The people The racism row Commander’s

who really tearing the White House

run Britain Tories apart rampage
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COLUMNISTS P13

2 MARCH 2024 | ISSUE 1477 THE BEST OF THE BRITISH AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

A failure to deliver
The crisis at Royal Mail
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ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS theweek.co.uk

2 NEWS The main stories…
What happened
Return of the Nasty Party?
Lee Anderson was suspended from the Tory
Party on Saturday after refusing to apologise for
claiming that “Islamists” had “got control” of
London’s mayor. The former Tory deputy chair
said that Sadiq Khan had given the capital away
to extremists, and referred to them as Khan’s
“mates”. He later conceded that his words had
been “clumsy”, but insisted he was right, arguing
that pro-Palestinian protests and threats to MPs
showed that Khan had “lost control of the city”.
Rishi Sunak said Anderson’s comments were
wrong and unacceptable. However, the Prime
Minister denied accusations from Labour – and
the former Tory co-chairwoman Baroness Warsi
– that his party harboured Islamophobic Anderson: “clumsy” words?
tendencies. Anderson, who said he had been
given “phenomenal” private support from Conservative MPs,
refused to rule out joining Reform UK. GB News reported that vote derailed by safety fears (see page 4), and Big Ben lit up
the Ashfield MP had held “one to one” talks on Sunday with
Richard Tice, the leader of the populist party. Separately, the
Tory MP Paul Scully apologised for suggesting that there were
“no-go areas” in parts of Birmingham and London.
What the editorials said
“The Nasty Party is back,” said the Daily Mirror. At a time
when anti-Muslim hate crimes are surging, politicians should
be calming tensions, but Tories are instead
whipping them up. The problem goes beyond
Anderson, said The Guardian. He was
responding to an inflammatory article by
the former home secretary Suella Braverman,
which stated that “the Islamists, the extremists
and the antisemites are in charge now”. At
a US conference last week, Liz Truss blamed
a “deep state” for her failure as PM, and failed
to challenge Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s
former aide, when he described the far-right
activist Tommy Robinson as a “hero”.
This row was “a godsend” to Labour, said the
Daily Mail. It’s easier to slate Anderson than to
address the fact that “threats of violence from
Islamist thugs are in danger of distorting the
democratic process”. In recent days, we’ve seen a Commons
with a slogan widely seen as antisemitic. “How can Labour
MPs demand police protection from the Islamist extremists
hounding them to their homes, while simultaneously suggesting
the threat is being wildly exaggerated by the Right?”

What happened What the editorials said

Two years of war The invasion of Ukraine by 190,000 Russian troops two years
ago marked the start of the “bloodiest war in Europe since
President Zelensky vowed on Saturday 1945”, said The Times – one that has cost
that Ukraine will prevail in its war against $350bn, caused “untold destruction” and killed
Russia, as Western leaders gathered in or injured some 315,000 Russian soldiers.
Kyiv on the second anniversary of President Putin’s assumption that Kyiv would
Moscow’s invasion. Zelensky stated that rapidly fall to his forces was proved
Ukraine had lost some 31,000 troops in “humiliatingly wrong”; but the outlook for
the conflict so far, and said that 2024 Ukraine now looks bleak. Desperately in need
would be a decisive year in the war’s of Western fighter jets and short of artillery
trajectory. The EU Commission president, shells, Ukrainian troops retreated from
Ursula von der Leyen, and the leaders of Avdiivka last week, a strategic bastion in the
Belgium, Italy and Canada were in Zelensky and von der Leyen country’s east, and the war is at a stalemate, at
attendance. President Biden, who visited best. Republicans in the US congress (see page
Kyiv for last year’s anniversary, was a notable absentee. 13) are still holding up a $61bn aid package meant for Kyiv,
said the Evening Standard, and Europe seems unable to supply
Rishi Sunak urged Nato allies to be “bolder” in seizing Ukraine with the hardware it needs.
Russian assets to help fund the war, and said that the UK
would devote £245m to producing artillery shells for “Too much pessimism would be unwarranted,” said the FT.
Ukraine. At a meeting of European leaders, France’s President Ukraine has held firm against one of the world’s strongest
Macron said that sending Western troops to fight in Ukraine armies, and deserves credit for preserving its own fragile
“could not be ruled out”. His remarks were rebuffed by the democracy during this war. The EU has agreed a new €50bn
UK, US and Germany; the Kremlin warned that a conflict financial package for Kyiv. Still, keeping the Russians at bay
with Nato would be “inevitable” in such a scenario. for another year will be a formidable challenge.

It wasn’t all bad The owners of The

A plaque has been unveiled
in southwest Wales to honour
a woman who is said to have
armed herself with a pitchfork to
help repel a French invasion in
1797. Legend has it that Jemima
Nicholas, a cobbler from
Fishguard, led a band of women
to the coast where they joined
forces with other civilians and
British forces to confront 1,200
French troops. Aided by her
female warriors, she rounded
up 12 of them herself and
locked them in a church. The
French surrendered soon after.
THE WEEK 2 March 2024
Crooked House pub in
One of Britain’s oldest
languages has been recorded
Staffordshire, which was for posterity by a Czech linguist.
demolished without Sarkese, which is the dialect of
permission last year, 48 Sark, is a variety of the Norman
hours after it was gutted language that was brought over
by a suspected arson by settlers from the nearby
attack, have been Channel Island of Jersey in the
ordered to rebuild the mid-16th century. Sarkese now
pub exactly as it was. has only three native speakers
South Staffordshire – all of whom are over 80 –
Council said it had tried who have spent years helping
to engage with the owners but had “reached a point where formal linguist Martin Neudörfl to
action is considered necessary”. The Crooked House was built as a codify it. “I call it a window into
farmhouse in 1765. One side of it began to sink in the 19th century the past,” he said. “There are
owing to mining-related subsidence, and over time it became a things we’ve lost in the other
beloved local landmark; the council’s enforcement notice requires Gallo-Romance languages that
it to be rebuilt within three years. we’ve retained in Sarkese.”
COVER CARTOON: HOWARD MCWILLIAM
 …and how they were covered NEWS 3
What the commentators said What next?
Anderson is “a blockhead”, said Sherelle Jacobs in The Daily Telegraph. His claims about Anderson says he will
the London Mayor can only have been born out of “ignorance or downright anti-Muslim definitely stand again for
prejudice”. Khan may have his flaws, but he’s certainly not in thrall to Muslim fundamentalists. his Ashfield seat, which he
He was shortlisted as “Islamophobe of the year” by the Islamic Human Rights Commission for holds with a 5,733 majority.
his efforts to proscribe the political wing of Hezbollah; he was branded an apostate for voting He currently sits as an
for gay marriage. Anderson’s crass comments have diverted attention from the real problem: independent. Were he to
our lack of proper ethnic integration. MPs need to choose their words carefully when discussing stand on a Reform ticket,
such matters, said Fraser Nelson in The Spectator. Anderson’s bluff, man-of-the-people image and win election, he’d be
has been useful to the Tories, but he crossed a line. When you start “accusing Muslim public that party’s first MP.
figures of having split loyalties simply because they are Muslim”, you play into Islamists’ hands.
Labour is calling for the
Sunak has made clear that he considers Anderson’s comments entirely unacceptable, said Chris Government to adopt
Smyth in The Times. However, he has been very reluctant to spell out exactly what was wrong an official definition of
with them, or to go as far as declaring them racist or anti-Muslim. That’s because “he fears Islamophobia. The Equalities
that many of the voters he needs to stay in Downing Street basically agree with them”. Sunak Minister, Kemi Badenoch, this
is caught in a dilemma, said Anne McElvoy in The i Paper. He wants to head off a looming week criticised Labour’s use
challenge from Reform, which passed the 10% mark in two recent by-elections, by showing he of the term, stating that the
sympathises with the concerns of Anderson and so-called Red Wall voters, without alienating Tories preferred to use the
liberal-minded potential Tory voters. But as this latest row shows, it’s “very hard to constrain term “anti-Muslim hatred”.
populists who enjoy the oxygen of publicity more than the steady slog of loyalty”. Sunak That term, she wrote,
can’t win, said Sean O’Grady in The Independent. If he is too fierce in his denunciations of the “makes clear the law protects
likes of Anderson, Braverman and Truss, he risks triggering a fresh leadership challenge. But Muslims. In this country,
humouring his party’s “increasingly vocal tendency to extremism and attraction to conspiracy we have a proud tradition of
theories” just makes him look even weaker. We don’t know what Anderson, a former miner religious freedom AND the
and Labour councillor, will do next, but it’s clear that “Sunak’s political journey is over”. freedom to criticise religion.”

What the commentators said What next?

Western powers have often pledged to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes”, said Michael Leaked Russian military
Clarke in The Sunday Times. But Ukrainians are not feeling very supported at the moment. files have revealed that
Ukraine’s troops had to withdraw from Avdiivka because they’d run out of ammunition. Its Moscow might consider
cities suffer nightly attacks because they’re short of air defence missiles; Ukraine is now waiting the use of tactical nuclear
to see if Washington will pull “the rug from under it altogether”. Yet Russia still isn’t making weapons at an early stage
rapid gains, said Rajan Menon on UnHerd. It barely shifted the front lines in 2023, and of a conflict with a major
suffered huge personnel and hardware losses in the battles for Avdiivka and Bakhmut. Its Black power, reports the FT.
Sea naval fleet has been repeatedly hit by Ukrainian drones. Still, Putin won’t be deterred from The papers refer to a lower
his “total warfare”, said Lionel Barber in The Spectator. Some 40% of Russia’s public spending threshold for using such
is being devoted to the military; 40,000 Russian troops are preparing to attack Kupiansk, a weapons than Russia
small city near Kharkiv. Yet even now, the West still isn’t sending Ukraine’s exhausted troops has previously disclosed –
the arms they need – a scandalous failure, given Putin’s use of terror and “nuclear blackmail”. including if its forces were
“losing battles or territory”,
Nor is Ukraine’s economy in good shape, said Larry Elliott and Phillip Inman in The Observer. or to “stop aggression”.
It was already Europe’s poorest country; now its factories lie in ruins, steel exports have
plummeted, and millions more of its people have been “plunged into poverty”. Facing a $39bn Ursula von der Leyen has
budgetary black hole, it urgently needs a bailout just to “balance the books”. Russia’s economy, endorsed the idea of using
by contrast, is in fairly good shape. The West can address this, said Edward Lucas in The Times. windfall interest from
It has already targeted some 11,600 individuals and 4,600 businesses with sanctions – but these frozen Russian assets to aid
are too narrow in scope and easily avoided. It’s time to go further. We could seize the $300bn Kyiv – the first time an EU
in Russian central bank assets held abroad that have been frozen for the past two years, say, official has backed such
or hit Western firms that prop up Russia’s war economy. But our most pressing task is to get a proposal. However, it is
more weapons to Ukraine’s armed forces. “They, not the cowed fragments of the opposition still not clear if that would
inside Russia, pose the only effective challenge to Vladimir Putin.” be legal (see page 41).

THE WEEK
Editor-in-chief: Caroline Law
This month marks the 40th anniversary of the start of the miners’ Editor: Theo Tait
Deputy editor: Harry Nicolle Managing editor: Robin
strike. At the time, a majority of Britons opposed Arthur Scargill’s de Peyer Assistant editor: Leaf Arbuthnot
illegal and bitterly divisive action; even Labour leader Neil Kinnock City editor: Jane Lewis Contributing editors: Simon Wilson,
Rob McLuhan, Catherine Heaney, Xandie Nutting,
was reluctant to appear on the picket line. Yet today we tend to romanticise the miners’ struggle, or Digby Warde-Aldam, Tom Yarwood, William Skidelsky
Editorial: Anoushka Petit, Tigger Ridgwell, Amelia Butler-
at the least the industry it aimed to preserve. Which, on the face of it, makes no sense in this era of Gallie, Louis Foster Picture editor: Annabelle Whitestone
Art director: Katrina Ffiske Senior sub-editor: Simmy
climate anxiety: coal is a dirty, polluting fuel; and coal mining was dangerous, backbreaking work. Richman Production editor: Alanna O’Connell
Editorial chairman and co-founder: Jeremy O’Grady
The miners of that time probably wouldn’t want their grandchildren to work in the pit. That we feel
wistful for that lost industry even so is because, as Daniel Hannan wrote in The Telegraph this week, Production Manager: Maaya Mistry
Account Directors: Aimee Farrow, Amy McBride
“a colliery was far more than a place of work. In a pit village, it was also the social and cultural centre. Business Director: Steven Tapp
Commercial Head, Schools Guide: Nubla Rehman
When the mine closed, the way of life it had sustained – allotments, a brass band, galas, sports teams, Account Executive (Classified): Serena Noble Advertising
Director – The Week, Wealth & Finance: Peter Cammidge
family days out – disappeared.” Yet for all the pain it caused, Hannan insists that this transition Managing Director, News: Richard Campbell
represented progress. Today’s young won’t have to toil underground, he says. They may not have SVP Subscriptions Media and Events: Sarah Rees

jobs at all – not in the old sense; they’ll be freelancers, constantly retraining for new work, and they’ll Future PLC, 121-
141 Westbourne
“know riches that their grandparents could barely have imagined”. Jobs, he says, are a means to Terrace, London
W2 6JR
that end, not an end in themselves. Is he right, though? Do we only work for money, or do we also
Editorial office:
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Caroline Law
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London Stock Exchange !ǝǣƺǔIǣȇƏȇƬǣƏǼƏȇƳ³ɎȸƏɎƺǕɵ ǔˡƬƺȸ Penny Ladkin-Brand

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any form or by any means without the written permission of the publishers 2 March 2024 THE WEEK
4 NEWS Politics
Controversy of the week Money for potholes

Chaos in the Commons Around £4.7bn that would

have been spent bringing
HS2 to Manchester and
Sadly, it’s impossible to explain the chaos that erupted in the Leeds will be used to fund
House of Commons last Wednesday without “striding straight transport projects in rural
into the weeds” of Parliamentary procedure, said Tom Peck in areas, towns and small
The Times. The furore began when the SNP used one of its rare cities in the north of England
opposition day debates, when it can table a motion, to call for and the Midlands, the
Government announced this
a ceasefire in Gaza – and to set a trap for Labour. The motion
week. Local authorities will
described the Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza as “collective determine how to spend
punishment”, a view Keir Starmer won’t allow his MPs to the money, which will be
support. The idea was to put Labour MPs in “an impossible delivered in instalments over
hole”: they had to vote either against the ceasefire, or against seven years from April 2025.
their leadership. Hoping to avoid such a split, Labour tabled The Department for Transport
an amendment, calling for a ceasefire in less contentious suggested that it might go
terms. The Government then tabled its own amendment, on refurbishing bus and
which normally would have “torpedoed Labour’s plan” by railway stations, filling in
Hoyle: expressed his “regrets” potholes, or expanding mass
knocking out the first amendment, said Thomas Caygill on
transit systems. Labour said
The Conversation. Then, however, something unexpected happened. The Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle – it was a re-announcement.
a former Labour MP – let both amendments stand, a decision that defied convention and the advice
of the Commons clerk. Deprived of their gotcha moment, SNP and Tory MPs walked out in fury. Energy price cap
The UK’s energy regulator,
What a pathetic business, said Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer. Lest we forget, people are dying Ofgem, has announced that
in Gaza in their thousands, and there is now a broad cross-party consensus in support of a ceasefire. the price cap will drop by
It should have been possible for Britain’s MPs to “coalesce around a unified position” – if the parties 12.3% in April, following
had been interested in helping to resolve this conflict, “rather than engaging in grubby gamesmanship a fall in wholesale gas and
in the pursuit of electoral advantage”. Hoyle was keen to “prevent further division” because, as he electricity prices. It means
that, for the average
explained, there were serious concerns for the safety of some MPs if they were denied the chance to
household in England, Wales
vote for a ceasefire. In the current climate, “safety is not a trivial concern” (see page 19). Even so, it and Scotland, bills will drop
was a mistake to override Parliamentary procedure, said Bruce Anderson on Reaction – particularly by £238 a year to £1,690.
when it appeared that Hoyle was helping the Leader of the Opposition “out of a hole”. But he soon That is the lowest level since
realised this, and expressed his “regrets”, seeming almost tearful. It would be a pity if Hoyle, generally March 2022, but still higher
a good and principled Speaker, was forced out of his job, as nearly 100 MPs have now demanded. than in the winter of 2021,
when prices began to surge.
That’s missing the point, said Charles Moore in The Daily Telegraph. It is not the Speaker’s job to Falling fuel prices have also
prevent divisions in the Commons; on the contrary, it is precisely “to facilitate division in an orderly helped cause food price
inflation to slow to 5%, its
way”. That is “how parliamentary democracy proceeds”. Hoyle said that he “feared for the security
lowest rate in two years.
of all Members”. It “looked as if Parliament was cowering in terror. The mob, online or out of doors, According to the Food
was affecting what could be said, just as it had intended.” Many argue that his actions “came from Foundation, a basket of basic
a good place”, said Marina Hyde in The Guardian. But “altering long-established parliamentary food is 23% more expensive
procedure out of fear of violence certainly doesn’t feel like ‘a good place’ for democracy”. than it was two years ago.

Good week for:

Spirit of the age
The 1964 film Mary Poppins
has had its rating lifted
from a U to a PG because
it contains “discriminatory
language”. In the film,
Admiral Boom twice refers
to Hottentots – a word
used by Europeans to refer
to the Khoekhoe, a group of
indigenous people in South
Africa, and which became
a derogatory term for black
people generally. The British
Board of Film Classification
had been asked to review
the film ahead of a
re-release in cinemas.
Waitrose is cashing in
on Easter by selling what
it calls a “hot cross
bunettone” – a hybrid of
panettone and a hot cross
bun. The £8 creation is
studded with candied
orange peel and sultanas,
and has a cross on its top. It
is “the ultimate Easter treat”,
says the retailer’s website.
Panda diplomacy, after Beijing unveiled plans to loan two Poll watch
bears to San Diego Zoo, to “promote mutual understanding” 73% of Iranian adults want a
and enhance “people-to-people friendship”. There had been fears secular government instead
that once the last four pandas in the US were returned home later of a theocratic dictatorship,
this year, Beijing would decline to agree any further lease deals. according to an anonymous
state-run poll – up from 31%
The BT Tower, which is to enter a new incarnation as a luxury
in 2015. Less than 8% of
hotel. The Grade II-listed, 177-metre-tall London landmark, adults believe that women
formerly known as the Post Office Tower, once hosted a revolving should be forced to wear
restaurant, but it closed after a bomb exploded there in 1971. the hijab, down from 19%.
The Daily Telegraph
Bad week for:
64% of British adults
Indian Railways, which ordered an inquiry after a freight train support banning the sale of
travelled 43 miles without a driver. The 53-carriage train’s driver smartphones to under-16s.
disembarked at a station in Jammu during a crew change. The train 71% say they’d back safety
then set off by itself down a slope and gathered speed, hitting software being automatically
62mph. It was eventually stopped by blocks laid across the track. installed on children’s
Primary school teachers, who say they are now spending a phones, which would alert
third of their day, on average, supporting children who are not parents if youngsters had
searched for dangerous or
school-ready, at the expense of teaching time. According to a poll
inappropriate content.
of staff, a quarter of children are not toilet trained when they start More in Common
school; 46% are unable to sit still; 37% can’t dress themselves;
and 28% try to swipe books as though they were touchscreens. 75% of people in Italy say
Prince Harry, after Donald Trump warned that Joe Biden had they regularly drink bottled
been “too gracious”, and said that if he were in charge, Harry water, as do 61% of people
would be “on his own”. The US government is currently fighting in the US, 58% in France
and 42% in the UK.
off a legal attempt to have Harry’s visa application made public, to
Statista/The Independent
see if he disclosed the illegal-drug use he mentioned in his memoir.

