Februa
F
SATURDAY REVIEW
Britons told
to get out
of Ukraine
Russia could invade in days, warn Americans
Larisa Brown Moscow
Catherine Philp
Diplomatic Correspondent
Steven Swinford, Henry Zeffman
British citizens have been told to leave
Ukraine immediately as the United
States warned that Russia could invade
the country within days.
Last night the Foreign Office told
people to get out of Ukraine “while
commercial means are available”.
President Biden urged Americans to
do the same on Thursday, saying that
“things could get crazy very quickly”.
Biden’s national security adviser,
Jake Sullivan, said the US had “reason
to believe” that Russia could invade
Ukraine “any day now” and before the
end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing
next week.
The Kremlin response was immedi-
ate and angry. “The hysteria of the
White House is more indicative than
ever,” Maria Zakharova, the foreign
ministry spokeswoman, said. “The
Anglo-Saxons need a war. At any cost.
Provocations, misinformation and
threats are a favourite method of solv-
ing their own problems.”
The Foreign Office changed its
advice shortly after Ben Wallace, the
defence secretary, flew out of Moscow
after hours of talks with senior Kremlin
figures, including General Valery
Gerasimov, chief of the general staff.
Thousands of Britons are believed to be
in the country.
Wallace warned that Vladimir Putin
would not survive as Russian president
if he invaded Ukraine.
At a press conference with his Rus-
sian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, and
Gerasimov, Wallace said he was told
SATURDAY
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that the Russians had “no intention” of
invading Ukraine.
Boris Johnson voiced fears yesterday
Scrum!
for the security of Europe during a call
with world leaders, including Biden.
The meeting with other Nato allies
was said to be “deeply sobering”, with
ministers expecting Russia to invade
Ukraine in a matter of days. “Next week
is the working assumption,” one gov-
ernment source said. During the call
Biden was said to be explicit about the
fact that an invasion was imminent. He
suggested Putin would use a false pre-
text to justify the invasion of Ukraine.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of
state, said that “we continue to see very
troubling signs of Russian escalation,
including new forces arriving at the
Ukrainian border”. Speaking in Can-
berra, Australia, he added: “We’re in a
window when an invasion could begin
at any time and, to be clear, that in-
cludes during the Olympics.” The
Olympic Games are scheduled to end
on February 20.
Sullivan denied that Washington had
concluded that Putin had decided to in-
vade, only that his forces were ready to.
Your
“We are not saying that . . . a final deci-
sion has been taken by Putin,” he said.
guide
“Our view that military action could
occur any day now, and could occur
to an epic
before the end of the Olympics, is only
growing in terms of its robustness. weekend
“If a Russian attack on Ukraine pro-
ceeds, it is likely to begin with aerial
bombing and missile attacks that could
obviously kill civilians.”
Most Britons in Ukraine, who num-
ber in the low thousands, have dual
nationality or have strong family ties
and are unlikely to leave. Biden has
Continued on page 2, col 3
New face of the Tories The red wall MP Dehenna Davison, 28, tells Janice Turner
that Boris Johnson is a “rock-star politician” but he needs to get a grip. Magazine
y(7HB7E2*OTSNQN( |||+z!.
2 2GM Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

News

Today’s highlights Police hand questionnaire to

8.05am Sir Malcolm Rifkind, former foreign secretary,
discusses the Ukraine crisis
8.45am Azeem Rafiq, former cricketer, on the ECB’s
response to the Yorkshire racism row
Johnson on parties at No 10
12pm Michael Schur, creator of The Good Place, Steven Swinford Political Editor during a difficult time for the Met, with designed to bolster his position — have
on his book How to be Perfect Oliver Wright Dame Cressida having been pressured had conversations with his rivals for the
into announcing her resignation after a leadership. One minister said that they
3.05pm Derren Brown, right, talks about Boris Johnson has received a question- series of scandals. A No 10 spokes- expected Truss, the foreign secretary,
his return to the stage naire from detectives investigating woman said: “We can confirm the to put tax cuts at the centre of her cam-
Midnight The Right Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, lockdown-breaching parties in prime minister has received a question- paign should Johnson fall.
Britain’s first black female bishop Downing Street. naire from the Metropolitan Police. He The prime minister will appoint a
A Downing Street spokesman con- will respond as required.” lawyer, paid for by himself, as he seeks
firmed that the prime minister is one of Johnson believes he would survive a to justify his attendance at the events.
50 people in No 10 who are being ques- confidence vote among Tory MPs, his He is expected to focus on the fact
DAB RADIO l ONLINE l SMART SPEAKER l APP tioned by the police. allies have insisted, even if he is fined by that Downing Street is both the prime
Johnson attended six of the events. police for breaking lockdown rules. minister’s workplace and his home. The
They included a “bring your own “He rightly considers himself a dem- Covid rules at the time made it an
booze” garden party, a gathering to cel- ocratically elected prime minister on a offence to be outside your home with-
T O D AY ’ S E D I T I O N ebrate his 56th birthday in the cabinet huge mandate,” one Downing Street out a reasonable excuse.
room and an alleged party in his flat to figure said. “He serves at the will of the Lawyers have pointed out that
celebrate the departure of Dominic people. Conservative MPs have a large Johnson could technically argue that
Hitman killed Met chief in Spain provides Cummings, his former adviser. He also stake in that.” he did not breach the rules by attending
attended three other leaving parties. Another source said that Johnson’s Downing Street parties because he did
drug gangster payoff row half-term boost The questionnaires have “formal team were confident that Tory MPs not leave his home. However, the
A hitman at the centre Dame Cressida Dick Families looking for a legal status” and those receiving them would think twice before voting against defence will not apply to claims that a
of a bloody feud and Sadiq Khan were half-term break abroad will be required to answer truthfully. him in a confidence motion because of party was held in his flat above No 11
between international engulfed in a row over were given a boost The letters include a formal caution. the lack of an obvious successor. “If you Downing Street to celebrate the depar-
drug gangs shot dead a the size of her payoff after Spain dropped its Johnson and other recipients of the look at Rishi [Sunak] he looks like a ture of Dominic Cummings on
rival in front of his wife after he forced her to requirement for over- letters will have seven days to respond diminished person,” one ally said. “If November 13, 2020. That was said to
and child. Anis Hemissi resign as commissioner 12s to be double-jabbed to provide an “account and explana- you look at Liz [Truss] she just looks have been organised by his wife and
was found guilty of of the Metropolitan before being allowed tion” of their involvement. If detectives faintly opportunist. So then where do featured Abba songs which were heard
murder. Page 5 Police. Pages 10-11 to enter. Pages 18-19 consider that there is no “reasonable you go after that?” around the building. A spokesman for
excuse” a fixed penalty notice of up to The Times has been told that some the prime minister’s wife called the
£200 will be issued. key members of Johnson’s praetorian claim “total nonsense”.
Gay law clash of Gove’s cladding Clubs request The questionnaire was dispatched guard — the whipping operation Party scandal lies, pages 14-15
rising politicians threat ‘unlawful’ drug searches
A bill in Florida to
limit school discussion
of gender identity has
Michael Gove is
acting “unlawfully” in
threatening
Football clubs have
asked the police to
conduct drug searches
Labour withdraws whip Trans row MP
led to a face-off
between two rising
stars of US politics —
housebuilders over the
cladding crisis, one of
the leading figures in
at their grounds after
The Times highlighted
the scale of Class A after alleged racial slur says defection
Ron DeSantis and Pete
Buttigieg. Page 41
the sector has told the
government. Page 47
drug abuse by fans at
matches. Sport, pullout George Grylls Political Reporter Chinese spy,” Dyer said. “Coyle made a
is tempting
remark suggesting Gardiner was being
Sir Keir Starmer has removed the paid by ‘Fu Manchu’ . . . it had been well Henry Zeffman Associate Political Editor
COMMENT 25 REGISTER 78 TV & RADIO Labour whip from an MP accused of reported who had been giving Gardiner
MONEY 57 CROSSWORD 83 SATURDAY REVIEW using a racist slur against a British- money, and so there was no need to A Labour MP has said she found it
Chinese journalist in a Commons bar. refer to a 20th-century trope of a “tempting” to defect to the Conserva-
FOLLOW US Neil Coyle, the MP for Southwark, Chinese supervillain. tive Party over disagreements about
thetimes timesandsundaytimes thetimes allegedly made remarks about the eth- “I gently pushed back at Coyle about transgender rights.
nicity and appearance of Henry Dyer, a this. He asked me if . . . I was being over- Rosie Duffield, MP for Canterbury,
reporter at Business Insider. Labour has sensitive, before saying that he would said there was not a “huge difference”
WEEKEND SATURDAY REVIEW SPORT suspended the whip and opened an in- apologise if he had said something bad between Sir Keir Starmer and Jeremy
vestigation into Coyle, who apologised and it wasn’t just me being sensitive, Corbyn in supporting her during
for his “insensitive comments”. which I believe was insincere.” disputes with activists on the issue.
Dyer accused Coyle of describing his Dyer said he was British-Chinese, he Last year Duffield said she felt unable
appearance by citing the recent case of said, and Coyle said “he could tell ‘from to attend Labour’s annual conference
an MP with links to a Chinese agent. how you look like you’ve been giving after feeling unwelcome. Duffield, who
Days later Coyle was suspended from renminbi to Barry Gardiner’ ”. denies being transphobic, believes
all bars on the parliamentary estate After “uncomfortable” encounters there should be protected spaces that
after two incidents in the Strangers’ with Coyle the following day, Dyer are not open to those born male.
Bar. On January 31, he allegedly yelled contacted Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the “Senior colleagues” in the Conserva-
expletives at a Labour aide and told a Speaker, who had Coyle suspended tive Party had been “supportive”, Duff-
Tory MP who tried to calm the situa- from all bars on the estate. ield told The Daily Telegraph. “They’ve
HAPPY DAYS DARK MATERIAL ON THIN ICE tion to “f*** off and lose some weight”, A Labour spokesman said: “The been nice . . . they have factions as well,
How to help your A new film reveals Russian skating The Mail on Sunday reported. Labour Party expects the highest but don’t hate each other in the way that
child become shocking insights star, 15, failed drug On February 1, Dyer said, he had standards of behaviour . . . the chief we do in some of our branches. But how
less anxious into Charlie Chaplin test last year been talking with fellow journalists whip has now suspended the whip from do I square Brexit [or] immigration?
when Coyle approached him and they Neil Coyle pending an investigation.” There are issues that I can’t really imag-
PAGES 2-3 PAGE 10 PAGES 1, 15
chatted about restaurants in his consti- Coyle told The Sun: “I’m very sorry ine agreeing with the Tories on.”
tuency. “The topic eventually moved to for my insensitive comments, have A Labour spokesman said: “Keir
Barry Gardiner, the Labour MP who apologised to everyone involved and Starmer and the party continue to offer
THE WEATHER © TIMES NEWSPAPERS LIMITED, 2022. had received funding from a suspected will be co-operating fully.” her our full support.”
Published in print and all other derivative
formats by Times Newspapers Ltd, 1
London Bridge St, London, SE1 9GF, continued from page 1 should Russia make the devastating assess the situation as it develops, in
telephone 020 7782 5000. Printed by: Brtitons told to leave Ukraine and destructive decision to invade line with the duty of care we have to-
5
Newsprinters (Broxbourne) Ltd, Ukraine.” wards our staff and in close consulta-
Great Cambridge Rd, Waltham Cross, announced military plans to fly Ameri- World leaders agreed that if Putin tion and co-ordination with the EU
30 EN8 8DY; Newsprinters (Knowsley) Ltd, cans into Poland, fearing a repeat of the pulled back there was another way to member states,” Peter Stano, the Euro-
6 37 Kitling Rd, Prescot, Merseyside, L34 9HN; chaos surrounding the evacuation from progress, and they promised to increase pean Commission foreign affairs
Newsprinters (Eurocentral) Ltd, Afghanistan last August. diplomatic efforts in the coming days. spokesman, said.
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Byramsmuir Road, Holytown, Motherwell, British troops from 16 Air Assault Russia has sailed six warships into the Washington has warned Moscow of
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Morton 2 Esky Drive, Carn Industial Estate,
6 hours’ notice to move and it is under- equipment to Belarus, leading US offi- enter Ukraine, in particular promising
Portadown, BT63 5YY; KP Services, La Rue
Martel, La Rue des Pres Trading Estate, St
stood that they could be sent in to evac- cials to believe that the crisis appeared an end to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipe-
8
Saviour, Jersey, JE2 7QR. For permission to
uate British citizens from the country if to be reaching a critical point. Biden line from Russia to Europe.
35
copy articles or headlines for internal necessary. After a video call between issued a warning to Americans on A Foreign Office spokesman said:
information purposes contact Newspaper Johnson and world leaders, a No 10 Thursday, telling NBC: “American citi- “The safety and security of British
Licensing Agency at PO Box 101, Tunbridge spokesman said: “The prime minister zens should leave, should leave now.” nationals is our top priority, which is
Showers or longer spells of rain for Wells, TN1 1WX, tel 01892 525274, e-mail told the group that he feared for the Ukraine, which has frequently why we have updated our travel advice.
much of the country. Brighter in the copy@nla.co.uk. For all other reproduction security of Europe in the current played down warnings from the US, We urge British nationals in Ukraine to
southeast. Full forecast, page 77 and licensing inquiries contact Licensing circumstances. He impressed the need dismissed the order as “nothing new”. leave now via commercial means while
Department, 1 London Bridge St, London, for Nato allies to make it absolutely The EU’s response was also sceptical, they remain available.”
If a section of your Times is missing, please call 020-7711 1525 or e-mail SE1 9GF, telephone 020 7711 7888, clear that there will be a heavy package announcing that it would not be pulling Ukraine crisis, pages 6-7
help@timesplus.co.uk and we will send it to you, subject to availability.
e-mail enquiries@newslicensing.co.uk of economic sanctions ready to go out its diplomats. “We continue to Kyiv rues giving up warheads, page 40
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
Did chef cook up CV’s tastiest bits?
Simon Martin has won
Manchester its first
Michelin star since 1977
but faces claims about
his past, writes Tom Ball
Simon Martin’s reputation preceded
him. When the chef arrived in Man-
chester in 2018, he used his impressive
CV, which included stints working in
some of the world’s most famous
kitchens, to market his new restaurant.
Mana, the restaurant Martin went on
to create, won Manchester its first
Michelin star since 1977, offering what
the guide’s inspectors called “exciting
modern dishes with Nordic influences”.
But the reputation that laid the foun-
dations for Mana is now under scrutiny.
One of the pillars of Martin’s CV was
the claim that he had worked for
Gordon Ramsay at the celebrity
chef’s three Michelin-starred flagship
restaurant in west London. However, a
source told The Times: “There is no
record of Simon Martin working at Res-
taurant Gordon Ramsay and the chef de
patron, who has been at the restaurant
for 11 years, has no knowledge of him
being part of the restaurant business.”
Martin, 31, has also been quoted
suggesting that he knew Ramsay, 55,
personally. In an interview in October
2019, shortly after winning his Michelin
star, he was reported to have told the
Manchester Evening News that he
thought Ramsay would be an “absolute
arsehole” before going to work for him.
But “he turned out not to be an arsehole
at all, but actually a very supportive guy
who wanted the highest standards for
everyone who worked in his kitchen,”
Martin was quoted as saying.
The chef has also said that he worked
for Ramsay at Maze, his restaurant in
Melbourne. A local news article from
July 2011, celebrating Martin’s early
success, said that he was about to go to
Australia to take up a position at the res-
taurant. Maze closed the next month
because it had become “unsustainable”.
The other cornerstone of Martin’s
reputation concerns his work at Noma,
perhaps the most famous restaurant in
the world. This too has been questioned.
The Mill, a publication in Manchester,
said last week that Martin’s account of
his employment history did not match
that of the restaurant in Copenhagen.
Martin, who was born in Warrington
and grew up in Shropshire, was reported
to have told The Mill that he had worked
for Noma for three years, a claim he is
said to have made in other interviews.
However, a spokeswoman for Noma
Talking in class . . . That’s a hundred lines, Cleopatra
Jack Blackburn
Making pupils write lines has long been
acher s
a staple of the school teacher’s
punitive arsenal. Now there ere
is evidence that the prac- c-
tice dates back more than
2,000 years.
A recently excavated
cache of 18,000 ancient
Egyptian notebooks has
revealed a fascinating
insight into the day-to-
me
day life of people in the time
of Ptolemy XII, father of
Cleopatra, who reigned in the 1st
century BC.
These ostraca — pieces of limestone
pottery used as an alternative to papy-
rus — featured examples of shopping
3
News
GUARDIAN/EYEVINE
i l d langoustine
Notable dishes include l ngoustine tail
with cured egg yolk and spruce and yak-
itori eel glazed with yeast.
Martin is understood to stand by his
statement that he worked at Restaurant
Gordon Ramsay and maintains that he
can prove it. Last night Mana declined
to provide any such proof, saying: “We
would hope that Mana’s customers
judge us on our incredible food, not in-
correct and groundless speculation
about the earlier career of a
highly talented member of
our team. If this speculation
is a genuine concern for our
customers, we would be
happy to set the record
straight on this topic with
them before, during or after
Simon Martin at Mana, where dishes like his salt-aged duck have won praise. Links to Gordon Ramsay are under scrutiny their meals at our restau-
rant.”
Martin is also un-
A pinch of spice derstood to
maintain that
Gordon Ramsay, 55, the upon his arrest the case customer who wanted to for heavily he has never
volatile star of programmes was thrown out. Seven use its phone. Fellow chef embellishing his claimed to
such as Hell’s Kitchen, has years later it emerged he Stephen Terry recalled that CV. His fictions know Ramsay
had more than his fair share was outsourcing his when White refused, the included the personally and
of controversies. In 2002, restaurant’s meals to an off- customer threw a punch claim that he that he was mis-
he was found allegedly site vendor to be frozen and and a fight broke out. “It had baked quoted.
driving his BMW the wrong then reheated on site, at a was like something out of a the wedding He is also un-
way down a one-way road mark up of 500 per cent. western,” said Terry. cake for the derstood to deny
in the West End. He failed a While working at his Robert Irvine, 56, a Prince of ever claiming to
breathalyser test but as the Harvey’s restaurant Marco British chef who has hosted Wales and have worked at No-
arresting officers failed to Pierre White, 60, became several cookery shows in Princess ma for more than
offer Ramsay a blood test embroiled in a fight with a the US, apologised in 2008 Diana. 17 months, where
he was initially a
chef de partie
said that he was hired in August 2016, mitted to The Mill that “we used my of Ancoats in the northeast before being
after a few months as a trainee, and left background and CV to market Mana”, of Manchester, was immedi- promoted.
ten months later, totalling a bit more of which he is both chef and owner. ately fêted. Coming next, Brain
than a year of work. “We are not sure Upon opening its doors in October The restaurant serves a set Surgery With
why it would be reported he was with us 2018, Mana, which is nestled among the menu of about 14 courses, Brooklyn, Giles
for three,” she said. Martin himself ad- converted cotton mills and quiet canals priced at £185 per person. Coren, page 26
lists, trade records and school work. to the pupils of today. “There are lists of the ostraca written in the popular
More than 100 of the latter looked of months, numbers, arithmetic Demotic script of the time, there were
suspiciously familiar to those who have problems, grammar exercises,” said also examples in Greek and the more
experien of detention.
experience Professor Christopher Leitz, who con- ancient Hieratic script, as well as hiero-
“A three-digit number ducted the excavation. Other items are glyphic and Coptic writings.
of ostraca also contain more idiosyncratic, including a “bird Ostraca were widely used in ancient
wr
writing exercises that the alphabet” where each letter was as- Egypt — writers used a reed or hol-
te
team classifies as signed a bird whose name began with lowed-out stick dipped in ink to make
p
punishment,” said the that letter. their marks. The size of the hoard is
U
University of Tübingen Alongside the written examples, immense, comparable only to some
in Germany, whose other ostraca feature drawings depict- found near the Valley of the Kings.
re
researchers carried out ing shapes, humans and gods, as well Egyptologists from Tübingen have
the archaeological dig. as birds such as swallows and animals been excavating for nearly two
“The shards are inscribed
“The such as scorpions. decades, with the support of the
t
with the same one or two The discoveries were made in the Egyptian ministry for tourism and
character each time, both on the
characters ancient settlement of Athribis, 200 antiquities.
front and back
back.”” kilometres north of Luxor, and suggest Their original intent was to uncover a
Repetitive writing as punishment it was a thriving, multicultural town. temple built on the site by Ptolemy XII.
was not the only discovery from this Pottery shards featured examples of At the very least, it was multilingual. That project has been successful and
ancient school that would be familiar school work familiar to Bart Simpson While the team discovered 80 per cent the temple is open to the public.
4 Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
News
Flying furballs Three panting pomeranians were caught in mid bound in woodland outside Bournemouth, Dorset, by Daniel Sheridan, an amateur photographer
Cost-of-living crisis puts £160
green levy on the backburner
Oliver Wright Policy Editor
Ministers have shelved plans to put a
£160-a-year green levy on gas bills until
the energy price rise crisis ends.
Under net zero plans announced last
autumn ministers committed the gov-
ernment to shifting the burden of
investing in renewable energy from
electricity bills to gas bills.
Nearly 23 per cent of the cost of
household electricity is made up of
green taxes, including part-funding in-
vestment in renewable generation and
paying energy companies to subsidise
energy efficiency improvement in
poorer households.
Last year these charges added £162 to
the average electricity bill of £707.
In contrast the energy regulator
Ofgem said that environmental and
social charges make up 1.86 per cent of
a gas bill or £10.23 on a £550 annual bill.
A decision was due to be taken this
year by Kwasi Kwarteng, the business
Soaring gas prices will make heat pump the cheaper choice
Emily Gosden Energy Editor
Low-carbon heat pumps will be cheap-
er to run than gas boilers for the first
time from April as the cost of gas soars,
according to new analysis.
A typical household would spend
£464 a year on burning gas for heating
and hot water at today’s prices while
using an electric-powered heat pump
would cost £589 a year.
However, gas prices are set to rise
more steeply than electricity when the
energy price cap is raised from April 1.
secretary, to rebalance the cost of these
levies and move them from electricity
to gas bills. It has been put on hold
because of the rises in wholesale gas
prices that will increase consumer bills
by 50 per cent this autumn.
A government source said ministers
were committed to the plan but it would
be delayed due to the volatility in the
energy markets. They said the switch
was always intended to be gradual and
given the high price of electricity this
should lead to a reduction on levies as
renewable companies paid back some of
the subsidies they get under the govern-
ment’s contract for difference system.
They added that another option
would be to remove green levies com-
pletely from energy bills and place the
cost of state investment in renewable
generation on to general taxation.
This is likely to be opposed by the
Treasury, however, as it would still fur-
ther limit Rishi Sunak’s room to
announce tax cuts before an election.
The cost of using a gas boiler will jump
to £841 a year while running a heat
pump will rise to £833, making it the
cheaper option for the first time,
according to analysis by Octopus
Energy.
Heat pumps are seen as crucial for
Britain to decarbonise its heating.
About 80 per cent of homes burn gas, a
polluting fossil fuel that causes climate
change. Octopus Energy, Britain’s
fourth-biggest household energy sup-
plier, is a proponent of heat pumps.
The devices use electricity to draw
The move to delay changes to the
levy has dismayed climate campaigners
who said it was critical to encourage the
transition away from gas to electricity.
“It’s understandable that the govern-
ment doesn’t want to load more cost on
to gas bills at this time, but paying
legacy green levies out of general taxa-
tion would be an even better way of pro-
viding some cushion for families facing
energy bill increases,” Doug Parr,
policy director at Greenpeace UK, said.
“The only route out of this fossil fuel
price crisis is to make our homes clean-
er and greener. The government should
commit to bring forward stronger
financial incentives to electrify heating
through heat pumps.”
Separately, Martin Lewis, the con-
sumer finance expert, has accused min-
isters of taking a “worrying gamble”
with people’s finances over the govern-
ment’s energy bill loan scheme.
Under plans unveiled by the chancel-
lor last week customers will get a £200
heat from the atmosphere, amplify it
and pump it into the house. At present
they are more costly than a boiler both
to install — up to £10,000, compared
with about £3,000 — and to run.
Heat pumps are more efficient than
gas boilers, using 3,000 kilowatt hours
of electricity to heat an average home
for a year, compared with 12,000 kilo-
watt hours of gas for a boiler.
However, the cost of a kilowatt hour
of electricity is now more than five
times higher than that for gas. The
change to the price cap will reduce the
DANIELSHERIDAN/ABILLIONCLICKS/BNPS
Quintagram® No 1237
Solve all five clues using each
letter underneath once only
1 Centre, core (5)
-----
2 Small area (5)
-----
3 Writing eschewing verse forms (5)
-----
4 Penguin species (7)
-------
5 Prince song and film (6,4)
----------
A A A C E E E E
E H H I L M N O
O P P P P P R R
R R R R S T T U
Solutions See page 83
Cryptic clues every day online
Veg couple fight charge
A couple are fighting planners
after being sent a £469 bill for
failing to seek permission to grow
vegetables in their garden. Lee
and Kirstie Lawes turned part
of the lawn at their home in
Deeping St James, Lincolnshire,
into raised beds during the
pandemic. South Kesteven
council says the patch is classed
as open space, meaning they
needed to change its use, though
the couple say they have checked
deeds showing that the ground
is part of their property.
Lassa fever death
A person has died from lassa
fever in Britain after a family who
had visited west Africa brought
the virus into the country for
the first time in more than a
decade. The UK Health Security
Agency said that two other
family members had been
infected with the haemorrhagic
discount on bills this October to ease illness, similar to ebola, and one
the cost of rising wholesale energy was still receiving hospital care.
prices. Households will then repay the
£200 in £40 a year instalments begin- Gang armourer jailed
ning in April 2023 under Sunak’s plan.
Lewis, the founder of MoneySaving- An Iraq war veteran has been
Expert.com, said that it was far from jailed for 20 years by Manchester
clear that wholesale energy costs would crown court for drug offences
be falling by the time customers had to and acting as an armourer for an
pay back the money. international gang. Roy Evans,
This would leave people in a “lose- 34, a former lance-corporal, was
lose situation” with “far higher bills arrested in connection with a
than and an additional levy on top”. drug shipment worth £3.4 million,
Lewis’s website pointed out that and police found guns in the
some people would be left repaying the home he shared with his partner
£200 levy, without benefiting from the and her children in Stockport.
discount in bills in October.
It pointed to teenagers, who might be ‘End home abortion’
living at home in October, but who
would subsequently be leaving to go to Laws allowing “pills by post”
university or to find a place of their own. abortions to be carried out at
The website also conducted polling home should be scrapped, the
by YouGov that found 57 per cent of Church of England has said. New
people who paid energy bills would pre- rules, which apply to the first ten
fer not to join the scheme. weeks of pregnancy, were put in
place in March 2020 as a Covid
measure to reduce travel and
infection risk during the
pandemic. Ministers must now
decide whether to extend them.
differential so that a unit of electricity
will be just under four times the price of Walking dementia clue
a unit of gas.
Greg Jackson, chief executive of People who walk slowly and
Octopus Energy, said: “The gas crisis struggle to remember things are
has pushed electricity costs up too, but twice as likely to get dementia, a
despite the huge tax distortions we are study suggests. Researchers from
now seeing heat pumps becoming the University of Edinburgh said
cheaper to run.” walking speed should form part
Government and industry are work- of clinical examinations to spot
ing to reduce the cost of installing heat signs of motor cognitive risk.
pumps which Octopus said meant by Donncha Mullin, from the
April it would be able to install a pump university, said: “It is quick, cheap,
for a similar price to a gas boiler. and easy to check for MCR.”
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 5

News
The dangers of virtual
reality games can
include reaching into
a ceiling fan, tumbling
into a television
screen and crashing
into children and
household pets

u
units were sold
a
around the world last
y
year. Aviva
h
highlighted one claim
in which a client
th
threw a VR handset
in his TV when a
into
z
zombie jumped out
a him. Several
at
c
customers had
re
reported falling
h
head-first into their
te
television sets.
repo t d O
reported. One German
G Liam Gallagher, the
even broke his neck. former Oasis
An online forum frontman, said last
Mishaps mean called “VR to ER” on
Reddit has more than
week that he fell into
his fridge while

real pain for 80,000 members, with

many posting videos of
mishaps while playing.
playing a game with
his headset on.
He told Absolute
virtual gamers Several show players
accidentally punching
or kicking their pets.
Radio: “I’ve leant on
the counter to have a
little chat with a dude

V
irtual
reality (VR)
headsets
may be
bringing
users too close to the
cold, hard truth
(Andrew Ellson
writes). Aviva, the
insurance company,
reports that claims for
accidental damage
have surged as gamers
crash into TV sets, trip Aviva said home and I’ve stacked it.
over their coffee tables contents insurance Nearly smashed my
and smash ornaments claims involving VR face in. I’ve ended up
while engrossed in headsets rose by more in the fridge.” He
their alternate reality. than 30 per cent last added that he had
Most of the year. It added that the given up the games.
incidents are minor average VR-related Kelly Whittington,
but some people have claim was £650, with of Aviva, said: “These
seriously injured TV sets the most devices can be a great
themselves. Cracked damaged item. source of fun but we’d
kneecaps, dislocated The International encourage people to
shoulders and cut Data Corporation said be mindful of their
hands have been that nearly 8 million surroundings.”

Kickboxer shot dead rival gangster

John Simpson Crime Correspondent London in the weeks and days before
Behind the story the shooting, which had been carefully
A hitman at the centre of a bloody “tit- planned for up to six months.

I
for-tat” feud between international n the Malmo importations of drugs via his friend Naief Adawi, served kingpin Daniel Estevan Pino-Munizaga, 35, was
drug gangs shot dead a rival in front of underworld, the Sweden’s ports, faced a who had also moved to Petrovski, who was acquitted of murder but instead found
his wife and child in an upmarket gangs are known growing threat from a Battersea. Minutes after locked in a war with guilty of an alternative charge of man-
London neighbourhood. as The Boxer and group led by Amir Beqiri was shot dead , she Mekky, 24. Mekky is also slaughter.
Anis Hemissi, a former professional The Alliance. On Mekky, known as The made a phone call to involved in cocaine and Tobias Andersson, 32, and Bawer
kickboxer, faces life in jail after shoot- Christmas Eve 2019, their Boxer. The Malmo Adawi. “Maybe cannabis trafficking, and Karaer, 23, also from Sweden, were
ing Flamur Beqiri, 36, eight times in bloody feud reached a initiative to shut them someone’s coming for you was arrested in Dubai in acquitted of both charges.
Battersea, west London, on Christmas quiet west London street down is called Operation as well,” she told him. 2020. Clifford Rollox, 31, from Islington,
Eve in 2019. (John Simpson writes). Snake, because detectives Beqiri’s friend had Violence — including north London, and a Dutch national,
Hemissi, 24, travelled to London and Flamur Beqiri, a say the criminals “slither already survived one kidnap and murder — Claude Isaac Castor, 31, from Sint
posed as a street cleaner, disguising leading light in The away when police pursue attempt on his life, when escalated from 2018, and Maarten in the Caribbean, were found
himself further with a latex mask, sun- Alliance, bought the them”. gunmen opened fire as he by the following summer, guilty of perverting the course of justice
glasses, high-vis work clothes, a litter property in his wife’s Fifteen members of left his Malmo apartment Adawi and Beqiri had after being hired locally to clean up the
picker and black bin bag as he reconnoi- name in 2017 for The Alliance are on trial in August 2019, carrying become targets. It also flat where the killers had stayed.
tred the area around his target’s home £1.7 million to try to in Sweden after police his newborn baby emerged that Mekky’s They were seen removing a large
in a meticulously planned murder. create distance from the intercepted an alleged daughter. As Adawi ran men had not been suitcase on Christmas Day, but police
He had told the jury that his trip to violence threatening his attempt to take out The away, his partner, Karolin Beqiri’s only enemy: were on the scene before they could fin-
the UK was to watch “Netflix and chill” young family at home. Boxer and his associates, Hakim, 31, was shot police intelligence ish the job and evidence re-
with a woman he had met online. Despite installing top- with a price on each of multiple times and killed. suggests he was in covered included a
Yesterday he was found guilty of quality CCTV, he was their heads. The court heard that dispute with, or in ripped-up flight ticket
murder and possession of a firearm shot dead on the doorstep Beqiri’s glamorous Adawi, who was jailed for debt to, criminal stub bearing Hemissi’s
after a two-month trial at the Old in front of his wife and wife, Debora Krasniqi, eight years in Denmark associates, name.
Bailey. child. His gang, appeared aware of the in 2010 for a £7 million including Albanian Karaer’s cousin,
It can now be revealed that Hemissi responsible for massive threat to her husband and robbery, and Beqiri gangs. Ahmet Karaer,
had been a suspect in the murder of a suspected of helping
man shot dead near his own father’s to finance, plan
home in Malmo but was never charged. Anis Hemissi Cernobbio, by Lake Como, Italy, and ganised crime and organise
Beqiri was an Albanian-born Swed- faces life in jail she told the Grace Ormonde Wedding groups”. the murder, is
ish criminal living in London. His sister after being Style magazine they “fell deeply in love” She added: “It is wanted by
was married to a Manchester United convicted of at the wedding of his sister, Misse. an international police,
footballer and starred in The Real killing Flamur Beqiri’s wife was with him holding assassination having dis-
Housewives of Cheshire. Beqiri in front of hands with one of their young children which required appeared after
He had claimed to be running a his wife Debora when Hemissi, again wearing a latex meticulous plan- being deported
record label in the UK but Swedish in west London mask, fired ten shots from a pistol, hit- ning and involved from Egypt,
organised crime police knew him to be ting Beqiri with eight bullets from be- a group of orga- where he was
among the most feared gangsters in the hind him. nised criminals re- held for drug
country. The choice of date — Christmas Eve cruiting a team to smuggling.
A leading member of a drug gang, His sister, Misse Beqiri, is the former — was to maximise the devastation, it is carry out this shock- Mrs Justice
Beqiri fled Malmo for Britain with his wife of the ex-Manchester United goal- believed. ing and brutal Cheema-Grubb
family and a fellow gang member amid keeper Anders Lindegaard and starred Louise Attrill, senior Crown Prosecu- murder.” will sentence
intensifying violence. His gangland ri- in The Real Housewives of Cheshire for tion Service prosecutor, said yesterday The court was told those found
vals sent Hemissi to the UK to track two seasons. that the murder was part of “a tit-for-tat that three other Swedes guilty next
him down and kill him. Beqiri married Debora Krasniqi in rivalry between two very significant or- had also flown to Friday.
6 2GM Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

News
News Ukraine crisis

Invasion could begin any time

Henry Zeffman mistic. “What we are saying is we have
RUSSIAN MILITARY
a sufficient level of concern based on Rukla
Associate Political Editor
what we are seeing from the ground
Alistair Dawber Washington
and what our intelligence analysts have
Kaliningrad
LITHUANIA
B EL ARU S
Aliide Naylor Druskininkai
Tom Parfitt Moscow picked up, that we are sending this clear
message,” he said. “We believe any
BUILD-UP
A Russian invasion of Ukraine would American in Ukraine should leave as It is estimated that Reinforced by
begin with bombing and missile attacks soon as possible, but in any event, with- 1,700 troops Shchuchyn Minsk
that could indiscriminately kill civil- in the next 24 to 48 hours. The risk is Russia has deployed Or
Orzy
zy
yszz (US
Orzysz (US-led
from US 82nd 10
1,000 Nato Grodno
ians, the US warned yesterday as west- now high enough.” Airborne
ern rhetoric hardened. Sullivan refused to identify specific about 137,000 troops)
Division Baranovichi Osipovichi
Jake Sullivan, national security intelligence behind the time frame. He troops near the
adviser to President Biden, said that said: “President Biden will not put the 100 Royal Obuz-Lesnovsky
America had “reason to believe” Russia lives of our men and women in uniform Ukraine border Engineers
Brestsky
es
Rechitsa
could invade Ukraine “any day now”. at risk to send them into a war zone to
He did not think that President Putin rescue people who could have left.” Yelsk
sk
Warsaw
Wa
a w
had made a final decision to mount a Sullivan praised the strength of the 30,0
30
30,000
full invasion and insisted that a diplo- Nato alliance ranged against Russia.
matic path was still possible but said he “Nato has been strengthened,” he said. Russian troop numbers Estimated number
num
mber
was delivering “an urgent message “The alliance is more cohesive, more POLAND of troops deployed
d
because we are in an urgent situation”. purposeful, more dynamic than any 10,000 in Belarus
General Mark Milley, chairman of time in recent memory.” 5,000
the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke by Sullivan also said that China
telephone yesterday with his Russian appeared to be giving “a wink and a nod, Polish
s border
1,000 3500 Royal Kyiv
counterpart, General Valery Gerasim- or a green light, to a Russian invasion”.
ov, the Pentagon said, although details He added: “China will ultimately Marines
ne to be
of the exchange were kept private. come to suffer consequences as a result Tanks sent
Biden will call Putin today, according of that in the eyes of the rest of the Nato
N ato training
n
to the Russian leader’s press secretary, world, most notably in the eyes of our missions
m s in Ukraine
Ukrain
U
Artillery
Dmitry Peskov. “The American side European partners and allies. — 200
0 US National
Nat l
has indeed requested a conversation “We do not believe that China can Armoured vehicles
Guardsmen
d and
n 100
with President Putin, and tomorrow compensate Russia for the economic SLOVAKIA
AKIA British
iti troops
o
evening, Moscow time, a conversation losses that would be sustained in the
Missile launchers
of the two presidents is planned,” Pes- event of an invasion due to sanctions
kov said. He confirmed that Putin and export controls and the like.”
would also speak to President Macron The adviser’s intervention came after Jet fighters
of France today. Biden held a virtual meeting with Boris Other military activity
Despite the last ditch diplomacy, the Johnson and the leaders of Germany, B
Budapest
US is urging Americans in Ukraine to Italy, Canada, France, Poland and Transnistria
Transnist
stria
st
Nato member
get out as soon as possible. Sullivan said Romania, along with presidents of the
an invasion “could begin at any time”, European Commission and Council Nato battlegroup HUNGARY
H U NGARY
even before the Beijing Winter Olym- and the secretary-general of Nato. MOLDOVA
MOLD
DOVA
D
DOV
OVA
pics finishes at the end of next week. The warnings came as Russia began Nato jet fighters to be sent
Reports had suggested that Putin its largest joint exercise with Belarus in Craiova (1,000
00
would wait until after the Games to decades. About 30,000 soldiers, sup- Nato warships to be sent US ttroops
rroops se
sent Odessa
O essa
avoid antagonising President Xi. ported by ballistic missiles, air defence from Vilsek)
om Vilse
V ROMANIA
ROMA
RO M NIA
A
Officials said that the US will send a systems and combat aircraft, began
further 3,000 troops to Poland. They Operation Allied Resolve near the bor- CROATIA
CR
C RO
OAATI
TA
said that the soldiers would not come der with Lithuania. The reverberations
from forces already in Europe but from from the drills rattled empty glasses
the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort across table tops in Druskininkai, a spa
Bragg, North Carolina. In a sombre, town about eight miles from the border.
briefing, Sullivan described how a Rus- “Russia and Belarus’s military inte- B ch
Bu charrest
Bucharest
sian invasion was “likely to begin with gration is complete,” Arvydas Anusau-
aerial bombing and missile attacks that skas, Lithuania’s defence minister, said.
could obviously kill civilians without Rochan Consulting, a defence ana-
regard to their nationality”. lysis firm based in Gdansk, Poland, has
He added: “A subsequent ground in- said that the troop movements in Bela-
vasion would involve the onslaught of a rus appear to be concentrated towards
massive force, with virtually no notice.” the southern border with Ukraine. BU
U LG
L
LGAR
G AR
ARIA
Sullivan said that a “possible line of One possibility is that the Russian
attack” was a “rapid assault on the city forces may remain in Belarus after the
of Kyiv”, Ukraine’s capital. war game ends on February 20.
While insisting that diplomacy was Ukraine diplomacy, letters, page 28
still possible, Sullivan’s tone was pessi- Kyiv rues giving up warheads, page 40

Send troops now to deter Russian aggression, ambassador urges

Catherine Philp
Diplomatic Correspondent
Britain should send troops to Ukraine
to deter an invasion so that it never has
to fight the Russian army on Nato soil,
the Ukrainian ambassador has told
The Times.
Vadym Prystaiko was speaking as
1,000 more British troops were put on
standby for deployment to the Baltic
states where hundreds of soldiers have
already been sent in a show of unity
with Nato allies.
The deployment is intended to illus-
trate Nato’s readiness to defend its east-
ern allies under its Article 5 mutual
defence clause if President Putin seeks
to test the West’s resolve as Russian
troops threaten Ukraine.
Prystaiko, a former Ukrainian
foreign minister, argued that British
troops could be better used as an early
deterrence to Putin on Ukrainian soil.
“You might not have even to fight in
Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania or
anywhere,” he said. “If he is stopped in
Ukraine, you won’t have to fight any-
where. By doing this [now], you can
avoid sending your soldiers to defend
your allies the next day.”
Prystaiko described that argument as
the “politically correct” answer he gives
to the question of British troops being
sent to Ukraine, which he says
government figures in London
have begged him not to speak
about “because it will scare the
British public”.
However, he admitted “if our
nation is under full-scale
attack and people have
been killed and
bombarded, Chechnya
style, I will have no sor-
row, I will have nothing to
stop me knocking at every
door and telling your
people, we have to survive,
please send everything you
can, tell everybody you can”.
Prystaiko said he had no
choice but to put his trust in diplomacy
to ease the crisis but doubted how effec-
tive the stream of visitors to Moscow
had been in changing Putin’s mind. “I
have been watching closely what is
happening there and how most leaders
visiting have been humiliated to some
extent by Russian counterparts, espe-
cially Liz Truss.”
He was referring to the foreign
secretary’s encounter with Sergey
Lavrov, her Russian counterpart,
who dismissed their conversations
as “like a mute person speaking to
a deaf person”.
“I am pretty sure that Liz
knew what sort of treatment
she could expect in Moscow
and she went there,” Prys-
taiko said. “That is quite a
courageous act on the part
of a politician. He was
Vadym Prystaiko said
British troops could be
an early deterrent
humiliating her on purpose, these are
dirty tricks.” He said he would welcome
a visit to Moscow by Boris Johnson as a
show of support for Ukraine. “He is
quite cleverly sending secretaries first
to see if there’s any room for better
diplomacy at the highest level, which is
a wise thing to do,” he said. “I would
recommend it, because regardless of
the humiliation you get in Russia, it will
be helping Ukraine.”
He urged Britain to dial down the
rhetoric about a looming Russian inva-
sion, warning that it was causing inves-
tors to flee and helping Putin to desta-
bilise Ukraine “without firing a shot”.
Prystaiko said talk of an “imminent”
invasion was particularly damaging in
Ukraine, where the closest equivalent
translation is “inevitable”. “We do not
see invasion as inevitable,” he said.
“That means it can’t be stopped.”
Washington agreed last week to stop
using the word “imminent” but it is still
regularly rolling off the tongues of
British leaders. “We tell people that we
are actually surprised how sensitive
you are to this build-up because we’ve
been living through it all these years,”
Prystaiko said.
On reports of some 130,000 Russian
soldiers on Ukraine’s borders, he said:
“Sometimes they even have more . . . So
in Ukraine it’s not like we lost our sensi-
tivity and our skin is thicker.
“We just believe that it is dangerous,
but this is day-to-day life for us. And
when people start pulling out the per-
sonnel from their embassies, this cre-
ates additional panic for Ukrainians.”
Instead of waiting for an invasion
before sanctioning Russia, Prystaiko
urged Britain to publish a list of sanc-
tions targets immediately to demon-
strate to Moscow what it would cost.
“The prophylactic is better than the
treatments,” he said. “List the sanctions,
say we’re not pulling the switch but
we’re showing you that that’s the list.
One soldier crosses and the sanctions
are immediately introduced. This is a
hybrid approach. This will work.”
 the times | Saturday February 12 2022 2GM 7

News
News

with missile attacks, US warns

Source: Janes. Updated Feb 2022

Yelnya
lny
nya

Unecha ov
ovka
Lesnovka
Postayalye
Dovry Voronezh
n
Klimovo
Kursk
Baltimore
m

Pogonovo
o

Soloti
Kharkiv
v RUSSI A
Donbas
region LUHANSK
LUH
HANSK
U KRA INE Volgograd
rad

Separatist
e
Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, with his counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, flanked
area by Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, chief of the defence staff, and Valery Gerasimov,
DONETSK
DONE
NE
ET
ETSK
ET chief of Russia’s general staff, in front of a painting in Moscow showing
Rostov-on-Don
Rostov-on-D
R n-Don
n Montgomery, Eisenhower and their Russian and French allies in Berlin in 1945

CRI M EA
Dzhankoi
nk Mariupol
Mariup
Mar
a
Number of battalion
tactical groups
Britain offers fighting
14 100
talk and a pointed gift
In transit
AZOV SEA 100 miles
Novoozerne
erne 83
60
Krasnodar
K
Kr
rassno
noda
oda
darr matic activity already this week,
Larisa Brown Defence Editor, Moscow
Bakhchysarai
Bakhchysara
ai
a including a visit by Liz Truss, the for-
Opuk Vladimir Putin would not survive as eign secretary, and President Macron
Sev
Seva
Sevastopol Russian president if he invaded of France to Russia, all of which have so
Jan 26 Now Needed for
full-scale Ukraine, Ben Wallace said last night far failed to lead to a breakthrough on
B L AC K S E A invasion after crunch talks with key Kremlin the crisis near Ukraine’s border.
figures in Moscow. In opening remarks during a bilateral
On the first visit by a defence secre- meeting at the Russian defence minis-
tary to Russia in more than two try in Moscow earlier in the day, the
decades, Wallace said such a move Russian defence minister said that the
would have “long-term consequences” level of co-operation with Britain was
for Russia’s position in the western “almost zero” and warned it was about
world and would lead to regime change. to cross into the “negative side” as he
It would result in “long-term isola- questioned why the UK had sent
tion” and have such a significant eco- special forces to Ukraine.
nomic impact that it “would be hard to Shoigu said the two nations shared a
see how the government who commit- “common brotherhood”. Urging the

Ukrainian defies ban on Seizing assets ted this would be able to survive in the
long term with its people”, he said in his
strongest remarks yet concerning the
UK to stop supplying weapons to
Ukraine, he said: “I would like to see the
reason why the UK is sending special

Olympic political protest ‘won’t hurt future of Russia.

Wallace flew into Moscow yesterday
with Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the
forces to Ukraine and until what time
[they] will be there.” The British gov-
ernment does not confirm or deny the

Tom Parfitt Moscow

An athlete has staged the first political
protest of the Winter Olympics in
Beijing, holding up a sign reading “no
war in Ukraine”.
Vladyslav Heraskevych, a Ukrainian
competitor in the skeleton bobsled,
showed the sign briefly to television
cameras after completing a run. The
words were printed on a piece of paper
with the colours of the Ukrainian flag.
“It’s my position. Like any normal
people, I don’t want war,” Heraskevych,
23, said after he finished competing,
according to the Associated Press. “I
want peace in my country and I want
peace in the world. It’s my position, so I
fight for that. I fight for peace.”
Rule 50 of the Olympic charter states
that “no kind of demonstration or polit-
ical, religious or racial propaganda is
permitted in any Olympic sites, venues
Vladyslav Heraskevych held up his
country’s flag with a message on it
or other areas”. China said this month
that protests at its Winter Olympic
venues or on the medal stand could
violate Chinese law as well. It was seen
as a means of intimidating athletes who
might protest over the country’s mass
persecution of Uighur Muslims.
Winter Olympics, Sport, pullout
Putin’s friends’
Kieran Gair
One of the Tory party’s most generous
donors has criticised the government’s
plan to sanction assets held in Britain
by President Putin’s inner circle.
Alexander Temerko, who was born
in Ukraine and has given £1.6 million to
the Conservatives since he became a
British citizen in 2011, said that legis-
lation allowing the confiscation of as-
sets from Putin’s supporters would not
counter Kremlin aggression. “We need
to stop our country acting like a finan-
cial pumping house,” he told Times
Radio. “That means blocking any Rus-
sian company that is state-controlled
or has state capital invested in it from
any financial facility in the UK, includ-
ing any listing on the stock exchange.”
Saturday interview, pages 36-37
head of the armed forces, and Lieuten-
ant General Ralph Wooddisse,
commander of the UK field army, for an
intense afternoon of negotiations.
At a press conference after more than
two hours of talks with his Russian
counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, and
General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of
the general staff, Wallace said he had
been told that the Russians had “no
intention” of invading Ukraine.
Shoigu and Gerasimov are consid-
ered key figures in Putin’s inner circle
and among three Russians who are
most likely to influence him, Wallace
believes. Wallace said they had a “con-
structive and frank” discussion and
relations had gone from “zero” before
the talks to “above zero” afterwards.
“We will keep trying, the inter-
national community is trying very
hard,” said Wallace, adding that more
talks were expected next week.
The visit followed a flurry of diplo-
deployment of special forces.
Radakin warned that an invasion of
Ukraine would be a “tragic mistake”.
Before the meeting, Wallace, a
former Scots Guard, said he planned to
remind Shoigu of historical ties. “The
Scots and the Russians go back hun-
dreds of years,” he explained, adding
that he had brought Shoigu, a collector
of swords, a gift of Glenfiddich whisky
and a Scots Guards sword from the time
of George VI “when the Soviet Union
and Britain fought side by side against
the Nazis”.
Radakin brought Gerasimov a print
of a drawing of his birthplace in the
1600s from the naval historical branch
in Portsmouth and a crest cast from the
original steel of the masts of HMS
Belfast after their replacement in 2010.
The new masts were a gift from the
Russian people in recognition of the
ship’s role in the Arctic convoys.
My Week, Liz Truss, pages 38-39
8 2GM
News
DAN JESSUP/SUSSEX NEWS AND PICTURES
America for the winter
The only (Kieran Gair writes).
The bird was spotted
way was on Tuesday in a cul-de-
sac in Eastbourne. Nick
Bond, who was part of a
Sussex for group of twitchers who
travelled there, said it
rare bird was very rare to see the
species in Britain, “let
alone Sussex”. He added:
B
irdwatchers are “They do migrate in
flocking to a large numbers in
quiet East America so this one has
Sussex street to gotten lost en route.”
catch a glimpse David Campbell, the
of an American robin county recorder for the
that was probably blown Sussex Ornithological
off course while Society, told Sussex
migrating to South World that the last time
Raab ditches solar
contract linked
to Uighur slavery
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor
Dominic Raab last night ripped up a
multimillion-pound contract to install
solar panels on dozens of prisons and
courts after The Times revealed they
contained parts made by a firm that
uses forced labour camps in China.
The government has repeatedly con-
demned China over its treatment of
Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province
and has imposed sanctions in response
to its human rights abuses.
But research by Labour, shared with
The Times, has found that crucial parts
for panels procured by the government
are suspected of having been made in
mandatory work camps in Xinjiang.
It raises the possibility of the Minis-
try of Defence having to reinstall panels
and halt further planned installations.
The Ministry of Justice signed a
three-year contract in December 2020
with Engie, a French renewable and
utility company, to fit solar panels on 17
prisons and 90 courts. A landmark re-
port on global solar supply chains last
year listed Engie as one of the compa-
nies that sources components from the
Chinese firm Jinko Solar.
Behind the story
S
olar panels are one of the
many products from
Xinjiang found to have
been made by forced
Uighur labour, both in
giant internment camps run by
Beijing and in factories
(Catherine Philp writes).
Xinjiang produces almost half
the world’s supply of polysilicon,
which is extracted from quartz
mined in the province. It is also
home to a vast cotton industry
and accounts for a fifth of global
supply. Researchers have found
Uighur forced labour in both the
textile factories and the fields —
a grim echo of the Atlantic slave
trade in which Africans were
transported to pick cotton.
The US has banned all cotton
imports from Xinjiang. Britain
has imposed due diligence guides
on the textile industry to try to
prevent products made by Uighur
slaves reaching UK markets.
Beijing claims that the purpose
of its “re-education camps” in
Xinjiang has been fulfilled and
all those held have “graduated”.
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
sa an American
he saw
rob in Britain was
robin
ab
about ten years ago
in Devon. He said:
“I the last thing
“It’s
y are expecting,
you
so
something like that
th time of the year.
this
It really does inject
som
something special
into your routine.”
The American robin
usually migrates from
Canad to Guatemala.
Canada
fir recorded
The first
Birdwatchers were out in sightin in Britain was in
sighting
force in Eastbourne to Devon in 1952. There
photograph an American have since been 28
robin believed to have sightings, with the last in
been blown off course Devon in 2018.
The report, by Sheffield Hallam Uni-
versity, found that 42 per cent of the
Jinko Solar’s ingots and wafers — cru-
cial parts in panels — are produced by
its factories in Xinjiang province.
The research found that Jinko’s oper-
ations are linked to forced labour in
the province, where millions of indige-
nous Uighur and Kazakh citizens are
held in what the Chinese government
calls “surplus labour” and “labour
transfer” programmes.
It also has a site in an industrial park
that hosts a high-security prison and
Uighur internment camp, which other
companies in the park are known to
have used for forced labour.
The Labour Party is calling on the
British government to follow the US in
banning imports that have been manu-
factured in, or contain parts produced
in, Xinjiang province. President Biden
signed a bill in December as part of
Washington’s efforts to punish China
over its abuse of Uighur Muslims.
Afzal Kahn, the shadow justice min-
ister, who has campaigned for the ban,
said it was “utterly reprehensible” that a
UK government department had
become “tainted” with forced labour.
He said: “Time and again this
government has dragged its feet on
holding China to account for its egre-
gious human rights abuses, and now we
find it has spent £12 million on solar
panels tainted with forced Uighur
labour.”
A spokesman for the justice ministry
said: “We will never tolerate the use of
forced labour – in the absence of cate-
gorical assurances about the supply
chain, we will cancel this contract im-
mediately.
“The UK has led international action
to hold China to account at the UN, im-
posed sanctions against senior officials
and introduced robust domestic meas-
ures in respect of supply chains.”
Jinko did not respond to a request for
comment but has previously said it con-
demns the use of forced labour and that
research does not “demonstrate forced
labour in our facilities”.
The Chinese authorities have also
denied claims that factories producing
the materials are made under coercion.
An Engie spokesperson said: “The
group and all subsidiary companies
firmly condemn forced labour and any
violation of human rights. Engie has set
up a purchasing management system
that aims to control and reduce ethical
risks. Our purchasing policy
targets forced labour in its paragraph
on ethics and social responsibility.”
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
Brace! Brace! The nanny’s in cattle class
Jonathan Ames Legal Editor
The stress of flying with two toddlers in
tow will be familiar to many parents.
The frustration of finding that their
nanny is unable to claim her business
class seat will be less familiar.
A high-flying QC was
escorted off a British Airways
flight from Heathrow to Italy
last week by police after he
complained that staff had
downgraded the family
nanny to economy class.
Charles Banner, a plan-
ning law specialist, said
that he was considering
legal action against BA.
“It was a very upsetting
event for all of the family
Taliban free
former BBC
journalist
held in Kabul
David Brown
A British former BBC journalist taken
captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan
was freed last night.
Andrew North, once a South Asia
correspondent for the BBC, was
released by the militant group along
with a second unnamed journalist.
North, who has been working for the
United Nations, was abducted on
Monday. At least four other British
men, whose families have asked that
they are not identified, have been
detained since last month.
North, who lives in New York, was
working as an independent journalist
with the UN when he was detained. An
Irish colleague and three Afghan assist-
ants were taken the previous day.
The Wall Street Journal quoted a
member of a Taliban intelligence unit
in Kabul saying that “several foreign
nationals” had been arrested.
The United Nations High Commis-
sioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said:
“We are relieved to confirm the release
of the two journalists on assignment
with UNHCR, and the Afghan nation-
als working with them.”
North, who worked for the BBC in
Washington, South Asia and Iraq until
2015, wrote on his website about meet-
ing Taliban leaders: “The group once
dubbed ‘Islamic Maoists’ has not been
as ruthless as many feared — so far.”
A Taliban spokesman said last night
that the detained UN journalists had
been identified and released.
Meanwhile, friends of a second Brit-
ish man who has been held have plead-
ed for his release, saying they believe he
may be being held “in error”.
Peter Jouvenal, a British-German
dual national, has been held since early
December. Jouvenal, of Woodhall Spa,
Lincolnshire, went to Afghanistan to
discuss investments in the mining in-
dustry and for “family reasons”.
David Loyn, a former BBC corre-
spondent, is helping Jouvenal’s friends
secure his release. Loyn said it was ur-
gent as Jouvenal suffers from high
blood pressure and needs medication.
Diplomatic sources said it was not
clear why the Britons were seized, but
that they could be caught up in internal
disputes in the Taliban, with one side
wanting to follow Iran’s lead in using
foreign hostages as leverage.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said:
“We are providing support to the fami-
lies of a number of British men who
have been detained in Afghanistan.”
2GM 9
News
and the way we were treated was ner said that the cabin crew declined to off. He alleged that the crew asked the standard protocol to escort passengers
appalling and in contrast to over 15 allow the nanny to sit in a spare seat in pilot not to fly any of the family and so who had been taken off a flight. He was
years of pleasant experiences on BA business class between him and the the aircraft returned to the terminal not interviewed by police and there is
flights as a regular customer,” he said. children’s mother. and two police officers escorted them to no suggestion of a criminal offence.
Banner accused the airline of over- “Rather than apologise, the BA cabin the non-departure side. The family took a flight with easyJet
selling a flight from London to Turin in crew were incredibly rude when we “It was particularly appalling and to Turin from Gatwick the next day.
Italy. He was travelling with his child- asked if the nanny could either sit in the distressing for BA to refuse even to let They returned from Turin on a BA
ren, aged one and four, their spare seat next to us or at least come the two children fly with either their flight because of a lack of suitable alter-
mother and the nanny. He and help with the kids,” Banner said. He mother or the nanny,” Banner said. He native options — “and the cabin crew
said he had booked business- claimed that one of the cabin crew said added that this “demonstrates with on that flight were welcoming and
class tickets for all of them at “You wish” in response to his request. absolute clarity the vindictiveness of charming”, Banner said. He added that
a total fare of about £1,250. “They also repeatedly refused to the cabin crew’s attitude. The children BA had apologised to him over the
Only after they boarded the offer an explanation for why she could found the process of leaving the plane incident and refunded the fare in
flight did it emerge that not use the spare seat next to us, and they had just boarded confusing and vouchers.
the nanny had been were openly expressing amusement at upsetting”. The airline claimed that Banner had
downgraded. Ban- the situation,” he said. Banner said the action by the BA been “disruptive” and that there had
Banner said that when he told the crew “was a gross over-reaction to our been no spare seat in business class. It
Charles Banner crew he would complain, they con- understandable upset at how we had added: “We do not tolerate disruptive
and his family had tacted the pilot and stopped the air- been treated”. He said that the police behaviour and the safety of our custom-
to leave the flight craft, which had begun to taxi for take- were polite and pointed out that it was ers and crew is our top priority.”
CREDIT REBECCA COLES/ROAM MOUNTAINS
Tim Exley, left, and Joe
Brindley pause during their
Teenage pupils
ascent of Ben Nevis, right;
Rebecca Coles, below, took
the dramatic photograph
gripped by gods
and monsters
of mythology
Nicola Woolcock Education Editor
Children prefer Virgil to Shakespeare
because tales from the Classics remind
them of computer games, a Cambridge
university study suggests.
The study’s author says pupils who
study Virgil at school find it much more
engaging than other “prestigious” liter-
ature such as the works of the Bard.
It proposes that schools could
one user commentedmented that expand ancient literature’s use in the
“the chap stood near the wider curriculum to explore its appeal
edge AND leaning back beyond pupils who are studying Latin.
is giving me major The results came from a study with
anxiety!” three groups of 16-year-olds taking Lat-
The three are all in GCSE at state schools.
experienced climbers. Dr Frances Foster, from Cambridge’s
Macallister, 40, originally faculty of education, conducted the
from Dublin, and his study. “Research suggests younger
English companions, who readers can’t get enough of mythology,”
are in their 20s, all live in she said. “The appeal seems to be the
Chamonix, France, and combination of monsters, weird fan-
are training for the tasy stuff, and action — basically what
British Mountain Guides you would find in a lot of computer
qualification to be able to games.”
teach in the Alps. Almost all pupils in the study claimed
The trio had started they enjoyed aspects of Virgil’s epic,
hiking up from the car Aenied — especially the fast-paced
park at 7.30am before action and mythological themes —
starting their ascent, even though they had mixed feelings
using a 60m rope, ice about other poetry studied at school.
axes and crampons, The research is reported in a newly
getting back down via an published collection of essays, The
easier route by 5.30pm. Aeneid and the Modern World. Foster’s
They were on the ledge work explores how young people
for an hour to 90 perceive the ancient world and its liter-
minutes, discussing their ature. She said: “If you’re a 15-year-old
training while trying studying the Aeneid, what you’re
to stay warm. “It actually studying is a tiny segment of
was a about -5C one book. It’s rather like watching part
eve
even without of an episode in a television series with-
th
the wind out ever seeing the rest.
breathtaking photograph up a ch
chill factor,” “If we can establish that other stu-
Cigarette published in The Times
on Thursday showed two
cigarette
by rope to
M
Macallister
sa
said. Many
dents enjoy it as much as this research
group did, it might be worth exploring
break helps tiny figures against a wall
of snow and ice,
smoke on
the 2m-
o
on Twitter
no
noted how
whether literature from the ancient
world can be made more widely avail-
climbers apparently stranded. But
that initial impression
wide ledge.
The photoo
rel
relaxed they
llooked,
ook with
able, not least to the majority of child-
ren who never learn Latin.”
stay cool could not have been
further from the truth.
of them
standing nextxt to
severa
several saying
tthey
hey migh
might as well
About 12,000 pupils in England take
an ancient language to GCSE, mostly at
W
hen two The two climbers were Gargoyle Wall, with a have been waiting
waiti for a selective or independent schools. Most
climbers Joe Brindley and Tim 500ft drop below them, bus. Macallister said: “At of those take Latin and can study
were Exley, with a third friend, was taken on Friday last one point I did see extracts from one book of the Aeneid.
spotted Rhys Macallister, out of week by Rebecca Coles, another lad below us who Foster carried out a close analysis of
on a tiny shot a few feet away 41, a mountaineering was guiding a woman up three GCSE Latin groups at state com-
ledge on Ben Nevis’s around the corner, and instructor, from near the having a cigarette, so I prehensive schools.
north cliff face, with no they were so in control of top of number 3 gully, shouted down ‘I wouldn’t All but one pupil claimed to enjoy at
rope in sight, they the situation that close to the summit of the mind a cigarette’. least something about the Aeneid but
appeared to be in urgent Macallister even 1,345m mountain. “He said ‘I’ll fire you up just 39 per cent said they liked studying
need of rescue (Ross persuaded a group of After Coles shared the one’, so I roped down a poetry in English lessons, while most
Kaniuk writes). The climbers below to send photograph on Twitter, dry bag for it.” were ambivalent and 16 per cent active-
ly disliked poetry.
10
News
News Police
Mayor in row
over size of
Met chief’s
exit payoff
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor
Fiona Hamilton, John Simpson
Dame Cressida Dick and Sadiq Khan
were engulfed in a row over the size of
her payoff last night, with claims that
she could receive more than £400,000
after he forced her to resign.
The Metropolitan Police commis-
sioner is expected to stay on for two
months to oversee the investigation
into Downing Street parties. That will
avoid her replacement being tarnished
by its conclusion, which could decide
Boris Johnson’s fate as prime minister.
Priti Patel, the home secretary, is ex-
pected to appoint an interim commis-
sioner while an “open and competitive”
recruitment process is launched.
Last night the mayor was trying to
avoid having to hand Dick a payoff that
could exceed £400,000. She is paid a
salary of about £230,000 and signed a
contract in September to serve a two-
year extension to her original contract,
which was due to expire in April. Both
the Met and City Hall refused to com-
ment on claims that Dick is entitled to
be paid the full salary she would have
received had she remained in post until
April 2024. This would mirror the situa-
tion with Sir Ian Blair, who received a
£300,000 payout after being forced out
as Met commissioner in 2008 by John-
son, who was then mayor of London.
Experts said Dick will also have a pen-
sion pot in excess of £100,000 a year.
Dick’s sudden departure leaves polic-
ing in turmoil, with the three most im-
portant jobs all vacant. Patel is also re-
cruiting a director-general of the
National Crime Agency and of Her
Majesty’s Chief Inspectorate of Con-
stabulary. Some leading candidates for
the Met commissioner post are at the
final interview stage for the other jobs.
Khan’s treatment of Dick is said to be
deterring some police leaders from
applying for the job. Five months ago he
wanted to give her a three-year exten-
sion. On Thursday he forced her out.
One chief constable said: “Senior
leaders in policing who would other-
wise have wanted to go for the job are
looking at what happened and how
Sadiq has threatened Cressida and say-
ing, ‘I can’t work with him’.”
Another senior policing leader said
that good candidates could be put off by
the treacherous politics intertwined
with the role. “Given what has hap-
pened and the brutal public way in
which she has been forced out, how
does a new person lead the Met?” they
said. “How do you maintain the confi-
dence of the force, the public and the
politicians? It’s an impossible task.”
A minister accused Khan of “using
the Met commissioner role as a political
football” to disguise his own failings as
mayor. The minister said: “If you were
someone who is towards the top of your
force and who thinks they’ve got six,
seven years left of their career, it would
be a brave move to gamble it on falling
out with the mayor of London.”
A source close to Khan defended his
decision, saying: “Sadiq’s job is to hold
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
the Met to account, and it is absolutely
right that he ensures it has the right
leadership to command the trust and
confidence of Londoners, which is so
crucial to policing by consent.”
David Lammy, the shadow foreign
secretary and a close ally of Khan, said:
“Priti Patel and her team seem more
concerned with squabbling about the
process of Cressida Dick’s resignation
than the vitally important issue of re-
storing trust and confidence in the Met.”
MPs, and relatives of victims affected
by scandals that dogged Dick’s time in
office, said Khan should either resist
offering Dick a payoff or fund it himself.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former
Conservative Party leader, said Khan
had erred by failing to inform the Home
Office that he was withdrawing support
from Dick. “He should have consulted
the Home Office first — there are rea-
sons you need to get your ducks in a
row. They would have checked her con-
tract. But he’s forced her out and she
may now have a case for constructive
dismissal thanks to the mayor. If they
end up having to pay out huge sums of
money, he’ll be the one to blame.”
Harvey Proctor, the former Conserv-
ative MP who was falsely branded a
serial child killer by the paedophile Carl
“Nick” Beech as part of the Met’s
botched Operation Midland, said that
Khan should be personally responsible
for the payoff. He said: “Sadiq Khan has
messed this up and he should be per-
sonally responsible out of his personal
purse for the £460,000 that his mess
has caused. She should not have been
given an extension to her contract.”
Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal
Democrats’ home affairs spokesman,
said: “Most taxpayers would want to see
money spent on rebuilding the Met,
rather than rewarding those responsi-
ble for its problems.”
Last night Patel said that the challen-
ges facing the new commissioner were
“stark and could not be more sobering”.
In a statement, the home secretary said
Dick’s replacement must demonstrate
“strong and decisive” leadership to rid Dame Cressida Dick appeared in good spirits on her way to work yesterday. Her sudden resignation has led to a dispute with
the force of sexism, racism and institu-
tional corruption. The first task would
be to “restore public confidence” in
Britain’s biggest police force, she said.
The Home Office said the recruit-
Candidates offer a thin blue line-up
ment process would be carried out as Fiona Hamilton Surrey, lost out to Dick when she was “Lynne’s health would not be a block.
quickly as possible but that the priority Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor appointed in 2017. Cooke and Sawyer She is looking at next steps but would
was to select the “best person”. It has are in the running to be Her Majesty’s need a lot of encouragement to be per-
ruled out a replacement from abroad. Four middle-aged white men from Chief Inspector of Constabulary. There suaded to apply.” Home Office sources
Johnson is keen to distance himself outside the Metropolitan Police have are few female candidates unless Dame said that Patel liked and respected her.
from the appointment to avoid sugges- emerged as early frontrunners to Other possible contenders include
tions he is influencing the leader of the replace Dame Cressida Dick. Mark Rowley lost Graham McNulty, a Met deputy assist-
force investigating the No 10 parties. Priti Patel wants Dick’s successor to out on the top job ant commissioner who has impressed
The interim commissioner is likely to be an outsider who can shake up the to Dick in 2017 Patel with his handling of county lines
be Sir Stephen House, Dick’s deputy, Met’s culture, and plans to look at can- drug rings — though sources said the
according to Home Office sources. An didates across the policing spectrum. top job would be a big leap. Assistant
ardent supporter of stop and search de- The early frontrunners are consid- Commissioner Neil Basu has fallen out
spite conflict with London’s black com- ered to be Sir Mark Rowley, the former of favour with No 10 and is shortlisted
munity, he is not expected to be consid- head of anti-terrorism; Andy Cooke, for the NCA’s director-general position.
ered as a permanent replacement. the former Merseyside chief who is a Lynne Owens, the former head of the Martin Hewitt, the head of the National
Additional reporting by Laurence watchdog inspector; Shaun Sawyer, the National Crime Agency and former Police Chiefs’ Council, has always been
Sleator and Ross Kaniuk chief of Devon and Cornwall; and Steve Surrey chief, throws her hat in the ring. considered reliable and uncontrover-
Tough act to follow, letters, page 29 Kavanagh, the former Essex chief seen She stepped back from public life last sial. Iain Livingstone, the chief of Police
The job has become all but impossible, as having done a good job at Interpol. year after a cancer diagnosis but has Scotland, is seen as having turned
leading article, page 30 Rowley, the respected former chief of fully recovered. A friend told The Times: around his force after a difficult start.
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 11

News
News
JEREMY SELWYN; BEN CAWTHRA/LNP

Dick left aides to tell Khan

he’d forced her out of a job
Fiona Hamilton Crime Editor
When Dame Cressida Dick decided to
leave the Metropolitan Police before
she was sacked, she did not tell the
politician who wielded the knife.
Instead it was senior officials at the
force who relayed news of Dick’s move
to Sadiq Khan’s aides on Thursday aft-
ernoon, according to City Hall sources.
The Times understands that Dick has
not yet spoken personally to Khan,
underlining the deterioration in their
relationship and raising questions
about whether a smooth handover is
possible at Britain’s biggest police force.
In contrast, Dick rang Priti Patel, the
home secretary responsible for her
reappointment last year, telling her she
felt she had “no choice” but to resign.
The writing was on the wall ten days
ago, when Khan hauled Dick into his
office for a crunch meeting, putting her
“on notice” over the latest Met scandal
involving sexism, racism and homo-
phobia at Charing Cross police station.
By Friday last week, Dick, 61, had put
together a detailed report for him on
how she planned to rid the force of its
toxic culture and restore public confi-
dence and trust. She placed great reli-
ance on her appointment of Baroness
Casey of Blackstock, who is reviewing
the force’s culture and standards after
an outpouring of claims of misogyny
and misconduct since PC Wayne Cou-
zens abducted, raped and murdered
Sarah Everard last March.
Dick is also believed to have pointed
to an anti-corruption drive to root out
rogue officers, a new management
policy of speaking personally to all offi-
cers about standards of behaviour, and a
renewed strategy to target perpetrators
of violence against women and girls.
There is a “root and branch review” of
the diplomatic protection group, with
which Couzens was deployed, as well as
an urgent review of all present investi-
gations into allegations of sexual mis-
conduct and domestic abuse against
Met police officers and staff. The force is
also randomly screening officers who
have been accused in the past decade of
sexual misconduct or domestic abuse.
It was not enough for Khan, who
wanted to be assured of radical change.
Revelations that officers at Charing
Cross had joked about rape, domestic
violence and killing black children had
reminded Khan, 51, of the bad old days
of policing when he grew up in the 1970s
and 1980s. A source said: “He does not
want to go back to that. Trust and confi-
dence is paramount. He just didn’t feel
that her plan was good enough.”
Sadiq Khan over her payoff, as well as between the mayor and the Home Office Khan gave the impression he was
considering the matter on Wednesday
when he gave a radio interview in which
he warned that Dick had “days or
weeks” to convince him she was the
right person to sort out the Met.
It was her defiant interview the next
day that appears to have been the final
straw. Dick said she had “absolutely no
intention” of resigning and insisted she
was doing a good job and was deter-
mined to root out any individuals who
were sexist, racist or homophobic.
In a swipe at the mayor, she noted
that he had supported Patel’s decision to
extend her contract to April 2024 and
added: “I sat at a meeting with them just
three weeks ago at which the mayor
said he had never had more confidence
in the Met’s ability to deliver.”
Within hours she was gone, after
Khan’s officials made clear to Dick’s
allies that he no longer had confidence
in her. One senior policing source said:
“It seemed inevitable after her radio
interview. That was like sticking two
fingers up to the mayor. He may have
felt it forced his hand.”
There is also speculation that Khan,
who has been mayor since 2016, acted
knowing that news about the Met
would only get worse in the coming
months. The force is braced for more
sexual misconduct revelations, critical
reviews into how it failed to stop Cou-
zens, 48, when he was reported for inde-
cent exposure, and a watchdog report
into the unsolved 1987 murder of the
private investigator Daniel Morgan,
which has already resulted in
claims of institutional corruption.
The source said: “Khan knows
there’s lots more shit down the
line. He’s getting ahead of it by
getting rid of [Dick].”
The manner of Dick’s ousting,
after months of public castiga-
tion by Khan, has left her
close colleagues ag-
grieved. Many of the
rank and file, who
were highly suppor-
tive of Dick because
they felt she had their
back, are angered too.
There is also a back-
lash from female offi-
cers, who note the
irony of the first fe-
male leader, who also
happens to be gay,
being forced out over
a misogyny scandal.
A source who knows
Dick well told The
Sadiq Khan lost faith
in the commissioner
Times she had been poorly treated after
40 years of public service. “I understand
the politics . . . it’s within [Khan’s] gift as
a democratically elected official,” they
said. “But the handling of it, and the lack
of respect for someone of the commis-
sioner’s position, is hard to swallow.”
Yet others said she had failed to deliv-
er since taking charge of the Met in 2017
and declaring that her priority was to
tackle London’s violent crime epidemic.
She leaves with teenage homicides at a
record high. In later years she was
defensive when the force was accused of
institutional racism and corruption.
The scandal over the Couzens case was
the beginning of the end.
Another chief constable said: “Every
commissioner goes through being
threatened with the sack, and most of
them end up resigning against their
own will. You know it with that job — it’s
inevitable, a tough gig for everybody.
But Cress got more defensive as the
issues racked up against her.”
Her departure prompted a war of
words between the mayor and the
home secretary, who was said to have
been blindsided by Khan’s decision to
withdraw support. City Hall denied
keeping Patel in the dark. The home
secretary will now have to scramble to
find a strong leader who can bring about
real change. Detection rates for crimes
such as burglary are at historic lows.
Dick’s departure has led to a debate
about whether the Met is simply too big
to be properly governed. However, the
force fiercely guards its national re-
sponsibilities such as anti-terro-
rism and organised crime. A senior
policing leader said: “The Met
needs a lot of work. There are ter-
rible cultural issues. But it’s also too
big, it’s in the constant spotlight.
Add to that the fact that
there’s a Tory govern-
ment and a Labour
mayor, it’s very tricky.
Policing is a really diffi-
cult job now with all the
vulnerabilities and
mental health issues
that officers have to
tackle. People talk
with rose-tinted
glasses about the
leaders of old, but
they weren’t under
the constant
social media spot-
light. It’s a poi-
soned chalice.”
We should only
say sorry when
we mean it, Matthew
Parris, page 25

Too big not to fail: next leader will pick up a poisoned chalice
Analysis swords, however, there compassion and her Dick suggested that “Given what has pinnacle of policing. to deal with complex
is always an abundance intelligence. The rank such incidents were far happened and the brutal And there’s public duty.” vulnerabilities in victims,

H
eading the of candidates who think and file loved her from the norm. public way in which she Patel needs to find a a deluge of mental
Metropolitan they will be the one to because she went in to Her defiance in a has been forced out, strong leader who can health cases, and
Police is like make the job work. bat for them. radio interview on how does a new person bring about real change, regularly pick up the
being When Dame Cressida That defensiveness Thursday, arguing that lead the Met?” one while tackling big crime slack for other agencies.
England Dick was appointed in was ingrained as a Met she was doing enough to senior source asked. challenges. Teenage This is combined with a
manager — no shortage 2017, she was “lifer”. But it also helped fix the toxic culture, was “How do you maintain killings are at a high, criminal justice system
of armchair critics, determined to change to bring her down. As the final straw for Sadiq the confidence of the and detection rates for clogged with backlogs,
abuse from all the narrative, and many the Met was battered by Khan, mayor of London. force, the public and the crimes such as burglary staffing and budget cuts,
directions, and a very believed she could do it. claims of institutional The swiftness of the politicians? It’s an are at historic lows. and ebbing public
good chance it will end Widely considered the racism and corruption, execution, and the way impossible task.” There are questions confidence.
in ignominy (Fiona brightest officer of her Dick backed her people Dick had been publicly One chief constable about whether the Met The turbulence at the
Hamilton writes). generation, Dick was to the hilt and denied castigated for months by said: “It’s an absolutely is simply too big. But Met presents an
Despite a long history liked by senior that problems were Khan and by Priti Patel, poisoned chalice. there is a wider question opportunity to clarify
of commissioners who colleagues and widespread. As it was the home secretary, may Nonetheless there will about what the police the role of the police,
have been ousted and politicians for her calm engulfed in allegations give potential successors be plenty of people are for. Every day chief before it becomes a
forced to fall on their but resolute manner, her of misogyny and sexism, pause for thought. applying for it. It’s the constables are expected simply impossible job.
12
News
Oxford settled dean
row to save millions
Andrew Billen
The Oxford college that agreed to pay
its dean nearly £1.2 million to quit had
been told that continuing its four-year
dispute with him could have cost a fur-
ther £6.8 million.
Last Friday, at an emergency meet-
ing, Christ Church settled its dispute
with the Very Rev Martyn Percy. The
deal — dropping all further legal and
internal proceedings — was signed off
by a large majority of dons.
Some, however, damned it as “moral-
ly repugnant” on the grounds it would
preclude a woman from pursuing a
claim that Percy had stroked her hair in
the college cathedral 16 months ago.
The governing body, under scrutiny
from the Charity Commission over its
use of charitable funds and facing pres-
sure from the university’s chancellor
Lord Patten of Barnes, had little choice,
however, when the implications of con-
tinuing were spelt out. The academics
were told the dispute could have con-
tinued for three more years with mount-
ing costs and big payouts to the dean.
A tribunal into the hair-stroking
claim would have cost up to £780,000 in
lawyers’ fees and £115,200 for the hear-
ing. A “medical board” to determine
Percy’s mental competence to stay in
office would have cost up to £270,000.
Percy was also pursuing an employ-
ment tribunal claim. Fighting it would
have cost up to £815,000. Percy might
have received £500,000 had he won.
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
More money would go on “ongoing”
data protection, privacy, defamation,
general governance, legal advice and
PR. These fees were about £100,000 a
month. The body was made aware of
the “reputational damage” if there were
no settlement, although the settlement
itself would also have “considerable ad-
verse PR consequences”. Dons were
also warned of “strong indications” that
the commission would use its powers if
the college did not settle.
The college was also wary that stu-
I pair rock out in
Ice
dents would object to the idea of “pay-
ing off an alleged sex offender”. Percy’s bid for Olympic glory
allies are angered by the term. Last
M
May, Dame Sarah Asplin, investigating usic from almost 30 years would
as the president of Church of England Swan Lake be a “dream come true”
tribunals, concluded that the dean’s or Carmen but entertaining
reported conduct “was not overtly is a audiences around the
sexual”. She did not proceed to a disci- familiar world with their
plinary tribunal. The police had previ- soundtrack when the “boundary breaking”
ously declined to pursue the matter. world’s top skaters take routine in Beijing today
The woman accepted an undisclosed to the ice (Katie is what drives them.
payment from the college, reluctantly Gibbons writes). The “It’s quite different
accepting it was “my word against his”. rock band Kiss are more and hasn’t really been
She said in a statement: “I know what I to the taste of Britain’s done before in the figure
experienced and I want to ensure no Lilah Fear and Lewis skating world. That’s
other student or member of staff has to Gibson, however. really what we love to do
go through the ordeal that I have.” The dancers hope their — try to kind of push
Percy’s supporters are pushing for a Olympic performance the boundaries and take
leaving service for Percy in Christ and its music will be a something that’s a little
Church Cathedral. This seems unlikely. breath of fresh air for nostalgic and make it
Christ Church said: “The dean does fans of the sport. fresh and make it ours,”
not officially leave until April 26. Until Bringing home the said Gibson, 27, who has
then the dean has agreed to withdraw first medal for British been inspired in his
from his duties including attendance at Olympic ice skating for choice of career by
events. We do not comment on costs.”
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
MAJA HITIJ/GETTY IMAGES
Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson
hope to end a medal
drought in the event and
match the achievements
of Torvill and Dean, below
Jayne Torvill and
Christopher Dean.
Fear, 22, and Gibson
were paired during
training in 2016 and
soon began making
waves with crowd-
pleasing routines that
drew on 1970s disco
influences. Having
finished seventh at last
year’s world
championships ips
they are
Britain’s bestt
hope in the
event since
Torvill and
Dean won
a bronze in
Norway in
1994. That
followed the
gold a decadede
earlier at thee 1984
mpics in
Winter Olympics
Sarajevo.
Born in the US to
Canadian parents, Fear
moved to London at the
age of two and took up
skating at five.
Since meeting Gibson
at Alexandra Palace
training rink in London,
she has forged a bond
with him on and off the
ice. “Having each other
is very helpful because
we can feed off of each
other’s energy and
connect and, and
remind each other even
throughout the
programme to just stay
present and in the
moment,” Fear said.
Starting with the Kiss-
inspired rhythm dance,
they will move to their
free dance to music
from Elton John’s score
to The Lion King.
“We have a little
remix in there and a
little bit of a different
flavour, just to really put
that Lila
Lilah and
Lewis feel on
s
it,” said
Gib
Gibson.
During a
G
Games
cl
clouded by
cl
claims of
bu
bullying and
onl
online
trolli of
trolling
athlete he and
athletes,
Fear set aside
Fear asi time
to unwind by rreading or
binge-watching TV
shows and are thankful
for their coaching
support. “We’re lucky to
have an amazing
coaching team who are
all in Beijing, which is
great. They’re just so
supportive and really
care about us as humans
more than just athletes.”
Winter Olympics reports,
Sport pullout
Lord of the blings: Jackson
tops entertainment rich list
David Sanderson Arts Correspondent
Back catalogues, cheap cartoons,
trainers and champagne helped the
world’s leading entertainers to double
their collective wealth last year.
The film director Sir Peter Jackson
topped the annual Forbes list of the
highest paid entertainers, with pre-tax
earnings of $580 million in 2021 —
largely through selling part of his visual
effects company.
He was followed by Bruce Spring-
steen, who reportedly netted $500
million from Sony for rights to songs
and recordings covering his five-dec-
ade career
Paul Simon, Bob Dylan and Neil
Young also feature in the top 25 after
capitalising on the investment world’s
present infatuation with music publish-
ing and recording rights. Dylan sold
rights to his recorded music for a re-
ported $150 million last year, having
sold his publishing catalogue for
$400 million the year before.
There are also appearances for Trey
Parker and Matt Stone, creators of the
cartoon South Park, who signed a
$900 million six-year deal with Para-
mount last year to create new episodes
and spin-off films.
Competition between streaming ser-
vices and their desire for “content” to
lure subscribers also led to multimil-
lion-dollar deals for rights to hit televi-
sion shows such as Friends and Law &
Star performers
1 Sir Peter Jackson ........ $580 million
2 Bruce Springsteen ..... $435 million
3 Jay-Z ................................... $340 million
4 Dwayne “The Rock”
Johnson ................................ $270 million
5 Kanye West ..................... $235 million
6 Trey Parker and Matt
Stone ....................................... $210 million
7 Paul Simon ..................... $200 million
8 Tyler Perry ....................... $165 million
9 Ryan Tedder .................. $160 million
10 Bob Dylan ...................... $130 million
Source: Forbes
Order. The creators and producer of
Friends — Marta Kauffman, David
Crane and Kevin Bright respectively —
and Law & Order franchise holder
Dick Wolf all make appearances on
the business magazine’s list this
year.
The top 25 received a collective
$4.4 billion before tax, according
to Forbes, which is double the $2.2
billion taken by the top 25 in
2020. It said the vast major-
ity of the 25 had made
their millions without
“creating anything new”.
The musicians Jay-Z
and Kanye West and
film star Dwayne “The
Rock” Johnson appear
13
News
in the top five, for example, largely
through the sale of branded goods. Tay-
lor Swift, at 25 on the list, is thought to
have earned $52 million before tax,
mostly from re-recording albums that
are a decade old.
Other musicians to cash in on their
back catalogues include members of
the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mötley Crüe
and the Beach Boys, and the former
Fleetwood Mac guitarist and song-
writer Lindsey Buckingham.
Jackson’s sale of part of Weta Digital
last year put him at the top of this year’s
list and, according to the analysis,
makes him only the third person to be-
come a billionaire from making films.
The other two are George Lucas, the
creator of the Star Wars franchise, and
Steven Spielberg.
The actress Reese Witherspoon is
the highest-paid woman on the list,
in 12th position, having received a
reported $20 million for 10 epi-
sodes of The Morning Show
and having sold part of her
stake in her production com-
pany Hello Sunshine. She
earned a reported $115
million before tax.
Sir Peter Jackson
is the third
person to
become a
billionaire from
film-making
14 2GM Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

News
News Politics

Party scandal lies at every turn

The PM is determined
to fight on but events,
and rivals, may overtake
him, Steven Swinford
and Oliver Wright write
As Boris Johnson stood surrounded by
tanks at the home of the 1st Warsaw
Armoured brigade in Poland on
Thursday, he began to betray signs of
exasperation.
The prime minister had flown there
to welcome 350 British troops and warn
Russia that invading Ukraine would
have “catastrophic” consequences.
Instead he was bombarded with ques-
tions about the No 10 lockdown parties
that threaten to end his premiership.
How worried is he? Did he mislead par-
liament?
In No 10 he and his closest allies are
war-gaming the next weeks, which are
likely to be the most dangerous of his
premiership. In all scenarios, including
if the police fine him for breaking the
law, Johnson is determined to fight on.
“He considers himself a democrati-
cally elected prime minister with a
huge mandate,” one ally said. “He is not
going to walk off stage. The party stuff
is yet to be put to any sort of accurate
electorate test. He is an enormous dem-
ocrat. He has been elected, he serves at
the will of the people. It’s a fact for him.”
Another ally put it more succinctly
and contentiously. “Do you want the
Metropolitan Police deciding who the
prime minister is? They have to be very
certain [before issuing a fine].”
Last night No10 confirmed that police
have issued Johnson with a question-
naire asking for his account, a prelude to
a fixed penalty notice. His lawyers,
whom he will pay for, will argue that No
10 is both his home and his workplace,
and that as a result many coronavi-
rus rules, which were based on the
principle of people being away from
home without a reasonable excuse,
did not apply to him.
Should Johnson avoid a fixed
penalty the strategy is
simple. He will argue that
a parking fine. “He genuinely thinks he’s
innocent and in many ways he is,” an
ally said. “Everybody says ‘He’s in
charge of No 10 so he is totally responsi-
ble.’ He would have no clue of what was
going on in the outer reaches of No 10.”
His fate, however, will not be in his
hands. Should he receive a fixed penalty
notice, the whips charged with saving
his premiership believe it is almost
inevitable that rebel Tory MPs will
reach the 54 letters of no confidence
they need to trigger a confidence vote.
Johnson is said to see weakness in his
rivals. Neither Rishi Sunak, the chancel-
lor, nor Liz Truss, the foreign secretary,
are ready to run for the leadership. Nor
do they want to when the economic pic-
ture is so perilous. “If you look at Rishi
he looks like a diminished person,” one
ally said. “If you look at Liz she just looks
faintly opportunist. So then where do
you go after that?” Referring to Jeremy
Hunt, the former health secretary who
lost out in the last leadership contest,
the ally said: “Hunt is no more going to
win an election now than in 2019.”
The Times, however, has been told
The police inquiry rumbles on even
as new staff, such as Guto Harri, arrive
that key members of Johnson’s praetori-
an guard have had conversations with
his rivals. “The cat is out of the bag,
the race has started behind closed
doors,” an ally said. “It’s a question
of when.”
Johnson, they say, will remain in
danger until the summer recess.
There are three potential trigger
points. The first falls in the next
One minister said that Truss would run
on the slogan: “Axe the Rishi tax.”
In the meantime Johnson has moved,
as allies put it, to “reboot” his No 10
operation after the departures of his
chief of staff, his director of communi-
cations and his principal private
secretary.
The most eye-catching appointment
was that of Guto Harri, the former BBC
journalist who managed Johnson’s
communications during his first term as
London mayor. Friends of both said that
Harri was approached because he was
seen as someone close enough to John-
son to offer him frank advice. “He and
Boris have had a love-hate relationship
for a long time,” one ally who has known
them for years said. “But fundamentally
it’s love and Guto is pretty streetwise.”
Some have questioned that. On his
first day in office Harri gave an inter-
view to the Welsh language news web-
site Golwg360 in which he revealed that
Johnson sang the disco classic I Will Sur-
vive as they discussed his strategy to stay
on. “He’s not a complete clown but he’s
a very likeable character,” he added.
Other appointments have gone more
smoothly. Samantha Jones, a former
nurse and NHS executive who confess-
es to a love of Machiavelli, is to take up
the role as permanent secretary in
No 10 with a remit to review the
structures and improve its operation.
The final piece of the jigsaw is the
appointment for a new role as “gate-
keeper” to the prime minister who will
control his diary, his timetable and in
the words of one friend “keep him on the
straight and narrow”. On Thursday
Samantha Cohen, a former private sec-
retary to the Queen, agreed to take on
the role and is expected to start in April.
Yesterday Steve Barclay, the prime
minister’s new chief of staff, held a meet-
ing with special advisers in the Cabinet
Office. Those present had to stand
during the meeting, which lasted about
30 minutes, rather than sitting with
refreshments as under his predecessor
Dan Rosenfield. “It wasn’t crazy like
Dom [Cummings] and it wasn’t blokey
like Dan,” an adviser said. “He was just
quite nice and pleasant.”
Barclay discussed his desire for great-
er digitalisation in government, and

Zac Pack tugging

he has personally been fortnight as the police decide whe- told advisers that he was concerned
exonerated by the police ther he should receive a fixed about their wellbeing, saying his door
investigation, regardless penalty notice. The second would always be open. He made no
of the findings of Sue comes shortly after, when the mention of what one of those present
Gray, the senior civil ser- Gray report is published in described as the “ridiculously large
vant who has investigated
Downing Street parties. If
he is issued with a fixed
penalty notice, however, all
bets are off.
full. The third is the local elec-
tions in May, when totemic
Tory councils are predicted to
fall. One minister said that they
expected Truss to put tax cuts at
elephant in the room” — the parties
scandal. Another said: “If it was meant
to signal a reset it didn’t feel like a reset.”
For ministers the scandal is proving
almost impossible to escape. Dominic
strings at heart
Allies say that he will
not “do a David Cameron”
and resign. He is said to be
“absolutely determined”
to stay. One minister com-
the centre of her campaign
should Johnson go. She was one
of three ministers who argued in
cabinet against raising national
insurance. Sunak reluctantly
Raab, the justice secretary, was greeted
by a prison governor at a jail in south
Wales on Thursday with a joke: “There
are no Christmas parties here.”
Raab appeared distinctly unamused.
of government
pared the fixed penalty
notice to a speeding ticket or
backed the increase because it
was preferable to borrowing.
Additional reporting: Henry Zeffman and
Matt Dathan
As Lord Goldsmith humans? And did any of this have the
prime minister’s backing?
and Carrie Johnson As ever with Johnsonian drama, the

