. The Conan Doyle estate has commissioned Anthony Horowitz, the immensely popular children's thriller writer, to bring the great detective back to life. It is the first time that the estate has sanctioned a new Holmes novel.
The new book, as yet untitled, will be out in September, riding on the recent success of Holmes on cinema and television screens.
Horowitz says he aims to produce a first-rate mystery for a modern audience "while remaining absolutely true to the spirit of the original". | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/tvandradioblog/2009/jul/28/father-ted-tedfest | Television & radio | 2009-07-28T14:54:35.000Z | Darragh McManus | Mercy please, no more Father Ted! | Darragh MacManus | Father Ted and me - our relationship was probably doomed from the start. When the comedy first aired in 1995 on Channel 4, I was living in (Irish) two-channel land, so didn't get to see it for quite a while after some of my friends. In particular, the friend who quoted pretty much the entire first series one night, verbatim, with the result that I'd already heard all the jokes by the time I finally got around to watching it.
Is that why Father Ted has always felt second-hand, uninspired and predictable to me? Maybe. Or maybe it's the fact that the show was – despite the cult status, the awards, the rapturous applause and grandiose claims for its place in the pop culture pantheon – second-hand, uninspired and predictable.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Ted. How can you hate something so, well, mediocre? Even now I could happily sit down and gently chuckle at five minutes of it, although I could just as happily then switch over to that documentary about how a giant tumour ate this lady's baby in Alabama.
Mediocre it was, though. Obviously Father Ted was far funnier than, say, Two and a Half Men – removing your own toenails is funnier than Two and a Half Men – but we're starting from an awfully low base there.
But compared to truly great comedies like The Simpsons, Blackadder, Fawlty Towers (name your own favourite here), Ted was fairly humdrum stuff. There were none of those: "Oh my God, I can't believe someone actually wrote something that incredibly funny," moments where you sit, open-mouthed, almost in shock, almost forgetting to laugh, because it's so clever, so hilarious, so bloody good.
I feel a little strange saying all this, as though I'm transgressing some unwritten national code of honour, because Ted is an Irish cultural institution at this stage, up there with U2 and Roy Keane in a modern-day Holy Trinity. (I know it was funded and first broadcast in the UK, but the actors, writers and sense of humour are Irish.)
It's also become something of an official Industry, capital I, exemplified by the annual Tedfest shindig, held on the Aran Islands off Ireland's west coast. Fans can enjoy a few days of drinking, craic, and games and events based around the Lovely Girls competition, A Song for Europe and other iconic moments from the series.
I'm sure it's all a bit of fun … certainly more fun than the TV show was. But despite the fact that I live only about 20 minutes from the County Clare village of Kilfenora, where some of the 2008 festival took place, I didn't go. I can think of better ways to spend a weekend. Like removing my own toenails, maybe.
And now Tedfest has gone international, with organisers exporting the thing to Australia next year and possibly more countries thereafter. Is it too late to cry halt to the madness? Am I betraying my nationality, the memory of star Dermot Morgan, a desperately poor sense of humour?
Whatever. Enough of the Ted idolisation, please. It was a sort-of amusing collection of outlandish caricatures, quirky catchphrases and semi-decent sight gags that probably outstayed its welcome at the time, and is definitely doing so now.
It's time for Father Ted to receive the last rites. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/06/belfast-family-planning-advisers-hounded-and-followed-by-anti-abortion-activists | World news | 2016-01-06T12:42:49.000Z | Henry McDonald | Hounded and picketed: the targeting of Belfast's family planning advisers | Family planning advisers in Belfast say they are under siege from anti-abortion protesters in the city and have even been hounded while out shopping.
Heather Low, a veteran counsellor for the Family Planning Association in Northern Ireland (FPA), was accosted by one anti-abortion activist in Marks & Spencer’s central Belfast store.
“The worst thing I suppose that happened in terms of personal harassment was being downtown in Marks & Spencer where I was browsing for, of all things, a pair of slippers,” she said.
“So there was I deciding whether or not if I wanted mules or flip-flops when a voice sounded in my ear right up beside me. It said ‘Are you Heather?’ And when I turned around and said ‘Yes’ this woman was right up into my face saying ‘I know who you are and I know what you are doing. You are up to that dirty business.’
From Nagpur to Northern Ireland: pill pipeline helping women get round abortion laws
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“She recognised me inside the store and went out of her way to follow me around,” Low said.
Anti-abortion protesters hold regular pickets outside the FPA building in the south inner-city of Belfast. CCTV was installed inside the building as a deterrent in case of intrusion.
Low said that for 25 years since the FPA opened its first premises in Belfast’s University Street and now at Shaftesbury Square, the anti-abortion campaigners had picketed their office for four days every week as well as one evening.
The Glasgow-born counselling services director at the Belfast FPA office said over the years the “siege” had seen the anti-abortion protesters learning the patterns of employees or those seeking the advice on offer inside.
“Sometimes familiar voices will ring up our office, claiming to be pregnant and seeking advice. They ask which days we are open to the public and which nights. Sometimes they change their mind about a certain day and choose another. We suspect some of these familiar voices are there to confirm on which days we counsel women on their various options about their options and choices. It has been like an intelligence-gathering operation against us,” Low said.
Protests include huge posters of aborted foetuses; women using the FPA being told they would suffer trauma for “murdering their babies” if they opted for abortions; clients and staff being followed down the street after leaving the office and in one case last year a member of the FPA team being struck on the head with a clipboard.
Last month in a Belfast court an anti-abortion activist with the Precious Life organisation, Moira Brennan from Ballymoney, County Antrim, lost her appeal against the assault conviction, a decision welcomed by the FPA in Northern Ireland.
Abortion in Northern Ireland: ‘Why don’t we trust women to make the right choice?’ Guardian
Protesters have also taken to chalking messages on the ground outside their door about abortion being murder and FPA staff responded each day by washing away the graffiti with soapy water. On one occasion, Low recalled, the picketers took photographs of an FPA employee removing the messages and posted the picture on an anti-abortion Facebook page.
The FPA asked several times for a meeting between the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the anti-abortion demonstrators to hammer out an agreement that would set boundaries for protests. On each occasion the protesters refused to attend, Low claimed.
“I would love them to go away but I know in terms of the law and the right to protest they can’t and they won’t,” Low said. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/oct/09/from-the-observer-magazine-archive-the-return-of-good-manners-1988 | Life and style | 2022-10-09T05:00:49.000Z | Chris Hall | The return of good manners, 1988 | The Observer Magazine of 4 September 1988 announced it was ‘no longer smart to slum it – manners are back in fashion’. Moyra Bremner ‘restates the rules that will save you from social disaster’.
Bremner said ‘good manners tell you about someone’s character, while etiquette tells you about someone’s class’ and for those pesky peas on the cover, her advice was very specific: ‘The difficulty of balancing peas on the convex side of a fork means that forks are turned over, more and more. This is now almost acceptable, provided it is done elegantly and the food pushed on to the inner edge.’
Almost the only time you can correctly use your bread to mop up the juices from food is when eating snails
Bremner also fulminated against frisée. ‘That antisocial mainstay of the nouvelle salad bowl does not belong at the civilised table. It cannot be tamed with knife and fork.’
In France, apparently, ‘socially selective mothers would vet prospective sons or daughters-in-law by serving raw peaches at dinner. Anyone who failed to eat one with due elegance – and a knife and fork – was unlikely to gain acceptance.’
One golden rule was to do as your hosts do, not as you do at home, ‘unless their manners are so dreadful that you can’t go quite that far’. Awkward if you’re ever at David Cameron’s, known to eat a hotdog with a knife and fork.
A section of ‘problem foods’ included asparagus (‘a real test of dexterity if it is thin and floppy’) and even bread (‘almost the only time you can correctly use your bread to mop up the juices from food is when eating snails’) and a warning from a Victorian book of etiquette to avoid ‘embarking on an orange’.
Jane Churchill, ‘specialist in soft furnishings for country houses’, could well have been writing in the Victorian age when she said: ‘I like to see children stand up when a grownup comes into the room.’ But what if the grownup proceeds to eat their peas on the outside edge? | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/nov/20/government-accused-avoiding-revolt-parliamentary-sitting-week-cancelled | Australia news | 2017-11-20T03:48:01.000Z | Paul Karp | Government accused of avoiding revolt as parliamentary sitting week cancelled | The government has cancelled the penultimate sitting week of the House of Representatives, in a move Labor and the Greens have blasted as a bid to shut down parliamentary scrutiny.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten said Labor’s shadow cabinet would come to work on Monday in Canberra regardless, a call echoed by Greens MP Adam Bandt and independent MP Bob Katter, who even suggested they should “sit on the garden lawn”, vote, and “make the laws of the land” – all without government MPs present.
In a statement on Monday the leader of the house, Christopher Pyne, said the government had asked the Speaker to cancel the sitting week beginning on 27 November, so the lower house will now return on 4 December.
Labor accepts that it is the Speaker’s prerogative to cancel the sitting week and did not join Katter’s call to protest against the move with a shadow sitting of parliament.
With government members threatening a backbench revolt on an inquiry into the banks and the Coalition missing two MPs with Barnaby Joyce and John Alexander facing byelections, the loss of the week may leave time to deal just with citizenship and marriage equality this year.
Pyne said the move was necessary because a marriage equality bill was unlikely to pass the Senate before 30 November.
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The week beginning 4 December was scheduled as the last sitting week of the year, but Pyne said the house “will sit until marriage equality is law and all citizenship issues have been dealt with”.
He said the motion for disclosure of foreign citizenship will now be moved on 4 December and set a deadline of 8pm on Tuesday December 5.
Pyne foreshadowed extra sitting days in the week beginning 11 December, warning that although it was possible to deal with citizenship and marriage in one week, members should be prepared to sit for “as long as it takes” to resolve the issues.
“Any referrals to the high court resulting from members’ disclosures will be debated after the passage of the marriage equality bill,” he said.
Shorten, accused the government of “running scared”.
Turnbull is running scared from the Parliament. If you can't run the Parliament, you can't run the country.
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) November 20, 2017
At a media conference in Sydney, Shorten said the development was “an assault on democracy” because the government was “effectively locking the crossbench and opposition out of parliament”.
Shorten accused Malcolm Turnbull of being “frightened” of his party and the parliament, and said it was “shameful” to use marriage equality as an excuse when there were 53 other items of government business to discuss.
Bandt said the government was “terrified it has lost control of parliament”.
Government is terrified it has lost control of Parliament. King Charles cancelled Parliaments and he lost his head. At this rate, Turnbull is not far from the metaphorical chopping block either.
— Adam Bandt 🏳️🌈 (@AdamBandt) November 20, 2017
The Turnbull government has held a minority of lower house seats since Joyce was felled by the high court’s citizenship seven decision and Alexander resigned over having dual British citizenship.
Labor and the Greens believe they and the crossbench have 74 votes to call for a bank royal commission or commission of inquiry to the government’s 73 but, at a media conference in Adelaide, Pyne said an absolute majority of 76 was needed to suspend standing orders and bring it on for debate.
A spokeswoman for National MP George Christensen confirmed he would vote to support a bank commission of inquiry after the New England byelection, to be held on 2 December.
Pyne said even with the changed timetable neither Joyce nor Alexander would be back in the week beginning 4 December.
However, if the house deals only with marriage and citizenship, the banking matter would be delayed until 2018, when the government may have the votes of Joyce and Alexander back.
Asked if the move was motivated by fears of a banking royal commission motion, Pyne said “what will be will be”, but that was not an item of business the public expected parliament to deal with in the remaining sitting weeks.
Asked if the government had lost control of the parliament, Pyne dismissed the claim as “political rhetoric” and accused Labor of wanting “constant chaos”.
The Nick Xenophon Team MP Rebekha Sharkie told Guardian Australia she shared the view the move was designed to avoid debate on a banking royal commission, describing it as “incredibly disappointing”.
“If the government is using its numbers to stifle debate on issues in the parliament, people would be rightly cynical about that,” she said.
Earlier on Radio National, the Nationals senator Barry O’Sullivan said he was committed to a banking inquiry, linking it to Dean Smith’s decision to introduce a marriage equality bill by saying he was “following in his footsteps” by pursuing a matter of importance to him.
“There could be as many as four [Coalition MPs supporting this],” he said. “There are a couple on the public record of course, George Christensen’s one, Llew O’Brien is another who’s indicated that he’s at 50/50 if you like.”
He said a similar bill produced by the Greens made its way through the Senate without any difficulty, so he would expect them to support his bill. He said he believed Labor was also likely to support it.
“I’m not taking advantage of a [this] position with weak government,” he said. “My government has allowed for new pathways with conscience votes on procedural matters, and I intend to take advantage of that, there’s no question about that.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/aug/15/the-beggars-opera-robert-carsen-edinburgh-international-festival | Stage | 2018-08-15T10:00:15.000Z | Kate Molleson | Brexit gags, catsuits and coke-snorting cops: A Beggar's Opera for our times | Lads in tracksuits hurl themselves across the stage, all hoods and fists and aggro. There’s no music, but screeching sirens and dense thuds of bodies hitting the floor and each other. Then the overture kicks in with a brute shock of sweet-voiced lutes and harpsichords. The contrast works like a punch in the gut, and the audience lets out a collective gasp.
Musical and moral collisions abound in any production of The Beggar’s Opera. John Gay’s 18th-century satire is a gleeful period piece of irredeemably patchy values: heartthrob villain who makes gang crime look sexy and misogyny cute; clingy damsels who paint a flagrantly unreconstructed portrait of the female psyche – meek or manipulative, or both. But The Beggar’s Opera is also a riot and a farce, wickedly funny when done right. Packed with tender airs and lusty singalongs, it is the original musical. What’s a director to do? Ditch it? Dodge it? Rewrite it?
A new account directed by Robert Carsen with period-instrument accompaniment from Les Arts Florissants opts for the rewrite tactic without losing sight of the original. The text is updated (sharp new words by Ian Burton) as a 21st-century East End crime comedy. The cast, all of them singer-actors from the musical theatre world, can deliver proper bawdy when required. With dirty language and Brexit satire set to elegant baroque tunes, the production – which comes to the Edinburgh international festival this week – has been billed a beggar’s opera “for our own turbulent times”.
That billing has turned out to be more accurate than the festival’s marketing team could have imagined. The production was created for the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris, a house made famous in the 1980s when director Peter Brook turned it into a hotbed of pared-back, provocative theatre. The building is a fading beauty on the tracks of the Gare du Nord, not far from the Canal Saint-Denis in the north-east of the city, where, in the past year, thousands of migrants and refugees have been living in makeshift tent villages under bridges along the canal. Aid workers have described “catastrophic sanitary conditions” and reported thieves, abusers and people traffickers targeting the camps. Bouffes du Nord is a stone’s throw away and, with the first image in Carsen’s production a homeless man huddled in a sleeping bag against a cardboard box, the appropriation of poverty as theatrical gesture is glaring.
Gender politics … Robert Burt and Beverley Klein as Mr and Mrs Peachum. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/Guardian
“It is a problem,” Carsen acknowledges. “But problems are not to be ignored. The Beggar’s Opera was written as a rebellion against grandiosity. Everything about it questioned perceived morals of the time. Gay wanted to expose the hypocrisy of the elite and politicians, to provoke debate by romanticising the shifting morality of criminals. This piece reflects all levels of society. Yes, I was aware that constructing the image of a homeless person on stage would have added resonance, given the situation in Paris right now, but it’s an opera about the real world. I think it’s right that we don’t flinch from what we see on the streets.”
Indeed, The Beggar’s Opera stirred things up from the start. It opened on Drury Lane in 1728 and was an instant hit, performed in Dublin, Glasgow, New York and Jamaica – and every year in London for the remainder of the 18th century. Audiences loved the tunes. They left the theatre humming the medley of pop songs that had been loosely arranged for the opera by Johann Pepusch. But that wasn’t all. There is no other opera remembered by the name of its librettist rather than its composer. The great appeal of The Beggar’s Opera was that its commentary felt real, that Gay had dared to tell the jokes that others didn’t, and that nobody was spared. Opera was supposed to be about gods and noblemen; Gay made thieves and prostitutes his leading lords and ladies. His libretto held a mirror to high society by turning class values topsy-turvy, and made clear allusions to real-life corruption cases that implicated everyone up to the then prime minister, Robert Walpole, himself – who went to see the opera, hated it and banned its sequel.
Pretty fools … Olivia Brereton as Lucy Lockit, Benjamin Purkiss as Macheath and Kate Batter as Polly Peachum. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/Guardian
This is an opera whose essential remit is to confront the uncomfortable. And for all its clever updating, Carsen’s production remains fairly faithful to the original concept: contemporary vernacular, contemporary satire. The action is transplanted to London’s 21st-century underbelly, where the chief of police snorts cocaine and Jenny Diver is an icy dominatrix in a latex catsuit. The Brexit jokes come thick and fast, and digs at the phrase “strong and stable” got a wry laugh from the Paris audience.
What doesn’t update quite so neatly is the gender politics. Women in The Beggar’s Opera are brassy matriarchs (Mrs Peachum), devious vixens (Diver) or pretty fools (Lucy Lockit and Polly Peachum). Carsen admitted to heated debate in the rehearsal room over what to do with these caricatures, but, ultimately, the values of the piece are ingrained. ”In the age of #MeToo,” Carsen says, “not everything has to be bent to fit.”
Beverley Klein, who plays Mrs Peachum, agrees she found the dynamics problematic. “We noticed ourselves trying to contrive ways of changing it,” she says, “but in the end these are the characters and this is the story. No matter how far you meddle with the text and try to inject the women with agency, you just have to accept their fates if you’re going to do this opera. I’m playing a traitorous elderly prostitute. I never thought I’d be hauling myself around in a plastic miniskirt at my age.”
Matters of period authenticity are more malleable when it comes to the music of The Beggar’s Opera, not least because there are no original orchestral parts, only indications of where the big tunes should go. Any new production needs to make a call on how to reconstruct it. Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill rewrote the music in the 1920s and rebranded it The Threepenny Opera. Benjamin Britten made a neat performing version in the 1940s. There have been settings in Rio slums and productions by all-female Japanese troupes.
The music for Carsen’s production was prepared by William Christie, a pioneer of historically informed performance practice, who enthuses about his decision to work with musical theatre voices rather than baroque specialists. “Nobody knows what the sound was like for the original productions,” he says, “so authenticity becomes a grey area. We are certainly talking about singers who could act. Back then there was no distinction. We’re talking about simple songs – call it folk songs, or pop music of the period. It was a kind of music that didn’t require trained voices. It was opera for the public, opera to debunk operatic style. So why would we use operatic voices to sing it now? We’re on the right side of authenticity, certainly compared to singers who sing the hell out of it as though it were Mozart.”
And the band? Christie describes a “1930s Duke Ellington setup. We have fashioned an improvising orchestra of individuals who can riff and swing. Only the odd solo is written out. It’s the first time it has ever been done like this and it required the absolute best players who can take on that kind of agency.” For all the scabrous Brexit jabs and plastic miniskirts, it’s this musical collision – live-wire baroque improv meets musical theatre – that might just prove the most daring aspect of the production.
At King’s theatre, Edinburgh, 16-19 August.
Read all our Edinburgh festival reviews. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/26/fresh-proposal-to-help-child-refugees-stranded-in-europe-tabled | World news | 2016-04-26T15:59:17.000Z | Karen McVeigh | Fresh proposal to help child refugees stranded in Europe tabled | A new proposal to help child refugees stranded in Europe has been tabled and is expected to pass in the House of Lords on Tuesday evening, following the government’s vote against accepting 3,000 children into the UK.
The amendment to the immigration bill that would have forced the government to accept several thousand lone child refugees from mainland Europe was narrowly defeated in the Commons on Monday night.
But, Lord Alf Dubs, the Labour peer who came to Britain as part of the government-backed Kindertransport scheme before the war, vowed to continue the fight and has tabled a proposal.
The amendment captures the spirit of the initial proposal but removes the obligation to provide sanctuary to 3,000 children. Instead, it will ask the government to resettle “a specified number” of children in consultation with local councils.
Martha Mackenzie, the senior government adviser for Save the Children, said: “We feel very optimistic that the new amendment, when it goes back to the Commons, has a chance of being accepted. A number of Conservative MPs put their heads above the parapet to do something about children in Europe. They were uncomfortable at the prescriptive nature of it, at having a number on it. But for a number of MPs, the new amendment could be the thing that encourages them to break ranks and vote for it.”
MPs voted against the amendment by 294 to 276 on Monday night, after the Home Office argued it was doing enough to help refugee children in Syria and neighbouring countries.
The amendment, which emerged from Labour’s refugee taskforce, chaired by former minister Yvette Cooper, was backed by Labour, the SNP and the Liberal Democrats. Only a handful of Tory MPs voted for it. Heidi Allen, one of the critics of the government’s position, abstained from the vote, describing it afterwards as the “hardest decision”.
Lord Alf Dubs speaks to two refugees from Syria. Photograph: Rob Stothard/Getty Images
The new proposal will help those who have links to Britain to be given sanctuary in the family reunification scheme under European rules called Dublin III. It will also help vulnerable children, including those currently stranded in Greece and Italy.
James Brokenshire, a Home Office minister, said during the debate on Monday that he was personally committed to speed up family reunification. The government has seconded staff in Italy and Greece to help with asylum applications and to strengthen its commitment under Dublin III.
However, it has been criticised by charities and refugee groups for not doing enough under the provisions. Citizens UK have identified 150 lone children in the migrant and refugee camp in Calais with relatives in the UK, but only 20 have been brought to Britain since January. Unicef estimates there are 2,000 unaccompanied children in Greece.
Marleen Korthala Altes, Save the Children’s senior child protection adviser in the country, saidthey had found 13 lone children in police custody, in overcrowded detention centres, since the borders closed last month.
Korthala Altes said: “We believe children should not be placed in detention in the first place. But the longer they are there, the greater the impact on their physical and mental health. Most of them don’t understand why they are confined.”
Save the Children’s original estimate of 26,000 unaccompanied children in Europe is now out of date, after a report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism this month showed there had been a four-fold increase in unaccompanied children between 2014 and 2015. Last year, 95,000 applied for asylum in Europe and Norway, many of whom fled warzones in Syria and other countries in the Middle East, it said.
Dubs said he had received many messages of support from well-wishers.
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“I’m now getting so many messages from people I don’t even know, saying how much they want this to succeed,” he said. “It’s really struck a chord: it’s caught the public’s imagination that, as a country, we can do something for these children.”
The Commons vote in effect killed off the Dubs amendment because ministers argued it had cost implications and therefore should be exempt from returning to the House of Lords, where it could have been reinstated.
However, by not mentioning a specific number of refugees, the new proposal has sidestepped the financial implications. The number accepted, the new amendment says, “shall be determined by the government in consultation with local authorities”.
The government argues that it is already helping children within the refugee camps in the Middle East and is concerned that it could create a “pull factor” by bringing unaccompanied children into Britain.
On Tuesday, David Cameron’s official spokeswoman did not comment on how the government would respond to Dubs’s new amendment, but said the prime minister was concerned not to create incentives for refugees to put themselves and their children at risk.
She told a Westminster media briefing: “What we have looked at very carefully here is how do we best protect vulnerable people and how can we best help refugees, how do we not fuel a system that is incentivising people to be exploited by trafficking gangs and make perilous journeys.
“There have been UNHCR experts who have talked about the concerns that if you pursue an approach which offers resettlement for unaccompanied children in Europe, you could see families seeking to separate off from their children in order to create new ways of getting to Europe. That’s not something we want to see.
“Refugees have already been through traumatic times. We don’t want to see them putting lives further at risk. That’s why we are taking an approach focusing on resettlement from the region, led by the experts.”
Brokenshire said in Monday night’s debate that the government could not support a policy that would “inadvertently create a situation in which families see an advantage in sending children alone, and in the hands of traffickers, putting their lives at risk by attempting treacherous sea crossings to Europe which would be the worst of all outcomes”.
But Dubs said that was a squalid argument and rejected the idea that unaccompanied children were safe once they reached the shores of Europe.
“Whether they’re in Greece, in Macedonia, in Italy, or in Calais and Dunkirk, these children are being left to their own devices at best and at worst they’re in trouble,” he said. He blamed Cameron for the government’s intransigence, saying: “I think the prime minister is taking the lead on this.”
The shadow immigration minister, Keir Starmer, promised on Tuesday morning that the fight would go on to force the UK to do more.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Starmer said: “We can’t turn our backs on these vulnerable children in Europe, and history will judge us for that.” He added: “It’s not over: the fight will go on.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/sep/15/a-twist-of-subversive-sexuality-duncan-grant-1920-review | Art and design | 2021-09-15T15:28:21.000Z | Jonathan Jones | Subversive sexuality amid the smell of cow dung – Duncan Grant: 1920 review | The tale of Venus and Adonis has been used in various sexually ambiguous ways for centuries. Shakespeare adopts the voice of the goddess in his long poem Venus and Adonis: she pleads with her lover – or is it the Bard’s? – not to leave, not to go on the boar hunt in which he’s doomed to die. Its lyricism is echoed in Cy Twombly’s paintings, in which Adonis was his former lover Robert Rauschenberg. For the pioneering British modernist Duncan Grant, in a joyous exhibition at his mural-covered, biography-stained home in the East Sussex hills, the metamorphosing body of Venus allows a shift of identity. This is not a woman but a constructed abstract form with which the artist can merge, to express his own longing for Adonis.
In Grant’s 1919 painting Venus and Adonis, the goddess leans her head on her hand as she sadly watches her lover run to his death. Except her huge hand floats in front of her ear, on top of a bulbous arm that’s only vaguely attached to a torso that itself looks like a separate creature, with nipples for eyes. Her big hips and orotund legs form a third independent being, kicking in space. The only thing holding her together is her bright pinkness.
Grant, the most talented artist of the Bloomsbury Group, showed this delirious painting in 1920 at his first solo show. Now it hangs at the start of a loving reconstruction of that exhibition, which reassembles as many works as possible as they were hung at London’s Paterson-Carfax Gallery. What an opener. It’s a comedy of identity and desire. Venus is a discombobulated modern person, bursting into discontinuous fragments as she lies in a landscape that is like an unstable theatre set. And in the distance is the naked male object of passion.
Precise gender is irrelevant … Grant’s Juggler and Tightrope Walker. Photograph: Axel Hesslenberg/© Estate of Duncan Grant. All rights reserved, DACS 2021.
At the time, Grant was living in just such a modern and fluid way. At Charleston Farm in East Sussex, he cohabited with his two lovers, fellow painter Vanessa Bell and writer David Garnett. One of the most absorbing paintings here is a big slanted view of a room where they are working. As Garnett hunches over a difficult bit of translation from Russian, Bell concentrates on her easel, painting an arrangement of apples in a long-stemmed bowl and a white coffee cup.
We see the half-finished still life on Bell’s canvas, which we can compare with Grant’s much firmer, finished depiction of the rounded, geometrical fruits and ceramics. He has a lightness of touch that lets him get away with nakedly ripping off Cézanne. He assimilates the great French artist’s eye for structure while clearly not being anything like as serious or introspective. Because Grant just wants to have fun.
His friends who bought paintings from the exhibition included historian Lytton Strachey and economist John Maynard Keynes, regular guests at this bohemian hideaway who both slept with Grant. This show makes a very good case for Grant as a queer modern master. The publication of his erotic drawings has shown how intensely sexual his art is – and in that light, the apparently placid domestic themes of many of his paintings become differently charged.
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Grant adds something of his own to all the French modernist ideas he has pinched. You could dismiss his nudes as imitations of stuff Matisse was doing a decade earlier. But that is to miss the twist of subversive sexuality he adds. His painting Juggler and Tightrope Walker creates two muscular yet curvaceous characters whose precise gender is irrelevant: they exist in some modernist utopia of freedom.
This exhibition glows with a sense of liberation. Grant had moved to the countryside to do the farmwork demanded of him as a conscientious objector in the first world war. Yet even his paintings of cowsheds have a secret joy – who slept with whom in the hay? It helps that you can smell cow dung in this barn gallery. The realities of sex, nature and country smells anchor Grant’s formal borrowings in the sweet smell of life.
After the war, everything seemed exhausted. But this exhibition announced the roaring 20s. It’s nor so far from Charleston to the charleston. Walking in, a glow of living colour hits you. It has the same redemptive beauty it must have possessed a century ago.
Duncan Grant: 1920 is at Charleston, near Lewes, from 18 September. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/04/neil-gaiman-interview-books | Books | 2017-02-04T08:00:23.000Z | Michelle Dean | Neil Gaiman: ‘I like being British. Even when I’m ashamed, I’m fascinated’ | Neil Gaiman wanders into the Crosby Hotel’s colourful parlour in lower Manhattan looking like the Platonic ideal of himself. He’s all wild hair and gracious manners, dressed in a lived-in black wool coat, which he keeps on throughout. He loves this hotel, he says, not least because the concierge writes a comic about Houdini with the former concierge.
Gaiman started out in comics, reading them as a child and eventually writing them too, including his famous Sandman series. So does this happen to him often, his very presence tempting out underground comics enthusiasts all over the globe? “I wish I could say yes. It would be a much more interesting and sort of Pynchon-esque world. But no, it’s just here.”
Gaiman looks a little tired. He has just come from feeding breakfast to his toddler youngest son, the progeny of his second marriage to the singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer. (He has three children with his first wife, Mary McGrath.) His creative life is a whirlwind of projects. The television version of his 2001 novel American Gods is to air in the US in April. He has also been at work on an adaptation of his 1990 collaboration with Terry Pratchett, Good Omens, for Amazon and the BBC, on which he is serving as showrunner. Meanwhile, there is the matter of writing books, the latest of which is Gaiman’s retelling of Norse myths in the straightforwardly titled Norse Mythology, out this week.
It has clearly been a struggle to find the time. “I would look up every now and again and go, ‘OK, I have a week. Good, I will retell a story.’” These are drawn from the 13th-century source texts for many Norse myths, the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, which he first read in his 30s, after absorbing the superhero stories inspired by them in Marvel comics as a child growing up in West Sussex. With such a haphazard schedule, it has taken around eight years to write the book, the idea for which was first floated by his American editor at Gaiman’s birthday lunch in 2008.
Listing all of Gaiman’s achievements could fill a book on its own. In addition to the comics, he is the author of novels for adults and children including Neverwhere, The Graveyard Book and The Ocean at the End of the Lane. He has written original screenplays and seen his work adapted by others, too, such as the 2009 stop-motion version of Coraline. He has been nominated for and won countless awards, including the Hugos, Nebulas and Eisners.
An illustration from Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book
Gaiman’s love of Norse mythology surfaces frequently in his work, not least in American Gods, which captures a battle between Odin and Loki. But in embarking on the retellings in Norse Mythology, Gaiman found himself faced with new limitations, as much information about the gods is missing. “On Greeks and Romans, for example, we have scads of stuff, but the Norse weren’t writing it down,” he explains. “They were telling the stories, so everything we have was written down after the event.” The holes and the contradictions that result from the oral tradition presented creative choices, but he felt an acute responsibility to be faithful to the traditional versions.
You hit a myth and go, 'No, I can’t get behind that. Really, we get licked out of the ice by a cow? OK, if you say so'
“I have to play fair with the Norse scholars and I have to play fair with kids who pick up the book and read it and think they know the stories. And so I may add colour, I may add motivation, I’d go and put in my own dialogue. I may draw inferences,” he says. “All that stuff I’m allowed to do, but I feel like I’m not allowed to just go, ‘OK, there’s a patch of canvas missing here. I’m going to draw something in … ’”
Even so, Gaiman’s personal sensibility is apparent in the text. His affection for Loki, for instance, shines through: “Loki is very handsome. He is plausible, convincing, likable, and far and away the most wily, subtle and shrewd of all the inhabitants of Asgard. It is a pity, then, that there is so much darkness inside him: so much anger, so much envy, so much lust.”
Gaiman attributes his love of Loki to his novelist’s eye. “You always end up fascinated by who changed, and how they change, because the engine of fiction is who are you at the beginning of the story and who are you at the end. Thor, bless his heart, has no narrative arc: he is the same person all the way through. He is not the brightest hammer in the room, but he’s good hearted, and you know he will die at the end, but he dies the same person he’s been all the way through.” In contrast, Loki is both the devil and the saviour of the gods. “Almost every story where they’re in trouble, it’s because Loki got them into it. Also, an awful lot of the time, he’s the only one smart enough to get them out of it.”
He declares “a real joy in passing these things on. It’s like being given something that belongs to humanity and polishing it and cleaning it up and putting it back out there.”
Gaiman’s enthusiasm for myths also extends to the Egyptians and the Greeks. He can reel off similarities between ancient stories, and says he doesn’t just tell the stories, he feels them on some emotional level. “The glory of some of these myths is that they feel right,” he explains, although he also concedes that every now and then “you’ll hit a myth and go, ‘No, I can’t really get behind that. Really, we get licked out of the ice by a cow? OK, if you say so.’” (He’s referring there to the myth of Audhumla, which he includes in Norse Mythology, despite his scepticism.)
As Gaiman wrestled with these stories, he says, he had no idea he was writing a topical book. But then, as political events unfolded in the second half of 2016, he could not help but draw parallels. “For me, it was Ragnarök,” he says, referring to the apocalyptic end of the gods. It begins with a long winter, continues with earthquakes and flooding, and then the sky splits apart.
The view that Brexit and the election of President Trump have brought about chaos and even a sense of impending doom is widely held, but Gaiman’s version of it is particularly eloquent. “I remember the 80s and the nuclear clock and the cold war and Russia and America and [thinking] ‘I hope you guys don’t press buttons and it would be very nice to not live in the shadow of everything ending’,” he says. “But at least at that point, what you were scared of was just one action. Now one is scared of the accretion of a million actions and a million inactions.”
He says there is “a strange kind of magical thinking” afoot and tells me about waking up the morning after Brexit in a hotel in Scotland and checking the result, then having “that sort of moment at the end of Planet of the Apes where Charlton Heston sees the Statue of Liberty ... I was going, ‘Oh, no. Are you really … ’”
Gaiman has, in recent years, divided his time between the UK and the US, but he is not an American citizen and has fallen off the electoral roll in the UK, so he wasn’t able to vote in either the Brexit referendum or the US election. “I’m frustrated not being able to vote over here,” he says. “I’m like, well, I pay lots of taxes to the US and the UK, but I don’t want to become an American citizen. I like being English. I like being British. Even when I’m ashamed, I’m fascinated.”
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Indeed, he clearly is. He does a very good imitation of the cab drivers he encountered in London leading up to the Brexit vote, who seemed to believe that, ultimately, the thing they were about to do was of no consequence: “The EU’s not going to let us go ... ”. Regarding the Trump vote, he says: “At the end of the day, what I think was being voted for was change. People were saying ‘We’re fed up and we’re not being listened to’, and unfortunately that wasn’t being offered by the other side. The appeal of Bernie Sanders was he was standing up there saying ‘This thing is fucked’, and the problem with Hillary was she was standing up there and saying ‘Things are good, they’re getting better’.”
Genuine worry furrows Gaiman’s brow, but he has plans to respond to current events. His following is huge, including 2.5 million people on Twitter and the millions who read his books and his blog and watch his television shows. He intends to use that platform to highlight the plight of refugees. He hopes, too, to double down on his longstanding activism to promote freedom of speech. “I wrote an essay on my blog in 2009 called ‘Why Defend Freedom of Icky Speech?’,” he says, “Which just becomes more and more timely. I have a 14-month-old son, and a four-month-old grandson. I have no idea what kind of world they’re going to grow up in. I’m going to do my best with the time and the intellectual effort remaining to me to do whatever I can to give them a good world,” he says.
Ragnarök, as Gaiman writes in Norse Mythology, is of course “the end” of something. “But there is also what will come after the end,” he adds. In his version the sun comes out. Something glitters in the grass. The gods’ children find a set of golden chess pieces waiting for them. They arrange them on a board, and then one of them makes a move. “And,” Gaiman concludes, “the game begins anew.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/jun/19/frankel-royal-ascot-queen-anne-stakes2 | Sport | 2012-06-19T19:04:01.000Z | Greg Wood | Frankel hailed as greatest ever after Royal Ascot Queen Anne Stakes win | There was loud and generous applause as Frankel returned to the winner's enclosure after his extraordinary performance in the Queen Anne Stakes here on Tuesday, and a richer chorus of cheers than this most buttoned-up of venues can normally raise. But as attention turned to the next race on the card, and 40,000 spectators drifted back towards the bars and the betting windows, it was possible to wonder just how many of them appreciated the unique nature of the race that had just unfolded on Ascot's straight mile.
Frankel had, after all, been trailed extensively as the star attraction on the first day of the Royal meeting, and although there were very few of the banners and flags that marked his last trip to a racecourse at Newbury last month, a starting price of 1-10 left little doubt about the likelihood of victory. So perhaps there were those who saw one horse finish well clear of another and assumed that it was little more than all the insiders and form experts had expected.
It was not. Frankel has been brilliant throughout his career, and his 11-length winning margin on Tuesday was not even the easiest of his career, as he won a minor event at Doncaster in 2010 by 13. But this was not just Frankel's finest performance, it was possibly the best single performance by any horse, on any track, since three Arabian stallions were imported into Britain to found the thoroughbred breed in the early years of the 18th century.
It is some claim, for sure, given the millions of horses that have been bred and raced over the last 300 years, and one that can never be proved beyond doubt. Sir Henry Cecil, Frankel's trainer, is reluctant to compare him directly with the other champions he has personally prepared over the course of his illustrious 40-year career, so how can Frankel be measured against the great horses of the 19th century?
But it can be argued that since the middle of the 20th century, racing has developed into a more international, and competitive, sport than it had ever been in the past. And from the late 1940s the Timeform organisation has been rating the merit of every horse to start a race in Britain and, for much of that time, the best horses around the world too.
Until Tuesday, no horse had bettered the Timeform rating of 145 achieved by Sea-Bird, the winner of the Derby and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 1965. The French-trained colt coasted to victory in both races with an easy, almost effortless stride and even the great Dancing Brave, who won one of the strongest Arcs in history in 1986, could not quite equal his mark. Now, though, Sea-Bird is the second best horse in Timeform history, with Frankel rated not just one but two pounds better on 147.
"The facts are that Frankel's performance is likely to surpass anything witnessed in Timeform's 64-year history," David Johnson, the publication's Flat editor, said. "A point worth emphasising is the consistency with which Frankel has produced such performances. This is the fifth time he has produced a 140-plus rating."
It is not so much the number that matters, though, as what it represents. Breeding and racing thoroughbred racehorses is a pastime for the wealthy few but, even so, countless years of effort by many thousands of breeders over three centuries have been directed towards producing the perfect racehorse. Frankel is the horse that every one of them dreamed that they might create one day.
In his younger days, Frankel was headstrong and there were fears that there might be too much fire in his character to channel his talent effectively into victory after victory; at some point, he might pull and worry his way to a defeat.
The mature horse, though, is as close to perfection as the genetic balancing act between speed, stamina, physical strength and temperament is ever likely to get. He settles in the early stages, cruises until the quarter-pole and then runs away from opponents whose effort is already spent. Nor is it a simple change of gear from fast to faster. It is a smooth shift, a gradual buildup of power and momentum that means he can finish a Group One race with an 11-length advantage and still appear to have plenty of running left to give.
"I don't understand the assessments of different generations and countries and distances," Cecil said afterwards in the winner's enclosure. "I leave that to everyone else – to me it's all double Dutch. It's very difficult, what would have happened today if I'd had a Wollow, Bolkonski or Kris in the race, would they have been closer or further away?
"When you unleash him, he will quicken up for three or four furlongs, where a normal horse will quicken for one or two. He keeps going when other horses don't."
Cecil's mantra after every victory for Frankel is that "every horse is beatable". Injury too is an ever-present possibility, both on the racecourse and the Newmarket gallops. But if his physical health remains good, the well of racing ability in Frankel's frame is so deep that it he will surely go through his final three or four races unbeaten. It is not just that no horse in the world could have lived with Frankel on Tuesday. It is unlikely that any horse ever foaled would have beaten him either.
Timeform's all-time greats
147 Frankel: Unbeaten in 11 races with potential to improve over further
145 Sea-Bird: Devastating winner of the Derby and the Arc in 1965
144 Brigadier Gerard: Winner of 17 of 18 races before retiring in 1972
142 Abernant: Champion sprinter in 1949/50
142 Ribot: Arc winner who went 16 races undefeated in 1950s
142 Windy City: Champion two-year-old of 1951 | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/10/monique-roffey-leads-strong-showing-for-indies-on-rathbones-folio-shortlist | Books | 2021-02-10T19:20:50.000Z | Alison Flood | Monique Roffey leads strong showing for indies on Rathbones Folio shortlist | Fresh from winning the Costa book of the year award and topping bestseller charts for the first time with a book for which she was forced to crowdfund her own publicity, Monique Roffey has been shortlisted for another major award: the £30,000 Rathbones Folio prize.
Roffey’s Costa-winning tale The Mermaid of Black Conch, about a centuries-old mermaid who falls in love with a fisher, is one of eight titles up for the Folio, which aims to reward the year’s best work of literature regardless of form. The Trinidadian-born British writer’s novel, draws on a legend from the Taino, an indigenous people of the Caribbean. This week, it was No 1 in the paperback fiction charts.
“It’s fair to say that even though I did the crowdfunding, and we got a nice grant from Arts Council England so we’d armed ourselves with everything we needed, Covid just demolished our gameplan for this book,” said Roffey. “It has been a magical thing to see people reading it.”
Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House. Photograph: Mark Makela/The Guardian
The majority of the books up for this year’s Folio prize come from small presses. The Mermaid of Black Conch is published by Peepal Tree Press, Amina Cain’s feminist fable Indelicacy by Daunt Books, and two titles in the running come from small Irish press Tramp: Sara Baume’s handiwork explores the nature of art and creation, while Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat tells of an 18th-century poet who haunts the life of a contemporary young mother. Carmen Maria Machado’s memoir about domestic abuse, In the Dream House, is published by independent Serpent’s Tail.
First collection ... Caleb Femi
Prize organisers, Roffey said, are now choosing a variety of judges, who are highlighting a range of books – this year’s Folio is judged by writers Roger Robinson, Sinéad Gleeson and Jon McGregor. “It’s a testament to corporations who are now listening to Black Lives Matter, reading the room, shifting conversation, finding different judges who are choosing different books, and it’s incredible. That’s the reason why I’ve been able to enjoy this situation,” she said.
“So many great books get written every year, and if I’m really honest, a publisher’s firepower will make a big difference to whether they get seen and read,” she added. “You can see which books have had campaign money behind them – there’s probably 10 of them, but where are the other 100 that have also been published? Mermaid didn’t have a hope in hell, even though I armed it with everything I could. It still fell out of sight.”
The Rathbones Folio shortlist is completed with Rachel Long’s debut poetry collection My Darling from the Lions, a skewering of sexual politics and religious awakenings; Caleb Femi’s first collection Poor, which looks at the lives of young black boys in Peckham; and poet Elaine Feeney’s debut novel As You Were, a darkly comic novel about a mother who keeps her terminal cancer diagnosis a secret.
“The judges chose the eight books on the shortlist because they are pushing at the edges of their forms in interesting ways, without sacrificing narrative or execution,” said Robinson. “The conversations between the judges may have been as edifying as the books themselves. From a judge’s vantage point, the future of book publishing looks incredibly healthy – and reading a book is still one of the most revolutionary things that one can do.”
The winner will be announced on 24 March, joining previous winners including Mexican novelist and essayist Valeria Luiselli, British poet Raymond Antrobus, and American writer George Saunders.
The 2021 Rathbones Folio prize shortlist
handiwork by Sara Baume (Tramp Press)
Indelicacy by Amina Cain (Daunt Books)
As You Were by Elaine Feeney (Harvill Secker)
Poor by Caleb Femi (Penguin)
My Darling from the Lions by Rachel Long (Picador)
In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado (Serpent’s Tail)
A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa (Tramp Press)
The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey (Peepal Tree Press) | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/06/human-society-under-urgent-threat-loss-earth-natural-life-un-report | US news | 2019-05-06T10:59:12.000Z | Jonathan Watts | Human society under urgent threat from loss of Earth's natural life | Human society is in jeopardy from the accelerating decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems, the world’s leading scientists have warned, as they announced the results of the most thorough planetary health check ever undertaken.
From coral reefs flickering out beneath the oceans to rainforests desiccating into savannahs, nature is being destroyed at a rate tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the past 10m years, according to the UN global assessment report.
The biomass of wild mammals has fallen by 82%, natural ecosystems have lost about half their area and a million species are at risk of extinction – all largely as a result of human actions, said the study, compiled over three years by more than 450 scientists and diplomats.
Bleached coral reef on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Photograph: Nette Willis/AFP/Getty Images
Two in five amphibian species are at risk of extinction, as are one-third of reef-forming corals, and close to one-third of other marine species. The picture for insects – which are crucial to plant pollination – is less clear, but conservative estimates suggest at least one in 10 are threatened with extinction and, in some regions, populations have crashed. In economic terms, the losses are jaw-dropping. Pollinator loss has put up to $577bn (£440bn) of crop output at risk, while land degradation has reduced the productivity of 23% of global land.
The knock-on impacts on humankind, including freshwater shortages and climate instability, are already “ominous” and will worsen without drastic remedial action, the authors said.
“The health of the ecosystems on which we and other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide,” said Robert Watson, the chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Ibpes). “We have lost time. We must act now.”
The warning was unusually stark for a UN report that has to be agreed by consensus across all nations. Hundreds of scientists have compiled 15,000 academic studies and reports from indigenous communities living on the frontline of change. They build on the millennium ecosystem assessment of 2005, but go much further by looking not just at an inventory of species, but the web of interactions between biodiversity, climate and human wellbeing.
Over the past week, representatives from the world’s governments have fine-tuned the summary for policymakers, which includes remedial scenarios, such as “transformative change” across all areas of government, revised trade rules, massive investments in forests and other green infrastructure, and changes in individual behaviour such as lower consumption of meat and material goods.
Following school strikes, Extinction Rebellion protests, the UK parliament’s declaration of a climate emergency and Green New Deal debates in the US and Spain, the authors hope the 1,800-page assessment of biodiversity will push the nature crisis into the global spotlight in the same way climate breakdown has surged up the political agenda since the 1.5C report last year by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Combine harvesters crop soybeans in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
David Obura, one of the main authors on the report and a global authority on corals, said: “We tried to document how far in trouble we are to focus people’s minds, but also to say it is not too late if we put a huge amount into transformational behavioural change. This is fundamental to humanity. We are not just talking about nice species out there; this is our life-support system.”
The report shows a planet in which the human footprint is so large it leaves little space for anything else. Three-quarters of all land has been turned into farm fields, covered by concrete, swallowed up by dam reservoirs or otherwise significantly altered. Two-thirds of the marine environment has also been changed by fish farms, shipping routes, subsea mines and other projects. Three-quarters of rivers and lakes are used for crop or livestock cultivation. As a result, more than 500,000 species have insufficient habitats for long-term survival. Many are on course to disappear within decades.
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Eduardo Brondizio, an Ibpes co-chair from Indiana University Bloomington, said: “We have been displacing our impact around the planet from frontier to frontier. But we are running out of frontiers … If we see business as usual going forward then we’ll see a very fast decline in the ability of nature to provide what we need and to buffer climate change.”
Agriculture and fishing are the primary causes of the deterioration. Food production has increased dramatically since the 1970s, which has helped feed a growing global population and generated jobs and economic growth. But this has come at a high cost. The meat industry has a particularly heavy impact. Grazing areas for cattle account for about 25% of the world’s ice-free land and more than 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Crop production uses 12% of land and creates less than 7% of emissions.
The study paints a picture of a suffocating human-caused sameness spreading across the planet, as a small range of cash crops and high-value livestock are replacing forests and other nature-rich ecosystems. As well as eroding the soil, which causes a loss of fertility, these monocultures are more vulnerable to disease, drought and other impacts of climate breakdown.
In terms of habitats, the deepest loss is of wetlands, which have drained by 83% since 1700, with a knock-on impact on water quality and birdlife. Forests are diminishing, particularly in the tropics. In the first 13 years of this century, the area of intact forest fell by 7%, bigger than France and the UK combined. Although the overall rate of deforestation has slowed, this is partly an accounting trick, as monoculture plantations replace biodiverse jungle and woodland.
Oceans are no longer a sanctuary. Only 3% of marine areas are free from human pressure. Industrial fishing takes place in more than half the world’s oceans, leaving one-third of fish populations overexploited.
A scalloped hammerhead shark, listed as endangered, dead on a drum line off Magnetic Island, Australia. Photograph: HSI/EPA
Climate change, pollution and invasive species have had a relatively low impact, but these factors are accelerating. Emissions continue to rise. Last week, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere passed the 415 parts per million mark for the first time. Even if global heating can be kept within the Paris agreement target of 1.5C to 2C, the ranges of most species will shrink profoundly, the paper warns.
Population growth is noted as a factor, along with inequality. Individuals in the developed world have four times as much of an economic footprint as those in the poorest countries, and the gap is growing.
Our species now extracts 60bn tons of resources each year, almost double the amount in 1980, though the world population has grown by only 66% in that time. The report notes how the discharges are overwhelming the Earth’s capacity to absorb them. More than 80% of wastewater is pumped into streams, lakes and oceans without treatment, along with 300m-400m tons of heavy metals, toxic slurry and other industrial discharges. Plastic waste has risen tenfold since 1980, affecting 86% of marine turtles, 44% of seabirds and 43% of marine mammals. Fertiliser run-off has created 400 “dead zones”, affecting an area the size of the UK.
Andy Purvis, a professor at the Natural History Museum in London and one of the main authors of the report, said he was encouraged nations had agreed on the need for bitter medicine.