THE WEEK 2 March 2024

 Europe at a glance
Paris
Tower strike:
Staff at the Eiffel
Tower went on
strike for six days
last week, forcing
the closure of the
landmark and
disappointing
an estimated
100,000 visitors
to the French
capital. Unions
said that Paris City Hall – which owns
99% of the firm that operates the tower
– had overestimated revenue from ticket
sales, and underestimated the cost of
necessary repairs to the wrought-iron
structure. As a result, the maintenance
budget was insufficient to ensure the safety
of staff and visitors. However, on Saturday
the two sides said they’d agreed a deal to
end the strike, which includes €380m
being invested in repairs by 2031.
Paris
Farmers’ rage: France’s biggest agricultural
show descended into chaos last Saturday,
when scores of angry farmers stormed the
exhibition centre where the nine-day event
was being held. Last month, thousands of
farmers used their tractors to blockade key
roads into Paris, to protest against cheap
imports and green regulations that they
say risk ruining their livelihoods. That
blockade was lifted after the government
pledged €400m to address their grievances.
But many farmers are not satisfied, and
on Friday they drove their tractors back
into the capital. Their skirmishes with
riot police delayed the opening of the
Salon de l’Agriculture, and forced President
Macron to cut short his walkabout. Two
days later, hundreds of tractors converged
on central Brussels, in a protest timed to
coincide with a meeting of the European
Agriculture and Fisheries Council.
Valencia, Spain
Tower blaze: The fire that ripped through
a tower block in Valencia last week, killing
at least ten people, spread as rapidly as
it did because the building was clad in
highly flammable material, experts have
suggested. The blaze, in the Campanar
neighbourhood, started on the fourth
floor of the 14-storey block on Thursday
evening, and swiftly engulfed the entire
building. Most residents who were at
home escaped, but some were trapped
inside and couldn’t be reached by
firefighters. Among the victims were four
members of the same family: a mother, a
father, a three-year-old boy and a newborn
girl. European regulations on cladding
materials were upgraded after the 2017
Grenfell Tower disaster, but the Valencia
tower block was built in 2009, and is
thought to have been clad in a highly
combustible polyurethane material,
similar to that which covered Grenfell.
Catch up with daily news at theweek.co.uk
Stockholm
Nato approval: Sweden finally cleared the
last hurdle for Nato membership this week,
when Hungary ratified its accession to the
defence alliance. Sweden opted to abandon
its long tradition of military non-alignment
in the wake of the Russian invasion of
Ukraine two years ago, and formally
applied to join Nato in May 2022, at the
same time as Finland. But while Finland
became Nato’s 31st member last year,
Sweden’s accession was held up by
objections from Turkey and Hungary,
which both have relatively close ties
to Moscow. Turkey, which had accused
Stockholm of harbouring Kurdish
separatists, approved Sweden’s accession
in January; and on Monday, Hungary’s
parliament followed suit. Days earlier,
Sweden’s PM had travelled to Budapest
to sign an arms deal with Hungary,
involving the supply of four Swedish-
made Gripen jets and the opening
of an AI research centre.
Barcelona,
Spain
Footballer jailed:
The former
Barcelona and
Brazil footballer
Dani Alves has
been convicted of
raping a 23-year-
old woman in
a nightclub in
Barcelona in
December 2022.
Prosecutors said that Alves (pictured)
had bought champagne for three young
women, before luring one of them to a VIP
area, where he attacked her in a toilet. In
pre-trial detention since early 2023, he has
now been sentenced to four-and-a-half
years. Alves appeared 126 times for Brazil
and won three Champions League titles
with Barcelona, which has now revoked
his status as an official club legend.
NEWS 5
Moscow
Swap claims: Alexei Navalny was killed
in order to sabotage a prisoner swap due
to take place within days of his death, his
supporters have claimed. Maria Pevchikh,
head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation,
said that Navalny was going to be released
in exchange for Vadim Krasikov, an FSB
officer who is serving life in prison in
Germany for the murder of an exiled
Chechen-Georgian dissident in Berlin,
but that Vladimir Putin had Navalny
killed because he couldn’t stand the idea
of him being free. Separately, Navalny’s
body was returned to his mother, Lyudmila
Navalnaya, after an eight-day standoff in
which she said officials had threatened
to bury it in prison grounds, or let it rot,
if she would not agree to a secret funeral.
Berlin
Cannabis legalised: Germany has become
the third EU member state – after Malta
and Luxembourg – to legalise cannabis
for personal use. Under the reforms
introduced by the ruling centre-left
coalition, over-18s will be able legally
to possess and use cannabis in two ways:
either by cultivating up to three plants
themselves, or by joining licensed clubs
that allocate limited quantities of the drug
to members. Smoking cannabis in public
will also become legal, although not near
schools or sports clubs. Germany’s health
minister, Karl Lauterbach, said the reforms
were a common-sense response to a spike in
cannabis use in Germany, especially among
18- to 25-year-olds. But conservatives are
furious, and have vowed to repeal the
law if they regain power. Originally, the
government had wanted to make it legal
for adults to buy cannabis in licensed
shops, but that proposal was abandoned.
2 March 2024 THE WEEK
6 NEWS The world at a glance
Columbia, South Carolina New York
Primary win: Donald Trump continued NRA corruption: A New York jury has found Wayne LaPierre,
his inexorable march towards the GOP the former long-standing CEO of the National Rifle Association
presidential nomination on Saturday, (NRA), guilty of using the organisation’s money to fund his own
emphatically beating his last remaining lavish lifestyle, spending it on yacht trips, private jets, safaris and
rival, Nikki Haley, in the Republican other luxuries. After a six-week trial that began days after LaPierre
primary in her home state of South had announced his resignation, jurors found that his extravagance
Carolina. He won 59.8% of votes to had cost the organisation $5.4m, of which about $1m has since
Haley’s 39.5%, adding to his convincing been repaid. LaPierre, who helped turn the NRA into one of
primary wins in Iowa, New Hampshire America’s most powerful lobby groups after taking the helm in
and Nevada’s caucuses. In a victory 1991, must now pay back a further $4.35m. Retired NRA finance
speech in Columbia, Trump declared he had “never seen the chief Wilson Phillips, general counsel John Frazer and the NRA
Republican party so unified”, and accused Joe Biden, his likely itself were co-defendants: Phillips must pay $2m in damages to
rival in November’s presidential election, of “destroying our the NRA; Frazer was not found financially liable. The NRA said
country”. Haley, who served as South Carolina governor from it had been victimised by insiders “who abused the trust placed
2011-17, vowed to stay in the race until at least 5 March, in them”, and that new accounting controls had been put in place.
when voters in 15 states and one US territory will cast their
ballots on “Super Tuesday”.
Earlier on Saturday, in a speech at the Conservative
Political Action Conference (Cpac) in Washington,
Trump had foretold a “judgement day” for his
enemies. Other Cpac speakers included Nigel Farage
and Liz Truss, who told a half-full auditorium that her 49-day
premiership had been thwarted by the British version of the “deep
state”. The West had “been run by the Left for too long”, she said,
and the US “desperately” needed a Republican president.

Houston, Texas
Shares scam: The husband of a BP mergers and acquisitions
manager who made a killing on the stock market, after listening
in on her private work calls, has pleaded guilty to insider trading.
Tyler Loudon and his wife had been staying at an Airbnb during
a trip to Rome when he overheard her discussing BP’s plan for
a $1.3bn purchase of TravelCenters, the fuel station chain. He
promptly bought 46,450 shares in the chain and, when the deal
went ahead in February 2023 and the share price soared, sold
them for a $1.76m profit. However, when his wife told him that
BP staff were coming under scrutiny following the deal, he owned
up to her, and his wife, who has now been sacked from her job,
reported him to BP. Loudon, from Houston, faces up to five years
in jail and a $250,000 fine when sentenced in May (see page 41).

Houston, Texas
Moon landing: Houston-based Intuitive
Machines (IM) last week became the first
private firm to put a spacecraft on the
Moon, when its Odysseus robot touched
down near the lunar south pole. The first
US spacecraft to land on the Moon since
Apollo 17 in 1972, it is part-sponsored
by Nasa to explore an area thought to be
abundant in water ice. The 14ft-tall craft
tipped over on landing, having probably
caught its foot on a rock. But until the
landing site is plunged into darkness this
week, it will be able to send pictures back to Earth. “Once the Sun
sets on Oddie,” says IM co-founder Tim Crain, the craft’s batteries
will die, “and it won’t survive the deep cold of lunar night”.

São Paulo, Brazil Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Far-right rally: Tens of thousands of supporters of Brazil’s former
president Jair Bolsonaro lined the streets of São Paulo on Sunday
to protest against the legal challenges that could put him in jail.
At what he called a rally in “defence of the democratic rule of the
law”, Bolsonaro told the crowd of an estimated 185,000 people
that he was the victim of political persecution, and denied that
he or his supporters had attempted a coup when rioters stormed
government buildings after President Lula da Silva took office in
January 2023. The protest was a show of strength from the far-
right leader, who has been barred from holding office until 2030
because of two convictions for abuse of power, and still faces an
investigation by federal police for his alleged role in the riots. His
allies reportedly plan to challenge Lula in 2026’s presidential poll.
Vaccine rush: Brazilian health
authorities are rushing to roll out
a vaccine for dengue fever, as the
country faces a surge in cases of the mosquito-borne disease.
More than 700,000 cases have been recorded in Brazil this year
(up from 165,000 at this point in 2023); scientists have attributed
its spread to unusually warm weather. The virus causes fever,
headaches and joint pain, and can be fatal: 40 people have now
died from it this year in Brazil, and officials in Rio and three other
states have declared health emergencies. Qdenga, a Japanese-
produced vaccine with 80% efficacy, was approved last year and
is now being rolled out: children aged 10-14, who are especially
vulnerable, are being given priority owing to supply shortages.

THE WEEK 2 March 2024

 The world at a glance
Sanaa
Houthi strikes: Britain and the US
launched a new round of missile strikes
against Houthi targets in Yemen on
Sunday, aimed at undermining the
Iran-backed rebel group’s ability to attack
shipping in the Red Sea. Officials said the
bombings had focused on 18 military
targets, including weapons storage facilities
and air defence systems. The fourth joint
operation, it came days after the rebels
pulled off what was described as their
most damaging attack yet, on a British-
registered cargo ship that is now reported
to be drifting in the Gulf of Aden. The
Houthis, who claim their actions are in
support of Gaza’s Palestinians, responded
to the strikes by vowing to step up their
attacks on shipping. Last week, aid
agencies warned that these were
disrupting the supply of vital aid to Sudan.
Dakar
Election turmoil:
Senegal’s
president, Macky
Sall, has confirmed
that he is willing to
leave office when his
term ends on 2 April, but has not set
a date for a new election. Last month,
Sall abruptly announced that he was
postponing presidential elections scheduled
for 25 February, sparking deadly protests
and raising fears that Senegal, previously
regarded as a relatively stable democracy,
was sliding into autocracy. The decision
was ratified by parliament, but last week
a court ruled that it was unconstitutional,
and called for an election to be held as
soon as possible. This week, a panel set
up to resolve the issue – but boycotted by
opposition candidates – recommended that
the election not take place until 2 June,
and that Sall remain in office until then.
NEWS 7
Rafah, Palestinian Territories
Ceasefire hopes: Israel’s war cabinet met this week
to discuss plans for a ground assault on Rafah,
the city in southern Gaza where 1.5 million
displaced Palestinians are sheltering. Israel says it
is determined to press ahead with the operation,
to wipe out Hamas fighters there. But aid agencies
have warned that such an offensive would have
a catastrophic impact, in terms of civilian casualties
and the distribution of aid to the Strip. Virtually all the limited aid to Gaza currently
enters via Rafah; deliveries would likely cease were Israel to invade the city. The UN
secretary-general, António Guterres, described it as “the nail in the coffin” for Gaza.
On Monday, President Biden raised hopes that the invasion would be delayed or
averted when he told reporters that he was optimistic that a ceasefire deal could be
agreed by early next week. Sources close to the negotiations claimed that Hamas
had been looking at a French-drawn draft that would involve military action being
suspended for 40 days over Ramadan, which starts on 10 March, and Hamas
releasing 40 Israeli hostages in exchange for Israel freeing 400 Palestinian prisoners.
However, Hamas officials later said that no deal was close.
Seoul
Doctors’ strikes: Nearly
two-thirds of South
Korea’s junior doctors
– around 8,400 in total –
went on strike this week
to protest against plans
to expand entry to the
country’s medical schools.
South Korea has among
the developed world’s
lowest number of doctors
per capita; and the
government says it
urgently needs to
recruit more, to care
for the country’s ageing
population. But doctors’
unions say the problem
is that many existing
medics are not paid
properly for
the work
they do.
Algiers
Giant mosque: The
largest mosque in
Africa – and the
third-biggest in
the world – was
inaugurated this week
by Algeria’s president,
Abdelmadjid Islamabad
Tebboune. Located Coalition deal: Shehbaz Sharif is poised
on Algeria’s to return as Pakistan’s prime minister
Mediterranean coast, less than a year after standing down from
the Great Mosque of the job, as part of a coalition deal agreed
Algiers has a prayer between the Pakistan People’s Party
room that can hold and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).
120,000 people, and boasts a 265-metre- Sharif first became PM in April 2022
high minaret, the world’s tallest. Its after helping to oust Imran Khan, who
inauguration has been long delayed: is now in jail; but he stepped down when
construction was completed in 2019, the parliament ended last summer. In last
shortly after the resignation of Algeria’s month’s general election, candidates allied
president of 20 years, Abdelaziz Bouteflika to Khan won the most seats, despite the
– who’d intended the mosque to bear his election allegedly being rigged against
name – in response to a popular uprising. them, but failed to secure a majority.
2 March 2024 THE WEEK

Hanif Kureishi’s accident
Just over a year ago, Hanif
Kureishi’s world turned upside
down, says Dominic Cavendish
in The Daily Telegraph. While
visiting Rome, the novelist
collapsed, hit his head, and
came around to find that he
was paralysed – unable to move
his arms or legs. Kureishi, 69,
spent months in hospital, but
has now come back to London,
and to a starkly different life.
He has had to have a bathroom
installed in his living room and
hire a carer; but the accident
has changed things in other
ways too. “People suddenly
begin to speak well of you,”
he reflects. “Hundreds of
people have been supportive
and compassionate. It’s not
something you would normally
see – it’s normally something
that happens to you when you
die.” With physio, his condition
has improved a little, and he
manages to work, but there is
no clear route to recovery. “I’ve
just got to get used to the fact
that I’m a disabled person now.
The losses are abominable.”
“Intellectual bulimia”
Peter Ackroyd’s new book
about the evolution of
Christianity in England will
leave you “briefly cleverer
than when you began”, says
Tim Adams in The Observer.
And writing it was a similar
experience. “With me, it’s
always a voyage of discovery,”
he says. “I’m telling you what
I didn’t previously know.” Yet
Ackroyd doesn’t hold onto
that information. “Most
writers, I presume, keep a sort
of a memory of events and of
People NEWS 9
people’s lives when they write
a biography. But in my case, it
just completely vanishes once
the book is done.” He’d be
hopeless, he says, in a pub quiz.
“It would be embarrassing.”
Although Dickens was the
subject of one of his biggest
books, “I can now hardly
remember who he was married
to or the names of any of his
children.” His craft, he says,
is “a form of intellectual
bulimia: you eat a great deal
of knowledge. And you sick it
up. And then you start again.”
My teacher, Rachmaninov
In 1934, Ruth Slenczynska
received a telegram, says Cathy
Free in The Washington Post.
Sergei Rachmaninov had hurt
his elbow and couldn’t play a
concert in Los Angeles. Could
she – then a nine-year-old
being promoted as the greatest
prodigy since Mozart – fill the
bill instead? Slenczynska said
yes. As for Rachmaninov, he Before her 16-year-old daughter Brianna was murdered last year,
could have been grumpy Esther Ghey worked as a food technologist, says Tom Ball in The
about being replaced by a Times. A quiet, unassuming woman, she loved the job; but she
child. Instead, he took her on won’t be going back to that career. At 37, she plans instead to
as his pupil. Slenczynska had dedicate her life to creating something positive out of Brianna’s
spent years being taught by death: she is pushing for reforms to reduce online harms, and
her father, a domineering man campaigning for mindfulness to be taught in schools, in the hopes
who’d slap her when she made of instilling more empathy and kindness in children. These are traits
a mistake. The great composer, she seems to have in abundance herself. When Brianna’s teenage
by contrast, would treat her to killers were on trial, neither showed a trace of remorse; yet within
tea and Russian cakes and gave minutes of their sentencing, Ghey had emerged onto the steps of
her a small Fabergé egg, which the court in Manchester to urge people to have some compassion
she still wears as a necklace. for their parents, who, she said, “had also lost a child”. She has also
“He was more than a teacher,” stressed that she herself does not “hate” Brianna’s killers. How then
she recalls. “He was a kind did she feel, when the depths of their brutality and cruelty became
person, like a grandfather.” clear? “When the police went through the evidence with me it
Now 99, she thinks she is his affected me massively, and I basically cancelled everything in my
last living student. “That is diary for that week and took some time to myself,” she says. “But
something I never expected, it wasn’t necessarily hate or anger I was feeling. I think it was just
but then, life never turns out a deep sadness for what actually happened to Brianna. And the
the way you expect it to.” sadness that I wasn’t there for her when it was happening.”

Castaway of the week Viewpoint:

This week’s edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs featured
Farewell
the costume designer Sandy Powell A career in politics Ian Amey, guitarist for
“In most democracies, defeated Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky,
1 Jeepster by Marc Bolan, performed by T. Rex politicians have to make a living Mick and Tich, died
2 Symphony No. 5 – IV: Adagietto by Gustav Mahler, elsewhere. America is almost unique 15 February, aged 79.
performed by Orchestra of the National Academy in being able to keep election-losers in Stan Bowles, QPR
of Santa Cecilia, conducted by Franco Mannino handsome employment within politics. and England footballer,
3* Life on Mars?, written and performed by David Bowie There is always a TV slot, a think-tank died 24 February,
4 La Vie en Rose by Louiguy and Édith Piaf, performed by sinecure, a speaking gig, a book deal. aged 75.
Alan Dunn So lucrative and ego-feeding is America’s Wendy Mitchell,
5 I’ll Never Fall in Love Again by Burt Bacharach and Hal political industry, that even non- writer and dementia
David, performed by Bobbie Gentry Americans strive to crack it. Last week, campaigner, died
6 Satellite of Love, written and performed by Lou Reed Liz Truss gave a speech of virtuoso 22 February, aged 68.
7 Where Love Lives (Come On In) by Lati Kronlund, dottiness to a right-wing conference Lord (Jacob)
performed by Alison Limerick in Maryland. Don’t knock it as a career Rothschild, peer
© PAUL GROVER/THE TELEGRAPH

8 I Left My Heart in San Francisco by George Cory and move. There is more income, less stress and financier, died
Douglass Cross, performed by Tony Bennett 26 February, aged 87.
and often larger audiences to be had
as a touring windbag than as a minister. John Savident, stage
Book: Gypsies by Josef Koudelka Why moderate to win office if you can and screen actor, died
Luxury: a lemon tree have the same trappings out of it?” 21 February, aged 86.
* Choice if allowed only one record
Janan Ganesh in the Financial Times

2 March 2024 THE WEEK

 Briefing NEWS 11

Trouble at the Royal Mail

The UK’s postal system is struggling to make deliveries on time, and wants to cut its services radically

What difficulties is it facing? across Europe: in fact, the only nations

Royal Mail has suffered a litany of recent that offer a six-days-a-week next-day
setbacks: intermittent postal strikes service are the UK and Malta (which
between May 2022 and July 2023; a is 17 miles long). La Poste in France has
major hacking incident that cost it £10m; ended next-day delivery. Italy now has
whopping half-yearly losses, announced alternate-day delivery. Germany delivers
in November, of £319m. Most six days per week, but within three days.
importantly from its customers’ point of Denmark has just one delivery per week.
view, though, it provides a poor service.
Late last year, the regulator Ofcom issued What is the case against reform?
Royal Mail with a fine of £5.6m because Royal Mail was privatised on generous
it failed to reach its delivery targets in the terms (and at an artificially low price,
2022/23 financial year. Under Ofcom’s according to the National Audit Office).
rules, it is meant to deliver 93% of first- The government sweetened the deal by
class mail within one working day, and relieving it of nearly £40bn of pension
98.5% of second-class mail within three obligations, and of the loss-making Post
working days. It managed only 73.7% Office network. Royal Mail also came
of first-class mail on time, and 90.7% with a vast property portfolio, over
of second-class mail. This despite big Around seven billion letters are delivered each year £500m of which has since been sold off
rises in stamp prices: first-class stamps (for instance, the Mount Pleasant sorting
rose by 15p in October to £1.25, the third increase in 18 months. office in London). The “overarching objective” of privatisation,
In January, Ofcom raised doubts about Royal Mail’s ability to said Vince Cable, then the business secretary, was the protection
fulfil its basic role: delivering the post six days per week. of the USO. Yet Royal Mail has missed its delivery targets every
year since 2017, while siphoning off large amounts of cash. It has
Why is Royal Mail having these problems? paid nearly £2bn in dividends to investors since 2013 (about 60%
Ofcom outlined what it sees as the underlying issues. The letters of post-tax profits), and its two top executives have received pay
market is in “structural decline”, thanks to the internet. Letter worth £27m. Critics argue that it is another botched privatisation:
volumes in the UK halved between 2011/12 and 2022/23, from Royal Mail has privatised profits, but shirks its social obligations.
around 14 billion items to seven billion, and the decline has In addition, though the letters business has shrunk significantly,
recently accelerated. Yet Royal Mail, which was privatised in the profitable parcels business has grown, because of internet
2013, is legally obliged to meet the Universal Service Obligation shopping (often, it is reported, at the expense of letter deliveries).
(USO): it must deliver mail to the UK’s around 32 million homes, Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distributions Services,
at a fixed price, six days a week. Ofcom calculates that the USO has spun this out into two other companies, Parcelforce in the UK
cost Royal Mail £325m-£675m in 2021/22, because it requires it and General Logistics Systems in the Netherlands. And it aims to
to maintain a vast national network of postboxes, sorting offices have “no cross subsidy” from them to Royal Mail.
and distribution centres, manned by more than 150,000 workers.
What will become of the proposals?
What does Ofcom propose doing about this? Rishi Sunak rejected them: he is “absolutely committed” to
It didn’t suggest removing the USO, because the post is “important retaining the USO in its current guise. Ministers are acutely aware
for social cohesion” – for some users, particularly the elderly, it is of the unpopularity of reducing Royal Mail deliveries, particularly
a crucial means of contact with the world – and the NHS and with a general election looming, and its proposal to reduce service
banks, for instance, rely on it for important correspondence. levels prompted an angry reaction. Industries reliant on Saturday
Instead, Ofcom put forward two reform options for a “national deliveries, including magazine publishers – such as The Week –
debate”. The first is replacing the and greetings-card makers, have been
existing first and second class with a A postal history fiercely resistant to five-day delivery.
“standard service”, which would take The Royal Mail’s origins date back to 1516, when Henry The Communication Workers Union
“three days or longer”, supplemented VIII knighted the first Master of the Posts, Sir Brian complained: “Ofcom have abandoned
by a premium next-day service for Tuke: letters were carried from one “post” to the next their responsibilities on quality of
any urgent letters. The second option by couriers. At first only accessible to the king and his service, and are now attempting
would involve reducing delivery days court, the service was opened up to the public by to do the same on the USO.”
from six to five or three. This would Charles I in 1635. In 1660, the Post Office Act brought it
require a change in the law. under public ownership; initially, the addressee had to What will happen next?
pay the postage. By 1665, the Royal Mail still only Royal Mail is trying to improve
employed 45 sorting and delivery staff; but in 1685 the
Why does Ofcom want reforms? penny post was introduced in London, and it expanded
efficiency: it invested £440m in
The postal service is “getting out rapidly. By 1785, “post boys” had been replaced on automation and electric vehicles in
of date”, warned Ofcom’s chief major routes by mail coaches, which were faster and 2023. But it remains troubled: last
executive Melanie Dawes, and will guarded by armed men. In the 19th century, the Royal year it lost its fourth chief executive
“become unsustainable if we don’t Mail began deliveries by sea (from 1821) and rail (from in four years, Simon Thompson.
take action”. The argument goes that 1840). The world’s first adhesive paper stamp, the Insiders describe an organisation
Royal Mail is losing money on an Penny Black, was introduced in 1840 (before that they grappling not just with changing
unsustainable business model, because were stamped by hand). The “Uniform Penny Post”, consumer habits, but with a highly
it is obliged by law to maintain covering the whole nation, was introduced the same unionised and demoralised
year. By 1901, 2.3 billion letters and 419 million
uneconomic services. Ofcom thinks postcards were being sent annually. Within London,
workforce. For customers, there is
that reducing letter deliveries to five letters could be delivered within two hours; they’d little light at the end of the tunnel.
days would save it £100m-£200m; reach India in 35 days. The first postbox was installed, Ofcom noted it was “disappointed”
and cutting deliveries to three days in Carlisle, in 1853; there are 115,00 today. Postcodes that Royal Mail “has been unable to
per week would save £150m-£650m. were rolled out nationally between 1959 and 1974. provide us with a timeline for when
Such steps have already been taken its performance will improve”.

