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The biggest History’s THE SNUBBING
blockbuster greatest OF DONALD
of them all marathon TRUMP
FILM P 33 runner TALKING POINTS
SPORT P 26 P 25

THE WEEK
4 MAY 2019 | ISSUE 1225 | £3.80 THE BEST OF THE BRITISH AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

The Huawei deal

An offer we should refuse?

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS theweek.co.uk

 The main stories…
What happened
Can Huawei be trusted?
The US warned this week that it may
restrict intelligence sharing with Britain if
the Government allows the Chinese telecoms
giant Huawei to build parts of the UK’s fifth-
generation (5G) wireless network. Robert
Strayer, a senior official in the State Department,
said the US would regard the use by the UK
of any Huawei equipment in its 5G network
– which will provide ultra-fast data speeds,
facilitating advances in many industries such
as self-driving cars – as an “unacceptable risk”.
What the editorials said
5G is widely regarded as “the future of the internet”,
said The Times. It’s set to transform our lives, spurring the
development of driverless vehicles, telemedicine
and automated manufacturing, and changing
how our Armed Forces work. Huawei is the
clear leader in this field, but using it will put
the UK at odds with intelligence allies in
the “Five Eyes” club (the US, Australia,
New Zealand and Canada), all of whom
– bar Canada, which has yet to announce
its position – have banned Huawei from their
5G networks. They’ve put “long-term security
over short-term advantage”. We should too.

Officially, the British Government is still President Xi with Ren Zhengfei To think Huawei could function “without
considering whether to use Huawei equipment. the imprimatur of Beijing” would be “naive”,
But a rare leak last week from a meeting of the National said The Daily Telegraph. But if the cyber-security risks can be
Security Council (NSC) revealed that despite objections from managed – and GCHQ experts believe they can – there’s “no
several ministers, Theresa May had decided to allow the firm obvious reason to exclude Huawei from the British market in
to provide non-core elements of the 5G infrastructure, such as which it has operated, since 2003, under a government-
mobile masts (see page 15). This would be in line with the approved partnership with BT”. An outright ban would be
strategy employed by Germany and other countries. The US “wrongheaded”, agreed The Economist. Refusing to use
claims Huawei can’t be trusted with critical infrastructure Huawei hardware would do little to reduce the risk of cyber
because the company is effectively an arm of the Chinese state. attacks, which generally exploit flaws in software. “This is
But Huawei has denied allegations that it is a Trojan Horse why Russia can cause mayhem abroad, despite having no
and has accused the US of pursuing a protectionist agenda. commercial role in Western telecoms networks.”

What happened What the editorials said

Spain’s fragmented politics
The far-right Vox party took 10.3% of the
vote in Spain’s general election on Sunday,
winning 24 seats and making Spain the 23rd
EU member state to have a hard Eurosceptic
populist party in its national government.
Vox had rallied considerable support
campaigning against both immigration and
making concessions to Catalonia’s separatist
movement. However, the ruling Spanish
Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) remains
the single largest party in the parliament. It
increased its vote to take 123 of the 350 seats.
Party leader Pedro Sánchez could now seek a
coalition partner to form a new government.
Sánchez: seeing off the populists Guardian. Rather more significant is the fact
The election, Spain’s third in four years,
marked a crushing defeat for the centre-right Popular Party
(PP) led by Mariano Rajoy, which lost half its share of the
vote (its worst-ever result) – partly as a result of defections
to Vox. The party is still the country’s second largest, but
now has just 66 MPs, down from 137 in 2016.
Sánchez can take satisfaction from an impressive result, but he
will still struggle to govern, said The Times. The election has
revealed a nation deeply divided over the future
of Catalonia: unless Sánchez can find a solution,
years of “volatility” lie ahead. This election has
rung the death knell for Spain’s old two-party
system, said El Mundo (Madrid). As elsewhere
in Europe, “fragmentation” is now the rule,
with five parties each taking at least 10% of
the vote. And that means Sánchez will have to
deal with “one of the most difficult to manage
parliaments in our nation’s democratic history”.
Still, the 10% of the vote won by Vox hardly
amounts to the “decisive lurch to the right”
forecast by some doomsayers, said The
that many voters were clearly taken with the
centre-left policies of the PSOE, which over the past year has
raised the minimum wage by 22% and hiked salaries for
millions of public-sector workers. The message to other EU
countries should be that sensible, moderate social democrat
governments can see off the populists’ challenge.

It wasn’t all bad A 72-year-old French

A new public garden created
out of a patch of post-industrial
wasteland in Wakefield is due
to open next month. The
Hepworth Gallery’s Wakefield
Garden, on the outskirts of the
Yorkshire city, was designed by
the renowned gardener Tom
Stuart-Smith, and will be free
to access 24 hours a day. There
will be no “keep off the grass”
signs in the 4,000 square metre
garden, and Stuart-Smith hopes
it will become a “picnicker’s
paradise” as well as a site for
community events and festivals.
adventurer and former
An anonymous donor dropped
off £50,000 of designer clothing
paratrooper has crossed at a Mind charity shop in Kent.
the Atlantic in a barrel. Among the haul were a Gucci
Jean-Jacques Savin set wool coat, Prada shoes, and a
off from the Canary Islands £2,000 Valentino dress that sold
in December in his barrel, for £650. The store manager,
which is three metres long Alison Homewood, said the
and made of reinforced clothes were given by a regular
plywood. Living off fish donor, but was keen to stress
and tinned food, he regaled that “while we’re delighted to
online fans with tales of his receive these designer items,
journey. Now some 230 we also value other previously
miles from the island of Saint Barthélemy, he says he is the loved items. We treat every
first person to float across the ocean with no motor, oars or sail, donor the same.” She hopes
propelled only by the winds and the currents. “Now I have to find a to raise £15,000 from the
way to be picked up and dropped off near a port,” he said last collection, much of which has
week. “At the moment I’m drifting towards Florida.” already sold.
COVER CARTOON: HOWARD MCWILLIAM
 …and how they were covered
What the commentators said What next?
China is no longer just an emerging market, said Hamish McRae in The Independent. In about The decision on Huawei’s
a decade, it’s going to overtake the US to become the world’s biggest economy. So the West involvement in Britain’s
“cannot pull up a drawbridge” against it – or at least not without doing serious harm to its 5G network will be formally
own interests. We must, of course, be vigilant in our dealings with China, but we must also announced in due course,
bear in mind that “international trade is not a zero-sum game. Both sides have to gain or the the PM said on Wednesday:
trade does not take place.” Britain can’t afford to be “drawn into America’s state of overblown “We are committed to taking
paranoia about the rise of China”, said Jeremy Warner in The Daily Telegraph. “Our future decisions supported by a hard-
prosperity is as dependent on Chinese markets as American ones.” And China’s prosperity, headed, technically informed,
in turn, depends on them not making enemies of trade partners. Allowing Huawei to work assessment of the risk.”
on non-sensitive parts of the 5G network seems a sensible compromise.
Sir Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet
The UK must, of course, remain open to trade and cultural exchange with China, said Juliet Secretary, has launched an
Samuel in the same paper. But entrusting Huawei with the construction of critical infrastructure investigation into the NSC
is a step too far. Huawei is not just another foreign company. Its founder, Ren Zhengfei, is a leak. The phone and email
former military engineer, and the company has close links to China’s Communist Party (CCP). records of ministers, as well
Chinese law also obliges all companies to help the country’s spy agencies. It would be crazy to as those of their staff, will
use Huawei rather than paying extra for a safer 5G developer such as Nokia or Ericsson. be “forensically examined”.
Senior sources reportedly
This mooted partnership is a bad idea, agreed Charles Parton in the FT. GCHQ experts may claimed that Gavin
believe the risks are manageable, but Mike Burgess, the head of Australia’s version of GCHQ, Williamson, the Defence
disagrees: he says the distinction between core and periphery blurs in 5G networks. Can we be Secretary, tried privately
sure that, were China to try anything underhand, we’d detect it? There are also questions about to blame Savid Javid, the
the quality of Huawei products. The last two reports from the GCHQ body that monitors Home Secretary, who in
Huawei have raised concerns about the shoddiness of some of its engineering. May’s turn pointed the finger at
compromise could deliver the worst of all worlds. “Reduced cooperation from our allies Williamson. Williamson
and hostility from the CCP, for whom confinement to the periphery is seen as insufficient.” was sacked on Wednesday.

What the commentators said What next?

For Spain’s Socialists, this was a “staggering victory”, said Carlos Delclós in The Guardian. On A key test of the enduring
a turn-out of 76% – the highest in more than 20 years – the party took nearly twice as many strength of Spain’s far-right
seats as the PP, its closest rival. However, one should resist the temptation to see the result as will be how well it fares in
an endorsement of centre-left policies. What persuaded many voters to opt for Sánchez was the the European elections later
prospect of a right-wing coalition that included the bigots of Vox, a party that derides feminists this month. Vox will be
as “feminazis” and campaigns against LGBT rights. That anxiety was well grounded, said riding the wave of
Morgan Meaker in The Spectator. Not long ago, it looked as if Spain – inoculated by traumatic Euroscepticism that has
memories of the Franco years – had escaped the nationalist contagion sweeping Europe. After boosted France’s National
all, in the last national elections in 2016, Vox scraped less than 0.2% of the vote. But in the Front, the League in Italy
space of a few months Vox, peddling its “own brand of nostalgic Spanish nationalism”, has and other populist parties
used the crisis over Catalan independence to build a nationwide force. Now it looks set to join in Europe, but polls in
the ranks of the other right-wing groups that are “redefining politics” across Europe. Spain suggest there’s little
opposition to the EU.
The big question is whether Sánchez can find allies to form a viable government, said Caroline
Gray on The Conversation. One obvious candidate, the centrist Citizens party, has ruled out Spain can expect further
any deal, and the smaller Catalan parties are unlikely to prove sympathetic: it was Sánchez’s convulsions when the court
refusal to meet their demand for greater autonomy that brought down his last government. in Madrid now trying 12
That’s all the more troubling because Spain badly needs a stable government to enact overdue Catalan secessionist leaders
reforms, said Miriam González Durántez in the FT. There’s still no independent body to tackle finally passes judgment. All
widespread corruption. (It was a scandal over kickbacks that brought down the last PP 12 face charges linked to
government.) The creaking university system is manifestly unfit to provide an education for the 2017 declaration of
the 21st century. And although the economy is on the mend, the country cries out for reforms to independence by Catalonia’s
bring unemployment down from its current level of 14%. Spain “has procrastinated too long”. regional parliament.