An olive ridley turtle snarled up in plastic waste near Contadora Island in Panama. Photograph: SeaTops/Alamy
“This is the most thorough, most detailed and most extensive planetary health check. The take-home message is that we should have gone to the doctor sooner. We are in a bad way. The society we would like our children and grandchildren to live in is in real jeopardy. I cannot overstate it,” he said. “If we leave it to later generations to clear up the mess, I don’t think they will forgive us.”
The next 18 months will be crucial. For the first time, the issue of biodiversity loss is on the G8 agenda. The UK has commissioned Partha Dasgupta, a professor at Cambridge University, to write a study on the economic case for nature, which is expected to serve a similar function as the Stern review on the economics of climate change. Next year, China will host a landmark UN conference to draw up new global goals for biodiversity.
Cristiana Pașca Palmer, the head of the UN’s chief biodiversity organisation, said she was both concerned and hopeful. “The report today paints quite a worrying picture. The danger is that we put the planet in a position where it is hard to recover,” she said. “But there are a lot of positive things happening. Until now, we haven’t had the political will to act. But public pressure is high. People are worried and want action.”
The report acknowledges current conservation strategies, such as the creation of protected areas, are well-intended but inadequate. Future forecasts indicate negative trends will continue in all scenarios except those that embrace radical change across society, politics, economics and technology.
A rhinoceros walks through a wildfire in a field at Pobitora wildlife sanctuary in Assam state, India. Photograph: Biju Boro/AFP/Getty Images
It says values and goals need to change across governments so local, national and international policymakers are aligned to tackle the underlying causes of planetary deterioration. This includes a shift in incentives, investments in green infrastructure, accounting for nature deterioration in international trade, addressing population growth and unequal levels of consumption, greater cooperation across sectors, new environmental laws and stronger enforcement.
Greater support for indigenous communities and other forest dwellers and smallholders is also essential. Many of the last holdouts for nature are in areas managed by such groups, but even here, the pressures are beginning to take a toll, as wildlife declines along with knowledge of how to manage it.
Josef Settele, an Ipbes co-chair and entomologist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany, said: “The situation is tricky and difficult but I would never give up. The report shows there is a way out. I believe we can still bend the curve.
“People shouldn’t panic, but they should begin drastic change. Business as usual with small adjustments won’t be enough.”
This article was amended on 12 June 2019 because Eduardo Brondizio is from Indiana University Bloomington, not Indiana State University as an earlier version said. This has been corrected. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/mar/25/scarlett-johansson-jurassic-world-movie | Film | 2024-03-25T16:56:36.000Z | Benjamin Lee | Scarlett Johansson in talks to lead new Jurassic World movie | Scarlett Johansson is reportedly in talks to lead a new Jurassic World movie.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the two-time Oscar nominated actor could follow on from her Marvel co-star Chris Pratt with a starring role in the latest installment of the dinosaur franchise.
Pratt led 2015’s Jurassic World and its two follow-ups, the last of which brought back original stars Sam Neill and Laura Dern. It made over $1bn worldwide.
The new film will be directed by Gareth Edwards, whose most recent film The Creator starred John David Washington and was nominated for two Oscars. Edwards has also directed 2014’s Godzilla and 2016’s Rogue One. The script comes from David Koepp, who wrote the screenplay for the 1993 original Jurassic Park.
The reboot, which is expected to focus on an entirely new set of characters, was originally set to be directed by Bullet Train’s David Leitch but he left the project back in February.
The film is already dated for summer 2025 so production is aiming to start soon. Other films set to premiere that season include Superman: Legacy and Mission: Impossible 8.
Johansson most recently starred in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City and North Star, a comedy directed by Kristin Scott Thomas, which premiered at last year’s Toronto film festival. It has yet to find a US distributor.
The actor will next be seen alongside Channing Tatum in an untitled romantic comedy set during the 1960s space race. She will also head up the TV series remake of the legal thriller Just Cause which will be written by recent Oscar-winner Cord Jefferson following on from his American Fiction success.
In total, all Jurassic movies have made over $6bn in total worldwide box office. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2023/feb/23/top-marks-ambition-rolls-royce-boss-still-has-to-set-hard-targets | Business | 2023-02-23T17:47:08.000Z | Nils Pratley | Top marks for ambition, but new Rolls boss still has to set hard targets | After the new chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic’s dramatic description of Rolls-Royce as “a burning platform”, the actual numbers for 2022 were almost encouraging – or, at least, better than forecast. In place of the previously promised “modest” positive cashflow, Derby’s finest engine-maker produced £505m, which is not small change even in the context of a group of this size.
Meanwhile, commercial aircraft are flying again, especially in China, which is critical for Rolls-Royce. And it is obviously a good moment to own a business in the defence sector.
With the share price surging by a fifth on Thursday, one can reasonably ask why Erginbilgic felt the need to ramp up the rhetoric. Shouldn’t he have spent more time giving thanks for the efforts of his predecessor, Warren East, who genuinely had to reach for the fire hoses when the pandemic savaged Rolls’s revenues from servicing engines?
Erginbilgic’s answer on that point was twofold. First, he was trying to gee up the workforce. Fair enough – that’s the prerogative of a new boss. Second, and more pertinently, Rolls’s financial performance is still a shocker if you take the long view.
On that score, he is undoubtedly correct. Nobody had a good time in the pandemic but not every rival produced a five-year shareholder return of minus 67%. And an average annual return on capital of 4%-ish is a road to ruin if, like Rolls, you are borrowing in debt that still isn’t ranked as investment grade.
So, yes, a full toot on the transformation trumpet was in order. The aim is “materially higher profit, cashflows and returns”.
The tricky bit is making it happen. The insight that Rolls is “capable of much more” is hardly novel. Go back to East’s opening pitch on arrival in 2015, a period after a string of profits warnings, and you’ll find similar plain-speaking refrains. The talk then was about making “fundamental changes” to the company’s way of working and injecting “greater pace and accountability to decision making”.
Erginbilgic’s seven “workstreams” towards self-improvement don’t sound markedly different in spirit. It’s fine, for example, to say you want to improve “commercial optimisation” and be rewarded properly for “the value we create for customers”, but who doesn’t?
Those same customers, one assumes, will also be keenly aware of their negotiating clout. In a similar vein, the goal of delivering “a significant and structural” reduction in working capital has been heard before at Rolls.
If there’s a difference in Erginbilgic’s approach, it’s the promise to make the strategy “granular”. There may also be a certain new ruthlessness about chopping programmes with marginal paybacks. The UK government, for example, should take note of the demand to actually commit to a funding model for small, modular nuclear reactors, a business that excited East.
Yet the ambition will only start to feel real when Erginbilgic issues hard targets of Rolls’s financial ambitions and puts a few numbers of what he thinks is achievable. That moment is promised for the second half of this year and is the critical first stage of this latest reinvention effort. He’s not there yet.
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The good news for shareholders is that gentler breezes are blowing through the aerospace business, where the civil side represents 45% of Rolls’s group revenues of £12.7bn.
The moment of maximum danger from pandemic fallout has clearly passed if the forecast proves correct that engine flying hours in 2023 will be 80%-90% of 2019 levels.
But investors could, for the time being, contain their enthusiasm for the idea that Rolls can move seamlessly to a higher glide path. The aerospace business remains capital-intensive and volatile; and net zero would seem to carry as many threats as opportunities.
A sweeping review of operations is justified at this juncture and Erginbilgic is saying the right things – but he’s not the first to promise that the future will be better. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/19/englands-big-social-housing-landlords-ignoring-official-complaint-warnings | Society | 2023-09-18T23:01:41.000Z | Robert Booth | England’s big social housing landlords ignoring official complaint warnings | Some of England’s biggest social housing landlords are ignoring official warnings to handle tenants’ complaints better and the problem is getting worse, the ombudsman for the sector has said.
Landlords including L&Q, Southwark council and A2Dominion Group – which together let out 142,000 low-cost homes – failed to act despite being told to tackle complaints response delays and provide information to the watchdog.
Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman, said in just three months the watchdog issued landlords with 43 “complaints handling failure orders” and 18 were not complied with, the most yet.
“It is exceptional for us to issue a failure order,” he said. “For a landlord to receive several and not comply, indicates its complaints procedure is not working as it should. The result is residents continually waiting for redress and landlords missing opportunities to put something right sooner.”
There was nationwide anger at social landlords’ failure to listen to tenants in the years before the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 and before the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in December 2020 from lung failure caused by untreated mould.
Tenants say a functioning complaints process is the key to tackling endemic problems ranging from mould to antisocial behaviour.
Three landlords in London repeatedly failed to comply with orders from the watchdog between April and June this year. They were Barking and Dagenham council, whose leader Darren Rodwell is a Labour candidate for the next general election, Haringey council and Southwark council, which are also in the party’s control.
Tenant group the Social Housing Action Campaign (Shac) said the findings supported its research.
“Our experience is there has been no improvement or the standard of complaints handling has actually declined,” said Suzanne Muna, the Shac secretary. “If they are ignoring the ombudsman, the government needs to act to get tougher.”
The National Housing Federation, which represents social housing providers, and L&Q declined to comment on the ombudsman’s warning.
Southwark council’s leader, Kieron Williams, said it had this week “published our plans for improving our repairs service”, but criticised “decisions made by government ministers” that had “taken hundreds of millions of pounds out of the funds councils have to maintain our tenants’ homes”.
Michael Reece, the executive director of operations at A2Dominion, said the ombudsman’s interventions did not “reflect the level of service and complaint resolution” it expected to deliver and that it had “unreservedly apologised to customers affected by this”. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2009/nov/24/flash-forward-drama | Television & radio | 2009-11-24T09:00:14.000Z | Anna Pickard | FlashForward: Season one, episode nine | SPOILER ALERT: This weekly blog is for those who have been watching FlashForward. Don't read ahead if you haven't seen episode nine yet.
"Believe"
In lieu of the plot developments you might have been expecting, episode nine came from out of nowhere – and went nowhere (though racked up some air miles on the way)
What happened
The main story this week revolved around Bryce, one of the junior doctors at Olivia's hospital. In one of the biggest pre-blackout flashbacks we have yet seen, we discovered that Bryce has terminal cancer and that this was the reason he was going to kill himself … until he was saved by his flashforward, which saw him in love with a beautiful woman. Bryce spent most of this episode trying to find her. He didn't.
In other news, Demetri discovered there was a recording of his mysterious murder-call – but after being banned by Weneck from flying out to Hong Kong to follow it up, Benford said they should go anyway. Bad boy. Still, Mark's got nothing to lose: having discovered someone had told Olivia of his flashforward drunkenness, he confronted and comprehensively pissed off the only two people who had known about his booze-soaked flash: his boss, and his AA sponsor Aaron.
And how was that?
Brilliant: a whole episode based entirely around the one person I don't think we've ever mentioned in one of our episode-by-episode reviews because he's never seemed important enough. And yet here he is, front and centre. It's almost as if the writers sat down and tried to think of a single storyline less interesting than possible ructions in the Benford marriage. Remarkably, they found one.
Still, it was all very sweet, and I'm sure that, one day, Keiko and Bryce will prove a very nice couple. Good for them.
The trouble is that it just feels sometimes like an exercise for a Hollywood screen writing class. It's like a bunch of writers were given the homework assignment: "Take the concept of FlashForward and rewrite it in a different genre every episode." One week it's FlashForward the action movie. Next week an experiment in murder mystery, or police procedural, or hospital soap opera. Occasionally they even seem to consider taking the concept and making decent science fiction of it. But not this week. This week it was Flashforward as romantic drama. This isn't a massive problem – but it just makes for something quite inconsistent in tone, don't you find?
Flashes of inspiration and forward thinking
In explaining why they were able to visually enhance the ring from the stadium suspect, but not his face, the NSA agent actually gave a reasonable technical explanation. Or at least one that might stop people shouting at the television for a minute. It's all about inanimate objects and flat faces, you know.
Aaron is an AA sponsor. If they were in Narcotics Anonymous, would he be called Naron?
Benford voicewatch: Mark now appears to be degenerating into mainly round gutteral rumbling noises. Joseph Fiennes appears to have been training himself in the American accent mainly by listening to the internal workings of a bowling alley.
Judging by the clips in the closing credits, from the dawdling 5mph of this episode, the next (in two weeks' time, due to Thanksgiving in the states) appears to be back up to speed, and possibly even to break the speed limit. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2018/oct/15/rugby-union-talking-points-from-the-weekend-european-action | Sport | 2018-10-15T07:02:43.000Z | Michael Aylwin | Rugby union: talking points from the European Champions Cup | Pool 1: Burns’s blunders leave Bath in hot water
It seemed as if all talking points would have to revolve around the 52-3 destruction on Friday night of the former multiple champions Wasps by Leinster – or the Ireland team plus James Lowe, which means the Ireland team in a couple of years’ time. But then Freddie Burns came along. Immediately all talking points became other examples of the flagrant squandering of tries. There are plenty but it is hard to think of any at such a crucial juncture of a game, to cost a team a match and coming so soon after the same player had missed a sitter of a penalty, which would also have won the encounter. It will surely take its toll on Burns. Bath, meanwhile, are sick of wasted opportunities.
Pool results: Leinster 52-3 Wasps; Bath 20-22 Toulouse
Pool 2: Cipriani the man to unlock Munster?
Of all the chastening results for the English over the first two days perhaps the most sobering was the inability of Exeter, now installed in the top two of the Premiership, to prevail over Munster at home. It is as if they were spooked by having to take on their own doubles. Munster played more like Exeter than Exeter, and vice versa. A dour 616 metres were chiselled out by the relentless ball-carriers, Munster the only side this weekend to fail to average two metres a carry, with 250 from 130. Still, the same tactic makes Thomond Park almost as formidable a lair as it used to be. Gloucester go there next week. The onus is on Danny Cipriani to introduce a different dimension.
Pool results: Exeter 10-10 Munster; Gloucester 19-14 Castres
Pool 3: Saracens in a class of their own
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If the weekend was a positive one, on the whole, for the Pro14, Pool 3 contained the most encouraging and dispiriting results. Cardiff’s win at Lyon, flying so high in the Top 14, was as invigorating as any the Welsh have managed in Europe. The Blues have been Wales’s great underachievers but they are bristling with back-rows and have serious talent behind. Glasgow, meanwhile, might not be in Leinster’s class but they are fixtures now at or near the top of the Pro14. Here they ran into the Saracens brick wall. They say the Premiership is a two-speed affair. Actually it is three: the others, Exeter and then Saracens – not at their best in Glasgow but brutal and light‑fingered by turns.
Pool results: Glasgow 3-13 Saracens; Lyon 21-30 Cardiff
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Pool 4: Racing’s endurance skills impress
Ulster are a bit of a mess in the Pro14 but that does not need to matter when taking on Leicester at the moment. The Tigers’ capitulation in the second half felt gruesomely familiar. Curiously their England half-backs are playing quite well. George Ford was given a very unfortunate yellow card in the first half but Leicester survived that before falling away in the pouring rain of the second. The jury is still out on Ulster but a trip to Racing next week ought to hasten a verdict. The Parisian club survived the lightning strikes of the Scarlets to clinch a late away victory. They look the likeliest contenders from this pool and from the Top 14 in general.
Pool results: Scarlets 13-14 Racing; Ulster 24-10 Leicester
George Ford (left) was shown a harsh yellow card in Belfast. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images
Pool 5: Toulon’s woes capture French abjection
A disappointing weekend for the French, and Pool 4 showed them up the most. Toulon have fallen far and fast from the heights of only a handful of years ago. Saracens tore them apart two years ago, the first team to win at Stade Mayol in the Champions Cup. Now Newcastle have become the second, despite currently sitting bottom in the Premiership. Toulon, mind you, are off the relegation zone only by points difference. They look stroppy, uninterested and at times just witless. How are the mighty, etc. Montpellier, meanwhile, very much one of the Top 14’s current leading lights, got away with murder at home to Edinburgh. The Scots were incredibly unlucky to be denied a potentiallywinning try. They may yet surprise in this pool.
Pool results: Montpellier 21-15 Edinburgh; Toulon 25-26 Newcastle
Quick Guide
Weekend verdict
Show | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/nov/22/jim-irsay-dui-arrest-white-billonaire-prejudjice | Sport | 2023-11-22T15:54:40.000Z | Guardian sport | Colts owner Jim Irsay blames arrest on police prejudice against white billionaires | Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said his March 2014 arrest for driving under the influence was a result of prejudice against him for being white and wealthy.
The longtime NFL owner spoke about the circumstances of his arrest in an interview with the HBO show Real Sports that aired on Tuesday. Irsay later pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of operating a vehicle while impaired after initially facing four additional counts of possession of a controlled substance.
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“I am prejudiced against because I’m a rich, white billionaire,” Irsay told HBO’s Andrea Kremer. “If I’m just the average guy down the block, they’re not pulling me in, of course not.”
Asked how he thinks it sounds for a white billionaire to claim that he’s a victim of prejudice, Irsay stood by his remarks.
“I don’t care what it sounds like,” Irsay said. “It’s the truth ... I could give a damn what people think how anything sounds or sounds like. The truth is the truth, and I know the truth.”
Police in the Indianapolis suburb of Carmel pulled Irsay over after observing a man in a Toyota Highlander driving slowly, stopping in the roadway and failing to use a turn signal. Authorities discovered various prescription drugs in Irsay’s vehicle along with more than $29,000 in cash.
A toxicology report showed Irsay had the painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone as well as alprazolam, which is used to treat anxiety, in his system at the time of his arrest. Officers on the scene said he had trouble reciting the alphabet and failed other field sobriety tests.
The NFL suspended Irsay for the first six of his team’s games the following season and fined him $500,000.
Irsay claimed that when he was asked to take a field sobriety test and looked unsteady walking, it was because he had just had hip surgery. Asked why he pleaded guilty if he had been profiled, Irsay said he just wanted to get it over with.
The Carmel police department said in an emailed statement to the Indianapolis Star: “We are very sorry to hear that comment about our officers and our department. We have a very professional agency consisting of officers that strive to protect our community with integrity and professionalism.”
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The 64-year-old businessman also told Real Sports that he has gone to rehab for addiction 15 times and that he once nearly died of an overdose, adding that “addiction and alcoholism is a fatal disease.”
Irsay’s father, Robert Irsay, built his fortune through a series of successful heating and air-conditioning companies before purchasing the Baltimore Colts and controversially relocating the team to Indiana in 1984.
Jim Irsay has owned the Colts since 1997, when he emerged victorious from a legal battle with his stepmother over the ownership of the team following the death of his father. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/jul/17/mermaids-winona-ryder-and-cher-sparkle-in-underappreciated-1990s-coming-of-age-gem | Culture | 2020-07-17T01:34:41.000Z | Nadine J Cohen | Mermaids: Winona Ryder and Cher sparkle in underappreciated 1990s coming-of-age gem | Mermaids is a coming-of-age tale with a difference. Set in small-town America in 1963, it tells the story of the nomadic Flax family: young single mother Rachel (Cher), nine-year-old water-baby Kate (Christina Ricci) and 15-year-old Charlotte (Winona Ryder), who is grappling with the things teenagers grapple with – identity, sexuality, shoes – as she searches for herself and her place in the world. But in a twist on the genre, Rachel, who was only 16 when she had Charlotte, is inching towards her own enlightenment. Both mother and daughter grow up over the course of the film, because and in spite of each other.
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Unapologetic, independent and sexually liberated – qualities rarely seen in women in films set in this era – Rachel packs up their lives and relocates every time she has a breakup. And Rachel has a lot of breakups. By the time they arrive in Eastport, Massachusetts at the film’s commencement, they’ve moved 18 times in 15 years. As opposed to running away from one’s problems, Rachel claims moving is a form of empowerment. “Life is change,” she makes the girls say with her. “Death is dwelling on the past and staying in one place too long.”
But despite Rachel’s overbearing matriarchy, the movie really belongs to Charlotte. Narrated through her droll inner monologue, this is the cringeworthy story of her sexual awakening and quest for selfhood. Obsessed with Catholicism despite one small problem – “Charlotte, we’re Jewish” – she defines herself only in opposition to her mother. Rachel values freedom and spontaneity, Charlotte craves rules and structure; Rachel thrives on change, Charlotte makes every new bedroom look exactly the same; Rachel is promiscuous, Charlotte wants to be a nun. “I know you’re planning a celibate life,” mother taunts child, “But with half my chromosomes that’ll be tough.”
Charlotte, torn between pseudo-Catholicism and a raging crush on the hot maintenance guy from the convent up the road. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
While the mother-daughter relationship is the film’s core, both women also navigate romantic relationships, forced to choose between the ideological corners they’ve backed themselves into and following their hearts. Rachel finds a kind, fun man in shoe salesman Lou (Bob Hoskins, in stellar form) but struggles with letting go of her autonomy; and Charlotte is torn between pseudo-Catholicism and her raging crush on the hot maintenance guy from the convent up the road (Michael Schoeffling, in god-awful form). “Please God, don’t let me fall in love and want to do disgusting things,” her inner monologue sounds as she watches him garden. “Dear God, I love the way he throws.”
Despite Rachel dressing as a mermaid for a New Year’s Eve party and Kate’s aquatic fixation (“I wish I could swim forever”), the film’s title has never made complete sense to me. In researching this, I was delighted to learn it is adapted from a 1986 book of the same name and even more delighted to learn there’s a sequel. Although there are no confirmed quotes from the author, Patty Dann, it’s believed she chose “Mermaids” because of the dual child/woman natures of Charlotte and Rachel, Rachel’s elusiveness – always fleeing from men – and for the motif of water, mostly through little mermaid Kate.
I love this movie. I loved it as a kid and I love it now. As a kid, I dreamed of being exactly like Charlotte, already having the Jewish bit covered. I learned to do the signs of the cross and even begged my horrified parents for a crucifix necklace. I also asked incessantly for star-shaped sandwiches and marshmallow kebabs, because Rachel served snacks religiously and that’s another faith I can get behind. Thinking about it now, the fact I saw it as a child raises questions about my parents’ parenting, but it has a PG rating and they’re not here to defend themselves so let’s call it a different time and move on.
Cher’s performance was criminally dismissed as average at best, garish at worst. Photograph: Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Alamy
It’s not a flawless piece of cinema. The characters can tend towards caricature, some scenes hover on the border between female sexual empowerment and slut-shaming, and Schoeffling’s performance is terrible, truly terrible.
What really makes Mermaids shine is the chemistry between Ryder and Cher. They feed off each other’s dramatic energy and their comic timing is entirely in sync. But while Ryder’s performance was lauded, Cher’s was criminally dismissed as average at best, garish at worst. Critics of the film at the time bemoaned its soft-touch approach and cartoonish characters – and Mermaids probably could have leaned harder into grit and substance, which would only have enhanced its humour. Cringe-comedy is best when its subjects are a bit silly but also flawed and vulnerable.
But as is, Mermaids is a fun, heartfelt, well-directed film that still holds up pretty damn well 30 years on. The screenplay is poignant and hilarious, the soundtrack banging and (most of) the acting excellent. I still love it and I will die defending Cher’s performance as nothing short of magical, humming The Shoop Shoop Song – which she recorded for the film – and eating finger food shaped like stars.
Mermaids is available to stream on Stan | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/05/pope-francis-hero-worship-normal-person-vatican | World news | 2014-03-05T17:36:00.000Z | Lizzy Davies | Pope Francis rejects hero-worship and says he is a normal person | He has graced the cover of Rolling Stone, been depicted as a street-art superhero and is greeted by crowds of adoring fans wherever he goes. But Pope Francis has told a newspaper he has had enough of the hero worship that has accompanied his year-long papacy, describing it as offensive and insisting he is just "a normal person".
In an interview published in the Italian paper Corriere della Sera almost 12 months after his election, Francis said he objected to the image of him that has been widely propagated.
The Argentinian pontiff, 77, has dramatically altered the style of the papacy, making a series of symbolic choices that have solidified his persona as a plain-living, down-to-earth and genial head of the Catholic church.
But, as a new magazine launched in Italy dedicated entirely to him and the Vatican prepared to mark his first anniversary with a DVD of behind-the-scenes footage, Francis rejected the excesses of so-called Francescomania.
"Sigmund Freud used to say, if I'm not mistaken, that in every idealisation there is an attack," he said. "Depicting the pope as a kind of superman, a kind of star, seems to me offensive. The pope is a man who laughs, cries, sleeps calmly and has friends like everyone else. A normal person."
Giving interviews to the mainstream media is one of the ways in which Francis has struck a new tone in the Vatican since his election last March.
But the encounters have not always gone smoothly: the Vatican chose to take down an interview with him that appeared in La Repubblica after doubt sprang up over certain passages in the published text and the journalist admitted he had neither recorded the conversation nor taken notes during it.
Francis said that, while he liked "to be among the people", he did not appreciate the assumptions he said were made about his stance on core issues.
"I do not like the ideological interpretations, this kind of Pope Francis mythology," he said. "When, for example, it is said that I leave the Vatican at night to feed the homeless in Via Ottaviano [a street just outside Vatican City]. Such a thing has never occurred to me."
In some of his comments, Francis appeared to want to strike a balance between insisting that doctrine on issues such as contraception and civil partnerships would not change and hinting, nonetheless, that their application should sometimes take account of pastoral realities in a more pragmatic way.
On birth control, he said that, while doctrinal change was not a possibility, the important thing for the church was "to ensure that pastoral care takes into account situations and what is possible for people". And, while re-emphasising the church's position that "matrimony is between a man and a woman", the pope appeared to indicate that the church should judge non-marital civil unions on a case-by-case basis.
"The secular states want to justify civil unions to regulate different situations of cohabitation, driven by the need to regulate economic aspects between people, like, for example, ensuring health care," he was quoted as saying. "The different cases need to be looked at and evaluated in their variety."
When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, the pope is reported to have been a supporter of same sex civil partnerships as a potential compromise with the government when it was pushing through gay marriage. The move earned him a reputation as a pragmatic rather than zealous enforcer of church teaching. On Wednesday, however, the Vatican said that Francis had in the interview been speaking "in very general terms and did not specifically refer to same-sex marriage as a civil union." Francis also took the opportunity to defend the church's record on the clerical sex-abuse scandal, an issue on which he has rarely spoken about.
While acknowledging the crimes committed as "terrible" occurrences, which left "very deep wounds", he praised the efforts of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, in responding to the crisis.
"On this the church has done a great deal," he said. "Perhaps more than anyone else. The statistics concerning the phenomenon of violence against children are shocking but they also show clearly that the great majority of abuse occurs within families and among acquaintances. The Catholic church is perhaps the only public institution to have acted with transparency and responsibility. No one else has done more. And yet the church is the only one to be attacked." To mark the anniversary of the church's first non-European pope for almost 1,300 years, the Vatican is not only producing a series of commemorative coins and stamps but also preparing to release a video from the night Francis was chosen as pope.
The church, however, is not the only organisation regarding 13 March as a date to watch. Mondadori, the publishing company controlled by the family of the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, has brought out a new weekly magazine devoted to the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
Entitled Il Mio Papa, or My Pope, the fanzine contains an array of Francis trivia and comment, including tips on the best places to stand in St Peter's Square to catch his Sunday blessing, photographs of the guesthouse where he lives, and a centrefold picture of the pontiff smiling in his white cassock. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/sep/28/covid-19-what-are-uk-students-rights-over-accommodation-and-courses | Education | 2020-09-28T17:47:41.000Z | Hilary Osborne | Covid-19: what are UK students' rights over accommodation and courses? | As university terms get under way around the UK, students are facing a new academic year like no other. Some have been locked down in halls, others have learned that their lessons will be online-only for the next two weeks.
It seems likely that the picture will continue to change over the coming weeks as cases of coronavirus are confirmed and universities take action to keep staff and students safe.
So what are your rights if your course suddenly doesn’t look like the one you applied for or you need to leave your accommodation and go home?
My course is not what I expected – can I get my money back?
This could become a key battleground over the next few months. The government has told universities that they can still charge full fees for courses that are entirely online, or otherwise different from what’s on offer in normal years. But if your course charges fees you are protected under the consumer rights act – just like when you buy a TV – and providers are obliged to provide courses that are as good as those they advertised.
If you believe you are not getting what you paid for, you should complain to the university in the first instance. Then, if you are unhappy with the response, you can go to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education – it is a kind of ombudsman and will review your complaint. If it finds in your favour, in some cases it may order a refund of some of your fees.
Its website makes it clear that change alone is not grounds for you to get your money back. “If your provider has offered you different but broadly equivalent teaching and assessment opportunities in a way that you could access, it is not likely that you will get a fee refund for that,” it says.
A sign on the gate of the Birley campus of Manchester Metropolitan University. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/Rex/Shutterstock
But it has also warned universities that they cannot have clauses in their contracts with students that allow them to change significant aspects of courses. The National Union of Students has a guide to the complaints procedure on its website.
Boz Michalowska-Howells, the head of product safety and consumer law at Leigh Day solicitors, said universities’ obligations “will be defined by the contracts and the representations they have made in respect of the quality of the teaching and the services they provide”.
She added: “If lectures or tutorials do not take place or if the standard of teaching is not what they expected, or if they don’t have access to libraries and research facilities, students would have a claim for breach of contract.”
And if universities have made savings through not providing facilities, she says it would be good practice for them to reduce fees accordingly.
Can I drop out?
If you decide you do not want to go ahead with your course you may be in a position to pull out and get your money back. When you accept a university offer there is a cooling-off period in which you can cancel. Many universities give you two weeks from when you accept but for some the period extends beyond the start of term.
At Leeds, for example, all year-groups can cancel within 14 days of the first date of teaching, which this year is 28 September. You need to cancel in writing and will get your money back but you will no longer be a student at the university: this is not the same as deferring your place to next year. However, this only applies to your tuition, not accommodation.
The details will be outlined in the contract you signed when you accepted your place. If the cooling-off period has ended you will have to pay some of the tuition fees to pull out. Leaving partway through the first term may cost you 25% of the year’s fees – the sum you paid at the start of term.
You will need to let Student Finance – the body that oversees student loans – know if you do leave as you will no longer qualify for loans.
I want to keep studying but want to move back home. Can I cancel my accommodation?
Your options will depend on who you are renting your room from. University-owned accommodation tends to be more flexible than that owned by private landlords. If you are in halls it is not always immediately clear who your landlord is as some universities give details of flats they don’t own.
However, according to Citizens Advice, “generally you are liable for any rent due until the end of your fixed term (and any guarantor may be pursued if you don’t pay)”.
Check your contract for details of how much notice you need to give to cancel and what charges you will be liable for. Speak to your accommodation provider and see if it is possible to break your contract early. It is highly unlikely to be able to cancel an accommodation contract with immediate effect but the landlord may consider an early break.
Your options depend on who you rent your accommodation from. Photograph: Jane Williams/Alamy
A spokesperson for the NUS said the rules are different in different parts of the UK. Addressing England, Wales and Northern Ireland only, the spokesperson said: “Students have no statutory right to unilaterally terminate a fixed-term tenancy during the fixed-term period. However, universities and landlords can agree to release a student from their tenancy early and some universities and student accommodation providers have implemented more flexible tenancy terms this year.”
The organisation is campaigning for better tenants’ rights for students. In the meantime, the spokesperson said: “If students wish to exit a fixed-term tenancy early they should seek support from a trained housing adviser in their students’ union or an organisation such as Shelter and then enter into discussions with their landlord.”
If you are in a private houseshare you may have signed an agreement in which you are described as joint tenants. This means if you leave, your housemates will be liable to pay your share of the rent.
What if my course is now online only?
Citizens Advice says it may be possible to put forward a “frustration” argument against having to continue for the rest of your contract for a room if “the purpose of the accommodation is radically altered. For instance, if it was closely tied to a student attending a course in a particular location, and the provider is now delivering the whole course remotely.” But it says this has not been tested in court, so it is unclear if you would succeed.
I am struggling with rent as my term-time job has been cancelled. What should I do?
Get in touch with your university and get details of any financial hardship funds and bursaries you can apply for. If you are in danger of missing a rent payment, speak to your landlord. Just missing a payment could trigger punitive fees, whereas if you give the landlord notice you may be able to come to an arrangement over payments.
What if I fall ill and I have to go home?
It is rare for accommodation contracts to have clauses allowing you to cancel if you become ill, so you are likely to end up paying rent even if you do have to go home. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/may/30/the-bandinis-2013-review-serie-a-season | Football | 2013-05-30T12:34:58.000Z | Nicky Bandini | The Bandinis 2013: an utterly exhaustive review of the Serie A season | Paolo Bandini | They say that those who laugh last, laugh loudest. But what about those who laugh first and then forget to stop? In bulldozing their way to a second consecutive Serie A title, Juventus held top spot (or at least a share of it) from the opening day of the 2012-13 season right through to the last. Despite losing five games, the Bianconeri somehow appeared even more dominant than they had while going unbeaten a year previously.
Juventus started as they meant to go on, beating Napoli at the pre-season SuperCoppa in Beijing. Unfortunately, that match also set the tone for a year of bitter controversy. Enraged by a string of perceived refereeing injustices, Napoli's players refused to attend the post-game medal ceremony. The club's owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, rewarded them with a bonus and threatened to boycott the competition in future.
Nine months later, an Italian referee would take charge of the Champions League final at Wembley, yet the consensus on the peninsula was that this had been one of the worst officiated seasons in Serie A's recent history. In April two officials, Paolo Tagliavento and Andrea Gervasoni, had to be suspended for mishandling high-profile fixtures. Mauro Bergonzi's performance in Milan's crucial final game against Siena was equally calamitous .
The Catania president Antonino Pulvirenti had already lamented the "death of football" after his team had a perfectly good goal disallowed in their 1-0 defeat to Juventus in October. Adding insult to injury, their opponents' winner was set up by a player in an offside position. Even the Bianconeri, though, would get their turn to feel aggrieved. In January, their manager Antonio Conte claimed to have heard the referee Marco Guida saying that he "didn't feel up to" awarding Juve a penalty during their draw with Bologna.
This season also reminded us, however, that Italian football has bigger problems than poor officiating. Four teams were docked points as a result of last summer's match-fixing investigations, and further high-profile cases will play out over the next few months. Conte himself received a four-month touchline ban after being found guilty of omessa denuncia – the failure to report an attempted fix – a charge dating back to his time at Siena.
The issue of violent fan behaviour was also to the fore. Shortly before the Coppa Italia final, police in Rome seized a cache of weapons that might not have looked out of place on a medieval battlefield. The Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani was forced to flee the tribuna d'onore at Fiorentina's Stadio Artemio Franchi in the middle of a game in April after being targeted by fans throwing coins and other missiles.
And then there were the racist chants that blighted so many games. This will be remembered as the season in which Milan abandoned a friendly in protest at monkey noises launched from the stands, before having a league fixture suspended for much the same reason . Neither gesture seemed to have any lasting impact. Mario Balotelli was routinely abused at games where he was not even present.
Despite it all, there were still some bright notes to be found. Vincenzo Montella's Fiorentina provided a great number of them. At a time when crowds have been dwindling across the country, the Viola increased their average attendance figure by almost 20%, drawing fans in with their entertaining and optimistic approach. They fell just two points short of a Champions League berth, and scored more goals (72) than every other team except Napoli.
Roma's directors might regret passing up the opportunity to name Montella as their full-time manager following his caretaker stint in 2011, but the Giallorossi themselves enjoyed a brief spike in attendances after re-appointing Zdenek Zeman last summer. The manager was fired in February with his team struggling in eighth, yet he did get some things right. At their best, Zeman's Roma were scintillating. Francesco Totti credited the manager with helping him to find his best form in years.
Milan did not play with quite such attacking verve, yet the emergence of such players as Stephan El Shaarawy, Mattia De Sciglio and M'Baye Niang was nevertheless thrilling. To finish third despite the departures of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Alessandro Nesta and the rest was remarkable. The addition of Balotelli in January lent fresh star appeal to both their team and the league.
And then there were the top two. Napoli never quite looked like title contenders, but they did reassert their quality in moving back ahead of the rest of the pack. It will be fascinating to watch how the newly-appointed Rafael Benítez fares next season, with or without Edinson Cavani.
Juventus, meanwhile, unleashed Paul Pogba on the world, adding yet another string to an already potent bow. Their comprehensive Champions League defeat by Bayern Munich was deflating, but the Germans were operating on a different plane this year. It should not be forgotten that Juventus also eliminated Chelsea while going unbeaten through their first eight games of that competition.
The champions are certain to strengthen once again this summer – indeed, they already have with the capture of Fernando Llorente on a free transfer. The rest of the division will have to work hard simply to keep up.
Player of the season
It has to be Edinson Cavani. The Napoli striker led Serie A with 29 goals in 34 league appearances this season, yet the most telling statistic of all relates to the brief period in which he stopped scoring.
Perhaps distracted by events off the field (he had just begun the process of getting a divorce from his wife Maria Soledad), Cavani went eight games without a goal in all competitions between early February and the middle of March. Napoli won just once during that spell, and were eliminated from the Europa League by Viktoria Plzen. The extent to which this team had been carried by their striker was brutally laid bare.
Cavani has scored a remarkable 78 league goals in three years with Napoli. He is also the first player in the history of Serie A to score hat-tricks against Juventus, Milan and Inter. This was his greatest season yet. No wonder the fans in Naples built a cage to stop him from leaving.
Goal of the season
5) Antonio Cassano's swerving 30-yard strike against Fiorentina was as glorious as it was futile. His team were 4-0 down at the time, in the 86th minute.
4) Josip Ilicic ultimately came up short in his one-man crusade to save Palermo from relegation, but he scored some very pretty goals along the way. Against Sampdoria he ran half the length of the pitch, outfoxing opponents as he went, before clipping the ball past Sergio Romero.
3) Overhead kicks department: Amauri against Pescara, Fabio Quagliarella against Chievo, and my favourite: Enzo Maresca against Atalanta .
2) Panagiotis Kone's scissor kick against Napoli was so good that Gazzetta dello Sport suggested its image could one day replace that of Carlo Parola on packets of Panini stickers.
1) A late entry, but a brilliant one, from Massimo Gobbi, who met Jaime Valdés's cross with one of the most perfect outside-of-the-boot volleys you are ever likely to see.
Honourable mentions: Paul Pogba, Fabrizio Miccoli and Facundo Roncaglia.
Own goal of the season
The Roma goalkeeper Mauro Goicoechea helped to seal Zeman's fate with his spectacular mishandling of a Danilo Avelar cross.
Honourable mention: It would be harsh to blame Zeljko Brkic for this slapstick moment against Fiorentina, but you would have been hard-pressed not to chuckle.
Penalty of the season
Arturo Vidal's spot-kick against Milan was so perfect that the newspaper La Repubblica devoted an entire article to its majesty. "There are lots of ways to hit a penalty: with power, off the post, with a chip," wrote Alessandro Vocalelli. "But one like this has probably never been seen before."
Game of the season
It is easy to forget that Inter were at one point considered serious title challengers this season. "Now we know who the anti-Juve are," wrote Luigi Garlando in the Gazzetta Sportiva on 4 November last year. "It is this possessed Inter team who [just] desecrated their front room."
Garlando was writing in the heady aftermath of Inter's 3-1 victory over Juventus in Turin, at a time when the Nerazzurri had just closed to within a single point of the league leaders. Six months and one catastrophic collapse later, Inter would finish the season down in ninth, 33 points off the pace.
But subsequent events should not diminish Inter's performance at Juventus Stadium . Within 20 seconds of the kick-off they found themselves a goal down to opponents who had not lost a league game in 538 days. Worse yet, Juve's goal ought not to have stood – Kwadwo Asamoah having provided the assist from an offside position. And yet, rather than losing their heads, Inter stuck resolutely to their attacking game-plan, claiming their reward in the form of three second-half goals.
It was a game high on tempo, tension and chances at both ends. Most of all, though, it was the game that proved Conte's Juventus could indeed be beaten – even if wresting the title from their grasp would turn out to be another matter altogether.
Honourable mention: Napoli's 5-3 win away to Torino had it all: goals, penalties, comebacks and even a Blerim Dzemaili hat-trick.
Vital statistics
1: Number of Udinese fans who showed up for their game away to Sampdoria in December .
2: Points collected by Pescara since 7 January.
44: Managerial changes at Palermo during Sir Alex Ferguson's 27-year tenure at Manchester United.
12: Age at which Francesco Totti claims to have lost his virginity. "It was in Tropea with a 17-year-old Roman girl called Simona," he told an interviewer from Rai's Radio2 earlier this year. "But I didn't understand a thing [about what was happening]."
Team of the season (3-4-2-1)
Federico Marchetti (Lazio); Hugo Campagnaro (Napoli), Andrea Barzagli (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus); Alessio Cerci (Torino), Borja Valero (Fiorentina), Arturo Vidal (Juventus), Erik Lamela (Roma); Marek Hamsik (Napoli), Francesco Totti (Roma); Edinson Cavani (Napoli).
Substitutes: Samir Handanovic (Inter), Mattia De Sciglio (Milan), Riccardo Montolivo (Milan), Andrea Pirlo (Juventus), Stephan El Shaarawy (Milan), Stevan Jovetic (Fiorentina), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese)
Manager of the season
Vincenzo Montella did not begin the season fretting about Champions League qualification. Asked towards the end of 2012 whether his team was capable of qualifying for Europe, the Fiorentina manager simply replied: "I have a team full of quality footballers. The only route we can take is to try to put on a show."
That they most certainly did, playing some of the most entertaining football in the division. Montella's preferred starting midfield of Borja Valero, David Pizarro and Alberto Aquilani was unique for its lack of a tough-tackling enforcer. He challenged his teams to outwit and outmanoeuvre their opponents; more often than not they succeeded.
In the end, Fiorentina finished fourth – above such rich and illustrious teams as Inter, Lazio and Roma. The show that Montella had promised turned out to be a glorious one.
Assist of the season
Alberto Aquilani's spinning backheeled through-ball for Stevan Jovetic against Inter was so good that Francesco Totti staged a re-enactment a month later.
The Handball Maradona award for services to videogaming
Andrea Pirlo sent corks flying at Sony's marketing HQ back in April, writing in his autobiography that: "After the wheel, the best invention is the PlayStation." He followed up by estimating that he had played at least four times as many games of football on consoles as he had in real life – and most of them against Alessandro Nesta.
His comments stood in stark contrast to those made by Montella earlier this season. "The other day my son said: 'Dad, if you knew how to play PlayStation you'd be a perfect father,'" the Fiorentina manager told La Repubblica back in September. "I took that as a very great compliment."
Worst substitution
When the Lazio manager Vladimir Petkovic pulled Miroslav Klose out of his team's rout of Bologna with 24 minutes left to play, he thought he was doing his striker a favour. Klose had already scored five times, and this way he could enjoy a standing ovation from the fans before putting his feet up and reflecting on a job well done. What Petkovic didn't realise is that Klose was just one strike away from breaking Serie A's all-time record for most goals in a single game.
The Ned Stark award for taking the moral high ground
Klose talked his way out of a goal on 26 September, informing the referee Luca Banti that he had used his hand to score for Lazio in the third minute of their game away to Napoli. He was rewarded with a firm handshake from the official, who had previously awarded the goal but now disallowed it. Klose walked away with his head held high. His team walked away with a 3-0 defeat.
The Petyr Baelish trophy for getting the job done
Klose's Lazio team-mate Sergio Floccari showed no such qualms four months later, claiming, somewhat implausibly, to be unaware that he had handballed before scoring his team's opening goal against Atalanta . The goal stood, and Lazio won 2-0.
Miss of the season
Andrea Ranocchia was four yards from goal as he ran on to a cross in the dying seconds of Inter's game against Atalanta in April. He placed his shot so far off target that it didn't even go out for a goal-kick .
Honourable mention: Ranocchia's then team-mate Marko Livaja hit the post from a yard out in the 90th minute of Inter's 1-1 draw with Genoa .
The Ann Timson award for have-a-go heroics
Footballers are a consistent target for criminals in Italy. In the last three years, Edinson Cavani, Samuel Eto'o, Wesley Sneijder and Mario Balotelli have all had their homes broken into, while Marek Hamsik has been robbed at gunpoint. But when a crook waved a pistol in Leonardo Bonucci's face last October, the Juventus defender punched his assailant twice before chasing him up the street. "I am no superhero," insisted the Juventus defender afterwards, but Gazzetta dello Sport's cartoon sure made him look like one.
Worst dive
Bonucci did not seem quite so tough when executing one of the most preposterous tumbles you will ever see during his team's game at Palermo.
The Lemmon-Matthau certificate for best Odd Couple
In October Inter's Japanese full-back Yuto Nagatomo revealed that Antonio Cassano had become his best friend at Inter. The forward concurred. "We are great friends, because we don't understand a thing that we say to one another," said Cassano. "From dawn to dusk we tell each other how much we like each other, because I don't have any other alternatives."
Most shameless volte-face
7 January: The Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi describes Mario Balotelli as a "bad apple" during a televised interview, adding, "I would never accept him being a part of our changing room."
31 January: Signs him.
Worst transfer strategists
Only Inter could sell Wesley Sneijder for substantially less than his market value, then bring a retired and out-of-shape John Carew in for a trial just a few weeks later.
Best clearance
Only Philippe Mexès could have dreamed up the airborne backheel he pulled off against Atalanta.
Best Halloween gimmick
For the second year running, Juventus's marketing team did a fine job of reimagining their players as ghosts, ghouls and cinematic bad guys. Personal favourites: Gigi Buffon as Freddy Krueger and Andrea Pirlo as The Joker.
Best half-time snack
Why settle for soggy pies when you could just bring an entire panettone with you from home?
Best promise
"If I win the World Cup [with Italy in 2014] I will give myself two mohawks" – Cesare Prandelli makes a vow that must not be forgotten.
Best exploitation of a contract loophole
Among the many clauses written into Mario Balotelli's Milan contract is one that forbids him from go-karting, a safeguard presumably inserted to prevent the player from doing himself a mischief on his days off. And so, instead of breaking the rules in May, Balotelli simply drove his own Ferrari down to the go-karting circuit, and persuaded the staff there to let him take that for a spin round their track instead .
Best explanation for Antonio Conte's hair
It's actually a cat.
Greatest moment
Nenad Krsticic was not the only one with a tear in his eye after he scored his first Serie A goal for Sampdoria in December. In 2008, the player was informed that he had just 48 hours left to live after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of Burkitt's Lymphoma. Four years later, he has not only beaten cancer, but also fulfilled his dream of making it as a professional footballer at the highest level.
Most Optimistic
"Wherever he goes, Mauro [Zarate] will be loved and appreciated by the Lazio fans" – the forward's agent, Luis Ruzzi, in January.
"The true champion is humble. He goes and collects the balls when training with the reserves. He doesn't cry on Twitter, and he reduces his wages. He does not cling on to an overly generous contract. Zarate: leave" – message displayed by Lazio supporters on enormous banners at the club's next home game.
Worst bookie
During a local radio interview in January, the Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini denied claims that he was about to fire manager Gian Piero Gasperini – going so far as to offer odds of 100-1 on that possibility. His interviewer duly bet him €50 at that price. One week later, Gasperini was gone.
Most subversive news ticker
On 5 May, Sky Sports 24 HD became the first, and only, Italian media outlet to run with the breaking news story: "Scandal, Milan [are] shit!"
Chant of the year
"The ball's that yellow thing, the ball's that yellow thing …" – Fiorentina supporters offer some assistance to hapless Inter during their 4-1 rout of the Nerazzurri in February.
Worst invitation
The Cagliari owner Massimo Cellino told his team's fans to come on down to the Stadio Is Arenas for their game against Roma in September, even though the stadium had not been signed off as safe to hold supporters by the various local authorities. The game, inevitably, was abandoned with Roma awarded a nominal 3-0 victory.
Lifetime achievement award for most relentless trolling
Marco Materazzi might have retired from playing football, but his career as professional antagonist is still going strong. In November he tweeted a photo of himself smiling before a statue of the butt he received from Zinedine Zidane at the 2006 World Cup final.
Most likely to wind up playing the victim on an MTV reality show
"You reach Serie A and immediately the sexual attention you get multiplies," noted Stephan El Shaarawy in September. "I like it. But I find my women on Facebook. You can find a lot of stuff online …"
Best fan choreography
Parma celebrated the 20th anniversary of their first-ever European trophy earlier this month, inviting their 1993 Cup Winners' Cup-winning squad back to the Stadio Tardini. As those players walked out on to the pitch before kick-off, the club's supporters raised a series of banners showing the names of each player that had started the final … in the correct starting formation.
Most innovative solution to match-fixing
"What happens in the changing room ought to stay in the changing room," said Roma's Pablo Osvaldo when asked how he might react to a team-mate approaching him about a possible fix. "I will never be a grass, but I would not turn away either. In silence, I would beat him silly."
Worst parents
"If it ends badly, it will mean that our father and mother didn't bring us up right," said the Cesena president Igor Campedelli last summer after appointing his younger brother Nicola as the club's new manager in the wake of their relegation to Serie B. Igor sacked his sibling three games later.
Alphaville amulet for the Forever Young
The papers were full of pessimistic predictions regarding Javier Zanetti's future in professional football after the 39-year-old tore his Achilles tendon during Inter's defeat to Palermo last month . The player himself, however, seemed utterly convinced that he would return from this latest setback soon enough, saying: "My career is not over. After travelling so many kilometres, I simply needed a tyre change."
Guarisci presto, Pupi. We look forward to seeing you back on the field next year. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/feb/28/myrkur-folkesange-review | Music | 2020-02-28T08:30:11.000Z | Jude Rogers | Myrkur: Folkesange review | Jude Rogers's folk album of the month | Plait-wearing girls knitting on mountaintops don’t usually feature on the albums of black metal artists, unless they’re shot in stark monochrome and looking particularly murderous. Myrkur (AKA Danish musician Amalie Bruun: her stage name is the Icelandic word for darkness) has taken a different turn on her album Folkesange. The woman Metal Hammer once described as “scaring black metal shitless” is now burrowing into a lifelong love of Scandinavia’s traditional music and writing her own modern versions, and without sacrificing her intensity.