2 March 2024 THE WEEK

12 NEWS Best articles: Britain
Britain is suffering from a chronic ailment, says Kate Andrews.
“Mass worklessness.” Employers are crying out for staff, yet ever IT MUST BE TRUE…
What happens more people are dropping out of the labour force. A quarter of the
working-age population of Blackpool, for instance, is on out-of-
I read it in the tabloids

when Britain work benefits. This is a recent phenomenon. Four years ago,
workforce participation in the UK was at 79.5%, the highest
A £35-per-head “Willy Wonka
Experience” in Glasgow was
so disappointing that angry
stops working level on record. Then came the pandemic, which upended labour
markets everywhere. But while other workforces have bounced
parents called the police. The
“immersive” event was billed
Kate Andrews back, ours has not. And that’s largely due to the growing number as a “chocolate fantasy like
of people being signed off work with depression and anxiety. This never before”, and attracted
The Spectator is a huge drag on the economy. Had the proportion of people in families from across Scotland
the UK workforce kept pace with, say, that of France, we’d have and the north of England. But
1.2 million more people in employment today, all earning money attendees were instead met
with a near-empty warehouse
and paying taxes. As it is, working-age disability-benefit spending decorated with a handful
is expected to rise from £19bn to £29bn over the next parliament of plastic props and a small
– a rise equal to the total cost of our justice system. If it continues bouncy castle. Children were
at this rate, worklessness could be the death of our economy. left in tears. One attendee
complained he “didn’t even
The bombing of Gaza has exposed the limits of America’s power get a Freddo”. It was closed
– a frustrated White House has learnt it wields little leverage over within hours of opening.
America has Israel. Or so we’re told. Don’t you believe it, says Mehdi Hasan.
The US could stop this campaign any time it chooses. Members
a big stick that of the Israeli defence establishment openly concede as much. “The
minute they turn off the tap, you can’t keep fighting,” retired Maj
it isn’t using Gen Yitzhak Brick declared in a recent interview, noting Israel’s
dependence on US ammunition, drones and bombs. The extent
Mehdi Hasan of US leverage was graphically illustrated in 1982, when Ronald
Reagan called Israeli PM Menachem Begin to demand Israel stop
The Guardian its bombing of Beirut. Twenty minutes later, the bombs ceased. Joe
Biden did much the same in May 2021, during a previous Gaza
bombing campaign: Benjamin Netanyahu had rejected calls for
a ceasefire from France and Egypt, but couldn’t deny Biden. “We
need to accomplish more,” Netanyahu had pleaded. “Hey, man, we
are out of runway here,” Biden had replied. “It’s over.” The truth is Google’s AI chatbot Gemini
the US has plenty of leverage over Israel, should it wish to use it. has been ridiculed for
generating “woke” images
We need to wake up to the madness of giving our children of ethnically diverse Vikings,
smartphones, says Juliet Samuel. Most of them now spend 50% German soldiers, knights
Throw your more time on social media sites than socialising with friends, and
the evidence of the damage this does to their mental health is too
and other historical figures.
Asked to produce a picture
child’s phone hard to ignore. But don’t think the Government’s new plan to get
schools to ban them will do anything: most schools already have
of a pope, Gemini showed
a Southeast Asian woman
in the bin bans in place, but either can’t or won’t enforce them. No, letting
the young have phones – 97% of 12-year-olds own one – has
wearing holy vestments. The
bot also produced images of
Juliet Samuel become a cultural norm: that’s what has to change. Oh, but Native American “Vikings”,
children need to adopt the new technology in order to learn, say black Founding Fathers,
The Times the “trendy dads and modish head teachers”. Really? What exactly and black and Asian Nazis.
do children learn from “doom-scrolling Snapchat?” What cognitive Google admitted that, on
ability are they “‘developing’ by absorbing viral memes, watching this occasion, Gemini had
porn and exchanging nude pictures?” We need to remove “missed the mark”.
smartphones entirely from the childhood years: it’s the only way
to tackle the addiction. Thanks to the harrowing testimony of A woman in Ireland has lost
those who have lost children as a consequence of social media, a £650,000 injury claim after
being photographed winning
there are signs that such a movement is stirring. Not before time. a Christmas tree-throwing
contest. Kamila Grabska,
A flood is about to engulf Europe, says Andrew Neil, a flood of 36, claimed she’d been left
cut-price goods. Hoping to rescue its floundering economy, China in a “disabling” condition
How China is has embarked on a massive export drive. It kicked off last week
when Explorer No. 1, a giant cargo ship carrying 5,500 electric
following a car accident in
2017; but the Irish high court
about to make vehicles (EVs), docked at a Dutch port. Seven more such vessels will
follow in its wake, each built by the Chinese company BYD, the
threw out her case when
it was shown a newspaper
our life easier world’s biggest EV manufacturer (it overtook Tesla last year), for
the sole purpose of exporting to Western markets. All this spells
photograph of her hurling
a tree in 2018. “It is
a very large,
Andrew Neil trouble for European manufacturers, most of all for carmakers, natural
who can’t compete with BYD on price. The fear is that, in years to Christmas
Daily Mail come, this will drag us into the “same deflationary trap as China” tree, and
– falling prices leading to low growth. But there’s an upside: the it is being
immediate relief it will bring to our cost-of-living crisis. The UK’s thrown
inflation rate is already ebbing – it could hit its target of 2% by by her in
late spring: China’s cheap exports will fuel this trend. That’s why a very agile
the Bank of England should get ahead of the curve and start movement,”
the judge
cutting interest rates now. This is the moment to pump demand
© SWNS

noted.
into the economy and end our status “as the stagnation nation”.

THE WEEK 2 March 2024

 Best of the American columnists NEWS 13
America is sliding towards “theocracy”, says Ruth Marcus. If you don’t believe it, just consider
a ruling last week by the Alabama supreme court, which declared that frozen embryos are human
Theocracy beings. The case involved tiny embryos, frozen within a few days of fertilisation and consisting of
perhaps a few hundred cells, held in a fertility clinic – or, as the court described them, “extrauterine
comes to children” in a “cryogenic nursery”. In his concurring opinion, the chief justice of the court, Tom
Parker, held forth in a manner that made a mockery of America’s supposed separation of church and
Alabama state. “Even before birth,” he wrote, “all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot
be destroyed without effacing his glory.” It’s an extraordinary ruling with ominous ramifications.
Ruth Marcus The immediate danger is to the availability of fertility treatment in Alabama. If embryos are unborn
children protected by wrongful-death laws, IVF clinics won’t want to create and store any more
The Washington Post frozen embryos – it will be too risky for them. Will states now prohibit IVF altogether, or seek to ban
birth control pills or the morning-after pill? Alabama’s decision takes the theocrats one step closer to
their ultimate aim of having “the fertilised egg declared a person from the moment of conception”.

What is it with Joe Biden and dogs, asks Margaret

Hartmann. It emerged last summer that one of his
A canine German shepherds, Commander, had bitten a few
people. But newly unsealed Secret Service records
scandal in the show the dog has left a veritable trail of blood
through the White House, biting agents at least 24
White House times. In one case last June, Commander knocked
an agent down and bit him so badly that East Wing
Margaret Hartmann tours had to be suspended while maintenance crews
mopped up the blood. Agents logged attacks on a
New York Magazine spreadsheet and exchanged tips on tactics to avoid
canine assault. Biden finally rehomed Commander
last October, but why did he let his dog “use White Commander with the commander-in-chief
House personnel as chew toys” for so long? Trump
should make the most of this scandal. Americans have strong opinions on proper pet care, and on
this issue the Trump White House can claim a “squeaky clean” record – because Trump “hates dogs”.

I’m fed up with the hypocrisy of America’s privileged classes, says Brad Wilcox. The elite wield great
influence on culture and politics – “and on matters of family, they are abdicating it”. It’s clear from
Elites should their life choices that they’re well aware of the benefits of marriage and stable, two-parent families
(nearly 75% of students in elite universities were born to married parents who have stayed married).
preach what Yet in public they affect to believe that all family forms are equally good, celebrating “practices they
privately shun”. In short, they “talk left” but “walk right”. While they might claim they’re just being
they practise non-judgemental, that’s a cop-out. The strongest predictor of economic mobility for poor children is
family structure. We shouldn’t be ashamed of promoting marriage: the Department of Defence is one
Brad Wilcox of the only official bodies that does, offering better housing allowances and other perks to married
personnel. Partly because of this, working-class and African-American members of the military marry
The Atlantic at much higher rates than their civilian peers. Educated elites need to help bridge the marriage divide
that has emerged in the US in recent decades. Their failure to preach what they practise, “however
well intended, contributes to American inequality, increases misery, and borders on the immoral”.

Ukraine: how Trump turned the Republicans against Kyiv

I’ve got an idea for Donald Trump’s next fundraising gimmick,
said Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times. Following
the release of the former president’s line of $399 gold “Never
Surrender” trainers, perhaps he should start selling white flags
at $1,000 a pop, emblazoned with the words: “We surrendered
Ukraine to Russia.” The flags could be autographed by him and
the Republican “sycophants” in congress who have blocked
a crucial $61bn military aid package for Kyiv. Trump is dead
set against it; and it is truly depressing how many Republicans
have surrendered their principles to take his side. Their party
has always championed the “classic US great-power approach”
to foreign policy, based on US leadership and strong alliances,
but now it just strikes poses and stays on the right side of the
former president. The GOP “has become a cult with no coherent
platform other than what side of the bed Trump woke up on”.
The party is not all in Trump’s camp on this issue, said Molly
Ball in The Wall Street Journal. A group called Republicans
for Ukraine last week launched a major digital-advert campaign
arguing that the failure to supply more military aid to Kyiv
would put American national security at risk. And Trump’s
rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Nikki Haley,
has harshly criticised his anti-Nato rhetoric. “Trump sided
with an evil man over our allies who stood with us on 9/11,”
she declared at a recent rally. “Think about what that told
them.” But the reality is that these arguments aren’t gaining
much traction in today’s GOP. A growing share of the party’s
grassroots members have become disenchanted with America’s
support for Kyiv, regarding it as unaffordable or pointless. Some
feel there’s something shady about the whole operation. These
people are “broadly sceptical of foreign aid and unmoved by
warnings that Western democracy is at stake”.
If those arguments fail to sway Trump supporters, said Marc
A. Thiessen in The Washington Post, here’s another one that
should: denying Kyiv aid could cause problems for Trump
down the line. The former president has long boasted that, if
re-elected, he’ll end the war in 24 hours by negotiating a deal.
He suggested in July that, to convince Vladimir Putin to take
a deal, he might threaten to massively increase aid to Ukraine.
But the longer the US withholds such help today, and the
more embattled the Ukrainians become, the less credible such
a warning will be. If Russia has “already all but won on the
battlefield by the time Trump takes office”, Putin will have no
incentive to negotiate. If the Republicans want to help Trump,
they should send Ukraine arms now. “If they don’t, they – not
Biden – will own Ukraine’s military collapse, and they would
leave Trump with a weak hand if he retakes the Oval Office.”

2 March 2024 THE WEEK

14 NEWS Best articles: International
Russia’s “grey zone” tactics in Finland’s snowy forests
Another crisis involving an influx
of migrants is building up on
Europe’s border, said Christiane
Kühl on Merkur.de (Munich). But
this one isn’t in the Mediterranean:
it’s occurring along the frozen
stretches of the 832-mile frontier
between Finland and Russia. From
August to December last year, more
than 1,300 refugees from nations
such as Yemen, Somalia and Syria
crossed into Finland (before that it
had been an average of just one a
day); thousands more are expected
when spring arrives. It’s all part
of Russia’s plan to destabilise its Migrants at Finland’s Salla border last November
neighbour. The tensions between
the two countries have a long history, but in April last year they
escalated dramatically when Finland joined Nato, and have
risen ever since. Using migrants as a weapon is a classic case of
Russia using “grey-zone tactics” against a Nato state – a ruse
somewhere between political pressure and physical aggression.
In response, Finland closed all its border crossings in November, to remain well-equipped: it recently bought a high-altitude
said Elisabeth Braw on Politico (Brussels). However, “like any
responsible democratic government”, it put a time limit of two
weeks on the closure, hoping that would deter Moscow from
doing the same again. Yet when it reopened two crossings in
December, the migrants started pouring in again. So now, as
well as shutting all of its crossing points, it’s stepping up patrols
using heat sensors and drones to stop them crossing through the
woods. But it’s not easy picking them up in freezing, inhospitable The number of migrants arriving in Finland is tiny compared
woodland in the depths of winter, so last year work started on
a 124-mile, ten-foot-high barbed wire fence along a sensitive
part of the border. This has badly hit the many Finns needing
to travel to Russia, in particular ethnic Russians living in
Finland, some of whom have held protests to “voice their
anger” over Helsinki’s handling of the dispute.
Finland’s firm stance also risks undermining its image as a
liberal nation that follows international asylum conventions,
said Erika Solomon in The New York Times. But Helsinki had
no choice. Finnish guards say the migrants are either forced
across the border or given bicycles
to encourage them to cross it.
The long border has shaped
Finland’s relations with Russia,
said Laura Saarikoski in Helsingin
Sanomat (Helsinki). It sees its
neighbour as an “unstable giant”
to be mollified when possible, but
to be guarded against in readiness
for those times when a “bout of
delirium” overtakes the Kremlin.
And until Russia invaded Ukraine,
Finland relied on its own resources
for its security, said Andrea
Prada Bianchi in Foreign Policy
(Washington). From the end of the
Second World War up to last April it had kept militarily neutral,
while developing the strongest artillery in western Europe and
making military service mandatory for school leavers. Fully
900,000 of its 5.5 million people have had military training,
and it now boasts a wartime troop strength of 280,000. Nato
membership ended that self-reliance, but not Finland’s resolve
air-defence system from Israel and 64 F-35 jets from the US.
It also plans to open 300 new shooting ranges to help citizens
develop their shooting skills, said IceNews (Reykjavik). And
Finns are responding to the initiative: enrolment in voluntary
defence courses has doubled since the Ukraine invasion, and
there has been a huge increase in applications for gun licences.
to those reaching southern Europe, but 80% of Finns still back
the decision to close the border, said Julian Gomez on Euronews
(Brussels). That support has emboldened the government, a
coalition led by conservatives and the far-right, to look at even
tougher ways of dealing with migrants, not least joining with
other Nordic countries in chartering repatriation flights. Yet
this is a problem that isn’t going to go away, said Ilta-Sanomat
(Helsinki). The border is due to reopen in mid-April, by which
time snow will be melting and Finland’s new president, the
former prime minster Alexander Stubb, will have taken office.
Don’t be surprised if Vladimir Putin decides to “test his nerves”.

The EU is threatening to lead us down a very dangerous road, says Ceri Woolsgrove. Its transport
BRUSSELS committee has proposed lowering the age at which people can drive an HGV from 21 to 17, so as
to lure more truckers into the profession. “What could possibly go wrong?” EU rules already allow
Why is the EU member states’ national governments to lower the age limit for lorry drivers to 18, and there’s plenty
set on driving of evidence to suggest that it’s a bad idea: research in Germany shows that 18- to 20-year-old truckers
cause about a quarter of all accidents per licence holder. Just as crazy is the committee’s proposal to
us into danger? alter rules to enable 16-year-olds to drive “2.5-tonne SUVs” – despite plentiful evidence that 16- to
17-year-olds are twice as likely to have a crash as 18- to 19-year-olds. Such steps are wrongheaded.
EUobserver Truckers don’t need to be younger; they need better working conditions, salaries and hours. If we
(Brussels) want to help older teenagers in rural areas get around, we should invest in public transport and
walking or cycling infrastructure. Brussels must abandon these dangerous plans before it’s too late.

It’s not just a shortage of ammunition that’s hobbling Ukraine’s fight against Russia, says Mykhailo
UKRAINE Dubynianskyi – another reason we’re on the back foot is our terrible “demographic deficit”. Most
nations send their “young and healthy” to war. The average age of a Ukrainian on the front line, by
The old fight contrast, is 43. Many are older still, and there are even reports of Ukrainian army medical boards
declaring men with chronic diseases fit to serve. This is a historical anomaly that defies logic: no
on, the young country has ever appeared so ready to send the “old and sick” to war while protecting “physically
stay at home strong young people”, who can voluntarily sign up for the army from the age of 18, but cannot be
mobilised until they’re 27. Yet when anyone points this out, they’re met with “indignation”. The
Ukrainska Pravda reason for it is demographics. No country has ever entered a major war with “such a low birth rate,
(Kyiv) such an elderly population, and such a high rate of depopulation” as Ukraine: in the 30 years before
Russia’s invasion, its population fell by 11 million. So Kyiv can’t afford to send young men to the
front before they’ve started families. It could try to solve the problem by, say, lowering the age when
they can be mobilised to 25. But the truth is “there are simply no good choices in this situation”.

THE WEEK 2 March 2024

 Health & Science NEWS 17

What the scientists are saying…

Women achieve more with less
Women tend to take less physical exercise
than men; but the good news is that they
seem to reap more health benefits than
men from each minute of exercise that they
do. Doctors in the US examined data on
more than 400,000 adults aged between
27 and 61 who’d been tracked for up to
22 years, during which time some 40,000
of them died. As expected, they found that
engaging in regular moderate to vigorous
exercise cut the odds of an early death in
both genders – but whereas active women
were 24% less likely to have died than
their sedentary counterparts, the figure for
men was just 15%. In general, women need
to do about half as much brisk walking,
swimming, spinning or other aerobic
exercise as men to get the same survival
benefits, says the report in the Journal
of the American College of Cardiology.
Differences in anatomy (women’s hearts
tend to be smaller, for example) may
explain why they “get more out of each
minute”, said study co-lead author Dr
Martha Gulati. She hopes the findings will
motivate more women to take up exercise.
The deadly cost of lockdowns
Delays in diagnosing and treating skin
cancer during the Covid pandemic led to
more than 100,000 years of lost life across
Europe, 12,000 of them in Britain, say
researchers. The overall cost of this has
been estimated at £6.1bn, mainly due
to loss of productivity. Melanoma, which
usually starts as a dark spot or mole, is
the most dangerous type of skin cancer,
and kills 2,300 people a year in the UK,
and early diagnosis is crucial: five-year
survival rates fall from almost 100% when
it’s diagnosed in its earliest stages, to under
30% when it’s spotted late. For the study,
scientists used records from some 50,000
Women get more out of every active minute
patients in Switzerland, Hungary, Italy,
the UK and Belgium, to estimate the
proportion of melanomas that had
progressed owing to delays in starting or
continuing treatment in 2020 and 2021.
They put this at 17%. They then factored
in further data, including treatment costs
and years of healthy life lost at each stage
of the disease, to estimate the years lost.
The team said that although lockdowns
were necessary to save lives, governments
dealing with any future pandemics need
to take fuller account of their impact on
other health outcomes. What’s alarming,
said study co-author Dr Kaustubh
Adhikari, is that the figures are for just
one disease – and so may be just the tip
of the iceberg of preventable deaths.
Wegovy might help drug addicts
Owing to their ability to reduce hunger
pangs, GLP-1 agonists such as Wegovy
have been hailed as a potential game-
changer for obesity; now, a small study
has indicated that these medicines may
also curb powerful cravings for opiate
drugs. Scientists in the US gave 20 people
who were addicted to opiates either
a Wegovy-like drug called liraglutide or
a placebo, and asked them to rate their
cravings four times a day. They found that
the drug reduced the addicts’ craving for
opioids by 40% overall – and some of
them experienced significant periods
in which they were free of cravings.
A fortnight’s stay at an addiction centre
would produce a similar result, but can
cost upwards of $14,000; by contrast,
liraglutide costs $300 a month in the US.
A randomised control trial involving 200
people is now planned. With one death
from an opioid overdose in the US every
five minutes, there is an urgency to find
new treatments for addiction, said study
co-leader Prof Sue Grigson.
New hope for type 1 diabetes
In recent years, a few people with type
1 diabetes have had insulin-making cells
from the pancreas of a deceased donor
transplanted into the portal vein of
their livers. This technique – islet cell
transplantation – has enabled its recipients
to produce insulin naturally, sparing them
the need to inject it. But the process is quite
invasive, and limited by the shortage of
suitable donors. Now, scientists have
come up with what could be a far simpler
alternative. The idea is to coax stem cells
to develop into islet cells in the lab, and
simply inject them under the skin in the
arm, where they will act like a pancreas,
producing insulin as required. The team
behind the technique have shown that
cells from human donors can survive in
the forearm; the next step will be to use
the islets they’ve produced in the lab.

An eco-friendly wooden satellite Alzheimer’s drug warning

More than 10,000 man-made satellites are Two drugs hailed as a turning point in
orbiting Earth and another 2,500 or so are the fight against Alzheimer’s can cause
expected to be launched every year for the brain shrinkage, scientists have warned.
next seven years. And when these re-enter Lecanemab and donanemab have been
Earth’s atmosphere, they will all release shown to slow the progress of the
particles of alumina which will float up into disease and are being evaluated for use
in the NHS. But side-effect data shows
the upper atmosphere – where they have the that, in some cases, patients’ brains
potential to damage the ozone layer. Now, have shrunk, said The Daily Telegraph,
to limit such space pollution, scientists in with those on the highest doses losing
Japan have come up with an eco-friendly up to three teaspoons’ full, according to
alternative, says The Observer: the LignoSat, Dr Madhav Thambisetty, of the National
a satellite made of wood, which they plan to Institute on Ageing in the US. Loss in
launch into space on a rocket this summer. brain volume is regarded as a “very bad
The LignoSat: made of resilient magnolia
In tests, the team from Kyoto University thing”, dementia specialist Prof Rob
found that wood (and magnolia in particular) is remarkably resilient to space-like Howard told the paper. It means
neurons have died “and you’ve lost
conditions. In 2022, a panel was sent to the International Space Station for further more capacity”. However, the drugs’
testing, and was found to cope with significant temperature changes, cosmic rays and manufacturers said such loss was “not
solar particles without loss of mass or decay. There is a risk that the wooden satellite associated with worsening in measured
(which is about the size of a mug) will crack, but it won’t rot or burn in space, owing neurodegenerative outcomes”, and
to there being no microorganisms. And, unlike metal satellites, when it burns up on might be due to the removal of amyloid
re-entry, it will leave behind just biodegradable ash. proteins associated with Alzheimer’s.

