You’ve never Emotionally pulverising drama

The ★★★★ return of Succession ion

eaten what?  Page 15

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23 March 2023
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they have
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 G2

‘Flimsy’ Partygate answers

leave Johnson on the brink
Ex-PM facing reprimand
that could end career
despite ‘hand on heart’
pledge over gatherings

Pippa Crerar
Political editor

Boris Johnson faces being for-

mally reprimanded for recklessly
misleading parliament after MPs
investigating the Partygate scandal
denounced his “flimsy” explanations
and suggested he had wrongly inter-
preted Covid guidance.
The former PM was left fighting
for his political career after a tetchy
three-and-a-half hour evidence ses-
sion in which he repeatedly claimed
that No 10 parties, with alcohol and
little social distancing, had been
“necessary” for work purposes.
Harriet Harman, who chairs the
privileges committee investigating
whether Johnson deliberately mis-
led MPs over lockdown gatherings,
expressed dismay at the “flimsy
nature” of assurances he had received
that events were within the rules.
Sir Bernard Jenkin, a senior Tory
MP on the committee, told him the
cross-party group of MPs did not
agree with his interpretation of the
guidance. “The guidance does not say
you can have a thank-you party and as ▲ Boris Johnson was grilled for three trade, with 22 of his own MPs voting
many people in the room as you like.” and a half hours by members of the against the deal, including Johnson Former PM was grilled at last. So how did
Their comments appear to indi- Commons privileges committee and Liz Truss. He did not have to rely
cate they are considering concluding PHOTOGRAPH: UK PARLIAMENT/PA WIRE on Labour votes to get it through. his answers to MPs stack up? Page 6 
that Johnson deliberately misled the Johnson attempted to draw Sunak
Commons when they report after Sunak struggled to keep the Con- deeper into the Partygate scandal by ‘The gofers could only watch as Johnson
Easter, though sources suggested it servative party on track, avoiding an suggesting that if Covid rules had
was possible they could recommend overly damaging Commons rebellion been broken in No 10, then it should crashed and burned’ John Crace, page 7 
a sanction just short of that required on Brexit and finally publishing his also have been “obvious” to the cur-
to prompt a byelection. long-awaited tax details. rent prime minister. ‘He set the tone’. Covid bereaved express
Johnson’s dramatic return to the Sunak won a vote on his revised In its interim report this 6 
political limelight came as Rishi plan for post-Brexit Northern Ireland month, the committee said anger at evidence to committee Page 9 

Sunak accused of ‘sneaking out’ tax Inflation rises to 10.4% – and adds to
returns that reveal earnings of £5m pressure on Bank over interest rates
•••

News Page 11  News Page 26 

 • The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023

Inside 23/03/23 News

Four sections
every day
when he appeared before the same
News and Sport committee and vowed that he was
determined to reform the Met and
that change was non-negotiable:
Leith dock incident “They’ve got two choices. I’m serious
about this. We’re not pussyfooting
Thirty-three people hurt around these subjects.
as ship tips over in strong “The ones who are not up for it,
winds at town’s dry dock we will take on. The minority, if they
Page 5 do not want to get on the bus, that’s
their problem, we will sort them out.”
▲ Mark Rowley, The commissioner gave this
top, rejected analogy to explain the toxic officers
Journal Outside G2 Louise Casey’s in his force and said: “This is about
Opinions and ideas description of the body of the Met. It’s not about
the Met police as a few bacteria that have got into
 Britain’s arts bodies ‘institutionally’ the system. It’s about the immune
misogynistic, system has not been strong enough so
are facing death racist and they’re not the majority of cells, but
by a thousand cuts homophobic, they’ve got more of a foothold and
Charlotte Higgins saying it was are having more influence than they
Page 4 ‘politicised’ ought to have done. This is about us
MAIN PHOTOGRAPH: systemically getting stronger to repel
ANDY RAIN/EPA that from our system.”
G2 Centre pullout The reverberations from the
report pushed the wholesale
Features and arts
Met chief’s response
it’s often a get out of jail card for the failings of the Met to the top of the
word ‘difficult’. I’ve heard it so many political agenda. At prime minister’s
Gilbert and George times. I’m sorry, you’re dealing with questions, the Labour leader, Sir Keir
The artists take Jonathan a dinosaur, I’ve been around a long Starmer, accused the government
Jones on a tour of a centre
dedicated to their work
to failings is ‘hollow’, time. And sometimes it is right that
we step into what is difficult.”
Casey said of black Londoners’
of neglect: “No wonder the Casey
report criticised what she calls the
government’s hands-off attitude to

says report’s author

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Vikram Dodd
Police and crime correspondent
The author of this week’s devastating
report on the Metropolitan police has
criticised the force’s commissioner,
Sir Mark Rowley, for refusing to
accept her description of the force
as institutionally racist, misogynistic
and homophobic, describing his
reasoning as “hollow”.
Louise Casey’s report on Tuesday
excoriated the Met and found
widespread bias against its own
staff and the public, with officers
found to have got away with acts so
serious they amount to crimes. The
Pupils lose out
as vacancies for
teachers double
in England
Sally Weale
Education correspondent
Teacher vacancies in England have
almost doubled since before Covid,
with school leaders increasingly
forced to use non-specialist teachers,
which threatens to drive down pupil
attainment, according to research.
A report by the National
Foundation for Educational Research
(NFER) found that teacher vacancies
posted by schools were 93% higher
in the academic year up to February
2023 than at the same point in the
year before the pandemic hit.
The findings indicate staff
turnover is still rising, with vacancies
in schools in England up 37% com-
pared with 2021-22. “This likely
report also said stop and search was
biased, the force had made choices
to degrade its service to women and
rarely caught the men who attack
them, and was suffering from broken
trust with the public.
Rowley accepted her findings
and said that bias was systemic but
refused the label of “institutional”,
believing it was politicised and
ambiguous.
Casey hit back yesterday, telling
the police and crime committee of the
London assembly that Rowley was
wrong, but stressed he was the right
choice to reform the Met.
Casey said: “When people say
something has become politicised,
indicates that teachers who may have
put off the decision to leave teaching
during the pandemic are leaving now
the labour market is recovering,” the
report said.
The NFER, which describes itself
as the leading independent provider
of education research, calls on the
government to agree a long-term
strategy on teacher pay to try to halt
the growing school workforce crisis.
The NFER’s annual report on the
teacher labour market in England
was published today after a series
of teacher strikes by members of the
National Education Union (NEU).
They are demanding a fully funded,
above-inflation pay rise, which they
say will help make the profession
more appealing to graduates. The
government is in talks with unions.
“Schools are being forced to
stumble from budget to budget and
strike to strike without the help of a
clear strategy designed to address a
worsening recruitment and retention
crisis,” said Jack Worth, the NFER
school workforce lead and co-author
of the report.
As well as the crisis in retention,
the study highlights recruitment
problems into the profession, with
experience of the Met: “They are
overpoliced and underprotected. If
a woman is black she is 65% more
likely to be on the receiving end of
domestic violence.”
The Met was first found to be
institutionally racist in 1999 by
the official inquiry into why the
racist killers of Stephen Lawrence
had escaped justice. That inquiry
followed a campaign led by his
mother, Doreen Lawrence.
Casey said: “This was the moment
to say to Doreen Lawrence, the
countless people out there: ‘Yeah,
this is institutional.’ Then you can
move on and have a straightforward
discussion with the people of
London. It rings hollow to say: ‘I don’t
like the word and it is not a word I’d
use.’ And I know Mark Rowley, he is a
man of utter decency and integrity.”
Rowley repeated his reasons
Ofsted protest
Schools’ show of solidarity
Schools are removing logos and
references to Ofsted ratings
from their websites as a mark of
solidarity with the headteacher
Ruth Perry, who took her own
life while waiting for a negative
inspection report.
Headteachers are planning to
stage peaceful protests – including
displaying photographs of Perry
around the school – when Ofsted
inspections take place.
Lisa Telling, the executive
headteacher of Katesgrove primary
school and Southcote primary
school in Reading, is removing
references to Ofsted from her
schools’ websites in solidarity.
Emmer Green primary school
in Reading has removed the
watchdog’s logo from its website,
letterhead and communications.
Telling said her teachers will be
invited to wear black clothing or
armbands, and photos of Perry will
be displayed at the school, during
Ofsted inspections. PA Media
policing over the last 13 years, but
let’s call it what it really is: sheer
negligence.
“On his watch, rape charges are
1.6%. Yet the government still hasn’t
backed Labour’s plan to have proper
high-quality rape and serious sexual
offences units in every police force.
Why not?”
Rishi Sunak hit back and tried
to embarrass the Labour mayor of
London, Sadiq Khan: “What Louise
Casey also says is that primary public
accountability of the Met sits with
the mayor of London. She described
that relationship between the
mayor and the Met as, in her words,
dysfunctional.
“So I hope when he stands up, he
will also confirm to the house that he
will take up these matters with the
Labour mayor of London so that he
plays his part.”
initial teacher training (ITT) numbers
for 2023-24 significantly below target.
Even ITT recruitment to primary
schools – historically more secure
than secondary – is expected to be
20% or more below target, along with
nine out of 17 secondary subjects,
including physics, modern foreign
languages, computing, design and
technology, business studies and
religious education. English, maths,
chemistry and geography are also at
risk of under-recruiting this year.
The NFER says falling retention
and “historically low” recruitment
figures are linked to a lack of
competitiveness in teaching, when
compared with other occupations.
On salaries, median teacher pay in
2021-22 was 12% lower in real terms
than a decade earlier as a result of
several below-inflation pay awards
and the 2021 pay freeze. Crucially,
the report says teacher pay is 11
percentage points lower than for
similar graduates.
While teachers’ working hours and
workload have decreased in recent
years, the report says they are still
higher than for similar graduates.
The Department for Education was
approached for comment.
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian •

News 3

Ode to ill health: hepatitis B,

not alcohol, may have been
Beethoven’s biggest killer The ‘Hiller Lock’ is revealed not
to be from the composer

 Researchers questions about whether Hiller did

Nicola Davis
Science correspondent
When an autopsy was carried out
after Beethoven’s death in 1827, his
liver was found to be “beset with
nodules the size of a bean”. Now
researchers say the cause may not
have been his alcohol consumption
alone, with a genetic analysis reveal-
ing the great composer experienced a
hepatitis B infection and was at high
risk for liver disease – the condition
generally thought to have killed him.
Tristan Begg, the first author of
the research from the University of
Cambridge, said Beethoven had been
extremely sensitive in his lifetime
about suggestions he was a drunkard.
“We don’t exactly vindicate him,
but I think the fact that there’s a
genetic risk, and possibly hepati-
tis B – and for who knows how long – I
would hope actually [presents] a bit
of a paradigm shift away from the pre-
occupation with alcohol,” said Begg.
“If anything it would have taken
less alcohol to do the same amount
of damage than we would have ear-
lier assumed.”
Begg and colleagues came to their
conclusions after studying eight locks
of hair attributed to the composer to
shed light on his health problems.
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in
1770 in Bonn and died in Vienna aged
56. He suffered progressive hearing
loss, which began in his 20s and led to
him being functionally deaf by 1818.
Genetic analysis revealed that five
of the locks were from the same indi-
vidual, had damage consistent with
being from the early 19th century,
and very probably came from the
composer – with two having a well
recorded chain of custody.
One of these, known as the Stumpff
Lock, was attached to a letter from
the harp and piano maker Johann
Andreas Stumpff dated 7 May, 1827
– just a few months after Beethov-
en’s death.
The letter contained a poem: “The
head, these hair’s have grac’d lies
analysed hair cut a lock from Beethoven, and, if so,
said to come what happened to it.
from Ludwig Begg and colleagues carried out
van Beethoven, further genomic analyses of the
which revealed Stumpff Lock to investigate whether
his vulnerability the composer’s DNA held clues to his
to liver disease ill health.
PHOTOGRAPHS: While the team, whose research is
JOSEPH KARL STIELER/ published in the journal Current Biol-
BEETHOVEN HAUS;
WILLIAM MEREDITH/ ogy, say their results cannot rule out
IRA F BRILLIANT a genetic contribution to Beethoven’s
CENTER FOR
BEETHOVEN STUDIES
progressive hearing difficulties they
found no significant predisposition.
Nor did the analysis offer clues to
Beethoven’s gastrointestinal com-
plaints, which included diarrhoea
and abdominal pain, revealing he
did not have the classic genetic vari-
ants expected for lactose intolerance
or coeliac disease.
Significantly, the work casts new
light on Beethoven’s death, revealing
the composer had a strong genetic
risk for liver disease and had experi-
enced a hepatitis B infection.
“Alcoholic liver disease seems to
be the most favoured explanation.
But then that’s been the only known
risk factor for 200 years,” said Begg.
“Some form of viral hepatitis has
been very frequently speculated, but
there’s been no proof. Now there is
proof of hepatitis B specifically.”
‘We don’t
Begg said these factors meant that
vindicate Beethoven’s risk of liver disease was
him, but it likely to be higher. Indeed, when
would have the team analysed data from the UK
taken less Biobank project from men of a sim-
alcohol to ilar age to Beethoven and with the
do the same same genetic risk factors and alco-
damage’ hol consumption, they found one in
five had some form of cirrhosis. Begg
Tristan Begg said: “He drew a lot of short straws.”
Lead researcher Beethoven himself was keen for
his ill health to be made public after
his death, requesting in his “Heili-
genstadt Testament” that his disease
low; But what it wrought — will ever The latter included a lock of hair That is significant, as previous be described.
grow,” noting the head was that of allegedly cut from Beethoven’s head analysis of this lock had revealed But what would the great com-
Beethoven. the day after his death by the musi- the hair contained high levels of lead, poser have made of the new findings?
However, of the other three sam- cian Ferdinand Hiller, with the new suggesting Beethoven’s health prob- “I think he probably would have
ples, one lacked sufficient DNA analysis revealing this “Hiller lock” lems, hearing loss and death might appreciated commitment to tell the
preservation for a conclusion to be was actually from a woman, possibly have been caused by, or at least truth,” said Begg. “We have certainly
drawn, while two were inauthentic. of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. linked to, lead poisoning. It also raises really tried our best.”

Never can say goodbye: Richard
Coles saddened over BBC exit
Alexi Duggins
The Rev Richard Coles has said
he is disappointed to be leaving
his weekend Radio 4 programme
Saturday Live after 12 years, after
the BBC’s decision to relocate the
programme from London to Cardiff.
“I’d have preferred the programme
to stay in London. I was happy doing
it and I think it’s gone from strength
to strength,” said Coles. “Moving it
to Cardiff, I don’t really see how that
works, but that’s not my decision.”
Coles, who presents the
programme with Nikki Bedi, said:
“We were both enjoying doing it and
it’s a shame it can’t continue in the
form it’s been in for a long time, which
works, and which pleases listeners.”
The former Communards keyboard
player is disappointed at the way the
BBC has handled his departure from
the show. Despite the decision for
him to step down having been taken
weeks ago, the broadcaster neglected
to make a statement until last night –
only five days before his final show. It
was flagged to journalists in an email
accompanying a press release about
the content of this weekend’s show,
with Coles’ departure failing to earn
its own dedicated announcement.
“If you leave a programme after 12
years, a gentler process would have
been nice,” he said. “I’d rather have
had a longer goodbye to listeners.”
Coles’ departure is in marked
contrast to that of Ken Bruce, who
recently left his BBC Radio 2 morning
show after 31 years. The BBC flagged
his departure months in advance of
his final show, then released pictures
Rev Richard Coles with
his co-host, Nikki Bedi
of his last broadcast. When it was put
to Coles that, in comparison, the BBC
have failed to mark his exit with the
respect he deserved, given his length
of service, Coles replied: “I couldn’t
possibly comment.”
However, he added: “ I’m sorry to
go; I’ve loved the programme, I’ve
loved the people I’ve worked with,
and it’s been a big part of my life.”
So low-key has Coles’ departure
from Saturday Live been that not a
single member of his audience has got
in touch. “Perhaps people just think,
‘oh well’,” he said.
A BBC spokesperson said: “Richard
has been brilliant on Saturday
mornings and very much continues
to be part of the Radio 4 family.”

4 News
Allies say Trump will insist on spectacle of
handcuffs at hush money court appearance
Hugo Lowell
New York
Donald Trump has told advisers that
he wants to be handcuffed when he
makes an appearance in court, if he
is indicted by a Manhattan grand jury
for his role in paying hush money to
the adult film star Stormy Daniels,
sources close to the former US pres-
ident have said.
Trump had reasoned that since he
would need to go to the courthouse
and surrender himself to authorities
for fingerprinting and a mug shot, the
sources said, he might as well turn
everything into a “spectacle”.
His increasing insistence that
he wants to be handcuffed behind
his back for a frog march to court
appears to come from various moti-
vations, including that he wants to
project defiance in the face of what
he maintains is an unfair prosecution
Fundraising plea
Donald Trump is attempting
to capitalise on his anticipated
arrest over hush-money
payments to an adult film star
by bombarding supporters with
fundraising emails.
In a series of messages, Trump
and his acolytes have urged
people to donate to the Trump
Save America Joint Fundraising
Committee, established to
support his bid for president in
2024. The emails paint Trump as
the victim of a political agenda of
a varying cast of “globalist power
brokers”, the “deep state” and
“witch-hunt-crazed radicals”.
“If this political persecution
goes unchallenged, one day it
won’t be me they’re targeting …
It’ll be you,” read one email.
Between 15 November 2022,
when Trump announced his run
for president, and 31 December,
his campaign said, he had raised
$9.5m. The New York Times
reported that the total paled in
comparison with the amounts
raised by previous presidential
frontrunners. Adam Gabbatt
Millions of badly polluting cars
still on Europe’s roads – report
Damian Carrington
Environment editor
Thirteen million diesel cars pro-
ducing “extreme” levels of toxic air
pollution are still on the roads in
Europe and the UK, according to a
report, seven years after the Diesel-
gate scandal first exploded.
The non-profit research group, the
International Council on Clean Trans-
portation (ICCT), revealed in 2015
• The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023
▲ Trump, who
could be the first
US president to
face criminal
charges, plans a
defiant reaction
if indicted
that many diesel cars were highly
polluting, emitting far more nitro-
gen oxides on the road than in official
testing. The scandal led to a more rig-
orous test being introduced .
However, based on extensive
testing evidence, the ICCT has now
revealed that about 13m highly-
polluting diesel vehicles sold from
2009-2019 remain on the roads. The
cars span 200 different models pro-
duced by all the major manufacturers.
The ICCT said the best-selling
and that it would galvanise his base
for his 2024 presidential campaign.
Those close to Trump said he was
anxious that any special arrange-
ments – such as making his first court
appearance by video link or “skulk-
ing” into court – would make him look
weak or appear a “loser”.
The recent discussions that Trump
has had about his surrender with
close advisers at Mar-a-Lago and
elsewhere opens a window on to the
former president’s unique fears and
anxieties as the grand jury appears
on course to return an indictment.
Trump’s legal team in the hush
money case recoiled at the idea of his
going in person and recommended
that he quietly turned himself in next
week and that they schedule a remote
appearance, even citing guidance
from his secret service detail about
potential security concerns.
But Trump rejected that approach
and told various allies over the
models from 2009-2019 in the EU-27
and UK with “extreme” emissions
were Euro 5 versions of the VW
Passat and Tiguan, Renault Clio,
Ford Focus and Nissan Qashqai. The
test data analysed included offi-
cial government tests, independent
measurements using equipment
attached to exhausts and roadside
measurements of emissions.
The EU has set increasingly strict
limits for exhaust emissions over the
last three decades. The ICCT claims it is
“almost certain” cars with “extreme”
emissions were using a defeat device,
software that alters or deactivates
the vehicle’s emissions technologies
under certain conditions.
The environmental law charity
‘Trump said he’d not
care if he got shot –
he would become a
martyr and probably
win the 2024 election’
Unnamed source
weekend that he did not care if some-
one shot him – he would “become a
martyr”. He suggested that if he was
shot he would probably win the pres-
idency in 2024, the sources said.
It remains uncertain when the
Manhattan grand jury might return
▼ A Florida rally yesterday backs
another Trump run for president
PHOTOGRAPH: GIORGIO VIERA/AFP/GETTY
Many popular diesel models in
Europe have 'extreme' emissions,
ICCT says
Sales of Euro 5 model in the EU27
plus UK, 2009-19
0 200,000 400,000
VW Passat 2L
Renault Clio 1.5L
VW Tiguan 2L
Ford Focus 1.6L
Nissan Qashqai 1.5L
Source: ICCT
an indictment in the hush money
case and make Trump the first US
president, sitting or former, to face
criminal charges. The grand jury
may hear from an additional witness
before being asked to vote on return-
ing an indictment, a source said.
An adjournment has led to specu-
lation among people close to Trump,
advisers asking if it signalled weak-
nesses in the case being prosecuted
by the Manhattan district attorney,
Alvin Bragg, or whether there was
more damning evidence to come.
Trump could be thwarted in his
supposed aim to be handcuffed if
Bragg refused that and his being
marched past the cameras.
Trump’s advisers have been
unsure as to whether the former pres-
ident grasps the enormity of what
an indictment might mean for him
legally, in part because he has seemed
disconnected from the flurry of activ-
ity in New York as the investigation
has wrapped up. In recent days he
has weighed his predicament only
in between meals at Mar-a-Lago and
rounds of golf at his resort in Palm
Beach, sources said.
They added that he had been more
focused on how he could project a
display of defiance against the pros-
ecution and that he was unfazed by
being given criminal charges that
could progress to a felony.
The case concerns $130,000
(£106,000) that Trump paid to Dan-
iels through his lawyer at the time,
Michael Cohen, in the final days of
the 2016 presidential campaign. He
reimbursed Cohen with $35,000
in cheques using personal funds,
recorded as legal expenses to Cohen.
It remains unclear what charges
the district attorney might seek
against Trump, though some in his
legal team believe the most likely will
be a base charge of falsifying busi-
ness records coupled with potential
tax fraud because Trump would not
have paid tax on the payments.
Trump has also been fixated on
how an indictment might aid his 2024
presidential campaign, betting that
it would enrage his Maga base and
force the rest of the Republican party
to fall in line to defend him – in what
he has characterised as a politically
motivated prosecution.
In the past, publicity over politi-
cal and criminal investigations have
benefited Trump’s fundraising, and
forced Republican rivals to stumble
between criticising prosecutors and
defending politically indefensible
allegations. But some voters appear
exhausted by his constant refrains
about “witch hunts”.
ClientEarth and other groups have
used the new ICCT evidence to send
legal complaints to the UK, French
and German governments.
A spokesperson for Volkswagen
said: “All Volkswagens comply with
600,000
the legal limits of the emission stand-
ards that applied at the time of their
initial registration. None of the Volk-
swagen vehicles mentioned contain
an inadmissible defeat device.”
A spokesperson for Nissan said:
“Nissan is committed to complying
with applicable emissions require-
ments in all markets. Emissions
standards and vehicle testing regimes
have evolved considerably in recent
years and continue to do so.”
Renault and Ford did not respond.
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian
Swift progress
Unprecedented flocks
of alpine birds in UK
Page 13
More than 20 taken
to hospital as strong
winds topple ship in
Edinburgh dry dock
Caroline Davies
Thirty-three people have been
injured after a 76-metre (250ft) ship
tipped over in strong winds at a dry
dock in Leith, Edinburgh.
The Scottish ambulance service
said 21 people were taken to hospi-
tal following the incident yesterday
morning, while a further 12 were
treated and discharged at the scene.
Police, ambulances and fire crews
were called after the research vessel
RV Petrel was dislodged from its hold-
ing at Imperial Dock at about 8.35am.
The vessel could be seen to be lean-
ing at a 45-degree angle.
Five ambulances, an air ambu-
lance, three trauma teams and other
resources were dispatched to the
scene.
The Leith councillor Adam McVey
•
TV Bafta nominations
Hospital and police
dramas lead the pack
Page 15
said the ship had become dislodged
in strong winds in a “terrifying” inci-
dent for those onboard.
He tweeted: “Emergency services
are responding to a major incident
at Leith docks – a ship has been dis-
lodged from its holding in strong
winds.
“Terrifying for those on board,
my thoughts are with those who’ve
been injured & hope everyone recov-
ers quickly. Please avoid area.”
NHS Lothian was put on standby
to receive a number of patients at
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary’s A&E
department and urged other peo-
ple not to attend unless it was an
emergency.
The Petrel was previously bought
and outfitted by the late Microsoft co-
founder Paul Allen but is no longer
owned by his estate.
A wind speed of 38mph (61km/h)
was recorded in Edinburgh at 8am
yesterday, while a 44mph gust was
recorded at 9am, according to Met
Office data.
A Police Scotland spokesperson
said: “Police were called to attend at
around 8.35am on Wednesday and
officers remain at the scene.” The
public were asked to avoid the area
to allow emergency service access.
A Scottish fire and rescue service
spokesperson said: “We were alerted
at 8.43am on Wednesday to reports of
‘A ship has been
dislodged from its
holding. Terrifying
for those on board’
Adam McVey
Leith councillor
▲ RV Petrel
after being
dislodged
from its dry
dock platform
in Leith by
heavy gusts.
Emergency
services, left,
were quickly in
attendance
MAIN PHOTOGRAPH:
ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP
an incident at Imperial Dock, Leith,
Edinburgh.
“Operations control mobilised four
appliances and a number of specialist
resources. Crews currently remain in
attendance.”
The coastguard also sent teams
to the scene. A spokesperson said:
“HM Coastguard is currently assist-
ing Police Scotland in responding to
a major incident at Imperial Dry Dock
in Edinburgh.
“At around 9.30am, coastguard
rescue teams from Fisherrow, South
Queensferry and Kinghorn were sent
to the scene.
“This is a multi-agency response,
with the Scottish ambulance service
and Scottish fire and rescue also in
attendance.”
People seeking urgent care were
asked to contact their GP or NHS 24.
Dales Marine Services, which runs
the dry dock, said it had no comment.
5
One in five in
the UK have
misophonia,
study finds
Nicola Davis
Science correspondent
If the sound of someone chewing
gum or slurping their tea gets on your
nerves, you are not alone. Research-
ers say almost one in five people in
the UK have strong negative reactions
to such noises.
Misophonia is a disorder in
which people feel strong emotional
responses to certain sounds, feeling
angry, distressed or even, for some,
unable to function in social or work
settings as a result. But just how
common the condition is has been a
matter of debate.
Now researchers say they have
found 18.4% of the UK population
have significant symptoms of miso-
phonia. “This is the very first study
where we have a representative sam-
ple of the UK population,” said Dr Silia
Vitoratou, the first author of the study
at King’s College London. “Most peo-
ple with misophonia think they are
alone, but they are not. This is some-
thing we need to know [about] and
make adjustments if we can.”
Writing in the journal Plos One,
the team report that they gathered
responses from 768 people using
metrics including the selective sound
sensitivity syndrome scale.
This included one questionnaire
probing the sounds that individuals
find triggering, such as chewing or
snoring, and another exploring the
impact of such sounds – including
whether they affected participants’
social life and whether the participant
blamed the noise-maker – as well as
the type of emotional response par-
ticipants felt to the sounds and the
intensity of their emotions. Each par-
ticipant was given an overall score.
The results reveal more than 80%
had no particular feelings towards
sounds such as “normal breathing”
or “yawning” but this plummeted to
less than 25% when it came to “slurp-
ing”, “chewing gum” and “sniffing”.
However, Vitoratou noted not
all those reporting a response had
misophonia. “While there are a lot
of sounds that irritate many people,
people with misophonia express
different emotional responses,” she
said, noting this can include anger
and distress or panic.
The team also carried out clinical
interviews with 55 of the participants,
26 of whom were self-diagnosed as
having misophonia, allowing them to
determine a cut-off score for partici-
pants strongly affected by triggering
sounds. This score was then used to
calculate the proportion of the whole
group, and hence the UK population,
similarly affected.
 • The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023