Duncan Smith: A fine could finish PM face closer scrutiny,

Steven Swinford Political Editor
Boris Johnson will find it “very tough”
to remain in office if he is issued with a
fixed penalty notice for breaking
lockdown rules, a former leader of the
Conservative Party has said.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the MP for
Chingford &Woodford Green, told the
i newspaper that the prime minister’s
position would become untenable if he
was found to have broken the law. He
also highlighted that the full unredac-
ted report by Sue Gray, a senior civil
servant who has investigated Downing
Street parties, was still to come.
Asked whether Johnson could stay
on as prime minister he said: “That’s a
decision made by my colleagues but I
think it would be very tough for anyone
to remain after that. If you’ve set the
laws, and you break them and the police
decide you have broken them . . . and
then there’s the unredacted [Sue Gray]
report — the two things will come
together.”
No 10 was forced to distance itself
yesterday from a senior ally of the
prime minister who told The Times
that police would need to be careful
before issuing the prime minister
with any punishment. The ally said:
“Do you want the Metropolitan Police
deciding who the prime minister is?
They have to be very certain [before
issuing a fine].”
The comments led to criticism from
senior Tory MPs. Sir Bob Neill, the
chairman of the Commons justice
select committee, said: “It is completely
inappropriate to suggest there
should be any special treatment for
anyone involved in these inquiries.
Any suggestion of political pressure
on the police is completely repre-
hensible.”
A No 10 spokesman said: “This gov-
ernment has always backed the police
and fully respects their complete
independence to carry out inquiries
without fear or favour.”
James Heale unpicks
a nexus of power
Who let the dogs out? That’s the
subject of a Whitehall investigation
into the Afghanistan debacle. When
the Taliban took Kabul, an
estimated 1,200 people who
qualified for evacuation to the UK
had to be left behind. Yet on August
28, waiting Afghan families were left
helpless on the ground as 173 cats
and dogs were escorted past them
into the airport and off to safety.
The big question: on whose
authority were animals put ahead of
truth is elusive, but one minister
seems closer to it than others. A
parliamentary investigation
unearthed an email from the
ministerial team of Lord Goldsmith of
Richmond Park, within the Foreign
Office, declaring that Boris Johnson
had “authorised” the animal
evacuation. Goldsmith continues to
deny responsibility. But it fits with
messages from Trudy Harrison MP,
the prime minister’s parliamentary
private secretary at the time, offering
round-the-clock advice to those
leading the animal-rescue mission. So
what does Goldsmith know? And
what, if anything, does this tell us
about the Johnson operation?
The affair also raises questions
about the role of Carrie Johnson, the
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
in Johnson’s political labyrinth
prime minister’s wife. Her friend
Dominic Dyer, an animal welfare
campaigner, was involved in the
Afghan pet rescue and boasted at the
time he had “no doubt that Carrie was
in on this as well”. It was instantly
denied. It was an incendiary claim,
suggesting that Mrs Johnson was part
of a powerful but informal group
quietly shaping Tory policy and (in
this case) military strategy. It’s too
ludicrous to be true. Isn’t it?
Zac Goldsmith occupies his own
stratum in the Tory hierarchy. He is
extremely rich (he is probably worth
more than half the cabinet members
put together) and when he lost his
Richmond Park seat to the Liberal
Democrats in the 2019 election, he
was quickly ennobled, and shifted his
brief to the Lords. He is a minister not
just at the Foreign Office but at the
Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs, where he helps
shape environmental policy and
pursues his high-regulation agenda.
To some free-trade ministers, he
forms part of a protectionist “axis of
evil”. He’d call it standards.
Goldsmith, 47, is the original
vote-blue, go-green Tory; a
millionaire who saw conservatism and
environmentalism as bedfellows long
before David Cameron championed
the idea. Animal welfare has always
been part of his conservationist
package. Cameron helped him to win
his home constituency in 2010 and
2GM
secure a place in parliament. But
Goldsmith always had his own, green
agenda. Soon after taking his seat, he
hired an ambitious young woman to
help him forge his path: Carrie
Symonds, now Mrs Johnson.
His decision to resign as a Tory MP
and stand as an independent in
protest against the expansion of
Heathrow was controversial among
Tories. But not with Carrie. She ran
his 2017 re-election campaign, and
among those out leafletting were her
friends and future power-brokers
Henry Newman and Josh Grimstone.
As so often in politics, the friendship
circle moved upwards together.
Newman became a senior adviser at
No 10; Grimstone is Michael Gove’s
right-hand man.
There is something of a “Zac Pack”
at the heart of government.
Goldsmith’s former council leader,
Nick True, serves alongside him in
the Lords, while Lord True’s
daughter Sophia works in No 10
(as does her fiancé, Declan
Lyons). Then there’s Ben Elliot,
the impeccably connected
nephew of the Duchess of
Cornwall and incumbent Tory
party co-chairman. When the
prime minister’s wife wanted
some expensive new wallpaper to
redecorate No 10, the establishment
fixer was there to help.
Elliot has spoken in the past about
how his life has been “intertwined”
EVENING STANDARD/EYEVINE
with that of Goldsmith, a fellow Old
Etonian whom he has known since
childhood. Elliot’s parents were best
friends with Lady Annabel Goldsmith;
the boys started prep school together.
Boris himself boasts “a longstanding
personal friendship” with Zac, who let
the Johnson family stay free of charge
at his £25,000-a-week holiday home
in Marbella in October — just
rewards for the man who gave him his
peerage and first ministerial job. As
with so much in Goldsmith’s life, the
ties are ancestral: his uncle Teddy was
a friend to and fellow
eco-enthusiast of
Johnson’s father,
Stanley.
Many on the
right fear that the
environmental
agenda clouds
Zac Goldsmith canvasses with activists
including Carrie Symonds, far left, in
Richmond, southwest London, in 2017.
Paul “Pen” Farthing, below, was given
permission to fly animals out of Kabul
Johnson’s focus. Goldsmith’s fellow
peer Lord Frost suggested last week
that No 10 is in hock to a “woke”
green lobby. The prime minister,
who runs his administration as a
series of competing courts, has been
happy to indulge such a faction. But
now, mired in scandal, he may be
forced to engage in bloodletting.
Some in Johnson’s party want an
overhaul on policy, with net-zero
initiatives sidelined until cost-of-
living pressures are lifted.
For Goldsmith, the trade-off is
false — “vote blue, go green” was
never just a slogan for him. The
peer’s belief in conservation is
sincere, hereditary and central to his
political mission. His tycoon father
Jimmy nurtured his interest with a
copy of Ancient Futures, a classic
text on the dangers of globalisation.
Zac recalled: “He scribbled in the
cover, ‘This will change your life’.
And it did.” In the words of the
activist Derek Wall: “Green politics
in Britain is branded with the
Goldsmith logo and fertilised by
Goldsmith seed funds.” Zac’s uncle
Teddy helped found The Ecologist,
which Zac went on to edit, and the
People Party, a forerunner to the
modern Greens. Environmentalism
and Euroscepticism were the two
causes of Jimmy Goldsmith in his
final years, and both were taken up
by Zac with relish.
For the past half-century, the
fortunes of the Goldsmiths have
been linked to both the Aspinall and
Birley clans. These three fabulously
wealthy families have long been
influential in the Conservative Party,
with shared interests in animal
welfare and greenery. Goldsmith’s
half-brother Robin Birley owns
5 Hertford Street, a fashionable
political hangout. Until recently, Zac
served as a trustee of the Aspinall
Foundation, a conservation charity.
Its head of communications is
Carrie Johnson.
Ben Goldsmith has served on the
board of his Defra since 2018, having
turned the moribund Conservative
Environment Network into a
powerhouse over the past decade. Its
ideas become Tory policy with
striking speed. About 120 MPs and
peers are involved in the caucus, and
it has something of a revolving door
with Defra, where two of its alumni
now work as special advisers.
There is a last piece in this green
machinery. When the pet rescue was
activated, Dyer boasted — perhaps
unwisely — about the involvement
of a group of Tory activists. “Carrie
Johnson took the message forward,
not just through me but through the
Conservative Animal Welfare
Foundation,” he said. Its patrons
include both Zac Goldsmith and Mrs
Johnson — as well as the
omnipresent Stanley Johnson.
Was this group capable of giving a
helping hand to the team behind the
Afghan pet rescue? Absolutely. Did
they? That’s a question for the
inquiry. Goldsmith, for his part, has
said that he did not speak to the
prime minister about the affair. But
he wouldn’t need to. He has far
better connections.
This article first appeared in The
Spectator.
Improve welfare for fish — they have
feelings too, page 22
15
News
News
Frustrated
Tory donor
pulls plug
on funding
Henry Zeffman Associate Political Editor
One of Boris Johnson’s biggest donors
has withdrawn funding from the
Conservative Party, complaining that
there is “no sense of direction” from the
government.
They told The Times they would not
back the prime minister with any more
money because they felt “let down”.
The donor, who did not want to be
named, has given more than £1 million
to the party. They said that they had
“withdrawn my funding in total frustra-
tion”. They were “diametrically op-
posed” to the “ confused and misin-
formed” white paper presented by
Michael Gove, the levelling-up secre-
tary, last week.
The donor said that planning and
housing policy, also overseen by Gove,
had “gone from being not fit for purpose
to almost impossible because of this
government’s constant change of
direction”.
Earlier this week, a former Conserva-
tive donor said that Johnson was “past
the point of no return” and urged him to
quit. While the donor who spoke to The
Times believed that the Downing Street
parties saga had been “blown out of
proportion”, John Armitage, a financier
who has given the Conservatives more
than £3 million, told the BBC he had
found the issue “tremendously upset-
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and commentary on
the political landscape
thetimes.co.uk/redbox
ting”. Armitage, 62, said: “Politicians
should go into politics to do good for
their country. I feel that if you lose
moral authority . . . and you betray a
sense of not really caring, you should
leave. I find the lack of honour inherent
in modern politics distressing.” Though
he has donated £500,000 to the Con-
servatives since Johnson became
leader, Armitage has also donated
smaller sums to the Labour Party.
Johnny Leavesley, 52, another big
Conservative donor, said that “drift,
administrative sclerosis and poor
product delivery” were taking hold in
Johnson’s government. The cabinet, he
said, was “too large and composed of
too many mediocrities”.
Leavesley, who has given the
Conservatives more than £200,000,
wrote in The Daily Telegraph: “If he does
not grip the day-to-day delivery of
government it will not matter whether
he survives scandals because the cumu-
lative effect will be loss of trust with
those who lent him their votes.”
Gove’s levelling-up white paper
included 12 “missions” to make people
happier and to help them live longer.
They include pledges to reduce the gap
in life expectancy between the richest
and poorest areas, to end illiteracy and
innumeracy in children leaving
primary school and to tackle serious
violence and neighbourhood crime.
A government source said: “Level-
ling up is the government’s central mis-
sion and what we were elected to [do]. It
is a moral and economic imperative.”
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 2GM 17

News

TV version of doctor’s memoirs has difficult birth

Lucy Bannerman
Critics may have raved about This Is
Going to Hurt, the television adaptation
based on Adam Kay’s memoir about life
as a junior doctor at the sharp end of
maternity healthcare.
The response has been less rapturous
among mothers, however. Many view-
ers praised the series, starring Ben
Whishaw, for its dark humour and un-
flinching portrayal of NHS maternity
services. But midwives and women said
that the male doctor’s wisecracks as his
patients faced life-or-death situations
were “misogynistic” and “unfunny”.
Kay’s memoir, published in 2017, was
inspired by his six years as a junior doc-
tor in the obstetrics and gynaecology
departments of London hospitals. It
has sold more than 1.5 million copies,
been translated into 37 languages, and
won awards as book of the year. A
seven-episode series was launched on
the BBC last Tuesday.
Lucy Forbes, the director, said that
she was keen to keep the portrayal of an
overstretched maternity ward as real as
possible. She said: “I wanted it to feel
raw and messy and gritty and crazy —
everything that a junior doctor experi-
ences when they step on to a ward.”
Some mothers said that it was too
close to home, however. They claimed
that the “condescending” attitude of
the lead protagonist reminded them of
the traumatic experiences of childbirth.
Anita Singh, a critic for The Daily
Telegraph, said that anyone who had
had a traumatic birth should “avoid it
like the plague”. The Royal College of
Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
shared details of pregnancy loss and be-
reavement charities on its Twitter feed
yesterday. It urged anyone who found
the subject upsetting to seek support
from Tommy’s, Sands UK or Cruse, the
bereavement charity.
Milli Hill, an author and founder of
the Positive Birth Movement, said that
the lead character’s attitude towards
women in his care was “nasty”. She said:
“Kay doesn’t realise that what he is ex-
posing is that paternalistic, misogynis-
tic attitude where women are objects in
the background and the doctors are the
celebrity lifesavers. In his defence, the
system does dehumanise people and
people who are working in it are going
to begin to use humour to deflect from
their difficult feelings. I’ve spoken to a
lot of midwives over the past ten years,
and they say it’s very difficult to carry
on being caring when you’re under all
that pressure, you’re overworked and
you can see people suffering and can’t
help. It would be progress if this were a
programme saying, ‘This is wrong,
what can we do to change it?’, but it’s
celebrating it as a joke.”
A female doctor, who wanted to
remain anonymous, said that the first
episode had left her in tears because it
reminded her of her four years in
London hospitals before becoming a
GP. “I didn’t find the programme funny, anced and intricate comedy drama
just traumatic,” she said. “I under- populated by fully drawn, complex
stand that the harsh and at times characters. The series is a fictional
dehumanising portrayal of drama informed by Kay’s first-hand
women receiving maternity experiences of his time as an obs and
care is very, very challenging for gynae doctor, offering an unflinch-
viewers, especially women. There ing and honest portrayal of life on
were elements that attempted these wards.
comedic effect but I “Great effort was taken
don’t think that they to approach the subject
were funny.” and characters with
A spokesman for sensitivity, respect
the series said: “This Is and honesty.”
Going To Hurt is a nu- Lesley Thomas,
L
Notebook, page 25
Ben Whishaw as a doctor Review, Ben Dowell,
in This is Going to Hurt Saturday Review

TMS
diary@thetimes.co.uk | @timesdiary

was a happy ending for the

Gaukeward
squad lives on
It’s been 2½ years since David
Gauke was a Conservative MP and
the former justice secretary isn’t
even a party member any more
but news travels slowly in the tea
room. Gauke received three text
messages recently from a “senior
and prominent” Tory backbencher
urging him to sign a legislative
amendment. Finally, he replied
pointing out that he would need to
be an MP to do so. “Sorry,” came
the reply. “Keep thinking you are
here.” Gauke refuses to name this
clueless member in his New
Statesman column but says it isn’t
Sir Graham Brady, the chairman
and head sorting office of the 1922
Committee. “Had it been him I
might have kept quiet and dropped
him a note requesting a vote of
no confidence,” Gauke says.
It’s time to privatise space, says the
Adam Smith Institute, which in a
new policy paper argues inter alia
(if not inter aliens) that people
should be allowed to buy and sell
plots on the moon. As Will Tanner,
director of the think-tank Onward,
remarked: some people can take
blue-sky thinking too far.
mr malaprop’s payoff
The fall of Cressida Dick led
Richard Osman to recall how the
chief copper almost got his
teatime quiz show cancelled. A few
years ago a contestant was asked
to name the first female head of
the Metropolitan Police and
replied “Caressa Dick”.
Alexander Armstrong, the
unflappable host, asked if
he would like to repeat his
answer, while his sidekick
Osman struggled to control
his laughter, and the man
nodded and confidently
repeated: “Caressa
Dick.” It was not, alas,
a master stroke but
Osman says there
contestant: “He made £250 from
It’ll Be Alright on the Night.”
hats off to all that
Lord Hacking made a nostalgic
return to the House of Lords this
week after 22 years away. Thrown
out with most of the hereditary
peers in 1999, he has come back
via a by-election. In his second
maiden speech, 50 years after his
first, he reflected that back then
the few women peers “felt they
were in a state of undress unless
they came into the House with a
hat”. Now all has changed. “It is
somewhat of a disappointment for
me to find a lot of very welcome
peeresses but no hats at all.”
A reader on a bus in Penge
overheard an old man telling his
friend that “it’s that bleeding Pugin
what’s caused all the trouble”. My
reader’s ears pricked up at this since
he is a fan of Victorian architecture.
“How’s that then?” the mate replied.
“Well, he’s sent all his troops to the
border,” the first said.
soldier’s bon mot
There’s a lovely scene in Jane
Ridley’s new book on George V in
which she describes a doll’s house
made for the royals by Edwin
Lutyens. Two tiny pillowcases on
the bed were embroidered MG and
GM, which Lutyens told Queen
Mary stood for “May George?” and
“George May”, adding that this
showed “lazy majesty”. “Lèse-
majesté,” the Queen, below, replied,
but Lutyens, who loved puns, said:
“No, lazy: the king’s in bed.” Ripley
added that the Queen loved to
correct people’s French. Visiting a
war hospital, she asked a soldier
where he had been. “Wipers,” he
said. “Ypres,” she quickly replied.
The conversation continued like
this, Tommy saying “Wipers” and
the Queen unable to stop herself
saying “Ypres”. As she left,
the soldier was heard telling
a nurse: “It’s a pity the
poor dear had hiccups.”
patrick kidd
18 Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

News
News Coronavirus

Half-term boost as Spain drops

ban on unvaccinated teenagers
Ben Clatworthy
Transport Correspondent
Spain has dropped its strict vaccine
rules for teenagers in a late boost for
half-term holidays.
From Monday, unvaccinated teen-
agers and those who have had a single
dose will be able to enter the country
with proof of a negative PCR test taken
within 72 hours of arrival. At present
over-12s must be double-jabbed to
enter to country. Half-term started
yesterday for some and will begin next
Friday for others, depending on where
you live.
The new rules apply to arrivals from
outside the European Union. Officials
said the decision had been taken
because of the complex and differing
rules for teenage vaccination around
the world.
The country has recently tightened
its border rules for over-18s, stipulating
that anyone who received a second
dose more than 270 days ago must have
received a booster.
Spain is the UK’s most popular holi-
day destination: more than 18 million
Britons visited in 2019, according to
government figures. The move was
welcomed by the UK travel industry,
which has been lobbying the Spanish
government to relax the rules.
Reyes Maroto, Spain’s minister for
trade, industry and tourism, said: “We
are committed to making travel to
Spain a safe and easy experience for our
visitors, especially for families travel-
ling with children. We hope that with
these changes, many families will
choose Spain to enjoy safe and memo-
rable holidays together.”
Steve Heapy, chief executive of Jet2,
the UK’s second-biggest tour operator,
said: “This is very welcome news for
families who want nothing more than
to holiday in their favourite Spanish
destinations. We are pleased to see the
Spanish government taking positive
action to welcome more arrivals from
the UK and we know that this will lead
to an increase in bookings.”
Covid travel restrictions on arrivals
The national picture into the UK were eased this morning.
Double-jabbed passengers are no
How many people have Covid-19? How many have died? longer required to take a lateral flow
There were 58,899 new cases reported Yesterday there were 193 deaths reported, test on day two in the country, which
yesterday, bringing the total to 18,220,515 bringing the total number of deaths in the
or 272.8 for every 1,000 people past seven days to 1,368. The rolling
will save the average family of four
average number of daily deaths is 195.4, about £100.
28.7% decrease from seven days ago Airports are braced for their busiest
(based on seven-day moving average)
down from 252.3 a day a week ago
Deaths
two weeks since the start of the pan-
Daily cases 200,000 demic, with millions of Britons due to
National Seven-day
y 1,500
R number 150,000 average jet off on half-term breaks.
Seven-day 0.8 to 1.0 1,000
Manchester Airports Group, which
average 100,000 operates Manchester, London Stansted
50,000 500 and East Midlands airports, is expect-
0
ing almost 1.5 million passengers in the
Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct Jan 0 next two weeks.
2021 2022 Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct Jan 2022 Gatwick is preparing for 186,000 pas-
sengers in the next week and 90,000
How many are in hospital? How does 2021 compare? are expected at Luton. Eurostar said
There are 12,753 patients in hospital being There were 12,401 deaths from all causes that more than 125,000 people were
treated. 430 patients are on ventilators. An recorded in England and Wales in the week
additional 1,395 patients have been
booked to travel over the school holi-
to January 28, of which the coronavirus
admitted, down 11.4 per cent in seven days accounted for 11.2 per cent. The number of days.
to Feb 7 when this data was last updated weekly deaths was 1,269 lower than the Grant Shapps, the transport secre-
five-year average for the same time of year tary, said: “The UK has eased inter-
Hospital admissions national travel measures for Covid-19
Seven-day 20,000 and now has one of the most free-
average 4,000 2020/21
15,000 flowing borders in the world sending a
3,000 clear message that we are open for
10,000
2,000 business.
1,000 5,000 “As our travel sector rapidly recovers,
Five-year average and we accelerate towards a future
0 0 where we want travel to remain open
Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct Jan 2022 Apr Jul Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct Jan 2022 for good, these rule changes coming
ahead of half term are good news for
Top tips for travel families, businesses and the travel
sector.”
6 Double-check your French vaccine pass are (PLF), found on gov.uk. Anyone arriving in the UK is still
destination’s entry rules. especially complicated, Beware of scam forms required to complete a passenger
Many countries have and change again on that charge. Children locator form, which will be simplified in
tweaked requirements February 15. The latest under 18 are exempt the coming days to make it more user-
in the past couple of information is on from all travel tests, friendly.
weeks. The best place franceuncovered.com. It irrespective of vaccines. Abta, the travel trade association,
to start is the Foreign is also worth uploading 6 Unvaccinated arrivals said: “Testing has been one of the
Office website (gov.uk) your NHS vaccine pass must still present a biggest barriers to travel, so it’s hugely
but it is worth checking to the French “Tous Anti negative test taken welcome that the process of travelling
against the country’s Covid” app. within the two days abroad is now much cheaper and easier
tourist office website. 6 Although double- before departure to the for millions of UK holidaymakers.”
6 Beware of booster jabbed people arriving UK. A PCR on or before Sean Doyle, chief executive of British
rules and what you in the UK no longer day two in the UK is Airways, said he hoped “other coun-
need to enter bars, need a negative test, required along with the tries will soon catch up with the UK’s
restaurants and cultural you must complete the PLF, although there is pragmatic approach”.
sites. The rules for the Passenger Locator Form no need to quarantine. The best Easter trips to book now,
Travel, pages 44-46, Weekend Tahra Ahmed gestures to supporters,

Modellers defend scenarios that were not predictions

Human behaviour in
the face of a pandemic
made mathematics
an uncertain science,
writes Tom Whipple
“When I say they were not
predictions,” says Graham Medley, “I
mean they were not predictions.”
Medley is a professor of infectious
disease modelling at the London
School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine (LSHTM). These days he
chairs the government’s Covid-19
modelling committee. And, more than
at any time in the pandemic, he and
his colleagues have been under fire.
For the past two months, every day,
a graph has been updated, showing
actual daily deaths and hospital
admissions versus those presented in
December as possible future
scenarios. The graph of the reality —
the present toll — is reassuringly flat.
The graph of the alternative realities
is rather less so.
By now, we should be recovering
from a wave to rival, or even exceed,
that seen last winter. This graph has
followed Medley around the internet,
a rebuke to his prognostications,
which is especially annoying because
they weren’t prognostications at all.
It is more than a rebuke to the
modellers. This pandemic began with
an announcement from Imperial
College, with a study that predicted
500,000 deaths if we did nothing. We
locked down and never tested the
prediction.
This time, in the face of what the
public at least saw as dire predictions,
we didn’t lock down, and the
apocalypse never came. The
unspoken, and sometimes spoken,
implication is clear: are we all fools?
At the start of December all we
knew was that Omicron was
spreading fast. A decision needed to
be made. Amid this uncertainty
Medley’s job was to present the
government with plausible scenarios.
He doesn’t show the scenarios that
are flat, because why would he?
“It’s much better for us to say, ‘If X,
Y and Z, then you’re looking at 5,000
hospitalisations a day.’ We are
showing the extent of the possible,
not the actual.”
This is what Medley says he means
when he says he does not make
predictions, and is also why he is
Predicted deaths
Estimated daily
Covid-19 deaths in
England by
modelling group.
Modellers assumed
there would be no
lockdown
Actual deaths
Sep Oct Nov Dec
2020
annoyed by the judgment of the
graphs published by The Spectator.
“They presume that because we have
a graph with 5,000 hospitalisations a
day on it, we think they should lock
down. That logic isn’t right.”
The government saw the
projections and began giving booster
jabs to a million people a day. This
intervention changed projections. It is
not, though, the only reason reality
undershot the models. Sometimes in
modelling you get lucky and your
mistakes offset each other. Here, they
pulled in the same direction. The
PHE/Cambridge
Imperial
LSHTM
Warwick
Data extracted from an image
of a chart using a tool called
WebPlotDigitizer and won't
match the actual underlying
data with complete accuracy
Source: SPI-M-O
Jan Feb Mar Apr May
2021
initial models assumed Omicron was
as severe as Delta, when it was milder.
They assumed the time to get
infected was the same, when it was
shorter. The biggest reason was us.
The models did not consider how
we would react to the spread of
Omicron and to modelling itself.
“We realised early on that the
models are a kind of intervention,”
Medley says. “They have the potential
to change people’s behaviour.”
As Adam Kucharski, another
modeller, puts it, it’s like being a
weather forecaster and knowing that
if people are carrying umbrellas it is
less likely to rain.
4,000 The problem was judged
intractable. “In our models we just
presumed that people would carry on
doing the same thing,” Medley says,
3,000
“and that decision-makers would have
to take that into account.”
Mark Woolhouse, from the
2,000
University of Edinburgh, thinks this
was a modelling mistake, which led to
1,000
policy mistakes. “If your baseline
assumption is that the only driver of
changes in human behaviour are
interventions, then it’s quite obvious
0
Jun you are bound to overestimate the
impact of those interventions.”
What slows the pandemic is people
cutting contacts. We now know that a
lot of the reduction in contacts comes
through voluntary change. If we don’t
factor in that key component, then
critics of Sage modelling argue the
modelling itself becomes an
unfalsifiable hypothetical.
How, though, could it have been
done differently? At this stage, it is
probably worth understanding how a
model works. In January 2021 James
Ward, a mathematician, opened a
spreadsheet. He had never modelled a
disease before but he knew the
principles of SIR modelling. A model
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 19

News
News
TOLGA AKMEN FOR THE TIMES

Don’t ditch Covid

Prison for
conspiracist
Dominic Kennedy
Investigations Editor
A prominent anti-lockdown
activist was jailed for 11
months yesterday after an
investigation by The Times
showed she proclaimed that
victims of the Grenfell
Tower fire were “burnt alive
in a Jewish sacrifice”.
Tahra Ahmed, 51, from
Tottenham, north London,
was told by a judge at the
Old Bailey that she posted
“venom” on Facebook
intending to stir up racial
hatred at a time of anger
and distress at the lives lost
and questions about who
was to blame.
The comment blaming
Jews for the fire was made
in June 2017, four days after
the blaze in west London
that killed 72 people.
She was also convicted at
her trial in January of
stirring racial hatred over
another post referring to
Jews as being “behind ritual
torture”, for which she was
jailed for six months, to run
concurrently.
who are members of the anti-lockdown group Freedom Festival, outside the Old Bailey where she was jailed yesterday
survey, urge experts
Tom Whipple Science Editor
How Britain compares
Scrapping Britain’s main Covid surveil-
Percentage of population who have
lance survey would be “incredibly received at least one vaccine dose
counterproductive” and a “flat-out (total doses administered in brackets)
terrible decision”, scientists have said.
UAE 99.0% (23.8m) People
The government is reported to be vaccinated
considering scaling back or axing the Portugal 94.6% (22.2m) in UK
unique infection survey, run by the First dose
Office for National Statistics, which Malta 90.4% (1.2m) 52.5m
regularly tests more than 100,000 Second
Spain 87.7% (91.3m) 48.7m
people to provide an unbiased estimate
of the prevalence in the UK of the coro- 85.3% (79.5m) Daily
navirus. It has been praised by the
World Health Organisation, and the
Canada
Australia
(Feb 10)
84.9% (51.9m) First dose
11,614
leader of Germany’s pandemic re-
sponse has said he based much of his
strategy on its findings.
Italy
France
83.6% (131.5m) Second
80.0% (138.7m)
26,290
Boosters
Yesterday the i newspaper reported UK 77.2% (138.9m) (Feb 10)
concerns that funding for the survey 34,203
Figures as of 6pm yesterday Source: Our
would not be renewed when it runs out World in Data (latest figures available) Total
in April. The ONS has said that as far as and gov.uk. Note: Selected countries. 37.7m
it knows no decision has been made
Dominic Cummings, the former the survey after the pandemic, but
Downing Street adviser, said there follow up with those involved to track
should be no question of it being the long-term effects of the virus.
dropped. “Abandoning the ONS ran- There were 58,899 cases of Covid-19
dom sample survey we set up spring reported in the UK yesterday, the
2020, a global standard setter, is so government said.
stupid,” he tweeted. “Obviously it’s Boris Johnson’s announcement that
Tory policy ‘to save money’. Failing to self-isolation rules in England may end
prepare for pandemics also ‘saved early “ambushed” devolved govern-
money’, then cost 100s of billions.” ments and his own scientific advisers,
Unlike community testing, the ONS the Welsh economy minister has said.
survey is not self-selecting, so it picks Asked yesterday why the UK and
up people who would not get tested or Welsh governments were not working
who do not know they are infected. more closely to change Covid rules to-
Adam Kucharski, from the London gether, Vaughan Gething said: “We can
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medi- hardly align and work more closely to-
cine, said during a period of “uncertain- gether when we are ambushed by sur-
ty about the future of Covid . . . [it’s] cru- prise changes.” He said Johnson’s an-
cial to have good information on what’s nouncement “took many people by sur-
happening. Poor situational awareness prise”, adding: “There’s normally advice
leads to an ineffective response.” from Sage, now Sage themselves were
Professor Danny Altmann, from Im- surprised. The real question is, why is
perial College London, said: “Our ONS England doing this on their own?”
data has been the envy of the world. We The UK Health Security Agency
get so much from it . . . So incredibly confirmed yesterday that it was investi-
counterproductive to axe it.” gating an unspecified number of infec-
Rupert Beale, from the Francis Crick tions from “Deltacron”, a hybrid of Del-
Institute, said that scrapping the survey ta and Omicron that likely emerged in
would be a “flat-out terrible decision”. someone infected with both at the same
The survey employs more than 2,000 time. So far, the agency did not believe
people, who visit the same households the new variant was cause for concern,
regularly. The ONS plans to scale back or that its numbers were increasing.

is three columns. The first is

“Susceptible”: people who can catch it.
The second is “Infected”: people who
remember as the start of the
pandemic — as the prediction that
pushed the country into lockdown.
Macron puts World update
Global cases Global deaths Deaths per million population
can pass it on. The third is
“Recovered”: people who can’t catch
it. Modelling is about how fast S
Except none of that happened.
Ferguson’s team announced they
had presented a paper that estimated
foot down 406,048,662
Most new cases
5,789,706 Rank
1 Peru
Now
6,294
Jan 31, 2021
1,234 (16)
moves to I moves to R.
The real value of a model is when it
points you towards something
if the country continued with its
present mitigation policy, a quarter of
a million would die. The paper added
over test 1
2
3
France
Germany
Russia
333,226
236,080
2
3
4
Bulgaria
Bosnia & Herz.
Hungary
4,926
4,553
4,376
1,299
1,431
1,296
(13)
(7)
(14)
195,293
counterintuitive. The January wave
was an example of this. Modellers had
predicted its arrival in the summer, at
that if somehow we instead did
absolutely nothing — including no
behavioural changes in the face of
at Kremlin 4
5
Brazil
US
162,636
147,416
5
6
N. Macedonia
Georgia
4,169
3,861
1,367
797
(10)
(40)
a time when many of those who are mass death — half a million could 6 Japan 99,604
france 7 Czech Rep 3,517 1,523 (5)
today most critical of their work were die. At the time, Professor Lockdown 7 Turkey 98,602
claiming the pandemic was over. was reviled for a different reason; the President Macron refused a Russian 8 Netherlands 86,799 8 Croatia 3,490 1,225 (17)
Ward’s model told him something modellers were viewed as having Covid test before meeting President 9 Italy 76,195 9 Slovakia 3,304 836 (37)
else counterintuitive. Despite the advocated herd immunity. Putin this week, the Kremlin said. A 10 UK 58,899 10 Romania 3,183 949 (31)
vaccination campaign, alongside the The truth is the modelling was not French source told the BBC that the
Countries reporting most deaths 11 Brazil 2,994 1,048 (24)
largest wave of infections, there was a the primary reason we locked down. health protocol was “unacceptable”.
potential for an “exit wave”. The final Speak to people in government at the It had been reported that French 1 US 915,434 14 Poland 2,840 982.4 (29)
wave was not as sharp as scenarios time and they say there were two officials did not want Moscow to 2 Brazil 636,338 15 US 2,766 1,309 (11)
suggested. Critics argue this shows we factors. The first was that they had obtain the president’s DNA. 3 India 507,177 18 Moldova 2,694 851 (34)
should have lifted all restrictions watched, aghast, what was happening 4 Russia 331,300
19 Colombia 2,684 1,047 (25)
sooner, before “Freedom Day”. in the hospitals of northern Italy. The canada 5 Mexico 310,627
Even so Medley considers this second was that the fatality rate for The premier of Ontario declared a 21 Belgium 2,551 1,833 (3)
6 Peru 207,536
period one of the victories of the UK had been calculated as 0.5-1 state of emergency as lorry drivers 7 UK 159,351 24 Ukraine 2,491 519 (56)
modelling. They identified that per cent. You don’t need a model to continued their occupation of the 8 Italy 150,221 25 Italy 2,485 1,460 (6)
because of Delta the final step needed calculate what that means: you need capital and blockade at the busiest 9 Indonesia 26 Mexico 2,409 1,214 (18)
144,858
to be delayed to get second doses into the back of an envelope. US border crossing. Doug Ford
10 Colombia 136,583 28 UK 2,347 1,555 (4)
arms. Ward adds: “Modelling is It is still worth reading the original called the protests “illegal and
Data supplied by Johns Hopkins University. US data fluctuates because of irregular reporting by different states.
mathematics surrounded by humans, Imperial modelling. It makes a punishable” but said that he would Figures as of 6pm yesterday. Sources: UK government, Our World in Data, selected countries
which makes for uncertainty.” prediction of what the next two years soon end Covid restrictions and
On March 16, 2020, Professor Neil would look like if the UK decided to vaccine passports, a key demand of the coronavirus vaccination italy
Ferguson told us that without suppress the virus, instituting the protesters. programme in the spring and that Nightclubs reopened last night and a
lockdown, 500,000 people would die. lockdowns in surges. It predicted there was no reason to administer a requirement to wear masks outside
That bold statement by the man who 30,000 to 120,000 deaths so, 170,000 denmark booster dose to children or a fourth was dropped. The legal obligation to
would become known as Professor deaths on, it seems the doomsday The health authorities said that they shot to residents who were at risk of wear a mask indoors is scheduled to
Lockdown is what so many in Britain modelling was overly optimistic. were considering “winding down” severe Covid. expire at the end of next month.
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
Oscar hopeful
who lost talent
contest but
found stardom
Family and friends of
Jessie Buckley say she
always shone despite an
early television setback,
Lucy Bannerman writes
Marina Cassidy remembers her
daughter’s crushing disappointment
when she lost the BBC talent show
looking for the next “Nancy” to star in
a West End revival of Oliver!
The Irish teenager had made it to the
final two, having impressed Andrew
Lloyd Webber, but lost the public vote.
“You’re not Nancy but you’re an
amazing star,” the host, Graham Nor-
ton, told Jessie Buckley, from
Co Kerry, as she walked off stage to be
consoled by her family. The winner,
Jodie Prenger, went on to a successful
career in musical theatre.
Fourteen years later, the runner-up
from I’d Do Anything has been
nominated for her first Oscar.
Losing that contest was “the best
thing” that could have happened
to Buckley, according to her
mother.
“Absolutely,” Cassidy said.
“She had just turned 18, so of
course it was a huge disappoint-
ment, but . . . I never thought it
would have been the best thing
ever to win because it would
have been too much too soon.
That little knock of rejection was
helpful in some way. It gave her a taste
of the reality of the business.”
If she had started out as a reality-TV
winner, “she could have always been
known as Nancy. So I think things
happen for a reason.”
Buckley, 32, was born in Killarney,
southwest Ireland, although so convin-
cing are her accents — from playing a
Glaswegian single mother in the film
Rikki Neave suspect ‘had abused boy’ Buck House fizz? Queen’s
David Brown
The suspected murderer of Rikki
Neave sexually assaulted one of the
schoolboy’s friends, throttled a teenage
girlfriend during sex and had an inter-
est in dead birds, a court has been told.
James Watson was 13 when he alle-
gedly strangled Rikki, six, and posed
him naked in woods near his home in
Peterborough in November 1994. Now
43, he denies murder.
Rikki’s friend, who lived on the same
Welland estate, told his mother that in
April 1993 Watson had touched his gen-
itals and asked him to touch his before
ordering him “not to tell anybody”, the
court heard. Watson denied touching
the boy and after being questioned by
police was told the matter would not be
taken further but would be recorded.
When the alleged victim was ques-
Wild Rose to her Shakespearean roles
on stage — that several media outlets
claimed her as British when the nomi-
nations were announced.
She tried out for Nancy days after
having applied unsuccessfully to do a
course in musical theatre at Guildford
School of Acting.
This week, her mother, a harpist and
vocal coach who still teaches at the
all-girls boarding school in Co Tipper-
ary where Buckley starred in her first
stage productions, received a call from
her daughter, saying she had been nom-
inated for an Oscar for best supporting
actress, alongside Dame Judi Dench
and Kirsten Dunst.
Buckley, who is on stage in London
starring as Sally Bowles in Cabaret with
Eddie Redmayne, was nominated for
her role as a younger version of Olivia
Colman’s character in The Lost Daugh-
ter. “She was in the street somewhere
and kept saying, ‘Mum, I just can’t be-
lieve it!’,” Cassidy said.
There hasn’t been a proper family
celebration yet, she
tioned again in October 2015 he told
police that he had walked to Wellend
primary school with Rikki most days.
He said that he could not recall speak-
ing to his police or mother about the
alleged sexual assault and had not seen
Watson, of no fixed address, “for years”.
Yesterday Watson’s former girlfriend
told the court that they had met at a
children’s home aged 14. He would take
a “survival kit” including a knife when
they went into woods for sex four or five
times. She said: “When James got
excited towards the end, at the end part,
he would have his hands on my neck
and leave marks on my throat, more
than once.”
She said this had had a “profound
effect” and that he became “more
forceful” as time went on. She said that
she had thought he was “trying to stran-
gle” her. She also said that Watson once
Jessie Buckley is nominated for best supporting actress for her role in The
Lost Daughter, below, after early disappointment in a BBC talent show in 2008
a
added. Instead, Cassidy celebrated
“by
“b doing music therapy with three
lovely patients” at the hospital
lo
where she also works, but admit-
w girl who used to “stage” productions at
te to being so distracted, “I
ted
ccouldn’t remember which ward I
w
was meant to be at”.
Buckley is the eldest of five. Her
b
brother is a mountain guide in
F
France. One sister is a nurse, the
other an engineering graduate, while
threw a stone at a starling, killing it. She
went on: “It was only a little bird. He laid
it out and spread its wings on its back.”
He then put it in his pocket, she added.
Watson had lived at another child-
ren’s home in March, Cambridgeshire,
between November 1994 and August
1995. Jean Larkin, its manager, said that
“magazines related to children and
toddlers, babies, in clothing — under-
wear mostly”, were found under his bed,
as well as a “dismembered” pheasant.
The Old Bailey has been told that
Watson had a “grotesque interest” in
child murder and was the last person
seen with Rikki. In the original police
investigation he was ruled out as a sus-
pect because of a “fundamental error”,
the jury has heard. The prosecution say
that his DNA was found on Rikki’s
clothes, which had been put in a bin.
The trial continues.
TIM P. WHITBY/GETTY IMAGES
her youngest sister is still at school.
Since news of the nomination, her
family have been sharing snaps of the
home from the age of five, directing her
siblings and dressing up in her mother’s
skirts. “She was constantly getting her
siblings to dress up,” Cassidy said.
“She’d put her brother behind the cur-
tain and he could only come out when
she said. We probably just saw it as
jubilee bubbly is £39 a pop
Lianne Kolirin
It is, one might say, a sparkling wine fit
for a queen.
To commemorate the Platinum Jubi-
lee, the Royal Collection Trust has re-
leased a special-edition £39 blend of
chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meun-
ier, made from hand-picked fruit grown
on vineyards in Kent and West Sussex.
The label design is inspired by
the gold embroidery on the Queen’s
Robe of Estate, worn on her Coronation
Day in 1953. A EIIR cypher is surround-
ed by golden olive leaves and ears of
wheat to symbolise peace and plenty.
Gold in colour, the luxury 12 per cent
abv English Sparkling Wine Platinum
Jubilee Release 2022 is described as
21
News
children’s ‘make believe’ play, but I think
that creativity was always there. Her
imagination was always working.” At
Ursuline Secondary School in Tipper-
ary, where Buckley boarded from the
age of 12, teachers remember a deter-
mined girl whose first love was music.
She played the piano, harp and clarinet.
“Sister Bernadette would always say
if Jessie was missing in action over in
the boarding school, you could find her
in the music practise area” — often
early in the mornings before lessons
had begun, said Mary Butler, the head
teacher who cast Buckley in her first
musical: Chess. Every year, she would
play the male lead in the annual school
productions, such as West Side Story.
“I think, secretly, I knew it was going
to happen someday,” Butler said. “She
had that star quality from the off. The
minute you heard her, you knew you
had something special on your hands.
“[Performing] is her heart and soul.
When she opens her mouth and sings,
you could just die. When you have the
talent and you add to that a huge work
ethic, that is just beautiful together.
“She’s only got better and better. She
has learnt from every experience and
there’s no arrogance. She is still Jessie.”
Butler praised Buckley’s mum and
dad, Tim, a bar manager who loves
poetry and playing the fiddle, for keep-
ing their daughter grounded. “They are
thrilled, as we all are, but they don’t lose
the plot, you know?”
After missing out on the role of
Nancy, Buckley turned down the con-
solation prize of understudy and did a
six-month stint as a jazz singer in Anna-
bel’s, the Mayfair nightclub. She made
her West End debut the following year,
in A Little Night Music, having never
formally trained as an actor.
Maureen Lipman, her co-star,
recalled a “ sweet, funny and clubbable”
teenager. “She had a difficult part that
went to heights only a pipistrelle bat
could reach. I was very impressed with
her fortitude and stamina and the way
she didn’t crumble, like some others
might have. She had confidence.”
The cast would go to a private
members’ club where Buckley would
sing at the piano. “Her version of
Stormy Weather was the best I’d ever
heard, it used to reduce me to rubble.”
Lipman said it was a canny move on
Buckley’s part to go to drama school
after that initial success. “She could
have easily taken the path [into musical
theatre] but she’s such a bright girl. She
was all instinct but she didn’t have the
technique and she knew it, so she took
the decision to go back to Rada. She has
more than earned her appreciation.”
Buckley’s star has risen ever since.
Lipman said she expected her to take
Oscars night in her stride. “She is not
going to be frightened of being put in a
room with Meryl Streep and Tom
Hanks.”
Not winning first time around can be
for the best, leading article, page 29
having “enticing aromas of rich and
honeyed citrus fruit, white peach and
hints of sweet spices”. The Royal Col-
lection suggests that the tipple can be
enjoyed as an aperitif and pairs particu-
larly well with mature English cheddar.
“It also complements British seafood,
such as crab, langoustines or classic fish
and chips, making the wine a perfect
addition to Platinum Jubilee celebra-
tions this summer,” the trust added.
British hand-cut champagne flutes
are also on sale on the Royal Collection
website. Costing £120 a pair, the glasses
are engraved and come in a satin-lined
gift box. Other specially commissioned
items include a silk scarf (£195), a tea
towel (£9.95) and, as the indispensable
sign of our times, hand sanitiser (£3.95).
22 2GM
M Saturday
S
Sa
atu February 12 2022 | the times

News
particularly out of awards season too. performing colours.
character for the Insta- The BBD (boring Her team has “heavily
Bright young things set, who are typically
more peacock than
black dress) reigned
supreme at the
invested in it for
spring/summer 2022”.
go back to black raven. They spend
fashion week vying for
Brits. Adele wore
two over the course
“Despite summer
collections
attention in look-at-me of the night. In LA, traditionally leaning

I
n the pre- shows last month, outfits. In fact, since on the same towards brighter
Instagram era, head-to-toe inky influencers started evening, Jodie tones, this season
fashion editors outfits lined the streets appearing on the front Comer wore a black there was a decided
wore so much of Paris. Nearly every row, subtle subdued lace top and shift and we’re
black that they VIP attending the Brit looks had become all trousers to promote banking on full black
were nicknamed “the awards on Tuesday but extinct on it — the fourth season of looks,” she adds.
crows”. This spring, evening wore the until now. Killing Eve. Online searches
they are coming home shade. Buyers at high- They are flocking At the luxury for black dresses are
to roost (Hannah end boutiques have back to black boutique Browns up 14 per cent this
Rogers writes). stocked their shelves monochrome: a trend Fashion, Heather week, according to
On the red carpet, with coal-hued pieces already big on the Gramston, head the global shopping
front row and designer for spring and online catwalk at Balenciaga, womenswear platform Lyst. Those
store rails, one colour shopping searches for Celine and Chanel. buyer, says that for black suits have
is dominating right black are on the rise. The red carpet is off black is one of increased 26 per cent.
now: black. At couture The look is to a gothic start this its top- At John Lewis the
trend has spread into
its beauty department:
sales of black
eyeshadow and nail
polish are up 169 per
cent and 435 per
cent respectively on
last year.
Might we be in for a
Dark times: long, goth summer?
Gitta Banko, left, Don’t worry too much
Diane Batoukina — there’s still time for
and Scarlett something else to catch
Gartmann-Reus on by the solstice.

Improve welfare
for fish — they
have feelings too
Ben Webster Environment Editor
Farmed fish should have the same legal
protection as other farmed animals,
according to an animal welfare group
backed by the prime minister’s wife.
The Conservative Animal Welfare
Foundation, which has Carrie Johnson
as a patron, says fish deserve to be treat-
ed with the same care as cows, pigs,
sheep and other livestock because they
experience stress and pain.
The foundation is focusing on im-
proving fish welfare during slaughter
because that is where the biggest differ-
ences in protection lie.
Slaughterhouses for land animals are
required to have a vet on site and must
have CCTV in all areas where animals
are handled, stunned and killed, with
footage stored for independent inspec-
tion. Such legal requirements do not
apply to fish slaughter facilities, which
are not subject to routine welfare in-
spections by public bodies.
The UK industry, which rears up to
80 million fish a year, has instead
adopted voluntary codes of practice.
A report by the foundation cites evi-
dence of abuses of fish revealed last
year by The Times. Fish reared by the
Scottish Salmon Company, which sup-
plied Waitrose and the Co-op, were left
to suffocate on the floor, repeatedly
clubbed and had their gills cut while
still conscious.
A stunning machine at the firm’s
plant at Arnish on the Isle of Lewis fail-
ed to render them unconscious and
workers used their fingers to tear the
gills and struggled to keep up with the
volume of fish wriggling on the unit.
The Scottish Salmon Company said
that the footage from late 2019 did “not
in any way represent” its operations.
Fish were thrown and kicked as they
writhed on the ground in 2020 at Test
Valley Trout Farming in Hampshire,
which supplied the Ritz and Harrods.
Fish deemed unprofitable were
dropped on the floor and left to die. The
company said the treatment of the fish
was unacceptable and it operated under
“the best industry standards available”.
The foundation’s report refers to the
findings of the government’s Farm
Animal Welfare Committee, which said
in a 2014 opinion on fish welfare that “at
least some species, including trout,
have a sensory experience of pain” as
well as “a degree of sentience”.
Studies have shown that fish feel pain
and change their behaviour to avoid it.
In one study, goldfish were given an
electric shock in an area of a tank where
they received food. They avoided that
area for three days before hunger over-
came their fear.
The foundation report says: “The UK
government is failing aquatic animals,
dismally. Combined with a complete
lack of regulatory oversight of farmed
fish abattoirs, the billion-pound aqua-
culture industry is being left to monitor
itself in the eyes of the law.
“This leaves these already vulnerable
animals entirely exposed to the whims
of an industry that wishes only to mon-
etise and commodify these creatures.”
It calls for unannounced welfare
inspections of fish slaughterhouses and
says they should be required to install
CCTV, with footage reviewed by public
bodies.
Chris Platt, co-founder, said: “The
UK has been at the forefront of
progress in implementing some of the
highest animal welfare standards in the
world. However, aquatic animals have
been excluded from much of this
legislation.
“With the government including fish
in the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill,
it feels only right that they should be
afforded the same legal protections as
other farmed animals.”
The Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs said that it was
considering “detailed protections for
the welfare of farmed fish”.
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 23

Take a stand in ‘bonkers’ gender debates, Blair tells Starmer
Alice Thomson, Henry Zeffman
Sir Tony Blair has urged the Labour
Party to “go right into” the argument
about transgender rights.
In an interview with The Times he
has urged Sir Keir Starmer to take a
stand, saying that refusing to use the
phrase “pregnant woman” is “bonkers”.
“The polls might say voters don’t
care,” he said. “But if you dig a little
deeper, what they are really saying is
‘We don’t like all this stuff that is being
shoved at us’. They don’t want a situa-
tion where women can’t talk about
being women.
“I have this conversation quite often
with Labour people and I know that
their inclination is to walk round this
issue but I am telling you to go right into
it and resolve it in a way that makes
it absolutely clear where you stand.
That is how to shut down the Tories
on it.”
Blair, 68, said that there should be
equal rights for trans people. “But equal
rights doesn’t mean you can’t use the
phrase ‘pregnant woman’,” he said. “If
you went to Sedgefield and had that
conversation, they would think you
were bonkers.”
Blair was the MP for Sedgefield, in
Co Durham, from 1983 to 2007.
The former prime minister said that
his son Leo, 21, had urged him to avoid
the debate. He said: “Leo always says
to me, ‘Don’t go there, Dad. There are
feelings and there are facts, but right
now feelings are more important.’ ”
Starmer has occasionally been em-
broiled in battles within his party over
how to approach trans rights.
Asked last year whether it was trans-
phobic to say that only women had a
cervix, he replied: “It is something that
shouldn’t be said. It’s not right.”
He called for “a mature, respectful
debate” and said that transgender
News
people were among the most “margina-
lised and abused” communities. Sajid
Javid, the health secretary, accused him
of a “total denial of scientific fact”.
The Queen appointed Blair at the
start of the year to the Order of the
Garter, the highest order of chivalry,
after a 14-year wait. Nevertheless, he
told The Times to “still call me Tony”.
Labour must choose between feelings
and facts, Janice Turner, page 27
Blair interview, Magazine, pages 8-15

ALAMY

University ‘too The co-ordinates of

Ernest Shackleton’s
Endurance were
noted after it sank on
November 21, 1915

scared of trans
lobby to defend
its students’
Will Humphries Sanchez at the Centre for Gender and
Southwest Correspondent Violence Research, has faced disciplin-
ary action. The court was told this week
A PhD student who is suing Bristol that the university dropped the case
University for failing to protect her after the trans student organised pro-
from abuse and intimidation by trans testers to disrupt the hearings.
activists has said the institution is too The trans student, who has posted
scared to condemn their behaviour. online about “punching terfs” — the
Raquel Rosario-Sanchez, 32, a femi- acronym for trans-exclusionary radical
nist writer, campaigner and academic, feminists — has since been employed
specialises in the study of male violence by the university as a teacher. Rosario-
against women. Soon after starting her Sanchez said this was a “tacit
doctorate, in February 2018, she was endorsement for their behaviour”.
branded “transphobic” by activists. “I found the process dystopian and
They said her crime was to hold femi- humiliating,” Rosario-Sanchez said. “I
nist meetings that opposed allowing was being cross examined by a barrister
men who identify as women into about chairing a feminist meeting and
female-only spaces, such as changing for holding feminist views.”
rooms and domestic violence refuges. Rosario-Sanchez, from the Domini- ust
exploration. Today, just share the best
“At no point did anyone at the uni-
versity speak to me about how to pro-
can Republic, suffered a mental col-
lapse in 2019 and said she was unable to
Hunt for as it is poised to yield
its secrets, there may
info
information so they
can make their own
tect myself throughout all this,”
Rosario-Sanchez told The Times.
complete her thesis.
The court has been told that Tracy
Endurance be new twist in the
Endurance tale.
jud
judgment.”
The wooden
She agreed that the university was
scared to anger trans activists. “But I
Brunnock, the university’s equality,
diversity and inclusion manager, wrote
threatens The latest quest
to find the ship,
ve
vessel
(9
is at 3,000m
(9,800ft) in an area
don’t understand why they can’t see an email to senior managers saying that
disciplinary action against the trans to go cold Endurance22, may
be in danger of
a
almost
c
covered
always
by two
Rosario-Sanchez is student was risking their good relation- being sunk before it m
metres of moving

F
suing Bristol for ship with LGBTQ+ groups in the city. or 306 days the has begun. It has set pa ice. Analysis,
pack
failing to protect Dr Emma Williams, 49, former head Endurance was sail from Cape Town re
relying on modern
her from activists of the Centre for Gender and Violence stuck in the ice of without the latest an more accurate
and
Research, told The Times she resigned what Sir Ernest data on where the astr
astronomical data,
from the university “in part because Shackleton ship was lost in 1915, indic
indicates the search
this has been going on for four years”. described as “the worst according to a new plan submitted by the
Williams, who at one point super- portion of the worst sea academic paper shared ed Endura
Endurance22 team may
they have a duty to protect all students vised Rosario-Sanchez and the trans in the world” (Jane with The Times. need to be shifted several
equally,” she said. “I don’t understand student, said: “They [the university] Flanagan writes). The authors, two off kilomet
kilometres east.
why they feel they need to acquiesce allowed the disciplinary process to be Eventually, even as a whom produced work k b
It is based on papers
and bend down to one group in parti- sabotaged. All we want to do is have a steam yacht designed already adopted by found by Mearns in the
cular. It just doesn’t make any sense. conversation [about gender issues] . . . so with thickened timbers to Endurance22, were wrong place. “It is not up archives of the Scott
“The reason why I got involved in we can come up with solutions.” endure the Antarctic, it anxious their findings to us to tell Endurance22 Polar Research Institute
this debate was that I was witnessing A Bristol University official said: could take no more. reach the team before it where to look,” David in Cambridge and written
the normalisation of violence in the “Given the ongoing court case, we can- On Sunday, November begins searching, next Mearns, one of the in 1919 by Reginald
public sphere. The language used by not comment further. All concerns 21, 1915, the Endurance week. The fear is that authors of the paper, said. James, a physicist on the
trans activists is not normal. Intimidat- about harassment or bullying are taken was consigned to the they could search in the “All we want to do is Endurance, who carried
ing and abusing people you disagree seriously and action taken in accord- depths. “At 5pm she went out the occultations and
with is not normal. I felt like I had a duty ance with our university policies.” down by the head,” Apr-May 1916 first hinted at an error.
to stand up to it.” 6 Twenty LGBT rights organisations, Shackleton wrote. His Shackleton and five Endurance22, which
She was initially targeted for chairing including Stonewall, have asked the navigators, reliant on a Aug 1916 crew row and sail to plans to use two drones to
Remaining crew
a meeting of the campaign group UN to revoke the status of the Equality lunar tracking technique is rescued and
South Georgia scour the seabed,
Woman’s Place UK (WPUK) titled “A and Human Rights Commission over called “occultation” for taken to Chile Elephant
launched from a South
Woman’s Place is Speaking Out”. The its stance on trans rights, arguing that it the accuracy of their START: Dec 5, African icebreaker, the
Island 1914 South
hearing at the Bristol civil justice centre lacks independence from government. equipment, would later Georgia Island. SA Agulhas II, is en route
was told that trans-rights activists They said the EHRC’s “recent state- fix the ship’s last position Search to the target area.
500 miles Crew area Endurance
repeatedly protested against her on ments on GRA [Gender Recognition — 68°39’30’’S, drift sets sail Robin Stuart, a
campus and claimed she was “spread- Act] reform in Scotland, and the con- 52°26’30’’W. co-author with Mearns
ing hate about trans people”. version therapy ban in England and And at the bottom of Weddell and Lars Bergman, said:
Nov 21, 1915
Before one meeting, a trans activist Wales . . . are in stark contrast to inter- the Weddell Sea it has Sea Jan 18, 1915 “The new analysis of the
Endurance
posted online: “Please go to [the WPUK national human rights standards”. remained, an elusive holy sinks Endurance data is convincing and
Ship stuck in ice
event] armed with a dozen eggs and The EHRC said: ““We take all deci- grail for historians drifts
relevant for anyone
your finest collection of obscenities.” sions impartially, based on evidence seeking insight into the ANTARCTICA Planned route seeking to better plot the
Only one of the activists, a trans PhD and the law. Our independence is guar- “golden age” of polar South Pole position of the ship.”
student who worked with Rosario- anteed in statute.”
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
Coming next, Brain
Surgery With Brooklyn
Giles Coren
Page 26
We should only say sorry when we mean it
Every time something goes wrong there are howls for apologies but the weasel words that follow only make things worse
Matthew
Parris
E
lton John was wrong. Sorry
seems to be the easiest
word. Our era has got itself
all tangled up in the apology
industry as accusers scream
for expressions of remorse while the
accused ransack the English
language for ways of saying sorry
without conceding that anything was
their fault. The public, meanwhile,
are mightily confused: what does
“I’m sorry” even mean, when the
apologiser is simultaneously claiming
not to be involved or at fault? Can
you apologise on behalf of somebody
else, and if so, when?
Dame Cressida Dick, an honest and
brave commander in an impossible
job, has been casually felled by a
weak, cowardly mayor looking for
other people to blame. She made an
easy target. The former commissioner
of the Metropolitan Police had
apologised for her force’s failure to
stop a police officer murdering a
woman walking alone; apologised for
her officers photographing corpses
and sharing images on WhatsApp;
and apologised for police
incompetence in missing a serial killer
of young gay men. In none of these
cases was she personally involved.
Sadiq Khan, however, was personally
involved in evaluating, hiring and
retaining Dick, but for this you may
be sure he will not be apologising.
Should either of them be
“apologising” at all? What’s going on
with this word?
Let me try to disentangle threads
because the same word can carry
importantly different meanings, and
we’re all too easily bamboozled when
Lesley Thomas Notebook
And just like
that, I was
in the sea
stark naked
I
don’t like to get involved in
hobbies for show-offs. The idea of
a book club makes me queasy. As
a dear friend always says, “No, we
don’t need to talk about Kevin.”
Besides, I am confident my mates
will volunteer great book
recommendations without the need to
show me their new kitchen extension.
Swimming in cold water, something
the midlife women I know have fallen
for one by one, is another tribal
activity I struggle with. The uniform
alone — bobble hats with swimming
cozzies and those daft, giant multi-
one kind of “sorry” masquerades as
another. I’ll take as examples four
cases, four types of saying sorry.
Let’s start with Gillian Keegan, a
junior health minister, who was
listening to three fathers whose
daughters had killed themselves
when she was told she’d tested
positive for Covid. She informed the
men, and carried on. Here are her
own words on Twitter on Wednesday.
“I should have immediately ended
the meeting and on reflection this
was an error of judgment on my part.
I fully recognise the importance of
following the letter and spirit of the
policies, so want to be upfront about
what happened and to apologise for
the mistake I made.”
I’d call this the Apology Absolute.
It’s the purest form of contrition and
involves the acceptance of personal
culpability. You may have noticed
that Keegan’s tweet ended the matter,
and the story died. Having done
arguably the wrong thing, she did the
Johnson is transparent
but smoother operators
are less easily detected
right thing. One respects her for it.
Next comes the Apology Historic.
You may remember Australia’s
“National Sorry Day” to the
continent’s Aboriginal population for
their ancestors’ treatment at the
hands of white settlers and subsequent
(but long-gone) governments. An
apology on behalf of dead people is
relatively easy to make, especially if
unaccompanied by any serious offer
of atonement; but the gesture is not
entirely empty. If we’re to feel pride
in our forebears’ achievement we
may also feel shame for their error.
Now for the Apology Institutional.
Like the Apology Historic, this is
tasking coat/towel things — is
enough to put me off. Why must
the “dippers” talk about it so
much? And don’t get me started
on the Facebook posts. “Minus
3! 5am!” Oh, do shut it, love.
Naturists, obviously, have the
most laughably flaunty
pastime, but that’s
pretty retro.
With these long-
held uncharitable
prejudices in
mind, I can’t
fully explain why
I found myself butt
naked in the cold sea
last week screaming like
a girl: “Woohoo! Freeeeezing!
So exhilarating! Hee heeee!”
Maybe I was excitedly
overwhelmed at being on a
non-UK beach (Ibiza — I
know, but still, 14 degrees
is chilly) last week for the
first time since 2019.
Maybe hormones were
another way of saying sorry, but not
on one’s own account. Here the
speaker dresses up an apology as
personal, but on closer inspection
shifts responsibility on to underlings.
Note Boris Johnson’s recent apology
to the Queen “for misjudgments that
were made, and for which I take full
responsibility”. Using the passive
voice (misjudgments “were made”
rather than “I misjudged”), the prime
minister adds that he “takes full
responsibility”. Here (perversely) the
word “full” weakens the word
“responsibility”. We associate this
formulation with apologies made by
a dutiful boss. “I must take full
responsibility” is easier to say than “I
am responsible”. Mr Johnson’s
spokesman explained that his master
“recognised that No 10 should take
responsibility for the things we did”.
Note the “we”.
And now for the Apology
Relocative. This slippery use of
“sorry” is beloved of leaders in every
field: essentially “I’m sorry that you’re
upset”. So the apologiser’s mistake was
in not realising how he might offend.
At its worst, such sorries sneakily
regret how oversensitive other people
can be. Priti Patel, found to have
bullied her staff, issued a curious
non-apology: “I’m here to give an
unreserved apology today and I am
sorry if I have upset people in any
way whatsoever.” But she never says
she did wrong, only that hurting
people “was never my intention”. She
adds that her work is “deeply
challenging”, perhaps suggesting her
staff should have realised that.
In a Commons statement about a
Downing Street garden party for
staff, the PM begins, “I want to
apologise”, then launches into an
extended disquisition on ordinary
people’s sorrows during lockdown,
and how this may look to some (“I
know the rage they feel . . .”). There
in play. No idea. We’d paused in a
quiet little bay in the middle of a
long hike and carrying a soggy
costume for miles seemed
impractical.
It all happened so fast. I was
outnumbered by hardy, free-
spirited German friends —
Germans would always
rather be naked from
what I’ve seen —
and somehow
keeping a bikini
on seemed more
exhibitionist than
not wearing one at
all. As one of my fellow
ramblers pointed out: “I
don’t see what the fuss is
about. Everyone’s either
got one, or seen one.”
Gosh it was a blast of
bliss, with a long tail of
invigoration for the rest of
the afternoon. Possibly, I’ll
do it again. Possibly. I’ll
never call swimming in the
Comment
Sadiq Khan saw off Dame Cressida Dick
but has shown no contrition himself
were things, he says, that “we” did
not get right. Defending the use of
the garden because of “the role of
fresh air” he avoids the word “party”
and explains how he’d “implicitly”
believed the gathering was a work
event. He never confesses that this
belief was wrong — but “with
hindsight I should have sent
everyone back inside”.
The use of “with hindsight” is
important here. It’s the time-
honoured exculpatory “if I’d known
then what I know now”. He knows
now that though (he says) the event
may have been technically legal,
there are “millions and millions of
people who simply would not see it
that way”. In other words they’re
wrong but they’re unaware of it, and
had he guessed their reaction he
would have behaved differently. You
can catch here a cautious half-
sea “sea swimming” though. What is
wrong with these people?
This definitely hurts
E
veryone’s raving about the TV
adaptation of Adam Kay’s
junior-doctor memoir This is
Going to Hurt. The graphic scenes in
the obs and gynae department have
created something of a maternal
divide, though. Most mums I know
are crying watching the show — but
there are two types of tears. Half are
wailing with laughter at the
incompetence, chaos and dialogue in
the “brats and twats” ward. The rest
of us — crash caesarean sisters,
those with memories of soul-
scarringly difficult deliveries — are
reliving long-buried birth trauma.
Still, I cannot stop watching.
Me and my gals
I’
ve noticed a creeping acceptance
of “galentine”. This word, concept
and, of course, hashtag relates to
the celebration of February 14 with
25
apology for thoughtlessness, coupled
with a regret that other people won’t
see things straight.
I do not, in fact, think Johnson the
worst kind of offender because with
him it’s all so transparent: like a little
boy who stole his sister’s Bounty bar
but, commanded by mum to say that
word “sorry”, won’t. Smoother
operators are less easily detected. All
trade on the loose and shiftable
meaning of words; and if we’re to
Politicians manage to
sound humble without
actually admitting guilt
keep fresh and stinging the
vocabulary of real remorse, we must
stop demanding apologies every time
something has gone wrong, and stop
overusing apology as a way of
slithering out of awkward situations
when the real need is for explanation
rather than professions of regret.
Slack use of the language of
remorse allows politicians to sound
humble without actually admitting
guilt; and to imply blame without
having to demonstrate
instrumentality. As director of public
prosecutions, Sir Keir Starmer was
probably unwise to apologise on
behalf of the whole Crown
Prosecution Service for failings in
the Jimmy Savile affair. The apology
gave Boris Johnson his pretext for a
dirty shin-kick. We should say sorry
less often in public life, and mean it
when we do.
red box
For the best analysis
and commentary on
the political landscape
thetimes.co.uk/redbox
your fellow “gals”, should you not
have a special someone to suck
spaghetti with. I’m sure the marketing
person who came up with this notion
to sell more chocolate is considered a
genius in their world of sub-Spice
Girls slogan feminism. The rest of us
must do what we can to make it stop.
Keep it brief
I
watched A Number, a fantastic two-
hander at the Old Vic starring
Paapa Essiedu and Lennie James
recently. My amateur review: yeah
brilliant, the real critics are right about
these wonderful performances. I loved
it for one further reason. What a gift it
is to discover a show that is only an
hour long with no interval. Makes
you want to punch the air. No stuffing
your face with dry-roasted peanuts
to stop the stomach rumbles because
6.30 is too early to eat and 10 is too
late. And the night is so young! You
can be in bed by 9.30.
Lesley Thomas is Weekend editor
26
Comment
Coming next, Brain Surgery With Brooklyn
After his culinary miracle with loaves and fish, Beckham Jr can teach us car servicing, plumbing and how to be PM
Giles
Coren
B
rooklyn Beckham has been
mocked around the world
this week for embarking on
a career as a celebrity chef
without being able to cook.
Each eight-minute episode of Cookin’
With Brooklyn was reported by the
New York Post to have cost $100,000
and required a production team of
62 people, to help the heir to the
Beckham millions create such items
as cheesy pasta and a fish and chip
sandwich. Although, to be fair, they
do not say how many of the 62 were
focused exclusively on coming up
with the show’s title. I’m guessing at
least 40.
The problem with involving 62
people in the making of a sandwich,
though, is that even with all the
buttering and folding and putting on
a plate, there will still be a couple of
dozen left over to go squealing to the
papers about how the star needed a
cheat sheet of authentic phrases to
make him sound like a chef, such as
“parboil” and “whisk”, and to say snide
things to gossip columnists, like “he is
to cooking what Posh was to singing”.
But I think it’s all terribly unfair
and mean. I think Brooklyn’s sea
bream and hash brown sarnie, for
example, which he says is “inspired”
by his special way with leftover fish
and chips, sounds delicious.
“I eat half the fish,” he explains in
the video. “And then I, like, mess it
all up and put it in two loaves of
bread with the fish, vinegar, salt,
Melissa Harrison Nature Notebook
Abundance
of deer
offers food
for thought
I
suppose the wind must have been
in my favour, even if my bright
yellow coat didn’t quite blend in
with my surroundings. And of
course, it was dusk: one of the
best times of day to see wildlife.
Even so, the 15
minutes I spent
standing in the
lee of a wet
hedgerow felt like
a great gift.
I’d crossed a field
along a wavering path
tramped down into the
rich brown furrows left by
the plough. Emerging from
a small copse I’d spotted a
cluster of four dark-coated
deer watching me from the
far hedgerow, heads up, ears
swivelling; after a moment they’d
turned and melted away, and I
walked on, counting myself lucky
to have seen them. But there was
mushy peas . . .” I mean, yummy, or
what? Sure, it seems the Brookster
has got a bit confused about the
difference between “loaf” and “slice”,
but who doesn’t? That’s just arcane
trade terminology. He’s not claiming
to be Savoy-trained here. It’s just
good, honest home-cooking. And,
yes, he does seem to be unclear
about the difference between “fish”
and “chips”, celebrating how he puts
his half-eaten fish in “with the fish”.
But it is clear to one and all that by
“fish”, that second time, he means
“chips”. It is all there in the context.
You can’t ask for passion, great
flavours AND crystalline clarity in
the recipe writing. He’s Brooklyn
Beckham, not George Orwell.
At least he isn’t “going on a
journey”, you know? He’s not off up
the Irrawaddy in a coracle, cooking his
take on the traditional Ohn No Khao
Swe in a makeshift bamboo wok and
pretending to speak Burmese. He’s not
delving into his past and claiming to
be cooking his way out of grief for his
Nowadays, even the
chefs who can cook
pretend that they can’t
long-dead boring mum or something,
like every second chef you meet
these days. I’ve lost count of the
number of times I’ve been sitting in
the Fat Duck or somewhere, poking
at a water buffalo bisque frozen into
the shape of a fob watch and melted
over a live rabbit that’s meant to
represent the mathematical
impossibility of cold fusion, and
thought, “what I wouldn’t give now
for two simple loaves of bread with
more to come, for they had broken
from a larger herd, and in a small
unkempt triangle of land by a
tumbledown barn grazed no fewer
than 23 fallows including three
mature bucks with impressive antlers,
below, a couple of younger males and
several of this year’s fawns.
Because they tend to remain out of
sight during the day, few people realise
quite how many deer there are in this
country — more now than at any
time since the last Ice Age and in
truth, more than many areas can
comfortably support. Their browsing
habits damage the understorey of
woods, as well as young hedgerows —
especially in winter when there
isn’t much else to eat — and in
some places make it more
difficult for fast-declining birds
like nightingales and willow tits
to breed. Without wolves, lynx
and bears to harry them, deer often
linger in one place rather than being
constantly on the move, intensifying
their effect on their surroundings, and
with no
natural
predators
except man,
herds,
unless
properly
managed,
can
increase
Brooklyn Beckham has the makings of
a chef: no qualifications, lots of tattoos
some half-eaten fish between them”.
People are asking what
“qualifications” Brooklyn Beckham
has for being a chef. But he’s got all
of them. Well, both of them: no
education and a lot of tattoos. That’s
all they’re looking for in the fancy
restaurants now, big lads with tats to
throw meat around a charcoal grill
and do selfies with the punters. Put
him at the helm of a chain of east
London “low-and-slow” barbecue
joints and I’ll give him 9/10 in The
Times every day of the week, purely
for fear of looking out of touch.
No chefs can really cook now,
anyway. I don’t know if you’ve heard
of Salt Bae, the multimillionaire
chef/prop of the Nusr-Et steakhouse
chain, with his $1,000 steaks
wrapped in gold leaf and 43 million
at a rate of 30 per cent a year. Culling
decreased during the pandemic, partly
due to restrictions on movement and
partly because demand for wild
venison is largely dependent on the
restaurant trade. It’s believed that the
population, already a source of
concern to conservationists for well
over a decade, has since ballooned.
Fallows are Britain’s most common
deer species and as I watched them
graze, two prickets offering their
small antlers to one another
playfully, I contemplated the fact
that one of the best ways to protect
our countryside, and the declining
species it supports, may be to eat
more of this abundant, low-fat and
free-range wild food.
Bird scarers misfire
I
t’s the time of year when, in many
arable areas, gas-powered bird
scarers once again start up their
deafening fusillade. These plastic
cannon commonly emit three huge
booms every half-hour or so from
dawn till dusk, the aim being to deter
rapacious flocks of birds, particularly
wood pigeons, from vulnerable crops
like oilseed rape and legumes. That
these crops need protecting isn’t in
dispute, but having stood and watched
the birds in question it seems to me
the scarers do very little: rooks seem
barely to budge, while wood pigeons
simply rise, circle and land again. My
Instagram followers. Well, he can’t
cook at all. He’s just a little Turkish
butcher who throws salt in a funny
way. He’s not even handsome. And
he’s probably the most successful
cook on the planet.
The throwing is in fact key. When
the late (lovely) TV executive Pat
Llewellyn was inventing Jamie Oliver
and Gordon Ramsay in the early
2000s, she grasped that the future of
food television was all about sex and
machismo. In Jamie’s case that
meant, bish, bosh, lovely jubbly,
lobbing in this and that, having a
laugh with his mates and riding his
scooter (while also, of course, being a
natural, instinctive cook) and in
Gordon’s case it meant saying “f***”
a lot and taking his shirt off (when I
worked with Pat and Gordon on The
F-Word, Gordon’s shirtless moment
was written into every script).
Nobody wanted stupid poncey
recipes, Pat insisted, they wanted hot
blokes who made it look easy,
because it basically is easy. Anyone
can cook a meal, just like anyone can
take a photo, which is why Brooklyn
has also done reasonably well as a
professional photographer. His only
failure to date has been when he
tried to be a footballer, because you
do actually have to be good at that to
get anywhere.
In fact, nowadays, even the chefs
who can cook pretend they can’t. I
interviewed one every week on my
Times Radio show in 2021, invariably
about their latest cookbook,
inevitably (because of lockdown)
called “[First Name of Chef]: At
Home” which always attempted to
pass off its author as a jolly amateur,
whipping up “easy kitchen suppers”
on the hoof, whenever 48 pals
Grey seals are impressive creatures,
almost as solid as the trunk of a tree
neighbour believes the bangs
actually alert flocks to the presence
of food, and knowing how adaptable
birds can be, she may well be right.
Meanwhile my poor dog bolts on
walks and shivers in fear indoors,
horse riders must somehow keep in
mind each gas gun’s often-moving
position, and we villagers endure
month after month of artillery fire.
Death on the tideline
T
he light was fading when my
friend and I turned and began
making our way back along the
beach towards the car park at
Sizewell. The tideline was striated
with long bands of shingle that the
sea had sorted by size, and they
made for heavy trudging; further
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
happened by of a Sunday lunch time.
But the “store cupboard essentials”
section at the front always featured a
walk-in larder the size of an
aeroplane hangar with a billion spice
jars, lemon trees, confit goose
quarters packed in marble amphoras
. . . and recipes that required not only
an arsenal of preposterous gadgets,
but assumed that such bare building
blocks of the dish as a “simple demi-
glace” or “basic beurre blanc” didn’t
even need explaining. Too good at
cooking, you see. Totally lacking the
Beckmeister’s common touch. It’s
why Sophie Dahl got her own
cookery show, and Paris Hilton and,
last year, along with a cookery book,
James May off Top Gear.
I guess it is all part of the Michael
Gove thing about us being “tired of
experts”. And what is true of cooks
and economists is no doubt true of
many other things, too. Instead of
Monty Don and his impossible
expectations, for example, why not
let Brooklyn Beckham loose on our
gardens: “I love to just water a rock
from time to time and watch it
slowly turn into a beautiful tree”?
Let’s have Brooklyn and his
handsome, well-connected, not-too-
bothered-with-the-details kind teach
us to paint and drive and play the
saxophone. Let’s have sweet guys
with tats who know nothing about
anything teach us how to service our
car and plumb in a toilet, set a broken
limb and do basic ophthalmological
surgery. And, honestly, seriously, how
much worse at running the country
could the Beckmeister really be than
the man currently in charge, who at
the very least ought to boot up the
first few, introductory episodes of
Governin’ With Brooklyn . . .
from the sucking water rose banked
shelves of shifting pebbles, the
highest embroidered with sea kale
and marram, marking the transition
from shore to land. As the sky
dimmed, the North Sea turned iron
grey and floodlights illuminated the
vast bulk of the power station, with
its unearthly white reactor dome.
We’d been examining an old ship’s
timber cast ashore by the waves, and
at first I thought what we glimpsed in
the gathering dusk was another. But
as we drew closer it resolved into the
bullet bulk of a grey seal, unmarked
and only recently dead. What an
impressive creature it was, gathered
at the back as though it were a long
balloon, stippled like the trunk of a
plane tree and almost as solid, its
front flippers tipped with curved
black nails, its teeth, behind full
whiskers, as white and sharp as a dog’s.
“This mailbox is full,” chirped a
recorded message from the Cetacean
Strandings Investigation Programme,
before the line went dead. No matter:
the tide was coming in and would
soon take the seal anyway, floating its
body out to somewhere unknowable
as behind us, darkness fell.
The Stubborn Light of Things: A Nature
Diary is out in paperback now
@M_Z_Harrison
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
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Starmer can’t keep hiding in the gender wars
Feminist Labour members who face a Maoist inquisition over their ‘lack of remorse’ finally have an ally in Tony Blair
Janice
Turner
@victoriapeckham
W
hen Keir Starmer
was guest speaker at
Laura’s constituency
Labour Party dinner
he warmly praised
her work with female crime victims,
which he recalled from his time as
director of public prosecutions. Laura
was now CLP chairwoman, a
doorstep stalwart who in 2018 almost
won a Lib Dem-held council seat.
Yet applying to stand again in May,
Laura was flatly rejected. The
candidate selection panel cited her
tweets in support of JK Rowling and
questioning the fairness of male-
bodied participation in women’s
sports. Its report noted that Laura
had “explicitly stated there might be
a trade-off” between trans equality
and women’s rights, was “not open to
changing her views” and, most
Maoist of all, “she did not show
any remorse”.
For a longstanding member who’d
given Labour so much energy and
time, this was devastating. Laura
almost quit the party. Instead, after
four fretful months, her views, career
and character were raked over in a
three-hour-long appeal. She won but,
as she says, “the process is the
punishment”.
Labour women like Laura know
the risks of expressing views on the
toxic gender debate. A long-serving
councillor in the northwest who
questioned why a party form asks
“do you identify as a woman” rather
than an applicant’s sex was dragged
into a disciplinary “change of
circumstance” interview which could
have triggered deselection. Another,
who tweeted “sex is immutable”, was
bombarded with complaints to her
council monitoring officer which led
to her losing her cabinet role.
They, and other local politicians I
spoke to, are terrified of being
identified for fear of internal hearings.
The views they express are wholly
legal, yet these lifelong feminists feel
bullied, silenced and driven from the
party they’ve served for decades.
On hearing Tony Blair’s views on
this debate (in The Times magazine
today) their response is utter relief.
“They [voters] don’t want a situation
where women can’t talk about being
women,” Blair says. “I have this
conversation quite often with Labour
people and I know their inclination
is to walk round this issue, but I am
telling you to go right into it and
resolve it in a way that makes it
absolutely clear where you stand.”
This is an obvious rebuke to
Starmer’s ostrich position of
pretending no conflict exists, while
hoping it will go away. Labour’s
current policy, to support both
gender self-ID and single-sex spaces,
is as blurrily incoherent as its
disastrous Brexit stance. If any male
can be granted a female birth
certificate, how does that work
in practice for, say, a women’s
hospital ward?
Questions like this alarm Labour
feminists, many with backgrounds in
victim support or child safeguarding.
Yet raising them reveals wrongthink
This is no longer fought
on the fringes but in the
High Court and NHS
which may be punished.
How long can Starmer stay silent
when every news bulletin reports
hand-to-hand combat between
sex-based rights and gender
identity? This is no longer fought on
the fringes but in the High Court,
the NHS, university campuses,
Olympic committees, government
departments. Stonewall plans to take
its claim that the Equality and
Human Rights Commission is
politically biased (now that it’s no
longer chaired by an ex-Stonewall
CEO) to the United Nations.
Neutrality is no longer an option.
Yet, when cornered, Labour
politicians sputter. Asked if only
women have cervixes, Starmer said it
was “something that shouldn’t be
said, it is not right”. He has never
publicly supported the Labour MP
Rosie Duffield, giving succour to her
obsessive bullies. David Lammy
called feminists who oppose self-ID
“dinosaurs, hoarding their rights”.
Lisa Nandy, who, like every
leadership candidate except Starmer
signed a pledge to have gender-
critical feminists expelled from the
party, has said child rapists who
identify as women should be housed
in women’s prisons.
A rabid internal intolerance was
illustrated only last week when the
Difficult Women author Helen Lewis
was asked by LGBT Labour to
speak at a meeting celebrating
Maureen Colquhoun, the first openly
lesbian MP. But since Lewis has
written (mildly and thoughtfully)
against self-ID, trans activists
demanded she was disinvited, and
the meeting was cancelled.
This absolutist stance, as Blair
notes, will only alienate voters.
“Equal rights doesn’t mean you can’t
use the phrase ‘pregnant woman’,” he
says. “If you went to Sedgefield and
had that conversation, they would
think you were bonkers.” Issues such
as the erasure of words like “mother”,
“maternity” and “breastfeeding”, or
removal of women-only facilities,
27
Comment
come up increasingly on the
doorstep and a new network of
grassroots groups will ensure it’s high
on any election agenda.
The Conservatives, under whose
watch Stonewall guidance secretly
captured institutions, are rapidly
rebalancing rights. In the House of
Lords this week, Tory peers spoke
against “Annex B”, NHS guidance
which states that patients should
always (regardless of physical
transition) be treated according to
gender identity, in contravention of a
pledge for single-sex wards.
Liz Truss can confidently answer
the question “what is a woman?”,
which flummoxes most Labour MPs.
Many senior Labour figures privately
agree with feminist concerns but few
dare speak out. Only Wes Streeting
has shown the heir-to-Blair emotional
and political nous to say “women
have felt like they’re being told to be
quiet” and that policy details must be
openly hammered out.
Blair says his son Leo, 21, has told
him to keep out of the gender wars,
because “there are feelings and there
are facts, but right now feelings are
more important”. Yet soon Labour
will have to choose between the
feelings-based demands of LGBT
activists and biological facts which
are central to women’s rights. Labour
can shut down members like Laura
with Maoist tribunals, but it won’t
win without women’s trust.
28
Letters to the Editor
Lifting restrictions
Sir, Tim Spector and other scientists
have been quoted as criticising the
government decision to lift Covid
restrictions based on politics rather
than science or data (“Releasing the
infected could be ‘very stupid’, say
experts”, Feb 11). Of course this
decision needs to be political. The
impact of restrictions is not limited to
Covid: they have far-reaching effects
on the economy and health of the
nation, leading to economic hardship,
delay in medical treatments and poor
provision of education and social
services. Furthermore, they distract
from the massive challenges posed by
climate change, poverty and global
health, to mention just a few. We can
argue about how to assess the relative
importance of these competing
priorities but it is the government’s
job to make decisions based on a
bigger picture, not on the basis of
advice from a single pressure group of
scientists, however knowledgeable
and well intentioned they may be.
Benny Chain
Professor of computational
immunology, University College
London
Tears of Eden
Sir, I doubt that on November 4, 1956,
Anthony Eden “broke down in tears
as he accused his colleagues of
deserting him before departing
upstairs to compose himself” (“Aides
Decamp”, leading article, Feb 5). A
cabinet meeting was held that day.
Several ministers voiced doubts about
the imminent British military
landings at Suez. The PM took Lord
Salisbury, Harold Macmillan and Rab
Butler aside, telling them that “if they
wouldn’t go on [supporting him] he
would have to resign. Rab said if he
did resign no one else could form a
government”, as Clarissa Eden
recorded in her diary. After that Eden
was given overwhelming backing.
Melodrama (though without the
tears) was injected into these events
by Butler in his memoirs. He stated
that Eden adjourned the meeting “to
go upstairs and consider his position”.
Eden challenged Butler’s version,
which was not supported by any of
the others present.
Lord Lexden
Conservative Party historian
Corrections and
clarifications
6 We reported that in 2019 the
International Criminal Court had
issued a non-binding opinion on the
separation of the Chagos islands from
Mauritius (World, Feb 9). In fact the
opinion came from the International
Court of Justice.
The Times takes
complaints
about editorial
content seriously. We are committed to
abiding by the Independent Press
Standards Organisation (“IPSO”) rules
and regulations and the Editors’ Code of
Practice that IPSO enforces.
Requests for corrections or
clarifications should be sent by email to
feedback@thetimes.co.uk or by post to
Feedback, The Times, 1 London Bridge
Street, London SE1 9GF
The tough act of following Cressida Dick
Sir, You report Dame Cressida Dick’s
decision to resign given the mayor’s
“lack of confidence in her” (Feb 11),
apparently prompted by publicity
given to the scandal at Charing Cross
police station. This occured three
years ago and it is inconceivable that
the mayor was not fully briefed on the
incident and subsequent disciplinary
proceedings. That being the case, his
sudden doubts about Dick’s ability
represents the worst form of political
opportunism by someone desperate
to shift attention from his own
failings. Whatever the many faults at
the Met, the commissioner’s final act
stands in contrast to those of this
self-serving self-publicist.
Jim Howard
Ret’d Met chief superintendent
Bishopsteignton, Devon
Sir, I served under eight Met
commissioners during my police
career. Only a couple seemed to
remember that they were still
carrying a warrant card and were
therefore still constables and not
media celebrities or politicians.
Cressida Dick was a copper, and I’m
sorry to see her leave.
Richard Hill Met Police ret’d
Pirton, Hitchin, Herts
Ukraine diplomacy
Sir, In discussing the possible
“Finlandisation” of Ukraine, your
leading article (“Kyiv’s Cause”, Feb 11)
correctly states that it would
unacceptable for great powers to
enforce such a policy on Ukraine. In
his brilliant book The Ambassadors,
Sir Robert Cooper explains that
Finland’s neutrality was not “enforced”
by great powers but was decided by
Finland itself, against the wishes of
the Soviet Union, which wanted a
military alliance. It was the ability of
the two Finnish negotiators, Paasikivi
and Mannerheim, plus the respect
Finland had earned from Stalin by its
brave resistance to the Soviet invasion
of 1939, which secured more than
“nominal” independence in 1948.
The moral of the tale is that it is up
to Ukraine to determine the conditions
of its coexistence with Russia. They
are the two leading actors in this
drama; all the rest are bit players.
Lord Skidelsky
House of Lords
Sir, Whatever misgivings Sir John
Major has about Boris Johnson, the
timing of his speech was appalling
BOLSHEVISM
AND
FAMINE
from the times february 12, 1922
We call attention to the statement in
another column from Sir Benjamin
Robertson, an expert in Indian
famine relief who has just visited the
Volga famine area in Russia. The
distress was infinitely greater than
anything he had seen in India. A
population of 15 or 16 millions is
seriously affected, and half as many
more in a minor degree. The country
is absolutely denuded of grain,
mainly by requisitioning. In India,
when famine occurs, relief is
provided through private trade from
regions where the crop is good. In
Russia, Bolshevist requisitioning, the
Sir, Lesser people than Dame
Cressida Dick would have promised
their political master the impossible
within an unreasonable timescale
simply to keep their job. That she
offered instead the achievable is a
credit to her, to her professionalism
and to her care for London. She
leaves with her head held high and,
significantly, the support of her
officers. A very hard act to follow.
Simon Walsh
Barrister and former chairman of the
City of London Police Authority
Temple, London EC4
Sir, Cressida Dick was put in an
impossible position and left with no
alternative but to resign. This should
not detract from her achievements.
There has always been racism,
mysogyny and corruption in the Met
Police and it seems that the extent of
it has only fully broken through
during her watch and can now no
longer be brushed aside. Perhaps it
was because there was a woman at
the top that the mysogynists felt they
had carte blanche to act as they have
and thus reveal themselves. For this
we should thank her.
Julian Fonseca
Llanvetherine, Abergavenny
(“Scathing Major suggests the PM
must go if fined”, Feb 11). He should
have given his backing to the prime
minister, his government and the
wider Nato efforts to respond to the
threats from Russia. The British
public can vote Johnson out of power
within the next three years, if they so
desire. Not so for the Russian public
with regard to Putin who has been in
power for 22 years, and counting.
Nigel Ward
Sheffield
Discarding wigs
Sir, Generations of female barristers
must sympathise with Michael
Etienne (“Court wigs culturally
insensitive, say black lawyers”, Feb 11).
Putting a wig on top of “a hairstyle”
can be guaranteed to ruin it. It is a
practical not a cultural problem. Only
Betty Boothroyd got it right when she
became Speaker of the Commons; she
dispensed with the wig, historically
worn by the holder of that office and
it never came back. I believe that the
wig would have been discarded in
courts years ago had it not been for
solicitors attaining higher rights of
audience across all courts and the
suppression of private trade, and the
breakdown of transport have hugely
intensified the effects of the drought
in the Volga area. Typhus completes
the work that starvation has begun,
and the state of transport is such
that communication can barely be
maintained between this charnel-
house and the outside world. A train
on its way from Tashkent to Moscow
was three weeks late when it arrived
at Samara, and 25 people had died of
typhus or starvation on the way and
been thrown out of the train. Sir
Benjamin does not tell the worst. He
refers to the children who have gone
wild in deserted villages and are
picked up not knowing their names.
He says nothing of the dead that lie
about in villages and near stations,
or of the well-attested cases of
bodies being filched by night to be
devoured by desperate survivors. He
speaks of what came under his own
observation. His concern is with
relief and not with causes, but the
V2
Letters to the Editor should be sent to
letters@thetimes.co.uk or by post to
1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF
Sir, It is delusional to think that
simply changing the person at the top
of a large organisation like the Met
can change its ingrained culture in
the short timescales allowed by
political appointments. Sir John
Harvey-Jones, the chairman of ICI in
the 1980s, was of the opinion that real
and lasting cultural change could only
be achieved in a large organisation in
a reasonable timescale by replacing at
least one third of senior and middle
managers, particularly those who
have grown up in the organisation. If
the new leader is to succeed where
others have failed, they are going to
have to make some tough decisions.
Gordon Lethbridge
Sherborne, Dorset
Sir, There is a striking contrast in the
apparent accountability of the
commissioner of the Metropolitan
Police and the prime minister.
The Rev Andrew McLuskey
Ashford, Middx
Sir, From a distance the departure of
Cressida Dick looks suspiciously like
another woman resigning because of
dreadful men.
Amanda Baker
Edinburgh
only obvious distinction that
remained between barristers and
solicitors was the wig itself.
Ronald Thwaites QC
Esher, Surrey
Ecclesiastical law
Sir, As a churchwarden, Christopher
Purvis (letter, Feb 8) should be careful
what he wishes for when complaining
about the faculty jurisdiction that
grants the established Church of
England ecclesiastical exemption from
the greater bureaucracy of civil
planning law. It is administered by
diocesan advisory committees of
experts who understand both historic
church buildings and the purposes for
which they are used. Parishes would
otherwise be at the mercy of council
planning committees and conservation
officers with little experience of church
culture. It might prove harder to obtain
consent for alterations to churches if
they were no longer in diocesan
ownership. Some local authorities have
been notably reluctant to permit the
removal of bells from redundant
churches for use elsewhere.
Brian Harris
Lerwick, Shetland
facts are indisputable that the curse
of Bolshevism is both the cause of
the disaster and the chief hindrance
to relief. Nothing can be done except
to concentrate in one area and save
at best a few. Meanwhile the authors
of this calamity are invited to discuss
with Western statesmen at Genoa
the reconstruction of Europe. To
allow them to sit on equal terms
with the Western Powers is surely
the last indignity that could be
inflicted on a great nation now
prostrate. While thousands are dying
horribly, it is intolerable that
European Powers should engage in
friendly negotiations with that
implacable force whose continued
existence will plunge Russia into yet
deeper ruin. Help must be given, and
that speedily, but there must be no
illusions as to the terrible extent and
the menacing cause of the calamity.
thetimes.co.uk/archive
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
Nuclear fusion
Sir, With reference to the article
“Oxford hotspot hits 150,00,000C”
(Feb 10), while working as a young
scientific assistant more than 60 years
ago in the vacuum group at Services
Electronics Research Laboratory
(Royal Navy Scientific Service), I was
asked to find and cure a vacuum leak
in Harwell’s prototype toroid for
fusion research.
A scientist from Harwell collected
the repaired chamber and said to me
“Useful sustained energy from D-T
fusion is 30 years away. And always
will be.” Right twice over, so far.
A five-second burst of energy from
the great-grandchild of the device I
repaired then shows that a lot of
money and expertise has been spent
on a technology that is unlikely to
produce a solution to our power-
generation needs. The problems
remain too great. An American
colleague stated years later: “It may
not be useful but it keeps scientists off
the streets and out of the bars.”
Robert Sunderland
Little Wymondley, Herts
Helpful farmers
Sir, I have the greatest respect for our
farmers, and can sympathise with
their views on a minority of visitors
(Letters, Feb 11). Loutish behaviour,
littering and out-of-control dogs must
be condemned by all who love our
countryside. However, as a walker of
over 30 years’ experience I can attest
that a lot trespassing is unintentional
and a result of poor waymarking.
Many is the time I have had to closely
scrutinise — often with a magnifying
glass — my maps to follow the right
of way across farmland, particularly
where features such as walls and
hedges have been removed, and
passing through farmyards is often
fraught with difficulty, with signage
absent. Some enlightened landowners
provide helpful daubs of yellow paint
on gateposts, and one farmer near me
has nailed yellow plastic lids on
wooden stakes to show the way. It
would be beneficial if such practice
became more widespread.
Ian G Dare
Wirksworth, Derbyshire
Grave issues
Sir, Your report (“Gravedigger’s tunnel
vision solves burial plot mix-up”,
Feb 10) reminded me of a similar
burial error, also in Lincolnshire,
which required a court judgment in
1989. A grave space reserved for the
petitioner next to the grave of her late
husband had been used for another
burial. Judge Michael Goodman
decided that the petitioner’s legal
right to be buried in the reserved
space should be respected and he
authorised an exhumation, but only
after an adjournment to enable the
parties to discuss a suggestion, put to
the petitioner in cross-examination,
that she might be buried in a vacant
plot at the foot of her husband’s grave.
This proved not acceptable, Goodman
being told “that her husband had
never bullied her or trampled on her
in life and that she did not like the
idea of being under his feet”.
David Lamming
Boxford, Suffolk
Just a delusion
Sir, Deborah Ross asks what is the
opposite of “impostor syndrome”
(Times2, Feb 10) How about
“delusions of competence”?
Ros Cooper
Amersham, Bucks
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
Daily Universal Register
UK: Protests over the cost-of-living crisis are
held in Parliament Square and cities across
Britain; Wales v Scotland in the Six Nations.
Birthdays today
Dame Norma Major,
pictured, writer,
Chequers: the prime
minister’s country house
and its history (1996), 80;
Darren Aronofsky, film
director, Black Swan
(2010), 53; David Aukin,
theatre and film producer, Endgame (2009),
80; Steve Backley, athlete, world record
holder for javelin (1990, 1992), 53; Joe Don
Baker, actor, the James Bond film series
(1987, 1995, 1997), 86; Judy Blume, writer, Are
You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970), 84;
Josh Brolin, actor, Milk (2008), 54; Lord
(Alex) Carlile of Berriew, Freedom of
Information commissioner, 74; Lord
(Stephen) Carter of Barnes, chief executive,
Informa, 58; Annette Crosbie, actress, One
Foot in the Grave (1990-2000), 88; Sir
Howard Davies, chairman, Natwest Group,
71; Matthew Elliott, chief executive, Vote
Leave (2015-16), 44; Costa-Gavras, film
director, Z (1969), 89; “Prince” Naseem
Hamed, boxer, world featherweight
champion (1995-2000), 48; Michael
McDonald, musician, Doobie Brothers, 70;
Jon Prichard, chief executive, Institution of
Chemical Engineers, 58; Jim Renwick, rugby
player, Scotland (1972-84), 70; Christina
Ricci, actress, The Addams Family (1991), 42;
Sir Nicholas Soames, Conservative MP for
Mid Sussex (1997-2019), 74; Gundappa
Viswanath, cricketer, India (1969-83), 73.
Birthdays tomorrow
Hugh Dennis, pictured,
comedian and actor,
Outnumbered (2007-16),
60; Michael
Attenborough, artistic
director, Almeida
Theatre, London
(2002-13), 72; Dame Vera
Baird QC, victims’ commissioner for
England and Wales, 72; Stockard Channing,
actress, Grease (1978), 78; Joyce DiDonato,
mezzo-soprano, 53; Lord (Ian) Duncan of
Springbank, chairman, The National Forest,
49; Baroness (Shreela) Flather, the first
Asian woman to be awarded a peerage
(1990), 88; Peter Gabriel, singer-songwriter,
Genesis (1966-75), 72; Sir Peter Gross,
judicial commissioner, 70; Dr DG Hessayon,
gardening author, the Expert Guides, 94;
Peter Hook, bassist, Joy Division and New
Order, 66; Beate Klarsfeld, war crimes
investigator, 83; Ann Limb, chairwoman,
City and Guilds of London Institute, 69;
Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer and
deputy chairwoman, telecom company
Huawei, 50; Kim Novak, actress, Vertigo
(1958), 89; Rachel Reeves, Labour MP for
Leeds West, shadow chancellor of the
exchequer, 43; Prof Sir Simon Schama,
historian and broadcaster, 77; Jerry Springer,
US talk-show host, 78 ; Donald Sumpter,
actor, In the Heart of the Sea (2015), 79;
David Tremlett, sculptor, 77; Anna Watkins,
rower, Olympic gold medallist (2012), 39;
Robbie Williams, singer, 48.
On this day
In 1916 the first issue of The Wipers Times,
a satirical trench newspaper, was printed by
British soldiers.
The last word
“If you ever saw a policeman with a club in his
hand, I want to ask you, did you ever see that
policeman club a millionaire? But it is ‘Get out
of here, damn you, go on to jail, damn you,’ if
it is a working man.” Mary Harris “Mother”
Jones, US labour organiser, speech in
Princeton, West Virginia, August 15, 1920
Metropolitan Mess
Cressida Dick had to go, given the tide of scandals, but being Met commissioner has
become a near-impossible job. Wide-ranging reform of policing is needed
In the end, she had to go. Dame Cressida Dick was
a dedicated, lifelong policewoman, popular with
her colleagues and determined to push through
the reforms needed to change the toxic culture of
the Metropolitan Police. But the scandals were
too many, the responses too lame and the image
of the country’s biggest police force too tarnished
to repair without drastic and immediate action.
The commissioner insisted she would remain in
her post to tackle the myriad challenges. Sadiq
Khan, the mayor of London, was unconvinced.
He responded to the anger across the capital and
the calls for her resignation. The showdown was
set for Thursday afternoon but, insisting she had
no choice, she quit before being sacked. Mr Khan
acted within his rights. And he was right.
Dame Cressida had lost public confidence. In
the past year alone, the police have been dis-
graced by the failure to stop PC Wayne Couzens
before he raped and murdered Sarah Everard. A
vigil for her was then broken up with unnecessary
force. Police officers photographed the bodies of
two murdered sisters and shared the images. An
independent panel found the force to be institu-
tionally corrupt. Blunders and latent homopho-
bia allowed Stephen Port to continue murdering
young gay men. And only last week it was re-
Growing Problems
Strong GDP growth in 2021 masks the looming spectre of stagflation
A vindication of sorts for Boris Johnson. Britain is
indeed the fastest-growing economy in the G7, as
the prime minister has repeatedly claimed. Or at
least it was in 2021, according to the latest data
from the Office for National Statistics.The British
economy grew by 7.5 per cent in the year to
December, the strongest domestic growth since
the Second World War. Even the Omicron variant
dented the recovery less than feared, with GDP
falling by only 0.2 per cent in December, well
below forecasts of a contraction of 0.6 per cent.
Nonetheless, this rapid bounceback needs to be
seen in the context of what was the deepest reces-
sion of any G7 country the previous year when the
economy slumped by 9.4 per cent. Indeed, GDP
ended the year 0.4 per cent below its pre-pandem-
ic peak, whereas all other major economies had
recovered their lost ground well before the end of
last year. Meanwhile the latest trade data, also
published yesterday, shows imports and exports
still below 2018 levels, despite a rebound in 2021.
The economic outlook appears less promising
the further one looks ahead. The Bank of England
warned last week that Britons face the deepest
Not winning first time around can be a good outcome
Jessie Buckley, the Irish actress who has been
nominated for an Oscar, was previously best
known for losing a television talent show.
Fourteen years ago, aged 18, she made it to the
final two hopefuls in I’d Do Anything, the winner of
which would be cast as Nancy in the West End
revival of Oliver! Andrew Lloyd Webber favoured
her, the public vote did not.
Buckley was devastated. And yet she learned
the truth of the words of Thomas Edison, the
inventor, familiar to every entrepreneur, motiva-
tional speaker and sports coach: “I have not failed.
I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”
vealed that officers at Charing Cross police sta-
tion had joked about rape, killing black children
and domestic violence. It is an appalling record.
That said, finding a successor to Dame Cressida
will not be easy, which is why her contract had
been controversially extended five months ago.
The reality is that being Met commissioner has
become a near-impossible job, which partly ex-
plains why the past four incumbents have similar-
ly left under a cloud. The new commissioner’s top
priority must be to end a culture of macho banter
in a force of some 33,000 officers that too often
has manifest itself in misogyny, racism and homo-
phobia. The new commissioner will also have to
end the confusion over priorities that gives too
much attention to tweets causing presumed
offence and too little to old-fashioned burglary
and a surge in knife crime. He or she will also have
to deal with past and previous corruption.
That task is made harder by the increasing
politicisation of the Met. This intrusion of police
work into national politics has been made
painfully clear by the Met’s belated decision to
investigate the parties and shenanigans in
Downing Street during lockdown. It has faced
weeks of criticism, first for not stepping in earlier
and then for allegedly “stitching up” Sue Gray’s
cost-of-living squeeze in more than 70 years, with
real post-tax incomes forecast to fall by 2 per cent
this year. Households face the triple whammy of
the highest tax burden since the 1970s, inflation
that is forecast to hit 7.5 per cent this year driven by
soaring energy prices, and the higher interest rates
needed to tame it. The result is growth that is fore-
cast to slow to 3.75 per cent this year, below that of
most G7 countries, and then fall to a mere 1.25 per
cent in 2023 and 1 per cent the year after.
As David Smith noted in his column in Wednes-
day’s paper, that will not feel like a growing eco-
nomy for most people, nor will such low growth be
good enough to fund the growing demands on the
state as demographic pressures intensify. The risk
is that in an economy that is already close to full
employment and where there are record numbers
of job vacancies, workers will ignore the advice of
Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England governor, to
moderate their wage demands and instead push
for inflation-busting pay rises. That would all but
guarantee a return to Seventies-style stagflation,
forcing the Bank into further growth-sapping
interest rate rises to cool demand.
Second Best
It is noteworthy how many singing stars first
came to public attention on The X Factor but did
not win. Olly Murs, Rebecca Ferguson and Cher
Lloyd are now more successful than many of the
erstwhile rivals who beat them. Susan Boyle did
not win Britain’s Got Talent. JK Rowling’s first Har-
ry Potter manuscript was turned down by 12 pub-
lishers. Aged 14, Steven Gerrard, who would earn
114 caps for England, was turned down by the FA
school of excellence. Yesterday our sports pages
profiled Ollie Chessum, the rugby player who may
make his England debut tomorrow, despite having
been rejected by a lower-tier club not so long ago.
29
Leading articles
report by ordering a delay in publication of most
of the detail.
The political context in which the commission-
er operates adds to the pressures of the job. The
Met is both the police force for greater London
and a national agency for dealing with terrorism,
serious crime and fraud, as well as a reserve force
called in to help smaller police forces over-
whelmed by a big local crime. As a result the com-
missioner must be both a local and a national
figure and is accountable to both the home secre-
tary and the mayor of London. That threatens to
turn any controversy concerning the Met into a
trial of political strength. Indeed, Priti Patel, the
home secretary, has insinuated that Mr Khan was
playing politics in forcing Dame Cressida out. He
in turn is fighting accusations that as mayor he is
personally to blame for rising crime.
What is needed is a commission on policing
throughout Britain that can clarify the dual role.
It should also examine how best to reform the
country’s 43 police forces to meet the demands of
21st-century law enforcement. But the Met can-
not wait for this. Better to appoint an interim com-
missioner, preferably one familiar with London
policing and able to win acceptance and trust, and
then extend the search. Time for a clean sweep.
Against this backdrop, Mr Johnson would be
advised to dial down the boasting. He should focus
instead on coming up with a comprehensive plan
to reboot Britain’s growth model. The key chal-
lenge is to rekindle investment, which has flat-
lined since the Brexit referendum, despite the
introduction in last year’s budget of a two-year
130 per cent corporation tax “super-deduction”
for investment in physical assets. Last week’s level-
ling-up white paper contained some useful ideas
but nothing that would lead anyone to upgrade
their growth forecasts. Meanwhile a government
paper on the benefits of Brexit was notable for the
lack of any detailed plans to use Britain’s new regu-
latory freedoms. Instead ministers are asking the
public to send in their own ideas for deregulation.
That is not good enough. The high-wage, high-
growth economy promised by Mr Johnson risks
becoming a high-tax, slow-growth economy, held
back by new trade barriers whose most visible
manifestation is the queue of lorries now stuck in
the Kent countryside. Unblocking Britain’s
faltering supply side will require more than
boosterism and the use of misleading statistics.
Some people are late developers. Some draw
motivation from a desire to prove their early
critics wrong. Some need to find their niche:
Stacey Solomon turned out to be a more gifted TV
presenter than she was a vocalist. Peaking too
soon or too young can often bring more sadness
than happiness in the long run.
There is a virtue, even a nobility, in losing and
coming back for more. Richard Nixon lost in 1960
and came back to win in 1968 and 1972. Although,
with the 50th anniversary of the career-ending
Watergate break-in due this summer, it might be
best not to stretch his particular example too far.
30
Comment
Stamping out any
disrespect about
the King’s death
Rose
Wild
Feedback
@timesfeedback
M
onday’s supplement of
facsimile pages
commemorating the
death of George VI and
the Queen’s accession
prompted many readers to recall
where and how they heard the news.
You have to feel sorry for this online
commenter: “It was my seventh
birthday. Very excited at breakfast
and looking forward to a special
family supper. At school we had
prayers and solemn hymns. No
celebrations that year.” My favourite
recollection was that of Bill Thomas:
“I was told on the football pitch by
the headmaster of my prep school.
Pacy, one of the dimmer boys,
immediately said, ‘That’ll mean new
stamps’. He was cuffed by the head
for his pains and told not to be
disrespectful.”
Several people were struck by the
supplement’s archaic punctuation. “It
was a surprise to this 75-year-old,”
Andrew Edmond wrote from
Southampton, “to see to-day and
to-morrow treated as hyphenated
words. When did this stop?”
Good question. The change seems
to have gone unannounced but by
diligent research I’ve pinned it down
to April 16, 1960 — roughly 20 years
after most people stopped using it.
No doubt the letters editor of the day
was besieged by outraged readers
bemoaning the change, American
influences and the end of civilisation
as they knew it, but as far as I can
see no complaints were published.
Catherine Wright was only four
when the King died, but she has sent
us an account of the day’s events as
experienced by her father, Peter
Oates, who was then a junior civil
servant at 10 Downing Street. “He
had been on night duty,” she writes,
“and was up early and starting work
when Sir Edward Ford, assistant
private secretary to the King, arrived
asking to see the prime minister.
Winston Churchill was still in bed,
sitting up and reading the papers.
Ford stood at the foot of his bed and
said, ‘Sir, I have grave news. The
King died during the night.’
“After a minute’s silence, Churchill
turned to my father and said, ‘Well,
my boy, you had better get on with
whatever’s necessary’.”
In those days you didn’t break
news like this on the telephone, so
Oates set off round Whitehall and
Westminster to call on the people
who had to be informed. He began
with the Speaker of the House of
Commons and the lord chancellor,
then the leader of the opposition and
former prime minister, Clement
Attlee, who had to be called out of a
meeting to see him. “Thinking about
it all later,” Mrs Wright says, “he was
amazed that no one asked questions
or said what did he, a junior civil
servant, think he was doing, ordering
important people about. By the time
he got back to No 10 someone had
contacted the foreign secretary, who
had to tell the princess, now Queen,
in Kenya. Then the news was
released to the BBC and broadcast to
the nation at 11 o’clock.
“I suppose my father came home
that night,” she says. “I have no
recollection. Coronation Day was a
different matter, though. I spent that
day at 10 Downing Street myself.”
Write to Feedback by emailing
feedback@thetimes.co.uk or by post to
1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF
Much ado about thanks
P
eter Galloway wrote from East
Preston, West Sussex, about a
leading article last Saturday.
“You eloquently thundered the case
for celebrating Her Majesty’s jubilee
and then, with reference to her life of
service, you added, ‘For that life
being so long, much thanks’. I
appreciate that it’s difficult to
imagine a single ‘thank’, as the word
is only ever used in the plural. In
that case, should we not refer to
‘many’ thanks?”
Yes, of course, he’s right,
technically speaking, although this
wasn’t actually about singulars or
plurals. It was simply a leader writer
succumbing to a stylistic flourish.
The watchman Francisco’s “For this
relief much thanks” in Hamlet Act I,
scene 1, is right up there with “It is a
truth universally acknowledged” and
“Reader, I married him” as one of the
most commonly used, or — let’s not
beat around the bush — overused of
literary allusions.
Play the percentages
M
ike Warren of Heversham,
Cumbria, raised another
question about plurals. “In
Wednesday’s article about the
importance of teachers you said,
‘One in eight pupils were off school’
and later, ‘two in five heads are
planning to retire’ (my italics). While
the latter is correct, surely the
former is not?”
This is something we’re commonly
asked about, and here is the thinking:
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
the subject of the first sentence is not
“one” but “pupils”, or rather a
fraction of all the pupils, and we’re
not talking about “one” but “one-in-
eight” of them. We could, indeed,
have expressed this as an eighth or
12.5 per cent, ie not a single sick
child, but lots of them.
If we think about it, which of these
sounds better — “One in eight pupils
was off school. They were going
down like flies” or “One in eight
pupils were off school. They were
going down like flies”?
We prefer the latter.
Naming the day
P
addy McEvoy wrote from
March, Cambridgeshire,
recently to suggest that sport
writers were increasingly confusing
“in the ascendant”, ie, on the way up,
with “in the ascendancy”, ie on top
already. He’s probably right.
Then on Wednesday we discussed
a potential royal house move “when
Charles ascends to the throne”. The
Rev Dr Brian Curnew of London N11
wondered if “ascends” was quite the
word we intended.
“It could be a fair description,
because a throne is generally a step
or two up, on a podium. But doesn’t
its common use actually involve
confusion with another and similar
sounding word, viz accede? We refer
to Her Majesty’s accession, not
ascension, and no one says that
February 6 is Ascension Day.”
I take his point. Even for a
monarch of the realm that would
seem a little presumptuous.
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
I
f you want to get ahead, get a
hat. And if you’ve got a really big
hat, that suggests you are
struggling to stay in the race and
have some catching up to do.
Of course Liz Truss was going to
wear a big furry hat in Russia. While
Boris Johnson was reaching for Jimmy
Savile as part of a dead cat strategy (if
something goes wrong, change the
subject by throwing a dead cat on the
table, so your critics now think you’re
a rule-breaking liar AND a
psychopath), Truss was wandering
around Moscow with a black cat atop
her noggin that could have been drop-
kicked there by Kurt Zouma. If the big
furry thing had been any taller she
could get a job blowing her own
trumpet in the Coldstream Guards.
Never mind that it was actually 2C
and everyone else was bareheaded,
Truss knows it’s important to wear
location-appropriate headgear. Fez in
The Blue Boy is back where he belongs
A century after the nation mourned its departure, Gainsborough’s portrait of youthful charm and confidence returns
Ben
Macintyre
@benmacintyre1
W
hen Thomas
Gainsborough’s The
Blue Boy departed for
America exactly a
century ago, the
cultural community of Britain went
into mourning, led by this
newspaper.
“One or two of us had tears in our
eyes,” The Times reported, following
the sale of the portrait to an
American railroad tycoon. “Perhaps
it was because some of the lovely
youth of our country seemed to be
going with him, some of the grace of
the old time, when men and women
wore those gorgeous clothes, and
were untroubled by the many self-
questionings of our generations;
something of the courtly grace and
the serene carriage of a people who
knew themselves a great people and
were not ashamed to own it.”
Gainsborough’s portrait of a youth
clad in shimmering blue satin had
been bought by the Californian
magnate Henry E Huntington for
$728,000 ($11.3 million today),
then the highest price paid for
a painting. To many in Britain,
the sale symbolised a shift of
cultural power, with brash new
American money
snapping up the
artistic treasures of
the Old World.
Cole Porter
caught the moment in
Blue Boy Blues: “A silver
dollar took me and my
collar/ To show the slow
cowboys just how boys/ In
England used to be dressed
. . .”
More than 90,000 people
crammed into the farewell
exhibition of 1922, as if
attending a wake. The
Times was there on the day
it was taken down: “We
have been to say ‘goodbye’
to a boy who is leaving
Morocco, dangling corks in Oz, party
hat in the cabinet room.
A trawl of her Instagrim shows her
sporting a pilot’s crash hat on an
aircraft carrier, a hard hat on
Glasgow’s docks and in April 2019 a
tin helmet while visiting Oliver
Cromwell’s house. The Lib Dem-
turned-Tory, Remainer-turned-
Leaver posted that she was once with
the Roundheads, “until they started
banning fun”. She added the hashtag
#thelaughingcavalier, just three
months before they elected him
Tory leader.
Exactly four years ago this week,
in one of her first Insta posts, she
wore a facemask before it was cool,
posing in a carpenter’s workshop
with the message: “Learning how to
put together a cabinet”. And she has
been eyeing the top job ever since.
How though? Someone barely
trusted to outline cheese policy
England, in a day or two, forever. He
received us dressed in a beautiful
blue satin suit.” Sir Charles Holmes,
then director of the National Gallery,
scribbled on the reverse of the
painting: “Au revoir”.
And now The Blue Boy is indeed
back, on display at the National
Gallery until May, for the first time
in 100 years. He stands, hand on hip,
direct of gaze, gorgeous and
confident, but also enigmatic.
Because an enduring mystery
surrounds the boy: no one knows for
sure who he really was.
The most widely accepted theory
is that the sitter was Jonathan Buttall
(1752–1805), the son of a wealthy
hardware merchant and friend of the
Gainsborough family. Certainly the
painting was owned by Buttall until
he filed for bankruptcy in 1796 and
sold it. But if, as believed, the portrait
was painted in 1770, then Buttall
would already have been 18 years old
and the boy in the painting appears
to be younger.
More recent scholarship suggests
he may be Gainsborough Dupont,
the artist’s nephew, apprentice and
the only assistant he ever took on.
Dupont was two years younger than
Buttall and lived with the
Gainsboroughs. It would have been
easy to dress him up in blue fabric
and get him to pose for the portrait.
The Gainsborough family dog
originally appeared in the corner
of the canvas, before being
painted out.
Thomas’s sister Mary ran a
milliner’s shop next door and
may have furnished the
feathered hat held in his
right hand. The few
surviving pictures of
Gainsborough Dupont
reveal a young man
with delicate features
similar to the Blue
Boy.
But it is quite
possible that the
adolescent was
someone else
entirely:
Gainsborough
never identified
the sitter in his
Portrait of a Young
Gentleman either, and
Oi, Lavrov,
it’s our job
to make
ludicrous Liz
look foolish,
not yours
Matt Chorley
Listen to Matt Chorley
every Monday to Friday,
10am to 1pm
Wearing shimmering satin and a look of self-confidence, The Blue Boy has been
imitated by many, including Tarantino’s Django Unchained, left, with Jamie Foxx
his name will probably never be
known for sure. The very anonymity
of the sitter reinforced the painting’s
nostalgic power in 1922. Britain had
lost a generation of young men in
the First World War, and to many
the fresh-faced figure represented
doomed youth, a boy on the cusp of
under David Cameron now in charge
of foreign policy? The hair and heir
of Thatcher, really?
Has she really reinvented herself to
emerge as a leadership frontrunner,
or has she just hung around long
enough? Truss is the longest
continuously serving member of
cabinet, an unbroken record which is
worth celebrating in the way I
might marvel at my dog
squeezing out a long, continuous
record-breaker. Weirdly
impressive but ultimately
pointless and actually enough
to make you feel a bit sick.
Since she was put in
charge of Brexit we’ve seen
the illegal suspension of
customs checks, the
resignation of the first
minister and Jacob “British
fish are happier” Rees-Mogg
being named minister for
ALAMY
manhood being taken away for ever.
Two years earlier, an unnamed
body had been returned from the
battlefields of France and laid to rest
in Westminster Abbey in the Tomb
of the Unknown Warrior. The name
of the departing Blue Boy was also
unknown, and in its eulogy to the
31
Comment
Brexit opportunities and government
efficiency. Or BOGEY. A job not to
be sniffed at.
Yet when Sergey Lavrov, the
unfriendly face of Russia since the
days when Truss was merely worrying
about where her pears came from,
called her “deaf” and “selfish”, I
couldn’t help thinking: “Oi, back off.
Don’t take the mick out of our foreign
secretary. That’s our job.” And at least
we won’t end up in the gulag for doing
it. And the only shots will be the ones
for her photo album. I’d take the deaf
person over the death person.
There goes our Liz, striding
through Red Square. No need to pop
in to see embalmed Lenin when she’s
got her own permanently pickled
leader at home. Speaking of which,
Boris Johnson did his own bit for
diplomacy too this week, declaring at
Nato: “Our intelligence, I’m afraid to
say, remains grim”. He’s not wrong.
painting The Times echoed the grief
of war: “We asked him not to forget
us, or cease to love us.”
But the lack of a specific identity
made the young man in blue
infinitely adaptable: few images in
history have been so widely
reproduced and for such a variety of
cultural purposes.
Marlene Dietrich was
photographed in an androgynous
Blue Boy costume, and Shirley
Temple appeared as Gainsborough’s
boy in the 1935 movie Curly Top. The
Blue Boy has featured in Laurel and
Hardy, the films The Naked Gun,
Batman and Joker, as well as the
comic strip Dennis the Menace. In
Django Unchained, Quentin
Tarantino clad his principal
character, a freed slave, in blue silk.
The image became an icon of gay
liberation. Robert Rauschenberg
decided to become an artist on
seeing the portrait.
The boy was nobody in particular,
and therefore everybody. The
mystery surrounding his identity was
intentional. The image was never
intended to portray a person but
rather an idea. It was, in many ways,
an advertisement, a fancy display
painting to entice buyers and
patrons, and therefore deliberately
left nameless. Gainsborough had a
portrait business in Bath when he
painted it but he aspired to move to
London as a court painter, where his
work might attract the attention of
the new and increasingly wealthy
metropolitan elite.
Painted in the sumptuous style of
Van Dyck’s cavaliers, complete with
ribboned shoes and lacy collar, the
boy is an image of upward social
mobility, a commoner with a young
aristocrat’s poise, an 18th-century
emblem of confidence clad in 17th-
century sartorial bling.
It is also an artistic tour de force,
Gainsborough’s virtuoso
demonstration that when it came
to depicting youth and beauty in oil
he was the equal of Van Dyck
himself.
And so The Blue Boy gazes down
once more from the walls of the
National Gallery: unmistakable,
unafraid, untroubled by the passing
years and above all, unnamed,
exactly as Gainsborough intended.
32 Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