Myrkur: Folkesange album art work
Folkesange was inspired by the succes of a YouTube video Bruun posted in 2017 (it currently has 50,000 likes). On her version of Swedish folk song Två Konungabarn, she accompanied herself with nyckelharpa, a hurdy-gurdy-like instrument that produces long, intense drones. Bruun also became a mother in 2019, which she has said made her think more intensely about her roots and shared history. She plays every instrument on this album, including mandolas and lyres, layering sounds to conjure up the power of Norse mythology.
Sometimes, the effects are like Clannad on speed. Nervous souls should persevere with opening tracks Ella and Fager Som en Ros. But throughout, Myrkur’s vocals are beautiful and bright, especially on Harpens Kraft, a Norse supernatural ballad, and House Carpenter, once sung by the Watersons and Joan Baez. Elsewhere, deeply eerie, pagan atmospheres rule. The piano-accompanied Vinter would be perfect for a David Lynch short. Tor i Helheim uses electrifying, shrill kulnings (Scandinavian herding calls) and plucked strings to lure listeners into the underworld.
Play this album repeatedly, and you feel yourself willingly following Myrkur into the gloom. The apple doesn’t fall far from the darkening tree.
This month’s other picks
Sound of Yell, AKA Stevie Jones, has a brilliant new album, Leapling (Chemikal Underground), named after those unusual souls born on 29 February. With contributions from Alex Neilson and Alasdair Roberts, it is stuffed with thrilling, inventive tracks, combining folk instrumentation, woodwind, loose drums and ambient textures. Jones is fast becoming a Scottish Sufjan Stevens. Ex-Owl Service singer and psych-folk artist Diana Collier follows up All Mortals at Rest (2016) with Ode to Riddley Walker (Rif Mountain), an album of tremulous, powerful originals. Fans of Vashti Bunyan should quickly gather here. Seth Lakeman’s side hustle as a fiddler in Robert Plant’s brilliant current touring band also shows in the confidence of A Pilgrim’s Tale (Absolute), a spirited retelling of the story of the Mayflower. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2017/mar/15/official-film-websites-youve-got-mail-jurassic-park-space-jam | Film | 2017-03-15T08:00:25.000Z | Stuart Heritage | You've Got Mail: the forgotten world of 90s movie websites | You’ve Got Mail has dated horribly in the 19 years since it was released. It isn’t just the haircuts that have aged, or the music, or even the fact that it’s about a battle between small bookstores (which don’t exist any more) and big bookstores (which don’t exist any more) over who gets to sell the most books (which nobody reads any more).
How Twitter killed the official movie website
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No, the thing that dates You’ve Got Mail more than anything else is its website. Never taken down, it really goes in hard on what the internet was like in the days before anyone really had the internet. There’s a “Buy the video” link, and a link to the You’ve Got Mail soundtrack CD. There’s downloadable desktop wallpaper that strobes violently like a Japanese cartoon, and instructions on how to download it to Windows 95. There are RealAudio files of New York street drummers. Most grievously of all, the website contains the text “Sure, computers aren’t really the end of Western Civilization as we know it, but they’re full of great ways to waste a little time”, which of course has since been proved wrong on two counts now that Twitter exists.
Obviously, You’ve Got Mail isn’t alone here. In the late 90s and early 00s, Hollywood became slightly too confident about what the internet could offer moviegoers. Jurassic Park sequel The Lost World created its very own InGen site, full of menus and submenus that lead to emails where two non-film characters describe last night’s dreams to each other in excruciating detail. Space Jam basically has a GeoCities page where if you click around enough, you’ll be presented with a list of radio stations that are “currently playing the first single from the Space Jam Soundtrack, Seal - Fly Like An Eagle”. Steampunk western Wild Wild West’s site has a page where, if you must, you can perv on impractically small photographs of the film’s “lovelies” (its female cast members) in various provocative poses.
It goes on. Saving Private Ryan has full-width white-on-black text that was presumably designed to make the reading experience as traumatic as the Normandy landings. The Mallrats site is largely a vessel for Kevin Smith’s excitement about a potential laserdisc release.
25 things you may have forgotten about the internet
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The Mortal Kombat: Annihilation site contains an embarrassingly needy plea for fan feedback that in part reads: “Did you notice Sindel’s sonic blast? It destroyed a whole canyon of ancient temples. Did you get this? How about Nightwolf’s animality or the green glow on his ax. Did you see the Shadow Priests in Kahn’s fortress? Did you know that the girl who plays Mileena is an Olympic Gold medalist in Tae Kwon Doe? That’s so the mudfight will be exciting and realistic. Was it for you?”
It’s easy to laugh at sites like these, but really their only crime is still being accessible. They were made at the birth of a technology by people who thought a website could enrich the moviegoing experience. I’d rather take that over what we have now, where an underpaid graduate sits in a room and glumly retweets every last bit of praise that Logan ever gets to keep their cackling paylord happy.
Luckily, the practice hasn’t died out completely. One can only assume that it’ll be less than 19 years before someone finds the La La Land website and spends a day laughing uproariously at its annoying autoplay songs and gif creators and links to official La La Land iPhone stickers (featuring, of course, one where Ryan Gosling stands in front of the word “HONNNNNK!!!”. And that’s La La Land, for crying out loud. That’s a website for a critical darling. Imagine the atrocities we’d have to put up with if Space Jam was made today. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jul/25/mirror-website-traffic-nigella-lawson | Media | 2013-07-25T12:30:53.000Z | Josh Halliday | Mirror website gets record traffic with Nigella Lawson picture scoop | Mirror Group Digital enjoyed record website traffic in June thanks to the Sunday People's Nigella Lawson picture scoop.
Monthly visitors to the Mirror.co.uk website, which hosts Sunday People content, rocketed to nearly 30 million unique users, up 11.73% compared with May.
The Sunday People's pictures of Charles Saatchi grabbing Lawson by the throat were available exclusively on the Mirror site for a period that saw daily browsers leap to 1,440,082, up 16.05% on the previous month.
A spokesman for Trinity Mirror said: "Since we integrated our print and digital teams earlier this year our growth has been hugely encouraging. We are investing in the digital team and our journalism which is attracting new users all the time. Additionally, by working hand-in-glove with editorial the product team have delivered innovative new formats and functionality across our sites.
"In the last three months we have led the news agenda with a series of exclusives including our inside North Korea footage, the exclusive of the police apprehending the Woolwich terror suspects, and, of course, the recent Nigella scoop, which was a global news phenomenon."
The Guardian also recorded record monthly traffic in June, driven by the National Security Agency revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Monthly visitors to theguardian.com were up 2.42% compared with the previous month, to 84,933,955, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures released on Thursday. The Guardian website network, which also publishes MediaGuardian, saw daily users rise by 4.69% month on month to 4,884,043.
June was a less busy month for Mail Online, which saw daily traffic fall for the first time since February.
Daily users of the world's biggest newspaper website dropped to 8,111,988 – a 1.48% dip – compared with the previous month, when major stories including the Woolwich attack saw traffic rise to record levels.
The Daily Mail's website network saw monthly browsers fall by 6.04% – to 120,829,031 – in the month.
Monthly and daily visitors to the Independent and the Telegraph websites also both fell month on month.
Mail Online
Daily average browsers: 8,111,988
Month-on-month change: -1.48%
Year-on-year change: +37.91%
Monthly browsers: 120,829,031
Month-on-month change: -6.04%
Year-on-year change: +28.90%
theguardian.com
Daily average browsers: 4,884,043
Month-on-month change: +4.69%
Year-on-year change: +44.71%
Monthly browsers: 84,933,955
Month-on-month change: +2.42%
Year-on-year change: n/a
Telegraph.co.uk
Daily average browsers: 2,733,136
Month-on-month change: -4.23%
Year-on-year change: +16.15%
Monthly browsers: 54,007,113
Month-on-month change: -5.39%
Year-on-year change: +18.40%
Sun.co.uk
Daily average browsers: 1,814,963
Month-on-month change: +2.12%
Year-on-year change: +18.74%
Monthly browsers: 29,603,055
Month-on-month change: +-1.06%
Year-on-year change: +18.54%
Mirror Group Digital
Daily average browsers: 1,440,082
Month-on-month change: +16.05%
Year-on-year: +88.23%
Monthly browsers: 29,354,671
Month-on-month change: +11.73%
Year-on-year change: +88.23%
Independent.co.uk
Daily average browsers: 1,099,561
Month-on-month change: -8.66%
Year-on-year change: +79.92%
Monthly browsers: 23,577,495
Month-on-month change: -11.53%
Year-on-year change: +84.29%
Metro.co.uk
Daily average browsers: 417,551
Month-on-month change: +3.52%
Year-on-year change: +16.22%
Monthly browsers: 9,644,662
Month-on-month change: -1.76%
Year-on-year: +18.31%
Standard.co.uk
Daily average browsers: 187,558
Month-on-month change: -7.38%
Year-on-year change: +41.65%
Monthly browsers: 4,126,393
Month-on-month change: +12.33%
Year-on-year change: +40.60%
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/environment/2023/aug/24/fossil-fuel-subsidies-imf-report-climate-crisis-oil-gas-coal | Environment | 2023-08-24T13:00:40.000Z | Damian Carrington | Fossil fuels being subsidised at rate of $13m a minute, says IMF | Fossil fuels benefited from record subsidies of $13m (£10.3m) a minute in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund, despite being the primary cause of the climate crisis.
The IMF analysis found the total subsidies for oil, gas and coal in 2022 were $7tn (£5.5tn). That is equivalent to 7% of global GDP and almost double what the world spends on education. Countries have pledged to phase out subsidies for years to ensure the price of fossil fuels reflects their true environmental costs, but have achieved little to date.
Explicit subsidies, which cut the price of fuels for consumers, doubled in 2022 as countries responded to the higher energy prices resulting from Russia’s war in Ukraine. Rich households benefited far more from these than poor ones, the IMF said. Implicit subsidies, which represent the “enormous” costs of the damage caused by fossil fuels through climate change and air pollution, made up 80% of the total.
Ending the subsidies should be the centrepiece of climate action, the IMF said, and would put the world on track to restrict global heating to below 2C, as well as preventing 1.6 million air pollution deaths a year and increasing government revenues by trillions of dollars. The researchers acknowledged that subsidy reform was politically difficult, but said carefully designed policies that supported poorer households could work, especially if coordinated internationally.
The IMF’s findings come as the climate crisis wreaks havoc across the world, from heatwaves, wildfires and floods from the Americas to Europe to Asia.
Cutting fossil fuel subsidies “needs to be the centrepiece of efforts over the next few years to get on track with limiting global warming to below 2C”, said Ian Parry of the IMF. “Ideally this is done through carbon pricing [and] some of the revenues from reforms should be used to compensate poor and vulnerable households.
“We are in this situation because it can be very difficult to increase taxes on fossil fuels, not least when countries are acting unilaterally,” he said. “We recommend that large emitting countries coordinate on carbon pricing or similar policies to help scale up global action.”
Ipek Gençsü, a subsidies expert at the ODI thinktank, said: “The IMF report shows that, at a time when the world is starting to experience worsening impacts of climate change, governments continue to pour fuel on to the fire by providing record levels of subsidies for fossil fuels.
“If we are to have any chance of avoiding irreversible and tragic consequences of climate change, governments simply have to show bolder leadership, by phasing out their support for production and consumption of fossil fuels.”
The G20 nations, which cause 80% of global carbon emissions, pledged to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies in 2009. However, the G20 poured a record $1.4tn (£1.1tn) into fossil fuel subsidies in 2022, according an estimate by the International Institute for Sustainable Development thinktank. The World Bank reported in June that fossil fuel and agricultural subsidies combined could amount to $12tn (£9.5tn) a year and were causing “environmental havoc”.
Canada recently announced plans to end some fossil fuel subsidies. Nigeria, which had been spending four times more on petrol subsidies than on healthcare, removed them in May. However, past subsidy removals often have been reversed after protests.
The IMF analysis found petrol and other oil products accounted for half of explicit subsidies in 2022, with coal accounting for 30% and fossil gas 20%. The biggest subsidisers of fossil fuels were China, the US, Russia, the EU and India. Coal was particularly heavily subsidised, with 80% of it sold at less than half its true cost.
The researchers said the estimate of the total fossil fuel subsidies in 2022 would have been much higher – about $12tn – if they had used higher climate damage costs that were recently published.
The analysis calculated that ending fossil fuel subsidies would cut emissions by 34% by 2030 compared with 2019 levels, representing a large chunk of the 43% cut needed to have a good chance of keeping global heating below 1.5C.
The researchers said that for subsidy reform policies to avoid political backlash and be successful they needed to be phased in gradually, provide financial support to those on low incomes and use the increased revenues productively.
The World Bank report said: “Although [cutting subsidies] will entail demanding policy reforms, the costs of inaction will be far higher.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jan/19/crashing-review-frank-filthy-sad-and-weird-a-millennial-flat-share-comedy-with-edge | Television & radio | 2016-01-19T07:20:19.000Z | Richard Vine | Crashing review: frank, filthy, sad and weird – a millennial flat-share comedy with edge | The trick to any good sitcom is to come up with a believable enough reason for a small number of characters to spend a lot of time together – ideally in a situation that has got enough mileage for some built-in comic potential; say an office, a bar or a run-down hotel …
If you saw the opening episode last week, you’ll know that the setup for Crashing (Channel 4) is a pretty modern riff on the flat-share option. The gang are “property guardians” – young professionals who are spread out in a disused hospital, living in big, empty rooms and keeping the building safe in exchange for cheap rent and a strict set of rules. “You’re not allowed to have parties, cook meals, to have sex, light candles or smoke – it’s a riot,” deadpanned nihilistic French painter Melody, chain-smoking her way through the opener.
They are legal squatters, a generation-rent Friends for austerity Britain. There are no niggling questions about how these twentysomethings can afford designer flats and a lifestyle above their means: the shelves are falling off the walls, medical equipment litters their makeshift bedrooms, the ground outside is a demolition site and, in this second episode, Kate narrowly avoids electrocution from a light while in the bath.
Like Scrotal Recall (a funny and sweet sitcom cursed with one of the worst titles in recent years), Crashing also mines the When Harry Met Sally conundrum for its narrative drive. Can straight men and women be friends without jumping into bed with each other? Lulu (played with goofy charm by the show’s creator, Phoebe Waller-Bridge) has stumbled back into the life of childhood best friend Anthony (Damien Molony), a chef in a pretentious no-cutlery restaurant – a “contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional north African hand-to-mouth dining etiquette” called We Don’t Give a Fork. He’s engaged to Kate (Louise Ford), a woman so uptight she spends that “relaxing” bath trying to blow out as many candles as she can (stick to the rules).
Kate goes out of her way to prove just how relaxed she is about Lulu moving in: she gets Lulu a job as a receptionist in her events planning office (and spends the rest of the episode planning how to get her sacked).
Elsewhere, the supremely confident Sam (Jonathan Bailey) cons Fred (Amit Shah) into bunking off work with him, only to “stumble” across his family scattering his dad’s ashes in a duck pond, while older divorcee Colin (Adrian Scarborough) gets talked into moving in to the hospital by Melody (“I think you would like being painted, I will be generous with your penis”). It’s these tonal flips between frank and filthy, sad and weird that give Crashing enough of an edge to make it feel fresh; that and lines such as: “I think my tampon just came out a bit.”
M
ore comedy as Tracey Ullman’s Show (BBC1) continued. She hammed it up as the Duchess of Cornwall, all wellies and dressing gown, grumpily agreeing to babysit Prince George (“I’m not bloody Yoda! Who calls me Yoda?”); Dame Judi Dench unleashed a five-star mission of destruction, while milking her status as a national treasure (“I’d hardly spend my mornings blocking toilets in five-star hotels in London just because I could get away with it,” she bluffs when a toilet attendant calls her on it); while Angela Merkel broke out of her uptight diplomacy rountine by jazz-scatting her way through an official reception (“Eins, zwei, drei, vier, get me an Uber over here”). Ullman is at her best in these lighter celeb sketches, but on much sketchier ground in scenes such as the Midlands couple who arrive home from holiday, discover an illegal immigrant clinging on under their motorhome and take him in to teach him about life in Britain (“Do you think he’d like to watch Eggheads?”).
The Rack Pack: is the BBC trying to snooker Netflix?
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Elsewhere, more deliberately retro 80s nostalgia delivered in a distinctly modern format: The Rack Pack, a comedy-drama reliving snooker’s heyday, debuted this week as an iPlayer-only film. “I think snooker is going to be big – bigger even than wrestling,” a geezerish Barry Hearn (Kevin Bishop) told a meek Steve “interesting” Davis (Will Merrick) as he signed him up and unleashed his plans for a baize of glory, taking the sport from smoke-filled snooker halls to, er, smoke-filled tournament halls and massive TV-ratings success. Opposite the milk-loving Davis, Luke Treadaway sunk his teeth into the Alex “Hurricane” Higgins story, bringing just enough warmth and pathos to nudge the film past a cartoon portrait of the hard-living People’s Champion. “I’m a snooker player – in the end, you’re always on your own,” he admitted. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jul/12/wild-waves-perfect-pipes-milton-avery-inventor-abstract-america-review | Art and design | 2022-07-12T09:00:24.000Z | Jonathan Jones | Wild waves, perfect pipes: Milton Avery, inventor of abstract America – review | It doesn’t take long to start seeing the Rothkos hidden in Milton Avery’s beach scenes and landscapes. They loom as eerie empty vistas of sea and sky, turning what seem to be figurative compositions into abstract masterpieces. Man With a Pipe, for instance, is a deliberately bizarre scene painted in 1935. But remove the people and you would have three layers of abstract colour: a blackish sky over a grey ocean over a yellow beach. Exactly the kind of sublime vertical stack of colours Rothko painted.
The resemblance is not accidental. Mark Rothko first met Avery in late-1920s New York and hugely admired the older man: Avery was born in 1885, Rothko in 1903. Rothko’s generation would shake modern art and make New York the art capital of the world, painting huge canvases with no apparent subject matter, just colour, yet whose intense expressiveness got them named the abstract expressionists. Avery never made the same leap as Rothko, Barnett Newman or Jackson Pollock into pure abstraction but this brilliant exhibition proves he didn’t need to. This idiosyncratic, experimental American dreamer was already anticipating their poetic use of colour years earlier, in canvases that find abstraction hidden inside nature itself.
American nature may actually be more abstract than the cosy fields and little hills we have in Europe. The sheer scale of the North American continent was even more daunting because it didn’t have a long history of landscape painters like Claude to familiarise it. When Avery started painting New England, where he grew up in a working-class family, it was still possible to see its sea and woods as new to art, a terra incognita.
Colour fields … Husband and Wife, 1945. Photograph: © 2022 Milton Avery Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London 2022
Anyway that might explain the moving freshness of his early landscapes. Even in his first canvases, hugely influenced by European art, there is an American romantic vastness: Big Sky, painted in 1918, has impressionistic trees but they are dwarfed by a glowing void of blue and gold air. It is the big sky of a big country but there’s nothing triumphal about Avery’s America. It is a place of troubling mystery where even the fun of a day at the beach is dwarfed by intimations of the abyss.
Speedboat’s Wake, painted four decades after that apprentice landscape, depicts a small white boat and the line of spume behind it swallowed by a vast dark ocean. The minute figure in the boat may feel like a hero, but Avery shows how small human endeavour is against the Atlantic ocean. A Rothko-esque strip of deep blue sky hangs obliviously over the little sailor.
New vistas … Self-Portrait, 1941. Photograph: © 2022 Milton Avery Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London 2022
Avery is sometimes hyped as an American Matisse but he is much stranger, and better, than that. Far from simply emulating Matisse, he translates the pleasures of beach life and summer days the French fauve painted into the brooding land and seascapes of America with wild results. Little Fox River, from 1942, seems joyous and summery at first sight, with its butter-yellow landscape surrounded by blue waves, but then you notice how big and inhuman the waves are, how tiny the swell of the sea makes the frail houses and church look. Avery sees the sublime everywhere in nature: his depictions of birds, such as his 1940s paintings Oyster Catcher and Sooty Terns, are modernist reckonings with America’s first great artist John James Audubon, capturing birds on the wing just as accurately as this 19th-century avian painter but seeing them as mythical and foreboding.
To see this art so closely related to abstract expressionism yet rooted in nature opens a new vista on American art itself. Avery is a missing link between landscape and abstraction. It isn’t just Rothko’s rectangles of moody colour you see in his scenes: take the memento mori objects out of his 1946 painting Still Life with Skull and you see the vertical lines that Barnett Newman made his trademark.
Abstract expressionist art always hints at realities hidden within its walls of colour. That’s what makes it feel so meaningful. “I choose to veil the imagery,” said Pollock. This exhibition makes it apparent that Avery was not merely a predecessor of this great art movement, or even its godparent. He is a true abstract expressionist who happens not to “veil” the imagery. That makes this exhibition much more than a celebration of an American artist you may not have heard of before. You’ll never be able to see a Rothko again without picturing a seashore at dusk where the red blazing sky is layered above the wine dark sea, in an apocalyptic revelation.
Milton Avery: American Colourist is at the Royal Academy, London, 15 July to 16 October. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/19/emotional-and-proud-voters-on-polands-landmark-election-results | World news | 2023-10-19T04:00:44.000Z | Jem Bartholomew | ‘Emotional and proud’: Voters on Poland’s landmark election results | ‘Whoever I talk to, it’s relief and hope’
Wojciech Bałka, a 42-year-old IT worker in Kraków, has watched with concern in recent years as Poland moved away from democracy and towards autocracy. But after a landmark election on Sunday, that will probably see the ruling populist Law and Justice (PiS) party leave government after eight years, Bałka said he’s relieved. “Whoever I talk to, it’s relief and hope,” he said. “And some anxiety – because it’s not yet the change in government.”
Despite gaining the most votes, the rightwing PiS has no clear path to form a majority – which means Poland will most likely see a grand coalition led by the ex-prime minister and former European Council president Donald Tusk.
The vote represents a setback for populism and an opportunity for Poland to change course after PiS rolled back abortion rights, eroded the rule of law and directed hostility towards minorities and immigrants. It’s a significant shift for the European Union’s fifth most-populous country.
Wojciech Bałka, 42, said it was refreshing to feel an atmosphere of hope and optimism in Kraków again. Photograph: Wojciech Bałka/Guardian Community
“The best interest of Poland is staying in the EU and supporting Ukraine,” Bałka said. “Keeping this wave of autocracy and corruption as far away as possible. We can see what’s happened in Hungary, for example, [which] used to be a democratic country and now it’s autocratic, supporting Russia.”
Bałka, who voted for the centre-right Third Way, felt PiS was reversing its initial support for Ukraine’s war against Russian aggression to gain votes from farmersin an effort to protect Poland’s grain market. “I was really worried about it, because it’s totally against the national interest,” Bałka said. “It’s very much our war. We think that we are next, basically – if Ukraine doesn’t stop Putin, then it’s really dangerous.”
He was relieved that PiS has not questioned the integrity of the election result. “There were fears that they would try to do anything to stay in power,” he said.
Unlike many older people who voted PiS, Bałka’s 72-year-old father, who fought against communism, was “very happy” with the result. “My father was an activist then and he’s an activist now,” he said.
‘PiS are leaving the government but they are not leaving power’
Not all voters were as optimistic, however. Pawel, a 40-year-old lawyer based in Warsaw, said: “PiS are leaving the government but they are not leaving power.”
Pawel was referring to the fact that the president, Andrzej Duda, supported by PiS, wields veto power over legislation; to the “toxic” rhetoric spread by PiS on state broadcaster TVP, which he fears will continue to divide the nation; and undermine the country’s rule of law.
The European Commission referred Poland to the European court of justice in February, after a 2021 ruling Poland’s constitutional tribunal declared measures imposed by the ECJ unconstitutional – seen as an assault on the independence of the judiciary.
Pawel, who is gay, said “having this anti-LGBT rhetoric from the government and from their controlled television and its influence on the public debate has been very unpleasant”, he said.
Pawel said he doubted Tusk’s coalition would prioritise strengthening LGBTQ rights – such as adding sexual orientation and gender expression to Poland’s protected categories in hate crime legislation. And he worried “they will not be able to do anything for as long as this president stays in power and as long as those judges are in power, they will probably block all those [LGBTQ] efforts.”
‘We felt it was our duty’
More than 608,000 Poles registered to vote in the election from another country. Marta Collins in the UK was one them. She recalled getting in the car at 8am on Sunday and driving three hours to Bristol from Cornwall, waiting almost two hours in line to cast an election ballot at a Polish voting station, then going back home again, arriving at 7pm. It was worth it.
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Marta Collins, who waited hours in Bristol to vote in the pivotal election, was also happy to see voters reject the ‘biased’ PiS referendum questions Photograph: Marta Collins/Guardian Community
As she drove along the motorway with a friend, Collins thought, “every vote will count in this situation”. “We felt it was our duty,” she said of Polish people voting from abroad.
“You could tell that people were fed up with the government and they just wanted a change,” Collins, 46, said of the queue of Polish voters in Bristol, which she described as “such a nice atmosphere”. She arrived apprehensive about the chances of Tusk’s centre-left coalition forming a government; after speaking to voters in the line, she left thinking: “There is hope – maybe, just maybe!”
Collins, a conference planner, said the turnout made her “emotional and proud” and that she could be “hopeful” again under a Poland led by Tusk, who is “proudly European”.
1:14
Polish nationals queue at polling stations in Bristol to cast vote – video. Credit: Izabela Piper
Since 2021, Poland has banned almost all abortions and criminalised those seeking or administering them. “There were a lot of instances where women actually died because they couldn’t have an abortion in time,” Collins said. She feels a “very important factor” in women turning out to vote for the opposition was that “under the current government the abortion laws were so strict and conservative”.
Collins did not expect abortion to become as available as in the UK under Tusk, given the country’s Catholicism, but said: “Part of the reason why women felt so motivated to vote this time in the elections is because they want to have more tolerance, they want to have more freedom, they want to be able to make decisions about their own bodies.”
‘Nothing is clear at the moment’
Other voters like Agnieszka Zielińska think PiS might still have a chance to form a government. “It’s a difficult situation but it’s not a victory for the opposition,” she said.
Zielińska, 44, who considers herself a “neutral observer” and is neither pro or against PiS, said there may be hope for the party to form a coalition with the Polish People’s party (PSL) and Poland 2050. “Nothing is clear at the moment,” said Zielińska.
Agnieszka Zielińska, 44, doesn't believe the result means a victory for the opposition. Photograph: Agnieszka Zielińska/Guardian Community
The university administrator from Wrocław feels the country is “very divided” and there are concerns from some about what a Tusk-led coalition might mean. “Local communities living in the countryside tend to support PiS because they fear a liberal government will lose interest in them,” she said. “They worry that changing things like the benefit system will leave them poorer.”
Zielińska said she is “looking for stabilisation” especially with what is happening in Ukraine. “For many living in the eastern part of Poland there is fear the situation may develop with Russia.
“PiS is right wing but doesn’t want any involvement with Moscow. Tusk and the opposition might look to Brussels for help and that could take decision-making away from us.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/feb/27/bt-always-has-a-new-line-in-broadband-excuses | Money | 2024-02-27T08:00:16.000Z | Anna Tims | BT always has a new line … in broadband excuses | Here’s a breathtaking insight into the corporate mind. Last month, I told the tale of BT customer CP of Croxdale, Durham, who wanted a broadband service.
After four months’ delay, he was informed he would have to pay up to £3,000 for the “complex” installation. He couldn’t be told the precise sum until he had agreed to pay it and, unless he agreed within four days, his order would be cancelled.
BT initially stood by its still unspecified demand when I intervened, then, after further pressure, its sister company Openreach admitted that the property already had the relevant infrastructure and there would be no charge. “Miscommunication” was blamed.
CP was due £5.83 for each day of delay under the rules of the telecoms regulator, Ofcom, and BT confirmed in writing that he would be compensated for the 141 days he’d been kept waiting. But instead of the £822 due, he received £215.
When he complained, he was told that this was because the delay was due to an unspecified “third party”, and was offered £50 in goodwill.
This was the first time a third party had been mentioned, and BT seemed unsure just who it meant.
First, it told me it was the landowner who had to give permission for the groundwork required, then that it was a power company and involved “health and safety”.
It’s irrelevant, either way, as Ofcom rules are unequivocal: compensation applies for delays whether or not caused by a third party.
Did that shame BT into stumping up? Not a bit of it.
So I contacted Ofcom, which confirmed that compensation is due whether or not third parties caused the delay and, although it does not investigate individual complaints, invited CP to get in touch to help with its monitoring and enforcement.
BT was unmoved by Ofcom’s view. I advised CP to complain to the communications ombudsman, and BT, in its submission, has come up with a fourth excuse for the 107-day delay – CP himself!
Email [email protected]. Include an address and phone number. Submission and publication are subject to our terms and conditions | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/30/oasis-reunion-rumoured-for-liam-gallagher-manchester-solo-show-victims-fund-noel | Music | 2017-05-30T22:33:25.000Z | Josh Halliday | Liam Gallagher goes solo for defiant Manchester attack fundraiser | Liam Gallagher said “normal business has resumed” as he performed in Manchester at his first solo gig, a week after a suicide bombing in the city.
The former Oasis frontman arrive on stage to beer-soaked delirium and launched into a raucous version of the Oasis song Rock’n’Roll Star.
Ariana Grande to be joined by Justin Bieber for Manchester benefit gig
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Chants of “Manchester la la la!” broke out regularly as Gallagher played Oasis classics along with songs from his debut solo album, As You Were, which is out in October. Among the audience at the 1,400 capacity crowd at O2 Ritz was the Mancunian former boxing world champion Ricky Hatton. All proceeds from the concert will be donated to the families of the victims of the terrorist attack at Manchester Arena.
The new solo material found a receptive audience, but it was Oasis hits – including Slide Away, Rock’n’Roll Star and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? – that brought the biggest singalongs. Fans chanted “Stand up for the 22” throughout the encore and Gallagher returned to the stage to perform an a cappella version of Live Forever. After he exited the stage, the crowd chanted “You can shove your fucking Isis up your arse,” before hundreds joined in a rendition of 1996 hit Don’t Look Back in Anger.
The timing of the concert – and the renewed resonance of Don’t Look Back in Anger – fuelled speculation that Liam and Noel Gallagher might put aside their sibling rivalry and share a stage for the first time in eight years.
The closest fans got to a re-formation, however, was when former Oasis guitarist Paul Arthurs joined Gallagher for a rare live performance of Be Here Now, the title track of the band’s 1997 album.
“It’s been a really tough week for Manchester and all we wanted was for our Mancunian brothers and sisters to rally together and bring our city back to where it was before the tragedy,” said Leah Brotherton, 36. “Liam Gallagher is one of our favourite sons and he’s come home tonight and he’s lifted the city of Manchester.
She added: “I’m sure it’s gonna carry on and spread across Manchester – it’s a good feeling, and I couldn’t be prouder tonight to be a Mancunian.”
Ken Gardiner, 54, described the gig as “absolutely brilliant”. He added: “I kind of thought when he said Liam and friends there would be a few more friends. He could have probably gone out on a bigger anthem – it was just him solo – but, hey, everything he did was brilliant. His voice is back.
“We all hoped Noel would turn up – especially with Liam wishing him happy birthday [Noel had turned 50 the day before] – but it was still good. He did everything he needed to do.”
Earlier in the night, a long queue of excited fans had waited for the best spot. Charlie Karisa, 18, had arrived eight hours before the doors opened with his friend Tom Ebbrell, 19. Both hoped for a glimpse of the singer.
The pair, from Birkenhead, Merseyside, were not even born when the band’s debut album, Definitely Maybe, was released in 1994. Ebbrell said it was a “stroke of luck” that they managed to get tickets, which had sold out in seconds.
Charlie Karisa, left, and Tom Ebbrell outside the Ritz. Photograph: Josh Halliday for the Guardian
Further up the queue, Nathan Roche, 19, said he had sold his mother’s ticket to a stranger because she was scared about another attack following the bombing last week. “She said I could be here for her,” he said. “I’m not scared. You let them win if you’re scared. You’ve got to keep going or Manchester will end up with empty shops, businesses will close down.”
Roche said he had been in Manchester city centre minutes before the attack on 22 May and that the experience had scarred him. “It’s got to me a bit. I was down for a good few days and I still am. It’s deep. I think it’s top the way everyone’s pulled together. Mancunian spirit, I suppose.”
Nathan Roche, right, with Mark Bulfin. Photograph: Josh Halliday for the Guardian
Roche, who is from Burnage, the south Manchester suburb where the Gallaghers were raised, was steeling himself for an emotional night. “I think Live Forever will be emotional – and especially if Noel comes on for Don’t Look Back in Anger,” he said. “I don’t think there will ever be any closure to be honest.”
Katrina Burgess, 35, was hoping Noel would come onstage. “We’ve been waiting too long for this,” she said. “I’ve seen all the rumours. If it does happen, I’ll be crying. I’ve loved Oasis since school.”
Katrina Burgess (second left) with fellow Liam Gallagher fans. Photograph: Josh Halliday for the Guardian
She added: “My mum warned me I wasn’t allowed to go to any more gigs after what happened last week because she was scared it would happen again, but I had to break the news to her. It’s Liam, come on.”
Liam Gallagher will play London’s Electric Brixton on 1 June, Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on 10 June and Glasgow’s Barrowland on 11 June.
Profits from the Manchester gig will go to the We Love Manchester emergency fund, set up by Manchester city council and the British Red Cross to help families affected by the bombing at the Ariana Grande concert on 22 May.
Gallagher tweeted hours before the concert on Tuesday:
Good morning MANCHESTER looking forward to some serious RnR tnight as you were LG x
— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) May 30, 2017
Announcing the gig last week, Gallagher told the Manchester Evening News that the bombing was “outrageous”. He added: “Just so sad. What can you do? It’s just fucking out of order. There are kids and people dying all over the world. And for what?”
He said of his decision to donate profits from the show: “I just knew I had to. I’m not in it for the money. The gig was going to happen anyway and we all have to do what we can.
“I want to try and help pick people up. People like me, doing what we do, it’s our duty to give people a good time.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/may/04/best-comedy-shows-summer-2016-bridget-christie-sara-pascoe | Stage | 2016-05-04T06:00:20.000Z | Brian Logan | Fun factory: the finest comedy of summer 2016 | Sara Pascoe: Animal
Having ducked out of last year’s Edinburgh fringe to write a book about the female body and attitudes towards it, the super-smart and endearing Sara Pascoe is back with that book and an accompanying tour. The latter is billed as an exploration of the limits of empathy, and early reports suggest another terrific nugget of intellectually inquiring and self-deprecating standup.
6 May, West End Centre, Aldershot. Then touring to 30 June.
Intellectual enquiry … Sara Pascoe. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer
David Baddiel: My Family (Not the Sitcom)
After years away from standup, Baddiel scored a deserved hit in 2013 with his thoughtful, self-exposing comedy lecture on celebrity, Fame (Not the Musical). Its follow-up, a peek behind the cliches and evasions of family life, addresses his dad’s illness and the recent death of his mum. He told the Guardian: “I’m going to talk about difficult stuff – sex and dementia and death. It is by far the most difficult thing I’ve ever written.”
10 May to 25 June, Menier Chocolate Factory, London.
Sex and dementia … David Baddiel.
Bridget Christie: Mortal
In her 2015 show, a tie-in with A Book for Her, it was fascinating to see Bridget Christie moving beyond the feminist agenda that’s made her one of UK comedy’s unmissable stars. This year’s show, previewing throughout the summer, continues the process. Ostensibly about mortality, it also promises jokes about Motörhead vibrators, water massage, and the Tories. A more eclectic set, then, but it looks as if Christie’s lovably clownish crusading comedy will be prominent in the mix.
4 June, Wells comedy festival; 20 June to 6 July at Soho theatre; then at the Edinburgh fringe.
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
After revivals at the Edinburgh fringe and last year in the West End, the venerable improv-games format returns once more. At a boom time for improv in the UK, with tours and West End runs for shows such as Austentatious and Showstopper!, it remains a treat to see these comedy old-timers (Josie Lawrence, Greg Proops, Colin Mochrie et al) throwing themselves into a succession of ridiculous, off-the-cuff scenarios.
9 to 19 June, London Palladium.
Todd Barry: Crowd Work
“To me,” says Florida standup Todd Barry, “[having] no material sounds more interesting and a little more dangerous.” Barry is a veteran of the US standup scene and no stranger to Brit audiences. He’s performed his wry, downbeat comedy here and starred in TV shows including Flight of the Conchords and Louie. What’s new is the show. Crowd Work is a set with no prepared material, consisting wholly of off-the-cuff interactions with his audience. Widely performed in the States, Barry’s boredom-busting experiment now arrives in the UK.
13 June, Pub/Zoo, Manchester; 14 to 18 June, Soho theatre, London.
Bristol Comedy Garden
The comedy jamboree pitches its big top for a fifth year, with a knockout lineup, including oddball 2014 Edinburgh award champ John Kearns, free-associating US duo Pajama Men, the cult dark-comedy double act Cardinal Burns and Josie Long. The festival also features a special edition of Adam Buxton’s music video and online flotsam show Bug, this one dedicated to the life and work of David Bowie.
28 June to 3 July, Queen Square, Bristol.
Bowie tribute … Adam Buxton Photograph: Katherine Anne Rose/The Observer
Mark Thomas: The Red Shed
Hut-honed … Mark Thomas. Photograph: Steve Ullathorne
Mark Thomas’s Red Shed is billed as the final part of an autobiographical trilogy that began with Bravo Figaro and continued with Cuckooed. He is launching the show in Edinburgh, but before then, there’s a fairly extensive tour of the work-in-progress celebrating the 50th anniversary of Wakefield’s Labour club, a wooden hut in which the young Thomas honed his political consciousness and performed his first gigs.
28 to 29 June, Jacksons Lane, London. Then touring.
Latitude festival
With the exception of Edinburgh, there’s nowhere you’ll see more comedians this summer than at the Latitude festival, where the comedy tent positively heaves with high-end standup and sketch talent. Pappy’s are there with their Secret Dudes Society; so too are the Boy With Tape on His Face and last year’s Edinburgh award champ Sam Simmons. There’s also a one-off visit by US vocalist/beatboxer weirdo Reggie Watts, who’s performing at the Southbank, London, on the same day.
14 to 17 July, Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk.
Latitude bound … Pappy’s.
James Acaster: Reset
No one gets het up about trivia (massage, mariachi bands, trips to Pret a Manger) quite like James Acaster, and no one’s shows are quite so intricately constructed. That seductive combination has propelled him to an unprecedented four Edinburgh comedy award nominations in a row. Chances are he’ll be up there again at this year’s fringe with Reset, a show about wiping the slate clean and having your time again.
3 to 28 August, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh.
Socking it to mariachi bands … James Acaster.
Mr Swallow: Houdini
Lovers of uncomplicated, knockabout good fun will welcome the return of Nick Mohammed’s alter ego Mr Swallow, whose spoof Dracula musical was such a highlight of the 2014 fringe. This time, our self-absorbed and highly strung host sets about telling the story of the legendary escapologist Houdini, complete with a recreation of his most notorious trick. Kieran Hodgson, a comedy award nominee in 2015, co-stars.
6 to 28 August, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business-to-business/2017/nov/28/green-cabs-london-ready-electric-taxis | Business to business | 2017-11-28T07:31:02.000Z | Senay Boztas | Green cabs: is London ready for electric taxis? | When John Dowd drives along the streets of London, schoolboys offer fist bumps and people wind down their windows to talk.
This 48-year-old from Sudbury, north-west London, isn’t part of some reality television show: he’s test-driving a new, electric version of the black cab.
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From the beginning of 2018, new licensed taxis in London must be “zero emissions capable”, able to drive on electric power for at least 48km and with limited emissions.
Vehicle manufacturer the London Taxi Company is rebranding as the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) and asking several London cabbies to test six of its electric and petrol-powered TX taxis on the roads.
Dowd is already a fan. “There’s no noise, stress or fuss,” he says. “It moves quicker than my TX4 Euro 6 diesel, there’s no lag, the suspension and brakes are better, and it will save £100 a week on fuel. I can’t wait to own my own!”
Having already sold 225 electric taxis to the Dutch, and opened a new manufacturing plant in Coventry, LEVC is expecting deliveries to London within weeks. The cabs are priced at £55,599, costing drivers £177 per week for five years. The mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL) have grants of £42m – up to £5,000 a vehicle – for cabbies to de-license and retire their diesel black cabs, while a government “plug-in grant” offers up to £8,000, depending on vehicle size, towards buying electric/hybrid vehicles.
London is aiming for “the greenest taxi fleet in the world”, with mayor Sadiq Khan acknowledging the city’s “filthy air is a health crisis that needs urgent action”. It is thought to cause nearly 9,500 premature deaths each year, while the UK has been in breach of European law regarding air pollution – notes the Lancet – since 2010.
The new electric and petrol-powered taxi will save drivers an average of £100 a week in fuel costs compared with the outgoing diesel model, the London Taxi Company says. Photograph: The London Taxi Company/PA
Taxis contribute to 16% of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and 26% of tiny particles (PM) in London’s air, and TfL believes a “greener fleet” could reduce NOx emissions by almost half in the centre of the city. The mayor’s transport strategy, published in June, aims for all black cabs and private-hire taxis to be “zero emission capable” by 2033 and the entire transport system to be zero emission by 2050.
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To make this possible, there are TfL/government grants of £18m to install 75 rapid charging points that load up vehicles in 30 minutes by the end of 2017, and up to £300,000 for 25 London boroughs to put in on-street charging points.
But some people see problems already, including Melanie Shufflebotham, director of charger map service Zap-Map.“The first issue is there’s not enough rapid chargers in London: it’s essential that there’s a robust, rapid-charging network for the taxi service to work,” she says. “Greater London, overall [has] 1,600 different devices, of which only around 40 are rapid chargers. Non-rapid chargers are fine for destinations, if you’re doing a bit of shopping, but when you’re on a journey, you need a rapid charger.”
Private charge station operators are busy too, but there’s a “long lead time” to get a site, ensure sufficient electricity and install charge points. It’s also important, Shufflebotham adds, for drivers to see availability and be able to pay whoever owns the charger easily – points raised in the current automated and electric vehicles bill.
Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, says that this infrastructure problem may put a spoke in the wheel. “We’ve all known these cabs are coming for the last two years, the first ones are appearing and we have three rapid-charge points within six miles of Charing Cross – it’s an absolute disgrace,” he says.
“The public is going to jump on the electric bandwagon as the result of seeing us doing it. Unfortunately, we and commercial vehicles are going to be hindered, delayed and prevented from mass adoption because of the lack of charging infrastructure.”
Nevertheless, London is one of 20 global cities leading on electric vehicles according to a new report from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). Nic Lutsey, director of ICCT electric vehicle and fuels work, says the approach to taxis is key: “Government fleets, taxis, car-sharing [and] ride-hailing … help ramp up volume and increase the visibility for the new technology.”
So how does it work elsewhere? Amsterdam is aiming to be zero emissions by 2025, when the Dutch government may ban new diesel and petrol cars. Abdeluheb Choho, Amsterdam’s deputy mayor for sustainability, says they first negotiated with taxi companies while investing in charging infrastructure and electric subsidies, then mandated electric-only cabs in popular ranks.
“As of 1 January 2018, all high-polluting taxis are no longer allowed,” he says. “The taxi organisations themselves signed up to the agreement. We took care of the charging infrastructure of 2,600 charging points within the city, seven to nine of them high-speed. What Amsterdam did has been followed all over the world.”
Norway has the world’s largest market share for electric cars, thanks to generous tax perks, and European Green Capital 2019 Oslo, sees an important role for taxis. Vice-mayor for environment and transport Lan Marie Berg says the city has about 2,000, which travel 250km a day, but “are idling a lot of the time”. The aim is to make all taxis zero emission by 2022, installing 500 semi-fast chargers a year, particularly at ranks. “Perhaps the most important thing we have done in Oslo is to put in place a ‘climate budget as part of our annual fiscal budget,” she says.
In countries with poor electricity supply but abundant alternative energy, electric cabs make even more sense. Sanjay Krishnan’s Lithium electric taxi company has 400 cabs in Bangalore and Delhi, and reckons that India might leapfrog hybrid vehicles. “Electric vehicles cost twice as much as a diesel hatchback, but running costs are an eighth, so our prices are 10% to 30% lower,” he says. And serving clients, such as Tesco, Accenture and Dell, means avoiding charging problems too. “Although there’s power for an average six hours a day outside Delhi and Mumbai, all our charging infrastructure is at 24/7 client sites, and most of them use hydroelectric.”
Prof Frank Kelly, chair in environmental health at King’s College London, has called for fewer cars in cities, not just cleaner ones. “Increasingly, a larger proportion of particulate pollution from vehicles arises from brake, tyre and road wear rather than the tailpipe,” he says. “Electric vehicles eliminate tailpipe and, to a large extent, brake wear emissions, but not the other sources. If we simply replace all fossil-fuelled vehicles in cities with electric ones, then we will still have a particulate problem.”
Some people will always want a cab service, though. Just as the horse-drawn cart was eclipsed by motorised vehicles, McNamara believes the near future is electric: “It’s not Star Trek technology, it’s here, and the early adopters are going to be very busy.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/mar/12/the-comedy-man-review-manic-gusto-from-kenneth-mores-60s-style-withnail | Film | 2024-03-12T13:00:44.000Z | Peter Bradshaw | The Comedy Man review – manic gusto from Kenneth More’s 60s-style Withnail | Before Richard E Grant’s Withnail, there was Kenneth More’s Chick Byrd. In Alvin Rakoff’s 1964 British drama, Byrd is an out-of-work actor whose breezy, cynical exuberance masks increasing terror of permanent unemployment and, like Withnail, he is desperate for his agent to call, stunned by his flatmate booking a glamorous film job and stuck living in a scuzzy boarding house in Camden Town (although exteriors were shot in Paddington).
After being fired from his job in provincial rep, Chick has come back down to London to try his luck, meeting up with all the old faces, the familiar parade of ageing thespian losers hanging round West End pubs and cafes during the day and mooching desolately past theatres with huge hoardings showing rave reviews for successful actors. Jaded, nasty agent Tommy Morris (Dennis Price) has no time for Chick, and neither does the raffish Prout (Frank Finlay), while slippery actor Rutherford (Cecil Parker) owes him money. But he meets up with old flame Judy (Billie Whitelaw) and a new one, Fay (played by More’s future wife Angela Douglas). And then, when something terrible happens to his pal Jack Lavery (Alan Dobie), Chick makes an awful decision which gets him a kind of fame and fortune, at a price.
It’s all performed with manic gusto and plenty of zip in the dialogue, and the opening scene, with Chick’s chaotic curtain-call speech, is in fact rather amazing. But it has to be said there is something a bit dated and tatty in the wrong ways about The Comedy Man, and for me this is down to More, a performer who is oddly pompous and self-satisfied in what is supposed to be a comedy role, albeit a melancholy one. He never looks like a professional actor, more like a golf club bore who fancies himself something of a card. Of course, Chick is supposed to be insufferable – but is he supposed to be quite that insufferable? And then there are the moments of casual misogyny and homophobia, which of course modern audiences can be aware of and even make allowances for, but are here not redeemed by any great wit or humanity in the way they might be for other pictures of the era.
Having said all this, it is solidly performed by its blue chip cast – though how sad to see Dennis Price, the legendary star of Kind Hearts and Coronets, not being properly used in a British film. It’s a vivid glimpse of early 60s Britain.
The Comedy Man is on digital platforms, DVD and Blu-ray on 18 March | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jan/08/freesat-box-sales | Media | 2009-01-08T17:58:58.000Z | Mark Sweney | Freesat now in 200,000 UK homes | Freesat, the free digital satellite joint venture between the BBC and ITV, was in more than 200,000 households by the end of 2008.
In the final three months of last year around 100,000 Freesat set-top boxes and TV sets were sold, doubling the service's user base compared to the first five months after its launch last May.
Freesat said that it believed its service had proved to be a winner with consumers, despite bleak times on the high street, because it is subscription-free and is viewed as a cost-conscious option.
The lure of high definition TV from ITV and the BBC – which included the broadcast of shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death and Champions League and England football internationals – had also proved important in attracting customers. Freesat said that 61% of its customer panel identified HD services as the main reason for purchasing a set top box.
"We saw consumers increasingly drawn to Freesat at the end of 2008 and into this year," said Emma Scott, managing director of Freesat. "The quality and choice of channels and services available and the added benefits offered by [personal video recorder] Freesat+ have really struck a chord."
BBC shows including Lark Rise to Candleford, Hustle, Anne Frank and the Six Nations rugby union tournament will be made available on HD early this year, while ITV will air the FA Cup and Champions League matches in HD. "We're thrilled that both the BBC and ITV are investing more in HD programming in 2009," said Scott.
The next stage in the development of Freesat will be to offer video on-demand content from the BBC iPlayer and the ITV Player via the service.
Freesat aims to make these on-demand video catch-up services, currently part of a venture dubbed Project Canvas, available later this 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/culture/2013/may/29/james-murphy-despacio-sound-system | Culture | 2013-05-29T09:46:41.000Z | Tony Naylor | Manchester International Festival 2013 | James Murphy's new soundsystem | For one glorious decade, James Murphy was the driving force behind bristly New York punk-funkers LCD Soundsystem. Having willed the band into existence against the odds – burly former soundmen the wrong side of 30 aren't usually allowed to front epoch-defining dance-rock acts – he would have been entitled to ride the gravy train for as long as he could cling on. Instead, he disbanded LCD at the peak of their popularity, with a triumphant farewell gig at Madison Square Garden.
That was in April 2011. So what's he been up to since then? "A lot of time was spent finishing the film about the last show, which was ironic," he reports drily, down the line from New York. "Then I've been producing the next Arcade Fire record, some Yeah Yeah Yeahs stuff, building a studio, DJing a lot, drinking coffee. Getting my shit together – slowly, but unsurely."