2 March 2024 THE WEEK

18 NEWS
Pick of the week’s
Gossip
Johnny Depp has forged
an “epic bromance” with
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince,
Mohammed bin Salman,
according to Vanity Fair.
The actor reportedly felt
a “genuine connection”
with MbS when they were
introduced in 2022, after
a film the actor was starring
in received Saudi backing.
Bin Salman apparently
admitted to Depp that he felt
he’d been unfairly portrayed
in the press as a brutal
dictator, an argument Depp
was open to, because his
faith in the media had been
shaken by its coverage of his
court battle with his former
wife Amber Heard.
When Tom Hanks visited
the Houses of Parliament
in 2011, he was given a
tour by the then deputy
speaker Nigel Evans. The
pair were soon surrounded
by starstruck fans; then the
late Tory MP Brian Binley
ambled past. “Hello Brian,
fancy a photograph?”
Evans asked his colleague.
Binley blinked. “Well, if
this gentleman wants
a photograph with me, I’m
more than happy,” he said.
Recalling his days in the pop
group The Communards last
week, Richard Coles told an
audience that he’d tried to
use his platform to fight
inequality. “Wherever the
oppressed are, we are too,”
he’d once declared at a press
conference in Paris – only for
a journalist to pipe up: “I sat
behind you on Concorde
yesterday.” But he was never
flash, he insisted. When the
group got a lucrative record
deal and were offered any
gift they liked, he’d chosen
a washer-dryer. “It was the
most durable thing I got
from pop music,” he said.
“Other than tinnitus.”
THE WEEK 2 March 2024
Talking points
Trident: the weapon that “plopped”
In late January, the Royal
Navy submarine HMS
Vanguard test-fired a missile
off the east coast of America:
it was meant to travel to the
edge of space before landing in
the mid-Atlantic. Instead, said
Ross Clark in The Spectator,
the 58-tonne Trident II D5
“plopped straight into the
sea”. The failure, news of
which only emerged last week,
is thought to have been caused
by the system’s first-stage
boosters failing to ignite, said
The Times. Whatever the cause,
the abortive launch undermines
the credibility of the UK’s A Trident test launch in 2012
Trident nuclear deterrent,
especially following a similar fiasco in 2016. The In an era of great “geopolitical turbulence”,
Defence Secretary, Grant Shapps, insists that the
system remains “dependable and formidable”,
the failure an “anomaly”. Maybe. But Trident is
meant to warn off Britain’s enemies. “The word
‘plopped’ is not one any nation wants associated
with its ultimate weapon.”
Even if we could get the rockets to ignite,
Trident is far too expensive, said Peter Hitchens
in the Daily Mail. It is projected to cost
£117.8bn in the decade to 2033; it “sucks
the rest of the defence budget dry”. We should
emulate Israel, which maintains a “modest but
effective” deterrent at a much lower cost. Then,
we should invest more in the sea power that will
always be crucial to our island nation’s defences.
Menopause guidance: a boost for women?
“Are the menopause protesters happy now,”
wondered Jan Moir in the Daily Mail. For
years, the likes of Davina McCall and Mariella
Frostrup have been campaigning to “make
the menopause more visible in public life”.
Pointing out that menopause is a natural phase
experienced by half the population, they want
people to be able to talk about it without
embarrassment, and for more to be done for
women going through it. Well, now something
has been done. The Equality and Human Rights
Commission (EHRC) issued new guidance last
week, warning employers that failure to make
“reasonable adjustments” for perimenopausal
and menopausal employees could amount to
disability discrimination. Such adjustments
might include providing cooler uniforms or fans
for women experiencing severe hot flushes, and
rest rooms for those struggling with brain fog
and poor sleep. This sounds admirable, but will
it actually leave anyone better off? The upshot
could simply be that women who already face
institutional sexism and ageism are stigmatised
as “unhinged wimps” in need of a lie-down.
Women in middle age are not “walking
hot flushes”, said Eleanor Mills in The Daily
Telegraph. And many don’t want to be put back
into a “hysterical, Victorian biological box” just
as they are entering a period of their working
A “proper Navy” would be
infinitely more useful than
this “fantasy” weapon. One
major problem with Trident
is that it is entirely reliant on
US technology, said Simon
Tisdall in The Observer:
though the nuclear warheads
are British-made, the
missiles are manufactured
and maintained by the US
company Lockheed Martin.
In the event of a second
Donald Trump presidency,
our nuclear capabilities would
be subject to the caprices of
an “irrational, antagonistic,
isolationist” leader.
the case for the UK nuclear deterrent is clear,
said Tom Calver and Gabriel Pogrund in
The Sunday Times. Both Russia and China
have massive nuclear arsenals, and use them to
bluster and threaten. It is a massive investment,
but it’s worth it. Indeed, Trident and its
predecessor Polaris have proved a “relatively
low-cost way of keeping Britain at the diplomatic
top table for more than five decades”. Moreover,
Britain’s unique submarine-only delivery system
is an especially effective deterrent; at least one
of four Vanguard-class submarines is always
at sea, so it is “always invisible” and cannot
be struck first by an enemy. “Trident remains
a powerful weapon in world affairs. We just
need to prove that it works.”
lives when employers should be valuing them
for their experience. On the other hand, for
some women menopause is very debilitating,
and the EHRC says that one in ten have left
a job because of it; so clearly we need to make
sure that those who experience severe symptoms
get the support they need to remain in the
workforce. If men experienced what many
women have to cope with, the structures would
already be in place, said Dayna Brackley in The
Independent. I don’t think that classing the
symptoms of menopause as a potential disability
is helpful; but we do need women to feel able
to discuss how their bodies are affecting their
ability to work, and for employers to listen.
In the majority of cases, menopause symptoms
can be treated cheaply and effectively with HRT,
said The Observer. Yet only 14% of menopausal
women are currently taking it, partly because
many GPs are reluctant to prescribe it. Making
sure HRT is offered and made available to every
woman who could benefit from it must be
a priority. Of course, there will be some who
don’t want HRT or for whom it is ineffective,
and employers need to be kept informed about
women’s rights; but that must be as part of a
“wider conversation” designed to combat the
still “common prejudice” that a woman beyond
childbearing years “is somehow a lesser person”.
 Talking points NEWS 19

MPs: facing a rising tide of hate Wit &

Violence against MPs is not
a new phenomenon, said
The Sunday Times. In 2000,
in the post, angry voices
abusing you, your staff or your
family, both on- and offline”.
Wisdom
Andrew Pennington, a Liberal I’ve experienced all of these, “Everyone has three lives.
Democrat councillor, was and I know I’m not alone. The public, the private
killed by a mentally ill man “Public life is drowning in and the secret.”
armed with a sword, as he hate”, and the harassment of Gabriel García Márquez,
protected the MP Nigel Jones. MPs has been “normalised”: quoted in The Sunday Times
In 2010, Stephen Timms, the last month a large group of “Marriage has no
Labour MP for East Ham, was pro-Palestinian protesters guarantees. If that’s what
stabbed and seriously injured held a demonstration outside you’re looking for, go live
by a woman acting in the name Tobias Ellwood’s family with a car battery.”
of al-Qa’eda. But it’s clear that home in Bournemouth. Erma Bombeck, quoted
an increasingly “intemperate” One of the great things about on Brides
political climate, fuelled by the parliamentary system
social media, has “turned the is that politicians live in the “There is no greater rocket
prospect of physical violence communities they’re elected fuel for success than the urge
into an almost constant source Protesters outside Ellwood’s home to serve. Something has gone to leave your small town.”
of worry” for many politicians. very wrong if they need police Janice Turner in The Times
The MPs Jo Cox and Sir David Amess were protection to do their constituency rounds.
“My instinctive belief is that
murdered in their constituencies. Rosie Cooper,
it is probably impossible for
Labour MP for West Lancashire, resigned after There should be a “common police response
poor old Homo sapiens to
learning about a far-right plot to kill her. Mike to concerns over MPs’ security across the
get to the bottom of it all.”
Freer, the Tory MP for Finchley and Golders country”, said The Independent. And to this end,
Astrophysicist Paul Davies,
Green, is stepping down after receiving a slew of ministers announced a £31m security package
quoted on Evolution News
death threats related to his support for Israel. The on Wednesday, which will fund bodyguards and
issue came to the fore during last week’s chaotic police patrols. Crucially, though, MPs and the “Has anything good ever
Commons debate on Gaza, when it became clear parliamentary authorities should not succumb come of a white man
that many MPs feared for their safety if they to intimidation, said Fraser Nelson in The Daily owning a private
opposed a motion calling for a ceasefire – a Telegraph. Social media has made it much Caribbean island?”
concern shared by the Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle. easier for mobs to abuse and intimidate MPs. Marina Hyde in
Such methods “need to be seen to be futile” The Guardian
“It is increasingly becoming an occupational – which is why the Speaker’s decision to amend
hazard,” said Stella Creasy MP in The Commons procedure so as to protect MPs “Think of how stupid
Guardian: “the brick hurled at the office was such a bad idea. “If MPs are seen to respond the average person is, and
window, the rape and death threats that arrive to such pressure, they can expect more of it.” realise half of them are
stupider than that.”
George Carlin, quoted
Shamima Begum: no way home on The Knowledge
“The most common way
Shamima Begum’s hopes of state’s ability to defend itself and people give up their power
returning to the UK from her assert its authority in the face of is by thinking they
detention camp in northeast Syria monstrous enemies”. Besides, don’t have any.”
have been dashed again, said it could be argued that the Alice Walker, quoted in
Haroon Siddique in The Guardian. Government, by depriving Good Housekeeping
Last week, three Court of Appeal Begum of citizenship, is simply
judges ruled unanimously that recognising the reality that she has “Apart from painting
Sajid Javid, as home secretary in “no allegiance to or affection for and gardening, I’m no
2019, had acted lawfully when he Britain, beyond a transactional good at anything.”
revoked her citizenship on grounds desire to benefit from the services Claude Monet, quoted
of national security. The court left and quality of life available here”. on Top 10 Films
it to others to judge whether it “It may be true that the law
had been a harsh way of treating The Government’s banishment cannot make a man love me,
someone who may have been of Begum may be “legally sound”, but it can stop him from
“influenced and manipulated” to said Kate McCann in The i Paper, lynching me, and I think
run off to Syria as a 15-year-old A “harsh” ruling? but it’s morally dubious. At least that’s pretty important.”
schoolgirl to join Islamic State, 30 British women and children Martin Luther King Jr,
merely ruling that the decision had been remain stuck in squalid detention camps in quoted in the FT
procedurally fair. It was sufficient that Javid Syria. Other Western nations such as France,
had considered such factors, even if he had Germany and America have repatriated many
ultimately rejected them. Begum’s lawyers have families who lived under the IS caliphate, but the Statistics of the week
© PALESTINESOLIDARITYMOVEMENTBCP/BNPS

promised to fight on, but it’s hard to see the
Supreme Court overturning this definitive ruling. in recent years. This despite warnings that the
A good thing too, said Niall Gooch on UnHerd.
We can recognise that Begum, now 24, is in a
wretched situation, and that she is “not entirely
culpable, without concluding that the only right
response is for her to return to Britain”. There
are other factors to consider, such as “the British
UK has brought back just two adult nationals The number of 18- to 24-year-
olds who are “economically
camps risk becoming breeding grounds for a inactive” owing to ill health
has risen from 93,000 to
new generation of Islamist terrorists. Officials
190,000 over the past ten
have described them as a “ticking time bomb”. years. Four in ten list poor
The UK should be doing its part, alongside allies, mental health as their main
to help defuse this situation. Instead, by turning reason for not working.
our back on the likes of Begum, we’re ignoring The Resolution Foundation
the problem and leaving it to others to sort out.

2 March 2024 THE WEEK

20 NEWS
Rugby union: Scotland win for a fourth time in a row
The Calcutta Cup – the annual Six Nations
clash between Scotland and England – used to
be a fixture that filled Scotland with dread, said
Gerard Meagher in The Observer. Not any more.
At Murrayfield on Saturday, Scotland beat
England 30-21 to earn their fourth successive
victory in the Cup – a feat they last achieved
in 1896. As was the case a year ago at
Twickenham, England’s chief tormentor
was winger Duhan van der Merwe, who was
deservedly declared player of the match for his
three brilliant tries. An especially impressive
feature of Scotland’s performance was the
determination they displayed after a torrid first
quarter, during which “nigh-on everything” went
wrong, and they fell 10-0 behind. It was only as
the clock hit 20 minutes that Gregor Townsend’s Van der Merwe: chief tormentor chance of beating Ireland at Wembley on 9 March,
team “sprang to life”. From then on, they
dominated the encounter, and ended up winning “comfortably”.
Although Scotland were “smart and ruthless” when they needed
to be, England “contributed horribly to their own demise”, said
Alex Lowe in The Times. Despite the conditions being dry, Steve
Borthwick’s men made 25 handling errors, and conceded 22
turnovers – comfortably the worst statistics in any Six Nations
match so far this year. “We gifted them two-and-a-half tries,
maybe more,” noted No. 8, Ben Earl. “You’re never going to
Sport
win a game of international rugby like that.”
Earl’s assessment was eminently fair: England’s
frequent errors meant they never built up pressure
on Scotland, who were “happy to kick long and
invite England on to them, knowing they could
feed off mistakes”. Borthwick himself seemed
“bewildered” by his team, and for the final few
minutes he sat alone in the stands, as if trying
to make sense of their “ugly, chaotic” rugby.
In each of the Six Nations Championships that
have been contested since England last lifted the
title in 2020, they have won only two out of five
games, said Chris Foy in the Daily Mail. It now
seems all but inevitable they will end this year’s
tournament with the same tally. They have little
and France will be favourites a week later in Lyon,
despite their own recent form being mediocre. Whether or not
England win any more matches, I was heartened by the “attacking
intent” they displayed on Saturday, said Ian McGeechan in The
Daily Telegraph. In the first phase, they really took the game to
Scotland, and both their tries were the result of smart attacking
moves, of the kind that were rare under their previous coach,
Eddie Jones. England are very much “a work-in-progress”, but
there was enough dynamism and creativity on display against
Scotland to indicate that “all hope is not lost”.

Football: Klopp triumphs by putting faith in youth

It was only the Carabao Cup final, and the team they
were facing lacked a “killer instinct”, said Jason Burt
in The Daily Telegraph. But when you consider the
full circumstances, Liverpool’s 1-0 victory over
Chelsea on Sunday – secured thanks to Virgil van
Dijk’s header with just two minutes left in extra time
– has to rank as one of Jürgen Klopp’s “greatest
achievements”. The Reds went into the game missing
11 first-team regulars, including Mohamed Salah
and Trent Alexander-Arnold. During the first half,
Ryan Gravenberch was stretchered off, and by the
second half many of their senior players were tiring.
Klopp’s response was to bring on a trio of teenagers
– Jayden Danns (18), and Bobby Clark and James Danns: just 18 years old In the past three seasons, these teams have contested
McConnell (both 19) – together with 21-year-old
Jarell Quansah, another inexperienced academy player. This
quartet performed superbly, and Liverpool dominated extra time.
Most other managers in Klopp’s position would have tried to
keep his senior players on the pitch; but the German
“showed how much he believed” in his youngsters,
and they “returned that faith”.
Chelsea really should have won this game, given
Liverpool’s list of injuries, and given the fact that,
during normal time, they had the better of the
chances, said Martin Samuel in The Times. That they
didn’t ultimately came down to one thing: character.
It’s a quality that Klopp’s Liverpool “possess in
spades”, and which the Blues – a hugely expensive
collection of talented individuals dumped on
manager Mauricio Pochettino – conspicuously lack.
three Wembley finals. Each has finished goalless after
90 minutes, but Liverpool have now won all three. That’s surely
no coincidence. The kind of “strong bond” that Klopp’s players
demonstrate is what “gets a team over the line on days like this”.

Commentary box Sporting headlines

India clinch series win
Ben Stokes suffered his first
series defeat as England captain
on Monday, when India took
an unassailable 3-1 lead in the
series with a five-wicket victory
in Ranchi, says Mike Atherton in
The Times. Set 192 to win, the
hosts seemed to be struggling
when they slumped to 120-5.
But an unbeaten 72-run Kaushik: a historic victory
partnership between Shubman
Gill and Dhruv Jurel got them over the line.
As in the first innings, England’s most effective
bowler was their 20-year-old spinner Shoaib
Bashir. Playing in only his second Test, Bashir –
who before being called up for the tour had
taken only ten first-class wickets – added three
second-innings wickets to the five he took in the
first innings. India’s victory means they have
now won 17 successive series
at home, dating back to 2012.
Chess prodigy
An eight-year-old boy from
Singapore has made chess
history by becoming the
youngest player ever to beat
a grandmaster, says Edward
Helmore in The Guardian.
Ashwath Kaushik (aged eight
years and six months) beat Jacek Stopa, a
37-year-old Pole, at a tournament in Switzerland.
He did so days after another eight-year-old –
Serbia’s Leonid Ivanovic – broke the same
record aged eight years 11 months. That several
chess prodigies have scored extraordinary
victories over older opponents recently may
partly be because so many children were able
to hothouse their skills during the pandemic.
Football Everton’s ten-point
deduction for breaching the
Premier League’s spending
rules has been reduced to six
points, following an appeal.
A Lauren Hemp brace helped
England’s women beat Italy
5-1 in a friendly match.
Rugby union Italy and France
drew 13-13 in the Six Nations.
Italy were denied victory
when Paolo Garbisi hit the
post in the final minute.
Snooker World No. 1 Ronnie
O’Sullivan was whitewashed
6-0 by Mark Selby in the
quarter-finals of the Players
Championship in Telford.
The tournament was won
by Mark Allen.

THE WEEK 2 March 2024


Pick of the week’s correspondence
Ceasefire crossed lines
To The Guardian
To all those shouting about
a ceasefire, including Mehdi
Hasan, and saying that
a simple call from Joe Biden to
Benjamin Netanyahu will stop
the war, the answer is simple:
a phone call from Hassan
Nasrallah in Beirut to Yahya
Sinwar, leader of Hamas in
Gaza, telling him to release
all the hostages – there will
be a ceasefire immediately.
Laurence Lebor, Israel
Tap prisoners’ potential
To The Daily Telegraph
Your article, “Worklessness
and truancy drive Britain into
recession”, highlighted the
need for more workers to
support business growth.
One solution is to set up
workshops in prison. Many
prisoners want to work but
are held back by lack of
opportunities. Hiring them
not only delivers immediate
extra capacity, but also creates
a pipeline of trained and
(evidence shows) committed
employees on their release.
Having a job after prison
is also proved to reduce
reoffending, something that
benefits the whole of society
– yet only 50% of people in
prison are in employment,
training or education.
Campbell Robb, chief
executive, Nacro, London
Begum’s “misfortune”
To The Times
In giving the judgment of the
Court of Appeal in the case
of Shamima Begum, the judge
made remarks that seemed
to imply a scrupulous respect
for balance. She said that
some might consider Begum’s
treatment “harsh”, but some
might consider her the “author
of her own misfortune”.
Begum has spent years in a
Syrian camp, in which her child
died. As she is refused the right
to return to the country where
she was born, it seems likely
that she will herself die in the
camp. Most people would
consider this “harsh” treatment
for someone who had been
convicted of a serious offence,
but Begum has been convicted
of no offence. On the contrary,
it seems likely that she was the
victim of a crime, because she
appears to have been trafficked
at the age of 15. Would the
O Letters have been edited
LETTERS 23
Exchange of the week to make high profits for
the app companies.
Should the Speaker resign? However, there is a direct
link between exploitation and
To The Times rising consumer demand, so
If Sir Lindsay Hoyle were trying to be impartial, knowing a simple solution is not to
the decision he was about to make might cause difficulties, lazily use a delivery app, but
he would have spoken to all party leaders before making it. to get off our arses and get
That it appears he did not seek their opinions suggests that the takeaways ourselves.
he knew they would not consent, and decided to go ahead Fred Riley, Nottingham
regardless. One can only conclude, therefore, that his actions
were indeed partisan. He should resign. He should then be Trains show the strain
required to submit to an inquiry to ascertain who said what To The Daily Telegraph
to him, including any threats made. This might allow him Martin Lewis is right to raise
some honour in his retirement. the problems of overcrowding
Tim Lee, Everdon, Northamptonshire and lack of lavatories on trains.
They are connected.
To The Times Traditionally, trains were
Many years ago as a very junior employee, I confessed to hauled by locomotives, and
a stupid mistake. My boss said everyone made mistakes and it was easy to add an extra
that the sooner one admitted it, the sooner it could be carriage if required. Now trains
addressed. Procedural complications aside, my impression are commonly formed as sets,
is that Hoyle’s decision was made with the best of intentions. driven from either end, so this
It quickly became apparent that it had been the wrong one solution is no longer available.
and he immediately made a full, open and gracious apology. Additionally, the Rail Vehicle
Those politicians who have been so critical would do well to Accessibility Regulations of
remember his example when next they are tempted to issue 2010 rightly require lavatories
a weasel-worded non-apology for their own misdemeanours. that are accessible to all. These,
Susie Pover, London however, take up a lot of space,
reducing seating capacity.
To The Times Since privatisation,
The Speaker says he took the decision to allow Labour’s passenger numbers have
amendment “to protect MPs”. Apart from being a fatuous soared, so in a way the railway
excuse, it is the police’s job to protect MPs, not his. companies are the victims of
Sandy Pratt, Storrington, West Sussex their own success.
Jonathan Mann, Gunnislake,
judge suggest a 15-year-old are simply not making the Cornwall
who had been, say, put on the right noises to deter them.
street by a pimp had been the Abigail MacCartney, A monumental man
author of her own misfortune? Oakham, Leicestershire To The Times
I preferred the days when In light of Laura Freeman’s
judges made no secret of their Just stop farmers? article on the spare plinth,
indifference to the interests of To The Guardian I envisage a statue of Laurence
those who came up against the You reported that British Olivier bestriding his rearing
brutish exercise of state power. farmers were planning more horse as he did in Henry V.
Richard Vinen, London tractor protests, but the Public Olivier was not only acclaimed
Order Act 2023 will surely for his acting, but educated
Russia’s addiction to war make this “interference with ... many generations on the
To the Financial Times key infrastructure” just as meaning and value of
The excellent article on the illegal as that of Just Stop Oil. Shakespeare’s language.
Russian economy by Anastasia Will we now be seeing mass Moreover, his energy finally
Stognei and Max Seddon is arrests of farmers, or is the law persuaded a government to
perhaps a little blinkered. That being applied selectively? build a national theatre. The
the Russian economy risks David Bricknell, Plymouth other plinths are occupied by
becoming addicted to military two generals and a king. Please
production, and that this raises The key takeaway let us now have an artist.
the risk of stagnation once the To The Guardian Steven Berkoff, London
war in Ukraine ends, are both Nesrine Malik is
certainly true. right that delivery- “Gosh, it all “That’s what they
However, there is a app riders are looks good...” want you to think”
significant risk that you haven’t under increasing
mentioned – that the Russians pressure, and this
will continue to fund their shows in the
military industrial complex, explosion of rider
and will simply look for other numbers and the
outlets for their “special increase in their
military operations”, against speeding through
goodness only knows whom. pedestrian areas.
Once they start flexing their Their exploitation
muscles, they will take some is “baked in” Dating a conspiracy theorist
stopping, and in the West we to the system © PEARSALL/PRIVATE EYE
2 March 2024 THE WEEK
 ARTS
Review of reviews: Books
Book of the week
Keir Starmer:
The Biography
by Tom Baldwin
William Collins 448pp £25
The Week Bookshop £19.99
Although Keir Starmer is almost
certain to be our next prime minister, he
remains an “oddly elusive” figure, said
Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian. People
often complain that they don’t really
know what he stands for, and he talks
about personal matters somewhat
stiffly, as if holding something back. All this makes a book such
as Keir Starmer: The Biography feel long overdue. Tom Baldwin
is a former journalist who worked for five years as a Labour spin
doctor; he was originally recruited to ghostwrite Starmer’s own
memoir, but Starmer backed out of the project last year, agreeing
instead to cooperate on this biography. The result, while not
exactly revelatory – Baldwin warns that his pages won’t be
“spattered with blood” – does a job that “very precisely mirrors
its subject”: it is careful, nuanced and eminently capable. “It is,
in short, as intimate an insight into Britain’s likely next prime
minister as readers are probably going to get.”
The most interesting chapters concern Starmer’s “difficult early
life”, said Robert Shrimsley in the FT. Starmer grew up in a
25
cramped semi in Surrey with a
“seriously ill mother”, Jo (she had
Still’s disease); a “cold, difficult”
father, Rodney (a toolmaker); and
three siblings (one of whom, Nick,
has learning difficulties). Television
was banned in the Starmer household,
the “radio played only Beethoven or
Shostakovich”, and Rodney “barracked
and bullied” visiting schoolfriends,
said Patrick Maguire in The Times.
Although Starmer was the only one
of the siblings to go to grammar
school and university, and then became
a leading barrister, his dad never once
told him he made him proud. Only
after his death in 2018 did Starmer find
out this wasn’t “the full story”: hidden in his father’s wardrobe
was a “scrapbook of every newspaper story about his son”.
Many politicians pose as regular people, but Starmer emerges
from this as someone who really is quite ordinary, said Matthew
d’Ancona in the Evening Standard. He is happiest spending time
with his family, or organising weekend eight-a-side football
games. As his deputy, Angela Rayner, puts it: he is “the least
political person I know in politics”. The “one nagging question”
is how much Baldwin’s political sympathies have coloured his
portrait, said Ben Riley-Smith in The Daily Telegraph. Had he
discovered “less laudable aspects of Sir Keir’s story”, would he
have “forensically interrogated” them? This may not, then, quite
be a definitive biography – but it is engaging and “skilfully done”.