Comment

weekend essay

Many voters detest

Macron but he’ll
get a second chance
He was the outsider who came to power promising a whirlwind of reform.
Five years on, despite showing scorn for society’s losers and breaking a string
of promises, the president can thank the failings of his far-right and left-wing
rivals for leaving him poised for re-election, says Charles Bremner

E
mmanuel Macron was in his element this
week. After days consulting fellow leaders in
Washington, Berlin, Brussels and London, the
French president flew to Moscow to bend the
ear of Vladimir Putin over Ukraine. Starting at
a monumentally long white Kremlin table yards apart
from Putin, Macron spent five hours debating with the
Russian president, holding his own as self-appointed
mediator for the western world. “He was almost
torturing me,” Putin said after emerging past midnight
from his marathon with the loquacious Frenchman.
Putin yielded almost nothing in public but Macron
claimed he had won an assurance of de-escalation and
dashed off to Kyiv to consult President Zelensky.
Whether Macron’s two-day shuttle eased the East-
West stand-off, it certainly helped at home as he seeks
re-election. A devotee of theatre, Macron delights in
striding the stage, especially now as he casts himself
above the scrum scrapping to eject him from the Élysée
Palace in April. Macron is unpopular, with less than
40 per cent of voters approving of his
performance, but even his critics concede
admiration for the energy of the man
who in 2017 became France’s youngest
ruler since Napoleon Bonaparte.
The 44-year-old president has visibly
matured, a few lines now marking his
face, but after four years of battering by
the yellow-vest insurrection, months of
anti-reform public sector strikes and
then the pandemic, he remains armed
with the extraordinary self-confidence
that propelled him into office.
On the verge of declaring his
candidacy, Macron has reason to be
confident. The charm and chutzpah
that landed the little-known economy
minister in the Élysée has faded since
events punctured his promises of French
renaissance. But though the national mood is bleak,
hard for someone reporting his fifth Élysée campaign
to avoid clichés about French paradoxes to explain the
quirks of the elected monarchy of the Fifth Republic,
created for Charles de Gaulle six decades ago.
The provincial schoolboy whose teacher, Brigitte
Trogneux, 24 years his senior, became his wife and
mentor, is a control freak who has run the most
secretive, top-down presidency since de Gaulle.
Protected by a small, mainly male, staff he remains an
enigma. Even close aides say he keeps his thoughts to
himself and the older mentors who drop in with advice
say they do not know which way he will turn. Unlike
his chattier predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy and François
Hollande, Macron does not hobnob with journalists, a
tribe he dislikes. His own MPs, all recruits to La
République en Marche, the party he founded in 2016,
complain he does not listen to them.
The yellow vest uprising Macron has transgressed more than his predecessors,
has added some lines to arguing with the public, occasionally insulting people
Macron’s youthful brow and appearing in unpresidential clothes.
H relishes confrontation with
He
b
bystanders, a trait that led to a slap in the
f
face from a young monarchist in the
s
southeast last June. He has performed
o hip web videos and once on a low-
on macronisme in the way that le gaullisme, le
c
class TV chat show, and he has mitterrandisme and le sarkozysme were well
a
addressed his citizens more on understood. In the 1960s de Gaulle embodied the
t
television than any predecessor. grandeur of a reviving postwar nation, Mitterrand in
His apogee was a confessional TV the 1980s and early 1990s projected a left-wing version
s
session in December when he disserted of that plus a devotion to Europe, and Sarkozy stood
f two hours about himself in a way
for for a blokeish self-sufficiency that is fondly
u
unthinkable for mundane prime remembered by conservatives a decade after he lost
m
ministers in parliamentary power.
d
democracies. He claimed success but Recent attempts have described la pensée macroniste
a
admitted that a failure to heed the as realism, pragmatism, egoism, enlightenment and
u
unhappiness of struggling wage- “emancipation of the individual”. For the left and the
e
earners had alienated people and disgruntled lower classes of la France périphérique who
helped trigg
trigger th
the violent gilets jaunes uprising that back Le Pen and the yellow vests, Macron is a liberal
began in the provinces and knocked his presidency off “president of the rich”, a tag which stuck from the
course for six months from November 2018. He start. For the mainstream right, Macron remains the

the economy is thriving, thanks to “whatever-it-takes”
handouts, and Macron is credited with sound handling
of the later phase of the pandemic, with compulsory
vaccine passes and schools and businesses kept open.
French voters are notoriously fickle but barring a
real upset in the final weeks, none of Macron’s rivals
appear to wield enough clout to knock him off the
Élysée throne. Of the top three contenders, only one,
Valérie Pécresse of the conservative mainstream
Republican Party, has a plausible chance of unseating
him if she reaches the second round run-off, but she
has lost momentum after a strong start in December.
Marine Le Pen is running in second place, but for all
her efforts to detoxify her far-right National Rally she
is still deemed a threat to democracy by just over half
the country. The level of rejection is even higher for
Éric Zemmour, the more intellectual but sulphurous
polemicist who made a splash when he leapt into the
race in the autumn hoping to repeat Macron’s
outsider’s feat of 2017.
Macron is full of contradictions, which makes it
“
regretted harsh words such as talking about France’s
deplorables as “people who are nothing” and telling an
unemployed man to “cross the road and you’ll find a
No French job”. “I think that with certain of my words, I wounded
people . . . ” Though supposed to show humility,
leader has Macron’s performance came over as arrogant, not least
inspired the for hijacking TF1, the most popular television channel,
for almost a whole evening. Opponents mocked it as a
hatred Macron cross between electioneering and psychotherapy.
Macron will not be pinned down. He still abides by
draws since the “at the same time” catchphrase he deployed in
2017, ensuring ambiguity that lets him appeal to both
Louis XVI, the the centre-left and centre-right. He has raided the
mainstream parties from either side: his two prime
king who was ministers, Édouard Philippe and Jean Castex, came
from the Republicans, while the Socialists provided
guillotined Jean-Yves Le Drian, his veteran foreign minister, and
several other ministers.
after the 1789 In a country where the executive head of state is
supposed to be a charismatic father figure with
revolution inspiring doctrines, no one has been able to define le
figure groomed by his original father-figure from the
Deuxième Gauche, the old reformist left headed by the
late Michel Rocard. They see him as profligate and
feeble on law and order and immigration.
To some extent he is all of these because, under
pressure from the protesters and the pandemic, the
book-loving former haut fonctionnaire who spent four
years as a merchant banker has swung from promoter of
a “start-up” nation to champion of a traditional French
caring state that is supposed to guarantee security
behind the walls of a protective European Union. The
man derided as a “free-exchange globalist” turned
quickly into champion of “economic sovereignism”, a
shield for the EU from unfair global trade practices.
We are a long way from the overthrow of the cosy and
sclerotic state that Macron set out in Révolution, his
2016 manifesto which promised disruption to build a
“fair, effective, entrepreneurial France in which
everyone chooses their life and lives from their work”.
The reforms came quickly in the early Macron
years. The red tape that chokes the labour market was
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 33

Comment
ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES

Emmanuel Macron at a minority, he remains less unpopular than all outgoing

Bastille Day military
parade in 2019, left,
discussing the Ukraine
crisis with President Putin,
above, and celebrating his
election win in 2017 with
his wife, Brigitte, below
presidents since Jacques Chirac in 2002. An
unchanging quarter of the electorate says it will back
him in the first round, the same level as in 2017, and a
majority have told pollsters for months they prefer
him to any opponent in the run-off. Few outside the
urban professional classes love the enigmatic young
president with the know-all air but he is credited with
getting the job done. That comes not just from reading
polls; I hear it in the mainly lower-income village
where I live between Chartres and Paris.
Macron has in a way been helped by the pandemic.
The emergency enabled him to shelve his biggest
reform, a remake of the labyrinthine retirement
system, after it had stirred up months of public sector
strikes and protests. Public opinion, fiercely attached
to a system of 42 pension regimes and retirement at
62, turned against the scheme to create a single
system. That illustrated the truth of a 2017 claim
Macron made in a speech to his first grand
parliamentary session in Versailles: “France is not a
country that rreforms.”

lightened, housing tax and most of the wealth tax
were ended, business levies were eased and the
behemoth SNCF railways was converted to a
commercial state enterprise after weeks of strikes.
Macron also imposed a new regal style, with pomp-
filled ceremony at Versailles and other royal palaces,
générale — the widespread anger — across the
lower reaches of France. These are the “diesel
drivers and cigarette smokers” as a minister called
them, who feel left out of the new society of high tech
and climate policies promoted by Macron and
by his urban, university-educated admirers. The anger
A
fter a rough first few months of
Covid, with a shortage of masks
and government confusion,
Macron gained support for his
firm management, imposing
so
some of Europe’s strictest confinement
ru
rules. He later risked ignoring expert
a
advice and kept life fairly normal. Instead
of
o “rebuilding France” as he loftily
p
pledged in 2017, he has ended up
va
vaccinating France. It has worked, with 80
pe cent inoculated, despite resistance
per
from an antivaccination fringe that rejects
com
compulsory vaccine passes as dictatorship.
The president who promised to cut deficits
and trim the bloated state has poured tens of
and
el billions into
billions in aiding businesses and keeping the
economy afloat.
economy afl Growth was 6.5 per cent last year,
above the euro
eurozone average, and unemployment is at
nd backed its lowest for a decade, albeit still at a chronically high
8 per cent
cent. The cost has been a leap in debt to 116 per

intended to reinstate national grandeur after the
unseemly presidency of Hollande, his former boss,
with his soap opera love life and debilitating revolt in
his own socialist administration.
Despite resistance to reforms, Macron did not suffer
the swift slump in popularity that has hit all new
presidents since 1974. That year, the newly elected
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing faced the onset of the
slowdown that has ever since afflicted France with
chronic high unemployment. For decades France has
absorbed la crise into the mental landscape, feeding a
sense of decline despite prosperity and a quality of life
that much of the world envies.
In late 2018 the clumsy imposition of fuel carbon
taxes along with an 80km/h speed limit on rural roads
combined with Macron’s scorn for society’s losers to
ignite the uprising of the yellow vests, a grassroots
movement of low-income workers. The mutiny, which
drew in anarchists and turned into Saturday rampages
in Paris and other cities, was marked by hatred for
Macron and his stylish wife. Mock guillotines were set
up and dummies of their heads were paraded on pikes
as mobs tried to storm the Élysée and parliament.
Macron was initially stunned by the intensity of a
revolt that followed an ancient pattern of popular
insurrection. He went some way to defusing the anger
with €17 billion of concessions and by throwing
himself into town meetings around the country, where
he tried to renew contact, taking questions from the
public for hours at a time.
The movement laid bare the depth of la colère
rages on, showing how Macron has failed in his 2017
promise to unite the country in a new consensus after
decades of periodic civil strife. It is manifested by the
intention expressed by over 40 per cent who say they
will vote in April for the far-right or far-left “anti-
system” contenders, led by Le Pen, the working class
nationalist, Zemmour, the metropolitan doom-monger,
and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the radical left and
nationalist France Unbowed party. In the French
version of the polarisation and intolerance that has
emerged across the western world, one in four people
would be happy for the army to run the country and
two in five would welcome an unelected “strongman”
as leader, according to a January poll. Another showed
that four in ten said they “understand” why people
sometimes physically assault MPs.
No French leader has inspired the hatred Macron
draws since Louis XVI, the king who was overthrown
and guillotined after the 1789 revolution, according to
a new book by two veteran commentators, Nicolas
Domenach and Maurice Szafran. “Sarkozy suffered
striking rejection. François Hollande faced nasty
mockery. De Gaulle was heckled and threatened with
death but we have never seen such a combination of
unhappiness, anger and violence aimed at the head of
state and also at institutions like the police, the
gendarmerie and firefighters,” Domenach said.
Amid such anger and bitterness, how could Macron
be on course for re-election? The short answer is that
he is credited with doing an acceptable job and faces
flawed opponents. Though held in contempt by a
“
cent of GDP, far beyond the EU limits. The
modernising president who promised a vigorous, leaner
state is ending his term with more civil servants than
French voters when he began. As Pierre-Antoine Delhommais wrote
in Le Point: “The candidate Macron promised ‘a society
are notoriously freed of straitjackets and obstructions’. Five years later
fickle but, it seems to be more than ever their prisoner.”
On top of that, the data contradicts Macron’s claims
barring a real that lower-income France has benefited most from a
rise in spending power. Worry about declining real
upset, none of income is the top issue for voters, above law and order,
immigration, and Islamism, the stock-in-trade of the
Macron’s rivals three challengers who are all on Macron’s right.
The president’s response is to ask for more time to
appear to wield finish the job he was doing before the pandemic hit. In
his December confessional he said he was “hurt by the
enough clout unbearable inequalities” that still afflict the country. “I
arrived in office with a form of vitality, a determination
to knock him to shake things up, determination not to give in to
conformism. I remain indignant over the system, over
off the throne bureaucracy.” But things will be different now, he
said, because “I have gained the conviction that you
can move nothing if you are not imbued with respect
for everyone”.
France has dumped its governments and presidents
in most elections since 1974 and only two out of six
heads of state have been re-elected since de Gaulle in
1969. If he wins a new chance on April 24, Macron will
again have defied tradition.
Charles Bremner is Paris correspondent
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
Detective who caught killer
sceptical of latest confession
Mario Ledwith
The detective who caught Levi Bellfield
has said that the serial killer’s alleged
confession to the murders of Lin
Russell and her six-year-old daughter
Megan in 1996 should be treated with
“an immense amount of caution”.
Colin Sutton, who secured three con-
victions against the killer including the
murder of the schoolgirl Milly Dowler,
cautioned that Bellfield, below, was
primarily motivated by self-interest.
The former Metropolitan Police in-
vestigator was speaking after Bellfield
used a four-page statement to express
his apologies for allegedly killing the
Russells. The document has now been
passed to a watchdog by lawyers acting
for Michael Stone, 61, who has spent
more than two decades in jail ail after
twice being found guilty of the
hammer attack near the he
village of Chillenden, Kent.
Stone’s legal team have
repeatedly pleaded his in-
nocence and blamed Bell-
field, 53, who has previous-
ly hinted at involvement
while stopping short of a full
admission.
ing
Sutton questioned the timing
gested
of the confession and suggested
that Bellfield could be driven by the op-
portunity “to make the news again”. i ”
Sutton said: “We can’t quite be sure
what his motivations are but he does
like to stir the pot and cause confusion
Behind the story
C
olin Sutton has a reputation
as the person who most
acutely understands Levi
Bellfield’s motives (Mario
Ledwith writes). The former
Metropolitan Police detective
chief inspector is among several
experts in crime who have urged
caution over his latest confession.
Six years ago the Met reviewed
dozens of confessions by Bellfield.
None could be corroborated. The
admission to the Russell murders
is also contradicted by his former
partner Jo Collings, who told the
police the pair were in London.
Peter Squires, a professor in
criminolo at Brighton
criminology
Univer
University, said that
Bell
Bellfield, left, had
“
a “track record
of admitting to
th
things which
d not
do
m
materialise”.
and misery. It’s diffi-
t put your finger
cult to
wha actually moti-
on what
vates him to do it. But he gets
id in
an idea i hi
his h d th
head that it will either be
good for him or that it will maybe even
cause pain to others. There is a narcis-
sism that makes him want to be the
35
News
JOHAN PERSSON
centre of attention and to be relevant
and important again.”
Russell, 45, and her daughters Megan
and Josie, then aged nine, were
attacked as they walked along a coun-
try lane. Josie survived.
Sutton said that his force had briefly
looked into the killings in 2008 during
a national sweep for cases that bore
hallmarks of Bellfield’s tactics. A con-
nection was quickly ruled out.
In the new statement that emerged
last week, Bellfield, who now uses the
name Yusuf Rahim after converting to
Islam, apologised to Stone and the Rus-
sell family for his “heinous acts”.
Stone’s solicitor Paul Bacon said that
the detail in the statement, and Bell-
field’s contrition at the end of it, had
convinced him “that he’s undoubtedly
the person responsible”.
The Criminal Cases Review Com-
mission (CCRC), which can send cases
back to the Court of Appeal if a wrong-
ful conviction is suspected, has con-
firmed that it has received the new, un-
signed testimony.
Sutton is convinced Bellfield com-
mitted crimes for which he has yet to be
convicted, but added: “I’m sceptical
about lots of things but I am very scepti-
cal about anything Levi Bellfield says.”
A CCRC spokesman said: “Once the
review of all material is complete, the
CCRC will then determine whether
there is a real possibility that the
Court of Appeal will quash Mr Stone’s High jinks A production of Don Quixote by Birmingham Royal Ballet is being
conviction.” performed in Southampton today as part of a national tour ending on March 19
36 Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

News Saturday interview

‘Britain has a stark choice: protect

The Ukrainian-born billionaire and Tory donor machine, he can get whoever he
wants. But what I can do is live my life
Alexander Temerko tells Tom Newton Dunn with dignity. So I am not afraid.”
While he may not have a team of
how best to deal with his foe in the Kremlin heavies protecting him, it has surely
not escaped Temerko that his close
Ukrainian-born Temerko makes at
party fundraisers, including the
£90,000 he once paid for a bust of
David Cameron, which he then
donated to the Carlton Club.
Politics has been one of Temerko’s

F
or one of the richest former
Soviet bloc businessmen in
the UK, Alexander Temerko
doesn’t act much like an
oligarch. There is no
sprawling country estate, because he
has “no time” to buy one. His
penthouse flat is in Westminster, not
Knightsbridge or Mayfair. The
55-year-old energy tycoon doesn’t
even have a bodyguard, despite being
one of President Putin’s fiercest critics
since fleeing Russia in 2004.
“What’s the point? If it’s my time,
it’s my time,” he argues when we
speak in his suite of offices in Pall
Mall. “Putin is a machine, and I am
only human. You cannot stop a
affiliation to the Conservative Party
for a decade might offer him some
protection from foreign despots prone
to revenge assassinations. The former
oil boss is one of the Tories’ biggest
donors, handing over almost
£1.6 million since gaining British
citizenship in 2011. Much of it has
come via lavish auction bids that the
businesses all his adult life. After
moving to Moscow aged 17 to study
engineering, he joined Boris Yeltsin’s
team and, when the Soviet Union
collapsed, held a number of roles in
the Russian defence ministry, where
he helped to rebuild the shattered
military. He went on to become
deputy chairman of the Russian oil
company Yukos and led it after the
arrest of his “friend”, Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, who was its boss and
Russia’s richest man and had crossed
Putin, the new president. Fraud
charges were laid against Temerko
himself, which he has always insisted
were trumped up and political. To
escape Khodorkovsky’s fate — eight
years in a Siberian prison — he fled to
London and has never gone back.
He has been on first name terms
with three Tory prime ministers, and
photos of him with Boris Johnson and
Theresa May decorate his office. Yet
none of that stops him from criticising
the government when he disagrees
with it. One significant area is on the
Russian state’s billions, which, despite
the Ukraine crisis, are still swirling
around the City of London and
continuing to get a blue-chip polish.
Temerko is impassioned about the
parlous state his motherland is in,
with more than 100,000 Russian
troops massed on its borders. While
he applauds Boris Johnson’s tough
line on the Kremlin’s aggression, he is
vitriolic about how the prime minister
is “strong on rhetoric but very, very
poor on implementation”.
In an effort to increase pressure on
Putin, Liz Truss, the foreign secretary,
set out legislation on Thursday to
allow the confiscation of any assets in
the UK of anyone close to him.
Temerko says the move is “very nice
to say politically” but he is not
convinced that many of Putin’s inner
circle have been stupid enough to
leave much of their fortune lying
around in London. It is also “a trifle”.
He has an alternative that he says
would really hurt the oligarchy. “We
need to stop our country acting like a
financial pumping house, stop it from
being a market that makes Putin’s Alexander Temerko at his offices in
cronies, Putin’s elite, richer and
richer,” he argues. “That means you weak. You are not strong, so he
blocking any Russian company that is won’t negotiate with you for
state-controlled or has state capital anything.”
invested in it from any financial The language Putin understands is
facility in the UK, including any “only force”, which is why he believes
listing on the stock exchange. If I was that it is crucial for Nato to keep
in the government, that’s what I arming and training Ukraine’s
would be doing.” military. “The stronger Ukraine is and
Raising his voice, he insists: “We the more it can demonstrate military
have a choice. We either protect and technical support, the more
democracy or we protect Russian difficult it will be to make that final
money. That is what would help the decision.” If there is war, “it will be
Ukraine, and the UK economy as very difficult and bloody” because all
well.” He would not stop there, and Ukranians will fight, imbued with “a
has one of Britain’s biggest companies moral spirit”.
in his sights. “We need to talk about

BP and why it is a shareholder in
Rosneft, which is under sanction and
run by a close friend of Putin? It is the
biggest investor in Russia but I’m not
sure if even your newspaper will be
brave enough to talk about this.”
On the Ukraine crisis itself,
Temerko does not believe Putin has
decided whether to invade. Instead,
his guess is that he will continue
toying with the West for a while,
probably “until the summer”. to see
what concessions he can win from
Nato and the European Union.
But offering Putin a deal would be a
disaster, he says. “If you tried to find a
compromise with him, he considers
T
he consequences for the
European continent would
also be “absolutely
catastrophic”, with a tidal
wave of refugees heading
west. “What we’ve seen from Syria or
Libya could be very small in
comparison to the ocean of emigrants
which will flood into Europe. It’s very
dangerous for you in Europe too.”
Russian policy is not the only beef
Temerko has with the government.
His green energy company Aquind is
mounting a legal challenge to the
business secretary’s decision to block
permission for it to build a £1.2 billion
energy cable to connect Britain with
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
Russian money . . . or democracy’ TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
Alexander
Viktorovich Temerko
Born September 9, 1966, in Soviet
Ukraine
Education Moscow Institute of
Electronic Machine Building
Career Began his career in Russia in
1991, quickly moving to the defence
ministry. In 2000 he switched to the
energy sector as deputy chairman
of Yukos Oil Company. In 2004 he
came to the UK, leaving Yukos a
year later. In 2008, he became
director of the OGN Group. He has
been a supporter of the
Conservative Party since 2012. In
2016 he became the director of the
energy company Aquind.
Family Lives in London. Has a son,
Vladimir Temerko
France. The 148-mile power line
between Portsmouth and Normandy
could supply electricity from the
French grid to 5 per cent of British
homes but critics argue that it could
compromise energy security.
Temerko says it is “with the
lawyers” and is uncomfortable with
going further. As someone who also
sits on the advisory council of the
centre-right think tank the Institute
of Economic Affairs, he is “not happy”
with the range of tax rises being
enforced by Rishi Sunak.
He explains: “I am no Brexiteer. I
was a Remainer. But the biggest
advantage to Brexit is the chance to
make our country very attractive
to investment. That means a
predictable tax policy, not
spontaneous and chaotic and
spasmodic. It’s absolutely wrong,
for business and for the
economy.”
So is that why he donates
so much to the party? To
have influence on policy,
like how much tax his
companies should pay?
He is well aware of the
charge, levelled not just
against him but a series
of rich Russian expat
donors, but argues: “If
you look at what’s
happening, I’m not sure
Pall Mall. He used to work in the Russian defence ministry but he fled to London after the rise of Vladimir Putin, right if I am so very successful in
37
News
that. No. I support the party because I
believe it’s more pro-business today
than the Lib Dems or the Labour
Party. I don’t do it because I want
influence, but because I live in this
country and I am a citizen. I want the
best for it”.
He has even flirted with the idea of
running for high office himself one
day, and covets the idea of being
London mayor once he has finished in
business, which he insists isn’t yet. “I
believe London needs a businessman
like a Bloomberg, or a Trump, though
I’m no fan of Trump. But London
today needs someone with business
drive. I know my limitations, but I
believe I’ll be better than Sadiq Khan.”
Temerko supported Jeremy Hunt
during the 2019 Tory leadership
campaign, refusing to back his
“friend” Boris because of the threat he
posed in terms of a no-deal Brexit,
even going so far at the time as
to dub the choice between the
candidates as “populism against
professionalism”.
B
ut he still does not want
Johnson to resign over the
No 10 parties scandal. A
new leadership contest
“would be very expensive for
the country” when there are so many
big problems to solve, he argues, from
Ukraine to inflation. “It’s absolutely
wrong behaviour, but Boris has
apologised many times, so for me it’s
enough.”
But what if Johnson is deemed by
the Metropolitan Police investigation
to have broken the law by going to
the Downing Street parties, and
receives a fixed-penalty notice?
Can you really have a law
breaker as the chief law maker?
Temerko pauses. “It’s a very
difficult question. But it
would be Boris’s decision,
not my decision. I don’t
feel I have a moral
right to judge him.
Everybody makes
mistakes, you and me,
all of us. None of us
are angels.”
Listen to the full
interview on Times
Radio’s T&G
programme, from 10am
on Sunday
 38 Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

News

My Week Liz Truss*

Monday
We’ve got a busy week ahead. My top
geopolitical adviser in the Foreign
Office says that Russia is a growing
threat.
“Actually,” I tell him, “it’s
pronounced ‘Rishi’.”
My adviser says he means the
country. The one next to Ukraine
that’s amassing all the troops that I’m
visiting later this week. He says it’s
vital I prepare.
“I am completely prepared,” I tell
him. “Have you not seen my hat?”
“It’s just,” he says, “there was that
slip last week. Where you got the
Baltic Sea and the Black Sea mixed
up. And we’re worried you might
make Britain look a bit silly.”
“But the hat?” I say.
“Even with the hat,” he says.
Then I tell him that I’ve been
reading my briefing notes
anyway, and I completely
understand the situation with
separatists in the Dumbass region.
“Donbas region,” he says.
“That’s what I said,” I say.
“Look,” he says. “Just be careful.
With everything you do. It’s Russia.
“It’s a surveillance state. There will
be cameras on you at all times.”
“I should bloody hope so,” I say.
“We’re paying that photographer a
fortune.”
Tuesday
Thinking about what he said, I decide
I should probably have a quick chat
with my predecessor, Dominic Raab.
So I corner him in a Downing Street
corridor.
“What can you tell me about
Moscow?” I ask him.
“I’ve definitely heard of it,” he
says.
“See, people sneer at us,” I
say, “but we’re actually all
over this stuff.”
I’m distracted, though,

Space debris hints at habitable planet Solar winds

send Northern
— and only 688 trillion miles away Lights south

Kaya Burgess Science Reporter
Astronomers have discovered what
could be a planet in the habitable zone
of a dead star.
A planet similar in size to the rocky
planets of our own solar system may be
orbiting a white dwarf in the Milky Way
about 117 light years from Earth, an
“exciting and unexpected” discovery.
The zone of its orbit is likely to have
been habitable for a billion years and to
remain so for another billion.
A white dwarf is a star that has
exhausted its hydrogen fuel and shed
its outer layers. They are usually not
much larger than a planet, but are far
denser. Most stars, including the Sun,
are destined for this fate.
In 2020, a Jupiter-like gas giant plan-
et was discovered orbiting a white
dwarf, surprising astronomers who had
thought that the death of a star would
destroy any nearby planets.
When a star like the Sun dies, it swells
to a vast size to become a red giant
before expelling its outer layers in a
planetary nebula. It was thought that
only planets at a considerable distance
could survive. It is now thought, how-
ever, that new planets could form from
the debris around a white dwarf.
Researchers at University College
London (UCL) found a ring of debris
around a white dwarf called WD1054-
226 in our galaxy which, they believe, is
held in place by a planet. The white
dwarf is about 117 light years — or 688
trillion miles — from Earth.
The Royal Astronomical Society
said: “A ring of planetary debris . . . has
been observed orbiting close to a white
dwarf star, hinting at a nearby planet in
the habitable zone where water and
thus life could exist.”
Researchers observed the light from
the white dwarf over 18 nights using a
high-speed camera at the La Silla Ob-
servatory in Chile and Nasa’s Transit-
ing Exoplanet Survey Satellite. They
A planet in the white dwarf’s habitable
zone could have liquid water
found that the light dipped as 65 evenly
spaced comet-like clouds of debris
passed in front of the star, orbiting
every 25 hours. The even spacing sug-
gested a planet nearby whose gravity
was holding them in that pattern.
The planet is likely to be orbiting
within 1.5 million miles of the white
dwarf, less than a 50th of the distance
from the Earth to the Sun. No life could
survive so close to the Sun as all water
would be boiled away, but a white
dwarf’s habitable zone is closer as it
gives off less light and heat.
Any planets orbiting the star during
its lifetime would probably have been
“swept clear” by its death. “Thus any
planet that can potentially host water
and hence, life, would be a recent devel-
opment,” the society said. “The area
would be habitable for at least two bil-
lion years, including at least one billion
years into the future.”
Professor Jay Farihi, an astrophysi-
cist at UCL and lead author of the study,
published in Monthly Notices of the
Royal Astronomical Society, said: “The
possibility of a major planet in the
habitable zone is exciting . . . However, it
is important to keep in mind that more
evidence is necessary to confirm the
presence of a planet.
“Since our Sun will become a white
dwarf in a few billion years, our study
provides a glimpse into the future of our
own solar system.”
M
illions of tons of
ultra-hot plasma
were ejected from the
sun this week and
carried into view on
solar winds that hurtled towards
the Earth at speeds in excess of
250 kilometres a second (Rhys
Blakely writes).
As a result, sky gazers in Britain
might have caught a glimpse of the
Northern Lights — a sight that will
become more frequent in UK
skies, scientists believe.
Our nearest star is constantly
emitting a stream of charged
particles towards Earth, known as
the solar winds. Occasionally, a
solar flare — an intense eruption
of electromagnetic radiation —
will produce a surge of charged
plasma, or coronal mass ejection.
The Northern Lights, or aurora
borealis, usually associated with
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
when Jacob Rees-Mogg walks past.
Because I need to speak to him about
his new job as Minister for Brexit
Opportunities.
“Is this about cheese?” says Jacob.
“Yes,” I say. Because we currently
import two thirds of it. And it’s a
disgrace.
“There’s more to my job,” says
Jacob, “than cheese.”
“Is there, though?” I say,
doubtfully.
Wednesday
“But seriously,” says my FCO adviser.
“What are you going to say to the
Russians to make them back down?”
I tell him I’ll show them that
picture of me on the tank looking like
Margaret Thatcher.
“Please don’t,” he says.
“Good point,” I say.
“They’ll already have
seen it.”
Then he says that,
Ukraine aside, I
should also mention
the Salisbury
poisonings. Just to
remind them that
we don’t for a
moment believe
Best spots to watch
Hadrian’s Wall The aurora has
been seen over Sycamore Gap.
Shetland The further north you
are, the better your chances.
Cairngorms National Park The
Glenlivet and Tomintoul area of
those two KGB guys went all the way
there just to see a cathedral.
“OK, but only if there’s time,” I say,
“after we get a photo of me next to
Moscow’s cathedral.”
Thursday
And so now I am in Moscow, meeting
with the foreign minister Sergey
Lavrov.
“So,” he asks me. “What have you
come to say?”
This is confusing. I haven’t come
here to say things.
“This is like a conversation with a
mute and deaf person,” says Lavrov.
“Why are you here, then?”
“Because the hat would look silly,” I
explain, “in Pimlico.”
Then Lavrov asks me whether
Britain recognises Russian
sovereignty over Rostov and
Voronezh, and I give him an Iron
Lady stare and say never, because his
expansionism must be resisted.
Although then the ambassador
whispers in my ear that we do,
actually, and I’m probably thinking of
Donetsk and Luhansk.
“Oh whatever,” I snap. “It’s all just
Russian names.”
“Exactly!” says Lavrov,
ALAMY
the park is part of the Dark Skies
project, with measures to limit
light pollution for a superior view.
Brecon Beacons The lights are
seen in Brecon, an International
Dark Sky Reserve, periodically.
39
News
triumphantly. “Oh God,” says the
ambassador.
Then we stand up, and Lavrov says
‘Queen’s bed’ got a blanket
I’m going the wrong way.
“The lady is not for turning,” I tell
him, haughtily.
refusal from Biden’s mother
“Suit yourself,” he says, “but that
door’s the toilet.” Laurence Sleator mother hated the English. His parents
were Irish and she had written several
Friday Joe Biden’s Irish mother went to sleep poems about her hatred of the English.
Back home. Debriefing in No 10. The on the floor rather than use a bed in He went off to find them and returned
new comms guy Guto Harri is here, which the Queen was said to have slept, with hundreds of poems describing
but he’s had a bad week so the PM is according to a new book. how God must smite the English and
making him stand in the corner. Irish ancestry has always been an rain blood on our heads.”
“So I trust you made our position integral part of the president’s identity, Pritchett said Biden told her that
plain,” says the PM, “over the drummed into him by his mother, while his mother, who died in 2010, was
Dumbass region.” Catherine Finnegan, whose family on a trip to Britain, it had been revealed
“It’s not called that,” says Harri, to emigrated from Co Louth. But Finne- to her that the Queen had stayed in
the wall, but we ignore him. gan, known as Jean, always held a the same hotel, and possibly in the same
Then I say there was a small certain antipathy towards the English. room and bed. “She was so appalled
incident with me not recognising The British screenwriter Georgia that she slept on the floor all night
places, but Boris says he wouldn’t Pritchett recalled in her autobiography rather than risk sleeping on a bed that
have recognised them, either, so that she met Biden in the White House the Queen had slept on,” Pritchett said
never mind. And then he says that the while undertaking research for the she was told.
important thing is to keep a united political comedy Veep, about a fictional Biden’s lineage can be traced back to
front. US vice-president. Biden served two the Blewitts of Co Mayo in the west of
“Agreed,” says Harri. “Russia is a terms as vice-president under Barack Ireland and the Finnegans of Co Louth
growing threat.” Obama. on the Cooley Peninsula. It is thought
“It’s pronounced ‘Rishi’,” I correct Pritchett wrote that she had wanted that both families fled during the
him. to ask Biden about foreign policy after famine in the mid-19th century,
“You bloody bet it is,” says Boris. his recent return from Ukraine. “He eventually settling in Scranton,
*according to Hugo Rifkind changed the subject to how much his Pennsylvania.
the north, are expected to be seen
more often and further south as we
move into a more turbulent season
of “space weather”, scientists say.
Our planet’s magnetic field,
which is created by the churning of
liquid iron far beneath our feet,
will deflect much of it away.
However, this barrier is not perfect
and is weaker towards the Earth’s
magnetic poles.
When a barrage of solar
particles penetrates the field, they
collide with molecules in the
Earth’s upper atmosphere, which
produces the Northern Lights:
stretches of vivid green, pink, red,
yellow, blue and violet.
For several years the sun has
been quiet and sent relatively few
big pulses of plasma and radiation
in our direction. More recently
there have been signs that it is
rising from its slumber.
“The solar cycle [about 11 years]
is just kicking off,” said Professor
Sandra Chapman, director of the
Centre for Fusion, Space and
Astrophysics at the University of
Warwick. “I think the fact that we
have seen X-class flares, which are
the biggest ones, indicates that the
sun has switched on.”
40
World
Giving up warheads
has left us weak, says
Kyiv cold war general
Ukraine stands at the
mercy of Russia thanks
to a 1994 nuclear
agreement, old
soldiers tell
Anthony Loyd
The general still mourns his long-lost
nukes. Leaking pipes have dampened
the office walls and ceilings in the Sovi-
et Strategic Missile Forces Veterans’
Office in Kyiv, causing pictures of his
missile arsenal to bubble and bend.
He walked through rooms of faded
nuclear glory, touching pieces of
“Satan” intercontinental ballistic mis-
sile engines, tritium boosters and frag-
ments of SS-24 “Scalpel” rocket launch
systems, all that is left of Ukraine’s
nuclear missile stockpile, once the third
largest in the world. Workmen have
begun to box them, taking them away
into storage in preparation for closing
the office for good.
“I knew deep in my soul that we
should never have given them away,” he
said, caressing vestiges of machinery
that could have destroyed America
many times over, then turning to point
at obsolete maps of Ukraine scattered
with red flags marking missile silos. “If
we still had our nuclear weapons now,
we would have our respect and security,
and be free of Russian aggression.”
Major General Mykola Filatov,
formerly commander of the 46th
Missile Division, is not alone in his
sorrow. As Ukraine braces itself against
Russian military pressure, the loss of its
arsenal is rued across the nation and
abroad.
The country handed over or
destroyed its missiles as part of the 1994
Budapest Memorandum signed by the
UK, US, and Russia in a deal supposed
to guarantee its safety from attack. Its
disarmament was heralded as a beacon
of hope for reductions of stockpiles
across the world. Today, with more than
100,000 Russian troops gathered near
Ukraine’s borders, bereft of deterrent
and facing invasion by a nuclear power,
that hope is dead.
“The lesson of Budapest is clear,” said
Filatov, 72, who until the deal was signed
controlled 86 missile silos and more
than 700 of the 1,700 nuclear warheads
that remained in Ukraine after the
break-up of the Soviet Union. “Don’t
disarm!”
The Budapest Memorandum is now
referenced by all sides in the gathering
conflict. Signed in Hungary on Decem-
ber 5, 1994, it guaranteed that Ukraine
would be safeguarded from nuclear
attack or territorial violation in return
for getting rid of its nuclear weapons.
Yet the deal contained no enforce-
ment measures and never became a
recognised international treaty backed
by western military commitment.
At Filatov’s former headquarters in
The command silo at Pobuzke, where decommissioned missiles are on display
Major General
Mykola Filatov
says the deterrent
should never have
been surrendered
the underground nuclear command silo
at Pobuzke in central Ukraine, the last
such facility in the country, his veterans
reflected on their nuclear heyday with
cold recall.
“Ukraine would still have Crimea and
the Donbas if we had held onto our
rockets,” said a former colonel and
launch operator of the 46th Missile Di-
vision, known only by his first name
Gennady, who had spent six years
underground in silos. “Our rockets were
our power. Budapest has left us weak.”
Gennady, now 60, had been one of six
working on the bottom two floors of the
12-floor command silo. Strapped in
seats at the nuclear button console 45
metres below ground, two men had dual
control to hit the button in the event of
orders to launch a nuclear attack.
A third man sat at a communications
desk in the three-metre-wide room,
while on the floor below them three
others slept in a tiny space between
alternating shifts.
The button operators’ chairs had ash-
trays in the arms so that they could
smoke while turning the world to dust.
“We tried not to think about the day
we would press the button, or of our
families above ground,” Gennady said,
“but we were specially trained and for
sure we would have launched if
ordered.”
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
Eckardt Heukamp
stands in the way
of the RWE
company’s open-
cast mine and the
Bagger 288 digger
ANTHONY LOYD FOR THE TIMES
Situated in the bleak windswept
wilderness of the steppes, part of the silo
site is now a museum.
A huge antenna on the surface was
angled northward so that in the event of
nuclear war, any surviving launch
teams emerging from the silo, disorient-
ed in a sunless, ash-covered world
where compasses no longer worked,
could tell which way the planet faced.
The Budapest Memorandum was
applauded in its time as a check against
such visions of Armageddon. Its viola-
tion has caused alarm among nuclear
experts across the world, who fear the
Ukraine crisis may now destabilise
non-proliferation efforts elsewhere.
“Iran and North Korea will look at
Ukraine, and see another example in
which commitments attached to giving
up nuclear weapons were not fulfilled,”
said David Albright, the physicist and
nuclear proliferation expert who found-
ed the Institute for Science and Inter-
national Security in Washington.
“Those thinking of acquiring nuclear
Murdered priest’s
weapons will be even keener to have
them if their neighbours already do so.
The Ukraine crisis makes it unclear if
giving up nuclear weapons is in your
country’s interests, and it increases the
motivation of other countries to get
hold of nuclear weapons.”
Albright queried whether Ukraine
would have been able to maintain its
arsenal in any case without Russian
sister has no hate
support.
However, Filatov insisted that he
could have done so indefinitely. As for
pressing the button, “if that order came,
we would not have even thought about
for terrorist killers
it,” he said. “We’d do it. We were taught France nection with the attack in the church in
to do it, prepared to do it, ready to do it. Saint-Etienne-de-Rouvray near Rouen,
Adam Sage Armentières
Deep inside we recognised it would be the 81-year-old retired hairdresser
the world’s end, the end of light. But we After her 85-year-old brother was spoke of the bond she had forged with
believed we would protect our stabbed to death by Islamists in the the mother of Adel Kermiche, one of the
fatherland.” He paused, looking around church where he served as a priest, two terrorists who killed Father Hamel
his office in Kyiv for the last time. “The Roseline Hamel could have been before being shot dead by police.
balance of mutually assured destruc- forgiven for seeking vengeance. She feels no animosity, she says,
tion does work,” he said, eyes glinting, Sitting on a sofa in her small red-brick adding that she had decided to get to
gazing at a picture of Atlas holding the house in Armentières in northern know Kermiche’s mother so that “we
Earth. “Without a nuclear Atlas, the France, she expressed very different could handle our pain together”. Her
world would disappear.” sentiments. In an interview before the message is in stark contrast to the viru-
Kyiv’s cause, letter, page 28 start of a trial in Paris next week in con- lent debates overshadowing the presi-
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 41

Frisbee golf bug Hitler as you’ve never

bites Americans seen him before
Page 44 Page 45

GETTY IMAGES

Last farmer digs in Presidential

against advance of rising stars
German coal giant square off
L
ate last year into a corner,” he
Germany’s
ruling parties
said. Heukamp’s
determination has
over gay law
sat down to turned him into a
hammer out national hero in United States
their policies on the Germany and beyond.
David Charter Washington
challenges facing the Greta Thunberg, 18,
country (Oliver visited his farm six Two rising stars of US politics are facing
Moody writes). months ago. off over a Florida bill to limit school
They pondered over Since 2012 discussion of gender identity and
China, Russia, the Heukamp has turned sexual orientation that could prove to
future of Europe and down numerous offers be the first of many battles between
the destiny of a village from RWE, arguing them for the White House.
with a single resident. that the money was In the red corner is Ron DeSantis, 43,
Lützerath, a dozen not enough to make the Florida governor seen as an heir to
miles from the border up for the loss of his Donald Trump and perhaps even a rival
with the Netherlands, life’s work. for the next Republican nomination.
has become the “I’ve got a large In the blue corner is Pete Buttigieg,
climate movement’s meadow with trees,” 40, a former city mayor whose break-
Alamo as a lone he said. “Why should through performance in the 2020
farmer stands against I lose out just so that Democratic primary campaign earned
an open-cast mine. the company can him a seat in President Biden’s cabinet
Eckardt Heukamp’s benefit?” Soon, as transportation secretary.
family have worked however, he may lose Both are seen as standard bearers for
the fields here for four his battle. A court in the next generation of their party’s
generations. He has Münster is to rule in leadership and this week saw initial
spent his life in the weeks whether he is skirmishes in what could become the
farmhouse and has no legally bound to sell most significant personal rivalry in
intention of moving. the farm to RWE. American politics.
RWE, the energy The verdict could The issue that brought them into
company, has other inflame climate conflict and gave America a flavour of a
plans. For more than politics. Green potential future presidential contest
a decade it has been politicians in charge between them is the Parental Rights in
buying up and of the energy and Education Bill which is making its way
demolishing villages environment through the Florida legislature.
around its Garzweiler ministries want to Backed by DeSantis, the bill declares
coalmining complex, shut down the coal that “a school district may not encour-
home of the Bagger industry by 2030. age classroom discussion about sexual
288 excavator, one of Kathrin Henneberger, orientation or gender identity in pri-
the biggest land 34, a Green MP in the mary grade levels or in a manner that is
vehicles ever built. nearby city of not age-appropriate or developmental-
Thousands of Mönchengladbach, ly appropriate for students”. Its critics
residents have moved. said that this made have labelled it the “Don’t Say Gay Bill”
Yet Heukamp, 57, has the Garzweiler mine and see it as part of a right-wing “cul-
stayed put even as the out of date. ture wars” agenda which seeks to moti-
Bagger 288 Garzweiler
churchyard where his For now, Heukamp
open-cast mine
Bucket wheel excavator parents are buried is safe. Under German
Cologne was flattened. He law no clearance can
Length: 225 metres
Height: 96 metres GERMANY rescued their be carried out after
FRANCE tombstone before the February. Yet he is
Nelson’s Column diggers moved in. still troubled.
London bus
to scale “At some point you “Of course you
to scale say to yourself that it think about it,” he
can’t keep going on said. “I don’t really
like this, being driven have a Plan B yet.”
Ron DeSantis and Pete Buttigieg may
be rivals for the White House in 2024

dential election campaign in a country
beset by racial and religious divisions.
Hamel made it clear that she wanted
nothing to do with the far-right politi-
cians standing on anti-Islam platforms,
as has the Diocese of Rouen. It said it
“regrets the political instrumentalisa-
tion” of Father Hamel’s death after sup-
porters of Éric Zemmour, the hardline
pundit running for the presidency, used
the priest’s photograph online to back
his claims that Muslims were a threat to
France. Hamel said: “When I give
evidence [in court], there is no question
of condemning the Muslim community,
not at all, at all, at all.”
It would wrong to underestimate the
impact of his murder, either on Hamel’s
family or on French society, however.
Six days after an Islamist had killed 86
people in Nice in July 2016, Adel Kermi-
che and Abdel Malik Petitjean, both 19,
burst into Father Hamel’s church as he
held a morning service for a congrega-
tion of five. His sister recalled: “His body
was stabbed ten times with a knife
before his throat was slit. He was pushed
and shoved and forced to kneel. He
fought back with his thin arms and his
thin legs but when he was on the
ground, he was pulled around like a sack
of potatoes.” Before dying the priest is
said to have declared: “Go away, Satan.”
An 86-year-old parishioner was also
stabbed but survived. Police were
alerted by a nun who managed to flee.
An elite unit shot dead Kermiche and
Petitjean outside the church. “That day
was a shock which has no name for all
our family,” said Hamel, a widow with
four children. “I cannot describe
what we felt when we learnt
about this terror attack . . . this
crime against the body of my
brother, a priest in his church
praying for peace and celebrating
the passion of Christ. For a
long time it was incom-
prehensible that this
could happen, making
Roseline Hamel, 81,
has befriended the
mother of one of the
two Islamists who
stabbed her brother
my brother a martyr like an animal
being taken to the abattoir.”
It was only after his funeral service in
Rouen Cathedral, attended by govern-
ment ministers, bishops and thousands
of mourners, that Hamel began to
realise the resonance of her brother’s
death at the altar. “We ended up by
understanding that my brother had
become a universal brother.”
Three French men will appear in
Paris criminal court in connection with
his death on Monday. Farid Khelil
36, Yassine Sebaihia, 27, and Jean-
Philippe Steven Jean-Louis, 25,
are accused of knowing about Ker-
miche and Petitjean’s plan and of
encouraging them to carry it out.
They deny the charge of partici-
pating in a terrorist organisa-
tion. A fourth defendant,
Rachid Kassim, also
French, will be tried in his
absence for allegedly in-
stigating the attack
from Syria where he
had joined Islamic
State. He is thought to
have been killed in 2017. Hamel said that
she hoped the defendants would be con-
victed and jailed. “But they must get a
sentence that helps these young people
who have their lives before them . . . to
rediscover reason and to get away from
those who manipulate them with bad
talk to the point of turning them into ka-
mikazes,” she said. It was with a similar
absence of hate that she contacted
Kermiche’s mother after spending the
first months after the murder thinking
“I need a reason to keep going and to
have my brother’s strength of faith”.
“The solution I found was to ask my-
self who could suffer more than me,” she
said. “And little by little I put myself in
the place of the parents of this young
man who had become an assassin. And
I thought, ‘What if it was my son who
had taken the wrong path to the point of
becoming an assassin? How great would
my pain have been?’ It can happen in any
family. You only need a teenager when
they are seeking a path between child-
hood and adulthood to come across bad
friends for all the education you have
given them to be forgotten in an instant.”
vate the party’s base at the expense of
the LGBTQ community.
Buttigieg, who is gay and recently
became the adoptive father of twins
with his husband Chasten, 32, led an
attack on the bill in an unusual move by
the White House.
Labelling it “dangerous”, he told
CNN: “It tells youth who are different,
or whose families are different, that
there’s something wrong with them.
And I do think that contributes to the
shocking levels of suicidal thoughts and
suicide attempts in LGBTQ youth.”
Polling regularly shows both men
among the favourites with their party
for the next presidential nomination if
Trump and Biden are not running.
Despite ideological differences they
have striking similarities: both attend-
ed Harvard, Buttigieg as an undergrad-
uate and DeSantis for law school; and
both joined prestigious fraternities:
Delta Kappa Epsilon for DeSantis, the
same as five presidents including both
Bushes, while Buttigieg was in Phi Beta
Kappa which boasts 17 presidents,
including Carter and Clinton.
42
World
Australia foils
Beijing plot to
influence poll
Australia
Bernard Lagan Sydney
Australia’s security agencies have
foiled a plot by Chinese spies to
bankroll potential opposition candi-
dates in the country’s forthcoming
general election.
The head of the Australian Secur-
ity Intelligence Organisation gave a
sparse outline of the attempt at its
annual threat assessment briefing.
He said a wealthy “puppeteer” who
had strong links to foreign intelli-
gence agencies was trying to ensure
the election of certain candidates.
While Mike Burgess, the agency’s
director-general, declined to reveal
details of the foreign power
involved, The Australian newspaper
reported that it involved attempts by
Chinese spies to subvert the opposi-
tion Labor Party.
The plot was trying to influence
the party to select potential MPs
who could be sympathetic to China,
which has been in a long dispute with
Australia during the pandemic. The
election is due in May at the latest.
That was close A young Adélie penguin escaped a leopard seal by hoping on to a boat carring tourists on an Antarctic
expedition. Vladimir Seliverstov, 50, from Russia, captured the moment and watched the bird jump back onto an iceberg
Learn to be nice
to your children,
tiger mums told
China
Didi Tang Beijing
They are known as China’s “tiger
mums” — domineering and ruth-
lessly competitive mothers willing to
push their children to be the best in
everything.
Now, after decades of domination,
the tigers are slowly being declawed.
Parents are signing up to “parent-
child” classes in record numbers as
they become more aware of the cost
of forcing children to the limit, said
Zhang Yiyun, a Shanghai-based
psychologist.
“It’s been an obvious trend in the
past two years that parents are
tuning in to their children’s mental
health,” said Zhang, who offers an
eight-week course for those keen to
better understand and empower
their children.
“In the past, parents were worried
when their children were tardy with
homework, now they want to know
if their children are mentally
healthy,” she told The Times.
She credited Beijing’s recent
ban on “crammers” — private
after-school tutors employed
to push children in their
studies — with the shift in
parental attitudes. “They
can slow down and that
voice has grown louder,”
Zhang said. “Parents
now want to know if
their children have a
sound character
and whether they
are happy.”
Her course,
which costs about
£500, has attracted
Zhang Yiyun urges
parents to focus on
children’s happiness
2GM
VLADIMIR SELIVERSTOV/CATERS NEWS
more than 2,000 parents since last
year.
Xu Ming, 42, a mother of three,
became concerned when her five-
year-old son’s teacher said he was
quick to lose his temper. She told the
South China Morning Post that after
doing the course she was “better able
to accept his emotions, be more
patient and provide a calming envi-
ronment”.
A 2020 report on the mental
health of China’s elementary and
secondary schoolchildren found
that 15-year-old pupils, while
performing better academically
than the global average, were less
happy. Xiang Xianming, a professor
at Nanjing Normal University who
led the study, said it was more impor-
tant for parents to nurture children’s
souls than “tutor their homework”.
He said academic pressure was
one of the main reasons for child-
ren’s mental health problems.
Zhu Yongxin, a political adviser,
also criticised excessively high
academic expectations.
“The demands by parents on
children is to get high scores,
go to a good school, find a
good job and earn a good
income,” Zhu said. “But the
highest purpose of educa-
tion is to teach students
to learn happiness, to
enjoy learning, to
happily interact with
others.”
Sun Yunxiao, an
education expert,
said: “If you accom-
pany your child-
ren, set a good
example, find their
passions, respect
them and support
them, you will be a good
parent.”
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
Work 9 to 5 for Dolly
and get a free degree
United States Dolly Parton’s
theme park is offering to pay full
tuition fees for employees who
want to go to university. The
Grow U pilot programme was
announced by Herschend
Enterprises, which owns the
Dollywood theme park alongside
Parton, 76, and will apply to
workers at each of its 25
attractions in the US. Wes Ramey,
a spokesman for Dollywood, told
The Washington Post: “She’s very
supportive of the employees
learning and continuing to grow
themselves.” Big companies such
as Best Buy and Chipotle provide
up to $5,000 a year in tuition
costs as employers react to a
competitive labour market.
Businessman’s trial for
£650m embezzlement
Angola An Angolan businessman
who is married to a former
deputy minister has gone on trial
in a £650 million embezzlement
scandal. Carlos Manuel de Sao
Vicente denies fraudulently
obtaining shares of the AAA
Seguros insurance company and
other charges. The case has also
led to legal action being taken in
Switzerland, where he is accused
of banking the money. (AFP)
Iranian ‘plot to murder
Israeli arms boss’ foiled
Turkey Spies have foiled a plot by
Iran to kill an Israeli-Turkish
businessman involved in the
defence industry, a newspaper has
reported. The pro-government
Sabah daily said that an “Iranian
assassination team” aimed to kill
Yair Geller, who worked in
aviation. The plot was said to be
in retaliation for the killing in
2020 of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the
Iranian nuclear scientist. (AFP)
Inquiry into church sex
abuse finds 52 cases
Spain A report has identified
52 cases of alleged sexual abuse
of minors by more than 31
suspects in Catholic institutions
since 1948. The investigation by
the regional government of
Navarre and the Public University
of Navarre was one of the
country’s first into church abuses
and its findings, described as the
tip of the iceberg, will be handed
to local prosecutors. (Reuters)
Junta strongman made
Burkina Faso president
Burkina Faso The leader of
Burkina Faso’s junta has been
declared president, the country’s
constitutional council said.
Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri
Sandaogo Damiba will be
inaugurated on Wednesday, but
his term will be backdated to
January 24, when his troops
overthrew the elected government
of Roch Kabore, now under house
arrest in Ouagadougou (AP).
Botanist pays price for
failed kimilsungias crop
North Korea A botanist has been
sentenced to six months’ forced
labour after he failed to grow a
crop of flowers named after Kim
Jong-il in time to celebrate the
late dictator’s birthday. The man,
in his 50s, was ordered to produce
red kimilsungias out of season for
February 16, the “Day of the
Shining Star”, the Daily NK said.
He blamed a shortage of firewood
to heat his greenhouses.
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
Social media glitz masked ‘crimes
of the bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde’
United States
Hugh Tomlinson Washington
As the FBI rifled through her Wall
Street apartment, Heather Morgan
pleaded to be allowed to find her cat.
While under a bed, she made a grab for
a phone and hit the lock button. “Law
enforcement had to wrest the phone
from her hands,” prosecutors said.
Under the bed, agents found 50 elec-
tronic devices, dozens of sim cards,
$40,000 in cash and a sponge bag
labelled “burner phones”. All of these
items are now evidence against Morgan
and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein,
dubbed the “Bonnie and Clyde of the
Crypto Age”, who appeared this week
in a federal court charged with launder-
ing billions of dollars in stolen bitcoin,
in what authorities claim is the biggest
financial seizure in US history. Their
story, prosecutors say, appears to be
“from the pages of a spy novel”.
Lichtenstein, 34, and Morgan, 31,
were styled as successful tech entrepre-
neurs. Lichtenstein, a Russian-Ameri-
can nicknamed “Dutch”, had invested
in Silicon Valley startups. He dabbled as
an “occasional magician”.
Morgan had launched her first busi-
ness in her early twenties and lived all
over the world, was a self-styled “bad
boss lady”. Beyond her business in “cold
email” — unsolicited communications
— she was a goofy amateur rapper,
going by the alter ego, Razzlekhan.
Her videos showed her swaggering
around Wall Street in a golden jacket.
“Come real far but I don’t know where
I’m headin’. I’m the motherf***ing
crocodile of Wall Street,” she said.
But they were hiding a huge secret,
prosecutors said. Since 2017 they had
been trying to launder 119,754 bitcoin
hacked from the Hong Kong crypto-
currency exchange Bitfinex in 2016.
This week, they were worth $4.5 billion.
The couple have not
been charged for the
hack, and it is still
unclear how they
accessed the funds.
Investigators believe
Lichtenstein and Mor-
gan siphoned cash via
a web of bank ac-
counts opened
with false names.
Thousands of
tiny transactions
were used to move
the money, investiga-
tors said. They were able
Foot-selfie helicopter trips face chop Earhart’s $80,000 flying cap kept
Will Pavia
With balmy weather predicted, a
helicopter sightseeing company put out
a call to people who wanted to photo-
graph their feet dangling over Manhat-
tan. “Get Your Perfect Shoe Selfie This
Weekend!” declared FlyNYON, whose
helicopters fly without doors, allowing
passengers to stick their feet into the
void to capture a picture of them skim-
ming the rooftops.
Satisfied customers post footage on
Instagram, frequently describing it as
the fulfilment of a long-held ambition.
Less enamoured of the flights are the
tens of thousands of people below.
In 2019 there were 3,000 complaints
about the helicopters. Last year New
York fielded 26,000 calls about noise.
Melissa Elstein lives beneath a busy
flight path from the Hudson River to
2GM
Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan styled themselves as entrepreneurs, and she as
a sometime rapper, but prosecutors say they were laundering £4.5 billion of bitcoin
Foot-selfie thrill
seekers hang
their feet and
legs out of
helicopters and
record the
moment for
social media
Central Park. “They fly 200ft to 300ft
over my building,” she said. In Central
Park when “jogging round the reservoir
there are often three or four helicopters
hovering around”.
Elstein, 55, a lawyer and yoga teacher,
is chairwoman of Stop the Chop, a pro-
test group that was founded in 2014, to
protest against traffic at the helicopter
ports in Manhattan, from which there
are 60,000 flights a year. Legislation
was introduced in 2015 that threatened
the industry and the following year the
to cash out at least $2.9 million. They
bought gold and non-fungible tokens
(NFTs) moving into the 75 Wall
Street building, where one-bed
units start at about $1 million.
In 2019 the couple visited
Ukraine, where investigators believe
they contacted criminals about fake
passports. Officials say they were con-
sidering fleeing to Russia or Ukraine
city and the helicopter companies com-
promised, reducing flights to 30,000 a
year and banning them on Sunday.
“For a year it was quieter,” Elstein
said. “Then FlyNYON, based out of
Kearny, New Jersey, started offering
these doors-off tourist flights.” Because
their helicopters were flying from New
Jersey, they were not subject to the
terms of the 2016 deal, she said.
About the same time a helicopter
company called Blade began commut-
er flights from Manhattan to New
York’s airports, and to the Hamptons.
Elstein said commuter flights made
up at least 15,000 a year on top of the
tourist trips. It is harder to count the
flights from New Jersey. But analysis of
flight tracking app data one Sunday in
July found that a third of 157 helicopters
in the air were FlyNYON flights from
New Jersey, The New York Times said.
before the pandemic. But just before the
arrest, agents decrypted a file on Lich-
tenstein’s cloud storage account and
found keys to 2,000 virtual currency
addresses. More than $3.6 billion of the
stolen bitcoin was seized using the keys.
The couple’s lawyers said Morgan
was an unwitting bystander to the
alleged crimes, for which they face up
to 25 years in jail if convicted.
locked in cupboard for 90 years
Keiran Southern Los Angeles
A leather flying cap once worn by the
American aviator Amelia Earhart is
expected to fetch at least $80,000 after
lying in a family’s cupboard for
more than 90 years.
Anthony Twiggs, a 67- 7-
year-old retired photo--
grapher from Minnesota,
inherited the cap from his
mother 20 years ago and
has been able to prove her
story that Earhart had d sto
worn it in 1929. She achievedd
global fame after becoming ing
the first woman to fly solo across
sappeared in
the Atlantic in 1932, but disappeared
the Pacific in 1937 aged 39 while trying
to fly around the world. Ellie Brookhart
43
World
My emotional
support pig is
part of family,
says divorcé
Joshua Thurston
After divorce and the death of his
mother, Wyverne Flatt needed
someone to turn to. Ellie, a knee-high
Vietnamese potbellied pig, was that
someone.
Officials in Canajoharie in New York
state, however, reject his claim that
Ellie is an “emotional support animal”.
A planning officer notified Flatt, 54,
that he was harbouring a farm animal
illegally in October 2019 during a visit
about a building permit.
Six months later the pig, which
weighs nearly eight stone, was still trot-
ting around Flatt’s property and he was
formally notified that he was violating
planning rules, a misdemeanour that
could result in a criminal trial.
“I could never dream of giving away
somebody who’s part of my family,” said
Flatt, who has owned the pig since 2018
when she was “about as big as a shoe”.
“She’s more intelligent than my dogs.
She can kind of home in on you when
you’re feeling bad because she’ll want to
Ellie, the potbellied
pig, is “intelligent
and comforting”
come in and snuggle with you.” Several
neighbours have signed affidavits stat-
ing they have no problem with Ellie.
However, a lawyer for the village
wrote that Ellie was a potential public
health hazard and argued if “every
citizen were to openly scoff at the
village zoning codes . . . we would live in
a lawless society”.
Flatt’s lawyer argues Ellie falls under
federal housing guidance that states
municipalities should provide a
“reasonable accommodation” when a
person can demonstrate an animal
provides emotional support for a
disability-related need. Flatt carries a
laminated card that states the pig is a
“registered emotional support animal”,
although the village lawyer said this
was obtained online for a fee with no
formal legal process. A note stating
Ellie helped Flatt to stop taking medi-
cation from a nurse is also in dispute.
In 2019, another family in upstate
New York were barred from keeping
their potbellied pig, Pork Chop, despite
claiming it was an emotional support
animal for their daughter-in-law.
told her son that as a schoolgirl in 1929
she visited an airport in Cleveland,
Ohio, to see Earhart, who had just fin-
ished third in an all-female national air
race, the Powder Puff Derby.
The pilot was mobbed when she
landed and afterwards a boy
who was said to have taken a
liki
liking to Brookhart pulled
he
her aside and handed over
th cap, saying he had
the
pi
picked it off the ground in
th
the mêlée. Brookhart
stored it in an unsealed plas-
b
tic bag, only rarely recount-
ing the
ing th story to her four child-
Now experts have concluded
ren. Now,
it is legitimate and it is being sold online
by Heritage Auctions in the US in a sale
ending on February 26.
44 Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

World
ALAMY

Haven for addicts

spills onto streets
of San Francisco
United States
Keiran Southern San Francisco
A short distance from the headquarters
of technology giants on Market Street in
San Francisco, Pauline Wise left a city-
run drug addiction centre after smoking
fentanyl, a powerful opioid.
Wise, 42, said that destitute men and
women were inside injecting heroin,
smoking crack and crystal meth as
commuters walked past.
“If you’re not used to it, it might be a
shock,” she said. “You will see people
using. You’ll see people shooting up.”
The $9 million Linkage Center,
which opened last month in the city’s
Tenderloin district, has been designed
as a supervised refuge for those strug-
gling with drug and mental health
problems, to prevent overdoses and
America’s drug crisis. Officials said that
in its first fortnight the centre recorded
3,197 visits, including return visits, and
made 1,010 referrals for treatment or
shelter.
One addict said that getting drugs on
the street was “easier than going to
Starbucks for a cup of coffee”.
Justin Chatwin, 38, another user, said
that the project helped addicts.
“Having a safe place where you are not
under scrutiny is a good idea,” he said.
“What it is right now is an experiment
and I’m OK with that.”
Chatwin said he had seen staff at the
centre save an addict who overdosed.
Anna Pope-Castro, 43, was openly
smoking fentanyl while people walked
past. She recently became addicted to
the opioid because fentanyl was half the
price of the heroin she had been using.
She praised the centre. “It doesn’t get
any better than shower, meals and a
safe place to do drugs where the cops
can’t come in,” Pope-Castro said. “Instead passion oozes back into the mists of A professional disc golfer
Following the announcement in
November that for the first time
US sponsors from every core.”
Disc golf insiders have
time . . . or at least to the
mid-1970s when “Steady”
takes aim in St Louis,
Missouri, hoping to emulate
100,000 people had died in a year from
drugs, the Biden administration was
throw big marvelled and cheered at
his meteoric rise. The
Ed Headrick, the toy
inventor, created the Disc
the success of Ricky
Wysocki, below, the sport’s
pressed to do more to fight fentanyl.
In December, Breed, 47, San Francis-
money at little-known sport now
has in Wysocki a
Golf Pole Hole, a
forerunner of the baskets
first million dollar athlete

co’s first black woman mayor, declared

a public emergency in Tenderloin and
frisbee golf professional athlete
earning more than
now used in
the sport.
with an apology. “Sorry,
but this turns out to be

T
Anna Pope-Castro and a friend. She is sought extra police funding. But Mich- he obscure sport $1 million a year There are impossible to answer,” he
pleased to have “a safe place to do ael Shellenberger, the author of San of disc golf has under a contract with some in the said.
drugs where the cops can’t come in” Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities, emerged into a frisbee community, “There are many
said that families of drug addicts had the spotlight to manufacturer. He however, who argue historical accounts of
connect them with healthcare and welcomed the centre but compared its hail a master of has earned that the sport has people playing golf with a
housing services in an area long blight- supervised drug use policy to “handing frisbee throwing (Will more than an even longer flying disc, some of which
ed by crime and homelessness. More a loaded gun to a suicidal person”. Pavia writes). $500,000 in history. They pre-date the advent of the
than 1,360 people have died from acci- He wrote online: “The city is carrying Ricky Wysocki, 28, prize money claim that its plastic flying discs by
dental drug overdoses in San Francisco out a bizarre medical experiment from Arizona, is driving and the origins lie beyond many years. Each
in the past two years — almost double whereby addicts are given everything crowds wild as they watch accolades of the the reach of the account was an isolated
the number of Covid-related deaths. they need to maintain their addiction him navigate courses that Professional most dedicated instance of recreational
London Breed, the Democratic — cash, hot meals, shelter — in ex- wind through trees and Disc Golf disc golf historians. disc golf play and none of
mayor, has been accused of condoning change for . . . almost nothing. Voters over water hazards Association, Jim Palmeri, the participants knew of
illegal drug abuse as a “bizarre medical have found themselves in the strange towards “greens”. The which has another pioneer anyone else playing disc
experiment”. Journalists are barred position of paying for fentanyl, meth hole is a basket strung made him its of disc golf and a golf.”
from the centre but addicts leaving the and crack use on public property.” with chains that catch a player of the member of the Every player now
site said this week that they were freely A member of the city’s Department well-aimed plastic disc. year four sport’s hall of knows of Wysocki, who
able to use drugs there under the super- of Emergency Management denied “Ricky Wysocki doesn’t times. The fame, is said to have told ESPN: “It progressed
vision of outreach workers. that it condoned drug abuse, saying: sweat,” Ken Klavon, the association responded to an from ‘Hey this is fun!’ to
Many users are hooked on fentanyl, “This site is about getting people con- disc golf reporter, said on traces the inquiry about the ‘Hey, I’m going to
the synthetic opioid up to 100 times nected with support, long-term ser- the sports website ESPN. sport’s origins beginnings of disc golf dedicate my life to this.’ ”
stronger than morphine that is fuelling vices and treatment.”