He still takes an interest in DFA Records, but as for new music, there isn't any. For now. "I'm still making things, but not with an eye to my next move." But what about the fans? "I don't care! I don't owe anybody." What, not even a discreet 12-inch? "To want me to do something that you want me to do," he reasons, "is to miss the fucking point."
Instead, Murphy's big new project is designing a soundsystem for Manchester International Festival. This bespoke rig will be assembled for three nights in the Barbarella-esque 60s ballroom of the Co-Op's HQ, New Century House, for Despacio – a club night featuring Murphy and his friends David and Stephen Dewaele of Soulwax/2ManyDJs.
It's an event they have fantasised about for years. Soulwax regularly decamp to Ibiza to work on music, often with Murphy in tow (originally, Despacio was envisioned as their "alternative Ibiza party"). A sound engineer by trade, Murphy despairs at high-impact systems, which, in an arms race for power, have become: "Tinny, sad, hyper-aggressive. They don't sound beautiful. If you play certain dance music, great. But if you play jazz or AC/DC, they sound terrible." The Despacio crew also have a problem with a dance music culture, arguably at its most intense in Ibiza, where clubs are seas of camera-phones, with everyone facing a DJ who is often hurtling through a laptop set of faultlessly programmed, formulaic peaks and drops. Where is the love? The patience? The unexpected moments? Despacio, in contrast, will start slowly, probably with an hour of unmixed music – despacio means gradually in Spanish – and the trio will only play vinyl. Not because they are anti-digital, but because it sounds better. And, says Murphy, "It's a challenge. If I don't have it on vinyl, I can't play it. The idea will be to take chances without forgetting the principal thing about DJing: making a fun time for people."
Murphy designed the Despacio soundsystem with John Klett, a veteran New York sound guru who helped build the DFA studio. The technical detail is baffling – "I don't like horns getting in around my 1.6," says Murphy, and who does? – but, essentially, this is a much more powerful version of the old, physically aligned, uncompressed hi-fi disco systems used at, say, Paradise Garage. "It's a simple, floor-standing series of giant stacks, comfortably doing full, smooth sound," explains Murphy. "It's pretty wide-open, pretty raw." The stacks will be arranged in a circle that people can wander in and out of, literally immersing themselves in sound.
If all this talk of vinyl, vintage kit and slower BPMs sounds like a bunch of old farts trying to revive some mythical golden age of disco, Murphy denies the charge. It's about dissent, he suggests, not nostalgia, and questioning the bad habits that DJ software encourages. "If you have a program that helps you mix every song, why would you ever not mix? I played at this thing the other day... there were people there that seemed almost too excited, like I had done something very creative or crazy. I was like, 'It was literally a bunch of fucking songs, dude'. I don't think I did anything exceptional. But what it wasn't was the guy with a computer playing a seamless, pre-programmed festival set, with no adjustments for the crowd, who, at the moment they're supposed to get excited, throw their hands in the air, but in between look kind of listless. That, to me, is really sad."
You will have noticed that this "alternative Ibiza party" is actually happening in, erm, Manchester. But Murphy is happy with how it has panned out. "I've been to Manchester enough to know it's a real place. It's not Factory Records and the Smiths bicycling around. I get it. It's a modern city. If you're trying to have an Ibiza party outside that island, it's the city that makes most sense."
Will Despacio ever make it to 'Beefa? Who knows. The important thing, says Murphy, is that it's happening at all. "A lot of the time you compromise. Which is fine – it's part of not being totally insane. But in the rarefied, ridiculous position Dave, Steph and I are in – being flown places and given money to play records – if you don't ever transfer that into something you believe in, that's ludicrous."
Murphy and the Dewaele brothers have been close friends for years. Dave and Steph DJed at LCD Soundsystem's first ever gig at London's Great Eastern Hotel in 2002 and played the after-show at the Madison Square Garden finale. Less well known is that, every time they meet, the trio get in the studio to work on what is now a stack of unfinished collaborative tracks. So when will we get to hear them? "After being in a 'professional rock ensemble'," says Murphy, with a flourish, "there's a great joy in making music with friends, without any release plan. It's such a great feeling that it's hard to break that by putting it out."
Despacio, New Century Hall, 18-20 July, £15, concs £10
Sound of the underground
Four famous soundsystems that shaped club culture
Downbeat Sound System
Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd's 1950s Jamaican outfit. Pioneers of the reggae soundsystem, complete with DJs, MCs, custom-built speakers, dubplates and bowel-shaking bass.
The Loft
David Mancuso's 1970s NY after-hours shindig invented modern clubbing, and its bespoke system set the bar for in-club sound.
Spiral Tribe
Travelling techno militants whose mammoth mid-90s free parties defined a scene, prior to a panicked Tory government passing the Criminal Justice Bill.
Berghain
Rarely does Funktion One's equipment sound better than in this cavernous Berlin techno Mecca. Expect perfect clarity and physical power. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/19/australian-university-fees-arts-stem-science-maths-nursing-teaching-humanities | Australia news | 2020-06-18T17:30:55.000Z | Paul Karp | Australian university fees to double for some arts courses, but fall for Stem subjects | The Coalition will double university fees for some future arts students, and also raise them for commerce and law, to fund an expansion of 39,000 places and cheaper degrees for those who study in-demand courses such as teaching, nursing, maths, science and engineering.
The education minister, Dan Tehan, will announce the policy to create more “job-ready graduates” at the National Press Club on Friday – emphatically rejecting comparisons to unsuccessful attempts to deregulate fees in the 2014 budget despite more than doubling the future cost of an arts degree.
As universities suffer a massive drop-off in revenue from the absence of international students they are hoping to boost domestic enrolments, but face an effective handbrake in the cap on commonwealth grants funding.
In excerpts of the speech, seen by Guardian Australia, Tehan promises an additional 39,000 university places by 2023 and 100,000 places by 2030, and that commonwealth grants will maintain their real value by being indexed to inflation.
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Tehan says the student contribution for law and commerce units will increase by 28% and for the humanities by 113%.
The student contribution for a three-year humanities degree would jump from up to $20,400 to $43,500; while law and commerce degrees could increase from $34,000 to $43,500.
The student contribution will be reduced:
By 62% for those studying agriculture and maths – giving savings of up to $18,000 across the life of a degree.
By 46% for those studying teaching, nursing, clinical psychology, English and languages, savings of up to $9,300.
By 20% for those studying science, health, architecture, environmental science, IT and engineering, or savings of up to $6,900.
The policy effectively reduces the overall government contribution to degrees from 58% to 52%, with student contributions lifting from 42% to 48% to pay for more places without extra government funding.
Tehan says it is expected that 60% of students will “see a reduction or no change in their student contribution” as a result of the changes. Medicine, dental and veterinary science students will be among those who face no fee changes.
“Importantly, no current student will be worse off,” Tehan says. “No current student will pay an increased student contribution. Their fee contributions will be grand-fathered.”
Tehan argues the changes “address the misalignment between the cost of teaching a degree and the revenue that universities receive” by ensuring that the student and commonwealth contribution together cover the full cost.
Tehan notes the changes “are based at a unit level not a degree level” meaning that humanities students can avoid some of the cost by choosing electives from other disciplines such as maths, English, science and IT.
“We are encouraging students to embrace diversity and not think about their education as a siloed degree,” Tehan’s speech says.
“So if you want to study history, also think about studying English. If you want to study philosophy, also think about studying a language. If you want to study law, also think about studying IT.”
Tehan argues the government needs to address the increased demand from people turning to higher education during the Covid-19 contraction, and with those born in the baby-boom of the early 2000s about to start university.
Demand for university places from graduating year 12 students is set to increase from 133,000 in 2019 to 154,000 in 2021.
Tehan notes that just four industries are expected to account for 62% of employment growth in the next five years: healthcare, science and technology, education and construction.
His speech says students still retain choice and can choose a cheaper option “in areas where there is expected growth in job opportunities” – in what he describes as a “win-win” for students.
Australian universities to close campuses and shed thousands of jobs as revenue plummets due to Covid-19 crisis
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“It’s common sense. If Australia needs more educators, more health professionals and more engineers then we should incentivise students to pursue those careers.
“This does not mean fee deregulation. This does not mean $100,000 degrees.”
In addition to lifting graduate numbers in these areas, Tehan nominates attainment for students in regional Australia and strengthening “relationships with business” as priorities.
The government is yet to set out how it plans to implement the recommendations of the Napthine review into regional universities.
The Regional Universities Network has submitted to the Covid-19 Senate committee that the government could help it do so by doubling the loading for regional universities from $70m to $140m.
The Morrison government has guaranteed its $18bn contribution to universities, but refused to kick in extra while also making a series of changes effectively excluding public universities from the jobkeeper wage subsidy scheme.
From July, universities will begin pilots for international students to return to Australia with the hope of increasing enrolments in time for 2021, to avoid an estimated $16bn black hole from Covid-19.
The figures in the table accompanying this article were amended on 22 June 2020, after the education department corrected the numbers in its original release. | Full |
https://football.theguardian.com/match-redirect/4427147 | Football | 2024-03-03T15:29:18.000Z | Will Unwin | Bournemouth’s Kluivert and Semenyo punish blunt Burnley as boos ring out | Frustration is growing at Turf Moor over the abject nature of their futile attempts to stay in the Premier League. Justin Kluivert and Antoine Semenyo condemned Burnley to their 11th home defeat in 14 matches to provide Bournemouth with a first victory since Boxing Day.
The form table does not lie and the teams arrived as the two worst in the league, having secured five points between them in the calendar year. Neither showed much in the way of confidence and, despite being far the better team, Burnley rarely looked like scoring, instead having to accept a fate with which they have become far too familiar, leading to upset in the stands.
“That is the same after every defeat in every club,” Kompany said of the boos. “I have known nothing else my entire career but as long as they are there at the start and supporting you throughout the game, then it is just something that you have to deal with in football.”
Burnley are a club with strong traditions. Under Sean Dyche in the Premier League, everyone knew what to expect from them: they were direct and robust, hassling teams constantly to punch above their weight. Under Vincent Kompany, and back in the top flight, they are equally predictable. They have a strong start, look dangerous in the final third until failing to deal with something straightforward and going behind. “The absurdity of this job is that I feel like I have improved more than I ever have in my life but in reality because you are judged by results, you are probably not having to tell this story until you are back winning,” Kompany said. “These moments are useful but they are not nice.”
In the opening five minutes Bournemouth were put under plenty of pressure, leading to Wilson Odobert’s first-time shot, Burnley’s first on target in three games, from a Lorenz Assignon cross but Neto saved without fuss. There was plenty of zip and energy to what Burnley did in the early stages, but it really is the hope that kills you.
Bournemouth’s Justin Kluivert opens the scoring at Burnley. Photograph: Richard Sellers/PA
Neto launched the ball up the pitch and Burnley failed to deal with it, allowing Lewis Cook to lob a pass over the top for Kluivert. The Dutch forward took control, Dara O’Shea sold himself easily before Kluivert thrashed the ball in from close range. “It was [avoidable] but it is the type of league that will punish you on these types of moments,” Kompany said. “It can be the reason why you concede or the reason why you don’t score, that is just part of operating at this level. The disappointment is that you cannot capitalise on something [a performance] that had so many positive elements.”
Burnley were the better team, dominating possession without finding the cutting edge that has escaped them. Bournemouth knew they were in a game and were trying to slow down proceedings, wasting time whenever they had a restart. Kompany was clearly irked by these shenanigans, repeatedly making the fourth official aware of his annoyance.
It looked like a Burnley player would never score again but one did put the ball in the net when Josh Cullen turned home from a few yards. David Coote assessed that the Bournemouth right-back Smith had been pushed in the back in the buildup and chalked it off, much to Kompany’s chagrin. The Burnley boss said it was a “50:50” decision but feels most of those situations go against his team.
Bournemouth’s ambition was limited, happy to soak up the consistent pressure while being confident Burnley would be unable to take any scoring opportunities. Andoni Iraola’s side wanted to play on the counter, knowing if they could turn Burnley’s fragile defence quickly, they could do some damage.
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Semenyo eventually sealed the points by dribbling into the box before his shot was deflected in off Charlie Taylor. Cue the home crowd exiting at a pace, booing as they went. ““For us it is a much-needed win,” Iraola said. “We have played worse than the last games we played against Newcastle and Man City but we take the win. I was disappointed with the performance in the first half.”
You make your own luck in this game and the Clarets have enjoyed none. Burnley are accustomed to this type of defeat and they cannot complain that they are 11 points from safety with as many to play. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/13/from-bitter-stalemate-to-smiles-at-stormont-how-the-deal-was-done | Politics | 2020-01-13T19:20:28.000Z | Rory Carroll | From bitter stalemate to smiles at Stormont: how the deal was done | The storm gusting through Northern Ireland could not dampen the cheer on the steps of Stormont on Monday.
“We are very concerned about the weather on your hair, Boris,” Arlene Foster joked with the prime minister as she, Michelle O’Neill, the deputy first minister, and Julian Smith, the secretary of state, smiled for photographs outside the revived assembly.
It was a striking tableau, an expression of progress and optimism in a region unaccustomed to either.
Storm Brendan’s driving wind felt apt. After three years of doldrums, of becalmed and paralysed politics, Stormont was suddenly functional.
A deal had restored Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government on Saturday, installing Foster, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader, as first minister with O’Neill of Sinn Féin governing alongside her as an equal.
Three smaller parties – the Ulster Unionists, the SDLP and Alliance – joined the governing coalition after signing up to the deal brokered by the British and Irish governments.
The 62-page document, entitled New Decade, New Approach, broke a bitter stalemate dating from January 2017 when Sinn Féin withdrew from power-sharing, accusing the DUP of arrogance, bad faith and sleaze.
Three years of polarisation, disillusionment and public service atrophy followed, leaving Stormont mothballed and Northern Ireland a political zombie just as Brexit raised profound constitutional and economic questions.
How the deal was done is a story of missed opportunities, fresh starts, manoeuvring and arm-twisting played out against a political landscape transformed by last month’s general election.
The ringmaster was Smith, the Tory MP for Skipton and Ripon in Yorkshire, who since his appointment last July has provided Northern Ireland with the unfamiliar spectacle of a deft and engaged secretary of state.
He inherited a mess. Relations between the DUP and Sinn Féin were toxic, contaminated by mistrust and disputes over Brexit, an Irish language act and prosecutions of Troubles-era crimes. The 1998 Good Friday agreement and the rapprochement between previous party leaders seemed lost, halcyon days.
The DUP’s apparent leverage over the Conservative government at Westminster insulated senior members from Stormont’s dysfunction. Sinn Féin, meanwhile, sought to leverage Brexit into a referendum on Irish unity.
Civil servants ran Northern Ireland in the vacuum but could not take big decisions, leading to pent-up crises in public services, especially clinics and hospitals. The spectre of direct rule from London, anathema to nationalists, loomed.
Several factors helped Smith break the logjam. The outlines of a deal were already visible from previous, unsuccessful negotiations between Sinn Féin and the DUP. An Irish language act could be fudged, letting both sides claim vindication, and the “petition of concern” – a mechanism that gave each party a veto – could be tweaked.
As pragmatists with same goal, Smith also forged an effective partnership with Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister. Coveney focused on bringing Sinn Féin and other nationalists to negotiations while Smith focused on the DUP and other unionists.
The election transformed the calculus. Voters fed up with paralysis punished the DUP and Sinn Féin, which each suffered significant drops in support. The Conservative landslide also ended the DUP’s sway at Westminster. Suddenly all roads led to Stormont.
Smith pressured Foster and O’Neill by threatening to call an assembly election, where their parties risked another hiding, if power-sharing was not restored by 13 January.
Smith and Coveney took another gamble by publishing the text of the deal before all parties had signed up to it. In a move that some compared to blackmail, Smith also made a cash injection for public services contingent on a deal.
Last week all five main party leaders signed up to it. Reaching this point was the easy part. The bonhomie on display on Monday will soon be tested. Disputes over public funding and Troubles-era “legacy” investigations loom. And Brexit’s impact on Northern Ireland remains unclear.
Smith, if kept on in Belfast in a pending cabinet reshuffle, will find that in Northern Ireland winds can swiftly turn against you. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2013/may/13/barbara-walters-retires-us-television | Life and style | 2013-05-13T16:34:00.000Z | Jane Martinson | Barbara Walters: 'She was bigger than life to me' | Tribute packages to Barbara Walters, the 83-year-old doyenne of American television who has confirmed her retirement, are like century-end potted histories of a nation. Since starting out reporting on the weather and "women's interest stories" in 1961, Walters has interviewed every president from Richard Nixon onwards and famous people from Yassir Arafat to Vladimir Putin and Justin Bieber. She was the first woman to co-host both America's biggest morning TV show and the evening news, and has won 12 Emmy awards.
Yet in an interview with the New York Times to confirm that she is going, she said that "she probably took most pride in the comments from other women in the television business who told her she inspired them". Connie Hung, a rival news anchor and a relatively junior 66, says when she first met Walters, she was "bigger than life to me".
Walters' 50-year career was hardly without difficulty. As a "Today Girl" she once had to model a swimsuit when an expected model did not show up. When Frank McGee was named host of Today, he refused to do joint interviews with Walters unless he was given the first four questions. She had to wait until his death in 1974 to become co-host.
In 1997 she went on to set up The View, in which four or five women talk about current affairs and which is now the fourth-longest-running national daytime talk show in history. One critic said: "The idea of women talking to one another on daytime television is not exactly radical. The idea that those women should be smart and accomplished is still odd enough to make The View seem wildly different. It actively defies the bubbleheads-'R'-us approach to women's talkshows …" They talked about skinny models and admiring Hollywood's latest hunk but also the latest political announcements.
Speculation about Walters' retirement has been bubbling for years. "When I was turning 70 it was pretty old for television — to me now that's a kid!" she says.
How different the situation is in the UK, where Fiona Bruce is so conscious of her status as one of our oldest high-profile female newsreaders at 48 that she has already "confessed" to dyeing her hair. Later this week a commission on older women in public life set up by Labour's Harriet Harman will report back on a television industry where only men appear to be allowed to age in public. Miriam O'Reilly, who successfully sued the BBC for ageism in her 50s, and Arlene Phillips, pushed aside as a dance judge by a non-expert beauty half her age, are both on the commission. There is no female equivalent of David Dimbleby, is there? Or even Bruce Forsyth, god help us. A BBC report last year showed that viewers are conscious of the disappearance of women after a certain age.
In the UK, it appears that only unsackable women get to last generations. Asked if there was anyone she still wanted to interview in a final year set to include a last interview with President Obama Walters said without hesitation: "The Queen. My bosses at ABC said maybe I should tell her it's my last year." | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/03/milf-manor-reactionary-sexist | Opinion | 2023-02-03T11:30:06.000Z | Nancy Jo Sales | MILF Manor is gross – but not for the reason most people think | Nancy Jo Sales | Milf Manor is making viewers upset and causing the media to collectively clutch its pearls – but not, I think, for the reasons they should be recoiling. If you’ve been spared hearing about TLC’s latest contribution to the reality television garbage heap, here is the recap: Eight “hot moms”, all women in their 40s or 50s, are sent to live in a seaside villa in Mexico, where, they’re told, they’re going to be dating younger guys (the ol’ hookup house conceit). When the guys, all studs in their 20s, appear, it turns out that they’re these same women’s sons in real life.
“You are not exactly on the show you thought were on,” a text from the producers tells them. Everyone looks shocked. “Wait, they’re our moms?” asks one of the sons. “Holy shit!”
Most reality shows are heavily staged, so who knows if the participants had fair warning. In any case, Milf Manor, which premiered on 15 January, has been deemed “a new low for reality TV, perhaps even a rock bottom” by the New Yorker, which called it “gross” and “disturbing”. Rolling Stone likened the show to “incest porn”, clucking: “Casual sex is no longer enough; kink must become mainstream.” Milf Manor has only 17% approval on Rotten Tomatoes, with audience reviewers split, describing it as both “degenerate” and “tantalizing”. On TikTok, users have called it “disgusting” and “great”. Meanwhile, some male commenters just talk about what smokeshows they think the Milfs are.
First of all, one wonders why TLC didn’t just make a show about older women dating younger men who were not each other’s kids? Why throw this bizarre, oedipal twist into a soup that’s already plenty hot? Milf porn has been a mainstay of the online porn industry for over 20 years; it’s no surprise that younger men find older women attractive, and vice versa. Just ask Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron (she’s 69, he’s 45). Or Cher and Alexander Edwards (she’s 76, he’s 36). Or Madonna and Andrew Darnell (she’s 64, he’s 23).
Oh, but wait. All of those couples, at various times, have been mocked and shamed for their age gap, which continues to be taboo. At a time when nothing seems out of bounds for anybody else any more, older women are once again being told to put on some sensible shoes and act their age. The real outrage of Milf Manor isn’t that the sons are nearby when their mothers are dating younger guys; it’s that the sons have been sent there to shame the mothers for wanting to date younger men.
It’s the very presence of the sons in the house that makes the women’s (healthy, ordinary) desire for sex and love with younger men seem icky. Not to mention the sons’ frequent expressions of outrage (“Mom!”) at their mothers’ flirting, as well as their petulant “cock-blocking”, as one of the mothers calls it. Despite some earnest conversations between its characters about double standards and female empowerment, Milf Manor, is, values-wise, a deeply conservative show, as so much of reality TV winds up being. Its actual premise (intentional or not) is: “How dare these women try to date men who are young enough to be their sons?”
A sense of this is driven home in every awkward “challenge” the cast undergoes, wherein the sons are subjected to a series of Freudian horrors: watching their mothers, blindfolded, feel up all the shirtless sons in order to identify which one is hers; hearing their mothers confess their sexual secrets. One of the moms admits to having slept with her son’s best friend, which causes him considerable distress.
The moms themselves (except for the requisite “wild girl”) seem to find all this quite uncomfortable. As soon as their sons arrive in the pilot episode, the moms’ demeanor goes from Girls Trip to I Remember Mama. They pat their boys and make sure they’re not getting into any trouble. It will be a surprise if any of these women actually sleeps with these young men – which is kind of the point: how would it look to their sons? But then, Milf Manor already has a reputation to live up to.
Nancy Jo Sales is a writer at Vanity Fair and the author of American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/oct/10/leeds-st-helens-super-league-grand-final | Sport | 2009-10-10T19:17:20.000Z | David Lawrenson | Kevin Sinfield kicks Leeds Rhinos to historic third triumph | Leeds became the first team to win three successive Grand Finals when they beat St Helens for the third consecutive time at Old Trafford. In an absorbing contest which at times resembled a typical Australian game dominated by defences, the Rhinos were able to take the chances that came their way.
The Saints, who dominated for long periods and created the best try of the match, were undone by basic errors. Francis Meli, the St Helens wing, once again proved vulnerable in defence and in such a tight match that was always going to prove costly. St Helens led 8-0 midway through the first half and looked good for that lead, but mistakes allowed their opponents to draw level at the interval. In the second half, it seemed that the Rhinos were happy to play a waiting game and when the mistakes came, they pounced.
The intensity of the contest was evident from the opening minute when Brent Webb caught Ade Gardner with a high shot with the very first tackle Leeds made. They were then caught offside to put St Helens on the attack, but the Rhinos defended well to keep them at bay.
Saints kept up the pressure in the opening five minutes, but Leeds were equal to it and finally managed to go on the offensive, though twice they were unable to complete their sets due to handling errors. St Helens continued to look the more dangerous side, forcing a goalline drop out thanks to a neat grubber kick to the in-goal area by Gardner. Once again the Rhinos defence held firm, but after 13 minutes it eventually cracked.
Jon Wilkin, who had seen an earlier kick go straight into touch, this time saw his strike deflected by a Leeds player and Kyle Eastmond snatched it from the grasp of Scott Donald before racing up the touchline to score. The young centre then converted to give his side a 6-0 lead and the Saints continued to play the game in their opponents' half as Sean Long constantly pinned Leeds back.
Midway through the first half, a penalty put Leeds on the attack and this time it was the turn of the Saints defence to stand firm. A brilliant 40-20 kick from Kevin Sinfield gave the Rhinos their best attacking platform and it took a huge tackle by James Graham to stop Jamie Jones-Buchanan just inches from the line.
St Helens survived this onslaught before moving upfield and winning a penalty that Eastmond kicked to ease them further ahead. But when the Saints gave away a penalty, it allowed Leeds to attack again and after Sinfield had gone close, Matt Diskin forced his way over from dummy half.
Leeds drew level seven minutes later when Meli made a horrible mess of trying to push out a kick by Danny McGuire, allowing the ball to fall at the feet of Lee Smith, who scored the simplest of touchdowns as the half ended all square at 8-8.
Leeds got off to a great start after the interval when Gardner misjudged Sinfield's kick-off and allowed it to roll into touch. Sinfield dropped a goal on the fifth tackle to nudge his team ahead. The first try-scoring opportunity fell to St Helens when Matt Gidley got the ball in space on the right and broke through before sending Gardner haring down the touchline.
He was overhauled by Ryan Hall just before the line and Saints were awarded a penalty after Brent Webb had followed through with his knees, but could not take advantage in the ensuing six tackles.
A couple of errors by Leeds enabled St Helens to crank up the pressure on their opponents' defence. It eventually brought them a penalty with Rob Burrow being penalised for a high tackle on Long. Eastmond stroked the ball between the uprights to give Saints a 10-8 lead going into the final quarter.
Yet an uncharacteristic error from Gidley – a forward pass from dummy half – forced St Helens to defend 10 metres from their own line and soon after, they gave away a penalty which Sinfield kicked to ease his side ahead again.
The game had developed into a tough arm wrestle, with any mistake likely to lead to a match-winning score and when Luke Burgess knocked on deep in his own half, St Helens piled on the pressure. The ball was worked out to Eastmond, who shot down the wing and squeezed over in the corner. After a long deliberation, however, the video referee ruled that he had brushed the corner flag before scoring.
Going into the final 10 minutes, Meli gifted Leeds another great attacking position when he lost the ball near his own line. A kick by McGuire was scooped up by Smith, who went over unopposed. Sinfield converted to give his side a match-winning lead, which Burrow extended with a late drop-goal. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/may/30/british-museum-skin-scythian-exhibition-tattoo-empire | Culture | 2017-05-30T16:29:07.000Z | Maev Kennedy | British Museum to go more than skin deep with Scythian exhibition | A piece of tattooed skin from the upper torso of a warrior who died about 2,400 years ago will be one of the more unusual items on display as part of a British Museum exhibition which opens in September.
The exhibition will shine a light on the Scythians – fierce nomadic horsemen who ruled an empire stretching from the Black Sea across Siberia to the borders of China for 1,000 years. Little known in the west, they are regarded as part of the ancestry of all Russians.
Tattooed part of human skin with a tattoo. Photograph: V Terebenin/tate Hermitage Museum
The skin will be among hundreds of objects on loan from the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. Many are leaving Russia for the first time, including some excavated only in the last few years. The extraordinary preservation of wood, skin, bone, textiles and even food – such as a leather bag found still containing two pieces of cheese – was because the Scythians dug their tombs deep into the Siberian permafrost. Rescue excavations are now underway at many sites as climate change thaws the frozen ground, risking the destruction of treasures from a still mysterious civilisation.
A cheese bag. Photograph: Dmitry Sirotkin
Curator St John Simpson said: “Mostly in this museum we are familiar with peoples who built cities, lived in a built environment, and wrote their own histories … The Scythians had no written language and so left no accounts of themselves, and as nomadic herders they built nothing permanent except their tombs, which fortunately for us they filled with everything they owned in life. The tombs are their monuments.”
The museum has maintained warm relations with the Hermitage throughout the recent cooling of diplomatic relations between the UK and Russia, and sparked controversy in 2014 when it loaned the St Petersburg institution one of the bitterly contested Parthenon marbles, the first time it had left the UK since Lord Elgin brought them back from Athens in the 19th century. The loans from the Hermitage, and from the National Museum of Kazakhstan, make the exhibition possible about a culture on which the London museum has scant material.
Written accounts of the Scythians, superb horsemen, brilliant bowmen, and expert craft workers, come from their awed and frequently terrified neighbours. The accounts of Greek historian Herodotus include claims that after drinking their blood the warriors made cloaks of the scalps of their victims in battle. So vivid are the descriptions that Simpson believes Herodotus must have spent time in the Greek settlements on the Black Sea, meeting Scythians and travellers from their territory.
“It has been questioned whether Herodotus was the first of historians or the first of liars, but increasingly archaeology is proving the accuracy of his accounts.”
The curator believes one custom explains how the Scythians coped with the savage climate of much of their empire. Herodotus described how they took hemp seeds, threw them on red hot stones in a felt tent, breathed in the vapour, and then “delighted, shout for joy”. Recent excavations have recovered seeds, braziers, tripods and stones exactly as described, and the exhibition will recreate one of the hemp burners – though without the intoxicating fumes.
A modern day goat herder in front of the Altai mountains. Photograph: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images
Many of the loans reflect the Scythians’ nomadic life style, including an ingenious collapsible table which Simpson described as “proto-Ikea flatpack”. Their herds provided them meat, milk and cheese such as the pieces found in the tomb which could have been made from sheep, goat or mare’s milk, and were intended as food for the afterlife of the warrior.
Among the loans will be a gold belt buckle showing a group mourning a dead warrior under a tree. His horses also look sorrowful, with good reason: the excavations show their slaughtered steeds accompanied the Scythians to the grave. It came from one of the earliest recorded tomb excavations at the time of Peter the Great, and became the first object in his new museum.
Another buckle, probably made by a Greek craftsman, shows a bearded warrior with flowing hair, riding bareback, spear in hand. He is wearing soft shoes and long embroidered robes, which Simpson thinks significant: it was their preserved bodies which proved that the Scythian men and women were heavily tattooed, but no outsiders described them. The bodies showed that the tattoos, of abstract patterns or stylised animals, were on chests, upper arms and legs which outsiders would not have seen.
A gold belt plaque of a Scythian funerary scene. Photograph: V Terebenin/State Hermitage Museum
The tattoo on the skin coming to the exhibition shows part of an tiger with fierce claws. It was found in a tomb at Pazyryk, part of a Unesco world heritage site in the Altai mountains in Siberia, where the contents included the oldest known pile carpet in the world, and the bodies of five heavily tattooed people. Now refrigerated trucks stand by in case human or animal remains are found, such as a chieftain discovered in 2007 dressed in a sable coat.
When the Pazyryk tombs were excavated in the 1940s, Simpson said, they had no means of preserving the entire bodies and so pragmatically chopped off heads and any particularly interesting body parts.
The British Museum only has a tiny collection of Scythian related objects, mostly recording their contacts with neighbouring empires. One clay tablet records that the Assyrian king Esarhaddon agreed to send an Assyrian princess to marry the Scythian leader Bartatua in the 7th century BC to seal a peace treaty. “The treaty apparently held, but she swapped life in an Assyrian palace for a nomad’s felt tent – one would so love to have her side of the story, but we hear no more of her,” Simpson said.
Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia, British Museum, 14 September to 14 January. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/sep/01/the-main-lesson-i-was-given-as-a-college-football-star-sports-trump-academics | Sport | 2021-09-01T09:00:26.000Z | RK Russell | The main lesson I was given as a college football star? Sports trump academics | In my four years with Purdue’s football team, I tore ligaments, broke bones, lifted four times my weight a hundred times over, studied football more than my academics, rose before the sun, and stayed up long past its fall in the hope of making it to the NFL. I wasn’t the only one. Everyone on the roster – around 85 other young men – made the same sacrifices with the same hopes. As my tenure was coming to an end, it became obvious that fewer than 10% of us would get an invite to an NFL training camp, let alone an actual contract offer.
And even if you did get that contract, you were hardly set up for life. I was the highest-ranked prospect on our campus and one of the few players to be drafted by an NFL team … and my professional career last three years. I earned good money, but nowhere near enough to retire on – and I was one of the lucky few who got a chance to play professionally. For the players who don’t make it – and that’s the vast majority of them – there is hardly enough time, resources, or care to prepare them for a future beyond football.
On the day school started we always had a meeting to discuss what we wanted to accomplish as a team for the year. As student-athletes, the meeting had to incorporate our academic goals. If the meeting was an hour, the academic portion would constitute 10 minutes covering the minimum we needed to achieve academically to be eligible to play football. And anyone who wanted to take the “student” in “student-athlete” seriously was in for a struggle. We weren’t allowed to take classes past 2pm in case they interfered with practice. Likewise, summer internships were off the table as they could conflict with training camp. Some classes were unavailable because it was believed the requirements were too strenuous when combined with an athlete’s schedule.
Meanwhile, across America coaches, staff, and universities, reap the benefits of our talent and sacrifices, regardless of our futures once we graduate. Coaches, who often earn millions, can boast they develop and recruit players worthy of a place in the NFL, and the universities can sell more tickets and present themselves as some kind of talent factory.
Often when I pointed out the unfair treatment of myself and my teammates, I was be told I had nothing to complain about because I was getting a free education. Society loves adopting the Laura Ingraham “shut up and dribble” trope when athletes say what they stand for outside of sports. Anyone who believes a free education – one that me and my teammates couldn’t even fully utilize due to our athletic obligations – gives universities permission to exploit their athletes should remember that our education isn’t free. We worked for our education by bringing hundreds of millions of dollars to our schools. And we also sacrificed our bodies – our biggest assets – in our pursuit to go pro.
So what should be done? Of course, student-athletes and their families have some responsibility to make sure that they get the most out of college, in both sporting and academic terms. And, yes, some college athletes do graduate with good academic records. But most of them come from wealthy backgrounds where generations of their families have attended college. Many college athletes, including myself, come from single-parent, low-income homes and are one of the first in their extended family to attend university – when we enter higher education we have little idea how to navigate the terrain. Who is looking out for the interest of the student-athlete and helping them to emphasize their academics? Academic advisors and coaches need to look for creative ways to allow student-athletes to optimize their time in college and prepare them for the most likely outcome – a regular 9-to-5 job rather than a multimillion dollar NFL or NBA contract.
New rules introduced this year mean college players can now make money from sponsorship or personal appearances. It’s a start, but a fixed income for collegiate athletes is only fair due to the enormous amounts of money they bring to their schools. Being a student-athlete leaves little time for pursuing any other money-making opportunities. I was given meals, books, and schooling, but my mother didn’t have the money to help me with anything else that might arise. Most college athletes wear their university apparel, not because of school pride but because they don’t have any money to buy anything else.
Student-athletes need to be paid – and studies have shown colleges could afford to do so. It’s fair compensation for what the money they generate for the school, and the risks that sports like football pose to mental and physical health. An education they most often are deterred from fully exploiting is not enough. And student-athletes need resources to best prepare for life after college, regardless of whether they enter a professional career or not. We encourage young people to go to college to open their minds and give themselves the best opportunities for life afterwards. It’s time we offer our student-athletes those same benefits outside of their sport. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/may/28/the-joy-of-six-liverpool-v-real-madrid | Football | 2022-05-28T07:00:24.000Z | Gregg Bakowski | The Joy of Six: Liverpool v Real Madrid | Gregg Bakowski | 1) Liverpool 1-0 Real Madrid (27 May 1981) – Parc des Princes, Paris
For clubs with such rich history in Europe it seems strange now that this was the first time they met. Preparation for the Paris final wasn’t the best, with wrangling over shirt advertising affecting the buildup and, remarkably, both sides having to contend with a dreadful Parc des Princes pitch that had been torn up by a rugby match two weeks beforehand.
Liverpool had endured a relatively poor league season with an ageing squad staggering home in fifth. They had won the League Cup for the first time, mind, and Phil Thompson, the club captain, had been given a telling off for leaving the trophy on the coach overnight – which would have a bearing on events after this final.
With both teams enjoying a possession-based approach it wasn’t a match with a long highlights reel. Laurie Cunningham, who was returning for Madrid after a long injury layoff, was marked out of the game while Graeme Souness and Juanito cancelled each other out in midfield. When the only goal came it was a happy accident. Ray Kennedy found Alan Kennedy with a throw-in and, well, I’ll let him tell the story. “I didn’t even want the ball … but [it] hit me on the chest and dropped perfectly. The defender came in and nothing happened … I didn’t know whether to shoot or cross, and basically just wellied it towards goal,” he told the Guardian in 2009. “It went in and I ran behind the goal to celebrate.” It was Liverpool’s – and Bob Paisley’s – third European Cup, putting them one ahead of Nottingham Forest and him one ahead of Brian Clough. That it came against the record six-time winners made it all the sweeter.
Now back to Thompson. So concerned was he about losing the trophy and getting another roasting, that he “put it in the back of my Ford Capri and went straight to [his local pub] the Falcon in Kirkby. I ran the Sunday league team there and we moved all the trophies we’d won, and all the bottles of brown ale, and put the European Cup behind the bar.” He even delayed media duties the next day, having promised local kids they could pose with the trophy in the pub. Now there’s a man who has got his priorities right.
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2) Real Madrid 0-1 Liverpool (25 February 2009) – Bernabéu
It took 28 years for the clubs to meet again, in the first leg of the last 16 of the Champions League. Rafa Benítez was enjoying his most consistent league season at Liverpool but they had fallen seven points behind leaders Manchester United after a dip in form following his infamous “facts” press conference in January. Oh Rafa!
Madrid, meanwhile, were the reigning Spanish champions on a run of eight wins. Juande Ramos was overseeing a return to sparkling form after succeeding Bernd Schuster, who was sent packing after a 2-0 clásico defeat in December.
Yossi Benayoun celebrates after scoring the winner at the Bernabéu. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
With Steven Gerrard only making the bench owing to a hamstring strain the odds were against Liverpool, but Xabi Alonso was back in the side after missing the 1-1 draw against Manchester City. With Javier Mascherano acting as his bodyguard, Alonso enjoyed enough time and space to control the midfield to the extent that he impressed Madrid enough to become a key transfer target.
“He’s the man Madrid need,” said Pepe Mel in a newspaper column the following day. As in 1981, it took until the 82nd minute for the first goal to arrive and, when it did, Benítez was rewarded for starting Fábio Aurélio over Andrea Dossena at left-back. The Brazilian’s inviting free-kick found the slender figure of Yossi Benayoun – for whom headed goals were as rare as hen’s teeth – to head home unmarked. Advantage Liverpool in the first leg. Madrid would come roaring back at Anfield though, wouldn’t they?
3) Liverpool 4-0 Real Madrid (10 March 2009) – Anfield
Erm, no. This was utter humiliation for Madrid, who had Iker Casillas to thank for it not being even more traumatic. Fernando Torres was irresistible and played as though he was trying to kill the club he grew up hating, tormenting Pepe and a 35-year-old Fabio Cannavaro with his pace and off-the-shoulder runs and giving Liverpool a 1-0 lead in the 16th minute.
A Gerrard penalty put the tie to bed as early as the 26th minute and, from thereon in, it was an exhibition. Madrid played like George A Romero was directing their performance, staggering around Anfield with the stench of a dying era following them. Some fleet-footed trickery from Ryan Babel helped to create a second for Gerrard early in the second half and then the match entered its trippy phase.
A 20-year-old Jay Spearing, on as a substitute in only his second appearance for the club, began pinging passes around like Andrea Pirlo as the Kop chanted his name. If that sounds outlandish, Dossena, who was more noteworthy for how amply he filled his Liverpool shirt than what he did in it, nipped in to score a fourth.
Anfield was giddy now. Dossena did it again a few days later, scoring in the 4-1 defeat of Manchester United that firmly put Liverpool back into the Premier League title race. As for Madrid, the shocking defeat sparked a second era of gálacticos at the Bernabéu, where Alonso would be strutting his stuff just months later.
4) Liverpool 0-3 Real Madrid (22 October 2014) – Anfield
When Madrid next turned up at Anfield, only three players – Marcelo, Pepe and Casillas – remained from that harrowing night in 2009 and Carlo Ancelotti was in charge. Having challenged for the league title in 2014, Liverpool had lost Luis Suárez to Barcelona while some bright sparks in the “transfer committee” had decided that Mario Balotelli and Rickie Lambert could help to replace him.
Gerrard was fighting a losing battle with his ageing limbs, too, and it showed. It took only 23 minutes for Madrid to take the lead through Cristiano Ronaldo, helping on a delicious dinked assist from James Rodríguez, who was still riding high after his stellar World Cup and was yet to lose his way in Madrid white.
Liverpool were menaced by a familiar foe when Real Madrid arrived at Anfield in the autumn of 2014. Photograph: Antonio Villalba/Real Madrid/Getty Images
Toni Kroos produced the next bit of wizardry, crafting a beautifully arced cross to the back post which Karim Benzema headed back into the far corner on 31 minutes. The game was effectively dead 10 minutes later when Benzema pounced again after Martin Skrtel misread a corner.
Madrid were on another level and an unbalanced Liverpool side were chasing Anfield shadows, the most elusive of which was Peak Ronaldo. He was in possession of the Ballon d’Or at the time and every trick and flick was golden, bamboozling those in red who could not lay a glove on him. That he received rapturous applause from all four sides of Anfield when he was withdrawn speaks to his brilliance. He scored 61 goals in all competitions that season but, remarkably, Madrid did not win La Liga or the Champions League. Barcelona – and that man Messi – won the treble.
5) Real Madrid 3-1 Liverpool (26 May 2018) – Olympic Stadium, Kyiv
Mo Salah is still seething about this final, Gareth Bale will cherish it, and poor Loris Karius may never recover from it. Liverpool were in full furious Kloppball-mode in the second half of the 2018 season. Virgil van Dijk, signed in January, had given them a stable platform to attack from and Salah, in his first season, had plundered 44 goals in all competitions. We were expecting high drama. We got that, judo and more.
Liverpool enjoyed the better of the first 25 minutes, their high tempo causing Madrid all kinds of problems until Sergio Ramos – it had to be him – dipped into his Big Book of Dark Arts and slammed Salah to the floor and out of the final with a serious shoulder injury. It took the momentum out of Liverpool’s play and Madrid finished the half the better side.
Isco hit the bar for Madrid early in the second 45 before Karius, in Liverpool’s goal, entered his very own Twilight Zone, trying to roll the ball out to Dejan Lovren while seemingly oblivious to one of Europe’s most deadly strikers standing in its path. Benzema jabbed out a foot to give Madrid the lead. It was an astonishing mistake that clearly nestled in Karius’s head like a poisonous worm. Liverpool rallied and Sadio Mané equalised. Then on came Bale with around half an hour to go to score possibly the greatest ever Champions League final goal – with his first touch! – an overhead kick from near the edge of the penalty area hit with such fury that it made 61,000 jaws drop. Even Zinedine Zidane gawped, and he’s seen and scored them all.
Again Liverpool came back, Mané clattering a post and giving fans hope until Karius outdid himself. Bale’s fiercely hit shot from 25 yards out was straight down his throat and should have been a routine save, but his head was clearly gone. As the ball slipped through his fingers he turned into a Pac-Man-style ghost, all colour draining from his face as his Liverpool career drifted up and away. The club later said he was concussed after a collision with Ramos. Whatever the cause, his errors gifted Madrid a 13th European Cup.
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6) Real Madrid 3-1 Liverpool (6 April 2021) – Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium
This was a bizarre spectacle, really, played out at the little training-ground stadium used by Madrid’s second team and with no fans in attendance owing to Covid. Add to that the curious sight of Benzema and Nat Phillips wrestling with each other and it really does feel like a footnote in this rivalry.
Mind you, it was a still a Champions League quarter-final. Liverpool’s injury crisis meant they had somehow staggered to that stage of the competition having used 18 centre-back partnerships.
The young Turkish loanee Ozan Kabak was alongside Phillips in Madrid and their lack of positional sense was exposed by Kroos in the first half when he lofted a delightful pass over Phillips for Vinícius Jr to sprint on to and finish.
Nine minutes later Trent Alexander-Arnold’s mind was clearly elsewhere when he tracked Vinícius well only to then head back across his own goal to Marco Asensio, who cheekily lobbed Alisson. Salah got Liverpool back into it in the second half but Vinícius put the tie beyond this makeshift Liverpool side, who were opened up time and again as the game wore on. A second leg at Anfield without fans was far from daunting for Madrid, who drew 0-0 to progress. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/07/inquiry-says-letters-to-john-worboys-victims-lacked-clarity | UK news | 2018-02-07T11:01:57.000Z | Alan Travis | Inquiry says letters to John Worboys' victims 'lacked clarity' | Some letters sent to victims of the black-cab rapist, John Worboys, informing them of his impending release, spelled their names wrong and failed to explain the Parole Board’s decision in a way that was readily understandable, an official inquiry has concluded.
The report by Dame Glenys Stacey on the operation of the victim contact scheme in the Worboys case also says some victims who wanted to make a personal statement to the Parole Board were not given enough time and were sent letters that “lacked clarity and urgency”.
Stacey confirmed that the majority of Worboys’ victims who were not covered by the contact scheme learned of the decision to release him from the media. “All who spoke to us described their shock and distress. They had not felt prepared for this outcome,” she said.
The report, ordered by the justice secretary, David Gauke, comes as the high court decides whether to give the go-ahead for a full judicial review hearing of the circumstances in which Worboys’ release was decided. The challenge has been brought by two victims and Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London.
Worboys was ordered by the judges to be brought to the court in person after a videolink failed on Tuesday. One of the judges, Sir Brian Leveson, apologised to victims in the court for Worboys’ presence.
Stacey’s report says that “in the main, the national probation service did as required by the victim contact scheme”.
Only four of the 12 victims whose attacks resulted in convictions opted into the victim contact scheme, her inquiry found. The probation service lost contact with one of them, and there was a period between 2010 and 2012 when contact with the other three lapsed.
“The quality of correspondence was poor. Some letters contained errors in victims’ names and addresses, and the messages were not conveyed clearly. This was particularly significant at the time when the women had the opportunity to contribute their views to the parole hearing,” the report says.
Stacey said the probation service took the well-intentioned step of trying to contact women who had not opted into the scheme: “Unfortunately, however, there was not enough time before the hearing for women to receive the letters, absorb the information and respond.
“What is more, the style and content of the letters lacked clarity and urgency. One woman who had engaged with the scheme from the start did make a victim personal statement to the Parole Board. Others who we interviewed were adamant that they would have wanted to do so, had they had the opportunity.”
She reports that by the time the Parole Board hearing took place, the five women who were in the victim contact scheme were notified by email, letter or telephone depending on their pre-expressed preferences.
“Inevitably, they each received the news at different times, and regrettably the news broke in the press before some had received and read the notification. Those women not in contact with the scheme – the majority – learned of the decision through the media.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2015/sep/04/are-superhero-movies-really-set-to-go-the-way-of-the-western | Film | 2015-09-04T12:36:26.000Z | Ben Child | Are superhero movies really set to go the way of the western? | Steven Spielberg believes comic-book films are doomed, at least until they rise once again from the ashes. “Right now the superhero movie is alive and thriving,” he told the Associated Press this week. “We were around when the western died and there will be a time when the superhero movie goes the way of the western. It doesn’t mean there won’t be another occasion where the western comes back and the superhero movie some day returns. I’m only saying that these cycles have a finite time in popular culture. There will come a day when the mythological stories are supplanted by some other genre that possibly some young film-maker is just thinking about discovering for all of us.”
Spielberg isn’t the first observer to compare superhero movies with westerns, and you can see his point. Not since the 60s, the last decade when cowboys and “indians” truly ruled the silver screen, has a single genre of films occupied as great a share of the overall film audience as comic-book movies do now. And there are many similarities between the two templates: both focus on heroism, often against a backdrop of violent conflict, and both highlight the moral rectitude of the strong standing up for the weak. Early western favourites such as Zorro and The Lone Ranger are clear influences on the masked crimefighter archetype of early superhero films.
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The comic-book movie can even be seen to have followed a path towards ever increasing levels of sophistication well trodden by its cinematic forebear. Even the superhero movie’s critics – such as Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Thompson – would presumably admit that the standard of Marvel Studios’ bright and shiny, increasingly twinkle-toed 21st-century confections are a lot more watchable than 99% of the genre’s flat-footed 80s and 90s efforts. Likewise, many of the best westerns, from film-makers such as John Ford, Sergio Leone, Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah, are from the 50s, 60s and 70s - beginning more than half a century after the first western, The Great Train Robbery (1903).
If Spielberg is right, and superheroes do follow westerns into the wilderness, it’s most likely they will do so when the genre loses touch with what made it commercially viable in the first place. And here it’s harder to see a parallel. Iron Man and his pals might have to evolve into the equivalent of the morally nebulous, trope-reversing, acid western period into which its predecessor slipped just prior to its long goodbye.
But it’s hard to see how the slick Hollywood studio machine would allow that to happen. Edgar Wright’s efforts to depart from tried-and-tested formulas on Ant-Man were shot down by Marvel last year, while Josh Trank’s attempts to retool the Fantastic Four as a brooding, dialogue-heavy, indie-style drama saw the movie taken away from him before its miserable debut in cinemas. One of the most daring examples of comic-book film-making in recent times, Alex Garland’s Dredd, failed to find any traction at box offices outside the UK. Nor is there any sign on the 21st-century horizon of a dramatic shift towards more adventurous film-making, such as the one that inspired western film-makers to experiment from the late 60s onwards. Some might say, more’s the pity.
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The advantage that Batman et al have over their sharp-shooting forebears is reflected in these movies’ international traction. In the decade when China is due to overtake the US as the largest box office, superheroes have proven popular across the world in a way the western would most likely never have managed. Just ask Disney, whose The Lone Ranger bombed even more dramatically in the world’s most populous nation (with just $12m in receipts) than it did at home.
It’s also wrong to suggest that the superhero movie genre is saturating the market in the way the western did in the 50s, when more westerns were being made than all other types of movie put together. Even with the impending arrival of Warner Bros’s bountiful slate of films based on the DC back catalogue – and productions from Marvel Studios, Fox and Sony – the comic-book template is going to contribute only six to 10 films a year to cinemas. The remarkable success of the genre simply makes it feel as if it is ubiquitous, but Universal broke the box office world record for the highest annual gross taken by a single Hollywood studio last month without having even one superhero movie on its 2015 slate.