THE WEEK
If I noticed an opponent kick a ball out of the rough during a round
of golf, I would be outraged. When I read about Donald Trump doing
it, however, I’m not shocked, merely entertained. There is something
so breathtakingly brazen about the “Commander in Cheat”, as a new book by the sportswriter Rick
Reilly calls him, that one finds oneself almost admiring his chutzpah. At Winged Foot, where Trump
is a member, caddies saw him kick the ball back onto the fairway so often they christened him Pelé,
Editor-in-chief: Jeremy O’Grady
Editor: Caroline Law
Deputy editor: Harry Nicolle Executive editor: Laurence Earle
City editor: Jane Lewis Editorial assistant: Asya Likhtman
Contributing editors: Daniel Cohen, Charity Crewe, Thomas
Hodgkinson, Simon Wilson, Rob McLuhan, Anthony Gardner,
William Underhill, Digby Warde-Aldam, Tom Yarwood
Editorial staff: Anoushka Petit, Tigger Ridgwell, William
Skidelsky, Rosabel Crean Picture editor: Xandie Nutting
Art director: Nathalie Fowler Sub-editor: Laurie Tuffrey
Production editor: Alanna O’Connell

after the famous footballer. If he plays a bad stroke off the tee, he allegedly just plays another, and Founder and editorial director: Jolyon Connell
Production Manager: Ebony Besagni Senior Production
maybe another, still counting it as one shot. He then jumps into his golf cart, which is tuned to go Executive: Maaya Mistry Newstrade Director: David Barker
Direct Marketing Director: Abi Spooner Inserts: Jack Reader
faster than anyone else’s so he can get down the fairway first. A ball hooked into the woods will Classified: Henry Haselock, Rebecca Seetanah,
Nicholas Fisher Account Directors: Lauren Shrigley,
appear miraculously on or near the green. One opponent even claims to have seen him swing a club Jonathan Claxton, Jocelyn Sital-Singh Senior Account
Managers: Joe Teal, Hattie White Account Executive:
at a non-existent ball, then march up to the flag and pull a real one out of the hole. Then there’s the Clement Aro Advertising Manager: Carly Activille
Group Advertising Director: Caroline Fenner
way he scores. If he shoots a “sketchy“ 77, says Reilly, “on the ride home it’ll be 75. By dinner, 72”. Executive Director – Head of Advertising: David Weeks
What’s odd is that, far from being a duffer, Trump is in fact a handy player. He drives the ball a long Chief Executive, The Week: Kerin O’Connor
Group CFO/COO: Brett Reynolds
way for a 70-year-old, as Tiger Woods noted after playing with him, and is the best player ever to have Chief Executive: James Tye
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6 NEWS Politics
Controversy of the week Stormont talks to restart
Corbyn’s Brexit strategy Power-sharing talks are set to
resume in Northern Ireland
to end the two-year impasse
“With the Conservatives in meltdown, a Corbyn government during which the region has
looks likelier by the day,” said Richard Johnson in The Daily been without a government.
Telegraph. “Poll after poll” is putting Labour ahead – most The talks will involve all
recently, a European election poll had it level with Nigel political parties in Northern
Farage’s Brexit Party on 28%, with the Tories managing just Ireland, as well as the British
half that. But now the party risks “squandering” its advantage and Irish governments.
Power-sharing between Sinn
by engaging in a bitter public row over whether or not to insist
Féin and the DUP collapsed
on a second referendum on quitting the EU. Tempers flared in January 2017. Leaders
last week when a draft leaflet for the forthcoming EU elections have faced renewed pressure
failed even to mention Labour’s official policy – agreed at its to resolve the situation since
last conference – of keeping open the “option” of a second the killing of the journalist
public vote. But things really kicked off on Tuesday, said Lyra McKee two weeks ago.
Heather Stewart in The Guardian, when, at a tense five-hour In a joint statement, Theresa
meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC), The Labour Remainers’ lament May and Ireland’s Taoiseach
Corbyn successfully “faced down” a challenge from his deputy, Leo Varadkar said the
response to McKee’s death
Tom Watson, over the issue. Supported by shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer and shadow foreign
had shown them that “what
secretary Emily Thornberry, Watson had argued that Labour must now give its “unequivocal” is now needed is action and
support for a confirmatory referendum. Instead – in a move that caused Watson to stage what he not just words”.
called a “polite walkout” of the day’s shadow cabinet – the NEC said Labour’s manifesto would
remain “fully in line” with its non-committal policy, and that Labour would only call a referendum “Digital strip searches”
if it can’t get a change to the Withdrawal Agreement, or force a general election. Victims of crime in England
and Wales are being asked to
“Watson’s ill-concealed irritation is justified,” said The Independent. Like the Tories, Labour is in sign consent forms, in which
“a mess” over Brexit. This latest pronouncement is just a “reworking” of a “fudge”. By refusing to they agree that they will, if
commit to another referendum, the party is betraying not only its members – who overwhelmingly requested, give police their
mobile phones – and are told
support Remain – but also “the vulnerable in society, who will suffer most from Brexit”. Indeed, this
that if they don’t, the case
row epitomises Corbyn’s “double standards”, said Rachel Sylvester in The Times. From the start, he may be dropped. Police insist
has positioned himself as the “head of a democratic popular uprising, rather than a top-down that digital evidence can be
autocrat”, but on the most important issue of the day, he has “repeatedly refused” to respect the crucial to a successful
views of the majority of party members, including the “youthful supporters who chanted his name investigation, and that there
at Glastonbury” and who have been loudly calling for another referendum whatever happens. are rules to ensure it’s not
misused. But campaigners
Actually, Corbyn’s strategy is the right one, said John Rentoul in The Independent. He reckons say that rape victims will be
those youthful supporters won’t actually desert the party over the second referendum, whereas if he deterred from coming
forward if they’re required to
committed himself to one, the party risks losing critical support from voters in the heartlands. As a
hand over their phones, and
spokesman this week said: “We are working to bring the country together after the chaos created by go through a “digital strip
the Tories.” To translate that into plain English: “We hope that both Leavers and Remainers will search” of their private
vote for us while the Tories go into meltdown.” So far, that all seems to be going to plan. communications.

Good week for:

Spirit of the age
The Scottish Maritime
Museum has decided to
stop referring to ships as
“she” on its notices, after
two were vandalised.
Admiral Lord Alan West,
a former First Sea Lord,
described it as “an insult to
generations of sailors”, but
Lloyd’s List, the maritime
bible, said it abandoned the
tradition 20 years ago. Its
editor, Richard Meade, said
that he could see why it had
arisen: wooden sailing ships
had personality. But “I
challenge anybody to look
at the rusting hulk of [a vast
modern container vessel]
and assign a gender to it”.
Short breaks to long-haul
destinations are booming,
according to Thomas Cook.
The travel firm says its
three-night trips to cities
such as Cape Town and
San Francisco are becoming
increasingly popular.
Wimbledon players, who learned that the tournament’s prize Poll watch
pot has gone up nearly 12% this year, to £38m. Players who are Despite the ongoing Brexit
knocked out in the first round will take home £45,000 – four uncertainty, only 55% of
times as much as in 2011. The two winners will each get £2.35m. Britons think it would have
Train travel, with the long-awaited launch of the revamped been better never to have
held the EU referendum.
Caledonian Sleeper service from London to Edinburgh and
Opinium/The Observer
Glasgow. The new trains have double beds (in some cabins) and
en-suite showers. The Highlander service is due to start in June. Support for remaining in the
The penny, which was granted a reprieve. The Royal Mint says EU is above 80% in most EU
that 60% of 1p and 2p coins are used only once and then stashed countries. Asked how they
away, thrown away or lost – but during a consultation exercise, would vote in an in-out
plans by the Treasury to scrap them were opposed by charities referendum, 94% of people
who rely on bucket collections, and some small businesses. in Luxembourg said “in”,
as did 92% of people in
Portugal, and 91% in Ireland
Bad week for: and the Netherlands. In the
Chris Packham, who found dead crows strung up outside his UK, the poll found that 55%
home during a row about shooting birds. He had also received want to remain, making it
the most Eurosceptic
detailed death threats. Wild Justice, a charity he co-founded, had
country; followed by the
challenged the legality of a licensing system that allows farmers to Czech Republic on 66%,
shoot 16 bird species, including crows and jays, to protect crops. and Italy (72%).
Cash, with news that free-to-use ATMs are disappearing fast. Kantar/The Independent
According to Which?, fees of up to £1.99 per withdrawal were
imposed on 1,700 cash machines in the first three months of the 63% of Britons say there is a
year, and many more are being earmarked for conversion. climate emergency. 76% say
they would vote differently
The Mona Lisa, after British tourists voted it the world’s most
to protect the planet.
disappointing attraction. In a survey of 2,000 Britons, 86% of Opinium/The Guardian
respondents said da Vinci’s painting was a “let-down”.