We’re going to need a bigger screen: digital art expands

said. “He was very excited by this
Will idea because it would be somewhat
refreshing. You won’t have any
Pavia object to manage.”
But as the 1,024 pieces in Cosmic
Reef were unveiled online his wife
found herself fielding questions
from prospective buyers, wondering
new york how to put one on their wall. At his
gallery in Brooklyn, Villareal has an
Then a method was developed for
“minting” digital works using “non-
fungible tokens” or NFTs — making
them into unique objects, connected
to an entry in a digital ledger.
Suddenly it became possible to own
a digital image or a video as one
might an oil painting. As interest in
NFTs exploded last year, and an
artist known as Beeple sold a digital
can get a massive 98in flat screen for
$14,000, which is not crazy if
someone is buying a hundred
thousand dollar piece,” he said.
If you’re thinking of getting one,
for your new NFT, Sacks advises you
keep it apart from your TV set. “The
screen on your wall should become
a destination for your art,” he said.
To flick from the Ten O’clock News
talking minimum $100,000,” he
said. “If you are living in a
$20 million home, spending
$150,000 is not a lot of money. But
it’s a different audience.”
If you worry that wall-sized video
screens will make your dining room
resemble Piccadilly Circus, you can
also use a projector to display your
NFT, “if you have a big space and

T
he New York artist Leo
Villareal makes light
sculptures that stretch
along walls and ceilings or
beneath the arches of
Waterloo Bridge. Some will fit in
your lounge, some take up most of a
museum.
His latest collection, Cosmic Reef,
was meant to be simpler. He wanted
to make a “purely digital work that
would live on a computer, that
would not necessarily have a
manifestation as a physical object,”
his wife, Yvonne Force Villareal,
enormous screen, 50ft wide and 10ft
high, on which he displays the pieces
but it was not necessarily the sort of
thing that everyone could fit in their
living rooms.
Steven Sacks, an old hand when it
comes to digital art, was getting the
same question. Sacks founded
Bitforms gallery in New York in
2001, focusing on “new media art”,
some of which had to be viewed on a
screen. Getting a large one was
prohibitively expensive in 2001. “I
had a fairly small audience that was
buying this work,” he said.
piece called Everydays: the First
5000 Days for $69 million at
Christies, Sacks began hearing from
a new generation of art collectors.
Some were cryptocurrency
enthusiasts; NFTs use the same
blockchain technology that
undergirds digital currencies such
as ethereum. But as the movement
took hold, “real collectors started to
come out of the woodwork”, he said.
And they wanted to know how to
display what they bought.
As it happened, screens had
become a lot cheaper, he said. “You
to your NFT would do “a disservice
to the art”, he said. He advises that
you mount your screen vertically, in
portrait mode, to avoid the
temptation of using it to watch
Match of the Day.
The next level for the really
serious (and seriously wealthy) NFT
fan would be “a video wall option”
which is “architecturally integrated
into your home”, he said. He has
developed relationships with a few
companies that do this, effectively
producing custom-made screens
that cover an entire wall. “We are
you can also control the light”, Sacks
said. “I have a collector now in New
York who is trying to figure out how
to do this in his backyard, which is
complicated because the projector
itself has to be weather-proof and
vermin-proof.”
It must be a nice house. “He has
an incredible home in Manhattan,”
Sacks said. “One of the top three I
have been in.” The artwork could
only be displayed in the evening.
“But it’s still cool to have a dinner
party and have an amazing artwork
going on in the background,” he said.
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 2GM 45

World

How to save an Italian town: sell homes for €1

Italy
Tom Kington Sambuca
Standing in the sun outside Sambuca’s
16th century church, the deputy mayor
listed the changes since his town
started selling houses for a euro.
“There is a new estate agent, restau-
rant, café and food shop, while two
ceramic workshops have opened,”
Giuseppe Cacioppo said. “And there’s
the €20 million we think people will
spend doing up their new homes.”
It has been three years since Sambu-
ca, a hilltop town south of Palermo in
west Sicily, announced that it was sell-
ing empty houses cheap to reverse
years of emigration that reduced the
population from 9,000 to about 5,000.
Many of the homes needed repair
after an earthquake in 1968, but officials
hoped that the winding alleys of the an-
cient Arab quarter, the beaches and
mountain hikes would lure buyers.
Nothing prepared them for the
110,000 email inquiries and phone calls
from around the world. Due to demand,
the council’s 32 houses were auctioned
rather than being sold for a euro, fetch-
ing an average of €4,000 each. But that
failed to satisfy demand.
“Another 140 houses have been sold
by private owners, bringing in €2.8 mil-
lion,” Cacioppo said. “Another 200
could yet be sold.”
Lorraine Bracco, the actress who
starred in The Sopranos, made a reality
television show about her house in
Sambuca that gave the town’s scheme
the highest profile of about 60 similar
ones around Italy. The Italian govern-
ment is ploughing a billion euros into
better internet and services for more
than 200 struggling regions.
The one euro scheme shows mayors
are fighting chronic depopulation with-
out waiting for handouts. Strolling
down Sambuca’s main street, Cacioppo
pointed to small houses. “That’s Belgi-
um,” he said. “That one’s America.”
He entered a derelict looking proper-
ty where Brigitte Dufour, a Canadian
human rights lawyer, was studying
cracked pots under a fragile roof.
“I think I can install a roof terrace
with a view over the hills,” Dufour, 58,
said. She bought the house for €5,800
after placing bids from Brussels.
“I hadn’t seen the house,” she said.
“But now I am totally reassured by its
Lorraine Bracco promoted the town of
Sambuca in a reality television show
potential. All I need are plumbers and
builders.” She has three years to repair
the house, a condition for the sale.
Dufour said that she enjoyed the
sense of community in the town. “I am
used to feeling unwelcome in countries
like Russia, where I have worked on
human rights,” she said. “So I am enjoy-
ing the warmth of the welcome here.”
Pietro Motisi, 39, who moved in to
produce leather, said the Arab control
from the 9th to the 11th centuries left a
trace. “When the Arabs ruled here they
brought an idea of co-existence that
makes the locals welcoming,” he said.
Giovanni Gulotta, 61, a council work-
er, said that he was happy the world was
coming. “They get to drink and eat well.
And they pay taxes which is essential
for a town with fewer residents.”
Cacioppo said that above all he val-
ued the pride locals once again felt
about Sambuca. He added: “The most
important thing is that they have fallen
back in love with their own town.”

SANDER VAN WASSENHOVE COLLECTION/RIJKSARCHIEF; GHENT.COLORED/INSTAGRAM

The colourised picture of
Hitler’s parade compared
Photographs with the original black and
white photograph taken by
that portray a person in the crowd

Hitler in his German soldier had a

camera,” Van
true colours Wassenhove told the
Flemish broadcaster

A
colour picture VRT. “This is why there
of Hitler are so many photos like
being driven these in private
through the collections. Often they
Belgian city of remained unknown.”
Ghent has been released Bostyn said that he
after being transformed spoke to surviving
from the original black witnesses and scoured
and white (Bruno archives before adding
Waterfield writes). the colour to the black
Hitler raises his arm to and white photographs.
his troops while Erich “I look at the contrast
Kempka, his SS driver, for his face,” he said. “It
sits sternly at the wheel. is sometimes difficult to
The Nazi dictator’s trip do skin colour, there is
to Belgium on June 1 an element of artistic
1940 as the invasion of freedom. I know Hitler
France continued was a was not purple but there
personal date can be a bit of guessing.”
with destiny. In Flanders at Ypres,
After Ghent, he Hitler marched through
went to the fields the Menin Gate, a
of Flanders where memorial to the British
he had been and Commonwealth
decorated with his soldiers who died there.
first Iron Cross in The trip was intended
1914, an event he pictures were also collaboration with the and two fighter aircraft as propaganda to lay the
described as his released on social Nazis.” planes patrolling the ghosts of German defeat
happiest day. media with real The Vlaamsch skies, Hitler had landed in 1918. Another picture
The rare picture, reluctance because Nationaal Verbond, the at Evere airfield outside from 1941 shows Flemish
part of a private of the shadow still Flemish nationalist Brussels where the Nato children returning to
Belgian collection, cast by the Nazis. party, worked with the headquarters now stand. their families in Ghent
was colourised by “I was afraid of Nazis between 1940 and The pictures, mostly after holidays in
Korneel Bostyn, a Instagram banning 1944, deporting Jews to taken by members of the Germany.
graphic designer in me,” he told The Nazi death camps. Wehrmacht, come from The station is draped
Antwerp. Bostyn Times. “The Flemish Before parading the collection of Sander in swastikas and a Nazi
said that other movement had through Ghent with a Van Wassenhove. officer addresses the
Second World War involvement in convoy of 12 staff cars “Virtually every crowd.

Koala bears put on endangered list
Australia
Bernard Lagan Sydney
Koalas have been officially classed as
endangered in parts of Australia, their
numbers devastated by more intense
bush fires, land clearing and predators.
They have been listed as vulnerable
since 2012 but, without stronger protec-
tion, are at risk of disappearing.
Australia’s environment minister,
Sussan Ley, said that the marsupials
were facing a higher risk of extinction
as a result of “prolonged drought, the
black summer bushfires and the cumu-
lative impacts of disease, urbanisation
and habitat loss over the past 20 years”.
The endangered classification
applies to the bulk of the remaining
koalas that live in eucalypt forests along
Australia’s populous east coast. Human
population pressures, particularly in
southeast Queensland and southwest
Sydney, have eaten into their habitat.
It is estimated that one third of the
koalas in New South Wales, about
10,000 animals, perished in the 2019-20
black summer bushfires and the prece-
ding drought. Queens-
land’s koala popula-
tion has fallen by
about 50 per cent in
the past decade.
The fires decimated
an area ten times the
size of Wales, killing or
displacing nearly three bil-
lion animals, including more
Land clearing, predators
such as dogs and fires
are a threat to koalas
than 61,000 koalas, according to a study
by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
The federal government is seeking
agreement from Australia’s states and
territories for a national koala recovery
plan, costing A$50 million (£26.3 mil-
lion). The government, however, has
approved the clearing of about 100 sq
miles of koala habitat since
the species was declared
vulnerable.
A 2020 parliamentary
inquiry warned that koa-
las could become extinct
by 2050 if urgent measures
were not taken.
Basha Stasak, from the
Australian Conservation
Foundation, said the sit-
uation was “embarrass-
ing” for the country.
Video call honey trap victims
paying up to hide their shame
India
Amrit Dhillon Delhi
It began with a friend request on Face-
book. After a while, the former minister
in Gujarat began texting the woman
who had sought him out. One day she
started a video call and took off her
clothes, persuading him to undress too.
Hours later he received images of
himself posing nude along with a de-
mand for 600,000 rupees (£6,000).
Failure to pay, the woman warned,
would result in the images being sent to
his wife, children, parents and friends.
What the politician did not know was
that the person he was talking to most
of the time was not a woman. According
to Inspector Anil Sharma, part of the
investigating team, it was “a man using
a Chinese mobile that can convert a
male voice into a female and vice versa,
and change your voice to sound like any
age — a teenager, a 40-year-old or
older”. The video of a woman undress-
ing would have been pre-recorded.
The incident was one of a growing
number of online honey traps that the
authorities say is an epidemic. Dheeraj
Kumar, Delhi joint police commission-
er, said his team had arrested gangsters
running a racket in which 200 victims
— businessmen, doctors, lawyers, poli-
ticians — were blackmailed over a year.
“They pay up because of the shame of
being exposed, the loss of face,” Kumar
said. “There’s no guessing how many
haven’t come forward.”
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
world markets (Change on the day)
FTSE 100
7,661.02 (-11.38)
8,000
7,500
7,000
6,500
Jan 13 21 31 Feb 8
Costa urges PM and City bigwigs to twist Arm into London listing
Louisa Clarence-Smith
Ken Costa, the veteran investment
banker, has called on Boris Johnson to
lead a taskforce of the City’s great and
good to convince Arm to list in London.
He wants the prime minister to
co-ordinate with the London Stock
Exchange, bankers and technology
founders to present a credible alter-
native to listing the Cambridge-based
chip designer on the Nasdaq exchange.
Arm is considered to be the biggest
Gove threats
are unlawful,
say builders
Bosses fight back against cladding crisis penalties
Alistair Osborne, Tom Howard
Louisa Clarence-Smith
Michael Gove is acting “unlawfully” in
threatening housebuilders over the
cladding crisis, a leading player in the
sector has told the government.
Persimmon has taken legal advice
from Lord Pannick QC over whether
the housing secretary is breaking the
law with his demands that builders pay
towards a £4 billion fund to fix fire-safe-
ty problems or be shut out of the prop-
erty market. Other housebuilders are
also threatening legal action, with the
Home Builders Federation sending a
letter to Gove’s department this week.
Dean Finch, chief executive of
Persimmon, wrote to Richard Good-
man, director-general of safer and
greener buildings at the Department
for Levelling Up, Housing & Communi-
ties, detailing the “serious implications
of the proposed policy” for the com-
pany “and other developers”.
Informing him that Persimmon had
engaged a leading QC, Finch said: “Per-
simmon has been advised that it would
be unlawful for the secretary of state to
implement his suggested sanctions of
imposing penalties on developers who
decline to enter into the proposed
agreement, for example by calling-in
planning applications, removal of
developers from the Help to Buy
scheme and the proposed ban from
competing for future contracts with
Homes England.
“To paraphrase his clear advice, Lord
Pannick has said these sanctions would,
if implemented, be unlawful primarily
because the secretary of state is threat-
ening to penalise the developers for
2GM
commodities
Dow Jones Gold
34,738.06 (-503.53) $1,840.71 (+1.32)
38,000
36,000
34,000
32,000
Jan 13 21 31 Feb 8 Jan 13 21
technology success story to have
emerged in Britain in recent decades.
Founded in 1990, it is a global leader in
chip design and processors based on its
patents run virtually every smartphone
on the planet.
The former London-listed company
was sold to SoftBank, the Japanese
technology investor, for £24 billion in
2016. SoftBank said this week that it
was planning to float Arm in the next
year after a deal to sell it to Nvidia, the
American chip company, fell apart
declining to do what they have no legal
obligation to do and is proposing to
penalise them by . . . using powers con-
ferred for different purposes”.
Since becoming housing secretary
last September, Gove has begun a
clampdown on housebuilders and
others in the cladding supply chain in
the wake of 2017’s Grenfell Tower
tragedy, in which 72 people died. In the
autumn budget, housebuilders were hit
with a 4 per cent profit tax to raise
£2 billion. This was on top of funds that
many, including Persimmon, Taylor
Wimpey, Bellway and Barratt Develop-
ments, have set aside to rectify fire-
safety issues in properties that they
built of 11 metres or taller. Gove has
since demanded they chip in to a fur-
ther £4 billion fund.
A week ago, Goodman caused con-
sternation across the sector when he
wrote to builders warning them that
they must make open-ended payments
towards this “remediation fund”,
including covering the costs where a
developer can no longer be traced or
has gone bust. He said those that were
“unwilling to meet” such commitments
would no longer “enjoy the benefits” of
government support or services.
Peter Truscott, the boss of Crest
Nicholson, said Goodman’s letter was
the equivalent of saying “we’d like you
to hand over your bank account to us
each year, tell you how much we’re
going to extract and then tell you when
we’re going to stop. Is that OK?”
Finch declined to make any com-
ment. But his letter pointed out that
Persimmon was “one of the first major
developers to commit that leaseholders
Continued on page 48, col 5
Brent crude (6pm)
$ $93.23 (+0.89)
2,000
1,800
1,600
1,400
31 Feb 8 Jan 13 21 31
amid widespread scrutiny from regula-
tors over competition concerns. It is
feared that a flotation could be delayed
by a legal dispute with the head of its
Chinese joint venture, but an Arm
spokesman said the company was “con-
fident a resolution will be reached”.
Costa, 72, a former chairman of
Lazard who is now co-chairman of
Alvarium, a London-based investment
advisory business, said that securing
Arm was a “crucial test” of London’s
role as the dominant capital market for
Net gains The value of Scottish salmon exports has risen by 36 per cent thanks to growth in its largest markets. Sales
overseas generated £614 million last year, a rise of £136 million on 2020 and just short of the record £618 million in 2019
Suitors given deadline for Boots bids
Ashley Armstrong Retail Editor
Prospective bidders for Boots have
been given until the end of the month to
lodge first-round bids in a £7 billion
auction for the health and beauty
chain.
With interested parties including the
new owners of Asda and a clutch of the
world’s largest private equity firms, it is
understood that Sebastian James, the
Boots UK chief executive, has been
meeting prospective bidders alongside
advisers at Goldman Sachs this week.
They have been touting the opportun-
ity for Boots to offer more health
services, including vaccinations, and an
improving range of beauty brands.
Boots was founded by John Boot in
Business
currencies
£/$
$ $1.3596 (-0.0044)
100
90
80
70
Feb 8 Jan 13 21 31 Feb 8
global companies and of the prime
minister’s stated ambition to secure
Britain’s status as a technology super-
power by 2030.
Costa believes that the UK Infra-
structure Bank and sovereign wealth
funds such as Saudi Arabia’s Public
Investment Fund could act as corner-
stone investors in a London float. He
expects Arm to achieve a listing valua-
tion of about $40 billion, or about
£30 billion, which would make it the
biggest listed technology company on
1849 as a shop in Nottingham selling
herbal remedies. It now has 2,200 shops
and 550 opticians employing about
51,000 people. Walgreens, the Amer-
ican retailer, acquired it in two stages in
the early 2010s after Stefano Pessina,
80, the Italian billionaire, engineered a
series of deals.
A Walgreens Boots Alliance spokes-
man said that since the takeover the US
parent had invested £2.8 billion in the
company, including £300 million re-
cently in online and store refurbish-
ments. However, it also has taken hun-
dreds of millions of pounds in dividends
from the British business.
Senior sources said that despite spec-
ulation that J Sainsbury would be inter-
ested in Boots, largely because of the
47
£/€
$ €1.1925 (+0.0053) ¤
1.400 1.225
1.350 1.200
1.300 1.175
1.250 1.150
Jan 13 21 31 Feb 8
the FTSE 100. He dismissed arguments
that the Nasdaq offers a deeper pool of
capital, higher valuations of technology
companies and a more sophisticated
analyst community. “It is simply not
true that you will get a greater rating on
Nasdaq than you will in London,” he
said. “The analysts are global analysts
and they don’t only follow US stock. It
is great that Nasdaq has a great domes-
tic US pool, but if you’ve got a global
company, and Arm is a standout UK
global company.”
MATTHEW LLOYD/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES
overlaps in their consumer bases, the
supermarket was unwilling to risk
having another deal torpedoed by the
competition watchdog after its merger
with Asda was rejected.
The billionaire Issa brothers and
TDR Capital, who bought Asda last
year and own the EG Group petrol fore-
courts business, are taking a close inter-
est in the process and are expected to
make a bid, according to sources.
Sources said that the frontrunners
were still considered to be Bain and
CVC, who have formed an early part-
nership that includes Dominic Murphy,
the private equity boss who previously
orchestrated KKR’s takeover of Boots
and continues to have a seat on the
Walgreens Boots Alliance board.
48 2GM Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

Business

Need to know
1
Michael Gove is acting
“unlawfully” in threatening
housebuilders over the cladding
Public sector v private equity
crisis, a leading player in the
sector has told the government.
A company owned by Guy Hands’ Terra Firma
Persimmon has taken legal advice
over whether the housing minister
is in a multibillion-pound showdown with the
is breaking the law with demands Ministry of Defence, reports Dominic O’Connell
builders pay into a £4 billion fund
to fix fire-safety problems. Page 47 A short walk from the Battle of Britain with. Hands left Nomura in 2001 and
Bunker in Uxbridge — the route, Terra Firma, his investment firm,

2
Prospective bidders for Boots
have been given until the end
of the month to lodge first-
round bids in a £7 billion auction
for the health and beauty chain.
Sebastian James, the Boots UK
chief executive, has been meeting
bidders alongside advisers at
Goldman Sachs this week. Page 47
naturally enough, takes you round
Dowding Park, named after one of the
key Royal Air Force commanders in
that crucial aerial war — you come to
Grays Road, a street of empty, rundown
houses that has become central to one
of the Ministry of Defence’s biggest
modern-day struggles.
In this fight, the sides are armed not
with Hurricanes or Messerschmitts,
bought Annington from Nomura in
2012.
The rationale for the deal was
straightforward. Many of the houses
were in poor condition and the MoD
did not want to devote large amounts of
time, money and effort to managing the
estate and improving it. Instead, it
would make money by selling the
properties — tens of thousands of

3
Ken Costa, the veteran
investment banker, has called
on Boris Johnson to lead a
taskforce of the City’s great and
good to convince Arm to list in
London. Costa is calling on the
prime minister to co-ordinate with
the stock exchange, bankers, and
tech founders to present a credible
alternative to listing the chip
designer on Nasdaq. Page 47
but with lawyers. Ministers have begun
an assault that they believe eventually
will reverse one of the most controver-
sial and costly privatisations ever un-
dertaken by the government — the sale
of the MoD’s married quarters, 55,000
homes initially, to property investors.
The opening skirmishes have been
fierce, with the ministry accused of act-
ing in bad faith, wasting public money
and letting down services personnel by
leaving homes in an appalling condi-
homes spread around barracks and
bases nationwide — and would rent
them back. Portillo was under pressure
to sign. There were leaks that the Trea-
sury was prepared to cut weapons
budgets if the privatisation wasn’t
completed. He told the Commons: “If
we do not proceed with the sale . . . we
would condemn a large number of
service families to go on living in poor
conditions.”
Annington clinched the deal after

4
Ministers have begun a legal
battle to reverse one of the
most costly and controversial
privatisations ever undertaken —
the sale of the MoD’s married
quarters to property investors.
tion. The MoD says that its deal with agreeing to scrap a re-
Annington Homes, the owner, has left location clause, giving
it billions of pounds out of pocket and it up the right to move
is determined to get better value for forces families if it
money, even if that means using the wanted to redevelop a
courts to unpick the sale. Annington particular estate. It
has threatened its own legal action and took on the owner-

5
A boss of the company that
had responsibility for the
failed Woodford Equity
Income Fund has stepped down as
the Financial Conduct Authority
prepares to publish its report into
the scandal. Christopher
Addenbrooke resigned as director
of Link Fund Solutions on
February 2 after 15 years.
has given the MoD a deadline of this ship of the houses for
Tuesday to back down. 200 years, with the
The 1996 deal was one of the last ministry paying rent
spasms of the privatisation programme at a discount to
of Sir John Major’s government. It market rates, 58 per
came in the same year that Railtrack, cent off for the first
the doomed successor to British Rail, 25 years, with a re-
was sold to the private sector in a listing negotiation of the
on the London Stock Exchange. There discount set for
was considerable opposition. Unions, 2021. Crucially, the
the armed forces and even Conser- ministry retained

6
The economy expanded by 7.5
per cent last year to achieve
its fastest level of growth since
the Second World War, clawing
back most of 2020’s dramatic 9.4
per cent collapse in output. Britain
is on track to be the G7’s fastest-
growing economy in 2021. Page 50
vative backbenchers were stridently
opposed to MoD houses having private
owners. Nevertheless, Michael Portillo,
the defence secretary, pressed ahead,
signing off a £1.6 billion sale and lease-
back agreement with Annington, then
owned by Nomura, the Japanese bank,
with significant investment from
BlackRock, Hambros and Royal Bank
the responsibility
to pay for the
houses’ upkeep.
What the archi-
tion had not fore-
tects of the privatisation
seen was the rapid increase in the value
of the estate. Annington has been the MoD had conducted the initial of many of the properties, on MoD
something of a goldmine for its inves- negotiations and its handling of the bases in the south of England, in-
tors, paying hefty dividends from loans contract since. When assessing how creased as much as fivefold.

7
Cities in the Netherlands have
started to take action against
distribution hubs for on-
demand grocerty deliveries after
complaints that they are causing a
nuisance. Amsterdam and
Rotterdam put a one-year freeze
on new dark stores and other
cities may follow suit. Page 51
of Scotland.
Annington’s chairman was Sir
Thomas “Tommy” Macpherson, a
highly decorated Second World War
hero dubbed the “kilted killer,” but the
driving force was a little-known
Nomura banker called Guy Hands. The
underbidder was a consortium led by
Peter Beckwith, the property tycoon
and father of socialite Tamara Beck-
secured against the steady flow of MoD
rental payments, with the bonus of
windfalls from the redevelopment of
properties surplus to military require-
ments. Although about 15,000 homes
have been handed over to Annington,
the annual rent bill has risen from
£111 million to about £180 million.
A 2018 National Audit office inquiry
was scathing in its assessment of how
much the homes might increase in
value, ministry officials and advisers
had been extremely cautious, assuming
rises of 1 per cent a year. They also sold
just when house prices had fallen
sharply. The combination, the audit
office found, implied that “they thought
house prices would never return to
their then long-term trend”. In reality,
house prices rose sharply and the value
The audit office calculated that, in
the first 21 years of the contract alone,
the government had lost between
£2.2 billion and £4.2 billion. Annington
had made annual returns of 13.4 per
cent, not the 9.7 per cent assumed when
the deal was done. And the promise of
improved-quality accommodation had
not been kept: “The department has not
properly carried out its retained man-

8
Genius Sports, the British
data group, has taken a huge
gamble that its statistical
licensing deals covering hundreds
of leagues and organisations will
pay returns as online gambling
takes off in the US and punters
and media groups look for
information. Page 52
9
Heathrow said that it had
handled 2.59 million
Invasion fears drive up price of oil Gove threats
Robert Miller
Oil prices hit their highest settle value
in nearly eight years last night after a
senior White House adviser warned
that there were signs of Russian escala-
higher than they were at the start of the
year.
Wall Street’s stock markets turned
negative after the White House warning
about an imminent Russian invasion of
Ukraine. Investors sold shares and
year high and traders braced them-
selves for the Federal Reserve to start
unlawful,
raising interest rates from their near-
zero level as soon as next month and to say builders
increase them four or five more times
by the end of this year.

passengers in January, but had
lost another expected 700,000
because of cancelled travel plans
due to Covid restrictions , on top
of the 600,000 no-shows that it
recorded in December. Page 53
tion at the Ukraine border and that an
invasion could take place during the
Winter Olympic Games.
Jake Sullivan, a US national security
adviser, said: “We are in the window
when an invasion could begin at any
time.”
3.3%
The technology-biased Nasdaq bore
the brunt of the sell-off and by the close
last night was down 394.49 points, or
2.8 per cent, at 13,791.15, bringing its
weekly fall to 2.2 per cent and leaving
Rise in price of Brent crude yesterday the index 11.9 per cent lower since the
start of the year.
Continued from page 47
in any multistorey building we con-
structed would not have to pay to have
cladding removed or safety issues rem-
edied”, setting aside £75 million to tack-
le such problems. He wrote that from
April the company also would be pay-

10 Andrew Harrison, the

former Carphone
Warehouse boss, is an
investor as well as chairman of an
online estate agent called Strike,
and believes that it is going to
transform the world of selling
houses — for one very good
reason: it’s free. Page 55
Fears about the security of energy
supplies pushed the price of Brent crude,
the international benchmark, up by
3.3 per cent, or $3.30, to $94.44 a barrel
in New York last night, its biggest one-
day dollar gain in more than two months
and oil’s highest settle value since
September 2014.
Oil prices have risen by 3.5 per cent so
far this month and are 21.4 per cent
sought safer havens such as US Treasur-
ies, where benchmark ten-year notes
rose 0.021 percentage points to yield
1.9649 per cent, the second highest this
year. Gold was in demand, too, rising
$4.60 to $1,840.80, giving it a weekly
gain of 1.9 per cent.
American markets have endured a
volatile week as US inflation hit a 40-
The S&P 500, seen as a barometer on
the corporate health of the world’s larg-
est economy, closed down 85.44 points,
1.9 per cent, at 4,418.64, for a weekly
drop of 1.8 per cent. It is down 7.3 per cent
since the turn of the year. The Dow
Jones industrial average fell 503.53
points, or 1.4 per cent, to 34,738.06, giv-
ing it a weekly drop of 1 per cent and a
loss of 4.4 per cent since January 1.
ing “around £40 million a year” from
the new tax, or “potentially” about a
fifth of all contributions. That was “des-
pite accounting for less than 1 per cent
of multistorey buildings constructed”.
Finch emphasised that the company
was “willing to engage in further dis-
cussions”, but added: “Given we have
already pledged to pay to fix buildings
we constructed and are paying the sig-
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
in battle over military homes
agement responsibilities for the estate
and . . . the estate has been receiving the
minimum acceptable level of mainte-
nance.”
The NAO urged the ministry to get
its act together for the renegotiation of
the rental discount due last year. “Many
billions of pounds are at stake, and were
the department not to be ready when
detailed negotiations start it could
sacrifice very significant public value.”
In the end, the talks were led for the
government not by the MoD but by
nificant levy on top, we need to be able
to explain to our shareholders both the
legal, commercial and equitable basis
for making additional contributions.”
Other housebuilders are similarly
aggrieved. Matthew Pratt, chief execu-
tive of Redrow, said: “We pay our taxes
in the UK and we’re going to pay sub-
stantial taxes. It’s difficult for us to say
we should be paying for foreign inves-
tors who have come over here and done
the buildings and closed up shop.”
James Thomson, chief executive of
Gleeson, said: “I run a public company
on behalf of all stakeholders. I can’t be
making large, multimillion-pound
voluntary contributions.”
Lord Pannick is one of Britain’s lead-
ing advocates. He acted for Gina Miller
in the Supreme Court in September
2019 when it unanimously held that the
prime minister had unlawfully pro-
rogued Parliament.
A spokesman for Gove’s department
said: “We expect industry to pay to fix
unsafe buildings — nothing is off the
table.”
2GM
UK Government Investments, a Trea-
sury-owned company that looks after
big state investments. The deal was
struck on December 15, with the rental
discount going down from 58 per cent
to 49.6 per cent, meaning that Anning-
ton eventually would receive another
£30 million a year. The new discount
would apply for 30 years.
The following day, however, there
was a sudden twist. The MoD served
notice on Annington that it wanted to
take back ownership of one property, a
Link director quits ahead of report
Ali Hussain Chief Money Reporter
A boss of the company that had overall
responsibility for the failed Woodford
Equity Income Fund has stepped down.
Christopher Addenbrooke resigned as
director of Link Fund Solutions on
February 2 after 15 years.
The announcement on the Compa-
nies House website yesterday comes as
the Financial Conduct Authority pre-
pares to publish its long-awaited report
into the Woodford fund scandal that
shook the investment world.
The fund was frozen and then shut
down by Link, without consulting in-
vestors, in 2019 after poor performance.
The fund is being dissolved and money
is being handed back to savers, who are
expected to have lost about £1 billion.
The regulator launched an inquiry
into the failure of the fund. This will in-
clude the role of Link Fund Solutions,
BARRY BATCHELOR/PA
Michael Portillo,
when he was
defence secretary,
pressed ahead with
the sale of the
military housing
estate to Guy Hands,
left, but the state of
many of those
homes has drawn
fury from all sides
house near RAF Cranwell in Lincoln-
shire. It would use “enfranchisement”
laws, legal rights that give leaseholders
the ability to buy back freeholds from
their owners. It was a Trojan horse. One
month later, Jeremy Quin, the defence
procurement minister, came clean on
the ministry’s real intentions in a state-
ment to Parliament. The MoD would
“explore the exercise of its statutory
leasehold enfranchisement rights to
buy out Annington’s interest in the
homes and gain full ownership rights”.
its authorised corporate director with
overall responsibility for the fund, in-
cluding ensuring that it was managed in
accordance with its stated aims and did
not take on too much risk.
Addenbrooke presided over two
other scandals during his tenure as the
boss of Link Fund Solutions, previously
known as Capita Financial Managers.
The company was also authorised cor-
porate director for the Arch Cru fund,
which was suspended in 2009. The
company paid £32 million to investors
as part of a settlement in 2012. In 2017,
at about the time Capita changed its
name to Link, the City watchdog or-
dered it to pay £66 million to investors
over its role in the mis-selling of a high-
risk scheme called the Connaught
Income Fund Guaranteed.
The Woodford fund eclipses the
other two in scale. It was one of Britain’s
most popular investment products.
The ministry wanted the whole estate
back. “If the cost of recovering full
ownership of the units from Annington
is less than the present value of MoD’s
liabilities, such a transaction is likely to
represent good value for money,” Quin
said.
Annington was furious. “We are gen-
uinely shocked that UK Government
Investments is acting in this way, and is
seeking without notice to tear up a
long-standing agreement, which sends
a dreadful signal to businesses which
rely upon the good word and good faith
of government,” Baroness Liddell of
Coatdyke, the former Labour politician
who chairs Annington, scolded in a
letter to Ben Wallace, the defence sec-
retary.
In a conference call with investors,
the company said it was confident that
it could see off the MoD in court.
Enfranchisement laws did not apply to
the deal, in its opinion, and in any event
the ministry could be in breach of its
“public law” duties — in essence, the
government would be wrongly break-
ing a contract.
Annington also went on the attack,
releasing photos showing the shocking
state of some of the MoD houses. The
crumbling homes in Grays Road were
one of the star exhibits. The 87 proper-
ties have been empty since 1996, yet the
MoD has paid Annington £10 million in
rent. Other pictures showed homes in
Kent with mould and even plants
growing over damp interiors. “It is a
matter of profound regret that the
[MoD] does not take its obligation to
ensure good upkeep seriously; the state
of the properties in which our service
personnel are expected to live is often
unacceptable.”
As well as a stick, there was a carrot.
Liddell said that Annington would set
up a £105 million fund to refurbish the
estate, but only if the MoD withdrew
the enfranchisement action. She gave
the ministry two weeks to accept the
offer. The deadline expires on Tuesday.
In an interview with Times Radio,
Liddell said the government should not
be considering spending billions buying
the estate, which has been valued at just
under £8 billion. “It would be a strange
time to be doing it after the house price
inflation we have had. It is clear we are
at or near the top of the market,” she
said. She also confirmed that Terra Fir-
ma had shelved plans to sell Annington.
The MoD said it was considering
the offer, but it is unclear whether there
will be a response this week. Sources
close to Annington said the company
wanted to give the ministry every op-
portunity to “engage” with the proposal.
Investment platforms, notably Har-
greaves Lansdown, helped it to grow to
more than £10 billion at its peak.
However, Neil Woodford, the fund’s
once-lauded manager, made high-risk
bets that failed. Investors launched
legal action against Link.
In December the FCA said that it had
all key evidence for its investigation.
Last month Mel Stride, chairman of the
Treasury select committee, wrote to it
to “ensure that this investigation and
any regulatory action which follows is
resourced to ensure as swift as possible
a conclusion”.
Justin Modray, of Candid Financial
Advice, said: “The timing of this move
by Christopher Addenbrooke will raise
some eyebrows, given how long he has
been at the company and so soon
before the FCA report into the Wood-
ford scandal is published.” Link Fund
Solutions declined to comment.
49
Business
‘Pay £13.5m
fines back to
Silentnight
pensioners’
Patrick Hosking Financial Editor
The professional body for accountants
has been urged by its members to hand
over £13.5 million of fines that it
scooped as a result of the Silentnight
pension fund scandal.
Some members of the Institute for
Chartered Accountants in England and
Wales have called on the body to think
again, saying that it had a moral duty to
pass on the fines, while the reputational
hit to the profession was terrible.
Nick Sherrard, a former Coopers and
Lybrand (now part of PwC) partner and
a fellow of the institute, spoke for many
who contacted The Times when he said,
“The morality and the optics of
collecting a multimillion-pound fine
and then pocketing the proceeds are
dreadful.”
He contrasted the institute’s decision
to hang on to the fines with the conduct
of West Ham United, the football club,
which this week fined Kurt Zouma for
kicking his cat but passed on the pro-
ceeds to the Royal Society for the Pre-
vention of Cruelty to Animals. “The
ICAEW should follow suit,” he said.
David Haydon, 70, a life member of
the institute who has worked for
Coopers, Thomson McLintock (now
part of KPMG) and Grant Thornton,
expressed similar regret: “The excess
[above ICAEW’s costs] should go to the
Silentnight pensioners, not into the
coffers of the institute. We’re not short
of money. There’s a moral imperative
here, regardless of what the law says.”
Other members have threatened to
resign from the institute in protest, call-
ing the episode “shameful,” “shocking”
and “very disappointing.”
Eleven years ago KMPG helped to
push Silentnight, the mattress com-
pany that was its client, into insolvency
to help another client, the private
equity group HIG, to buy its operations
on the cheap, shorn of the pension
liabilities. The 1,200 cheated pension
fund members face cuts to their prom-
ised pensions of 30 per cent as their
scheme is likely to go into the industry
lifeboat, the Pension Protection Fund.
KMPG and David Costley-Wood, one
of its partners, were fined £13.5 million
by the Financial Reporting Council last
year. However, under the Accountancy
Scheme the fines were passed on to the
institute.
The institute has expressed sympathy,
but argues that the Accountancy
Scheme was never intended to operate
as a compensation avenue for victims of
accountancy misconduct. It denies that
the money is “a windfall”. The institute
confirmed that it had received “feed-
back” over the affair, adding that there
was no evidence of members refusing to
pay their fees in protest. Some ICAEW
members have told The Times that they
plan to refuse to pay the annual sub-
scription, which is £400 for a full
member.
The institute, which has 157,000
members and has a regulatory function
as well as being a trade association, is
unusual in being able to profit from the
misconduct of its members.
While the £13.5 million could help the
pension scheme to stay independent, it
is thought much more likely that it
would still have to enter the lifeboat
scheme. In that case, other traditional
pension schemes would foot the bill
through the annual levy that they pay
to the PPF. The Pensions and Lifetime
Savings Association, which represents
pension schemes, said it was important
that levies were kept to a minimum.
550
Business
Economy grows at fastest rate since war
Arthi Nachiappan
Economics Correspondent
The economy expanded by 7.5 per cent
last year to achieve its fastest level of
growth since the Second World War,
clawing back most of 2020’s dramatic
9.4 per cent collapse in output.
Britain is on track to be the fastest-
growing economy in the G7 in 2021,
after it experienced the worst annual
decline in the bloc the previous year.
However, the emergence of the
Omicron variant of Covid-19 put a dent
in the recovery, with a 0.2 per cent fall in
GDP recorded in December, figures
from the Office for National Statistics
showed. Economists had predicted a
decline of 0.6 per cent.
The contraction at the end of the
year, when Plan B restrictions were
implemented to curb infections, pulled
down recovery in the fourth quarter to
0.4 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.
GDP increased by 1 per cent in the last
three months of the year.
The fall was driven by consumers’
caution in the face of the new variant. As
people stayed at home, output recorded
by restaurants and hotels fell by 9.2 per
cent in December compared with the
previous month. Spending on arts and
entertainment fell by 4.4 per cent, while
the retail sector contracted by 3.2 per
cent.
The drop in expenditure outweighed
the 2.4 per cent rise in activity in the
healthcare sector and a 2 per cent
expansion in the construction sector.
“This meant the level of monthly
GDP went from being 0.2 per cent above
the pre-pandemic February 2020 peak
in November to being in line with it in
December, although we had thought the
hit from the initial Omicron wave would
be bigger,” Paul Dales, at Capital Econo-
mics, the consultancy, said.
Suren Thiru, head of economics at
the British Chambers of Commerce,
said: “Although 2021 was a record year
for the UK economy, this more reflects
data distortions caused by the compari-
son with the historic collapse in activity
in 2020 than the reality on the ground.”
Strong demand for workers and
limited supply pushed up vacancies to a
record of more than 1.2 million in the
three months to December. Unemploy-
ment levels are close to historic lows at
4.1 per cent and the number of vacan-
cies is almost equal to the number of
jobless people for the first time since
comparable data was recorded more
than 20 years ago.
The Bank of England raised interest
Redcentric finance chief misled market City braces for half-point
Louisa Clarence-Smith
A former chief financial officer of
Redcentric has been found guilty of
making false and misleading state-
ments to the market.
Timothy Coleman, 57, who left the
Aim-listed IT services provider in 2016,
falsified key accounting records to
inflate the cash position and used the
false figures to assure key investors
about Redcentric’s financial position,
persuading them not to reduce their
investment in the company, Southwark
crown court was told.
Coleman conspired with Estelle
Croft, 49, a former finance director at
Redcentric, who has pleaded guilty to
charges of making false statements and
false accounting and of making false
statements to PwC, Redcentric’s
auditor.
Redcentric issued false and mis-
leading unaudited interim results in
November 2015 and full-year results in
June 2016. The accounts overstated
GDP growth since 1941
Source: Bank of England/ONS
1941 1950 1960
rates to 0.5 per cent last Thursday in its
first back-to-back rate rise since 2004
in an attempt to get a grip on soaring
prices. Officials said that inflation,
which is already at 5.4 per cent, would
peak higher than the 5 per cent it pre-
dicted in November, when a simultane-
ous rise in energy prices, minimum
wages and national insurance contri-
butions comes into effect on April 1.
The Bank’s inflation target is 2 per cent.
Dales said growth was expected to
have dropped in the first half of January
as people had to isolate, but activity
picked up in the second half. “With
inflation soaring, we doubt this will pre-
vent the Bank of England from raising
interest rates from 0.50 per cent to
1.25 per cent this year and perhaps to
2 per cent next year,” he said.
The trade deficit in goods and ser-
vices narrowed by £200 million to
£12.8 billion in the last three months of
2021. Imports increased by 8.4 per cent
in 2021 and exports rose by 4.9 per cent
compared with 2020, but both remain
lower than pre-pandemic levels.
Redcentric’s cash position by £13.1 mil-
lion and £12.2 million, respectively. The
company then mis-stated its net debt
position by the same amount and when
the true position was revealed, share-
holders suffered immediate losses to
the value of their shares.
Fraser Fisher, 51, former chief execu-
tive of Redcentric, who had also been
accused by the Financial Conduct
Authority of making false or mis-
leading statements, was acquitted by
the jury of all charges.
Coleman and Croft were found to
have taken steps to prevent the dishon-
esty being discovered, with Croft giving
auditors falsified bank statements.
When the issue began to be discovered,
Coleman suggested to a member of the
Redcentric board that the mis-stated
position could be washed through a
potential new acquisition. The FCA has
estimated losses to affected share-
holders, to which the mis-statements
contributed, of about £43 million.
Redcentric was created in 2013 via a
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
%
8
6
4
2
0
-2
-4
-6
-8
-10
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
Analysis
I
t may be tempting to be several percentage course of the pandemic, calculates the output of
celebrate the fastest points below the UK. surpassing pre-Covid the education and health
pace of growth in Yet yearly growth levels of output by the sectors means that
81 years, but the figures do not take into end of last year. Output in growth data for the UK is
context behind the account the starting Britain remained 0.4 per not entirely comparable
figures tells a more point: Britain was hit cent below pre-pandemic with that of other
complicated story worst by the pandemic, levels in the final quarter countries. As a result, the
(Arthi Nachiappan with the economy of last year, although UK figures show a more
writes). contracting by a record output in December severe contraction in
Britain is technically 9.4 per cent in 2020, so matched levels recorded 2020 and a
the fastest-growing there was more room to in February 2020. The disproportionately high
country in the G7 block rebound. America UK is about one quarter rate of growth in 2021
of advanced economies. recorded a decline of behind France in terms of compared with other
The United States and 3.4 per cent, while the recovering its pre- economies.
France, the second and economy of France pandemic level of output, Darren Morgan,
third fastest-growing contracted by 8 per cent according to Fabrice director of economic
members of the bloc, that year. Montagne, chief UK and statistics at the ONS,
grew by 5.7 per cent and If we consider the past senior European thinks that, all things
7 per cent, respectively, two years as an exercise economist at Barclays, considered, the UK is
last year. Canada and not in growth but in the investment bank. performing “in the
Japan have not yet recovery, the US and National differences in middle of the pack” when
published their full-year France have grown more the way that the Office compared with other G7
data, but are expected to than the UK over the for National Statistics countries.
demerger of Redstone’s managed
services business and the acquisition of
rate rise in coming months
InTechnology Managed Services. It
provides network, cloud and colla- Financial markets expect the Bank of while the majority backed a 0.25 per
boration services to private and public England’s monetary policy committee cent rise to 0.5 per cent. This came after
sector bodies. to raise interest rates by an unprece- a 0.15 per cent rise in December, the first
The company was forced to hand its dented half a percentage point at its back-to-back rate increase since 2004.
shareholders £11.4 million in compen- March or May meeting, and to make a Two-year government bond yields,
sation in 2020 after being censured by quarter-point rise at the other, accord- which are sensitive to speculation
the City regulator for overstating its ing to pricing yesterday. about Bank rate decisions, climbed by
profits and cash reserves in 2016. The central bank has raised rates around five basis points yesterday to a
Croft has already been sentenced to only in quarter-point increments since peak of 1.414 per cent, their highest level
three years’ imprisonment, and was it gained operational independence in since 2011.
ordered to pay £120,346.70. Coleman is 1997, but markets are now pricing in a The Bank has said that it will stop re-
due to be sentenced on March 3. 98 per cent chance of a total 75 basis investing the proceeds of gilts that
Mark Steward, executive director of points of tightening by May’s meeting. mature from its £875 billion quan-
enforcement and market oversight at Only a few weeks ago financial titative easing stockpile, placing extra
the UK’s financial regulator, said: markets did not expect rates to reach pressure on gilt yields. It reiterated last
“While Redcentric has done the right 1.25 per cent until the end of 2022 and a week that it would consider selling gilts
thing in compensating affected little over a year ago, before inflation once its Bank Rate reaches at least 1 per
shareholders, this case shows the FCA surged, markets expected the MPC to cent.
will bring criminal cases against cut rates below zero and into negative On Thursday, stronger US inflation
company directors and other officers territory. data than had been expected prompted
and will hold them personally to At February’s meeting, four of the investors to bet more heavily on a half-
account when their conduct damages Bank’s nine policymakers voted for percentage-point move by the US
UK markets.” 0.5 per cent, a 50 basis-point increase, Federal Reserve next month.
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
Dominic O’Connell
To make the British rail industry great,
‘‘
put its trains and tracks back together
Fans of
cringeworthy
government social
media should direct
themselves to the
Twitter account of Grant Shapps.
There they will find a side-splitting
skit where the transport secretary
pretends to be having a conversation
on his mobile from the end of a
railway platform.
He has started a competition, he
says, to find a new home for Great
British Railways, the body that
eventually will take over the running
of the entire network. An unseen man
beside him interjects with eulogies to
great railway towns: Crewe, York,
Doncaster. Just some trainspotter,
Shapps says. Surprise! The camera
pulls back to reveal that it is in fact
Michael Portillo, the former
Conservative transport minister now
better known as host of the television
programme Great British Railway
Journeys.
Once you have dried the tears of
laughter, it is worth remembering that
this joking around masks what is an
important moment for the future of
the railways. Covid-19 completely
shattered the industry’s finances and
fare revenue all but vanished
overnight. The train franchise
agreements in operation at the start of
the pandemic have been torn up and
thrown away. This is an astonishing
development. Franchises were the
cornerstone of the railway: long-term
contracts that big transport companies
fought fiercely to win, spending tens of
millions of pounds to construct the
best possible bid, knowing that failure
would leave them sitting on the
sidelines for years. All that striving, all
those carefully laid plans, were blown
away by the coronavirus.
Trains have been kept running only
through huge government subsidy. In
the 12 months to the end of March
2021, the industry’s total income was
£20.7 billion. Of that, £16.9 billion came
straight from the government. Fare
revenue, which normally brings in
£9 billion a year, fell to £1.8 billion. The
companies running the train
franchises have by and large stayed in
place, but they are now just puppets,
doing no more or less than they are
told by the Department for Transport.
The subsidy flood is about to abate.
The department (I suspect, in reality,
the Treasury) has told train operators
to expect cuts of at least 10 per cent
for the financial year that starts in
April. Franchise managers are
scratching their heads over how they
can meet the savings target. Service
levels are already reduced and some
rail experts are warning of much
bigger cuts to come, perhaps with
whole routes closed and train fleets
mothballed. That might be alarmist,
but it is an unhappy coincidence that
just as passenger numbers are starting
to revive and managers should be
gearing up for the fight to tempt
commuters back from their cars, there
are likely to be fewer trains. Rising
passenger numbers do not necessarily
fix the industry’s financial problems:
commuter railways, in particular, rely
on season-ticket sales, a big slug of
upfront money that is not likely to
return thanks to employers’ adoption
of hybrid working.
This short-term challenge is
complicated by longer-term questions
about the industry’s structure. There
are frantic preparations to create
Great British Railways, Shapps’s new
fat controller organisation that will
specify nearly every aspect of services
but will not actually manage trains, a
task still delegated to the private
sector. At the same time, the
government is drawing up a 30-year
plan and has been asking everyone to
submit ideas. The consultation closed
last week and it was clear that
ministers were in the mood for some
blue-sky thinking. The plan is to
change the “culture”, get staff to “think
like customers, both passengers and
freight, and put them first”, and to
have a “can-do, not can’t do” mindset.
Begging bowls were not required. “Any
responses that focus solely on requests
for new investments or enhancements
will not be considered.”
All this has been greeted by railway
managers with a heavy sigh. There
have been umpteen strategic plans for
the railways since privatisation in the
late 1990s. One I spoke to, a contact
from a long period spent as a transport
correspondent, remarked drily that he
had spent his entire career dealing
with one great leap forward after
another. The general direction of
travel has been Big Bang in reverse. In
the early years post-privatisation,
there was an explosion of possibilities
and train companies were prodded to
think big. Ever since there has been a
gradual return to strict central control
with civil servants calling the shots.
The wild-child phase probably
reached its height under the late Sir
Alastair Morton, who as chairman of
the Strategic Rail Authority
encouraged some extravagant plans.
For example GNER, part of the now-
defunct Sea Containers group,
planned to spend £4.5 billion tearing
down and rebuilding Clapham
Junction, at the same time boring a
new tunnel under London to take
commuter trains heading for Waterloo
up into north London instead.
Strangely, the plan never became
reality.
Roger Ford, the technical editor of
Modern Railways, the most astute (and
acerbic) of railway commentators,
dismisses the 30-year plan as a “total
waste of time”, pointing out that even
the basics of Great British Railways
are not yet known and are unlikely to
become clear until next year.
The reality is that we are in for
more of what we have now. Great
British Railways is likely to be, despite
protestations to the contrary, simply a
rebooted version of Network Rail.
Private train companies will continue
as they are now, running the railway
to a pre-written script, with fares,
timetables, budgets and rolling stock
controlled from above. HS2 is already
a big commitment from the Treasury
so there is unlikely to be extra money
to lure commuters back on to trains.
Here is one small suggestion for
Shapps. For three decades the debate
about the railways has been
dominated by the role of the private
sector — in short, whether the
industry should be renationalised. In
truth, that has already happened and
state control has been reasserted.
There still remains, however, a
separation of responsibility between
the management of rolling stock and
the management of stations, rails and
signalling, a division established at
privatisation. It is time to get rid of it
’’
and to recreate British Rail, great or
not. It doesn’t really matter if it is a
government organisation or a private
one, or one body or a series of regional
railways. An efficient railway requires
decent trains and
well-maintained
track. They should
be managed
together.
Dominic O’Connell is business
presenter for Times Radio
51
Business
Cities crack
down on
‘blight’ of
dark stores
Times Business Reporter
The new generation of fast grocery
delivery services such as Getir and
Gorillas may be providing convenience
for consumers, but in the Netherlands
they are increasingly seen as a blight on
neighbourhoods.
Authorities in the country have
started to take action against hundreds
of so-called “dark stores” — distribu-
tion hubs for on-demand groceries
where workers zip in and out on scoot-
ers, prompting complaints that they are
causing disruption and are a nuisance.
Amsterdam and Rotterdam have put
a one-year freeze on new dark stores
and other cities may follow suit in
moves similar to those faced in Europe
by Uber, the ride-hailing service, and
Airbnb, the short-rental company.
The proliferation of dark stores
accelerated during the lockdowns of
the past two years, but they look set to
remain a fixture across Europe, despite
the easing of pandemic restrictions.
Marieke van Doorninck, 55, deputy
mayor of Amsterdam, said: “The busi-
ness model of these companies is that
they want to deliver groceries in ten
minutes; that means they need to be
based in neighbourhoods, exactly the
place where they also cause nuisance.
This is not something that is happening
specially in Amsterdam, this is happen-
ing in most big cities.”
Complaints over noise have been
made by residents in London, notably
in Islington, as well as in Berlin’s Kreuz-
berg district. In Paris, the unmarked
stores have been called a blight and
calls have been made for them to seek
licences as warehouses or face fines.
Locals complain of restocking and de-
livery going on 24 hours a day, while
scooters racing to deliver groceries are
accused of being traffic hazards.
Van Doorninck suggested delivery
companies may have to move to
locations where ten-minute deliveries
might not be possible, even out of town.
The three largest fast-grocery com-
panies in Amsterdam — Gorillas, Flink
and Getir — all pointed to the many
customers satisfied with their services
and said they wanted to work with city
officials to resolve the problems.
Their fears of a hit on wafer-thin
margins are not hard to understand.
Each of the three companies last year
raised over $1 billion to expand. Goril-
las, founded in Berlin in 2020, said it
was “surprised and disappointed” by
the bans. It is thought to have more
than 180 stores in Europe, employing
2,000 people in Amsterdam alone.
552 Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

Business

Genius is bowled over by potential

The British data group
is at the heart of a
gambling industry
chasing a huge jackpot,
writes Callum Jones
Jim McIngvale, a furniture salesman
known as “Mattress Mack”, concedes
that he looked a bit odd when he walked
into a Louisiana store and started tap-
ping away on his smartphone. Passers-
by “thought I was rather strange”, the
Texan businessman told CNBC. Per-
haps they didn’t appreciate that he was
scrambling to place a string of bets
worth $4.5 million on the Cincinnati
Bengals winning tomorrow’s Super
Bowl.
His mobile wager has been declared
the single biggest in history, another
record as regulated sports betting
sweeps across the United States. Less
than four years after the Supreme
Court called time on a law that effec-
tively banned the practice, paving the
way for liberalisation, state by state,
more than 100 million Americans now
live in places where such betting is legal.
McIngvale, 71, in Texas, doesn’t. A
90-minute drive to Louisiana, where
punters have been able to place bets
online since last month, beats the flight
to Colorado that he had been taking
each time he fancied a flutter.
This year’s Super Bowl in Los Ange-
les is deemed a watershed moment. The
American Gaming Association, which
represents the gambling industry, esti-
mates that 31.4 million people nation-
wide plan to place $7.6 billion of bets.
The Bengals will take on the Los
Angeles Rams, but an equally fierce
clash involves rival digital gambling
operators. The likes of Flutter Enter-
tainment’s FanDuel, BetMGM, owned
by Entain and MGM Resorts, and
DraftKings, the US-listed market
leader, are digging deep to attract as
many users as possible and as quickly as
they can.
A marketing blitz, spearheaded by
celebrities including Ben Affleck and
Jamie Foxx, makes it almost impossible
to escape the knowledge that your state
has just opened up. The arrival of
regulated betting in markets like New
York is drawing activity from the
shadows.
“What’s really happening is a tran-
sition from illegal betting to legal
betting,” Steve Bornstein, a veteran
sports media executive and former boss
of the ESPN cable network, said. “Now
it’s just easier and more prevalent and
legal, and so it’s coming out of the dark
into the light.”
Bornstein, 69, is monitoring
developments closely as president of
the North American division of Genius
Sports. The British data group has
statistical licensing deals covering
hundreds of leagues and organisations,
including an exclusive six-year distri-
bution partnership with the National
Football League that, according to
Sports Business Journal, costs it
$120 million in cash and stock annually.
The company harvests and sells this
data to interested parties, enabling
sports betting platforms to offer wagers
in real time on everything from how
many touchdowns will be scored by a
player to which team will kick the
game’s longest punt.
As the big sports betting groups fight
for supremacy, Genius is serving them
all. “We’re Switzerland,” Bornstein said.
“We’re ubiquitously distributed and
want to be everybody’s good friend in Gambling on American sports events
this matter.”
The London-based company was co- to have been missed by the market, too.
founded two decades ago as BetGenius Its shares have slumped by almost two
by Mark Locke, its chief executive. In thirds since its listing in New York last
essence, it acts as a statistical middle spring. Its market value is $1.3 billion.
man between sports events and the Genius is in the midst of an “educa-
gambling and media groups, although tion process”, teaching investors “the
Bornstein argued: “I think you’re miss- metrics that show that it’s growing and
ing the broader implication.” The “real healthy and which ones should you pay
trick” of Genius is not collecting data, attention to. This is a new business and
but using it to change how sport is so it’s not surprising we have to explain
covered and followed. “It’s the future of how to view it.”
distribution, it’s the future of consump- One metric that appeared to spook
tion and it’s the future of media.” the market in November was a
This “broader implication” appears quarterly net loss that widened from

Tate & Lyle price pledge

keeps its investors sweet
Ashley Armstrong Retail Editor
Successfully renegotiating contracts to
offset price increases means that
inflationary pressures will not blow
Tate & Lyle off course, the food ingre-
dients business said yesterday.
Nick Hampton, 54, its chief execu-
tive, said that the company was enter-
ing 2022 in a strong position. “Our new
business pipeline in food and beverage
solutions is healthy and in both our
businesses we have renewed 2022
calendar year customer contracts that
offset inflation,” he said.
The news was greeted warmly in the
City, with shares in Tate & Lyle jumping
by 65p, or 9.5 per cent, to 756p. Mirco
Badocco, an analyst at Bank of Amer-
ica, said that after several warnings
about cost pressures and inflation from
rival companies, Tate & Lyle’s update
was very reassuring. Last week Ingre-
dion, an American peer, missed market
estimates about higher corn costs. Uni-
lever, the maker of Marmite and Mag-
nums, has said that it faces £3.5 billion
of extra inflationary costs this year.
Tate & Lyle traces its roots to 1859,
when Henry Tate went into partner-
ship with John Wright, a Liverpool-
based sugar refiner. They brought
sugar cubes to Britain in 1879. Over the
next century the company expanded
and diversified into corn starch, before
formulating sucralose, a no-calorie
sweetener, in 1976. In 2010 it sold the
last of its sugar business and now it
focuses on producing natural sugar
alternatives and starches that add fibre
or reduce salt and sugar to products. It
has 4,200 staff in 30 countries.
It recorded an 18 per cent rise in con-
tinuing operations for the three months
to the end of December, with its food
and business solutions growing by
19 per cent, helped by higher prices,
acquisitions and new products.
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
of America’s betting market
such as the Super Bowl is becoming legal, state by state, and Genius Sports provides the data to help punters with bets
$1.8 million to $70 million. Heavy
investment in technology, data and
streaming rights today would build a
strong, prosperous business tomorrow,
it said — a bet that failed to muster
much enthusiasm.
Last month Genius sought to
engineer something of a reset, hosting a
virtual investor day. Locke, 42,
described his company as “the key link”
between sports leagues and the betting
groups, media outlets, advertisers and
fans that follow them. It’s “difficult to
imagine” the industry operating effi-
Heathrow loses a quarter of passengers
Robert Lea Industrial Editor
Heathrow lost a quarter of its expected
passengers last month because of the
short-lived travel restrictions imposed
by governments in reaction to the
spread of the Omicron coronavirus
variant.
Britain’s largest airport said that it
had handled 2.59 million passengers in
January, but had lost another expected
700,000 because of cancelled travel
plans, on top of the 600,000 no-shows
that it had recorded in December.
Heathrow, the hub on the western
fringes of London that has lost £3 bil-
lion over the course of the pandemic,
said that it would operate at a little over
half its 80 million capacity this year, as
it recovers from Covid-19 travel restric-
tions. That is more than double the
19.4 million that went through its ter-
minals in 2021.
It said that its outcome for January
was 56 per cent down on pre-pandemic
levels, but that it would catch up
later in the year “on the basis that
ciently without Genius, he argued. It
forecast that annual revenue would
grow from $340 million this year, with
almost two thirds coming from its bet-
ting division, to at least $430 million
next. Adjusted earnings are set to climb
from $15 million to above $40 million.
Such forecasts have yet to feed through
to the share price, which was flat yester-
day afternoon at $6.07.
Bornstein is undeterred. “The
American landscape was traditionally
broadcast networks, and then cable
companies came along like ESPN,” he
South Terminal to reopen
Gatwick is to reopen its South
Terminal in time for Easter (Robert
Lea writes). The airline recession
during the pandemic led the airport
to close half its capacity and to rely
solely on its North Terminal
operation, but with British Airways
due to restart operations, Wizz Air
to begin expanding at the airport
and easyJet putting in more
services, Gatwick said it planned to
have its South Terminal open by the
end of March. “We can now look
forward to once again operating a
busy Gatwick this summer and
beyond,” Stewart Wingate, the
airport’s chief executive, said.
strong demand for outbound summer
holidays can offset a weaker start”.
John Holland-Kaye, chief executive
of Heathrow, said: “After a tough
Christmas, this has been a weak start
AL BELLO/GETTY IMAGES
said. “The next iteration are these data
companies that are making the gami-
fication that much more compelling.”
Genius is positioning itself as an
essential element of media and gam-
bling companies’ efforts to “gamify” —
persuading fans to stick around by
building a sense of competition and in-
teractivity into broadcasts and plat-
forms and, ultimately, generating more
money. Sport’s data-powered revolu-
tion may be in its infancy, but Genius
maintains that digging deep to establish
a central role for the future is a good bet.
to the year.” He said that the ending of
in-bound testing and isolation restric-
tions from today offered a “ray of hope”,
but added: “The Omicron hangover
proves demand remains fragile and at
risk to new variants of concern. The
government needs to set out a playbook
for managing future variants that al-
lows travel and trade to keep flowing.”
Different markets are recovering at
varying rates. Passengers on domestic
services are already at more than half
pre-pandemic levels. Passengers to the
European Union and the United States,
however, are still down by about 60 per
cent and the number of travellers to and
from Asia-Pacific is still off by nearly
75 per cent.
This week Tui, Europe’s biggest
travel group, reported a surge in sum-
mer bookings. It said that by the end of
January 3.5 million customers had
booked a trip for this summer — 72 per
cent of the level of the summer
of 2019 at the same point — but new
bookings were now above 100 per cent
of summer 2019.
Behind the story
R
egulated sports betting
is exploding in the
world’s largest
economy (Callum
Jones writes). The
number of Americans placing a
digital wager on the Super Bowl
is expected to surge by 70 per
cent to 12.9 million this year.
Gambling businesses looking on
eagerly from the other side of the
Atlantic are jostling to get in on
the action.
“This isn’t slowing down at all,”
Adam Greenblatt, chief executive
of BetMGM, one of the leading
players in the nascent industry,
said last autumn. His business —
one of America’s leading sports
betting operators — is a lucrative
joint venture between Entain, the
FTSE 100 group behind
Ladbrokes and Coral, and MGM
Resorts, the Las Vegas-based
casino group.
Entain’s transatlantic success
has prompted two ultimately ill-
fated takeover bids; first from
MGM, its partner, and then
DraftKings, a rival. Though it
batted away such interest,
William Hill, another British
bookmaker making hay in the
United States, accepted a
£2.9 billion takeover offer from
Caesars Entertainment, the
owner of Caesars Palace, in 2020.
William Hill’s American revenue
increased by 32 per cent to
£167.3 million that year, with local
adjusted operating profits
advancing from £1 million in 2019
to £12.4 million in 2020.
Flutter Entertainment, the
London-listed, Dublin-based
operator behind Paddy Power
and Betfair, also has a significant
American unit. In a few short
years it has built up FanDuel
from a fantasy sports operator
into one of the country’s largest
online gambling businesses.
Sportech, another betting
group, is getting involved from its
American base in Connecticut. It
already offers online, call centre
and retail betting in the state and
says it is “actively pursuing”
more opportunities.
Business
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53
Business
Vaping helps
BAT fire up
£2bn shares
buyback
Alex Ralph
British American Tobacco is to make a
share buyback of as much as £2 billion
as the maker of Dunhill and Lucky
Strike cigarettes continues to generate
vast amounts of cash and after it re-
duced losses in its e-cigarettes business
for the first time last year.
In full-year results published yester-
day, BAT said that it continued to
expect about £40 billion of free cash-
flow over the next five years, leading it
to approve the share repurchase pro-
gramme this year and to increase its
dividend by 1 per cent to 217.8p per
share.
Revenue rose by 6.9 per cent to
£25.7 billion last year, on an adjusted
basis and at a constant currency level,
with sales from new categories, includ-
ing its Vuse e-cigarette and glo heat-
not-burn brands, rising by 50.9 per cent
to more than £2 billion. BAT added
4.8 million new non-combustible pro-
duct consumers, taking the total to
18.3 million, and losses in new catego-
ries fell by 9 per cent, or almost
£100 million.
Non-combustible products account
for 12 per cent of group revenues, up
from 4 per cent in 2017. With losses from
new categories having peaked, they
remain on course to turn a profit by 2025
and to hit a £5 billion revenue target.
The target has been pushed back pre-
viously from 2022, but under Jack
Bowles, 58, its chief executive, BAT has
refocused on its accelerating growth. It
moved to reduce the number of is
brands in 2019 after Bowles was ap-
pointed as part of a shake-up of the new
12%
Group revenues from non-combustible
products, up from 4 per cent in 2017
Source: British American Tobacco
categories. The company has invested
heavily and it increased spending by
£496 million last year as it aims for
50 million consumers of non-combus-
tible products by 2030.
BAT, which is based in London and is
valued at about £75 billion, has been
investing in new brands as sales of
combustible tobacco come under
pressure from tighter regulation and
increased awareness of the health risks.
The group still generates most of its
money from cigarettes and it has been
offsetting falling volumes with price
rises. Cigarette volumes were “broadly
flat” compared with 2020, at 637 billion
sticks. Growth in South Africa as the
market recovered from lockdowns and
a ban of sales in part of 2020 was offset
by declines, including in Iran, after the
sale of the group’s operations in the
country in August, and the United
States. The sale of its business in Iran
led to non-cash costs of £358 million.
BAT disclosed about two years ago
that the US Department of Justice and
the Office of Foreign Assets Control, an
enforcement agency that is part of the
Treasury department, were investi-
gating “suspicions of breach of sanc-
tions”. It is not clear which country or
countries the regulators are focusing on.
Bowles declined to comment on the
investigation or whether it was related
to the sale of operations of Iran. He said
that BAT reviewed its businesses regu-
larly as a “responsible company”.
Shares in BAT closed up 99½p, or
3 per cent, at £33.68½.
554
Business Markets
Antofagasta gets warm words of
reassurance over Chile reception
Tom Howard Market report
B
arclays’ analysts talked
down the prospect of the
Chilean government
nationalising the country’s
copper mines, which gave a
leg-up to Antofagasta. All of the
company’s mines are in the South
American country and its shares have
horribly underperformed its peers.
The stock has lost about a third of its
value since last May’s peak, whereas
those of its rivals have barely moved.
Barclays thinks it is “very unlikely”
that Chile’s lawmakers will follow
through and take control of the
country’s mines, “given the
importance of private sector
investment to Chile’s economy”.
There is potential for the
government to scrap companies’
water licences and to limit mining
2GM
near indigenous lands, but
Antofagasta would be “relatively
unaffected” by those proposals,
Barclays added.
The group’s Zaldivar mine is the
only one at risk if it were to lose its
water licence, but it accounts for only
3 per cent of Antofagasta’s value,
making it “relatively immaterial”.
None of its mines sit near indigenous
lands. Even assuming that Zaldivar
has to close in two years’ time,
Barclays still makes a case to buy
Antofagasta shares — an about-turn
on its previous position, which
advised clients to avoid the stock. The
reassurance on nationalisation gave a
lift to the shares, which rose 22p, or
1.6 per cent, to £13.66½.
Antofagasta was one of the better
performers on a day that started deep
in the red before improving as the
session wore on. The FTSE 100 edged
11.38 points, or 0.2 per cent, to
7,661.02, wrapping up its best week of
the year after, having gained 144.62
points, or 1.9 per cent, since the
opening bell on Monday. The more
UK-biased FTSE 250 also enjoyed its
biggest weekly rise of the year despite
sliding 159.04 points, or 0.7 per cent,
to 22,048.71 on the day. Over the
week, the mid-caps put on 336.67
points or 1.6 per cent.
Tate & Lyle, the maker of food
ingredients, was the standout riser
among London’s bigger companies. Its
Wall Street report
Warnings for British and American
citizens to leave Ukraine stoked a
jittery market already fretting about
US interest rate rises. The Dow Jones
industrial average fell 503.53 points,
or 1.4 per cent, to 34,738.06, taking it
down 1 per cent on the week.
shares improved 65¾p, or 9.5 per cent,
to 756p after a bullish trading update.
Unilever, the consumer goods
powerhouse behind brands such as
Dove and Domestos, put on 135½p, or
3.6 per cent, to £39.14½ having
recently pledged to take big takeovers
“off the agenda” in the wake of its
failed £50 billion tilt at
GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer division.
The prospect of higher interest
rates in the United States knocked
technology companies and investors.
Tech stocks, whose best years
generally are yet to come, are
particularly sensitive to rate rises,
which reduce a company’s future
cashflow. Trustpilot, the online
review site, dropped 6½p, or 4.1 per
cent, to 156p and Baillie Gifford US
Growth Trust, a big investor in Tesla
and Amazon, shed 6½p, or 2.6 per
cent, to 239½p.
Thungela Resources jumped 52¼p,
or 9.9 per cent, to 579½p after the
coalminer, which was spun out of the
giant Anglo American last year,
swung to a profit in 2021 on the back
of surging coal prices.
The day’s biggest movers
Company
Tate & Lyle Bullish trading update
Unilever M&A pledge “de-risks investment case”, say analysts
British American Tobacco Raises dividend and unveils £2 billion buyback
Evraz Volatility amid Russia tensions
PZ Cussons Turnaround “entering final stage”, Panmure Gordon predicts
Trustpilot Technology stocks caught out by rate rise speculation
Petropavlovsk Down a fifth already this year
Oxford BioMedica Stock at an 18-month low
Reach Ends four-day winning streak
Wizz Air Profit-taking after recent run higher
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
Banking advisers are
ditched by Unilever
Unilever has parted ways with
the financial advisers that
orchestrated its disastrous
£50 billion tilt for Glaxo-
SmithKline’s consumer unit. The
company had been working with
Deutsche Bank and Centerview
Partners on its approach for a
division that three weeks ago
Alan Jope, Unilever’s chief
executive, claimed would be a
“strong strategic fit”. It is
understood that both were still
enlisted until Thursday, when
Jope, 57, declared that
transformational mergers and
deals were “off the agenda” after
shareholders had been
“unambiguous there was no
appetite”. “While they supported
management’s view . . . it was too
much, at the wrong time,” Jope
said last week. The debacle,
which wiped £1 billion off the
stock market value of Unilever.
Shares in the group closed up
135½p, or 3.6 per cent, at £39.14½.
Good Energy sees off
challenge to chairman
An attempt by Ecotricity to oust
the chairman of Good Energy, its
rival green energy supplier, has
failed. Ecotricity, the biggest
shareholder in Good Energy,
requisitioned a general meeting
seeking to block the company
from selling its wind and solar
farm assets and to remove Will
Whitehorn as its chairman. The
meeting went ahead yesterday
despite Good Energy already
having completed a deal to offload
the wind and solar assets. Both
motions failed, with 58 per cent of
shareholders that voted rejecting
the motion to remove Whitehorn.
Good Energy said if Ecotricity’s
votes were excluded, only 6 per
cent of other investors who voted
had backed the motion. Nigel
Pocklington, Good Energy’s chief
executive, said: “Again our
shareholders have dismissed the
disruptive actions of one
shareholder and competitor.”
Finance chief stands
down after accident
The chief financial officer of
Britain’s second largest operator
of private hospitals has stepped
aside temporarily after a cycling
accident. Spire Healthcare said
that Jitesh Sodha, 54, was in a
“serious condition” after the
incident, but was recovering well
in hospital. The group has
promoted Harbant Samra, its
financial controller, to cover for
Sodha. Samra will report to
Justin Ash, the chief executive.
“Jitesh may be absent for some
time, but we anticipate he will
fully resume his responsibilities
in due course,” Ash, 57, said. “Our
management team and senior
leadership will continue to
discharge Jitesh’s responsibilities
in his absence.” Sodha is a non-
executive director at PZ Cussons,
which said he was taking a
“medical leave of absence”.
Shares in Spire Healthcare rose
by 1 per cent, or 2½p, to 242½p.
Change
9.5%
3.6%
3.0%
3.0%
3.0%
-4.1%
-4.5%
-4.6%
-4.6%
-5.1%
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
Providing estate agency for free? That’s
enough to put a smile on anyone’s face
Patrick Hosking meets
the former boss of
Carphone Warehouse
now striking fear into a
competitive market
A
ndrew Harrison dazzles
with some of the whitest,
straightest teeth I have
ever seen on a 51-year-old
Englishman. “I’ve had
three and a half hours in the dentist’s
chair this morning. Don’t worry,” he
says of his snow-white gnashers, “they
will calm down a bit.”
This isn’t vanity. It’s work. Harrison,
the former Carphone Warehouse
boss, has been road-testing one of his
latest ventures, a teeth whitening and
straightening service. He’s just bought
a dental practice in Marylebone,
central London, and renamed it
Smiles and Smiles. Forget tooth decay
and fillings. This is the Zoom age and
it’s all about composite bonding and
“smile transformation”.
After 23 years in senior roles in the
Carphone, then Dixons Carphone
group, Harrison largely baled out of
the listed world in 2018 to work as a
partner in Freston Ventures, the
private equity business of Sir Charles
Dunstone, his former boss. Now he
helps to oversee a string of start-ups
financed by Freston, including the
Five Guys burger chain, ME+EM
fashion shops and a platform that
connects motorists with mechanics
called WhoCanFixMyCar.com.
But the subject today is perhaps the
most potentially spectacular of those
businesses, an online estate agent
called Strike. Harrison is an investor
as well as its chairman and believes
that it is going to transform the world
of selling houses — for one very good
and astonishing reason: it’s free.
Strike customers can use the
company to sell their homes and not
pay a penny in fees. They get most of
the normal estate agency services,
such as valuation, photos, floorplans,
a “For Sale” board and the placing of
details on portals such as Rightmove
and Zoopla. Strike also says that it
provides support when negotiating
offers. Users have to conduct viewings
themselves. The business makes its
money by offering optional add-ons,
such as mortgage-broking,
conveyancing and surveying and not
just to the vendor but to the potential
buyers, too. Of the pure estate agency
fees still paid by the vast majority of
vendors, there are none.
Strike originally was called
Housesimple and was one of half a
dozen digital platforms that started to
chip away at traditional estate agency
ten years ago. The biggest of these
was Purplebricks, which disrupted the
conventional branch on every high
street model by offering to sell for a
fixed price of £798 then, now £999 or
more.
Housesimple was a bit of a me-too
business, though. According to
Harrison, “it had got to a reasonable
size but its proposition wasn’t clear
enough and distinct enough to
continue as it was”. He wanted to do
something dramatically different that
“meant we didn’t have to spend tens
and tens of millions on marketing”.
Sam Mitchell, his newly appointed
chief executive, recalled how when
55
The Manifesto Business
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL
entrepreneur behind Direct Line and
esure, took part in an £11 million
capital-raising last July, as well as
Toscafund and Channel 4 Ventures,
and again in December, when
another £8 million was raised.
Yet there are plenty of sceptics, too.
Russell Quirk, the founder of Emoov,
a rival online estate agency chain,
blasted the Strike team as “deluded”
in a video blog last week, attacking
the business model as ridiculous and
one that demeaned the estate agency
business. The brand was “terrible”,
with its connotations of Arthur
Scargill, he told Christopher Watkin,
the property blogger. Quirk also
questioned how Strike would fare if
there was a crackdown on referral
fees paid by mortgage firms and
solicitors to estate agents.
Harrison fires back: “Russell knows
about online estate agents not
making money as he ran his own and
it went bust [Emoov failed in 2018 but
was recapitalised and continues to
trade]. We have lots of people across
the industry with a vested interest in
rubbishing us as we are exposing the
truth and disrupting their model.”
According to Harrison, the
company is on course to break even
by the middle of this year. Won’t it be
on a cash-guzzling advertising
treadmill for years? “We’re investing
behind a brand that we think is going
to be a big one. We’re prepared to
make big bets.” He believes that Strike
can take 10 per cent of the overall
market.
Haven’t we been here before with
Purplebricks? That company had high
hopes of taking a bulldozer to the
traditional estate agency market, but
its share price today is just 20p, far
from its peak of 500p in 2017, as it
Andrew Harrison is overseeing start-ups from dentistry to fashion, but the most rewarding may be Strike, the estate agent failed to meet expectations. “I like
Purplebricks and what they have
Q&A CV
knew we were on to something.” The done, but I don’t think their
did on UK high streets formula was rolled out to Manchester proposition is customer-centric
appear on Fifth Avenue and Liverpool, then Newcastle and enough. We’ve got 16,000 Trustpilot
What does leadership Sunderland and to the Midlands last reviews at an average of 4.7. We sell
mean to you? summer. Last month Harrison houses faster than anyone else and
Taking risk, making completed the jigsaw, opening in we sell houses for more than other
Who is your mentor? tough decisions and Age: 51 London and the southeast and people.”
John Gildersleeve was taking people with you Education: Rainford declaring Strike a nationwide brand. Harrison (not be confused with
my chairman at Does money motivate High School, Leeds With a team of only 80 local Andy Harrison of easyJet and
Carphone Warehouse you? University (BA in property experts on the ground, that Whitbread fame) continues to have a
for many years and he Yes. My Dad was management studies) might be exaggerating things a bit, non-executive role in the listed world.
shaped me (as much as window cleaner and we Career: 1993-95: but there’s no doubting the initial He is the senior independent director
he could) into being a didn’t have much, so I Bridgwater Business appeal of the business to homeowners and remuneration committee
CEO and has been a learnt that life is better Analysis; 1995-2018: keen to dodge the £3,000 or so they chairman at Ocado. He was
wonderful support with it than without Carphone Warehouse, might pay to a traditional agent. “Our personally on the receiving end of
Which person do you What is your favourite Best Buy Europe and number of valuations and listings has shareholder revolts over the eye-
most admire? television programme? Dixons Carphone, doubled in the last month. The last catching pay packets of Tim Steiner,
My friend and business I watch TV with my where he was deputy four weeks have been quite a the grocery deliveries outfit’s chief
partner Sir Charles teenage boys who want chief executive; 2018- whirlwind.” About 60 per cent of executive, when 19.7 per cent of
Dunstone. He just has to watch football or present: partner, vendors go on to buy some paid-for investors voted against his re-election
the most amazing documentaries and Freston Ventures services, while Strike makes around in 2020 and 23 per cent in 2021.
intuition about business mostly football Management, including half to two thirds of its revenues from He insists he would never go back
What was the most documentaries chairman of Strike and the potential buyers: each house to a full-time role in the listed world.
important event in How do you relax? WhoCanFixMyCar.com; typically is viewed by ten to eleven of He misses the multimillion-pound
your working life? I am working hard with 2016-present: senior them. “All of those people are negotiations of big business — like
Taking Carphone a coach to try and sort independent director, prospective customers for any haggling with Apple and Samsung —
Warehouse to and my tennis. It may keep Ocado. services that are to do with house- and the leadership role — he was
cracking the US. It felt him going in to his Interests: Skiing, tennis, moving, be that conveyancing, responsible for 42,000 people at
great to see what we retirement! music mortgage advice or surveys, removals, Dixons Carphone at one point — but
electricity, broadband. We’ve got thinks private equity is more fun and
relationships with gyms, online more flexible. The chauffeur-driven
entering a new territory Foxtons, his count ourselves as being the cleverest supermarkets.” limo has been replaced by an electric
old shop, would scrap fees for the first people in business, but we do The estate agency market remains Fiat 500. His wife is Tristia Harrison,
three months to establish itself locally. understand the emotive power of free.” fairly fragmented and Strike says it who runs TalkTalk, the broadband
“Boards breed boards,” was the motto. Housesimple started to change has overtaken much better-known business spun out of Carphone and
That harnessing of the power of free pricing a couple of years ago, brands such as Savills, Foxtons, recently taken private by Dunstone.
chimed with Harrison’s own beginning in Yorkshire, and renamed Knight Frank and Barnard Marcus in “Both of us working at that level and
experience at Carphone, when he itself Strike 18 months ago. In terms of terms of share of listings. That’s with intensity was probably not that great.
managed for the first time to reduce vendor wins, it has never looked back. brand recognition of only 6 per cent. It works better for us and gives us a
the price of handsets to zero for those “In the space of five weeks, we went to The business model was enticing lot more flexibility as a family.”
signing up to a contract. “It was such a become the No 1 brand of estate enough to attract the interest of Something, no doubt, that gives him
powerful message to people. We don’t agency by listings in Yorkshire. We outside investors. Sir Peter Wood, the plenty of reasons to smile.
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 57

Meet our
banking

Money
superheroes
Pages 60-61

How to make the energy giants

pay the extra £700 on your bill
Bills are going up
for many but you can
‘We tried to
cover that cost if cut our use,
you choose the right but the smart
funds, says Ali Hussain meter was
too dumb’

S
ome of the energy giants are
making billions of pounds of

A
profits, just as many average n energy firm put a
household bills are rising by smart meter on a
£700 a year. farm in a remote
But there is a way to get some of these hamlet even though it did
bumper profits to help offset the soar- not have the phone signal it
ing costs of heating your house — al- needed to work (David
though it’s a bit risky and you’ll need to Byers writes).
have some spare cash. Chas Brooke and Rachel
On Tuesday BP reported profits of Hebditch, who live on the
£9.45 billion in 2021, its highest in eight farm with 300 alpacas,
years. The announcement came days asked Octopus Energy to
after Shell said its profits were £14.2 bil- install the meter so they
lion last year, up from £3.47 billion the could switch to the Octopus
year before. Go tariff which is cheaper if
Households are braced for a series of you use energy off-peak.
bill rises after the government agreed to They planned to charge
increase the cap on the price that their electric car at night to
energy suppliers can charge customers save money.
on their standard variable tariffs. This The meter that was
will take the average annual household installed could not give the
bill to almost £2,000. The cap is re- readings that would tell
viewed twice a year to take into account Octopus when they used
fluctuations in wholesale gas and elec- energy at cheaper times
tricity prices, which have quadrupled in because it was an old type
the past year. that relies on a phone
While some domestic energy suppli- signal. Newer meters can
ers have struggled to make profits send data to suppliers even
because they cannot charge more than if there is no phone signal
the cap, firms that refine and deliver because they have their
wholesale energy to domestic suppliers own secure data network. meters will have Chas Brook and Rachel said. After The Times The couple, who are in
have been some of the biggest benefici- “The question is why technological fixes installed Hebditch wanted to get a called, the company their seventies, will now be
aries of what is a global energy crisis. Octopus chose to put this this month so that they can cheaper rate at nights, so upgraded the meter. “One moved onto the Octopus
BP and Shell are expected to increase in, knowing our location,” work anywhere. they could charge their car of our senior operations Go tariff.
their dividends from an already re- said Chas. Chas and Rachel’s energy managers has been working “We will however
spectable 4 per cent (ish) a year. Smart Energy GB, the bills are £70 a month on asked for the smart meter hard to connect it to the continue to proactively
An investor buying £9,000 worth of government body their fixed dual fuel deal, that it might not work data network, it took monitor Mr Brooke’s
BP shares and the same amount of responsible for installing which ends this month. properly. “We explained several attempts but has situation individually to do
Shell stock (£18,000 total) should get smart meters in all homes Octopus Energy said it that given his location, this now been successful,” a our best to reconnect him if
about £700 income over the next year, by June 2025 says all older had warned Chas when he couldn’t be guaranteed,” he spokesman said. the signal does drop again.”
according to Steve Clayton, the head of
equity funds at the investment plat-
form Hargreaves Lansdown. The in- Gas, reduced and then stopped divi- Bear in mind that there will be char- Grid, but also Tesco and the consumer-
come would also be less than the A portfolio to beat the rise dend payments altogether in 2020. It is ges levied by whichever platform you brands firm Unilever. You will need to
annual £2,000 dividend allowance, so Sum in- Annual expected to resume them this year. choose to invest through and more fees invest about £15,000 to get £700 in-
would be tax-free even if the shares Company
vested income “In reality it wouldn’t be wise to rely if you use an adviser. come.
were held outside an Isa. on investments in five energy and utili- Another option is income-focused For those who don’t want exposure to
If you did not want to invest such a BP £3,400 £130.90 ties shares to meet expected increases funds. These tend to invest in large, stock market volatility, a corporate
large sum, you could pick a company National Grid £3,400 £156.40 in bills over the coming months,” said blue-chip firms that have bond fund would be an alter-
with a high dividend but a relatively low Jason Hollands of BestInvest. “Such a growing dividends. native. A bond is essentially
share price. A good example is the Shell £3,400 £115.60 narrow approach towards energy “This way you get an a debt issued by a com-

London-based commodity trading and
mining company Glencore, which ana-
lysts forecast will pay dividends of 31.1p
a share this year. It is trading at about
420p and has risen more than 230 per
cent since March 2020. You would need
to invest about £9,453 to get a dividend
income of £700 a year.
By contrast, Shell is expected to pay
74p per share this year, but each share
costs £20.60. This means you would
need to invest about £19,467 to get the
same income.
Investing in just one or two energy
firms is, of course, a highly risky strate-
gy. To spread your risk, you could invest
in a basket of energy firms. Investing
£14bn
SSE £3,400 £179.52 shares also carries some political risk as active manager looking pany or government
there have been calls for a windfall tax.” to produce dividend and is considered less
Centrica £3,400 £117.30 A low-cost and probably less risky and capital growth,” risky than shares.
Total £17,000 £699.72 option would be to invest in a basket of said Laith Khalaf Bondholders are paid
Source: Bestinvest
shares through an index tracker, such from the investment before shareholders if
as the iShares Core FTSE 100 ex- platform AJ Bell. “It’s a company fails.
change traded fund (ETF). This tracks important not just to Shell’s 2021 A good option, ac-
£3,400 each in BP, Shell, Centrica, the performance of Britain’s largest 100 get a decent yield here profits — a cording to Hollands, is
National Grid and SSE — so a total of companies so that your risk would be and now, but to try and £10.7 billion the TwentyFour
£17,000 — could generate about £700 in spread across a much wider range of get a growing income on rise on 2020 Dynamic Bond fund,
dividend income, according to the firms. It includes BP and Shell in its top top to tackle inflation.” which is yielding 4.3 per cent.
wealth manager BestInvest. ten holdings, but also included is the Khalaf likes the City of London A £16,300 investment would
Investing in a single sector also car- pharmaceutival giant AstraZeneca and Investment Trust, which yields 4.7 per achieve the £700 target income. Its top
ries significant risk. The share prices of British American Tobacco. The fund cent. This is an investment company holdings include US and UK govern-
BP and Shell plunged at the start of the yields about 3.7 per cent. You would listed on the stock market that has in- ment bonds as well as those issued by
pandemic and both firms cut dividends need to invest about £19,000 to gener- creased dividends consecutively for 55 the Nationwide and Coventry building
last year. Centrica, the owner of British ate £700 of dividend income. years. Its top holdings include National societies.

Follow us on twitter @timesmoney | @jimconey | @jessiehewitson | @davidbyers26 | @AlihussainST | @katedpalmer | @davidbrenchley | @imogent_ | @George_Nixon97
558
Money
For God’s sake, Home
Economics
Jessie
chatbots, let Hewitson
me talk to a
human being
I
was standing at the front of a
long queue of rush hour
commuters waiting to get on to
a bus when I discovered that my
bank card was not working.
I had placed it on the card reader
and received an angry beep (not the
nice “ping” you get when a
transaction is approved). I tried again,
same beep. And a third time. I took
my second bank card out of my bag.
That didn’t work either.
Cross though the bus driver looked,
he took pity on me and waved me to
a seat. When I got off at the Tube
station I tried again with the card
readers at the gates. Same problem.
My cards weren’t working, so there I
stood, stranded, unable to get to work.
I called Barclays. After ten minutes
of extreme faffery, an automated
voice told me that I had to use the
chat function because I had
downloaded the phone app. So,
thumbs frozen outside the tube, I
typed my problem into the “chat”.
It was more like an endurance test,
where the bank pushes you to the
limit of your resolve. To see how long
you will hang on to speak to a real
person, if indeed you can figure out
when you finally are.
My first challenge: the chatbot.
After typing “Can I speak to a human
being” three times — God, modern
life is so bleak — I finally conquered
the robot and levelled up to a chat
assistant. Any celebration was
short-lived, though, because they
were barely present, appearing only
to profusely apologise to say they
Yes, buying a first home is tough. But it should be
Comment
James
Coney
Money
editor
Not every young person loves
eating brunch in posh cafés, has
three takeaway oat-milk lattes a
day and goes on three foreign
holidays a year. Many are
extraordinarily sensible and
diligent with their money. But
there are some who do. And, unless
you are earning mega bucks, if
you want to buy a house you are
going to have to give up a little of
that luxury.
That is because buying your first
home is not easy. It never has been
and it never should be, because to
borrow lots of money you need to
show financial responsibility. Not
only that but, like it or not, when
would be with me in a few minutes.
Some 45 minutes later, by now very
late, very cold and very cross, I was
no closer to finding out why my cards
had stopped. If this was a battle, I was
losing.
When exactly did it become so
difficult to speak to a human being at
your bank, energy company or
broadband firm? It feels as if first they
came for the local branch telephone
number —now a closely guarded
secret — and we said nothing. (Well,
actually we said quite a lot, it’s just
that they ignored us). Then it was the
email address for our local branches,
which enabled us to send a query
to our local bank manager freely.
This probably went when they did
away with the poor old manager,
and then the branch.
Then you had a centralised
phone system, which required you
to negotiate a gazillion push button
menus before finally getting through
to a person, only to be transferred
from department to department,
constantly having to restate your
problem.
And now the human beings are
being removed from the equation
altogether, and I’m scared that if we
don’t do something about it, the
chatbots will take over completely.
I spoke to Resolver, an independent
resolution service. It dealt with
320,000 complainants last year, half
of them citing the inability to speak
to a human being as a problem.
Martyn James, the company’s
director, said he is regularly told by
a bank looks at your bank
statements it is going to take a dim
view of your spending habits.
Is buying a home today tougher
than ever before? That is
impossible to say. Certainly buying
in some parts of London is
extraordinarily difficult.
House prices are at record highs
and wage growth has lagged behind
for years. But according to
Nationwide building society the
gap between earnings and house
prices was wider before the global
financial crisis. Interest rates were
about three times higher then too.
You could, however, borrow seven
times your income, which you can’t
now. But you can now stretch
repayments over 40 years and
borrow until your seventies, which
eases the affordability problems.
In the 1990s you had interest
rates of 15 per cent, which, for a
short period, made it impossible
to buy a house.
Indeed, mortgages became so
unaffordable that some
homeowners just handed back
their keys to the building society.
financial firms that chatbots are the
future.
A friend who develops chatbots
tells me that work has never been
busier. The whole point of using
them, from the point of view of the
business, is that they weed out some
of the people who are trying to speak
to them. I’m betting that this isn’t
because the bot has given them the
information that they need, rather
But at the same time, these buyers
could easily get interest-only
mortgages, which made paying the
bills a little easier.
If you go back to the 1980s, there
was no choice in mortgages at all.
You could borrow only twice your
income. But then house prices were
about three times earnings rather
than the six times they are now.
How on earth do you compare
these generations? You can’t.
But one thing that is different
today is that young people are not
unheard: they have social media —
an echo chamber that perpetuates
the view that things today are
worse than ever before.
What isn’t said is that banks and
the government (through the
Lifetime Isa) are doing more than
ever before to help first-time
buyers.
I’m sure I will be accused of
being part of a privileged
generation of homeowners for
saying that. Yet I bought my first
home as the global financial crisis
unfolded. We borrowed five times
our joint income at a rate of 5.75 per
it’s because the callers are giving up.
Why are financial companies doing
this? The obvious reason is money,
but there’s another one: banks,
broadband providers et al are keenly
aware of the complaints figures that
are given to the Financial Conduct
Authority and other regulators.
If they manage to reduce these,
customers view them as more
trustworthy. The harder they make it
cent. The moment we moved in we
were plunged into negative equity.
To save for the deposit my wife
and I lived in a one-up, one down
property for six long years. The
only daylight came from two tiny
windows. We went on two holidays
— one was our honeymoon, the
other was a camping trip in France.
The house we bought was in a
part of London that we did not
particularly want to live in, and was
a complete wreck.
We had to rely on friends and
family to rewire it and install
central heating before we moved in.
We sold it in July after 13 years for
more than three times what we
paid.
I don’t think our tale is unusual.
It is part of being a first-time buyer.
If you want to own a home you
have to make compromises. The
sooner you want to own, the earlier
in your life you have to make the
sacrifices needed. Buying a house
today, particularly if you live in
London, is difficult. But it always
has been, and it always should be.
@jimconey
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
for you to speak to a person, the fewer
complaints that will be logged. And so
you have a warped situation where
the good banks that encourage people
to raise problems look worse than the
bad ones that don’t.
One of the most hated broadband
providers of all — and that is saying
something — has had fewer
complaints lately. At first I thought
this was good, now I’m wondering if
it’s because people can’t get through
to complain.
Not being able to speak to a human
being is shaping up to be one of the
biggest stresses of the modern world.
The self-service checkouts that never
work — “it’s my bag that is in the
checking area for the love of God,
how unexpected can that be?” — to
the card reader that means you don’t
have to speak to the bus driver, or
have a ticket office at your station.
It is assumed that technology is
progress. But we are a social species
and want to speak to a person who
can understand a problem and take
the time to do something about it.
52
bank branches closed a week,
on average, since 2015
I care about that more than the need
to go a bit faster in a queue.
I finally got to work after someone
appeared in the chat and actually
focused on what was happening. The
issue was simple: I had a new card
and I needed to activate it. Silly
mistake to make, but did I really have
to spend 45 minutes in the cold to
find that out? I still don’t know why
the other card didn’t work. I did ask
why, but my nameless (not
v
very chatty) chat assistant was
l
long gone.
Meanwhile, one to two times a
week companies approach Resolver
saying that they are thinking of
withdrawing their email address from
their website. Removing contact
details, using chatbots, forcing
customers to use phone systems
where they get to speak to someone
only after they’ve keyed in the
answers to a million questions (or
worse, shouted them in vain). All of
this is limiting communication. Life is
busy enough, and customer service
systems frustrating enough, without
making it all worse.
Is it too late to make it stop?
IN THE
SUNDAY TIMES
TOMORROW
special report
Why do some
funds charge five
times more than
others?
plus
Confessions of the
energy sinners
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 59

Money

Five ways to stop the fraud frenzy

Government dithering should now be compulsory for all banks
offering current accounts.
is causing a boom in Disputed reimbursement claims
should be handled by an independent
online scams, David body, backed by the FCA, to ensure fair-
Byers, Ali Hussain and ness. Reimbursement levels for banks
should be published, along with data on
George Nixon report which banks receive stolen funds.
Banks complain that they cannot
easily recover stolen funds because of

I
f you wanted to report a scam to
the police this week you would
have had to wait on the phone for
half an hour.
On Thursday Money was on
hold to Action Fraud for 28 minutes
before getting through. No wonder vic-
tims say that the government and
banks do not really care about stopping
online fraud, which is booming. The
business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng
caused a row on Sunday by claiming
that fraud was not a “crime that people
experience in their day-to-day lives”.
Fraud represented 42 per cent of all
crime, according to the England and
Wales crime survey for the year to
September. If you include computer
misuse (where someone has their com-
puter hacked) it was 57 per cent. UK Fi-
nance, the banking trade body, said that
there were 2.8 million cases of bank
card fraud and 150,000 cases of online
bank transfer scamming in 2020.
Assistant Commissioner Pete O’Do-
herty, from City of London Police,
which runs Action Fraud, said call wait-
ing times could be longer because it
“deals with victims who are often emo-
tionally distressed or vulnerable. Our
call handlers stay on the phone for as
long as necessary.”
Anger is growing at the way the gov-
ernment has dithered over online
fraud. When it launched its strategy to
get tough on criminals in July it focused
on burglaries, stop-and-search and
making offenders pick up litter while
Credit Suisse offering a
one-year fixed rate bond
‘We tried to paying 2.7 per cent. It was
completely risk-free and
help police covered by the Financial
Service Compensation
catch the Scheme, the safety net for
savers, they said. Holmes,
scammers’ 67, a retired interior
designer from West
reference. She reported
her suspicions to her
bank, Lloyds, and the
police through the
reporting service, Action
Fraud. Lloyds confirmed
it was a scam and that the
Credit Suisse bond did
not exist. Her money had
been transferred to a
Lynne and John Holmes
tried to trap scammers, but
Action Fraud took no action
police and Action Fraud.
“They know where
Lynne’s money was sent
and presumably the
account owner, so why
are the same people still
the speed with which they are moved
through the system.
They should be given greater powers
to track money so that it can be re-
turned to victims.
At the moment it is not against the
law to allow someone to make and re-
ceive payments from your bank ac-
count. This means that fraudsters can
dupe people into allowing their ac-
counts to be used for fraudulent trans-
actions and frequently no one is ever
convicted of a crime, particularly if the
person who owns the account that
received the money argues they had no
idea that the payment was fraudulent.
0 Build confidence in the police
Greater co-ordination is needed
between the banks, police and the
private sector. The present system of
reporting scams to Action Fraud is not
working. A central fraud reporting
service is needed, but it requires better
resources, and the ability to supply
information to the public about whe-
ther their crime has been investigated.
Information should be fed back to the
National Cyber Security Centre, a
branch of GCHQ, to ensure scams are
stopped swiftly. Local police forces
should be given the power to investi-
gate scams reported by the public.
0 Improve Companies House
This registry service for anyone setting
up a limited company provides a list of
directors, their personal details and

wearing high-vis vests. Of the 19,000
words in its Beating Crime Plan, just 527
were dedicated to tackling fraud.
Despite two high-level reports, one
by the Treasury select committee and
one commissioned by the home secre-
tary to look at the police response to
fraud, nothing material has changed.
In 2019 an economic crime strategic
board was set up to meet twice a year.
Members include the home secretary,
police force chiefs, the attorney-gener-
al and the heads of the Bank of England
and the Financial Conduct Authority
(FCA), the City regulator.
Finally last year it started to discuss
A
fter getting fed up
with earning
0.01 per cent
interest on her savings,
Lynne Holmes looked
online for better deals
(Ali Hussain writes). She
found a website claiming
to offer fixed rate bonds
paying significantly more
than the banks.
Within days someone
called claiming to be
from the investment bank
Chiltington in West
Sussex, was sent official-
looking documents to fill
in. She was also taken
through compliance and
anti-money laundering
checks that made it all
seem authentic.
She transferred £10,000
on November 18 but
realised her mistake
when the caller told her
to enter a name other
than Credit Suisse as a
Barclays account which
now had only £105.80 in
it, which she got back.
Both banks launched an
investigation.
When the scammers
called back, Lynne’s
husband, John, 71, a
former airline pilot, kept
stringing them along so
that he could get more
details of the other bank
accounts they used. All
this was passed on to the
able to operate? The records of the firm’s accounts. The
scammers continued to information is public, but it can be diffi-
call daily, from the same cult to check the details of who is regis-
number. Surely they can tering companies and when. It should
be stopped?” John said. be brought up to date and filings made
Lloyds said: “While digital to make it easier to monitor
customers are expected fraudulent companies.
to take reasonable care
when making payments, 0 Tougher rules for crypto
we believe we could have Regulators should impose stricter
acted more quickly when requirements on the firms that sell
Ms Holmes first called us crypto assets, such as bitcoin. At
to report concerns. We present these businesses are note rgu-
arranged a full refund.” lated but are supposed to apply for a li-
cence from the FCA to show
they have passed money-

42%
drawing up a plan to tackle fraud. Bank on. So how do you solve the problem of numbers to deter scammers from buy- tary code of conduct that laundering checks, but a
chief executives, who have been ac- fraud? Here are our suggestions. ing them and have a reporting service meant victims of pay- recent Times investi-
cused of failing to make online fraud a that immediately gets them discon- ment scams would be gation found many
priority, regularly missed the board 0 Make internet and phone firms pay nected. Internet service providers reimbursed for their were still operating
meetings. Fraudsters can easily target people by should have to remove fraudulent web- losses so long as without it. They
Analysis of the annual reports of the sending out thousands of text messages sites immediately. A failure to do either they had not done should be immedi-
big banks shows that none of the chairs from unregistered mobile phone num- of these things should result in fines. anything wrong. of crime is fraud ately forced to cease
and chief executives of HSBC, Barclays, bers and by setting up fake websites. Companies found to be allowing But in reality fewer according to the trading. Formal
Santander or Lloyds mentioned fraud When one of these numbers or web- fraudsters to operate should be re- than half of victims England and Wales regulation is needed
as a major concern in their latest sites is reported it can take days for it to quired to refund victims. are reimbursed and at crime survey for all crypto assets
annual reports. Only Alison Rose at be taken down. some banks repay- and investment firms to
NatWest raised it as an issue that the Phone companies should be forced to 0 Build confidence in the banks ments levels are lower protect customers from
bank was working to improve its record demand registration of mobile phone In 2019 many banks agreed to a volun- than 10 per cent. The code scams.