Finally, it’s worth noting that comic-book movies have been in their pomp only since about the turn of the century, while the western was top dog for almost five decades from the 20s onwards. So Spielberg might have to play the long game if he really is hoping the genre will simply haemorrhage all its superpowers and fade from public view. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/17/former-world-leaders-urge-g7-to-get-nuclear-arms-control-back-on-track | World news | 2023-05-17T14:00:31.000Z | Patrick Wintour | Former world leaders urge G7 to get nuclear arms control back on track | A global array of former world leaders and defence ministers, nuclear experts and diplomats have called on the leaders of G7 countries at their meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, not to let progress on nuclear arms control continue to be the victim of growing geopolitical conflict, including the conflict between the west and Russia over Ukraine.
The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, who is from Hiroshima, chose the G7 venue to lend seriousness to his personal call to world leaders to at least agree a roadmap to resume nuclear arms control talks.
In February, Russia pulled out of the 2010 New Start treaty, a pact that sets limits on the deployed strategic nuclear arsenals of the world’s two largest nuclear powers, although Moscow said it would nevertheless abide by the limits for the moment.
Kishida intends to take world leaders arriving this week for the summit to the harrowing Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, where they will see graphic depictions of the US attack in 1945.
An open letter signed by six former heads of state, 20 cabinet-level ministers and experts from 50 different countries including China, Russia and the US lends momentum to Kishida’s G7 theme by saying the world needs more nuclear arms control, not less.
The letter says: “United States-Russia strategic stability talks are in limbo and the New Start treaty, which has played an indispensable role in ensuring reciprocal security, is now in question.
“As the only existing nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, the world’s two largest nuclear-armed countries, the treaty’s collapse or expiration without a replacement would threaten a destabilising arms race.”
Worsening big-power competition is making nuclear war more likely, the leaders warn, and “failure to agree on a new nuclear arms control framework to replace New Start before it expires in February 2026 would also make it more difficult to bring China, France and the United Kingdom into multilateral arms control, as all three are not ready to consider limits on their nuclear arsenals until the United States and Russia bring down their nuclear stockpiles”.
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The letter was organised by the European Leadership Network and Asia-Pacific Leadership Network and signed by former world leaders, including Ernesto Zedillo, the former president of Mexico, Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand and Ingvar Carlsson, the former prime minister of Sweden.
In Russia, the signatories include Alexei Arbatov, the director of the International Security Center at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations; Pavel Palazhchenko, the head of the international centre at the Gorbachev Foundation, and Sergey Rogov, who until March last year, was a member of the scientific council of the national security council and a former adviser to the Duma international affairs committee.
One of the most prominent signatories in China is Prof Chen Dongxiao, the president of Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. China has been clear in warning Russia not to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict, a threat that has repeatedly been made by Moscow, including by transferring nuclear weapons to Belarus.
UK signatories include the former head of MI6 John Scarlett, the former foreign secretaries Malcolm Rifkind and David Owen, as well as the former defence secretaries Des Browne and Tom King.
The 256 signatories acknowledge they all have different views about geopolitical competition but say “we all agree that it is long past time to start prioritising nuclear arms control and taking unilateral, bilateral and multilateral actions”.
The letter urges Russia and the US to compartmentalise nuclear arms control and isolate it from other disputes by confirming that they will not exceed the New Start limits on deployed nuclear forces, which thus far have not been violated, as well as agreeing to remove the obstacles to full implementation of their New Start obligations.
It also calls for the resumption of the work of the Bilateral Consultative Commission, the body that agrees details of US and Russian inspections of each others’ military sites under the terms of the New Start treaty. The body has not met for nearly two years. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/sep/16/the-rover-review-rsc-royal-shakespeare-company-loveday-ingram-aphra-behn | Stage | 2016-09-16T11:38:14.000Z | Michael Billington | The Rover review – the RSC's randy fiesta is laced with innuendo | Aphra Behn is acclaimed as the first professional female writer in English. Her most famous play, written in 1677 as an unashamed celebration of the cavaliers banished during the Cromwellian revolution, is now revived with gusto by Loveday Ingram. Its Spanish carnival setting, good humour and sheer sexiness will, I suspect, make it one of the RSC’s most popular hits.
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Ingram grasps the key point that Behn manages to have it both ways. On the one hand, her play rejoices in the ebullient swagger of the eponymous hero, Willmore, and his royalist companions. At the same time, Behn writes strong and forceful women. Hellena, a wealthy heiress unfazed by Willmore’s randy promiscuity, determines to get her man. Even more striking is the figure of Angellica Bianca, a high-class courtesan who loses her “virgin heart” to Willmore. Bianca – who shares the author’s initials – becomes the voice for Behn’s caustic observations on sexual double standards.
Even if Ingram allows no innuendo to go unstressed, she successfully steers us through Behn’s multiplying subplots and allows the action to grow, with the aid of Grant Olding’s fizzing score, out of a society in a permanent state of fiesta. Joseph Millson, making his entrance swinging on a rope like a Restoration Errol Flynn, plays Willmore excellently as a shameless rakehell whose sexual rapacity is offset by a boyish charm: you may not approve of him but you can’t help liking him. He meets his match in Faye Castelow’s mischievous Hellena. The most complex role, however, is that of Angellica, whom Alexandra Gilbreath endows with a perfect mix of hauteur, wit and surprised passion.
‘A society in a permanent state of fiesta.’ … the cast of The Rover. Photograph: Ellie Kurttz
Patrick Robinson, who was in the last RSC revival in 1986, and Frances McNamee lend the other key lovers the right dash and fire. The evening’s biggest laugh comes from Leander Deeny as a rural fool seduced by a female trickster. When he declares that “this one night’s enjoyment with her will be worth all the days I ever passed in Essex”, the audience explodes.
At the Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon, until 11 February. Box office: 01789 403493. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/21/watford-manchester-city-premier-league-match-report | Football | 2020-07-21T22:02:05.000Z | David Hytner | Watford in deep trouble after Raheem Sterling sparks Manchester City rout | Watford’s players had not seen it coming despite the downward trends over the previous 14 Premier League games and, even by the standards of the club owner, Gino Pozzo, the decision to sack Nigel Pearson was a brutal one. With only two matches of the season remaining, the idea was to jolt the players into action. If Pozzo felt that they were drifting under their former manager, then something had to change and quickly. Could they eke out something extra under the interim coach, Hayden Mullins?
The short answer against a Manchester City team that showed an absence of pity was no and the manner of Watford’s capitulation after Raheem Sterling had opened the scoring on 31 minutes was a worry. Mullins had set up to contain and the pre-match feeling was that even a narrow defeat might not be the worst result if goal difference was to be a factor in Watford’s bid for survival.
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Mullins and his players did not even get that and, with Aston Villa beating Arsenal later in the evening, the upshot was that Watford have slipped to third from bottom of the table – level on points with Villa but one goal worse off. They face a fraught finale on Sunday when they travel to Arsenal.
This was as one-sided a game as could be imagined, the gulf in class and, as significantly, belief yawning wide. Sterling got his second in the 40th minute when he followed up to score after Ben Foster had brilliantly kept out his penalty and the second half was an ordeal for everybody who holds Watford dear.
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Watford have parted company with permanent managers 11 times under the Pozzo family’s ownership since 2012 – they have sacked three this season – and out of the chaos came only misery here. For long spells, Watford could barely lay a glove on City and the hard truth was that Pep Guardiola’s team ought to have scored more.
They had to be content with another two goals from Phil Foden and Aymeric Laporte; the first after Foster had denied Sterling in a one-on-one, the latter a header following a Kevin De Bruyne free-kick.
It was the start of Mullins’s second caretaker manager stint of the season – one of the many unusual details to Watford’s situation – with the first having been in December when he lost at Leicester and drew at home against Crystal Palace. The task in front of him was enormous and not only because Watford’s previous two fixtures against City had ended in an aggregate 14-0 defeat.
Aymeric Laporte heads in to bring up Manchester City’s fourth and final goal against Watford. Photograph: Andy Hooper/NMC Pool
City had one eye on their Champions League last‑16 second-leg tie against Real Madrid on Friday week but they will not be able to merely switch it on when the Spanish club visit the Etihad Stadium. It is about maintaining the sharpness between now and then, both physically and mentally, and that meant finding a way through Mullins’s 4‑5‑1 system.
For the opening half-hour, Watford remained compact and restricted City to a long-range shot from Rodri that deflected and forced Foster into a fine save. But it was always going to be a tall order to sit back and fend off City for the entire game.
The tide turned sharply after City caught something of a break. Kyle Walker shaped to whip in a cross from the right only to get the technique wrong, dragging the ball lower and shorter than he had intended. Happily for him, Sterling had dropped into a pocket of space and the ball went straight to him. He controlled and fizzed a drive past Foster.
Pos Team P GD Pts
16 West Ham 36 -13 37
17 Aston Villa 37 -26 34
18 Watford 37 -27 34
19 AFC Bournemouth 37 -27 31
20 Norwich 37 -44 21
City’s second followed a block tackle from Foden to win possession from Tom Cleverly and a quick pass forward to Sterling. The rest was all about Sterling’s footwork. He tricked Christian Kabasele into going to ground and glided around him before being caught by Will Hughes.
Sterling went for power from the spot only to be denied by Foster, who got a strong hand up to claw the ball out. Sadly for him, Sterling was the only player to react and he rolled the ball into the empty net.
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Watford’s threat was slim to non-existent. City pulled them this way and that and Foster must have felt like the only line of resistance.
For Watford, there was no out ball – only the grim inevitability that the scoreline would get worse. Foster thwarted Gabriel Jesus in a one-on-one in the 46th minute and he would also save from Sterling and De Bruyne while Adrian Mariappa was fortunate to avoid conceding a penalty when Bernardo Silva’s shot hit his hand.
At the very end, Jesus had a header ruled out for offside. Watford’s only clear chance came on 79 minutes but the substitute Danny Welbeck took a heavy touch as he ran through and was denied by Ederson. Watford’s grip on their top-flight status now hangs by a thread. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/oct/10/clare-hollingworth-war-reporter-100 | Media | 2011-10-10T19:30:00.000Z | Esther Addley | Happy 100th to our former war correspondent | Clare Hollingworth was 27 when she became a journalist – like much else in her life, thanks to a mixture of ferocious determination and barely credible luck. Having run into the editor of the Daily Telegraph in the last week of August 1939, she persuaded him to hire her and send her, the next day, to Poland. A few days later, she was returning across the border after a trip into Germany to buy supplies, when she noticed that large hessian screens had been erected on either side of the road. As she drove past, one of the screens flapped back in the wind to reveal hundreds of German tanks lined up and facing Poland. She had stumbled across the scoop of the century – the beginning of the second world war.
On Monday, Hollingworth turned 100 and, fittingly for one of the most legendary war reporters of the 20th century, the occasion was marked in style at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong, the expat watering hole of which she has been the doyenne for more than two decades. About 150 guests, including the consul general, attended, William Hague sent a congratulatory message, and guests were shown a film of Hollingworth's more-staggering-than-fiction career.
It will have been quite a movie. Having spent the war dashing around eastern and southern Europe, dodging German fighters on the Mediterranean and following Eisenhower's troops around north Africa armed only with what she called "a T and T" — typewriter and toothbrush — Hollingworth settled in Cairo with her second husband, where their neighbours — another stroke of luck, this — were Donald and Melinda Maclean. Through them she met Kim Philby and in 1963, after Hollingworth moved to the Guardian, it was she who uncovered the story of Philby's defection to the USSR as the "third man" (Maclean himself had defected in 1951).
Claire Hollingworth in 1966, on her return from Saigon. Photograph: Guardian
After a career-defining period covering the Algerian war in the 1950s and 1960s and a stint in Vietnam, Hollingworth moved to China for the Daily Telegraph in the early 70s, then a terrifyingly repressive and closed society. Typically, she loved it. She officially retired from the paper in 1980, aged 70, though she never considered herself to have stopped work.
I interviewed Hollingworth in Hong Kong in 2003, when she was 92 and already almost blind. Her mind, though, remained sharp, and she had only recently given up her habit of sleeping periodically on the floor to ensure she didn't "go soft". A suspected stroke a few years ago has left her more frail, though, with the help of her nurse, she spends part of most days at the FCC listening to foreign news broadcasts on the BBC.
Her great nephew Patrick Garrett was in Hong Kong yesterday to help her celebrate. Struggling to be heard over the congratulatory buzz, he said she, though more forgetful than she once was, "still enjoys a party" – Monday's was the second to mark her centenary.
Having met her, I said, I imagined she still considered herself to be on call should a story break out in the region. "Oh, she still sleeps with her passport beside her bed," said Garrett. "I don't think that will ever change." | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/feb/07/chelsea-relieve-pressure-on-pochettino-by-blasting-aston-villa-out-of-fa-cup | Football | 2024-02-07T22:06:57.000Z | Peter Lansley | Chelsea relieve pressure on Pochettino by blasting Aston Villa out of FA Cup | If Mauricio Pochettino could have scripted a redemption game, it would have gone something like this. Everything the Chelsea manager touched turned to gold as his Carabao Cup finalists waltzed into the last 16 of the FA Cup, responding to two four-goal concessions in the Premier League by outplaying Aston Villa to secure a home tie with Championship opponents Leeds United.
Pochettino reacted to the farrago over Thiago Silva’s wife hinting on X that the manager should be dismissed by leaving out his classiest, if oldest, defender and then reintroducing him for the final minutes of a valedictory night.
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It was an evening when the Chelsea manager came up with a tactical plan to remind us why he has always been so highly rated. Not even a consolation goal from Moussa Diaby in stoppage time could take the gloss off Pochettino’s night as Villa continue to stumble after their breathtaking first half of season.
With Chelsea 2-0 up inside 21 minutes, Enzo Fernández scored the goal of the night with a brilliant free‑kick early in the second half. His celebration afterwards epitomised the response to recent criticism amid heavy Premier League defeats by Liverpool and Wolves.
Fernández earned the opportunity as, preparing to shoot at goal from 25 yards out, he was tripped by up by Youri Tielemans. The Argentina playmaker then posted his free-kick into the top corner of his compatriot’s goal, Emiliano Martínez managing to scratch the ball with his fingertips, to seal Chelsea’s second win in eight away games.
The 23-year-old, signed as a World Cup winner for £106.8m just over 12 months ago, has been such an emblem of Chelsea’s profligate spending in the Todd Boehly era that it has been hard to judge him as a young player adjusting to a new country and league. Rumours had emerged that he wanted to leave.
His reaction to the goal, however, as he took his shirt off to show his name to the celebrating away fans and point to the ground, emphasised his statement that he wants to stay.
Pochettino gave an impassioned defence of his player, and of his young team’s need to develop away from the shackles of the trophy-laden era of the previous two decades. “We need to move on,” he said.
“There’s no doubt he’s a world champion player. [But] when he signed one year ago, he arrived with nearly two years with no holidays, no rest, with the pressure, still young, of coming in a team that needs time. But [people need to] stop creating an expectation that does not match the reality and help a little bit the player that is here to try to build something. It does not surprise me; Enzo has the quality not only to score this type of goal but to perform like he performed.”
Stunningly, Chelsea were two goals ahead in an opening 21 minutes as stretched and thrilling as if it were the final 21. It was as shocking for the Chelsea fans as anyone else.
Nicolas Jackson’s header doubles Chelsea’s lead. Photograph: Carl Recine/Reuters
Belle Silva had posted a partial apology for her weekend tweet that “it’s time to change”. Pochettino said before the match: “I always pick my players based on performance and balance. That’s it.”
Villa spent the first half of this season bamboozling opponents with their superb movement going forwards, Ollie Watkins usually partnered by a wide player given licence to roam the channels in front of a midfield box four. But maybe opponents have worked them out. Certainly Pochettino found a way.
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The Chelsea manager asked the recalled duo of Nicolas Jackson, on the left, and Noni Madueke to play high and wide, with Cole Palmer and Conor Gallagher operating as the most advanced central players. This prevented Douglas Luiz and Boubacar Kamara dictating the tempo of the game, and allowed Chelsea to get out and beyond John McGinn and Tielemans.
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In anticipation of their Carabao Cup final date with Liverpool this month, Chelsea fans were already singing “We’re all going to Wembley” as Kamara lost easy possession in midfield. Jackson probed menacingly down the left wing; when his cross-shot deflected, Madueke teed the ball back for Gallagher to sidefoot into the top corner from 12 yards.
Villa did not adapt, Madueke frequently getting away down the right, ably supported by Malo Gusto and where Àlex Moreno was enduring a nightmare, not aided by McGinn’s lack of comradeship.
Then Chelsea’s plan worked again, to deadly effect, with Madueke feeding Gusto down the gaping chasm of Villa’s left flank. His pinpoint centre invited Jackson to steer home an easy header for his ninth goal from 20 starts.
Unai Emery felt the quality of finishing was the main factor in the match. “I was more or less feeling the difference was the clinical way for them,” the Villa manager said. His sights now return to those top-four ambitions when they host Manchester United on Sunday. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/sep/29/how-to-make-tiramisu-recipe-masterclass-felicity-cloake | Food | 2021-09-29T11:00:29.000Z | Felicity Cloake | How to make tiramisu – recipe | Felicity Cloake's masterclass | Jonathan Coe was once “politely” reprimanded by an Italian journalist for sending a character in his novel Expo 58 to a Soho trattoria for lasagne and tiramisu, a year before (depending on who you believe) the boozy dessert first appeared on menus in northern Italy. Soothingly creamy, but spiked with coffee, this little pick-me-up (as its name translates) is a true modern classic.
Prep 35 min
Chill 4 hr+
Serves 6-8
100ml strong coffee (see step 1)
4 eggs
75g caster sugar
450g mascarpone
2 tbsp sweet marsala (optional)
2 tbsp dark rum (optional)
16-24 savoiardi biscuits (or boudoir), depending on the size of your dish
Cocoa powder, to dust
1 Make the coffee
Espresso is ideal, because you want the coffee to have as intense a flavour as possible, but if you don’t have the wherewithal at home, a strongly brewed cafetiere, moka or filter pot, or even a cup of instant, will do, as will a takeaway from your favourite coffee shop if you don’t.
2 Separate the eggs
Separate the eggs into two large, clean bowls – you’ll be beating the whites into a foam, so it’s important they’re not contaminated with any yolk, which might interfere with the process. As such, I’d advise cracking each white into a small bowl first, so you can make sure of this before you add it to the larger bowl.
3 Whip the egg whites
Whisk the whites until they form stiff, rather than droopy peaks – you should be able to hold the bowl upside down with confidence, though be careful when testing this.
(Don’t be tempted to keep whisking after they reach this stage, because they’ll quickly start to break down into a watery mess, and you’ll need to whisk in a fresh white to get them back.) Set aside.
4 Mix the yolks with sugar
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until voluminous and pale yellow in colour; like whipping the egg whites, this is easiest done with a food mixer or electric beaters. Drain off any excess liquid from the mascarpone, if necessary, put it into a medium bowl and beat with a wooden spoon to loosen a little.
5 Mix the yolks and mascarpone
Beat the cheese into the egg yolks a little at a time, until you have a smooth mixture without any lumps – with such a simple dessert, it’s worth taking your time, but try not to be too violent or you’ll lose the air you’ve just whipped into the yolks and sugar.
6 Add the whisked whites
Using a large metal spoon, gently fold a third of the whisked whites into the cheese mixture, then, once that’s well combined, fold in the rest, again being careful to knock out as little air from the mix as possible. (The pudding will still be edible if it’s a bit flat, or indeed lumpy, but it won’t be as deliciously light.)
7 Now for the coffee (and booze)
Put the coffee and alcohol, if using, into a wide dish. Booze doesn’t appear in all versions of tiramisu, but it does make it a more interesting dish. Feel free to adjust to taste: I’d suggest combining something sweet and something strong – sweet sherry or a liqueur such as amaretto or triple sec instead of marsala, and brandy or grappa instead of rum).
8 Soak the biscuits
Dip each biscuit – savoiardi, available from larger supermarkets and Italian specialists, are best, because they’re drier and lighter than boudoir biscuits or trifle sponges, but use whatever you can find – into the coffee mixture until they’re a pale brown colour, and then use them to line the base of a medium serving bowl.
9 Layer, chill, then dust with cocoa
Spoon a third of the mascarpone mixture on top of the biscuits, followed by a generous sprinkle of cocoa.
Repeat the layers twice more, finishing with a layer of the cheese mix. Cover and refrigerate for four to six hours before serving, though you can make it a day ahead, if necessary, before ending with a final flourish of cocoa dusted on top. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/mar/06/complex-emotions-harewood-house-commissions-portrait-of-david-harewood | Culture | 2023-03-06T00:01:11.000Z | Aamna Mohdin | ‘Complex emotions’: Harewood House commissions portrait of David Harewood | Aportrait of the actor and author David Harewood has been commissioned by Harewood House in Leeds, in an attempt to address the lack of diverse representation in its historic art collection and reckon with its history of slavery.
It will be part of the the collection’s Missing Portraits series, which was launched in 2022 to redress the balance of artwork in the house by depicting people of African-Caribbean heritage who have connections to Harewood and its owners, the Lascelles family.
The actor, who published his memoir Maybe I Don’t Belong Here to critical acclaim in 2021, has a particular connection to the estate as he is descended from people who were enslaved in the 18th-century on a Caribbean sugar plantation owned by the second Earl of Harewood, Henry Lascelles.
The portrait, inspired by the formal style of 18th and 19th portraiture, will be produced by the Leeds-based photographer and filmmaker Ashley Karrell.
It will be accompanied by an exhibition exploring Harewood’s life and celebrating his career, including his role as an ambassador for mental health awareness and racial equality.
The exhibition will open at Harewood House in September, before the work becomes part of the house’s permanent collection.
In 2021, Harewood, OBE, visited the estate as part of a Channel 5 series 1000 Years a Slave, in which he met David Lascelles, eighth Earl of Harewood. The pair discussed their historic roots to the house.
Harewood said: “To have my portrait presented at Harewood House brings on many complex emotions. It is a day that is well overdue for me and my ancestors, a day that sees their efforts and hard work finally acknowledged. I am pleased that we have reached a point when this can happen and I hope it might encourage positive change elsewhere.”
Lascelles and Diane Howse, the Countess of Harewood, said: “We’re delighted that David has agreed to be the second sitter in the Missing Portraits series. His links to Harewood are self-evident and we agree on the importance of sharing our histories, however uncomfortable this might first appear. Being honest about the past is the only way to start to address the prejudices of the present and help build a better future.”
Harewood’s portrait will be the second to be featured in the the Missing Portraits series. The first was of Arthur France MBE, founder of Leeds West Indian Carnival. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/jun/09/the-rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-reshoots-jaws-back-to-the-future-et | Film | 2016-06-09T15:01:43.000Z | Ben Child | Why the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story reshoots might not be a bad thing | The Oscar-winning director Andrew Stanton, on making the leap from Finding Nemo and Wall-E to the ill-fated space spectacular John Carter, was asked to name the biggest difference between live action and animated film-making. His reply: the cost of reshoots.
Pixar, Stanton said, might reconfigure a movie half a dozen times before considering it finished. With an entirely digital mise-en-scène, the studio’s greatest expense when trying to turn around a failing film was the re-recording of dialogue. Video could then be reworked to match remarkably cheaply, via not much more (figuratively speaking) than a few swipes of an animator’s mouse.
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With a live-action movie such as John Carter, even a single set of reshoots could see budgets ballooning out of control – especially if the faulty original footage had been shot on location. The idea of being able to shoot for a third or fourth time, if a film still didn’t sit quite right, was simply out of the question.
The anecdote perhaps explains why John Carter, still for me a fine movie, is generally seen as a black mark on Stanton’s otherwise spotless résumé. But it should also give us some perspective on reports this week that Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is in crisis, with some fan sites suggesting up to 40% of the movie is being reshot.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens also went through a limited reshoot process before being put to bed. And JJ Abrams has gone on record to say that Finn and Rey’s scenes on board the Millennium Falcon were completely rewritten (and later reshot) during a two-week break that followed Harrison Ford’s on-set injury. Movies do change in the making.
The term reshoot has come to resemble shorthand for rampant studio interference and a sense of film-makers floundering in Herzogian creative jungles. But some of the greatest blockbuster movies of all-time, from Jaws to Back to the Future and ET, went through radical late reworkings.
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Spielberg’s pioneering shark thriller initially showed us far more of the dodgy-looking mechanical fish itself, until the young director realised that giving the viewer only occasional glimpses of the beast, Hitchcock-style, would radically amp up the movie’s fear factor. Back to the Future featured Eric Stoltz, not Michael J Fox, as the time-travelling teen Marty McFly. ET never woke up from under all those medical straps to resurrect Gertie’s chrysanthemum and finally go home.
Watch the trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Guardian
The difference with all of the above is that none of the changes were imposed on the film-maker by studios, and it remains to be seen whether the same applies to Rogue One. A Reddit thread posted by an anonymous source who claims to be close to the movie suggests Edwards is bitterly disappointed at Disney’s decision to add levity to a film he has always pitched as a relatively dark “war movie”. Some reports say Michael Clayton’s Tony Gilroy is effectively reshooting the film himself, with Edwards sidelined. Others say Gilroy has simply been added as a second unit director and additional screenwriter.
It must be said that Rogue One does appear to be a heading into “too many cooks” territory, with After Earth’s Gary Whitta also previously removed from duties on a screenplay that, officially, is now entirely the work of The Golden Compass’s Chris Weitz. But again, The Force Awakens went through a similar process, with Little Miss Sunshine writer Michael Arndt’s script radically reworked by Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan. The end result there pleased most Star Wars fans.
Reaction to reports of reshoots seems to have been split into two camps: those concerned that Disney might be trying to “water down” Edwards’ original vision, and those wondering why the Godzilla director was given the gig in the first place rather than somebody like Joss Whedon. Let’s not forget this is a director with origins in horror (the excellent Monsters), whose first major movie opened with a scene in which a husband looks on in terror as his wife is left trapped on the wrong side of a blast door in a collapsing nuclear reactor. Rogue One was always going to have its dark side.
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Studio sources have told Entertainment Weekly that the reshoots were scheduled long ago as part of the normal production process for a major film, and are mainly to add extra crackle to dialogue. But if Disney really has asked for a lighter tone, it says a lot about the success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and its effect on the brave new cinematic universe being built around Abrams’ blockbuster megalith.
When Rogue One was first announced, Edwards’ comments on the film suggested the spin-off movies would be given free rein to shift into spikier, weirder territory, while the main movies in Star Wars’ new trilogy cleaved closely to the long-running space saga’s traditional feelgood formula. That no longer appears to be the plan, if we are to believe some of this week’s reports. And in many ways that’s a pity.
Star Wars, despite its fantasy leanings and the original 1977 film’s U rating, has never been a saga of buttercups and fairy cakes. From the deaths of Obi Wan-Kenobi, Yoda, Han Solo and Vader himself to Luke Skywalker’s Kurosawan loss of limb in The Empire Strikes Back, the series has always balanced light and dark. Moreover, if Disney really does want to make future films about morally dubious figures such as Boba Fett, it is going to have to accept that some episodes will be grimmer than others, and therefore less suitable for children.
In the meantime, there are still a full six months before Rogue One hits cinemas, and there are far worse rumours to worry about than a few reshoots. Some fans still seem to be convinced that Hayden Christensen is returning as Darth Vader. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/may/20/the-star-quality-of-new-zealands-great-barrier-island | Travel | 2018-05-20T06:00:50.000Z | Chris Hall | The star quality of New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island | Iwas glad I had such terrible jet lag. Wide awake at 3.30am with my nine-year-old daughter on our lodge balcony, I stared for hours at the most incredible night sky I’ve ever seen before the dawn slowly started to rub out the stars on the horizon and the multiple shooting stars faded away.
We were going to my girlfriend’s big family reunion in Auckland, New Zealand, but when we found out that Great Barrier Island, just off the coast, had been recently awarded Dark Sky Sanctuary status – a typically remote area that has an “exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights” – we thought it would be the perfect place to unwind before our busy schedule. It’s the first island and only the fourth location in the world to achieve this (along with Chile’s Gabriela Mistral, the Cosmic Campground in New Mexico and Rainbow Bridge National Monument in Utah).
After a 28-hour flight with two travel-sick children, our hearts sank when we saw the tiny twin engine 10-seater that was to take us the 90km across the Hauraki Gulf to Great Barrier. But we needn’t have worried. Whether it was the g-force of the ascent or the noise of the plane (we had to wear headsets), it put our three-year-old daughter instantly to sleep until we bumped down on the grass at Claris airport. Our first empty sick bag against all the odds… Things were looking up.
Surf and sand dunes at Medlands beach, Great Barrier Island. Photograph: Alamy
Great Barrier is off-grid and the 950 people living there (though only about half permanently) rely on solar and wind energy, and bottled gas for cooking. There are no streetlights. There are no cash machines or banks. The police force comprises a husband and wife, and there’s one postie. It’s not just the lack of light but the lack of noise that’s so blissful on this unique and stunning little idyll. It was first discovered by East Polynesians about 700 years ago and the Maori name for the island is Aotea (canoe). Captain Cook gave the island its European name, because it acts as a barrier between the Pacific and the Hauraki Gulf.
The climate here is subtropical like Auckland’s, but it’s windier and more rugged; a beautiful wilderness with lush forests, glorious, unspoilt sandy beaches and plenty of bays and a few mountainous areas where there are good walking tracks among the wetlands and gorges, including the three-day Aotea Track. You can birdwatch, snorkel, surf and kayak. The best beaches are on the eastern side of the island where the surf is better, too. The sheltered western side is where you’ll find the best diving and boating. Lots of people come here for the fantastic fishing spots around the island – snapper, squid, cod. Like a lot of spots in New Zealand, there are dolphin and whale-watching trips and you might just catch sight of hammerhead sharks.
It’s rare to find an island that really does feel undiscovered – but this is it. When one of my girlfriend’s relations, who comes here regularly, found out that we’d been, he whispered to us, only half-joking: “Shh – don’t tell anyone!” (He’s a former All Black, so I might be in a bit of bother.) The locals are a relaxed and friendly bunch – a lot of them told us that it’s like Waiheke Island (now in effect a suburb of Auckland) was in the 70s when it was a hippy commune and full of artists and people wanting to escape the city. Killing Joke’s Jaz Coleman lives on Great Barrier and Veronica Lake’s daughter, the artist Anae Swan, also lives here.
The Milky Way as seen on Great Barrier Island with the Good Heavens telescope. Photograph: Mark Russell/Sophi Reinholt/The Renegade Peach Project
Our guide for some of our stay was the inestimable Hilde Hoven, a dark sky ambassador who runs Good Heavens with Deborah Kilgallon and Orla Cumisky. They bring their 8in Dobsonian telescope, binoculars and beanbags (it’s hard work staring up wide-eyed in wonder without neck support) and, my elder daughter was glad to hear, hot chocolate to wherever you are on the island. “It’s odd but when the light readings were done,” said Hilde, explaining how the island was awarded its special status, “they found there was more light pollution on the northern side coming from Fiji, which is about 3,000km away, than Auckland to the south. It’s pretty dark!”
Beginning their celestial PowerPoint demonstration using a green laser pointer, Hilda and Orla showed us the Messier 4 globular cluster with white dwarf stars, Saturn and its rings, the Southern Cross and the Milky Way, which stretched across the sky. My daughter was especially taken with Hilde’s recounting of the Maori myth of Māui’s fish hook to explain the shape of Scorpius. In the fable, Māui hauled the North Island of New Zealand (Te Ika-a-Māui, which means the Fish of Māui) from the bottom of the ocean with his hook.
Mount St Paul Estate, Great Barrier Island, New Zealand
We stayed at Mount St Paul’s Estate, a luxurious lodge run by the genial Chris and Teara, both from Canada. Teara used to be a chef at the Langham in Auckland and so dinner, eaten around a huge circular kauri table (made of one of the most ancient trees in the world), was every bit as mouth-watering as you’d expect; seared scallops with a wasabi pea purée and braised lamb shanks with a garlic and maple reduction. Tucking into pancakes on the wraparound verandah overlooking the pristine white sandy beach was a great way to start the day.
Another highlight was an hour-long walk to Kaitoke hot pools in the centre of the island, through wetlands and a kānuka forest, where we spotted fern birds and fantails and whiled away a good hour sitting in the pools shaded from the heat by layers of delicate umbrella ferns.
Chris Hall’s daughter Zarify, nine, in the mermaid pool at Medlands beach. Photograph: Chris Hall/The Observer
We also loved visiting the potter Sarah Harrison, who showed us round her studio at Shoal Bay harbour, and her many pots and jugs, plates and bowls and colourful mosaics. She also uses a lot of found materials in her work, such as her driftwood chairs. My elder daughter loved the gorgeous hidden mermaid pool at Medlands beach where the water is separated from the sea in a secluded rock pool. Other high points were the gnarly, ancient pohutukawa trees; and the stunning panoramic views of Okiwi Basin and Whangapoua beach from the top of Windy Canyon, just a 10-minute hike through a gorge up some steep wooden steps on the eastern side of the island. Apparently the island council turned down Paul McCartney’s application to buy a property at Great Barrier because of the unwelcome attention he would have brought. You can see why he wanted to come here; equally, the island knows exactly what kind of star watching it prefers.
Way to go
Chris and his family stayed at mountstpaulestate.co.nz, Great Barrier Island. Rooms are £99pp per night. They flew from Auckland to Great Barrier with flymysky.co.nz, return fares from £40. Cathay Pacific flies between the UK and Hong Kong, and onwards to more than 190 destinations globally. These include five flights daily from Heathrow, and daily from Gatwick and Manchester. Return fares to Auckland in economy are from £1,024, cathaypacific.co.uk (0800 917 8260). Star gazing with goodheavens.co.nz starts from $50 for children and $90 for adults. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/mar/03/deutsche-borse-prize-review-the-photographers-gallery-london | Art and design | 2023-03-03T17:54:13.000Z | Sean O’Hagan | Deutsche Börse photography prize review – stern heroes, uncanny hybrids and a missing person | There are many abiding spirits, historical and cultural, hovering over the work on display on the fourth floor of the Photographers’ Gallery in London, where Samuel Fosso and Arthur Jafa are in competition for this year’s Deutsche Börse prize. As you enter the gallery, the stern faces of Martin Luther King, Haile Selassie and Angela Davis stare down from the opposite wall, instantly recognisable but unsettlingly unreal. Next door, Robert Johnson and Miles Davis gaze directly at the viewer, cigarettes dangling from their lips, the latter in particular seeming to channel the ghost of the mythical “bad man”, Stagger Lee, from behind his outsize shades.
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Black history and identity loom large in the work of both artists, but also the historical and contemporary function of the photographic image in creating, and distorting, that history and identity. African Spirits, Fosso’s series of performative self-portraits of iconic black figures, have such a powerful presence that they seem to be watching you from across the years as you peruse his other work. The diptych on an adjoining wall in which Fosso pays homage to the many west African soldiers who fought in both world wars is poignant as well as historically and formally complex. It carries a less immediately dramatic, but no less resonant, charge.
Visceral … Bloods II, 2020, by Arthur Jafa. Photograph: Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery
In contrast, Jafa’s work resonates in a more visceral way, with found images from black history and contemporary culture coming together and colliding in an uneasy flow that echoes the dissonant urgency of certain strands of experimental jazz and futuristic funk. His epic show at Luma in Arles last year was titled Live Evil, a nod to Miles Davis’s 1971 album of the same name. The work on display here is a small, somewhat fragmented, distillation of that exhibition. Inevitably, the often wilfully jarring juxtapositions that comprise his exploration of every facet of black experience, from the joyous to the soul-numbingly repressive, lose some of their associative thrust in this much smaller setting. That said, the huge image of the site of a Rwandan massacre that takes up most of one wall is, if anything, more unsettling in this context, all the more so when contrasted with the adjacent blurred photo of HR, the lead singer of the hardcore punk band Bad Brains, suspended in mid air as if levitating. A taster, then, of Jafa’s ambitious and provocative practice, that leaves you longing for the full-scale experience.
Loaded with meaning … Batwoman, 2021, by Frida Orupabo. Photograph: © Frida Orupabo Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin, Stockholm, Mexico City
Upstairs, sculptural photographic collages by the young Norwegian Nigerian artist Frida Orupabo make for the most intriguing display in the exhibition. Having followed her work with curiosity for some time on Instagram, where she posts as @nemiepeba, I was uncertain as to how her art would translate to the gallery. I needn’t have worried. Here, her strange, hybrid creations inhabit the space, seeming to hover on the walls as if about to become animated. Her raw material is sourced from the digital sphere – images found on social media, eBay and old colonial archives. Printed, cut out and then layered in segments, her collages have a distinctly old-fashioned, hands-on feel, but her mainly female figures are loaded with meaning, both personal and cultural.
There is something unsettling, too, in the looks on the faces she has retrieved from history, their direct, unsparing stares. “The stare back is a way of fighting objectification,” Orupabo states in an illuminating video about her work on YouTube, citing it as a kind of “resistance” to the gallery experience, one that hopefully precipitates an “internal dialogue” between the viewer and subject. Her quietly complex creations do that and much more. It is rare to see contemporary issues of identity, sexuality, race and belonging explored though work that is so singular, instinctive and elusive, so buoyed up by mysterious, unconscious undercurrents.
Entering the Belgian photographer Bieke Depoorter’s room, one is immediately transported to another conceptual universe, one of compulsion, self-doubt, blurred boundaries and ethical dilemmas. Her film, Michael, taken from A Chance Encounter, her exhibition in Berlin last year, tracks her relationship with one of her subjects, whom she met by accident in Portland in 2015, became close to, and then lost touch with when he mysteriously disappeared. Comprised of still images, Depoorter’s voiceover punctuated by the testimony of people who knew or crossed paths with Michael, the film has a cumulative power that has much to do with the hypnotic rhythm and grain of her narration as the unfolding images.
Cumulative power … We walked together, Portland, Oregon, USA, May 2015, by Bieke Depoorter. Photograph: ©Bieke Depoorter/Magnum Photos Courtesy of the artist
Michael remains an eccentric, if elusive, figure throughout, and there are moments when I began to wonder if he was a creation of the artist’s imagination: an accomplished actor in an elaborately constructed mystery. The room is covered with papers, photographs, notes and ephemera pertaining to Michael’s obsessive life and his disappearance, and the film, too, is haunted by his fleeting presence. Ultimately, though, it tells you more about the narrator than the subject, and, by extension, raises myriad questions about the compulsive nature of photography: the obsessive need to document, record, observe and track. A brave, self-interrogatory work, nevertheless, that stayed with me for hours afterwards in the manner of an intriguing short story. As to who might emerge as the winner: my heart is with Orupabo; my head says Jafa.
The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation prize is at the Photographers’ Gallery, London, until 11 June. The winner will be announced on 11 May. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/02/it-is-nice-to-be-adored-until-it-isnt-anne-enright-on-the-problem-with-unrequited-love | Books | 2023-09-02T10:00:01.000Z | Anne Enright | ‘It is nice to be adored, until it isn’t’: Anne Enright on the problem with unrequited love | My father, who grew up in the Irish countryside, rarely said a bad word about anyone; gossip irritated him and though he sometimes listened, he always dismissed it after as being “made up”. The most withering insult I heard him deliver was about an academic known to my siblings for sexual misconduct with students, a rumour he found unsurprising. “You’d see him, sure, on the top deck of the bus, going home.” What this man did on the bus we can only imagine, but my father’s contempt was clear – the man was drunk and on show. Of the poet Patrick Kavanagh he simply said, “You’d see him about the place.”
Irish writers were often publicly sighted. The woman who came to “do” for my mother on a Friday walked up and down the hall with her hands behind her back in imitation of WB Yeats strolling along St Stephen’s Green in Dublin, and the tea towel twitched behind her as the poet counted the meter of lines he was writing in his head.
This was before writers learned how to drive, clearly (some still don’t). Yeats’s daughter, Anne, saw her father on the bus one day: he was sitting on the top deck up at the front and he was swinging his forefinger to and fro, with the tiny movement that indicated he was mid-creation. Anne, who was about 15 at the time, knew better than to disturb the making of a new poem. When the bus stopped in Rathfarnham, she walked downstairs behind her father and followed at a safe distance to the gates of the house. The hand was still going when he turned up the avenue, and she came quietly after. As they approached the front door, Yeats spun around to her and said, very fiercely, “Who are you? And why are you following me?”
“I am your daughter,” she said.
Writing is a strangely vulnerable way to fame. The privacy of the sentiment that bound these men close to their readers was at odds with the public fact of them glimpsed in the street. My mother used to see Walter Macken at early morning Mass in Phibsborough. His novels were banned by the Catholic church and there he was, praying on his knees.
When I was a teenager, I pressed my father for details about Kavanagh, who was our greatest poet after Yeats, and whose work filled my adolescent heart to the brim. I was intrigued by the idea of my father at large in the big city, occupying the same space as writers like Brendan Behan and Flann O’Brien who had recently been described in Anthony Cronin’s book Dead As Doornails. Something was happening, in the late 1970s, to the figure of the drinking Irish writer: he was becoming, by the very fact of his drunkenness, iconised.
“He was an awful bowsie,” my father said, meaning that Kavanagh was not worth bothering with. An “awful” bowsie was worse than a “bit of a” bowsie: such a man was not just unruly but also wrong-headed and incorrigible.
This seemed like a terrible dismissal of the great poet; it broke some unspoken Irish rule about our general, national loveliness. Kavanagh was bitterly proud of the “stony grey soil” of his homeland in County Monaghan. The beauty of his lines served to ennoble the poverty of his origins, and that seemed to be part of poetry’s project in the Ireland of my childhood – which was also the project undertaken by Yeats: to elevate the once colonised and derided, to bring a people high.
Kavanagh wrote about unrequited love, which was, in those days, the only proper kind. His 1946 poem On Raglan Road is still sung, to a popular tune, at that moment when an Irish gathering needs a little melancholy. The poem is not just about love’s disaster, it is also an anthem to my home town. “On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew / That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue.” The map of the poem turned all of Dublin into an “enchanted way”, a place where you might be smitten in the middle of an ordinary afternoon. The poet’s grief was a “fallen leaf” and we were as good as Paris, when it came to the business of love at first sight.
It is hard to read the poem without hearing the song in your head, but even with its help, the last couple of lines feel a little off. The poet sees the ghost of his love walking away from him “so hurriedly” and this rejection turns him into an angel, for some reason, while she turns into lesser stuff. “When the angel woos the clay he’d lose his wings at the dawn of day.”
A statue of Patrick Kavanagh in Dublin … ‘You’d see him about the place’. Photograph: Sipa US/Alamy
More quietly resonant is Kavanagh’s Bluebells for Love, in which a couple walk through woodland looking at the bluebells – but sideways so as not to frighten them. “We’ll know love little by little, glance by glance.” Here, the figure of the angel is above the couple, glimpsed “smiling in a chance / Look through the tree trunks”. You might call it a poem about stealth, but it is also a beautifully modest thing about intimacy, shyness and hope.
The woman in the woodland was called Hilda Moriarty. She had travelled with him to Lord Dunsany’s estate in County Meath on a day in May when Kavanagh was on the scrounge for money. She was also the woman in Raglan Road who broke his angelic heart. Moriarty was Kavanagh’s inspiration. She was not just beautiful but also smart and, like many muses, far from passive. It was not just her unattainability that provoked the poem, but the female insight she reflected back at him, or back into him.
“I upbraided him,” she said, in a television interview some decades later, “about his writing about cabbages and turnips and potatoes because he said he was a peasant poet. So I said you should write something else. ‘Oh’ he said. ‘I will, I’ll write something else’ and that was the origin of Raglan Road.”
Moriarty was happy to own her role in the process of creation, which gave her an echoed, perhaps more perfect fame. Similarly, Maud Gonne was happy to be the symbolic object of Yeats’s early love poetry, which was an act of public, sometimes political speech. The sexual reputations of such women were safe. As everyone knew, the poet did not sleep with his muse, that was the whole point. He just yearned. Like Dante’s Beatrice, her primary function was to remain passive and admired.
The job of being a muse has gone right out of fashion – or it has retreated into the fashion business, where designers still laud certain models as their ideal. Here, as in painting, the relationship is intensely visual. The “bemused” artist spends an abstracted, untrackable amount of time looking at the woman he is painting. In this state of “thrall”, of being struck, slain, frozen, the artist possesses the unattainable woman by reproducing her, and the viewer is smitten by the image he makes.
There is a kind of creepiness to all this too – as we now more easily intuit. The artist is almost entirely self-involved, his idealised muse may be admired, but she is also robbed of the right to be real.
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“I was very young at the time and he was quite old,” said Moriarty of her difficult suitor. In the autumn of 1944, Kavanagh was living in a boarding house on Raglan Road, unemployed and surviving on hand-outs from, among others, archbishop John McQuaid. When he met Moriarty and became infatuated, he was well known and 40, she was 22, and considered one of the most beautiful women in Dublin.
Moriarty originally wanted to be a writer but when she was 16 her father, who was a doctor, brought her to Dublin to study medicine as he had done. She was flattered by the attentions of a poet and was kind to him, even when those attentions became onerous. As his biographer Antoinette Quinn writes, Kavanagh waited for her at certain times in the street, and sat watching her in cafes where she socialised with friends. “He came to know all her haunts and stalked her.”
To all appearances, Moriarty seemed to have the upper hand. Kavanagh may have been highly literate but he was uncouth and she tried to smarten him up a little (he had horrified another date by arriving smelly). In a joking article, Kavanagh described himself as an ill-kempt knight taken in hand by a lovely lady. This, according to Quinn was the kind of infantilism you might expect from a man who had lived with his mother until he was 35. It is a private emotional dependency “at odds with the misogyny he affected in his writings”. By the end of the year, Kavanagh, like the true stalker he was, ignored Moriarty’s attempts to rebuff him, and turned up when she was on dates with other men. These finally included Donogh O’Malley, later the minister for education, whom she met in 1946 and went on to marry.
Back in the day, this malevolent attention was not called out because unrequited love was all the rage
Persistence in the face of rejection, a fantasised union that becomes more “real” the less it is wanted, these are familiar to those in the public eye who have fans maddened by adoration. They will also recognise the turn from idealisation to nastiness in Kavanagh’s letter to Moriarty, which is held in the National Library of Ireland. This opens with the line: “I like you because of your enchanting selfishness.” Kavanagh knows he should not write, she will not answer, and yet he does write because: “I am in such good humour regarding you that I want you to know it. Remembering you is like remembering some dear one who has died.”
Back in the day, this shift from unwanted to malevolent attention was not called out, because unrequited love was all the rage. The beauty of Kavanagh’s poetry made every discomfort Hilda experienced worthwhile. It almost made the relationship mutual. He kept a painting of her propped up against the wall of his bedsit for some years, and when he died, in 1967, she sent a wreath of red roses to the funeral in the shape of the letter H. After that, it was back to the business of being herself: when her husband died the following year, Hilda ran unsuccessfully for his parliamentary seat, then returned to work as a doctor with a particular interest in social medicine.
It is nice to be adored, until it isn’t. You might think that women are done with all that, but it never seems to go away. Living online puts us all in thrall to our idealised image, even if some feminists now produce these images themselves. The crush has not gone out of fashion.
And when the readers are disappointed in a writer’s feet of clay, I think, “What did you expect? They were just making it up.” You might say that all writers are stalkers, obsessively chasing something that is not real, trying to possess something that can not be possessed. The higher they go the lower they feel perhaps, like smelly Kavanagh and his angelic sublime.
Meanwhile, in every Q&A I have ever done as a writer I am asked where I “get my inspiration”, as though such a thing must always come from an outside source, as if the writer’s gaze is fixed upwards waiting for some beautiful beam of light. And I say, “I don’t do inspiration, I just write.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/nov/22/andor-how-a-star-wars-deep-cut-became-one-of-the-best-tv-shows-of-the-year | Television & radio | 2022-11-21T14:00:24.000Z | Walter Marsh | Andor: how a Star Wars deep cut became one of the best TV shows of the year | Of all the made-for-streaming Star Wars and Marvel spin-offs to shuffle off the Disney+ production line, few have arrived with less anticipation and lower stakes than Andor. A prequel to a prequel, the series explores the origins of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a Rebel Alliance captain introduced in the 2016 wartime heist film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Rogue One was set immediately before George Lucas’s original Star Wars films and ended quite decisively when – very old spoiler alert – Andor and his accomplices died in a bittersweet blaze of glory while stealing the plans to the Death Star.
When Rogue One became mired in reshoots, Lucasfilm tapped the Oscar-nominated writer-director Tony Gilroy, of Michael Clayton and the Bourne franchise fame, to salvage it. Gilroy was reportedly the one to point out that the most obvious and satisfying way to end the picture was by killing everyone. With Gilroy hired as the showrunner on Andor, that kind of bleak yet bold approach to storytelling sets the tone of the show: no one is safe and no sacrifice is too great.
The trailer for Andor
We meet Cassian as a sharp, scrappy but self-interested young thief. He’s haunted by his past, harbours a healthy hatred for the Empire and becomes a prime target for recruitment by a shadowy Rebel organiser named Luthen (a stunningly double-faced Stellan Skarsgård).
After a slow but very watchable start, Gilroy has upped the ante week after week with a clarity of vision that makes Andor not only the best of Star Wars’s television slate, but one of the most compelling shows of 2022. Somehow, after 45 years of films about an intergenerational civil war between space fascists and resistance fighters, Andor offers an inventive and entirely refreshing take on what life is like under an authoritarian regime.
We see how a population is subjugated through economic exploitation, a creeping surveillance state and draconian policing that feeds a giant prison industrial complex. We see the Imperial regime reimagined as a series of workplace power struggles and meet the workers and collaborators who drive it: from an ambitious supervisor in the Imperial Security Bureau (Denise Gough) to a rank-and-file corporate security grunt (Kyle Soller), whose on-the-job zealotry is rooted in the small tyrannies of his home life.