James and John

by Chris Bryant Novel of the week
Bloomsbury 336pp £25 Leaving
The Week Bookshop £19.99 by Roxana Robinson
Magpie 336pp £16.99
The two subjects of this book by the Labour MP The Week Bookshop £13.99
Chris Bryant – James Pratt and John Smith – were
the “last men to be executed in Britain for the At a performance of Tosca at the Metropolitan
crime of sodomy”, said Rupert Christiansen in Opera in New York, two 60-year-olds who
The Daily Telegraph. As the pair had sex in were briefly a couple in their youth cross paths,
a Southwark lodging house one Saturday in said Amity Gaige in The New York Times.
1835, they were spied through the keyhole by the The woman, Sarah, is divorced; the man,
landlord and landlady, who summoned a special Warren, is married. They have dinner together,
constable. Arrested and taken to Newgate Prison, and realise that they have “unfinished business”.
they were tried at the Old Bailey two months later, and hanged soon afterwards. From this premise, the American novelist
Bryant interweaves an account of all this with a “richly detailed portrait of the Roxana Robinson builds a pitch-perfect study
more squalid and miserable aspects of Georgian London”. His research is of “late-life love”, said Joan Frank in The
“exemplary” – how, you wonder, does he find the time? – and he deserves Washington Post. It’s not a remotely sentimental
praise for rescuing Pratt and Smith from the “rubbish dump of history”. or cloying tale; Robinson charts the many
Although the legal system at the time was “rough and ruthless”, it’s still a bit obstacles the couple face, including the
of a mystery why these two men were executed, said Kathryn Hughes in The “implacable” rage of Warren’s grown-up
Guardian. Public opinion towards penetrative sex between men had softened in daughter. Written in “shapely and sensuous”
the preceding decade, and executions had become rare (most of those convicted sentences, Leaving is a “wondrous feat”.
had their sentences commuted to transportation). Their humble origins may “Affection between older people” is just one
have sealed their fate, said Michael Arditti in The Spectator. Two MPs arrested theme here, said Caroline Moorehead in The
at about the same time on a similar charge had been “acquitted after calling on Spectator. Robinson writes superbly about the
influential character witnesses”; the working-class Pratt and Smith lacked such “terrifying ruthlessness of human beings”, and
supporters. Although the lack of wider evidence about the two men’s lives can even about dog ownership. And as its title
be problematic for Bryant (who resorts to “lengthy descriptions” of anyone who suggests, Leaving is as much about loss as about
crossed their path), he mostly does an “excellent job” of telling their tragic story. fulfilment. With its “many twists” and bombshell
And his book is timely too, at a time when – as he reminds us – “homosexuality ending, this is a “highly enjoyable” novel.
still carries the death penalty in nine countries in the world”.
To order these titles or any other book in print, visit
theweekbookshop.co.uk or speak to a bookseller on 020-3176 3835
Opening times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5.30pm and Sunday 10am-4pm

2 March 2024 THE WEEK

26 ARTS Drama & Podcasts
Theatre: An Enemy of the People
Duke of York’s Theatre, London WC2 (0844-871 7615). Until 13 April Running time: 2hrs 15mins +++
“When did ‘facts’ become and vote on Stockmann’s
subjective?” roars Matt Smith, proposals. This is “theatre as
as his character, Thomas a political rallying place”, with
Stockmann, reaches breaking a contemporary flavour “that
point. The line “could have been makes it feel urgent”.
written yesterday”, said Sarah
Hemming in the FT. In fact, Tiresome more like, said Clive
Henrik Ibsen’s great political Davis in The Times. I found this
drama dates from 1882, “sophomoric” production “so
“long before terms such as ‘fake clumsy, it might almost be part
news’ and ‘alternative facts’ of some sinister conservative
became common currency”. plot to kill off left-wing theatre
However, in this “blistering, once and for all”. The public
modern-dress production”, debate feels like a “lukewarm
brilliantly updated by acclaimed edition of Question Time”. The
German director Thomas play collapses under the weight
Ostermeier and featuring a Matt Smith: a “nuanced, complex portrayal of a flawed man” of the director’s “editorialising”,
“superb” central performance by agreed Nick Curtis in the
the former Doctor Who star, the piece feels shockingly fresh. Evening Standard. Still, the acting is first-rate. Smith gives a
“nuanced, complex portrayal of a flawed man”, and the terrific
Ibsen’s play tells the story of the whistleblower Dr Stockmann, ensemble includes “the great Paul Hilton” as his brother, who
who reveals that the spa waters of his town are polluted; but delivers a “study in sour disapproval and sibling resentment”.
as the disastrous commercial implications become clear, the
community unites against him. The principal innovation of The week’s other opening
Ostermeier’s adaptation is to turn the famous scene, in which Cavalleria rusticana / Aleko Double bill tours to Nottingham,
Stockmann launches a sweeping attack on local politicians – Newcastle and Salford until 22 March (operanorth.co.uk)
including his brother, the mayor – into an open meeting, said Opera North’s decision to pair these two short operas, Mascagni’s
Sarah Crompton on What’s on Stage. The house lights are brought melodrama and Rachmaninov’s lesser-known work – both tales
up and Smith addresses the audience directly, his “electrifying” of “pride and revenge” – is a “masterstroke”: Karolina Sofulak’s
speech making reference to such current issues as food banks and direction is “superb”; the cast “tremendous” (Daily Telegraph).
the Post Office scandal. Audience members are invited to speak

Podcasts... on the internet, humour and the law

Two “prestige” new BBC Radio a harder sell. Yet I have been
4 series, Why Do You Hate Me? “completely beguiled” by
and The Gatekeepers, cover Close Readings: On Satire,
broadly similar terrain, said from the London Review of
Miranda Sawyer in The Books. The podcast, which
Observer. Both are about “the kicks off with an exploration
internet state we’re in” – a world of Erasmus’s In Praise of Folly,
where differences are inflamed is hosted by Colin Burrow and
and encouraged because Clare Bucknell. Both are fellows
“engagement” equals money. of All Souls who“generally speak
And both follow hard on the English rather than academic
heels of the second series of Jon gobbledegook”, and they have
Ronson’s Things Fell Apart. It “a lovely chemistry. The younger
is brilliantly researched and very Bucknell is teasingly withering.
fair, but the subject matter can Burrow is self-deprecating
be a bit depressing, so I was and silly. Both are unpompous
reluctant to dive in further. But The BBC’s Marianna Spring; and Erasmus gets a Close Reading and winningly alive to the
I was glad I did. Presented and absurdity of academic life”
researched by the “excellent” Jamie Bartlett, of The Missing – and together they’ve made a “fascinating” series.
Cryptoqueen fame, The Gatekeepers tells a rollicking tale about
how social media enabled a new digital elite and their platforms “I always enjoy hearing lawyers argue because the world is
to conquer the world. On the similarly good Why Do You Hate becoming ever more chaotically disputatious anyway – and at
Me?, the BBC’s disinformation correspondent Marianna Spring least they’re trained to do it properly,” said Jenny McCartney
decides to “see if she can bring the internet abusers together, to in The Spectator. Law and Disorder is a lively new podcast
resolve their conflict and broker some real-life understanding. from three of Britain’s legal luminaries, Helena Kennedy, Charlie
© MANUEL HARLAN; STEVE BRIGHT

Yep, she’s an optimist.” Falconer and Nicholas Mostyn (don’t confuse their podcast with
a US series with the same name). The trio review the news (such
Ian Hislop’s Oldest Jokes (BBC Sounds) was a terrific series as the war in Gaza, the Rwanda Bill and the latest from the Post
that brightened up my January, said James Marriott in The Times. Office scandal) through a legal lens, engaging in “feisty debate”
But if a series on the history of jokes from the very funny editor rather than seeking “ponderous consensus”. Listeners will
of Private Eye sounds instantly appealing, a podcast in which certainly leave “better informed than when they started. They
two Oxford academics deconstruct the concept of humour is may also be more worried about Britain’s direction of travel.”
Stars reflect the overall quality of reviews and our own independent assessment (5 stars=don’t miss; 1 star=don’t bother)

THE WEEK 2 March 2024


Dune: Part Two
2hrs 46mins (12A)
Timothée Chalamet returns
in Denis Villeneuve’s
epic adaptation
++++
Film ARTS 27
About an hour into Dune: Part Two, Denis Villeneuve’s “epic science-fiction sequel”, it becomes clear
that its makers have totally “abandoned logic and clarity”, said Nicholas Barber on BBC Culture.
But if you just “go with it”, you’ll be able to revel in one of the most “jaw-droppingly weird pieces
of arthouse psychedelia ever to come from a major studio”. Adapted from the second half of Frank
Herbert’s 1965 novel, the film picks up where part one left off: in the desert. Timothée Chalamet
is back as Paul Atreides, “an interstellar aristocrat whose family has just been massacred by the
evil Harkonnens”. He and his mother (Rebecca Ferguson) are hiding out with the Fremen,
the tribespeople of the planet Arrakis. “There is a good chance that the Fremen will help Paul fight
back against the Harkonnens, but first he has to win their trust”, which involves him learning to ride
on a gargantuan desert worm, like some “illegal train surfer”. The characters aren’t given “enough
interesting things to say”, and Paul’s romance with Fremen warrior Chani (Zendaya) isn’t especially
involving; but Austin Butler is superb as a sadistic new “Harkonnen baddie”, and the film’s
“powerfully doom-laden atmosphere” alone “more than justifies the price of a cinema ticket”.
I’m afraid I found it all rather empty, said Kevin Maher in The Times. “It looks fabulous”, but
also slightly ridiculous. Desert capes are shown “fluttering in slow-mo” and “moody faces” are
presented “half-hidden by shadow”, until – “braaaaam!” – Hans Zimmer’s “overblown score” kicks
in. The ending does not deliver the “closure to which we all might, maybe naively, consider ourselves
entitled” after nearly three hours, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. But it’s undoubtedly a
“sternum-juddering” spectacle, and it’s “exhilarating to find a filmmaker thinking as big as this”.

“Just over 100 years ago, the genteel Sussex town of Littlehampton was rocked to its core” by
a barrage of “obscene letters sent anonymously to respectable townsfolk”, said Brian Viner in the
Daily Mail. “You’re a sad, stinky bitch,” declared one. “You stink of common shit,” claimed another.
A culprit was arrested and a trial ensued, followed with delight by a nation still reeling from the Great
War. Wicked Little Letters, starring Olivia Colman as Edith, a “church-going spinster who still lives
with her overbearing father (Timothy Spall) and pious mother (Gemma Jones)”, exhumes this “little-
remembered scandal”. When she begins receiving the letters, Edith soon blames her neighbour Rose
(Jessie Buckley), a “fiery” single mother from Ireland. But did Rose write them? “With a cleverer,
wittier script”, the film “could have been a gem”; instead it “glides complacently and wastefully over
Wicked Little all the social nuances that a better picture might have addressed”, and wastes its top-notch cast.
Letters “It doesn’t take an Einstein” to figure out where Wicked Little Letters is heading, said Tom
Shone in The Sunday Times – “it’s obvious almost from the first frame”. Nonetheless, there is
1hr 40mins (15) much to enjoy in this “broad, gutsy comedy”. Buckley is clearly having “a blast”; and Colman is
a delight as a “God-fearing stick-in-the-mud” who eventually becomes so “giddily liberated”, she
Sweary comedy starring seems “touched by divine spark”. The film is “very funny” at first, said Dulcie Pearce in The Sun.
Olivia Colman “But as the minutes roll on and the tsunami of profanities continues, the laughter turns to a
+++ titter. Which then turns to silence.” Still, “if you like swearing, then you will f**king love it”.

Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days is a film about a man who cleans public toilets in Tokyo, “and if the
gentle, meditative narrative doesn’t grab you, the toilets almost certainly will”, said Deborah Ross in
The Spectator. Koji Yakusho stars as the cleaner Hirayama, “whose life is held together by habit and
routine”. Every day, he wakes up in his spartan apartment, neatly folds his futon, waters his plants,
grabs a coffee, and drives to work. Tokyo, we soon learn, isn’t like London, where needing the loo
sets in motion “an epic odyssey of despair to somewhere disgusting”. Tokyo takes pride in its toilets:
they’ve been designed by famous architects, and our hero takes pride in cleaning them. At lunch, he
eats a sandwich in the same little park; after work, he dines at the same noodle bar; then he reads
in bed before going to sleep. The next morning, “he starts up all over again”. I’d have liked a deeper
Perfect Days understanding of Hirayama’s character, but even so the film is unexpectedly compelling, and “I’m
2hrs 3mins (PG) still marvelling at the toilets. There’s one that has transparent walls but when you lock it from the
inside, they go opaque.” I would travel all the way to Tokyo “just to see it”.
Wim Wenders’ moving Perfect Days “should be the most soul-crushingly bleak film ever made”, said Wendy Ide in The
portrait of a cleaner’s Observer: “a Groundhog Day grind with added despair and urinal cakes”. But the film is “quite the
life in Tokyo opposite”: an “achingly lovely” meditation on “beauty, fulfilment and simplicity”. For my money,
this is Wenders’ best film since Wings of Desire (1987), said Nick James in Sight and Sound. It builds
++++ into a beautifully “delicate” character portrait, thanks in part to Yakusho’s “exquisite” performance.

Inseparable Sisters: uplifting BBC documentary about conjoined twins

“The challenge when making a documentary
about conjoined twins is acknowledging the
reality of the life-shortening condition without
resorting to fake positivity – or, worse yet, piling
on the misery,” said Ed Power in The Daily
Telegraph. This “refreshingly humane and
optimistic” documentary from BBC One walks
that tightrope “to perfection”.
It tells the story of Marieme and Ndeye Ndiaye,
who were born in Senegal in 2016 and, before
long, moved to the UK with their father, Ibrahima,
to receive treatment. The initial plan had been to
separate the sisters; but “when it was discovered
that Marieme’s heart could not survive the
procedure, the roadmap had to be redrawn”.
The twins are portrayed “not as victims or charity
cases to be gawped at”, but children bursting with
personality; and the effect is “hugely uplifting”.
Ibrahima left everything – “home, wife and other
children, job, country” – to give his daughters
a chance at life, said Chitra Ramaswamy in The
Guardian. At its core, the documentary is a tribute
to “the almighty power of parental love” and duty;
and a very moving one. I was also charmed by the
willingness of everyone around the girls to chip in
to help, said Christopher Stevens in the Daily Mail.
It’s a shame, though, that the programme makers
didn’t feature the twins’ mother, who is in Senegal
looking after their siblings. “If this programme
had been extended to an hour, instead of being
confined to 40 minutes, we might have learnt
Marieme and Ndeye something of how the girls felt about missing her.”

2 March 2024 THE WEEK

28 ARTS
Exhibition of the week Sargent and Fashion
Tate Britain, London SW1 (020-7887 8888, tate.org.uk). Until 7 July
John Singer Sargent was an artist who
“clearly loved clothes”, said Francesca
Peacock in Prospect. His world
“was one of lavish haute couture
and costumed dress”: an in-demand
painter of society portraits, Sargent
(1856-1925) specialised in likenesses
“of society beauties in miles of silk”
and “serious canvases of serious men”
– themselves often no less lavishly
attired. He played with the costumes
in which he depicted his subjects,
changing colours of garments
to better suit a picture, and conjuring
outfits from his imagination when
models “only had rolls of fabric to
pose with”. Indeed, after altering
the colour of a sitter’s dress in one
portrait, he proclaimed himself both
“painter and dressmaker”. This new
show at Tate Britain explores the
artist’s “interest in and skill with
fashion”, bringing together dozens
of Sargent’s best-known paintings to
show how he used clothes “as a way
of telling a story”. Presented alongside
many of these portraits are some of
the actual garments worn by his
sitters, and these lend a “material,
fabric-y delight” to proceedings. It
adds up to a “spectacular” exhibition. Detail from Madame X (1894): “superficially captivating” – is somewhat superficially
Born in 1856 in Florence to American parents, Sargent was
“cosmopolitan, ironic and sophisticated”, said Jonathan Jones
in The Guardian. Like his friend Henry James, he was “a great
artist of identity, fascinated with the nature of social being”, a
painter of works that were “startling” and “modern”. There
are some wonderful pictures here: his “fascinating” portrait of
Art
Lord Ribblesdale, for instance, is
“a positively Sadean image of an
aristocrat in top hat, black coat
and boots, holding a riding crop
he might be about to use on a horse
or housemaid”, while his Aline
de Rothschild introduces us to
a personality “full of life and wit”.
Yet focusing on Sargent’s relationship
with fashion seems shallow and
“myopic”: the works here are
“wretchedly displayed” and
the garments add little to our
understanding of his art, which
can’t be reduced to facts about
hats, dresses and opera gowns.
“This is a horrible exhibition.”
The show “could have done with
an edit”, said Waldemar Januszczak
in The Sunday Times. Some of the
likenesses seem “interchangeable”.
And by “concentrating so fiercely on
the clothes”, Sargent often appears
to have chosen to focus on surface
over “depth” and “inner life”. And
indeed his “most celebrated” and,
at the time, most scandalous work
– Portrait of Madame X, showing
a society lady in a revealing dress
“captivating”. She’s “90% fashion
plate, 10% real person”. Yet this exhibition is a wonderful
exploration of Sargent as “an artistic impresario, an ambitious
creator of looks and events”. His work feels familiar in the age
of social media. “Vacuous celebrities, absurdly expensive clothes,
nobodies posing as somebodies – Sargent’s world strikes a chord
today because we recognise it so easily as our world.”

Where to buy… How to dust David

The Week reviews an
Once every two
exhibition in a private gallery months, in the
Accademia Gallery
Francis Picabia in Florence,
Eleonora Pucci
at Michael Werner Gallery clambers up
a scaffolding
assembled around
The French-Cuban artist Francis the 5.17-metre-
Picabia (1879-1953) was a wilful tall figure of
non-conformist who delighted in bad Michelangelo’s
taste. He appeared to hate the idea David, and gets to
of consistency, jumping, inter alia, work on dusting it. Pucci, an art restorer, uses a
from pointillism to cubism to Dada, cloth, fine brushes and a vacuum, says Angela
Giuffrida in The Guardian. The trickiest part of
and thence back to a figurative style
the job, which takes at least half a day, “is
that sailed – it was thought in the Espagnole (c.1926-27), 60.5cm x 45.5cm capturing the dust and spiders’ webs that lurk
1940s – sacrilegiously close to in David’s curls”. While she’s up there, she
commercial art. this one transparently copied from takes photos of the statue to check for cracks
© METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, MANHATTAN

This show, Women: Works on
Paper, 1902-1950, brings together
some 40 works relating to the
one stylistic constant of his career:
depicting women. Picabia baffles
throughout: we get exquisite studies
of costumed ladies that turn out to
be copied from tourist postcards,
magazines or pornography; there
is even a portrait of Greta Garbo,
a publicity shot. Yet there are also
personal portraits of friends and
lovers, as well as sincere homages
to the painters he most admired.
It’s a strange introduction to his art
– but, given his nature, no show could
help but be. Prices on request.
22 Upper Brook Street, London W1
(020-7495 6855). Until 11 May
and other signs of damage. David, created by
Michelangelo between 1501 and 1504, has been
in the Accademia since 1873; it attracts around
two million visitors per year. According to the
Accademia’s director, Cecilie Hollberg, the job
is rather like cleaning a bathroom. “You clean
and clean and think you’ve done a great job, but
then you spot some dust and wonder, ‘Where
did that come from?’,” she said. “This is what
it’s like. Dust is everywhere.”