Parenting sites were paid £66k to promote the child benefit system
H
M Revenue & Customs has paid
£66,000 to parenting blogs to
carry adverts explaining the
child benefit system while fighting a
legal case from parents who say they
were never told how it worked.
The websites Emma’s Diary, Families
UK and Working Mums were paid for
HMRC-sponsored articles that have
been up since March 2020. Under-
standing Child Benefit on the Emma’s
Diary site, for example, explains how to
claim the benefit and that if you earn
too much you will have to pay some
back through what is known as the high
income charge.
Child benefit, which is worth £21.50
a week for the first child and £14 a week
for other children, used to be a univer-
sal benefit but the income threshold
was introduced in 2013. This caused
widespread confusion, hence HMRC’s
publicity campaign, which included the
blogs and leaflets in goody bags that are
given to new parents in hospitals.
Parents have questioned whether these
were the best way to spead information
about a complicated system.
You start to lose entitlement to child
benefit if anyone in your household has
an income above £50,000. The amount
you are entitled to is tapered down until
those who earn over £60,000 who get
nothing. You are not blocked from get-
ting the benefit, but it is up to you to opt
out, or to pay back any extra through a
self-assessment tax form. Many fami-
lies did not realise this.
The change has also caught out many
non-working parents who stopped
claiming the benefit because their part-
ner earned too much but then missed
out on the national insurance credits
they get automatically if they apply for
child benefit. There is a way to register
for child benefit, without actually
claiming it, and still get the national in-
surance credits, but you have to do this
through the HMRC website, and not
many people know about this.
It is estimated that half a million fam-
ilies who are entitled to some child ben-
efit but not all of it (and so have to claim
it and pay some back) now have to fill in
self-assessment tax forms that they
wouldn’t otherwise have had to.
HMRC lost a case at the upper tax
tribunal in June last year involving 399
families who had to pay back £2 million
worth of child benefit and fines they
were hit with for late repayment.
HMRC is appealing against the verdict
but, if it loses, the bills of thousands of
other parents could be reassessed.
David Byers
60
Money
Carlos, Derek, Chris and John:
These intrepid campaigners are on a mission to
ensure that the bank revolution leaves no one
behind, say Charlie Devereux and George Nixon
C
arlos San Juan believes there
are good and bad sides to
innovation. While he wel-
comes technological change,
he worries that it is moving
too fast.
The 78-year-old from the Valencia
region of Spain has become a crusader
for the digitally marginalised as banks
pull down the shutters on their tills and
push people online.
San Juan was concerned that the race
to move people to apps and the internet
was going too fast as banks began
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
opening tills only at 11am and forced
customers to call for an appointment
the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernandez de
Cos, phoned him to discuss the matter.
on phone lines that were always busy.
Incensed by the way he was treated
On Tuesday he hopped on a train to
Madrid to deliver his petitions to Carlos
and seeing other pensioners in wheel- Cuerpo, the secretary-general of the
chairs queuing for hours outside their Spanish treasury.
bank branches, he decided to do some- The economy minister, Nadia Calvi-
thing about it. He published a petition ño, said. “This has become a priority for
on change.org, dubbing it “I am elderly, us from the moment we began to see
not an idiot” and asking for banks to re- that this is a problem.”
store some of their in-person services. The campaign has elicited assur-
And it has had a big impact. After two ances from banks that they will make
months his petition has more than changes to ensure the elderly will get
600,000 signatures and the governor of human contact in their dealings
with the bank, though they have
not yet revealed what measures
Carlos:
they will take.
“I didn’t want to be party to
Spanish
that phrase ‘it’s not my prob-
lem,’” San Juan said of his
crusader
decision to launch a campaign. “I
considered it not only my problem
but that fundamentally it was a prob-
lem for people who were worse affected
than me.”
Initially San Juan’s protests were dis-
missed.
“I was treated in a very patronising
way with a manner that’s humiliating
for an elderly person,’’ San Juan said.
“They suggested that when we came to
the bank that we should be accompa-
nied by a relative, that they would teach
us how to handle an app and that this
way [by not coming into a branch] we
would not get sick with Covid.”
As in the UK, Spain’s banking sector
has gone through seismic
changes after the financial
crisis and the pandemic.
The number of banks
has shrunk from 62 in
2009 to just ten today as
the stronger ones have
gobbled up the weak. John: branch
From 2009 to 2013,
24 per cent of Spain’s
champion
bank branches were
closed.
The pandemic ac-
celerated the con-
solidation process.
CaixaBank ac-
quired Bankia in
March 2020 and
announced plans
to shed more than
6,000 jobs. In July
Unicaja and Liber-
bank merged to become
Spain’s fifth largest bank.
Banco Santander culled 3,500
positions, BBVA, which has
stated that it must evolve to
become more like big tech
companies if it is to survive,
let go of nearly 3,000, and
Sabadell, the owner of
TSB, dismissed nearly
2,000 people.
The cuts have
boosted profits. San-
tander made more
than €8.1 billion
(£6.8 billion) in 2021,
during which it en-
joyed its most prof-
itable quarter for 12
years.
The UK has been
experiencing cuts
like these for years.
An average of 54
bank or building
Derek: veteran
society branches
have closed each
of the battle
month since Jan-
uary 2015. If you
include the bran-
ches earmarked
for closure, the
total will be 4,735
by the end of
2022.
Footfall in
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 61

Money

Meet the banking superheroes

tried to slow down closures and keep Chris Holmes do not leave vulnerable people exclud- banking services, including cash.” An
open the last branches in towns. ed. He campaigns for more accessible amendment to the Financial Service
For years it was the only place that If forcing banks to be more inclusive environments for disabled people and Act, passed last April, which has let
kept records of which towns and vil- requires an Olympian effort, then per- in 2019 conducted an independent re- people get cashback from shops with-
lages had lost their banks. haps there is no better person for the job view for the government that made rec- out needing to buy anything, was pro-
In 2016 French retired, having suc- than Chris Holmes. Having gone blind ommendations on opening up public posed by Holmes.
ceeded in slowing the speed of branch overnight at the age of 14, he went on to appointments to disabled people. Writing for The Times last year he
closures, but giving up on his dream of become one of Britain’s most successful He is a vice-chairman of the all-party called for a review into how many
creating shared branches, where the Paralympic swimmers, winning nine parliamentary groups on fair business people have access to digital payments.
lovely old bank buildings could be put gold medals. He helped organise the banking and financial technology. Last “The future is digital but that future
to use as post offices or shops with a 2012 Paralympic Games in London and year he said: “It is clear that the future must be accessible,” he said, “not as a
banking counter. was made a Conservative peer in 2013. is digital, but there are a considerable ‘nice to have’, but an essential for every
Two years later French was back, Since then he has been trying to number of people that should be rightly citizen to be financially and digitally
driven by anger over the closure of the ensure advances in digital technology able and enabled to rely on traditional included.”
Harpenden branch of NatWest, the
bank that had employed him for 38
years until his retirement in 1995.
“I haven’t been able to put the cause
down since because so much has been
Chris: going wrong,” said French, who lives in
the Hertfordshire town. “It wasn’t
Olympian cheap running the campaign. I went to
America to look at the technology be-
effort hind shared bank branches.”
Shared banks are finally here. Hubs
run by the Post Office and staffed by
representatives of different banks each
day from Monday to Friday have been
introduced in Cambuslang, South Lan-
arkshire, and Rochford, Essex. Five
more will be launched this year.
“I think we’ve prised open a window
of opportunity but it needs a concerted
effort to keep it open,” French said.

John Bachtler
The man who gets most of the credit for
returning bank branches to Cambus-
lang is a softly spoken academic origi-
nally from Ruislip, London.
John Bachtler moved to the town
on the outskirts of Glasgow 40
years ago to work at the
University of Strathclyde.
He became involved in
campaigning for in-
vestment for

the town,
w
which he
ffelt “had
b
been starved
of it,” but the
closure of
the town’s
l
last three
ba
banks within an
18-month period was
a setback.
branches was falling 10 per cent a year “When the
until the pandemic, when it was cut in banks closed it
half. Online banking app usage has w a slap in the
was
soared. fa for everything
face
While San Juan has become a we were trying to do,” Bachtler said.
hero in Spain for his campaign, the “We were going backwards because a
UK has its own heroes fighting to lot of businesses said they lost trade.”
save bank access for older and vul- Bachtler and the Cambuslang com-
nerable communities. munity council began lobbying and
eventually heard of a pilot for shared
Derek French bank branches in some communities.
“We talked about what these pilots
Derek French was supposed to could do for Cambuslang, and we were
have retired and given up fight- very clear that we needed a physical
ing the banks. space. We were quite cynical, wonder-
For 18 years the 82-year-old ing if they were listening to us, but, sur-
led the Campaign for Commu- prisingly, they actually were.”
nity Banking Services, made up It opened in April 2021 and proved
of business and consumer such a success that it has been extended
groups and think tanks, which until 2023.
62 Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

Money

Pssst, wanna know the two Performance, % 250

200

funds all the experts love? Fidelity Global

D
Dividend 150

Some investments are

T
he “best-buy” lists of recom- it thinks are the best of the bunch. And For this reason, best-buy lists create a 100
mended funds published by each investment house chooses its possibility of litigation if a recommend-
widely recommended, investment platforms have range differently. ation turns out to be a bad one, as the

Source: FE fundinfo
their critics, but we are still Some argue that these lists are a investment platform Hargreaves Lans-
but they still may not following them when it helpful starting point for novice inves- down has found out. 50

be a great bet, writes comes to choosing where to put billions

of pounds of our money.
Every company that allows you to
David Brenchley invest directly has a list of the funds that
tors, while others say they are effective-
ly financial advice, but done without
any proper consideration of what level
of risk an investor is willing to take.
The firm is being sued by RGL Man-
agement over its promotion of the
SPDR MSCI
ACWI ETF
Woodford Equity Income fund run by
the disgraced manager Neil Woodford. 0
Hargreaves had the fund on its best- 2012 14 16 18 20 22
buy lists and 130,000 small investors
poured money into it over its five-year
life, before it was shut down in 2019, Performance, % 300
trapping investors’ money. Commenta-
tors criticised Hargreaves for keeping Barings Europe
the fund on its list despite years of poor Select Trust 250
performance and concerns about the
way it was being run. Total losses for
investors could add up to more than
£1 billion. 200
The Woodford episode spurred the
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA),
the City regulator, to dictate that any- 150
one operating a best-buy list “must con-
struct them impartially and manage
conflicts [of interest]”. 100

Source: FE fundinfo
It seems an obvious point, but for
years platforms were accused of favour-
ing funds if they offered that platform’s SPDR MSCII 50
customers lower fees. Europe Small
Hargreaves and AJ Bell explicitly Cap UCITS ETF
state on their websites that they do not 0
receive payment or commission in ex-
change for inclusion on their lists. 2012 14 16 18 20 22
In 2019 Hargreaves had to remove
funds run by Lindsell Train from its
best-buy list. Lindsell Train owns ital trusts. Add in the almost 3,000
about 14 per cent of Hargreaves exchange traded funds (a type of
Lansdown shares. tracker) and you have more
Interactive Investor has than 7,000 options — not
farmed out the compila- including shares in listed

£8,188
tion of its Super 60 and companies from across
Ace 40 buy lists to the world.
Morningstar, a Best-buy lists
funds ratings from the five
agency. Inter- largest invest-
active’s chief ment
executive Rich- return on £1,000 platforms — Har-
ard Wilson said that invested in Barings greaves, Interactive
best-buy lists were Europe Select Trust Investor, AJ Bell,
important for private in- in January 2005 Tilney’s BestInvest and
vestors, but needed to Fidelity — reduce this
evolve. “We don’t want to complex universe down to a
mark our own homework,” he more manageable 274 funds,
said. trusts and ETFs.
Analysis by Money shows that no
0 Which funds are in? single fund is on the buy list of all five
There are more than 3,800 funds for in- platforms — but two make it on to four
vestors to choose from, as well as about lists, and neither are run by the so-
400 investment trusts and venture cap- called star fund managers Terry Smith,

Savers claim £10m lost to

M
ore than £9 million has been
paid out in compensation to
pension savers who lost money
after transferring their savings to the
firm Greyfriars Asset Management.
The Financial Services Compensa-
tion Scheme (FSCS), which can pay up
to £85,000 to those who lose money
after investing in firms that fail, has had
523 claims in relation to Greyfriars,
which appointed administrators in
2018. The FSCS had paid out a total of
£9.1 million on 199 claims up to the end
of last month.
The latest liquidator’s report into
Greyfriars in January showed a further
£1.14 million of claims had been lodged
by 22 unsecured creditors to the firm.
Greyfriars, which was part of the
Cheshire-based consultancy Best Asset
Management Group, offered a pension
service called Portfolio Six, also known
as P6, which invested in a series of high-
risk unregulated bonds that were
created by the Best group. The bonds
offered investment in multiple projects
around the world including car parks
and office developments in the Middle
East, luxury hotels in Cape Verde and
recycling centres in the UK.
Greyfriars has been linked to a
number of misselling claims against
financial advisers who marketed the P6
service, often to unsophisticated inves-
tors. Best International did not sell the
bonds itself.
Greyfriars approved some of the
marketing literature used by financial
advisers explaining how the bonds
worked, including statements that the
products were “asset backed”.
In October, Omar Hussein, a former
director and financial adviser at Con-
sumer Wealth, a pension-switching
firm, was banned from offering finan-
cial advice and fined £116,000 by the
regulator, the Financial Conduct
Authority (FCA), for providing “reck-
 the times | Saturday February 12 2022
The recommended funds
Funds on four buy lists Fidelity Strategic Bond; Asia Pacific Leaders
Barings Europe Select; Fidelity Special Sustainability; TB Amati
Fidelity Global Dividend Situations; iShares Core UK Smaller Companies;
Funds on three lists FTSE 100 ETF; Jupiter Threadneedle UK Equity
ASI Global Smaller Asian Income; Jupiter Income; TM CRUX
Companies; Artemis UK Special Situations; European Special
Corporate Bond; Artemis Liontrust UK Growth; Situations; TR Property;
US Smaller Companies; M&G Global Macro Bond; Vanguard FTSE250 ETF;
Baillie Gifford Japanese; Ninety One UK Alpha; Vanguard FTSE
BlackRock Continental Scottish Mortgage Trust; Developed Europe
European Income; Stewart Investors; ex-UK ETF
Nick Train and James Anderson. The funds are on two lists, including Smith’s
funds are the £2.5 billion Fidelity Glob- Fundsmith Equity and Train’s LF Lind-
al Dividend, managed by Daniel Rob- sell Train UK Equity.
erts, and the £1.4 billion Barings Europe
Select Trust, run by Nick Williams. 0 The special two:
A further 21 funds, including the pop- Fidelity Global Dividend
ular Scottish Mortgage Investment This fund invests in large global compa-
Trust, are on three buy lists and 50 nies with the aim of providing investors
collapsed firm Is your money among the £45bn in dog funds?
T
less and unsuitable” pension-switching he list that names and shames
advice. Hussein had advised 620 clients poorly performing funds has a
to move their retirement funds to the surprising entry on it.
Greyfriars P6 service. The rundown of “dog funds” com-
These investments were illiquid and piled by the investment platform
likely to be unsuitable for the low-net- BestInvest includes the Fidelity Global
worth, financially inexperienced inves- Dividend fund — an investment that,
tors who were the firm’s target market, somewhat awkwardly, is on Best-
the FCA said. Invest’s own list of recommended funds
The FSCS is assessing claims based that it offers investors. It is also on the
on whether Greyfriars conducted suffi- best-buy lists of the platforms Har-
cient due diligence over what its cus- greaves Lansdown, Interactive Inves-
tomers wanted to invest in. tor and Fidelity.
The FSCS payments are covered by a If you invested £100 three years ago
industry levy paid by all financial advis- in the fund, you would have made £44
ers but ultimately covered by savers profit.
though higher advice charges. The levy The investment firm Schroders runs
this year is estimated to be a total of 11 funds, holding almost £10 billion of
£833 million, up from £700 million the investors’ cash, on the Spot a Dog list of
year before, due to a rise in complex 86 funds. Six of those funds are man-
pension misselling claims. aged by Schroders on behalf of the
Best International was asked to com- firms HBOS and Scottish Widows.
ment. Funds are put in the doghouse if they
Ali Hussain give investors a return at least 5 per cent
ALAMY
with a stream of dividend payments.
Since it launched ten years ago it has
performed worse than the Morgan
Stanley Capital International (MSCI)
All Countries World Index (ACWI), the
index the fund compares itself against.
In fact, if you had invested £1,000 in
Fidelity Global Dividend in January
2012, you would have £3,150 today,
according to FE fundinfo, a data provid-
er. If you had invested that £1,000 in the
SPDR MSCI ACWI exchange traded
fund (ETF), you would have £44 more.
That said, Fidelity Global Dividend
offers a dividend yield of 2.7 per cent,
compared with the ETF’s 1.85 per cent.
It has also performed better than most
of its peers: it is the third best perform-
ing fund out of 20 in the Investment
Association’s (IA) Global Equity In-
come sector over the past ten years.
The largest holdings in the fund
include the consumer goods firms
Procter & Gamble and Unilever, the
below the overall return for their sector
for three years.
The wealth managers St James’s
Place, abrdn (formerly Standard Life
Aberdeen) and Jupiter Asset Manage-
ment each have six funds on the list.
The biggest fund on the list is the
£3.9 billion JP Morgan US Equity In-
come fund. It was the 18th-biggest
underperformer, trailing its bench-
mark by 32 per cent.
The 86 poor performers hold
£45.4 billion in assets, 54 per cent
higher than the £29.6 billion held by the
dog funds that made it on to
BestInvest’s August list. These funds
would have generated fees of £463 mil-
lion for their investment managers,
based on their current size and continu-
ing charges.
Jason Hollands, the managing di-
rector of BestInvest, said the fact that
the stock markets had been booming
has made it harder for investors to
63
Money
technology products maker Cisco and record of the fund’s management team.
Relx, an analytics firm. The fund has an Its analysts then look in more detail
ongoing charge of 0.93 per cent. at the quality of management, the firm’s
Tracy Zhao from Interactive Investor culture and the investment process. A
said that the fund had outperformed its proposed addition must be seconded by
peer group over five years, with less a senior member of the research team.
volatility. “The fund might be a good The team then debates the fund’s
choice for investors who seek income merits, with someone playing a “devil’s
from a global source,” she said. advocate”. The fund must gain at least a
two-vote majority to be added.
0 Barings Europe Select Trust The list is regularly reviewed and a
This fund invests in small and medium proposal for the removal of a fund
sized companies listed on stock needs a majority vote of one.
markets across Europe. Its largest hold- AJ Bell says that for active funds it
ings include the Dutch insurer ASR assesses the fund manager, team and
Nederland, the Swiss packaging com- wider organisation; the investment
pany SIG Combibloc and Euronext process; the portfolio and the fund’s
Brussels, the Brussels stock exchange. ability to meet its objectives; and the
Nick Williams took over the running cost of a fund and the value added by
of the fund in January 2005. Since then, the manager.
the fund has turned £1,000 into £8,188 For index-trackers, it researches the
— much more than the £5,301 return ability to successfully track its chosen
from its comparison index, the EMIX index, the cost of the fund or ETF, and
Smaller European Companies ex UK its size and liquidity, and compares it
index. Over ten years, the fund is ninth against its peer group. It only selects
out of 18 funds in the IA European passive funds that replicate their
Smaller Companies sector. chosen index by holding the shares of
Emma Wall from Hargreaves said all companies in it, as opposed to
that the fund had underperformed re- passives that use complex instruments
cently because its style has been out of known as derivatives.
favour. However, she said that Williams Interactive Investor’s list is put
was an experienced investor capable together by Morningstar’s Manager
of navigating ups and downs in Selection Services Group. It looks
markets. for liquid funds and compares
performance against their
0 And one they over- benchmark index.
2.7%
looked: It then analyses a
Fundsmith Equity fund’s risk compared
The UK’s biggest with the returns it
fund, the £26 bil- has generated
lion Fund- versus its
smith Equity, peers, before
managed by Ter- Dividend yield on checking its
ry Smith, is on only the popular costs: the firm
two best-buy lists: Fidelity Global avoids investments
Interactive Investor’s Dividend fund with an initial charge
Super 60 and BestInvest’s and requires the fund to be
The Best Funds List. good value for money. Ana-
Hargreaves has said that lysts then assess the fund in
Fundsmith has a lack of transpar- more detail, examining how the
ency because it gives data on its hold- fund management operates and the
ings on a six-monthly basis rather than management team’s experience.
monthly. Fidelity doesn’t list as exhaustive a
Ryan Hughes, who collates AJ Bell’s methodology on its website, but said
Favourite Funds list, said that the firm that it first looks at performance, con-
has higher conviction in other manag- sistency and a range of other metrics. It
ers that have exposure to similar stocks. then digs deeper and conducts manag-
Its choice of replacement is the Baillie er meetings to ensure that the invest-
Gifford Global Alpha Growth fund, ment process and philosophy remains
which it points out has almost identical on the right track.
performance as Fundsmith since its list It then whittles its shortlist down to
was launched and lower fees. 50 funds, assessing them on their price
versus similar funds and any discount
0 How are funds chosen? they are prepared to offer its customers.
Hargreaves says that its list “only BestInvest’s The Best Funds List is
contains the funds that our in-depth the biggest, with 120 funds on it. The
analysis indicates have the greatest firm has “ten commandments” listed
performance potential”. on its site outlining the qualities a fund
After screening for funds eligible to should possess. These include: not sim-
be held in Isas and self-invested pen- ply holding similar stocks to an index;
sion plans (Sipps), it assesses the liquid- having managers willing to invest their
ity, size and underlying holdings of a own money; having clear goals, a stable
fund as well as checking the track team and a diverse portfolio.
identify weak funds because many had
made money “irrespective of the skill of
their managers”.
Just one fund investing in companies
from emerging markets and one fund
owning small UK firms were on the list,
while there were no funds investing in
small companies in North America,
Europe or Japan.
Schroders said: “We are confident
that we will repay our clients’ commit-
ment by navigating short-term challen-
ges to deliver returns in the future.”
St James’s Place said that it had
merged a number of its funds on the list,
and introduced new fund managers.
The fund manager abrdn said that
“performance in some of these funds
had showed signs of improvement”.
BestInvest said: “We still maintain
our conviction that Fidelity Global
Dividend fund can deliver for investors
Managers of the 86 ‘dog funds’ on the over the long term.”
BestInvest list have had £463m in fees David Brenchley
64
Money
Wealthy families know
how to invest. Copy them
G
iovanni Agnelli helped to
Get rich slowly
owly found Fiat, the carmaker,
in 1899. Some 70 years
later, and long after its
David founder’s death, Fiat took
a 50 per cent stake in Ferrari.
Brenchley The high-octane exploits of drivers
such as Niki Lauda and Michael
Schumacher may have made Ferrari’s
name on the Formula One racetrack
over the decades, but the Agnellis’
finances are run far more
conservatively. They have one firm to
look after much of their wealth: Exor.
Exor is one of many holding
companies that manage investments
for wealthy families that can be
invested in by ordinary investors like
you and me. Its aim is to grow the
Agnellis’ money at a sustainable rate
over decades, as well as the money of
its other investors. This is as much
about wealth protection as it is about
making returns, allowing these
dynasties to pass down their riches
through the generations.
Today, Exor is a €17 billion
(£14.3 billion) fund which owns two
thirds of Juventus Football Club,
almost a quarter of the luxury fashion
retailer Christian Louboutin, below,
23 per cent of Ferrari, and 43 per cent
of the Economist Group, which is
behind the financial magazine.
And right now Exor, as well as
other holding companies managing
rich families’ wealth, look to me like a
good way to dampen your exposure
to the rapidly growing technology
companies whose shares are falling.
Another example is the Stockholm-
listed company Investor AB, which
was set up in 1916 by the Wallenbergs,
a family of bankers. AB now has a
17 per cent stake in the industrials firm
Atlas Copco, owns about a third of
the carmaker Saab, 8 per cent of
telecoms provider Ericsson and a
tenth of Nasdaq, the financial markets
firm.
While shares in these holding
companies have fallen this year, it
could be worse. Baillie Gifford is an
investment house that specialises in
“growth” funds, meaning it invests in
companies that have a high valuation
on the basis of expected
future profits, like Tesla,
for example. Baillie
Gifford’s flagship
fund, Scottish
Mortgage, which
is heavily
invested in tech,
is down 18 per
cent this year
while Exor is
down 10 per cent.
If, like me,
you’re looking for
investments to help
cushion your
portfolio when high-
growth stocks falter, then
holding companies look more
interesting than alternatives such as
cheap shares, bitcoin or gold.
Rob Burgeman from the wealth
manager Brewin Dolphin said: “These
vehicles offer exposure to some of the
most experienced long-term investors
around. One thing you can guarantee
with them is that they are unlikely to
correlate with the wider market.
What they care about is long-term
capital preservation.”
They do come with risks: Exor’s
shares fell 85 per cent in the dotcom
crash in the early 2000s, 80 per cent
in the credit crunch and more than
halved during 2020’s Covid sell-off.
Shares are down 16.5 per cent since
early November, which could provide
a buying point, although you may
want to wait to see if they fall more,
or drip-feed money in monthly.
I’d prefer a less risky way to access
Get 0.5% interest at NS&I
N
S&I savers had a boost this week
when the interest on two of its
most popular accounts went up
to 0.5 per cent.
The government-owned bank that
holds £205 billion of our savings raised
the rates on its Direct Saver and
Income Bonds from 0.35 per cent.
Savings in NS&I are 100 per cent
guaranteed because it is backed by the
Treasury. Deposits of up to £85,000 in
other banks and building societies are
protected by the Financial Services
Compensation Scheme. The amount of
cash NS&I can raise in a year is limited
to between £3 billion and £9 billion
because it is not supposed to be compet-
ing with commercial banks. Its specific
target for this financial year is £6 billion,
and between April and December it
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
Building fortunes
Performance (%)
60
AVI Global Trust
iShares Core MSCI World ETF
40
20
0
-20
Source: FE fundinfo
f
-40
A J O J A J O J
2020 2021 2022
them, however. This is likely to come
through AVI Global Trust, which
invests in investment trusts, holding
companies and single stocks.
Exor and Investor AB account for
a tenth of AVI’s portfolio, with the
hedge fund Pershing Square and the
Romanian government-backed SC
Fondul Proprietatea other large
holdings.
Its stock has fallen 8.7 per cent this
year, with the share price of 202p well
below the value of the underlying
assets that it holds, which
come to 218.7p a share and
put it on a 7 per cent
discount. That looks
attractive. Shares
are up 53 per cent
over five years.
At the
moment, other
inflation hedges
are looking
questionable.
Bitcoin seems to
be more correlated
with volatile
technology stocks
rather than the store of
value its evangelists believe
it to be. That’s probably because
the fickle buyers of bitcoin are also
those that buy racy stocks such as the
electric carmaker Rivian or the video
games retailer GameStop.
Value shares look a better bet but
while Schroder Global Recovery has
done well for me, Ninety One Global
Special Situations has been a
disappointment.
Ferraris might get your heart rate
pounding, but I’ll settle for hitching
my wagon to more conservatively
managed companies and hope that
they can continue to deliver for their
families — and me.
Online
Follow David Brenchley’s
investments as he
makes his changes
thetimes.co.uk/getrichslowly
had raised only £2.1 billion from savers,
so it has room to raise more by increas-
ing rates.
Savings rates are creeping up across
the market after the Bank of England
base rate went from 0.1 per cent to
0.25 per cent in December and up again
to 0.5 per cent last week. The best rate
you can get on an easy-access account
is 0.73 per cent, from Ford Money.
James Blower from the comparison
site Moneyfacts said he did not expect
any more rate rises from NS&I until the
new financial year, when the chancellor
will announce its next fundraising
target, expected to be £7.8 billion.
NS&I said: “NS&I prices products by
balancing the needs of savers, taxpay-
ers and the stability of the sector.”
George Nixon
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
Why does my bank hide its rates?
Times Money
Mentor
Troubleshooter
Katherine
Denham
O
ver the years I have been
subjected to declining
interest rates on my
hard-earned savings. In-
terest rates are thankful-
ly creeping up at last, albeit by frac-
tions of a percentage point, but while
these increases are welcome, it seems
you have to beg the bank to get them.
My query is quite simple: why are
the banks not obliged to inform you
that a better interest rate is available,
hidden in a “new issue”?
I have been told that it is up to the
savers to keep an eye out for new
issues and ask the bank to upgrade
their account accordingly. This
denies loyal customers automatic
access to better interest rates and
discriminates in favour of new cus-
tomers. And it is extremely under-
handed practice that when banks
decrease their rates, they do not
prompt customers to change their
account to a new issue.
It seems quite obvious to anybody
that this poor practice has to be out-
lawed and savers treated in a fair and
more reasonable way when trusting
their savings to a bank.
Ian Mitchell
Address supplied
Troubleshooter says
We are finally seeing interest rates
increase from their record lows after
two base rate hikes in the space of six
weeks. While this means that bor-
rowing costs will rise, the silver lining
is that there has been a marginal
increase in the interest on savings
accounts.
The best easy-access savings ac-
count pays 0.71 per cent, an increase
‘They say I owe £1,800. I really don’t’
In December I got an email from
a debt collection agency that
said it had been appointed by
Together Energy to collect £1,826
from me, apparently related to
a final payment that wasn’t
received when I moved out.
I left the address in April 2019
and had told my energy supplier
OneSelect, later taken over by
Together Energy, that I was
moving house. Before I moved
out I was told that I owed £74.31,
which I paid immediately, and
Together confirmed that there
was no further balance due. The
company said I would be issued
with a final bill, although I never
received it.
I have had no contact from
Together since April 2019.
The debt collector was unable
to give me a breakdown of the
amount they claimed I owed,
but said it would ask Together
Energy to produce one. I have
tried to call Together Energy, but
have been unable to make any
progress and keep being put on
Money Mentor
Online
All the best savings
accounts compared by
independent experts
thetimes.co.uk/money-mentor
from 0.67 per cent in November,
before the Bank of England’s first rate
rise from 0.1 per cent to 0.25 per cent
in December. It was raised to 0.5 per
cent ten days ago.
Some people are surprised that
interest on savings accounts doesn’t
increase automatically when rates
rise — most banks won’t increase
them immediately, if at all, but
mortgage rates, somehow, do seem to
go up right away.
Many banks have different issues
of their savings product — to attract
new customers — and as you say, this
can make it hard for savers to know
when there is a better rate.
The City regulator, the Financial
Conduct Authority (FCA), has been
hold. Is this the sort of thing you
could help me with?
Jon Hall
Address supplied
Troubleshooter says
Fortunately I was able to
ou
get answers for you
before Together
Energy joined
the dozens of
suppliers that
have gone bust
in the energy
crisis. You will
be pleased to
hear that you
don’t owe £1,826
because a manuall
error meant that
n’t
your account wasn’t
closed correctly back in 2019.
Together Energy had closed the
electricity but not the gas
account. This led to bills still
being generated for the gas
supply, amounting to a huge sum
of money over three years before
your account was referred to a
65
Money
savers question whether it’s worth
switching to earn a few extra pounds
a year.
Before the pandemic the regulator
had been considering the introduc-
tion of a basic savings rate. This
would allow banks to offer multiple
introductory rates for new custom-
ers, but after 12 months the loyal
savers would move to a single rate
paid across all the bank’s easy-access
accounts.
The idea was that banks would end
up competing by offering a higher
single rate to avoid losing their
customers after a year. However, the
FCA abandoned these plans when
the pandemic began and interest
rates hit rock bottom.
For a full list of the top-paying
savings accounts, go to our sister site
Times Money Mentor.
If you would like us to investigate
a consumer problem, write to
Troubleshooter, Times Money,
1 London Bridge Street,
London SE1 9GF or
troubleshooter@thetimes.co.uk.
Please include a phone number
considering ways of improving the
cash savings market for years. It has
told banks to notify customers if the
rate on their account is going to fall,
including giving notice when an
introductory bonus rate is about to
expire.
But why aren’t banks obliged to tell
their customers that a better deal is
available?
In 2015 the FCA conducted a trial
in which 130,000 savers were given
information about comparable high-
paying products, or given the option
to return a pre-filled form to make it
simple to switch to a better rate. It
found that this led to only a small
increase in the number of people
switching, and so decided it wasn’t
worth implementing new rules.
It’s clear that savers’ inertia is a big
part of the problem: if more people
switched as soon as their savings
account became uncompetitive the
banks would be forced to offer better
deals to avoid losing customers.
The other problem is that rates
continue to be pitiful, making many
debt collector. Together Energy
said: “We have now updated the
gas supply correctly and created
a final bill which confirms the
zero balance. We are extremely
apologetic to Mr Hall for this
inconvenie
inconvenience.”
d
The debt collection
agenc has removed
agency
you account details.
your
a
I asked Together
En
Energy to confirm
th there would
that
b no impact on
be
yo credit file
your
an
and it said there
wo
wouldn’t be.
Y said you
You
were glad I was able
to resolve
to reso this quickly,
but couldn
but couldn’t understand
why Together En Energy didn’t try
to contact you before involving
a debt collection agency.
I had asked if Together would
give you compensation, but it
went bust the next day. British
Gas has been appointed to
manage its 176,000 accounts.
66 Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

Money Unit trust

Unit trust and open-ended investment company prices

Weekly Yld Weekly Yld Weekly Yld Weekly Yld Weekly Yld Weekly Yld
Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- %

ALLIANZ GLOBAL INVESTORS FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL UK Sml Cos Eqty Acc ‡@ 1688.66 … -14.42 … UK Irsh Sm Co Fd A Acc ‡@ 742.50 … +6.60 … M & G SECURITIES Hi Inc Bond A Ac ‡@ 252.20 … -2.50 4.03
Inv Serv: 020 7065 1400 Helpline: 0800 317 573 Private Clnts 0800 414161 Broker Dlgs 0800 414181 UK Sml Cos Gwth ‡@ 82.54 … -1.65 … UK Property A Acc @ 257.95 270.59 +0.17 … Enq: 0800 390 390 Dealing Line: 0800 328 3196 Hi Inc Bond A Inc ‡@ 79.00 … -0.77 4.11
Gilt Yield A ‡@ 206.01 … -0.62 1.05 Amer Spec Sits ‡@ 2176.00 … +35.00 … UK Property A Inc @ 103.61 108.68 +0.07 … Authorised Inv Funds Hi Res A Acc ‡@ 395.00 … +3.40 …
Strategic Bond Fund ‡@ 189.84 … -0.91 … American ‡@ 5420.00 … +22.00 … US Growth Fund A Acc ‡@ 1845.00 … +61.00 … Charifund Inc ‡ 1582.68 … +15.08 … Hi Res A Inc ‡@ 128.10 … +1.10 …
UK Corp Bond C ‡@ 104.79 … -0.77 … Euro Opps ‡@ 556.70 … -5.90 … Safety Plus A Acc ‡@ 40.49 … -0.14 …
UK Eqty C ‡@ 6317.26 … +49.77 3.28 European ‡@ 3130.00 … -17.00 0.29 Strat Inc A Acc ‡@ 214.60 … -3.10 …
UK Eqty Inc A ‡@ 349.61 … +4.48 3.47 Extra Income ‡@ 26.65 … -0.23 3.95 Sterling Class A Investment Funds 1 Strat Inc A Inc ‡@ 97.52 … -1.39 …
UK Gwth A ‡@ 8380.33 … +91.94 … Glob Spec Sits ‡@ 5711.00 … +42.00 … UK Gwth A Acc ‡@ 201.50 … +3.70 …
INVESTEC FUND MGRS Euro Smlr Cos Acc ‡ 525.29 … +6.31 … UK Sel Gwth A Acc ‡@ 2325.00 … +36.00 …
UK Index A Inc ‡@ 1423.81 … -10.08 … Global Focus ‡@ 2806.00 … +1.00 … Euro Smlr Cos Inc ‡ 462.50 … +5.55 …
UK Mid Cap A ‡@ 5359.93 … +48.03 0.06 International ‡@ 149.50 … +1.10 0.08 Broker Support and Dealing: 020 7597 1900
JP MORGAN ASSET MGMT
Japan ‡@ 528.20 … -1.60 …
OEIC Series i,ii,iii, & iv
Moneybldr Bal ‡@ 48.14 … -0.03 … OEIC Sterling Class A Investment Funds 2
Moneybldr Glob 327.60 327.60 -1.90 0.21 American A Acc ‡@ 646.76 … -5.69 …
Moneybldr Gwth ‡@ 76.12 … +0.20 … Asia A Acc ‡@ 290.80 … +2.10 … Extra Income Inc ‡ 750.52 … -0.14 … OEIC B Class
Asia ex Japan A Acc ‡@ 787.10 … -5.22 … Gilt & Fxd Int Inc ‡ 95.11 … -2.12 …
Moneybldr Inc ‡@ 35.31 … -0.40 … Capital Accumulator A Acc ‡@ 231.48 … +8.50 … Emerging Mkts ‡@ 283.20 … +0.70 … Tracker and Specialist Investment Funds
ARTEMIS FUND MGRS LTD Moneybldr UK Ind ‡@ 126.57 … +1.49 … Eur Dyn (ex-UK) A Acc ‡@ 287.40 … +3.60 … Gl Hi Yd Bd Inc ‡ 44.79 … -0.38 …
Cautious Managed A Acc ‡@ 407.46 … +1.02 … Index Linked Bd Inc ‡ 163.88 … -3.79 … UK Trkr B Acc ‡@ 409.50 … +7.50 …
0800 092 2051 Special Sits ‡@ 4515.00 … +47.00 … Euro Smllr Cos ‡@ 985.00 … -8.60 …
Cautious Managed A Inc ‡@ 261.77 … +0.65 … Index Trckr Inc ‡ 77.54 … +0.35 … UK Trkr B Inc ‡@ 191.50 … +3.50 …
Authorised Inv Funds Wealthbuilder 69.75 72.18 -0.11 … Europe A Acc ‡@ 1815.00 … +14.00 …
Diversified Growth A Acc ‡@ 133.35 … -0.34 … Short Dated Corp Bd Inc ‡ 25.62 … … 1.20
Capital R Acc ‡@ 2148.24 … +40.37 … Diversified Growth A Inc ‡@ 142.06 … -0.36 … Gbl Hi Yld Bd A Acc ‡@ 126.60 … -1.00 4.27
UK Select A Inc ‡ 3048.58 … +25.20 …
Euro Opps R Acc ‡@ 91.26 … +1.71 1.29 Diversified Income A Acc ‡@ 328.82 … -0.71 … Gbl Hi Yld Bd A Inc ‡@ 34.24 … -0.27 4.39
Euro Opps R Inc ‡@ 85.36 … +1.59 1.30 Diversified Income A Inc ‡@ 73.05 … -0.15 … Gl ex-UK Bd A Acc ‡@ 278.10 … -3.50 …
European Growth R Acc ‡@ 400.82 … +13.67 … HALIFAX INVESTMENT FUND MGRS LTD Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Acc ‡@ 121.02 … -0.91 … Gl ex-UK Bd A Inc ‡@ 213.00 … -2.60 …
Sterling Class A Investment Funds 3 UK and Income Investment Funds
Global Energy R Acc ‡@ 34.67 … +0.29 … 01296 386 386 Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Acc Gross ‡@ 125.82 … +0.06 … Glb Fins A Acc ‡@ 1077.00 … +12.00 1.03
Global Growth R Acc ‡@ 355.89 … +7.57 … Authorised Inv Funds Global A Acc ‡@ 2116.00 … +26.00 … Corp Bd A Inc ‡ 38.62 … -0.38 … Corp Bond B Acc ‡@ 370.70 … +0.40 …
Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Inc ‡@ 74.87 … -0.56 …
Global Income R Acc ‡@ 161.86 … +1.56 … Share Class `C Japan A Acc ‡@ 577.00 … +7.50 … Dividend Inc ‡ 57.66 … +0.76 4.52 Corp Bond B Inc ‡@ 136.30 … +0.10 …
Emerging Mkts Equity A Acc ‡@ 173.79 … +4.42 …
Global Income R Inc ‡@ 106.27 … +1.02 … Multi-Man Tst A Acc ‡@ 1405.00 … +16.00 … Recovery A Inc ‡ 122.84 … +1.04 … UK Gwth B Acc ‡@ 205.60 … -0.60 …
Corporate Bond ‡ 37.87 … -0.48 … Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt A Acc ‡@ 183.33 … +0.63 …
Global Select R Acc ‡@ 159.49 … +1.37 … Multi-Man Tst A Inc ‡@ 1249.00 … +15.00 … Sml Cos Inc ‡ 425.41 … +2.35 … UK Sel Gwth B Acc ‡@ 2481.00 … +8.00 …
Ethical ‡@ 116.10 … +1.70 … Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt A Inc ‡@ 77.03 … +0.27 …
High Income R Inc ‡@ 70.59 … -0.95 … European ‡@ 109.50 … +1.00 … Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt Gross I Acc ‡@ 220.49 … -1.26 … Nat Resources ‡@ 845.70 … +24.10 …
Income R Acc ‡@ 507.94 … +7.08 3.56 Far Eastern ‡ 122.00 … +3.00 … Enhanced Natural Resources A Acc ‡@ 134.24 … -4.54 … New Europe A ‡@ 235.20 … +1.20 2.11
Income R Inc ‡@ 231.97 … +3.23 3.66 Sterling Class A Investment Funds 4
Fund of Inv Tst ‡@ 145.80 … +1.60 0.20 Global Bond A Acc ‡@ 139.30 … +5.98 0.82 Portfolio ‡@ 330.50 … +0.70 …
Monthly Dist R Inc ‡@ 71.14 … -0.12 3.51 Intl Gwth ‡ 125.10 … +1.30 … Global Bond A Inc ‡@ 109.33 … +4.52 0.82 Stg Corp Bd A Acc ‡@ 98.07 … -1.15 … Episode Allocation A Inc ‡@ 143.27 … +1.42 …
Strategic Assets R Acc ‡ 78.00 … +0.96 … Japanese ‡ 69.74 … +0.43 … Stg Corp Bd A Inc ‡@ 55.61 … -0.65 … OEIC C Class
Global Bond I Gross Inc ‡@ 1167.00 … +46.14 1.25
Strategic Bond R M Acc ‡@ 102.58 … -0.67 … North Amer ‡ 145.90 … -0.80 … UK Act 350 A Acc ‡@ 199.00 … -1.30 … UK and Income Investment Funds
Global Dynamic A Acc ‡@ 206.69 … +3.98 …
Strategic Bond R M Inc ‡@ 55.75 … -0.37 … Smaller Cos ‡@ 120.50 … -0.10 … UK Dynamic Acc ‡@ 215.70 … +2.10 … MARKS & SPENCER UNIT TRUST LTD
Global Energy A Acc ‡@ 170.97 … -4.81 … UK Gth C Inc ‡@ 138.70 … +2.50 …
Strategic Bond R Q Acc ‡@ 102.39 … -0.68 … Special Sits ‡@ 49.75 … +0.58 1.41 UK Dynamic Inc ‡@ 156.40 … +1.50 … 0808 005 5555
Global Equity A Acc ‡@ 227.96 … +2.15 … UK Sel Gwth C Acc ‡@ 2598.00 … +8.00 …
Strategic Bond R Q Inc ‡@ 55.72 … -0.37 … UK Equity Inc ‡@ 90.92 … +0.62 3.76 UK Equity A Acc ‡@ 401.90 … -4.70 3.45 High Income 102.90 102.90 -1.10 …
Global Franchise A Acc ‡@ 308.42 … +1.72 …
UK Growth R Acc ‡@ 742.90 … +16.64 … UK FTSE 100 IT ‡@ 67.54 … +0.84 … UK Equity A Inc ‡@ 46.44 … -0.54 3.49 High Income Acc 276.20 276.20 -2.90 …
Global Free Enterprise A Acc ‡@ 1299.23 … +20.37 …
UK Smaller Cos R Acc ‡@ 1962.91 … -1.37 … UK FTSE All-S IT ‡@ 78.19 … +0.88 … UK 100 Comp Acc @ 440.90 440.90 +6.10 …
Global Gold A Acc ‡@ 174.23 … +1.74 … UK Eqy & Bd Inc Acc ‡@ 167.10 … +2.30 …
UK Special Sits R Acc ‡@ 725.48 … +17.35 … UK Growth ‡@ 83.76 … +0.47 … UK 100 Cos @ 225.60 225.60 +3.10 …
Global Special Situations A Acc ‡@ 302.84 … +8.59 … UK Eqy & Bd Inc Inc ‡@ 90.29 … +0.88 …
Global Special Situations A Inc ‡@ 234.24 … +6.64 … UK Higher Inc A Acc ‡@ 1132.00 … +12.00 … UK Select Pflo @ 341.60 341.60 +4.70 … STANDARD LIFE INVESTMENTS
Managed Growth A Acc ‡@ 284.24 … +0.84 … UK Higher Inc A Inc ‡@ 531.30 … +4.30 … UK Selection Port Acc @ 683.90 683.90 +9.20 … 0845 279 3003
Monthly High Income A Acc ‡@ 243.45 … +2.02 3.54 UK Sm Cos A Acc ‡@ 686.50 … +4.50 0.27 Worldwide Mgd Acc @ 982.10 982.10 +7.50 … Investment Funds (OEIC) - Retail Shares
HSBC GLOBAL ASSET MGMT (UK) LTD Monthly High Income A Inc ‡@ 63.17 … +0.42 5.01 UK Str Eq Inc A Acc ‡@ 210.00 … +3.30 … Wwide Mgd @ 582.20 582.20 +4.40 …
Enq: 0845 745 6123 Dlg: 0845 745 6126 Mon-Fri 8-6 AAA Inc CAT Acc ‡@ 96.66 … -0.93 …
AXA FRAMLINGTON UNIT MGMT LTD Multi-Asset Protector A Acc ‡@ 171.91 … -0.33 … UK Str Eq Inc A Inc ‡@ 108.70 … +1.70 …
HSBC Index Tracker Investment Funds (OEIC) AAA Inc CAT Inc ‡@ 55.09 … -0.53 …
Dling: 0845 602 1952 Priv Clients: 0845 777 5511 Strategic Bond A Acc ‡@ 244.54 … +0.50 1.96 US A Acc ‡@ 1036.00 … +14.00 …
MORGAN STANLEY INVESTMENT MGMT LTD AAA Income Acc ‡@ 104.80 … -1.00 …
Amer Ind Acc ‡@ 904.33 … +5.22 … Strategic Bond A Inc ‡@ 119.47 … +0.23 3.32 US Sm Cos A Acc ‡@ 960.70 … +49.00 …
Equity Inc ‡@ 572.40 … -2.10 4.43 Enquires: 0800 0961 962 Amer Eq Gth Acc ‡@ 217.30 … +3.00 …
Amer Ind Inc ‡@ 733.85 … +4.23 … Corp Bond Acc ‡@ 178.20 … -2.10 …
Gilt Acc @ 201.30 211.80 -1.50 1.08 The Morgan Stanley Funds (UK)
Euro Ind Acc ‡@ 1147.94 … +6.62 … Corp Bond Inc ‡@ 61.50 … -0.71 …
Gilt Inc @ 74.35 78.24 -1.00 1.09 Class A Shares
Euro Ind Inc ‡@ 752.05 … +4.34 … Euro Eq Gth Acc ‡@ 247.30 … +2.50 0.35
Health Acc ‡ 2724.00 … +94.00 … Equity
FTSE 100 Ind Acc ‡@ 265.37 … +3.63 … Glb Advtg CAT Acc ‡@ 157.90 … +1.10 …
Jap Smlr Co Ac @ 62.56 66.09 -0.93 0.30
FTSE 100 Ind Inc ‡@ 124.58 … +1.71 … Dev Opp Fund F Acc ‡ 907.46 … +43.20 … Glob Advtg Acc ‡@ 208.50 … +1.30 …
Managed Inc ‡@ 138.30 … -0.70 4.20
FTSE 250 Ind Acc ‡@ 316.83 … +1.67 1.50 Dev Opp Fund I Acc ‡ 904.67 … +43.04 … Glob Eq Uncstrd Acc ‡@ 160.80 … +3.10 …
Monthly Inc Inc ‡@ 259.40 … +0.90 3.85
FTSE 250 Ind Inc ‡@ 200.28 … +1.06 0.43 Glob Bal Inc F F Acc ‡@ 989.18 … +2.59 … Higher Inc Acc ‡@ 150.40 … -0.60 3.90
UK Growth Inc ‡@ 239.60 … -3.60 …
FTSE All-S Acc ‡@ 696.11 … +12.64 … Glob Bal Inc F F Inc ‡@ 967.27 … +2.54 … Higher Inc Inc ‡@ 49.01 … -0.18 3.98
UK Select Opps Inc ‡@ 2091.00 … -24.00 …
FTSE All-S Inc ‡@ 363.66 … +6.61 … Glob Bal Inc F I Acc ‡ 988.67 … +2.58 … Japan Eq Gth Acc ‡@ 127.40 … -0.30 …
UK Sml Cos Inc ‡@ 372.20 … -5.60 …
Jap Ind Acc ‡@ 139.90 … -1.33 … Glob Bal Inc F I Inc ‡ 966.75 … +2.53 … Managed Acc ‡@ 349.20 … +0.80 …
Jap Ind Inc ‡@ 111.57 … -1.06 … Glob Bal Sust F F Acc ‡@ 980.69 … -0.79 … Select Inc Acc ‡@ 95.86 … -0.14 2.29
Pac Ind Acc ‡@ 514.64 … +11.69 … Glob Bal Sust F F Inc ‡@ 976.94 … -0.79 … Select Inc Inc ‡@ 54.53 … -0.08 2.31
Pac Ind Inc ‡@ 332.50 … +7.55 … Glob Bal Sust F I Acc ‡ 980.09 … -0.80 … UK Eq Gth Acc ‡@ 356.90 … +4.50 …
Glob Bal Sust F I Inc ‡ 976.80 … -0.79 … UK Eq Hi Alpha ‡@ 220.50 … +2.80 …
AXA FUND MANAGERS LTD Glob Br Eq Inc Fund F Inc ‡@ 1325.24 … -11.52 … UK Eq Hi Inc Acc ‡@ 266.30 … +4.00 3.53
Admin & Enq 0117 989 0808 Glob Br Eq Inc Fund I Acc ‡@ 1761.19 … -15.39 … UK Eq Hi Inc Inc ‡@ 76.56 … +1.13 3.64
AXA Trusts HSBC Investment Funds (OEIC) - Retail Share Class Glob Br Eq Inc Fund I Inc ‡@ 1423.42 … -12.45 … UK Ethical Acc ‡@ 221.60 … -0.30 …
Glob Br Fund I Acc (PH) ‡@ 13251.75 … -116.25 … UK Opps Acc ‡@ 293.40 … -5.50 …
Gen Acc ‡@ 2101.00 … -53.00 … Balanced Acc ‡@ 250.22 … +1.49 …
Glob Br Fund I Acc (PH) ‡@ 1669.77 … -14.23 0.84 UK Opps Inc ‡@ 266.70 … -4.90 …
Gen Inc ‡@ 1079.00 … -32.00 … Balanced Inc ‡@ 151.95 … +3.09 …
Glob Br Fund I Inc (PH) ‡@ 3654.50 … -32.06 … UK Smlr Cos Acc ‡@ 1026.00 … -7.00 …
Corp Bd Acc ‡@ 301.20 … -3.15 …
Glob Br Fund I Inc (PH) ‡@ 1605.90 … -13.68 0.85
Corp Bd Inc ‡@ 120.58 … -1.26 …
Glob Ins Fund F Acc ‡ 674.72 … +11.77 …
Gilt & Fd Int Acc ‡@ 497.78 … +7.06 1.19
Glob Ins Fund F Inc ‡ 674.71 … +11.76 …
Gilt & Fd Int Inc ‡@ 74.17 … +1.05 1.58
Glob Ins Fund I Acc ‡ 673.44 … +11.72 …
Income Acc ‡@ 690.71 … +9.56 …
Glob Ins Fund I Inc ‡ 673.44 … +11.72 …
UK/Global Investment Companies Income Inc ‡@ 296.21 … +4.10 … SVS BROWN SHIPLEY FUNDS
Glob Sust Fund F Acc (PH) ‡ 1275.00 … -8.02 0.56
Euro Acc A ‡@ 234.70 … +0.10 1.18 Monthly Inc Acc ‡@ 313.41 … -1.33 3.21 Enquiries: 0141 222 1151
Glob Sust Fund F Inc ‡@ 1259.23 … -8.19 …
Extra Inc Inc B ‡@ 86.74 … -1.81 1.16 Monthly Inc Inc ‡@ 136.11 … +0.94 …
Glob Sust Fund I Acc ‡@ 1270.75 … -8.30 … Balanced A Acc ‡@ 148.48 … +0.33 …
Global Gwth Acc R ‡ 301.30 … +5.20 … UK Grth & Inc Ret B Acc ‡@ 141.94 … +1.82 …
Glob Sust Fund I Acc (PH) ‡@ 1276.67 … -8.01 0.38 Balanced A Inc ‡@ 134.07 … +0.30 …
Japan Acc A ‡@ 166.00 … -1.30 … UK Grth & Inc Ret B Inc ‡@65.42 … +0.84 …
Glob Sustain Fund F Acc ‡@ 1275.53 … -8.30 … Cautious A Acc ‡@ 121.14 … -0.20 …
Pac Gwth Acc A ‡@ 552.30 … +13.30 … UK Gth & Inc Acc ‡@ 141.94 … +1.82 …
Stg Corp Bond F F Acc ‡@ 134.20 … -1.55 … Cautious A Inc ‡@ 106.52 … -0.17 …
UK Gth & Inc Inc ‡@ 65.42 … +0.84 …
Stg Corp Bond F F Inc ‡@ 109.34 … -1.27 … Dynamic A Acc ‡@ 359.18 … +2.04 …
Stg Corp Bond F I Acc ‡@ 2858.41 … -33.17 … Dynamic A Inc ‡ 325.94 … +1.84 …
Stg Corp Bond F I Inc ‡@1537.34 … -17.85 … Growth A Acc ‡@ 370.41 … +1.62 …
Sust Fixed Inc Opps F F Acc ‡ 976.65 … -6.62 … Income A Acc ‡@ 268.69 … +0.28 …
HSBC Specialist Investment Funds (OEIC) Sust Fixed Inc Opps F F Inc ‡ 960.68 … -6.50 … Sterling Bond Acc ‡@ 242.37 … +1.39 3.52
CIS UNIT MANAGERS LTD American Index Retail Acc ‡@ 904.33 … +5.22 … Sust Fixed Inc Opps F I Acc ‡ 974.37 … -6.63 … Sterling Bond Inc ‡@ 97.00 … +0.54 3.61
08457 46 46 46 American Index Retail Inc ‡@ 733.85 … +4.23 … Sust Fixed Inc Opps F I Inc ‡ 960.41 … -6.54 …
European Gwth ‡@ 203.80 … +0.60 … Asian Gth Acc ‡@ 147.77 … -0.67 … US Adv F F Acc ‡@ 2051.08 … +201.70 …
Sus Leaders ‡@ 777.90 … -7.80 … Asian Gth Inc ‡@ 130.99 … -0.59 … US Adv F F Acc (PH) ‡@ 1315.55 … +128.57 …
UK Growth ‡@ 646.10 … +0.30 … Chinese Eq Acc ‡@ 513.81 … -13.85 0.40 US Adv F I Acc ‡@ 2188.95 … +215.15 …
UK Income ‡@ 222.00 … +1.50 … Chinese Eq Inc ‡@ 434.76 … -11.72 0.34 US Adv F I Acc (PH) ‡@ 1382.16 … +134.98 … THREADNEEDLE INVESTMENTS
Euro Gth Acc ‡@ 973.97 … -10.00 0.41 Client Serv: 0800 0683000
Euro Gth Inc ‡@ 817.05 … -8.39 0.44 Intermediary Serv: 0800 0684000
SANTANDER UNIT TST MGRS Institutional Shares (Class 2) (163500,000 min)
08457 413002
UK Oseas Earns ‡@ 125.73 … +1.69 …
Bal Pfolio Inc ‡@ 110.50 … … 2.41
CLOSE FUND MANAGEMENT LTD IGNIS ASSET MGMT Bal Port Gwth Acc ‡@ 241.80 … -0.30 …
0870 606 6402 Dlg: 0141 222 8282 Equity Inc Inc ‡@ 229.50 … -0.90 …
Beacon Inv ‡ 84.88 … +0.45 0.01 American Gth Inc @ 322.55 340.42 +1.71 … N&P UK Gwth Inc ‡@ 182.80 … +6.00 …
Balanced Growth @ 262.17 276.69 -1.59 1.52 Target Return A Acc ‡@ 102.03 … +0.39 0.82 JUPITER UT MGRS LTD Stkmkt 100 Tkr @ 252.30 252.30 +1.50 …
UK Growth Acc ‡@ 496.60 … -2.30 … Managed Funds
Balanced Growth Acc @ 393.13 414.92 -2.40 1.49 Target Return A Inc ‡@ 87.63 … -0.07 0.87 020 7581 3020
Corporate Bond ‡@ 99.69 … -1.17 4.77 UK Alpha A Acc ‡@ 2702.05 … +20.88 … UK Growth Inc ‡@ 274.10 … -1.30 … Def Eqty & Bd Acc @ 128.00 128.00 +1.40 0.74
European Growth @ 403.88 426.26 -1.19 2.18 UK Blue Chip A Acc ‡@ 770.11 … +5.67 … Absolute Return ‡@ 39.39 … -0.29 … Eqty & Bd Acc @ 179.90 179.90 +3.30 0.73
European Growth Acc @ 475.71 502.07 -1.47 2.24 Distribution and Growth ‡@ 102.14 … -0.31 … Mgd Income @ 77.80 77.80 +1.83 …
Dealing: 020 7426 6232 UK Smaller Companies A Acc ‡@ 6469.85 … -9.69 … SCOTTISH MUTUAL INV MNGRS LTD
Glob Gwth @ 331.53 349.90 +2.16 … Emg Euro Opps ‡@ 241.90 … +2.15 …
UK Smaller Companies A Inc ‡@ 5803.06 … -8.69 … 0141 248 6100
Winchester ‡ 3775.82 … +33.98 0.29 Higher Yield @ 83.98 88.64 +0.86 4.43 Euro Special Sits ‡@ 465.72 … -4.72 …
Higher Yield Acc @ 275.04 290.28 +2.83 … UK Special Situations A Acc ‡@ 1397.92 … +37.09 … European Inc 1777.00 1873.48 +12.14 0.78
European ‡@ 2869.98 … -25.34 …
Japan @ 49.06 51.78 -2.35 0.94 UK Special Situations A Inc ‡@ 511.42 … +13.57 … Financial Opps ‡@ 872.35 … +29.00 … Far Eastern Inc 584.69 617.09 +3.79 1.42
Managed @ 130.89 138.15 +0.95 0.66 Income Trust ‡@ 511.12 … +9.33 … Intl Growth Inc 380.56 400.59 -0.13 0.75 Retail Shares (Class 1)
Managed Trust @ 71.96 76.96 +1.59 … Merlin Bal (Acc) ‡@ 232.69 … +2.65 … Japanese Inc 41.85 41.85 +0.57 0.56 Stg Bd Ret Inc ‡@ 56.83 … -1.22 …
Mngd Pfolio Inc @ 95.54 100.84 +0.63 0.58 Merlin Gwth (Acc) ‡ 545.95 … +8.25 … Mutual European 2762.93 2908.99 -73.67 1.11
EDENTREE INV MGMT LTD Strat Bd Ret ‡@ 46.04 … -0.37 …
Pacific Grth @ 498.71 526.34 -0.26 1.34 Merlin Inc (Acc) ‡ 357.53 … +2.29 … Mutual Far Eastern 1026.15 1083.01 +7.39 …
0800 358 3010 UK Corp Bond ‡@ 62.09 … -0.64 …
Smaller Comp @ 756.24 798.14 -8.40 0.15 Mutual North Am 1983.00 2092.88 +19.24 0.24
Merlin Wwide (Inc) ‡ 389.51 … +6.81 … UK Corp Ret ‡@ 61.97 … -0.65 …
Amity European A ‡ 324.50 … +1.90 … Smaller Cos @ 628.94 663.79 -6.93 0.21 Mutual UK Eq 1392.31 1469.46 +14.14 …
For ISIS Asset Mgmt see F&C Fd Mgmt Ltd (OEICS) UK Growth ‡@ 249.75 … +1.35 … UK Eqty Inc Ret ‡@ 99.04 … +0.51 3.14
Amity International A ‡ 345.80 … -6.00 … UK Special Sits (Inc) ‡@ 203.93 … +3.84 … Nth American Inc 1227.65 1295.67 +29.21 … UK Gwth & Inc Ret ‡@ 94.78 … +0.49 …
Amity Sterling Bond A ‡ 98.54 … -1.86 … JANUS HENDERSON INVESTORS UK Equity Inc 593.02 625.88 +6.03 … UK Hi Yld Bd 1 ‡@ 40.47 … -0.39 3.55
Amity UK A Inc ‡ 245.70 … -4.40 … UK Inst Acc ‡@ 180.66 … +1.83 …
Higher Income A ‡ 135.10 … -0.80 … INSIGHT INVESTMENT FDS MANAGEMENT LTD Investors Serv: 0800 832 832 Dlng: 0845 946 4646
UK Mnthly Extra Inc ‡@ 82.92 … -0.09 …
UK Equity Growth A ‡ 324.20 … -10.70 … Client Servs: 0207 163 4000 SCOTTISH WIDOWS UNIT TRUST MGRS UK Mnthly Inc Ret ‡@ 71.10 … +0.29 …
Insight Investment Multi-Manager Funds All Stks Credit A Inc ‡@ 133.10 … -1.60 … 0845 300 2244 UK Retail ‡@ 137.71 … +1.98 …
Asian Div Inc U Trst Inc ‡ 88.82 … +2.67 … Authorised Inv Funds (OEICs)
Well Bldr Bal Acc ‡@ 96.05 … +0.24 … UK Sel Retail ‡@ 123.55 … -3.19 1.75
Well Bldr Gwth Acc ‡@ 93.79 … -0.32 … Cautious Man Fd A Acc ‡@ 299.50 … +1.50 … LEGAL & GENERAL (UT MGRS) LTD OEIC A Class UK Smaller Cos ‡@ 450.89 … +5.69 …
Cautious Man Fd A Inc ‡@ 152.00 … +0.70 … Managed Investment Funds
Enquiries: 0870 050 0955 Dealing: 0870 050 0956
China Opp Fund A Acc ‡@ 1487.00 … +7.00 … Bal Port A Acc ‡@ 237.60 … -0.10 0.01
F & C FUND MANAGEMENT LTD (OEICS) Caut Port A Acc ‡@ 207.10 … +0.30 …
Emg Mkts Opps Fd A Acc ‡@ 227.90 … +2.90 … Equity Acc @ 2616.00 2639.00 +17.00 2.12
Enqs: 0870 601 6183 Dealing: 0870 601 6083 Caut Port A Inc ‡@ 152.00 … +0.30 …
INVESCO FUND MGRS LTD Erpn Grth Fund A Acc ‡@ 283.50 … +3.40 … Equity Dist @ 893.80 902.00 +5.60 2.15
Share Class 1 - Retail Opps Port A Acc ‡@ 280.20 … -0.70 …
Dling: 0800 085 8571 Inv Serv: 0800 085 8677 Euro Ind Acc ‡@ 506.00 … +2.80 … For Resolution see Ignis
Corporate Bd ‡@ 56.74 … -0.56 … Erpn Sel Opps Fd A Acc ‡@ 2212.00 … +19.00 …
Brkr Serv: 0800 028 2121 Euro Ind Inc ‡@ 339.60 … +1.80 … Prog Port A Acc ‡ 266.60 … -0.50 … TU FUND MANAGERS LIMITED
Emerging Mkts ‡@ 133.40 … +0.70 … INVESCO Funds Fix Int Mnthly Inc Fd Acc ‡@ 33.28 … -0.37 …
Fixed Int Acc ‡@ 150.20 … -1.70 … British 867.30 867.30 -7.20 …
Euro Gwth & Inc 1 ‡@ 1181.00 … -6.00 … Global Equity Fund Acc ‡@ 4520.00 … +6.00 …
UK Str Inc N/Trl ‡@ 323.57 … -2.78 … Fixed Int Dist ‡@ 71.98 … -0.80 … European 210.70 219.40 +3.90 …
Extra Inc Bond ‡@ 47.74 … -0.36 … Global Equity Income A Inc ‡@ 65.97 … +0.60 … Overseas Growth Investment Funds
Glob Gwth Acc @ 243.90 243.90 +0.60 1.15
FTSE All-Shr Track ‡@ 433.80 … +4.90 … Global Tech A Acc ‡@ 3203.00 … +49.00 … Eur Sel Gth A Acc ‡@ 3496.00 … +42.00 …
Glob Health Acc ‡@ 100.00 … +0.81 …
Global Gwth SC1 ‡@ 314.10 … +1.00 … This list contains unit trusts and Oeics widely held
Instl UK Idx Opps A Acc ‡@ 112.95 … +0.79 … Glob Tech Acc ‡@ 98.61 … +1.32 …
High Inc Trst @ 12.08 12.73 -0.08 … by private investors. The weekly price change is
Max Inc Bond ‡@ 47.53 … -0.38 … INVESCO PERPETUAL Funds M-Asset Abs Ret A Acc ‡@ 159.40 … +0.60 … Gwth Tst Acc @ 106.00 106.50 -2.10 … based on a Friday-to-Thursday trading period.*
High Inc Acc ‡@ 136.50 … -1.20 4.94 Tracker and Specialist Investment Funds Yield expressed as CAR (Compound Annual
Multi Man Caut ‡@ 70.41 … +0.79 3.18 Childrens Acc ‡@ 481.75 … +2.90 … M-Man Active Fd A Acc ‡@ 268.20 … +1.80 …
Japan Ind Acc ‡@ 69.72 … +0.50 … UK Trkr A Acc ‡@ 371.30 … +6.80 … Return); † Ex dividend; ‡ Middle price; . . . No sig-
Multi Man Distr ‡@ 60.44 … +0.45 3.37 Corp Bond Acc ‡@ 216.83 … -1.71 … M-Man Inc Grth A Inc ‡@ 159.30 … +0.20 … nificant data. # Periodic charge deducted from cap-
North Amer ‡@ 818.30 … +6.00 … High Income Inc ‡@ 332.70 … +4.13 2.43 Pacific Ind Acc ‡@ 206.70 … +4.30 … UK Trkr A Inc ‡@ 192.60 … +3.50 …
M-Man Inc Grth Fd A Acc ‡@ 198.40 … +0.20 … ital; @ Exit charge
Pacific Gwth ‡@ 526.40 … +6.00 … Income & Grth Inc ‡@ 428.34 … +2.23 1.26 UK 100 Ind Acc @ 180.90 180.90 +7.60 …
Sterling Bond U Trst Acc ‡@ 234.60 … -2.80 …
Strategic Bd ‡@ 205.90 … -0.60 … Income Inc ‡@ 1307.87 … +13.22 … UK Active Opps Acc @ 249.90 252.90 +1.80 …
Sterling Bond U Trst Inc ‡@ 65.11 … -0.78 … UK and Income Investment Funds
Data as shown is
UK Equity ‡@ 3355.00 … +12.00 … Money Acc ‡@ 90.76 … +0.02 … UK Index Acc ‡@ 340.30 … +4.20 …
Strategic Bond A Inc ‡@ 124.00 … -1.50 … for information
UK Gwth & Inc Acc 1 ‡@ 658.50 … +2.90 … Monthly Inc Plus Inc ‡@ 103.85 … -0.65 … UK Index Dist ‡@ 169.40 … +2.10 … Corp Bond A Acc ‡@ 330.70 … -7.00 …
UK Gwth & Inc Dist ‡@ 234.70 … +1.00 … UK Aggressive Inc ‡@ 154.28 … +0.90 … UK Abs Ret Fd A Acc ‡@ 166.80 … +0.30 … US Ind Acc ‡@ 814.70 … +13.00 … Corp Bond A Inc ‡@ 125.40 … -2.60 …
purposes only. No offer is made by
UK Smaller Cos ‡@ 1166.00 … +2.00 … UK Growth Acc ‡@ 836.11 … +11.05 … UK Alpha Fund A Acc ‡@ 164.30 … +0.40 … Worldwide Acc ‡@ 358.90 … +1.50 … Envir Invtr A Acc ‡@ 379.40 … +2.80 … Morningstar or this publication
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 67

Money

Best buys Data supplied by

Savings Mortgages Personal loans

Easy access (without introductory bonus) First-time buyer mortgages Fixed monthly repayment on £10,000 for 5 years
Provider Contact Account Min AER Redmptn
Provider Contact Initial Period Max Fee charge Rep Amount per Total
Investec Bank plc via website Online Flexi Saver £5,000 0.71%
Rate LTV until Provider Contact APR month repaid
Shawbrook Bank via website Easy Access - 28 £1,000 0.67% Yorkshire BS 0345 120 0874 2.56%F to 30.4.24 95% - To 30.4.24 Tesco Bank via website 2.8% £178.64 £10,718.40
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Long-term fixed rates Borrowing rates and availability of products are subject to individual credit ratings.

Provider Contact Account Min AER Remortgages

Monument Bank via website Fixed Deposit (5 yr) £25,000 2.20% F
Redmptn Credit cards
Provider Contact Initial Period Max Fee charge
JN Bank via website Fixed Savings (5 yr) £1,000 2.12% F Rate LTV until Introductory rate for balance transfers
QIB (UK) A via website Raisin UK - Fixed (5 yr) £1,000 2.10% F NatWest 0800 587 6599 1.73% F to 30.4.24 60% - To 30.4.24 Bal trans Purch
UBL UK via website Fixed Deposit (5 yr) £2,000 2.10% F Marsden BS 0800 801645 1.69% F to 31.3.24 80% - To 31.3.24 Provider Contact Product name Transfer fee APR
Charter Savings Bank via website Fixed Rate Bond (5 yr) £5,000 2.10% F Yorkshire BS 0345 120 0874 1.72% F to 30.4.25 75% £495 To 30.4.25 MBNA Ltd 0345 606 2062 Long 0% BT CC MC 0% 1st 33 mths 2.69% 21.9%
HSBC 0808 256 6876 1.94% F to 30.4.27 85% £999 To 30.4.27 Sainsbury's Bank 0808 540 5060 Balance Transfer CC MC 0% 1st 32 mths 2.24% 21.9%
Easy access cash Isas
first direct 0800 482448 2.44% V for term 75% £490 None Tesco Bank 0345 300 4278 Clubcard CC BT MC 0% 1st 32 mths 2.59% 21.9%
Provider Contact Account Min AER
Virgin Money 0800 389 2875 Balance Transfer CC MC 0% 1st 32 mths 2.94% 21.9%
Paragon Bank via website Triple Access Isa (6) £1 0.65% Short-term fixed-rate mortgages
M&S Bank 0800 997 996 BT Plus Offer MC 0% 1st 31 mths 1.99% 21.9%
Shawbrook Bank via website Easy Access Isa - 19 £1,000 0.61%
Provider Contact Initial Period Max Fee Charge
Cynergy Bank via website Online Isa (Issue 18) £1 0.60% Introductory rate for purchases
Rate LTV Until
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SAGA via website Saga Cash Isa £1 0.60% B Santander 0800 100802 1.59% to 2.5.24 75% - To 2.5.24 Provider Contact Product name Term APR

Fixed-cash Isas Santander 0800 100802 1.94% to 2.5.24 90% - To 2.5.24 Barclaycard 0800 151 0900 Platinum All-Rounder Visa 0% 1st 24 mths 21.9%
Yorkshire BS 0345 120 0874 1.73% to 30.4.25 75% £495 To 30.4.25 Sainsbury's Bank 0808 540 5060 Dual Offer CC MC 0% 1st 24 mths 21.9%
Provider Contact Account Min AER
Nationwide BS 0800 302010 1.94% for 3 years 90% £999 1st 3 yrs Tesco Bank 0345 300 4278 Clubcard CC Purchases MC 0% 1st 23 mths 20.9%
United Trust Bank via post Isa Bond (7 yr) £15,000 1.77% F
MBNA Ltd 0345 606 2062 0% Tfr & Pur CC MC 0% 1st 23 mths 21.9%
UBL UK via website Fixed Isa (5 yr) £2,000 1.76% F Long-term fixed-rate mortgages
M&S Bank 0800 997 996 Shopping Plus Offer MC 0% 1st 23 mths 21.9%
Close Brothers Savings via website Fixed Isa (5 yr) £10,000 1.75% F Redmptn
United Trust Bank via post Isa Bond (5 yr) £15,000 1.75% F Provider Contact Initial Period Max Fee Charge
Rate LTV Until Cashback credit card
Secure Trust Bank via website Fixed Isa (10.3.27) £1,000 1.70% F
TSB 03459 758 758 1.59% to 31.5.27 60% £995 To 31.5.27
Purchase
Lifetime cash Isas Santander 0800 100802 1.69% to 2.5.27 75% - To 2.5.27 Provider Contact Product name APR Cashback
Provider Contact Account Min AER HSBC 0808 256 6876 2.19% to 30.4.27 90% £999 To 30.4.27 American Express 0800 917 8047 Platinum Cashback 29.8% 0.75% - 1.25% standard
Moneybox via website Cash Lifetime Isa £1 0.85% B Halifax 0345 727 3747 1.68% to 31.5.32 60% £995 To 31.5.32 Intro 5%/3mth (max £125)
Halifax 0345 727 3747 1.77% to 31.5.32 75% £995 To 31.5.32 American Express 0800 917 8047 Plat Cashback Everyday 24.5% 0.50% - 1.00% standard
Beehive Money via website Homebuyer Lifetime Isa £10 0.80%
Intro 5%/3mth (max £100)
Beehive Money via website Retirement Lifetime Isa £10 0.80% Variable-rate mortgages Halifax 0345 944 4555 Cashback CC MC 19.9% Standard 0.25% - 0.50%
Paragon Bank via website Cash Lifetime Isa (3) £1 0.50% Redmptn on spend over £1 a year
Newcastle BS via website Cash Lifetime Isa (3) £1 0.50% Provider Contact Initial Period Max Fee Charge Lloyds Bank 0345 602 1997 Cashback CC MC 19.9% Standard 0.25% - 0.50%
Rate LTV Until on spend over £1 a year
Regular savings accounts first direct 0800 482448 2.44% term 75% £490 None Barclaycard 0800 151 0900 Rewards Visa 22.9% Standard 0.25% on
Provider Contact Account Min AER first direct 0800 482448 2.59% term 75% - None spend over £1 a year
Mntly
first direct 0800 482448 2.89% term 80% £490 None Borrowing rates and products are subject to credit ratings. Terms apply to all cashback
NatWest via website Digital Regular Saver £0 3.04% V
Bank of China (UK) 0800 389 5566 2.99% term 80% £1,295 1st yr
Royal Bank of Scotland via website Digital Regular Saver £0 3.04% V
first direct 0800 482448 3.54% term 90% £490 None Current accounts
Nationwide BS via website Flex Regular Saver £0 2.50% V
Newcastle BS via branch Regular Saver (3) £0 2.00% F Buy-to-let Mortgages Credit interest
West Brom BS via branch Regular Saver (4) £10 2.00% F Redmptn Account
Provider Contact Initial Period Max Fee Charge Provider Contact Account name Fee AER
Pension annuities Rate LTV Until Halifax 0345 720 3040 Reward Current Account None £5 pm C
Principality BS 0330 333 4002 1.60% D to 30.4.24 75% - To 30.4.24 TSB 0345 975 8758 Spend & Save None £5 pm B
Single life Mansfield BS 01623 676345 2.29% D for 3 years 75% £1,499 1st 3 yrs Virgin Money 0800 678 3654 M Plus Account None 2.02%
Provider Contact Age 60 Age 65 Age 70 Leeds BS 0345 045 4049 1.41% F to 30.4.24 60% £999 To 30.4.24 Nationwide BS 0800 30 20 10 FlexDirect None 2% B
Canada Life 0345 300 3199 £2,146.32 £2,471.76 £2,853.72 Virgin Money 0330 057 1701 1.44% F to 1.6.25 75% £1,995 To 1.6.25 The Co-op Bank 0345 721 2212 Current Everyday Rewards None £1 pm C
Legal & General 0345 765 4465 £2,077.44 £2,412.00 £2,834.04 Virgin Money 0330 057 1701 1.73% F to 1.6.27 75% £1,995 To 1.6.27
Aviva 0800 015 5064 £1,899.76 £2,377.77 £2,701.16 The selections above are based on a combination of initial rate, fee and incentive available. Arranged overdrafts
Just 0345 302 2287 £1,975.68 £2,347.56 £2,680.08 Account 0% OD
National Savings & investments Provider Contact Account name Fee EAR Limit
Starling Bank via website Current Account None 15% £0
Notice or Min AER Interest
Joint life Term Paid first direct 0345 600 2424 1st Account None 39.9% £250
Provider Contact Male: Age 60 Age 65 Age 70 Accounts and bonds Virgin Money 0800 678 3654 M Plus Account None 19.9% £0
Female: Age 55 Age 60 Age 65
Green Bonds 3 Yr Bnd £100 0.65% Yearly Lloyds Bank 0800 015 4000 Club Lloyds £3pm 27.5% £50
Canada Life 0345 300 3199 £1,818.84 £2,013.72 £2,273.04
Direct Saver None £1 0.50% Yearly TSB 0345 975 8758 Spend & Save Plus £3pm 39.9% £100
Legal & General 0345 765 4465 £1,689.48 £1,946.52 £2,193.84 Current account interest rates paid up to a specified level, terms may apply to qualify for
Income Bonds None £500 0.50% Monthly rates shown. A = Provider operates under Islamic finance principles, rate shown is expected
Aviva 0800 015 5064 £1,530.71 £1,879.12 £2,029.45
profit rate. B =Introductory rate. C = Paid net of income tax. F = Fixed rate. D = Discounted
Just 0345 302 2287 £1,607.16 £1,828.80 £2,019.24 Tax free products variable rate. V = Variable rate. All savings rates are shown as AER variable unless otherwise
stated. Methods of opening and operating accounts will vary. All rates and terms are subject
Junior Isa Age 18 £1 1.50% Yearly to change without notice. No liability accepted for any loss arising from the use of, or reliance
Based on a pension pot of £50,000. Direct Isa None £1 0.35% Yearly upon, this information. Readers who are not financial professionals should seek expert advice.
Visit moneyfacts.co.uk for full details
68 Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

Money Equity prices

Dividend yields Please note dividend yields are 12 month Price 12 month Price 12 month Price 12 month Price
supplied by Morningstar. The yield is the sum of a High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E

company’s trailing 12-month dividend payments 248K 183Y M&G 215K – 1Y 8.4 89.7 342 196 Billington Hldgsv 235 + 25 1.8 19.1 1450 1059 Savills 1369 – 1 1.2 17.6 66 43K Checkitv 45K – 1 … -5.5
divided by the last month’s ending share price 242K 143W Man 200 + V 3.8 12.2 305 252 Boot (Henry) 305 + 10 1.8 16.3 7K 5 Secure Propertyv 7N … … 19.1 678 458 Cohortv‡ 479 … 2.3 42.5
12 month high and low Please note the 12 month high 8K 7N Manx Finv 8N … … 6.5 112O 84W Breedon Groupv 88V – 2W … 21.0 1436K 875O Segro 1246K – 45 1.7 5.8 2710 1350 Dewhurstv‡ 1630 … 0.8 18.7
and low figures for shares supplied by Morningstar are 6V 1V Marechale Capv 3V … … 1.5 556W 459O Br Land 545V – 7V 2.7 74.6 63K 32W SIG 41K … … … 380 243 Dialight 342 + 2 … …

based on intra-day figures, not closing prices. 12770W 8284 Marsh McLn 11324X + 39X 1.6 28.8 152K 110 Caledonian Tstv 132K + 7 … 33.9
113 67N SigmaRocv 92 … … 29.5 2080K 1438K Electrolux 'B' 1467X – 4O 8.6 8.4
144 88O Sirius Real Estate 133O + 1V 2.4 10.4 1W K Feedbackv X … … -4.5
892K 680 Mattioli Woodsv 810 … 2.4 … 186N 156W Cap & Count Prop 169Y – 3W … -3.9
161K 122K Smart (J) 161K … 1.9 6.1
12 month Price 12 month Price 32K 18 Metal Tigerv 20 + N … 4.6 91N 54 Cap & Regnl 60K – 2O … -0.5 1550 996 Gooch Hsegov‡ 1025 – 32K 0.4 75.9
High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E 61 34 Steppe Cementv 39K … 9.5 9.1
149Y 83 Metro Bank 104V + Y … -0.8 2100 1750 Cardiff Prop 2100 … 0.8 22.8 3935 2790 Goodwin 3175 – 75 3.2 17.5
191X 144Y Taylor Wimpey 152 – 1 2.7 11.0
1602V 1305X Nat Aust Bk 1574N + 8Y 3.0 15.6 43K 29K Carecapitalv 30 + K … -3.5 3216 2233 Halma 2359 – 70 0.7 34.1
O K Drumzv K … … -6.3
Automobiles & parts 152O 94O EFG-Hermes Hldg 147 – 5Y … 8.3 253W 171N NWG 253 – K 2.3 12.3 183 96K Clarke T 154 + 3 2.8 17.2
164 109 Town Centre 161 + 2K 2.1 …
1902 1256 Hill & Smith 1512 – 44 1.7 59.7
435 270 EPE Special Oppsv 305 … … 1.2 1900N 1352Y Travis Perkins 1438K – 21 … 20.6
398 276 Numisv‡ 276 – 4 4.3 5.6 262 203 CLS Hldgs 215 + 121K 41K Holders Techv 115 … 0.4 …
2201 1114K Aston Martin Lag 1158K – 35K … -3.8 K 3.5 13.5
890X 564N FBD 890X + 18O … 11.6 249 175Y Tritax Big Box REIT Plc233K – 5O 2.7 5.5
4N 2N Image Scanv 3 … … …
90 67K Fiskev 72K … … 15.0 576 409 Onesavings Bank 575K + 6K 2.5 9.2 571K 294 Countryside Prop 309 – 1K … 22.5
249 175Y Tritax Big Box REIT Plc233K – 5O 2.7 5.5
Banking & finance 83 44K Frenkel Toppingv 81 + 1 1.6 47.0 N … Origo Partnersv V … … -0.7 73W 16V Craven Housev 16V … … -0.3
124 100K TRITAX EUROBOX PLC 105V – K … …
1838 1260 IMI 1603 – 12 3.0 24.1
725 485 Georgia Capital 681 – 19 … 1.0 … … Inspirit Energyv … … … -5.1
741 566 PayPoint‡ 668 + 23 4.8 20.9 4002 3095 CRH 3779 – 33 2.2 27.4 507 330 Tyman 361K – 8K 1.1 13.9
331 226K abrdn 246 – 2X 5.9 3.7 955 791 Gresham Housev 905 … 0.6 36.3
8640 5740 Judges Scientificv 7560 – 70 0.7 47.4
3688 2850 Admiral 3054 + 18 3.8 13.6 325 244 H&T Groupv 301 + 4K 2.8 9.6 26 11 PCF Groupv 11 – N … -5.2 3802 3116 Derwent London 3233 – 59 2.3 70.1 1346K 842 Vistry Group 1054 – 17 1.9 11.1
88K 26K ADVFNv 67K – 2K … 11.3 65 45W Hansard Global 50 + 1X 8.9 13.8 85K 57K LPAv 75 + K … 17.6
759O 623W Phoenix Gp 670K – 2V 7.0 … 4K 3W Dolphin Capitalv 3Y … … -2.7 176O 122K Warehouse REITv 163 – 1O 3.8 3.8
470 321V AJ Bell 327V – 2 2.1 30.6
1772 1296K Hargreaves L 1347 – 15K 2.8 21.5 839V 395N Meggitt 748 – 1 … 99.7
23580 16369O Aon Corpn 21175W + 56K 0.6 71.5 381K 184 Provident 320 + 2 … -7.3 35K 28K First Propv 32O + N 1.3 … 971 700 Workspace Grp 772K – 20 2.3 …
43K 22N Appreciate Groupv 28Y – V 3.4 12.5 213Y 142K Helios Underv 165 + 2K 1.8 …
206K 141 Melrose 158O – 2N 0.5 …
1175 820 Arbuthnot Bkgv 930 … … 53.4 567V 359O HSBC 567V + 5K 2.8 13.6 1579N 1214 Prudential 1214 – 30 0.9 16.8 50 32K Fletcher Kingv 39 + 1 … … 750 565 Wynnstay Propsv 675 … 3.1 4.8
26K 11 Arden Partnersv 19K … … 4.8 952K 762 IG Group‡ 778 + 1K 5.5 7.7 412K 295K Morgan Advanced 320 – 1 1.7 21.1
3O Y Quantum Blockchain techv2X … … … 74V 37 Foxtons Group 39 … … …
23K 18 Argo Groupv 20 … … 9.2 1482 684 Impaxv‡ 1012 – 14 1.0 33.4
475W
1569N
268K Ashmore Gp
1318Y Aus New Z
282K
1467X
+
+
1O
5O
5.9
3.8
8.2
13.3
2379 1731 Intermed Cap 1842 – 15 3.0 10.5
168Y 130N Quilter PLC 142V – X 3.2 39.4 206V 120K Galliford Try 183K – 6N 0.6 20.1 Consumer goods 647 457K Mpacv 540 … … 25.9