6 National
Politics

Johnson fights for

political life after
bruising questions
over Partygate
 Continued from page 1
the evidence “strongly suggests”
breaches of guidance should have
been obvious to Johnson as he drew
up the rules, and he may have mis-
led parliament four times when he
insisted all the rules and guidance
had been followed.
At the start of the hearing, John-
son swore an oath, said that “hand on
heart” he had not lied to the Commons
but apologised for “what happened
on my watch”. Yet he insisted the
committee had “nothing to show”
that he had been warned about ille-
gal parties during lockdowns.
He strongly defended lockdown
events as having been “essential”,
including one where he was pictured
raising a glass at a leaving do. How-
ever, he admitted on social distancing
guidance: “I’m not going to pretend
that it was enforced rigidly.”
Johnson has argued that evidence
gathered from No 10 officials “con-
clusively” shows that he did not
deliberately mislead parliament, as
he was “repeatedly” assured by No
10 aides that no rules – as opposed
to guidelines – were broken.
Jenkin suggested he should have
sought advice from lawyers, rather
than political aides. Harman said:
adding that “these are difficult things
to say”.
The evidence also shows Johnson
agreed to delete a proposed line for
prime minister’s questions stating
all guidance had been followed after
a warning, his former principal pri-
vate secretary Martin Reynolds said.
The fresh documents laid bare the
level of disdain felt by No 10 over the
allegations, with Doyle advising a col-
league when first approached by the
media in November 2021: “Just be
robust and they’ll get bored.”
Johnson did acknowledge that
people might have thought “we were
doing something that other people
weren’t allowed to do” if they had
seen photos of the gatherings, five
of which he attended. Yet he insisted
he believed they were all within the
rules, despite police issuing 126 fixed-
penalty notices. He claimed that he
would have told businesses from the
Downing Street podium that it was up
to them whether they held leaving
events during the pandemic.
Johnson attacked Harman over
tweets in which she suggested he
might have misled the Commons,
saying her comments were “plainly
and wrongly prejudicial” to the
inquiry, but that he would trust the
committee to act impartially.

‘We had no choice but to meet’

“If I was going at 100mph and I saw
the speedometer saying 100mph, it
would be a bit odd, wouldn’t it, if I
said: ‘Somebody assured me that
I wasn’t.’”
An increasingly exasperated John-
son denounced the questioning as
“complete nonsense”, though he
admitted he had not got assurances
from his staff that Covid guidance had
been followed in No 10 at all times.
In newly released evidence, Simon
Case, the cabinet secretary, denied
giving Johnson any assurances that
Covid rules and guidance had been
followed at all times in No 10. He said
he was unaware of anyone else there
having given assurances either.
Jack Doyle, the then prime min-
ister’s director of communications,
also said he was unsure of Johnson’s
statement that he had been “repeat-
edly assured no rules were broken”,
‘The [Covid] guidance
does not say you
can have a thank-you
party and as
many people in the
room as you like’
Sir Bernard Jenkin
Privileges committee
In one heated set of exchanges, he
refused to explicitly disown support-
ers who have called the committee
“a kangaroo court”, arguing the best
way the MPs could prove their fair-
ness would be to exonerate him.
Footage of the session showed his
lawyer, David Pannick, raising his
eyebrows and shaking his head.
Johnson said he did not like such
terms, but added: “I think that peo-
ple will judge for themselves, on the
basis of the evidence that you’ve
produced, on the fairness of this com-
mittee. I have every confidence that
you will show that you can be fair.”
Pressed by the Tory member
Alberto Costa on claims the process
was inherently unfair, Johnson said:
“I believe that if you study this evi-
dence impartially, you will come to
the conclusion that I have given.” He
added it would be “utterly insane” for
him to have misled parliament and
unfair for MPs to conclude he had.
He prompted laughter for drawing
on the senior civil servant Sue Gray’s
report into Partygate for evidence,
despite spending weeks arguing it
was discredited after she was offered
a role as chief of staff to Keir Starmer.
The stakes for Johnson are high.
If the committee decides he “reck-
lessly” misled MPs, he faces being
suspended from parliament. A sus-
pension of 10 days or more can trigger
a recall petition that could lead to a
byelection in his west London seat.
What the ex-prime minister said –
and how his explanations stack up
Aubrey Allegretti
After 16 months, Boris Johnson was
finally forensically cross-examined
over Partygate – live on TV and for
nearly four hours.
Previous attempts to do so in
brief media interviews or through
questions posed in the Commons
chamber allowed him to obfuscate
or run down the clock. But in
front of the cross-party privileges
committee yesterday, there was
nowhere to hide. His explanations
were earnest, but did they stack up?
Johnson said pictures showed
him working at events
Displayed on screens around the
committee room were pictures
showing Johnson at some of the
rule-breaking events. As MPs on the
privileges committee talked about
the strict lockdown rules in place
at the time, images were beamed
out of the then prime minister
surrounded by colleagues.
“It is clear in No 10 we had real
difficulties … in maintaining social
distancing,” he said, seemingly
acknowledging he could not deny
what everyone in the room could
see with their own eyes. But he
stressed: “We had no choice but to
meet” – and it would be impossible
to have put a “forcefield” around
each person in Downing Street.
▲ Screens around the room showed
Johnson at rule-breaking events
In his defence, Johnson said the
two-metre rule could be reduced
to one – with mitigations: screens,
masks and the like.
Inevitable questions arose about
why he was shown less than two
metres away from No 10 colleagues
without such mitigations.
The reply he mustered was: “You
don’t see Perspex screens there,
but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t
sanitiser and efforts to restrict the
spread of Covid.”
There was no clear-cut
explanation of how the social
distancing rules were complied
with, given the abject lack of other
measures, as seen in the pictures.
Johnson also seemed to stand by
his insistence that the events were
work-related.
“I will believe until the day I die
that it was my job to thank staff for
what they had done,” he said of a
leaving do.
Given that many workplaces felt
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian
they had to forgo leaving events
for staff during lockdown, it was
an explanation the committee was
unlikely to find convincing.
The Conservative MP Bernard
Jenkin pressed him on whether
he would have said at a press
conference in front of the famous
“hands, face, space” podium that
“unsocially distanced farewell
gatherings could be held in the
workplace”.
Johnson replied: “I would have
said that it’s up to organisations, as
the guidance says, to decide how
they’re going to implement the
guidance.”
The idea that all the Downing
Street gatherings were work
events was further undermined
when Johnson confirmed that his
wife, Carrie, their young son and
his interior designer, Lulu Lytle,
had been present for his birthday
celebration in the cabinet room in
May 2020.
Many of the people there were
“very largely the same officials”
due to hold a meeting immediately
after, said Johnson, who referred
to Lytle, who was refurbishing
Johnson’s flat in No 11 Downing
Street, as a contractor.
Labour’s Yvonne Fovargue
undercut that argument when she
said: “Presumably your wife and
the contractor were not attending
that meeting.”
•
▼ Boris Johnson at the Commons
yesterday. He spent nearly four
hours giving evidence to MPs
PHOTOGRAPH: JORDAN PETTITT/PA
Another situation Johnson
found himself stuck in was when
Lee Cain, his media chief, put in
writing that he had concerns about
a “BYOB” (bring your own booze)
garden party in May 2020.
While Johnson said he had had
“no hand” in organising the event
and had only been told about it
just before he headed to join the
around 40 staff outside, Cain was
said to have called it a purely social
function. Johnson denied that,
and said he could understand why
anyone who might have seen the
event could have thought the rules
were being broken – but he insisted
that would have been a mistake.
Different approaches were
taken to naming officials
Johnson was unable to name senior
advisers who had told him that no
Covid rules were broken in No 10.
Jack Doyle, his former head of
communications, had suggested
that was the case – but only for one
specific event, the Christmas party
on 18 December 2020.
And a reference was deleted
by Martin Reynolds, Johnson’s
principal private secretary, from
the 8 December PMQs prep file that
referred to “guidance” – separate
from legal obligations – being
followed at all times.
Johnson referred vaguely to
officials who had given him the
broader assurance he later repeated
in parliament. But asked who they
were, the answer came: “I can’t
name these officials. I don’t know
if I can. I think that most of them
have indicated they don’t want
themselves to be named.”
An agreement was made that
Johnson would write to the
committee privately, to give further
details.
But he took a more laissez-faire
approach to naming other officials.
Unprompted, when a disagreement
broke out about how many people
were at a leaving do for two civil
servants in No 10 on January 2021,
Johnson named them.
“Sorry, forgive me, I shouldn’t
mention the names,” he said,
prompting those around him to
sink their head into their hands.
Why Johnson did not
correct himself sooner
To judge how seriously Johnson
treats the fact that he misled
parliament, a major part of the
questioning was about why he
failed to correct the record sooner.
Having told MPs on 1 December
2021 that all guidance was followed
in No 10, it took him until 25 May
2022 – more than five months
– to admit just how wrong that
statement had been.
Johnson claimed the long
wait was because he had wanted
investigations by Scotland Yard and
the senior civil servant Sue Gray to
conclude.
He said he had not wanted to
give an “inevitably incomplete
account” while active inquiries
were under way.
Validity of Sue Gray’s report
doubted by Johnson – in parts
After his allies spent weeks
suggesting Gray’s report had
been fatally undermined by the
announcement this month that she
had been offered a job with Labour,
it was still relied on a lot by Johnson
In a moment of frustration
when he was told the privileges
committee was not relying on her
report, he sighed: “It seems quite
incredible to me that we now can’t
adduce what she had to say after
extensively interviewing people.”
He relied on her report twice, in
his defence.
Johnson pointed to having been
told by her she did not think the
threshold of criminality had been
reached, and that she estimated
there were 15-20 people at an
event where it had been otherwise
suggested more than 20 attended.
But elsewhere, he seemed to cast
doubt on Gray’s findings.
“I don’t know what value we now
attach to it,” he sniped.
7
Sketch
John Crace
With his career on the
line and a top lawyer
at his side, the Convict
crashes and burns
I
t wasn’t quite the Old Bailey. But it wasn’t far
off. A former prime minister on trial for what
was left of his reputation. A guilty verdict from
the privileges committee and a suspension
from parliament could in effect end the political
career of Boris Johnson. Even if it didn’t take the
nuclear option of a 10-day sentence that would trigger
a recall petition. His legs would be cut off: no need
then to shoot him as well.
He would leave the stage unmourned. The prime
minister who blew an 80-seat majority now sent
to roam the world as a washed-up end of the pier
entertainer, giving the same overpriced speech to
people he doesn’t care about and will never see again.
Johnson had come prepared. Flanked by Lord
Pannick, one of the UK’s most expensive barristers,
and three of his gofers. But they could only sit and
watch as their defendant crashed and burned. You can
coach the Convict to within an inch of his life, but you
can’t get him to perform to order.
The privileges committee chair,
Boris warmed to his Harriet Harman, got proceedings
stupidity theme. He under way by talking about
the parameters of the session.
believed no rules were This wasn’t about whether the
broken because no one parties had actually taken place
or not; that had long since been
had told him any rules established. What was at stake was
whether Johnson had deliberately
were being broken or recklessly misled parliament
about them. Boris fiddled with his
papers and appeared bored.
Then Johnson took the oath on
the King James Bible. Amazingly the Bible survived
contact with his hand. That done, Johnson mounted
the first outline of his defence. He was too stupid to lie.
If he had a fault it was that he was too honest. There
again he might also be too stupid to stop himself lying.
Boris warmed to his stupidity theme. He genuinely
believed no rules were broken because no one had
told him any rules were being broken. He was not
responsible for his own actions. Besides which, he had
no idea what the rules and guidance were because he
hadn’t yet worked out who was then prime minister.
▼ Anti-Johnson Harman handed over to the rest of the committee –
protesters make Bernard Jenkin, Yvonne Fovargue, Allan Dorans, Andy
their feelings Carter, Alberto Costa and Charles Walker. They talked
known outside Johnson gently through some of the parties that he
parliament had attended, though not, for some reason, the Abba
while the former party that took place in his own flat.
prime minister Now things became positively surreal. Because it
is questioned turned out that when Johnson imposed the Covid
PHOTOGRAPH: rules and guidelines, he had never intended anyone
AMER GHAZZAL/REX to obey them fully. Least of all his own staff. They had
done their best, but everyone needed a break some
time. Though obviously not anyone working in the
NHS. But Downing Street was a special case.
Nor did it ever occur to Boris that any of the parties
that weren’t parties might have been against the Covid
rules. What was wrong with inviting 200 people to a
party? Or their being crammed indoors? This was a
normal work event in Downing Street. And people had
been offered hand sanitiser to use.
OK, said the committee. So why didn’t you correct
the record when you realised the rules had been
broken to the tune of 126 fixed-penalty notices? Now
Boris lost it. Because, he said angrily, no rules had been
broken. Because none of his advisers had told him the
rules had been broken and because he was too stupid
to come to that conclusion on his own.