THE WEEK 4 May 2019

 Europe at a glance
Paris
Harassment fines:
Police have
handed out
447 on-the-spot
fines for sexual
harassment since
France’s “outrages
sexistes” law
came into effect
last August,
according to
the equalities
minister, Marlène Schiappa (pictured).
The law allows police to fine people up to
s750 for harassment on the street or on
public transport; the first recipient was a
man who’d slapped a woman’s bottom on
a bus. In a progress report to MPs,
Schiappa said the number of fines issued
proved the law was working, and that the
government now needed to start tackling
online abuse. According to a recent study,
43% of French women have experienced
non-consensual sexual touching.
Paris
Macron launches fightback: President
Macron has attempted to relaunch his
presidency – rocked by months of gilets
jaunes protests – by announcing s5bn
of income tax cuts for lower and middle
earners, and pension rises for the poorest.
In a televised speech followed by a
two-and-a-half-hour press conference (the
first of his presidency), Macron apologised
for his sharp tongue and perceived
arrogance. He said he would inject
more “humanity” into his presidency,
but would press ahead with his liberalising
pro-business agenda, and ruled out one
of the gilets jaunes’ key demands – the
reintroduction of France’s wealth tax.
He also announced a range of political
reforms, including slashing the number
of MPs by 30%, and confirmed that
he plans to close the École Nationale
d’Administration, the elite college
where he himself studied (see page 19).
Vienna
Online anonymity law: Austrians will have
to provide their real names and addresses
if they want to post comments on websites
such as Facebook, under a draft bill that
could become law within weeks. The
so-called “digital mask” ban, devised by
the culture minister Gernot Blümel – a
member of the far-right Austrian People’s
Party – is aimed at curbing online abuse
and hate speech by making it easier for
the police to track down perpetrators.
People will still be able to post material
anonymously, but the operators of the
platforms in question will have to store
their personal details and could be obliged
to hand them to the authorities. The law
will apply to sites that have more than
100,000 registered users, or that make
more than s500,000 a year in Austria
– of which there are about 50. Critics
have decried it as an invasion of privacy
and an attack on freedom of expression.
Catch up with daily news at theweek.co.uk
Berlin
Far-right threat “growing fast”: Germany’s
domestic security agency has warned
that the country is facing a dramatically
increased threat of terrorist violence from
far-right extremists, operating outside the
control of existing known neo-Nazi and
race hate groups – and that alienated
former soldiers and police officers are
prominent among them. In a secret report
leaked to the press, the BfV – Germany’s
equivalent of MI5 – explained that
traditional extremist organisations have
fragmented in recent years, creating
multiple splinter groups and potential
lone-wolf attackers. “They are developing
in different currents and spectra of the
right-wing extremist scene, but also on
the fringe or entirely outside of organised
right-wing extremist tableaux,” the report
said. The BfV claims that the recent rise
in far-right conspiracies was fuelled by
the influx of asylum seekers in 2015.
Kiev
Passport offer: In
a test of Ukraine’s
president-elect,
Vladimir Putin
(pictured) has
offered Russian
passports to the
residents of the
eastern Ukrainian
territories held by
Russian-backed
separatists. He has
also said that Moscow is considering
making it easier for all Ukrainians to get
Russian citizenship. The former comedian
and political novice Volodymyr Zelensky,
who takes office in June, responded this
week by saying that Kiev would offer
citizenship to people from “all nations
that suffer from authoritarian and
corrupt regimes, but first and foremost
to Russians, who suffer most of all”.
NEWS 7
Novgorod, Russia
Disrespect law: A 34-year-old man from
northwestern Russia has become the first
person to be fined under a new law that
criminalises any “blatant disrespect” of
public officials and government bodies.
An unemployed carpenter from the
Novgorod region, Yuri Kartyzhev had
written a post on social media in which he
referred to President Putin as a “fantastical
fuckhead”. Last week he was fined £365
(around a tenth of the maximum possible
fine) – triggering an online backlash in
which thousands of people used the
hashtag #Putinisafantasticalfuckhead to
show their opposition to the law. Russian
media groups have been warned that
statements such as “Putin is a thief”
could also fall foul of the disrespect law.
Nicosia
Serial killer: In a case that has horrified
the republic, a 35-year-old captain in the
Cypriot army has reportedly confessed to
the murders of five women and two girls
over three years, making him the island
nation’s first known serial killer. His
victims were all of foreign descent – from
the Philippines, Nepal and Romania – and
it has been alleged that racism contributed
to the police’s failure to discover the
women’s disappearances earlier.
“Unprecedented indifference was shown
simply because these people were not of
Cypriot origin,” said AKEL leader Andros
Kyprianou. Although the first of the
unnamed suspect’s known victims went
missing in 2016, a homicide investigation
was only triggered in April, following
the discovery of the body of Mary Rose
Tiburcio, 38, in an disused flooded mine.
The suspect is believed to have met her –
and other victims – on an online dating site.
4 May 2019 THE WEEK
8 NEWS The world at a glance
Washington DC New York
Low appetite for impeachment: A clear majority of Americans do Society swindler: A 28-year-old woman
not believe that Congress should launch impeachment proceedings who scammed her way into New York
against President Trump, in the wake of the Mueller report into society by posing as a wealthy German
Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to a poll for heiress is facing up to 15 years in jail
The Washington Post. The report found no collusion by the after being convicted on multiple
Trump campaign, but did suggest that there might be grounds accounts of extortion. The Russian-born
for prosecuting the president for obstruction of justice (see page daughter of a former truck driver, Anna
16). The poll found that 37% of voters want impeachment Sorokin (pictured) claimed to be an art
proceedings to begin (slightly down on last month), and that collector with a $67m fortune in order
56% do not. Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who to cheat banks, hotels, dress designers
commissioned the Mueller probe, announced his resignation this and individuals out of $275,000 over a
week, and issued a stark warning against the politicisation of the ten-month period. One of her victims has
justice system – which was seen as a swipe at Trump. now signed a $600,000 book and TV deal for her account of the
affair, while a separate adaptation is being developed by Netflix.
San Diego, California
Synagogue attack: A gunman opened fire in a synagogue in
a quiet suburb of San Diego last Saturday – the last day of
Passover – killing one worshipper and injuring three
other people. Witnesses said that the woman who died,
Lori Gilbert Kaye, 60, had hurled herself in front of
the rabbi to prevent him being shot. The gunman
left after his weapon reportedly malfunctioned, and a 19-year-
old named John Earnest was apprehended soon after. He has
no prior criminal record, but before the attack he had claimed
responsibility, in a social media post, for an arson attack on a
local mosque last month, saying that he had been inspired by
the New Zealand mosque massacre in March.

Huntsville, Texas
White supremacist executed: A 44-year-old white supremacist,
who committed one of the most notorious hate crimes in modern
US history, was executed by lethal injection by the state of Texas
last week. John William King was one of three men convicted of
the murder of James Byrd Jr in 1998. The trio had gone out in
a pick-up truck in the early hours and, coming across Byrd, a
49-year-old African-American man, offered him a lift. They beat
him up, chained him to the truck by his ankles and then dragged
him behind it for nearly three miles along a secluded road. Byrd is
believed to have been conscious for around a mile before his body
was ripped apart. One of the killers was executed in 2011; the
third, who cooperated with police, is serving a life term.

Caracas
“Coup” attempt:
Venezuela’s embattled
president, Nicolás
Maduro, claimed on
Tuesday that his troops
had staved off an
attempted “US-backed”
coup, following a day of
street battles in which
scores of people were injured. In an hour-long address,
Maduro said that a “small group” led by opposition leader
Juan Guaidó – and backed by Colombia and US “imperialists”
– had tried to turn the military against him, but that they had
failed. The events, he added, would not go “unpunished”. He
appeared on camera flanked by senior officers, and in video Brasília
footage taken on Tuesday, armoured vehicles can be seen Bolsonaro under attack: Brazil’s
driving into protesters. Guaidó called on his supporters to take President Bolsonaro, a self-declared
to the streets again on Wednesday – raising fears of more homophobe, has been accused of
clashes. In a video, he told his supporters that their efforts to inciting hatred towards the country’s large LGBT community
oust Maduro were entering the “final phase”. by warning that Brazil must not be allowed to become a “gay
Guaidó declared himself interim president in January, tourism paradise”. “If you want to come here and have sex with
claiming that Maduro had secured a second six-year term a woman, go for [it],” said Bolsonaro. “Brazil can’t be a country
in an election marred by fraud and an opposition boycott. He of the gay world, of gay tourism. We have families.” Bolsonaro’s
has been recognised as such by around 50 countries; however, approval ratings have slumped since he took office, partly as a
Maduro has the support of Russia, Bolivia and Cuba. This result of increasingly bitter and public infighting between his sons
week, Washington claimed that Maduro had been about to Carlos and Eduardo (both politicians) and his vice-president,
board a plane to Cuba to escape the unrest. Hamilton Mourão, a retired general who is seen as a moderating
influence on the far-right president.

THE WEEK 4 May 2019

 The world at a glance
Sainthamaruthu, Sri Lanka
Bombing arrests: Police in Sri Lanka have arrested
more than 150 people in connection with the
terrorist atrocities on Easter Sunday, in which
eight suicide bombers, who had sworn allegiance
to Islamic State, blew themselves up in attacks on
Catholic churches and luxury hotels. At least 253
people were killed, and hundreds injured. Last
Friday, six suspected terrorists were killed in a
police raid in the mostly Muslim town of
Sainthamaruthu. It is thought the terrorists detonated suicide vests, killing themselves
and nine family members, six of them children. The wife and child of Zahran Hashim,
the suspected mastermind of the bombings, were also seriously wounded in the raid.
The Sri Lankan government says the Easter Sunday attackers were members of a
local Islamist militant group, the National Thowheeth Jama’ath. Days after the attack,
an Isis propaganda outlet released a video of eight of the suspected attackers swearing
allegiance to the militant jihadist group. This week a curfew remained in force in parts
of the country, though a ban on the use of social media has been lifted. Churches
remained closed last Sunday, amid fears of further attacks.
NEWS 9
Vladivostok, Russia
Kim goes to Russia: North Korean leader
Kim Jong Un and President Putin held
their first ever meeting last week, in
Vladivostok. The strategically important
Pacific port lies some 75 miles from the
short (11-mile) land border between the
two countries. Kim is thought to have
sought Putin’s support in his stand-off
with the West over sanctions. With
champagne toasts and exchanges of gifts,
both leaders were keen to project strong
ties, in pointed contrast to Kim’s
increasingly frosty relations with the
US, following his abortive summit with
Donald Trump in Vietnam in February.
After their meeting, Putin said Russia
supported Kim’s call for North Korea
to get sanctions relief and international
“security guarantees” before committing
itself to gradual nuclear disarmament.

Tokyo
New emperor: Japan’s
Crown Prince Naruhito
ascended to the
Chrysanthemum Throne
on Wednesday, one day
after his father, Emperor
Akihito, 85, stepped down
– the first such imperial
abdication for 200 years.
Naruhito, 59, is an
Anglophile who studied in
Oxford in the mid-1980s.
In his 1993 memoir,
The Thames and I, he
described the period as the
happiest time of his life.
To mark the new imperial
era of Reiwa, or
“beautiful harmony”,
the country has
been given
ten days off.