240 145 MS Intlv 222 … 1.5 31.7

445K 348K Aviva 444W – 1 6.0 14.8 155W 79 IPF 122O – 2V 1.7 8.5 191 158 Randall & Quilterv 169K + O 2.2 … 801 527 Genuit Group 530 – 16 0.9 34.1
300K 223N Banco Santander 288Y – 1Y 0.8 10.4 174O 160W Intl Public Pntshp 164V – O 4.4 50.8 6V 4N Agriterrav 5Y … … -0.7 179 96 Northbrdg Indv 166 – 3K … …
2065 1542 Rathbone Grp 1818 – 8 3.9 22.7 900 696 Gleeson (MJ) 714 – 6 0.7 12.3
1670 951 Bank of Georgia 1580 + 22 … 4.8 457K 195O Investec 451X – 2V 2.8 11.3 2680 1730 Oxford Inst 2080 – 5 0.8 28.4
36 25 Aireav 30K … … 13.5
217 145Y Barclays 206 – 2K 1.4 5.6 2N 1V RiverFort Global Oppsv 1N … 1.5 3.8 1412 952K Grafton Gp Uts 1115 – 18 2.4 13.2
316 281 Investment Co 312 … 0.9 10.7
K … Blue Star Capitalv W … … 8.0 772 562 Anglo-Eastern 724 … 0.1 6.6 4280O 2361 Philips El nv 2514 + 6N 2.9 26.3
155V 92O IP Group 97O – X 1.0 3.6 … … Rockwood Realisation … … … … 335 259K Grainger‡ 295 – 2W 1.8 18.3
359 267 BP Marsh&Ptnrsv 335 + 4 0.7 9.2
365 214 Jarvis Securitiesv 297K … 4.4 20.5 420 206 Animalcarev 332 … 1.2 … 25K 5X PipeHawkv 22K … … 28.1
128K 17N Braveheart Invv 17N – N … 0.4 2950 2140 S & U 2800 – 10 3.2 13.2 734K 720 Gr Portland 720 – 21 1.7 …
406 292 Brewin Dolphin 318 – 5 4.5 17.3 306K 224V Jupiter Fund Mgmt 226W – 2V 7.5 9.8 2494 1727 AB Foods 1930 – 6K 0.3 31.9 108 66 Pressure Techv 72 – 1 … -0.7
569 360K Bridgepoint 380K + 4K … … 111W 75Y Just Group 89Y + 1N … -6.2 3K 2V Sancus Lending Grpv 2V … … -0.6 44N 20X Hammerson 37K – Y 1.0 -2.1
140V 86 Bakkavor Group 124 + 2K 3.2 13.6 6900 4256 Renishaw 4850 … 0.2 31.6
94 66 Cenkos Secsv 68K – K 5.1 13.9
725 490V Lancashire Hdgs 548 + 8K 2.0 22.2 56K 39K Schroder REIT 55N + K 4.5 5.8 191 113K Harworth Gp 179K – 2K 1.0 6.6
314 261 Chesnara 298 + 3 7.3 9.8 582 466 Barr (AG) 525 … … 18.6 34 14K Renoldv 27K + K … 9.8
307O 250K Legal & Gen 281 – 4K 6.2 8.3
76 46K City of Lon Gpv 64 … … -4.3 3871 3281 Schroders 3349 – 58 3.4 16.9 600 345 Heath (Samuel)v 600 … 1.1 12.4
50073N 496N Liberty Group 496N … … 26.3 7N 1X Bidstack Groupv 3O + V … -3.1 147W 87 Rolls-Royce 120Y – 1O … 2.6
560 480 City Lon Inv Gp 504 – 14 6.1 12.9
1685 1239 Close Bros 1275 – 15 4.5 9.5 2485 1220 Liontrust 1578 – 54 2.9 19.7 2735 2085 Schroders N/V 2100 – 50 5.4 10.6 497 359K Helical PLC 412 – 6 2.4 9.9
200 108 Brand Architektsv 108 … … -8.2 4 1K Ross Gp 2 … … -5.0
538 221K CMC Markets 228K + 3K 13.4 6.9 62 42 Livermore Invsv 46K – Y 7.5 2.9 1731K 1174 St James Place 1546K – 20K 3.2 40.9 1000 695 Highcroft Invs 1000 … 5.1 6.7 3368K 2485K Brit Amer Tob 3368K + 99K 6.2 12.4
752 405N Commerzbk 738Y – 15K … -4.0 376K 322W Rotork 322W – 10V 3.1 29.3
55V 37 Lloyds Bkg Gp 53Y + K 1.0 8.3
1213K 742V Deutsche Bk 1207 – 5N … 16.5 571W 410 Stand Chart 558 – 8 1.5 13.5 242W 185 Ibstock 194O – 3K 0.8 24.3 1006 806K Britvic 905 – 11 3.1 23.4
37O 30Y LMS Capital 34K … 2.6 15.0 217 158 SDI Groupv 177K – 5 … 29.2
327Y 264 Direct Line Ins 308K + 2V 7.1 11.6
59K 53 Downing ONE VCT‡ 58 … 4.3 7.8 9910 6502 Lond Stk Ex Gp 7038 – 140 1.0 64.9 21K 12K Starvestv 14 … … 0.8 314 243K James Halsteadv 269 – 3 6.0 14.0 2264 1715K Burberry Grp 1976 – K 2.1 17.0
181 98N Senior 152 + 1W … …
298 205O C&C Grp 227 – 1 … …
82K 65O Severfield 72 – W 4.0 12.8

Investment companies 20K 7O Capital Metalsv 8 + V … -2.1

16K 8W Six Hundredv 12O – K … 74.5
167K 124K Carr's Grp 149K – 5K 3.2 18.4
2047 1508O SKF B 1525X – 26K 3.6 11.4
12 month Price Yld Dis(-) 12 month Price Yld Dis(-)
705 437K Character Grpv 630 + 5 1.4 11.2
High Low Company (p) +/- % or Pm High Low Company (p) +/- % or Pm 270 190 Slingsby (HC)v 230 … … 3.8
2025 1320 Churchill Chinav 1480 + 12K … …
1661 1355K Smiths 1547 – 10K 3.0 39.5
1477 1069 3I Group 1360 – 10K 3.2 10.9 203 174 Invesco BondInc 181 – 3 5.7 -1.7 2784 2238 Coca Cola HBC 2502 – 29 … 20.2
357 283 3i Infrastructure 340 – 2 3.5 19.5 176 154 IPST Bal 165K – K … -4.6 1405 725 Solid Statev‡ 1200 + 15 1.3 28.9
705 420 Colefaxv 705 … … 15.6
104K 91 Abrdn Div I&G 101K – 2 4.5 -14.3 250 206 IPST Gbl Eq 244 … 2.8 -3.2 598 350 Somero Enterv 500 – 5 4.3 12.5
1622O 1207 Aberforth Smlr 1430 + 2 2.1 -11.9 104Y 101 IPST Managed 102 … 0.9 -4.5 4148 3348 Cranswick 3756 + 4 1.8 19.8
1084Y 868 Alliance 996 – 8 1.5 -5.1 199Y 160 IPST UK Eq 196 – 1 3.3 -1.8 4083 3017 Spectris 3367 … 3.3 17.0
228K 174O Devro 219K – K 6.9 13.4
604 480 Asia Dragon Tr 495 – 4 1.2 -8.0 664 500 IP UKSmallerCos 570 – 10 1.1 -10.5 17135 10710 Spirax-Sarco – 480 0.9 43.8
12195
260 180 Athelney Trust 235 … 3.5 -17.5 770 567 JPM American 740 – 5 0.9 -1.1 4103K 2812K Diageo 3717K – 22K 1.8 32.7
1118 195V AVI Global Trust 201O – 2V 1.4 -6.4 550 404O JPM Asia 443 + 4 4.3 -1.5 78 42K Surface Trsfmsv 52K – K … …
3 1N Distilv 1K … … 37.5
658 326K Baillie Gifford Ch Gr 347K – 7K 2.0 -0.7 875Y 423K JPM Chinese 453 – 5 4.9 …
2Y 1Y Tanfieldv 2N … … -6.2
171 116 Baillie Gifford Eu Gr 118O – 2V 0.2 -5.8 952 628 JPM Claverhs 740 – 8 2.8 -0.2 908 577K Evans (M.P.)v‡ 828 – 2 2.6 13.7
1136 815 Baillie Gifford Jpn Tr 879 + 17 0.6 -2.8 105 100 JPM Elect Mg C 102K … 0.3 -0.4 520 321 Thorpe FWv 453 + 3 1.2 33.5
102 70O Finsbury Foodv 88K … … 9.5
269V 167Y Baillie Gifford SN 180W – 1V … 0.2 1115N 930 JPM Elect Mg G 1055 … 1.5 -3.2
6Y 3V TP Groupv 3V – V … -4.7
257 195 Baillie Gifford UK Gr 202 – 4 1.1 -5.4 111 87 JPM Elect Mg I 108K – 1 4.3 -2.3 12220 7740 Games Workshop‡ 7990 – 125 2.9 21.5
150K 104 Bankers 116V – 1V 1.8 … 152Y 116W JPM Em Mkts 122V – 1K 1.0 -5.6 122K 53K Transense Techv 67 … … 69.7
1284N 828N Glanbia 1037W – 35X 2.2 20.9
3950 3200 BH Macro 3770 + 10 … 7.3 394V 300K JPM Eur IT Gth 363 – 2 1.3 -11.6
170O 117N Greencore 141 + 1 … 28.2 3370 1856 Ultra Electrncs 2898 – 20 3.3 21.2
1724 874O Biotech Growth 964 – 14 … 0.7 168 128N JPM Eur IT Inc 154N – 1O 3.7 -12.4
118 85 BlckRck Com Inc 117 + N 3.7 1.8 588 444 JPM Euro disc 474 – 5 1.2 -12.7 590 414 Vesuvius 444W – 2O 3.9 19.5
536 394 Headlam 440 + 5 0.4 25.8
140 112O BlckRck Fro Inv 131K … 3.6 -8.3 159K 137X JPM GEMI 147 … 3.2 -9.1
732 514 BlckRck Grt Euro 592 – 10 1.0 2.2 475 381N JPM GG&I 463 – 4 3.3 2.8 1240 1004 Hilton Food 1060 – 18 2.1 22.1 1615 964 Vitec 1290 – 5 0.3 38.8
200 158 BlckRck Inc & Gwth 188 – 2 3.5 -7.7 865 670 JPM Indian 797 – 8 … -16.8 59 37W Hornbyv 44 … … … 493K 269K Volexv 277 + 1 1.2 15.1
410 310 BlckRck Latin Am 381 + 5 5.1 -6.2 568W 375O JPM Jap Sml Co 393 – 3 5.1 -5.6
209 161 BlckRck Sustain Amer 201 – 4 3.8 -3.0 732 527 JPM Japan# 543 – 3 0.9 -2.7 1818K 1333 Imperial Brands 1818K + 28 7.6 6.0 2046 1600K Weir 1699 + 19 … 28.9
2230N 1637N BlckRck Smlr 1846 – 12 1.7 -6.1 1585V 1080 JPM Mid Cap 1200 – 20 2.2 -10.3 1Y X J Lewis Hfordv 1X … … 16.7 5700 4470 XP Power 4725 – 100 1.9 25.2
1046 758 BlckRck Throgmorton 831 – 12 1.2 1.5 110N 87N JPM Multi-asset G&I 106K + N 3.7 -2.3
699V 492 BlckRck Wld Min 689 – 1 3.9 -0.1 894 590 JPM Russian 674 – 26 4.6 -11.3 10897X 8446Y Kerry Gp 9085V + 56K 0.8 33.0 195 140 Zytronicv 140 – 2K … …
33 13 Blue Plan Int Fn# 15K – K 2.5 -24.6 478W 340 JPM Smllr Co 360 + 3 1.4 -10.4 94K 47N McBride 50W + O 2.1 6.4
341 284 BMO Cap&Inc 328 … 3.5 -1.7 375 227 Keystone IT 248 – 7 4.2 -3.0
118K 1V BMO Comm Prop 113V + O 3.3 -10.6 829 680 Law Debenture 822 – 6 3.5 3.1 407 219 Mulberry Groupv 300 … … 12.4 Health
175V 144V BMO Glbl Smaller 160O – O 1.0 -7.1 1450 134 Lowland 139K + K 4.1 -6.2 1640 1080 Nicholsv 1410 … 2.6 51.3
500 280 BMO Priv Eq Ord 480 … 3.1 -17.8 253V 198 Majedie 210 – 2 4.3 -19.7
96V 68V BMO Real Estate 90 – 1 3.0 -25.0 437 338 M Currie Port 359 – 6 1.1 0.6 341 209 Norcros 291 – 2 2.8 9.2 1750 1200 Abcamv 1255 – 29 … …
101 82 BMO UK HIT 92 … 5.5 -6.3 130 99 Marwyn Val In 116K + K 5.0 -35.2 334O 276V Origin Entsv 322O … 0.8 12.7 341 222K AdvancedMedicalv 278 – 6 0.6 43.7
108 85K BMO UK HIT B 91K … … -6.8 294K 232 Mercantile IT 242K – 3K 2.4 -9.3
37 28K STM Groupv 31 … 4.5 11.9 1028 751 Keller 826 – 15 6.8 11.3 72 46 Pittardsv 65K + 2 … 69.6 38K 18N Allergy Therapv 25N – N … 58.7
408 336 BMO UK HIT UNIT 366 … 3.0 -6.8 591 437N Merchants 585 – 2 4.7 1.4
1535 1170 Brown Advsr US Smlr1280 – 10 … -7.3 870 680 Mid Wynd 796 – 4 0.8 2.6 4282O 3553W Sun Life Can 4056N + 16V 3.1 11.3 9011N 4497V Kingspan Group 7305 – 110X 0.2 33.1 710 545 Portmeirionv 660 … … 28.1 114V 82 Allnce Pharmav 108K – 1K 1.4 32.2
1135 848 Brunner 1105 … 1.7 -6.7 1490 1088 Monks Inv Tst 1162 – 22 0.1 -4.0 4Y 1O Tavistock Invv 4O + 1V 1.0 0.8
4085 2118 Caledonia Inv 3680 – 5 1.3 -22.3 2170 159X Montanaro Eur Sml 176O – 1O 0.5 1.9 813V 607 Land Sec 794O – 6W 4.2 … 1 X Provexisv Y … … 0.4 139 75V Anglev 100K – 4 … …
1656 974 TBC Bank Group 1600 + 18 2.2 5.2
203 174 Invesco BondInc 181 – 3 5.7 -1.7 959K 818 Murray Income Trust 892 – 2 3.2 -6.4 105 99O LIFE SCIENCE REITv 102K … … … 274K 187W PZ Cussons 208 + 6 2.7 24.8 715 537K Anpariov 620 + 5 1.3 32.6
417 352K City of Lon IT 417 + 3 4.7 1.4 1240 1038 Murray Int 1204 + 2 4.4 -5.7 30N 7X Ternv 11K + N … …
122 97 Crystal Amber Fd 107K … 8.8 -19.6 98X 81X Nb Global Floating 88K … 4.8 -6.0 18K 8K Lon & Assoc 15K + K … -2.1 159 50 REA 145K + 1 … … … … Aqua Bounty … … … …
31O 20K Time Financev 25K – K … 13.7
523O 321N Dunedin Entp 507 … 3.2 -9.3 376 307N Pacific Assets 355 – 1 0.6 -4.3 4N 1K Real Gd Fdv 2O … … 0.2
262K 126O TP ICAP PLC 134 – 1K 5.2 19.8 285V 206V London Metric Prop 264W – 4W 3.3 5.6 9444 6794 AstraZeneca 8510 – 140 2.4 …
653K 541 Edinburgh IT 650 – 2 4.1 -7.2 3713 300 Pantheon Int 315K – 3K … -23.1
217V 160N Virgin Money UK‡ 216Y – 1V … 6.6 705 500 Tandemv 575 – 5 1.5 7.9
425 209K Edin Wwide 237K – 4K … -2.7 3125 2425 Pershing Sq 2745 – 35 0.7 -29.9 70K 43 Macau Prop Op 45X – K … … 46 23Y Circassia Groupv 40N – N … -8.4
130 52 Electra Pte Eq 55V + 1V … -89.3 51166 43840O Personal Assets 48900 – 200 1.1 1.2 815O 629W Tate & Lyle 756 + 65O 4.0 16.1
1500 1190 Volverev 1200 … … … 845 635K Marshalls 681K – 9K 0.6 28.8 262K 166O Convatec Group 181 + K 2.2 36.7
300 270 EP Global Opp 296 – 1 1.8 -9.1 2760Y 2015 Polar Cap Tech 2332 – 48 … -6.9
58K 45K WH Irelandv 45K … … 25.5 1315 880 Treatt‡ 1020 – 30 0.6 40.9
152 116Y European Assets 122 – 2 6.2 -1.6 203 150 Prem Glb & Inf 170K … 4.1 -13.3 239 191 McKay Secs 233 + 4 3.5 15.3 134 63 Creighton‡ 76 … 1.5 14.6
891 594 European Opp Tr 729 – 9 0.2 -11.6 137O 118O Renewables Inf 127K – K 6.0 13.0 36K 25K Walker Crips Grp 32K … 2.3 92.8 5O 4N Ukrproduct Gpv 4N – N … -2.8
162K 118 Michelmershv 124K + 2K 2.0 17.4 5405 3272 Dechra Pharma 3820 – 70 0.9 74.8
945K 549 F&C Investment Tr 883 – 7 1.3 -6.1 3635N 2075N RIT Cap Ptnr 2620 – 15 … -5.6
4399 2402Y Wells Fargo 4399 + 58 0.8 14.0 5097 4250 Unilever (NV) 4666 + 187K 2.3 26.3
510 415 Fidlty Asian Val 468 – 8 1.7 -6.5 578 253 Riverstone 564 – 6 … -29.8 2685 1438 Morgan Sindall 2235 + 10 2.7 13.9 2N 1V Deltex Medicalv 1N … … …
503 233K Fidelity China Sp 304K – 2 1.4 -2.6 551 467 Schroder TotRt 496 – 2 1.4 1.8 1431K 1071N Westpac 1201O + 8W 3.9 16.2 4360 3516K Unilever 3914K + 135K 3.7 22.1
950 759 Fdlty Emer Mkts 814 + 9 1.5 -11.4 686N 554 Schrd Asia Pac 579 + 2 1.5 -9.9 14750 10900 Mountview 13950 … 3.0 17.3 48W 19X e-Therapeuticsv 32K + 3X … …
31X 24K Worsley Investors Ltd 29 – V … 90.9
1210 700 Victoriav 950 – 10 … …
343 263K Fidlty Euro Val 319 – 1 2.0 -5.0 323 275 Schrod Inc Gwth 315 … 4.2 0.5 395 152 Eco Animal Hlthv 185 – 7K 0.5 22.4
35883X 28192 Zurich Fincl 35878O + 444O 4.4 15.3 106O 71O NewRiver REIT 93 … 3.2 -3.2
268W 154K Fidlty Jap Tru 190 – 1 … -4.1 231 193K Schrod Jap Gwth 216 … 1.8 -8.1
312 240K Fidlty Spec Val 307 – 3 2.2 1.6 809 592 Schrod UKMid 628 – 8 2.0 -12.0 290 190 Palace Capital 250 – 2 4.4 11.9 85 59W EKF Diagnosticsv 60 + 1 1.6 17.0
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6070 3490 Genus 3490 – 58 0.8 48.4

1707O 1190O GlaxoSmKline 1619W – 21K 4.9 19.0

248 193Y Hansa Investment 210 … 1.0 -33.5 235 183X Secs Tst Scot 223 + 2 2.5 -1.5 17K 4X Pires Investmentsv 7 – V … … 3582 916 Avon Rubber‡ 1151 + 7 2.5 …
238 192 Hansa Inv Co 'A' 210 + 1 0.7 -33.8 114K 101 Sequoia Eco 102W + W 6.2 1.3 277K 158 Alumascv 222K … 2.3 10.7 2V X Gunsyndv O … … 1.9
425 20 Plaza Cent 200 + 50 … -0.4 380V 228N Babcock 308 + 1W … -1.9
2870 1926 Hbrvest Glbl Pt Eq 2815 + 40 … -19.7 1279N 955 Temple Bar 1270 – 2 3.1 -3.0 22O 15 Aseana Props 15 – N … -7.5 2690 1965K Hikma Pharms 1965K – 39K 1.8 13.5
1687X 152 Hend Euro Foc 158K … 1.9 -8.4 216 169W Tplton Emg Mkt 178 … 1.9 -10.4 169K 134W Primary Hlth‡ 135 – 1K 3.3 12.7 608 465N BAE Sys 601O + 4O 6.2 10.9
79O 62V Assura Grp 63N – K 4.5 12.6
189K 148N Hend High Inc 180K – K 5.5 -0.6 Y N Tiger Royal and Invv N … … 52.7 2400 1950 Braime A N/Vv 2150 – 100 0.5 24.2 624 352 Hutchmed Chinav 387 – 11 … …
36K 26 Raven Property 27K – 1N … 2.5
1378 1066O Hend Smlr 1106 – 14 1.9 -8.6 526 339Y TR Property 482 – 1 2.9 … 2N 1W Aukett Swankev 2N … … -5.4
2600 1900 Braime Groupv 2020 – 100 0.5 22.7 380 182 Immunodiag Sysv 378 … 0.5 …
2670 1920 Herald 2040 – 10 … -14.9 83 68V Troy Inc&Gth 76W – V 1.8 -0.8 126 105K Raven Property Gr 109 … … …
322O 233O Balfour Beatty 249V – K 0.6 27.3
445 308 HgCapital Trust 430 – 9 1.2 5.3 286O 220 Utilico Ord 251 + 2 2.2 -32.8 600 345 Caffyns 600 … … 8.7 10 5 ImmuPharmav 6X … … -2.0
177K 158X HICL Infra 171 – 1V 5.3 10.1 229 190 Utilico Emerging Mkt 221 + 3 3.3 -11.4 794O 602W Barratt Devs 625K – 3W 1.2 9.7 42O 31N Real Estate Invsv 40 … 8.1 -8.6
12 5 Cap XX Ldv 5X … … … 261K 118O Indivior 223 + 2K … 15.0
286 235 Highbridge Tactical 258 + 3 … -4.8 144N 133 UtilFin RdZDP 2022 143K … … 1.9 3712 2770 Bellway 3025 + 23 2.8 9.5 718O 545 Redrow 617K + V 0.9 8.3
1300 954 ICG Ent Tr 1220 – 8 1.6 -24.6 783 574 Vietnam Ent Inv 759 – 5 … -16.5 420 344 Castings 353 + 2 4.3 17.0 150 96 Inspiration Healthv 98 … 0.6 15.1
5352W 4079 Berkeley 4125 + 8 0.2 10.7
584K 414K Impax Env Mkts 450K – 10K 0.8 6.0 324O 219K Witan 241K – 1 2.1 -5.2 1418 735K Safestore 1268 – 9 1.4 10.9
424K 328 Invesco Asia Tr 360 … 4.1 -10.1 3965 2965 Ww Health 3150 – 10 0.6 -4.3 1724 1053 Big Yellow Group 1447 – 27 2.3 5.5 13O 5V Chamberlinv 5W … … -0.4 111 45K IXICOv 47 … … 15.0
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 69

Equity prices Money

12 month Price 12 month Price 12 month Price 12 month Price 12 month Price 12 month Price
High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E

346W 275O Mediclinic Int 338 – 7K … 21.1 4V W Catenaev W … … -0.8 39 21K Edenville Energyv 21K … … -1.4 K V Tertiary Mineralsv N … … -6.5 862 510 Robert Walters 730 … 2.1 31.2 117K 68K Intercedev 77K … … 26.7

12K 3 N4 Pharmav 3N … … -3.1 1146 269 Daily Mail‡ 270 – 2K 8.9 10.3 9 3K Empyrean Energyv 6X – V … … 1V W Thor Miningv X … … -5.1 20 10 Roebuck Food Grpv 19 … … 2.9 337 140 Iomartv 167 + 5 4.2 18.3

86.92 73.01 Novartis CHF 79.77 – 0.38 3.8 19.7 130 80V RPS Group 109 + 2 … 35.9 81O 29N IQEv 36Y + Y … …
220 137K DCD Mediav 185 … … 9.2 27N 13W EnQuest 21K + K … -2.3 4413O 2862Y Total Eng SE 4345O + 2 5.3 14.4
99K 5Y Omega Diagsv 5Y – 1W … -2.2 217 118 K3 Business Tchv 173 … … -2.9
61 19V Ebiquityv 57K … … … 36K 15 Eurasia Miningv 20K – 1K … … K V Tower Resourcesv N … … -5.5 65 35K RTC Groupv 41K … … 10.8
15 9W Ovoca Biov 13O + K … -3.9 2717N 1762K LG Electronics‡ 1823 + 44 2.0 5.1
1108 890 Euromoney In Inv‡ 956 – 7 1.1 … 64Y 30W Tullow Oil 52Y + 1 … 5.3 696K 483W RWS Hldgsv‡ 490 – 5O 1.8 35.5
2 1 Europa Oil&Gasv 1X … … …
1634 771 Oxford Biomedica 771 – 37 … 34.6 O N Location Sciencesv N … … -1.7
3910 1694 Future 2910 + 4 … 50.0 N … UK Oil & Gasv … … … -0.4 490 310 Science Groupv 410 … 1.4 17.6
698V 444X Evraz 444X + 13 11.4 5.8 587K 333 Micro Focus Intl 454 – 12 2.4 -0.9
8W 5V Physiomicsv 5V … … …
535 155 URU Metalsv 175 … … 5.6 145O 119 Serco Gp 131 – X 1.0 5.5
1660 1180 GlobalDatav 1310 … 1.3 2.9 501 233V Ferrexpo 284V – 2O 5.0 2.2 90K 59 MTI Wirelessv 68 – K 2.7 22.2
9Y 3X Proteome Sciesv 4W … … 34.2
12 1N Vast Resv 1W … … -0.3 45W 28 Smiths News 35 + V 1.4 3.4
152 83V Hyve Group 115 + 1N … -2.5 1030K 622W Fresnillo 622W – 9V 2.9 10.3 29O 15 Nanoco Gp 18O – 1 … …
6801 5391 Reckitt Benck 5894 + 61 2.9 …
6V 2O Victoria Oil&Gasv 4N … … -2.0 4305 3318 Smurfit Kappa 4073 – 77 4.1 20.7
622 94 IG Design Grpv 113 + 1 7.6 16.5 … … G3 Exploration# 28 … … -2.6 88 59K Netcallv 71K … 0.3 …
171K 53K RUA Life Sciencesv 57K … … -5.5
18 4 W Resourcesv 4V … … -0.4 92O 49W Staffline Gpv 55 … … … 77 57K Northamberv 62K … 0.9 50.4
40K 11Y Immedia Grpv 20N … … -5.2
9V 1K Sareum Hldgsv 3K – V … … 43 14 Galantas Goldv 31K … … -5.3
19K 5N Westmount Engyv 7N … … … 602 326K SThree 473 – 6K 1.0 21.8 106K 27K Online Blockchainv 44K – K … …
1600 1197 Smith & Neph 1220 – 17K 2.2 26.7 613W 464W Informa 613W – 2W … …
11 4 GCM Resourcesv 7O … … -5.1
150 90 Synecticsv 92K … … -4.6 126K 90 Oxford Metricsv‡ 112K … 1.6 48.9
132K 102K ITV 123X + W … 13.7 330K 177O Wood Grp (J) 243Y + 6 … …
254K 146K Spire Hcare 242K + 2K … … 78W 44V Gem Diamonds 52 – N 3.4 3.7
29 17N Thruvision Groupv 25X … … -9.3 13K 6N Parityv 7N … … …
16K 6N Jaywingv 11 … … … 7X 3Y Woodboisv 4N … … 16.3
212K 98 Synairgenv 188 – 2K … -8.2
37 18K Getechv 27K … … -6.5 50 26 Pennant Intlv 35K … … …
110 88O Tribalv 93 + K 1.1 28.1
O W Tissue Regenixv W … … -5.5 8N 3 Live Company Gpv 4K + X … -0.9 7Y 3V Xtract Resourcesv 6X – V … …
420 268O Glencore 417O – 3N 1.0 36.0 117K 63K Vianetv 86K … … … 770 351 Playtech 642 + 1K … 6.7
43N 28K Totallyv‡ 34K … 1.4 54.7 V … Mediazestv … … … -2.7 7O 2 Zephyr Energyv 5 … … -6.5
1 W Global Petrolv X … … -0.9 1060 770 Vp 940 – 5 2.6 23.1 356 243 QinetiQ 268O – V 4.2 21.0
680 400 Tristelv‡ 455 … 1.4 71.9 75 41 Merit Grpv 46K … … … 49 15 Zoltav Resourcev 15 – 2K … -2.9
255 174 RM 177 – 3 1.6 12.7
91988W 808O Gold Fields 808O – 23O 2.7 10.5 6V 2O Westminsterv 3V … … -3.8
55N 17O ValiRxv 28N – N … … 82K 60 Miradav 68 … … -2.9 853O 558K Sage Gp 685W – 5V 2.5 26.2
8 6X Goldplatv 7N + N … 5.4
89K 54K Mission Groupv 61 … 2.5 65.5 Professional & 12 7Y Seeing Machinesv 8K … … …
Industrials 305W 187K Moneysupermarket 192V – 4Y 6.0 18.3
14K 8W Goldstone Resv 8W … … …
support services Retailing 215 91 Shearwater Grpv 94W – K … 58.4
24 12K Greatld Gldv 13K – X … …
6K 4N SimiGonv 5O … … -2.6
2029Y 1533W News Corp A 1700N – 4W 0.8 27.6 332W 90 AO World 98O – 5K … …
188 137 Accsys Techv 163 – 1K … … 153K 80O Griffin Miningv 88 + 1 … 9.7 3170 2250 4imprint Grp 2815 + 30 … … 182K 65V Smartspace S'warev 66 … … -6.9
1905O 1545V News Corp B 1724K – 10N 0.8 28.0 5918 2038 Asosv 2038 – 107 … 16.2
6115 4874K BASF 5758N + 10Y 4.9 11.4 242K 143 Gulf Keystone‡ 217 – 4K 3.8 13.5 610 480 Andrews Sykesv 496 – 14 4.7 15.8 2240 1427 Softcat 1581 – 22 1.4 32.8
1340 622 Next 15 Commsv 1190 – 10 0.5 … 644 520 B&M European 571W + 11V 3.0 13.2
4825X 3727 Bayer DM50 4536Y – 39W 3.7 -6.8 647V 310 Harbour Energy 367O – 1V … … 300V 228K Spirent Comms 240V … 1.8 24.9
6450 3872 Ashtead 4969 – 157 0.8 26.4
869W 571O Pearson 638O – 1V 3.0 17.3 77O 36O Brown (N)v 37Y – K … 11.1
505 190 Biome Techv 255 … … -6.2 48K 30 SRT Marinev 45K – 1N … …
48 15O Harland & Wolff Group Holdingsv16W – N … 1.3 74 26O Asimilar Groupv 32 + 1 … 1.9
78O 46K Photo-Me 76 + K 11.1 8.5 95K 31 Card Factory 58K – 1K … … 960N 725O Tele. Ericsson 927O + 1W 1.8 18.0
7K 3V Byotrolv 3V … … …
227O 100 Hochschild 101 – 1 4.5 11.6 2300 775 AssetCov 1505 … … 4.7
7N 5K Camb Gbl Timberv 6K – N … -7.3 5 3N Primorus Invv 3W … … 6.2 2770 1664 CVS Groupv 1830 + 4 … 67.5 92K 60 Touchstarv 82 – 1K … …
12V 5Y Horizonte Minrlsv 5Y … … … 53K 29K Avisenv 44K … … …
79O 56 Coats Grp 63X + K 1.4 15.2 136 67K Quarto 131 … … 7.2 300 211K DFS Furn 232 – 3 … 6.7 1100 640 Tracsisv 995 … … …
24Y 10Y Hummingbird Resv 14N … … … 148K 102K Begbies Traynorv 121W – 2K 2.4 …
10410 6082 Croda 7298 – 132 1.2 40.4 420 203 Reach 247 – 12 1.7 … 1551 1238 Dunelm 1309 – 8 0.9 20.8 27 14K Trakm8v 22K … … …
289K 144W Hunting 256K + 4K 1.7 -9.7 292 220 Blancco Techv 220 – 8K … … 165 72K Triad Grp 143K + 3K 1.3 15.7
1575 1075 Cropper (James)v 1400 – 25 … 42.6 3X 1N REACT Grpv 2 … … 51.8 813K 448O Frasers Group 712K – 20K … 31.6
28O 12O IGas Energyv 16W … … -0.8 2968 2150 Bunzl 2687 – 60 3.3 19.7 502 260 Wandiscov 318 – 17 … -5.8
161X 120N Elementis 133K – 2X … 92.2 2424 1692K Relx 2273 + 6 2.0 32.8 3416 2044 Greggs 2644 – 47 … 31.5
1W W Independ Resv W … … -0.4 52O 30Y Capita 31V – V … 2.0 1340 505 Water Intelv 880 – 5 … 48.4
42K 26 Hardidev 30K … … -6.9 800W 555O Rightmove 635 + V 0.7 35.9 435 261 Halfords 310 – 5V 1.6 10.3
51K 29 CEPSv 51K … … … 258K 127 Xaar 217K + 2K … …
3300 1761K Johnson Math 1779K – 25 3.9 22.4 237 188K Indus Gasv 237 + 9 … 24.5 975K 688W Howden Join 767O – 20V 1.1 17.9
16K 8K SpaceandPeoplev 13O – N … -2.4
136 89 Christie Groupv 115 … … 48.9 17N 9N Yourgenev 9N … … -6.4
2068 1719K Mondi 1909 – 41K 4.1 18.5 1V K Ironveldv Y … … … 933 688K Inchcape 861K – 5K 0.8 46.3
377K 310 STV Group 352 + 2 1.7 8.4
151 92K Zoo Digitalv 136K – 1 … …
169 80 Robinsonv 80 – 2K 10.6 … 1810 1403 Compass‡ 1806K – 14 … 90.3
640 239W ITM Powerv 261W + 1W … … 10 5W IQ-AI 5K – V … …
467 175 System1 Groupv 375 – 15 … 17.9
462N 358N Smith (DS) 379 – 7 3.1 21.5 567K 320 CPPGroupv 365 … 6.8 … 234 156V JD Sports 174X – 4V 0.1 21.1
21Y 12Y Jubilee Metalsv 17K + O … 9.8
604 401 Swire Pacific 464N – 1W 3.4 …
3246N 2330N 21st Cent Fox Inc A 3246N + 11O 1.0 14.6
93K 66 Croma Securityv 87K … 2.2 13.2 376W 263O Kingfisher 321W + 3Y 2.5 8.2
Telecoms
3043N 2250Y 21st Cent Fox Inc B 2953 + 8O 1.1 13.3 6K 2 Karel Diamd Resv 2N … … -3.1
28 14N Symph Environv 20K … … … 6614 5506 DCC 6416 – 70 2.4 21.2
2W X KEFI Gold and Copperv X … … -2.9 99X 33O Lookers 99X – 1N … 5.4
6V … Vela Techv … … … 7.6 315 189 AdEPT Technologyv 205 + 1 … …
564 337O Synthomer 337O – 8V 3.4 6.6 207 111 De La Rue 123K + 3K … 16.2 256Y 129W Marks Spencer 196X – 4 … … 205K 122O BT Group 198X + V … 19.2
247 162 Wilmington 247 + 7 0.8 … 488 382 Kenmare Res 426 + 1 1.7 12.5
2727V 1908N Takeda Pharm 2229W + 29V 5.3 11.1 940 511 Dignity 670 – 10 … 19.7 … … Morrison (W) … … … … 159V 96O Currys plc 103Y – O … 4.9
1217K 824W WPP 1214 – 10 1.9 30.8 82W 30 Lamprell 32N … … -2.7
13K 4 Velocysv 6 … … -7.6
3460 2318 Diploma 2694 – 78 1.5 48.1 19X 11K Mothercarev 18 – W … … 2335 1510 Gamma Commsv 1558 – 2 0.7 21.7
86 55 Zinc Mediav 86 + 1K … -1.3 37K 20N Landore Resv 26K – K … -6.0
2706 1961 Victrex‡ 2010 – 40 2.9 23.9
1262 610 Discoverie PLC 860 – 8 1.1 70.4 888 462K Naked Winesv 462K – 4K … … 189 146K Helios Towers 152V – 1K … …
600 432K Wynnstay Groupv 566 … 2.5 18.0 1N W Lansdowne O&Gv W … … …
68K 44K Driver Groupv 45K … 1.6 25.2 8426 7142 Next 7194 – 66 … 15.8 7975 3203 Just Eat T'away 3203 – 232 … -9.9
494 355 Zotefoams 373 – 6 1.6 22.4 Natural resources 29K 18 Leeds Groupv 18K … … …
127 78 DWF‡ 117 – 1 3.8 … 2661 1225 Ocado Gp 1293K – 28K … … X V Mobile Streamsv W … … -7.0
5Y 2X Lexington Goldv 3K … … -8.4 4Y 1K Mobile Tornadov 1K … … -9.1
1255 956K Electrocompnts 1036 – 29 2.4 26.2 23X 14 Pendragon 22W … … 7.0
Leisure 4K O ADM Energyv O … … -0.1 8 4O MC Miningv 4Y … … -0.8
357 251 Essentra 328K – 1 1.0 55.6 519 372 Pets at Home 399K – 5K 2.0 16.3
1612 1010 Telecom Plus 1500 – 4 3.8 38.4
5N V Advance Energyv N … … -0.2 142W 106Y Vodafone Gp 138Y + W 5.5 …
2K 1V Metals Explornv 1N … … 2.2
3667 2273 Experian 2925 – 110 1.2 37.5 456 246V Saga 315 – 5 … …
478 244V 888 Hldgs 270K + K 3.6 86.9 72W 31W AFC Energyv 34K – N … …
X N Nostra Terrav W … … -2.3
13305 8374 Ferguson 11025 – 200 2.9 18.1 340 221N Sainsbury J 280K – X 3.7 23.5
992 470 Accesso Techv 754 + 4 … … … … Afentra PLC … … … …
15 4K Nostrum O&G 5W – N … …
265 200 FIH Groupv 235 … … … 2016 1311 Smith WH 1660K – 33K … …
Transport
3440 380 Best of the Bestv 400 … 0.7 3.2 N V Alba Mineral Resv N … … -5.9
244W 192Y Oil Search 218Y – 5W 0.1 60.3 272 82K Gattacav 93K – 1K … 17.0 36 13Y Sosandarv 27K … … …
1865W 1182O Carnival 1583 – 2V … -2.6 123K 64N Air Partner 123 + K 1.9 36.1
1V K Alien Metalsv Y … … …
W … Oilexv V … … … 6O 4V Grafeniav 5N … … -3.8 3N 2N Stanley Gbbnsv 2N … … -2.3
127K 95 Celticv 103K + 1 … -7.7 310 194K Braemar Ship 257 … 1.9 8.5
122V 81K Alumina 107K – 1 3.8 33.0
1X N Oriole Resourcesv N … … -3.0 568 308 Hargeaves Servv 506 + 11 1.4 7.3 315 103 Studio Retail Group 115 – 2K … 2.4
122 27K Cineworld 41K + K … -0.5 4180 2460 Clarkson 3415 – 25 3.8 …
1 W Aminex Y … … -7.3
465V 301K Domino's Pizza 396O + 2W 3.6 19.8 2W O Ormonde Miningv Y … … -3.8 1212 741K Homeserve 765 – 14 3.4 68.9 212W 80N Ted Baker 90K – 1N … … 921Y 485Y easyJet 706 – 21W … -4.4
3Y 1N Amur Mins Corpv 3O + W … …
2377 1342 Entain 1698K + 18K … 63.3 38K 9Y Orosur Miningv 11O … … … 520 243 Impellam Grpv 502K … … 28.5 309X 219N Tesco 298V + 1V 3.3 22.7 36Y 11Y Esken Limited 12X – N … -0.5
1094710X 9482 Anglo Amer Plat 9482 + 476 2.4 7.0
16915 10030 Flutter Ent 11360 + 310 … … 23V 15V Pan African Resv 18O – K 3.5 6.7 88V 32 Ince Gv 32 … … 18.1 75K 59 Topps Tiles 61W + 1V … 11.1 105X 73 FirstGroup 105 – 1Y … 25.0
3579K 2470K Ang Am 3579K – 20 2.0 9.1 1270 289K Fisher (James) 404 – 5K 1.9 -4.1
47 28 Gaming Realmsv 28W – K … … 127 22X Pantheon Resv 127 + 8V … … 6198 4775 Intertek 5202 – 102 2.0 31.5
400 290 Heavitreev 290 … … …
160 105 Anglo Asian Mngv 108K … 5.3 9.4
60Y 33K Parkmead Grpv 39K + K … -3.1 383K 258O IWG 285 – 3 … -4.8 Technology 217O 125O Intl Cons Air 174X – 3X … -3.0

267 200 Heavitree Av 200 … … … 1925 1227 Antofagasta 1366K + 22 2.9 18.0 420O 352N Irish Cont Uts 360 – 15 … …
Y W Pathfinder Minsv W … … -3.9 180W 122W Johnson Srvcev 162 + 1V … …
145 90 Hermes Pacificv 145 … … … 8V 2N Arc Mineralsv 3X … … 2.6 156K 102 Access Intellv 111 … … … … … Jet2v 1408K – 12 … -7.5
4000 60K Petra Diamonds 89 + 1 … 0.3 137 82K Journeov 109 + 1K … 37.7
5N 3K Ariana Resv 3K … … 4.8 170 128K Aferian plcv 146K … 1.2 49.1 328V 213K Natl Express 284V + K … -6.1
5336 4399 Intercont Htls 5140 – 4 … …
3V 1X Petrel Resourcesv 1X … … -8.6 133 64N Kier Gp 96O … … 8.4
1135 825 Ocean Wilson 935 … 8.5 4.7
1W Y Minoan Gpv 1 … … -7.2 1 K Arkle Resourcesv O … … -2.5 213 115 Alfa Financial 172 + 3 0.5 24.2
8K 2K Petro Matadv 4N – N … … 1365 880 Latham (J)v 1240 … 1.7 6.7 606W 404 Royal Mail 442Y + 2N 2.2 5.0
337K 215 Mitch & Butlers 266V … … … 6N 3O Armadale Capv 4 … … … 29V 18 Allied Minds 18O – K … -1.7
1085 585 Lok'n Storev 1006 – 4 1.3 90.6 606W 404 ROYAL MAIL PLC 442Y + 2N 2.2 5.0
163O 82V Petrofac 117N + 1 … -3.0
504 203K On The Beach 299K – 12K … … 3 2 Asiamet Rsrcsv 2W … … … 725 506 Aptitude Software 528 + 17 1.0 40.0
2900 2220 Lon Securityv 2900 + 150 2.7 16.0 108 65K Stagecoach 98 – N … 13.8
1774 1274 PPHE Hotels 1418 – 22 … -6.3 4K 1V Petroneft Resv 3N … … -9.7
440 270 Atalaya Minev 440 + 7K … 6.1 626W 420 Avast 623W – K 1.8 30.7
490 235 LSL Prop Services 394 – 4 … 10.9 27K 19K Sutton Harbourv 24K + K … …
207 123 Rank Grp 164K – 3W … -7.4 27Y 14W Petropavlovsk 15 – X … 20.7 4220 2750 Aveva Gp 2799 – 79 1.3 …
… … Baron Oilv … … … … 470 306 Wincanton 399 + 21 2.5 10.8
145 82K Macfarlane 129 … 1.9 15.3
139K 73X Restaurant Gp 104V – 1 … 10.9 6N 3K Phoenix Globalv 5 + K … -1.2 235 175 Bangov 193 + K … …
17K 3X Beowulf Miningv 16 – O … … 5565 3729 Wizz Air Hldgs 4619 – 248 … …
385 305 Maintel Hldgsv 325 … … 15.2
36 25V Rotalav 28 … … 24.5 18V 7N Plexus Holdingsv 8 … … -1.9 122K 47N BATM Adv Coms 48K – 1K … 14.7
W … Bezant Resv V … … -3.7
40V 26 Sportechv 37 … … … N V Malvern Intlv V … … -1.5

346 214N SSP Group 297 – 6 … -3.0

2533K 1835V BHP Group 2533K – 61 … …
1729 1048K Polymetal Intl 1109K – 18K 8.4 6.5
224 150 Mears Group 215 – 3 … 49.6
41N 8O Berkeley Res 13O … … -2.0
Utilities
772 512 Porvair 718 + 18 0.7 33.0 40 19N Blackbirdv 22 … … …
1X K Border & Sthn Petv 1 – V … -9.3
7Y 4O Tastyv 5N + V … -1.7 482 212 Menzies (John) 482 + 4 … …
6N 1W Prospex Energyv 4K + N … -6.0 1Y 1 CloudCoCo Groupv 1O … … -4.7 79 45W Centrica 79 … … 5.7
46Y 15Y Bougainville 46Y + 25O … …
305 35 Tintra PLCv 225 + 5 … -3.9 77N 52V Mitie Gp 64 + K … 32.0
46O 10K Proton Motor Power Sv 16 … … -2.9 3030 2086 Computacenter 2790 + 14 1.8 17.5 210 181 ContourGlobal 186O + 1 6.5 …
307X 190N TUI 286N – W … -1.5 7O 2O BowLevenv 3N … … -4.4
45 9K MobilityOnev 10N + O … 7.6
105 72K Concurrent Techv 91K – 2 2.7 21.7 640 358W Drax Group 640 – 2K 2.6 …
417V 257O BP 417V + 6K 3.7 17.3 6W 2N Providence Resv 2O … … 24.5
6K 1O Webis Holdingsv 3W … … 24.1 65 33K Newmark Secv 33K … … …
14Y 8Y Corerov 11 … … … 627K 517K Jersey Electricity 620 + 2K 2.5 16.3
31 16Y Cadence Minv 21 + N … 2.1 6N 1O Quadrise Fuels Intlv 1O … … -5.0
1404 811 Wetherspoon JD 909K – 16 … -6.1 10N 4K Norm Broadbentv 8 … … …
2830 1725 Cranewarev 1790 + 20 1.4 52.0 1104O 806W Natl Grid 1095O + 4O 4.4 25.5
3595 2713 Whitbread 3243 + 21 … … 5K 2O Cadogan Petrol 3 … … 41.6 60K 17O Rambler Met&Minv 30O – N … 0.9
66K 47 Northern Bearv 56K + 1 … 5.7 21N 10W OPG Powerv 10K … … 6.8
3Y 2 Crimson Tidev 2K … … 17.3
1675 1370 Young & Co - Av 1540 + 15 … … 1170 854 Caledonia Miningv 890 … 3.8 8.7 O … Reabold Resourcesv V … … -4.0 1827 1037 Pennon‡ 1050 + 3 3.1 76.0
230 187 NWF Grpv 197 – 1 3.5 12.3
27O 6N CyanConn Hldgsv 18O – W … …
982 774 Young & Co - N/Vv 840 + 24 … … 208K 125K Capricorn Energy 208K + 2 … … 1N W Red Rock Resv K … … -2.9 1 W Rurelecv K … … -0.4
680K 466O PageGroup 595K – 10K … 55.1
400 264 D4t4 Solutionsv 300K … 0.9 35.6
5 1O Caspian Sunrisev 4N + K … … 7142V 4650W Rio Tinto Ltd 6455N + 179N 5.1 7.7 2984 2168 Severn Trent 2875 + 4 3.5 …
117K 57 PCI-PALv 61 – 2 … -9.1 2W V DeepMatter Gpv N … … -0.8
Media 121K 80X Centamin 91N … 7.2 10.3 6658 4375K Rio Tinto 5726 – 81 5.8 6.8 16 9O Petardsv 10K … … 19.0 27K 19 Dillistone Groupv 24 … … -7.0
1682 1301K SSE‡ 1547 – 8 5.2 6.0
1130 859V Utd Utilities 1065K + 4 4.0 97.7
293 212 Cent Asia Metalsv 233 – 1K 5.9 10.3 45 33O San Leon Energyv# 40O + 3W … 15.2 24 13 PHSCv 23 … 4.3 41.8 146 91K Elecov 98K … 0.4 23.4
1X W 7digital Gpv W … … -3.5
30Y 18N Chaarat Goldv 19V + 1W … … 1O X Scirocco Energyv X … … … 8W 2O PowerHouse Egyv 3K … … -6.2 2N Y EQTECv Y … … …
78K 27 Aeorema Commsv 72K … … … uAIM company; # Price at suspension;
12 5 Chariot Oil & Gasv 8W … … … 91 54K Serabi Goldv 55 + K … 7.5 102 58 Record 77 … 2.9 21.1 1362 959 FDM Group 1000 … 4.6 36.2 † Ex dividend; ‡ Ex scrip; s Ex rights issue;
57 23K Altitude Groupv 33 + 6 … … t Ex all; § Ex capital distribution; * figures
11N 6K China Nonferr Goldv 7X – W … … 266K 111K Serica Energyv 259K + 4K 1.3 … 443 255K Redde Northgate 405K + 2K 3.8 10.1
193 73K Arcontech Grpv 96 … 2.6 12.3 12O 7O Filtronicv 12N – N … … or report awaited; . . . No significant data.
W V Clontarf Energyv V … … -4.7 17 6O Shanta Goldv 7X – N 1.3 4.8 872 502 Renew Hldgsv‡ 713 – 12 1.8 17.6 Companies in bold are constituents of the
454W 331O Ascential 338V – 4 … … 3280 1478 First Derivtsv 1480 – 20 … …
FTSE 100 Index. Investment Cos sector Nav
741O 543K Auto Trader 637 – 10O 0.7 31.4
52K 28 Condor Gldv 30K + 1N … … 2061K 1332 Shell PLC 2039 + 20K 2.7 46.6 840 397K Renewi 652 – 9 … 13.7 952K 609K GB Groupv 612 – 2 1.0 46.7 Dis or Prm supplied by Morningstar.

401 260 Bloomsbury Pub 394 + 4 2.2 16.2 2N 1 Corcelv 1W … … -1.3 3 1N Sound Energyv 1O … … -0.9 636V 464K Rentokil Itl 500W – 8K 1.0 36.1 183 152 GreshamTech 176 … 0.4 … Data as shown is
17N 7K Bonhill Groupv 9O … … … 8573K 58V DRD Gold 58V – 1Y 6.5 6.8 N V Sunrise Resourcesv V … … … 518 330 Restorev 475 – 3K … 84.8 268N 108 Ilikav 137 – 2 … … for information
purposes only. No offer is made by
51K 37 Catalyst Mediav 51K + K … -6.8 3O 1V ECR Mineralsv 1V … … -5.6 490 363 Ricardo 458 + 8 0.3 … 99K 63K Ingentav 98 … 1.5 57.3
Morningstar or this publication
70 2GM Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

Money Markets
Wall Street Major indices Eurotop 100 FTSE volumes (000s)

Feb 11 wkly Feb 11 wkly Feb 11 wkly New York Close +/- 12mthhigh 12mthlow Yield P/E 3i 1,070 ITV 17,653
close +/- close +/- close +/- abrdn 4,580 JD Sports 14,894
Dow Jones 34738.06 (-503.53) RWE AG 37.67 +0.52 37.87 28.42 2.31 11.63
3M 159.54 -1.19 eBay 58.38 -0.91 NextEra Energy 74.96 -1.05 Admiral 543 Kingfisher 4,525
Nasdaq Composite 13791.15 (-394.49) Swatch Group AG 274.80 -0.20 333.90 237.10 1.26 27.79 2,867 Land Sec 6,996
Abbott Labs 125.49 -4.22 Ecolab 184.42 -3.06 Nike 140.18 -5.21
S&P 500 4418.64 (-85.44) AP Moller-Maersk A Dn Kr 22060.00 +60.00 22480.00 11290.00 1.55 4.89 Ang Am 3,126 Legal & Gen 24,163
AbbVie 142.01 +1.36 Edison Intl 60.25 -0.91 Norfolk Sthn 267.21 -3.21
Antofagasta 1,706 Lloyds Bkg Gp 170,511
Accenture 329.18 -18.32 Edwards Life 109.00 -3.18 Northern Trust 123.11 +1.53 Tokyo AP Moller-Maersk B Dn Kr 23430.00 +160.00 24070.00 12160.00 1.46 5.20 Ashtead 1,066 Lond Stk Ex Gp 1,169
Activision Blizzard 81.50 +2.25 Electronic Arts 134.10 -3.61 Northrop Grum 399.32 +29.57 ABB Ltd S SF 32.44 -0.49 35.30 25.79 2.44 34.40 AB Foods 986 M&G 4,228
Nikkei 225 27696.08 n/a
Adobe Sys 473.97 -39.57 Eli Lilly 235.74 -6.53 Nucor 118.41 +7.15 Air Liquide Fr ¤ 143.68 -4.32 157.40 124.25 1.96 25.65 AstraZeneca 4,138 Meggitt 811
Aflac 65.31 +0.62 Emerson Elec 94.74 -0.64 Nvidia 239.49 -3.70 Hong Kong Auto Trader 4,746 Melrose 8,244
Airbus Fr ¤ 118.50 +0.20 121.00 89.54 21.68
Agilent Tech 137.20 -3.92 Entergy 105.82 -5.08 Occidental Petr 42.98 +2.18 Hang Seng 24906.66 (-17.69) AVAST PLC 36,775 Mondi 814
Air Prods & Chm 244.39 -18.69 EOG Res 116.75 +3.05 ONEOK 64.51 +1.62 Allianz G ¤ 229.55 +0.30 232.50 182.52 4.28 10.78 AVEVA Grp 295 Natl Grid 3,782
Albemarle Corporation230.89 +14.87 Equifax 225.00 -9.07 Oracle 79.75 -2.36 Amsterdam Anglo American UK p 3579.50 -20.00 3625.00 2350.00 2.02 9.12 Aviva 5,983 NWG 20,020
Alexion Pharmas 182.50 Equinix 671.52 -30.63 O'Reilly 668.28 +21.85 Anheuser-Busch InBev B ¤ 55.86 -0.06 65.86 46.66 0.94 22.70 B&M European 2,454 Next 379
AEX Index 761.50 (+0.00)
Allergan 193.02 Equity Res 86.38 -3.74 Paccar 92.81 -1.72 BAE SYS 3,290 Ocado Gp 1,529
Arcelor Mittal 28.10 -0.97 30.88 18.08 0.92 3.00
Sydney Barclays 41,843 Pearson 2,541
Allstate 123.38 +1.26 Estee Lauder 300.77 -12.58 Parker-Hannifin 300.53 -2.44 ASML Holding Nl ¤ 569.50 -14.60 777.50 422.25 0.50 42.08 Barratt Devs 1,998 Pershing Square 96
Altria 50.37 +0.18 Evrsurce Engy 84.12 -3.62 Paychex 118.91 -1.00 AO 7515.80 (-79.70)
AstraZeneca UK p 8722.00 +72.00 9523.00 6499.80 2.44 103.37 Berkeley 166 Persimmon 756
Amazon 3065.87 -86.92 Exelon 42.13 -1.39 Paypal Hldngs 115.29 -10.79 BP 72,850 Phoenix Gp 994
Amer Elec Pwr 87.65 -1.52 Expedia 192.12 +6.81 PepsiCo 168.58 -3.91 Frankfurt Atlas Copco A Sw Kr 511.20 -14.80 631.00 471.20 1.49 33.52
Brit Amer Tob 5,844 Polymetal Intl 2,239
Amer Express 191.81 +5.96 Express Scripts 92.33 PerkinElmer 180.55 -2.40 DAX 15425.12 (-65.32) Atlas Copco B Sw Kr 449.80 -11.90 534.40 404.90 1.70 29.50 Br Land 1,356 Prudential 3,823
Amer Tower 236.90 -9.53 Extra Space Stor 196.92 -4.54 Pfizer 50.78 -2.22 AXA Fr ¤ 28.42 -0.19 29.09 18.88 5.15 11.96 BT Group 22,734 Reckitt Benck 1,404
Ameren Corp 85.72 -1.16 Exxon Mobil 80.21 -1.20 PG&E 11.26 -0.82 Singapore Bunzl 722 RELX PLC 3,060
Banco Santander Es ¤ 3.48 3.51 2.65 0.81 10.55
American Int 60.74 -0.25 Facebook 219.55 -17.54 Philip Morris Intl 107.96 +4.37 Straits 3428.95 (+0.95) Burberry Grp 1,028 Rentokil Itl 2,358
BBVA Es ¤ 5.97 -0.09 6.29 4.22 1.01 10.58
American Wtr W 149.46 -6.04 Fastenal 51.95 -3.04 Phillips66 93.20 +4.36 Coca Cola HBC 490 Rightmove 1,333
Brussels Barclays UK p 204.90 -3.75 217.63 111.83 1.46 5.64 Compass 2,383 Rio Tinto 4,051
Ameriprise 304.00 -4.10 Fedex 232.21 -11.90 Pioneer Ntrl Rscs 230.88 +3.03
AmerisrceBerg 140.24 +3.63 Fifth Third 48.54 +1.20 PNC Finl 207.36 -2.99 BEL20 4080.41 (+0.00) BASF G ¤ 68.69 +0.13 72.88 57.06 4.93 11.45 CRH 406 Rolls-Royce 21,989
Ametek 130.81 -3.68 FirstEnergy 41.56 +0.20 PPG Inds 149.90 -3.09 Bayer G ¤ 54.12 -0.47 57.73 43.91 3.78 Croda 238 Royal Mail 3,254
Paris DCC 89 Sage Gp 3,246
Amgen 228.20 +6.09 FIS 111.92 -1.84 PPL 28.66 -0.75 BHP Group UK p 2533.50 -61.00 2613.00 1774.56
CAC-40 7011.60 (+0.00) Dechra Pharma 287 Sainsbury J 3,901
Amphenol 75.18 -3.58 Fiserv 97.40 -7.48 Price T Rowe 144.25 -4.45 BMW G ¤ 95.30 +2.53 96.40 68.87 2.04 5.19 Diageo 4,165 Schroders 168
Anadarko Petrlm 72.77 Ford Motor 17.55 -0.41 Priceline.com 1905.64 +20.64
Zurich BNP Paribas Fr ¤ 64.90 -1.66 68.07 44.69 4.20 9.49 Electrocompnts 814 Scot Mtge 1,837
Analog Devices 153.90 -7.13 Freeport-Mcm 42.80 +4.38 Procter & Gmbl 156.29 -5.24 1,773 SEGRO 2,078
SMI Index 12231.97 (-81.19) BP UK p 417.20 +6.50 419.15 254.75
Anthem 447.91 +1.65 Garmin 123.23 -1.53 Progressive Cp 106.20 -2.87 Evraz 61,192 Severn Trent 267
Aon Corp 283.42 -7.89 Gen Dynamics 213.76 +1.47 Prologis 146.31 -7.18 DJ Euro Stoxx 50 4155.23 (-41.84) British Am Tob UK p 3368.50 +99.50 3373.00 2478.00 6.28 12.49
Experian 1,089 8,391
Apple 168.64 -3.75 Gen Electric 96.83 -2.18 Prudential Finl 119.86 +1.52 BT Group UK p 198.70 +0.20 206.70 121.25 19.29 Ferguson 339 Smith & Neph 753
London
Applied Mats 132.49 -3.08 General Mills 68.06 +0.14 Public Serv Ent 65.95 -0.69 Centrica UK p 79.06 +0.02 80.00 45.21 5.73 Flutter Ent 304 Smith (DS) 3,089
FTSE 100 7661.02 (-11.38) Fresnillo 1,719 Smiths 519
Archer Daniels 76.47 +0.76 General Mtrs 48.83 -2.46 Public Storage 358.17 -4.68 Christian Dior Fr ¤ 649.00 -14.50 733.50 449.00 0.95 29.40
Arthur J. Gallagher155.65 -0.63 Gilead Sciences 62.07 -1.83 Qualcomm 164.64 -14.83 FTSE 250 22048.71 (-159.04) GlaxoSmKline 10,731 Smurfit Kappa 333
Compagnie de Saint-Gobain 61.96 -0.85 67.63 41.82 2.17 14.96 Glencore 40,855 Spirax-Sarco 115
AT&T 24.13 +0.05 Global Payments 146.70 +0.91 Realty Income 67.49 -0.70 FTSE 350 4314.19 (-10.45)
CS Group S SF 8.61 -0.02 13.50 8.23 2.78 286.82 Halma 411 SSE 2,207
Auto Data Proc 203.79 -2.46 Goldman Sachs 363.06 -4.54 Regeneron Pharm 638.41 +15.45 FTSE Eurotop 100 3519.73 (-14.31)
Daimler G ¤ 70.16 +0.23 76.80 48.69 1.99 6.29 Hargreaves L 461 St James Place 442
Autodesk 227.13 -14.11 Google Class A 2685.65 -180.21 Regions Financial 24.83 +0.58 FTSE All-Shares 4286.38 (-10.58) Hikma Pharms 303 Stand Chart 6,972
Autozone 1949.11 -69.59 Google Class C CS 2682.60 -177.72 Republic Serv 120.18 -6.28 Danone Fr ¤ 55.39 +0.51 65.30 51.42 7.47 17.62
FTSE Non Financials 5145.47 (-9.90) HSBC 23,854 Taylor Wimpey 11,347
AvalonBay 240.67 -6.63 Grainger (WW) 467.69 -19.99 Rockwell Auto 268.34 -12.34 Deutsche Bank G ¤ 14.40 -0.06 14.64 8.73 16.51 Imperial Brands 2,412 Tesco 22,687
techMARK 100 6407.51 (-13.90)
Baker Hughes 57.68 Halliburton 33.52 +1.58 Rockwell Collins 141.04 Deutsche Telekom G ¤ 17.77 +0.21 18.92 14.60 3.46 15.20 Informa 8,720 Unilever 9,765
Ball Corp 92.44 -1.24 Harris 189.13 -8.09 Roper Inds 437.83 -10.12 Bargains n/a
Diageo UK p 3717.50 -22.50 4364.10 2805.28 1.89 32.78 Intercont Htls 2,190 Utd Utilities 1,114
Bank NY Mellon 62.33 +0.52 Hartford Financial 71.54 +1.02 Ross Stores 94.27 +0.11 US$ 1.3602 (+0.0052) Intermediate Cap 383 Vodafone Gp 78,384
EON G ¤ 12.18 +0.05 12.54 8.27 3.96 7.87
Bank of America 47.92 -0.36 HCA Hldngs 237.57 -1.51 RylCaribbean 83.96 +8.38 Euro 1.1935 (+0.0064) Intl Cons Air 29,951 Whitbread 950
Bard (CR) 331.24 Hershey 205.19 +2.41 Salesforce.com 207.90 -11.33 EDF Fr ¤ 8.40 -0.21 13.25 8.00 2.56 5.16 Intertek 293 WPP 4,464
£:SDR 0.98 (+0.00)
Baxter Intl 85.91 -0.80 Hess 96.20 +0.57 Schlumberger 40.62 +2.11 Enel It ¤ 6.39 -0.04 8.77 6.27 5.74 29.70
Exchange Index 82.71 (+0.29)
BB&T 54.24
Becton Dickinsn 269.98
-0.48
+1.13
Home Depot
Honeywell Intl
350.29 -9.38
186.99 -4.51
Schwab (Charles) 89.11
Seagate Tech 108.71
-2.79
-0.01
Bank of England official close (4pm) Engie (FR) 14.54 -0.03 14.60 10.98 3.73 70.98 European money
ENI It ¤ 13.53 +0.23 13.80 8.63 5.08 32.99
Berkshire Hath 319.14 +4.15 Hormel Foods 47.92 +0.94 Sempra Energy 135.98 -0.29
CPI
RPI
115.05 Dec (2015 = 100)
317.70 Dec (Jan 1987 = 100) Fresenius Medical Care Ag & Co 73.67 -0.85 83.15 63.51 1.99 21.49 deposits %
Best Buy 100.57 +3.74 HP Ent 17.20 +0.36 Sherwin-Williams 273.10 -8.63
RPIX 290.10 Jun (Jan 1987 = 100) GlaxoSmKline UK p 1619.40 -21.60 1696.90 1190.80 4.94 19.02
Biogen Idec 214.59 -6.94 HP Inc 37.33 -0.27 Simon Prop 141.83 -3.35 Currency
Blackrock 772.49 -37.33 Humana 423.97 -5.88 SkyworksSol 133.13 -1.97 Morningstar Long Commodity 677.16 (+5.72) Glencre Xstrata 417.75 -3.30 428.40 263.10 1.04 36.07 1mth 3mth 6mth 12mth
Boeing 212.30 +5.85 Huntington 15.92 +0.09 Southern Co 66.79 -1.90 Heineken NV Nl ¤ 94.50 +0.38 103.80 80.84 0.76 47.08 Dollar
Morningstar Long/Short Commod 4703.45 (+27.75) 0.13 0.20 0.29 0.55
Boston Sci 43.11 +0.34 IBM 132.69 -4.46 S&P Global 387.66 -26.73 Henkel KGaA G ¤ 72.00 +1.60 86.50 65.25 2.60 19.42 Sterling
Bristol-Myrs Sq 66.88 +1.89 ICE Group 125.93 -3.83 Spectra Engy 158.28 +3.26 Henkel KGaA Pref G ¤ 75.62 +1.30 99.50 68.92 2.48 20.40 0.48 0.78 1.25 0.81
Broadcom Ord 573.42 -16.74 IFF 133.84 +6.74 Stan Blk & Dkr 162.85 -3.62 Commodities Hermes Intl SCA Fr ¤ 1202.00 -44.00 1678.00 872.80 0.39 55.37 Euro
Brown-Forman- B 67.19 +0.04 Illinois Tool 217.72 -11.20 Starbucks 93.73 -1.27 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.50
ICIS pricing (London 7.30pm) HSBC UK p 567.20 +5.50 567.20 329.55 2.86 13.66
Capital One Fin 156.00 +5.65 Illumina 330.90 -27.48 State Street 99.17 +0.28
Carnival
Caterpillar
22.04
201.24
+2.08
+2.83
Ingersoll-Rand
Intel
53.32 -1.30
47.63 -0.38
Sthwest Airlines
Stryker
45.53
251.65
+1.87
+0.70
Iberdrola Es ¤
Imperial Tobacco UK p
9.44
1792.00
-0.11
+1.50
11.74
1822.00
8.59
1330.00
4.58
7.60
18.17
6.08
Gold/precious
Crude Oils ($/barrel FOB)
Celgene 108.24 Intuit 535.81 -8.21 SunTrust Banks 70.13
Brent Physical 99.03 +3.19
Inditex Es ¤ 25.75 -0.48 32.85 24.80 0.86 27.11 metals
Centene 83.32 +2.75 Intuitive Surg 283.16 -2.57 Synchrony Fin 43.79 +1.29 ING Nl ¤ 13.41 -0.18 14.00 7.75 0.92 13.10
Cerner 91.97 +0.51 Johnsn & Johnsn 167.71 -3.92 Sysco 82.57 +3.81 BFOE(Mar) 94.56 +3.03 Because of a technical issue, the gold fix
BFOE(Apr) 92.75 +2.59 Intesa Sanpaolo It ¤ 2.85 -0.07 2.92 2.06 1.28 88.30
Chevron 138.81 +2.93 Johnson Controls 66.45 -1.02 Target 211.56 -2.48 prices are from Thursday.
WTI(Mar) 91.42 +2.86 Linde G ¤ 264.60 -7.90 306.00 201.80 1.39 44.05
Chipotle Mex Grill1561.48 +78.04 JP Morgan Chase 153.92 +1.36 TE Connectivity 143.45 -1.17 WTI(Apr) 89.70 +2.44 Bullion: Open $1826.88
Church & Dwight 97.90 -3.08 Kansas City 293.59 Texas Insts 164.40 -7.02 Lloyds Bkg Gp UK p 53.57 +0.17 54.50 36.27 1.06 8.30
L'Oreal Fr ¤ 363.95 -0.05 433.65 302.20 1.13 48.69
Close $1840.48-1840.93 High $1840.68
Cigna Corp 227.50 +6.13 Kellogg 63.85 +2.27 TheKraftHeinz 34.73 -0.02
Cintas 375.53 -6.28 KeyCorp 26.22 +0.05 Thermo Fisher 566.29 -28.13 Products ($/MT) LVMH Fr ¤ 685.00 -21.20 741.60 518.70 0.90 35.64 Low $1821.69
Cisco Systems 53.90 -1.25 Kimberly-Clark 132.33 -0.33 TJX 68.70 -0.48 Munich Re G ¤ 271.75 +0.95 282.25 215.25 3.70 16.35 AM $1832.30 PM $1835.35
Spot CIF NW Europe (prompt delivery)
Citigroup 67.15 +1.07 Kinder Morgan 17.54 +0.19 Tractor Supply Co 219.44 +2.51 Natl Grid UK p 1095.80 +4.80 1105.60 805.40 4.49 25.54 Krugerrand $1821.00-1920.00 (£1339.33-
Citizens Financial 54.47 +0.42 KLA-Tencor 369.23 -8.15 Transdigm Group 638.33 +18.70 Premium Unld 885.00 886.00 +19.00 1412.15)
Nestle S SF 119.70 +1.58 128.94 95.34
CME 241.03 -5.14 Kroger 46.27 +1.50 Travelers 171.76 -0.14 Gasoil EEC 805.25 807.25 +6.75
3.5 Fuel Oil 501.00 501.00 +6.00 Novartis S SF 79.77 -0.38 86.92 73.01 3.88 19.73 Platinum $1026.00 (£754.62)
Coca-Cola 60.29 -0.67 Lab Corp Amer 276.26 -1.22 TSYS 133.27
Cognizant Tech 87.34 +0.52 Lam Research 559.99 -19.08 Tyson Foods 97.99 +9.70 Naphtha 835.00 836.00 +4.00 Orange 10.92 +0.07 10.94 8.93 6.56 32.31 Silver $23.36 (£17.18)
Colgate-Palm 79.53 -1.59 Lennar 91.54 +1.24 Union Pacific 238.81 -3.58 Pernod Ricard NV Fr ¤ 191.70 +1.20 214.50 156.10 2.13 37.51 Palladium $2216.00 (£1629.86)
Comcast 47.62 -1.71 Lockheed Martin 396.19 +6.86 Untd Rentls 312.91 +0.62
ICE Futures
Philips Elect Nl ¤ 29.99 +0.08 50.98 27.94 2.90 26.38 Dollar rates
ConocoPhillips 93.52 +1.65 Lowes Cos 225.91 -3.16 UPS 213.49 -11.30 Prudential UK p 1213.50 -30.50 1598.50 1203.00 0.96 16.87
Consd Edison 84.26 -1.83 LyondellBasell 101.77 +1.55 US Bancorp 58.55 -1.15 Gas Oil Australia 1.3935-1.3936
Reckitt Benckiser UK p 6498.00 +6.00 8020.00 5782.00 2.69 Canada 1.2675-1.2676
Constellation Brs 235.94 -1.39 Marathon Petrol 81.19 +3.00 Utd Health 478.13 -5.04
Mar 843.25-842.75 Jun 782.75-782.25 Richemont S SF 133.15 -1.15 146.10 85.94 1.50 29.58 Denmark 6.5282-6.5287
Corning 41.87 -0.32 Marriott Intl 169.88 +7.14 Utd Tech 86.01 -18.63 Apr 817.75-817.50 Jul 780.00-768.75
Rio Tinto UK p 5732.91 -74.09 6876.26 4354.00 5.88 6.86 Euro 0.8775-0.8775
Costco Whole 509.67 -10.10 Marsh & McLenn 152.21 -1.04 Valero Energy 92.00 +5.30 May 798.75-798.00 Volume: 758992 Hong Kong 7.7992-7.7997
Crown Castle Int 168.88 -11.42 MartinMarietta 379.13 +7.08 VeriSign 214.23 -4.20 Roche Hldgs S SF 378.40 -7.00 427.80 302.00 2.37 23.62
Japan 115.91-115.92
CSX 33.37 -0.93 MasterCard 369.77 -12.43 Verisk Analyt CS 192.91 -4.84 Brent (9.00pm) Rolls-Royce UK p 120.90 -1.82 161.91 86.69 2.64 Malaysia 4.1820-4.1850
Cummins 222.17 -6.43 McCormick 100.75 -0.98 Verizon Comm 53.32 +0.01 Apr 95.00-94.97 July 90.04-89.71 Royal Bank Scot UK p 120.90 -0.45 265.00 100.34 4.96 5.90 Norway 8.8058-8.8078
CVS Caremark 104.24 -4.25 McDonald's 255.16 -4.90 Vertex Pharma 233.89 -8.07 May 93.06-93.04 Aug 88.97-86.00 Singapore 1.3439-1.3440
Shell 2039.00 +20.50 2049.50 16.51 2.71 46.60
Danaher 272.66 -14.97 McKesson 271.19 +5.63 VF Corp 60.74 -2.38 Jun 91.35-91.30 Volume: 2378916 Sweden 9.2661-9.2686
Sanofi-Aventis Fr ¤ 93.83 +0.97 95.16 74.92 3.49 19.91 Switzerland 0.9260-0.9261
Deere&Co 392.67 +23.18 Medtronic 102.99 +0.26 Visa 224.69 -3.70
Delta Air Lines 42.33 +2.48 Merck & Co 76.64 -1.92 Vulcan Mats 187.00 +2.96 LIFFE SAP G ¤ 107.50 -1.80 129.74 100.46 1.76 21.71
Devon Energy 54.11
Digital Realty Tr. 136.29
+1.24
-8.87
Metlife
Microchip
71.03 +2.04
71.33 -1.85
Walgreens Boots 48.70
Wal-Mart 135.33
+0.10
-4.00 Cocoa
Schneider Electric Fr ¤
Siemens G ¤
146.46
141.44
-5.00
-3.24
173.78
156.98
121.40
124.96
1.82
2.54
27.49
21.97
Other Sterling
Discover Financial 124.14 +6.91 Micron 89.76 +8.59 Walt Disney 149.47 +7.45 Mar 1797-1791 May 1797-1796 Standard Chartered UK p 558.00 -8.00 573.60 406.20 1.59 13.58 Argentina peso 144.31-144.32
Dollar General 200.63 -1.73 Microsoft 295.04 -10.90 Waste Mgt 142.64 -2.39 May 1848-1844 Jul 1801-1783
Jul 1881-1845 Sep 1864-1851 Swatch Gp BR S SF 274.80 -0.20 333.90 237.10 1.26 27.79 Australia dollar 1.8945-1.8947
Dollar Tree 137.43 +3.94 Mondelez 66.70 -0.32 WEC Engy 91.21 -3.43
Sep 1864-1851 Swiss Re AG S SF 100.35 -0.35 102.20 77.26 5.90 25.31 Bahrain dinar 0.5091-0.5162
Dominion Res 79.08 -1.10 Monster Bvrge 82.80 -1.49 Wells Fargo 58.31 +1.98 Dec 1831-1825
Dover 160.21 -2.94 Moodys 332.29 -14.59 Weyerhaeuser 41.56 +1.07 Mar 1820-1811 Volume: 74646 Telefonica Es ¤ 4.42 +0.02 4.45 3.52 9.10 2.41 Brazil real 7.0469-7.0510
Dow Chemical 61.09 +0.49 Morgan Stanley 104.57 +0.46 Williams Cos 30.71 +0.13 Tenaris SA It ¤ 11.69 +0.12 11.73 6.96 1.81 16.31
Euro 1.1929-1.1930
D.R. Horton 84.24 +0.22 Motorola Sols 216.00 -19.57 Xcel Energy 66.96 -1.82 RobustaCoffee Tesco UK p 297.10 +0.10 314.03 2.74 3.36 22.76
Hong Kong dollar 10.603-10.605
Dr Pepper Snap 123.66 -0.02 M&T Bank Corp 182.30 +2.74 Xilinx 194.92 -14.10 May 2270-2267 Jan 2180-2095 TotalEnergies 39.69 +0.87 42.19 24.51 6.80 11.36
DTE Energy 116.16 -3.84 Nasdaq OMX 172.37 -6.25 Yum Brands 122.07 -3.20 Jul 2245-2242 Mar 2180-2141 India rupee 102.45-102.45
UBS AG S SF 19.61 -0.14 19.90 13.23 3.50 9.91
Duke Energy 99.75 -4.50 Netflix 391.31 -18.86 Zimmer 116.21 -6.62 Sep 2244-2153 Indonesia rupiah 19460-19460
Nov 2241-2152 Volume: 14459 Unilever NV Nl ¤ 46.66 +1.88 51.05 43.00 2.33 26.39
Eaton 150.66 -0.34 Newmont Mining 63.86 +2.93 Zoetis 198.87 -0.67
Vinci Fr ¤ 102.22 -0.54 103.74 82.94 2.04 25.46 Kuwait dinar KD 0.4099-0.4123
White Sugar (FOB) Vivendi Fr ¤ 11.76 -0.04 12.09 5.27 5.23 10.93 Malaysia ringgit 5.6750-5.6791
London Financial Futures Reuters Oct 478.30-475.40 Vodafone Group UK p 138.90 +0.46 142.74 106.30 5.57 New Zealand dollar 2.0348-2.0364
Dec 485.00-477.60 Volkswagen G ¤ 255.00 +0.20 357.40 179.70 1.93 7.00 Singapore dollar 1.8270-1.8274
Period Open High Low Sett Vol Open Int Mar 506.40-495.10 Mar 484.00-481.50
May 490.10-489.60 May 478.60-474.20 Volvo B Sw Kr 216.85 240.80 182.00 2.95 12.15 S Africa rand 20.490-20.502
Long Gilt Mar 22 120.02 120.40 119.75 119.95 222499 821115
Aug 483.60-477.00 Volume: 55254 Zurich Fin S SF 451.70 +5.60 454.00 352.80 4.44 15.35 U A E dirham 4.9862-4.9889
Jun 22 121.68 121.85 121.68 121.65 478 2290
3-Mth Sterling Mar 22 99.320 99.320 99.285 99.301 3457 269264
Jun 22 99.025 99.045 99.015 99.026 10377 232459
London Grain Futures
LIFFE Wheat (close £/t)
Money rates % Exchange rates
Sep 22 98.885 98.890 98.860 98.866 3885 301735
Mar 215.00 May 221.00 Jul unq Base Rates Clearing Banks 0.50 ECB Refi -0.50 US Fed Fd 0.00-0.25 Bid Change
Dec 22 98.820 98.825 98.790 98.806 7310 347378
Nov 201.25 Jan unq Volume: 615 Australia $ 1.896 +0.01
Mar 23 98.785 98.795 98.755 98.771 8310 229855 Halifax Mortgage Rate 3.59
Canada $ 1.726
3-Mth Euribor Mar 22 100.49 100.50 100.45 100.49 164853 345379
London Metal Exchange Denmark Kr 8.875 +0.04
Jun 22 100.34 100.38 100.29 100.35 245092 523206 Treasury Bills (Dis) Buy: 1 mth 0.370; 3 mth 0.690. Sell: 1 mth 0.250; 3 mth 0.470 Euro ¤ 1.193 +0.01
Sep 22 100.10 100.16 100.06 100.13 226128 515149 (Official) Hong Kong $ 10.608
Dec 22 99.830 99.895 99.800 99.865 151082 525873 Cash 3mth Dec 22 1 mth 2 mth 3 mth 6 mth 12 mth Hungary 421.732 +1.38
Mar 23 99.505 99.580 99.490 99.540 218037 437329 Indonesia 19522.397 -7.15
Interbank Rates 0.4802 0.0000 0.7836 1.2245973 0.0000 Israel Shk 4.402 +0.02
3-Mth Euroswiss Mar 22 100.73 100.73 100.73 100.73 677 31949 Copper Gde A ($/tonne)
Eurodollar Deps 0.11-0.17 0.31-0.38 0.47-0.54 0.78-0.86 1.35-1.39 Japan Yen 157.632 -0.26
Jun 22 100.71 100.72 100.70 100.71 925 29152 10039.0-10040.0 9995.0-10000.0 9605.0-9615.0
New Zealand $ 2.035 +0.01
Sep 22 100.68 100.68 100.67 100.68 710 31355 Norway Kr 11.967 +0.03
Dec 22 100.61 100.62 100.59 100.62 488 22748
Lead ($/tonne)
2288.0-2289.0 2278.0-2280.0 2168.0-2173.0
Sterling spot and forward rates Poland 5.399 +0.06
FTSE100 Mar 22 7561.0 7612.0 7530.0 7600.5 84178 593306 Russia 103.483 +1.93
Mkt Rates for Range Close 1 month 3 month S Africa Rd 20.550 +0.08
Jun 22 7500.0 7500.0 7500.0 7544.5 1 3080 Zinc Spec Hi Gde ($/tonne)
Copenhagen 8.8297-8.8781 8.8754-8.8767 74ds 300ds Sweden Kr 12.587 +0.03
FTSEurofirst 80 Mar 22 5769.0 3672.0-3673.0 3673.0-3674.0 3263.0-3268.0 Switzerland Fr 1.259
Euro 1.1937-1.1873 1.1930-1.1929 91pr 28pr
Jun 22 5752.0 Turkey Lira 18.327 -0.07
Alum Hi Gde ($/tonne) Montreal 1.7219-1.7272 1.7232-1.7234 3ds 11ds
USA $ 1.360
3199.5-3200.0 3179.0-3180.0 2817.0-2822.0 New York 1.3516-1.3608 1.3596-1.3596 3ds 8ds
© 2019 Tradeweb Markets LLC. All rights reserved. Rates supplied by Morningstar
Oslo 11.954-12.014 11.971-11.975 25pr 57pr
The Tradeweb FTSE Gilt Closing Prices information contained Nickel ($/tonne)
Stockholm 12.557-12.652 12.598-12.601 59ds 279ds
herein is proprietary to Tradeweb; may not be copied or 23700.0-23705.0 23370.0-23380.0 21870.0-21920.0 Data as shown is
re-distributed; is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely; and does not constitute Tokyo 156.72-157.69 157.59-157.60 7ds 38ds for information
investment advice. Tradeweb is not responsible for any loss or damage that might result Tin ($/tonne) 15mth Zurich 1.2540-1.2596 1.2590-1.2591 12ds 50ds purposes only. No offer is made by
from the use of this information. 44185.0-44195.0 43790.0-43810.0 42695.0-42745.0 Premium = pr Discount = ds Morningstar or this publication
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 71

Money
Unit-linked insurance investments
Weekly Yld Weekly Yld Weekly Yld Weekly Yld Weekly Yld Weekly Yld
Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- %