8 National
Tainted brand A good day
for Sunak – but Johnson still
a huge liability for the Tories
Jessica Elgot
Deputy political editor
J
ust three weeks ago,
Conservative MPs boarded
buses for an awayday of
party bonding and a dose
of reality about the Tories’
electoral position.
At the Conservatives’ awayday,
the elections guru Isaac Levido
gave MPs some reason to hope
the next election was not yet lost
– pointing to Rishi Sunak’s own
personal ratings and the slower rate
of direct Tory to Labour switchers.
The key factor would be party
unity and message discipline,
both he and Sunak have stressed.
Yesterday was the day that strategy
faced its biggest test.
First came a vote on the new
• The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023
Politics
Northern Ireland deal – an issue on
which Sunak could demonstrate
competence and delivery but which
his enemies could use to expose the
weakness of his own mandate.
And it was the return of the
Boris Johnson show – a man whose
ratings are at rock bottom with the
general public but for whom many
Tory party members still hold a
torch.
The result of the vote was a
moment of pure delight for the
prime minister – who was in the
voting lobbies thanking both
Labour and Tory MPs for backing
him, as well as enthusiastically
greeting his Northern Ireland
minister, Steve Baker, the former
Brexit “Spartan” who had
coordinated successful rebellions
over Britain’s departure from
the EU.
Baker’s conversion to the
cause of compromise has been
instrumental. Once the key
organiser of the European Research
Group, he is now a champion of
Sunak’s deal. For his efforts, he was
thrown out of the ERG’s WhatsApp
group, after saying Johnson risked
being a “poundshop Nigel Farage”.
There were 22 Tory rebels –
substantial, but it saved Sunak the
embarrassment of having to rely on
Labour votes.
The relatively feeble rebellion
came 24 hours after the once all-
powerful ERG gave a damning
verdict on the Windsor framework.
At that meeting there were about 30
attendees. Not even all of their core
members rebelled.
The faces of the remaining rebels
will be of significant comfort to
Sunak, despite containing three
former Tory leaders – Johnson, Liz
Truss and Iain Duncan Smith. It is
those who are keen to keep fighting
the Brexit forever wars or who bear
a personal grudge against Sunak.
Generally, they are a parade of
yesterday’s men and the awkward
squad. Any credible standard
bearers for the right of the party
who will bid to succeed Sunak are
not among them. They are, instead,
inside Sunak’s cabinet – Kemi
Badenoch and Suella Braverman.
In contrast, few of the rebels
have much personal ambition,
perhaps only Simon Clarke, Jake
Berry and Priti Patel still hope to
shape the party’s future rather than
fight the battles of the past.
The biggest exception to that
is Johnson himself. At exactly the
same moment, he was fighting
extremely hard for his own political
future, just a few corridors away in
the Grimond Room, in front of the
privileges committee.
Generally, the Tory
rebels are a parade of
yesterday’s men and
the awkward squad
▼ Rishi Sunak speaks during prime
minister’s questions, before MPs
voted on the Windsor framework
PHOTOGRAPH: ROGER HARRIS/REUTERS
If Johnson had written off
returning to lead the Conservative
party and was committed to a life
of well-paid speeches and throwing
grenades at the government from
the pages of the Telegraph, then
he would never have shown the
kind of fight he showed in front of
Harriet Harman’s committee.
Johnson has been rehearsing
with aides and legal advisers for
weeks, preparing for his cross-
examination. For him, yesterday
was about defending two key parts
of his legacy – getting Brexit done
and the efforts of the government
during the pandemic. It is hard to
argue by the end of the day that
there is much credibility left in the
first legacy and the second is now
irredeemably tainted.
The Sunday papers were full
of extensive briefing of Johnson’s
defence – that it would be a
“bombshell dossier” that could
prove that he was advised the rules
were not broken. He could not,
therefore, have deliberately or
recklessly misled parliament.
But the final bundle of evidence
told a murkier picture. One of the
key WhatsApps that Johnson was
to rely on for his defence literally
used the word “party” to describe
the gatherings.
Three of Johnson’s most senior
advisers – the cabinet secretary,
Simon Case; his director of
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian
communications, Jack Doyle;
and his private secretary, Martin
Reynolds – also submitted evidence
saying they had not advised the
prime minister to say rules had
always been followed in No 10.
The “repeated assurances” he
had received did not come from
senior civil servants, or lawyers,
but from his political advisers. It
may be enough to conclude he was
reckless.
Johnson may still survive in
parliament after the committee’s
decision – it appears unlikely to
impose a sanction so punitive that
it risks a byelection.
But for the bigger picture – his
political comeback – it is deeply
inconvenient, for his key argument
throughout the session was actually
that he believed No 10 was a unique
workplace where people worked
exceptionally hard and where it
was an essential part of leadership
that morale was kept high.
It was a theme that Johnson
consistently referred to – how he
considered it a fundamental part
of his role as prime minister to
attend leaving drinks because of
how essential it was that staff felt
valued; that it was necessary for
work purposes.
But it is exactly that defence that
plays so perfectly into Labour’s
main attack line and that echoes
the anger that MPs heard on voters’
doorsteps and in focus groups. It
was one rule for them, another for
everyone else.
For NHS staff working in flimsy
PPE on Covid wards, police officers
tasked with enforcing a spider’s
web of constantly changing rules,
for essential workers in low-paid
jobs who disproportionately died of
Covid, that flexibility did not seem
to apply, or at least no one thought
it did.
That juxtaposition was most
eloquently exposed by Bernard
Jenkin, a staunch Brexiter and a
former supporter of Johnson.
He asked a question which
had Johnson flailing: “If you’d
been asked at a press conference
whether it was OK for organisations
to hold unsocially distanced
farewell gatherings in the
workplace, what would you
have said?”
Johnson claimed: “I would have
said it is up to organisations, as
the guidance says, to decide how
they are going to implement the
guidance amongst them.”
It can never be proved that
statement in itself was a lie – but
it does not sound plausible. The
message – day in, day out – from
that podium was the complete
opposite.
By the time the three hours
of grilling were over, there were
two winners yesterday. In the
short term, it is Sunak, who has
reasserted his authority over his
party and has seen his biggest
internal threat greatly diminished.
But there is probably a bigger
winner in the long run – Keir
Starmer – for the reasons that
Levido and Sunak explained to
MPs at their awayday. The more
Partygate and Johnson are back
on the front pages, the more the
Conservative brand is tainted
and the harder the narrow path to
victory in 2024.
•••
‘Brexit brake’
Vote carried
but rebellion
still larger
than expected
Peter Walker
Political correspondent
Rishi Sunak avoided an overly dam-
aging Commons rebellion yesterday
over his revised plan for post-Brexit
Northern Ireland trade, winning a
vote on the measure with 22 of his
own MPs voting against the deal.
Among the Conservative rebels
were Boris Johnson and Liz Truss,
another former party leader, Iain
Duncan Smith, and the former cabi-
net ministers Jacob Rees-Mogg, Priti
Patel and Simon Clarke.
The vote was passed by 515 votes to
29. A breakdown of the votes showed
that six Democratic Unionist party
(DUP) MPs opposed the plan, with
two of their colleagues acting as tell-
ers, along with the 22 Tories, plus the
former Tory MP Andrew Bridgen,
who has lost the whip.
Another 48 Conservatives
recorded no vote, although it was not
known which of these abstained and
which were absent with permission.
It was a larger rebellion than
expected earlier this week: some had
forecast as many as 40 Tories could
reject the measure after Johnson and
Truss announced they would be vot-
ing against it. In a boost for No 10, the
result means Sunak did not need to
rely on opposition votes for it to pass,
as would have been the case if 34 or
more Conservative MPs had rebelled.
During a visit to RAF Valley in
Anglesey, North Wales, yesterday
evening, Sunak praised the “incredi-
bly strong support” for his agreement.
“It passed very solidly with Con-
servative votes and that is because it
is a good deal for people, for families,
for businesses in Northern Ireland,”
he said.
“The Windsor framework restores
the balance of the Belfast Good Friday
agreement, it secures Northern Ire-
land’s place in our union, it restores
sovereignty, and for all those reasons,
Survey PM’s deal wins wide
support in Northern Ireland
Rory Carroll
People in Northern Ireland who
support Rishi Sunak’s post-Brexit
deal vastly outnumber those who
oppose it, according to a survey.
Asked if they opposed the Windsor
framework, just 16.9% of voters said
they did, suggesting there is a desire
to move on from political battles over
trading arrangements.
Overall, 45% of voters did not
oppose the revised deal, with
around a third neither agreeing nor
disagreeing.
▲ Former PM Liz Truss, like Boris
Johnson, voted against Sunak’s plan
▲ Former party leader Iain Duncan
Smith was among the 22 Tory rebels
▲ Former home secretary Priti Patel
sided with Johnson and Truss
▲ Former cabinet minister Jacob
Rees-Mogg voted against the plan
16.9%
Proportion of voters in Northern
Ireland who said they opposed
the deal, according to the survey
I’m pleased that it commanded such
strong support, we’re going to imple-
ment it now and make sure we can
look forward to a bright and better
future for Northern Ireland.”
The Conservative party chairman
Greg Hands told ITV1’s Peston pro-
gramme “we’ll have to see” whether
Johnson and Truss will be punished
for defying the whip in the vote.
There were concerns earlier yester-
day that the process could descend
into internal Tory party acrimony
after Steve Baker, a Northern Ire-
land minister who was formerly a
leading Conservative Brexiter, said
that Johnson risked being seen as
“a pound-shop Nigel Farage” for
voting against the plan.
The European Research Group
(ERG) of Brexit-supporting Tory MPs,
formerly chaired by Baker, recom-
mended its members did not support
the plan, which revamps the proto-
col Johnson agreed, seeking to ease
trade in goods between Northern Ire-
land and the rest of the UK. The DUP
also came out against the deal.
The vote was to approve only one
element of the deal, the so-called
“Stormont brake” veto on new EU
regulations, but has been seen as
a proxy for approval of the entire
plan, formally known as the Wind-
sor framework.
The result will also bring credit to
Chris Heaton-Harris, another staunch
Tory Brexiter, who is now Northern
Ireland secretary. Introducing the
plan in the Commons at the start of
a debate lasting 90 minutes, Heaton-
Harris said Sunak’s plan was “a very,
very good deal”, while the Stormont
brake would stop the region auto-
matically remaining in step with
changing EU regulations.
Heaton-Harris received hos-
tile interventions from some MPs,
including Mark Francois, the chair
of the ERG, who said the EU could
object to new laws being halted by the
brake mechanism, at which point the
issue would go to arbitration. “That
is a route to arbitration, isn’t it – that
is not a veto?” Francois said.
The DUP’s Westminster leader, Jef-
frey Donaldson, said his party could
not agree to a deal as it stood, saying:
“What I am not accepting is a situation
where every business in my constitu-
ency must comply with EU rules even
if they don’t sell a single widget to the
EU. That is wrong, because it harms
our place in the internal market of the
United Kingdom.”
Nationalists were slightly more
opposed to the deal than unionists
– 19.1% versus 15.7% – underlining
a widespread belief it was a victory
for unionism.
The Irish News and the Univer-
sity of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish
Studies published the findings yes-
terday as the deal agreed last month
by Downing Street and the Euro-
pean Union was voted through in
the House of Commons.
The poll, conducted between 3 and
14 March before the DUP said which
way it would vote, showed that 56.2%
of unionists believe the Windsor
framework removed many negative
consequences of the protocol, with
11.4% disagreeing and 22.2% neither
agreeing nor disagreeing.
The figure for nationalists was
54.9% agreeing, 6.2% disagreeing and
30% neither agreeing or disagreeing.
‘Disrespectful’
Partygate
evidence
angers Covid
bereaved
Robert Booth
Social affairs correspondent
People bereaved by Covid have
described watching Boris Johnson’s
evidence to MPs about Downing
Street lockdown events as “torture”
and accused him of “pulling his
usual tricks of deflection, self-pity
and blame”.
Johnson strongly denied mislead-
ing parliament, at the Commons
privileges committee. But Deborah
Doyle, 55, whose mother Sylvia Grif-
fiths died from Covid in a care home
in Sunderland, said his evidence that
Downing Street gatherings during
tough social distancing rules were
“essential for work purposes” was
painful and made her angry.
Only seven people were able to
attend her mother’s funeral and they
were not even allowed to gather out-
side for a wake to remember her life.
“He kept saying how much pres-
sure the government was under,” she
said. “So were the NHS and people
who couldn’t be with their loved ones
like me, who had restricted funerals.”
Her mother’s funeral in spring
2020 happened around the time of
the gathering in the No 10 garden
attended by Johnson’s wife as well
as aides and civil servants. It attracted
police fixed penalty notices.
“I would have loved to have sat
with family and friends like they did,”
she said, adding Johnson’s attitude at
the hearing appeared “disrespectful”.
Lynn Jones, who lost her husband
Gareth, 66, in March 2021, said she
was “disgusted” Johnson repeatedly
argued it was vital to say goodbye to
staff leaving when she and thousands
of others couldn’t see their loved ones
in hospital before they died.
“Gareth must have been absolutely
terrified,” she said, describing her
husband’s last days. “It’s awful. And
[Johnson] talked so flippantly about
saying goodbye to a colleague. And
he kept blaming advisers and that’s
terrible. He was the leader. He set the
tone.”
Saleyha Ahsan lost her father to
Covid in December 2020 and worked
as a doctor in intensive care units. She
said Johnson’s claim that hosting
leaving dos in Downing Street were
“necessary” made her “furious”.
Ahsan-ul-Haq Chaudry, 81, was
put on oxygen on the day the then
Downing Street aide Allegra Strat-
ton was filmed joking with colleagues
about Downing Street gatherings not
being socially distanced. He died
from Covid on 28 December 2020.
When Johnson said it was not real-
istic to operate in Downing Street in a
socially distanced way as if there was
“an electrical force field”, Ahsan said:
“We absolutely did that and it was the
right thing to do. And it was govern-
ment advice. I am furious. This is just
someone trying to save their politi-
cal career.”
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian
Sunak
finally
publishes
tax return
revealing
he made
£4.8m
in 3 years
Kiran Stacey
Anna Isaac
Rishi Sunak made nearly £5m over
the past three years, mostly gains
from his US investment fund, accord-
ing to tax details published yesterday.
No 10 published a summary of the
PM’s tax affairs months after prom-
ising to do so and, in a move that
showed the sensitivity of the subject,
in the middle of his predecessor Boris
Johnson’s grilling by a parliamentary
committee over Partygate.
The Liberal Democrat Cabinet
Office spokesperson, Christine
Jardine, said: “After months of
promising to release his tax returns,
Rishi Sunak has snuck them out
whilst the world is distracted with
Boris Johnson’s Partygate grilling.”
According to the summary of his
tax return, Sunak has made £4.8m
Q&A Unanswered details
What is in Rishi Sunak’s blind
management arrangement?
The tax statement confirms
Sunak holds some of his financial
interests in a blind management
arrangement, as he has
previously declared.
The income it generates is from
“a single US-based investment
fund”, the tax statement said.
However, this tax statement
offers no detail of the fund’s
contents, such as whether or
not the prime minister holds an
interest in the Covid 19 vaccine-
maker Moderna, which supplied
the UK government. Sunak’s
former employer, the hedge fund
Theleme Partners, is known
•••
National
Politics
over the previous three tax years.
Only about £410,000 of that came
from his MP and ministerial salary,
however, with almost everything
else as interest, dividends and capital
gains on his US-based investments.
According to the summary pro-
vided by his accountants, those
investments are held under a “blind
management arrangement”, which
means he did not actually receive the
gains as income but had to pay tax on
them nevertheless.
In total Sunak paid just over £1m
in UK tax over the course of the three
years, giving him an effective tax rate
of 22%. He paid a further $51,648 in
US taxes over the past three tax years
because the US charges non-residents
for the tax due on dividends.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy
leader, said: “[The tax returns] reveal
a tax system designed by successive
Tory governments in which the prime
to have been a major investor
in Moderna. He has previously
declined to say whether he holds or
held shares in the vaccine firm.
What are the terms of the blind
management arrangement?
There is no legal definition
of what such an arrangement
consists of, and the tax statement
does not explain the detail of
the arrangement which governs
Sunak’s interest. Whatever Sunak’s
instructions might be, a former
adviser on ministerial interests, Sir
Alex Allan, said he was “satisfied
with the arrangements”, as did the
Cabinet Office. But the public is still
in the dark.
minister pays a far lower tax rate than
working people who face the highest
tax burden in 70 years.”
Tax experts said the three-page
document provided relatively limited
insight into Sunak’s full tax affairs.
Nimesh Shah, the chief executive of
Blick Rothenberg, said: “To get a full
picture of Sunak’s tax affairs, I’d have
liked to see the full return. This only
tells part of the story.”
Some, however, said the fact
Sunak paid less than a quarter of his
gains in tax highlighted the prob-
lems with taxing capital gains at a
much lower rate than income. “It
isn’t about avoidance. The low tax
rate is because we have much lighter
taxes on wealth than work,” said Arun
Advani, an economics professor at
the University of Warwick.
The prime minister’s personal
wealth has always been a sensitive
point for him. A former Goldman
What about offshore interests?
Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty,
who is wealthy in her own right
thanks to a stake in her father’s
software company Infosys, have
a range of financial interests in
jurisdictions including the US,
India and UK. Some of these
interests have also been held in
offshore locations, some of which
are tax havens.
Will we ever see the returns in full?
Sunak held a US green card until
October 2021. This was resigned
following advice from the US
authorities. All of the green card
returns while he was an MP – the
period from 2015 to 2021 – might
offer some detail on any worldwide
income. Instead, the statement
shows only the years from 2019 to
2021.
▲ Rishi Sunak plays cricket in No 10
garden yesterday. He paid £1m in
UK tax in the space of three years
PHOTOGRAPH: SIMON WALKER/10 DOWNING ST
Sachs banker, he joined one of India’s
richest families when he married his
wife, Akshata Murty, the daughter
of Narayana Murthy, the billion-
aire founder of Infosys. Sunak and
his family own several properties,
including his constituency home, a
‘He snuck them out
while the world was
distracted with Boris
Johnson’s grilling’
Christine Jardine
Liberal Democrat MP
Does this disclosure really follow
precedents set by David Cameron
and George Osborne?
Both the former prime minister
David Cameron and former
chancellor George Osborne
published some details of their
tax affairs, in effect setting the
precedent that informed Sunak’s
financial disclosures, say officials.
Akshata Murty is
wealthy through Infosys
11
grade II-listed manor house with a
private lake and heated swimming
pool. The pool will make such a large
demand for energy that Sunak had to
pay for the local electricity network to
be upgraded. He has also paid to use
a helicopter to travel from London
back to North Yorkshire on more than
one occasion.
Sunak promised to release his tax
returns during the Tory leadership
contest after revelations about his
and his family’s tax affairs. Last
spring it emerged Sunak had held
a US green card while an MP and in
the Treasury, and that Murty had
saved millions on her UK tax bill by
claiming non-dom status while living
in Downing Street.
David Cameron also published his
tax return after the Guardian revealed
his father, Ian, had run an offshore
fund that avoided paying tax in
Britain by hiring staff in the Bahamas.
Both Osborne and Cameron
made statements about foreign
income. Osborne’s noted that he
“has no other sources of income
or capital gains, from either
the UK or overseas, and has
no offshore interests in shares
or anything else”. Cameron’s
statement detailed how he had
sold shares in Blairmore, an
offshore investment company
managed by his father, and said
he had “no other sources of
taxable income or gains, either
from the UK or overseas”.
Sunak’s statement, compiled
by his accountants, differs
slightly: “We are not aware of any
other taxable sources of income
or capital gains from either the
UK or overseas.” It does not detail
interests, only income and gains.
Anna Isaac

12
NHS services for eating
disorders are not fit
for purpose, say doctors
Denis Campbell
Health policy editor
Young people with eating disorders
are coming to harm and ending up in
A&E because they are being denied
care and being forced to endure long
waits for treatment, GPs have said.
NHS services covering eating dis-
orders are so overwhelmed by a
post-Covid surge in problems such
as anorexia that they are telling peo-
ple under the age of 19 to rely on
charities, their parents or self-help
instead.
The services are so threadbare
in places that young people strug-
gling to function normally because
of their eating disorder have to wait
more than a year to start treatment.
The “truly shocking” findings
about the help available to young
people with often very fragile mental
health emerged in a survey of 1,004
family doctors across the UK by the
youth mental health charity stem4.
• The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023
National
The shortage of beds for children
and young people with eating disor-
ders is so serious that some are being
sent hundreds of miles from home or
to adult psychiatric wards, GPs say.
“The provision is awful and I worry
my young patients may die,” one GP
in the south-east of England told
stem4. Another described the spe-
cialist NHS services available in their
area as “virtually non-existent and
not fit for purpose”.
Urgent help for eating disorders
is so patchy that 60% of the family
doctors surveyed said they feared
sufferers would come to harm before
getting help, the charity found.
Almost one in three (32%) GPs have
seen a young patient’s condition
worsen so dramatically that help at
A&E was sought.
Given a “postcode lottery”, 23% of
GPs believe that access to treatment
for under-19s with early, less severe,
symptoms, has become impossible,
while 53% think it difficult.
Youth mental health experts
▲ Young people who have eating
disorders have ended up in A&E
because of a lack of help, say GPs
PHOTOGRAPH: TOLGA AKMEN/EPA
60%
Proportion of GPs in survey who
said they thought sufferers would
come to harm before getting help
32%
Proportion of GPs who had seen
a person’s condition worsen so
much that help at A&E was sought
warned that young people with an
eating disorder who have to wait for
help could have a decline in their
mental and physical health and face
a heightened risk of suicide. Some
already dangerously underweight
become even lighter as they wait.
Dr Nihara Krause, the consultant
clinical psychologist and founder of
stem4, said: “This GP survey tells us
that young people with eating disor-
ders, who will be most responsive to
treatment at the start of their illness,
can’t access treatment.
“Young people with complex men-
tal illness such as eating disorders will
experience deterioration the longer
they are made to wait for treatment,
and this is why we are seeing record
numbers presenting at A&E. People
who have eating disorders are at high
risk of mortality both due to physi-
cal complications and risk of suicide.
All young people with poor mental
health need treatment early or else
their risk increases.”
The GP survey found that the
thresholds for under-19s getting help
for eating disorders are so high that
patients in desperate need are rou-
tinely refused NHS care.
NHS England said the number of
young people with eating disorders
it was treating was on the rise.
A spokesperson said: “While
the pandemic has taken a huge toll
on many people’s mental health,
improving care for people with an
eating disorder is vital, with the
NHS treating 55% more young peo-
ple for eating disorders compared to
pre-pandemic, as well as rolling out
a rapid early-intervention eating dis-
order service for people aged 16-25.
“We acknowledge that more sup-
port is still needed, which is why we
are also rolling out mental health sup-
port teams as fast as we can, ahead
of plan, and have doubled the num-
ber of children and young people we
have seen, as well as establishing 24/7
crisis lines.”
Beat, a UK eating disorder charity,
is on 0808-8010677. The stem4
website is stem4.org.uk
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian
Birdwatchers elated as alpine
swifts arrive in record numbers
Chris Baraniuk
An “unprecedented” influx of alpine
swifts has been reported by bird-
watchers in Britain and Ireland.
The migrating birds, which usu-
ally fly thousands of miles from
sub-Saharan west Africa to south-
ern Europe to breed at this time of
year, have been spotted around the
Irish coast as well as in parts of Wales,
England and even as far north as Scot-
land. The more familiar common
swifts tend to arrive during May.
“Seeing one from my kitchen win-
dow was the best,” said Jane Crossen,
a birdwatcher in Norfolk. She said she
had seen the bird, or possibly two dif-
ferent individuals, multiple times in
the town of Sheringham on Monday.
60
Number of alpine swifts recorded
in Ireland this year. The bird has
been seen as far north as Scotland
•
National
Extraordinary numbers were
reported in Ireland in recent days.
Up to 60 alpine swifts have been
recorded so far, according to the Irish
Rare and Scarce Bird news group.
The previous record for the most
alpine swifts observed together in
Ireland was five. This number was
twice exceeded in the last week or
so, first by a flock of seven birds in
Dungarvan, County Waterford, and
then by a group of nine seen flying
together near Dublin, said Owen
Foley, an amateur birdwatcher who
helps to run the group.
Christopher O’Sullivan, an Irish
politician, tweeted on Monday a
video of one of the swifts flying in
County Cork.
The bird news website Bird Guides
has suggested that a funnel of south-
westerly winds had helped to push
the birds towards Britain and Ireland.
Rob Robinson, of the British Trust
for Ornithology, who has studied the
seasonal migration of alpine swifts,
commented: “It is unprecedented.
Usually we are lucky to get two or
three birds a year.”
Robinson noted that the species,
which has a giveaway white belly
and throat, had spread further north
during the postwar period, the birds
increasingly making their nests in
roof crevices of buildings in Europe,
rather than in their natural breeding
habitat of cliffs and caves.
He said, however, that no one was
sure what lay behind this switch in
preference.
It was also difficult to know
whether the climate crisis had influ-
enced the bountiful arrival of alpine
swifts to this part of the world, said
Robinson, but he added that large
influx events such as this could
become more common as global
heating upended traditional weather
patterns.
Rising temperatures could also
deter various bird species from the
southernmost parts of their breed-
ing ranges, he added.
Such a phenomenon had been
documented with willow warblers
in England.
Foley said that he doubted the
‘The numbers are climate crisis had influenced the pre-
sent boom in alpine swift numbers
unprecedented. and he expected the birds to move
Usually we’re lucky to back to the continent to breed. But he
predicted that the birds would con-
get two or three birds’ tinue arriving in Ireland for some
days to come.
“They’re still out there,” he said.
Rob Robinson “They’re going to be popping up for
Ornithologist the rest of the week at least, I think.”
13
RAF searches for
family of black
WWII veteran
Tobi Thomas
A search is under way to find the
family of one of the RAF’s last black
second world war veterans, who died
recently. Peter Brown, a retired flight
sergeant, died alone aged 96 in Maida
Vale, west London.
He has no known family, and West-
minster council and the RAF want to
locate any of his relatives to pay trib-
ute to him at Mortlake Crematorium
on 29 March.
Brown was born in 1926 in Jamaica
and is believed to have enlisted in the
armed forces when he was 17. Accord-
ing to the RAF, Sgt Brown enlisted in
the RAF Volunteer Reserve in Sep-
tember 1943, and was trained as a
wireless operator/air gunner.
Brown took part in missions in
Palestine, Tripoli, Egypt and Malta
before leaving the forces in 1950.
The prime minister, Rishi Sunak,
said Brown was an example “of the
selfless contribution of all Common-
wealth personnel who have served
the RAF”.