Pemba,
Mozambique
Second cyclone:
Mozambique
has been struck
by a second
devastating
cyclone, just six
weeks after Cyclone
Idai tore into the country killing at least
600 people. Cyclone Kenneth hit northern
Mozambique last Thursday, pounding the
region with days of torrential rain –
ongoing this week – and causing
widespread flooding and damage to
infrastructure. The worst affected areas
are in the far northeast, and include the
city of Pemba, and Macomia, Ibo and
Quissanga in Cabo Delgado province.
According to early official estimates,
35,000 homes and buildings have been
destroyed; and tens of thousands of
people made homeless. The initial death
toll was put at 38: flooding was expected
to peak later this week.
Baghuz,
Syria
Isis leader
alive: The
leader of Isis,
Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi,
has made
his first
appearance
for five years,
in a video in which he hails the Sri Lanka
suicide bombers and threatens a wave of
global terror attacks, in revenge for the
defeat of the Isis “caliphate” in Syria and
Iraq. Until the video’s release, Baghdadi
had not been seen since July 2014, and
many had speculated that he was dead.
His current whereabouts are not known;
however, it’s thought that he had been
based in Baghuz, the last Isis-held town in
Syria which was captured by Kurdish-led
Syrian Democratic Forces in March.
Jakarta
Election officials die: Indonesia’s election
commission says that 311 election staff
have died – mostly of fatigue-related
illnesses caused by overwork – since the
country went to the polls on 17 April,
in the world’s biggest single day election.
A further 2,232 have fallen ill. Some 193
million voters were eligible to take part in
simultaneous presidential, parliamentary
and regional elections. There were 800,000
polling stations across Indonesia, which
has more than 17,500 islands and stretches
3,000 miles from east to west. Turnout
was 80%. Full results are due by 22 May.

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

10 NEWS
Chasing hurricanes
At 49, Josh Mogerman
has experienced nearly 50
hurricanes – by choice, says S.I.
Rosenbaum in Outside. He’s a
storm chaser, someone who
seeks out hurricanes, often
arriving just as everyone else
is trying to get away. “It’s like
a hunger for food or sex,” he
explains. “It drives you.” He
thinks his obsession dates back
to seeing The Wizard of Oz
when he was four. Growing up
in Long Island in New York,
he started bombarding the
US National Hurricane Centre
with questions. “People see me
as this adrenaline junkie,” he
says, “but I’m really a category
5 nerd.” Now he works
in Los Angeles as a brand
consultant, but he always has
one eye on the global forecasts.
As hurricane season
approaches, he feels himself
going into hunting mode:
“more and more adrenaline,
less and less appetite, less
and less sleep”. He is not just
a thrill seeker: he has helped
save lives, and is conscious
of the devastation wrought
by superstorms. The worst he
has experienced was Typhoon
Haiyan, which killed 6,000
people in South East Asia in
2013; it left him in a state of
shock, yet he still couldn’t kick
his habit. “It’s why I’m not
married and don’t have kids. It
sounds very selfish. I just didn’t
want to be encumbered.”
Theron on her bea auty
Charlize Theron
(pictured) believes
that her beauty is
a curse as much as
a blessing. “I know
it’s a clichéd thing
to say,” she told
Gabrielle Donnelly
in the Daily Mail.
“I get upset
myself when
pretty women
talk about
it – like, ‘Please,
you’re gorgeous,
stop!’ But the truth
is, I have a very
complicated
relationship with myy
beauty... It’s only in
the past ten years thaat
I have actually come
to peace with the
way I look, and not
felt when I walked
into a room that
I always had to
prove I was more
THE WEEK 4 May 2019
19
People
than that.” Soon after arriving
in Hollywood at 19, the
actress, now 43, discovered
the perils faced by aspiring
actresses when a director
invited her to his house on
a Saturday night to discuss a
bit-part role, and opened the
door in his pyjamas. “I stayed
ten minutes and then said,
‘OK, I think I shall be seeing
myself out now.’” A decade
later she was able to give him a
piece of her mind when, having
apparently forgotten the
incident, he asked her to star
in one of his films. “Now that
was a great meeting I had with
him... I had to wait ten years
for it, but it was so worth it.”
A rapper with a plan
Loyle Carner is one of Britain’s
most celebrated young rappers
– but he doesn’t fit the
stereotype. The son of a
special-needs teacher from
Croydon, he has rapped about
his love for his mother, the Guirec Soudée set out from his native Brittany aged 21, planning to
death of his stepfather, his sail across the Atlantic solo – but ended up going around the world
mixed-race heritage and his instead, with a chicken for company, says Emma Beddington in
struggles with ADHD. The Observer. Monique, a Rhode Island Red, came aboard in
Diagnosed at school, he has Tenerife. “I knew I wanted to sail alone, for sure, but I wanted a pet.
learnt ways of calming his I thought a chicken would be brilliant, because I could have fresh
chaotic brain. Tidying is one eggs at sea.” He was told that Monique would be too stressed by
of them. “I started at home, life on a boat to lay – but she proved the naysayers wrong. She had
but now I’ll also tidy the the run of the deck during the day, dodging waves and pouncing on
venues after gigs. I have good flying fish, and slept in a coop in his cabin. “I said to myself, ‘If she
fans, so most of the rubbish annoys me, I can always eat her.’ It feels weird to say that now!
goes in the right bins. But I She was so endearing, she made me laugh so much.” And when
look at anything left over his boat was almost crushed by ice off Greenland, she was a
and think: that plastic cup consolation. “I didn’t really think I would die, but I thought I would
wouldn’t be on the floor if I lose everything I had worked for since I was 18. She understood,
hadn
hadn’tt done a show.
show It It’ss my she
h coulld tell something was wrong.” In fact, the far north proved
responsibility to clean the highllight – “our best experience, our most wonderful memory.
up.” Cooking helps too We saw the Northern Lights. I made Momo a little sledge and we
– which is why he now went exp ploring. She loved it.” Their adventure together lasted
runs cooking courses for five yearrs. “Sometimes it was a bit tricky, I couldn’t always do
teenagers with ADHD. everythinng I wanted, but I was happy to share it all with Monique.”
At 24, he could be
blowing his money on
partying; but it’s not his Viewpoint:
style. “You can do Farewell
that, or you can take Memo
o to Debenhams Polly Higgins, lawyer
that little bit of cash “My loccal Debenhams is one of 22 set who campaigned for
you’ve made and to close. Sadly I saw it coming. My crime of ecocide, died
invest in having advice to o the brand? Stop reminding 21 April, aged 50.
a real life,” he your cusstomers they’re past it. Young Ken Kercheval, actor
told Helen trendy tyypes would never shop there known for Dallas and its
Brown in The – but tho ough middle-aged people like 2012 revival, died 21
Independent. me migh ht belong among endless rails of April, aged 83.
“I’ve managed elasticated-waist jeans, we’re nowhere John McEnery, stage
to help my near ready to accept this truth. After and screen actor, died
family, I’ve got all, this is a generation so deep in denial 12 April, aged 75.
a girlfriend who that many of us are still hiring yurts for Billy McNeill, first Briton
loves me, I’m festivals. To prosper again, the chain to lift the European Cup,
thinking about needs to o acknowledge that middle age with Celtic, died 22 April,
getting a dog... has chan nged, and to make customers aged 79.
These have been feel mod dern. Good luck, Debenhams. John Singleton, Oscar-
© GUARDIAN/EYEVINE
my dreams since And rem member, while you might know nominated director of
I was a kid. Why your target demographic, they might Boyz N the Hood, died
would I mess not realiise they’re middle-aged.” 29 April, aged 51.
that up?” Barbara Ellen in The Observer
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 Briefing NEWS 13

The world’s largest election

Indian voters started going to the polls on 11 April in a general election that will last for five weeks. What is at stake?