ABBEY LIFE CLERICAL MEDICAL INVESTMENT GROUP International 643.50 677.30 +10.30 … Oseas Equity Ord 1860.60 1958.50 +9.20 … Gilts & Fxd Int 608.00 640.00 -8.10 … Squirrel 28.57 30.07 -0.01 …
01202 292373 Narrow Plain,, Bristol BS2 0JH 0117 9290566 Japan 322.50 339.40 +7.40 … Property Init 292.80 308.20 +0.20 … Growth Fund 886.30 933.00 +1.80 … Stag 98.71 103.90 +0.12 …
80 Holdenhurst Road,, Bournemouth Life Funds North Amer 4138.70 4356.50 +48.00 … Property Ord 1045.90 1101.00 +1.50 … International Fd 1270.90 1337.80 +9.40 … Pensions
BH8 8AL Cash 294.88 310.40 … … Perpetual 468.00 492.60 -1.30 … North American 2226.80 2344.00 +16.80 …
Schroders 1479.10 1556.90 +14.40 … Opportunity Fd 867.40 913.00 +4.70 … Bear 119.30 125.60 -0.80 …
American Ser 4 3764.90 3963.10 +28.00 … Dist Acc S2 227.58 227.58 -1.95 … NPI Bull 122.70 129.20 +0.20 …
Custodian S4 603.90 635.70 -1.20 … Fidelity Bal 1220.08 1284.29 +2.61 … Select Mgd 147.80 155.60 -0.30 … 020 7477 5567 Safety Fund 660.00 694.80 -4.80 …
UK Eqty Inc 1540.30 1621.30 -39.50 … UK Equity 954.00 1004.20 +9.60 … Deposit 34.56 36.38 -0.01 …
Equity Ser 4 767.10 807.50 +3.70 … Gilt & Fixed Int 563.61 593.28 -9.35 … 55 Moorgate, London EC2 Gilt Edged 73.16 77.01 -1.55 …
Ethical S4 416.40 438.30 +1.90 … Non Eqty 429.74 452.36 -3.72 … UK Equity Gwth 2224.60 2341.60 +15.30 …
UK Fxd Int 624.60 657.40 -10.60 … Americas 2541.60 2675.40 +20.20 … Owl 141.70 149.20 +0.20 …
European S4 933.10 982.20 -3.20 … Nth American 2963.28 3119.24 -14.34 … Deposit 358.10 377.00 … … SCOTTISH PROVIDENT INSTITUTION
0131 556 9181 Squirrel 46.19 48.62 -0.01 …
Fixed Int Ser 4 947.70 997.60 -12.90 … Property 787.43 828.88 -1.20 … Far East 1684.80 1773.50 +20.10 … Stag 163.10 171.60 +0.30 …
High Inc Ser 4 2557.70 2692.30 +31.40 … UK Gwth 1331.70 1401.79 +7.63 … Pension Fixed Interest 1066.80 1123.00 -13.10 … 6 St Andrews Square, Edinburgh EH2 2YA
International S4 799.20 841.20 +4.20 … With Prof Bd S2 121.70 121.70 … … Aggressive Mgd 4 1003.20 1055.90 -3.70 … Cash 299.50 315.30 … … Pre 1982 Series
Indexed Gilt 954.00 1004.30 -18.60 …
Japan Ser 4 528.10 555.90 +4.00 … With Profits Flex 127.40 127.40 … … Balanced Mgd 3 3949.00 4156.80 +27.60 … Managed 1732.90 1824.20 +6.00 … Equity 927.10 975.90 +0.40 … 3-Way Fund 3073.90 3073.90 +5.20 …
Man Ser 4 2345.50 2468.90 +0.70 … With Profits Reg 393.40 414.20 +0.10 … Cautious Mgd 2 815.90 858.80 -3.90 … Overseas Equity 2340.50 2463.70 +16.00 … Fixed Interest 777.70 818.60 -12.80 …
Money Ser 4 526.10 553.70 … … Gresham
European 1309.80 1378.70 +29.30 … UK Equity 2429.10 2557.00 +29.90 … Index Linked 676.90 712.50 -16.00 …
Prop Fd Ser 4 1057.40 1113.00 … … Pension Funds Far Eastern 3013.30 3171.80 +95.40 … International 1063.90 1119.90 -2.60 … American & Genrl 4692.20 4939.20 +5.90 …
Protected Gth S4 213.80 225.00 … … Cash 334.40 352.00 … … Framlington 258.10 271.70 +0.80 … Managed 915.60 963.80 -2.50 … Capital Fund 2511.50 2643.60 +12.90 …
PEARL Equity Fund 2861.00 3011.60 +14.60 …
European 2057.28 2165.56 +36.45 … Green 996.70 1049.10 -7.20 … The Pearl Centre,, Lynch
y Wood,, Peterboroughg Property 647.00 681.10 … …
Fomerly Hill Samuel Life Assurance Ltd Gilt & Fixed Int 655.59 690.10 -13.86 … International 956.30 1006.60 +16.50 … Fixed Interest 747.80 787.10 -12.60 …
PE2 6FY 01733 470 470 Income 3350.70 3527.10 +49.30 …
Halifax 142.88 150.40 … … Japan 406.50 427.80 +5.40 … Formerly Prolific
Equity Fund 2887.80 3055.90 +12.90 … North Amer 12020.80 12653.40 +162.10 … Inv Equity 5782.00 6086.40 +59.80 … International Gth 3896.20 4101.30 +20.70 …
European Fund 4871.70 5155.30 -16.70 … Nth American 4526.74 4764.99 -27.49 … Adventurous Mg 878.60 924.90 -0.40 …
PP Bal Pens 1240.14 1305.41 +2.40 … Perpetual 566.20 595.90 -1.90 … Inv Managed 3921.80 4128.30 +13.30 … Japan & General 608.10 640.10 -0.50 …
Fixed Intl 1051.10 1112.30 -14.30 … Schroders 2846.70 2996.50 +33.90 … Inv Prop Ac Grs 852.90 897.80 -0.10 … Bal Gwth Mngd 2779.00 2925.30 -7.80 … Managed Bond 3405.00 3584.20 +5.70 …
Income Fund 3193.60 3379.40 -14.40 … PP Caut Pens 404.17 425.44 -1.49 … Cash Fund 542.40 571.00 … …
PP UK Gth Pens 1170.63 1232.24 +6.12 … Select Mgd 158.90 167.30 -0.30 … Inv Prop Dist 269.90 284.20 … … Money Fund 525.40 553.00 … …
International 2154.30 2279.70 +11.40 … UK Eqty Gwth 3971.00 4179.90 +33.90 … Ret Managed 4692.30 4939.30 +16.90 … Cautious Mngd 413.10 434.90 -3.30 … Property Fund 1340.40 1411.00 +0.70 …
Managed Series A 2209.70 2338.30 +0.20 … PP UK Prop Pens 843.65 888.05 -1.15 … Equity Fund 3725.70 3921.80 -10.10 …
With Profits Reg 701.50 738.50 +0.40 … UK Eqty Inc 2512.60 2644.80 -64.20 … Recovery Fund 2843.80 2993.40 +3.90 …
Managed Units 4019.70 4231.20 +0.50 … UK Fxd Int 1330.80 1400.80 -22.60 … Equity Inc Dist 159.70 168.20 +0.60 …
Money Series A 477.10 504.80 … … With Profits Spec 695.00 731.60 +0.50 … PHOENIX LIFE LTD European 788.10 829.60 -28.20 … WINTERTHUR LIFE UK LIMITED
Money Units 672.00 707.30 … … Edward Pavilion,, Liverpool
p L3 4SL 0151 239 3000 Extra Income Fd 1456.40 1533.10 -2.00 … 01256 470707
Property Series A 1454.60 1539.30 … … COUNTRYWIDE ASSURED LLOYDS TSB LIFE LTD For further fund p
prices p
please ring:
g 0800 731 2031 Far East 2253.00 2371.60 +41.90 … Winterthur Way, Basingstoke RG21 6SZ
Harbour House,, Portway,y, Preston,, Lancs 01634 834000 For further fund prices
p please
p ringg 0800 731 2031 Cash ‡ 285.70 … … …
Property Units 2675.90 2816.70 +0.30 … Fxd Interest Fund 1323.50 1393.20 -22.30 …
PR2 2PR Mountbatten Hse,, Chatham,, Kent Broker Life Funds Cash Inv Pens ‡ 532.70 … -0.10 …
Smaller Cos 3553.00 3759.80 -64.40 … High Income 3005.80 3164.00 +18.30 …
CA Funds 0800 262536 Life Funds Moneyhill Grth 510.43 537.29 +2.58 … International 1278.10 1345.40 -1.50 … Cash Pens ‡ 146.40 … -0.10 …
Deposit Life 220.10 231.60 -0.10 … Equity 1669.30 1757.10 +12.60 … Managed Dist 145.10 152.80 -0.90 … Equity ‡ 1403.90 … -0.30 …
Formerly Target Life Assurance Co Ltd Equity Inv Pens 9011.20 9485.40 -47.10 …
Deposit Pen 307.70 323.80 -0.10 … Managed 3780.40 3780.40 +14.40 … Lifestyle Bond Funds (Post 29/1/01) North American 3767.90 3966.30 +9.70 …
Deposit 355.90 374.60 … … Intl Life 967.00 1017.80 +8.60 … Income 3360.20 3537.10 +11.80 … Property Fund 975.60 1027.00 -0.10 … Equity Pens Cap 2373.80 2498.80 -14.10 …
Financial Ser 1 255.10 268.50 … … Intl Pen 1345.80 1416.60 +14.50 … Managed Inv 1973.10 2076.90 +7.30 … Cautious Mgd 262.80 262.80 … … Technology 7390.60 7779.60 +7.50 … Fxd Int ‡ 1003.90 … -7.20 …
Fixed Interest 703.20 740.30 -9.60 … Mgd Life 812.40 855.10 +1.20 … Deposit 150.00 150.00 … … UK Mid Cap 3759.40 3957.30 +3.40 … Fxd Int Inv Pens ‡ 2451.20 … -12.30 …
Managed 2187.80 2302.90 -0.90 … Mgd Pen 1218.60 1282.70 +2.30 … Equity 263.30 263.30 +3.60 … Fxd Int Pens Cap ‡ 677.60 … -3.30 …
Mngd Growth 802.90 845.10 +4.20 … Life Funds-Series Two-Current Series Equity Inc 289.50 289.50 +4.00 …
UK Eqty Life 814.30 857.10 +10.70 … Henderson Investment Bonds Idx Lk Inv Pens ‡ 1479.60 … … …
Property 861.40 906.70 … … UK Eqty Pen 1061.30 1117.10 +17.20 … American 3252.90 3424.10 -21.70 … European 349.20 349.20 +5.20 … Idx Lk Pens Cap ‡ 408.40 … -0.40 …
TSB Intl 1529.70 1610.20 +8.00 … Balanced 2543.80 2677.70 +1.00 … Eurotech 90.10 90.10 -0.20 … Deposit Fund 368.50 387.90 … … Key ‡ … … -4.30 …
CWA Series Funds 0870 600 0014 Cash 412.80 434.50 -0.10 … Far East 435.40 435.40 +4.40 … European Fund 1292.80 1360.90 -46.30 … Managed 1368.00 1440.00 -11.50 …
European Gth 882.20 928.60 +7.80 … Fixed Int 230.90 230.90 -3.00 … Far East Fund 2213.90 2330.50 +41.20 … Mngd Inv Pens 3733.00 3929.50 -37.90 …
AEGON SCOTTISH EQUITABLE
Q Equity Fd 1737.20 1828.60 +0.30 … Fixed Interest 896.80 944.00 -16.00 … FTSE All Share Tkr 287.40 287.40 +2.70 … Fixed Interest 64.30 67.70 -1.10 …
08456 100010 Mngd Pens Cap 984.00 1035.80 -10.70 …
Glob Cash 362.50 381.60 … … German Growth 1629.80 1715.60 +11.30 … Income Dist I 119.90 119.90 +0.20 … Global Managed 1598.60 1682.80 -4.40 … Pacemaker ‡ … … -8.30 …
Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh EH12 9SE Glob Eqty 3426.40 3606.70 +0.50 … Income 3112.20 3275.90 +10.90 … Income Dist II 119.80 119.80 +0.20 … North America 1678.30 1766.70 +4.40 …
American 2191.41 2306.75 +13.70 … Glob Fxd Int 1526.80 1607.20 -22.80 … Japan Growth 322.00 338.90 +3.40 … International 313.50 313.50 +3.70 … UK Equity Fd 941.10 990.70 +9.60 … ZURICH ASSURANCE LTD
Cash 276.54 291.09 -0.06 … Glob Mgd 2415.20 2542.30 -17.30 … Japan Grth 199.60 199.60 +2.50 … 0845 300 2332 UK Life Centre, Swindon SN1 1EL
Managed Inv 2140.70 2253.30 +8.10 …
Distribution 103.58 109.03 -0.49 … Glob Prop 896.20 943.40 +0.40 … Pacific Basin 1478.90 1556.70 +43.90 … Managed 284.00 284.00 +1.40 … SCOTTISH WIDOWS GROUP Equity 10768.80 11335.60 +111.30 …
Ethical 730.49 768.93 -4.35 … Managed Fd 3018.20 3177.10 -21.60 … Property 1807.20 1902.30 -2.20 … North America 465.40 465.40 +3.70 … PO Box 902, Edinburgh EH16 5BU Managed (1) 1136.40 1196.20 +5.80 …
European 1318.92 1388.34 +12.64 … Property Fd 736.70 775.50 +0.30 … Smllr Cos Recov 5351.30 5632.90 -63.90 … Pacific Grth 695.90 695.90 +5.80 … Managed (2) 863.50 908.90 +4.40 …
Fixed Interest 561.75 591.32 -8.02 … Property 368.60 368.60 +0.20 … Cash Fund 360.10 379.00 … … Managed (3) ‡ 666.00 … +3.50 …
Worldwide Gth 2030.50 2137.40 +10.90 … Equity Fund 2434.70 2562.90 +1.10 …
Global 387.33 407.71 +3.47 … FRIENDS PROVIDENT UK Leader 268.50 268.50 +2.30 … Mangd Gen 4 162.80 171.40 +0.80 …
International 1168.00 1229.47 +10.93 … 01722 413366 UK Smlr Cos 350.60 350.60 -4.20 … Fixed Interest Fd 1099.00 1156.80 -19.60 … Property 2108.70 2219.70 -1.30 …
Castle Street, Salisbury, Wilts SP1 3SH Pension Funds Indexed Stock Fd 878.40 924.60 -21.30 …
Japan 454.40 478.31 +2.74 … With Profits 150.83 150.83 +0.07 … Property (1) 443.70 467.10 -0.40 …
Mixed 1004.63 1057.50 +5.02 … American Pens 1982.90 2087.20 -15.20 … International Fd 2439.70 2568.20 +25.90 … Property (2) ‡ 477.40 … -0.20 …
Cash 321.70 338.70 -0.10 … Inv Cash 546.20 575.00 … …
Pacific 1698.50 1787.90 +51.27 … European 1577.60 1660.60 +3.40 … Cash Pen 310.30 326.60 … …
European Pen 1649.50 1736.30 +17.50 … Other Life & Pension Funds Inv Pol 1 5277.70 5277.70 +16.50 … Pension
Technology 5004.73 5268.14 +45.47 … Fixed Inter Life 765.00 805.30 -11.50 …
UK Equity 974.14 1025.41 +8.69 … Far East Pen 638.90 672.50 +22.80 … Pens Unit W Prof 235.12 247.49 +0.18 … Inv Pol 2 4481.30 4717.10 +13.80 … Managed (1) 1640.30 1726.60 +15.00 …
Index Linked 731.60 770.10 -7.00 … Inv Pol 3 3716.80 3912.40 +11.00 …
Managed 1208.70 1272.30 -3.70 … Fixed Int Pen 663.70 698.60 -15.00 … With Profits Bd 184.46 184.46 +0.11 … Equity Acc 30290.10 31884.30 +351.70 …
FTSE 100 381.60 401.70 +2.90 … Mixed Fund 2029.00 2135.80 +7.30 … Managed Acc 17510.60 18432.20 +109.20 …
ALBA LIFE North American 1232.10 1297.00 +1.60 … Property Fund 1090.40 1147.80 -1.60 …
Overseas Equity 1805.90 1900.90 +2.70 … Managed Pen 1056.20 1111.80 +5.00 … Pensions Solution Funds (Post 6/4/2001) Property (1) 815.10 858.00 +0.40 …
50 Bothwell St,, Glasgow
g G2 6HR Property Pen 1120.50 1179.50 -1.60 … Property (2) ‡ 856.10 … +0.60 …
0141 248 2000 Pacific Basin 600.30 631.90 +4.40 … Balanced Grth 299.50 299.50 … …
Property 742.90 782.00 -0.80 … UK Equity Pen 802.10 844.30 +0.50 … SKANDIA LIFE ASSURANCE CO LTD Property Acc 9688.50 10198.40 +6.00 …
Formerly y Britannia Cash Deposit 159.10 159.10 … … 01703 334411 With Profs (5) ‡ 233.20 … +0.10 …
Life Stewardship 1742.30 1834.00 -0.30 … Equity 271.90 271.90 +4.60 …
UK Equity 1708.00 1797.90 +1.10 … LONDON LIFE Skandia House,, Portland Terrace With Profs (6) ‡ 204.90 … +0.10 …
European 1571.70 1654.40 +4.80 … Equity Inc 298.50 298.50 +4.60 … Southampton SO9 7BX
0117 984 7777 European 414.90 414.90 +7.20 … Share Class 1 - Retail
Far East 655.60 690.10 +5.10 … Formerly London & Manchester Assurance Spectrum, Bond Street, Bristol, BS1 3AL Balanced Acc 947.70 997.50 +4.90 …
Fixed Interest 907.90 955.70 -11.50 … Eurotech 173.80 173.80 +4.40 … Managed (2) ‡ 846.70 … +7.90 …
Deposit 506.00 506.00 … … Far East 540.10 540.10 +6.50 … Equity Acc 2227.30 2344.50 +15.20 …
International 1421.60 1496.50 +10.70 … Equity Ex Cap ‡ … … -0.20 …
Japan
Managed Fund
685.00 721.00
1529.00 1609.40
+5.00
+2.10
…
…
Equity Life ‡
Fixed Interest ‡
…
…
…
…
+0.80
-12.40
…
…
Deposit A
Deposit P
290.50
646.60
305.80
646.60
…
…
…
…
Fixed Int
FTSE All Share Tkr
271.60
322.90
271.60
322.90
-4.60
+3.50
…
…
Global Acc
Property
812.50
580.30
855.20
610.80
-1.20
+0.40
…
… British funds
Money Market 399.50 420.50 … … Fxd Int Ex Cap ‡ … … -2.50 … Equity 4029.00 4029.00 +44.20 … Index Linked 393.70 393.70 -5.70 … Stock Price Wkly Int Yld Grs rd
Gtd Dep Ex Cap ‡ … … -0.10 … Equity A 897.30 944.60 +9.80 … International 382.90 382.90 +5.20 … STANDARD LIFE ASSURANCE CO Outstanding(£) Stock (£) +/– % yld
North America 1401.20 1475.00 +10.60 … Standard Life House,, 30 Lothian Road,,
Equity P 3543.40 3543.40 +48.30 … Managed Grth 316.20 316.20 +1.90 …
Property 1083.90 1140.90 +0.70 … Guaranteed Deposit ‡
Inter Life ‡
…
…
…
…
-0.10
+2.30
…
… Fixed Int A 554.30 583.50 -6.80 … Pens Protector 329.60 329.60 -10.00 … Edinburgh EH1 2DH 0131 225 2552 Index-linked
UK Equity 2604.60 2741.70 +20.20 … 109.64 106.12 Tr IL 1Y% 22 106.41 – .11 1.81 –6.15
Intl Ex Cap ‡ … … +0.20 … Fixed Int P 2084.30 2084.30 -32.70 … Property 480.50 480.50 +0.30 … Cash 435.40 458.40 … …
Fixed Interest 1301.40 1301.40 -15.90 … UK Leader 291.10 291.10 +3.10 … 372.96 354.43 Tr IL 2K% 24 * 363.54 – .44 1.49 –2.83
Prop Ex Cap ‡ … … -0.30 … Equity 4615.50 4858.50 +57.30 … 111.98 107.79 Tr IL 0V% 24 107.79 – .23 … –3.42
Pensions Prop Life ‡ … … -0.80 … Index Stock A 744.30 783.50 -14.50 … Unitised W Prof 197.59 197.59 +0.15 … European 966.90 1017.80 +15.40 …
Index Stock P 1412.50 1412.50 -34.60 … 120.56 112.94 Tr IL 0V% 26 112.94 – .30 … –2.83
Equity 1834.00 1930.50 +16.40 … Far East 567.70 597.60 +7.80 … 135.63 125.50 Tr IL 1N% 27 125.50 – .43 1.09 –2.79
European 2000.80 2106.10 +7.40 … FP Life Assurance ex NM Indexed Stock 990.20 990.20 -19.30 … PRUDENTIAL INDIVIDUAL LIFE FUNDS Fixed Interest 1193.10 1255.90 -17.50 …
International 1445.20 1445.20 +10.20 … 130.64 120.49 Tr IL 0V% 28 120.49 – .44 … –2.74
Far Eastern 544.70 573.30 +5.20 … American 3317.00 3491.60 +4.10 … 0345 601601 Index Linked 905.60 953.30 -15.70 … 132.52 121.86 Tr IL 0V% 29 121.86 – .41 … –2.65
Fixed Interest 961.20 1011.80 -15.60 … International A 866.80 912.50 +6.10 … 55 King's Road, Reading, RG1 3AH International 2888.80 3040.90 +22.30 … 141.65 129.24 Tr IL 0V% 31 129.24 – .49 … –2.58
Deposit 540.00 568.40 -0.20 … International P 1921.10 1921.10 +15.60 …
International 1241.10 1306.50 +11.30 … European 3848.60 4051.20 +8.20 … Euro Fund 1683.90 1772.60 +40.30 … Managed 3176.40 3343.60 +15.10 … 402.06 366.57 Tr IL 4V% 30 * 376.64 –1.17 1.71 –2.50
Japan 349.00 367.40 +2.90 … Mixed 2436.80 2436.80 +9.70 … Nth American 1102.80 1160.90 +0.80 … 161.90 146.73 Tr IL 1N% 32 146.73 – .57 0.85 –2.50
Fixed Interest 1600.80 1685.00 -24.20 … Mixed A 768.80 809.30 +3.00 … N American Fd 1981.90 2086.20 -2.00 …
Managed 1090.90 1148.30 +1.90 … Income Acc 4120.30 4337.20 +52.40 … Strategic Fund 644.30 678.20 -11.00 … Property 940.50 990.10 +0.30 … 160.29 144.78 Tr IL 0O% 34 144.78 – .57 … –2.41
Money Market 471.20 496.00 … … Mixed P 2448.50 2448.50 +10.70 … 324.74 284.82 Tr IL 2% 35 * 298.13 –1.11 0.82 –2.31
Income Dist 748.40 787.80 +9.50 … Property 774.00 774.00 … …
North America 2073.30 2182.40 +18.00 … International 1797.40 1892.00 +2.60 … Pensions (Series 4) 161.43 143.91 Tr IL 0V% 36 144.33 – .53 … –2.37
Property 981.00 1032.60 +0.70 … Property A 332.50 350.00 … … Scottish Amicable Life Fds (First Series) 186.89 166.58 Tr IL 1V% 37 166.85 – .59 0.71 –2.35
Managed 2708.50 2851.10 -8.50 … Property P 593.90 593.90 … … Cash ‡ 133.30 … … …
Mixed 1776.00 1869.50 -17.90 … Cash Fund 530.80 558.80 -0.10 … 169.23 149.81 Tr IL 0V% 39 150.17 – .60 … –2.26
Equity ‡ 247.80 … +3.10 … 186.19 162.72 Tr IL 0X% 40 164.83 – .62 … –2.26
AXA SUN LIFE Property 2097.40 2207.80 -2.20 … Equity Fund 6611.40 6959.30 +45.50 … European ‡ 293.00 … +2.60 …
MERCHANT INVESTORS ASSURANCE CO LTD Fixed Interest 1472.20 1549.70 -18.00 … 180.53 153.83 Tr IL 0V% 41 158.19 – .59 … –2.24
PO Box 1810,, Bristol BS99 5SN Singapore & Mal 1362.60 1434.30 +16.80 … Far East ‡ 303.10 … +3.70 … 199.86 170.46 Tr IL 0X% 42 174.48 – .69 0.36 –2.19
Tokyo Fund 1134.40 1194.10 -4.70 … St Bartholomews House,, Lewins Mead Intl Fund 2787.30 2934.00 +45.40 …
AXA Assurance - 02476 235500 Bristol BS1 2NH Fixed Interest ‡ 260.30 … -5.30 … 188.86 158.61 Tr IL 0V% 44 163.50 – .59 … –2.11
Sun Life - 0117 989 3000 UK Equity 2368.10 2492.70 +1.40 … Managed Fund 3410.10 3589.50 +22.40 … Index Linked ‡ 361.30 … -6.00 … 196.96 163.05 Tr IL 0V% 46 169.24 – .61 … –2.07
AXA Equity
q y & Law - 02476 235400 Far East 797.70 839.70 +11.80 … Property Fund 1239.60 1304.90 +1.10 … International ‡ 363.90 … +2.20 … 229.64 190.09 Tr IL 0O% 47 196.67 – .75 0.39 –2.07
Life Assnce - AXA Equity & Law Series 6. 1% AMC Friends Prov (London & Manchester) Ass Ltd Fd Gilt Edged 1647.20 1733.90 -36.10 … Managed ‡ 294.40 … +0.80 … 209.00 169.38 Tr IL 0V% 48 177.39 – .67 … –2.06
Balced Ser 6 2699.30 2841.40 +18.00 … Capital Gth Acc ‡ … … +10.90 … Interest Fund 561.90 591.50 -0.10 … PRUDENTIAL LIFE FUNDS Nth American ‡ 422.90 … +0.50 … 232.71 187.79 Tr IL 0K% 50 197.06 – .73 … –2.04
Distribution Ser 6 104.10 109.60 +0.20 … Flexible Acc ‡ … … -5.70 … Intl Equity 2099.40 2209.90 +12.00 … 01786 448844 Property ‡ 296.20 … +0.10 … 231.36 183.97 Tr IL 0N% 52 193.58 – .77 … –2.00
Europe Ser 6 2007.40 2113.00 +21.50 … Flexible Cap ‡ … … -1.40 … Managed Fd 1297.30 1365.60 -2.30 … PO Box 14962,, Craigforth,
g , Stirling,
g, FK9 4ZD Stock Exchange ‡ 368.50 … +3.00 … 306.14 243.63 Tr IL 1N% 55 255.40 –1.00 0.54 –1.97
Higher Inc Ser 6 4963.70 5225.00 +31.50 … Inv Trust Acc ‡ … … -63.50 … North American 836.60 880.60 +9.50 … Others 248.27 192.25 Tr IL 0V% 56 203.45 – .88 … –1.94
Property Ser 6 1810.10 1905.40 +0.30 … Inv Trust Cap ‡ … … -12.50 … Property 1432.30 1507.70 +0.80 … 256.47 196.27 Tr IL 0V% 58 208.47 – .94 … –1.94
UK Equity 1118.10 1176.90 +14.20 … BonusBond 254.70 268.10 +0.50 … SUN LIFE OF CANADA
UK Equities Ser 6 4000.30 4210.90 +39.20 … Moneymaker Acc ‡ … … +3.00 … Basingview,
g , Basingstoke,
g , Hants RG21 2DZ 297.03 223.37 Tr IL 0W% 62 238.53 –1.15 … –1.91
Cap Gteed Bd 390.40 410.90 +1.20 … 309.47 224.55 Tr IL 0V% 65 243.08 –1.26 … –1.94
Prud Inher Bd (Cap) ‡ … … -0.10 … Dealing: 01256 841414
MGM ASSURANCE 335.00 240.40 Tr IL 0V% 68 261.78 –1.62 … –2.00
Life Funds - Sun Life (inc Birmingham Midshires)& AXA Assurance 1% AMC GUARDIAN Prud Inher Bd (Inc) ‡ … … +0.20 … Equity Account 7422.00 7422.00 +53.10 … 395.45 297.49 Tr IL 0V% 73 301.38 –1.98 … –2.07
01253 733151 MGM House,, Heene Road,, Worthing g
Cash Acc 469.70 494.40 -0.10 … Ballam Rd, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire FY8 4JZ BN11 2DY 01903 836000 Equity Fund Acc
Equity II
2813.50 2961.50
6599.90 6947.20
+19.90
+45.50
…
…
Longs (Over 15 years)
Deffrd Dist 743.00 782.10 +0.70 … Scottish Amicable Life Fds (First Series) 149.24 132.72 Tr 4N% 36 132.72 – .23 3.20 1.64
Deposit 433.70 456.50 -0.10 … Deposit 114.48 120.50 -0.08 … Fixed Int Fd Acc 923.30 971.80 -15.70 …
Distribution Fund 382.40 402.50 +0.50 … Deposit Acc 368.73 388.14 -0.01 … Cash 371.40 390.90 … … 113.52 100.92 Tr 1O% 37 100.92 – .17 … 1.68
Equity Life 4600.00 4842.10 +23.00 … Equity 2570.20 2705.50 +17.80 … Growth Acc 8810.00 8810.00 +63.10 … 164.31 145.53 Tr 4O% 38 145.53 – .25 3.26 1.64
Equity Acc 5850.20 6158.10 +57.40 … Fixed Interest 387.54 407.93 -3.32 …
European 690.40 726.70 +2.50 … Fixed Interest 1078.40 1135.20 -13.10 … Indx-Lnkd Scs Acc 846.60 891.10 -16.70 … 103.54 91.61 Tr 1V% 39 91.61 – .17 … 1.70
European 948.00 997.90 +10.10 … Fixed Interest Acc 1252.02 1317.92 -20.85 …
Fixed Interest 1900.30 2000.30 -29.20 … Index-Linked 821.20 864.40 -20.30 … Managed Account ‡ … … +25.50 … 157.29 139.51 Tr 4N% 39 139.51 – .25 3.05 1.65
Far Eastern Acc 2395.10 2521.10 +42.90 … Managed 483.36 508.80 -9.19 …
Index Linked 715.80 753.50 -9.90 … International 1986.50 2091.00 +32.50 … Managed IV 4124.70 4341.70 +22.40 … 159.85 141.51 Tr 4N% 40 141.51 – .26 … 1.67
Fixed Int Acc 1075.70 1132.30 -12.40 … Managed Acc 1589.67 1673.34 -9.56 …
Inter Life 2758.80 2904.00 +9.90 … Managed 2082.00 2191.60 +13.80 … Mngd Fund Acc 1789.00 1883.10 +10.00 … 106.42 92.45 Tr 1N% 41 92.45 – .21 … 1.70
Global Eqty Acc 2622.20 2760.20 +41.30 … Property 250.17 263.34 -0.42 …
Managed Life 2777.30 2923.50 +4.60 … Property 1223.20 1287.60 +1.10 … Money Fund Acc 338.20 356.00 … … 147.71 128.64 Tr 3N% 44 128.64 – .15 … 1.68
Japan Acc 382.20 402.30 +5.60 … Property Acc 933.48 982.61 +0.33 …
North American 1417.60 1492.20 +5.10 … Pens Equity 1855.40 1953.00 +16.00 … 169.96 149.47 Tr 4K% 42 149.47 – .29 3.01 1.67
Managed Acc 3307.80 3481.90 +22.00 …
Pacific 855.80 900.90 +3.00 … Pens Fixed Int 1186.70 1249.10 -20.20 … 154.93 134.48 Tr 3K% 45 134.48 – .15 … 1.68
North Amer Acc 3066.10 3227.50 +50.20 … The M & G Series
Prop Life 1055.20 1110.70 +1.80 … NAT WEST LIFE ASSCE LTD Pens Guarantee 1432.80 1508.20 +1.40 … 175.82 152.01 Tr 4N% 46 152.01 – .18 2.80 1.68
Pacific Acc 1822.80 1918.70 +37.10 …
PO Box 886, Trinity Quay, Bristol BS99 5LJ Amer Bond Acc 1351.10 1418.80 -21.40 … Pens Indx-Lnkd 1077.30 1134.00 -21.00 … 99.79 84.05 Tr 0Y% 46 84.05 – .12 … 1.69
Property Acc 1381.60 1454.30 +0.20 …
HALIFAX LIFE LTD Growth Mgd Pens 588.08 619.04 +2.00 … Deposit Bond Acc 522.90 549.10 … … Pens Intl 1382.30 1455.00 +27.70 … 114.76 96.69 Tr 1K% 47 96.69 – .08 … 1.66
PO Box 285,, York YO1 1YB 01904 611110 Equity Bond Acc 5266.40 5529.80 +36.20 … Pens Mngd Acct 4695.80 4942.90 +33.00 … 122.26 102.40 Tr 1O% 49 102.40 – .08 … 1.64
BARCLAYS LIFE ASSURANCE CO LTD Life Funds Euro Smlr Cos 209.30 219.90 -21.90 … Pens Money 431.80 454.50 -0.10 … 185.65 158.12 Tr 4N% 49 158.12 – .15 2.69 1.64
0845 603 5000 NORWICH UNION LIFE INSURANCE Pens Property 1933.70 2035.40 +1.00 … 95.59 77.46 Tr 0X% 50 77.46 – .07 … 1.61
Balanced 101.32 106.65 +0.41 … SOCIETY - Ex NUAM Funds European Bd Acc 1999.10 2099.20 +31.90 …
Level 12, 1 Churchill Place, London E14 5HP Extra Yld Bd Acc 4494.70 4719.50 +0.60 … Pers Pens Acct ‡ … … +71.20 … 220.50 175.21 Tr 0V% 51 184.88 – .74 … –2.01
Deposit 36.08 37.98 … … PO Box 140,, Norwich NR3 1PP 111.21 90.97 Tr 1N% 51 90.97 – .08 … 1.64
500 Accum 1449.34 1525.62 +7.25 … Foundation 105.52 111.07 +0.36 … Gbl Basics Bd Acc 1161.30 1219.40 +16.90 … Prop Fund Acc 1519.70 1599.60 +0.60 …
01603 622200 180.27 151.07 Tr 3O% 52 151.07 – .12 … 1.62
America Acc 2810.16 2958.06 +3.40 … Opportunity 120.29 126.62 +0.82 … Gilt Bond Acc 1173.70 1232.50 -14.30 … 120.44 98.01 Tr 1K% 53 98.01 – .10 … 1.58
Comb Inc Acc 2761.94 2907.31 +4.49 … Deposit Fund 604.27 636.08 -0.02 … High Yield Bond 499.60 524.70 +2.90 … TESCO PERSONAL FINANCIAL LIFE LTD
Eqity Fund 15800.37 16631.97 +104.08 … 124.61 100.79 Tr 1X% 54 100.79 – .10 … 1.59
Equity Acc 3877.72 4081.81 +19.06 … Pension Funds Index-Lnkd Gt Bd 375.60 394.40 -6.10 … 0845 845 5555 205.69 169.56 Tr 4N% 55 169.56 – .24 2.51 1.58
Far East Gwth 1298.12 1366.44 +36.35 … Fixed Int Fd 1941.41 2043.59 -21.73 … International Bd 5621.10 5902.20 +88.10 … PO Box 23042, Edinburgh EH3 8YG
Balanced S2 104.17 109.65 +0.49 … Higher Inc Plus 238.02 250.55 -2.78 … 132.79 105.36 Tr 1O% 57 105.36 – .17 … 1.55
Gilt 2 Init 263.21 277.06 -4.63 … Japan Bond Acc 447.60 470.10 +6.60 … Balanced Growth 300.50 300.50 +1.00 … 213.01 171.87 Tr 4% 60 171.87 – .25 … 1.51
Gilt Edged Acc 1024.88 1078.82 -17.34 … Deposit S2 41.68 43.87 … … Intl Fund 1291.68 1359.67 +6.47 … Japan Sm Cos Acc 235.80 247.70 -3.80 …
Foundation S2 105.85 111.42 +0.42 … Intl Growth 442.60 442.60 +6.80 … 96.16 71.01 Tr 0K% 61 71.01 – .13 … 1.47
Inter 2 Init 502.37 528.81 +3.89 … Managed Fund 6524.84 6868.25 +26.33 … Managed Bond Acc 3788.40 3978.00 +24.80 … 173.16 133.60 – .25 … 1.45
Opportunity S2 120.53 126.87 +0.96 … UK Growth 279.90 279.90 +1.60 … Tr 2K% 65 133.60
International Acc 1954.79 2057.67 +16.43 … Property Fd 2634.12 2772.76 +3.97 … Prop Bond Acc 1718.20 1804.20 +1.60 … 219.03 169.11 Tr 3K% 68 169.11 – .35 … 1.45
Japan Acc 449.69 473.36 -0.42 … Rec Bond Acc 3529.90 3706.50 +27.00 … 149.85 108.78 Tr 1X% 71 108.78 – .32 … 1.38
INVESCO FUNDS MGMT LTD WINDSOR LIFE ASSUR CO LTD
Managed 2 Init
Managed Acc
588.28 619.24
2281.37 2401.44
+0.56
+3.71
…
… Alban Gate,, 14th Flr,, 125 London Wall,, Lond
Formerly Commercial Union S East Asia Bd Acc 1300.20 1365.30 -20.40 …
01952 292929 Mediums (5-15 years)
EC2Y 5AS 020 7710 4567 Cash 307.80 324.00 -0.10 … Windsor House,, Telford,, Shropshire
p 101.87 99.23 Tr 0O% 23 99.23 – .08 … 1.29
Managed Alpha 1656.89 1744.10 +8.29 … Fxd Int 617.90 650.50 -7.00 … PRUDENTIAL PENSION FUNDS 105.80 101.36 Tr 2N% 23 101.36 – .10 … 1.36
Money Acc 429.73 452.35 -0.12 … Formerly GT Global Fund Mgmt Ltd
Index-Lnkd 778.70 819.70 -17.90 … Scottish Amicable Non Series A 1982 Series 100.23 97.54 Tr 0V% 24 97.54 – .08 … 1.40
Prop 2 Init 267.08 281.13 -0.02 … Plan Far East 554.30 583.40 … … Int Equity 1428.50 1503.70 +7.00 … 103.18 99.20 Tr 1% 24 99.20 – .10 … 1.37
Property Acc 1033.50 1087.89 +0.58 … Plan Wwide 924.50 973.20 -0.10 … 100% Safeguard 155.80 164.00 … … Cash Deposit 327.30 344.50 … …
Managed 1496.60 1575.40 +5.80 … 95% Safeguard 171.90 180.90 +1.80 … 109.74 103.36 Tr 2O% 24 103.36 – .13 … 1.41
UK Growth Acc 1224.07 1288.50 +6.04 … Far East Equity 1703.20 1792.80 +33.10 … 120.13 110.73 Tr 5% 25 110.73 – .14 4.52 1.40
Property 899.70 947.10 +1.20 … Fixed 795.50 837.40 -13.50 …
Univ Tech Acc 853.28 898.19 +7.17 … LEGAL & GENERAL INVESTMENT MGMT UK Equity 1926.50 2027.90 +12.40 … 102.44 97.60 Tr 0X% 25 97.60 – .11 … 1.37
0203 1243000 SAVE & PROSPER INSURANCE AND PENSIONS Index-Linked Fd 825.50 868.90 -19.60 … 108.81 102.11 Tr 2% 25 102.11 – .13 … 1.39
Var Ann (5) ‡ … … +1.20 … Managed 1522.20 1602.40 +2.50 …
One Coleman Street, EC2R 5AA Var Ann Acc (5) ‡ … … +29.80 … St James's House,, 27-43 Eastern Rd,, Romford 99.99 95.25 Tr 0V% 26 95.25 – .08 … 1.36
& AXA Assurance 1% AM RM1 3NH N Amer Equity 2357.90 2482.00 +2.80 …
B Soc Lnkd Init 136.20 143.40 … … 107.42 100.63 Tr 1K% 26 100.63 – .11 … 1.35
Equity 2 Init 993.83 1046.13 +4.22 … Brit Opps Int 221.20 232.80 -3.70 … Customer Helpline: 0845 3000144 Property 571.10 601.20 +0.30 … 106.62 99.39 Tr 1N% 27 99.39 – .08 … 1.37
Formerly General Accident Special Opp 2162.50 2276.30 +2.80 … 127.26 115.89 Tr 4N% 27 115.89 – .11 3.67 1.39
British Opp 798.80 840.90 +7.40 … Bal Inv Fund 361.60 380.60 +0.50 …
Building Soc Linked 283.40 298.30 … … American 1498.40 1577.20 +4.50 … UK Equity 1604.50 1689.00 +8.20 … 98.97 92.78 Tr 0V% 28 92.78 – .10 … 1.39
CANADA LIFE Deposit Fund (2) 640.40 674.10 -0.20 …
01707 651122 Cash 438.50 461.50 -0.10 … Cash Deposit 260.90 274.50 … … Gilt Fund 1645.40 1732.00 -26.10 … 110.10 101.50 Tr 1X% 28 101.50 – .13 … 1.39
2-6 High Street, Potters Bar, Herts EN6 5BA Cash Initial 119.10 125.40 -0.30 … Conv Life 431.60 454.20 … … Global Equity Fd 1611.90 1696.70 +14.20 … Formerly AEGON Life 143.73 129.73 Tr 6% 28 129.73 – .19 4.62 1.41
Equity 4887.10 5144.30 +9.80 … European 1098.50 1156.20 +5.80 … Property Fund (46) 323.80 340.80 … … 99.77 93.72 Tr 0K% 29 93.72 – .13 … 1.45
Cash 320.20 337.00 -0.10 … Balanced 2122.70 2246.30 +3.50 … 104.02 96.03 Tr 0Y% 29 96.03 – .12 … 1.42
Equity Initial 1073.10 1129.60 -14.50 … Fixed Int 518.90 546.10 -5.90 … Fixed Interest 737.80 780.70 -12.40 …
CLife Euro Mgd 1684.00 1772.00 -44.00 … Index-Linked 756.00 795.70 -17.40 … 98.97 91.10 Tr 0W% 30 91.10 – .12 … 1.47
CLife Intl Fd 1662.00 1749.00 -16.00 … Fixed Initial 463.80 488.20 +3.70 … SCOTTISH LIFE INVESTMENTS International 2415.40 2556.00 +12.80 … 141.07 127.11 Tr 4O% 30 127.11 – .19 3.74 1.46
Fixed Interest 1594.90 1678.80 -23.40 … International 893.60 940.50 +12.10 … Money 394.60 417.60 -0.10 …
Deposit Fund 514.50 541.50 … … Japan 412.10 433.70 -0.30 … 0131 225 2211 96.95 88.72 Tr 0N% 31 88.72 – .14 … 1.54
Equity 1174.00 1235.00 -17.00 … Index Linked Gilt 880.10 926.50 -11.40 … 19 St Andrews Square, Edinburgh EH2 1YE Property 1438.60 1522.30 +0.80 … 102.46 94.66 Tr 1% 32 94.66 – .16 … 1.58
Index Lkd 270.30 284.50 +0.60 … Japan Smllr Cos 421.50 443.60 -0.40 … UK Equity 2662.30 2817.30 +39.20 …
Equity Fund 3033.00 3192.00 +13.00 … Managed 756.40 796.10 +2.90 … American 1792.50 1886.90 +23.50 … 140.22 125.49 Tr 4N% 32 125.49 – .23 3.39 1.56
European 1849.00 1946.00 +26.00 … International 2412.30 2539.30 +33.80 … 101.40 92.57 Tr 0Y% 33 92.57 – .19 … 1.59
Intl Initial 537.00 565.30 -6.40 … Pacific Fund 1045.80 1100.70 +15.70 … Deposit 311.20 327.60 -0.20 …
Fixed Interest 1227.00 1291.00 -26.00 … European 2774.70 2920.80 +23.20 … Formerly Crown 149.22 132.49 Tr 4K% 34 132.49 – .24 3.40 1.63
Life Property 1554.20 1636.00 +7.10 … Property 653.30 687.60 +0.90 … 97.55 87.42 Tr 0X% 35 87.42 – .14 … 1.67
Gilt & Fxd Int 631.20 664.40 +5.30 … UK Equity 1103.00 1160.90 +7.20 … Fixed Interest 790.70 832.40 -9.50 … Life Equity Acc 4034.30 4246.70 +20.80 …
Gilt Edged Fd 1503.00 1582.00 -32.00 … Managed
Managed Initial
3198.30 3366.60
770.70 811.30
+1.00
-3.70
…
… Unitised Profit 397.80 418.80 +0.20 … Global Mgd 1457.10 1533.80 +17.40 … Life Fxd Int Acc 932.60 981.60 -15.70 … Shorts (under 5 years)
International 2600.00 2736.00 +20.00 … Index Linked 904.70 952.40 -9.00 … Life High Inc Acc 3260.30 3431.90 +52.10 … 117.13 108.58 Tr 3O% 21 115.83 – .08 … 1.24
Intl Mgd 3509.00 3693.00 +27.00 … Property Initial 349.80 368.20 -0.60 …
Managed 1352.10 1423.30 -6.60 … Life Intl Acc 2923.00 3076.90 +15.70 … 142.92 135.65 Tr 8% 21 141.44 – .10 5.66 1.19
Investment Fd 1466.00 1539.00 -25.00 … Formerly Provident Mutual 100.80 99.88 Tr 0K% 22 99.94 + .01 … 0.65
LINCOLN FINANCIAL GROUP Pacific 1161.50 1222.70 +27.30 … Life Inv Tst Acc 3705.70 3900.70 +24.70 …
Japanese 381.40 401.40 +5.50 … Deposit Initial 89.60 94.30 … … Pen Worldwide 512.20 539.20 +7.90 … Life Managed Acc 2684.20 2825.50 +17.80 … 102.81 100.51 Tr 1O% 22 100.55 + … … 0.76
Managed 1291.00 1358.00 -9.00 … Barnett Way, y, Barnwood,, Gloucester GL4 3RZ Deposit Ord 320.80 337.70 … … 104.31 100.22 Tr 4% 22 100.22 – .03 3.99 0.27
01452 371371 For further prices
p 0800 7315139 Property 1042.20 1097.10 +3.30 … Life Money Acc 471.60 496.40 -0.10 …
Managed Fund 2747.00 2891.00 +6.00 … Equity Init 791.00 832.60 +4.70 … UK Equity 1771.00 1864.30 +6.60 … Life Property Acc 845.90 890.40 +0.40 … 100.23 98.92 Tr 0V% 23 98.92 – .05 … 1.27
ML Intl Fxd Int 697.00 733.60 -0.30 … Life Equity Ord 2875.00 3026.30 +18.70 … 100.26 96.59 Tr 0N% 25 96.59 – .09 … 1.43
Worldwide 444.30 467.70 +5.80 …
Money 531.00 558.90 -0.30 … Aggressive Mgd 4 719.00 756.80 -2.20 … Fixed Int Init 219.00 230.50 -2.60 … 100.41 95.26 Tr 0W% 26 95.26 – .09 … 1.43
Multiple Inv 3493.00 3676.00 +9.00 … Balanced Mgd 3 1733.80 1825.00 +10.20 … Fixed Int Ord 782.10 823.30 -8.80 … Life Funds
* maturities having an eight-month indexation lag.
North Amer 2330.00 2452.00 +12.00 … Cautious Mgd 2 490.90 516.70 -1.90 … I-Linked Gilt Init 289.50 304.70 -6.90 … SCOTTISH MUTUAL ASSURANCE Bear 68.89 72.51 -0.34 …
0141 248 6321 Data as shown is
Property 1020.00 1073.00 +2.00 … European 837.90 881.90 +15.70 … I-Linked Gilt Ord 949.60 999.60 -21.80 … Bull 77.92 82.02 +0.12 …
Property Fund 2012.00 2117.00 … … Far Eastern 1875.70 1974.40 +51.10 … Managed Initial 495.20 521.30 +1.70 … 301 St Vincent Street, Glasgow G2 5HN Deposit 21.81 22.96 -0.01 … for information
UK Equity 4628.00 4871.00 +26.00 … Framlington 215.60 227.00 +0.40 … Managed Ord 1780.70 1874.50 +7.00 … Cash Fund 282.90 297.80 … … Gilt Edged 44.05 46.37 -0.75 … purposes only. No
UK Property 1428.00 1503.00 -1.00 … Green 624.70 657.50 -3.90 … Oseas Equity Init 488.80 514.60 +2.10 … European Fund 2102.80 2213.50 +6.30 … Owl 92.38 97.25 +0.20 … offer is made by Morningstar or this publication
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the times | Saturday February 12 2022 77

Weather
Today A breezy day with showers or longer spells of rain, but staying drier in the southeast. Max 11C (52F), min -1C (30F) Weather Eye
Paul Simons
Around Britain Five days ahead Wind speed Sea state Orkney
ney Shetland
Sh
Key: b=bright, c=cloud, d=drizzle, pc=partly cloudy Often unsettled and 34 Calm
du=dull, f=fair, fg=fog, h=hail, m=mist, r=rain, (mph) 27 7
sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, t=thunder breezy with showers and Slight 25
*=previous day **=data not available outbreaks of rain, as well Temperature Moderate
Rough
Temp C Rain mm Sun hr* as some brighter periods 28 (degrees C)
6
midday yesterday 24 hrs to 5pm yesterday
6 25
5 S 0.2 1.5
Tomorrow Flood alerts and warnings
Aberdeen
Rain will spread northeastwards over
Aberporth 6 S 0.0 5.8
Britain and Ireland, turning heavy and At 17:00 on Friday there were two 8
Anglesey 8 PC 0.0 5.4 persistent at times, especially over flood alerts in Scotland and no flood 5
Aviemore 2 PC 0.6 0.5 high ground. Drier in northern Scotland alerts or warnings in England or
27

O
and southeastern England at times.
Barnstaple 8
7
S
PC
0.0
0.4
**
**
Wales. Aberdeen
C F n February 3 something
Bedford Max 11C, min -2C 35 95
Belfast 5 S 0.4 3.3
For further information and updates
30 86
quite astonishing
in England visit flood-warning-
Birmingham 8 PC 0.0 **
information.service.gov.uk, for Wales 25 77 happened during a
Bournemouth 8 S 0.0 2.0 6 NORTH severe ice storm in
7 S 0.0 **
naturalresources.wales/flooding and 20 68
Bridlington
for Scotland SEPA.org.uk SEA 15 59 north Texas — the
Bristol 7 S 0.0 2.2
Camborne 8 PC 0.0 3.0 6 10 50
intense cold made trees explode.
8 Edinburgh
Cardiff 7 S 0.0 4.0
9
33 Glasgow 5 41
“We listened to them all night.
Edinburgh 4 S 0.0 4.5 0 32
Eskdalemuir -0 S 0.4 1.6
6 32 -5 23 Sounds like gunshots going off,”
Glasgow 2 S 0.0 4.1
10
-10 14 Lauren Reber, in Princeton, Texas,
Hereford 8 PC 0.2 **
Herstmonceux 9 S 0.0 0.0 ATLANTIC
Londonderry -15 5 told the news station NBCDFW. “All
Ipswich 5 PC 0.0 0.5
Newcastle of a sudden you just hear a great
OCEAN Carlisle
Isle of Man 7 PC 0.0 5.5
Monday Belfast bang and they take out two or three
Isle of Wight 8 S 0.2 ** 5
Jersey 10 S 0.0 0.1 Any lingering rain will clear eastern 9 7 more trees with it.” It is thought that
areas to leave a breezy day with 8
Keswick 5 C 0.4 ** variable cloud, showers and bright or Yorkk the sap in the trees froze and
Kinloss 6 S 0.0 1.1 sunny intervals. Turning drier across created so much pressure that the
42
Leeds 4 C 0.2 ** Ireland before rain arrives overnight.
Lerwick 5 PC 1.1 ** Max 10C, min -3C Manchester Hull
trees eventually shattered.
Leuchars 5 S 0.0 6.1 ooo
Liverpool 6 In the novel Lorna Doone, the
Lincoln 6 PC 0.0 6.3 Galway IRISH 36
7 S 0.4 ** 6
author RD Blackmore wrote about
Liverpool SEA 6 Sheffield
London 9 S 0.0 1.1 Dublin
LLlandudno
trees exploding on Exmoor during
Lyneham 6 S 0.0 2.6 an intensely cold winter. The novel
Manchester 6 S 0.4 4.4
Margate ** ** 0.0 0.0
7 10
Shrewsbury
Nottingham was based on the winter of 1683-84,
8 one of the coldest winters on record
Milford Haven 9 S 0.0 **
i h
Norwich
Newcastle 7 S 0.0 ** 41 6 in England. The botanist John
Nottingham 6 S 0.0 3.9 Birmingham
Orkney 5 S 1.0 0.0 9
Cork
Cambridge Claudius Loudon wrote: “The trunks
Oxford 7 S 0.0 ** 11 of oak, ash, walnut, and other trees,
Swansea Oxford 7
Plymouth 8 PC 0.4 ** were miserably split and cleft, so
Portland 8 S 0.0 ** Cardiff
Scilly, St Mary’s 9 S 0.0 **
Tuesday Channel Islands CELTIC 7 that they might be seen through,
Shoreham 9 S 0.0 0.5 Outbreaks of rain in the west at first
SEA Bristol London and the cracks often attended with
will spread eastwards through the
Shrewsbury 7 S 0.2 6.1 8
Snowdonia 5 S 0.4 **
day, heavy and persistent at times,
Southampton
dreadful noises like the explosion of
particularly over high ground, and 8 fire-arms.”
Southend 7 S 0.0 0.6 followed by bright spells and showers. Exeterr
South Uist 7 S 3.8 ** Max 11C, min -5C 23 Plymouth Brighton The diarist John Evelyn wrote of a
Stornoway 6 S 1.6 1.7
Tiree 7 S 0.8 1.1
great frost fair on the frozen
Whitehaven 2 S 0.4 1.8 8
6 Thames that winter, “the frost
CHANNEL 24
Wick 4 S 0.2 ** 27 continuing more and more severe,
Yeovilton 8 PC 0.0 2.6
the Thames before London was still
11
9 General situation: Showers in Scotland Eng SE Eng, London,
Channel Is, Cen S Eng, leave a breezy day with variable cloud, planted with boothes in formal
The world and Ireland, rain in northwest England E Anglia, E Mids: Most places will be sunny spells and scattered blustery streetes”. Evelyn was also an expert
All readings local midday yesterday
and Wales, drier in the southeast. dry with bright or sunny intervals, showers. Moderate to strong south to on trees and recorded “the trees not
Alicante 14 PC Madeira 21 PC 10 SW Eng, Wales, W Mids, Cen N Eng, although cloud will thicken from southwesterly winds. Maximum
Amsterdam 6 PC Madrid 14 S
only splitting as if lightning-struck,
NW Eng, E Eng, NE Eng, Lake District, the west as the day progresses, 11C (52F), minimum 4C (39F).
Athens 15 S Malaga 16 PC
IoM: A wet start in the northwest then perhaps bringing a few spells of rain Scotland: Rather windy and unsettled but men and cattle perishing in
Auckland 24 DU Mallorca 16 PC
cloud and outbreaks of rain continuing to western areas by the end of the with scattered showers or longer divers places”.
Bahrain 22 S Malta 16 PC Wednesday
Bangkok 32 B Melbourne 20 PC Very mild and unsettled with rain
to spread eastwards through the day, afternoon. Becoming breezy with light spells of rain, as well as a few bright Thomas Barker, a Rutland squire
Barbados 29 PC Mexico City 20 B pushing eastwards, heavy at times, turning briefly sleety over high ground to moderate south to southwesterly or sunny intervals, especially in the and weather diarist, wrote of
perhaps wintry over Scotland and in the north. Moderate to strong south winds freshening later. Maximum afternoon. Moderate to strong south to
Barcelona 16 S Miami 26 PC
followed by showers in the west later. to southwesterly winds, near-gale 7C (45F), minimum 3C (37F). southwesterly winds, near-gale force
another severe winter in 1740:
Beijing 8 S Milan 13 S
Beirut 15 PC Mombasa 31 B
Some southern areas staying drier.
force at the coast. Maximum N Ireland, Republic of Ireland: Cloud over high ground. Maximum “Many walnut-trees were split from
Max 14C, min -1C
Belgrade 14 S Montreal 2 C 10C (50F), minimum 4C (39F). and rain clearing eastwards at first to 9C (48F), minimum -1C (30F). the collar to the root.” In the harsh
Berlin 6 SH Moscow 1 S winter of 1709 two thirds of the
Bermuda 22 C Mumbai 31 S 10
Bordeaux 9 PC Munich 4 PC Tides Noon today LOW 1008 walnut trees across northern Europe
Brussels 7 SH Nairobi 26 PC Tidal predictions. LOW were reckoned to have been killed
Heights in metres LOW 1016
Bucharest 10 S Naples 14 S
13
by hard frosts, which led to dire
Budapest 11 S New Orleans 16 S Today Ht Ht HIGH
Buenos Aires 28 S New York 12 PC 14 Aberdeen 10:51 3.4 23:22 3.4 1024 shortages of timber. Faced with
LOW 1016
Cairo 17 PC Nice 14 PC Avonmouth 03:33 9.6 16:16 9.8 shortages of their favourite wood,
23 M 17 S 1000 1000
Calcutta Nicosia
13
Belfast 08:14 2.9 21:01 2.8 1008
LOW English furniture-makers turned
Canberra 23 PC Oslo -1 S Cardiff 03:26 8.9 16:07 9.2 HIGH
Cape Town 25 S Paris 7 PC 02:09 4.3 14:51 4.2 984 instead to mahogany from the
Devonport
Chicago -1 DU Perth 33 S
Dover 08:04 5.2 20:45 5.3
992 1032 British colonies in the Caribbean
Copenhagen 5 B Prague 5 PC 1000 and British Honduras. The new
Thursday Dublin 08:48 3.4 21:16 3.3
Corfu 15 PC Reykjavik -1 PC
Delhi 19 S Riga 3 C Bright and breezy with variable cloud, Falmouth 02:02 4.0 14:37 3.9
1016
1008
LOW
wood was an immediate success,
sunny spells and scattered showers, Greenock 08:59 2.8 22:14 2.7
Dubai 26 S Rio de Janeiro 25 C
wintry at times and most frequent in
1024
LOW Cold front with its finer grain contributing to
6 B 25 S Harwich 08:23 3.1 21:04 3.2
Dublin
Faro 18 S
Riyadh
Rome 14 PC
the northwest. Some longer spells of
Holyhead 07:47 4.5 20:14 4.5
HIGH LOW Warm front the slender elegance of late
rain possible in the west later. 1024
Florence 12 B San Francisco ** ** Max 11C, min -2C Hull 02:53 5.6 15:28 5.8 Occluded front Georgian and Regency furniture.
Frankfurt 6 SH Santiago 23 S Leith 11:52 4.4 --:-- -- Trough
Geneva 7 PC São Paulo 24 PC Liverpool 08:20 7.3 20:50 7.4
Gibraltar 16 PC Seoul 6 S 5 London Bridge 10:31 5.7 23:09 5.7
Synoptic situation Highs and lows Hours of darkness
Helsinki -2 PC Seychelles 29 PC Lowestoft 06:41 2.1 19:10 2.2 24hrs to 5pm yesterday Aberdeen 17:31-07:11
Hong Kong 20 PC Singapore 28 B Milford Haven 03:10 5.1 15:44 5.2 Low pressure to the northwest Belfast 17:54-07:19
Honolulu 26 PC St Petersburg 0 B of Scotland will push a frontal Warmest: Kew, 9.8C
9 Morecambe 08:33 7.2 21:02 7.3 Coldest: Braemar, Birmingham 17:44-06:57
Istanbul 9 S Stockholm 0 S system and associated rain Aberdeenshire, -8.1C
10 Newhaven 08:11 5.1 20:48 5.2 Cardiff 17:51-07:00
Jerusalem 16 PC Sydney 23 T eastwards across England Wettest: Fair Isle,
Newquay 02:06 5.2 14:39 5.3 Exeter 17:55-06:59
Johannesburg 25 S Tel Aviv 16 PC and Wales, but staying drier Shetland, 4.8mm
Oban 02:51 2.9 15:54 3.0 Sunniest: Leeming, 7.3hrs* Glasgow 17:44-07:16
Kuala Lumpur 30 PC Tenerife 25 PC in the southeast. Meanwhile,
11 Penzance 01:39 4.2 14:09 4.2 Liverpool 17:46-07:04
Kyiv 5 B Tokyo 7 PC scattered showers will affect
20 S 6 D Portsmouth 08:35 3.8 21:14 3.8 Sun and moon London 17:39-06:47
Lanzarote Vancouver Scotland and Ireland, merging For Greenwich Manchester 17:42-07:01
Las Palmas 23 S Venice 8 B Shoreham 07:59 4.7 20:47 4.8 Sun rises: 07.19
The Times weather Southampton 07:10 3.5 19:54 3.6
to longer spells of rain at times. Newcastle 17:36-07:02
Lima 21 S Vienna 8 B Sun sets: 17.09
Another low-pressure system Moon rises: 12.25 Norwich 17:31-06:45
Lisbon 19 PC Warsaw 3 R page is provided Swansea 03:08 6.9 15:43 7.1
to the southwest of Britain will Moon sets: 06.07 Sun Penzance 18:04-07:06
Los Angeles 27 S Washington 13 PC Tees 00:23 4.3 13:02 4.4
18 S 6 PC
by Weatherquest bring further rain tomorrow. Full moon: February 16 Sheffield 17:40-06:58
Luxor Zurich Weymouth 02:55 1.3 15:57 1.3
78 Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

Register
Obituaries

Luc Montagnier
Understated French virologist who shared the Nobel prize for discovering HIV
As a mysterious deadly virus continued
to spread, the two scientists who
claimed to have discovered it waged a
bitter war of intellectual property.
Luc Montagnier, an unassuming
French virologist, ultimately won the
battle for recognition over the American
scientist Robert Gallo when the French-
man received the Nobel prize for physi-
ology and medicine in 2008 for isolating
the human immunodeficiency virus
that causes Aids.
Montagnier was focused on cancer
research when in 1982 he was asked by
Willy Rozenbaum at the Bichat–
Claude Bernard Hospital in Paris to in-
vestigate tissue from the lymph
node of a gravely ill Parisian fash-
ion designer, Frederic Brugiere. A
year before the first medical re-
ports had emerged of an immuno-
defiency syndrome that was given
the name “gay-related immune
deficiency” (GRID) because it ap-
peared to infect a disproportion-
ately large number of homosexual
men. As patients’ immune systems
broke down, lumps would appear
around the throat; they would die
of a range of conditions including
skin cancer and pneumonia.
Working day and night for three
weeks with his team, including Pro-
fessor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi,
Montagnier used DNA sequencing
to isolate a retrovirus — a germ that
inhabits the host cell’s DNA and
takes control. He named the new
retrovirus lymphadenopathy-associat- at-
ed virus (LAV). Montagnier and his
team published their findings in Science
in May 1983. He did not identify LAV
with what was now becoming known as
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
(Aids). However, he did apply to patent
his blood screening test for the virus.
For the common good, Montagnier
sent samples of the virus to Gallo, rec-
ognised as one of the world’s leading
retrovirologists.
In 1984 Gallo published an article in
Science in which he claimed to have
identified a virus called HTLV-III,
which causes Aids. The flamboyant Gal-
lo basked in a blaze of publicity. At a
press conference in Washington, Mar-
garet Heckler, secretary of the US gov-
Pasteur Institute’s modest laboratories
in a Paris side street claimed 1985 that
his US rival was receiving £40 million in
funding compared with the Pasteur
Institute’s £1 million and that Gallo
needed quick results to justify it.“There
has been so much money poured into
the research that the authorities expect
something in return. It is difficult for
them to admit that, with our small re-
sources, we are getting there first.”
Montagnier’s legal claim against Gal-
lo was settled out of court. Bad feeling
continued to simmer and in March 1987
President Reagan and the French prime
minister Jacques Chirac arranged
Montagnier at the Past
Pasteur IInstitute
t in
Paris, where he isolated HIV, in 1987
for Montagnier and Gallo to meet in a
Frankfurt hotel room. Separated by a
table and fast emptying bottle of co-
gnac, they agreed on a shared patent for
a blood screening test. Eighty per cent of
the royalties would fund a new Aids
foundation. The remaining 20 per cent
would be shared between Gallo and
Montagnier. The virus was renamed
human immunodeficiency virus.
The Frenchman’s share of the royal-
ties helped to fund an Aids research
centre at the Pasteur Institute, where
he would work on formulating the ex-
act genetic structure of the virus to aid
ed her work supporting Aids patients.
The argument with Gallo reignited in
the early 1990s when an official investi-
gation found that Gallo’s discovery of
HTLV-III was based on the sample that
Montagnier had sent him. Montagnier
told a news conference in Paris in 1991:
“I think at a certain moment there was
a lie”. Gallo was censured for “minor
misconduct” by the US Office of Scien-
tific Integrity. The US National Insti-
tutes of Health confirmed in its investi-
gation that the Montagnier’s lab first
identified the sample and awarded a
higher percentage of blood screening
royalties to him.
In later years both scientists sof-
ttened their previous stances; Gallo
aadmitted that Montagnier was the
fi
first person to isolate the virus while
M
Montagnier cited Gallo’s vital role in
m
making the connection between the
vvirus and Aids. In 2002 they agreed
tto collaborate on developing a vac-
ccine. It remains elusive.
Such was their rapprochement
tthat when Gallo was not mentioned
in the citation for Montagnier and
B
Barré-Sinoussi’s Nobel prize, Mon-
ttagnier said that Gallo deserved a
sshare in the award.
Luc Antoine Montagnier was
b
born in Chabris, France, in 1932. His
fa
father was a public sector account-
aant and amateur scientist who de-
li
lighted and inspired his fascinated
sson by conducting experiments
w
with nitroglycerine that “went
bang”. Luc attended the College de Châ-
tellerault and studied medicine and
science at the universities of Poitiers and
Paris before graduating in medicine at
the Sorbonne in 1960. He worked as a re-
searcher at the Centre Nationale de la
Recherche Scientifique in Paris and
spent several years in Britain at the Virus
Research Unit of the Medical Research
Council at Carshalton, south London,
and the Institute of Virology in Glasgow.
In 1961 he married Dorothea Acker-
man. She survives him along with their
son and two daughters.
A decade later he began work at the
Pasteur Institute where in the late 19th
century Louis Pasteur had carried out
groundbreaking work on vaccination.
In later years Montagnier was derid-

ernment’s Department of Health and
Human Services, said: “Today we add a
new miracle to the long honour roll of
American medicine and science.” Gallo,
founder of the Institute of Human Virol-
ogy at the University of Maryland
School of Medicine, developed his own
blood screening test to identify the virus
and, with the support of the US govern-
ment, gained an exclusive patent in 1985.
Suspecting that Gallo had based his
research on Montagnier’s sample, the
Pasteur Institute sued the US govern-
ment for breach of intellectual proper-
ty. The scientific spat caught the
public’s imagination. On one side was
the fiery, self-publicising American
with a reputation for bluntness. On the
other was the short, understated
Frenchman with precise mannerisms
and a neatly trimmed moustache. Men-
tion of Gallo was about the only thing
known to break the composure of Mon-
tagnier, who was rarely seen out of his
white lab coat.
Montagnier, who worked from the
Eventually he agreed on
a shared patent with his
bitter rival Robert Gallo
the work of developing antibodies and
other treatments. Montagnier said that
HIV was not the only cause of Aids but
that the virus acted like an “arsonist
starting a fire”. Other bacteria and vi-
ruses “threw petrol on it”, he added.
Over the years Montagnier would
remain a leading HIV/Aids researcher
and public campaigner. As early as
1985 he was warning that the virus was
incubating in heterosexual men and
women. He publicly urged heterosexu-
als engaged in sexual activity with
more than one partner not to have un-
protected sex. In 1987 he warned that
the virus would pose a serious health
risk in Africa in years to come. A year
later Diana, Princess of Wales, visited
his laboratory on a visit to Paris. Mon-
tagnier escorted the princess and laud-
ed for giving credence to theories such
as DNA teleportation and homeopathy
(which is not accepted by the medical
establishment). He claimed that antibi-
otics could treat autism.
He was dismissed in 2020 when he
suggested that the coronavirus might
have been deliberately created in a labo-
ratory in China and accidentally es-
caped. Then, earlier this year, mockery
turned to anger when he claimed that
Covid-19 vaccines were counterproduc-
tive because they could cause variants of
the virus.
Notwithstanding what some regard-
ed as his later “quackery”, Montagnier
was still venerated for research that the
Nobel committee said was “vital for en-
abling us to understand the biology of
[HIV] and develop treatments that
mean that, although there is still no
cure, it is no longer a death sentence.”
Luc Montagnier, virologist, was born on
August 18, 1932. He died on February 8,
2022, aged 89
Wanda Young
Frontwoman for the hit group the Marvelettes
whose life off stage was blighted by tragedies
When Wanda Young and four other time when the Carpenters recorded the
teenage girls from Detroit recorded song in 1975.
Please Mr Postman in 1961 their group Young went on to enjoy further hits
did not even have a name. with the Marvelettes, singing lead on
After the session was over, Berry Too Many Fish in the Sea, Don’t Mess
Gordy Jr, who had just started the With Bill and When You’re Young and in
Motown label but as yet had no hits, Love, which gave the group its biggest
decided to release the song as a 45 rpm hit in the British charts in 1967.
single under the name the Marvelettes. Despite being Motown’s first chart-
The recording by Young and her toppers, the Marvelettes were soon
colleagues gave the fledgling label its eclipsed by the success of the label’s
first No 1 hit in the American charts. An other girl groups such as Martha
instant pop classic, Please Mr Postman Reeves and the Vandellas and Diana
was covered by the Beatles two years Ross and the Supremes. Yet it could
later and was a No 1 hit for a second have been so different but for a
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
Young, second right, and the band’s greatest hit
misjudgment by the group in early
1964, when Young and her band mates
turned down Where Did Our Love Go.
Offered first choice on the song
written by Motown’s crack team of
Holland-Dozier-Holland, the Marvel-
ettes decided it was not for them and in-
stead opted for the more obvious, four-
to-the-floor dance beat of Too Many Fish
in the Sea, written by Norman Whitfield.
“We picked that song because it had all
the music and all the bongos,” Young’s
fellow Marvelette Gladys Horton said.
“We were all together and said at the
same time we didn’t want Where Did
Our Love Go.”
Up until that point all of the
Supremes’ singles had failed to chart but
Where Did Our Love Go went to No 1.
Too Many Fish in the Sea stalled at No 25.
The Marvelettes’ final Top 20 entry
came at the end of 1967 with My Baby
Must Be a Magician, on which Young
was the only member of the group
JAMES KRIEGSMANN/MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
whose
voice
was
heard.
The
Th
group’s final album, The Return Of The
Marvelettes, in 1970, was in effect a
Young solo album and despite its title
the group had ceased to exist.
Young left the business soon after
when, to her disappointment, Gordy
abandoned Detroit and moved
Motown lock, stock and snare drum to
Los Angles. Thereafter her life de-
scended into a spiral of despair, addic-
tion and mental illness, brought on by a
series of personal tragedies. On a trip
home to see her family, she went shop-
ping with her sister, who was wearing a
distinctive wig left at her house by a
friend. Spotted by the wig owner’s jilted
boyfriend, in a case of mistaken ident-
ity, her sister was shot in the head and
died in Young’s arms.
Shortly afterwards her marriage to
Bobby Rogers, a member of the
Miracles, another Motown group, broke
down and she lost custody of their two
children.
Her brother was injured in another
shooting incident and misfortune
continued to plague her. In 2015 her
fourth child, whom she had named Mir-
acle and who had been brought up by an
aunt, was murdered in a shooting not far
from where her sister had been killed.
She is survived by three children:
Meta Ventress, from an early relation-
ship, and Robert and Bobbae from her
12-year marriage to Rogers. She never
remarried and the paternity of her
fourth child was unknown.
Wanda LaFaye Young was born in
August 1943 in Inkster, Michigan, a
black suburb 20 miles west of Detroit
built for workers at the Ford plant at
nearby Dearborn, where her father
James was employed. Her mother,
Please Mr Postman was
covered by the Beatles
and then the Carpenters
Beatrice (née Dawson) had her work
cut out bringing up ten children.
Wanda joined the group that was
about to become the Marvelettes when
her high-school classmate Gladys Hor-
ton asked her to replace Georgia Dob-
bins, whose father had forbidden her to
sing secular music.
Before Dobbins left the group, which
for a while went under the name the
Casinyets (a contraction of “can’t sing
yet”), she had co-written Please Mr
Postman. By the time the song was
recorded with Marvin Gaye playing
drums, it had been polished to a surefire
hit by Motown’s cadre of professional
songwriters and Young had already
taken Dobbins place.
Horton, who died in 2011, contributed
the lead vocals to that initial hit but, at 18,
Young was the oldest member of the
group and the only one to have left
school. Her seniority meant
she swiftly emerged as
th Marvelettes’ main
the
v
voice and their front-
w
woman. There were two
e
early departures from
th group — Juanita
the
C
Cowart, who loathed
to
touring, and Georgean-
n Tillman, after she was
na
d
diagnosed with lupus —
le
leaving Young, Horton
a Katherine Anderson
and
a a trio.
as
After a lengthy spell
a
away from the music
in
industry, Young
r
re-emerged in 1989,
w
when she was among a
n
number of former
M t
Motown stars invited by the British
producer Ian Levine to record for his
newly established Motorcity label.
Young arrived for the session in the
Detroit studio that Levine had hired
seemingly ill equipped for her come-
back. According to one person who was
present she looked like “a decrepit
mess” but Kim Weston, another
Motown hitmaker from the glory years,
groomed and encouraged her and she
rose above her problems to meet the
occasion, before once again returning
to obscurity.
Wanda Young, Motown hitmaker, was
born on August 9, 1943. She died of
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
on December 15, 2021, aged 78
‘He says he isn’t a
romantic, but he is’
Marriages and engagements
Page 80
Kurt Schulze
Luftwaffe fighter pilot who nearly foiled the
sinking of the Tirpitz by RAF Lancasters
On November 12, 1944, Kurt Schulze
was within minutes of foiling the
successful raid by two RAF Lancaster
squadrons on the German battleship
Tirpitz in northern Norway.
The Tirpitz, known to Winston
Churchill as the Beast, was a deadly
threat to supply convoys sent from Brit-
ain to the Soviet Union; it could sink an
entire convoy in 15 minutes. Two of
Germany’s best fighter pilots, Heinrich
Ehrler and Franz Dörr, with some 320
“kills” between them, were deputed to
lead the air defence of the battleship.
Schulze was Ehrler’s adjutant.
That morning the Tirpitz’s
commander was told of
enemy aircraft move- ove-
ments between Nor- or-
way and neutral Swe--
den, and claimed at
his subsequent
court martial that
he had asked for
fighter protection.
Luftwaffe signals
officers told the
same court that
they had not received d
such a request.
After other delays — a
JU-52 transport plane ne was
and first —
given permission to land
Schulze along with his fellow pilots was
in the air at 9.39am when he heard on
the radio: “Flak over Tromso.”
“When I arrived there, the Tirpitz
had already capsized. We were too late.”
Luftwaffe high command in Oslo
wanted both top pilots as scapegoats,
and Schulze could not persuade the two
aces to prepare their defence.
“Kiss my arse,” was Erhler’s final
comment to his general officer in Oslo.
Schulze recalled: “This did not create a
good atmosphere at the court martial.”
Ehrler was sentenced to three years
in prison and demoted but in March
1945, Hitler reinstated him, granted
him a “front probation”. On April 4,
Ehrler, flying an ME-262 jet fighter,
shot down two American B-17 bombers
and radioed to his base “I am out of
ammunition, auf Wiedersehen in Wal-
halla” and then rammed a third B-17.
Kurt Ernst Schulze was born in 1921,
an only child, in Kassel, in central
Germany, where his father was head of
social services in the police force. When
he finished high school in March 1939
he wanted to be a Luftwaffe pilot but his
hay fever meant be had to become a
wireless operator instead.
In 1940 he took part in the Blitzkrieg
that swept through the Low Countries
and France. He was in Dunkirk two
days after the fighting stopped. “All
wonderful stuff, lying around on the
beach,” he remembered. Later that
summer he was on the French coast,
next to the airfield at St Malo, and
“watched all those Me-110’s coming
back from the Battle of Britain”.
In July 1941 he was sent to the eastern
front and won the “frozen medal” a year
later for surviving a winter there in
summer clothing. He was then based in
the Netherlands, from where he flew
25 operations as a navigator.
Schulze was a popular and gregarious
man who did favours for his pilot
friends. They, in turn, taught him to fly
79
in their spare time, and in September,
1943 he emerged as a qualified pilot. A
year later he graduated to Me-109G
fighters, and was serving with the elite
Eismeerjager — Ice Ocean Fighters —
inside the Arctic Circle.
By 1944 Schulze was an experienced
fighter pilot with 60 missions. Serving
50 miles west of the Soviet port of
Murmansk, he had three victories to his
name. As a reward he was given permis-
sion to fly to Berlin to marry his fiancée,
and childhood sweetheart, Annerose
Helm, daughter of Major Alfred Helm.
He was then posted to Dresden in time
to see Allied bomber forces
reduce the city to rubble.
When tthe war ended he
was turned
tu over to the
Am
Americans and,
alo
along with 700,000
ot
other German
P
PoWs, he was sent
to France to work
a a labourer.
as
As soon as he
w
was released on
Ap
April 8, 1947, he
wen back to Berlin
went
loo for Annerose,
to look
who hadh been in the
capital th
through all the ter-
rible months of Russian occu-
pation “I am never,
pation. never ever,
ev ever going to
talk about it, to anyone,” Annarose told
him. It was clear that she had been one
of the two million German women
raped by Red Army soldiers.
They went on to have a son, Bernd,
who became an estate agent, and
remained married for 60 years until she
died in 2004.
Like many German former service-
men, Schulze had struggled to find
work in what he called “socialist Berlin”,
so in 1953 he moved with his family to
California, where an uncle of his lived,
and he was able to get a job as an estate
agent.
He also joined the OBPs — the Old
Bold Pilots — to mingle and reminisce
with other fighting pilots of all nations,
ages and ranks. “Why do you keep
going back to the war?”Annerose asked
him on more than one occasion.
Through the OBP, Schulze became a
great friend of one of the 617 Squadron
“Dambuster” pilots who carried out all
three of the squadron’s sorties against
the Tirpitz. Tony Iveson, two years old-
er than Schulze, later became chairman
of the RAF Bomber Command Asso-
ciation that, in 2012, finally got a me-
morial built in London to those who
served in Bomber Command.
The men treasured the memories
they shared of that freezing, sunny
morning in 1944 when they so nearly
became locked in combat.
“I am so glad you didn’t find us that
day,” Iveson told Schulze, “because the
distance to get to Tirpitz at Tromso was
such that our Lancs had had to leave
behind all their defensive armaments.
We would have been mincemeat.”
Kurt Schulze, German fighter pilot, was
born on July 30, 1921. He died on
December 4, 2021, aged 100
Email: obituaries@thetimes.co.uk
80
Readers’ Lives
Marriages and engagements
‘He says he isn’t a romantic, but he is’
Catherine Prideaux, 38, an events
manager, and James Bibby, 40, an
assistant land agent, were married on
September 5, 2020, at St Mary’s
church, in Gunthorpe, Norfolk. They
celebrated again on December 3, 2021,
at a private members’ club in London
Catherine was expecting to wear her
wedding dress for a second time.
After a reduced wedding ceremony
for 30 guests because of the
pandemic, she and James waited
more than a year to celebrate their
wedding again with a larger crowd in
December last year. Then she
discovered that they were having a
baby, which is due in April.
She discussed altering her bespoke
dress with the designer Sassi Holford
but decided to go with a sparkly dress
instead. James swapped his morning
suit for a three-piece suit.
Catherine and James met at a
dinner party, of which neither has a
clear memory, in 2013. Her
housemate was a mutual friend and
shortly afterwards arranged for him
to move in. On the day that James
arrived with his belongings,
Catherine and her friends
were setting off for a
hen party and he was
left looking after a
miniature
dachshund
belonging to one
of them.
Within a few
months,
Catherine and
James were a
couple. The
following year theyy
moved into a rented d
flat for just the two of
them in southwest London.
“We are both quite house-proud,”
she says. They enjoy cooking and life
at home. She is the organiser. He will
sometimes bemoan her social plans
but usually enjoys himself.
In 2015 they moved to Bristol for
James’s work, which was initially a
wrench for Catherine, who had
worked in London since she was 20.
She set up her own company,
Orchard Point, managing corporate
events. “We really enjoyed it,” she
says. In 2017 they moved to a village
in Shropshire, where James did an
MA in rural estate and land
management at Harper Adams
University. They enjoy being outdoors
and have a lurcher, Bala.
“James is one of the most
thoughtful and kind people I’ve ever
met,” she says. “He is always
thinking of other people before
him. He claims he is not a romantic
The perfect gift
for new parents
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a newborn in Readers’
Lives, a service in
contracted tributes
Call 020 7782 5583 or email
readerslives@thetimes.co.uk
Catherine and James at their summer wedding in Norfolk and, left, at their celebration in London
Ca
b he secretly
but
is
is.”
In 2018 they
m
moved again, this
tim
time to Lancashire,
whe
where James grew
up an
and now works as
an assistant
assi land
manager. “She makes me
a better perso
person,” he says. “She
is a very calming inf
influence on me.
She has tolerated me dragging her out
of London and never once complained
about it, or not openly to me.”
By then the pressure from friends
and family to get married was
growing. Catherine’s three siblings and
James’s sister had married before
them. “James felt like he needed to
give my father a break,” she says.
James chose a ring before a trip to
Bergen in Norway in December 2019.
They had toured the Christmas
markets when he stopped by a lake to
propose. He claimed to be too old to
go down on one knee. Catherine was
thrilled and within a few months they
had everything booked for their
wedding in September 2020.
“I was getting very excited and so
were all my friends,” she says. The
ceremony for 120 guests was to take
place at Binham Priory, in Norfolk, a
50%
discount for
subscribers
former Benedictine foundation dating
back to 1091. The plan was for a
dinner and dance afterwards in a
marquee in her parents’ garden.
Then Covid-19 loomed and they
had to cut their guest list to 30. They
moved the ceremony to St Mary’s, a
smaller church in Gunthorpe,
cancelled the band and caterers, and
opted for a buffet in a smaller
marquee in her parents’ garden.
Catherine was still able to attend
fittings for her bespoke dress, which
was a gift from her maternal
grandmother who died weeks after
their wedding. She was busy with
work in the run-up to the wedding but
had the support of family and friends,
who pitched in.
Catherine’s father drove her to
St Mary’s but they had forgotten the
bouquet and had to dash home. There
were no hymns because of the Covid
rules but they did have readings. “It
was even more special because we had
made it this far given everything that
had gone on,” she says.
A family friend made their wedding
cake, which was decorated with
pandas (Catherine’s favourite animal),
family dogs and a mini James in
diving gear. He was born in the
Bahamas, where his father worked,
LUCY J TOMS PHOTOGRAPHY
and later returned there to teach
diving. The newlyweds went to Skye
for their honeymoon and spent a few
days in Edinburgh where they saw
pandas at the zoo.
They had planned to celebrate with
a dinner-dance for 100 guests in
Norfolk last May but the virus
intervened again. Then Catherine
found out that she was pregnant and
they decided on a December drinks
party at a private members’ club in
London instead, 15 months after their
small wedding ceremony. They had
not seen many of their guests since
their engagement.
The dress code was “suits and
sparkles”. There was a jazz band,
canapés, pizza, cake and speeches.
Guests stayed until the early hours.
“It was really nice to finally get to
celebrate with everybody,” Catherine
says. “James secretly always wanted a
small wedding.”
If you would like to feature a
wedding or engagement or the
birth of a child on these pages, call
020 7782 5583 or email:
readerslives@thetimes.co.uk
thetimes.co.uk/static/terms-and-conditions
‘She has her father’s eyes
and face shape but her
mother’s lips and nose’
PIPPA SUZANNE DRACOTT WAS BORN ON MAY 28, 2020,
AT BROOMFIELD HOSPITAL IN CHELMSFORD, ESSEX,
TO CLAIRE, 30, AND GARY DRACOTT, 30
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
New readers
James Alfred Humphries was born
on August 25, 2021, in Gloucester
Royal Hospital to Anna, 39, and
Robert Humphries, 39
“I think he’ll be a
daredevil on the
ski slopes,” says
Anna about
James, who
giggles when
pushed fast in his
buggy. “As a
family we love
the outdoors,”
she says, “and it looks like he will too.”
He had great fun at the National
Arboretum in Westonbirt, watching
Anna try to catch their dog.
Anna, a lawyer for Vodafone, hopes
that as James grows up she will be
able to teach him about the
importance of family, and looks
forward to watching him charge
around with his brother, Daniel, and
“a whole gang” of cousins, who were
all born last year.
She and Robert, a police helicopter
pilot, have enjoyed dancing in the
kitchen with James to Elton John’s
Lockdown Sessions. They are about to
take him to London for the first time
and are excited to see his expressions
as he takes in the sights.
Lucas Vince Anderson was born on
September 9, 2021, at the Rosie
Hospital in Cambridge to Stephanie,
32, and Matthew Anderson, 33
Stephanie had a
good pregnancy
until the end. “I
was 13 days
overdue,” she
says. She and
Matthew, who
were featured on
The Times
weddings page in
2019, wanted their son’s name to
include her maiden name, Vince. As
for his first name, “we had it down to
two and we weren’t sure which one
until he was born. Lucas was my
favourite.”
From the moment Lucas arrived he
has been smiley and alert, preferring
to be held up so that he can see what’s
going on around him. He enjoys being
the centre of attention. “People say he
looks like me when he smiles but
there are parts of my husband as well.
He’s got the same shape eyes as my
mum,” says Stephanie.
Lucas loves his swimming lessons
and music and “is the only person that
appreciates his mum’s singing voice”.
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
Remembering loved ones
Architectural
model maker
used for the
Olympic bid
Barry McKeogh, 72
It was in the aftermath of the 1990
financial crisis that the model maker
Michael Finbar McKeogh, known as
Barry to his friends, rolled the dice
that would change his professional
life. When the property industry went
into free fall, his model-making
business Pipers, which he bought in
1977 and had grown to 50 employees,
was in danger of going bankrupt.
Pipers had hitherto taken
commissions of individual buildings
but Barry’s new “big idea” — one of
several during the course of his
career — was to make a larger-scale
model. He invested all his savings into
creating a 1:500 replica of the
City of London. Its point was
primarily to keep his team in work
but it also showcased the way the
City was changing since the big bang
of 1986. His timing turned out to be
spot on.
Competition for inward investment
between global cities was starting to
take off and in 1992 the model was
used as the centrepiece at the
Architecture Foundation’s City
Changes exhibition at the Royal
Exchange. The exhibition showcased
21 schemes representing the future of
the City and included proposals by
architects such as Richard Rogers,
Norman Foster (who had yet to build
in the City) and Michael Hopkins.
At about the same time a real estate
event, Le marché international des
professionnels de l’immobilier, or
Mipim, had launched in Cannes in a
disused multi-storey car park on the
Rugby winger and flamboyant dresser who worked in set design
Pat Kamara, 63
Usually with a grin spread wide
across his face, the rugby winger Pat
Kamara was recognisable on the pitch
for the grace and power with which
he would weave through defenders
before implementing his deft
“sidestep” — a manoeuvre that never
failed to trip up the opposition — to
plant the ball over the try line.
At Saracens, a team who were
struggling when he joined in 1980, Pat
established himself as a prolific try-
scorer. On his first-class debut he
managed a brace against London
Welsh and had ten in the bag by
Christmas. A couple of years later he
moved to Wasps, part of an astute
recruitment drive by the club that at
the same time brought the England
trio Nigel Melville, Huw Davies and
Nick Stringer in at scrum half, fly half
and full back.
Yet it was at Finchley RFC, where
seafront. Barry took along another
high-quality, intricately designed
model, which became the focal point
of a large London stand and it caught
the attention of investors, developers,
politicians and city thinkers. This time
it brought together the Square Mile
and Canary Wharf, areas that, while
in competition at home, presented a
united front overseas to compete with
Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin
and Madrid and the like for
international investment.
By the late 1990s London’s world
city status was enhanced by further
global investment, as well as the
creation of the Jubilee Line extension
and National Lottery funding. The
demand for a central London model
grew. The first, made of wood, was
built in 1997.
Barry’s later work was used to
support London’s Olympic and
Paralympic Games bid. A model of
the proposed Olympic Park was taken
by Sebastian Coe to the Athens
Games in 2004 and an updated
version of the central London model
was created, extending into East
London. An expanded version
was created in 2015 to take in
development to the west such
as Old Oak Common, Earls Court
and Wembley.
The thrill of London, including its
skyline, never palled for Barry, who
had been raised in Mullingar, Co
Westmeath, and moved to England
when he was in his late teens.
He was born in Cork in 1949, the
second of six children, and hailed
from a profitable baking dynasty. His
grandfather owned a large bakery in
Pat Kamara joined Saracens in 1980
he was club captain in 1988, that his
can-do attitude and sheer chutzpah
came to the fore and he guided the
club to the double. Finchley was the
first junior club to win both the
Barry McKeogh bought the Pipers business when he was 28 and produced
large-scale models of London, top right, that developers could show to clients
Killaloo, Co Clare, and his father
Michael established Mullally’s, one of
the largest suppliers of bread in
Ireland. The family were comfortably
off and Barry’s mother, Afric (née
O’Brien), spent much of her time as
ladies’ captain of the local golf club.
Barry went to St Finian’s College,
Mullingar, where, along with his older
brother, he was expelled for being
caught in an adjacent girls’ school. He
was sent to a Catholic boarding
school to “teach him manners”, and
excelled at Gaelic football and rugby
union, captaining both teams. He was
also the Irish teenage triple-jump
champion.
Yet by the late 1960s he was ready
for adventure. It was hoped that he
would follow his father into the
baking trade, and he studied
Middlesex Cup and the Middlesex
league. “He set the standards,
enforced the discipline and did this
with an enthusiasm that was
infectious,” the former Finchley club
president Carl Elliott said. By the time
Pat hung up his first-team boots in
1990, the club had also competed in
the national Pilkington Cup for the
first time.
Patrick Kamara was born in 1957 in
Barnet, north London. His father, a
government official from Sierra
Leone whom he never knew, had
accompanied Pat’s unmarried mother,
Hilda, to Britain to deliver the baby.
He then returned to west Africa to
avoid a scandal since Hilda came
from a lower social background.
Within six weeks Hilda, unable to
cope, handed Pat to Irish foster
parents, Sidney and Edna Crook.
They lived in Barnet and had four
other adopted children.
In his mid-teens Pat started playing
football for Barnet FC, a talent that
AGNESE SANVITO
accountancy at South Bank
University in London. However, he
fell for the capital, particularly its
pubs and clubs, and failed to return to
Ireland. It remained a source of
disquiet with his parents and the
family business died out with the
death of his father.
On graduating Barry took a starter
role in the finance department of Aer
Lingus but it was in a subsequent role,
at the construction company Fergus
and Haines, when he came across its
clients John Piper in Kingston upon
Thames. The architectural model-
making business was in trouble and,
instantly hooked, Barry grabbed the
chance to take on its debts, change
the name to Pipers and move it up to
Clerkenwell to be nearer the offices of
London’s architects. He was 28.
did not go unnoticed by Arsenal,
Tottenham Hotspur and
Southampton, whose scouts came
calling. By the age of 18, he had
chosen rugby over football, playing
for Finchley’s Colts from where he
progressed to represent Middlesex at
county level and gain selection for
England’s under-19 side.
With as good an eye for design as
he had for a ball, Pat got into Chelsea
College of Art and Design and on
graduating moved into set design for
the English National Opera. At
parties and weddings he struck a
flamboyant note in red cords, tweed
jacket, green gilet, purple shirt and tie
and Gucci loafers. “Style, folks,”
he would announce, “style never
takes a holiday.”
Pat’s intention was to devour as
much of life as he could. His career
included organising arts and film
festivals, writing for the Edinburgh
Fringe, painting and decorating and
working in a Baker Street sandwich
81
Readers’ Lives
In the 1980s Barry tookk hi
his cue
from New York and started to create
larger-scaled models of areas of
London, such as London Bridge,
Broadgate and Canary Wharf. They
went down well with developers who
could show the context of their
proposed buildings and sell office
space off-plan. He was also one of the
first to invest in computer-aided
design and laser-cutting machines,
automating some of the more
mundane aspects of model making
and revolutionising the speed of
production.
In the 1970s Barry met Joanna
Marbaix, a proofreader at Penguin
Books, and they raised four children:
Amélie, who is the head teacher of a
junior school; Mary who works for a
photographic hire business; and Nick
and Patrick who, respectively, run the
events and exhibitions-based
company New London Architecture
and Pipers.
Barry went on to chair the annual
London Festival of Architecture,
sponsored young architects on trips
to Mipim to meet developers and
backed the London Real Estate
Forum, a London version of Mipim.
A popular figure and a bon viveur,
he had time for everyone and took an
optimistic view where others may
have had doubts. London never lost
its appeal and one of his favourite
pastimes was to walk through the
streets of the City of London where
he could view its changing skyline. He
enjoyed the juxtaposition of the old,
such as St Paul’s Cathedral, alongside
the new, including his favourite, the
wedge-shaped “Cheesegrater” in
Leadenhall Street.
If you would like to commemorate
the life of a relative, friend or
colleague, call 020 7782 5583 to
discuss the content and cost, or
email: readerslives@thetimes.co.uk.
thetimes.co.uk/static/terms-and-conditions
shop, where he knew every customer
and which team they supported. In
1993 he spent a year at Ruskin
College, University of Oxford,
studying English and Irish literature.
His final position was as a “diamond
runner” in Hatton Garden but he was
laid off after ten years because he was
finding difficulty in communicating
with the clients.
In 2016 an MP friend took Pat on
as his researcher and to help run the
Commons and Lords rugby club, but
within a year Pat was diagnosed with
primary progressive aphasia, a rare
form of dementia that robs sufferers
of the ability to relate to people.
In a lifetime spent encouraging
others, Pat had gathered a large
crowd of friends, and so frequent
were the visitors in his final days —
many of whom remembered him for
his beaming smile and infectious
Sid James laugh — that his care
home manager had to ration the
number of callers.
82
Register
Births, Marriages and Deaths
REMEMBER that the Sabbath Day
belongs to me. You have six days when you
can do your work. Exodus 20.8-9 (CEV)
Births
BLACKFORD on 11th January 2022 to
Edwina (née Reid) and Christopher, a son,
Angus George Theodore Hamilton, brother
to Margot and Hector.
DAVIS on 25th January 2022 to Rachel
(née Ross) and Christopher, a daughter, Isla
Katherine, sister to Nathaniel and Edward.
GORDON-FINLAYSON on 1st February
2022 to Alice (née Hutcheson) and Peter, a
son, Rupert Robert, brother to Edward.
MUNDELL on 1st February 2022 to
Catherine (née Easton) and Oliver, a
daughter, Rose Elizabeth Dorah, sister to
Isla Margaret.
Forthcoming Marriages
MR H. A. ZANIN
AND MS C. L. BALDWIN
The engagement is announced between
Hernan, son of Dr Adriano Zanin and
Graciela Galarza de Zanin of Formosa,
Argentina, and Claire, daughter of Dr
Richard and Mrs Jean Baldwin of Hartfield,
East Sussex.
MR J. L. S. DINEEN
AND MISS C. I. B. DE LA POER
BERESFORD
The engagement is announced between
Julian, elder son of Mr and Mrs Barry
Dineen of Totland Bay, Isle of Wight, and
Clementine, only daughter of Ms Jilly de la
Poer Beresford of Kingscote,
Gloucestershire.
LT M. A.I . COSBY RN,
AND MISS R. E. M. BISHOP
The engagement is announced between
Lt Maxwell Cosby RN, son of Capt Richard
Cosby LVO RN, of Wambrook, Somerset,
and Mrs Catherine Cosby, of Switzerland,
and Rosanna, daughter of Mr and Mrs
Charles Bishop, of Great Braxted, Essex.
MR N. HARRISON
AND MISS A. CRAWFORD
The engagement is announced between
Nicholas, older son of Mr Michael Harrison
and Mrs Elizabeth Harrison of Leeds, and
Anna, elder daughter of Mr Paul Crawford
and Mrs Fiona Crawford of Cambridge.
MR A. M. E. GEVARGIZ
AND DR G. D. HIGBEE
The engagement is announced between
Mr André Michael Edward Gevargiz of
Bedfordshire, England, and Dr Genna
Doreen Higbee of Ohio, USA. The marriage
will take place at Holy Name Cathedral in
Chicago, Illinois, on 26th August 2022. It
will be presided over by Father Andy
Matijevic and followed by a reception.
Marriages
MR D. J. MENDEL
AND DR W. H. E. SWEET
The marriage took place on 4th January
2022 at the Pump House, Battersea Park,
London SW11, between David James
Mendel and William Henry Etienne Sweet.
Deaths
BOSWELL Christopher James on 29th
January 2022 aged 56, suddenly at home.
Dear son of the late Mr and Mrs James
Boswell of Glasgow and Stewarton, brother
of Margaret and Jeanne, nephew of Alan
and father of Christopher. The funeral will
be held at 2pm on Monday 28th February
at South Lanarkshire Crematorium.
DUTHIE Sir Robin peacefully on 1st
February at Inverclyde Royal Hospital, after
a short illness. Beloved husband of Noel
much-loved Dad (and Dad-in-law) to David
and Jan, Peter and Liz and Sue and Mark.
adored (and adoring) Grampa to Gaynor,
Michael, Jack, Ria, Gordon and Harry and
Great-Grampa to baby Remy. After a
private committal, a service of
remembrance for a long and happy life
will be held at Greenock United Reform
Church, George Square, Greenock at noon
on Saturday 19 February to which
everyone is warmly invited. Family
flowers only please and a retiral collection
will be in aid of Greenock Medical Aid
Society.
ELLERBY
John, former district valuer and
valuation officer for Torbay, died on
31st of January 2022.
Dearly loved husband of Rosemary,
loving and proud father of Phil and
Chris, Grandpa John of Jessica and
Adam and Great-Grandpa John of
Rocco.
FENNYMORE Peter, loving and beloved
husband of Jacqueline and father of
Rupert, died at home in Godalming at the
age of 72 after a short illness. Peter was
brother to three sisters, Carol, Pauline and
Janet, brother to John, who died in 2021,
and a lifelong friend and bookselling
partner of Theo Zinn (1922-2015). Peter was
not granted the time to read all the books
he was expecting to get round to reading.
His extensive library leaves a memorial to
his insatiable appetite for books. Service on
February 23rd in Surrey and online.
J Gorringe & Son Funeral Directors. 01483
416403 Or contact: rupert@fennymore.com
or 01483 319149.
GILES Christine Anna Johanna (née von
Alten) on 3rd February 2022, aged 80.
Dearest wife of the late Roy, former head
master of Highgate School. Mother to
Caroline, Andrew (deceased) and Tim.
Correspondence via WG Potter Funeral
Directors Tel: 01297 34283 or
axminster@funeraldirectors.uk.com
newsukadvertising.co.uk 6 020 7782 7553
HATSWELL Dorothy Ann (née Sayer)
died peacefully on 4th February 2022,
aged 87. Greatly missed mother of Philip,
Stephen and Anne, and grandmother to
Kate, Andrew, Hannah, James, Beth,
George and Lucy. Funeral at All Saints,
Crawley Down, at 1.30pm on 8th March.
Family flowers only. Donations to Kit
Wilson Trust.
JUDGE Erika (née Leiter) died peacefully
on 8th February 2022, aged 96.
Much-loved wife of Robert (d 2002),
mother of Susan (d 2018) and grandmother
of Basilio. Private funeral service.
LAWSON Russell Edward Mackay died
February 1st 2022, aged 78. All enquiries to
CS Boswell on 01865 553737.
LEE Michael, born 1932, died February
2nd 2022. Author, sociologist and
historian. His well-researched academic
works were his life long passion.
Remembered with love Joy, Matthew
and Helen
MCCREATH Alistair William passed
away on 30th January 2022, aged 73.
Beloved husband of Julia, devoted
father of Isobel and James, proud
grandfather of Alexander and Thomas and
friend to many. Funeral in Worcestershire
on 24th February 2022, followed by a
memorial service in London later in the
year. Family flowers only but donations if
desired to the BBA in his memory. All
enquiries to EJ Gumery & Son. Tel: 01905
22094
PELHAM Michael Alan died peacefully at
home on 2nd February 2022, aged 95.
Former choral scholar of King’s College
Cambridge. Greatly loved by his wife,
Lucy, his children Charles and Laura, and
his grandchildren Henry, George and Ava.
Private family funeral. Thanksgiving
Service at Beaulieu Abbey to be
announced.
PYE Nigel Lindsay died suddenly on
28th January 2022, aged 76, while on
holiday. Beloved husband of Hilary, dearly
loved father of Matthew and Alex and a
devoted and loving grandpa to Olivia.
Forever in our hearts. Funeral service will
take place in the West Chapel of the
Cambridge Crematorium on Wednesday
23rd February at noon. No flowers please,
but donations, if desired, in memory of
Nigel, to the Arthur Rank Hospice
(arhc.org.uk).
RAMSDEN Ivor Basil peacefully at
home with his family on 3rd February,
aged 92. Dearly loved by his late wife
Carola, their children and grandchildren.
Family funeral. A thanksgiving service
will be held on Friday 25th March at St
Mary’s Church Pembroke at 2.30pm.
All enquiries to J Roberts & Son
01646 683115.
TATUM
Michael Jon died peacefully on 15th
January 2022, aged 80. Beloved
husband of Marcia, loved father of
Nicholas and Hayley and Grandfather
of Olivia and Archie. He will be greatly
missed by friends and family.
WEST
John Stephen de la Warr died
peacefully on 21st January 2022, aged
77, at Robertson Nursing Home,
Godalming. Beloved husband of
Christine, dearly loved father of
James and Tim.
Funeral at St Nicholas’ Church,
Compton, Guildford, GU3 1EG, on
Friday 25th February at 11 am.
No flowers but, if wished, donations
made payable to Macmillan Cancer
Support c/o J Gorringe & Son, 55 Hare
Ln, Godalming GU7 3EF.
WHITE Colin died peacefully on 26th
January 2022 aged 89. Much-loved
husband to Joy, father, grandfather and
great grandfather. A family ceremony will
be held at the Memorial Woodlands
Bristol. No flowers but donations
gratefully accepted by Parkinson’s UK,
colin-white2.muchloved.com
WHITE Neville Mervyn on 31st January
2022 died peacefully at home, aged 89.
Beloved husband of Sheila and father of
Mark and Charles. He is greatly missed by
us all. The cremation will be on Tuesday
22nd February 2022 at Easthampstead
Park Crematorium. Should you wish to
make a donation to a charity we care
about as a family, please visit
www.memorygiving.com/
nevillemervynwhite
WILSON Enid May (née Gale) on 29th
January 2022, aged 102. Peacefully at
Hurstwood View care home. Widow of
Andrew; mother of Helen (Tarnoy), John,
Jane (Chandler, deceased) and Tony;
grandmother of 13 and great-grandmother
of 29. Funeral at Wealden Crematorium at
11am on 21st February. Family flowers only,
but donations to the RNLI would be
welcome.
General Announcements
PRODUCT-DEVELOPER SEEKING
SUPPORT Registered UK patent and
trademark owner requires workshop with
adjoining field for prototype testing of
air-sport and leisure concept. Inventive
step (USP) to build on, also other potent
revenue streams. Business and
entertainment representation also sought
and hoping to pull in a team of scientific/art
collaborators qua co-writer(s) and a film-
documentary crew. Willing to exchange
negotiable percentage(s) of future profit
for the right arrangement. If you would like
to invest in this exciting venture please
email sma1966@hotmail.co.uk with a bit
about yourself. Serious responses will be
acknowledged and those selected will
receive further information. Thank you.
Acknowledgements
D. M. We would like to congratulate DM
on passing his CFA exams! We are very
proud of all your achievements and are
excited to see what you will do next. From
a very proud Nonna, a handsome Gizmo,
and all the family.
Trustee Acts
D'SOUZA PlACIDA TArsItIA
(DECEAsED)
Late of 28 Westbrooke
Crescent Welling Kent DA16 1PU.
Died 08 May 2021. All claims under S27
Trustee Act 1925 to Joseph Venance
Anthony D'Souza Briar Bank
Stonehouse Road Sevenoaks Kent
TN14 7HN by 14 April 2022.
Court Circular
Kensington Palace
11th February, 2022
The Duke of Cambridge, President,
United for Wildlife, this morning
witnessed the signing of the
Buckingham Palace Declaration by
Mr Paul Griffiths (Chief Executive
Officer, Dubai Airports) at Dubai
International Airport.
His Royal Highness this afternoon
arrived at Heathrow Airport, London,
from the United Arab Emirates.
Ms Genevieve McCarthy and
Ms Edwina Iddles were in attendance.
St James’s Palace
11th February, 2022
The Earl of Wessex, Royal Honorary
Colonel, this morning held a Meeting
for The London Regiment.
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
Church is taking
action on racism
Credo
Arani Sen
L
ast week a young
Indian-Sri Lankan
curate, serving in a
large west London
church, came to see
me. He came because I was
the first Indian priest he had
seen in the UK. I found this
truly disconcerting. After all,
Indians are visible in most
sectors of society so why are
we not visible in the church? I
cannot turn on my television
without seeing a presenter of
colour. The church is far
behind other sectors.
Visibility is important.
When I was vicar of a church
in Leeds the congregation
was transformed from being
largely white to a diverse mix
of more than 18 nations.
Research has shown that
growth in cultural diversity is
a key factor in numerical
growth in the Diocese of
London. By being visible, we
become role models; our
experiences provide empathy
and solidarity. We show other
people of colour that church
leadership, lay and ordained,
is attainable.
From Lament to Action, the
archbishops’ anti-racism
task force report, published
last year, highlights “an
alarmingly retrograde trend”
as the number of ethnic
minority diocesan bishops
decreased to zero. When
John Sentamu retired as
Archbishop of York in June
2020 there were no black or
Asian church representatives
in the House of Lords or
among the other diocesan
bishops. Since then Guli
Francis-Dehqani has been
appointed Bishop of
Chelmsford. She speaks
profoundly from her own
experiences of persecution in
Iran. The Church of England
as the national church is by
default a prophetic voice to
the nation, challenging
injustice as did the Old
Testament prophets. One sole
voice means there is still a
long way to go.
Two weeks ago two new
bishops of colour were
consecrated at St Paul’s
Cathedral — Lusa Nsenga-
Ngoy as Bishop of Willesden
and Malayil Lukose Varghese
Muthalaly (known as Saju) as
Bishop of Loughborough.
There was a real sense of
euphoria. What I noticed was
the very high number of
clergy and lay people of
colour celebrating with them
in solidarity. I hope this is a
turning point. Still, I observe
that the visibility of senior
clergy of colour is largely
confined to London and
around, where much good
work is going on. Huge
swathes of the nation have no
representation.
On Tuesday the General
Synod of the Church of
England unveiled a racial
justice report. It was
presented by Lord Boateng
who chairs the racial justice
task force. He described the
failure of the Church of
England to act meaningfully
on its 25 past reports on
racial justice as “chilling, it is
wounding, it is a scandal, and
it has to be addressed”. It is
time for action, and action
means change.
As the archbishops have
made racial justice a priority,
I am hopeful for a national
church that is truly for all its
people. In my book Holy
Spirit Radicals I elucidate
how the first recorded
church, in Antioch, had a
very culturally diverse
leadership, as they set out to
disseminate Jesus’s Great
Commission, making
disciples of all nations.
In my own diocese of
London 40 per cent of those
recommended for ordained
vocations are from ethnic
minority heritage. This gives
hope to the church. I only pray
that when they look for posts,
they will not encounter
unconscious bias because of
their country of origin,
accents, names and skin
colour. The report highlights
that theological education
institutions are tackling racial
justice proactively, to prepare
clergy for ministry in a rapidly
changing, diverse nation.
People of colour in the
church often feel they are
hidden figures, as in the film
of the same name. After all,
why are so few of us in senior
positions? A presumption of
incompetence? In April the
Archbishop of Canterbury
conceded that the church had
routinely “bullied,
overlooked, undermined and
excluded” black clergy and
laity. He supports radical
proposals to name and
address institutional racism.
Without a strategy to root
out institutional racism, we
cannot move forward.
From Lament to Action
rightly sets ambitious targets,
such as 30 per cent of those
on senior leadership
programmes to be people of
colour; similarly,
representatives to the House
of Bishops and co-opted
members on to General
Synod. This will make UK
minority ethnic voices heard.
On the other hand, the task
of one single racial justice
officer in each diocese will be
rolling a stone uphill, unless
the whole culture changes.
I am hopeful that this is not
just another report but there
must be much more
intentionality, so that race is
not marginalised to the back
of the drawer, pulled out
occasionally to air, then the
drawer slammed shut again.
The Rev Arani Sen is rector of
St Olave Hart Street in the City of
London
online
Church of England is warned on
racism: ‘We will hold your feet
to the fire’
thetimes.co.uk
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 83