14
Prince in surprise
visit to British
troops in Poland
Caroline Davies
The Prince of Wales is in Poland on a
surprise two-day trip to thank British
and Polish troops helping to aid sup-
port for Ukraine, and to learn more
about how Poland has cared for dis-
placed Ukrainian refugees.
Prince William is the first member
of the royal family to meet troops in
Poland and his visit was kept under
wraps. He will also meet the Polish
president, Andrzej Duda.
At an air defence base in the
south-eastern Polish city of Rzeszów
yesterday, he thanked British troops
based roughly an hour’s drive from
the Ukrainian border for “defending
our freedoms”. Dressed casually in a
black puffer jacket and trousers, he
was shown a missile launcher.
He said: “I just wanted to come
here in person to say thank you for
all that you’re doing, keeping eve-
ryone safe out here and keeping an
• The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023
National
Fake news led to
‘tirade of abuse’
for island school
Robyn Vinter
North of England correspondent
Teachers at a school on the Isle of
Man have faced death threats over
 William false reports that children were left
with Polish traumatised by graphic sex education
soldiers at the taught by a drag queen, the island’s
3rd Brigade government has said.
Territorial Staff at Queen Elizabeth II school
Defence Force had faced a “tirade of abuse”, rang-
base in Rzeszów ing from “threats to turn up at the
who have been school, demands for staff to be dis-
aiding support missed, to demands for people to be
to Ukraine arrested and executed”, the island’s
PHOTOGRAPH: YUI education minister, Julie Edge, said.
MOK/PA WIRE News reports claimed a drag queen
told a child to leave the class after they
eye on what’s going on. So, just a big Landing in Warsaw, the prince partnership. I also want to pay trib- said there were only two genders,
thank you for what you do on a day- said: “It’s fantastic to be back in ute to the inspiring humanity of the and that children were taught about
to-day basis. You’re doing a really Poland. Our nations have strong ties. Polish people. You have opened your oral and anal sex and shown graphic
important job out here and defend- Through our cooperation in support hearts as much as your homes. That’s pictures of gender reassignment sur-
ing our freedoms is really important, of the people of Ukraine and their why this afternoon I visited Rzeszów gery. The government launched an
and everyone back home thoroughly freedom, which are also our free- to meet troops based there to hear independent inquiry and found the
supports you.” doms and yours, these ties are further their stories.” reports were inaccurate and had had
The base is a British, Polish and strengthened. Today, the prince will meet the a “detrimental impact” on staff.
US coalition. He earlier visited Polish “I’m here because I want to per- president, speak to Ukrainian refu- One resident told the Guardian
soldiers at the 3rd Brigade Territorial sonally thank the Polish and British gees and lay a wreath at the Tomb of reporting of the story had triggered a
Defence Force base in Rzeszów. troops working in close and crucial the Unknown Soldier. “tsunami of bigotry, to put it mildly”.
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian
Into the abyss Gather your strength for one
last emotionally pulverising battle Roy-al
Succession season four
Sky Atlantic/Now
★★★★☆
Lucy Mangan
W
e open at a
sumptuous
gathering, full
of disaffected
people reeking
of money.
A white-haired man is moving
through the crowd – a nod here, a
smile facsimile there – the purest
essence of them all, distilled into
Hospital and police dramas lead
pack in TV Bafta nominations
Alexi Duggins
This I s Going to Hurt and The
Responder jointly lead the 2023 TV
Bafta nominations after being short-
listed in six categories.
Adam Kay’s darkly comic drama,
This Is Going to Hurt – which is
adapted from his bestselling memoir
about his time as a junior doctor –
has been recognised in categories
•
National
one becardiganed frame. It can
only be Logan Roy’s birthday party
and it can only be Succession.
It’s back for the fourth and final
season to a mix of lamentation
and relief among even – possibly
especially – the most devoted fans,
who hardly have the strength for
one more round of the densest,
cleverest, most emotionally
pulverising drama on TV.
Logan (Brian Cox) is 48 hours
away from signing the sale
contract, possibly in his children’s
blood, that will hand over his media
empire to GoJo. This not being
enough for a man of his appetites,
he is also scoping out a large
acquisition to be made before then.
including leading actor, for Ben
Whishaw’s fictionalised version of
Kay, and best writer: drama for Kay
himself.
The Responder, which centred on
a troubled police officer, also sees its
star, Martin Freeman, nominated
in the leading actor category. The
six awards it is shortlisted for also
include best drama series.
Five nominations each are given to
Bad Sisters – Sharon Horgan’s tale of
five siblings who attempt to murder
Three of his children (or “the
rats”, as Daddy calls them) are busy
elsewhere, creating The Hundred –
“a one-stop info shop” that gathers
the brightest minds in various
fields and offers them as an easily
accessible resource to anyone who
can pay for them.
“It’s Substack meets Masterclass
meets the Economist meets the
New Yorker,” says Kendall (Jeremy
Strong). They are, in Roy sibling
terms, remarkably united.
Only Shiv (Sarah Snook) is having
“talks about talks” with another
employer, in case The Hundred
becomes a zero, but she does pass
on to her brothers some news that
her semi-estranged husband, Tom
one of their monstrous husbands
– and The English, an epic western
following Emily Blunt as a character
travelling to the US to avenge her
son’s death.
They are joined by Slow Horses,
Apple TV’s spy drama, starring Gary
Oldman, about a washed-up bunch
of MI5 agents, and The Crown’s fifth
series, whose opinion-dividing recent
outing tackled Martin Bashir’s inter-
view with Diana, Princess of Wales.
In the comedy category, the stand-
out nominees are Big Boys – Jack
Rooke’s hugely affecting tale of male
friendship – and Daisy May Cooper’s
comedy-thriller Am I Being Unrea-
sonable? Both programmes received
four award nominations each.
▼ Line of succession: Logan
Roy’s children Kendall (Jeremy
Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook)
and Roman (Kieran Culkin)
Brian Cox as the ruthless
media tycoon Logan Roy
(Matthew Macfadyen), lets slip –
that their dad’s planned acquisition
might be of the Pierce conglomerate
from season two. Should they try to
snaffle it instead of launching their
new venture? Stick with what they
know – legacy media and aiming
at Daddy’s aorta? Kendall is drug-
free and in need of a sufficiently
absorbing alternative project. They
pivot to patricide. Again.
The stage is set once more for
a corporate battle Roy-al, which
includes the bonus return of
Cherry Jones as Nan Pierce. She is
a more subtly monstrous creation
than the Roys, with a heart made
of fetid hypocrisies rather than
steel, and is perhaps the most
▲ Emily Blunt in The English, which
has received five Bafta nominations
15
enjoyably loathsome of them all. It
is “disgusting” to talk money and
have to play one bidder off against
another to secure the $10bn price
she wants, but she bravely drags
herself through the mire to get it.
Meanwhile, would-be president
Connor (Alan Ruck) is polling
at an unsolid 1% that is likely to
disappear in the remaining 10 days
unless he spends $100m to shore
it up. His fiancee, Willa (Justine
Lupe), gives less than 1% of a hoot
what he does; her disdain for
Connor – bone-deep, but so lightly
worn! – is a joy to watch.
Everything we want and
need is still here. Tom is now an
official turncoat rather than the
turncoat-in-waiting he has always
been. His greatest concern now
is whether he will stay within
the fold if and when he and Shiv
divorce. That conversation, if his
shadow entreaties and Logan’s
noncommittal grunts can be
honoured with the term, is as fine
an example as you will see of the
exquisite agony of embarrassment
Succession (or Jesse Armstrong, its
creator) has made its own.
The opening episodes of each
season of Succession tend to
subsume the family dynamic in the
corporate intrigue, because there
are always so many pieces not just
to set up but to explain to a lay
audience. This seems to have opted
for a more equal balance, perhaps
to personalise the tragedy, or
tragedies, that are surely to come.
It even gives Logan a dark night
of the soul. He takes a henchman
out to dinner to escape the party
and muses on whether there is an
afterlife. “We can’t know,” he says.
“But I’ve got my suspicions. I’ve got
my fucking suspicions.” Succession
limns that void in every scene.
It’s a drama set in the heart of
darkness, with comedy set round to
illuminate its inescapable, eternal
depths. Gather your strength for
one last look into the abyss.
Succession returns on 27 March on
Sky Atlantic and Now
Among the names getting their
first Bafta TV nomination are sev-
eral recognisable stars, including
Gary Oldman for Slow Horses, Cillian
Murphy for Peaky Blinders and Daniel
Radcliffe for Weird: The Al Yankovic
Story.
A total of 128 programmes received
nominations from a record-breaking
number of entries. The leading
broadcaster was the BBC with 81
nominations, followed by Channel 4
with 33, Netflix with 24, ITV with 19,
Apple TV+ with 15, Sky with 14 and
Disney+ with eight.
The TV Baftas ceremony on 14 May
will be hosted by Rob Beckett and
Romesh Ranganathan and will be
broadcast on BBC One.

16
Climate
impact row
over plan to
rebuild 60s
estate in
London
Robert Booth
Social affairs correspondent
A conflict between saving carbon and
building better homes has broken out
on a groundbreaking 1960s council
estate in London.
The London borough of Camden
is planning to raze and replace the
West Kentish Town estate, which was
built almost 60 years ago. It says the
homes are too small, the concrete
panel buildings are dilapidated, and
most residents want new homes.
But a rival plan backed by some res-
idents to retrofit the homes proposes
adding insulation, reconfiguring
• The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023
National
▼ The West Kentish Town estate in
Camden today, and, below, how the
block could look if it was retrofitted
PHOTOGRAPH: AAB ARCHITECTS
internal walls and adding balconies to and damp homes are down to neglect
produce a climate impact estimated and lack of maintenance,” she said.
at six times smaller. Brown believes her retrofit plan
The masterplan for the new estate would result in 16,000 tonnes of
has been drawn up by the architects embodied carbon dioxide, compared
Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, the with about 100,000 tonnes under the
firm of Simon Allford, the presi- larger demolition and rebuild.
dent of the Royal Institute of British A spokesperson for Khan said:
Architects. The rival scheme has been “London has some of the coun-
devised by Alice Brown, who was try’s oldest housing stock, and not
funded to do so by the Riba. every home can be refurbished. In
The Green party accused the mayor some cases, it is more sustainable to
of London, Sadiq Khan, of funding carefully dismantle a building, max-
the demolition of about 1,000 homes imising reuse of building materials,
in the capital – including at Kentish as mandated by the London plan,
Town – on the basis that they are and replacing it with one that’s more
“obsolete” when they are not. energy-efficient, with lower opera-
There is pressure on architects and tional carbon emissions.”
developers to reuse concrete struc- Camden council agreed a plan to
tures rather than rebuild, to avoid replace the 316-home West Kentish
greater climate impact. Town estate with 885 replacements,
Khan had sought to avoid using up to 60% of which will be for private
City Hall cash to fund projects sale. The cabinet heard from resi-
where homes are demolished only dents about poor conditions, damp
to be replaced. But if existing homes and leaks. In 2020, 93% of residents
are defined as “obsolete”, projects voted in favour of redevelopment. It
can still claim grants. Siân Berry, the is run-down but structurally sound,
leader of the Greens in the London according to Brown, whose designs
assembly, said this had given coun- add extra floors, thick insulation, bal-
cils and housing associations too conies and new buildings.
much leeway to write off homes that A spokesperson for Camden said
appeared to be usable in at least 10 that “cramped homes, deteriorat-
boroughs. ing 1960s blocks that made homes
“It is a scandal that so many homes susceptible to cold, damp and disre-
are being condemned to the wrecking pair, a need for more affordable and
ball unfairly by councils and housing larger homes” meant retrofit would
associations when most of the prob- not work. They added it was likely to
lems residents are facing with cold be “financially unviable”.
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian •

National 17

Judge seeks witnesses

suspicious circumstances by one SAS
unit in Helmand province between
2010 and 2011, and accusations that
these amounted to war crimes.
for inquiry into alleged A high court case brought by
the law firm Leigh Day on behalf of
one man, Saifullah, alleged that his

SAS summary killings father, two brothers and a cousin

were killed during an SAS raid on a
compound in southern Afghanistan
in February 2011.
the claims, which include an alleged The inquiry is tasked with deter-
Ben Quinn cover-up of illegal activity and claims mining whether investigations
of inadequate investigations by the conducted by the Royal Military
Royal Military Police. Police were carried out properly, and
A judge investigating allegations Asked if his investigations could whether there is credible informa-
of more than 50 summary killings extend to taking evidence from the tion that “numerous” extrajudicial
by SAS soldiers in Afghanistan has Taliban, and about the problem of killings were carried out by British
issued a call for anyone with evidence communicating with witnesses in armed forces between 2010 and 2013.
to come forward, saying it was crit- Afghanistan, Haddon-Cave said The judge said the three-year period
ical that law-breakers be referred he and his team “would do every- “sufficiently captures the allegations
to authorities. thing in our power” to facilitate currently being made”.
Launching his independent contributions. The inquiry will also seek to deter-
inquiry, Lord Justice Haddon-Cave Ministers announced the statutory mine whether the circumstances of
said he was “very hopeful” there judge-led inquiry, which will have alleged extrajudicial killings were
would be “full cooperation” with his powers to compel people to give evi- covered up at any stage and what
work, which he said was ultimately dence, in December last year after lessons can be learned.
about restoring the reputation of the allegations 54 Afghans were killed in A case management hearing is
military and “moral authority”. scheduled for 25 April in London,
“Either the allegations are untrue, which will hear further details of
or if some of them are true, then the ‘We can say we have phases of the case that will start
military and the country can hold its looked into this – it’s with the scrutiny of thousands of
head high and say we have looked documents, many highly sensitive.
into these properly and thoroughly. about reputation’ This will be followed by what Had- Let there be light Visitors to Exeter Cathedral
It’s about, ultimately, reputation,” don-Cave described as “background
he said. briefings” about military opera-
can experience a renaissance-themed sound
He said he was confident he and Lord Justice tions and the role of British forces in PHOTOGRAPH:
and light show until Saturday evening, featuring
his team would “get to the bottom” of Haddon-Cave Afghanistan, followed by hearings. NIDPOR/ALAMY artworks dating from the 14th to 17th centuries.

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18
‘I’m not a killer,’ accused
tells Olivia murder trial
Robyn Vinter
The man accused of murdering
Olivia Pratt-Korbel broke down in
tears and told the court “I’m get-
ting blamed for something I haven’t
done” when asked whether he killed
the nine-year-old.
Thomas Cashman, 34, said he was
not present at the murder and, at the
time Olivia was shot in her home by
a masked gunman, he was smoking
a spliff and counting £10,000 in cash
at a friend’s house.
A gunman shot Olivia and injured
her mother, Cheryl Korbel, 46, after
chasing a convicted drug dealer,
Joseph Nee, into their home in Dove-
cot, Liverpool, at about 10pm on 22
August last year. As he gave evidence
at Manchester crown court, Cash-
man’s voice cracked as he said: “I’m
getting blamed for killing a child. I’ve
got my own children. I’m not a killer,
I’m a dad.”
He said he was being set up by a
witness who he had been sleeping
with, whose house he is alleged to
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• The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023
National
▲ Olivia Pratt-Korbel was aged nine
▲ Cashman is accused of murder
have visited after the shooting. “I’m
getting stitched up for a murder of
a child I didn’t do,” he said, during
cross-examination yesterday by
David McLachlan KC.
He said if he had been to the wom-
an’s house after the murder, there
would have been evidence of the
visit. “She’s a total liar. If I did go to
her house that night I would have
been caught on CCTV.”
The woman, who cannot be
named, took to the witness box last
week to describe how Cashman had
let himself into her house on the night
of the shooting because he trusted
her not to go to police, the court
heard. She said she had later gone to
the police “because of this little girl.
I’m sorry but I can’t forgive anyone
who has hurt any child.”
However, yesterday Cashman said
she had been motivated by revenge
after their relationship soured and
because she owed him money.
When asked if he trusted the
woman, Cashman said: “I was sleep-
ing with her, I was having a bit of fun
with her.”
After being arrested for murder, he
said he was advised by his legal team
not to go into detail when answering
questions, but he told police he had
not committed the crime.
“The police have got it all wrong.
What yous are saying, it’s not true,”
he told the prosecutor.
The trial continues.
Raab proposes
mediation law to
protect children
in family splits
Jamie Grierson
Thousands of children in England
and Wales could be protected from
witnessing their parents being pitted
against each other in the courts under
proposals to legally enforce media-
tion for separating families.
Mediation would become manda-
tory in all suitable low-level family
court cases, excluding those that
include allegations or a history of
domestic violence, under the pro-
posals, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)
has said.
The policy would mean that sepa-
rating couples will have to try to agree
upon their child custody and finan-
cial arrangements through a qualified
mediator, with court action being a
last resort.
It is hoped the move will help as
many as 19,000 separating fami-
lies resolve their issues away from
the courtroom, while also reducing
backlogs and easing pressures on the
courts. The proposals will be subject
to a government consultation, which
will run for 12 weeks, until 15 June.
The justice secretary, Dominic
Raab, said: “When parents drag out
their separation through lengthy
and combative courtroom battles it
impacts on their children’s school
work, mental health and quality of
life. Our plans will divert thousands
of time-consuming family disputes
away from the courts, to protect chil-
dren and ensure the most urgent
cases involving domestic abuse sur-
vivors are heard by a court as quickly
as possible.”
The government’s family media-
tion voucher scheme will be extended
until April 2025 with an additional
£15m in funding, the MoJ said. The
scheme provides separating couples
with vouchers worth up to £500 to
help them solve disputes through
mediation and has so far supported
more than 15,300 families.
The proposals include a power
for judges to order parents to make a
reasonable attempt to mediate, with
possible financial penalties if they
act unreasonably and harm a child’s
wellbeing by prolonging proceedings.
19,000
Separating families expected to be
helped in the scheme that could
resolve issues away from the courts
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian
Dance review Music and movement
combine to make mesmerising show
Tom Dale Company
The Place, London
★★★★☆
Lyndsey Winship
T
here are dancers who
execute movement.
And there are dancers
who simply are the
movement – Jemima
Brown is one of those.
She is an incredible mover, melting
through space or glitching in sharp
shards of motion. It all seems
completely natural to her.
For several years Brown
has worked with Tom Dale, a
choreographer who makes dance
that is steeped in technology,
digital culture and electronic
music. Surge, which opens this
double bill, is a solo in which
Brown not only dances but sings
live. She appears android-like,
an AI-enhanced future human,
in white skin-tight costume and
•
National
▲ Jemima Brown in the futuristic Surge PHOTOGRAPH: TRISTRAM KENTON/GUARDIAN
close-cropped bleached hair. The
feel is unearthly, Brown’s voice
pouring over a dark electronic
score by the producer Ital Tek.
She is part robot, part house diva.
Surge’s universe is created by
designer Barret Hodgson, with
You can’t put
a price on taste.
But you can get
a 27% discount.
19
Court extends
It’s pretty mesmerising, as lasers
and repetitive beats often are,
but Brown’s presence offers a lot
more than that. Tate’s custody
Her body going into a
malfunctioning meltdown tips the
mood from wonder to unease at
for fourth time
technology’s creeping domination.
All sorts of references spring
to mind: Blade Runner, 90s club Associated Press
culture, cyberpunk, and yet it Bucharest
captures a conversation that
is completely now, in a tightly A Romanian court has for the fourth
put-together piece that feels like time extended by 30 days the pre-
a genuinely original four-way ventive arrest of Andrew Tate, the
collaboration between performer, divisive social media influencer who
choreographer, music and design. is being held on suspicion of organ-
The second half of the show is ised crime and human trafficking, an
a group piece, Sub:Version. Not as official said.
high concept as Surge, it is set to Tate, 36, a British-US citizen who
tracks from the producer Wen’s has 5.4 million Twitter followers,
album EPHEM:ERA, strong on was initially detained in December
subwoofers, drifting between in Bucharest along with his brother,
club and spaced-out after-party. Tristan, and two Romanian women.
Dale’s contemporary choreography None of the four have been charged.
absorbs elements from hip-hop, Ramona Bolla, a spokesperson
popping and the looseness and for Romania’s anti-organised crime
bounce of house dance, as if torsos agency, said a judge at the Bucharest
are tossed in the air causing ribs tribunal had agreed to a request by
and shoulders to separate then all prosecutors to keep all four in cus-
fall and stack back together. Limbs tody while investigations continued.
sheets of light slicing the stage, fly like a 3D Spirograph and blur in They can be held for a maximum of
and complex digital projections, the light – that’s a bit of a Russell 180 days without a formal indictment.
suggesting neural networks and Maliphant moment, but Dale and Tate, a professional kickboxer who
electronic circuitry, patterns his dancers aren’t copyists, they has lived in Romania since 2017, was
chasing Brown across the floor – have a style that’s distinct. previously banned from various
sometimes she seems to control social media platforms for expressing
them, sometimes they control her. Touring until 2 May misogynistic views and hate speech.
From
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 • The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023

20
Eyewitness
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian •

▼ Tokyo, Japan 21
Chidorigafuchi moat is fringed with
cherry blossom as people enjoy an
unusually warm early spring day
PHOTOGRAPH: KIMIMASA MAYAMA/EPA
 • The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023

22

West must be ready to

support Ukraine in long
conflict, says Nato chief
Dan Sabbagh
Kyiv
Vladimir Putin has no immediate
plans for peace in Ukraine, so the west
needs to brace itself to supply lethal
aid to Kyiv for a long time to come,
Nato’s secretary general has warned
in an interview with the Guardian.
Jens Stoltenberg said the Russian
president was engaged in “a war of
attrition”, adding that he wanted
Nato members to agree to spend 2%
of GDP on defence as a minimum at
the alliance’s next summit, in the
Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.
The fierce fighting, currently cen-
tred on Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine,
demonstrated that Russia was will-
ing “to just throw in thousands and
thousands more troops, to take many
casualties for minimal gains”, the
Nato head said. “President Putin
doesn’t plan for peace, he’s planning
for more war,” Stoltenberg continued,
adding that Russia was increas-
ing military industrial production
and “reaching out to authoritarian
regimes like Iran or North Korea, and
others, to try to get more weapons”.
As a result, the US, UK, France, Ger-
many and other western states had to
be prepared to support Ukraine with
weapons, ammunition and spares
over a long time. The secretary gen-
eral said: “The need will continue to
be there, because this is a war of attri-
tion; this is about industrial capacity
to sustain the support.”
Ukraine’s use of artillery shells
– 4,000 to 7,000 a day to Russia’s
20,000 – was outrunning western
Blinken warns on China
The US secretary of state, Antony
Blinken, has said China is
watching “very carefully” to see
how Washington and the world
continue to respond to Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine.
If Russia were allowed to attack
Ukraine with impunity, it would
“open a Pandora’s box” for would-
be aggressors and lead to a “world
of conflict”, he told a US senate
appropriations subcommittee
hearing yesterday.
Blinken, speaking hours after
China’s president, Xi Jinping,
returned to Beijing from his state
visit to Russia, said: “The stakes in
Ukraine go well beyond Ukraine …
I think it has a profound impact in
Asia, for example.”
Russia’s invasion of its
neighbour has led to debates over
how the war will affect China’s
military thinking regarding Taiwan.
Blinken added: “I think if China’s
looking at this – and they are
looking at it very carefully – they
will draw lessons for how the world
comes together, or doesn’t, to
stand up to this aggression.”
China’s political and material
support for Russia goes against
Washington’s interests, Blinken
said. However, he added that
Washington had not yet seen
evidence that Beijing was
providing Moscow with lethal aid
for the conflict.
Léonie Chao-Fong
manufacturing, Stoltenberg said,
although new contracts meant that
was changing. This week, EU mem-
bers agreed to supply a million
shells, enough for six months or so.
But heading into what is expected
to be his final summit, Stoltenberg
said he wanted Nato members to be
prepared to spend more to reverse
Russia’s invasion.
Nato’s annual report, out on Tues-
day, acknowledged that only seven
of 30 member states – the US, UK,
Poland, Greece and the Baltic coun-
tries – met the current defence
spending target of 2% of GDP in
2022. France at 1.89% and Germany at
1.49% fell short, although both have
committed to increases.
“At our summit in Vilnius in
July, I expect allies to agree a more
ambitious new defence investment
pledge, with 2% of GDP as a mini-
mum to be invested in our defence,”
Stoltenberg said at the time of the
report’s publication – a commitment
that insiders emphasised he expected
all members to agree to.
Equally important, the Nato head
said, would be to dissuade China from
supplying arms to Russia, which is
also running short on key munitions.
War crimes
catalogued them, before moving
China, whose leader, Xi Jinping, vis- them to a fenced-off area in an
ited Moscow this week, has been told industrial district of Kharkiv city
by Nato members that there would be that has become known as the
“consequences” if it supplied lethal
aid to Moscow.
A serious effort by China to act
‘Missile “missile cemetery”. More than
1,000 explosives and the debris of
rockets are lined up in rows.
as a mediator in the conflict must Ukraine’s army calculates that
be accompanied by an attempt to
“engage with President Zelenskiy
directly”, the Nato chief said. But
cemetery’ Russia has fired more than 5,000
cruise missiles, in addition to
countless artillery rockets, since
while welcoming any peace initiative,
he complained that Beijing had not
yet condemned the Russian invasion.
catalogues the war began. A large number have
fallen on Kharkiv.
One day the devices could be
The goal, he added, was “to enable part of a museum to remember
the Ukrainians to launch an offensive
and to retake territory” although he
said Nato was not a party to the con-
evidence the atrocities of the war. In the
meantime, though, it is hoped the
debris can provide information to
flict, with members making their own help bring prosecutions against
decision on providing weapons. Russian authorities and soldiers.
But the Nato head did not rule “This place was created for
out member states going further by Lorenzo Tondo collecting evidence of war
sending F-16s or other western jets Kharkiv crimes,” said Dmytro Chubenko,