THE WEEK 2 March 2024

 The List ARTS 29
Best books… Gyles Brandreth Television
The author, broadcaster and host of the interview podcast Rosebud picks Programmes
his favourites. He has compiled and written the introduction to Lewis Discovering the Music
Carroll’s Guide for Insomniacs (Notting Hill Editions £12.99), out now of Antiquity The uncovering
of an Ancient Greek musical
Through the Looking-Glass me to his collection of witty dipping into the diaries of score sets musical historians
on a mission to have it sung
by Lewis Carroll, 1871 (Puffin and whimsical cat poems others, from Samuel Pepys to in a modern arrangement
£5.99). At Christmas 1955 and encouraged me to learn Noël Coward. There are five and played on period
my parents took me to see Macavity by heart. volumes of Virginia Woolf’s instruments. Mon 4 Mar,
a stage version of this, starring diaries, but this distillation BBC4 21:00 (60mins).
Juliet Mills. She was 14. I was The Picture of Dorian Gray is all you need. Thanks to
seven. It was love at first by Oscar Wilde, 1890 (Penguin her acerbic wit, wisdom Storyville: Navalny Another
sight. From then on, Carroll’s £7.99). Wilde was a self- and writing style, this is chance to see the Oscar-
extraordinary story, published described “lord of language”, a bedside book that makes winning documentary about
as the sequel to Alice’s and his extraordinary wit and insomnia a pleasure. the late Russian opposition
leader, made after he was
Adventures in Wonderland, way with words are on show poisoned in 2020. Mon 4 Mar,
became my favourite book. in every line of this novel that Middlemarch by George Eliot, BBC4 22:00 (95mins).
still feels totally contemporary 1871 (Penguin £8.99). “It is
Old Possum’s Book of in 2024. One line in particular a narrow mind which cannot Sarah Everard: The Search
Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot, haunts me: “The tragedy of look at a subject from various for Justice Documentary
1939 (Faber £10.99). My old age is not that one is old, points of view.” Trollope, about the investigation into
life-long addiction to name- but that one is young.” Thackeray and Arnold Bennett Sarah Everard’s murder by
dropping began when I was are probably my favourite a serving Met officer, and its
a small boy living near A Moment’s Liberty: The novelists, but the novel I have consequences for policing. Tue
5 Mar, BBC1 21:00 (60mins).
Gloucester Road in London Shorter Diary of Virginia to come back to, always, is
and was introduced to T.S. Woolf edited by Anne Olivier Middlemarch – challenging, This World – Why Planes
Eliot at our local church. Bell, 1990 (available used). hypnotic, with writing that Vanish: The Hunt for
The great man introduced I keep a diary, and I love takes your breath away. MH370 Ten years after
Titles in print are available from The Week Bookshop on 020-3176 3835. For out-of-print books visit biblio.co.uk the Malaysia Airlines flight
disappeared, can new
The Week’s guide to what’s worth seeing evidence and technology shed
light on its fate? Wed 6 Mar,
BBC1 20:00 (60mins).
Showing now
In Macbeth (an undoing) – which arrives in The Rise and Fall of Boris
Kingston upon Thames from Edinburgh this Johnson Four-part series
week – writer-director Zinnie Harris presents about the former PM’s
an “audacious” reimagining, in which Lady tumultuous career, featuring
Macbeth breaks down (Guardian). 8-23 March, interviews with friends and
foes. Wed 6 and Thur 7 Mar,
Rose Theatre, Kingston (rosetheatre.org).
C4 21:00 (95mins and 60mins).
Four years after its forced closure in 2020,
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is Films
reopening, starting with its Gas Hall, which The Third Man (1949) Noir
classic about an American
hosts Victorian Radicals – a “sprawling, often writer investigating the death
brilliant” exhibition of its huge pre-Raphaelite of an old friend in postwar
collection (Daily Telegraph). Until 31 October, Victorian Radicals features work by Joseph Southall Vienna. Joseph Cotten and
Birmingham (birminghammuseums.org.uk). Orson Welles star. Sat 2 Mar,
masters by bringing together 120 works on BBC2 14:15 (105mins).
SIGISMONDA DRINKING THE POISON (DETAIL) © BIRMINGHAM MUSEUMS TRUST/BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM & ART GALLERY

Book now paper that reveal how they honed their skills
General booking for Opera Holland Park opens during their careers. 23 March-23 June, The Souvenir (2019) Joanna
this week, for a season that includes Stephen Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (ashmolean.org). Hogg’s autobiographical
drama about a young woman
Barlow’s acclaimed Tosca, set in 1960s Rome, embarking on a painful love
and Handel’s tragicomic Acis and Galatea. Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge affair in 1980s London. Tue
Booking from 6 March; 28 May-10 August, starring Dominic West is transferring to the 5 Mar, BBC2 00:10 (115mins).
London W8 (operahollandpark.com). West End following a brief run in Bath that
sold out within about an hour of tickets going
Bruegel to Rubens: Great Flemish Drawings on sale. 23 May-3 August, Theatre Royal Coming up for sale
celebrates the draughtsmanship of the Flemish Haymarket, London SW1 (trh.co.uk).
The Affordable Art Fair
returns to Battersea with
The Archers: what happened last week 113 galleries showing work
Ed is impressed when Emma contacts Miles Titchener about the grazing land so that they can by British and international
progress their tree-surgery plans. Vince tells an unnerved Jolene that he’s making progress with his artists. Its special display
investigation; later, he guesses that gangster Markie has already intimidated Jolene and advises is Constructed Identities,
her to tell Harrison. Miles agrees to let the land to Emma and Ed; Natasha has her doubts. In town, with work by contemporary
Markie approaches Jolene, warning her to keep quiet for her and her family’s sake. Harry apologises female artists who will take
to Harrison, who tells him to get help. On discovering Harry’s driving ban, Harrison says Harry must part in a panel discussion on
tell Alice or he will – Harry threatens to make trouble for Harrison if he breaks police confidentiality.
International Women’s Day,
When Fallon learns of the situation, she concocts a hasty plan to stop Alice and Martha going on
a road trip with Harry. After an unsuccessful meeting at the bank, Will offers to lend Emma and Ed 8 March. 6-10 March,
the money by raising the mortgage on No. 1. Alice guesses something is up, and Harrison comes Battersea Evolution, London
clean in spite of the risk to his career. Alice feels betrayed and vows to confront Harry. SW11 (affordableartfair.com).

2 March 2024 THE WEEK

30 Best properties
Houses with church connections
Nottingham-
shire: Church
Walk, Newark-
on-Trent.
This elegant
Georgian
townhouse is
situated on the
green adjacent
to St Mary
Magdalene
Church, an
imposing gothic
building (the
tallest structure
in the town)
that dates back
to 1180. 4 beds,
family bath,
shower, kitchen,
dining room,
1 further recep,
converted
former wash
house, garden.
£500,000;
Inigo (020-
3687 3071).
Somerset:
St Mary
Magdalen,
Lower
Writhlington.
A beautifully
converted
church built in
1874. Original
features include
a stone porch,
stained-glass
windows and a
vaulted ceiling.
2 beds, family
bath, shower,
kitchen/dining
room, recep,
library, 1-bed
annexe, garden.
£995,000;
Knight Frank
(01225-
325994).

Shropshire: Church Farm, Ditton Priors. This
historic property dates back to 1578 and features
a Shropshire scroll painting. 4 beds, 2 baths,
shower, kitchen, 2 receps, office, gym/studio,
garden, parking. £695,000; Savills (01952-239500).
Somerset: The Old Vicarage, Henstridge.
Handsome 18th century house full of period
features. 7 beds, 3 baths, shower, kitchen,
4 receps, swimming pool, garden, workshop,
garage. £1.85m; Savills (01202-856873).

THE WEEK 2 March 2024

on the market 31
Somerset: Barrow
Court, Barrow Gurney.
Originally built as a
Benedictine nunnery in
the 12th century, this
impressive country
house – the principal
part of which is for
sale – is set in approx.
4 acres of landscaped
grounds. 8 beds,
4 baths, 2 kitchens,
6 receps, self-contained
1-bed flat, parking.
£2.75m; Knight Frank
(020-7590 2451).

Somerset: The Old

Rectory, The Batch,
Butcombe. A former
rectory dating back
to the 1600s and
overlooking the
Mendip Hills. 6 beds,
2 baths, kitchen/
breakfast room, study,
3 receps, self-contained
1-bed cottage,
garden, parking.
£1.55m; Knight Frank
(0117-317 1997).

Dorset: Church Villa, East Morden. Regency house believed to have been built c.1830 by
Joseph Seller, who also designed the village church. 4 beds, family bath, shower, kitchen/breakfast
room, 3 receps, study, garden room, studio, garden, garage. £1.1m; Savills (01202-856861).

Devon: Chapel Cottage, Middle Marwood, Barnstaple. A tastefully converted Grade II

former Methodist chapel that incorporates the adjoining cottage. 3 beds, family bath, shower,
kitchen/breakfast room, recep, garden room, studio, garden. £479,950; Stags (01271-322833).

2 March 2024 THE WEEK


The chef making history in Fitzrovia
Eighteen months ago, Adejoké Bakare
was serving her West African cuisine to
“hungry hipsters” in a “cramped pop-up”
in south London’s Brixton Village Market,
says Nadia Cohen in The Times. Now, the
51-year-old has made history by becoming
the first black woman in Britain to be
awarded a Michelin star, for her Fitzrovia
restaurant Chishuru. Bakare, known as
Joké, grew up in northern Nigeria, where
she learnt to cook from her grandmother.
She moved to London in her late 20s, and
worked for a property company while
spending her weekends hosting supper
clubs. In 2020, a friend alerted her to
a culinary competition that offered its
winner a residency in Brixton Village
Market. Bakare entered (her friend had
threatened to disown her if she didn’t)
and duly won. She opened her Fitzrovia
restaurant only last September, with the
help of a crowdfunding campaign. The
dishes there are more “high-end” than at
her pop-up, but are still inspired by the
flavours of her childhood. Chishuru has
become wildly popular – it’s booked out
months in advance – but some diners
have complained that the prices are too
high and the portions too small. Such
criticisms, she says, come from a place
of “internalised racism” – the idea that
“African food should be piled high”.
How to cook perfect rice
“Rice is one of those ingredients that
people find the easiest thing in the world
LEISURE
Food & Drink
Adejoké Bakare: awarded a Michelin star
to cook or, frustratingly, the hardest,” says
Yotam Ottolenghi in The Guardian. Which
of those it is will depend on many things –
from the type of rice you’re using (fibrous
brown rice, for example, takes much
longer than white) to the dimensions of
your pan. Let’s assume, though, that we’re
talking about cooking white basmati rice
(or another long-grain white variety) in
a pot and on a hob. If that’s the case,
there’s one technique – known as the “boil-
steam method” – which should work every
time. Begin by rinsing the rice to get rid of
its starchy coating, and then soak it for at
least an hour. Once it’s drained, use this
simple ratio to work out how much water
you need: one part rice to one-and-a-half
parts water. Put the water and rice in a pot,
33
bring to the boil, give it a quick stir, and
then cover and turn the heat right down.
After 12 minutes, take off the heat, and
set aside, still covered, for five minutes.
Then fluff with a fork.
The skill behind The Taste of Things
Reviewers of The Taste of Things – the
new film starring Juliette Binoche, set in
a 19th century French château – have
marvelled at its lavishly detailed cooking
scenes. The opening sequence in particular
– 38 virtually dialogue-free minutes of
chopping, stirring and measuring – has
been singled out for praise. It’s no accident
that such scenes are convincing, says Sudi
Pigott in The Daily Telegraph: they were
made under the “expert” tutelage of one of
the world’s greatest chefs, Pierre Gagnaire.
Tran Anh Hung, the film’s director, spent
many hours in the 73-year-old’s three-
Michelin-starred Paris restaurant, filming
him making all the dishes cooked and
eaten in the film and capturing his
“precise techniques, embellishments and
mannerisms”. The clips were then studied
by the actors. Once filming got under way,
Gagnaire was on set to ensure that all
the details were correct. He eschewed the
“tricks” used by food stylists; everything,
he says, was “done for real” – including
preparing the giant stuffed vol-au-vent
that appears in one of the most memorable
scenes. It had to be made 15 times, each
time looking “exactly the same”. But the
result of such meticulousness, he says, is
a film that “will be remembered for ever”.

Chicken thighs with mustard & leeks (pollo con senape e porri)
When I was growing up, we always had Dijon mustard in the fridge, mainly to eat with boiled meats, pork sausages or ham, says
Paola Bacchia. But Mamma also paired it with chicken, garlic and wine in a dish she cooked in her electric frying pan. I used to think
it contained cream, as the sauce was so creamy – but, in fact, it didn’t. The leeks are my addition, and make an ideal bed for the
chicken thighs. This dish is lovely with mashed potatoes, polenta or even bread – anything that will catch the delicious sauce.

Serves 6
2 large leeks 6 chicken thighs, skin on and bone in 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil 80ml white wine or dry white vermouth
1 garlic clove, finely chopped 15g butter 2 heaped tbsp Dijon mustard 1 tsp dried thyme 200ml good-quality chicken stock
a squeeze of lemon juice

• Preheat the oven to 160°C fan. Finely slice
the white and pale green stem of the leeks,
discarding the roots and tough darker-green
leaves. Soak the leek slices in a large bowl
of water, massaging them briefly with your
fingers to dislodge any dirt stuck in the layers.
Drain and set aside.
• Prepare the chicken thighs by scattering on salt
and freshly cracked black pepper. In a frying pan
large enough to fit all the chicken in a single layer,
warm the olive oil over a medium-high heat.
Place the chicken in the pan, skin-side down. Fry
for about 5 mins, until the skin is golden. Carefully
© AMIT LENNON/CAMERA PRESS
juices in the pan, lift out the chicken pieces and
transfer to a large baking dish.
• Reduce the hob heat to medium. Add the
leek slices, garlic and butter to the pan. Stir
in the mustard and thyme, then pour in the
stock and season with salt and pepper. Braise
the leek, uncovered, for about 15 mins, stirring
every now and then.
• Pour the saucy leeks over and around the
chicken. Cover with a lid or foil. Transfer to the
oven and bake for 45 mins. Remove the lid or
foil and bake for a further 20 mins, or until the
chicken is nicely roasted and cooked through.

flip the chicken over and fry the other side for
about 4 mins, until it browns. Increase the heat, pour in the wine • Allow the dish to rest for a few minutes before serving with
and allow it to partially evaporate for a few minutes. Leaving the a squeeze of lemon juice.

Taken from At Nonna’s Table by Paola Bacchia, published by Smith Street Books at £26. Photography by Paola Bacchia.
To buy from The Week Bookshop for £20.99 (incl. p&p), call 020-3176 3835 or visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.

2 March 2024 THE WEEK

34 LEISURE Consumer
New cars: what the critics say
Top Gear Magazine
The Chinese auto giant
BYD (Build Your Dreams)
recently overtook Tesla in
global electric sales, and
this sports saloon is set to
rival the Model 3. The Seal
“looks smart”, and adds
some “zest” to BYD’s
“rather bland” range.
BYD Seal There are two options,
Price: from £45,695 both with the same
82.5kWh battery: the
308bhp rear-wheel drive
or 523bhp all-wheel drive,
capable of 0-62mph in 5.9
and 3.8 secs respectively.
The Sunday Times
BYD is aiming for the
premium market, and the
Seal does have “luxury-car
looks”, with a “gently
curving nose”, LED
headlights and a “shapely
boot”. “Smooth and
comfortable” to drive,
without the jerkiness you
often get with regenerative
braking, it cruises
comfortably at motorway
speeds, and has a good
turning circle around
town, though it does
scrape speed bumps.
Autocar
With a handsome,
aerodynamic body and
impressive handling,
“this is a very serious car”.
BYD’s interiors are an
“acquired taste”: almost
all the controls are buried
in layers of menus on
the “frustrating” 15.6in
screen, which can rotate
from landscape to portrait.
The seats are “comfy”,
and the driving position
is low enough to give
you a sporty feel, but
with plenty of headroom.

The best... kit for growing seeds

Pro-seeder This nifty gadget allows you
to sow seeds of all shapes and sizes,
one seed at a time. It means that
no seeds are wasted, and reduces
the need to thin seedlings out later
on (£15; dtbrownseeds.co.uk).
The Rowley Ripple copper watering can
This attractive copper two-pint watering can
would make a fine gift for a gardener. The
removable non-drip brass rose is perfect for
watering delicate seedlings (£75; haws.co.uk).

Fallen Fruits copper dibber A dibber is

useful for making a hole for planting seeds,
seedlings or bulbs. This copper-plated steel
model has a T-shaped handle for a

SOURCES: HOUSE & GARDEN, GARDENS ILLUSTRATED

comfortable grip, a leather loop, and
a scale to measure the hole depth
(£13; farrar-tanner.co.uk).

Classic cold
frame Providing a
microclimate to extend
the growing season, this
Small planting ruler This pocket-sized 33cm-long beech can go on the ground, but
ruler has holes to help you correctly space out your seedlings, also fits snugly (as pictured)
and reminders of the ideal spacing for different plants. There on a VegTrug (cold frame
is also a one-metre version (£15) for gardeners sewing directly from £80, VegTrug from
into beds (£11; burgonandball.com). £150; vegtrug.com).

Tips… how to keep
food fresher for longer
OStore whole onions in an old pair of
tights, tying a knot between each one so
they don’t touch. Hang somewhere cool and
dark and they will stay fresh for up to eight
months. Don’t store onions with potatoes, as
they will both spoil more quickly. Store cut
onions in an airtight container in the fridge.
OKeep citrus fruit slices in airtight boxes or
sealable pouches in the fridge. Coat apple
wedges in citrus juice to prevent browning,
or submerge in water with a good squeeze
of citrus juice and keep in the fridge. One
rotten apple will spoil the rest, so remove it.
O Store sliced lettuce or baby salad leaves
in the fridge in an airtight container lined
with kitchen paper to keep perky.
ORefrigerate mushrooms in a paper bag or,
like aubergines, wrap in kitchen paper. Don’t
store aubergines with apples or tomatoes.
OLeave the stone in half an avocado, coat
the cut side in lemon juice and wrap tightly
in clingfilm and refrigerate. Alternatively,
store in a plastic container with a handful
of onion chunks, cut-side up.
And for those who
have everything…
If ugly extension cables are a blight
on your home, Lola’s braid-covered
leads could be the solution. They
are available in an array of colours,
or you can ask for them to be hand-
dyed to match your flooring. They
come in different lengths and with
either two or four sockets.
from £39; lolasleads.co.uk
Where to find… the best
places to buy antiques
The market town of Narberth,
Pembrokeshire, has antiques shops galore,
from Malthouse, an Aladdin’s cave with
25 dealers, to Bazaar, a warehouse.
Every eight weeks, Newark-on-Trent,
Nottinghamshire, hosts one of Europe’s
largest antiques fairs (iacf.co.uk), plus there’s
Newark Chapel Antiques Centre and more
than 30 stalls at Newark Antiques & Interiors.
House renovators should try Yew Tree Barn’s
reclamation yard in Low Newton, Cumbria.
The nearby village of Cartmel also has
a monthly antiques fair from April to
November (cartmelantiques.co.uk).
Rait Antiques Centre in Perth and Kinross
has an interesting mix of antiques. It’s a
15-minute drive from Perth, which is home
to Lindsay Burns, one of Scotland’s best
auctioneers, with sales every few weeks.
Petworth, West Sussex, has about 30
antique shops tucked away in its medieval
streets, including the Petworth Antiques
Market with more than 35 dealers.

SOURCE: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH SOURCE: COUNTRY LIFE SOURCE: THE SUNDAY TIMES

THE WEEK 2 March 2024

 Travel LEISURE 35

This week’s dream: diving in a tropical Pacific paradise

Set in a marine reserve almost arrival, in September 1944,
as big as France, and with coral was among the more dramatic.
reefs in “glorious form”, the Indeed, the battle of Peleliu (the
Pacific island nation of Palau is island that US troops stormed
a dream destination for divers. first) has been called the
Those wishing to explore the bloodiest of the Second World
reefs, and the islands, might War in the Pacific theatre.
book a berth on the Explorer, Guests on the Explorer can visit
says Stanley Stewart in the the deserted beach and wander
FT, a three-deck catamaran through the serene forest – still
launched by the Four Seasons littered with rusting Japanese
hotel group in December. With materiel – where it unfolded,
ten cabins and one “palatial” costing the lives of more than
suite, it provides “levels of 12,000 men over two months.
comfort unheard of in most dive Much of the diving takes
boats”. The crew leads a five- place in the south of the
star Padi programme, as well archipelago, around forested
as snorkelling, paddleboarding karst islands that look “like
and kayaking trips. Palau’s seas children’s drawings”. There are
are its greatest “enchantment”, some 1,300 species of fish in
but guests can also venture on The forested karst islands of Palau “look like children’s drawings” these seas, and 700 hard and
shore on guided expeditions. soft corals. Vast schools of
Just stepping out of the tiny airport in Palau, into warm air bigeye trevally tremble silver in “latticed light”, huge manta rays
“freighted with tropical aromas”, is a remarkable experience. sail through the “blue void”, and octopuses can be found hiding
Various colonial powers have “come and gone” – the Spanish, beneath the propeller of a Japanese plane, which lies on the sea
the Germans, the Japanese, and finally the Americans, who left in floor “like a fallen angel”, with bright coral blossoming along its
1994 but still fund a generous aid programme, “intended to keep wings. Original Diving (originaldiving.com) has a five-night trip
the Palauans out of the hands of the Chinese”. The Americans’ from £7,905, excluding flights.