How many people will be voting? of condoning a pogrom that left 790
India has 900 million eligible voters. And Muslims dead. In 2005, Britain and the
as the country simply can’t handle all of US placed visa bans on him for his
them voting on the same day, they will “severe violations of religious freedom”,
cast ballots in seven phases spread over though quietly overturned them when it
five weeks. More than one million polling became clear he’d win power. And as
places will be set up (the US, by contrast, PM, he has often accused the opposition
has about 117,000), partly because of Congress Party of being the party of
India’s vast size, and partly because of a Muslims and of seeking a “pink
law that says that no citizen should have revolution” – a reference to blood from
to travel more than 1.25 miles to vote. slaughterhouses. (The RSS condemns
Voters will choose representatives for Muslims for eating beef and seeks to ban
the Lok Sabha, the lower and more the killing of cows, which are sacred to
powerful house of the legislature, to Hindus.) Modi has also spent millions on
serve for five-year terms. The party public works to glorify Hindu heroes and
or coalition that wins a majority of the reduced funding for tourist sites of the
543 seats will select the prime minister. Muslim Mughal era, like the Taj Mahal.
In the last national election, in 2014,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu Narendra Modi: championed by Bollywood Who’s Modi running against?
nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) The main opposition is Congress, a
got an outright majority of seats. secular party controlled by the Nehru-Gandhi family, which has
dominated Indian politics since independence. Rahul Gandhi is
Has Modi’s first term proved a success? the great-grandson of Indian founding father Jawaharlal Nehru;
Modi promised to make sweeping economic reforms to lift his grandmother and father were also PMs. The party’s most
farmers out of poverty, and to create the one million jobs India striking election pledge is the hugely expensive promise of a basic
needs to add every month to accommodate its rapidly growing yearly income of $1,000 to the poorest 20% of India’s families.
workforce. And, while he has dismantled much of India’s stifling It’s also promising a raft of policies to empower women: for
bureaucracy and privatised many of its lethargic state companies, example, to reserve 33% of appointments to central government
he has made scant progress on either of these fronts. Despite posts for women; to ensure state police forces do the same; and to
India’s relatively good economic growth rate of about 7%, enforce the Equal Remuneration Act. But as women now vote in
the agricultural sector – which employs nearly half the workforce ever-greater numbers, and their vote is considered pivotal, the
– has been growing at only 2.7%. In fact, the unemployment BJP is also trying to woo the female vote with similar policies.
rate reached a 45-year high in 2017, a figure Modi has been
accused of trying to conceal. And most halfway decent jobs And who is likely to win?
are almost impossibly hard to come by. When 62 low-level Polls show Modi ahead. He has profited from a surge of patriotism
government jobs were posted in Uttar Pradesh state, 93,000 fuelled by a suicide bomb attack in Kashmir by a Pakistan-based
people applied; a staggering 25 million people put in for 90,000 terrorist group, in which 40 Indian soldiers were killed. Modi
openings in the Indian Railways. Income inequality is massive: responded to that attack with fiery rhetoric and ordered air strikes
about 364 million Indians still live in dire poverty. on Pakistani territory. Yet Gandhi could still pull an upset. Voter
dissatisfaction with the economy led to the BJP losing three major
Then what is the basis of Modi’s continuing appeal? state elections in the Hindi heartland in December. Adding to the
Hindu nationalism. He and the BJP are dedicated to the idea of unpredictability, about half of Indian voters are likely to cast
Hindutva – of a Hindu-led India in which ethnic and religious ballots for regional parties specific to their state, many based
groups held to have originated in the on caste or ethnicity. With the stakes
subcontinent (Hindus, Sikhs, Jains) The boost from Bollywood high, all sides have resorted to
are to make the running, but in Bollywood used to be studiedly unpolitical. But that‘s unprecedented propaganda efforts.
which “invader” or “infidel” groups changed with the rise of Narendra Modi. Never before,
(India’s 172 million Muslims and its says Anshul Chaturvedi in The Times of India, has What kind of propaganda?
28 million Christians) should have there been “such a committed, unapologetic support Primarily fake stories on social media.
no place. Back in the 1920s, during group for a government or a party within the Hindi film Facebook says it has taken down
British rule, a radical militant industry”. It began with the large Bollywood turnout at more than 712 accounts, nearly
organisation called the Rashtriya Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in May 2014, and several 549 of them linked to Congress, that
big names have become defenders of government
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was policies on TV news channels. Now there has been a
were spreading disinformation: one
formed to pursue the Hindutva ideal. slew of movies in which actors portray real politicians. faked video showed a BJP official
It was banned after independence, conspiring to stir up a war with
In many of these Modi is depicted as India’s strong,
when a former member assassinated patriotic champion. Uri: The Surgical Strike, which Pakistan to boost election chances.
Mahatma Gandhi, only to re-emerge glorifies Modi’s military response to a 2016 terrorist But the BJP is no innocent in this
years later as a charitable body attack, is the year’s highest-grossing film. In another regard: HuffPost India found that it
campaigning for land reform and fawning biopic entitled PM Narendra Modi, the actor had evaded Facebook and WhatsApp
social welfare, but with an abiding Vivek Oberoi, who plays Modi, is seen warning funding disclosure rules to secretly
ideological attachment to Hindutva. Pakistan: “If you dare raise your hand against us again, back sites that run doctored videos
The BJP is its political cousin. we will chop it off.” But Rahul Gandhi is not without slandering Congress leaders. For the
his own Bollywood boosters. He’s given hagiographic 287 million Indian adults who are
treatment in My Name is RaGa. The film plays up the
Has Modi pushed Hindutva? illiterate, these videos, as well as
Gandhi family’s importance in modern Indian history.
Yes. A long-standing RSS member, “Bollywood is not just a form of entertainment,” Bollywood movies (see box), are a
he has a history of involvement in cultural studies professor Rajinder Dudrah told main source of information. Voting
sectarian controversy. As governor Time, “but also a parallel form of information.” ends on 19 May: the results will be
of Gujarat in 2002, he was accused announced on 23 May.

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

 Best articles: Britain NEWS 15
To say this government has a leak problem is a supreme
understatement, says Heather Stewart. It’s nothing less than “a IT MUST BE TRUE…
Trashing the sieve”, as one despairing official has put it. Ministers walk out of I read it in the tabloids
No. 10 and almost immediately a host of competing accounts of
idea of Cabinet their meeting emerges in the media. Last week, in an unprece- A man has been beaten up
for shouting spoilers at
responsibility dented breach of confidentiality that may lead to a full criminal
inquiry, someone even told the press what ministers and security
filmgoers queuing for the
new Avengers release in
officials had talked about at a National Security Council meeting. Hong Kong. The man is
Heather Stewart So how did this Cabinet get to be, in the words of the Chief Whip, believed to have seen the
the “worst example of ill-discipline in British political history”? film, and then tried to ruin it
The Guardian Partly it’s due to the strong passions unleashed by Brexit; partly to for others waiting outside the
the way messaging services like WhatsApp make leaking so easy. cinema, provoking a violent
But most of all it’s due to the collapse of Theresa May’s authority, response: a photo of the
purported victim sitting on
which has prompted a rash of leadership hopefuls to use leaks to
the pavement, bleeding from
burnish their credentials and besmirch those of rivals. The the head, was later circulated
principle of collective responsibility has been so well and truly on social media.
shattered it may prove hard to reinstate even after May has gone.

You have to hand it to Jeremy Corbyn, says Clare Foges. His

“statist solutions” to Britain’s problems may be misguided, but at
Corbyn is least he’s focusing on the issues ordinary voters care about. While
the Tories groan on endlessly about Brexit, the Labour leader has
talking voters’ been travelling the country, addressing the things that make a

language difference to people’s daily lives. Labour has announced plans

to inject £1.3bn into the bus network and restore 3,000 routes cut
since 2010; to provide more funding for schools and the police; to
Clare Foges provide more home help for elderly people struggling with tasks
like bathing and preparing meals. It’s talking about how to revive
The Times hollowed-out town centres, and how to provide more, and better,
housing. Dismiss these as “easy promises” if you like, but the
lexicon Corbyn is using – “words such as decency, dignity and A parrot has been taken
pride in the places we live in” – has real resonance. The Tories into custody in Brazil on
used to speak of these things too, but their tradition of caring suspicion of working as a
about the communal and local has given way to an obsession with lookout for a drugs gang.
“growth for its own sake” and “freedom from Brussels”. Corbyn According to local media,
may have the wrong answers, but he’s asking the right questions. the bird had been taught to
alert its owners to the arrival
Can anything slow China’s conquest of the global economy? Yes, of local law enforcement by
something can, says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard; indeed it’s already
Beijing is doing so: a lack of money. In recent years, Beijing has been in the
screeching “Mum, the
police!” The unnamed bird
lucky position of having a vast current account surplus, and has
slowly running used it to plough billions of dollars into foreign infrastructure
“must have been trained for
this”, said one officer. But
out of puff schemes through its so-called Belt and Road scheme. But global
trade has moved on, and that vast surplus is no more. “The
whatever it knew, it wasn’t
squawking: a journalist who
IMF thinks it will be 0.5% of GDP this year. It will then go met the bird behind bars
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard progressively negative through the early 2020s.” For all the hype reported that it was keeping
about China’s overseas investments, the reality is that they peaked its beak shut. “So far, it
The Daily Telegraph in 2017 and fell 40% last year. In fact, Japan now invests more hasn’t made a sound…
overseas than China does. And environmentally speaking, that completely silent.”
slowdown is no bad thing since Belt and Road has become the
“lender of last resort” for the building of coal plants. Chinese Two women had to be
banks lend billions to nations like Vietnam and Pakistan, which rescued from a hill in
then contract with China’s giant state companies to build the coal Snowdonia last week after
plants that new clean-air laws prevent the companies building at going in search of chocolate
home. Maybe it’s just as well that Beijing has run out of money. left over from an Easter egg
hunt. The pair had travelled
130 miles from the West
“Something is rotten in the magic kingdom.” That’s how Abigail
Midlands to Conwy to ascend
Disney, great-niece of Walt, viewed the pay award of $65.6m
The “naked (£50m) to Disney’s boss, Bob Iger. “Naked indecency”, she called
the lower part of the Y Gribin
ridge, where the chocolate
it. Not that she felt he didn’t merit a bonus for his management
indecency” skill; it was the size of his reward she objected to. And she’s right,
was rumoured to be. But
after scrambling up the scree

of CEO pay says Dominic Lawson. Chief executive pay, here and in the US,
has become divorced from any balance between risk and reward.
slope they got stuck, and
dialled 999.
Walt Disney, an artistic and business genius, built an entertainment
Dominic Lawson empire from scratch and stood to lose everything if it failed. “Iger, McDonalds’ attempt to cut
plastic waste by introducing
when all’s said and done, is an employee whose great rewards were
The Sunday Times paper straws at its UK
never balanced by personal risk.” When he and other CEOs get branches has not got off to a
obscene windfalls, it makes capitalism stink; it plays into the hands good start. Customers say the
of our “avowedly Marxist” shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, paper straws get soggy, and a
who plans to expropriate ordinary shareholders in big companies petition demanding the return
by handing 10% of their investments to employees. Businesses that of plastic ones has attracted
fail to exercise proper judgement over bosses’ pay should beware. 43,000 signatures.
They “will themselves be judged, and not to their advantage”.

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

16 NEWS Best of the American columnists
Joe Biden: a president-in-waiting or a “paper tiger”?
Believe it or not, there are now no
fewer than 20 people officially running
for the Democratic presidential
nomination, said Gail Collins in The
New York Times. But in this crowded
field, Joe Biden, who finally entered
the race last week, is the clear front
runner. With good reason. The former
vice-president has lots of experience
and “incredible name recognition,
and everybody has stories about
what a lovely guy he is in person”.
He does, however, also have some
clear vulnerabilities. For one thing, he
has a long record to defend. His rivals “He has longed to be president all his political life” Is he right? The fact that quite so
are sure to take him to task over why
he once helped weaken gun control, for instance, and why
he backed the Iraq War. Then there’s his age: he’d be 78 by
the time he entered the White House. “Defending the idea by
pointing out that Ronald Reagan was in office until his late 70s
will require discussing exactly how well that worked out.”
Biden has “longed to be president all his political life”, said
Daniel McCarthy on The Spectator USA. He first ran in 1988,
then again in 2008. But if he wasn’t good enough those times,
why would the Democrats want to pick him today, when the
electorate seems to be eager for radical alternatives to the old
status quo? If the economy is
still doing well in the run-up to the
next election, the Democrats aren’t
going to beat Donald Trump with
“nostalgia for the Obama years”. It’s
true that Americans usually “vote for
the future, not the past”, said Susan B.
Glasser in The New Yorker, but these
are strange times. Biden has chosen to
make Trump-bashing the centrepiece
of his campaign, betting that the
electorate is ready for a “restoration”
rather than a “revolution”.
many Democrats have entered the
race, knowing full well that Biden would throw his hat into the
ring, suggests not, said Jim Newell on Slate. They clearly regard
him “as a paper tiger, whose fall will make the nomination
anyone’s for the taking”. Much of the press, too, regard Biden
as 2020’s Jeb Bush: “a weak establishment favourite whose
time might be past”. But I’m not so sure. The fact that the
recent controversy over Biden’s handsy behaviour with women
had almost no effect on his poll ratings should give people
pause. “What if enough primary voters hear all of the scrutiny of
Biden’s past, and all the declarations that he’s out of touch with
the party’s present and future, and… still like him anyway?”