to Ukraine, after an emotive “wings
for freedom” plea by Volodymyr
Zelenskiy last month. This month
Poland and Slovakia agreed to send
17 Soviet-standard MiG-29s, but the
total available numbers are small.
After nearly nine years in the job,
Stoltenberg, a former prime minister
of Norway, said he would definitely
be leaving in October, having had his
term of office extended three times.
▲ A Ukrainian serviceman at a Kharkiv cemetery this week. Jens Stoltenberg “I’ve made it clear my tenure ends
warned that Russia was waging a ‘war of attrition’ PHOTOGRAPH: SERGEY BOBOK/AFP this autumn,” he added.
D
uring the first few
months of Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine,
the cruise missiles
fired by Moscow at its
neighbour remained
embedded for days at a time in the
buildings and streets of the north-
eastern province of Kharkiv.
Then, one by one, officials
working for Ukrainian prosecutors
recovered, registered and
the spokesperson for the Kharkiv
region’s prosecutor office.
“These devices were all found in
Kharkiv city. But it is approximately
only half of what they shot at
us. These are pieces of evidence
that we hope will be used in the
international criminal court.”
About 95% of all the devices
stored in the missile cemetery
are part of multiple launch rocket
systems. These include Smerch
systems that can be used to carry
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian
Fears in Jerusalem
Holy festivals may
spark further violence
Page 24
cluster bombs, which were banned
by most of the world under a 2008
treaty and have been used by
Russia in areas of Ukraine where
there is no military personnel and
no military infrastructure.
By analysing the devices fired,
their missiles’ flight path and the
GPS location of where they landed,
prosecutors in Kharkiv have
placed dozens of Russian soldiers
and officials under investigation,
including Alexander Zhuravlyov,
a general who also took part in
Russia’s 2016 bombing campaign
over Syria. According to multiple
•
Extreme weather
Deadly storm wreaks
havoc in California
Page 25
reports, Zhuravlyov was the only
senior Russian officer who could
sign off an order to launch a Smerch
rocket attack on Kharkiv.
Chubenko said the study
of munitions was crucial to
investigating responsibility for
alleged crimes. Munitions are
marked with a series of codes
denoting the manufacturer and, in
some cases, the military unit that
handled maintenance.
“You can see the digits and
letters these missiles are marked
with,” Chubenko said. “With the
help of those, we could identify
 A village prosecutor,
in Donetsk is looks for
surrounded by evidence in the
craters caused ‘cemetery’ in
by rocket fire; Kharkiv, above
below, Dmytro PHOTOGRAPH: ALESSIO
Chubenko, a MAMO/THE GUARDIAN
which plant produced them and
sometimes which military stored
and maintained them.”
Neil Corney at the Omega
Research Foundation, a UK-based
organisation looking at military,
security and police technologies,
said identifying where missiles
were first stored was key to
investigating potential war crimes.
“Ideally, if you want to link the use
of the munition to a crime then you
need to show its chain of custody,”
Corney said.
Prosecutors have singled
out a Russian general, whose
name cannot be disclosed, who
allegedly gave the order to launch
at least 100 missiles from Russian-
occupied northern Ukraine at
the Kharkiv Institute of Physics
and Technology, a centre of early
nuclear research in the former
Soviet Union.
Although the facility does not
present a radiation threat, the
director general of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael
Grossi, has said the scale of attacks
on the institute “violates all the
seven indispensable nuclear safety
and security pillars I outlined at the
beginning of the conflict”.
Chubenko said the consequences
of the missile attacks could have
been drastic. “Of course the
Russians were aware of the nuclear
research reactor being located
there, since it was built in the
Soviet times,” he added.
Oleksandr Filchakov, the chief
prosecutor for Kharkiv, said
thousands of potential war crime
and other criminal proceedings
have been opened against
Russian soldiers and officials in
his province alone. Authorities
estimate that more than 1,700
people have been killed by Russian
shelling, including 44 children, in
Kharkiv city and its surroundings.
Nationwide, the office of the UN
high commissioner for human
rights has recorded 21,965 civilian
casualties since the beginning of
the Russian invasion, including
8,231 deaths.
Macron says he will not
relent over rise in pension
age as more strikes loom
Kim Willsher
Paris
Emmanuel Macron has insisted he
will not yield over raising the French
pension age as he came out fighting in
a live TV interview ahead of another
day of national strikes and protests.
The president ruled out disso-
lution of parliament, a reshuffle
of his centrist government or the
resignation of his prime minister,
Élisabeth Borne, as the opposition
has demanded.
He said he had full confidence in
Borne and only one personal regret
“that I have not succeeded in con-
vincing people of the necessity of this
reform”. This failure and widespread
opposition to the raising of the official
retirement age from 62 to 64, as well
as the government’s use of a consti-
tutional clause to push the measure
through without a vote, has played
out on the streets over the last few
days as protesters clashed with police
in cities across France.
Macron’s administration narrowly
survived a vote of no confidence
on Monday by just nine votes, but
the fiercest public anger has been
directed at the president himself.
Many public commentators had
expected Macron to seek to calm
the highly charged situation that
has resulted in five nights of protests
against the government, without
rowing back on the deeply unpopular
legislation. Instead, he recommitted
himself to his course.
“Is it a pleasure to do this reform?
Could I have swept it under the car-
pet as others have done before me?
This reform is not a luxury or a pleas-
ure, it is necessary for the country,”
he said in the TV interview.
He accused opponents of not com-
ing up with a single “compromise
solution” except that it be dropped
entirely. Asked about the damage
to his popularity he said he was pre-
pared to be unpopular “for the greater
interest of the nation”.
After his 30-minute television
appearance, French union leaders
23
and opposition accused the pres-
ident of ignoring the public mood.
Philippe Martinez, head of the CGT,
said the president had shown “con-
tempt for the millions of people who
are protesting”.
Arthur Delaporte, MP for the
Socialist Party said Macron “under-
stood nothing of what is going on in
the country” and accused the him of
“contempt and arrogance”.
“We saw a president up in the
clouds in a parallel universe,”
Delaporte told France Television.
Successive French presidents
have attempted to overhaul France’s
complex pension system, often drop-
ping measures in the face of protests
and unrest. Macron made pension
changes a pillar of his successful 2017
election campaign but legislation was
halted during the Covid crisis. He put
it back on the table for his 2022 re-
election, but his Renaissance party
failed to obtain a majority in the
Assemblée Nationale in the general
election two months later.
After weeks of protests against the
bill that not only raises the retirement
age but also require workers to pro-
gressively contribute for longer to
receive a full pension, the French
government made an already vola-
tile situation worse last week when
it used a constitutional tool called the
49:3 to bypass a vote by MPs.
Since then, France has seen a
series of spontaneous protests some
of which have descended into vio-
lent clashes between demonstrators
and police, who have been accused
of being heavy handed and arbitrar-
ily arresting hundreds of people. The
majority of them were later released
without charge.
Industrial action has led to roads
being blockaded, protests at refiner-
ies, docks and universities, railway
lines occupied and targeted electric-
ity blackouts. Tonnes of rubbish are
piling up across Paris owing to indus-
trial action by refuse collectors who
have voted to continue their strike
until Monday.
Transport chiefs are warning there
will be “very disrupted” traffic in
public transport and flights today, the
unions’ ninth day of national action.
The legislation will come into
effect on 1 September assuming it is
approved by the country’s constitu-
tional court, currently examining the
bill. Macron said in the interview he
had heard the public anger and would
ask his government to come up with
“clear and concise” legislation to deal
with this discontent, much of which
had “nothing to do with pensions”,
he said.
 Protesters at a rally called by the
unions against the 49:3 clause used
to force through pension changes

24
Trudeau-Biden talks to focus on surge in
asylum arrivals at rural border crossing
Leyland Cecco
Toronto
A five-mile stretch of unmade road
linking New York state to Quebec is
expected to be a focal point of Joe
Biden’s first official visit to Canada
today, as the prime minister, Justin
Trudeau, seeks to slow a surge in
asylum claims amid criticism that
his government is failing refugees.
Last year nearly 40,000 people
entered Canada at Roxham Road, an
informal crossing in the forests of
upstate New York, which has become
a political flashpoint in recent years.
The surge, prompted by a mix of
Canadian bureaucratic delays and
bilateral agreements with the US,
has caught the governing Liberals
Jerusalem
Fears rise
as holy
festivals
converge
Bethan McKernan and
Sufian Taha Jerusalem
I
n the Old City of Jerusalem
and the Palestinian
neighbourhoods
surrounding it, preparations
for Ramadan are under way:
strings of festive lights and
lanterns are ready to welcome
sundown today, while sweet shops
and bakers are busy making qatayef
– fried dumplings filled with cream
or sweet cheese, traditionally eaten
during the Muslim holy month.
The period of fasting that
commemorates Gabriel’s revelation
of the Qur’an to Muhammad is a
time for self-discipline, reflection
and celebrations with family and
friends. As with almost every
religious holiday in the contested
city, however, this year Ramadan is
accompanied by worries of surging
violence.
At least 88 Palestinians, of whom
about half were militants and half
civilians, and 16 Israelis, of whom
15 were civilians, have been killed
since January, according to rights
groups, making 2023 the deadliest
start to the year in occupied East
Jerusalem and the West Bank in
20 years. The bloodshed has led
to speculation that the region is at
the beginning of a third intifada, or
Palestinian uprising.
• The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023
World
flatfooted – and left a majority of fleeing conflict, poverty and politi-
claimants without proper govern- cal repression in Latin America, but
ment documentation as they wait others have arrived from as far away
for their cases to work through the as Afghanistan, Yemen and Turkey.
system. Figures from the federal In February, Quebec’s premier,
government showed the majority of François Legault, demanded that
people arriving via Roxham have yet Trudeau’s government resettled refu-
to be issued work permits. gee claimants in other provinces amid
“Asylum seekers on our borders concerns that Quebec’s “capacity to
is not something that Canada typi- take care of the asylum seekers” had
cally deals with,” said Abdulla Daoud, been exceeded. Canada’s opposition
the executive director of the Refugee leader, Pierre Poilievre, a Conserva-
Centre in Montreal. “This is in many tive, has also called on Trudeau to
ways a new issue. And while there’s close the Roxham Road crossing.
been an uptick, there’s no denying Trudeau’s government has started
that, we’ve seen that Canada’s immi- moving refugees out of Quebec and
gration infrastructure can handle an into neighbouring provinces, but
increase in population but the asylum the prime minister has pushed back
system wasn’t built to accommodate against calls to close the crossing.
this sort of issue.” “The challenge is not to say: ‘Oh,
Most of the asylum seekers are we should close it.’ The challenge
▲ Palestinians concerns that Contrary to popular belief,
prepare the the period could the Muslim holy month does not
al-Aqsa mosque be accompanied necessarily correspond with an
in Jerusalem by violence upswing in violence, though this
for Ramadan, PHOTOGRAPH: SAEED year’s convergence with Passover
which begins QAQ/NURPHOTO/REX/ and Easter increases the possibility
SHUTTERSTOCK
today. There are of friction as Jerusalem hosts an
unusually large influx of pilgrims.
The hardline new Israeli
Damascus Temple
government’s unabated appetite
Gate Mount/
for demolishing Palestinian homes
Al-Haram
Old City wall
al-Sharif
in Jerusalem, and a decision this
Church of the
week to repeal a 2005 law ordering
Holy Sepulchre Dome of
the evacuation of four sensitive
the Rock West Bank settlements, have also
Western/ inflamed tensions.
Wailing Wall
Al-Aqsa And every year, Ramadan puts
Jerusalem mosque Israeli control of Jerusalem’s
Old City Temple Mount – known to Muslims
as al-Haram al-Sharif or al-Aqsa
Tel Aviv mosque – under the spotlight. “I
West have worked at the waqf [religious
Bank
Jerusalem buildings] for 50 years and I have
500m
Israel
seen everything before,” said
0.5 miles
Azzam al-Kateeb, the director of
© OpenStreetMap contributors the Jordanian body responsible for
is how to close it, how to make sure
that people aren’t choosing to cross
irregularly into Canada, to protect the
integrity of our immigration system
but also stay true to the values that
we have,” he said last month.
Calls for an overhaul have also
been spurred by a string of deaths
among people making irregular
crossings in freezing winter weather.
For decades asylum claims could
be made at any legal port of entry in
Canada. That changed in 2004 when
Ottawa successfully lobbied for the
passage of the Safe Third Country
Agreement, which meant asylum
seekers being required to make
claims in the country where they
first arrived. The agreement applied
to land-based ports of entry but not
irregular or unofficial crossings,
managing the complex’s Islamic
sites. “Joe Biden told me once that
he is glad he doesn’t have my job.
But I am quite sure Ramadan this
year will be smooth.”
It took two months each year
for the waqf’s 500 employees to
prepare for Ramadan, Kateeb said,
even with help from volunteers.
The logistics of managing access
and prayers for hundreds of
thousands of people, as well as
nightly iftar dinners for up to
10,000, are his immediate concern.
“We have reassurances from the
police that they will not interfere
and worshippers will be allowed to
come to al-Aqsa without problems,”
he said. “If anything goes wrong,
it is because they decide to let it
happen. The police and the Israeli
government have control.”
In a statement, Israel’s police
said their job during Ramadan was
to “enable the freedom of worship
and the proper existence of the
including Roxham Road. So in recent
years a rural road has become the fun-
nel for refugees attempting to cross
the border, which stretches for 5,500
miles.
In January 2023 the Royal Cana-
dian Mounted Police intercepted
more than 5,000 asylum seekers
along the road, the highest since
the government started tracking the
numbers in 2017, after the election of
Donald Trump as US president.
Audrey Macklin, a law professor
at Toronto University, said: “It’s not
unlawful under international law for
somebody who is a refugee to enter
through irregular means. And it’s
not unlawful under Canada’s Immi-
gration and Refugee Protection Act.
They’re not doing anything illegal
under immigration law.”
Ottawa is widely expected to raise
the Safe Third Country Agreement
when Biden meets Trudeau today.
Canada’s immigration minister, Sean
Fraser, who met his US counterpart
this week, has publicly spoken about
his government’s plans to “modern-
ise” the agreement but has provided
few details.
holiday, its prayers and customs,
while maintaining security, law
and public order”, and that extra
police and border forces would be
deployed around the city.
Many Jerusalemites the
Guardian spoke to this week
were not optimistic. Rehab – a
72-year-old passing the time with
neighbours in the Old City – said
she had problems walking since she
was hit by an Israeli stun grenade
two years ago. “It will be good if we
can enjoy the month, but I think
Ben-Gvir wants an escalation.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir, a Jewish
supremacist with a conviction
for racist incitement who until
recently was shunned by the Israeli
mainstream, became Israel’s
national security minister three
months ago, and is now in charge of
policing in the divided city.
The difference was already
noticeable, said Aboud, a 30-year-
old working at Al Najaf sweet
shop near the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre. “I am looking forward
to the extra Ramadan business, but
every day when I leave the house
now there’s some kind of trouble
with the police, with settlers. I can
only see it getting worse,” he said,
before using a Palestinian saying:
“Who do you complain to when
your enemy is the judge?”
Settlers in the Old City, and other
devout Jewish Israelis, have visited
the Temple Mount in increasing
numbers over the last few years.
Under a longstanding compromise,
they are allowed to visit but not
pray at the site, and any perceived
attempt to alter the status quo acts
as a lightning rod for violence.
Almost immediately after
entering office, Ben-Gvir decided
to tour the holy complex – a move
widely viewed as a provocation.
Many are worried he will attempt a
similar stunt during Ramadan.
“When Ben-Gvir came here he
was like a mouse. He stayed five
minutes, surrounded by police,
and left again,” Kateeb said.
“That’s supposed to worry 2 billion
Muslims? It doesn’t bother me
at all.”
 • The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023

26

Bank faces pressure to raise

interest rate after surprise
increase in cost of living
Richard Partington
Dominic Rushe
The Bank of England is under
pressure to raise interest rates today
after an unexpected rise for inflation
and as the US Federal Reserve pushed
ahead with higher borrowing costs
despite fears over the worst financial
crisis since 2008.
The US central bank announced
yesterday its benchmark interest
rate would rise another quarter of a
percentage point to a range of 4.75%
to 5% – its ninth consecutive rate rise
and the highest rate since 2007.
The increase was smaller than
the half-point increase that some
had expected before a series of bank
collapses shook global markets.
The Fed said the impact of the
banking crisis was “uncertain” but
inflation “remains elevated.”
“The US banking system is sound
and resilient. Recent developments
are likely to result in tighter credit
conditions for households and
businesses and to weigh on economic
activity, hiring, and inflation. The
extent of these effects is uncertain.
The committee remains highly
attentive to inflation risks,” the US
central bank said.
The Fed decision comes as markets
brace for a 0.25 percentage point
increase from the Bank of England,
UK inflation jumped unexpectedly
to 10.4% in February
Consumer prices index
6.2% 10.4%
February February
2022 2023
2020 2021 2022 2023
Source: ONS
which would be the 11th consecutive
rise. The UK central bank is respond-
ing to the highest rates of inflation
for 40 years.
The UK’s annual inflation rate
unexpectedly rose in February as the
soaring cost of food and rising prices
in pubs and restaurants added to the
pressure on households. The rate, as
measured by the consumer prices
index, rose to 10.4%, up from 10.1%
in January, in an unexpected reversal
after three months of decline.
Inflation in the UK peaked at
11.1% in October. Economists
have suggested the inflation rate
is expected to fall rapidly in the
coming months, as the impact from
the Russian invasion of Ukraine on
energy prices falls out of the annual
calculation.
It comes despite heightened
uncertainty over the impact of the
banking crisis, with economists
warning that the turmoil in markets
12%
over the past fortnight could force
10 lenders to adopt a more cautious
8
approach to approving new loans.
Andrew Bailey, the Bank’s
6
governor, warned in a letter to the
4 Commons Treasury committee yes-
2
terday that there was a “risk that
indirect spillovers” from the bank-
0 ing crisis could impact Britain. “There
remain channels through which
UK economic conditions could be
affected,” he said.
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank
(SVB) this month has sent shock
waves through financial markets,
leading economists to tear up their
estimates for interest rate decisions
this year.
It comes as traders bet a more cau-
tious approach to bank lending will
do some of the same work as higher
interest rates, while there are fears
the rapid nature of rate increases over
the past year contributed to the stress
in the banking system.
SVB had poured deposits into long-
term securities whose value had
fallen as interest rates rose. Those
losses spooked depositors and led
to a run on the bank.
The Fed chair, Jerome Powell, has
routinely said that taming inflation is
the central bank’s top priority.

Boss of British Gas owner picks Inflation ‘Family costs are

up pay package worth £4.5m
Jillian Ambrose
Energy correspondent
The boss of British Gas’s parent com-
of £3.3bn amid rocketing energy mar-
ket prices. The company reported the
record profits shortly after it emerged
that debt agents working for British
Gas broke into the homes of vulner-
industry are built on the suffering of
the many who have seen energy bills
reach record levels this winter, even
despite government support.
“We’d urge all energy bosses to
examine their conscience and donate
increasing from all sides’
their bonuses to charities helping to
undo the damage they have caused.”
Alice Harrison, at Global Wit- worries. Their childcare costs are
ness, described the bonus as “a slap Zoe Wood going up and Jess could lose her job
in the face to all those who’ve been Ashley Kirk as a library administrator.

pany has angered consumer groups
by accepting a £4.5m pay packet,
including bonuses totalling £3.7m,
despite an investigation into the
treatment of vulnerable customers.
Chris O’Shea, the chief executive
of Centrica, was urged to examine
his conscience after accepting an
annual bonus of £1.4m and a long-
term share bonus of £2.3m on top of
his £790,000 annual salary, as mil-
lions of households struggled to pay
for heating. The total is five times the
previous year, though on that occa-
sion he had waived his bonus owing
to high energy bills.
The personal bonus was awarded
after Centrica’s profits increased
threefold last year to an all-time high
able customers to fit prepayment
meters when they were unable to
pay their bills.
Simon Francis, the coordinator of
the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said:
“The bonuses of the few in the energy
▲ Chris O’Shea’s bonus payout has
stoked fury among consumer groups
struggling with the sky-high cost of
energy”. She said it would take the
average worker 150 years to earn what
Chris O’Shea did in one year.
Centrica’s remuneration commit-
tee made no mention in its annual
report of the scandal , and defended
the bonus. O’Shea had “successfully
navigated challenging regulatory and
political issues”, the committee said,
while “delivering shareholder value
through new investment opportuni-
ties and portfolio shaping”.
In the annual report, O’Shea said
he was deeply concerned by the
revelations about vulnerable British
Gas customers. “We’ll get to the bot-
tom of this and where we got it wrong,
we’ll make it right,” he said.
‘M
oney is just a
constant worry
and I feel like
it’s infecting
everything,”
says Jess Daly
of the impact of rising living costs
on her family. “Costs are increasing
from all sides and there seems to
be a relentless expectation that we
are going to be able to absorb them
without extra help.”
With the cost of living crisis
now into its second year, Jess, who
lives with her husband, Jon, and
two-year-old daughter, Robin, in
Norwich, says that as well as food
and energy bills they have fresh
It is a lot to cope with. Official
figures published yesterday
showed the UK inflation rate as
measured by the consumer prices
index had made a surprise rise
to 10.4% in February after three
months of falls, driven by increases
in the cost of meals out and fresh
produce amid the salad shortage.
With their finances under
growing pressure, the Dalys, who
first spoke to the Guardian about
their soaring bills at the end of 2021,
think twice before putting anything
in their shopping trolley. Jess
describes the “attitude shift” that
kicks in at the end of the month,
saying: “Rather than thinking ‘what
would we like to eat this week?’ it’s
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian
FTSE 100 All share
+30.62 + 13.50
7566.84 4122.70
about thinking ‘well, what’s left in
the budget this week?’.”
They go to Morrisons or Asda for
their weekly shop and do not eat
most meat, which is one saving.
They like fish but it is not on the
menu much these days because of
the cost. The increases in the cost
of eggs, whole milk and low-fat
milk – up 32.5%, 34.4% and 42.2%
respectively – are hard to miss and
when Jess scans the supermarket
shelves she spots fewer promotions
on the brands she used to buy.
“I don’t see brands on offer as
much as I used to so I don’t tend
to buy a lot of branded stuff any
more,” Jess says. “I’ve switched to
own-brand on almost everything.
“I used to be a bit of a snob about
own-brand. Now if the supermarket
salad cream is 85p and Heinz is
£3 I think ‘well how bad could the
supermarket salad cream be?’. I’ll
probably keep shopping like this
when – well, if – things improve.”
Even after making changes, their
spending on groceries has doubled
since 2019. And last week’s budget
offered thin gruel for the Dalys,
•
Dow Indl Nikkei 225
-73.66 + 520.94 1.1334
32486.94 27466.61
▲ Jess and Jon Daly say nursery fees
for their daughter, Robin, will soon
outstrip their mortgage payments
PHOTOGRAPH: ALI SMITH/GUARDIAN
who are both 36. The promise of
free childcare for under-threes will
come too late for Robin, and neither
of them has a bulging £1m-plus
pension pot to benefit from Hunt’s
tax giveaway. In addition, Jess’s
employer, the University of East
Anglia, is trying to plug a £30m
deficit and has warned staff of
possible compulsory redundancies.
The university has blamed its
‘We are fortunate to
be able to make ends
meet but I worry how
we will cope with the
unexpected’
Jon Daly
IT trainer
£/€ £/$
1.2231
+0.0010 +0.0035
financial problems on a number
of things, including pressure
on student numbers and a £5m
increase in energy costs this year.
“I don’t know whether or not
that will affect me and it will be at
least another month before I find
out,” Jess says. “Robin’s been in
nursery for just over a year now
and our childcare fees are about to
increase for the third time.
“When she started in April 2021
her fees were £61 a day. In April
they are jumping up to £70 a day.
We are not far off the point where
childcare is going to be more
expensive than our mortgage.”
The family have cut their energy
use, which has made for a tricky
winter for Jon, who works remotely
for an IT training firm, prioritising
using the heating when their
daughter is at home.
Jon says:.“We’ve always tried to
be responsible with how we spend
and save, and are very fortunate to
be able to make ends meet, but with
everything constantly going up.
I worry about how we can absorb
unexpected costs.”
Analysis Brexit
has added to
UK’s economic
pressures
International comparisons
On a headline basis, inflation is
higher in the UK than elsewhere.
In the eurozone, annual inflation
slowed to 8.5% in February, down
from 10.6% in October, while US
inflation eased to 6% last month,
down from 9.1% last summer.
However, inflation rose in France
and Germany last month, while the
rate for the EU 27 dipped from 10%
to 9.9%. In the eurozone, analysts
had forecast a fall from 8.6% in
January to 8.2%. But pressure from
rising food prices – the same culprit
for the UK’s shock rise – led to an
unexpectedly small decrease.
In the UK and the eurozone, core
inflation – used by central bankers
because it excludes energy and
food – rose by more than expected:
from 5.8% in January to 6.2% in
February for the UK, and from 5.3%
to 5.6% for the eurozone.
There are also economy features
that can cause inflation to rise or
fall that may not be replicated in
other nations. The Ofgem price cap
is one example. Economists expect
the UK inflation rate to fall sharply
in April as it is compared against
the huge 54% jump in the Ofgem
cap 12 months earlier.
While inflation can bob around
from month to month – belying an
overall trend, and making it harder
to isolate Brexit as a driving force –
there are still reasons why the UK
could be worse off than others.
What has gone up and by how much?
How everyday items have shot
up in price. The figure is the
percentage change in the average
price over 12 months to February:
Food
Low-fat milk 42.2%
Sugar 38.4%
Cheese and curd 34.9%
Eggs 32.5%
Butter 27.5%
Pasta and couscous 25.3%
Ready-made meals 22.2%
Bread 20.8%
Jams, marmalades, honey 20.7%
Fresh or chilled vegetables
(other than potatoes) 18.5%
Fish 15.7%
Pizza and quiche 11.6%
Fruit 7.7%
Drinks
Mineral or spring waters 22%
Soft drinks 13.5%
Tea 18.1%
27
Supply chains
Brexit has added to delivery times
and costs for UK imports, a factor
likely to be passed on in shops.
Part of the inflation shock in
February was due to the rising
cost of salad items, amid severe
shortages and rationing across the
UK last month. Experts blamed
unseasonably cold weather in
southern Spain and Morocco
affecting harvests, but others
pointed to Brexit, given the lack of
empty shelves in EU nations.
Justin King, the former
Sainsbury’s chief executive, said
the UK food sector had been
“significantly disrupted” by
leaving the EU, while producers
in the bloc warned Britain had
slipped down the pecking order
for deliveries.
Research from the London
School of Economics shows Brexit
added almost £6bn to UK food bills
in the two years to the end of 2021.
However, growers also blame
supermarkets for driving down
the prices they are paid, limiting
supply, and the government’s
approach to subsidising food
production. Economists say
energy bills are the biggest driver
of costs.
Worker shortages
Wages also have an impact. In
response to the inflation shock,
workers are demanding higher
pay settlements, while a lack of
available staff in many sectors is
forcing firms to offer higher wages
to recruit or retain employees.
Tougher post-Brexit migration
rules could be adding to the
problem, especially in typically
lower paying, lower-skilled roles
in sectors such as hospitality,
where employers used to be
able to rely more on EU workers
coming to Britain.
Richard Partington
Coffee 16.5%
Fruit and vegetable juices 15.6%
Beer 7%
Spirits 6.9%
Wine 4.1%
Electricity, gas and other fuels
Gas 129.4%
Electricity 66.7%
Solid fuels 31.6%
Clothing and shoes
Garments for men 10.4%
Garments for children 9.2%
Garments for women 7.5%
Footwear for men 5.3%
Footwear for women 2.3%
Hospitality and recreation
Hotels and motels 16.8%
Fast food and takeaways 12.4%
Restaurants and cafes 11.4%
Holiday centres, campsites 8.7%
Museums 5.8%
Cinemas, theatres, concerts 2%
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian •

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 • The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023

30

Weather
Thursday 23 March 2023
UK and Ireland Noon today Forecast Around the UK

London
Sunny Mist Fog
Low 7 High 12 Lows and highs Precipitation Air pollution
984 Tomorrow
8 8 14 90% Low
Sunny intervals Hazy
Manchester
980
Mostly cloudy
24 Inverness Shetland 7 13 90% Low
Overcast/dull Edinburgh
9 9
17
6 13 85% Low
Sunny showers Moderate
988 Belfast
Edinburgh
16 Low 6 High 12
Sunny and heavy showers Glasgow 6 12 90% Low
Saturday
Birmingham
Light showers Newcastle
ca
11
6 13 90% Low
Rain Sleet Light Belfast Slight
Brighton
snow 12
York

Snow showers 9 12 90% Low

13
Dublin Liverpool
rpoo
ol 13 996
Bristol
Heavy snow Ice Nottingham
Nott m
Carbon
count
35C 13 Norwich
Birmingham
ming
7 12 90% Low
30
Thundery rain Cardiff
25 992 Daily atmospheric CO2
readings from Mauna Loa,
20 11 14
1 1000 Hawaii (ppm):
Thundery showers 15
Cardiff
Ca L
London 7 12 90% Low
Latest
X
10 14 21 Mar 2023 420.78 Newcastle
5
Dover Weekly average
Temperature, 0 12 Mar 2023 420.16
ºC
-5
12 7 12 85% Low
Plymouth 22 Mar 2022 418.52
-10 12
22 Mar 2013 397.16 Penzance
Moderate 28
-15 Pre-industrial base 280
Wind speed, Windy
mph -20 Safe level 350
The Channel Islands 9 12 90% Low
Source: NOAA-ESRL

Atlantic front Weatherwatch Around the world

Cars, trucks and planes get Algiers 24 Lisbon 18

plenty of blame for helping drive Ams’dam 13 Madrid 21
the climate crisis, but shipping Athens 18 Malaga 22
produces a large portion of the Auckland 21 Melb’rne 22
world’s greenhouse gases, as well B Aires 25 Mexico C 27
as nitrogen oxides and sulphur Bangkok 36 Miami 28
pollution because ships largely use Barcelona 17 Milan 20
Cold front cheap heavy fuel oil. Basra 26 Mombasa 32
It has been a struggle to clean Beijing 13 Moscow 9

Warm front up the shipping industry but one Berlin 15 Mumbai 31

solution is to use wind-powered Bermuda 20 N Orleans 28
ships. That may seem like going Brussels 15 Nairobi 25
Occluded front back to the days of the Cutty Sark, Budapest 21 New Delhi 29
but hi-tech wind-propulsion can C’hagen 11 New York 17

Trough be fitted to existing ships to cut Cairo 26 Oslo 7

fuel use, supplying between 10% Cape Town 28 Paris 16
and 90% of a ship’s power needs, Chicago 7 Perth 28

High tides
Source: © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Times are local UK times
Sun & Lighting depending on location and the Corfu 20 Prague 16
weather patterns it harnesses. Dakar 25 Reykjavik 2
Moon up Wind is free and weather-routing Dhaka 30 Rio de J 28
software uses sophisticated Dublin 12 Rome 18
Aberdeen 0217 4.3m 1421 4.6m London Bridge 0245 7.3m 1509 7.3m Belfast 1844 to 0618 algorithms to plot the fastest and Florence 18 Shanghai 14
Avonmouth 0822 14.4m 2043 14.1m Lossiemouth 0050 4.1m 1254 4.4m Birm’ham 1825 to 0601 most fuel-efficient voyage. Gibraltar 22 Singapore 31
Barrow 0013 9.6m 1227 10.0m Milford Haven 0718 7.6m 1936 7.3m Brighton 1818 to 0555 A wide range of wind-powered H Kong 28 Stockh’m 10
Belfast -- -- 1212 3.7m Newquay 0608 7.5m 1827 7.2m Bristol 1828 to 0605 devices for ships have been Harare 27 Strasb’g 17
Cobh 0629 4.3m 1846 4.2m North Shields 0424 5.2m 1628 5.4m Carlisle 1830 to 0604 designed, using sails, kites or rotors Helsinki 6 Sydney 26
Cromer 0743 5.0m 1937 5.4m Oban 0645 4.3m 1855 4.0m Cork 1852 to 0628 that look like vertical cylinders. Istanbul 11 Tel Aviv 21
Dover -- -- 1218 6.8m Penzance 0541 5.9m 1800 5.7m Dublin 1843 to 0619 These are mounted on a ship’s Jo’burg 25 Tenerife 24
Sun rises 0556
Dublin 0020 4.0m 1229 4.3m Plymouth 0655 5.8m 1919 5.6m Sun sets 1817 Glasgow 1837 to 0610 deck and many can be retrofitted K Lumpur 32 Tokyo 17
Galway 0604 5.6m 1826 5.4m Portsmouth 0013 4.8m 1221 4.7m Moon rises 0645 Harlech 1834 to 0610 to existing vessels. Already more K’mandu 23 Toronto 8
Greenock 0127 3.4m 1340 3.7m Southport -- -- 1152 9.7m Moon sets 2053 Inverness 1836 to 0608 than 20 commercial cargo ships Kabul 13 Vancouv’r 9
First Quarter 29 March Kingston 31 Vienna 20
Harwich 0027 4.1m 1255 4.2m Stornoway 0740 5.3m 2005 4.8m London 1817 to 0554 use wind power to cut fuel use, and
Kolkata 32 Warsaw 17
Holyhead 1118 6.1m 2343 5.7m Weymouth 0805 1.7m 2029 1.5m M’chester 1827 to 0603 more are being launched, but it is
L Angeles 15 Wash’ton 23
Hull 0727 7.6m 1927 8.2m Whitby 0500 5.7m 1707 5.9m Newcastle 1826 to 0600 taking a long time for wind power
Forecasts and Lagos 31 Well’ton 17
Leith 0329 5.8m 1540 5.9m Wick 0014 3.5m 1221 3.8m
graphics provided by
Norwich 1813 to 0549 to become widely accepted in the
Lima 27 Zurich 18
Liverpool -- -- 1211 10.0m Workington 0014 8.5m 1229 8.9m AccuWeather ©2023 Penzance 1839 to 0617 industry. Jeremy Plester
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian •
Rugby union Football
Team-by-team Pedro Porro on
guide to Women’s Spain, Sherwood
Six Nations and that rant
Page 33  Interview, page 35 
▲ Gujarat Giants’
Dayalan Hemalatha
plays a shot in a
season where short
boundaries have
encouraged big hitting
PANKAJ NANGIA/GETTY IMAGES
G
iant outdoor advertisements featuring
Swing and a hit women cricketers occupying pride
of place anywhere in India is a rarity.
Even more so in bustling junctures
across the country’s commercial and
India’s WPL enjoys entertainment hub, Mumbai, where
time and space are ever-shrinking
commodities. But a seven-storey
wallscape with an artwork of the Mumbai Indians’ trio
spectacular early Harmanpreet Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar and Nat Sciver-
Brunt has adorned a 20-storey skyscraper near the busy
Haji Ali Junction in the southern part of the western
Indian city since the start of the month.
success – and this is And so have billboards, featuring Kaur, Smriti
Mandhana, Sneh Rana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti
Sharma – that quintet being the cream of women’s
cricket talent in the country – in places of prominence,
just the beginning railway stations included, in Mumbai and, some 30
kilometres away, in New Mumbai.
The reason: the inaugural five-team Women’s
Premier League (WPL), where all these established
names, headlining an overall pool of 87 uncapped and
international cricketers, have been in action across the
two host cities, Mumbai and New Mumbai, since the
tournament kicked off on 4 March.
If the 20-match league stage of the WPL, the second-
most expensive cricket league in the world after the
men’s marquee domestic franchise tournament, the
Annesha Ghosh Indian Premier League, is anything to go by, the visibility
the competition has brought the women’s game in the
country is unlike anything previously imagined.
Official attendances have breached 30,000, with
average turnouts ranging from 9,000-13,000 for most
31
games across the two venues staging the tournament:
the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai and the DY Patil
Stadium in New Mumbai, surprisingly on weekdays,
too. Sure, the footfall comes as vindication of the
organisers’ – the Board of Control for Cricket in
India (BCCI) – decision to allow free entry for female
spectators, aimed at boosting the number of attendees
and developing a broader audience for the women’s
game in the country. The strategy was a leaf out
of the success of the DY Patil Stadium at the same
grounds in December, where a record crowd of over
47,000 showed up for the second match, at the DY
Patil Stadium. But anyone who’s attended the best
part of the WPL’s league stage in person these past 18
days will vouch for the fact that men consistently far
outnumbered women in the stands.
The BCCI is yet to release any official numbers on the
age or gender breakdown of the attendees, but that the
Indian board has put a price on all tickets for tomorrow’s
eliminator between the Kaur-led Indians and Australia
vice-captain Alyssa Healy’s UP Warriorz, starting at INR
50, is further proof of the impressive turnouts at the
tournament. In a more unequivocal validation of the
resounding on-ground reception of the tournament, the
final – scheduled for Sunday where Australia captain Meg
Lanning’s Delhi Capitals are assured a place – sold out
by yesterday morning, with tickets priced at INR 250.
“For me the highlight will definitely be the crowds,”
said Capitals all-rounder Marizanne Kapp. Of Monday’s
game against the Indians, she added: “Halfway through,
when I looked up I saw the second tier was packed and
you could hear and feel [the cheer] around the field.”
While strong attendances and primetime TV slots
– matches are played at 3.30pm and/or 7.30pm local
time – as much as free digital streaming by media-rights
owners Viacom 18 will irrefutably leave a strong imprint
on the success of the first edition of the WPL, the league
has not got everything spot-on in its launch year.
On Tuesday, the last league day of the WPL, Sciver-
Brunt, highlighted how the gradual slowing of surfaces
has negated some of the early advantage batters
enjoyed. “I mean, they’re short, right?” she said of the
boundary dimensions. In some cases they measured
about 42-44 metres from the batting end. “Everyone’s
talked about it right at the start. But since then, it’s
not really [made much of a difference]. Because the
wickets have been a little bit slower or a little bit stoppy
or turning or whatever it is [as the
Attendances tournament has progressed], that
breached
30,000,
then brings in more for the bowlers.”
The other aspect the league stage
found itself somewhat wanting is the
vindicating performance of Indian cricketers.
allowing
free entry
Only one uncapped domestic
player – Indians left-arm spinner
Saika Ishaque – features on the top
10 wicket-takers’ chart, and none
for female among the top 10 on the highest run-
spectators scorers’ list, where Kaur and Capitals
teenager Shafali Verma are the only
to develop Indian representation.
a broader
audience
Beyond the immediate tangibles,
the confluence of Indian and
overseas talent, however, could
reap long-term dividends for the
women’s game in India and globally. “I think there’s
two parts to my job here: one is to win games of
cricket and the other is to develop young Indian
cricketers,” said Jon Lewis, the England and Warriorz
head coach, on Tuesday.
“The fact that we were in a position where we’re able
to put again a 16-year-old leg-spinner [Parshavi Chopra]
out and an 18-year-old fast bowler [Soppadhandi
Yashasri] out into her first game [against the Capitals],
I think that should really be celebrated and that’s what
this competition is all about: growing young Indian
cricketers and giving them an experience.”
Perhaps the only way to summarise the strides
the WPL has made would be to borrow an official
tournament hashtag, which, in Hindi, goes:
“#YehToBasShuruatHai (This is just the beginning).”