Imperial Security Bureau supervisor Dedra Meero (Denise Gough). Photograph: Lucasfilm Ltd
No longer background extras waiting to be choked out by Darth Vader, these mid- and lower-level Imperials are motivated by ambition, self-preservation and bone-deep resentments. The threat they pose becomes more complex, insidious and recognisably human than any big, planet-killing laser or cackling Sith Lord – and even more terrifying for it.
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We also see different kinds of rebellion from what we’ve seen in Star Wars previously, from disillusioned Imperial deserters to spontaneous acts of community solidarity. Then there are characters like Luthen and Senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), who keep up appearances as members of the galaxy’s wealthy elite while secretly funding and organising the underground resistance. “I’ve given up all chance at inner peace; I made my mind a sunless space,” Luthen says in one show-stopping monologue evoking Rutger Hauer’s final scene in Blade Runner.
But some of the strongest stuff comes from the ground up, such as the episodes Andor spends with a small rebel cell laying low in the mountains on the planet Aldhani. Filmed in the Scottish Highlands, they could almost be mistaken for 16th century Jacobites if it weren’t for the occasional Tie fighter zipping overhead.
Andor (Diego Luna), disguised as an Imperial soldier on Aldhani. Photograph: Lucasfilm Ltd
Among them is Nemik (Alex Lawther), a technical whiz with a sideline in political consciousness-raising. “It’s so confusing isn’t it, so much going wrong, so much to say, and all of it happening so quickly,” he tells Andor while explaining the Rebel manifesto he’s been drafting. “The pace of oppression outstrips our ability to understand it – that is the real trick of the Imperial thought machine. It’s easier to hide behind 40 atrocities than a single incident.”
Such moments of praxis add meat to the bones of Star Wars’s good v evil struggle and speak to any number of Earth-side fascist regimes. They also run rings around the leaden dialogue of its small-screen contemporaries (The Rings of Power) and big-screen cousins (The Rise of Skywalker).
The series saves its best for the back half of the season, when a fugitive Andor ends up in a massive floating labour prison, alongside a career-best Andy Serkis. With relatively few guns or guards, this sleek, bright-lit Alcatraz-in-space and its 5,000 human prisoners become a scale model for the galaxy; the men keep themselves in line through fear of punishment, hope for their eventual release and competitive quotas that atomise the workforce into ever-smaller units, unable to comprehend their own collective might.
Career-best … Kino Loy (Andy Serkis). Photograph: Lucasfilm Ltd
Like the Aldhani arc, Gilroy’s team of writers – which includes Beau Willimon (House of Cards) and his brother Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) – let the tension stew over multiple episodes. When the tipping point arrives, it makes for 40 unforgettable minutes of television – and perhaps the most anti-establishment thing to come out of the House of Mouse since Christian Bale sang about solidarity and scab-bashing in 1992 kids’ musical Newsies.
Andor review – the best Star Wars show since The Mandalorian
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For better or worse, Disney’s previous experiments with live-action Star Wars TV, from The Mandalorian to Obi-Wan Kenobi, have often felt like watching lifelong fans play with their action figures in a sandpit. From a de-aged Mark Hamill to a long-awaited rematch between Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, some of their biggest moments have come from weaving in beloved characters and Easter eggs while tiptoeing around the established canon of a galaxy far, far away.
Gilroy, on the other hand, seems to care little about what came before him. Instead, he has focused on human drama, visually stunning set pieces and watertight writing. The result adds a weight of history to Cassian’s final destination — and gives Star Wars its first piece of universally excellent television.
The final episode of Andor airs on Disney+ on 23 November | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/10/concern-as-proportion-of-children-in-england-on-antipsychotics-doubles | Business | 2023-01-10T23:30:01.000Z | Andrew Gregory | Concern as proportion of children in England on antipsychotics doubles | The proportion of children and young people prescribed antipsychotics in England has nearly doubled in just two decades, prompting concern among some experts.
The powerful drugs are often used to treat major mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, in adults. They can be associated with serious side effects such as sexual dysfunction, infertility, and weight gain leading to type 2 diabetes.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice), the drugs regulator, approves the use of some antipsychotics for children with psychosis or with severely aggressive behaviour from a disorder.
However, a study by the University of Manchester suggests they are being prescribed for a much broader range of conditions, the most common being autism. The research was published in The Lancet Psychiatry.
Researchers examined the records of 7.2 million children and adolescents, aged three to 18, registered at selected English general practices over the period 2000 to 2019.
Although the overall percentage who were prescribed antipsychotics was relatively small, it almost doubled from 0.06% in 2000 to 0.11% in 2019.
The researchers said the increasing use of antipsychotics was worrying given that their safety in children, who are still rapidly developing, had not been fully established.
Dr Matthias Pierce, senior research fellow at the University of Manchester’s Centre for Women’s Mental Health, who jointly led the study, said: “This study demonstrates a concerning trend in antipsychotic prescribing in children and adolescents. We do not think the changes in prescribing necessarily relate to changes in clinical need; rather, it may be more likely to reflect changes in prescribing practice by clinicians.
“However, this study will help clinicians to evaluate the prescribing of antipsychotics to children more fully and will encourage them to consider better access to alternatives.”
The study’s senior author, Prof Kathryn Abel of the University of Manchester, said: “Broadening use of antipsychotics in developing young people begs questions about their safety over time and demands more research on this topic.”
The study also found that boys and older children – aged 15 to 18 – were more likely to be prescribed antipsychotics than girls and younger children.
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Emily Simonoff, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, who was not involved in the study, said there was emerging evidence of the benefits of this kind of medication for a range of different conditions.
She added: “Indeed, the term ‘antipsychotics’ is not helpful either for clinicians or the wider public. It describes the way in which this class of medication was first used, rather than their mode of action. This could inadvertently lead people to consider any use that is not for a psychotic disorder to be unwarranted.
“This is not the case, and there is good evidence for their benefits for other conditions such as irritability in autism spectrum disorder.”
This article was amended on 17 January 2023 to refer specifically to type 2 diabetes rather than diabetes in general. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/14/day-my-dog-got-high-drugs | Life and style | 2013-09-14T05:59:00.000Z | Pete May | The day my dog got high on drugs | We had arrived for the weekend at the Hertfordshire festival Standon Calling with our daughters, Lola, 15, and Nell, 12, Lola's French-exchange friend, Marie, 15, and Lola's 16-year-old friend Izzy. They wanted to see King Charles, Bastille and lots of other bands I hadn't heard of. By coming to the festival with the girls, we could supervise them while allowing them some freedom, and also bring our dog, Vulcan.
The dog enjoyed sniffing around the crowds and looking for dropped bits of burrito, and wasn't fazed by the music that went on until 5am. He also took to weeing with more ease than the humans, who had to queue for the portable toilets. Several other dog owners were there, and many hippies and crusties stopped to stroke him.
After a night in the tent, we woke to a sweltering summer day. Later, we ate lunch at one of the stalls and all seemed to be going well until we noticed that Vulcan had become unsteady on his feet and couldn't walk straight. At first we thought he had sunstroke or sound disorientation from the relentless bass from the speakers. But as we tried to give him water and lay him down, we saw that his pupils were dilated. Then we tried to get him to walk, but he swayed and fell. His right side appeared to be paralysed. This was serious.
It was at this point that it occurred to us that he might have eaten drugs that had been left on the ground. We were camped among numerous hedonists and although we had kept him on a lead, he could easily have found something in the grass. Was it acid, MDMA, speed, ketamine, dope, legal highs or alcohol?
Vulcan lay slumped on the ground, looking close to death, and Lola frantically looked up the effects of drugs on pets on her phone. She eventually decided his symptoms matched those for hallucinogenics.
There was no vet on site but after some frenzied calls we managed to find one nearby, so my wife Nicola left with Nell to drive Vulcan to an emergency appointment. At the surgery, the vet gave him an injection to induce vomiting, and then – bizarrely – he and his nurse smelled the vomit for clues as to what he had eaten. The vet later confirmed that Vulcan had been poisoned, probably by drugs, and was hypothermic, disoriented and uncoordinated. Which sounded like Keith Richards or Shaun Ryder on a bad evening.
Vulcan was a sad sight that night, slumped in a cage at the surgery, on a drip to keep his internal organs functioning, and surrounded by towels.
Nicola's mum lived nearby, so she and Nell decided to stay with her. My task was to spend a tense night watching King Charles on the main stage while supervising Lola, Marie and Izzy.
How could I cope with my weeping daughters and wife if Vulcan expired? He wouldn't make his fourth birthday, which was a week away. And what a stupid death it would be too. The festival was advertised as being dog-friendly and the thought of Vulcan getting sorted for Es and whizz had never occurred to us.
Vulcan had been a good friend to me, despite his problems with cats and squirrels. We'd been to the pub together, where Vulcan proved an amiable drinking companion in the beer garden. And we were the only males in a house full of females, bonded by testosterone and playing with a rubber chicken.
My brother-in-law arrived and confided that his friend's dog once scavenged some LSD in a London park and survived. A friend had texted Nicola to say that her dog had swallowed all her contraceptive pills and consequently lost all its hair.
King Charles played a great set, though it all felt a little remote. We returned to our sleeping quarters. Next morning we awoke in our sweaty tents fearing terrible news. But at 10am came a text from Nicola saying that Vulcan was alive – he had stopped swaying, was able to walk and his eyes were back to normal colour. The vet's poison hotline suggested it might have been an opiate that Vulcan had swallowed, though no one could be sure.
The festival had a day to run, but at midday on the Sunday we collected the dog and retreated to drug-free London. Luckily, Vulcan had been a good age for this to happen and soon reverted to his normal self. Drugs can severely damage or kill puppies and older dogs. We were left with a vet's bill of £288, but at least Vulcan was alive.
The organisers of Standon Calling had done their best to search bags on entry, but you can rarely keep festivals drug-free. If you must take drugs to dog-friendly festivals (this one even had a dog competition), then please keep them away from pets.
My daughters are now experts on hallucinogens and their effects on pets. We have to explain to the parents of a French exchange student that not all English chiens take drugs. And Vulcan, though tired, now thinks that squirrels and dogs should just, like, throw some shapes together and chillax.
Pete May is the author of The Joy of Essex, published by The Robson Press | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/may/15/how-and-why-we-change-brain-plasticity-makes-us-adaptable | Life and style | 2016-05-15T05:00:16.000Z | Polly Morland | Forget self-help: we're programmed for change | “T
his life,” wrote the French poet Charles Baudelaire more than a century ago, “is a hospital where each patient is possessed with the desire to change his bed.” No “How to Change Your Bed in Seven Days!” poem followed, alas. Today we still yearn for better bodies or relationships, jobs or houses. We crave money, security, health, fulfilment, peace of mind, success, adventure or that most slippery commodity, happiness.
The hunger for change is nothing new, but nowadays we consider these not idle longings but a prerogative. Modern secular culture is one in which, more than ever before, we feel entitled to make the changes that fit our dreams and aspirations. That right to change, to be the author of one’s own life, matters. It’s about freedom, autonomy, choice.
But here’s the rub: we’re often so flummoxed as to how to go about changing that we doubt we’re up to it or whether it’s even possible. Quite how doubtful was revealed in recent research from Harvard. The study identified what psychologists named the “end-of-history illusion”. Drawing data from more than 19,000 people aged between 18 and 68, it showed that the large majority, regardless of age, believed they’d changed substantially in the past but anticipated little personal change in the future. This extraordinary blind spot, so the study argued, may be down to the fact that the cognitive processes involved in reconstructing an old story are simply less taxing on the mind than those required to build a new one. This implication – that we’re better at changing than we are at imagining it – led the Harvard team to warn of the practical fallout: how overestimating the stability of today can hamper the decisions we make about tomorrow.
The hunger for change is nothing new, but nowadays we consider choice a prerogative
Of course the flip side to all this – and the irony – is that everything and everyone changes all the time. Our rivers, as the Greek philosopher Heraclitus observed two and a half millennia ago, they flow. In my own research I’ve met men and women who’ve pursued or experienced great transformations: a genocide survivor who rebuilt his life through education, a morbidly obese recluse who lost 18st in 18 months, a radical Islamist who turned his back on holy war. We are who we are, as these people demonstrated, not in spite of change but because we change.
The point is that we’re better at changing than we think. Indeed, it’s hardwired into our very biology. What neuroscience dubs plasticity – the changes that occur in our brains as our experiences unfold – is central to who we are, from the neural, through the individual, right up to societal level. The lingering childhood exclusive to the human animal is key to the development of our prefrontal cortex, one of the last parts of the brain to reach maturity and critical to our unique evolutionary advantage. Here our thoughts and actions, our plans and decisions, even our personalities, are mediated and adapted; here what we hope for meets what we do. And the inherent plasticity of this region and the wider neural networks to which it’s connected is what underpins that virtuoso ability to change.
So remember: change – as an unfolding process rather than a sovereign remedy – is who we are. Holding on to that may be the best chance we have of taking on our endemic doubts about change, our end-of-history illusions and the many other imaginative obstacles we put between ourselves and the lives we want to lead.
Metamorphosis: How and Why We Change by Polly Morland is published by Profile Books at £14.99. To order a copy for £11.99, go to bookshop.theguardian.com | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2009/aug/17/literary-adaptation-film-reviews | Film | 2009-08-17T11:03:32.000Z | Anne Wollenberg | How should critics review adaptations? | Like so many adaptations before it, The Time Traveler's Wife has neatly divided the critics. Some simply reviewed the film. Others, familiar with the 2003 source novel, assessed its merits as an adaptation. Empire's Liz Beardsworth dedicated most of her review to discussing just how well Audrey Niffenegger's story survived the page to screen transition (the verdict: not very). Not so useful, then, if you've never read the book.
This debate has long troubled those who make, watch and review films: just how well-informed should a critic be? The film and TV industries constantly plunder the published page for material, from novels and comic books to non-fiction, but should we regard those sources as canon or mere inspiration? As American director and writer Maggie Greenwald wrote in the Los Angeles Times when she felt a review of her film The Kill Off focused too heavily on the novel: "It's been several hundred years since an art critic has determined the merits of a painting of a horse by comparing it to a live horse … Are we reading film reviews to help decide whether we will see a film or read a book?"
But critics can't ignore those who have read and loved the original novel or short story, because those readers are attached to the content and characters. It's not just any old horse, but one they know and like. That attachment potentially makes them a perfect target audience, but a critical one: they want advance warning of potential disappointment or annoyance. And while a good adaptation can lead more people to pick up a book, a bad one may discourage them from bothering. Hands up if you've ever sat, frustrated, in a cinema, wanting to shout at the other viewers to make sure they know what just hasn't happened, from the changed ending of My Sister's Keeper to the upending of Raymond Chandler's plot in The Long Goodbye.
Then there are the authors themselves. Niffenegger expressed her doubts about filming The Time Traveler's Wife, saying: "The movie that I would make is not the movie that's going to be made."
Alan Moore had his name removed from the Constantine credits and publicly disassociated himself from V for Vendetta. Anthony Burgess criticised Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange: "We should have been able to reach a stage in violence where we were just laughing at it. This is what I tried to do in the book."
This is what readers of The Time Traveler's Wife wanted to know: is the film in keeping with what the author tried to do?
It seems there's only one solution. We need two reviews of each adaptation: one that reviews it as an adaptation, one that simply appraises the film as a film. This, of course, raises more questions, particularly that of how much the critic who writes the first review needs to have liked the book. Their job, after all, wouldn't be to simply report on how faithful the film is, but on whether it meets expectations. The second reviewer would have no expectations. Not so much help to those expecting fidelity, then, but they would certainly have the easier job. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jan/14/eels-end-times-cd-review | Music | 2010-01-14T23:05:00.000Z | Will Dean | Eels: End Times | CD review | Mark Everett and Eels' second album in six months isn't quite a work of staggering genius, but it's heartbreaking all the same. The title and artwork (a graphic of an old-aged E) hint at what's inside. End Times seems to refer to two concepts at work: first, E figuratively contemplating the end of his life as an old man. Second, and not quite as subtly, it's about the end of a relationship. The title track makes that clear with the line, "She is gone and nowhere near, end times are here," But it's not all woe-is-me introspection, even if Everett does that well enough. Paradise Blues pokes fun at a female suicide bomber for putting so much into the outer space magic of religion and the rockabilly of Gone Man is jaunty, even if the song itself mediates on crushing loneliness. In Nowadays, E sings about being "haunted by his better days", and you can't help believe him. Incredibly personal at times (see the self-explanatory I Need a Mother), End Times sounds like a record that could, maybe should, be performed from a psychologist's couch. But it's an intriguing dialogue nevertheless. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/09/jeremy-corbyn-prime-minister-labour | Opinion | 2017-06-09T07:48:48.000Z | Owen Jones | Jeremy Corbyn has caused a sensation – he would make a fine prime minister | Owen Jones | This is one of the most sensational political upsets of our time. Theresa May – a wretched dishonest excuse of a politician, don’t pity her – launched a general election with the sole purpose of crushing opposition in Britain. It was brazen opportunism, a naked power grab: privately, I’m told, her team wanted the precious “bauble” of going down in history as the gravediggers of the British Labour party. Instead, she has destroyed herself. She is toast.
She has just usurped David Cameron as the “worst ever prime minister on their own terms” (before Cameron, it had been a title held by Lord North since the 18th century). Look at the political capital she had: the phenomenal polling lead, almost the entire support of the British press, the most effective electoral machine on Earth behind her. Her allies presented the Labour opposition as an amusing, eccentric joke that could be squashed like a fly that had already had its wings ripped off. They genuinely believed they could get a 180-seat majority. She will leave No 10 soon, disgraced, entering the history books filed under “hubris”.
But, before a false media narrative is set, let me put down a marker. Yes, the Tory campaign was a shambolic, insulting mess, notable only for its U-turns, a manifesto that swiftly disintegrated, robotically repeated mantras that achieved only ridicule. But don’t let media commentators – hostile to Labour’s vision – pretend that the May calamity is all down to self-inflicted Tory wounds.
The Britain that lost and the Britain that won Guardian
This was the highest turnout since 1997, perhaps the biggest Labour percentage since the same year – far eclipsing Tony Blair’s total in 2005. Young and previous non-voters came out in astonishing numbers, and not because they thought, “Ooh, Theresa May doesn’t stick to her promises, does she?” Neither can we reduce this to a remainer revolt. The Lib Dems threw everything at the despondent remainer demographic, with paltry returns. Many Ukip voters flocked to the Labour party.
No: this was about millions inspired by a radical manifesto that promised to transform Britain, to attack injustices, and challenge the vested interests holding the country back. Don’t let them tell you otherwise. People believe the booming well-off should pay more, that we should invest that money in schools, hospitals, houses, police and public services, that all in work should have a genuine living wage, that young people should not be saddled with debt for aspiring to an education, that our utilities should be under the control of the people of this country. For years, many of us have argued that these policies – shunned, reviled even in the political and media elite – had the genuine support of millions. And today that argument was decisively vindicated and settled.
Just woken up? Here’s what you missed on a remarkable election night
Toby Moses
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Don’t let them get away with the claim that, “Ah, this election just shows a better Labour leader could have won!” Risible rot. Do we really think that Corbyn’s previous challengers to the leadership – and this is nothing personal – would have inspired millions of otherwise politically disengaged and alienated people to come out and vote, and drive Labour to its highest percentage since the famous Blair landslide? If the same old stale, technocratic centrism had been offered, Labour would have faced an absolute drubbing, just like its European sister parties did.
Labour is now permanently transformed. Its policy programme is unchallengeable. It is now the party’s consensus. It cannot and will not be taken away. Those who claimed it could not win the support of millions were simply wrong. No, Labour didn’t win, but from where it started, that was never going to happen. That policy programme enabled the party to achieve one of the biggest shifts in support in British history – yes, eclipsing Tony Blair’s swing in 1997.
Social democracy is in crisis across the western world. British Labour is now one of the most successful centre-left parties, many of which have been reduced to pitiful rumps under rightwing leaderships. And indeed, other parties in Europe and the United States should learn lessons from this experience.
And what of our young? They have suffered disproportionately these past few years: student debt, a housing crisis, a lack of secure jobs, falling wages, cuts to social security – the list goes on. Young voters have been ignored, ridiculed, demonised even. They just don’t care about politics, it’s said, or they’re just too lazy. “Under-30s love Corbyn but they don’t care enough to get off their lazy arses to vote for him!” one unnamed Tory MP told the Huffington Post’s Owen Bennett. Those young voters did indeed get off their “lazy arses”, and they kicked several Tory MPs’ arses out of the House of Commons.
And then there’s the media onslaught. Even by the standards of our so-called free press – a stinking sewer at the best of times – its campaign against Corbyn and the Labour party was utterly nauseating. Smears of terrorism, extremism, you name it. They believed they could simply brainwash millions of Britons. But people in this country are cleverer than the press barons think, and millions rejected their bile.
But a note about Corbyn, and the leadership, too. I owe Corbyn, John McDonnell, Seumas Milne, his policy chief Andrew Fisher, and others, an unreserved, and heartfelt apology. I campaigned passionately for Corbyn the first time he stood, and I voted for him twice. A few weeks ago, a senior Labour MP denounced me as one of the chief gravediggers of the Labour party, and journalists have suggested I should be knighted by the Tory party for my efforts.
Let’s whoop at the failure of May’s miserabilism. Optimism trumped austerity
Polly Toynbee
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But I came to believe that, yes, indeed Labour was heading for a terrible defeat that would crush all the things I believed in. That’s what all the polling, byelections and the local elections seemed to say. I thought people had made their minds up about Corbyn, however unfairly, and their opinion just wouldn’t shift. I wasn’t a bit wrong, or slightly wrong, or mostly wrong, but totally wrong. Having one foot in the Labour movement and one in the mainstream media undoubtedly left me more susceptible to their groupthink. Never again. Corbyn stays and – if indeed the Tories are thrown into crisis as Brexit approaches – he has an undoubted chance of becoming prime minister, and a fine prime minister he would make too.
Now that I’ve said I’m wrong – perhaps one of the sweetest things I’ve had to write – so the rest of the mainstream commentariat, including in this newspaper, must confess they were wrong, too. They were wrong to vilify Corbyn supporters – from the day he stood – as delusional cultists. They were wrong to suggest Corbyn couldn’t mobilise young people and previous non-voters. They were wrong to suggest he couldn’t make inroads in Scotland. They were wrong to suggest a radical left programme was an automatic recipe for electoral catastrophe. No, Labour hasn’t formed a government. But it is far closer than it has been for a very long time. The prospect of a socialist government that can build an economy run in the interests of working people – not the cartel of vested interests who have plunged us into repeated crisis – well, that may have been a prospect many of us thought would never happen in our lifetime. It is now much closer than it has ever been. So yes – to quote a much-ridiculed Jeremy Corbyn tweet: the real fight starts now. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/28/melissa-mccarthy-love-woman-doesnt-play-rules-ghostbusters | Film | 2016-05-28T08:00:29.000Z | Hadley Freeman | Melissa McCarthy: ‘I love a woman who doesn't play by the rules’ | There are a couple of rules Hollywood studios have when it comes to making blockbuster movies these days, rules that are as absurd as they are well-established:
1. Audiences don’t want to see a comedy with a female lead.
2. A woman can star in a movie only up to the age of 35.
3. No woman in a movie can be over a UK size 10.
When I mention these rules to Melissa McCarthy – who made her film breakthrough at 41, is a US size 14 (UK 18) and now the most bankable comedy star in the world – she rolls her eyes and gives a what-century-are-we-in shake of her head. “I mean, you just have to think, why not?” she says.
We are in a photographer’s studio in West Hollywood, where McCarthy has just finished her shoot for the Guardian. She is feeling a little off her game today, suffering the early effects of a flu that will knock her out for the next five days. But I wouldn’t have guessed if her publicist hadn’t told me; aside from a slightly husky voice, there is no sign of frailty. She is eloquent and sparky, and the more we talk, the more her initial protective shield of uber-perkiness (“Hi! How ya doing? Cute pants!”) comes down to reveal someone with genuine warmth.
“I’m not normally such a ‘done woman’,” she says, touching her eye makeup with a mixture of pride and self-consciousness more generally found in women who are not used to being the centre of attention. From the third highest-paid actress in the world (only Jennifer Lawrence and Scarlett Johansson currently earn more), it comes across more like an attempt to hold on to at least the image of normality.
The truth is, McCarthy has been at the centre of the spotlight for a few years now, breaking those Hollywood rules over and over. After a successful TV career (Gilmore Girls, Mike & Molly), she moved into movies in 2011, playing the deliciously weird Megan in Kristen Wiig’s Bridesmaids and getting promptly nominated for an Oscar (another Hollywood rule broken: comedies rarely get nominated for Oscars). Since then, McCarthy has proved herself not just the most bankable comedy star but also the best value: her movies make (a lot) more and cost (a lot) less than those starring, say, Will Ferrell or Jack Black. In three years, films such as The Heat and Identity Thief have made $792m, with an average film budget of $33m. Her position as queen of comedy (in what has been largely a boys’ club) will be consolidated this summer with the release of Ghostbusters.
As Megan in Bridesmaids (fourth from left). Photograph: Allstar/Universal Pictures/Sportsphoto
New York magazine recently wrote that McCarthy is “in the middle of one of the all-time great comedy rolls, akin to ones we’ve seen in past decades from the likes of Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Jack Black and Ben Stiller” (their inability to find a female comparison was both telling and, sadly, understandable). She has excellent comic delivery but she’s also a critically underrated actor, one who immerses herself in character without a lick of vanity. As bridesmaid Megan, her absurd and sustained seduction of an air marshal (played by her real-life husband, Ben Falcone) made for the funniest scenes in the movie (“Hey, wanna get back in that rest room and not rest?”). In The Heat, a striking comparison can be made between her and co-star Sandra Bullock who, in a scene in which the two women dance drunkenly in a bar, moves stiffly and maintains her perfect hair; the closest she comes to physical comedy is unbuttoning her blouse. McCarthy, on the other hand, throws herself into dorky dancing and waggles her bottom. I can’t think of another actress working today who has so little concern for her onscreen appearance.
What’s better to give somebody than a sturdy work ethic and reasonable confidence? I hope to pass that on to my kids
Some critics have complained that McCarthy always plays the same role, which seems even less fair than saying Bill Murray always plays the same role (and no critic ever complained about that). But if there is a McCarthy type, it is the woman who does things you pretty much never see a woman do on screen. There is Megan, who memorably has diarrhoea in a sink (not many Oscar-nominated performances can claim that); Shannon Mullins, the foul-mouthed police officer in The Heat, who lives in squalor and extracts information from male suspects by threatening to shoot off their testicles; Diana in Identity Thief, who beats up men while on the run from the law; Susan Cooper, the international spy who outwits all the James Bond wannabes in Spy; the eponymous sort-of heroine in Tammy (which McCarthy co-wrote with Falcone), who drinks too much and holds up fast-food restaurants; and now Michelle Darnell in The Boss, which she and Falcone also wrote, who merrily betrays her lovers and friends in a quest for corporate power.
“People say to me, ‘These characters are crazy’, and I’m like, ‘Are they?’” says McCarthy, slapping her hands down on the table in front of her, making the fruit bowl jump. “Because I’ve seen three people in Rite Aid drug store act like that. I think when a female character acts more defiant, it’s seen as a little more crazy. There are women in the world like this, we’re just not used to seeing them portrayed. We generally just see The Pleasant Lady who stands behind her husband going ‘Oh, Jack.’ But I really love a female character who is not playing by the rules.”
McCarthy wears vintage Victor Costa cape and Gaspar gloves. Photograph: Mary Rozzi/The Guardian
She says her new film and Tammy are her favourites of those she’s made, which says more about her love for her husband, who directed both, than her judgment. Neither is bad, exactly, but they can’t hold a candle to the slick brilliance of The Heat and Bridesmaids, both directed by Paul Feig. The Boss feels like a sketch that has been drawn out over two hours which, in fact, it is: she and Falcone came up with the character almost a decade ago, when they met in the legendary Los Angeles improv troupe the Groundlings (which also launched Ferrell).
And, just like Tammy, The Boss has been loathed by US critics and embraced by the public. The New York Times begrudgingly wrote that “Melissa McCarthy succeeded at the box office in The Boss, but just barely”, shrugging grumpily at the fact that this small comedy made more money that weekend than the mammoth Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Similarly, industry website deadline.com called The Boss “a warning sign for Melissa McCarthy”. Did she take it as one? “I try to read very little, as I don’t want it to affect my work,” she says. “But I do know that if Ben and I open a movie and make back our money in the first week, we’re a bomb, and if someone makes back 1/18th of their movie it’s, ‘Bravo! What an unexpected weekend!’” she says, struggling to keep the sarcasm out of her otherwise determinedly chipper voice.
McCarthy insists, somewhat unbelievably, that she has experienced no sexism within the movie industry, only from the critics. No director, she says, has ever suggested she change her looks – which would make her unique among Hollywood actresses. But it is true that critics have been predicting the end of McCarthy’s career pretty much since she first emerged. There were complaints about her “tiresome” schtick, as the New York Times put it when reviewing Tammy, which went on to make a not-very-tiresome $85m in America. The New York Observer’s critic dismissed her all the way back in 2013 as “a gimmick comedian who has devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious with equal success”. “I really feel bad for someone who is swimming in so much hate,” was McCarthy’s dignified reply. Today she says, “I don’t feel anger, I just feel trepidation when I think of my girls. Like, is this still really going on today? I guess it is.” (McCarthy and Falcone have two daughters: Vivian, who is nine, and Georgette, six.)
In Ghostbusters (second left) with Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig and Leslie Jones. Photograph: Frank Ockenfels/Columbia Pictures
What really riles her – and she mentions this twice – is when critics “talk about the way Ben ‘allows’ me to look in movies. I’m like, ‘Are you seriously saying that?’ There’s so much wrongness there.” In truth, I found only one instance of a critic saying that, in a review of Tammy, but it clearly unnerved her – so much so that McCarthy confronted that critic at the Toronto film festival last year, demanding, “Do you tell your daughter she’s only worthwhile when she’s pretty?”
Yet it is noticeable that in all of her films, and especially those she co-wrote, McCarthy’s characters are dowdy and often the butt of the joke. (In person, for the record, she is very attractive with a gorgeous smile.) Is it easier to find the comedy if she’s playing a schlump?
She looks a little miffed by the question, but valiantly keeps up the good cheer. “For me, it’s the joy of acting. If someone said, ‘The part is very similar to you and you’ll look like yourself and basically behave like you’, I think I would short-circuit. I mean, oh God, I’m so boring! Let me play someone else with their tics and quirks, that’s part of the joy.”
At this point, McCarthy is dragged off to a doctor’s appointment and we arrange to meet a few days later, at what she prosaically refers to as “my office”. This turns out to be something akin to a luxury apartment, with huge windows looking out on to the Warner Bros studio lot. Scripts keep arriving by courier, including, much to McCarthy’s excitement, one for the reunion of Gilmore Girls, which she is filming in a few days’ time. This is, without question, the office of a serious Hollywood player, but one who is doing things her way: there are brightly patterned wallpapers, Slim Aarons’ photographs in the waiting room and, in McCarthy’s personal office, a plush white rug and funky vintage furniture. “Ben and I always say, ‘We’re not running a bank – we want to feel silly and creative here,’” McCarthy says. “Where else can I make a room look like the set from Dynasty? At home, my little one would be climbing everywhere.”
Vintage Victor Costa cape. Beth Ditto jumpsuit. Gaspar gloves. Alexander McQueen heels. Photograph: Mary Rozzi/The Guardian
It would be an egregious wrong to say that Melissa McCarthy got where she is today thanks to any man, but there are two men she credits in particular for helping her. The first is her father, Michael, a retired railroad arbitrator (her mother is a former secretary). When she was growing up in the small town of Plainfield, Illinois, the youngest of two daughters, her father would stand on the sidelines at school sports events, bellowing at her that she could win. Even if she was competing against a 6ft 2in athlete, he’d tell her, “You have an advantage, your centre of gravity is lower!”
“My dad’s attitude made me always like, ‘Why not you?’ So it just never occurred to me that being a woman, or from a small town, or not being some other being, made me not in the running. What’s better to give somebody than a sturdy work ethic and reasonable confidence? I hope to pass that on to my kids. Not that they’re perfect in every way, but they’ve got a shot at it, right?” she says.
She is part of a big Catholic family, and grew up with “tons of cousins”. One of those cousins is Jenny McCarthy, the actor now best known for her long-running and very public contention that vaccinations cause autism. Does McCarthy share her cousin’s views? “No, my kids have been vaccinated. But, um, whatever your stand is, you can’t say that she hasn’t put autism in the forefront of everyone’s minds,” she replies, with considered tact.
Four women doing Ghostbusters will destroy your childhood? I mean, really: I hope you find a friend
The second man is Paul Feig, who has directed McCarthy in Bridesmaids, The Heat, Spy and the forthcoming Ghostbusters, two of which he co-wrote, creating a part for her in each script. I tell McCarthy I interviewed Feig the day Bridesmaids came out and he said, “I want to make Melissa McCarthy a star. That’s where my focus is now.”
“He said that?” McCarthy says, tears suddenly standing in her eyes. “Aww, that guy...”
Up to this point, Feig and McCarthy’s collaborations have been pretty universally loved, but with Ghostbusters, which opens in July, they face their first potential fan backlash. Already, the trailer has received more negative votes than any other has on YouTube. Ever since the female-led reboot of the beloved 1980s comedy was announced, it has been vilified online, largely by manboys furious at the idea of oestrogen inside the Ghostbuster uniforms. The stars and Feig have been targeted with sexist abuse; notably less trolling has been directed at the male stars of other remakes, such as Jurassic Park or The Karate Kid.
“All those comments – ‘You’re ruining my childhood!’ I mean, really,” McCarthy says drily. “Four women doing any movie on earth will destroy your childhood?” She shrugs. “I have a visual of those people not having a Ben, not having friends, so they’re just sitting there and spewing hate into this fake world of the internet. I just hope they find a friend.”
I’m excited about the movie, I say, but I was disappointed to see that it recreates the one flaw in the original: the setup in which the one African American ghostbuster – last time played by Ernie Hudson, now by Leslie Jones - is the streetwise outsider to the three white scientists. She looks surprised: “I think originally Paul had written me as that part and then he switched, so she could have been white, Hispanic... It was truly just a coincidence.”
I must look sceptical because she adds: “Honestly, Paul was not sitting there like, ‘Aha!’” She rubs her hands together and makes an evil cackle. “Anyway,” she adds emphatically, “we’re not doing those original characters.”
McCarthy never intended to be an actor. Her ambition was to be a fashion designer and she followed her best friend, the shoe designer Brian Atwood, to New York to attend fashion school. Instead, at Atwood’s suggestion, she gave standup a go, moved from there to acting classes, and then to the Groundlings, where she met Falcone.
With husband Ben Falcone. Photograph: Jenny Anderson/WireImage
After 11 years of marriage, McCarthy still smiles every time she mentions his name. The few magazine covers that hang on the walls mostly feature the two of them. She tells me she is glad she didn’t become famous until her 40s, as that “kept me steady”, but I suggest that having Falcone by her side has probably been a bigger factor. “For sure,” she nods. “The calmest, most reasonable, funniest man in the world.” (Falcone clearly feels similarly content: his Twitter biography is “Ben is a happy dad and husband” and then, as an afterthought, “He’s an occasional actor, and directed Tammy and The Boss.”)
One of the rewards McCarthy has given herself, now that she has celebrity clout, is the production company she and Falcone run. The other is her longed-for fashion line, Melissa McCarthy Seven7, which goes up to size 24 and launched last summer. “You know, I’ve been every size in the world, from a six to a 22 [UK 10 to 26] and it was mind-blowing how, at a certain size, clothes just became tarp with a hole in it. If I had to do [the red carpet], everything was so mother-of-the-bride. I couldn’t ever put anything on and be like, ‘I love this!’ All I could say was, ‘Well, it’s on and it’s not a garbage bag.’ I was like, ‘I feel bad. I feel bad about myself’ and it just wasn’t me,” she says.
Did it make her feel bad about herself in general?
“It certainly took away my love of clothes for a long time,” she says. Plus-size clothes, she says, are generally oversized, loose and dark: “And that sends the message: ‘We don’t want to see you, and we sure as hell know you don’t want anybody to see you,’” she says. “And I just thought, ‘Why not?’”
Once she decided to launch her own line, manufacturers told her the rules: plus-size women want only dark colours; they don’t like patterns; they never wear sleeves. “I was like, ‘I’m the only woman in the room you’re referring to, and I disagree with everything you’re saying.’” Her line – bright, patterned, plenty of sleeves – has been well-received and is selling well. She walks me through the clothes in a room next to her office, showing off this seam, that piping, squeezing my arm with excitement. As an unexpected bonus, she says, finally having a wardrobe she loves has helped her give up “those crazy diets”. “I’m not fun to be around when I’m on those. I’m cranky with my kids and I’m sharp with Ben. I feel healthy now. It’s allowed me to have fun getting dressed again.”
Her assistant comes in to take her away to the first of several meetings. “Awww!” she says. “We were just getting started!” But she has to go, and gives me a big hug: there is a clothes collection to plan, and she and Falcone are preparing to shoot their new movie. After all, there are plenty of rules in the movie and fashion industries still waiting to be broken. And why not?
The Boss is released on 10 June; Ghostbusters is out on 11 July.
Main image: vintage Dior coat, vintage shirt. Styling: Anna Su at Art Department, assisted by Emily Frost. Tailor: Daniela Kurrle. Hair: Robert Ramos using Robert Ramos products for Celestine Agency. Makeup: Kate Shorter, assisted by Grace Lee. Manicurist: Wendy at Oasis Nail Spa. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/24/sunak-says-he-cant-do-everything-after-spring-statement-criticism | UK news | 2022-03-24T10:24:42.000Z | Aubrey Allegretti | Sunak says he ‘can’t do everything’ after spring statement criticism | Rishi Sunak has said more financial support could be announced later this year to tackle spiralling energy bills but stressed he could not solve “every problem”, after criticism of the mini-budget designed to tackle the cost of living crisis.
In a terse defence of the measures revealed on Wednesday, which critics said would fail to stem the biggest fall in living standards on record, the chancellor insisted that a 5p cut to fuel duty, a rise in the national insurance threshold and the promise of an income tax cut in two years’ time “will make a difference”.
“They will put money in the pockets of hardworking British families because this government wants to support them through these challenging months ahead,” he said.
‘The forgotten millions’: how the papers covered Rishi Sunak’s spring statement
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After facing criticism for announcing no further support for those on universal credit, who will see their benefits rise by just 3% while inflation leaps to nearly 8%, Sunak retorted that “we can’t do everything”.
Pressed on why he did not reinstate the £20 uplift put in place when the Covid outbreak began, Sunak said that the government “did some things temporarily in the pandemic, which have ended” but those were “not the right and appropriate interventions now”.
With energy bills expected to grow by up to 54% when the price cap is raised next month, Sunak suggested he could intervene again to help those struggling to heat their homes by the time the cap is reviewed again in October.
Asked whether he may be forced to provide more financial support, Sunak told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Yes. Of course, we’ll have to see where we are by the autumn and it’s right for people to recognise that they are protected between now and the autumn because of the price cap.
“I always keep everything under review and the government – as it’s shown over the past few years – is always responsive to what’s happening.
“But I would say with energy prices, they are very volatile. And I don’t think you, I or anyone else has any certainty about what will happen in October right now.”
Sunak was asked why he was so uncertain about what help may be needed in six months’ time when he also announced on Wednesday that the basic rate of income tax would be cut from 20p to 19p in 2024.
“Because we’re dealing right now with a situation, particularly with Ukraine and Russia, which is highly volatile, there’s a very high degree of uncertainty about the near term because it’s unclear how that situation is going to play out,” he said.
“Over a longer period of time, you can find alternative sources of energy and be much less reliant on gas that’s coming from Russia.”
Sunak said he understood many people “across the country are struggling with prices going up” but added he could not help everyone. “I wish I could solve every problem and, sadly, I can’t and have tried to be honest about that,” he said.
The Guardian view on Sunak’s spring statement: a big cut in living standards
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He said the UK was “not alone” in facing what he called global pressures, and blamed “global inflationary challenges” as well as the cost of weaning the west off Russian imported energy.
Labour has urged Sunak to abandon the national insurance rise, and use a windfall tax on offshore oil and gas companies to try to raise £3bn.
The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said it was a disaster that living standards had been forecast to fall to their lowest point since the 1950s, when records began.
She told BBC Breakfast on Thursday: “The tax burden is the highest it’s been since the 1940s … by the end of the parliament, seven out of eight will be paying more in tax, only one in eight will be paying less in tax.”
Reeves also told LBC: “Rishi Sunak can say he’s a tax-cutting chancellor but it’s a bit like a kid in his bedroom playing air guitar: he’s not a rock star.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/sep/12/champions-league-previews-fans-predictions-32 | Football | 2017-09-12T12:14:16.000Z | Guardian readers | Champions League: fans from all 32 clubs share their previews and predictions | AnderlechtPrediction: Group stage
We just want to avoid embarrassment in a tough group. Our team seem to have one eye on this competition already, considering the dross we’ve been served up so far in our domestic title defence. We’re not exactly new to the Champions League, but we rarely manage to push on and trouble the better sides. It’s very frustrating. At least we’ve kept injuries to a minimum for now.
Goalkeeper Matz Sels will be earning his wages this autumn. Alexandru Chipciu and Lukasz Teodorczyk will provide the attacking threat if we ever get into the final third of the pitch. We have failed to score an away goal in the Belgian Pro League so far this season, so the chances of knocking them in away to Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Celtic seems unlikely at the moment. Lola
Apoel Nicosia
Prediction: Group stage
I’m hoping for respectable results and to avoid maulings from bigger, faster and better teams. Our central defenders Carlão, Jesús Rueda and Giorgos Merkis will have a lot to do. I fear they will come up against players who will beat them for pace. We need to avoid being overrun. Having conceded just once in six qualifying games to get here, our Dutch goalkeeper Boy Waterman’s shot-stopping abilities will be put to the test. His excellent reflexes should serve him well.
We should try to enjoy the experience though. I definitely look forward to the games against Spurs. I think the only away game we have a realistic chance of getting something from is from our trip to Wembley considering their struggles there so far. Michalis Papachristodoulou
Atlético Madrid
Prediction: Final
Could this be the year Atleti finally break their Champions League duck? The Vicente Calderon held, and always will hold, a special place in the heart of every Colchonero. But if we can settle into the Wanda Metropolitano quickly, it will do wonders for the team and we’ll have a chance of going all the way. It’s been 51 years since the team was uprooted so there is bound to be an effect but this is a proud bunch of battle-hardened players who are ready to walk through fire for manager Diego Simone.
The transfer ban was a blessing in disguise. We kept Antoine Griezmann and we managed to hold on to Simeone. We even managed to get our hands on the mercurial Vitolo from Sevilla despite the ban and may still pick up Diego Costa. Griezmann will once again be the shining light in a team full of a brilliant supporting cast. As good as homegrown talents such as Gabi, Koke and Saul are, the French striker gets us out of trouble more often than most. Fiachra McKermott
Barcelona
Prediction: Semi-finals
I hope we can perform better than last year. However, selling Neymar is a massive blow for us, especially as he joined a Champions League rival. Ousmane Dembélé has potential and new right-back Nélson Semedo may give our ageing defense some life. The key will be our style of play. The class of midfielders Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets should keep us going in the middle for now and Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez can always be relied upon to find the back of the net. Rafael
Basel
Prediction: Group stage
The whole club has changed since last season. The board has been reshuffled, the manager replaced and our only legendary player and true leader Matías Delgado has retired. We have started this season slowly. If new head coach Raphael Wicky can discover the right mentality for the team, our Champions League hopes can live on a little bit longer than the group stages. As we have seen in the last few years, Basel are capable of scaring the greatest clubs in Europe. On a good day they can beat anyone. Striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel will need to be at his very best though. Marc
Benfica
Prediction: Quarter-finals
We reached the round of 16 last season and our team is consistent, experienced and can really put up a fight. I think we can progress from our group and then we rely on a kind draw in the first knock-out round. The quarter-finals seem doable. Central midfielder Pizzi is one of our best players going forward. He gets the game rolling. Last year he played virtually every match; let’s see if he can continue that rhythm this season, particularly with a World Cup in the summer. Jonas gives us magic and Haris Seferović gets us the goals, while Ljubomir Fejsa and Luisão still hold the defence together. Martinho Pires
Besiktas
Prediction: Round of 16
Progressing to the round of 16 should be the minimum expectation. Failing to get out of the group again would be a big disappointment. The squad is stronger this year and should have learned from their mistakes last season, when they finished third in their group. Reaching the quarter-finals would be a great achievement.
Team work and a fantastic spirit has helped us win the past two Turkish Super Lig titles. Manager Senol Gunes has instilled a winning mentality into this squad, so believing they can beat anyone could make a big difference. Anderson Talisca’s performances will be important; his skill and movement off the ball give defenders all sorts of problems. Hopefully he can replicate or even better his form from last season. Jens Raitanen
Bayern Munich
Prediction: Final
Bayern should be aspiring to win the Champions League every year but Real Madrid are significantly ahead of the pack – even though Bayern pushed close in last year’s epic quarter-final. Reaching the semi-finals is a must but a lot will depend on the draw. I think Bayern can beat anyone except for Real.
Carlo Ancelotti did a great job getting Bayern to peak in March and April last season, but once again injuries beset key players with even Manuel Neuer getting hurt in the return leg against Real last year. This year he has to do a far better job of rotating players instead of constantly relying on his favourite XI. He must do a better job of coaxing the best out of players such as David Alaba and Jérôme Boateng, and for Bayern to go far, he must resolve the issues he has with Thomas Muller, whose relegation to the bench has harmed the team. He doesn’t have to play every game, but he must feature more than he did last year.
Neuer and Robert Lewandowski are the best players in the world in their positions. They will dominate again. Thiago Alcântara is already one of the world’s best midfielders, but needs to do better in the big games. I think Mats Hummels will perform at the highest level when needed. Riebl
Borussia Dortmund
Prediciton: Winners
We’re top of the Bundesliga at the moment, so are feeling optimistic. The competition starts at a good time for us and it will take something special to stop us this year. Dutch manager Peter Bosz has really made a difference, while Christian Pulisic will be the name on everyone’s lips during the competition. Shayan
The ever spectacular Westfalenstadion. Photograph: Alexandre Simoes/Getty Images
Celtic
Prediciton: Group stage
Beating Anderlecht to third place and a Europa League spot seems like the realistic objective for us. We have two of Europe’s best clubs coming to Celtic Park, but we have a record of giving the top teams a real good game at home. Let’s hope we can do that again and have another special night like those against Barcelona, Juventus and Manchester United, all of whom have lost to us in the Champions League.
We need to be playing with the same energy and high-tempo at home like we did against Manchester City last season to have any chance of knocking Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern out of their stride. Moussa Dembélé recovering from his injury to play a part in the campagin will be important. Picking up at least a point away in Belgium against Anderlecht looks important if we want third place. It’s also very promising to see a genuinely talented Scottish youngester in Kieran Tierney coming through the Celtic ranks. I’m excited for him. Mikey H
Chelsea
Prediction: Quarter-finals
It’s fantastic to be back after a year away and I’m relishing midweek encounters under the floodlights at Stamford Bridge. We have been given some glamour ties, with trips to Rome and Madrid to look forward to. It’s perhaps a tougher group than we would have liked, with Atlético Madrid and Roma sure to prove tough opposition. All three sides will fancy their chances of getting out the group, but I feel that Chelsea will have just enough quality and know-how to qualify along with Atlético. If we can avoid some of the real big-hitters, a semi-final spot won’t be beyond us, but a place in the quarter-finals is probably more realistic.
Much has been made of our travails in the transfer market this summer and our squad does look a little light. Keeping our key players fully fit will be vital to our chances. Eden Hazard is already established as a star in England, but this could be the season he propels himself to the next level. Only then can he be talked about in the same vein as Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar. Tom Slater
CSKA Moscow
Prediciton: Group Stages
We’re back in the Champions League on merit, having knocked out decent sides such as Young Boys and AEK Athens out in the qualifying rounds, having kept clean sheets in those four games. Our run of 12 losses in our last 14 away games in the Champions League tells its own story though. The defence needs to stay disciplined, while Alan Dzagoev needs to keep us ticking in the final third. And even then that probably won’t be enough in a tough group. Anna
Feyenoord
Prediction: Group stage
My hopes are not high. The Dutch clubs are struggling in Europe as they don’t earn as much as money in our domestic league. We can’t compete with clubs such as Manchester City, Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain anymore. And even trying to keep up with Napoli and Shakhtar is proving difficult. But, if we stay united as a team and keep the fighting spirit and focus, we might have a chance. After all that is what gave us our first title in 18 years last season. That is how we beat Manchester United at home last season. Our stadium is a big plus for us but we’ll struggle on the road. If we can stay above Shakhtar, the Europa League would be a nice reward.