In the Battle of Agincourt, says Bret Stephens, the “humble and effective English longbow made
The Pentagon short work of the expensive and vulnerable French cavalry”. Is America at risk of suffering the same
sort of military humiliation? Christian Brose, the former staff director of the Senate armed services
could learn committee, believes so. The traditional model of US power – based on large, expensive and heavily
manned systems – has, he says, become a dangerous anachronism. It no longer makes military or
from Agincourt economic sense to invest in $13bn aircraft carriers and $89m fighter jets when the US is fighting
technologically primitive enemies in the Middle East, and when its “relatively small number of
Bret Stephens ultra-sophisticated platforms are increasingly vulnerable to detection and destruction” by rivals such
as China and Russia. The US should instead create many more, cheaper military platforms, “and –
The New York Times within ethical limits – enhance their autonomy”. That would put fewer soldiers in harm’s way and
reduce the risk from swarm attacks. But alas, this change is unlikely to happen any time soon: the
“military-industrial-congressional complex” will resist any disruption to its business model. “In the
meantime, the risk of being on the losing side of our own Agincourt” grows greater by the day.

The Mueller report is scary, says Yuval Levin – and not just because of what it reveals about Russian
It’s dangerous election interference and possible obstruction of justice by President Trump. Perhaps even more
disturbing is what it reveals about how this White House functions. Mueller found that officials
to disobey routinely ignored Trump’s orders, because they view him as irrational and ignorant. The “willingness
of his subordinates to be insubordinate” has generally served Trump well during his time in office, as
the president his judgement is often “shockingly bad”. Indeed, by refusing to fire Mueller or halt the investigation,
officials in this case probably saved his presidency. But if the willingness of Trump’s people to ignore
Yuval Levin or disobey him is in some ways reassuring, it’s dangerous in the long term. In our system of
government, the president is supposed to be the final authority. If aides and cabinet members pick
National Review and choose when to carry out presidential decisions, the constitutional order breaks down. How do
we hold these people accountable? A clear and effective chain of command is particularly vital in
moments of crisis. We’d better hope we’re lucky enough to avoid a national security or economic
emergency under Trump. For this White House would be “fundamentally unprepared” to handle it.

It has been six months since Canada legalised cannabis, says Stephen Marche, and one thing is
Canada shows already clear. “When you make pot legal, you make it super, super boring.” I went to a party in
a smart area of Toronto the other night and it seemed as if half the people there were involved in
the way on the cannabis industry in some form. Marijuana stocks have replaced property prices as the go-to
conversation at dinner parties. It’s too early to judge the public health effects of legalisation. We
cannabis don’t yet know whether it will lead to higher rates of teenage mental illness, say, or more car
accidents. “But, already, it is unimaginable that marijuana would be made illegal again.” Legalisa-
Stephen Marche tion has opened people’s eyes to the “sheer stupidity of the drug war”. America is losing the battle
against illegal drugs: cocaine and heroin have never been cheaper; overdoses have just overtaken
The New Yorker car accidents as a cause of adult deaths. But the US is doing well with legal drugs: tobacco use and
drink-drive fatalities are both in steep decline. Now that it has legalised pot, Canada can regulate
it and study its effects properly. The country is “proving, once again, the deep political power of
boredom: if you want to suck the power and glamour out of drugs, let the government run them”.

THE WEEK 4 May 2019

It took a laminator, a boat fitter, a gel
coater and the Business Relationship
Team from Lloyds Bank to help
Viking Cruisers launch their new boat.

Working with the business,

Thea Nattrass helped arrange
the finance for Viking Cruisers
to design the Viking 300,
the flagship of their new range.

By the side of business

 Best articles: International NEWS 19

President Sisi has brought Egypt to a “dark place”

During Ramadan, families throughout constitutional reforms that give him
the Arab world like to binge-watch control of the courts and allow him to
soap operas as they gather for the stay in power until at least 2030, said
evening meal, said Mada Masr Il Post (Milan). The reforms were
(Cairo). But this year they’re in for a passed in a snap referendum, with 88%
disappointment. Egypt, where much approving on a 44% turnout. And
of the most popular fare is made, is in though the outcome was never in
the throes of a censorship crackdown. doubt, given Sisi’s complete control of
Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, its authoritarian the media, voters were still herded into
president, is so anxious to control polling booths and bribed with free
what Egyptians think, he has imposed groceries, just to make sure.
absurdly strict guidelines on film
producers. Some have given up in Sisi’s five years in power have brought
disgust; others are dutifully providing Egypt to a “dark place”, said Bahey
anodyne scripts featuring heroic Sherine Abdel-Wahab: jailed for a joke eldin Hassan in The Washington Post.
policemen and soldiers, old-fashioned Those who tried to run against him in
family values, and attacks on the Muslim Brotherhood, whose the 2014 presidential election were arrested or threatened. More
democratically elected government Sisi overthrew in 2013. than 60,000 people have been jailed for political reasons; 2,532
have been sentenced to death, most of them non-violent activists;
The assault on free expression is far worse than in President more than 165 have been executed. Hundreds are thought to
Mubarak’s era, said Christoph Sydow in Der Spiegel (Hamburg). have died in jail as a result of torture, which the UN says is
Dozens of journalists are in jail; more than 500 news websites “systematic”. It’s appalling how little criticism of Sisi’s human
have been blocked. Even popular celebrities are targeted: when rights abuses is heard outside Egypt, said Le Monde (Paris). He
the singer Sherine Abdel-Wahab was asked by a fan, “Have you has the support of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and less explicitly
drunk from the Nile?” – the title of her famous song – and that of Western governments, who see him as a bulwark against
jokingly replied she wouldn’t dare for fear of catching bilharzia terrorism. Donald Trump hosted Sisi in April and gushed that
(a water-borne parasitic disease common in Egypt), she was he was “doing a great job”. But as the recent overthrows of
sentenced to six months in jail (suspended after she apologised). authoritarian regimes in Algeria and Sudan ought to remind
Sisi has further tightened his grip on civil liberties by passing them, this may prove unwise – as well as unprincipled.

An art-hating “hysteric”. That’s what conservative pundits have been calling Angela Merkel after she
GERMANY took down two oil paintings by the great German expressionist Emil Nolde from the walls of her
office, says Karl Gaulhofer. Nolde, whose works are now on show in Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof,
The respected is held in high esteem in Germany – hence the tirades against Merkel. Under the Third Reich, his art
artist who was banned as “degenerate” and “unGerman” (Hitler abhorred modernism in art); and Nolde
himself is often seen as – and after the War presented himself as being – a brave victim of the Nazis.
backed Hitler However, that myth is exploded by the Berlin exhibition, which highlights the less familiar facts that
Nolde was a Nazi Party member and ardent anti-Semite who adored Hitler. It was this that rightly
Die Presse prompted Merkel to take action. Yet just because Nolde should have no place in the German
(Vienna) Chancellor’s office doesn’t mean his art no longer has merit, any more than Michael Jackson’s music
has suddenly become bad following the paedophilia claims. In a mature, liberal society we must
accept that great artists can also be thoroughly reprehensible people – and live with the ambivalence.

If your president becomes extremely wealthy while in office, he surely has a duty to explain how it
PHILIPPINES came about, says the Philippine Daily Inquirer. And President Rodrigo Duterte certainly has a lot of
explaining to do. Having analysed financial statements from the Duterte family, the Philippine Centre
How did you for Investigative Journalism has found the president’s net worth, and that of his son Paolo, former
get so rich, deputy mayor of Davao, roughly tripled during their time in office. That of his daughter Sara, mayor
of Davao, has increased sixfold. But rather than explain this financial mystery, Duterte has responded
Mr President? with his “now patented mode of going after perceived detractors with curses, gutter language, sexual
innuendos and threats of retribution”. He claims the journalists investigating him are crooks, paid
Philippine Daily Inquirer by his enemies. And he insists the public has no right to poke into his personal finances. “I’m rich?”
(Manila) he says. “I’ll hide it. Why should I tell you where I keep my money? You’re stupid. I might end up
getting robbed.” Philippine law actually requires all public officials to account for their wealth, so we
can make sure that our representatives aren’t looting the coffers. But Duterte is a law unto himself.

It’s the ultimate elite training college: it has produced four of the last ten French presidents (including
FRANCE François Hollande and Emmanuel Macron), and seven of the past 18 prime ministers. The École

Macron is Nationale d’Administration (ÉNA) was founded by Charles de Gaulle in 1945 to end “nepotism and
cronyism” and ensure France’s future leaders were chosen purely on merit. A very worthy institution,
wrong to close in short, says Maxime Tandonnet. But as places are subject to fierce competition (only 90 énarques
graduate each year), critics see it as the preserve of well-off families with access to the best education,
his alma mater and even those who’ve benefited from it seem embarrassed by its inegalitarian reputation. Jacques
Chirac (also an énarque) toyed with closing it. Now, in a blatant sop to the gilets jaunes who’ve been
Le Figaro making his life such a misery, Macron says he’s actually going to. Really? How are France’s interests
(Paris) served by doing away with high-level competition for top posts? Most énarques are anonymous civil
servants who, by passing its ferocious exams, prove their determination to serve the country. By all
means let us make access easier for those with real ability. But to throw the ÉNA to the mob as a
scapegoat for France’s real problems is the height of demagoguery.