Getting the flavour of… Hotel of the week

A gourmet break in rural Portugal
Only 90 minutes by car from Lisbon, the
hilltown of Estremoz is a great place for a
“low-key” weekend break, says Paul Richardson
in The Sunday Telegraph. It lacks the “high-
wattage beauty” of better-known towns in the
Alentejo region, such as Évora and Monsaraz,
but its old centre has a “special radiance”,
thanks to the white marble from which it is
built. It also has the best food and antiques
market in the region, a “legion” of bric-à-brac
shops, a “clutch of museums”, and two excellent
restaurants run by the same team: Mercearia
Gadanha and Casa do Gadanha both serve
“fresh-faced” contemporary dishes that make
the most of the region’s superb produce. Casa
© GABRIELE CROPPI/4CORNERS
snow, and the air is “crisp, clean” and “life-
affirming”. For rail aficionados, the best way to
take it in is on a four-day, 2,750-mile trip from
Vancouver to Toronto aboard the Canadian,
says Adrian Bridge in The Sunday Times. Built
in the 1950s, this “gleaming stainless-steel
wonder” has two observation decks – which
are rarely crowded in the colder months, and
which offer huge views of the ever-changing
landscape, from the drama of the Rockies to
the prairies of Saskatchewan and Ontario’s
forests and lakes. It’s a great opportunity for
“quiet contemplation”, but there are diversions
(including “lively talks”) for those who want Husk
them, as well as convivial company and Thorington, Suffolk
good food, served in a dining car with linen Husk was launched in 2021
tablecloths and “cheery” service. Tickets cost as a Friday- and Saturday-
from £670pp (viarail.ca). night supper club in a
converted barn in Suffolk.
Wildlife watching on Lesvos Last year, owners Joey
Biological science is often said to have its roots O’Hare and Katy Taylor
in the studies of plants and animals that Aristotle added four spacious and
undertook on Lesvos (also known as Lesbos) in stylish bedrooms, says
Laura Jackson in The Times,
the fourth century BC. This large Greek island making this a great place
remains a paradise for wildlife watchers, says for a peaceful weekend,
James Lowen in The Daily Telegraph, especially just 20 minutes by car inland
during the spring and autumn, when a host of from Southwold. Joey’s
migratory birds pass through it. On one of modern European cooking is
Wildlife Travel’s week-long trips, guests stay at excellent, and is served with
Hotel Malemi in Skala Kallonis, where Aristotle “bold”, mostly organic wine
lived, and tour the island with expert guides. pairings. Rooms (in another
As well as the diverse avian life – from the barn) have “eclectic” antique
furnishings and an air of
rare, finch-like cinereous bunting to flamingos “soothing Scandi calm”,

do Gadanha also has “rustic-minimalist” rooms
from £120 per night, including breakfast.
An epic winter train journey
Canada is never more beautiful than in the
depths of winter, when the land is deep in
and black storks – there is a dazzling array of and there’s a natural pool
reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and dragonflies. and a two-person sauna.
Most impressive of all, however, are the Doubles from £434 b&b,
flowering plants (pictured), of which our guide with supper club for two;
counted 20 species in a single square metre. huskthorington.co.uk.
Tours cost from £1,995pp, including flights.

2 March 2024 THE WEEK

36 Obituaries
French lawyer who abolished the death penalty
Robert Badinter was
Robert
a French socialist and
Badinter
humanitarian, described
1928-2024
by Emmanuel Macron as
“France’s conscience”. An eminent lawyer
and a minister in the Mitterrand government,
he equalised the age of consent for same-
sex relationships (from 18 to 15), and held a
series of major positions: he was the president
of the commission set up to resolve legal issues
arising from the dissolution of Yugoslavia; he
was also the honorary co-chair of the World
Justice Project. But he was best known at home
and abroad as the man who abolished the
death penalty in France, at a time when most
French people supported it. A survivor of the
Holocaust, whose father had been murdered
at Sobibor, he had been a crusader for abolition
since witnessing the guillotining of one his
clients, Roger Bontems, in 1972.
Badinter: “France’s conscience”
Robert Badinter was born in Paris in 1928, the
son of Jewish immigrants who’d fled Bessarabia, in what is now
Moldova, a decade earlier. His father, an engineer, loved France
with a passion, and Badinter grew up in a household “steeped
in the ideals” of the Republic, said Sylvie Humbert on The
Conversation: only French was spoken at home, and the
reading of the 19th century French greats – Maupassant,
Stendhal – was mandatory. In 1940, however, their comfortable
lives were shattered by the Nazi Occupation. In 1942, Badinter’s
grandmother died en route to Auschwitz. Soon after, the family
moved south to Lyon, hoping to find safety in the supposed “free
zone” established by Marshal Pétain. But, in early 1943, his father
was arrested. Several other family members were also killed.
Robert, his mother and eldest brother escaped to a village in
the Alps, where they were sheltered until the War was over. With
the return of peace, he studied law at the University of Paris, at
Columbia in the US, and at the Sorbonne – where he later taught,
and was appointed a professor in 1965. He began practising law
in the early 1950s, and over the next couple of decades, he
Director at the vanguard of the satire boom
Eleanor Fazan, who has died
Eleanor
aged 93, was 15 when her
Fazan
mother arranged for her to be
1930-2024
trained by Ninette de Valois
at Sadler’s Wells. She was a talented dancer, but
later, she could not imagine how this had come
about, as she lived in Kenya, and de Valois had
never seen her perform. Regardless, she left her
home in 1945 and sailed from Alexandria to
London on a troop ship. Left largely to fend for
herself in the capital, she studied ballet for some
years before deciding she’d be better suited to
life on the chorus line. She made her professional
debut in 1948, and after a few years she started
to turn her hand to choreography. Her big Fazan: worked at the Royal Opera As an actress, choreographer and/or director, she
break came in 1956, said The Guardian, when
she was asked if she could also direct the musical Grab Me a
Gondola. It was a hit, and in 1958, Fazan – a legendary figure in
the theatre world – became the first female director to have three
shows running in the West End concurrently.
In 1961, she was asked by the impresario Donald Albery to tidy
up a student revue that had been a hit at the Edinburgh Festival,
but which was nowhere near ready for the West End. The four
young men behind it (Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett
THE WEEK 2 March 2024
defended a host of criminals. When asked why,
he’d quote his mentor, Henri Torrès: “You
defend a man who has killed or stolen because
they are first of all a man.”
In his 1973 book The Execution, he recalled
that it was witnessing Bontems’ death – and
hearing the “sharp snap” of the blade – that
inspired his campaign against the death penalty.
Bontems was a prison inmate who, with an
accomplice, had taken a prison guard and
a nurse hostage during a riot, in an attempt
to break out. It was the accomplice who’d slit
the hostages’ throats, but to Badinter’s outrage,
the jury sentenced both men to death, and
President Pompidou declined to pardon either
of them. In 1977, Badinter opted to defend
a notorious child killer, during whose trial
he delivered a 90-minute address to the jury
not about the man’s guilt, but about capital
punishment, and their responsibilities as
arbiters in the case. “You are alone, and there
will not be any presidential pardon,” he told them. “You, you,
and you.” The jury declined to execute the man, but a majority
of French people were still in favour of the death penalty.
In 1981 François Mitterrand, a socialist who’d spoken out against
capital punishment, was elected president. He made Badinter his
justice minister, and in September that year, following a heated
debate, Badinter’s bill abolishing the death penalty passed. Years
later, he recalled the moment after the crucial vote. “It was a
beautiful morning, the fog had lifted... I left the senate, walked
through the Jardin du Luxembourg where there were children
playing, sat down and looked at them; I felt such a strong and
special feeling... the death penalty no longer existed, it was over.”
Badinter wrote several books, one of them with his wife, the
historian and philosopher Élisabeth Badinter, who survives
him. During his lifetime, he’d declined the Légion d’honneur and
other decorations, but last week it was announced that he will be
laid to rest in the Panthéon, the mausoleum for France’s heroes.
and Jonathan Miller) duly turned up at her flat
and got to work – when no one was watching.
“To be caught working was more than their
English education would allow, and God forbid
that they should be taken for actors in need of
instruction,” Fazan (widely known as Fiz) recalled.
The result was Beyond the Fringe, the show that
is credited with launching the satire boom in the
1960s. Around the same time, Fazan went to see
Lionel Bart’s new musical Oliver! in the West End,
and was struck by the talented young Australian
playing Mr Sowerberry. Later, she directed Barry
Humphries’s first one-man show in London.
worked on a huge range of projects, from Richard
Attenborough’s film Oh! What a Lovely War and Michael
Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate to productions by John Schlesinger
and others at the Royal Opera, and Lindsay Anderson’s The Lily
White Boys at the Royal Court in 1960. Her last film was the
2007 comedy Hot Fuzz. In 2013 she was awarded the OBE for
services to dance. She had married Stanley Myers, the composer
who wrote the theme for The Deer Hunter, in 1955; they had a
son, Nicholas, the next year. She and Myers divorced amicably in
the 1960s. Nicholas died in 2017. Her granddaughters survive her.
 CITY CITY 39
Companies in the news
...and how they were assessed
Shein: London revisited
Wall Street’s loss could be the City’s gain, said Bloomberg. Fast-fashion giant Shein is
considering switching its huge initial public offering to London because of potentially
insurmountable “hurdles” in its “preferred location”, New York. The online retailer,
founded in China but now headquartered in Singapore, filed to float last year, and is aiming
for a valuation of $80bn-$90bn. But amid a backlash from some senators, who are
demanding disclosure about its operations in China, Shein has now judged it “unlikely” Seven days in the
that the US Securities and Exchange Commission will approve the application. A London Square Mile
listing would be a boon for the beleaguered market “after one of the worst years for
IPOs in its modern history” – it raised just $1bn last year. But Shein’s stay might be as Ahead of next week’s Spring Budget,
ephemeral as its fashions, said Ke Yan of DZT Research in Singapore: “a short-term the Chancellor was widely anticipated
to ease fiscal policy by at least £10bn –
compromise” for a company needing to prioritise “certainty” over “valuation and in a package of “smart tax cuts”, aimed
liquidity”. London, in fact, has much more to offer Shein than “a warm welcome”, at improving the economy, which could
said Lex in the Financial Times. The City “understands fast fashion”. With its valuation include further cuts to national insurance
“already subject to downward pressure”, Shein needs to get a move on. or a reduction in income tax. The
Institute for Fiscal Studies argued the
Abrdn: break it up? case for tax cuts was “weak”, warning
“Abrdn has lost its vowels” and “some may think its marbles, too”, said City AM. The that they should not go ahead without a
UK asset manager – formed in 2017 through the merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen detailed spending review. It also claimed
Asset Management – is battling investor outflows, falling profits and a tanked share that cuts would do little to reverse the
sharp increase of the tax burden across
price. Hundreds of jobs are being cut, yet it has just handed the boss, Stephen Bird, the parliament as a whole, which has
an £800,000 bonus. “The Scottish financial giant is now three years into a three-year risen by a record £66bn. There was
turnaround that has failed to deliver a turnaround,” said Oliver Shah in The Times. In better news on prices. UK food inflation
fairness to Bird, who took the top job in 2020 dubbing himself “the reset guy”, sorting eased to its lowest rate in almost two
out this “confused monster” always looked a tough call. “Abrdn has become one of those years in February, according to the
pig-turkey-snake creatures stitched together by medieval chefs out to impress – a financial British Retail Consortium, slowing to 5%.
cockentryce.” It’s time it was “dismembered”. Even some of its own fund managers Profits for the biggest US oil and gas
believe it cannot continue in its current guise. Abrdn lacks “the scale required to compete producers were reported to have almost
with much larger global rivals”, said Oliver Ralph and Sally Hickey in the FT, while tripled under President Biden, despite
being “vulnerable to the challenge from smaller, specialist boutiques”. Shares have fallen what the industry described as his
by 65% since the merger. Bird, however, ruled out a break-up this week. “We have very “hostile” policies. The country’s top
ten listed operators are on track to
valuable parts of this business, and we like the way they work together.”
have amassed a combined net income
of $313bn over three years.
Frasers/Morgan Stanley: snobbery spat
Apple shelved its quest to build an
Mike Ashley, the high street king, has long had a vexed relationship with the City, once
electric car; affected staff are reportedly
contending that it was full of “cry babies”. Now he is the one alleging he’s the victim of being moved to its AI division. Rolls-
“abuse”, said The Guardian. Ashley’s Frasers Group is embroiled in a High Court dispute Royce shares jumped, after a surge in
with US investment bank Morgan Stanley, over the latter’s decision to impose a £790m underlying profits of almost £1bn to
“margin call” (a demand for collateral) on a trading position that Frasers held in the £1.6bn. Shares, which gained 220% in
German fashion group Hugo Boss in 2021. His lawyers claim the move was insulting and 2023, are now heading for an all-time
motivated by class-driven “snobbery”. They’re suing for £40m in alleged costs and lost high when adjusted for the dilutive
trading profits. But the suit isn’t about money, as Ashley admits: his objective is to show effect of a rights issue. The price of
how unfairly he believes he was treated. Morgan Stanley counters that Frasers’ claims are bitcoin jumped above the $60,000 mark
for the first time since November 2021.
“not grounded in any form of recognisable legal or factual reality”. The case continues.

Nvidia: the most powerful player in tech?

The run-up to Nvidia’s results was a nervy affair
for the US chipmaker’s investors. With shares
more than 225% up in a year, the slightest
disappointment risked a big move downwards.
Yet Nvidia delivered, said Danny Fortson in The
Sunday Times – and how! The “indispensable”
company behind the artificial intelligence
goldrush reported a “jaw-dropping” $30bn
in annual profits last year, seven times its
earnings a year earlier, marking “the fastest
growth of profits in Wall Street history”.
The ensuing shares-surge briefly sent the
company’s value into the $2trn stratosphere.
Co-founded 30 years ago by CEO Jensen
Huang, Nvidia came of age as a supplier of Huang: “the man of the hour”
the powerful graphics chips (GPUs) beloved by
“Gen X” video gamers, said Lauren Goode in Wired. The
realisation these could be repurposed for the most complex
AI models conferred such a flying head start that the company
now commands “more than 70% of sales
in the AI chip market”. “Huang is the man of
the hour. The year. Maybe even the decade.”
But no one reigns forever. He’s now “at the
mercy of regulators”, and rivals old and new.
Challengers in the AI chip race include “the
deepest pockets in tech”: Google, Amazon,
Meta and Microsoft.
“Nvidia’s stunning ascent” has “made it
a giant target”, agreed Asa Fitch in The Wall
Street Journal. It must worry Huang that
these goliaths are currently his biggest
customers, accounting for a huge chunk of
revenues. For the moment, though, Nvidia
is sitting pretty. It can’t make enough of its
advanced H100 chips (selling at around
$25,000 a pop) to meet the voracious demand. That gives
Huang immense power. “How Nvidia allocates its limited
supplies could influence who wins or loses in the AI race.”

2 March 2024 THE WEEK

40 CITY Talking points
Issue of the week: tackling the housing crisis
Are the black arts of developers really to blame for the UK’s chronic undersupply?
“How many reports do you need to fix
Britain’s housing market?” asked Lex in
the FT. This week, the Competition and
Markets Authority added “to the paper
mountain” by publishing a year-long
study of the sector, commissioned by
the Housing Secretary, Michael Gove.
Despite the initial qualms of investors,
who sent shares tumbling, Britain’s “Big
Eight” housebuilders – Barratt, Bellway,
Berkeley, Bloor Homes, Persimmon,
Redrow, Taylor Wimpey and Vistry –
“have more to celebrate than fear” from
the CMA, which thinks “the blame for
Britain perpetually missing housebuilding
targets” lies more with the “complex
planning system” than with the builders’ Housebuilders: off the hook?
possibly anti-competitive activities
The biggest relief for a sector frequently accused of “dark arts”,
said Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail, is that the charge of “land
banking” was rejected. It has long been alleged that builders “have
sat on plots of land” with planning permission, waiting for values
to increase – boosting their profits, while restricting supply. Still,
the industry has not emerged unscathed. The CMA is concerned
about “potential collusion” and data sharing, “which may well
have led to higher prices for new homes”, making it harder for
young buyers to clamber onto the housing ladder. Given that lack
of affordability has pushed up the average age of first-time buyers
to 34, this is “unconscionable”. “Little
of this will be news to homebuyers,
or to those tracking the Government’s
persistent failure to achieve its
300,000-a-year housing target,” said
Matthew Brooker on Bloomberg. The
imbalance between demand and supply
is so pronounced that the market is
clearly broken. And when builders
do deliver, the results are often shoddy.
“Most homebuyers already avoid the
new-build market because of its well-
documented quality issues.” Only 33%
would consider buying one, according
to the Home Builders Federation.
“How might we ruin the dream of
even more aspiring homeowners,” asked
Kate Andrews in The Daily Telegraph. Try Chancellor Jeremy
Hunt’s mooted “99% mortgage scheme” – a radical replacement
for “Help to Buy” – which will only increase the risk of “a housing
bubble”, and future defaults. The Tories know they “need a big
offer on housing” for younger people. But this half-baked plan is
not the answer. There are no quick fixes, said the FT. Ultimately,
“Britain’s gummed-up planning system” must be tackled, to solve
“chronic undersupply”. Government must address a “byzantine”
system that opens the door “to judicial reviews and delaying
tactics from Nimbys and environmentalists”. If Britain is to build
the homes it needs, it will have “to slash the wads of red tape”.

The Granolas: what the experts think Long-winded?

O Big breakfast
Sometimes an
investment buzz
phrase takes years to
come to fruition. That’s
certainly the case with
the “Granolas”, said
Elliot Smith on CNBC.
Goldman Sachs came
up with the acronym
four years ago to
describe Europe’s A “crunchy” acronym
11 leading stocks. But
it has taken a powerful rally to bring them
to mainstream attention. Last week, the
pan-European Stoxx 600 hit a record high
– powered, says Goldman, by this group of
“internationally exposed quality growth
compounders”, which have accounted for
half of gains over the past 12 months. The
“crunchy” acronym, said Tim Steer in
the FT, compromises pharmas GSK and
Roche, Dutch chip company ASML,
Switzerland’s Nestlé and Novartis, Danish
drugmaker Novo Nordisk, France’s
L’Oréal and LVMH, the UK’s AstraZeneca, in the European equity market”. There
German software company SAP, and
French healthcare firm Sanofi. Some have
drawn comparisons with the better known
“Magnificent Seven” tech stocks in the US. increasingly concerned about the
O Thin gruel
“Call it the off-Broadway rally,” said
Francesco Guerrera on Reuters. European
stocks may have touched new highs, but
they “don’t have the razzle-dazzle of US
stock markets”. Sure, the
Granolas have held their
own of late, delivering
a total return of more
than 60% over the past
three years, “just above
the Magnificent Seven”.
But it’s hard to see them
keeping up with US
rivals. The tech giants
are benefitting from the
“gamechanging nature
of AI”, while LVMH,
GSK and co rely on “plain old economic
growth to sell their wares”. The “Granola
rush” could quickly become “thin gruel”.
O Full bowl
Goldman analysts argue the Granolas
have the right qualities for “the current
cycle”, said Elliot Smith on CNBC: solid
earnings growth, high and stable margins,
and strong balance sheets. They “stand to
benefit from the structural shift towards
passive investment and the lack of liquidity
is the rub, said the FT: Europe is
“experiencing a similar phenomenon
to the US, where fund managers are
narrowness of a rally led by tech
companies”. Still, if you’re persuaded by
the Granolas “and want a full bowl of the
stuff”, said Joseph Wilkins in FT Adviser,
the best place go is Fidelity European,
“which parks an enormous 34%” in them.
From recent headlines, it’s easy to
assume that the offshore wind sector
“is set for another very ugly year”, said
Simon Mundy in the FT. In February, the
troubled Danish industry giant Ørsted
announced plans to suspend its
dividend and lay off 800 staff. The UK
head of the German utility RWE reckons
the Government’s “stingy” financial
support for the sector “could deliver
a disappointing result in this summer’s
auction for offshore wind licences”.
Still, analysts forecast “brighter weather
ahead” – Morgan Stanley predicts that
global offshore wind capacity will surge
to over 350 gigawatts in 2030 (from less
than 100GW today), and investors are
“cautiously poking their toes” back into
water. Ørsted’s share price – while less
than a third of its 2021 peak – has risen
52% from its nadir last November.
Morgan Stanley reckons investors
currently have “a buying opportunity”
to load up on shares in Ørsted as well
as utilities like RWE and the UK’s SSE,
which are increasing their exposure to
offshore wind. “More gusty spells in the
market are likely – but the case for long-
term growth appears strong.”
Some fund managers, notably
Baillie Gifford, remain bearish about
Ørsted, said Christopher Johnson on
Morningstar. But others “are keeping
the faith”. Ninety-One Global
Environment upped its stake in
December; Legal & General PMC Multi
Asset Pension has also been buying.

THE WEEK 2 March 2024

 Commentators CITY 41
The second anniversary of Russia’s “barbaric” invasion of Ukraine
has prompted more calls for economic sanctions. But it would City profile
The risks be a great mistake, says Alex Brummer, to seize the $300bn of
Russian sovereign assets that are frozen in the West, as US officials
Jacob Rothschild
There was arguably “no
of a Russian and the UK Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, have proposed.
Using the funds “would take a bargaining chip off the table”
greater financier in the
last half century” than the
asset grab that might be useful during peace negotiations – and would send
a dangerous message. Western democracies, and the prosperity of
fourth Baron Rothschild,
who has died aged 87,
Alex Brummer the City and other financial centres, are underpinned by the rule said Joe Middleton in The
of law. Removing that assurance would signal to other countries Independent. His death
Daily Mail “to think about other choices” for their sovereign deposits. When marks “the passing of a
it comes to China, which holds most of its £2.5trn official reserves consummate dealmaker”,
and one of the UK’s most
in US bonds, the risks to stability multiply. The search is on for prominent philanthropists
more practical solutions. One proposal is to raise large syndicated and champions of the arts.
loans, using Russian assets as collateral; another is for Kyiv to Known simply as Jacob
issue “reparation bonds”, backed by claims for war damages by everyone in the City,
met, in time, by the frozen assets. These are worth exploring. Rothschild was described
Cameron’s “gung-ho approach should not be a runner”. by one friend as having
“the charm of a prince,
“Dig out the tiny violin and strike up the band,” says Lucy Burton. the financial acumen of
“Britain’s bosses want to be paid more.” Despite the UK’s “world- a Byzantine banker and
the ambition of a king”.
We should end beating income inequality” (exacerbated by 15 years of negative
wage growth for most of us), executives at blue-chip companies
Educated at Eton and Christ
Church, Oxford, Rothschild
our hostility to have begun pitching “US-style mammoth pay packages” to
investors for approval. “Their argument is that Americans doing
could trace his banking
roots back to late 18th
high earners… the same job get paid more, and it’s not fair” – CEOs of S&P 500
companies make on average $10m more annually than their FTSE
century Frankfurt – the family
famously financed the Duke
Lucy Burton 100 counterparts. Some disparity between US and UK salaries is of Wellington during the
inevitable, given America’s better growth and productivity, and its Napoleonic Wars.
The Daily Telegraph significantly longer working hours. However, the British refusenik
attitude to big pay packets risks destroying our own growth
prospects “by forcing influential decision-makers elsewhere”.
It would be naive to think that ramping up bosses’ wages will fix
all London’s “stubborn stock market woes”. But lower executive
pay is certainly a factor in the current exodus. As London fights
“to retain its financial services crown post-Brexit”, this “blanket
intolerance” of “all City fat cats” is “starting to look outdated”.