32
Gymnastics
New abuse
claims levelled
at gymnastics
club in Poole
Suzanne Wrack
Gymnasts for Change says it is sup-
porting a number of new complain-
ants who have alleged abuse at the
former Olga gymnastics club in Poole
when it was run by Brian and Monica
Phelps, and has appealed for any
further individuals needing its help
to come forward.
The campaign network says a
number of people have contacted it
with fresh allegations, in the wake of
the claims from one former gymnast of
sexual and emotional abuse at the gym
from the mid-1970s published in the
Guardian and by the BBC in February.
Emma Webb (not her real name)
had alleged that she suffered physical
and emotional abuse at the Phelps-
run gym, which began shortly after
she started primary school and
went on until she was aged 12 at
the gymnastics and trampolining
club. The Phelpses denied all the
allegations of sexual abuse Webb
made against Brian Phelps and also
denied the accusations of emotional
abuse she made against Monica. The
fresh claims also allege sexual abuse
against Brian Phelps and emotional
abuse against Monica. In a statement
the Phelpses said they would not
comment on the new allegations.
“Gymnasts for Change has been
supporting Emma and other gym-
nasts who claim to have suffered
abuse at the Olga club for the past
year, along with others who have
come forward,” a spokesperson said.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg,
and Gymnasts for Change are here as
a safe space for anyone who wishes to
share their stories.” Webb said: “The
only light in this horror story is that
we have now found each other.”
British Gymnastics, which recently
said it remains committed to resolving
the individual legal claims brought
against it by up to 40 gymnasts after
safeguarding failures despite frustra-
tions among complainants that only
one case has been settled in two years,
has echoed the call of Gymnasts for
Change. “We continue to encourage
anyone who has suffered abuse to
come forward and speak to relevant
authorities,” it said in a statement.
Dorset police said it “urges anyone
who has been the subject of non-
recent sexual abuse to report it to
Dorset police. Alternatively, contact
The Shores Sexual Assault Referral
Centre on 0800 970 9954.”
▲ Allegations made public have been
described as ‘the tip of the iceberg’
•••
Sport
Tennis
Andreescu outlasts
Raducanu as Murray
flops in Miami heat
British No 1 wilts in final set
while Scot looks laboured
in defeat by Serb underdog
Tumaini Carayol
Emma Raducanu has had a challeng-
ing enough time consolidating her
success since winning the US Open
as a teenager but there have been
periods when Bianca Andreescu’s
career since becoming a teenage
Boxing
Fury v Usyk
bout called
off as talks
break down
Donald McRae
Tyson Fury’s world heavyweight title
unification fight with Oleksandr Usyk
is off after it emerged talks between
the camps of the rival champions had
broken down completely. Anthony
Joshua, who lost his IBF, WBA and
WBO belts to Usyk, and was defeated
again by the Ukrainian in a rematch
last summer, said the failure to make
the bout was “crazy”.
Joshua also suggested that Fury’s
unpredictable demands were to
grand slam champion has seemed
utterly hellish. The years since her
own US Open triumph in 2019 have
included a torn meniscus that led to a
15-month layoff, the decision to step
away for over four months last sea-
son in order to address her mental
health and thoughts of retirement.
Four years later she is still trying to
follow up her salad days.
The past few weeks, though,
have been a positive step forward
for Andreescu and she continued
her progress by halting Raducanu’s.
After three tough, intense sets
blame for the disappointing collapse
of a contest that had promised to give
boxing its first undisputed world
heavyweight champion since Lennox
Lewis in 1999.
“Look at all the shit they are going
through now with Usyk,” Joshua said.
“It’s just crazy. It’s actually good that
people are starting to see what goes
on in negotiations. It’s good that they
can actually see the shit that [boxers
such as Usyk] have got to put up with
to make a fight. Me and Usyk got two
successful fights done.”
The British heavyweight, who
makes his comeback a week on
Saturday against Jermaine Franklin,
endured a similar breakdown of two
planned bouts with Fury in 2021 and
again late last year. Joshua said: “I
have been there twice before and
people don’t remember that. I was
supposed to fight him before I fought
Usyk the first time [in September 2021]
and he pulled out due to his legal case,
the court arbitration with Deontay
Wilder [whom Fury then beat in their
rematch that October]. Then we had
the second last December.”
Negotiations for that proposed
bout soon evaporated amid mutual
▼ Emma Raducanu’s forehand was
too error prone in the deciding set
GEOFF BURKE/USA TODAY SPORTS
that rose in quality as the pressure
mounted, Andreescu’s level was far
more consistent as the world number
31 defeated the British No 1 6-3, 3-6,
6-2 to reach the second round of the
Miami Open.
Later Andy Murray played poorly
against Dusan Lajovic of Serbia, who
moved into the second round with a
6-4, 7-5 win.
In a sport that moves on so quickly,
with each week presenting starkly
different conditions and playing
styles to conquer, one of the most dif-
ficult aspects of professional tennis
is not building form but maintaining
it. Raducanu enjoyed an excellent
week in Indian Wells, beating two
top-20 seeds, Beatriz Haddad Maia
and Magda Linette, but days later
she was presented with a harsh draw
for Miami.
The similarities between Andree-
scu and Raducanu, who were both
born in Toronto and have Romanian
heritage, are clear. Now 22 and 20,
their respective struggles underline
how difficult it is to follow up great
early success immediately.
acrimony that predates the strife
that has so infuriated the Usyk
camp. Egis Klimas, who manages
Usyk, stressed that Fury’s constant
and changing demands over the past
two months have made negotiations
impossible. “No matter how much
Usyk compromised, he was pushed
for more,” Klimas said.
The unification bout had been
scheduled to take place at Wembley
Stadium on 29 April with Fury trying
to win the three belts held by Usyk.
The Ukrainian had sought a 50-50
split of the purse but Fury rejected
this claim on social media last month.
“They want 50%, Usyk, and
[saying] ‘Tyson is being greedy’”,
Fury complained on an Instagram
▲ Tyson Fury was criticised by the
British heavyweight Anthony Joshua
The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023
After her own positive week in
California Andreescu began the
match striking the ball sweetly, dic-
tating with her heavy forehand but
also keeping Raducanu off balance
with variety, changing the pace and
trajectory of shots while throwing in
a flurry of dropshots, lobs and forays
to net.
As Raducanu settled down early
in the second set, the world num-
ber 72 forced herself up inside the
baseline. The pressure she imposed
on Andreescu culminated in a long,
brutal game at 4-3. Raducanu’s early
ballstriking and aggression generated
break points, which Andreescu saved
each time with excellent serving.
On her seventh opportunity Radu-
canu drilled a backhand down the
line, finally forcing an error from
Andreescu after 20 minutes to take
the decisive break.
The final set presented opportuni-
ties for both but Raducanu threw in a
dire, error-strewn service game while
trailing 3-2. As Andreescu’s level
remained consistent throughout the
match, Raducanu’s dropped, errors
piled up and defeat came quickly.
After she failed to consolidate her
run in Indian Wells, new conditions
and playing styles await for Radu-
canu as she begins only her second
clay-court season in Stuttgart next
month. Andreescu, meanwhile, faces
the seventh seed, Maria Sakkari, as
she tries to rediscover her best form.
Unlike Raducanu Murray began as
the heavy favourite in his first-round
match against Lajovic. Despite start-
ing positively, Murray failed to take
his early chances and collapsed when
serving late in the set. Although he
fought, breaking serve when Lajovic
first attempted to serve out the match
at 6-4, 5-4, Murray looked flat, consid-
erably slower than in other matches
this year, and struggled with timing
his forehand throughout. He was
outplayed by a considerably better
opponent on the day.
Meanwhile Iga Swiatek, defend-
ing champion and world No 1, with-
drew from the Miami Open citing a rib
injury she sustained towards the end
of her time in Indian Wells.
video. “From where I’m standing,
Usyk, you and your team are worth
30%. You either take it or you leave
it. And if you don’t want it, go fight
Daniel Dubois at the Copper Box
[Arena in London] and get a few
million dollars. If you want to make
some real money, come and fight The
Gypsy King.”
Usyk accepted the reduced offer
that same day. On another Instagram
video, Usyk spoke directly to Fury:
“Hey greedy belly, I accept your offer.
70/30 split to fight on April 29 at Wem-
bley. But you will promise to donate
£1m to Ukraine immediately after the
fight. And for every day of your delay,
you will pay 1% from your purse to
[the] Ukrainian people. Deal?”
It seemed as if a deal had been
struck, only for Fury to then insist
that he would not agree to any
rematch clause being added to the
contract. Usyk said he was still ready
to fight Fury. But a final impasse this
week meant that negotiations came
to a halt and, yesterday, it was con-
firmed that both parties had walked
away to make new plans for separate
fights against different heavyweight
contenders.
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian
England set sights
on a swan song
fit for Hunter
The Red Roses are favourites
to bounce back from their
World Cup disappointment
and complete the grand slam
Sarah Rendell
England
Coach Simon Middleton
Captains Sarah Hunter and Marlie Packer
Six Nations best Winners (13-times champions
with 11 of those grand slams. England won the
title in 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010,
2011, 2012, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)
Predicted finish First, grand slam winners
The Red Roses are favourites to
lift the Six Nations trophy again
despite losing the World Cup final
to New Zealand in November.
The defeat in the final, which
ended their record run of 30
games unbeaten, was England’s
first loss since 2019. If avenging
that heartbreaking defeat is not
sufficient motivation for them to
defend their title, the swan songs
of the coach, Simon Middleton,
and captain, Sarah Hunter, will
add fire to the dominant English
beast. Middleton will be stepping
down after the tournament and
the record-cap holder, Hunter,
will retire after England’s opening
match against Scotland, which is
being played in her home town
of Newcastle. England’s toughest
match will be against France at
Twickenham but the hosts are
likely to prove too strong with
players such as the wing Abby Dow,
prop Maud Muir and scrum-half
Natasha Hunt – who is back in the
squad – among their stars. More
than 35,000 fans have bought
tickets for the Red Roses’ first
standalone match at the home
of English rugby. The last time
France and England met was at
the World Cup and it was edged by
England 13-7.
•
Sport
Rugby union TikTok Women’s Six Nations
France
Coaches Gaëlle Mignot and David Ortiz
Captain Audrey Forlani
Six Nations best Winners (Six-times champions
with five of those grand slams. France won the
title in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2014, 2016, 2018)
Predicted finish Second
France head into the tournament
looking to shake off England’s
perpetual hold on the trophy with
a new coaching set-up and captain.
Gaëlle Mignot and David Ortiz
have taken over from coaching
staff Thomas Darracq and Annick
Hayraud. They have appointed
a new captain, Audrey Forlani,
despite the regular skipper, Gaëlle
Hermet, being included in the
squad. France came agonisingly
close to the World Cup final with
Caroline Drouin missing a penalty
in the dying seconds against New
Zealand in the semi-final. The
fly-half has not been selected as
she is on sevens duty and so there
is a battle for the French No 10
role. Carla Arbez and Morgane
Bourgeois, among others, are
able to play in the position. The
2022 player of the tournament,
Laure Sansus, has retired, as have
Safi N’Diaye and Celine Ferrer.
Another blow for the team is
Madoussou Fall’s injury, which
means she will not play a part in
the competition. France’s toughest
opposition will be England in the
last round. The last time France
defeated England was in 2018 and
since then they have lost 11 times to
the Red Roses.
▲ Sarah Hunter, capped 138 times,
will retire in Newcastle on Saturday
 From left:
Ireland’s
Nichola Fryday,
Italy’s Silvia
Turani, Alex
Matthews
of England,
France’s Audrey
Forlani, Hannah
Jones of Wales
and Scotland’s
Rachel Malcolm
line up for
the big sell
of the women’s
Six Nations
that starts
on Saturday
DAVID ROGERS/GETTY
Wales
Coach Ioan Cunningham
Captain Hannah Jones
Six Nations best Second in 2006, 2008 and 2009
Predicted finish Fourth
Wales will be looking to capitalise
on their good form from last year’s
competition where they claimed
third, their best finish since
2009. They carried those strong
performances into the World Cup
and they got out of their pool as one
of two third-placed teams to claim
a quarter-final spot. They were
beaten by the eventual winners,
New Zealand, in the last eight
but progress was shown by Ioan
Cunningham’s team. Siwan Lillicrap
has now retired from international
rugby and so Hannah Jones has been
named captain and there are other
players to keep an eye out for. Alex
Callender, Sioned Harries and Lisa
Neumann are among the stars fans
will know. But six uncapped players
have also been named, including the
flanker Kate Williams, who is one to
watch. And while Wales will want
to cause an upset with an English or
French scalp, they will be focused
on retaining third place.
Ireland
Coach Greg McWilliams
Captain Nichola Fryday
Six Nations best Winners (two-time champions,
one of which was a grand slam. Ireland won it in
2013 and 2015)
Predicted finish Fifth
The Ireland captain, Nichola
Fryday, said at the Six Nations
launch the team are targeting third
place as it will determine which
tier they play in at the Women’s
XV, a new global competition, this
autumn. The tournament will be
split into three tiers with the top
three finishers in the Six Nations
being a part of WXV1, which will
also feature the top-three teams
from a cross-regional tournament
featuring USA, Canada, New
Zealand and Australia. Ireland will
be without some of their stars, such
as Beibhinn Parsons and Amee-
Leigh Murphy-Crowe, who are
focused on Olympic qualification
with the sevens team. They do
have Sam Monaghan, the Ireland
player of the year, to call upon and
will also be blooding new talent
with eight uncapped players in
the squad. Ireland failed to qualify
for the World Cup but the team
did not go without any matches as
they toured Japan in August. They
started the tour brightly with a
57-22 win despite going 14-0 down
in the first half. But they fell to a
29-10 defeat in the next game with
the series ending in a 1-1 draw.
Italy
Coach Giovanni Raineri
Captain Elisa Giordano
Six Nations best Second in 2019
Predicted finish Third
Italy are another team with
a new coach after Andrea Di
Giandomenico stepped down after
13 years in charge. Giovanni Raineri
is the new head coach taking Italy
into a new era. He has named
Elisa Giordano as the captain
after her predecessor, Manuela
Furlan, retired in 2022. The team
have a mixture of experience
and inexperience with the centre
Beatrice Rigoni and record-cap
scrum-half, Sara Barattin, in the
ranks alongside eight uncapped
players. Italy reached the quarter-
finals at the World Cup but were
beaten convincingly by France and
it topped off a year where their form
was hit and miss. They finished
fifth in the 2022 Six Nations after
losing three matches, their worst
outing in the tournament since
2017. But they managed to defeat
France in one of two summer
Tests. They will be searching
for consistency. Raineri, who has
been capped for the Italy men’s
national side, said after naming
his first squad: “It will be a new
journey and we will run on to the
field looking to give our best, game
after game.”
Scotland
Coach Bryan Easson
Captain Rachel Malcolm
Six Nations best Second in 2003
Predicted finish Sixth
Scotland have not finished higher
than fifth since 2017, where they
secured fourth, and they will want
to change their fortunes this year.
The captain, Rachel Malcolm,
spoke at the tournament launch
about how the team are adapting
their attack with the objective to
start closing out tight matches. In
the 2022 Six Nations they picked
up three losing bonus points and
Malcolm wants to turn those results
into wins. They have appointed a
new attack coach, Chris Laidlaw.
“As a squad we want to push on and
find a way to get on the right side of
results,” Malcolm said. “We want
to look to play slightly differently
because what we have been doing
prior hasn’t necessarily worked for
us.” A player who will help get them
on the front foot is Jade Konkel-
Roberts. The No 8 has been named
in the squad but had surgery for an
injury in February so it is unclear
when she will be available. At
the World Cup Scotland failed to
get out of their pool and did not
register a win in the competition.
Lineup to face Scotland
Starting XV A Dow Harlequins; J Breach Saracens,
L Tuima Harlequins, A Reed Bristol, C MacDonald Exeter;
H Aitchison Saracens, L Packer Harlequins; M Carson
Saracens, A Cokayne Harlequins, S Bern Bristol, Z Aldcroft
Gloucester-Hartpury, P Cleall Saracens, S Kabeya
Loughborough, M Packer (co-capt) Saracens, S Hunter
(co-capt) Loughborough. Replacements L Davies Bristol,
L Crake Wasps, K Clifford Saracens, C O’Donnell
Loughborough, S Beckett Gloucester-Hartpury,
E Wyrwas Saracens, T Heard Gloucester-Hartpury,
E Sing Gloucester-Hartpury
33
Guinness Six Nations
Steward free
to play after
Dublin red card
downgraded
Gerard Meagher
Freddie Steward should not have
been shown a red card in England’s
Six Nations defeat by Ireland, a
disciplinary committee has deter-
mined. Steward is free to play
again immediately following the
committee’s verdict that the full-back
ought to have been shown a yellow
card after an incident that left Hugo
Keenan concussed and opinion split.
Steward was charged with making
a dangerous tackle on Keenan just
before half-time in Ireland’s 29-16
victory. Due to the complex nature
of the incident, however, the
disciplinary committee changed
the charge Steward was facing. It
considered whether he had breached
a different law – that which states
players must not do anything reckless
or dangerous to others – rather than
making a dangerous tackle.
The committee agreed with the
referee, Jaco Peyper, that head contact
had occurred, that there had been foul
play because Steward had been reck-
less and had been upright as he came
into “highly dangerous contact” with
Keenan but determined that mitiga-
tion ought to have applied including
the “late change in the dynamics and
positioning” of Keenan.
Keenan had stooped to gather
the loose ball after Mack Hansen’s
knock-on with Steward twisting his
body as he braced for impact and
catching his opposite number with
his elbow, which was by his side.
Peyper reviewed the incident with
the television match official, Marius
Jonker, and identified head contact
and foul play.
Peyper then determined that there
was a high level of danger, that there
was no mitigation and decided a red
card was warranted. Steward argued
his case, stating he braced for impact
and “can’t go anywhere else”. Peyper
was adamant Steward had time to
turn his shoulder.
In chang ing the charge, the
committee has effectively agreed
with Peyper up to the point that Stew-
ard had been reckless and committed
foul play but disagreed with the
South African official in that it felt
there were mitigating circumstances.
“The committee acknowledged that
match officials are required to make
decisions under pressure and in the
heat of a live match environment,”
read the committee’s verdict.
▲ England’s Freddie Steward is
sent off by Jaco Peyper in Dublin
 • The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023

34 Sport
Football

Women’s Champions League quarter-final, first leg Kadeisha Buchanan napping, but she
put her effort wide as Berger closed off

Chelsea bring slender lead back her options.

It was far from the tantalisingly
high-energy encounter between

home following Reiten’s winner

Lyon
Chelsea
Reiten 28
Suzanne Wrack
Groupama Stadium
Erin Cuthbert’s gut-busting drive
to win the ball, nutmeg a defender
and provide the assist for Guro Reiten
was the moment of magic needed
to take a slim but critical lead in
Chelsea’s battle with the holders,
Lyon, for a place in the Champions
League semi-finals.
A trip to the home of the holders
0 and eight-time champions, Lyon, was
never going to be easy. Yet this sea-
son the serial winners have struggled,
1 their rhythm blighted.
The French giants still sit one point
clear at the top of Ligue 1, are in the
final of the Coupe de France and have
their eyes on Europe. Such are the
standards set by Europe’s premier
women’s team that progressing from
the group stage in second place was
a failure, to an extent.
There were two changes to the
Lyon side that secured a 2-0 win over
Fleury in the Coupe de France at the
weekend, with the forward Eugénie
Le Sommer and full-back Perle
Arsenal and Bayern Munich on
Tuesday night. Instead there was a
scrappiness to play at the Groupama
Stadium. So, while Chelsea’s goal was
against the run of play, it was also not
surprising. Cuthbert was instrumen-
Morroni taking the places of Vicki tal in the build-up, battling the ball
Becho and Selma Bacha respectively. away from the feet of Ellie Carpenter
The presence of the Champions and nutmegging Damaris Egurrola
League record goal scorer, Ada before feeding Reiten, who curled
Hegerberg, who has 59 goals in 60 her effort beyond Christiane Endler.
games in the competition, on the It was almost 2-0 five minutes
bench for the first time in six months later, with the majestic Lauren James
was welcome and showed the extent ▲ Chelsea’s Emma Hayes watches sweeping free on the right, playing a
of the holes the French side has had a close, at times feisty, contest one-two with Sam Kerr before com-
to fill for much of the season. ing to a stop in front of Morroni, wait-
Meanwhile, although Emma Hayes retaining their place in the starting ing for an opening, then beating the
has had to grapple with injuries to XI for Lyon. full-back and smacking a low effort
Pernille Harder and Fran Kirby, the Much of the first 25 minutes was off the base of the far post.
Chelsea manager was able to rest spent in the visitors’ half but clear-cut Lyon would go close again, with
a number of key players for her chances were rare. Chelsea goalkeeper Sara Däbritz curling an effort just
team’s FA Cup win against Reading Ann-Katrin Berger was forced to race wide of the post but they could not
on Sunday, with only Millie Bright, out early on after Dzsenifer Marozsan’s find the equaliser. There was a big
Jess Carter, Sophie Ingle and Reiten through-ball to Le Sommer caught blow for Chelsea at the close of the
half, with the centre-back Bright
twisting her foot awkwardly, forcing
First her off, with the club captain, Magda
blood to Eriksson, on in her place.
the Lyon The second half mirrored the end
of the first, with a feisty and evenly
tamers
matched midfield duel being played
out ahead of solid defensive perfor-
Guro Reiten mances from both teams. There was
(No 11) is almost calamity for the Blues just past
the centre the hour, though, as Eriksson passed
of attention straight to the Lyon substitute Becho
for her and the forward squared to Delphine
teammates Cascarino, but her strike was tipped
after scoring on to the post by the fingertips
the only goal of Berger.
of the first leg The home team continued to push
CHELSEA FC/
GETTY IMAGES for the goal that would see them
travel to Stamford Bridge next week
on level terms but they just could not
find a way through.
Instead Chelsea return home
with the knowledge they can win
ugly against the very best in Europe
and with the drive for a first Cham-
pions League trophy still very much
on track.

Lyon
4-3-3
Endler; Carpenter,
Gilles, Renard, Morroni
(Bacha 55); Horan,
Egurrola, Marozsan
(Van de Donk 55);
Cascarino (Malard 69),
Le Sommer (Becho ht),
Däbritz (Majri 69)
Chelsea
4-2-3-1
Berger; Périsset
(Mjelde 85), Buchanan,
Bright (Eriksson 44),
Carter; Leupolz,
Ingle•; James
(Rytting Kaneryd 85),
Cuthbert• (Charles 71),
Reiten; Kerr

Referee Tess Olofsson (Swe) Attendance 18,751

SKY BET LEAGUE TWO Cricket M Shami b Stoinis..........................................................14 Tennis

M Siraj not out ................................................................3
Results Leyton Orient
P
36
W
21
D
10
L
5
F
48
A
24
GD
+24
Pts
73
THIRD ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL Extras (lb2, nb1, w9) ....................................................12 ATP & WTA MIAMI OPEN (Florida)
Chennai Australia beat India by 21 runs. Men: First round: T Daniel (Jpn) bt A Rinderknech (Fr) 4-1
Stevenage 36 19 10 7 50 31 +19 67 Total (49.1 overs) .......................................................248
walkover; M Hüsler (Swi) bt A Ramos Viñolas (Sp) 6-7 (4-7)
66 Australia Fall 65, 77, 146, 151, 185, 185, 218, 225, 243, 248.
Carlisle 37 18 12 7 58 35 +23 7-6 (7-2) 6-3; B Nakashima (US) bt O Otte (Ger) 7-6 (7-3)
TM Head c K Yadav b Pandya ..........................................33 Bowling Starc 10-0-67-0; Stoinis 9.1-0-43-1;
Northampton 37 18 12 7 50 33 +17 66 6-3; M Fucsovics (Hun) bt P Cachín (Arg) 6-4 7-6 (7-2);
MR Marsh b Pandya.......................................................47
61
Abbott 10-0-50-1; Zampa 10-0-45-4; F Bagnis (Arg) bt F Alves (Br) 6-3 1-6 6-4
Bradford 37 16 13 8 45 32 +13 *SPD Smith c Rahul b Pandya ..........................................0 Agar 10-0-41-2.
Stockport County 37 17 9 11 50 32 +18 60 DA Warner c Pandya b K Yadav .......................................23 Women: First round: E Andreeva (Rus) bt A Krueger (US)
Toss Australia elected to bat. 7-5 6-2; L Noskova (Cz) bt L Bronzetti (It) 6-3 6-4;
Football Salford City 37 17 8 12 57 42 +15 59 M Labuschagne c Gill b K Yadav .....................................28
†AT Carey b K Yadav ..................................................... 38 Umpires J Madanagopal (Ind) and N Menon (Ind). A Sasnovich (Rus) bt D Galfi (Hun) 6-3 7-6 (7-5); K Muchova
UEFA WOMEN’S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Mansfield 35 16 8 11 55 45 +10 56 TV Umpire KN Ananthapadmanabhan (Ind). (Cz) bt J Teichmann (Swi) 6-0 6-2; B Andreescu (Can) bt
MP Stoinis c Gill b Patel .................................................25
Quarter-finals: First leg Sutton 37 15 10 12 40 40 0 55 SA Abbott b Patel..........................................................26 E Raducanu (GB) 6-3 3-6 6-2; R Montgomery (US) bt
Lyon (0) 0 Chelsea (1) 1 Barrow 37 15 7 15 38 42 -4 52 AC Agar c Patel b Siraj ...................................................17 A Bogdan (Rom) 3-6 6-3 6-3; S Cirstea (Rom) bt
Reiten 28 Swindon 36 13 12 11 49 42 +7 51 MA Starc c Jadeja b Siraj ................................................10 F Contreras Gómez (Mex) 7-6 (8-6) 6-2; V Gracheva (Rus)
A Zampa not out ...........................................................10 bt M Zanevska (Bel) 6-1 7-5; M Brengle (US) bt
Doncaster 37 15 6 16 40 50 -10 51
Extras (lb4, nb1, w7) ....................................................12
Greg Wood’s racing tips A Anisimova (US) 7-6 (7-5) 5-2 walkover
Paris Saint-Germain (-) L Wolfsburg (-) L Walsall 36 11 15 10 38 32 +6 48
Tranmere 37 13 9 15 36 38 -2 48 Total (49 overs) ..........................................................269 Fixtures
Grimsby 34 12 9 13 37 41 -4 45 Fall 68, 74, 85, 125, 138, 196, 203, 245, 247, 269. Football (7.45pm unless stated)
43 Bowling Shami 6-0-37-0; Siraj 7-1-37-2; Chepstow 1.25 Karakoram 2.00 Oakley Dancer European Championship Qualifying
INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY Newport County 37 10 13 14 38 43 -5
Patel 8-0-57-2; Pandya 8-0-44-3; Jadeja 10-0-34-0; 2.35 Leading Swoop 3.10 Dock Road 3.45 Ito Ditto  Group J Bosnia-Herzegovina v Iceland; Portugal
Republic of Ireland (-) L Latvia (-) L AFC Wimbledon 37 10 13 14 38 43 -5 43 4.20 William Philo 4.55 Getmetothemoon 
K Yadav 10-1-56-3. v Liechtenstein; Slovakia v Luxembourg. Group C Italy v
Crewe 37 9 15 13 34 47 -13 42 5.25 Queen Annie
India England; N Macedonia v Malta. Group H Denmark v Finland;
Gillingham 37 10 11 16 25 40 -15 41
*RG Sharma c Starc b Abbott.........................................30 Sedgefield 1.40 Telhimlisten 2.15 Forcing Bull
Kazakhstan v Slovenia (3pm); San Marino v Northern Ireland
SCOTTISH HIGHLAND LEAGUE Harrogate 37 9 11 17 42 54 -12 38 S Gill lbw b Zampa .........................................................37 Rugby league
36 2.50 Hashtag Boum 3.25 The Questioner
Brechin City L Nairn County L; Formartine United L Banks Colchester 37 9 9 19 33 45 -12 V Kohli c Warner b Agar .................................................54 Betfred Super League
†KL Rahul c Abbott b Zampa ..........................................32
4.00 Thatbeatsbanagher 4.35 Ex S’Elance
O’Dee L; Turriff United L Rothes L; Wick Academy L Crawley 36 8 9 19 39 59 -20 33 Huddersfield Giants v St Helens (8pm)
AR Patel run out (Smith)..................................................2 5.10 Edgar Allan Poe
Strathspey Thistle L Hartlepool 37 6 13 18 40 66 -26 31 Cricket
HH Pandya c Smith b Zampa ..........................................40 Ludlow 2.25 Jacks Profit 3.00 Cartonne Second One-Day International
FA WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP Rochdale 37 6 8 23 33 57 -24 26
SA Yadav b Agar ..............................................................0 3.35 Killaloan (nb) 4.10 Latitude Zimbabwe v Netherlands, Harare (7.30am)
Birmingham L Crystal Palace L; Mansfield (-) L Grimsby (-) L RA Jadeja c Stoinis b Zampa...........................................18 4.45 Tightenourbelts 5.20 No No Tango (nap) Third One-Day International
Blackburn 1 Charlton 1 K Yadav run out (Stoinis) .................................................6 5.50 Espoir De Teillee Bangladesh v Ireland, Sylhet (8.30am)
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian
‘I’d never played
in England. Do you
want me to cut
out 70 balls
and score five?’
Tottenham’s Pedro Porro has
his say on Tim Sherwood’s
criticism and his turbulent
start to life in north
h London
Sid Lowe
S
o this is awkward. It is
a beautiful day at Las
Rozas, 25km north-west
of Madrid, and Pedro
Porro is sitting in the
sunshine, happy to be
back in the Spain squad among
old friends, when that rant is
raised. “Well, that’s his thing,” the
Tottenham wing-back starts saying,
not sure what to say about the
moment his own manager tore into
the team he has just joined, when
he says: “The first thing is, what
you’re talking about: I hadn’t heard
it until now.” Wait, really? You
mean you don’t know what Antonio
Conte said? “Yes.”
Oh. And so the first time Porro
hears about Conte’s attack on
Spurs is here, reported back to him
second-hand and 1,000km away.
He listens to how after Saturday’s
3-3 draw with Southampton, a
game in which Porro scored and
one he has just brought up as a
sign that things are getting better,
his coach claimed they could not
be much worse. He hears how
Conte criticised the club’s culture,
accusing his players of being 11
individuals not a team. And he is
told that the manager declared
failure “the story of Tottenham”.
Talk about ruining the moment.
When the recap comes to
an end – “in short, it was quite
something” – Porro pauses, goes
“pffff” and then grins, swiftly
firing back: “Well, that’s his
opinion.” There is a laugh – not
from him – and then, still smiling,
he says: “I’m not getting involved
there. That’s not one for me.”
Which seems fair enough.
Imagine it: you’re young, you’re
a new arrival, you don’t speak
the language and you’re not
even sure where you are yet –
so much so it takes a while to
remember the area you have just
moved to. During your debut one
of the club’s former coaches calls
you “so bad it’s unbelievable” and
now someone tells you the current
coach, the guy who brought you
in, said that and probably won’t be
around much longer.
•
‘You know people
will have their
opinion, say you’re
no good. Anyone can
have a bad day’
As Porro himself puts it, it is easy
to picture him “going blank, in
shock”. Instead there is that smile.
He’s heard it all before, even if he
didn’t hear this one. London is still
where he wants to be – he lives in
Barnet – and time remains on his
side. There is no lamenting the
decision to leave Sporting for this,
even if Tottenham’s own coach
labelled them losers. “No,” Porro
insists, “I don’t think: ‘Where have
I ended up?! What have I let myself
in for?’ Not at all.” And asked his
long-term plan, the response is
unequivocal: “To play at Spurs, of
course.”
Porro is only 23 but he knows
how football can be. At 14 he left
home in Extremadura for Madrid,
joining Rayo Vallecano, travelling
“with fear, to see what happened”.
Next he headed for Girona
where, although he impressed,
he experienced relegation. He
joined Manchester City and was
immediately told to leave again.
And he set off for Valladolid, not
entirely voluntarily. He loved
Lisbon but left there, too, and that
brought anxiety, as he was forced
to wait until the last minute. The
Sporting coach, Rúben Amorim,
insisted he would be allowed to
leave only if Spurs paid his buyout
clause. Eventually he went on loan
with an obligation to buy for €45m
(£40m).
“Those final two weeks were
very hard,” he says. “There’s
uncertainty day after day. You
have to be focused on playing,
but that’s not easy. I even had a
cup final on the last day. But I’ve
always been mentally strong. That’s
fundamental.”
Porro was 19 when Manchester
City signed him and 19 when he
left, four days later. He joined from
Girona, the club City own, but says
he has not got “the slightest clue” if
▲ Pedro Porro is content with his
decision to leave Sporting for Spurs
despite Antonio Conte’s time as
coach of the club looking finished
PABLO GARCIA
Porro is focused
on integrating
at Tottenham
35
that was what took him there: “My
agent told me. I was surprised. It’s
one of the best clubs there is, even
though I was young. It’s a place to
learn.”
There is a pause. “When I left
City for Valladolid it was a smack in
the face because I was very young,”
he says. “City wanted to sign me
long term but decided to loan me
to mature because I’d only been
playing for a year, at Girona. It’s
hard for someone so young to go
away. It all happened very fast: the
last day of the window I had to find
somewhere. Sometimes where
you’re going doesn’t suit you. At
Valladolid I found it harder but
you learn from the hard years, the
experience even if you don’t play.
That’s life, something else to make
you stronger.”
I
n Lisbon, initially on another
loan, Porro “found myself”
he says. “Sporting had given
me everything and there was
no problem but I was ready to
take the next step. I want to
play in the best league in the world.
The best players are there and it
was a dream to join Spurs.
“I’m integrating as fast as I can.
My English is not very good, the
first weeks were a bit harder. Eric
Dier speaks Portuguese and helped,
Cuti [Cristian Romero] too. I knew
words, understood some things
but I had never been there. I get
the team talks: the manager speaks
English differently, as an Italian,
which is easier. I’m trying to adapt
as fast as I can. And you can see
that: in the last game I let loose a
little more.”
That line invites a reflection: it
is more a human process than a
football one? “Exactly. I have taken
lots of beatings,” Porro says. “There
was the coach, I don’t remember
[his name] now …”
That’ll be Tim Sherwood. After
Porro’s first game, Sherwood
described him as “so bad it’s
unbelievable”, demanding he be
taken off. “It doesn’t annoy me,
exactly,” Porro says, although it
certainly stuck with him. “You
know people will have their
opinion, they’re going to say you
played badly, that you’re no good.
You try not to even notice but
it’s impossible. There’s always
someone saying: ‘Did you see this?’”
Ah, yeah, sorry about that.
Porro shrugs, laughs, a
determination there. “Let me loose
in a prison and I’ll end up owning
the place. But it’s hard: it was only
a week, I’d never played a minute
at City, never played in England in
my life. It’s a couple of days, I start
against Leicester. What do you
want? For me to score five and cut
out 70 balls? Anyone can have a bad
day. From there, I just keep on: take
English classes, get into the group,
adapt.”
If it is any consolation, apart
from this Spain call-up of course,
Sherwood was not exactly a
roaring success at Spurs. There is a
smile in the sunshine. “For me, it
makes no difference,” Porro says. “I
don’t know him. I don’t know what
had happened for him to speak.
People passed it on, saying he had
spoken badly about me. But he
won’t be the first who then had to
shut his mouth.”
 • The Guardian Thursday 23 March 2023