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

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 Health & Science NEWS 21

What the scientists are saying…

Drop in measles vaccine uptake
About 169 million children worldwide
failed to get their first dose of the measles
vaccine between 2011 and 2017, according
to a new analysis from Unicef. The figure
includes half a million children in the UK,
608,000 in France and 2.6 million in the
US. In 2017 alone, 110,000 people – most
of them children – are thought to have
died from measles worldwide, 22% more
than in the previous year. And in the first
three months of this year, more than
110,000 cases were reported, an increase
of 300% on the same period last year.
“The measles virus will always find
unvaccinated children,” said Henrietta
Fore of Unicef. “If we are serious about
averting the spread of this dangerous but
preventable disease, we need to vaccinate
every child, in rich and poor countries
alike.” The UN body blames “lack of
access, poor health systems, complacency,
and in some cases fear or scepticism about
vaccines” for the low uptake rates. To
achieve herd immunity, the WHO says
that 95% of children will need to be
vaccinated. In the UK, more than 95%
of five-year-olds had their first dose of the
MMR vaccine in 2016 and 2017, but
only 88% received the follow-up dose.
Meat lovers are risking cancer
Meat eaters are already urged to limit their
daily consumption of red and processed
meats to 70g, to reduce their risk of bowel
cancer. But according to research by
Oxford University, this official guidance
doesn’t go far enough. Using data from the
UK biobank, scientists looked at the diets
and cancer histories of nearly half a million
people aged between 40 and 69 over a six-
year period in the late 2000s. Among those
who averaged 76g of red or processed
meat a day – the equivalent of three-and-a-
Cases of measles are on the rise
half rashers of bacon, or half an 8oz steak
– bowel cancer diagnoses were 20% higher
than among those who averaged 21g a
day: this means that for every 10,000
people in the study who ate 21g a day
of red and processed meat, 40 were
diagnosed with bowel cancer, while the
comparable figure for those who ate 76g a
day was 48. “Our results strongly suggest
that people who eat red and processed
meat four or more times a week have a
higher risk of developing bowel cancer
than those who [do so]... less than twice
a week,” said co-author Prof Tim Key.
Lost bone makes a comeback
A tiny bone once thought to have been
all but phased out in humans by evolution
is making a comeback, scientists have
discovered. The fabella is found just
behind the knee, and like the kneecap it
is a sesamoid bone – meaning it grows in
a muscle’s tendon. Because it serves no
obvious purpose, and only a tiny minority
of people were thought to have the bone,
it was assumed to be a relic of our primate
past. But now, having reviewed 21,000
studies for which knees were assessed, a
team from Imperial College London has
calculated that its prevalence has more
than tripled in the past century: in 1918,
the “accessory bone” was present in 11%
of humans, rising to 39% by 2018. They
also found that it was more likely to be
found in people with arthritis or knee pain.
Its purpose remains a mystery, as it has no
apparent function, but it has been
theorised that as humans have become
better nourished and so heavier, the bone
has shown up to provide more knee
support. In the mammals that have them
(such as cats and dogs and some monkeys),
fabellae are thought to relieve stress on the
joint by providing a smooth surface for
bone to slide across. It’s possible they
could play a similar role in humans – but
equally they could “turn out to be the
appendix of the human skeleton”, said
lead researcher Dr Michael Berthaume.
E-cigarettes “contaminated”
Vaping may be significantly less harmful
than conventional smoking – but that
doesn’t mean it poses no risk to your
lungs. When researchers from Harvard
tested 75 single-use e-cigarette cartridges
and refill liquids on sale in the US, they
discovered that a quarter of them were
contaminated with endotoxins – bacteria
linked to lung infections and asthma – and
that 81% contained traces of glucan, a
sugary molecule found in the cell wall
of most funghi, which can also contribute
to respiratory problems. Lead author Dr
David Christiani said the findings add to
“growing concerns about the potential
for adverse respiratory effects in users”.

Why orcas are the ocean’s top dogs Wild salmon in “crisis”
The great white shark’s reputation Fewer wild salmon were caught in
as the ocean’s most fearsome apex Scotland last year than in any of the
predator may not be justified. previous 70 years, renewing fears that
Biologists have discovered that the the species is in crisis. Only 37,196
sharks are terrified of killer whales salmon were caught in 2018, two-thirds
(orcas) – and with some reason: it of the average over the previous five
years, and far fewer than the 111,405
seems that orcas have developed a
caught in 2010. A major factor in the
taste for the sharks’ nutrient-rich livers. decline is thought to be last year’s
Researchers who tagged great whites unusually hot summer, which caused
off the coast of California for more some rivers to dry up, and left many
than a decade noticed that whenever migrating salmon trapped in estuaries.
orcas appeared, the sharks would Striking fear into great whites Yet there is clearly a longer-term trend
abruptly vanish, often not returning for at work, and conservationists have war-
months. They didn’t observe any orcas killing great whites, but discovered that in ned that a range of factors are to blame,
1997, fishermen in the region had observed a pair of orcas beating to death a great including pollution from farm waste, an
increase in man-made obstructions in
white and then feasting on its liver; and that in South Africa in 2017, five liverless
rivers and the spread of parasitic sea lice
great white carcasses had washed ashore after a pod of orcas had been seen nearby. from salmon farms on Scotland’s west
© SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Orcas appear to have developed a near surgical technique for removing a shark’s coast. Dr Alan Wells, chief executive of
liver: they bite their victim near its pectoral fin and then squeeze the organ out Fisheries Management Scotland, called
through the wound. “It’s like squeezing toothpaste,” said Salvador Jorgensen for conservation of wild salmon to be
from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, who led the research. made a “national priority”.

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

24 NEWS Talking points
Climate change: stark warning of a teenage eco-warrior
It’s not often that 16-year-olds are invited to
address the UK Parliament, but last week the
climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived at
Westminster to deliver a powerful warning,
said John Ashmore on CapX. Without
drastic action, she told the assembled MPs and
journalists, we risk “the end of civilisation as
we know it”. This was just the latest event in an
extraordinary two years for the young Swede,
who has gone from organising a school “strike”
in her native Stockholm to speaking at the
World Economic Forum and meeting the Pope.
Seeming to “embody the angst of a generation”
that fears growing up into a “much worse world
than their parents knew”, Thunberg, who was
spending her holidays touring Europe by train,
is a striking presence: cool, articulate, and with
a message “perfectly tailored to the internet age
– unambiguous, emotive and dramatic”. But
does that mean we should heed it? Thunberg: a striking presence
Certainly, our MPs were falling over themselves to be seen with
her. There is something discomfiting about senior politicians
hanging on the words of a 16-year-old, but you can see why they
do it, said Helen Dale in The Spectator. Thunberg has come to be
regarded as a “mini messiah”, with an army of supporters on
social media; moreover, she is a child – which means that anyone
who criticises her looks like a bully and
can be silenced. I haven’t seen much
evidence of her critics being gagged, “Thunberg is a child – which means now mileage in going green, said Tom
said Tom Chivers on UnHerd. Her that anyone who criticises her looks Harris in The Daily Telegraph; this week
presence in London last week triggered
a massive online fight along “the usual
like a bully and can be silenced”
culture-war fault lines”, with lots of
mainly older people carping that she is “wrong and awful and, in
one case, that she is ‘chilling and positively pre-modern’ with her
‘monotone voice’”. Which wasn’t very edifying, even before you
remember that she has Asperger’s and was speaking in a foreign
language. But there was a more specific criticism too, that
Thunberg is leading a cult. It’s true that like many cults and
religions, environmentalism imposes a moral code centred on
self-denial and uses the threat of apocalypse to keep its adherents
in line. But even if it were proven that cultists and environm-
entalists have a similar psychology, would that mean the world
isn’t warming? That we can safely ignore the warnings of
countless scientists?
Of course not, said the FT. The threat to our planet is real, and
Thunberg and the Extinction Rebellion (XR) protesters who
paralysed London last week should be applauded for “injecting
new urgency into public discourse”. But it
doesn’t follow that they are above scrutiny.
They are wrong, for a start, to say that no
progress is being made in the fight against
climate change. The cost of photovoltaic panels
has fallen by 99% in the past 40 years; electric
vehicles are being produced in increasing
numbers; batteries (vital for storing the energy
from renewables) are getting bigger and better;
and central bankers in France, China and the
UK are starting to factor the impact of climate
change into their decision-making.
As for the UK, far from doing nothing, as
Thunberg claims, it has reduced its carbon
emissions by 38% since 1990, said Iain Martin
in The Times; now ministers are reportedly set
to endorse a target of reaching zero net
emissions by 2050. Much of the progress so
far was achieved by phasing out coal-powered
electricity plants. This was a massive effort that
took decades (and caused considerable hardship in coal-mining
areas). Meeting the next targets will involve slashing emissions
from transport, industry and farming; it will be very difficult
and it will take time. Yet Thunberg and her allies insist we must
achieve zero net emissions in six years, regardless of the cost to
our economy.
Clearly, political leaders think there’s
Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon
both declared climate change a national
emergency. But is the public really on
board? For all the fuss about plastic waste, UK sales of bottled
water rose last year. And bottled water isn’t central to anyone’s
well-being, whereas fossil fuels are the backbone of our pros-
perity, said Janet Daley in The Sunday Telegraph: cheap travel;
cheap goods and appliances (shipped in from China on oil-
guzzling cargo ships); the ability to warm buildings, and in hot
countries, cool them… these have enabled millions of people to
enjoy lifestyles that in previous centuries were only for the rich.
And they expect the good times to continue. Take it all away, and
the populist uprisings affecting the West today will look mild in
comparison. That’s why we need technological fixes, said Nick
Butler in the FT. Science has transformed telecommunications;
we must now focus on finding low-cost, low-carbon energy
sources. It won’t be cheap, but Thunberg can help. Having done
a fine job in raising awareness of the problem, she should next use
her campaigning talents to raise the money to fix it.