Nicolai Jorgensen scored 21 goals and provided 11 assists for us last season. He has a massive part to play this year and I’m so glad we managed to keep him during the transfer window madness. Fabian Feelders
Porto
Prediction: Quarter Finals
Porto have started the season on fire with five straight wins, but now the serious business starts. They should get through the group without too many alarms and have enough quality to get through at least one knock-out round. The midfield duo of Óliver Torres and Yacine Brahimi are key. It’s also fantastic to see Iker Casillas set for another Champions League campaign in the twilight of his career. Hector
Qarabag
Prediciton: Group stage
It’s been a long time coming but Qarabag have finally achieved their long-term goal of reaching the Champions League group stage. Many expected Copenhagen to go through instead but the Azerbaijani champions made history. Looking at the group, we’ll need our opponents to have plenty of off-days. A knee injury to midfielder Wilde Donald Guerrier means a lot rests on midfielder Míchel. Elvin
Juventus
Prediction: Final
We need to avenge last season’s final and finally win this thing. I spent a small fortune on getting to Cardiff and I have vowed not to go to another game until we win it. If the players we have signed can adapt quickly, we have a much better squad depth than we did last season. The strength of our bench in last season’s final shows how we made it to the final: by using a small group of players rather than the whole squad. We need Medhi Benatia and Daniele Rugani to step up this season at the back with Leonardo Bonucci no longer there to orchestrate the defence. Miralem Pjanic and Paulo Dybala will be as impressive as they were last season. Class is permanent. Giuseppe
Liverpool
Prediction: Semi-finals
Sevilla will prove a hard opponent, as we have seen in the past, but we should finish just behind them in second place in the group. I see us pulling off a surprise in the knock-out rounds and making it through to the quarters or semis. We need to get Philippe Coutinho’s mind back in the game and get his fitness levels back up. When we lost Sadio Mané last year, we looked powerless. However, with Mohamed Salah and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain joining the team, we have great strength in depth, which should prove pivotal in the latter stages. Tom Bourlet
Will Liverpool win their sixth European Cup? Photograph: John Powell/Liverpool FC/Getty Images
Manchester City
Prediction: Semi-finals
After the disappointment of last year, most City fans expect us to reach the semi-finals at least. We reached that stage two years ago with an inferior squad to the one we have now. With Pep Guardiola at the helm, we really should be reaching the latter stages. Hopefully we can collect a big scalp along the way too. Last season’s home wins against Monaco and Barcelona were fantastic occasions with genuinely incredible atmospheres.
Recruitment looks to have been excellent so far. New signings Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva were part of the fantastic Monaco side that made it to the semi-finals last season. Ederson is already looking like a serious upgrade on our previous goalkeepers and Kyle Walker will hopefully be part of a back-line that doesn’t concede six goals over two legs. And Kevin De Bruyne has started this season with a hunger we haven’t really seen from him before. If he plays well, the team plays well; he could be the difference in the big games. Jacob Stear
Manchester United
Prediction: Quarter-finals
A quarter-final appearance after a year out in the cold would be a great baseline for future seasons. After finishing a rather ignominious sixth last season and only qualifying through the Europa League, it would be great to perform well in a relatively easy group and reach the quarters. I don’t think our squad is good enough yet to go beyond the last eight.
We were blessed with a relatively easy Europa League run last time, so it’s important we don’t let our concentration slip in the Champions League. Another vital concern is the finishing. An inability to finish off sides was our undoing last season and in the one European fixture we have had so far – the Super Cup defeat to Real Madrid – we did not finish many presentable chances. We lacked creativity under previous regimes but now the trouble is finishing the chances we create. If we become more clinical, I can see us triumphing against even the stronger sides.
Paul Pogba was voted player of the tournament in the Europa League last season and he is vital to the team. His goals were crucial in our success and he has found his goalscoring touch again in the Premier League this season. He has great strength and dribbling ability, and his wonderful long balls are reminiscent of Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes. One glaring weakness is his inconsistent decision-making. He often chooses the most contrived option instead of the simplest one and he sometimes tries to do everything himself. If he gets back to basics, he can boss almost any opponent in the Champions League. Akshay Kulkarni
Monaco
Prediction: Quarter-finals
We’ve been handed a relatively safe group. Porto are a team we’re effectively trying to emulate by buying young talent and selling them on for huge profits, so it’ll be nice to play against them. I can’t see Monaco getting a better chance to win the Champions League than last year. We’ve lost a lot of big elements in Kylian Mbappé, Benjamin Mendy, Bernardo Silva and Tiémoué Bakayoko, but we’ve made a decent start in Ligue 1 and still have a strong squad. We should win the group, but after that it all depends on the luck of the draw. I think the best we can hope for would be a quarter-final spot.
We’ve been busy trying to fill the holes left by a whirlwind summer transfer window. Stevan Jovetic is a great addition to the squad and Keita Baldé Diao can help to fill the gap left by Mbappé. Youri Tielemans is an excellent young prospect and we’ve still got plenty of talent in Fabinho, Falcao, João Moutinho, Thomas Lemar and Djibril Sidibé. Falcao is our star man and always performs in Europe. With Mbappé gone, there’s more pressure on him to score our goals but I’m confident he’ll step up. Frédéric
How will the French champions react after losing so many players? Photograph: Icon Sport/Getty Images
Napoli
Prediction: Semi-finals
We’re already looking good in the league with three straight wins. It’s just a shame Juventus have started just as strongly again! With Pepe Reina in goal, Elseid Hysaj solid in defence, Piotr Zieliński and Jorginho coherent in midfield, and the attacking trident of Lorenzo Insigne, Dries Mertens and José Callejón, we might be an unstoppable force in this year’s competition. Andrea
Maribor
Prediction: Round of 16
Discipline is the key for us. That’s what saw us through the qualifying rounds. Our organisation and endeavour over two legs against Hapoel Be’er Sheva was excellent and the away-goals victory was richly deserved. Head coach Darko Milanic might be best known for his ill-fated spell at Leeds a few years back, but his success in Slovenian football will take some beating. I think we can keep Spartak Moscow behind us and pip Liverpool to second. Our Brazilian striker Marcos Tavares could do some damage if he is given the service he needs. Nicolaj
Olympiakos
Prediction: Round of 16
To get through the group we’ll need to dislodge either Barcelona or Juventus. That won’t be an easy task but we need to believe. Midfielder Kostas Fortounis will have a big part to play, if we are to achieve our knock-out stage dream. Niko
Paris Saint-Germain
Prediction: Semi-finals
Being allowed to compete is the first hurdle. My hope is Uefa do not kick us out of the competition for circumventing Financial Fair Play rules. It is strange when the football team you support becomes an integral part of the massive soft power project of an oil-rich state. Beyond that the team is good enough to win the whole thing. Edinson Cavani is bound to profit from playing with Neymar and, if Kylian Mbappé retains his sensational form from last season’s run-in, he will excel too. The team is well staffed in every position. A team that can start a league game with Thiago Silva, Julian Draxler and Dani Alves on the bench – as they did last weekend – will not be short on star players. Kári Tulinius
Julian Draxler, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe share a moment during training. Photograph: Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images
RB Leipzig
Prediction: Round of 16
We’ve made a decent start to our Bundesliga campaign. The squad still looks a bit too thin but hopefully we’ll be able to compete both domestically and in Europe. we Might struggle against quality opposition and look like the newcomers we are. If creative players such as Emil Forsberg stay fit, we might turn a few heads. Robin
Real Madrid
Prediction: Final
It’s a tough ask for Real Madrid to win a third Champions league in a row after becoming the first team to defend the title in its modern format. The team was also the first to do it in its original format. However, over and above the excellently gelled squad complemented with some exciting young additions in the transfer window, they have in Zinadine Zidane a manager who is becoming a master.
With James Rodríguez, Álvaro Morata and Danilo leaving and being replaced with mainly youth team members, the strength in depth has decreased somewhat. If injuries hit, these exciting prospects are going to have to deliver early. Considering Cristiano Ronaldo has to manage his time on the field, it should be Gareth Bale’s year but I think they will both be overshadowed by the electricity of Marco Asensio and Isco’s magic. Pablo Rodera
Will the reigning champions make it three in a row? Photograph: Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
Roma
Prediction: Round of 16
I don’t have hopes beyong getting out of a tricky looking group at the moment. Atlético Madrid and Chelsea are both difficult opponens, but we need to get the better of one one of them to progress. It’s all about our mentality; we need to believe we can do it and not already look at what Europa League opponents we could be coming up against. With trusted warrior Daniele De Rossi still playing an integral role in midfield, I’m confident we can have a good campaign. Genevieve
Sevilla
Prediction: Round of 16
We were very lucky not to be knocked out in the qualifying round against Istanbul Basaksehir, who came within a last-gasp shot off the woodwork from beating us. We need to make that fortune count now and take the group by the scruff of the neck. Sevilla’s midfield conductor, Ever Banega, will be key to our hopes. He needs to keep his cool with the officials though. No more silly bans for insulting referees. Cira Lopez
Shakhtar Donetsk
Prediction: Round of 16
We’re not here just to make up the numbers. Our domestic form is solid – we are top of the table after seven wins in eight games. We need to make home form count though, as we have never been very convincing on our travels. Our bad habit of conceding the opening goal needs to stop. Our manager Paulo Fonseca needs to get his tactics and motivation spot on, and Brazilian attacking midfielder Marlos needs to prove himself on the biggest stage. Kaspar
Spartak Moscow
Prediction: Round of 16
We are excited to be back in the Champions League after four years of absence. Spartak’s last appearance was back in the 2012-13 campaign, when we finished bottom of the group and didn’t look competitive at all. Let’s hope Dutch winger Quincy Promes fulfills his err... promise! Anton M
Spartak Moscow fans are ready for a long overdue Champions League campaign. Photograph: Ivan Vodopyanov/TASS
Sporting Lisbon
Prediction: Group stage
You would have to be insane to expect the team to rise from the European obscurity of recent years to snatch a qualification place ahead of either Barcelona or Juventus. Beating Olympiakos to third place is the realistic goal. And achieving it would be a good sign of progress after last season’s dismal performance. If we get points in Greece, we will be more than halfway through in meeting our realistic goals for the competition this season. Squad depth is difficult to achieve when you are outside the major European leagues. Our first team has enough talent to acquit themselves well at this level, but a couple of injuries to key players could lead to a severe dip in quality. There is no decent cover for the centre-backs Sebastián Coates and Jeremy Mathieu or injury-prone left-back Fábio Coentrão.
I’m excited to see how Bruno Fernandes does. For once the presence of a hugely talented Portuguese young player in the first team is not down to the work of Sporting’s legendary youth academy, but the result of shrewd transfer business – he was snatched from Sampdoria in the summer for €8.5m, the third most expensive player in Sporting’s history. The 22-year-old midfielder has immediately established himself in the team with his vision, passing ability and deadly long-range shooting. Definitely one to watch. Pedro Estêvão
Tottenham Hotspur
Prediction: Quarter-finals
We need to transfer the confident, exciting displays from the league last season into the Champions League. We played some beautiful football last season, good enough to be a tough challenge for any team in the Champions League. Six points against Real Madrid would be a nice cherry on top of seeing some good performances. I think making the quarter-finals, or being one of the last English teams standing, is needed to stop teams poaching our players next summer.
Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen and Mousa Dembélé can turn a game in a instant, but the beauty of the current Spurs side is that it’s a team. When the team is on the same page, they can thrash anyone. We just need to believe that we belong here. If the quality of the teams in our group is not enough to inspire the players then nothing will. Suzie Wong | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/30/martin-amis-london-fields-film-amber-heard-interview | Books | 2018-10-30T15:13:46.000Z | Charles Bramesco | Martin Amis on London Fields: 'I never thought it would be a popular film' | Hollywood fiascos of this caliber come once or twice a decade.
After over 15 years of assorted delays, a big-screen adaptation of Martin Amis’s murder-mystery novel London Fields arrived in US theaters at the weekend. David Cronenberg was attached to the earliest phases of the project in 2001, replaced by a series of decreasingly prestigious film-makers that has led to Katy Perry music video veteran Matthew Cullen. Cullen prepared a cut of the film for the Toronto film festival in 2015, but was decidedly displeased to discover that the producers had re-edited the film for exhibition on the festival circuit. He sued over the rights to final cut privileges along with fraud and failure to provide payment, and the production team countersued over his contractually prohibited choice to pursue side jobs while working on London Fields.
London Fields review: Martin Amis gets the Guy Ritchie treatment
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As soon as that had been settled, the producers brought new litigation against star Amber Heard for reneging on her voiceover commitments, which she met with a competing lawsuit over a mishandled nudity clause. Everybody reached a settlement this past September, et voilà: London Fields was ready for the world.
The world, however, was not quite ready for London Fields. This weekend, the film received a cavalcade of pans from the press (it boasts a rare 0% on Rotten Tomatoes) and one of the worst box-office debuts in the history of commercial moviegoing. In search of answers as to what could have gone so wrong, the Guardian spoke to Amis (who collaborated on the film’s script) about the divides between literature and cinema, what makes a movie “unfilmable”, and why he finds his own fretful vision of atomic armageddon a tad pessimistic.
So you’ve seen the film then?
Yes, but first, a few principles. It’s wise for an author to withdraw from things like this, and while I’m not saying I’m not going to talk, you should put some distance between the books you write and films made from them. Everyone tries to do this, because it’s futile to hope for a transfer of your work on to the screen in one piece. Film is about exteriors and fiction is about interiors, usually. Having said all that, I found it surprisingly faithful in many ways. It certainly doesn’t go off on a tangent. It’s toilingly faithful, by my standard.
But yes, I saw it last for the third time, having seen the producer’s cut and the director’s cut. I have to say that I was quite moved by it. I thought the central relationship was moving, between Amber Heard and Billy Bob Thornton, both very strong actors. That’s the kernel of the book, and same with the film.
Did you notice any significant differences between the various edits that have been assembled for this film?
I can’t say that I did, though I saw the previous version two or three years ago, so it’s a bit faint in my mind. But everything in the new cut looked familiar, so I can hardly remember what all the argument was over. I think it was the ending? All I know is that the cast was very much against the producer’s cut.
Having completed your contribution to the production itself, did you have a detached perspective during all of the legal troubles that befell the release? Or did you find yourself getting invested anyway?
Apart from wishing that it wasn’t going on, that things had gone more smoothly for the film, I didn’t have much of an opinion on the course of events. I’m glad that they’ve sorted it out enough that they can show it to the public instead of just trotting it out at festivals.
As London Fields has entered public release this weekend, the notices have been largely negative and box-office receipts are looking dismal. Do you have any ideas as to what this could be ascribed?
Not really. The film is rather confusing as it opens, and it could’ve done with a lot more clarity in its first half or so. That’s all I can say. I mean, I never thought it would be a popular film.
London Fields has a reputation as one of those “unfilmable” novels. What does that word mean to you? What makes a book impossible to adapt?
Given enough imagination, I don’t think any novel is really unfilmable. I mentioned Cronenberg before, and he’s got a reputation for adapting supposedly unadaptable books like Crash and Naked Lunch, because he found a way in both cases. I don’t think there’s anything particularly unfilmable about London Fields.
I had been thinking that this particular novel is both a story in the noir tradition and deconstructive of that same genre, which could be difficult to represent in a visual medium. Do you see a challenge in distinguishing between the two without a guiding authorial voice?
I think you’re right, and I’m surprised by how much of that made it into the film. Same with Money, which was made into a two-hour TV thing, and they got rid of most of the postmodern aspects. Postmodernism has started to look a bit antique, in my view. The movement had great predictive power, as we’ve seen life becoming increasingly postmodern in many aspects, but it hasn’t always transferred as literature. Though Harold Pinter wrote the film adaptation of The French Lieutenant’s Woman and found a way of doing it where you could see the cast both as actors and in their roles, which seemed to be a clever equivalent to postmodernism. Whether that made the film more watchable – well, I don’t think it is.
Theo James, Amber Heard and Jim Sturgess in London Fields. Photograph: Steffan Hill/Handout
If postmodernism is in decline, by what has it been supplanted?
It’s been put aside, as an interesting digression. Social realism has come barging back in, certainly with the novel. Most of the innovations of the 20th century, stream-of-consciousness in particular, have petered out in fiction. Fiction’s a social form, a coherent form, a rational form. These experiments of the past haven’t had much stamina.
Nuclear anxiety figures prominently into London Fields, something that’s only grown more urgent in the years since the novel’s publication, even since the film’s completion in 2015. With the States now hurtling toward the apocalypse, have you reappraised the story at all?
Yes, I have, though I’m surprised to hear you say it’s grown more urgent. I wrote the novel at the end of the 80s, during the Reagan buildup that won the cold war. We went from the era of mutually assured destruction to the era of nuclear proliferation, and I think we’ve now entered another era. Despite Trump messing around with the treaties and having a soft spot for nuclear weaponry, the gravest threat is now the rogue nuclear weapon – this idea that a terrorist operating independent of a state apparatus could take control of a warhead. That’s not quite as urgent as mutually assured destruction, which promised the end of everything. That was to be the end of civilization, and I don’t think anyone’s worried about that at the moment.
Really? I feel as if I’ve always got enough time to worry about the end of civilization.
Civilization is in better shape than people think. More than optimism, that’s just the rational response. Availability bias means that what you see in the media tends to point one way, but it’s actually an illusion. Things have, in a grand sense, gotten better. People look at you incredulously when you say it, but it’s all data-driven. Political people tend to live on restless extremes, and don’t see the finer lines that undergird progress.
I had a talk about this with Ian McEwan many years ago, and we agreed that it’s easy to be dark. They say happiness writes light and darkness writes dark; the words just show up on the page. In fact, it’s a great challenge to write a novel with characters that are good people. Dickens never wrote a good character, he wrote about eccentrics and villains and contemptibles.
One of the most popular criticisms I’ve seen levelled against the adaptation of London Fields concerns the Nicola Six character, that she’s nothing more than the male fetish object Billy Bob Thornton’s character described her as.
It’s a criticism I’m very familiar with. All it really means, I think, is that she’s pretty. Since the question is met head-on in the film and in the book, I tend to sort of shrug it off. The question of sexual attractiveness is invidious, you know? It’s likely to cause resentment, and if you write about sexually charismatic figures, you’re going to run into trouble. But we all know they exist, and that they account for much human motive and action.
I suppose that this is part of the hazard of adaptation, that you’ve got no control over how the camera treats her, whether the cinematography makes an object of her. Do you feel that your work gets away from you when someone else adapts it? If so, does that cause any consternation?
I think that, by definition, it does. But my work isn’t adapted often enough for serious consternation. When it’s suggested that a book of mine be made into a film, I always say, ‘Take it away, I don’t want to have any control over it. It’s yours now, do what you will with it.’ Life really is too short to worry about the secondary may-offends, you just focus on your end of it.
There’s been a pattern of troubles in past treatments of your work – adaptations of Dead Babies and The Rachel Papers were critically lambasted, and the film version of Money couldn’t even come together. Is there something intrinsically tricky to translate in your writing?
Hm, I suppose there must be, on empirical evidence alone. But I don’t really see it myself. There’s a way of doing anything, nothing’s intractable. Maybe there just hasn’t been a successful one yet. I thought The Rachel Papers was actually pretty palatable. But, uh, we’ll see.
London Fields is out now in the US with a UK date yet to be announced | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/05/exciting-bold-laugh-out-loud-the-best-australian-books-out-in-july | Books | 2023-07-05T15:00:37.000Z | Steph Harmon | ‘Exciting’, ‘bold’, ‘laugh out loud’: the best Australian books out in July | Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder
Creative nonfiction, Penguin, $36.99
Anna Funder boldly takes on her hero, George Orwell, to reinstate his wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, in his life and work. Wifedom is a brilliant hybrid of biography, memoir and literary detective work, which demonstrates how patriarchy allows men to exploit women’s unpaid services.
Funder brings Eileen to life through her letters, supported by forensic rereading of male-authored biographies and Orwell’s classics about tyranny and truth. The author of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four was inspiration for Funder’s Stasiland, but guilty of doublethink in his private life. – Susan Wyndham
The Scope of Permissibility by Zeynab Gamieldien
Fiction, Ultimo Press, $34.99
The Scope of Permissibility left me reeling in the betwixt and between of identity torn by contending cultures. As Sara, Abida and Naeem navigate their first years of university – and test the boundaries of religion and propriety – Gamieldien bares coming of age as a Muslim in Australia as a tug-of-war between expectation and ambition, desire and shame.
The three protagonists of Gamieldien’s debut are allied by their faith, but betray each other to save themselves from betraying their relationship with Allah. In the fallout, I was an emotional wreck. – Rafqa Touma
Audition by Pip Adam
Fiction, Giramondo, $29.95
Every now and then, you are lucky enough to come across a book so inventive, so thrillingly odd, that you struggle to stop thinking about it. Audition did that for me, Adam conjuring up the best of George Saunders’ science fiction in this exciting little novel. The premise, on paper: three giants have been sent into space, for reasons unknown, in a spaceship called Audition. They must continuously speak in order to keep the ship moving and to stop themselves from growing.
It’s an absurd scenario, but one that results in a profoundly moving journey through ideas of incarceration and isolation. Adam trusts her reader to spot the trail of clues she drops before revealing all, and it makes for an exhilirating time. – Sian Cain
The Pole & Other Stories by JM Coetzee
Short stories, Text Publishing, $34.99
In this accomplished, elegiac and quietly moving summa – the eponymous novella, plus four connected short stories and a stray concluding narrative, The Dog – Coetzee offers tribute to his recurring themes: animal kinship, ontological questions (of life, love, and death), and the nature of desire – desire to understand the other, to comprehend and be in communion with “that which is beyond us”.
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Coetzee summons the kind of playful seriousness that typifies the work of novelists such as Dutch author Cees Nooteboom, whom he has translated (Coetzee’s descriptions of Nooteboom’s oeuvre – “rather cerebral” and “self-reflexive” – could apply to his own). Beneath plain-spoken surfaces unexpected depths are often revealed, melancholy and glinting with flashes of sweetness, humour, and grand, existential strangeness. – Declan Fry
Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville
Fiction, Text Publishing, $34.99
Grenville’s latest continues her thread of books unpicking the lives of women lost to history: in this case, her own formidable grandmother. Dolly Maunder was born the sixth of seven children in a poor farming family in 19th-century New South Wales. Too clever and ambitious for the limits placed on her gender, Maunder is increasingly furious with her lot, whether it is marriage, work or children.
Just as she once did for her mother in One Life, or for colonist Elizabeth Macarthur over two books, Grenville uses exacting research to imagine her way into the life of another – this time a woman she once feared, and with whom she appears to have come to some understanding. – SC
I’d Rather Not by Robert Skinner
Memoir, Black Inc, $27.99
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Don’t judge a book by its cover, obviously – but this one captures the weird energy, bleak humour and absurdity of Skinner’s memoir so perfectly it deserves applause. Skinner was the editor of Melbourne’s short story magazine, the Canary Press – which, it becomes clear, you should only do if you don’t mind living in a shed, a van and (for a stint) at the bottom of a ditch in a dog park.
“On the first day of autumn, I was invited to a literary gala,” Skinner remembers. “I knew it was autumn because I woke up covered in leaves.” It’s one of so many moments in this short and delicious book that made me laugh out loud. – Steph Harmon
My Family Kitchen by Tommy Pham
Cookbook, Penguin, $32.99
As a child of Vietnamese parents, anglicised menus and cookbooks on Vietnamese food are extremely confusing. A blandly labelled “beef noodle soup”, for example, does little to capture the elegant complexity of a bowl of pho tai. Full credit then to the ex-MasterChef Australia contestant Tommy Pham for headlining his recipes with their Vietnamese names, with English subtitles for those who need it. He spins the greatest hits – gỏi cuốn (rice paper rolls) and bún gà áp chảo (lemongrass and sesame oil chicken with vermicelli) – plus home-cooking wonders such as canh chua (sour fish soup) and bò kho (beef stew).
The recipes – which serve “2 adults and 2 littles” – are adaptable for baby and toddler diets, which makes this a “family” cookbook in the truest sense of the word. – Yvonne C Lam
Why We Are Here by Briohny Doyle
Fiction, Penguin, $32.99
BB is in her 30s when she loses her partner to an overdose. Still reeling, her city goes into lockdown. And then she loses her father. How to reckon with the aftermath of a crisis when crises keep piling up?
Why We Are Here is an elegiac interior novel best described by Rachel Yoder in her cover-quote, “big hearted, soul-searching”. In long walks with her dog, Baby, across the coastlines and golf courses of gentrified Silver City (a stand-in for Sydney), BB reckons with loss and healing, in dialogue with those who’ve left her and the authors who came before. It’s also a love letter to a dog, and to all dogs, who will sit with us on a rock by the ocean when we need them most. – SH
Tissue by Madison Griffiths
Nonfiction, Ultimo, $34.99
Photograph: Ultimo Press
In 2021, Griffiths wrote a piece for the Guardian detailing her experience having an abortion during a lockdown in Victoria. The piece led to a book deal, for her to explore the topic of abortion at length, and with, as she puts it, “compassion”.
Griffiths writes with literary flourish as she unpicks ideas around gender, femininity, guilt and motherhood, delving into how all of this impacts pregnant people in a world where abortion rights are often murky and increasingly politicised. Tissue is not an account of one abortion, but a dissection of our ideas around abortion; a clear-sighted, humane book that will undoubtedly help many readers find peace in choices they have made, or will make. – SC
The Crying Room by Gretchen Shirm
Fiction, Transit Lounge, $32.99
Photograph: Transit Lounge
This admirably chilly novel from Shirm, a lauded short story writer, delves into the intergenerational emotional incontinence of a family, through the stories of four women: Bernie Rodgers, her daughters, Susie and Allison, and Allison’s daughter, Monica.
Bernie’s parenting style – a blend of persistent withholding and frustration – bleeds into the lives of her daughters as they age, which in turn impacts Monica, who decides she’d rather be raised by Susie than Allison. Shirm’s writing is crisp and precise, and will undoubtedly appeal to fans of Gwendoline Riley and Charlotte Wood. – SC | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/media-blog/2017/jul/09/grenfell-survivors-blame-mainstream-media-for-ignoring-them | UK news | 2017-07-09T14:25:49.000Z | Afua Hirsch | Grenfell survivors blame mainstream media – how do we overcome mistrust? | “If I had my way,” said one passionately furious west Londoner recently, “I wouldn’t be out here talking, you would be the first person I would be seizing … you, the media.”
Ishmahil Blagrove, the coordinator at Justice 4 Grenfell, was responding to my former Sky News colleague Jason Farrell, who was trying to get him to do an on-camera interview. Blagrove wouldn’t do the interview, but his anti-mainstream media tirade was filmed by others nearby instead, and posted on social media, where it promptly went viral.
“You are the ones who facilitate this,” Blagrove said of the situation facing his community. “You are the mouthpiece of this government. You are the people who make this possible. You are the ones who validate it. You are just as culpable.”
Strong words, and in many ways unfair – since the whole reason the two men were speaking was that Farrell was actually trying to give Blagrove some airtime. But people are angry. Why the survivors of Grenfell Tower are angry needs, obviously, absolutely no explanation. Their demands to the local authority were ignored, the dangers they faced went unreported, and any avenues they may have had for initiating legal challenge were prohibitively expensive in the absence of legal aid. They were trapped long before their tower went up in flames.
Someone venting frustration with the media, taken on a mobile phone, can have greater reach than mainstream broadcasters
From a media perspective, the film of Blagrove giving Farrell a dressing-down is indicative of something that affects far greater numbers than the hundreds tragically affected by Grenfell. It is the perfect example of how access to broadcasting has levelled out, in a world where somebody venting their frustration towards the media, captured on a humble mobile phone, can actually have greater reach than the mainstream broadcasters at whose hands they feel so oppressed. It is someone at grassroots level taking on the media in both content and form, to significant effect.
But these dramatic instances of power reversal have done little to diminish the sense of injustice many feel about just who controls the narrative. There is an important story to be told here, in a week where both the president of the United States – with his supposedly humorous video of a wrestling match in which he beats up CNN – and, at the other end of the spectrum, homeless and traumatised survivors of a devastating fire, are coalescing around this persistent distrust in professional journalism. MSM. “Mainstream media”.
It’s a complicated picture, one I can’t help but think it’s important to unpick. When the big news broadcasters did descend on the community around Grenfell Tower, they were blamed for having ignored it until a tragedy on this scale unfolded. And although many journalists have been covering the appalling state of social housing and private sector housing for low-income tenants, the media have failed communities like those in inner-city tower blocks such as Grenfell, most obviously by ceasing to exist. The dwindling local press, as others have pointed out, has created a gaping accountability hole for which there is currently zero substitute.
Grenfell reflects the accountability vacuum left by crumbling local press
Emily Bell
Read more
Then there is the perception that, even when a story is told, the narrative is manipulated and the voices played out are cherry-picked. “When residents and supporters have been given, sometimes grudgingly, a voice in the mainstream media they’ve come across with great clarity, strength and determination,” wrote one member of the Grenfell community support group on Facebook, lamenting the fact that that hadn’t happened enough.
This perception – Farrell may be relieved to know – goes way beyond the personal affiliation of any individual reporter. Hence the anger expressed at Channel 4 anchor Jon Snow when he spoke to members of the west London community, in spite of his increasingly notorious affection for the leftwing.
It is based on a strongly, bitterly held belief that the media is beholden to a secret agenda pursued by the rich, powerful and rightwing. The near-consensus among reporters on Jeremy Corbyn’s supposed unelectability, which turned out to be untrue, only feeds powerfully into that belief. The sense of conspiracy should not be played down – the feeling of communities like those in Grenfell Tower being ignored, and of Corbyn having been deliberately maligned, are blended now in a thick soup of salty disillusionment, doled out on WhatsApp. No matter how much MSM airtime is now given to the Grenfell Tower tragedy, its iconic voices will forever be not news anchors, but people like Blagrove, and DJ Isla – YouTube interviews circulated on countless, informal networks on the mobile phones of people who do not watch the news on TV.
Kerry-Anne Mendoza, editor of news site The Canary, was booed on BBC Question Time. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian
Inevitably, new forms of media intending to cater to this anti-MSM audience are gaining more popularity and, as a result, ironically becoming increasingly mainstream. Kerry-Anne Mendoza, editor of the news site The Canary – which some describe as offering to the left what the Daily Mail offers to the right – made her debut on BBC Question Time last week. Incidentally, after talking about Grenfell Tower and the fact that the mainstream media is still mainly dominated by white males, she was booed on air by what turned out to be a faction of the audience made up mainly by white males.
Mendoza was up against Nick Ferrari, the LBC host, who incidentally told me on air last week that white men like him are now the victims of racism perpetrated by the survivors of Grenfell Tower, because they’ve been questioning the background of the judge appointed to lead the inquiry into the disaster.
I’m always being accused by people I know of serving as an agent of “mainstream media”, it is sometimes levelled as one of the worst insults a person can conjure up. I find this doubly frustrating, as one of very few journalists from minority backgrounds, with my own critique of the way the media are representing people and shaping narratives, yet at the same time constantly having to defend the basic premise of what I do. The attack comes from the left and the right – people of all political and social backgrounds are losing faith in the establishment and anything it deems respectable. At the same time, I’ve also seen repeatedly how much – on a micro scale at least – this distrust can be overcome by being honest and open and proving that reporters come in search of facts, and not support for some sinister agenda.
So it was good to see Farrell’s interaction with Blagrove ending with an amicable handshake. “I like you anyway,” Farrell said to Blagrove.
“I like you too,” Blagrove replied to the reporter. “I like you fried, oiled, any way I can have you, motherfuckers.”
Out of Vogue
The post-Vogue meltdown by fashion director of 25 years Lucinda Chambers has been widely reported this week, after she told niche fashion site Vestoj what she really thinks of the magazine. “There are very few fashion magazines that make you feel empowered,” Chambers said. “Most leave you totally anxiety-ridden.”
It is weirdly refreshing to hear such an influential front-row figure admit to sharing the emotional turmoil so many of us experience in response to the pressure to look perfect, fashionable, rich and thin – pressure which Vogue has come to personify. But I can’t help but wonder why it took Chambers a quarter of a century to share with the rest of us how damaging she thought the images she was designing really were. “I haven’t read Vogue in years,” she said. Now you tell us, Lucinda. Thanks. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/apr/12/led-zeppelin-other-peoples-records-transformed-borrowed | Music | 2016-04-12T15:30:10.000Z | Michael Hann | Yes, Led Zeppelin took from other people's records – but then they transformed them | And so the latest Led Zeppelin plagiarism case goes to court. This time it’s Spirit, whose claim that Stairway to Heaven’s acoustic opening takes directly from their song Taurus is to be heard before a jury next month.
It’s not the first time m’learned friends have become involved in the allocation of songwriting credits or royalties for Zeppelin songs – Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, Dazed and Confused, Whole Lotta Love, The Lemon Song and Bring It on Home have all had their credits changed on latter-day Zeppelin releases and reissues. The most egregious of those cases was Dazed and Confused, a song by Jake Holmes that Jimmy Page heard when Holmes opened for the Yardbirds in 1967. It became a staple of the Yardbirds’ set, then when Page formed Zeppelin, he changed the lyrics, took sole songwriting credit, and stuck it on the band’s debut album.
Stairway to Heaven: the story of a song and its legacy
Read more
There are plenty more Zeppelin songs where the songwriting credits have never been changed or a financial settlement made, despite their evident debt to other songs – especially old blues numbers, whose authorship might be uncertain, and there was no one to challenge the band’s claim to them. And there are other examples from Zeppelin’s contemporaries: how did Bert Jansch feel when he compared his Blackwaterside to their Black Mountain Side? What did Moby Grape think of the similarities between Zeppelin’s Since I’ve Been Loving You and their own song Never?
I’m not going to stick up for Zeppelin over Dazed and Confused (though the the case of Anne Bredon’s Babe I’m Gonna Leave You is a little less clear cut, given that Zeppelin almost certainly took it from Joan Baez’s version, itself wrongly given a trad. arr. credit, just as Zeppelin’s was). But I am going to stick up for them over the suggestion that their career has been based on fraud and theft.
A YouTuber’s compilation of songs with similarities to Led Zeppelin’s
The lazy assertion would be the old line that talent borrows, but genius steals. Let’s be honest: theft is theft. It’s appropriate that instance of plagiarism are dealt with. But Zeppelin’s sins don’t diminish their greatness. Rock’n’roll was built on a limited number of chords, and a limited number of ways of deploying them. The same words, often barely rearranged, crop up in any number of different songs. Zeppelin’s borrowings were more craven than most, certainly, but if you take time to compare the original recordings and the Zeppelin songs, it doesn’t take very long to realise they are completely different beasts.
The danger of accumulating accusations is that they become the details people notice in the portrat…
If you listen to Josh White’s Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed, from 1933, you’ll hear a haunted, spooky acoustic blues, and you’ll notice it bears a certain similarity to Led Zeppelin’s In My Time of Dying. If you listen to the latter song, you will hear an astonishing edifice of brutal power and terrifying force. It wouldn’t have existed without the other song, certainly, but it’s not a simple cover version: it’s an extrapolation, a reimagining of where Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed could have ended up.
Whole Lotta Love may have borrowed from both Willie Dixon and the Small Faces, but the song wasn’t the same as either of its pieces of source material: what Zeppelin took, they transformed. They were derivative only in the sense that they took from existing forms; what they did with those forms created rock’n’roll of a new form, one as at home with folk or blues or proto-metal.
… When you look at the big picture, Led Zeppelin were a great, great band
Watch YouTuber TJR play chords from Stairway to Heaven and the 1967 instrumental Taurus by the band Spirit. Guardian
If you listen to Taurus and Stairway to Heaven side by side, you’ll hear that Randy California’s acoustic guitar figure is undeniably similar to the opening section of Stairway. But then take a moment to consider. Is that pattern really the memorable thing about the song? What about the epic solo, or John Bonham’s thunderous entrance, or the staccato riff at the end? Of course that little section is not central to people’s love of Stairway, it’s just one small part of it. But the danger of the accumulation of accusations against Zeppelin is that they become the details people notice in the portrait, preventing them from stepping back and seeing the big picture. And when you look at the big picture, Led Zeppelin were a great, great band.
It would be much more convenient if Robert Plant had never pinched old blues lyrics, or Jimmy Page had never been cavalier about where the inspiration for some of his riffs came from. Really, it would. What they did in the late 60s and early 70s leaves an unpleasant taste. And, in an age where cultural appropriation has, quite justifiably, become something to discuss seriously, it would have been great if their borrowings from the blues had been acknowledged in financial form without those they took from having to go to the courts. But it can’t come as any great surprise to learn that rock stars are not always the most punctilious of people, especially rock stars with a manager as devoted to shoring up their bottom end as Peter Grant was.
But make no mistake: Moby Grape’s failure to become stars wasn’t because Zeppelin stole their thunder. Spirit’s Taurus isn’t less well known than Stairway to Heaven because it was overshadowed. More people know Zeppelin’s version of Dazed and Confused that Jake Holmes’s because it’s more dramatic and exciting.
Whatever happens in the court case next month, Led Zeppelin will not be diminished. The records will still sing to people, whatever a jury decides. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/10/iggy-azalea-pulls-out-of-lgbt-festival-following-protests | Music | 2015-06-10T07:24:51.000Z | Guardian music | Iggy Azalea pulls out of LGBT festival following protests | Iggy Azalea has been forced to pull out of her headline set at Pittsburgh Pride festival, following protests from LGBT groups. The Australian rapper had been under fire for a series of homophobic and racist tweets sent in 2011, before she had reached mainstream attention.
She has since announced that she will no longer be playing as her presence would “further distract from the true purpose of the event.”
The tweets, since deleted, included messages: “Just saw 5 black men get arrested out the front of popeyes. #damn #stereotypes” and “When guys whisper in each others ears I always think its kinda homo”. Azalea defended the tweets at the time of their discovery, saying they were only meant for friends and family.
However, she has now taken the opportunity to make a fuller apology for the tweets. In a statement, the rapper said: “I am a firm believer in equality. Unfortunately in the past as a young person, I used words I should not have. The last thing I want is for something so carelessly said to be interpreted as reflective of my character. I meant no harm and deeply regret ever uttering those words.”
It’s been a difficult 2015 so far for Azalea, who cancelled her Great Escape tour dates after originally rescheduling them. In a recent statement, she said she cancelled the dates because “I just feel I deserve a break.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/tvandradioblog/2015/nov/12/grange-park-opera-move-residence-bamber-gascoigne-stately-home | Music | 2015-11-12T11:46:07.000Z | Aisha Gani | Opera company to move into Bamber Gascoigne's crumbling stately home | The new site of a summer opera festival that rivals those of Glyndebourne and Garsington is to be hosted at the derelict stately home inherited by Bamber Gascoigne, the former University Challenge host has revealed.
Grange Park Opera will take up residence in its new home, nestled in woodland on the TV presenter’s 400-acre estate at West Horsley Place, in Surrey.
The company, which has held 53 productions including Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Mozart’s Don Giovanni, had announced early in the autumn it was in advanced discussions with Gascoigne, 81, who had unexpectedly inherited the estate last year from his great aunt, the Duchess of Roxburghe, to stage the festival there.
The Duchess of Roxburghe’s former country retreat in West Horsley Place, Surrey. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
The design of the 700-seat theatre is based on one of the most celebrated opera houses in the world, La Scala in Milan, which opened in the 18 century. It will feature four tiers of balconies above the stalls, according to plans seen by the Times.
After its final festival at its Hampshire base next year, the opera company plans to settle into West Horsley Place in June 2017, inaugurating its new home with a production of Puccini’s Tosca, starring the Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja.
The future of Grange Park Opera had been in doubt after the curtains fell on its 17-year run at its Hampshire country house home, when the aristocratic owners terminated the lease after a lengthy dispute and announced they had formed a rival company.
Gascoigne told the Times that he and his wife, Christina, had been concerned about how the 50-room Tudor mansion would be maintained. “I suddenly thought, ‘Supposing we turn it into a charity? The purposes of which would be to preserve and maintain the estate but also to turn it into a lively place with things going on, such as the performing arts.’ Step forward Grange Park Opera,” the former quizmaster said.
Some of the duchess’s belongings. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
Gascoigne had vowed to begin carrying out the essential restoration needed to secure the house’s future, arranging with Sotheby’s to sell objects from the house. Auctions of the valuables accrued by the duchess, which were left within the crumbling estate, raised close to £9m towards repairs.
Among the treasures was a study for Flaming June – one of the best known pre-Raphaelite paintings – discovered hanging discreetly behind a bedroom door in the English country mansion, as well the duchess’s Cartier diamond engagement ring, which sold £167,000 – 14 times the highest estimate.
Gascoigne said: “I have had two very great surprises in the past 18 months. The first was the unexpected news that I had been left this beautiful house, the other the proposal made to me by Grange Park Opera. It didn’t take Christina and me long to say ‘Yes, indeed’.
“It was obvious from the start that West Horsley Place is perfect for an opera festival. They are planning to build the theatre tucked away romantically in a wood. A short path through the wood will bring operagoers to our orchard, a magical place of amazingly old fruit trees, perfect for a picnic. A wrought-iron gate leads visitors into semi-formal gardens, areas of mown grass separated by ancient box hedges, which I can imagine already full of the bright tented pavilions for which the Grange Park Opera festival is famous. Roll on the first night!”
Gascoigne in his University Challenge days. Photograph: ITV/Rex
Wasfi Kani, founder of Grange Park Opera, said the Surrey estate marked the beginning of a new act. “The opportunities offered by West Horsley Place are exceptional: its beauty and historic glamour, its location 23 miles from London and the generosity of Christina and Bamber Gascoigne and the Mary Roxburghe Trust.
“I have built a theatre once before, but this new theatre, with a brilliant acoustic and a bigger pit size will allow a greater vision … With the
help of our thousands of generous supporters, Grange Park Opera at Horsley will let us introduce more people than ever, young people especially, to the magic of opera and the wider arts. It will also allow us to give the local area something it can support and own, one of the most powerful reasons for holding a festival in the regions.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/15/the-bothers-cure-write-sentence-school-michael-rosen | Opinion | 2023-09-15T14:00:04.000Z | Michael Rosen | In these troubled times we all get the ‘bothers’ but I have a surefire cure: write them down | Michael Rosen | Treat yourself. Instead of reading the rest of this article, first go and write down something that’s bothering you …
… I’m now assuming you’ve done just that, and have come back to this, the next sentence. My theory is that writing is great for dealing with bothers. We often hear of the talking cure – I’m up for that. I’ve often talked about the doing cure. It’s saved me many times. I think with huge fondness of the gentle way in which colleagues at the BBC quietly nudged me into doable tasks after my son Eddie died. Many people in my situation at that time are not so lucky. Long stretches of nothingness can be tough, straight after a big loss.
I’ve also talked about stretching. Yes, I know about the huge benefits of being active and aerobic: thrashing through water, brambles or traffic are all helpful ways of dealing with tension, sadness, bitterness and anger. Stretching is less exhausting and more contemplative. Yes, I have also heard of yoga, but if you want to stretch in an atheist way, all you have to do is study cats. They do a lot of it.
I’ve also written about the one-good-thing principle. It works like this: make sure that during the day you do one thing you can be proud of. Some days, for me, it might be that I remembered that our cups cupboard is above the glasses cupboard and not the other way round. It might be that I found the book I had been looking for for more than 20 years. Then, just as you go to sleep, you focus on this one thing. You push aside (if that’s how minds work) all the dross, flotsam and dreck, as my mother called it (Yiddish for poo). You just bring your mind round to the One Good Thing. And dwell on it.
All that we know. What I’m talking about is writing.
One major problem for people reading this is that you are all competent readers and writers, schooled in the art of the sentence. Vast chunks of our education were devoted to writing good sentences, well expressed sentences, sentences with subordinate clauses. Writing good sentences is a life sentence. Once we are inducted into it, it becomes very difficult to get out of it.
The sentence was invented to help us make logical sense of the world, that’s why we’ve got words like “if”, “although”, “because”, “whereas” and “since” – to suggest that the phenomena of the world are somehow linked in time, place, cause, contrast and the like. But bother and upset don’t come in sentences. They might benefit from a writing that isn’t for the time being concerned with logic.
Shakespeare knew about this. Listen to Juliet’s father spluttering with rage when Juliet indicates she might not want to go along with his idea of a perfect marriage:
How, how, how, how, chopped-logic! What is this?
“Proud,” and “I thank you,” and “I thank you not,”
And yet “not proud,” mistress minion you?
Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds …
And the modernists – whether poets such as HD or Amy Lowell or prose writers such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf – all discovered that there are times when the sensation of the moment or feeling of a memory is either too fluid or too fragmentary to be captured properly by the sentence.
So here’s the experiment: back with your bother.
Whatever word or phrase comes into your head, write it down. Don’t worry about whether it fills the whole line (part of the tyranny of the sentence!). Don’t worry if it sounds unfinished.
Now wait.
Whatever next thought comes into your mind, write it down underneath that previous line. I call this “unfolding”. Now repeat this unfolding for as short or as long a time as you want. Remember that you can nick anything you want from songs, poems, plays or films that help you express this bother.
‘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
Mine, today, might look something like this:
Losing
Losing the way
Losing my grip
Losing the sense
Losing it
Losing him
Lost
But don’t worry about what mine look like, or about getting them right. They’re yours.
Now, a moment to think about what you’ve done. You’ve taken something out of your mind – a feeling, a thought, an idea – found some words for it, and put it outside yourself. You can now look at it, as if it is separate from you, even though it is connected to you. Now what? You can consider whether you’ve “got it right”. Have you been true to yourself, to that feeling? If not, you can change it. You can reflect on it in any way you like: is that really where I’m at? You can also share it with someone or some people.
This is a whole other ballgame, though. Peopletend to think you’re asking them whether what you’ve written is “good”, whereas the point of this is whether it’s doing you good. The best response is if people wish to have a go themselves, because in sharing bothers we start to find that we are less alone than we’re inclined to think we are.
We find company and help in our similarities and commonalities. So try the “bothers” experiment, see if it works and maybe share it with someone you trust. Writing might not be an instant cure for all your bothers, but it can be a way of feeling less in a hole alone with yourself.
Michael Rosen is a writer and broadcaster. His book Getting Better: Life Lessons on Going Under, Getting Over It, And Getting Through It is published by Ebury Press | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/nov/12/challenge-rishi-sunak-vote-labour-stop-truss-disaster | Politics | 2023-11-12T06:00:13.000Z | Rachel Reeves | I challenge Rishi Sunak: vote with Labour to stop a Truss-style disaster happening again | Rachel Reeves | Leadership is not just about having the conviction to take the right decision. It is about having the strength to follow it through. The behaviour of Suella Braverman last week was deeply irresponsible. At a time when those in power should be working with the police to keep our streets safe, she was undermining them. And at a time when our leaders should be working to bring our communities together, she was trying to pull them apart.
Rishi Sunak knew this. He knew what she was saying and doing was wrong, but he was too weak to do anything about it. Putting party first, country second. Unable to take the tough decisions. It’s a pattern of behaviour we see time and time again from this prime minister – including on the economy.
The British economy is not working. Growth numbers on Friday showed an economy that is flatlining. The Bank of England’s forecasts earlier in the month paint a bleak picture of persistently low growth for years to come. And the cost of living crisis continues to bite for families across the country, with rising prices in the shops and higher mortgage payments.
Our economy – like our country – is crying out for change from the chaos of the past
It angers me that we have got to this place. As a country, we have extraordinary potential. We have some of the most creative minds, innovative companies and impressive universities in the world. We should be leading the global race and instead we are lagging behind.
The responsibility for this economic failure lies squarely at the door of the Conservative party. Now, I know that is an easy thing for a shadow chancellor to say. But the facts speak for themselves. Thirteen years in power, five prime ministers, seven chancellors, austerity, a Brexit without a plan, an economic crash, 25 Tory tax rises and working people worse off. Our economy – like our country – is crying out for change from the chaos of the past.
That starts with taking the action necessary to prevent a repeat of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget. As a former economist at the Bank of England, I know the damage that is done when our institutions are undermined: working people are worse off. When the Conservatives crashed the economy, mortgages and rents soared as interest rates rose. We can never let that happen again.
That is why I have pledged that a future Labour government will strengthen the Office for Budget Responsibility so that any administration making significant, permanent tax and spending changes will be subject to an independent forecast of its impact. This will bring security back to our economy and prevent a rerun of last year’s chaos.
This week Labour will put those plans to a vote in parliament. If Sunak wants to put country first, then he will show the strength to stand up to those in his party who crashed the economy and vote with us. If not, he will prove that all he can offer is more of the same and that the biggest risk to the economy is another five years of the Conservatives.
Labour motion to ban Truss-style budget meltdowns puts pressure on Tory MPs
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I am under no illusion about the scale of the task ahead if Labour wins the election. Just as I have had to say no in opposition, I will have to say no in power. But despite what we might inherit, we have already shown that we have the strength and determination to rise to the challenges ahead. A plan to fix our broken planning system so we can build the homes, rail and infrastructure we need. A plan to work in partnership with business to invest in the industries of the future so we can cut bills, create jobs and tackle the climate crisis. And a plan to make work pay by introducing a genuine living wage to create good, well-paid jobs. A bold, credible plan that will make working people better off.
With Keir Starmer’s leadership, we have shown the strength and determination to change the Labour party. In power, we will show the strength and determination to change our country for the better.
Rachel Reeves is Labour’s shadow chancellor of the exchequer | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/apr/25/samantha-morton-the-unloved | Film | 2009-04-24T23:01:00.000Z | Simon Hattenstone | Samantha Morton: 'I was abused for a long time and I retaliated' | Samantha Morton wants to get one thing straight. She does not think of herself as a film director. Has no aspirations in that area. This is a one-off. Just something she had to get out of her system. For half her life, she's wanted to tell this story, needed to tell this story, and now she's done it, so she's happy to leave it at that. The Unloved is a bleak and beautiful drama about a little girl in a care home. The girl, Lucy, just happens to have ice-blue eyes and look how we might imagine the young Sam to look. She is rejected by her mother, beaten by her father, thrown into a Nottinghamshire home where she gets into trouble with the police, runs away time and again, and witnesses yet more abuse. All the time, she is looking for one thing: love. Somebody to love her, somebody she can love. Everything in the film is seen from Lucy's perspective. We stare up towards an adult waist and the terrifying prospect of a belt being unbuckled, sounds are heightened (birdsong, a running bath, the swish of the belt), and elements of the story are left unexplained because Lucy simply does not know, for example, why her mother can't look after her. She could be selfish, physically ill, mentally ill, or all three. The Unloved is Ken Loach on downers. It offers little in the way of hope or consolation - and it is a brilliant depiction of aloneness.
Morton, now 31, was 16 when she started storyboarding the film. She was living in a hostel for the homeless when she read an article about a young prostitute in Nottingham and realised this was somebody she had known in care. Years later, she read about two other girls she'd known who had also become prostitutes and had been murdered. The reports had a huge impact on her. She wanted to tell their stories, and her own story, and create something fictional, all at the same time. She started to write scripts, but rejected them as rubbish. "I'm not a writer. I think I can write short stories and poetry, but film writing, brilliant film writing, is a talent - you can't just do it like that." She clicks her fingers.