Register
The Times Saturday Quiz Olav Bjortomt O Tempora! Crossword CCCXXXII by Balatro
A weekly crossword for the classically minded
ALAMY

1 The three official languages of

the Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation are English, French
20 1 2 3 4 5 6

7
Clues, which may
be straight or
mildly cryptic,
and what? always lead to
8 9
answers in Latin

2 Which container gives its name to a

list of things to do before you die?
10 11 12
February 1 was the first day of
3 the Chinese year of which feline
animal?
13 14
Allies, a statue in New Bond Street,
4 London, depicts Franklin D
Roosevelt and which prime minister? 16
15

17 18

Which colourless fruit brandy is

5 named after the French for
“water of life”? 19 20 21

Which Spanish archipelago

6 includes the islands of La Palma,
La Gomera and La Graciosa? 22

James Bond’s family motto

7 “Orbis non sufficit” is Latin for
which five-word phrase? Founded in Kansas in 1989, Which Gibraltar-born English
Across
1 During the morning, in the
Down
1 ____ ... aselli, ass’s ears
demonstrating Midas’s stubborn

“Barzini is dead. So is Phillip

13 which company produces
Vivosmart activity trackers and Fenix
19 golfer won the 1987 British
Women’s Open and 1997 US Women’s
forenoon (4,8)
8 Per virorum ora invenitur fama vel stupidity (vide Ovid
Met. 11.179) (5)
8 Tattaglia. Moe Greene. Stracci.
Cuneo” is a quote from which
GPS watches? Open?
sermo (5)
9 Crossroads, through which 8 flows
(vide Hor. Sat. 2.6.50) (7)
2 Hilly, montuosus, clivosus (9)
3 Wonderful to tell, eg Virgil’s
description of Cacus resisting
1972 film? In the book of Judges, which Which fish-eating crocodile 10 From the start Sallust gives us

Which American pop diva had

14 woman killed the Canaanite
army commander Sisera?
20 is pictured? humour (3)
11 Even here Martial’s poetry is
Hercules, (Aen. 8.252) (8,5)
4 ____ lineis, in straight lines — ruled,
9 1990s hit singles with Emotions,
Dreamlover, Without You and Fantasy? Which Scottish actor played Answers below right
celebrated, “dicitur et nostros
cantare ____ versus” (Epig. 11.3.5) (9)
maybe? (6)
5 “–––– –––– ––––, vivite laeti”; while
the fates allow, live happily

Which term, Italian for “noble

15 Lasar Opie in the 1968 TV play
The Year of the Sex Olympics?
13 Part of lex Sullae leads to exile (5)
14 Quadrupes tener mansuetus qui (Seneca, Hercules Furens 178)
(3,4,6)
10 floor”, is used for the main floor
of a Renaissance building? The phrase “l’art pour l’art” (art
Last week’s O Tempora! solution
Mariam ubique comitabatur (5)
16 Charioteers, agitatores, aurigae
— appearing to be Darius’s,
6 I bought, pro pecunia comparavi,
mercatus sum (3)

Which Flemish artist (c 1525-

16 for art’s sake) has been credited
to which French writer (1811-72)?
perhaps? (9)
17 Now, already (3)
7 Bleating — as 14 may be (6)
12 I obtain (dep.), reperio, deprehendo
11 1569) painted The Wedding
Dance, The Peasant Wedding and The Which author of the 1958 play
19 Abdo cum mistura; let me cover (1
sing. pres. subj.) (7)
(9)
13 Indeed, truly (lit. by Pollux!) vide
Plautus Aul. 730, quid agam ____
Peasant Dance? 17 The Party was born Norah
Patricia Morris in Pontypool in 1927?
21 Crooked (haud scelestus sed
curvatus) (5)
22 A chance occurrence, a freak,
nescio (6)
15 Charge (haud impetus sed
accusatio) (6)
Which Roman emperor
12 (d 117) was officially declared
by the Senate as optimus princeps 18 Which English driver won his
only Formula One world title
literally, a game of nature (see, used
in abl.+ gen., Pliny NH 14.42) (5,7)
18 I might be back with the harvest
(5)
20 At the centre of odium for a long
(“best ruler”)? in 1964? time! (3)

Times Crossword No 28,212 Suko No 3411

Times Crossword No 28,212
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Across 27 Gets all one can from fish drink
(9)
9 1 One gathers exercise stretches 29 Revolutionary yearning to get new
back (6) European state capital (8)
4 Hitch cables to rocks (8) 30 Both sides needing feet pruned on
10 11
10 Porcelain bottom of mug with my shrub (6)
area damaged (9)
11 Artist working in opera house Down
abroad (5)
12 13 14 12 Landlocked people being sensible 1 Carrier of some oak cask
keeping naval forces? (3,8) currently being returned (8)
14 Broadcast appearance (3) 2 Like his eagle, first Roman
15 Supporter of glass company plant emperor is this after October (5)
15 16 17 (7) 3 On the up, exist for a long time (3)
17 Young professional pup, one 5 Article in vicar’s home is jug for
working in yen and euro (6) beer supply (7)
18 6 Piano in broadcast Prom with a
19 Volume perhaps a couple of pints
over (6) forte designed to beat fiddles? (6-
19 20 21 21 Slowly filter into bar returning for 5)
a drinking session (5-2) 7 Isn’t able to tolerate changing key
22 23 A large, black religious garment for learner in singing piece (9)
(3) 8 Urge using tons for hours to Place the numbers 1 to 9 in the spaces so
23 24 25 24 Fact fee fret funny further fruit? squeeze out under pressure (6) that the number in each circle is equal to
(11) 9 Criminal charge that is right for the sum of the four surrounding spaces,
26 I am back with friend in French weapon that is used to attack (6) and each colour total is correct.
city (5) 13 Choice of temperature in beer Solution MindGames in Saturday Review
supported by Esher’s last local (11)
26 27 28 16 Hint at introduction of absolutely Quiz answers 1 Arabic. 2 Bucket — as
1 stupid measure (9) in bucket list. 3 Tiger. 4 Winston
18 White wine is palest somehow Churchill. 5 Eau de vie. 6 Canary
bottled in southeast (8) Islands. 7 The world is not enough.
29 30 20 Turk’s short sentence that’s 8 The Godfather. 9 Mariah Carey.
overturned and finally annulled 10 Piano nobile. 11 Pieter Bruegel the
(7) Elder. 12 Trajan. 13 Garmin, formerly
A £20 Waterstones gift voucher will be awarded to the senders of the first five correct solutions 21 Only just see after pub (6) ProNav. 14 Jael. 15 Brian Cox.
opened on Thursday. Enter by post to: Times Crossword No 28,212, PO Box 2164, Colchester, Essex 22 Volunteers leading Royal Marines 16 Théophile Gautier. 17 Jane Arden.
CO2 8LJ, or by email to: prize@thetimes.co.uk, with “Crossword 28212” in the subject line. Open and Air Corps? This is on the way 18 John Surtees. 19 Alison Nicholas.
to 18+, UK & ROI residents only. Winners and solutions will appear on Monday week. 20 Gharial or gavial (Gavialis
(6)
25 Annoy a court, not very careful gangeticus).
Name/Address ................................................................................................................................................... about details (5)
............................................................................................................................................................................... 28 Bashful’s hot wearing Sleepy’s coat Quintagram answers 1 Heart 2 Patch
............................................................................................................................................................................... (3) 3 Prose 4 Emperor 5 Purple Rain.
...............................................................................................................................................................................
 saturday february 12 2022

Your
regular
sports
section
inside

Moment of truth
Scotland aim to win France face Ireland Randall gets chance
in Cardiff for first in a potential title to impress at scrum
time for 20 years decider in Paris half for England
2 1GG Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

The Scrum

It’s a tough call, but I expect

SAM WARBURTON
W BIG
hat a match France
versus Ireland
promises to be. It
would be dangerous
to say that the
winner of this game will definitely
win the Six Nations Championship
because we all know it is a
tournament that throws up the
unexpected, and there will be another
three rounds after this one for
something like that to materialise. But
there is little doubt that these two are
the strongest teams in the
competition at the moment and the
winner today in Paris will be in pole
position to lift the title and maybe
even take a grand slam.
In many people’s eyes, Ireland were
more impressive than France last
weekend, but we need to be careful
about how we take that because,
without being too disrespectful to
Italy, I’m pretty sure Ireland will not
be analysing how France played
against them too much. Instead, they
will probably be poring over the
videos of their autumn matches
against New Zealand and Argentina.
And we also need to be careful how
we take that because Johnny Sexton
is out of Ireland’s team this weekend
and that is a huge blow.
France got the job done against
Italy, eventually scoring five tries, but
they were a little slow in getting
going, and that was probably to be
expected. They were the same in the
autumn, only beating Argentina
29-20, then they dispatched Georgia
41-15 before unleashing a superb
performance to thrash New Zealand
40-25. A lot of their players,
particularly those at Toulouse, such
as Antoine Dupont, have not had a
lot of rugby, so the Italy match will
have been ideal for them to blow
away the cobwebs. They will be ready.
We also need to bear in mind that if
any side in world rugby can produce
an emotional peak for a specific
weekend, then it is France. They
usually have a couple of them a
season and you suspect they will be
reserving such energies for this
match. Shaun Edwards was always
very good at getting our Wales teams
up for matches against Ireland, so I
can imagine that he has been doing
exactly the same this week.
I was watching Ireland dismantle
Wales last weekend and putting
myself in Shaun’s shoes as the defence
coach of France, and thinking about
how I could stop Ireland.
They were superb. They were the
perfect example of how to combine
The
term these days. What Ireland want is
HOW THEY LINE UP for the defence to bite in on those
forward runners so that the pass can
FRANCE IRELAND go to the fly half and open up space
M Jaminet 15 H Keenan and width to the attack.
Perpignan Leinster The key is for the defence to make
D Penaud 14 A Conway good, sharp decisions. For instance, it
Clermont Munster has been said that Wales’s Josh
G Fickou 13 G Ringrose
Racing 92 Leinster
Y Moefana 12 B Aki
Bordeaux Connacht
G Villière 11 M Hansen
Adams struggled at outside centre
against Ireland. He didn’t. It was the
decisions being made inside him that
were causing him problems, not his
own decision-making. It is crucial
clashes
Toulon Connacht that you line up on the outside
R Ntamack 10 J Carbery shoulder of the attacker, because then
Toulouse Munster you can push off and get to the player
A Dupont (c) 9 J Gibson-Park out of the back. If you line up on the
Toulouse Leinster inside shoulder, then that decoy
C Baille 1 A Porter runner will block you off.
Toulouse Leinster These are small technical details
J Marchand 2 R Kelleher that you simply have to get right,
Toulouse Leinster alongside those key decisions. Wales
U Atonio 3 T Furlong just did not get it right against
La Rochelle Leinster Ireland. The outside backs were often
C Woki 4 T Beirne exposed because of the poor work by
Bordeaux Munster the forwards inside them. The French
P Willemse 5 J Ryan (c) forwards have a massive job on their
Montpellier Leinster hands to get this right today.
F Cros 6 C Doris France will always produce X-factor
Toulouse Leinster moments in attack, simply because of
A Jelonch 7 J van der Flier some exceptional offloading ability
allied to their huge physicality, but
Toulouse Leinster
G Alldritt 8 J Conan today it is their defence that will be so Romain
La Rochelle Leinster important. It was interesting that for
REPLACEMENTS REPLACEMENTS
most of the first half against Wales,
Ireland used the pass out of the back
Ntamack
P Mauvaka
Toulouse
D Sheehan
Leinster
to Sexton, but then in the second half
they started popping balls to the front
v Joey
J-B Gros
Toulon
D Bamba
C Healy
Leinster
F Bealham
runners and it caused all sorts of
problems for the Welsh defence. It is
Carbery
Lyons Connacht
R Taofifenua I Henderson why you have to practise reading On the surface, Romain Ntamack and
Lyons Ulster those shapes in training and making Joey Carbery have a great deal in
T Flament P O’Mahony those crucial split-second decisions. common. Both are young fly halves with
Toulouse Munster
D Cretin C Murray
Shaun will have been doing that all well-rounded games, identified as the
Lyons Munster week with France, I’m sure, although answer to their country’s play-making
M Lucu J Carty it will be interesting to see if Ireland problems. But where Ntamack has had a
Bordeaux Connacht run the same shapes and patterns decent bill of health and established
T Ramos R Henshaw
Toulouse Leinster with Joey Carbery, who is such an himself as one of the world’s leading
exciting runner, in for Sexton at 10. fly halves, reviving France’s fortunes
Kick-off 4.45pm. Referee A Gardner The other aspect to consider is the in the process, Carbery has been
(Aus). Assistants B O’Keeffe (NZ), speed of the ruck ball that Ireland beset by injuries since his
C Evans (Wales). were able to create against Wales. It is Ireland debut in 2016.
TMO B Whitehouse (Wales). because the Irish players are so That this is Carbery’s first
efficient at clearing out rucks. Six Nations start is an
They were very good at this under indication of his disrupted
Joe Schmidt, when they made more career, not his talent,
WHY DEFENDERS MUST carries per game (it was nearer 200 and his match-up with
STAY ON OUTSIDE carries then, but is more like 150 Ntamack is a fair
SHOULDER now), and it is still the same now, with fight. Both are natural
the Leinster influence very evident. runners who can pass
Run without ball Pass If you watch any Irish carry in well, kick adeptly and
today’s game, then I’m sure that there play flat to the line —
1 will be a support runner within one whoever does so to
metre of him. You simply cannot greatest effect tonight is
INSIDE SHOULDER afford any separation and that was likely to decide the outcome of
Pass
option Wales’s problem last weekend. As the Six Nations.
soon as an opposition player has his
ATTAC K

physicality and skill at international
level. Often you see teams playing
with much more of one than the
other — for instance, South Africa
are at the extreme end of the
physicality scale, and sides such as
Scotland a few years ago and, on
occasions, Australia were at the skill
end of that spectrum, but Ireland
were so impressive in mixing the two.
I can see the drills Shaun will have
been doing in training. He will want
to shut Ireland down in the first three
phases to force them to go into the air
Pa
ss
Tight defence sets up on inside shoulder
of forward decoy runners. When scrum
half moves ball in behind to fly half,
defenders are blocked from getting
wide by the decoys
2 OUTSIDE SHOULDER
AT TAC K
hands on the ball, the damage has
been done, because it then requires
one or two other players to clear him
off the ball and there is an imbalance
in the number of attacking players
against those defending.
Recently, I was on a Zoom call with
the Crusaders in New Zealand,
talking about the breakdown and
sharing some ideas. We agreed that
there are three key things you are
trying to do when competing
defensively. Number one is to steal
the ball. Number two is to try to steal
Shaun calls a “defensive try” because
the defence was the source of the try.
He would certainly have enjoyed that.
I cannot wait to see what happens
from a tactical point of view. Do
Ireland change up what they did
against Wales? Have they got
something else up their sleeves,
especially with Carbery now there?
for specific games, so it will be
fascinating to see what happens in
this battle of Ireland’s attack against
France’s defence.
How will it go? It will be tight.
Remember that Sexton drop-goal to
win the match in Paris four years
ago? It could be that close again,
although Sexton’s absence makes a

with kicks. The way to do that is to be
totally dominant in the collisions,
something Wales just could not do.
Shaun will also have been drilling
the French players to deal with
Ireland’s attacking formation of three
frontline runners, who are forwards,
with the fly half hiding behind them
for the pass out the back, as is the
Tight defence starts on outside
shoulder of decoy runners and when
scrum half moves ball to fly half, they
are able to bounce past decoys and drift
to cover wide attack
players, meaning that you force the
opposition to commit too many
players, as Wales did. And number
three is to steal time by slowing the
ball down.
France will surely be mindful of
these points. One of their tries against
Italy was created by a counter-ruck
from Gabin Villière. That is what
Will they play to their frontline
runners in the first half and then go
out of the back in the second half?
Will Shaun encourage his players to
be ridiculously aggressive at the
breakdowns in order to compete, or
will he be more interested in them
filling the frontline with 14 players?
You can change those sorts of things
massive difference. If I had to put my
money anywhere, simply because
France are at home, I would go with
them to reach one of those emotional
peaks again. Ireland were magnificent
last weekend, but Wales made them
look that good because of their lack of
physicality. France will not do that.
They will match them physically.
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 1GG
France to edge titanic clash
Cameron Woki Classy Carbery has
v Tadhg Beirne
Joe Schmidt’s reluctance to trust the lock-
cum-flanker Tadhg Beirne should have
chance to step out
of Sexton’s shadow
been a warning for the conservatism that
overtook his tenure in charge of Ireland.
Beirne — despite his excellence around
the park — never seemed to fit. But under
Andy Farrell, he has flourished. Cameron
Woki, another of those new archetypes
the No 6/No 5, has delicate hands and
great athleticism. Against the All Blacks in
Munster fly half has
November, he took the great Sam shone in cameo roles –
Whitelock-Brodie Retallick partnership to
task. At the Stade de France tonight, he in Paris today he’s the
faces another, in Beirne, who conquered
New Zealand; their fight, on the floor and leading man, writes
in the air, will be vital. Peter O’Reilly
T
he line of contenders to
succeed Johnny Sexton as
Ireland’s first-choice fly
half has lengthened over
recent years. After Paddy
Jackson came Ian Madigan, and more
recently there have been auditions by
Jack Carty, Billy Burns and the Byrne
brothers, Ross and Harry.
Then there is Joey Carbery, who
wears the green No 10 jersey at the
Stade de France this afternoon. That
this is Carbery’s first Six Nations start,
more than five years after he made
his international debut, says as much
about the 26-year-old’s misfortune
with injury as it does about Sexton’s
enduring excellence.
In the list of contenders, Carbery
always stood out as the most
naturally gifted player, the one with
the greatest star quality. Today should
reveal whether he can still fulfil his
considerable potential.
One of his advantages was to grow
up in Dargaville, New Zealand, where
the basic kick-pass-catch rugby skills
were ingrained early, as a fact of
everyday Kiwi life. After his family
relocated to Co Kildare, Carbery won
a Leinster Schools Senior Cup medal
at Blackrock College, the famous
rugby nursery. As preparation for life
in Leinster’s academy, Blackrock was
the ideal finishing school.
He played at full back in that
Blackrock side, with Hugo Keenan on
the wing. Leinster viewed him initially
as a scrum half. That versatility is one
reason why he suits Andy Farrell’s
new multi-skill, multi-option game.
One highly respected judge
identified fly half as Carbery’s best
position, however. In the summer of
2016, Leinster invited Graham Henry,
a World Cup-winning coach with
New Zealand, to spend a couple of
weeks with them in an advisory
capacity. When Henry saw Carbery in
action, he turned to Leo Cullen,
Leinster’s head coach, and said: “Well,
there’s your next No 10.”
FIXTURES, RESULTS AND HOW THEY STAND The first time that I saw him play
was in October of that year, against
P W D L F A B Pts Fixtures March 11 Castres in the Champions Cup at the
Today Wales v France 8pm, BBC RDS. The French side featured a
France 1 1 0 0 37 10 1 5
19-year-old Antoine Dupont. If you’d
Ireland 1 1 0 0 29 7 1 5 Wales v Scotland 2.15pm, BBC March 12 been asked to pick the future World
Scotland 1 1 0 0 20 17 0 4 France v Ireland 4.45pm, ITV Italy v Scotland 2.15pm, ITV Player of the Year that day, you’d have
England 1 0 0 1 17 20 1 1 Tomorrow England v Ireland 4.45pm, ITV chosen the Leinster fly half, for the
Italy v England 3pm, ITV ease with which he skipped and
Wales 1 0 0 1 7 29 0 0 March 19 accelerated past attempted tackles.
Italy 1 0 0 1 10 37 0 0 February 26 Wales v Italy 2.15pm, BBC A month later, in the week of his
Scotland v France 2.15pm, BBC Ireland v Scotland 4.45pm, ITV 21st birthday, Carbery made his Test
Results England v Wales 4.45pm, ITV France v England 8pm, ITV debut against New Zealand in
Ireland 29 Wales 7 Chicago, appearing off the bench with
Scotland 20 England 17 February 27 Radio coverage on BBC Five Live and 20 minutes left and guiding Ireland to
France 37 Italy 10 Ireland v Italy 3pm, ITV Sports Extra a historic win. It was around that
time, only half in jest, that Sexton
3
The Scrum
informed the youngster that he had a
great future — as a full back.
Joe Schmidt, then the head coach,
needed a second No 10, however, and
so engineered it that Carbery moved
to Munster, where he would be
guaranteed regular starts. Before he
left, Carbery managed to win a
double with Leinster and make four
appearances off the bench during
Ireland’s grand slam of 2018.
Incidentally, the only game in which
he stayed on the bench was at the
Stade de France, where Sexton landed
that famous last-ditch drop-goal.
There were enough glimpses of
Carbery’s immense potential, though.
While Sexton was off the pitch at
Twickenham in the slam-clinching
game, he electrified Ireland’s attack.
The next season, at Murrayfield, he
again came off the bench to create a
memorable try for Keith Earls
through his pace, vision and handling.
The general expectation was that
Carbery would oust Sexton after the
World Cup in 2019. But he aggravated
a pre-existing ankle problem in Japan
and then suffered a wrist injury. All
told, he went 13 months without
playing a game and when he did
return, the old strut was missing.
“Getting back into rugby has been a
HEAD TO HEAD
Drawn 7
Ireland France
35 58
Played
100
lot harder than getting over the
injury, to be honest, because you’re
out for so long,” he said.
Farrell kept faith in him, though,
and in November Carbery kicked the
three penalties that steered Ireland to
a 29-20 victory over New Zealand.
“Joey’s got proper balls,” Andrew
Conway, his team-mate, said.
Carbery has surely had enough of
living in Sexton’s shadow. That was
the fourth time he had replaced him
in Tests against the All Blacks. Today
is his 29th international appearance
but only his tenth start. Playmakers
do not exist to play back-up.
He could not be less feisty or
further from Sexton temperamentally.
When the media tried to elicit some
sense of apprehension before this
huge test of character and skill, they
were largely disappointed. “I’m just
delighted to be back playing, to be
back out there injury free, to be going
into such a big game,” he said.
Farrell should also be delighted.
Sexton’s absence reduces Ireland’s
chances of winning today and
therefore reduces their grand-slam
hopes. But the goal for this group is a
first World Cup semi-final and for
that, Farrell needs more than one
playmaker. Step forward, Joey boy.
4 2GG
The Scrum
Jones wants young
stars to blaze and
bench to mimic Ali
ALEX
LOWE
Rugby
Correspondent
E
ddie Jones sounded more
like Eddie Hearn as he
named the England team
to play Italy tomorrow,
doing his best to promote
what should be a routine bout as a
box-office spectacular. England, he
said, were on a revenge mission,
desperate to atone for their defeat in
Scotland last weekend with a brand of
rugby that would “light up Rome” and
spark out the Azzurri.
“We can only do that if we are
really ruthless and if we have that
vision in our head of Muhammad
Ali standing over Sonny Liston,”
Jones said, referring to that famous
image from the 1965 rematch in
Lewiston, Maine.
Ali won the fight with a first-round
knockout, stunning Liston with his
“anchor punch” before towering over
his stricken opponent, urging him to
fight on. That was the picture. Liston
eventually climbed off the canvas but
he had failed to beat the count and
the referee waved off the fight.
Italy have been floored 33 times in
a row in the Six Nations, so a
heavyweight contest this is not, but
Jones’s words were more than just a
sales pitch to attract new viewers,
welcome though they would be.
This was a message for his players
because England’s ringmaster needs a
reaction. The defeat by Scotland was
England’s fourth in their past six
games in the Guinness Six Nations
and the public mood, so buoyant
during the autumn, has begun to sink.
Jones conceded his back-line
balance did not work at BT
Murrayfield, where an array of ball-
players were unable to out-
manoeuvre Scotland’s impressive
defence. England danced around a lot
without ever landing a punch to floor
Scotland, slipping into a pattern of
possession without penetration.
Jones has sought to address that by
making six changes for England’s
return to Rome and a promise that
the most inexperienced starting XV
he has fielded in a Six Nations game
will be given freedom to play to
their strengths.
As part of the back-line reshuffle,
Joe Marchant switches to outside
centre, Jack Nowell is back on the
wing for the first time since 2019 and
Harry Randall starts at scrum half.
With Alex Dombrandt at No 8,
Marcus Smith retained at fly half and
Marchant at outside centre, the
heartbeat of this England attacking
unit is from Harlequins, a team
founded on a concrete set piece but
who thrive on playing heads-up
rugby. This line-up has a better
balance. Randall can link it all
together, assuming the Danny Care
role as the intuitive, opportunistic,
running scrum half operating
HOW THEY LINE UP
ITALY ENGLAND
E Padovani 15 F Steward
Benetton Leicester Tigers
F Mori 14 M Malins
Bordeaux Saracens
J Ignacio Brex 13 J Marchant
Benetton Harlequins
M Zanon 12 H Slade
Benetton Exeter Chiefs
M Ioane 11 J Nowell
Benetton Exeter Chiefs
P Garbisi 10 M Smith
Montpellier Harlequins
S Varney 9 H Randall
Gloucester Bristol Bears
D Fischetti 1 E Genge
Zebre Parma Leicester Tigers
G Lucchesi 2 J George
Benetton Saracens
P Ceccarelli 3 W Stuart
Brive Bath
N Cannone 4 C Ewels
Benetton Bath
F Ruzza 5 N Isiekwe
Benetton Saracens
B Steyn 6 M Itoje
Benetton Saracens
M Lamaro (c) 7 T Curry (c)
Benetton Sale Sharks
T Halafihi 8 A Dombrandt
Benetton Harlequins
REPLACEMENTS REPLACEMENTS
E Faiva L Cowan-Dickie
Benetton Exeter Chiefs
C Traoré J Marler
Benetton Harlequins
T Pasquali K Sinckler
Benetton Bristol Bears
D Sisi O Chessum
Zebre Parma Leicester Tigers
S Negri S Simmonds
Benetton Exeter Chiefs
G Pettinelli B Youngs
Benetton Leicester Tigers
A Fusco
Zebre Parma
G Ford
Leicester Tigers
L Marin
Benetton
E Daly
Saracens
Kick-off 3pm, tomorrow. TV ITV
Referee D Murphy (Aus). Assistants
A Brace (Ire), C Evans (Wales).
TMO B MacNeice (Ire).
between Dombrandt and Smith.
It was peculiar against Scotland
that Dombrandt came on when Smith
was withdrawn, for the Harlequins
pair operate on the same wavelength,
the No 8 reading lines and angles off
his fly half as if they have been
playing together since they were boys.
The one missing element from the
Harlequins model is the presence on
Smith’s shoulder of a granite inside
centre who fixes defenders or offers a
bailout option if the pressure floods
through. Without Manu Tuilagi,
England have no André Esterhuizen.
Marchant and Nowell will be
tasked with denting the Italian line.
Up front that responsibility will fall to
Maro Itoje— who has been named at
blind-side flanker, with Charlie Ewels
coming into the second row — Ellis
Genge and Jamie George.
In a stroke, England have outlined
a determination to rule the lineout,
build on their impressive mauling
game at Murrayfield and carry with
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
more dynamism and direction. Given
licence, this young team certainly
have the potential to illuminate the
Eternal City.
“We want to start fast and take the
game to them. We want to be
aggressive rather than play a pattern
style of rugby,” Jones said.
“We feel that’s the way forward for
England and we want to take
opportunities. We didn’t against
Scotland and that was probably the
thing that disappointed me the most.
“Joe is a good, strong runner. He
can hit the front line, which we
missed last week. I haven’t seen Jack
Nowell look this sharp since 2016.
[Dombrandt and Smith] have
certainly got that understanding. Alex
runs very good inside balls from
Marcus. He’s got that understanding
of when to do it. They did it in
training today and I’m sure that’s
going to happen on Sunday.
“Dombrandt is not an orthodox
No 8 — he’s a free-running No 8. He
reminds me of Bobby Skinstad, as he
gets himself into good positions to
attack. This is the sort of game that’s
going to have a fair bit of space, so it’ll
suit him. We think we’ll get a lot of Randall, of Bristol, will
kick returns. It is going to be our start at scrum half in
main source of possession so we need Rome while Nowell of
to make sure we are really good And Exeter, inset, returns to
in the set piece we want to continue the England XV for the
our development of the maul and first time since 2019
scrum we started in Scotland.”
This game gives England a chance
Randall ready to
to rediscover the zest that carried
them through an undefeated autumn,
including a resounding win against
Australia and a victory over South
Africa, the world champions, that
they pulled from the fire.
However, England have to expect Care is the fisherman — throwing out
not to have things their own way.
Italy are always prised open in the
Bristol Bears’ livewire bait to defences, luring them towards
him and then whipping the ball on
end but can be a tough nut to crack. scrum half will finally the gainline to Dombrandt, the big
France eventually pulled clear to a catch of the day, on a short line, or
37-10 victory last weekend but led get chance to impress out the back to the No 10 Smith,
11-10 just before the interval. In 2020, coming round into the open waters.
England were only 10-5 ahead at the
on big stage in Rome, Randall has the instinct and the
interval. England will need patience.
“It is not a festival game,” Jones
says Will Kelleher tap-and-go tempo game to do that
himself. Asked if he has studied the
said. In six previous meetings under Quins way, he said: “My natural
I
Jones, England have scored 65 per f England are to really “light game has that kind of thing. I
cent of their tries in the second half. If up Rome” — Eddie Jones’s w
want to play with tempo and
England are planning a one-two buzz-phrase of the week — I’ll look to do that at the
combination on the Azzurri, it is the then Harry Randall should be weekend. The No 9-No 10
bench who are being lined up to leave their firecracker scrum half. partnership is one of
Italy on the canvas. Supporters and pundits the most important
England have more caps among alike have been eager to on the field so it’s
their replacements (409) than in their see the pocket rocket, 5ft always good to
starting XV (347), with Joe Marler, 8in No 9 dovetail with connect with
Luke Cowan-Dickie, Kyle Sinckler, the born-to-run Marcus, train
Sam Simmonds, Ben Youngs, George talents of Alex with him and
Ford and Elliot Daly primed for a role Dombrandt and sit down
in the last half-hour. Ollie Chessum, Marcus Smith in an with him off
the 6ft 7in flanker, will become the English back line. the field as
latest back-rower to make his debut. Tomorrow w
well, just to
“If you look at our squad we’re afternoon in Rome, gget those
probably missing seven frontline Randall gets his co
connections right.
players. We’ve got a very young and chance to prove that he “We want to
inexperienced team starting, about can be the Danny Care start fast and get
half the number of caps you need figure in the outside p
points on the board
in your side to win a World Cup,” division. eearly. But it doesn’t
Jones said. “The quality of our bench At Harlequins, the
is testament to the strength of the relationship between Youngs must wait to
squad. The finishing eight will have Care, Smith, Dombrandt win a record-equalling
the opportunity to be Muhammad Ali and Joe Marchant 114th men’s England
standing over Sonny Liston.” borders on the telepathic. cap from the bench
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
up tempo of England attack
always come that easily.” Jones was
frustrated with England’s attacking
execution last Saturday in Scotland
— the head coach reckoned they
left 15 points out on the
Murrayfield turf — and,
having dropped Elliot
Daly to the bench,
brought in Randall for
Ben Youngs and Jack
Nowell to the wing,
TV Italy v England
moving Marchant to Rome, tomorrow 3pm
outside centre, he
wants to see a change. Radio BBC 5 Live
Jones knows that he
cannot just copy the
Harlequins way, but needs to
tap into their elixir. “We want to
be aggressive,” he said. “We
want to take opportunities
as they come, rather
than play a pattern
style of rugby. We’ve
really tried to create a
‘New England’ style of
48
Per cent tackle evasion by
rugby, which is about Harry Randall in the
getting in position Premiership, the best of any year, ending Welsh
quickly — if there is scrum half to have faced
opportunity, let’s go to more than 30 tackles
that opportunity.
“And let’s not wait for that to
be built up by a pattern. It’s a little bit
different from what some of them
play at their club level so it takes
some adjustment and it will continue
to take some adjustment. It’s not
going to be a linear progression.
2GG
PAUL HARDING/GETTY IMAGES
“We’re going to have a little ups
and downs. But I’m really pleased at
the way the players have absorbed the
lessons from Scotland and got
on with preparations for
Italy. Harry is a livewire
half back, he’s very good
in broken play. He’s got
a good solid pass on
him. And his kicking
game is improving.
“We see that certain
TV ITV styles of play fit each
other and [ Smith and
Sports Extra Dombrandt] certainly
have got that
understanding.
“Alex runs very good inside
balls from Marcus. He’s got
that understanding of
when to do it.”
Randall has had a
stop-start England
career so far. He was
called into the Six
Nations squad last
hopes the Amman
Valley-raised scrum half
would play for them.
However, he injured an ankle
and missed the chance of his first cap.
That came in the summer,
alongside Smith, in the 43-29 victory
against the United States at
Twickenham, but then Randall was
whacked by a paddleboard in a freak
TALLEST
T PLAYERS
6ft 6in 6ft 6in
Italy
Federico
England
Nick
Ruzza Isiekwe
AVERAGE HEIGHT OF XV
6ft 2in 6ft 2in
MOST CAPS IN XV
Braam Steyn Jamie George
46 62
232 caps XV EXPERIENCE 347 caps
AVERAGE WEIGHT
BACKS
14st 12lb 14st 1lb
FORWARDS
17st 6lb 18st 11lb
HEAVIEST PLAYER
Pietro Ceccarelli Will Stuart
18st 13lb 20 st 11lb
incident while swimming with the
England squad last autumn.
He injured a hip flexor, so had to
watch as Sale Sharks’ 20-year-old
Raffi Quirke flourished as Youngs’
back-up. “It was very frustrating,”
Randall, who plays for Bristol Bears,
said. “Fortunately I have got an
opportunity this week.”
Randall looks up to Youngs — who
will have to wait to win his 114th cap
off the bench, equalling Jason
Leonard’s English men’s Test
appearance record — and wants to
show he can control a game like the
senior pro. “Ben has been a massive
help to myself and the areas of my
game I’ve been working on,” Randall,
24, said. “It’s been awesome to have
someone with that kind of experience
to sit down, go through my game and
see how he can help me in specific
areas. It’s always been an ongoing
work-on of mine to be able to control
games and that’s what’s been massive
for me working with Ben.
“I definitely need to develop that
side of my game, but there’s many
areas to the game and hopefully I can
show a few of those.”
England fans will hope that Randall
has his licence to thrill in Rome.
6 Italy claimed their first Under-20
Six Nations win over England last
night, with a 6-0 victory in Treviso.
Nicolo Teneggi kicked a penalty in
each half for the home team.
Isiekwe back in
favour four years
after false start
Saracens lock returns a
better player after first
go at Test rugby lasted
only 36 minutes, writes
John Westerby
W
hen a coach thrusts a
promising young
player into the
crucible of
international rugby,
he has to be absolutely sure that his
charge is ready for what awaits him:
the speed and ferocity of the game,
the magnitude of the occasion, the
fierce glare of public scrutiny.
Before the first Test against South
Africa in Johannesburg in 2018, Eddie
Jones thought that Nick Isiekwe was
ready to start an international match
for the first time, against the
Springboks at Ellis Park.
Isiekwe had just turned 20 and had
made two previous appearances from
the bench for England, against
Argentina and Samoa.
Thirty-six minutes of helter-skelter
rugby at altitude was enough to make
Jones realise he was wrong, and he
pulled Isiekwe from the fray before
half-time. Jones’s subsequent
selections revealed that the England
head coach had misjudged Isiekwe’s
readiness for the international arena
by almost four years. The defeat by
Scotland at Murrayfield last week was
the Saracens lock’s first international
appearance since that sobering
experience in Johannesburg.
But the way he returned to his club
after such a potentially wounding
experience in 2018, going on to help
Saracens to the Premiership and
Champions Cup double the next
season, convinced those around him
that he would make it back into
the international arena eventually.
“Everybody takes the hits, it’s
how you respond to it,” Joe Shaw,
the Saracens head coach, said. “For
a young lad, to be that mature,
that he was going to look at
himself, do what he could to
get better, it’s no surprise that
he’s now put in the
performances he has.
“He’s been at the club since
he was 14. To come
through and achieve
what he achieved
at such a young
age makes us
proud.”
It took
Isiekwe time,
inevitably, to
convince
Jones that he
was ready to
return to
international
rugby. Equally
comfortable in the
second row or at
blind-side flanker, and
at 6ft 6in and 18st 12lb
A loan spell at
Northampton
helped Isiekwe to
develop his game
5
The Scrum
an immensely powerful athlete, he
established himself in Saracens’
starting line-up, but his career then
hit another bump in the road when
his club were relegated from the
Gallagher Premiership for their
violations of salary cap rules.
While more experienced players
such as Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and
the Vunipola brothers, Billy and
Mako, stayed and played their part in
gaining promotion from the Greene
King IPA Championship, Isiekwe
realised that he needed to keep
playing Premiership rugby. Like Max
Malins and Ben Earl, who went to
Bristol Bears, Isiekwe moved on a
one-season loan, in his case
relocating to Northampton Saints for
the 2020-21 campaign.
“With the situation we were in, the
best thing was for him to go on loan,”
Shaw said. “His appetite to make the
most out of that experience meant
that he was always going to come
back a better player.”
Rather than a setback, the change
of scenery and the need to prove
himself to a new set of team-mates
and coaches enabled him to make
another significant step forward.
“His attitude was exemplary, he
came in and didn’t bring any of
Sarries with him, he was just
committed wholeheartedly in terms
of Northampton,” Phil Dowson, the
Northampton forwards coach, said.
“With loan deals, you sometimes
worry about that. But his desire to
play week in, week out, regardless of
how many knocks, bumps, bruises he
had, says a lot about his character.
“The way we play, we gave him
opportunity with ball in hand to try
different things. He’s a phenomenal
athlete, his jump and speed, for such a
big man. He’s an absolute freak.”
This season, back at Saracens, he
has picked up where he left off. He
was not included in England’s
original Six Nations squad,
but he was called up when
Jonny Hill was ruled out
by injury and trained his
way into the starting line-
up against Scotland, where
he packed down in the second row
alongside Itoje. In Rome
tomorrow, Itoje shifts to the back
row, and Isiekwe will be
partnered by Charlie Ewels.
“He’s really worked hard on his
game this year, worked hard to
become a dominant
lineout leader,” Shaw
said. “He’s on
collisions both sides
of the ball, he’s a
really solid
character at the
highest level now.
“When it
comes to
defence, he’s
sharp and if he
hits you, you
k
know about it.
He’s a good footballer
for such a big man, he’s
got soft touches, and
the thing that’s scary is
he’s only going to get
better.
“I think he’s realised
this year just what he’s
capable of doing.”
6 1GG Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

The Scrum

Your guide to a mouthwa

WALES V SCOTLAND FRANCE V IRE
How fly half can cut open Welsh centre channel How to disrupt French defence
A Finn Russell A
Age 29
Alex Cuthbert (W14), defending in the No 10 channel, has to With Joey Carbery (10) looping in behind
Wit
choose between hitting one of Scotland's forwards early or Position Fly half his centres, Jamison Gibson-Park (9)
holding off in case Finn Russell (S10) moves the ball in behind to Scotland caps 60 pas
passes to Bundee Aki (12), who is
one of the backs Club Racing 92 sup
supported by Garry Ringrose (13),
B Height 5ft 11in
leav
leaving Ireland with four options
If Cuthbert commits to tackling one of the forwards, Weight 13st 7lb
Russell has space and time to move the ball in behind
to Sione Tuipulotu (S12) or fizz a wide pass to
Darcy Graham (S14). As the defence shifts
inwards, Owen Watkin (W13) is left
with more space to cover
in the outside centre
channel

Du
Duhan
van der
van
Me
Merwe Forwards readydy to 9
11 make the forwardrd
d ru
run Jamison
onto Russell’s pa
pass Gibson-Park
14 12
10
0 Alex Cuthbert Bundee Aki
Finn Owen
Russell Watkin 13
Garry
10 Ringrose

Joey Carbery
1 13
Pierre
2
Schoeman
Stuart 11
McInally 8 Mack Ha
15
Matt
S t
Stuart
12 Fagerson
H
Hogg
Sione
Tuipulotu

14 B
Darcy First,
F st Aki can
ca come
c in on a short, hard line,
m
Graham the
he
e tthreat
eat of wwhich fixes France. Second, Aki
ca pass
can pas in n behind
b
be to Carbery. Third, Aki can
hit Ringrose
Ringros
ose wwith a short pass, with the No 13
carr
arrying.
ng. Four,
carrying. ur, Ringrose can move the ball to
Key Ca
Carbery
bery. When
Carbery. Whe executed well, the number of
Key Pass options
tions ope
open ccreates uncertainty in the
Possible pass French
Fre h defende
defend
defenders, and if one of them jumps
Possible pass
ou of the
out t line,
line there
t is space to exploit

Russell can expose weak link Watkin Ireland have speed to h

genuine live option, you force
Owen Watkin, the outside
JOHN
BARCLAY
centre, to make a decision
between biting on one of those
runners or keeping tabs on the
Victory for Scotland against
Former Scotland ball out the back.
captain
The very best outside
centres in the world, guys such
as the South African
Lukhanyo Am, can manage
both at the same time and are
Darcy Graham or Duhan van
der Merwe.
1
Finn has done it to me a
hundred times in training
down the years: you think
Wales at Cardiff in the Six you’re lining someone up for a
Nations (2002)
big shot, but then he sees it a
mile off and puts the ball out
the back.
4 An alternative is for the
outside forward runner to take
example. The scrum half
SHANE Jamison Gibson-Park can set
HORGAN
65 Tests
up with Bundee Aki coming in
close, supported by Garry
Ringrose, with Carbery looping
for Ireland behind them. That leaves
Ireland with four options.
The first is for Aki to carry,
which is a powerful threat in
itself, which will hold up the
tight defenders. Second, Aki

W hat Ireland did really able to react off the pass of the Matches unbeaten away from the pass, thus committing can pass out the back to

well last weekend —
and what Scotland
will strive to replicate today —
was to isolate Wales’s outside
centre through quick ruck ball.
Scotland set up to play
multi-option rugby, so there is
always scope for the fly half,
Finn Russell, to go out the
back as well as hitting one of
his forward runners. When
every player in the picture is a
fly half, but I’m not convinced
Watkin — who has not started
a Test since Wales’s victory
over Scotland last year — is at
that level.
Russell is a No 10 who is
perfectly adept at using his
forward options, or he can
throw one of those big flat
passes to the inside centre
Sione Tuipulotu, or even
straight to the wings to either
home for Scotland (v Italy
Wales*, England and France)
2007
The last time Wales lost their
opening two Six Nations
matches (v Ireland and
Scotland)
*in Llanelli
Watkin, then he gives the ball
to Tuipulotu looping around.
Either way, the Wales defence
is compromised and Scotland
are ready to pounce.
What Scotland have at the
moment is absolute confidence
in their system.
With all the chopping and
changing that Wales are doing
with their team, there have to
be some weak links.
O
ne area Ireland have
improved hugely in is
the speed with which
they are able to get back into
their shape in attack. It is quite
sophisticated to be able to do it
quickly and I expect them to
use their big units as first
receivers with Joey Carbery
looping around to expose
France out wide.
Let’s use a set piece as an
Carbery. Third, Ringrose can
run a short line off Aki.
Fourth, Ringrose can look
wider and pop the ball back to
Carbery. The aim of keeping
these options open is to create
a dogleg in the French defence,
if a defender jumps out of the
line — or an overlap out wide,
if a defender is sucked in by a
short runner.
If Carbery receives the ball
 the times | Saturday February 12 2022 1GG 7

The Scrum

atering weekend of action

ELAND ITALY V ENGLAND
Two kicks to unlock England
Garry
Garr
Gar
arry Ringrose
Max
Age 27 Malins
P iti
Position C t
Centre
14 Freddie
Ireland caps 38 Steward
Club Leinste
ster
ter
Leinster 11 15
Height 6ft 3in Monty
Ioane
Weight 14stt

Jack
Nowell
11

Maro
Itoje
4

10
P
Paolo Garbisi 14
Federico
Mori

nsen

15
A B
The first cross-field kick from Jack Nowell (E11), the left wing, is pulled across
Hugo Keenan
n
Paolo Garbisi (I10) draws in to cover, leaving a large gap on England's left
the right wing, Max Malins flank. If Garbisi identifies this space, he must be
(E14), and the full back, quick and kick from the very next phase, with
Freddie Steward (E15), who Federico Mori (I14) chasing. Against Scotland,
14
covers across to England's Luke Cowan-Dickie was covering the left wing
Andr
drew
w Conw
Andrew nway
way
wa
Conway Key right. If Malins and Steward and was caught out, but Eddie Jones should
Pass are tied up by the carry of have identified this and could station a second
Kick Monty Ioane (I11), that row, such as Maro Itoje (E4), to field Garbisi's
creates space on the left second cross-kick

hurt French defence Garbisi must sway English pendulum

41
Per cent win rate for Ireland
against France in the Six
Nations, their lowest against
any side in the championship
12
Assists by Antoine Dupont in
out the back, he can either run
through a dogleg or pass to
Mack Hansen, who has come
off his blind-side wing, with
Hugo Keenan, the full back,
and Andrew Conway, the wing,
on the overlap.
It should be emphasised that
Ireland will also use this
template in open play, with the
likes of Tadhg Furlong
stepping in at first receiver.
something that Italy should
look to replicate in Rome.
SAM
WARBURTON
England’s back three work in
a pendulum, with the idea that
there are two full backs alive at
Two-times one time. Against Scotland,
Lions captain Russell’s first kick to England’s
right sucked in both the right
wing Max Malins and full back
Freddie Steward, who both
missed tackles.
That meant the left wing Joe
22
Matches unbeaten for
England against Italy in the
Six Nations. England are the
only side that Italy have not
beaten in the championship
37
(it did not look pre-planned
because you can see him
frantically waving his arms to
receive the ball quickly that
second time).
Italy, and their fly half Paolo
Garbisi, will have been looking
at pulling England across the
field in this way. Although, as
we saw with Russell,
succeeding with this tactic is
about identifying and reacting

the Six Nations, the most of
any France player. He
surpassed Frédéric Michalak
in round one
148
Carries by Ireland against
Wales in round one, the most
of any side. France (124 v
Italy) were second
And it is only a shell, which
requires players to read and
play what is in front of them.
Nevertheless, it is both
adaptable — because of the
number of options — and an
effective means of getting
really wide via only two passes.
Plus, even if the Carbery loop
isn’t on, the first receivers are
powerful enough to beat the
gainline on their own.
L
uke Cowan-Dickie was
made to look a bit out of
place when giving away
the penalty try that cost
England the Calcutta Cup last
weekend. But it was as much
the quick-thinking excellence
of Finn Russell, exploiting
England’s defensive system on
the hoof with two consecutive
cross-kicks as it was Cowan-
Dickie’s error, and it is
Marchant had to cover further
across the field than usual,
leaving England with just one
full back, who simply did not
have enough time to get back
to his position on the wing
before Russell kicked
immediately the second time.
If Scotland had played one
phase it would have given him
that time, but Russell was
brilliantly alert to the situation
Tries scored by England
against Italy since Eddie
Jones took over in 2016
33
Matches without a victory in
the Six Nations for Italy, the
longest losing run by any side
in the Five or Six Nations
to space.
Equally, Eddie Jones will
have spotted an error in the
system — because Cowan-
Dickie is a skilful player, but
clearly defending high balls on
the wing is not a super-
strength. England could shore
up that flaw by stationing a
lock out there, who is used to
taking kick-offs above his head,
rather than a hooker.
8 2GG Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

The Scrum

‘I had time to grab a ball, then YOUR GUIDE TO ITALY

Matteo Minozzi, the Wasps and Italy

full back who is missing the Six
Nations after suffering a head injury,

fled Mugabe’s men – aged 8’

gives you the lowdown on his side’s
coach and key players:

KIERAN CROWLEY
Age 60, head coach
November was the first time I had
TULLIO PUGLIA/FEDERUGBY/GETTY IMAGES the opportunity to work with Kieran.
He seems like a really good coach.
Negri insists
After his family were that Italy are
He used to work with Canada, so he
has experience of a team that is
forced out of Zimbabwe, going in the
right direction,
similar to Italy and knows how to
put young players in and bring them
Italy’s struggles won’t despite their
defeat in Paris
up to international level in two to
faze Sebastian Negri, he three seasons. That is when Kieran
must be judged.
tells Mark Palmer MICHELE LAMARO
23, flanker

T
here have been plenty of
tough days at the coalface
for Sebastian Negri, the
flanker who came into the
Italy team right in the
thick of their 33-match Six Nations
losing streak. Things are unlikely to
get much easier tomorrow when
England arrive at the Stadio
Olimpico, but however empty the
game can sometimes make Negri feel,
he will never want for perspective.
Now 27, the Benetton blind side was
only 8 when Robert Mugabe’s
henchmen arrived in the Negri
family’s pocket of rural Zimbabwe,
intent on reclaiming land from white
farmers. Negri, his parents, brothers
and sisters had to flee in the night,
speeding away from their farm with
the headlights off in a bid to avoid
detection. He had time only to “grab
the essentials”: a rugby ball and a
cricket bat. The next day, Negri’s
mum, Diana, returned to try to
recover some valuables and was held
hostage by these vengeful war
veterans for upwards of 12 hours.
“Thankfully the authorities and the
Italian embassy got involved and she
was released,” he recalls. “It was a
traumatic time for us all, but looking
back on it, we were also lucky. A lot of
Zimbabweans lost a lot more than we
did — they lost their lives.
“The one big memory I have is
driving away from the farm, looking
out the back window and thinking,
‘This won’t be a problem: we’ll be back
in a couple of days, back to normal life’.
But I never saw home again.
“It’s always going to live with you
but I try to take everything in a
positive way. I look up to my mum
and dad who sacrificed everything for
us kids. I look at them and how they
bounced back from losing everything,
the way they took on life and said,
‘Yes something really bad has
happened, but that’s life sometimes.
It’s how you bounce back and get on
your two feet. If we can stay together
as a family, everything will be fine.’
“That’s the lesson I learnt. I was
very young, but the unity within our
family and close friends was amazing.
That’s something I try to carry
forward in my own life and on the
field. Everyone has ups and downs,
but you have to try to be positive and
grateful for the little things.”
The family were taken in by Negri’s
paternal grandfather, Tommaso, who
years earlier had moved from his
native Milan to Zimbabwe to find
work. Janusz, Tommaso’s son, made
sure that junior was always well
aware of his Italian heritage, while
from both these men and Diana, he
discovered something about the
power of the human spirit.
“When you lose everything, you’ve
got to have family to support you, and
the whole Italian side were there for
us.,” Negri says. “For me, it is so, so
special to play for Italy and represent
those people and everyone who
helped us. All I’ve ever wanted to do
is make them proud.”
Negri finished his schooling in
South Africa before enrolling at
Hartpury College in Gloucestershire
to study for a sports business
management degree. He captained
the rugby team to the BUCS Super
League and Championship double,
having made his full Italy debut in the
summer of 2016 during Conor
O’Shea’s first tour in charge.
The 6ft 4in Negri — on the bench
against England tomorrow — now
has 37 caps, which have brought half-
a-dozen wins: against Canada (twice),
the United States, Japan, Georgia and
Russia. He does not shy away from
the awfulness of the run in which the
Azzurri have been defeated in every
Six Nations fixture since 2015, and
knows that external expectations are
minimal once more. The big aim for
Italy, is to avoid the humiliations of
the 2021 edition, when they shipped
an average of almost 50 points.
Judged in that context, last weekend’s
37-10 defeat by France in Paris was a
step in the right direction.
“Defensively for large parts of it we
were really good,” Negri says. “We
didn’t get our game going and didn’t
play in the right areas of the field, so
that’s something we have to work on.
But in general I thought there were a
lot of positives. Still, you look at the
scoreboard and we’ve lost by 27
points, so there’s also massive
disappointment. We want to show
people why we deserve to be in the
Six Nations. People on the outside
will always have opinions, but we’re
focused on getting respect back.
“There is a lot of positivity in the
group. We’ve got a young team and
everyone is reaching in the same
direction. We know that England are
going to be disappointed with how
things went against Scotland, so we’re
expecting a tough, physical game.
They’re going to want to put things
right themselves, so we expect an
aggressive, physical team that really
want to bounce back.”
In last year’s England fixture, Negri
was at the heart of the breakdown
incident in which Jack Willis suffered
a serious knee injury from which he is
yet to fully recover. The episode
brought renewed calls for the
“crocodile roll” to be banned, and
while Negri was quick to apologise to
his fellow flanker on social media, the
trolls still had a field day.
“Straight after the game, I went into
the medical room at Twickenham to
speak to Jack,” he recalls. “I said, ‘I’m
so, so sorry, I never meant for any of
I played with Michele when he won
his first cap in France, in November
2020, and also when he was captain
for the first time, against New
Zealand in November. At 23 he is
young to be captain, especially
when Sergio Parisse was our leader
for such a long time. He does not
talk a lot, but leads by example. He
made 21 tackles against France,
which shows how hard he works. I
think he’ll be captain for a long time.
PAOLO GARBISI
21, fly half
We have a lot of good young players
coming through but Paolo is on
another level. He is only 21 but he
doesn’t seem to feel the pressure.
Playing international rugby when I
was younger, whenever I made a
mistake I was angry. But he seems
very strong, he has a great
mentality for a No 10. His kicking
and passing are really good, his
footwork is fast. But his mentality is
the most impressive thing.
that to happen.’ I gave him my jersey,
we had a good chat. Jack is a great
guy, we still keep in touch now. He
knew I didn’t mean that. It is never
my intention to hurt anyone.”
Negri is closely linked to another
Zimbabwean-born back row, Dave
Denton, who won 42 caps for
Scotland before being forced to retire
because of the effects of multiple
concussions. Diana is Denton’s
godmother, while Denton’s own
mother, Joy, has the same role for one
of Negri’s brothers. Despite the four-
year age gap, the pair spent a lot of
time together growing up.
“He was a terrible golfer with a
horrible slice,” Negri says. “Seriously,
he was such a competitive character, I
knew he would go on to achieve good
things. One of my best moments was
playing against David [in Rome in
2018]. Growing up, David was
representing Scotland but also all of
us youngsters in Zimbabwe. He was a
massive role model of mine. As much
as we look at the negatives about
what happened, I have some great
memories of growing up.”

Nadolo brace helps Tigers seal the double over Northampton

Alex Mitchell gave Saints an early London Irish staged a brilliant Africa last summer and was not
Gallagher Premiership lead before Nadolo’s double and a HOW THEY STAND second-half comeback to beat Bristol considered for Wales’s Guinness Six
Round-up Julian Montoya try put Leicester in Bears 49-32 at Ashton Gate. Nations squad. But the 86-cap
Nemani Nadolo scored two tries as charge. A Courtnall Skosan try put P W D L F A B Pts To complete a miserable night for forward, who will join Cardiff next
Leicester 15 13 0 2 448 263 9 61
the Gallagher Premiership leaders the Saints back in it but the Tigers led Saracens 14 9 1 4 480 254 11 49 the home side, the wing Siva Naulago season, could still be summoned by
Leicester Tigers completed the double 22-10 at the interval. Gloucester 14 9 1 4 377 319 9 47 was sent off in the 59th minute for a Pivac if his return to domestic action
over Northampton Saints with a Bryce Hegarty and Karl Wilkins Harlequins 14 8 0 6 353 314 11 43 head-high challenge. goes well.
Northampton 14 8 0 6 403 352 8 40
35-20 win at Welford Road. exchanged tries in the second half London Irish 15 6 3 6 386 384 10 40 The Wales No 8 Taulupe Faletau Faletau starts at blind-side flanker
Nadolo repeated his feat from the and Chris Ashton was shown a yellow Wasps 14 7 0 7 354 354 9 37 will begin his comeback from a long- against Wasps in Coventry, and the
Exeter 14 7 0 7 300 267 8 36
Tigers’ 55-26 victory in the reverse card on his Leicester debut but the Sale 14 6 1 7 307 297 6 34 term injury in Bath’s Premiership Bath head coach, Neal Hatley, said:
fixture, while Freddie Burns home side claimed the win to go nine Bristol 14 5 0 9 313 388 7 27 game away to Wasps today. The 31- “It is fantastic to have Taulupe back in
orchestrated the home side superbly points clear at the top. Newcastle 14 5 1 8 225 349 2 24 year-old has been sidelined since our starting line-up. He brings a
Worcester 14 3 1 10 271 490 7 21
from fly half and ended with a The Australia international scrum Bath 14 2 0 12 227 413 4 14 suffering an ankle injury during the wealth of experience and his presence
personal haul of 15 points. half Nick Phipps scored two tries as British & Irish Lions tour to South will have a huge impact on our team.”
the times | Saturday February 12 2022 1GG 9

The Scrum

The rise and rise of the 7

kick-pass
Cross-kicks in the first round
of matches last weekend —
in 2016 there were only 12
across the tournament

sscori opportunities in
his side’s best scoring has helped to open up
Modern fly half is inu
nut spotting Henry
the 30th minute, FIRST ROUND CROSS-KICKS fresh opportunities, Full backs such
Slade free in acres of space on the 1. Scot v Eng
particularly from the as Edoardo
finding precision to right, but overhitting his cross-kick. Daly crossfield
gather for a try
5. Scot v Eng
middle third of the pitch.h. Padovani, of Italy,
Paolo Garbisi, the Italy fly half, “The kick-pass is about ut can benefit from
unlock defences like a proved that he is adept at the skill, by
grubber. Collected
by Scotland
Russell kicks to van
der Merwe
ace
trying to exploit the space a good cross-kick
finding Tommaso Menoncello, his between the two defensive sive
master archer, writes wing, just inside the touchline with a
2. Scot v Eng Smith
puts his kick too
6. Scot v Eng lines,” Phil Dowson, thee
Russell then kicks
John Westerby perfectly delivered punt to score the
first try of the game against France
high over the head
of Slade
in the other
Northampton Saints
assistant coach, said. “The he
direction and
last Sunday. The mastery of this 3. Fra v Ita Over the Cowan-Dickie front line of defence hass

A
mong the armoury of weapon, and the tactical awareness of top by Ntamack. knocks on. become so structured and nd
attacking weapons at the when and where on the pitch to use Gathered by Italy Penalty try kfield
organised, and the backfield
disposal of the game’s it, is a crucial part of the modern fly 4. Fra v Ita 7. Fra v Ita coverage, depending on n field
playmakers,ers, the ccross-
ross half’s skill set. Ntamack kicks into Garbisi picks out position, will be thinkingg
kick is Kicking across the field is nothing the corner but Menoncello, for about the 50:22. Along with
becoming one off the new, of course. Like so many things, Penaud can’t quite Italy’s only try he
the technical skills of the
most potent of all. ll. the contestable crossfield kick was loping
No 10s and No 12s, developing
In recent seasons, s, appropriated from rugby league, and 7 the ability to put the ball ll on a
the term “kick- in the 2003 World Cup final Lote precise point, that can get you
pass” has been Tuqiri rose above Jason Robinson — 2 on the front foot in thatt space
added to rugby’s two former rugby league 1 6 4
between those defensivee lines.
lexicon, such is orward, but
You can’t pass the ball forward,
the precision tha at
that you can kick it forward,, and that’s was either very good
modern kickers have have
hav 3 the next best thing.” coaching from Scotland, poor
eployment
ployment of
brought to the deployment ortunities
These increased opportunities awareness by England, or a
certain types of cross-kick,
cross-kick which 5 have meant fly halves devote more bit of both,” Dave Walder, the
have emerged as a respon response to the and more time to honing ng their kick- Newcastle Falcons head
ever increasingg aggressioession and
aggression players — to score the itely practise
passing skill. “You definitely coach, said. “From the initial
organisation of defence
defences. only try agagainst it a lot more nowadays,”” Gopperth scrum, you’d be expecting
ster archer
Like a master archer, Finn Russell England for an
Engla lat-trajectory
said. “We practise our flat-trajectory either yyour blind-side flanker
unpicked England’s
ngland’s d defence at Australia team
Aust kicks, standing 20 metres es apart, [Alex Dombrandt] or your y
Murrayfield d last week
wee by reaching coached by
coa trying to hit each other in the chest. scrum half [Ben Youngs] to
uick succe
twice in quick succession into his Eddie Jones.
Ed The key to the technique ue is getting drop back and look after the
quiver, sending
ending arr
arrow-like cross field
crossfield More recently,
M your chest over the ball.. If you drop side where the scrum was held.
cing acros
kicks arcing across the pitch. His first the aerial
th hat brings your
the ball nice and low, that England didn’t. Youngs
was from m right to left, where he found abilities of
ab chest over the ball that little bit more, travelled all the way across, so
Duhan n van der Merwe, then he drew wings have
w and that helps to keep the he ball flight the No 6 would have been
back his bow and an taking aim in the become
be g the
low. You don’t want to give better to look after that wide
osite direc
opposite direction, found Luke almost as
al [opposition] winger any recovery defence, not Cowan-Dickie.
wan-Dicki badly exposed on the
Cowan-Dickie important as
im time, to spin round and make the Marchant could have
ht, and Scotland
right, Sc were awarded the their ability to
th catch, so that trajectoryy is important.” stayed over that side, but
ame-chan
game-changing penalty try. beat a man.
be The first of Russell’s masterful one- that would have left a
In sharp p contrast, on a day when But the two against England was as a smartly gap in the middle of the
England had h plentiful possession, but kick-pass, a
ki judged kick-pass. From a S l d
Scotland b kfi ld and
backfield, dR ll will
Russell ill pick
i k out
strugglgled to find a way around a
struggled lower-
low scrum on the right, Van der Merwe those gaps all day long.”
sw
warming Scotland defence,
swarming trajectory kick
traj stood out on the left touchline, but A team’s cross-kicking game will
Marcus Smith fluffed one of acro
across field, in Max Malins, his opposite number, was also be tailored to the strengths of
behin
behind the defending 15 metres infield, leaving their wings. Those sides whose wings
onrushing
onrus space outside him. Russell sent his are particularly strong in the air will
defenc
defence, has grown kick diagonally over Malins’s head for be more likely to send contestable
to be a much bigger Van der Merwe to run on to. Malins crossfield kicks, particularly in the
part of tthe game in spun to recover, but Van der Merwe final third of the pitch, where the
recent se seasons. The was past him in an instant, then backfield defence will not be quite so
yin and yyang of brushed off Freddie Steward too, deep. “If your No 10 gets his kick
defence an and attack has leaving England scrambling to right, those kicks can be almost
led to defen
defending teams reorganise in the backfield. impossible to defend,” Walder said.
seeking to movemo up ever Then came Russell’s follow-up, “As an attacker, the catch is your best
quicker and to cramp the from the ruck on the left, where prize, but slapping it back towards
space of the attac
attacking team, Malins had been tackled inside the your own side is also really effective,
jamming in from the outside, England 22. Because Joe Marchant, because you generally have more
rather than pushing th the attackers the right wing, had been required to support around the ball than the
out towards the touchlin
touchline. Spaces come across and cover for Steward, defender. The defender has to try to
between each link in the defensive England were short of numbers on catch it, which is a hard skill to

5
Tries set up in the
Six Nations last season by
cross-field kicks Garbisi proved
he is adept at the
skill by creating
a try in Italy’s
defeat by France
chain have invariably bee been shrinking, the opposite side. Darcy Graham, the perform above your head. That’s why
making the midfield area areas more Scotland right wing, stayed close to Russell was putting that second kick
congested, but leaving space sp in wider the touchline and the three widest on top of Cowan-Dickie, rather than
channels. England defenders were Will Stuart, in behind him.”
“Defences have becombecome more and Joe Marler and Cowan-Dickie. This Russell will be attempting to pull
more aggressive in recen recent seasons, time Russell’s kick was of a higher apart the Wales defence today in the
and sometimes a really aggressive
a trajectory, a contestable cross-kick, Principality Stadium as he did against
defence can tighten up an and get a bit knowing that Graham had the England. In Rome tomorrow, Garbisi
narrow,” Jimmy Goppert
Gopperth, the Wasps beating of Cowan-Dickie in the air. and Smith will go toe to toe. With
fly half, said. “The quicke
quickest way to get Clearly, the England hooker erred Harlequins, Smith has established
the ball to the space is a ccrossfield by batting the ball into touch, himself as one of the best kick-passers
kick-pass, with flat trajec
trajectory, that resulting in his yellow card and a in the Gallagher Premiership, but he
gives the defence no time to recover.” penalty try, but that England’s entire was wide of the mark at Murrayfield
The search for space is the coach’s front row had been left in such wide and will be reminding himself to keep
holy grail and the introdu
introduction of the positions showed how his chest over the ball when his
50:22 kicks this season — another comprehensively Russell had team-mates appear in space in the
item borrowed from rugb rugby league — unravelled the English defence. “It Stadio Olimpico.
10 2GG Saturday February 12 2022 | the times

The Scrum

Loss of icons gives Pivac

Graham surges
past England’s
Maro Itoje in
Scotland’s
20-17 victory
at Murrayfield

a grim glimpse of future

swiftly, this is heading towards a very
HOW THEY LINE UP grisly peek into a future without the
STEVE likes of Alun Wyn Jones, Ken Owens,
JAMES WALES SCOTLAND
L Williams 15 S Hogg (c)
REPLACEMENTS
D Lake
REPLACEMENTS
R Sutherland
Justin Tipuric and George North
from a golden generation.
Ospreys Worcester
Scarlets Exeter G Thomas G Turner In one sentence this week, Pivac
A Cuthbert 14 D Graham Ospreys Glasgow neatly encapsulated his problems.
Ospreys Edinburgh D Lewis Z Fagerson “We all know what we haven’t got, it’s

I
t was not much of a spectacle,
low on quality despite the
fluctuating scoreline that ended
27-22 in Scotland’s favour.
“Second-division stuff,” was
how Paul Rees described it in The
Guardian.
It was the last of Rob Howley’s 59
Tests for Wales. The Scottish fly half,
some chap called Gregor Townsend,
who just happens to be Scotland’s
head coach now, still had another 16
Tests to go in his playing career. It
was the New Zealander Steve
Hansen’s first match in permanent
charge of Wales as head coach after
his compatriot, Graham Henry, had
departed earlier in the Six Nations.
This was 2002, the last time
Scotland won in Cardiff. It is some
hex that the Scots carry with them to
the Welsh capital today, one not
dispelled by a victory behind closed
doors in Llanelli in 2020 in a
rearranged Six Nations match.
Scotland won again in 2003 at
Murrayfield (when Wales ended up
bottom of the table), but, in the 20
Tests against Wales since, they have
prevailed only three times. Wales
have won the Six Nations title on six
occasions in that period, while
Scotland have never finished higher
than third. While Wales have clearly
graced the first division, Scotland
have all too often been scrapping to
get out of the second tier.
Warren Gatland never lost a Test to
Scotland. The only time during his
tenure that Wales did not prevail was
in 2017 when Howley was interim
head coach while Gatland was
preparing for the British & Irish Lions
tour to New Zealand. There were very
good reasons why Gatland generally
ignored Scottish players on his first
two Lions tours in full charge.
Even Gatland’s last match in
Cardiff against Scotland in 2018
ended in a 34-7 thrashing, after the
Scots arrived highly fancied to
triumph. Last year at Murrayfield
O Watkin 13 C Harris
Ospreys Gloucester
N Tompkins 12 S Tuipulotu
Saracens Glasgow
L Rees-Zammit 11 D van der Merwe
Gloucester Worcester
D Biggar (c) 10 F Russell
Northampton Racing 92
T Williams 9 A Price
Cardiff Glasgow
W Jones 1 P Schoeman
Scarlets Edinburgh
R Elias 2 S McInally
Scarlets Edinburgh
T Francis 3 WP Nel
Ospreys Edinburgh
W Rowlands 4 J Gray
Dragons Exeter
A Beard 5 G Gilchrist
Ospreys Edinburgh
T Basham 6 S Skinner
Dragons Exeter
J Morgan 7 H Watson
Ospreys Edinburgh
R Moriarty 8 M Fagerson
Dragons Glasgow
Wales somehow snatched a 25-24 win
against all the odds.
So, should we expect anything
different today? Well, Scotland did
not play particularly smoothly last
weekend against England, and yet still
won. Wales were abject in Dublin and
rightly got hammered.
These are two teams in very
different places right now, but the
only place that matters today is the
Principality Stadium, where there will
be a full house for a first Six Nations
match since Covid struck. The roof
will be open (with rain forecast)
because of the virus and the bars shut
for the second half — a consequence
of recent poor behaviour — but this
will be emotional.
It is no exaggeration to say that this
is Wales’s most important match of
the tournament. Forget all that stuff
about “as long as we beat the English”.
Victory at Twickenham in the third
Cardiff Glasgow
S Davies M Bradbury a matter of what we have got,” he
Cardiff Edinburgh said. He was talking about the
A Wainwright R Darge absence of a big No 6 and thus his
Dragons Glasgow
G Davies B White
selection of two open-side flankers
Scarlets London Irish again here (and the debutant, Jac
C Sheedy B Kinghorn Morgan, looks as promising a player
Bristol Edinburgh as Taine Basham, in fairness), but he
J Davies C Redpath
Scarlets Bath could have been talking about any
number of positions — apart from
Kick-off Today, 2.15pm. TV BBC One. open-side, where Wales are blessed.
Referee Nic Berry (Aus). Up front, Wales just do not seem to
Assistants Wayne Barnes, Chris be producing players that tick all the
Busby (RFU). TMO Brett Cronan (RA). boxes. The front five, unchanged from
the Ireland match, is a particular
worry. As our own Sam Warburton
HEAD TO HEAD has pointed out, the very best teams
all now have front fives that carry and
Drawn 3 pass. Wales don’t. Last weekend,
Ireland’s front five made 22 passes
Scotland Wales and carried 110 metres, Wales’s made
50 74 six passes and carried only 27 metres.
Wales could select better players in
the loose, such as Rhys Carré, Dillon
Lewis and Seb Davies, but then they
Played would probably struggle at the
127 scrummage, which was a rare positive
in Dublin. It is a dilemma for Pivac.
Scotland will not be as physical as
round of matches is highly unlikely. Ireland, but they will be physical
Right now, there is the desperate enough. A Welshman, their defence
need for this Welsh team to prove coach Steve Tandy, has toughened
that the 29-7 defeat by Ireland was them up considerably. This will be
not a true reflection of their abilities. some test for the Wales pack.
As the head coach, Wayne Pivac, It is 50 years since Gareth Edwards
says: “The players are very critical of scored his famous kick-and-chase try
themselves, they were very in this fixture. “Can he score?” asked
disappointed after the game and the commentator Bill McLaren. “It
they’re desperate to go out there and would be a miracle if he could.” Wales
show we are a much better team than do not need a miracle today, but they
the display we put on last week. do require something very special. Do
“We’re at home, we are in front of
75,000 people, we owe it to ourselves
and our public to put on a better
display, it’s as simple as that.”
not bet against it, however. This
fixture usually produces some magic.
6 One of the balls for today’s Doddie
Weir Cup clash will be delivered by a
6
Defenders beaten by Darcy
Wales finished fifth in their first group of cyclists led by the former Graham against England, the
year under Pivac, 2020, trying to play Scotland back-rower, Rob most of any player in round
an ambitious style. Last year in taking Wainwright, who are cycling 500 one of the Six Nations
the title they reverted to more of a miles from Murrayfield to the
Gatland game plan. Now they seem Principality Stadium in aid of Weir’s
to be floundering, searching for an motor neurone disease charity. To
identity. Injuries have played their donate, go to www.justgiving.com/
part but, unless matters are rectified fundraising/DoddieGog500

Ice baths, dreams and ‘tickling’ – how Wales prepare Shades of

Paul ‘Bobby’ Stridgeon
veins constrict when cold and dilate
when hot, so the quick switch creates
Six Nations match day
Breakfast
players eat anything spicy to save
them having heartburn on the pitch.
Shane in style
Head of physical performance for Wales Rugby

Everyone has a role in the Wales

a pump motion that gets rid of lactic
acid in the muscles and aids recovery.
camp. Mine is to make sure the team
are in the best condition possible for a
game — physically and mentally.
Dinner together
The boys have the afternoon to relax,
then we eat dinner together at 6pm.
We encourage lots of lean protein and
Poached eggs or omelette, baked
beans, lean ham and maybe some
wholemeal bread.
After the match
A finger buffet
of Scotland’s
Pre-match pump
The pre-match routine begins 3½
It doesn’t really matter what they eat
at this point, so they might have
finger-food such as chicken goujons,
pocket rocket
hours before kick-off. The team start muffins or cheesecake.

The day before a game
Tickling the dragon
The team will travel to the stadium to
go through the captain’s run. It’s
about making sure everyone knows
the game plan and lasts only 25
minutes. I call it “tickling the dragon”
because it gets the blood flowing.
Contrast baths
Each player will spend two minutes in
an ice bath then jump into a hot bath
for two minutes, and repeat five times
— finishing with a cold bath. Our
vegetables. Players can choose to do a
two-minute cryotherapy session,
standing in a -140C chamber, and
about a third of the team do this. It’s
incredibly tough but it helps recovery.
Sleep time
We encourage them to sleep for eight
hours a night. Players have a choice
of pillows, quality mattresses and we
make sure they can adjust the
temperature in their room. They take
supplements to help them sleep —
leading to great dreams apparently.
with an optional warm-up that we
call a priming session, explosive
exercises which can enhance their
performance. Maybe half the players
do it.
No spicy food
The pre-match meal is the heaviest
carb meal of the week. They have the
choice of spaghetti bolognese, sea
bass, plain chicken, vegetables and
sweet potatoes. They can also have
pancakes with honey or some rice
pudding for dessert. We don’t let the
No more beer
We save the beers for the end of the
tournament, but many refuse them.
Rugby players are so professional
nowadays, nothing like 15 years ago.
Recovery and home time
Players have another contrast bath
after the match, unless they have
inflammation, in which case they will
have an ice bath. They leave about
two hours after full-time.
Interview by Jessica Hayden
T
he Scottish wing grabbing the
headlines over the past 18
months has been the towering
“Jock Bok” Duhan van der Merwe,
but a man of a very different stature
was at the centre of Scotland’s
Calcutta Cup victory over England
last weekend (Angus Oliver writes).
Darcy Graham, all 5ft 9in and
75kg of him, was everywhere. He
beat more defenders than the
English team combined, set up Ben
the times | Saturday February 12 2022
White’s debut try after a blistering
break, was perfectly positioned to
pressurise Luke Cowan-Dickie into
conceding a penalty try, and made a
crucial turnover at the death.
It has not always been easy for a
wing of such slight physique, but the
24-year-old has become famed for
his lightning footwork. He arrives at
the Principality Stadium today as
one of Scotland’s most potent
attacking outlets — drawing
comparisons with the Welsh great
Shane Williams.
“They’re similar-style pocket
rockets aren’t they?” Mike Blair, the
former Scotland scrum half and now
Graham’s head coach at Edinburgh,
says. “That stature of player, they’re
slippery and hard to get your hands
around. With the laws around the
high tackle now it’s really difficult to
tackle a small man legally, especially
someone with good footwork and
acceleration. He’s not only a flash
1GG
player — he does the hard work as
well. An aspect of his game that gets
missed is his work around the
breakdown. He’ll throw himself into
everything like a 16-stone wing and
has made some crucial turnovers for
Edinburgh, so it was no surprise to
see him involved in the last
breakdown against England.”
Graham was part of the Scotland
sevens set-up before earning his XVs
debut in 2018, a factor Blair believes
was key to his development.
“Sevens teaches you a lot about
finding space and using space in
attack — it allows you to work on
your footwork and acceleration at
high speed,” Blair says. “Whereas
someone like Louis Rees-Zammit is
more of a gliding sprinter, Darcy is
better in traffic where he’s got two
or three quick steps in a row.
“What he’s got really good at over
the past couple of seasons is how he
gets his hands on the ball. If you stay
on your wing you end up running
one-on-one against another wing
who is often quick as well. When
you go looking for work, you’re
trying to spot mismatches against
front-five players. That’s why Darcy
made the line break past Maro Itoje
and Nick Isiekwe [for White’s try] —
he’d timed the moment to come off
his wing.”
Graham, who has ten tries in 23
caps, has recaptured his best form
after a tough period. Last year his
younger brother, Clark, was involved
in a car accident. He spent 4½
months in hospital with a serious
brain injury, but in what Graham
describes as “an absolute miracle”, is
now recovering.
Blair says Graham is a pleasure to
work with. “When my nephew had
an operation on his thumb, Darcy
sent a video message and promised
him his boots after the Six Nations.
He’s a good man.”
Stars are aligned for
Hogg to banish his
Principality hoodoo
ALASDAIR
REID
Scottish Rugby
Correspondent
S
tuart Hogg’s bucket list is
ever-diminishing. Last year
alone he ticked off beating
England at Twickenham,
beating France in Paris,
starting a Lions Test and establishing
a new Scottish try record. The most
glaring omission now is victory in
Cardiff.
Plenty of other Scots fall into the
same category, but the Welsh capital
has special resonance for Hogg. Like
anyone raised in Hawick, he was
raised on tales of epic trips on the
Wales weekend, when the town’s
junior clubs and camp followers
would pile into buses and head south.
More pertinently, it was also the place
where he won his first cap.
That was exactly ten years ago
today, when the 19-year-old Hogg
took over from Max Evans and
seemed to have marked his debut
with a late try but the score was
disallowed. Maybe he should have
realised then that the Principality
Stadium was not to be his happiest
hunting ground.
In 2014, he was red-carded for a
reckless challenge on Dan Biggar. In
2016 he was carted off injured after
only 28 minutes. In 2018 he was swept
up in the collective malaise of Gregor
Townsend’s first Six Nations match as
coach as Scotland were hammered
34-7. On the eve of his 90th
appearance for his country, it remains
the only Six Nations venue where he
has never scored a try.
He ought to hate the place, but he
feels exactly the opposite. In fact, he
is perversely grateful for what it did
for his own development.
Hogg said: “I’ve told the boys that if
they’ve not been fortunate enough to
play there yet then they’re going to
get their eyes opened. It’s just one hell
of an atmosphere. It’s a special place.
“In 2014 it was just a bit of a brain
fart, a huge amount of built-up
emotion and executing in the wrong
way that led to a red card. I’ve grown
up a lot since then. That was a long
time ago and it was probably the
best thing that ever happened
to me. It was horrible at the
time, but that weekend was the
making of the man.”
As Hogg has matured, so
too has the team he leads. A
side that used to suffer a fit
of the vapours when they
strayed more than a few
yards from their
Murrayfield comfort zone,
Scotland, remarkably, have
now won their past four
away games in the
championship. Granted,
three of them were in
empty grounds and the
other one was against Italy,
but it is still a significant
advance.
Going into today’s game with
the intention of ending their 20-
year losing streak in Cardiff, there is
Hogg made his Scotland debut
against Wales ten years ago today
11
The Scrum
an “if not now then when” feel about
Scotland. They have the momentum
of last week’s win over England, while
Wales were mostly wretched against
Ireland. There is a balanced look to
their hugely experienced team, while
Wales look dishevelled. Jamie
Ritchie’s absence apart, they are
almost injury free, while Wales have
been ravaged.
They have never had it this good.
Their stars could scarcely be better
aligned if Townsend had ascended his
celestial stepladder and fixed them in
the firmament himself. They are
riding a wave of good fortune,
assailed by serendipity.
Many Scots tend to view sunshine
as a portent of worse weather to
come, but there are solid grounds for
confidence. But grounds for caution
too. Hogg is aware of the danger of
taking an eye off the ball and the
need to get the little things right.
“It is very much process-driven,” he
said. “If we start looking too far ahead
we are going to slip up. If we look at
the final outcomes we’re not going to
focus on the 80 minutes beforehand.
“We need to stay involved in every
moment of the game, win all the
small battles and make sure we grow
in confidence as the game goes on.
We’ve got boys who now have a huge
amount of experience and have
played here before. They know how
tough it is to play at the Principality,
but there is belief in our squad.”
The Cardiff weather forecast is for
rain, growing in intensity in the build-
up to the 2.15pm kick-off. The roof
will be open as a Covid measure. If it
does rain then Scotland will need to
be tidier in several areas than they
were against England. And if they
want to keep their penalty count in
single figures — they coughed up 13
last weekend — then they will want
to see a lot more of the ball than they
did a week ago.
It will not have gone unnoticed that
Wales lost four of their own lineouts
against Ireland. The changes they
have made have certainly not
strengthened their resources in that
area. By contrast, the addition of Sam
Skinner in place of Ritchie has
probably increased Scotland’s options.
The combination of bad weather and
a suspect Wales lineout suggests
Scotland will aim to exert pressure
with their kicking game.
Hogg has form as far as the kicking
bit is concerned, but he admitted he is
a bit sketchy on what comes
next. “I have absolutely no
idea what goes on at the
lineout,” he said. “To me
it looks like
somebody jumps
and somebody
chucks it. That’s
about the height
of my learning.
“But I think it’s a great
opportunity for the boys. To
gain momentum, gain
front-foot ball, it all starts
up front and those boys
will have worked
incredibly hard
through the week to
make sure our set
piece is spot-on and
there will be
opportunities to
steal their ball
as well.”
12
The Scrum
‘I’ve got 100 caps – I can’t be that bad’
Dan Biggar, who will
bring up a milestone in
Cardiff today, is fuelled
by fire of his critics, he
tells Will Kelleher
T
ypically, Dan Biggar will be
in battle-mode today as he
plays in his 100th
international. With him on
the pitch come Saturday
afternoon, there is no other setting.
Talk to him during the week and
the Wales fly half is one of the most
mild-mannered, easy-going and
decent men out there. His wife, Alex,
bakes him cakes to bring into the
Welsh camp for the “Covid café”.
But then comes the transformation.
On Saturdays Biggar’s veins pop, his
heart pumps, his bark gets louder and
his teeth are gnashed — it is as if he’s
the Incredible Hulk; you won’t like
him on game-day.
To do that 99 times — 96 for Wales
and on three occasions for the British
& Irish Lions in Tests — you must be
wired up differently. Biggar is self-
aware enough to realise that this is
his process. He needs to stick two
fingers up to the world.
“There’s no doubt that on a match
day it’s hard to fight back the
competitiveness,” the 32-year-old
says, before his 100th international
appearance, against Scotland in the
Six Nations today.
“Come a Saturday afternoon I
know I have to be like that. There’s
been times where I’ve really tried to
be placid, calm, not let anything affect
me if there’s a learning error or
whatever, but I’ve found that I haven’t
really been able to get myself to
where I want to be.
“There’s a line you have to keep on,
but I need to be closer to the top of it
than the bottom.
“I don’t create battles but I know I
need an edge to get the best out of me
and deliver.”
Some of this is created to suit his
narrative, but
mostly it is real.
Biggar often,
particularly
when with
Wales, makes a
point of
mentioning his
up-and-down 2 next to an Australia and
relationship
with the
country’s
supporters,
media and public.
The reality is that
he is incredibly well
respected: saluted as a
Test giant in a dominant
Welsh era, someone who
has worked hard to
improve his game, and has
won Wales more Tests than
he has lost them. Millions will
doff their cap to him as he
strides out as the nation’s
skipper in Cardiff today.
But Biggar remembers. He forces
himself to, in some ways. He recalls
being unloved as a youngster,
unwanted by many, criticised for not
being the next incarnation of Phil
Bennett or Barry John, overlooked for
caps and praise.
Between 2008 and 2012 he played
for Wales eight times — it is the
unhappy memory of that period that
drives him on still today. “It was
tough going and if you said I’d be
FIVE GAMES
THAT DEFINED
MY CAREER
1) 34-13 WIN v CANADA, NOVEMBER
14, 2008 Millennium Stadium
Autumn international
I always get nervous, even when I’m on
the bench now, as you’re waiting for
the call, but I didn’t get a chance to in
this game as James Hook went down
when I was warming up behind the
posts 18 minutes in. It was tracksuit off,
thrown into it. It was a scrappy old
game and it never quite clicked — as it
usually doesn’t in those Tier 2 games.
It was 10-6 at half-time and I’d had two
conversions on each touchline and just
missed both of them. Then I had a
penalty just after half-time right in
front of the posts, which was a nice
moment to get my first points for
Wales. We did okay as it turned out but
at the end of the game I threw an
interception to Ryan Smith, their
centre. I remember Shaun Edwards
came up to me in the hotel after and
said: “The more you go to the line the
less likely the ball wide is on.” I
remember that to this day. I thought,
as a 19-year-old, he’d give me a
bollocking! It was actually a nice touch.
The cap and jersey — the away yellow
one — I still have.
2) 42-9 DEFEAT v NEW ZEALAND
JUNE 19, 2010 Hamilton Summer tour
This was the first game in which I wore
the red No 10 Welsh jersey — as all my
other starts were in yellow. Stephen
Jones played the first Test and I played
the second. Dan Carter was in the All
Blacks team, which was a real thrill. If
I’m honest it was a bit of a step up for
me, and I was fully aware of what
international rugby was that day.
Going from Canada, USA and Samoa to
New Zealand was a big shock. After the
game I swapped shirts with Carter —
I’ve never been more nervous going
into a dressing-room. They had Carter,
Richie McCaw, Mils Muliaina, all these
guys. I got Carter’s shirt,
didn’t wash it as I was
worried it would get
pinched in the
laundry. I took a
stinking home jersey to
my mum to frame. I have
it on the wall of my house
South Africa one. The
boys always ask: “What
did Carter do with your
jersey?” I always say:
“He must have washed
his car with it!” I’m not
sure mine is on his wall.
talking today with
90-odd caps, and
Wales captain, it
would have
felt a million
miles away,”
he explains.
“I’m really proud I didn’t take an
easy option, say, ‘It is what it is, it’s
going to be a difficult relationship,
you’re not going to be loved by
everyone, cruise through your career;
then if you get the odd cap, success,
then brilliant.’
“It’s in my character that I’m a
battler. I’m proud I didn’t do that, I
stuck with it. I don’t think I could
have squeezed too much more out of
it to date.” So how does he view this
landmark? Is it proof that his *
3 didn’t want to be there. I just wanted to
1 If we had any chance at the title we
3 23-16 WIN v IRELAND, MARCH 14,
2015 Principality Stadium Six Nations
When people ask, “What’s your
favourite game?” I think this is it. It
epitomised everything I am as a player.
We had lost on the opening weekend
to England at home on a Friday night
— threw it away in the second half —
and went up to Scotland, beat them,
beat France in Paris, and then came to
naysayers were wrong? Has he always picked. It’s a long time to stick around
thought that he would make it to a
century of caps?
“It’s a bit of both,” Biggar, who
joined Northampton Saints
from Ospreys in 2017, says. “I
hate doing interviews and
saying, ‘Oh yeah I always
knew.’
“There’s definitely a
vindication from my
point of view. That’s This
9
will be Biggar’s ninth
fine. I almost prefer it game against Scotland —
when people pile he’s won six of the eight he England, improving as a
pressure on you. That’s has played previously
in my character. I like to
respond to it.
“I can’t have been shit for 13 years,
put it that way! If I was rubbish for
13 years I wouldn’t have kept getting
1GG
PAUL ELLIS/AFP/GETTY
Ireland who were on for a grand slam.
had to beat them. It was a roll-your-
sleeves up job. I knocked the best
drop-goal over I’ve ever hit from 40
metres — I could have hit it from ten
further out — and then we defended
40 phases one time and 38 phases
another. The atmosphere was unreal. It
wasn’t the prettiest but we got the job
done. The shift we put in for each
other made it my most enjoyable
game for Wales.
4 28-25 WIN v ENGLAND, SEPTEMBER
26, 2015 Twickenham World Cup
I was really nervous before that game.
We stayed in Weybridge in Surrey, and
the WRU had put on a family bus to
call in on us for a coffee as it was an
8pm kick-off. I remember going down
as a token effort, just to see my wife,
mum and sister, and was so nervous I
and keep fit, playing well enough to
get selected.
“There’s definitely a vindication. I
never doubted myself, but it
certainly hasn’t been a
straightforward curve.
“It’s like anything — if
you play well, you get
praise; you play badly,
you get criticism. It’s
very much how things
work. Since moving to
player, bettering myself,
has helped.
“The perception is that I’ve
improved, which maybe helps as well.
It gives you more leeway.
“I think I’ve relaxed and don’t really
Saturday February 12 2022 | the times
focus on the game. The atmosphere
was crazy, with a light show and
everything. We had a penalty early
doors, 15 metres in from the left, and I
hate those ones as you should get it. I
didn’t hit it that well, it crept in, but it
gave me a boost. I hit everything else,
it was the best I kicked, and I took my
best haul of 23 points in the game. It
was a watershed moment for the
world to see my goal-kicking talents.
The “Biggarena” thing came from that
day — me fidgeting before kicks came
from the nerves. I didn’t know I was
doing it, but watching it back it was
excessive. It was a display full of
character from us, clawing it back to
win 28-25. Kicking it into the crowd at
the end was special. We drove back
late to Cardiff and Paul Stridgeon, our
strength and conditioning man, was at
the M4 toll bridge at 1am trying to lift
the barrier up, as it were broken. He’d
had a couple [of drinks] I think!
4
5 22-17 WIN v SOUTH AFRICA, JULY
24, 2021 Cape Town Lions 1st Test
That was huge. A real moment to tick
off — becoming a Test Lion. Even
though I went on tour four years
before in 2017, I didn’t make the Test
team as I was up against Owen Farrell
and Johnny Sexton. My form wasn’t as
good as I would have liked, whereas in
2021 I felt my form was as good as it
could be. I felt I was there for that — to
play, not just to go on the tour. It was
disappointing not to have the full
experience [because of Covid], but I
looked down at the jersey and it had
the embroidered “1st Test Lions Series”
on it. To win, to kick a penalty to put us
in front, was so pleasing. It was
something I always wanted.
5
care what people say or think — as
long as I’ve got the respect of the
coaches and team-mates, that’s all
that matters. I’m so proud and
privileged to do it.”
It is apposite that when picking his
five favourite Tests for this piece,
Biggar selects a roll-your-sleeves-up
win against Ireland from 2015. Of
course he did.
Wales will need more of that today.
After last week’s harrowing defeat by
Ireland, they have been written off for
not only the Six Nations title but
from any chance of recording a
notable win in the tournament.
You sense that as captain of the
ship, that will only add fuel to the fire
of their fly half. Biggar the battler has
plenty of fight left in him.