36 Sport
Football Euro 2024 qualifying

The Southgate paradox: A

Defeat by France in Doha was
Italy useful in this regard. First because
Southgate did all the things he is
often accused of ducking. The team

winner on a losing streak

England for a World Cup quarter-final was
a 4-3-3 with Kane-Saka-Foden-
Bellingham and four attacking subs
Today 7.45pm Group C to follow. England had 16 shots to
France’s eight and 57% possession.
•
They got stronger as the game
England Southgate is still early wore on and dominated midfield
•
Donnarumma
•
The England manager played England Southgate, that beaky in the second half, a reversal of the
•
Di Lorenzo
Tolói Acerbi •
Spinazzola
himself into a corner with figure in the rented wedding suit pattern of recent tournaments. Only
• his early success and only who seemed for one sunlit summer the most committed anti-Southgate
• Jorginho •
perfection can savee him now to be proving that this is not an truther could find a timidity in
Barella Verratti
impossible job after all. the approach here. England lost
• •
Berardi • Pellegrini Over time, as simple because France have mature, high-
Retegui Barney Ronay competence has been met with a grade players in all positions, and
chorus of howling public dismay, executed the fine details better

• Kane
Foden
• •
Bellingham
Rice
• •
Shaw • •
Maguire
•
Pickford
• Italy
Subs from Carnesecchi,
Falcone, Meret, Bonucci,
Romagnoli, Palmieri,
Scalvini, Buongiorno,
Cristante, Tonali, Frattesi,
Pessina, Grifo, Gnonto,
Pafundi, Scamacca
Injured Bastoni, Chiesa,
Dimarco, Immobile,
Raspadori, Vicario
Venue Stadio Diego Armando Maradona
Referee Srdjan Jovanovic (Ser)
Last two meetings
Italy 1 England 0 23 Sep 2022
Giacomo Raspadori’s stunning
strike in Milan relegates England
from their Nations League group
England 0 Italy 0 11 Jun 2022
A Nations League group game
played behind closed doors at
Molineux ends in stalemate
Key clash
Gianluigi Donnarumma v
Harry Kane
Italy’s goalkeeper is a key
figure for his team and will be
determined to stop England’s
captain becoming his country’s
outright record goalscorer
Managers
Roberto
Mancini
‘We want
to play a
great game,
play well and
begin well’
Weather
Follow the action
TV Channel 4
Radio BBC 5 Live
theguardian.com Join Scott
Murray for our unrivalled
minute-by-minute coverage
T
•
• Southgate has established the ▲ Jude Bellingham greets young (such as, for example, not gum-
Saka here is a nice note of opposite. This thing really is England fans at St George’s Park booting a late penalty over the bar).
circularity about the doomed, to the extent we have But there is room to take this
• Phillips
re-emergence of Roy now reached a peak moment in the Not winning Euro 2024, the most further now. Southgate should also
Hodgson, English Gareth Paradox, the logic of which likely outcome for every manager have learned from the experience.
Walker football’s own courtly goes a bit like this. present, will see Southgate And the squad has improved
Stones
blazered grail knight, Southgate’s early success was waved off by many as an outright even in the last four months.
in the same week that Gareth based on shedding the burden of failure; whereas in reality he is the Reece James is a major addition.
Southgate sets off on what will English exceptionalism. In doing so precise opposite, a qualified and Jack Grealish is playing well for
• England surely be his own final story cycle he also dramatically reinvigorated commendable success. Manchester City. Bukayo Saka
Subs from
Forster, Ramsdale,
as England manager. English exceptionalism. As such, In part this is related to tribal gets better with every game. Jude
Dier, Trippier, Chilwell, Hodgson is, of course, and thanks to his own early gains, politics. Southgate has supported Bellingham is on a constant upward
James, Guéhi, Henderson, Southgate’s de facto predecessor Southgate is now considered by his players in protesting against curve. Ivan Toney looks like actual
Gallagher, Grealish,
Maddison, Toney in the job, setting aside the one- some a national disgrace, the racism, has expressed misgivings centre-forward backup. Marcus
Doubtful game Sam Allardyce interlude, poison not the cure, for the crime about the state of England. He is Rashford will hopefully bring new
None
Injured
which feels more than ever like the of failing to win three straight still “Nord”: a little gawky and well- unstoppable Marcus Rashford
Mount, Pope, Rashford managerial equivalent of a half- tournaments playing all-out spoken, unblokey and academic when he returns.
remembered lost weekend on a attacking Albion-ball. Winning just in his approach. For these crimes The same weaknesses remain.
Norwegian booze ferry. As England a bit is not enough. Only all of the some will never forgive him. Jordan Pickford is a good but
prepare for the double-header winning will do. There will be more talk of not A-grade goalkeeper and the
against Italy in Naples and Ukraine There is no escape route from how exactly England are going same can be said of the centre-
at Wembley, first steps on the gentle here. If England go on to win Euro to play now, if the style of this backs. England lack a really good
downhill slope towards Germany 2024 playing classic Southgate- team can become a little more controlling player in midfield.
2024, it is worth remembering just style roundhead football he will be geared towards attack. And it But there is encouragement in
how lost they were back then. condemned for not winning it right. is a point worth making, firstly Southgate’s best solution to this,
Which was, to be clear, very lost If England win playing thrilling, because England did exactly this which does not involve playing
indeed. Hodgson’s own time did fast-forward football there will at the World Cup; and second five defenders.
at least provide some variation, be uproar and told-you-sos at because this group of players looks The great gift from the World Cup
veering between the slow-burn the failure to do this previously. equipped to take it a little further. is the evidence that Bellingham’s
humiliation of Kyiv 2012, the more
vivid and sustained humiliation
of Brazil 2014, through to the
generational humiliation of Nice
two years later, Hodgson emerging
for his final bow looking like a Not winning Euro
casino floor roué still dressed in last 2024 will see
night’s tuxedo, the weight of a half-
imagined sporting empire on his Southgate waved off
sagging shoulders.
It is worth remembering all
as a failure but he is
this, if only because the journey the precise opposite
from there to here has been a little
undervalued. If Southgate makes it
to Germany he will become the first
proper England manager to take the
team to four proper tournaments.
Walter Winterbottom lasted
four World Cups but he was more
a kind of house master figure,
cooking dinner and doing the
washing up, taking the players to
the opera. Sven-Göran Eriksson got
three tournaments, Bobby Robson
Gareth three and Alf Ramsey three in less
Southgate congested times (the internet will
‘We have tell you Ramsey also reached the
to go to these quarter-finals of Euro 72 but in fact
places and win. this was a losing two-legged playoff
That is the next to get to the tournament proper).
step for us’ In the shadow of this Southgate,
so awkward in his early public
14° appearances he was described by
one wag as resembling an anteater  Gareth
that is only now realising it is not Southgate takes
supposed to be able to talk, has training with
become the curator of England the England
football’s most sustained period of squad as he
success in the last half-century. embarks on
It is worth remembering this, what is likely to
too, as the endgame starts to take be his swan song
shape. In many ways the best THE FA/GETTY IMAGES
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian
all-round pallet of skills means
Southgate can play a three-man
midfield while protecting defensive
weaknesses and retaining attacking
strengths. The presence of Kalvin
Phillips in this squad has drawn
enmity but he is there because
that role is vital to releasing these
strengths, and Southgate does not
have many midfielders who can run
and pass and cover.
It seems clear Southgate would
ideally have Phillips in that
three. This is not loyalty. It is an
investment in a player who has the
required skills to make that shape
work and free up rest of the team.
And so on to Germany, which
feels like a Southgate kind of
tournament. His professional life
still revolves around the moment
at its centre: the primly scuffed
Euro 96 penalty, Andreas Möller’s
wildly infuriating victory prance,
that profound sense of an endless
England operetta of hope and
misfortune. By the end of Germany
2024, should England get there,
only Ramsey and Winterbottom
will have managed more games.
Southgate himself will have spent
20 years of his life as an England
player and coach, defining the
role more clearly than any other
modern incarnation.
History suggests there are no
happy endings in this job. Not to
mention very few happy beginnings
or happy middle periods. But
Qatar 2022 was paradoxical,
too, arguably Southgate’s best
tournament in terms of fluency
and development despite the less
showy end result. England have
made a habit of losing a few of these
limb-weary midweek filler games.
But there is still a chance here to
end on a major chord.
•
Rice hits back at ‘harsh’
criticism from Souness
Jacob Steinberg
Naples
Declan Rice has responded to
“harsh” criticism from Graeme
Souness by saying that the Sky Sports
pundit  cannot have watched him
much if he thinks that the England
international does not do enough to
be regarded as a top midfielder.
Souness made his case by arguing
that world-class midfielders must
do three things well: defend, offer
creativity and score goals. The former
Liverpool midfielder said Rice has
‘Italy is a classic
type of game
we’ve got to
start winning’
 Continued from back page
the qualification right. We can’t take
anything for granted.”
Southgate decided to stay on after
Qatar – he is under contract with the
Football Association until December
2024 – and it has been presumed that
this tournament will be his last in the
role. “Well, that depends if we win,”
Southgate said, with a smile.
Was he suggesting that he might
stick around if England won their first
men’s trophy since 1966? “Let’s hope
we’ve got that opportunity to make
that decision,” he replied.
After the semi-final finish at the
2018 World Cup, then final and quar-
ter-final at the following two tourna-
ments, Southgate is not afraid to state
that he is in this one to win. As he said
about Qatar.
 Declan
Rice, pictured
training with
England, said
he had removed
himself from
social media
as his club,
West Ham, are
embroiled in a
relegation battle
MIKE EGERTON/
PA IMAGES
only one standout quality – his ball-
winning ability – and he was backed
up by Roy Keane before  Manchester
United beat West Ham in the fifth
round of the FA Cup earlier this month.
“It’s harsh,” Rice said. “I think
it’s harsh because Souness doesn’t
watch West Ham every week. There’s
loads of West Ham fans, 60,000 go
every week, and see what I do. To
say I’m only good at one of three
is harsh. But Souness was a top
midfielder and when someone like
him speaks you have to sometimes
listen and take on board where you
can improve if that’s true.”
“You have to be careful as a player
not to assume when you’re younger
that this might not be your last
chance, as well,” he said. “You’re
always going to think you’re going to
have other opportunities but injury,
form, new players coming through
in your position … you can never
take anything for granted. Clearly
the older ones know the timescale is
quite clear. But everybody else has to
be mindful of that as well.”
According to Southgate, his play-
ers “don’t need any more evidence
of what’s possible. They have played
in the biggest games in world foot-
ball bar one. And they’ve had results
against most of the top teams.”
Victory against Italy, though, has
eluded them. Southgate has taken
them on four times as the manager,
‘I remember
the Napoli team
with Maradona
and Careca’
Gareth Southgate
Rice, who will start when England
open their Euro 2024 qualifying
campaign by facing Italy in Naples
this evening, has always been eager
to improve. He spoke in respectful
terms about Keane. The former
United captain coached Rice while
the 24-year-old was part of the
Republic of Ireland set-up.
“Roy as well, he’s said some
glowing things about me in the past
and sometimes some things I can
improve as well,” Rice said. “You take
it with a pinch of salt and try not to
let it affect you.
Representing England offers Rice
a chance to forget about West Ham’s
relegation battle. He revealed that
he has tried to deal with it by taking
himself off social media.
“I try not to read too much,”
he said.  “I don’t really know
about anything that’s going on in the
world at the minute because I’ve come
off all that social media stuff. I couldn’t
tell you who’s playing. Someone really
close to me said the other week I
always look at other clubs in terms of
fixtures and results and they just said
we can only worry about ourselves.”
Rice, who is expected to leave
West Ham this summer, understands
criticism of his performances
this season. “It’s about these two
fixtures for England and when I get
back to West Ham it’s about playing
the best  I can to get us out the
relegation battle and win the Europa
Conference League,” he said.
“My club performances are
probably getting looked at more
because of where we are in the league.
Being captain my performances
are scrutinised more, which I can
take on the chin. There probably have
been some games recently where I
probably haven’t been at my best but
there have been other games where I
have been at my best.”
The Italy midfielder, Marco Verratti,
tipped Rice to reach the top. “I really
like him,” Verratti said. “He provides
great balance to the team and has
wonderful physical attributes. I’m
sure he’ll end up at a top side.”
drawing two and losing two. England
have not won in Italy since 1961.
“The scenario of going to Italy,
where we haven’t won for decades,
is a classic of the type of game that
we’ve got to start winning,” South-
gate said. “If we are looking for the
next step to take as a team, that is it.”
Excitement is mounting ahead
of what the Italy manager, Roberto
Mancini, called a “classic game.” It is
the first time in 10 years that Naples
has hosted a senior international. The
city’s mayor, Gaetano Manfredi, was
at the pre-match press conference; so
was the Napoli president, Aurelio De
Laurentiis, whose team are 19 points
clear in this season’s title race.
Blue lights have been shone on the
city’s most iconic monuments while
Italy will wear a message on the inside
of their shirts for Gianluca Vialli, who
died in January. Mancini described
him as “immortal,” someone that will
live forever in people’s hearts and,
also, an “honorary Londoner” – after
his success at Chelsea.
Southgate said: “I remember the
Napoli team that won the two titles,
with Maradona and Careca. I’ve never
been to Naples before and the history
of the football is so rich here. I’m look-
ing forward to a special occasion.”
37
Football
In brief
▲ Mesut Özil was part of Germany’s
squad that won the 2014 World Cup
Germany
Özil calls time on
‘amazing’ career
The former Germany midfielder
Mesut Özil has announced his
retirement at the age of 34. Özil,
who made 92 appearances for his
country and was a 2014 World
Cup winner, had been playing for
Istanbul Basaksehir in Turkey, but
he has now decided to terminate
his contract and call time on his
career after injuries limited him
to only eight appearances this
season. “I’ve had the privilege to
be a professional player for almost
17 years and I feel thankful for the
opportunity,” Özil wrote on social
media. “It has been an amazing
journey. I want to thank my clubs
– Schalke, Werder Bremen, Real
Madrid, Arsenal, Fenerbahce,
Basaksehir and the coaches who
supported me, plus teammates
who became friends.” PA Media
Liverpool
Etihad away ticket
allocation challenged
Liverpool have challenged
Manchester City and the Premier
League over their reduced ticket
allocation for their trip to the
Etihad Stadium. The visitors have
been restricted to 2,382 tickets for
the 1 April encounter. “The club
is committed to having as many
supporters as possible in stadiums
for Premier League away fixtures,”
read a Liverpool statement. The
Liverpool fans group Spirit of
Shankly have also objected to the
move, saying: “We acknowledge
there have been issues involving
both sets of supporters in recent
seasons, but this course of action
is counterproductive. We urge
Manchester City and the relevant
authorities to rethink and reverse
their decision.” PA Media
Sky Sports
Full-time for Soccer AM
after near 30-year run
Soccer AM, a well-loved staple of
Sky Sports’ Saturday mornings,
is to be scrapped after nearly 30
years. Staff were told yesterday
that the 90-minute programme,
which launched in 1995, would end
on 27 May. According to reports,
Saturday Social, which previously
aired before Soccer AM, will fill
the vacant slot from next season
with an aim of attracting younger
viewers. Sean Ingle

‘It’s just crazy’
Joshua hits
out at collapse
of Fury’s fight
with Usyk
Page 32 
Reiten hands
Blues crucial
lead in Lyon
Lyon Chelsea
0 1
 Chelsea’s Guro Reiten enjoys her
goal in the Women’s Champions
League quarter-final first leg
Match report Page 34 
Italian revenge job
Southgate calls on England
to be motivated by pain of past
David Hytner
Naples
Gareth Southgate has called on
his England players to harness the
pain of the recent past to inspire a
triumphant future, as he prepared
to kick-off his fourth tournament
campaign as the manager.
England face Italy at the Stadio
Diego Armando Maradona tonight
in their opening Euro 2024 qualifier –
the name of the venue alone enough
to stir the demons. As the favourite
•••
Swift exits The Guardian
Thursday 23 March 2023
Raducanu and d
Murray crash
out in Miami
first round
Page 32 
HARRIET LANDER/CHELSEA FC/GETTY IMAGES
showing focus and humility – and
especially not when he and the squad
remember how their previous game
had ended. That was the World Cup
quarter-final against France in Qatar,
when they lost 2-1.
“Every disappointment is motiva-
tion, an opportunity to learn and to
grow and, of course, the Euro final is
additional motivation to us,” South-
gate said. “I am not going to deny that.
“Is it harder to refresh for a new
cycle? No. The way we played in Qatar
son of Naples, where he drove the and then the disappointment of losing
city’s team to their only two Serie A in the quarter-final, that generates
titles to date, Maradona’s image is motivation in itself. I was enthused
everywhere. by the reaction of the players when
Southgate joked that he had bet- they arrived this week. You see their
ter not talk about Maradona’s history excitement at coming back together,
with England but he did not hide from their enthusiasm for everything.
his team’s recent history with Italy, “It is one of the greatest chal-
who beat them on penalties at Wem- lenges anybody could have, try-
bley in the final of the last European ing to get England a trophy. That’s
England will not Championship. pretty straightforward. The hard part
take anything Motivation will not be a problem, is that you have to wait 18 months
for granted, Southgate said, as he reflected on the to get to the point where you will
insists Gareth imperative to start from scratch at actually be judged. We
37 
Southgate the beginning of another campaign, have to make sure we get
Old Trafford
chaos as buyer
bid deadline
is extended
Sean Ingle
The battle to take over Manchester
United was plunged into chaos and
confusion last night after the dead-
line for the second round of bids for
the club was dramatically extended
at the last minute.
Representatives of the Qatari
banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-
Thani and the Ineos owner, Sir Jim
Ratcliffe, had earlier claimed that
their bids had gone in before last
night’s 9pm deadline. However, it
later emerged that it was not the case
and that at least one bid – Ineos – had
asked for more time.
A new deadline is yet to be con-
firmed but Ineos are expecting to
make their bid in the next 24 hours.
The Qatari bidders are now waiting
to hear from the Raine Group, the
banking firm charged with brokering
the sale, before going back in.
Both the Qatari consortium and
Ineos are planning to make offers in
excess of the highest first-round bid,
which was believed to be approxi-
mately £4.5bn. However, well-placed
sources are cautioning that they are
still likely to be well short of the Glaz-
ers’ asking price of somewhere near
the upper end of £5bn to £6bn.
As things stand there are only two
publicly declared offers, with Sheikh
Jassim having bid for 100% of the club
and Ineos targeting the combined
Glazer shareholding of around 69%.
A third option for the Glazers would
be to retain the club but sell a minor-
ity stake to a US hedge fund.
The delay could yet be to the
Glazers’ benefit as it puts pressure
on potential suitors to ramp up their
offers. However, it also further drags
out a saga that began in November.
Last month Sheikh Jassim’s Qatari
consortium officially confirmed their
interest as they pledged to “return
the club to its former glories both on
and off the pitch”. Sheikh Jassim also
promised “to invest in the football
teams, the training centre, the sta-
dium and wider infrastructure, the
fan experience and the communities
the club supports”.
Ratcliffe, who was born in Fails-
worth in Greater Manchester, has
repeatedly stressed his deep links
with the club. The 70-year-old bil-
lionaire, whose sporting portfolio
includes the Ligue 1 club Nice, has also
promised to be “a British custodian
for the club” and to “put the Manches-
ter back into Manchester United”.
Thursday 23 March 2023 The Guardian •

39