“It’s remarkable that an intense debate about the woes of the

London stock market has morphed into a refrain about executive
…but are pay pay,” says Nils Pratley. For the past year, we’ve been told that “the
lack of buzz in London” was caused by the decline of UK pension
packets really funds as core owners, or by stamp duty, or by the fragmentation
of local authority schemes. “Now, just as pay season approaches, Yet he ended up building
the problem? there’s a new culprit”: apparently it’s because UK executives are
paid less than their US counterparts. So far, only a few companies
“his own empire”, said The
Daily Beast. Having joined
Nils Pratley – HSBC, AstraZeneca, the London Stock Exchange owner LSEG N.M. Rothschild & Sons
– have signalled plans to boost executive rewards. But there has in 1963, he left in 1980,
following a dispute with his
The Guardian been a big shift: institutional investors such as Legal & General cousin, Evelyn, and founded
now talk of giving companies “necessary flexibility” on pay, what would become RIT
especially when up against US competitors. “It’s not hard to sense Capital Partners, now one of
where this script could go” – the list of firms that deem themselves the UK’s largest investment
“exceptions” to UK executive pay norms may turn out to be very trusts. He also co-founded
long. “A new US benchmark is being quietly legitimised. One the wealth manager St
doubts the London stock market will be saved in the process.” James’s Place. While socially
an establishment figure, in
The husband of an American BP employee has been charged business Rothschild was
anything but, says the Daily
with insider trading after overhearing his wife talking about a Mail. He took many risks, and
Honey, I major deal while working from home, says Matt Levine. Houston-
based Tyler Loudon has admitted buying thousands of shares in
was an inveterate plotter of
big takeovers. His death has
insider-traded TravelCenters of America – a fuel station company – ahead of
BP’s $1.3bn acquisition last February, and pocketing a profit
sparked much “succession
talk”. The likely heir at RIT is
your merger of $1.76m. His admission is unsurprising. It’s hard to claim “crazy
coincidence right?” when “your spouse worked on the deal” and
not his “rebellious” son and
fellow financier Nat, but his
Matt Levine “you sold everything you owned to buy the target stock”. The daughter Hannah. Among
more interesting question for investigators was whether the Rothschild’s many artistic
legacies is the family house,
Bloomberg spouse was implicated, too. When Loudon eventually confessed Waddesdon Manor, which
to his wife that he’d made the trade (“so that she did not have to he managed for the National
work long hours anymore”), she reported this stunning revelation Trust, and two portraits by
to BP – which found no evidence implicating her, but sacked her David Hockney and Lucian
anyway. In June, she obtained a divorce. This may be the worst Freud – the latter simply
insider-trading case I’ve ever heard about – but I agree with the entitled: Man in a Chair.
prosecutors. It’s “pretty clear” Mrs Loudon wasn’t in on it.

2 March 2024 THE WEEK

42 CITY Shares
Who’s tipping what
The week’s best shares Directors’ dealings
Cambridge EnSilica Kingfisher British American Tobacco
Cognition Holdings The Sunday Times The Times
The Mail on Sunday The global chip shortage is The B&Q, Castorama and 2,700
This neuroscience data prompting European industry Screwfix owner blames two 2,650 Director
specialist creates cutting-edge to source locally. EnSilica profit warnings on struggles sells 10,309
2,600
tests on mobile devices to designs chips for planes, cars in France, and the UK
2,550
assess brain functions: and heart monitors. Revenues slowdown. But the bad news
2,500
memory, attention etc. Profits are up and there’s a promising is priced in, and a housing
should rise as digital testing consultancy arm. Could attract market recovery should boost 2,450

gathers pace. Buy. 51p. a suitor. Buy. 50.5p. the DIY business. Buy. 222.4p. 2,400

2,350
Dunelm Group Hargreaves Services Mitchells & Butlers 2,300
The Times The Mail on Sunday The Times Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
The value-led homewares Hargreaves delivers tailored The Harvester and All Bar One

SOURCE: INVESTORS’ CHRONICLE

retailer has continued to grow
post-lockdowns, despite
struggling with forex and
increased freight rates. Cash
generative with rising profits.
Aiming to open stores in inner
London. Buy. £11.01.
environmental and industrial
services to the infrastructure,
energy and property sectors.
Plans to sell its land and
German arms could generate
“serious cash returns” via
divis. Buy. 514p.
BAT has lost a quarter of its
operator has a stable of brands value in a year as uncertainty
across 1,760 venues – scale that hangs over the traditional
enables it to buy energy, food cigarette business. Interim FD
and drink more cheaply than Javed Iqbal cashed in shares
smaller pub groups. Paying worth £250,000 on news the
company will cut its stake in
down debt and rebuilding the Indian conglomerate ITC
margins. Buy. 248.8p. to release capital.

…and some to hold, avoid or sell Form guide

Antofagasta
Investors’ Chronicle
The Chilean copper miner’s
earnings have rebounded
slightly from 2022, with higher
cash costs mitigated by higher
gold sales. A $1bn hike in
capex will strain the balance
sheet but add production
capacity. Hold. £17.97.
BAE Systems
Investors’ Chronicle
The defence contractor has
topped last year’s order intake
with stealth fighter aircraft
and nuclear submarine orders.
Expanding into space via the
acquisition of Ball Aerospace.
No longer trades at a discount
to peers. Hold. £12.17.
Barclays Bank
Investors’ Chronicle
The “languishing” bank
has outlined a three-year
restructuring plan, focused
on UK retail banking, with
a round of divi and buyback
payouts amounting to £10bn
over three years. Hold. 157p.
Intercontinental
Hotels Group
The Times
Revenue per room at the
Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza
owner was 11% above its
pre-Covid peak last year,
fuelling annual profits of $1bn.
Returning an extra $1bn to
shareholders, with “plenty of
runway left”. Hold. £86.
Shares tipped 12 weeks ago
Moneysupermarket.com
Group Best tip
The Times PPHE Hotel Group
The “crisis-led” comparison The Sunday Times
up 26.92% to £13.20
website has been focusing on
building relationships with Worst tip
customers and locking in Greencoat UK Wind
providers as it awaits the next The Times
“consumer panic”. Yields down 4.36% to 136p
4.8%. Hold. 246.6p.
Schroder Income Market view
Growth Fund “It’s completely different
The Daily Telegraph from the bubble era. The
This trust invests in FTSE 100 stock level was achieved on
stalwarts – such as Shell and calm rationale and without
L&G – offering scale, financial any feeling of overheating.”
strength and geographical Seiji Nakata of Daiwa
Securities, on the Nikkei’s
diversification at “bargain
new record high after 34
basement prices” with years. Quoted in the FT
attractive yields. Hold. 259p.

Market summary
Key numbers
Key numbers for
for investors
investors Best and worst performing
Best performing shares
shares Following the Footsie
27 Feb 2024 Week before Change (%) WEEK’S CHANGE, FTSE 100 STOCKS
FTSE 100 7683.02 7719.21 −0.47% RISES Price % change 7,700
FTSE All-share UK 4191.43 4206.04 −0.35% Beazley 640.50 +11.70
Dow Jones 38897.51 38539.60 0.93% Rolls-Royce Holdings 358.60 +8.50 7,650
Standard Chartered 642.60 +7.00
NASDAQ 16012.88 15553.05 2.96%
Lloyds Banking 46.31 +6.10 7,600
Nikkei 225 39239.52 38363.61 2.28%
Hang Seng 16790.80 16247.51 3.34% Intl. Cons. Airl. Gp. 156.00 +5.60
7,550
Gold 2027.20 2017.05 0.50%
Brent Crude Oil 83.13 82.38 0.91% FALLS 7,500
DIVIDEND YIELD (FTSE 100) 3.78% 3.78% WPP 713.80 –9.44
7,450
UK 10-year gilts yield 4.29 4.21 Ocado Group 493.80 –7.15
US 10-year Treasuries 4.28 4.25 HSBC Holdings 602.40 –6.43
7,400
UK ECONOMIC DATA Centrica 125.45 –5.96
Latest CPI (yoy) 4.0% (Jan) 4.0% (Dec) Imperial Brands 1730.50 –5.13 7,350
Latest RPI (yoy) 4.9% (Jan) 5.2% (Dec)
Halifax house price (yoy) 2.5% (Jan) FTSE 250 RISER & FALLER 7,300
1.7% (Dec) Indivior 1725.00 +31.30 Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
£1 STERLING: $1.264 €1.168 ¥190.545 Bitcoin $57,029.22 WAG Pymt. Soln. 75.00 –12.80 6-month movement in the FTSE 100 index
Source: Refinitiv/FT (not adjusted for dividends). Prices on 27 Feb (pm)

THE WEEK 2 March 2024

44 The last word

Meet the cool-headed controllers

who really run the country
From the road network to our airspace and the electricity grid, teams of workers are busy behind the scenes
responding to every eventuality. What does it take to keep Britain moving? Michael Segalov reports

“People on the phone are “We see fatalities in real

often in a state of stress.” time on our screens.”
Laura Davis, 34, call assessor, Sean Sloan, 54, National
West Midlands Ambulance Highways South East
Service, Brierley Hill, Dudley Operations Centre team
manager, Surrey
I’m first port of call for
patients. Most days, my shift Our team has a single task at
is 7am-5pm. Headset on and hand: across our network of
phone logged in, I hear a beep roads, to keep as many lanes
in my ear – my first caller safely operational as possible.
– right away. From then, it That’s no mean feat, given
rarely stops until I log out we’re responsible for the
again. Today, 70 of us are bottom half of the M25
taking calls, but there’s no and all the major connecting
slow start, or time for feed-in routes down to the
chitchat over coffee with south coast: the M20 to
colleagues. I’ve been in the Dover, Kent’s A2/M2, M23
job two years now. Early to Brighton, M3, M27, M271
on, I was overwhelmed by and M275, among others.
this full-throttle kickoff to
the day. Now, though, it’s Usually, we have a team of
second nature. 12 operators monitoring our
cameras and other data, too:
Right away, I’ll ascertain we’ve got sensors built into
whether a patient is breathing our roads called Midas
and conscious – the reason for Laura Davis: “There’s nothing better than knowing you helped save a life” [Motorways Incident
them phoning. Then it’s on to Detection and Automatic
location. What I ascertain determines what happens next: there’s Signalling] that flash up to tell us when traffic is building up, or
a triage system. If needed, I pass details on to our dispatching vehicles are travelling unexpectedly slowly. Reports also come in
team, or a clinical expert if I need more medical insight. If I’ve from members of the public, breakdown-recovery crews and the
needed to give CPR advice, or someone is fitting or in cardiac emergency services. Once we’ve identified an incident, we make
arrest, I’ll stay with that a risk assessment to work out
caller until a paramedic our response. We set overhead
team has arrived, talking “Compassion is important. In many cases, I’m signs and signals to reduce
them through every second. speaking to someone at their most vulnerable. speeds, warn of problems
or close lanes; if needed, we
I try to remain authoritative Those conversations can be formative” deploy our officers to help
on every call. Those on the move vehicles or other blockages
phone are often in a state of stress. I need to be firm and assertive out of the carriageway. If we need fire, ambulance or police, we’ll
to make sure they’re processing precisely what I’m saying. If they liaise with them. Gritters, resurfacing and tow trucks – all us, too.
don’t trust you, the potential lifesaving guidance you’re giving
won’t go in. Compassion is also important. In many cases, I’m In a job like this, no two days are the same. Recently, we had
speaking to someone at their most vulnerable. I know how reports of a car and horsebox pulling into an emergency refuge
formative those conversations can be. I lost my dad a few years bay, with the animal inside trying to kick the back door down.
ago and still remember with total clarity the emergency call Obviously, horses running riot on the motorway would not be
I made the day we lost him. With every call I take, I think about good news. We lowered the speed limit to 20mph, warned of
how I was feeling in that moment and what I needed as support. animals on roads, and sent officers to slow traffic. On CCTV,
we could see the owners holding the doors shut. We shut the
How to handle a call isn’t always clear cut. Yes, we get those that road in both directions. Then, we had to get a vet to tranquillise
aren’t medical emergencies, but we also get mental health crises, the horse – escorting him as he drove the wrong way up the
© FABIO DE PAOLA, DAN BURN-FORTI/GUARDIAN/EYEVINE

loneliness, people really struggling. Often, there’s little we can
offer beyond signposting to other services or passing on a
number for the Samaritans. Working here has shown me just how
little provision there is. One minute, I’m at the heart of a major
incident – high emotions and high stakes – and the next second,
I’m disconnected. Of course, you don’t simply forget it. If a
particular patient is playing on my mind, I can ask a supervisor to
see how they’re faring. There’s nothing better than the satisfaction
of knowing you helped save a life. And yes, hearing the opposite is If serious injuries or worse have occurred, the police take
a gut punch. But honestly? There’s rarely time for reflection there
and then. Seconds later, my headset beeps and it’s on to the next.
closed carriageway to get there as fast as possible. No situation
has a formula – it’s all dynamic. Take the time we had reports
of debris in the road. We sent a traffic officer to do a rolling
roadblock – weaving through each lane to stop all vehicles
behind. In essence, bringing the motorway to a standstill. He
jumped out of the car, ran up the road and from the outside
lane retrieved the offending blockage: a bag of 15 sex toys.
charge of what’s then a potential crime scene. Still, sometimes
our teams are first to arrive; we see fatalities play out in

THE WEEK 2 March 2024

 The last word
real time on our screens. Counselling services
are available, and after a serious incident
we’ll sit in a circle and have a group
therapy debrief session.
“Just Stop Oil might have superglued
themselves to the road.”
Katie Willis, 40, control centre duty
manager, TfL, London
Roads, tunnels and buses – that’s our patch.
All the everyday stuff of keeping London
moving. Day-to-day operations are looked
after by a huge team. From the control room,
we’re coordinating when incidents arise.
These might be roadworks, vehicle collisions,
obstructions or closures that get in the way
of operations. London Marathon Day is a big
one, New Year’s Eve celebrations, too. Just
Stop Oil might have superglued themselves Sean Sloan: “No two days are the same”
to the road; a bus driver assaulted or spat
at. Naked-person-on-bus is a surprisingly common occurrence.
Whatever is happening, we take the call and make a plan.
We have all sorts of sources of information – emergency services,
a massive network of cameras – but it’s bus drivers calling on
their radio who are our biggest source of intel: they are our eyes
and ears. We’ve got up to 8,000 buses running at any one time
– that takes a lot of management from up here. Other road users
come under our remit, too. Cyclists, pedestrians, cars or scooters
– we also need to keep them moving. We have our own network
of roads, we call them the red routes: major streets across the
capital that we run and operate ourselves. It’s our job to manage
traffic on these routes day and
night. Across London, we own
about 6,500 traffic lights. We can “Naked-person-on-bus is a surprisingly
manually control how and when common occurrence. Whatever is happening, People recognise airport
they change to encourage traffic
to head a certain way. And then
we take the call and make a plan”
there are tunnels – we have 12 in
total. The biggest challenge we’ve faced in years was Operation
London Bridge, when the Queen died. We got the call and whirred see the planes we’re guiding. In fact, we’ve got no windows to
into action. Roads needed clearing, buses diverting, traffic
managed. The queue, for instance, was an unexpected challenge.
I work long shifts. Midweek it’s early, lates and nights in
a rotating pattern. Weekends are 12-hour stretches either
day or night. Plus, I have a two-hour commute each way to
Northampton and a three-year-old at home waiting for me.
When my train is delayed, or I find myself on a motorway
suddenly closed, I don’t get irate. With a job like mine, you
appreciate what’s happening behind the scenes. Trust me,
countless people are working flat out to minimise disruption.
“With a mouse click I send electricity another way.”
Jemma Staley, 40, control room distribution engineer,
National Grid, Derbyshire
My friends don’t really understand what I do: I work in the
National Grid Electricity Distribution control room, managing
the high-voltage electricity distribution network for the
Midlands. In short, we direct electricity from its source of
generation into people’s homes, guiding it from power stations
through overhead lines, pylons and along underground cables,
via various substations. There are other control rooms like ours
spread across the country. Imagine a road network: you can take
different routes from your starting point to the same destination.
Depending on what incidents lie ahead of you, you’ll likely
change course. Electricity is much the same: if a section of our
network stops working or is taken out of service, it’s my job
to divert the flow through a different path. Our network is
designed so electricity flows into your home naturally, so we
only step in – generally – when things can’t function as usual.
45
With the click of a mouse, I can open and
close switches to send electricity another way.
Often, we’re stepping in when a section
of our network is taken offline for
maintenance. Otherwise, it’s when unexpected
incidents arise. I’ve had a driverless tractor
career directly into a pylon that fed a whole
town’s power. Occasionally, bad weather
damages our infrastructure. Whatever has
happened, an alarm starts to ring in our
secure control room. Electricity control runs
in my family. My dad was also an engineer
here. Working here wasn’t on my agenda.
I studied law at university, but worked here
part-time doing admin in holidays and
weekends. The summer after graduation,
I went full-time while looking for other jobs.
I was offered the opportunity to train as an
engineer. Why not? I thought. Now, 22 years
later, I’m still at it.
“For inbound aircraft, I’m the last port of call.”
Kim Gough, 38, air traffic controller,
NATS Swanwick, Hampshire
From the outside, our centre looks like a corporate office. Even
the lobby is quite unassuming. You’d have no idea two huge, busy
control rooms oversee much of England’s airspace. Each operates
24/7/365: endless screens, banks of radar with people talking at
a mile a minute, but inside it’s calm and quiet, like a library. One
room looks after the airspace over London up to about 24,500ft,
including the major airports around the capital. The other covers
much of England’s airspace
above that level, from
Manchester southwards.
towers – they control aircraft
on the ground, then through
takeoff and landing. The rest of
the time? It’s down to us. Unlike our airport colleagues, we never
look out from. In our London team, 50 controllers are working
most of the time – the airspace here is so complex.
Once an aircraft is established in its climb, it is transferred to
us until it leaves UK airspace. We split up airspace into sectors
– some can even be on top of each other – with different
controllers to handle each. I do the approach function for
Stansted and Luton, starting 25 to 30 miles out from the
airfield. When they’re inbound, I’m their last port of call,
establishing their final approach, and they’ll stay with me until
seven miles from touchdown, after which I hand over to my
airport colleagues. During peak periods, I can be handling
12 aircraft at any one time, controlling their height, speed,
the direction they’re pointing, timings for final approach. I’m
speaking to jumbo jets, and leisure pilots out in their little Pipers.
I learnt about air traffic control at 18 when I applied to be an
RAF doctor. I had to do a standard aptitude test and in my debrief
was told my brain was well suited for this instead. In 2012,
I started my training. Door to door, it took me five years and two
days to qualify fully. I’ll be on radar for anything up to two hours,
before taking a break for 30 minutes. Few people in my life will
ever see me at 3am, dressed in tracksuit bottoms, no makeup and
scruffy hair, like my colleagues do. You build a specific familiarity:
socialise out of work, share a sense of humour, are involved in
each other’s lives. It’s like a family. During storms and bad
weather, you really see this in action. We’re all looking out
for each other. There are no egos, it’s all hands on deck.
A longer version of this article appeared in The Observer
© 2024 Guardian News & Media Limited
2 March 2024 THE WEEK
 Crossword 47
THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1403 This week’s winner will receive
Two Connell Guides and three Week-branded items will be given to the sender of the Week-branded items including
first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 11 March. a notebook, coffee mug and tote
Send it to The Week Crossword 1403, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email bag, as well as two Connell Guides
the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) (connellguides.com).

ACROSS
1 Red or white wine about right
for president (6)
4 Harry and Piers injured (8)
10 Chatter about West African
republic (5)
11 Loveless couple associated with
suspicion for a very short time (9)
12 Type of car to sell back (4)
13 Novel brought back from
Oberammergau (4)
14 Jugs were terribly small (5)
16 Rifle something from the
drinks cabinet (7)
17 Heroic draw, both sides
exhausted (4)
20 Reprimand voiced for old
politician (4)
21 Dance record following Rolling
Stone (3-4)
24 Foreign aid Europe cheers (5)
25 Catholic excused from belief
to try again (2-2)
26 Middle East organisation seen
in Europe? Constantly (4)
28 Alarm put nearer entrance (9)
29 Number in loose garment
getting horse-drawn vehicle (5)
30 The Spanish artist got into two
parties in fabulous place (2,6)
31 Virgin pursued reportedly (6)
Clue of the week: “Hello sailor” appropriate? (6, first letter H)
Paul, The Guardian
DOWN
1 Rob’s ready for worthless
activity (4,4)
2 Line taken by Aussie chums
is rubbish (8)
3 Sound of Napoleon right around
home (4)
5 One could be fighting depot
rivalries (7,7)
6 Child in Perth learnt to be active
with bike (5-5)
7 Caught and was sick (6)
8 Take in condensed stories? (6)
9 Where you could find trudging
postman short of time? (8,6)
15 Athlete’s superior sweater (4,6)
18 Point in despatches for
minister’s pay (8)
19 One cutting leader on Sun page
is enough for the present time (8)
22 Some Milanese rave about an
Italian city (6)
23 Couple regretted leaving
university in rows (6)
27 Urge small person to take
time out (4)
Name
Address
Tel no
Clue of the week answer:

Solution to Crossword 1401

Restore your
ACROSS: 7 Penance 8 Fall guy 10 Nosedive 11 Orwell 12 Psalters
13 Errand 14 Mother-in-law 19 Versus 21 Walloped 23 At home
24 Normally 25 Haggard 26 Rowling

news-life balance
DOWN: 1 Remorse 2 Waterloo 3 Active 4 Napoleon 5 Blower 6 Bulling
9 Dessert wine 15 Hostelry 16 Adorable 17 Neutral 18 Telling 20 Slough
22 Largos
Clue of the week: Moves across battlefield making me a nervous wreck
(10, first letter M) Solution: MANOEUVRES anagram
The winners of 1401 are Roger & Sue Anderson from Sheffield

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