Eventually, she asked Tony Grisoni, who adapted David Peace's Red Riding trilogy for television, to write the screenplay, and he created a film that is not about murdered prostitutes, and not literally her life story, but is close enough to make her family shudder with recognition.
"There are a lot of similarities between me and Lucy, but my mum and my dad and my eight brothers and sisters can all watch the film and go, 'We know that's not our story, but we get why she's done it.' At the same time I do love them and I do respect them, and I'm not about to exploit them."
Morton was first taken into care as a baby. She never learned why as a child, and remains unsure to this day. Everybody concerned - mother, father, social services - has a different version of the truth. Family life was certainly not helped when her father got the 15-year-old babysitter pregnant (he went on to marry her) and her mother moved in with an alcoholic. There were times when Morton returned to live with her father until she was eight. Then she was made a ward of court, which meant she could never return home - again, something she didn't know at the time. She describes her father as a "brilliant man", a huge influence on her life, so desperate to be a good dad. She has not always felt like this about him.
Did he hit her? "Yes. Yep." Badly? "Yep." The most horrific thing about the violence in The Unloved is its inevitability. However senseless, and however much Lucy's father tries to stop himself, we know just what's coming next. He even provides a tortured running commentary as his willpower fails him. I ask Morton if her father hit her in a similar way. "I think anybody who has been abused as a kid - and I was abused as a kid, by various people - will say it's irrational because violence is irrational. It is a criminal offence for you to hit me or me to hit you, but it is not a criminal offence for a parent to hit a child. What gives one person the right to be violent with another person, especially a person who cannot understand? Baby P... My mind boggles at the amount of violence inflicted upon children in today's society."
When I first meet Morton I don't recognise her. As an actress, she has a remarkable gift for playing real people rather than "characters"; in films such as Control and Under The Skin, she is unadorned, simply dressed, raw to the core. Today, she looks as if she's stepped straight off the set of a Victorian melodrama. Her hair is wrapped, dense and high, in a bird's nest, her dress low cut, full-length and floral, her fingers clamped in vintage rings. But this is not Morton in character, this is Morton as herself. "I look like a cross between an Enid Blyton character and a prostitute." She laughs, quietly at first, then louder and louder, like a batty Julie Walters creation of 20 years ago, She's always been locked into the past, she says.
In The Unloved, Lucy hardly says a word. Rather than living her life, she seems to be observing it. Morton says this is common in abused children. "You read a lot about this in psychology, how children almost astral project. They throw themselves out of their body and it's almost bordering on the autistic spectrum. They are spectators of their reality. They are quite numb." That's why the sound is so heightened, she says, because Lucy is living in the echo-chamber of her own head.
From the age of eight, Morton moved between care homes and foster parents. Any number of them - she can't remember how many. She says The Unloved is a censored version of what she experienced. What did she dilute? "Violence, sexual abuse, torture..." If she had included everything, nobody would have believed her, and anyway, it was always intended to be a film that children could watch. "I'm not going to make a children's film and turn it into a horror film. I wanted to make a film that someone from the age of 13 could watch and get, and it would change them." It was also important to Morton that the film would be shown on television before its cinema release. After all, she says, that's where people such as her experienced film for the first time, watching the likes of Kes on the telly at school.
It's funny, she says, when she was really little she was a right scrapper, frightened of nothing or nobody. "If somebody bullied someone else, I'd go and knock them out." Then she withdrew into herself. And eventually she found a new kind of strength. "One day I just thought, what can you do to me, really?" She sings me a line from the Robin Hood song: "He's a fighter not looking for a fight" and says that's her. "My answer in my late adolescence was not fight back. It was to say, you can do anything to me but you won't really upset me. That's why Psalm 27 is at the beginning of the film: 'The Lord is my light... Whom shall I fear?' Because you can do anything to me, physically, but you can't get in here," she says pointing to her heart, or maybe her soul. The Catholicism she grew up with - iconic imagery, knees sore from praying, guilt - never really leaves you, she says, no matter how much you might think you have left it.
Morton went to a good comprehensive school, neighbouring a wealthy area. But she always felt an outsider. "The houses on that road are million-pound ones, yet I was living in a children's home two buses away, where I was up most nights because of riots or sharing a room with a prostitute. You can't get your homework done and you fall behind." At 13, she left school for the last time, spending most of her early teens raving, taking ecstasy and hallucinogenics with older children and young adults, lawless and lost. Sometimes she returned, or was returned, to the homes or foster parents. Between 13 and 14, she was homeless for almost a year, sleeping at friends' houses or in bus shelters.
How close does she think she was to screwing up her life irredeemably? "Massively. Completely. Massively." Does she think she could have ended up selling sex, like the friends who were murdered? "No, not that kind of darkness. No, for me it was drugs."
Although Morton turned her back on school, she was jealous of those who had a regular education. "I had a massive chip on my shoulder, like a big bag of McCains. I walked past the girls' high school in Nottingham, a private school, and I'd see them bunking off, and I'd think, you twats, your parents are spending a fortune on your education. I was very bitter, I suppose. My appetite for knowledge and literature and music was massive. The reason I didn't go to school was because, at that point, I'd already - excuse my language - fucked it because I'd run away so much when I was younger." So she determined to educate herself. "Someone said to me if you read the Guardian and the Times every day, you'll learn everything you need to know." Who was it? "A drug dealer of mine." She smiles.
Presumably, much of her anger was directed at her parents? No, she says instantly. "Never, never my parents. Always authority. Always the establishment. That's because I grew up in Nottinghamshire in the 80s with Margaret Thatcher destroying everything." As for her mother, she says she would make a great character in a Loach film. "She lost a lot of her rights as a woman and a mother very early on. I'm not going into it too much, it's her business." It's surprising, and touching, how protective she is of her parents. "Just because somebody doesn't bring up their children or can't look after their children doesn't make them a bad person," she says of her mother. "There are all sorts of reasons - illness. There are so many reasons you can end up in care."
In addition to raving, her other source of release through her early teens was acting. Here she could lose herself in a healthier way. At 13, she was picked to join the Central Television Workshop for young actors. Her intensity marked her out as special and a little scary - if she was asked to improvise conflict, it would often nearly end in a fight.
At 16, she moved to London and was cast in roles uncomfortably close to her own history - in Cracker she played a pregnant teenager (Morton had an abortion at 16), a car thief in Boon, a junkie, homicidal prostitute in Band Of Gold.
She has a knack of bringing a disarming, everyday quality to extreme characters. In Under The Skin, one of her first starring roles, Iris is a woman numb with grief who beds stranger after stranger as she tries to force her way back into feeling. As Myra Hindley in Longford she flits from vulnerable tenderness to monstrous manipulation, toying with us so subtly that we're never sure where we stand. Occasionally, her characters are so quiet they almost disappear - in Control, it is such a shock when downtrodden Debbie Curtis finally raises her voices and stands up for herself, you almost jump out of your seat.
Good actors are often said to unpeel layers of skin in front of us. At her best, Morton doesn't seem to have skin in the first place. Sometimes, I say, acting almost appears to be an out-of-body experience for her. She nods enthusiastically: "When I do takes at work, if I'm not completely somewhere else I always have to go again. It's almost like madness." And she says that she's unlikely to direct another film, however well The Unloved does. "I'm an actor. That's what I'm gifted at. It's what makes me breathe. People say when they self-harm it's to breathe, to live. My self-harm, if you like, is acting, because I feel alive when I do it. I cannot live without it."
In the past she has said things got so bad that in her mid-teens she contemplated killing herself. I ask why, and she goes quiet. Look, she says, you're young and homeless, you're involved in drugs and crime, you think you're in control and you're anything but. "You're still a kid and you think you're a grown-up. I did awful things at times, and I did those awful things through being under the influence of drugs or not being kind to myself and not loving myself and not knowing how to be kind." She pauses.
"Between the ages of 14 and 16 I was in a very dark place and then came out of it."
"Were you stealing a lot?"
"Um, yeah, but no," she says. "I had to steal my food. I stole from shops to eat, and that's different from stealing for the sake of it, for fun or a dare."
How did that darkness express itself? Through depression? "No. I got into trouble with the police quite seriously as a kid. And I thought, this could affect the rest of my life."
Did you get convicted? "As a mother I have to be very careful what I say. Everything I say to you now I have to feel I could have that conversation with my children because it's going to be in print." Did the conviction result in a sentence? "Yes." For a week or a month or a year? "It was an 18-week sentence at an attendance centre."
And was that what changed you? "Yes, revolutionised me. I felt humbled, I felt remorse, I felt embarrassed. I felt better than the way I was treating myself. I was a twat. I was a little twat. I can be kinder to myself and say there were reasons why, but at the end of the day you can't justify certain things, you have to grow up and get on with it."
We talk a week later. She's been thinking a lot about the conviction and says that if ever there were a time to talk about it, it's now, with the film. "I was physically abused, bullied by someone for a long time, and I retaliated. We were kids, products of a crap environment. The only person I hurt in the end was myself."
She explains what happened. "There was a riot in the home, a fire, it was like a mini Strangeways. The police were already there, and I'd been tripping and was still a bit out of it. I threatened to kill the girl and picked up a knife. I didn't touch her - wouldn't have touched her - but the police restrained me and then arrested me.
"I was locked in a cell for three days. It was terrible. I just sat there thinking, I don't want this life - I'm not a petty criminal, I'm not a thug. But that's how they were treating me, understandably. I was so ashamed of myself."
The case went to the local youth court, then the crown court. She was charged with attempted murder, but was eventually convicted of the lesser charge of threats to kill. Morton says there was a terrible sense of history repeating itself; her stepfather, whom she calls inspirational, was in prison at the time - for attempted murder. "Some of the homes I was in were fine, but this place was awful. It's being closed down now. I go into homes today and see kids like I was, like this girl was, and I just want to take them home and look after them."
Even today, the conviction has an impact on her life. Whenever she wants to travel to America to work, she has to fight for a visa. "When I did Sweet And Lowdown, I had to sit down with Woody Allen and explain everything. Awful. It happens all the time."
On the one hand her childhood is in the past - but it's a past she's still coming to terms with. "Look," she says, "things have gone swimmingly since I was 16." It's largely true. She has worked consistently, she has made blockbusters in Hollywood (Minority Report with Tom Cruise), she's been nominated for two Oscars (Allen's Sweet And Lowdown and Jim Sheridan's In America), and starred in more than her fair share of British arthouse classics (Morvern Callar, Control, Under The Skin). She has made money along the way, campaigned against the closure of state-funded children's homes (however corrupted they are, in some cases they remain the safest option) and been embraced as one of the great actors of her generation.
"And two children," she interjects. "I think the best thing in my life is my ability to be in a stable relationship. For anybody who has been in care or moved around a lot, it's very tough to form strong, lasting relationships. And that's what I'm proudest of." She has been with her fiancé, Harry Holm, son of actor Ian Holm, for four years. Their baby, Edie, is 15 months old. "He's my first serious partner. Anybody who has been in care says if you achieve that, that is success. You're happy." They live in London with the two children and five cats. She used to have 11 - most of them strays. "People bring them to me. I think of myself as a cat foster mum."
Yet, in true Morton fashion, not everything has been easy. She split up with the father of her older daughter, Esme, now nine, before the birth. She has a history of troubled relationships. Professionally, she got a reputation for being difficult. (Fair enough, she says, she was difficult in the past, telling crew members to shut it if they were chatting away when she was giving her all - she works hard and expects others to do so, too.) And two years ago she suffered a freak stroke after her ceiling collapsed on her. She says it was terrifying, especially as a young mother. "A piece of 17th-century plaster fell on my head. I went to the hospital and everything was OK, and then it wasn't. I spent a long time in rehab learning how to walk and getting better, and then went straight off to make Synecdoche, New York." Is she OK now? "I still have a slight disfluency, sentences are spaced differently, but I was given a clean bill of health."
She knows how lucky she's been - in every way. But she's not one for complacency. There's always something nudging her, whispering in her ear, asking if she's making the best use of her life. "There are days when I thank my lucky stars that I'm OK and that I'm sane, and wonder how I ended up doing this job. Then there are days when I think, is this the right job for me still? Shouldn't I be doing something in social care or politics?"
Does she think she will some day? "Yeah, definitely. I think I will combine the two and find my way, doing something with charity work, and helping the government with reform of the way children are treated, educating young people. Some people have had a tough time, they've been in care or whatever, and they leave it behind them. Off they go and ride off into the sunset with a nice house and, y'know..." She pauses. "I'm always going back. It's still so much part of me." | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/dec/22/in-need-of-last-minute-christmas-decorations-try-the-great-outdoors | Life and style | 2023-12-22T11:00:53.000Z | Alice Vincent | In need of last-minute Christmas decorations? Try the great outdoors! | Ho, ho, ho-w’s your tree looking? I grew up in a household built on comforting regularity. We would, unfailingly, buy our Christmas tree on the weekend before Christmas and begrudgingly pack everything back in the box for the attic just before Twelfth Night. This was the 90s, so the carpet would be smothered in pine needles by New Year’s Day, but nevertheless, we persisted.
It’s clearly something that’s stayed with me because when I saw people merrily carrying home Christmas trees during the last weekend in November, I couldn’t shake the sense that it was somewhat early. But this seems to be the way of things now: a full month of decorative spruce before throwing it to the curb come 27 December.
Forget the plastic stuff – it never looks convincing, and is one big carbon footprint in your cupboard
I have forged my own traditions as an adult, namely a year-on, year-off approach to Christmas decorations. This will inevitably dissolve as the baby grows up but it works for now: last year we had an 8ft wonder in the window, strung with ribbon and glass, while the mantel and bookshelves wore shiny fringing and paper chains in matching hues. This year, I’m frankly too exhausted.
But it’s not too late! Christmas Day may be but three days away, but if you’re not frantically marinating a large bird now’s the time to fill your home with greenery. Forget the plastic stuff (it never looks convincing and is one big carbon footprint taking space in your cupboard) and embrace the natural decorations waiting outside your door.
If you have a garden this will be easier. The traditional stuff can be found in most British domestic gardens and you’d be amazed at how much less space it takes up once it’s inside your house. A few sprigs of yew, box or fir can work wonders as a tough and tufty structure that can run along a table or across a shelf, ready for some fairy lights. But look to the skeletons of dying-back perennials, too: wafty grasses, the delicate flowerheads of hydrangeas and honesty and, if you’re lucky, the festive red swell of rosehips can all be used with aplomb.
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Stock up on amaryllis bulbs now for a riot of colour to lift the January gloom
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Before I had a garden, I’d make a wreath with off-cuts I’d taken from the nearby woods. Forage responsibly, if you’re going to do it: make sure you have permission, only take what you need (which is less than you think – one carrier bagful is enough) and only take from plants and areas where there is an abundance, as berries, leaves and flowers all provide sustenance for small creatures. Holly, ivy and mistletoe are plentiful if you keep your eyes open. Moss is very helpful for adding bulk to a wreath, extra greenery and covering things up.
Once you’ve got your haul inside, a lot can be done with little vessels: small bottles and vases can be tucked inside a sausage of chicken wire to make an impressive mantlescape, or just dotted along a table with a few springs in among the candles. Who needs a tree? | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/apr/06/bordeaux-saracens-champions-cup-rugby-union-match-report | Sport | 2024-04-06T18:43:24.000Z | Gerard Meagher | Bordeaux crush Saracens in Champions Cup as Bielle-Biarrey and García shine | The light is dying on Saracens’ dynasty. There was a little bit of early raging against it here, some bloody mindedness in the face of concerted dominance from a Bordeaux side who highlighted their title credentials, but the journey is nearly at an end for what was not so long ago one of the great domestic sides of the modern era.
Bordeaux beat up Saracens, then spread their wings with Louis Bielle-Biarrey scoring twice and rubbed their opponents’ faces in it. That Alex Goode waited for the clock to go red before taking his conversion at the death made it plain for all to see that Saracens just wanted to be put out of their misery.
Ethan Roots caps fightback to send Exeter into Champions Cup last eight
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For Bordeaux it was an awesome performance and one that Harlequins, who they meet in the quarter-finals, will have been watching from behind the sofa. Not only did they dump out the three-times champions but they highlighted the considerable gulf in class between the cream of the crop on either side of the Channel.
Owen Farrell was absent with a hamstring injury but in attendance at the Stade Chaban-Delmas – a penny for his thoughts as his Champions Cup involvement with Saracens came to a disappointing end. Truth be told, there was little he could have done on the pitch but such is his warrior spirit that he would have been desperate to be in the thick of it, fighting against the tide.
Quick Guide
Champions Cup roundup
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He is not the only club stalwart moving on in the summer, the Vunipola brothers appear to be off too, and Mark McCall has repeatedly said this season that it is time for a refresh. Perhaps the best way to describe this defeat is the perfect evidence of why. Saracens are an ageing team in need of a refit. They ran into a Bordeaux side who were also missing their talismanic fly-half in Matthieu Jalibert but had too much power, too much skill for their opponents, even with five tries disallowed in the first half.
They ultimately finished with six and left their supporters in raptures in this delightful relic of a stadium plonked in the middle of Bordeaux. It turned 100 years old last month and the Bordeaux faithful are evidently still celebrating because it was shaking to the core throughout.
Credit Saracens for their defensive resilience in the first half, credit Theo McFarland for the way that he dug in but such was Bordeaux’s ascendancy that Saracens offered almost nothing in attack in the first half and not a great deal in the second.
In fairness, they had come more in hope than expectation. Hope that the final chapter in this competition has not yet been written. Farrell’s absence came as an obvious setback but Jalibert is every bit as important to Bordeaux and while at times they looked as if they were playing another sport entirely in their 55-15 pool stage win over Saracens in January, the suspicion was that they had slipped off the boil.
The manner in which they began put paid to that theory. Maxime Lucu darted through a gap on Saracens’ 22 and kicked ahead for Bielle-Biarrey to set about the chase. The France winger got there but could not quite ground the ball and Saracens had a reprieve. They had plenty more in the first half. Bordeaux’s fierce counter-rucking was making yards all the more hard to come by for Saracens but with McFarland’s aerial prowess and after Alex Lewington’s 50:22 they enjoyed a rare foray into their opponents’ 22 and might have scored the opening try had Goode’s clever grubber sat up for either Ben Earl or Lewington.
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García celebrates scoring a try for rampant Bordeaux in their one-sided victory. Photograph: James Crombie/INPHO/Shutterstock
The Saracens dam finally burst three minutes before the break, shortly after Maro Itoje had been shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on, with Mateo García diving over after a smart break from Romain Buros. He had another soon after the restart after a stunning pass from Tevita Tatafu, just as the No 8 was falling into touch, and Nicolas Depoortère added the third try around the hour mark.
Bielle-Biarrey scampered away and under the posts for another and Depoortère raced over for his second before Lewington’s consolation score for Saracens but the 20-year-old soon had his third. Tom Willis’s late try came against his former club but will not be particularly memorable given the circumstances. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/nov/09/american-pharoah-named-to-forward-50-list-of-2015s-most-influential-jews | Sport | 2015-11-09T14:05:28.000Z | Bryan Armen Graham | American Pharoah named to Forward 50 list of 2015's most influential Jews | Triple Crown champion. Breeders’ Cup Classic winner. Jewish icon.
American Pharoah has been named to the Jewish Daily Forward’s annual Forward 50 list of notable and newsworthy Jews.
The bay colt, who in June became the first thoroughbred in 37 years to win the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes, was honored by the 118-year-old newspaper in a nod to Egyptian-born owner Ahmed Zayat, the Yeshiva University graduate and Orthodox Jew whose largesse and philanthropic efforts for Jewish causes is well documented.
American Pharoah wins, and fans enjoy the day at Belmont Park – in pictures
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The Zayat Stables homebred is in good company on this year’s Forward 50, unveiled on Sunday, whose top five names include Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, comedian Amy Schumer, same-sex marriage activist Evan Wolfson, MacArthur genius grant winner Marina Rustow and community activist and live kidney donor Mendy Reiner.
The three-year-old son of Pioneerof the Nile and Littleprincessemma became the first Triple Crown champion to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic with a wire-to-wire win on 30 October at Keeneland. The first-place finish, his ninth in 11 lifetime starts, lifted his career earnings to $8.65m.
In June, American Pharoah made national headlines in becoming the 12th horse – and first since 1978 – to sweep America’s three most celebrated races, joining Sir Barton (1919), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977) and Affirmed (1978). | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/02/de-la-soul-shepherds-bush-empire-review | Music | 2014-05-02T16:24:22.000Z | Betty Clarke | De La Soul review – hip-hop pioneers stay playful and rebellious | In 1989 De La Soul were three college kids who challenged hip hop stereotypes and tore up convention simply by having fun. Their debut album, Three Feet High and Rising turned them into international pop stars, but 25 years on their motivation is the same. "It don't mean shit if you don't party," says David Jude Jolicoeur – AKA Trugoy the Dove – sagely.
Their blend of beats, bass and bounce were inspirational, and their eclectic sampling (from Liberace to Funkadelic) and affection for MOR and positivity set them apart from contemporaries such as Public Enemy. The New York trio always went their own way and Jolicoeur confirms nothing's changed. "Whatever you expect tonight, fuck it," he says. "It's probably not going to happen."
So there's no faithful run-through of Three Feet High and Rising, or delicate trip through the daisy age. This is a rambunctious celebration of all things De La Soul and about giving them due respect. "I've earned it," Jolicoeur says, demanding the crowd get off their seats and to their feet, where they stay all night.
DJ Vincent Mason (Maseo) spins and scratches vinyl from atop a high stage while Jolicoeur and Kelvin Mercer (Posdnuos) encourage wild participation in A Roller Skating Jam Named "Saturdays", Stakes Is High and a joy-fuelled Me, Myself and I. After all this time, the trio obviously still enjoy not just their music but each other's company, and often collapse in laughter. When Mason takes to the mic for the Grammy-winning Gorillaz' collaboration Feel Good Inc he shrieks demonically in Mercer's ear.
With the soundsystem squashing all subtlety from Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) and Oooh!, De La Soul wisely put the emphasis on having a good time.
And while they are far from the boys that rocked the hip-hop scene so spectacularly, they've retained the playful, rebellious spirit that marked their debut. Spotting someone with a lighter, Jolicoeur says: "Crack is whack, but weed is good!" Then he adds "No disrespect to the venue. We love the laws but we break 'em."
Saturday May 3, The Arches, Glasgow (0141-565 1000) then touring. Venue website. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/11/tusk-review-kevin-smith-toronto-film-festival-horror-walrus | Film | 2014-09-11T17:11:27.000Z | Henry Barnes | Tusk review: Kevin Smith seals his comeback with walrus horror show | Silly and sick, with very little blubber, Tusk, a comedy-horror about a man who is turned into a walrus, is the first great Kevin Smith film since Dogma. A spin-off from an episode of the Smodcast, Smith’s internet radio show, it’s as self-referential as any of the exuberant director’s duds, but it’s refreshingly self-deprecating too.
Justin Long plays Wallace Bryton, an arrogant arsehole who hosts LA comedy podcast “The Not-See Party” with his best friend Teddy (Haley Joel Osment). The duo specialise in interviewing freaks and weirdos, then trashing them on air. Wallace’s cruelty has made him rich, but it’s hard work, finding fresh mockables. His latest target – The Kill Bill Kid – has committed suicide, mortified that a video of him accidentally slicing off a limb with a samurai sword has gone viral. Wallace needs another freakshow quick. He doesn’t realise it’ll be his name on the marquee.
Tusk is based on a 2013 Gumtree advert posted by a Brighton man who said he had lived a life of adventure on the high seas. He recalled being stranded on St Lawrence Island for three years with only a walrus for company. He named him Gregory. Never had he had such a deep friendship “human or otherwise”. Now the sailor was lonely and wanted a flatmate. The rent was two hours a day, spent sewn into a “realistic walrus costume”. He would begin auditioning Gregorys immediately.
The ad was a fake, but Smith and his friend Scott Mosier took the bait. They hashed out a structure for a Hammer-style horror about the sailor live on their podcast. They gave the mariner a back-story, imagined who could play the lodger (they wanted John Cusack), even imagined the pitfalls (“It could get too Human Centipede”). To listen to the podcast is to hear the film come to life.
The result is a creepy, funny film that punctures the inflated ego of the geek made good. An imprisonment horror, like Misery if Annie Wilkes had gone beyond hobbling to stitching in fins. Long is superb as Wallace, the cocky little punk who barges into terror while looking for a story to exploit. Better still is Michael Parks, a regular for Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, who plays Howard Howe, the ancient mariner who traps him in his net. Howard’s sanity is slipperier than a mackerel. He’s built an aquarium in the basement, stocked up the fridge with fish. He’s ready for his new friend, “Mr Tusk”, to move in.
Outside the house of horror the action sometimes jumps the line. Teddy and Wallace’s girlfriend Ally (Genesis Rodriguez) recruit a French-Canadian detective, Guy Lapointe, to help them reel in the kidnapper. Lapointe, who is played by Johnny Depp, is a cluster of French-Canadian stereotypes (he’s even named after an ice hockey player). It’s a less wilfully kooky turn than many of his recent roles, but it’s still a caricature, and a fairly shallow one. Smith saw the potential for the film to lose focus way back when he was batting the idea around on his podcast. He worried about moving the action away from the mariner’s house for too long. His gut instinct was right.
Wallace is made to learn the ways of the walrus. The sailor finds the friendship he’s been fishing for for so long. Tusk is disgusting and gutsy, but mainly, fun. The lo-fi genius of Clerks, Smith’s calling card, lies some 20 years behind him. He’s often floundered since. Tusk brings him back to shore.
Full coverage of Toronto 2014 | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/22/do-australian-catholic-hospitals-perform-abortions-provide-contraception-reproductive-care | Australia news | 2023-08-21T15:00:19.000Z | Donna Lu | ‘I was shocked’: Catholic-run public hospitals refuse to provide birth control and abortion | When Sarah*, a Melbourne mother, was pregnant with her second child, her GP gave her a surprising warning: if she had any serious complications, concerns about the viability of the pregnancy or believed she might be miscarrying, she should go to the Royal Women’s hospital rather than the Mercy Hospital for Women, where she was planning to deliver the baby.
The reason, the GP told her, was that the Mercy – a public hospital in Melbourne’s north-east – would not assist in terminating a pregnancy due to its Catholic affiliation.
“Further along the pregnancy, when I was part of the midwife program, I asked one of the Mercy midwives and she confirmed it was against the Mercy’s policy,” Sarah says.
“I was kind of shocked. It’s a public hospital and we’re a secular country, so it didn’t make sense.” The midwife “agreed it was a silly policy, but their hands were tied”. Fortunately, Sarah delivered her baby in March without complications.
Like a number of publicly funded Catholic hospitals around Australia, the Mercy’s religious affiliation limits the scope of reproductive services it provides. “Sexual assault does not get seen at the Mercy specifically because they can’t provide morning-after contraception,” claims a senior gynaecologist who works in Melbourne and asked to remain anonymous.
Women who ask for a tubal ligation – a permanent contraceptive procedure that involves surgically blocking or clipping the fallopian tubes – after delivering via caesarean section will also usually have their request denied. “The trainees know that it’s a Catholic hospital and that you can’t tie tubes,” the gynaecologist says. “That means that some of those women are being forced to get a second anaesthetic because they’re having their tubes tied six months later at the [neighbouring] Austin hospital.”
2:43
How Catholic-run Australian public hospitals refuse to provide abortions and contraception – video
Prior to the Covid pandemic, doctors worked around the religious constraints by walking women who wanted Implanon contraceptive implants or intrauterine devices (IUDs) down the corridor to have the procedures performed at the Austin. “It’s not a good feeling,” says a doctor who works as an abortion provider in Melbourne. “Every time you have to use a loophole, it means that you’re still creating stigma for the patient.” Doctors say since the pandemic, some contraception is now being administered onsite at the Mercy.
A spokesperson for Mercy Health said: “Patients present to Mercy with any range of issues and situations, including sexual assault. Clinicians use clinical judgment, with reference to the Catholic Code of Ethics and established partnership arrangements with other public health services to ensure patients receive the comprehensive care they need.”
Following years of concerns about access to women’s health services, a Senate inquiry into reproductive healthcare access tabled a report of recommendations in May. But doctors and family planning advocates say the inquiry has failed to tackle one of the most galling issues: publicly funded hospitals denying women basic reproductive healthcare.
‘It’s really stigmatising’
The Mercy is one of 15 Catholic public hospitals in Australia, at least five of which provide specialist maternity or gynaecology care. Despite public funding, multiple hospitals are bound by Catholic Health Australia’s code of ethics, which prohibits birth control, IVF and abortions, even after rape.
Women who give birth in the public system are typically assigned to a health service according to their residential address, and this may be a Catholic hospital if they live in that catchment area. Many hospitals will not treat patients who fall out of the catchment zone, creating what some family planning workers describe as a postcode lottery for access to services.
Daile Kelleher, CEO of Children by Choice, describes the lack of reproductive services at the Mater as ‘the elephant in the room’ in Queensland’s hospital system. Photograph: Dan Peled/The Guardian
At Brisbane’s Mater hospital, which multiple experts described to Guardian Australia as the most advanced obstetric hospital in Queensland, doctors are unable to prescribe the pill or insert Mirena IUDs without obfuscating or fabricating their purpose.
“The Mater will prescribe contraception for things like acne or heavy menstrual bleeding,” says a doctor who has worked as an obstetrics registrar there. Contraception itself is not a permissible reason.
“I’ve provided referrals to [abortion and contraception provider MSI Australia] for medical termination … It’s at the discretion of the doctor. The speech I give is that this is a Catholic hospital and we don’t do that, but here are some services that do.”
It was an alien concept to me to have religion involved in healthcare, which should be an evidence-based public provision
Dr Catriona Melville, MSI Australia
Another doctor, who trained in obstetrics at the Mater, recalls being told by a senior colleague when she asked about prescribing a patient an IUD: “You’ll need to change or modify the reason for why you would give her a Mirena.
“He did say we’re not allowed to give the Mirena as a contraceptive. I just remember thinking that was really terrible.
“They didn’t offer tubal ligation basically for anyone. It’s a public hospital and any other hospital would do that.”
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Daile Kelleher, the chief executive of Children by Choice, describes the lack of reproductive services at the Mater as “the elephant in the room” because of its status as one of the largest obstetrics and training hospitals in Queensland. “Everybody knows it’s an issue and no one wants to do anything about it,” she says.
Children by Choice offers Queensland-wide counselling services for pregnancy decision-making. Its counsellors dread hearing that someone lives south of the Brisbane River in the Mater’s catchment area. “[The counsellors] have supported people … to literally put someone else’s address on their records so they can access something north of the river,” Kelleher says.
“We’ve heard of people being turned away from the Mater … with suicidality and attempted self-abortion. If you look at the legislation in Queensland, even if there is conscientious objection, you can’t turn someone away in an emergency.
“We have people who have really wanted pregnancies who get exceptional care from the Mater, who have a foetal anomaly or fatal foetal diagnosis, and [then] they’re basically told, ‘Sorry, that’s where our care ends and we can’t continue to support you if you’re going to be terminating this pregnancy.’
“It’s really stigmatising, it’s really judgmental and it creates shame. It puts them out of the public system and into the private system … to access termination of pregnancy.”
‘Obviously the person that suffers most is the patient’: Catriona Melville, deputy medical director at MSI Australia. Photograph: Olessia McGregor
It’s a reality gynaecologist Dr Catriona Melville, the MSI Australia deputy medical director, found “shocking” when she first moved from Scotland to Australia. “I realised fairly quickly that there are religious hospitals … and that generally most of them will not provide the full gamut of sexual and reproductive health services. So contraception, abortion being the main ones, but obviously contraception for men as well, such as vasectomy.
“It was an alien concept to me to have religion involved in healthcare, which should be an evidence-based public provision. It was a cultural shock for me as an internationally trained doctor, landing in Queensland as a reproductive health specialist.”
She adds: “We have been contacted by medical staff from public hospitals who can’t get advanced training in contraception.” MSI has accommodated some of these doctors for observerships in its clinics.
Melville says there are a variety of reasons people choose to work in large hospitals “even if they don’t agree with the religious principles”.
“Doctors do understand when they sign up that this is the framework they will be working under, which is extremely limiting for them, but obviously the person that suffers most is the patient,” she says.
“Individual clinicians treat people well, but their hands are tied.”
In Queensland, there are additional concerns about reproductive health access because the Mater is contracted to run a flying obstetrics and gynaecology service in regional areas. It is also building a 174-bed public hospital in Springfield, south-west of Brisbane, which includes maternity services and to which Annastacia Palaszczuk’s government has already pledged an initial $177m in funding.
The story is similar in other jurisdictions. In Perth, the St John of God Midland public hospital provides maternity care, “but of course people who require contraception before going home with their babies have to go elsewhere, which creates barriers to access”, says Dr Alison Creagh, a sexual and reproductive health specialist in Western Australia.
Positive birth stories exist and pregnant women deserve to hear them
Sophie Walker
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“As you can imagine, having a new child makes it difficult to see another health service to get your contraception sorted,” she says. “I’m really shocked that it was allowed to happen in the first place and I think that should be rectified as soon as that’s possible.
“It’s an essential service, both to people wanting to access the service but also for the doctors who are wanting to train in comprehensive either gynaecology or primary care.”
In the ACT, an inquiry into abortion services in April was critical of the Catholic-run Calvary public hospital’s refusal to provide “full reproductive health services in accordance with human rights”. One woman who had experienced an incomplete miscarriage was refused a dilation and curettage at Calvary because the procedure is also used for abortions, the inquiry heard. The inquiry report was updated in June to clarify that the woman was advised by her obstetrician that Calvary would not provide a D&C because her condition was not an emergency. The update reflected that the evidence demonstrated community unease about what services Calvary may or may not provide, which would be resolved if the hospital provided “full reproductive health care”. The ACT government has since acquired the hospital in a forced takeover.
Unrecognised and underestimated: the fight to get Australian women proper care after miscarriages
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A spokesperson for Catholic Health Australia said that “CHA members are dedicated to making sure every woman entering its hospitals receives the care she needs”.
“Our member hospitals respect a woman’s right to make medical decisions in line with her own conscience. We understand these can be difficult decisions, involving difficult circumstances and time constraints, and pastoral care and counselling are available.
“If a clinician at a CHA member hospital believes the continuation of a pregnancy poses a serious threat to the health or life of the mother, they will carry out the necessary interventions, consistent with the patient’s wishes and consent.”
“If a clinician in a CHA member hospital makes the clinical judgment that the use of birth control is necessary for medical reasons, then the code of ethical standards supports them in that decision.”
The Mater and St John of God Midland referred Guardian Australia to the statement made by CHA.
Unlikely to change
In July the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, indicated the federal government was unlikely to go as far as requiring public hospitals to provide abortions in return for their funding.
That seems unlikely to change, given the Senate inquiry into reproductive healthcare access recommended in May that publicly funded hospitals only “be equipped” to provide surgical pregnancy terminations. The inquiry’s chair, the Greens senator Larissa Waters, says this is a problem.
“They stopped short of making it a requirement for all hospitals receiving public funding, or requiring the commonwealth to fund the local affordable alternative service,” she says. “Without fully funded referral pathways, people who cannot access a termination through their local hospital are at a significant disadvantage. And this will be felt even more acutely by people in rural and regional Australia and those without a Medicare card.
“Abortion care is basic healthcare and the Greens believe that means it should be available at any public hospital, with no out-of-pocket costs. However, patients don’t care where they have to go to get an abortion, whether it’s a hospital or a local private alternative, as long as it’s free of charge, local and accessible.
Home test that checks if an abortion has worked reduces follow-up surgery, study finds
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“Given Labor has ruled out returning to its 2019 position of mandating hospitals provide abortion care as a condition of receiving taxpayer funding, we want to see a commitment to funding the ‘timely, affordable and local pathways’ to ensure people aren’t falling through the cracks.”
Monash University reproductive care and abortion researcher Dr Shelly Makleff says the wording of the recommendation is “disappointing”.
“I believe that in a taxpayer model, hospitals that receive taxpayer money should be obligated to provide care to anyone who walks in – and that means that they shouldn’t be able to deny abortion care, tubal ligation, et cetera.”
One submission to the inquiry, from obstetrician Dr Wendy Hughes, criticised Catholic hospitals for refusing “termination of pregnancy for any reason, including lethal foetal anomalies, despite taking taxpayer funds to set up maternofoetal units to diagnose these for the kudos but then ‘outsourcing’ the resultant terminations to secular hospitals”.
Hughes also expressed concern about terminations being refused in urgent situations “where mothers’ lives are at stake and the outlook for the foetus is extremely dismal, such as midtrimester rupture of membranes with oligohydramnios, which is very high risk for developing chorioamnionitis and a cogent reason for termination to protect a mother’s life”.
Kelleher, of Children by Choice, says federal and state governments “need to tie public funding … to the delivery of the full suite of pregnancy outcomes”.
“All pregnancies have an outcome, whether that be miscarriage, stillbirth, birth or termination. All of those outcomes should be covered with public money,” she says.
“It shouldn’t be something that institutions can opt out of.”
This article was amended on 23 August 2023 to include reference to the June 2023 updated inquiry report of the ACT in relation to evidence provided to the inquiry concerning “Calvary public hospital”.
*Name changed to protect identity
Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78
Do you know more about this topic or have you had similar experiences? Contact [email protected] | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/oct/06/don-quixote-man-of-clackmannanshire-review-the-knight-errant-mounts-a-mobility-scooter | Stage | 2022-10-06T10:36:26.000Z | Mark Fisher | Don Quixote: Man of Clackmannanshire review – the knight-errant mounts a mobility scooter | Everyone who cares for Uncle Donald has the same idea. They want him to have a cup of tea or a biscuit or a bowl of Shreddies. Failing that, he could watch some daytime TV. He has a 10-hour-a-day habit, so a few more episodes won’t hurt.
But Donald has different ideas. He might be getting on a bit and reliant on his mobility scooter, but he is through with being pacified. There is a hero in him yet. And so, digging out the rusting armour he collected as a younger man, he sets out to fight for God and for valour, as his great nephew keeps pace on a children’s bicycle.
In next to no time, this modern-day knight is kneeling before the Queen of Poundland (Emily Winter), setting up camp on his own private traffic island and entertaining a conspiracy theorist (Irene Macdougall) in the Chevalier Inn.
Or is he? In this modern-day take on the Miguel de Cervantes novel by playwright Ben Lewis, we are never certain if we are outside or inside the mind of a man slipping from the irritable early stages of dementia into a blurry senility. “Sometimes it’s better to live in their reality than drag them into ours,” says Nicole Sawyerr playing a health visitor, a motto the playwright takes to heart.
Sparky … Sean Connor’s Sancho Panza in Don Quixote: Man of Clackmannanshire. Photograph: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
This Don Quixote exits on the borderline not just between the real and the imagined, but between rage and prejudice, morality and narcissism. Played by Benny Young with an angry bark emerging from a full grey beard, he would be lost in the modern world whatever his mental state. He rails against the decline in standards, conveniently forgetting failures of his own. Naturally, he tilts at wind farms.
Lu Kemp’s production, a collaboration between Dundee Rep and Perth theatre, is flavoured by onstage flamenco guitarists Paddy Anderson and Pablo Dominguez. But the episodic nature of the quest means too little variation in tone, especially in the first half, notwithstanding a sparky performance by Sean Connor in the Sancho Panza role. Things are less predictable after the interval when the tables are turned on Donald. It makes him question his self-perception and us consider how we limit and stereotype the elderly.
At Dundee Rep until 15 October. Then at Perth theatre, 25 October–5 November. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/mar/27/rob-page-hails-fresh-energy-in-wales-side-after-squad-and-staff-changes | Football | 2023-03-27T14:32:09.000Z | Ben Fisher | Rob Page hails ‘fresh energy’ in Wales setup after squad and staff changes | Wales will give Gareth Bale a warm send-off before hosting Latvia on Tuesday with the manager, Rob Page, hailing the “fresh energy” that has swept into his team thanks to changes to the squad and staff after the World Cup.
Bale will be in attendance for the Euro 2024 qualifier at the Cardiff City Stadium, the first game to take place there since the 33-year-old announced his retirement. Bale, who is Wales’s all-time leading male goalscorer and widely considered to be his country’s greatest player, has since played golf at Pebble Beach on the PGA Tour.
The former captain will be the subject of a pre-match presentation and will address what is expected to be a sold-out crowd. Bale’s final appearance came as Wales exited the World Cup against England in Qatar in November.
Page stressed the importance of securing victory against Latvia after salvaging a point in Croatia in their opening qualifying game last Saturday. “It’s an eight‑game season so you try to forecast as many points,” he said. “Some go your way, some don’t.
“That was a bonus point for us the other night. The plan going into it [these games] was: ‘If we can get four points, great; six, we’ve won the lottery, brilliant.’ We will take four points going into the June camp.”
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Joe Morrell urges Wales not to let unlikely point in Croatia ‘go to waste’
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Bale, Joe Allen, Jonny Williams and Chris Gunter, who joined the Wales staff on a part-time basis this month, all retired from playing for their country after the World Cup. Eric Ramsay, first-team coach under Erik ten Hag at Manchester United and Nick Davies, a fitness coach at West Ham, have been added to Page’s backroom team after the departures of Kit Symons and Tony Strudwick.
“It is a combination of fresh energy from the players and the coaches as well,” Page said.
Aaron Ramsey, who replaced Bale as captain, believes the result in Split was a significant marker. “For us to put what happened in the World Cup behind us now and look forward again, it was important to get that result,” said the 32-year-old midfielder, who will lead Wales out at home town club Cardiff alongside his eldest son, Sonny. “He was captain for his local team on Saturday as well, so that made it a bit more special,” Ramsey said.
Ramsey said he hopes another of his former clubs, Arsenal, go on to clinch the Premier League title. Ramsey played alongside the Mikel Arteta for five years, for two of which Arteta was captain. “You could see back then he was always going to be a manager one day, the way he thought and saw the game and how intense he was,” Ramsey said. “It is absolutely unbelievable what he has done there, what they’re doing at the moment and hopefully they can go all the way.
“It is still a massive part of me. I spent 10, 11 years there and for them to go on and win the league, I’m as much a fan as anybody. It would be absolutely great. I still know so many players and members of staff there. The fans deserve it.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/marketforceslive/2014/aug/18/ftse-higher-ukraine-hopes-arm-goldman-buy-note | Business | 2014-08-18T16:18:54.000Z | Nick Fletcher | FTSE finishes higher on Ukraine hopes while Arm lifted by Goldman buy note | On a typically quiet summer news day, markets recovered some poise on signs of an improvement in the situation in Ukraine, despite continuing problems in other global trouble spots such as Iraq and Gaza.
After the FTSE 100 lost much of its gains on Friday, investors were nervous the volatility could return, but by the close the index had held on to its increases this time, ending 52.17 points higher at 6741.25. European markets also moved higher, with Germany's Dax up 1.68% and France's Cac closing 1.35% higher.
On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 158 points or nearly 1% by the time the London market closed.
As well as signs that negotiations to resolve the Ukrainian crisis could have a positive outcome, analysts said the European Central Bank may have to take further action to stimulate the eurozone economy in the wake of a downbeat assessment by Germany's Bundesbank.
Among the FTSE 100 risers Arm added 23.5p to 930.5p after Goldman Sachs put the chip designer on its conviction buy list. The bank said it expected a good second half for the company, which supplies the likes of Apple and Samsung, after recent market weakness. Goldman said:
We see the smartphone inventory correction as substantially resolved, and expect high-end smartphone launches incorporating Arm v8 designs to benefit royalties.
AstraZeneca recovered from recent weakness to end 109p higher at 4201.5p but Tesco dipped 0.05p to 247.95p following weekend reports that new chief executive Dave Lewis might cut the supermarket's dividend.
Royal Mail slipped 0.5p to 435.1p after analysts at Jefferies cut their price target from 420p to 400p and repeated their underperform rating.
On the results front Bovis Homes bounced 36p to 837.5p after the housebuilder said six month operating profit jumped 150% to £51.2m. The company said it would meet market expectations for the full year and had almost hit its 2014 sales target of 3,650 homes by the half year.
Rentokil Initial rose 2.3p to 125.1p after a positive note from Investec. Analyst John Mullane said:
Market opinion remains divided on Rentokil given its chequered past, characterised by a series of false dawns. However, decisive action taken by management to address legacy issues, along with an improvement in the debt profile, puts the group on a firmer footing. The adoption of a credible growth strategy also leaves it well positioned to achieve a step change in operational performance. In our view, this is the time to revisit the Rentokil story – we upgrade from hold to buy with a new 150p target price.
An upbeat production report saw Petra Diamonds put on 9.2p to 199.2p. The company said it would mine around 3.2m carats this year, up 3% on 2013, and was on track to meet its 5m carat target by 2019.
But Egyptian miner Centamin fell 2.2p to 64.3p in the wake of last week's results.
Finally Fox Marble, the quarrying company with assets in Kosovo and Macedonia, finished nearly 7% higher at 17.5p after it completed its acquisition of the Omega Sivec quarry in Macedonia, adding to its portfolio of Sivec marble. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jan/13/manchester-united-ole-gunnar-solskjaer-david-de-gea-tottenham | Football | 2019-01-13T21:08:53.000Z | Barney Ronay | United produced 60 minutes of pure, uncut Ole-ball and then: enter gloveman | Barney Ronay | No doubt someone somewhere will bring up Napoleon’s line about a good general being a lucky one, in the wake of this fun, helter-skelter, ultimately rather frantic 1-0 defeat of Tottenham.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s limber-looking Manchester United did have their share of fortune too, in the course of a game that saw United attack with elan for an hour and collapse into a state of dogged near-exhaustion by the end.
Rashford’s strike and De Gea’s brilliance earn Manchester United win over Spurs
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But this was not really luck – or at least not entirely. It was also a moment of quiet triumph for Solskjær, who came to Wembley not just with a plan but with a plan that worked while his team still had the lungs to put it into action, allowing Paul Pogba to pull himself up to his full height and make the game look small and easy and fun, something made just for him; and offering Jesse Lingard an unexpected forward-forager role that won the tactical battle in the period that won the game.
The plan worked for about an hour. Steadily it ran out of steam. By the end it had gone out of the window. At which point: enter gloveman.
Happily for both Solskjær and The Plan, David de Gea also happens to be a line-hogging, genius-level lime green octopus of a goalkeeper. He was hilariously good here, and good in that sui generis way, a style he has concocted out of his own brilliantly limber physical gifts.
David de Gea celebrates after his stellar performance at Wembley. Photograph: James Marsh/BPI/REX/Shutterstock
De Gea saved United at least four times with his feet, adopting that strange leg-wobbling Elvis move whereby he seems to lose all tension in his body, to collapse like a papier- mâché doll, feet flopping into just the right spot to block some goal-bound bullet.
Hands? Who needs hands? De Gea can probably tile a floor with those toes. Spurs had 20 shots at Wembley but somehow none of them ever really looked like going in. De Gea may or may not be the best goalkeeper in the world. But on days like this he is surely the most compelling, most original and most thrillingly ice-cold.
Tottenham 0-1 Manchester United: player ratings from Wembley
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Lucky old Ole then. Or perhaps not entirely. Three weeks on from the departure of the king of pain United had come here with a kind of lightness about them. This is a patchwork team still but it is also demob happy and playing for the first time in five years with an adrenal sense of freedom.
But this was also a first real glimpse of that baby-faced tactical brain at work. United had spent the last few days easing their mid-season muscles under the Gulf sun and working for the first time on some more intricate details.
And so here we had it: pure, uncut Ole-ball, with an attack based around speed and mobility, and with a cute tactical jink at its heart. United kicked off in a 4-3-3, with Lingard stationed centrally between Rashford and Anthony Martial.
Before long Lingard in the middle began to make sense as he ferreted about closing down Spurs’ central midfield. This was Lingard-as-Firmino, pressing and moving and stealing the ball while a pair of inside-forwards bombed on past him.
It worked too, Lingard successfully disrupting the rhythms of this well-drilled Spurs machine. The opening goal, when it came, was one Solskjær might have dreamt of, tossing and turning beneath the air-conditioned chill of some seven-star Dubai palace.
Lingard dropped deep, as was the plan, and stole the ball, as was the plan. Pogba took the ball, looked up early, as was the plan, and floated the most delicious pass over the top, with enough drift and curl to dawdle right into Rashford’s path. At moments like these Rashford is not just quick; he is exhilarating, leaving Jan Vertonghen looking like a man walking the wrong way down an airport travelator before sending the ball skimming low and hard into the far corner.
United were lucky there again. Moments before the goal Moussa Sissoko had limped off, leaving a lack of tension in exactly the same place where Pogba was able to pause and pick out that pass. Spurs have no real replacement with Eric Dier out too. The squad is brittle behind the first eleven.
Tottenham’s Moussa Sissoko had to leave the pitch injured during the first half Photograph: Ian Stephen/ProSports/REX/Shutterstock
But this is also design, resources, playing power in reserve. With United the job is how to arrange most effectively the talent at Solskjær’s disposal. It is not luck that Pogba should be playing like this. He is, lest we forget, the world’s most expensive midfielder, up against a team that cannot afford a midfield fill-in to cover a couple of injuries.
And undoubtedly Solskjær has benefited in the last few weeks from United’s sheer latent scale, from the fact this is a ship too big ever to sink completely, a body so large it is never really stopped, just placed on pause, waiting for the next upward tide.
The players did tire in the second half at Wembley. It is a gamble to press so hard early on, like a boxer putting in big early rounds in the hope of landing a decisive blow. Solskjær’s recklessness in going at Spurs like this was a thrilling thing in itself; and befitting too of a club so powerful it has always seemed to make its own luck and in exactly this kind of way. | Full |
Subsets and Splits