Francis Bacon took revenge on fault for bombarding me with

Pick of the week’s
Gossip
Robert Pattinson drives a ten-
year-old car that cost $1,000.
“It’s quite good,” says the
Twilight star. “Everything in
it is broken. It has a hole in
it. People see it and they’re
frightened, so they get out of
my way.” He once bought a
vintage Ford Mustang, against
the advice of his father, a
dealer in antique cars. “It
stalled constantly. To have an
attention magnet that breaks
down and you have to get out
and push it round corners –
that’s the hubris people love to
see come undone.”
his art dealer, Erica Brausen,
when she pressured him into
finishing paintings inspired by
Vincent van Gogh for a London
exhibition. In a previously
unheard interview, he tells his
friend Barry Joule: “Two of the
van Gogh pictures were still
wet when delivered… several
people came away from the
opening complaining they had
paint smeared all over the back
of their jackets… They sent
Erica the cleaning bill. It serves
her right.” When accused of
deliberately sabotaging the
event, Bacon protested his
innocence. “Nothing to do with
me,” he said. “It’s all Erica’s
hurry-up non-stop messages.”
Warren Buffett is the third-
richest man in the world – but
he doesn’t spend much on
food. Famed for his simple
tastes, the billionaire investor
has McDonald’s chicken
nuggets for lunch three times
a week; he drinks five cans of
Coke a day (regular and cherry
varieties); and he loves ice
cream. But he doesn’t touch
coffee or alcohol. “I checked
the actuarial tables, and the
lowest death rate is among
six-year-olds. So I decided to
eat like a six-year-old: it’s the
safest course I can take.”

THE WEEK 4 May 2019

 Talking points NEWS 25

Trump’s visit: should he get the red carpet? Wit &

The idea of a full state visit
by President Trump has been
controversial ever since Theresa
here in his capacity as the head of
state of an important ally. But no:
the Commons Speaker John
Wisdom
May extended the invitation Bercow, who has previously “Where others see the river
back in January 2017, said The voiced his opposition to allowing of time flowing as it always
Independent. So much so, in Trump to address both houses of has, the reactionary sees the
fact, that for a long time it looked Parliament, has snubbed the state debris of paradise drifting
as if it would never happen. A dinner with the president, as have past his eyes.”
“diplomatic fudge” last year Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Mark Lilla, quoted in
involved Trump popping over Lib Dem leader Vince Cable. It’s The Guardian
“for tea with the Queen and a a pathetic bit of posturing, said “The cure for boredom is
slice of cake at Chequers, but Harry Yorke in The Daily curiosity. There is no cure
without the pomp and ceremony Telegraph. Corbyn was happy for curiosity.”
that accompanies the complete to attend a 2015 state banquet Dorothy Parker, quoted
state occasion”. Even that in honour of the president of in the LA Times
relatively low-key visit China, an oppressive dictatorship,
prompted big protests. But and he gladly sits down with his “I have never met a man so
Trump is now “set to return for “friends” in Hamas and ignorant that I couldn’t learn
A not so special relationship
the full shebang, including a Hezbollah, but he apparently something from him.”
banquet at Buckingham Palace”. The three-day draws the line at breaking bread with the leader Galileo Galilei, quoted in
visit, at the start of June, will coincide with of the UK’s closest strategic partner. the I newspaper
events commemorating the 75th anniversary “He who has a why to
of the D-Day landings. It’s a “clever piece of How things have changed, said Simon Tisdall in live for can bear almost
planning” that will allow people to focus on the The Guardian. When the newly elected John F. any how.”
past glories of the US-British alliance, rather than Kennedy flew into Britain in 1961, half a million Friedrich Nietzsche, quoted
on the character of the current US president. people lined their route through London to in The Sunday Times
catch a glimpse of him and his wife. Trump is
“It is better to be
Alas, many people would rather dwell on the an unusually divisive president, but the reality is
absolutely ridiculous than
latter, said Robert Hardman in the Daily Mail. that the “special relationship” has long been in
absolutely boring.”
They’ve all been bleating on Twitter about decline. As the power imbalance between the US
Marilyn Monroe, quoted in
how Trump is not worthy of our hospitality. and Britain has become ever more glaring, and
The Independent
Protesters are talking of dusting off the “Baby America has become “more detached from the
Trump” helium balloon from his last visit and Anglosphere”, the countries have inevitably “Tradition is tending
flying it – or an even larger blimp – over London drifted apart. Exceptionally awful as he the flame, not
during his stay. You’d have hoped that at least undoubtedly is, Trump is not the only obstacle worshipping the ashes.”
“grown-ups” grasped that Trump was coming to better US-UK relations. Gustav Mahler, quoted in
The Daily Telegraph

Private schools: a plea to Mr Corbyn “Nobody who says, ‘I told

you so’ has ever been, or will
ever be, a hero.”
The heads of Britain’s 2,500 doubled since the 1970s (from Ursula K. Le Guin, quoted
fee-charging schools are a 300,000 to 630,000 today), so in The Guardian
worried lot, said The Times. the sector now employs armies
They’ve reason to be. Should of teachers and support staff. “Children, I came to
Jeremy Corbyn get into And by taking pupils out of understand, need you
No. 10 they’ll be in deep the state system, they save the around even if they
trouble. Labour has pledged taxpayer £3.5bn a year. ignore you. In fact, they
to slap VAT on school fees, need you around so they can
and devote the £1.5bn it Eyewash, said Robert Verkaik ignore you.”
hopes this will raise to in The Guardian. The ISC’s Writer Ruth Reichl, quoted
providing free school meals. Pupils at Stowe: a boost to GDP? own data show that fees have in The New York Times
And a new parliamentary shot up and that just ten in “There is such a thing
group is expected to call for the phasing out of 100 private school pupils are on full bursaries. as overcapitalising
private education altogether. No wonder the If such schools were taken over by the state, as the A in artist.”
Independent Schools Council (ISC) last week in Finland, their staff wouldn’t be on the dole: Saul Bellow, quoted
issued a forceful defence in its annual report, they’d just have a new employer. We’d be rid on LitHub.com
setting out all the fine things its members do for of an “apartheid system” that ensures that the
the country. Its message can be boiled down to privately educated are over-represented among
Statistic of the week
a single sentence: “Please, Mr Corbyn, if you MPs (29%), at Oxbridge (42%) and the senior
The number of young adults
become PM, don’t be too mean to us.” judiciary (74%). But you won’t improve the in Britain who still live with
system by scrapping its best schools, said Martin their parents rose by one
It was more than that, said Nicola Woolcock in Stephen in The Daily Telegraph. Private schools million between 2003 and
the same paper. The ISC was at pains to point are better at providing what parents want for 2017. Almost 26% of people
out how schools have been trying to keep fees their children. The problem is they’ve become between the ages of 20 and
down; how they’ve been offering ever more unaffordable to all but the rich. If the state were 34 have yet to leave home –
bursaries to less well-off pupils; and how they to give parents the option of spending on private a total of 3.4 million. The
prop up subjects such as modern languages, education what it spends on their children’s state average number of people
per household is now 2.39; in
music and drama. Above all, the ISC wanted to education, that problem would vanish. We don’t
1951 it was 3.3.
show how private schools boost the UK’s GDP, need to abolish private schools; we need a
Civitas/The Guardian
by £13.7bn. The private school population has voucher system.

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

26 NEWS Sport
Kipchoge’s brilliance leaves Farah in the shade
It was a week Mo Farah will want to forget, said
Sean Ingle in The Guardian. It began with the
most “extraordinary spat” with another long-
distance legend, the Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie.
Farah claimed he’d been robbed during a stay in a
hotel near Addis Ababa owned by the Olympic
gold medallist. A furious Gebrselassie responded
with his own accusation of “disgraceful conduct”
by Farah during his stay, and that he had failed to
pay his $3,000 bill despite having been given a
50% discount. But this Sunday he received what
he may well have felt to be an even more “painful
beating” by another track legend. In the London
Marathon, he “trudged home” in fifth place, four
places behind Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya.
By claiming his fourth victory in London, Kipchoge: a humble superstar
Kipchoge cemented his status as the “greatest
marathoner in history”. Not only was his time (2hr 2min 37sec) a
new course record; it was the second fastest marathon of all time
– behind his own world record, set in Berlin last September.
Farah’s time of 2:05:39, by contrast, was well below the “low
2:04” he had targeted. The contrast in the two men’s prematch
preparations was also striking, said Ben Bloom in The Sunday
Telegraph. While Farah was fending off public attention over his
spat with Gebrselassie, Kipchoge was keeping a characteristically
low profile. The 34-year-old may be a multimillionaire athletics
superstar, yet he remains the most unassuming
of men. For close to 300 days a year, he lives in
“monastic” style at the training centre he attends
in rural Kenya, where he shares a twin room and
follows the same routine as men 10% as talented
as he is. He even takes his turn to clean out the
toilets. On his bedside table sits a book called
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, which argues that
living in the moment without material possessions
is the key to happiness.
And in Sunday’s race, at least half of which was
into a headwind, Kipchoge showed how well this
ethos serves him, said Stuart Fraser in The Times.
Until halfway, he and Farah were part of the same
leading group of runners. Then, with a “timely
nod”, Kipchoge urged the pacemakers to up their
speed – a “cruel masterstroke” that instantly
eliminated Farah from contention. With a few miles to go,
Kipchoge was still being pursued by a trio of Ethiopians before
“one by one” picking them off, said Riath Al-Samarrai in the
Daily Mail. That final burst included an “insane 4min 30sec
mile”. Farah, in truth, didn’t run a bad race, but this defeat will
still be a psychological blow. An athlete who has always thrived
on confidence, he will now spend the 15 months before the Tokyo
Olympics knowing he will be competing against Kipchoge – the
“strongest, most dominant force” he has ever encountered.

Cricket: did the ECB engage in a cover-up?

“With the greatest respect, and I mean this in a
proper way,” said Alan Brazil on talkSPORT, “is
Alex Hales thick?” Two years ago the 30-year-old
batsman narrowly avoided criminal charges after
being caught in a brawl; now he has been suspended
by his county, Nottinghamshire, reportedly after
being caught taking recreational drugs for a second
time. It was a “stupid and avoidable” crime, said
Paul Newman in the Daily Mail. The England and
Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had no choice but to
drop him last week from the provisional squad for
next month’s World Cup. But while that was clearly
the right decision, “serious questions remain” about
the ECB’s handling of the case. ECB officials must
have been well aware of Hales’s three-week
suspension, yet they went ahead and selected him, effectively
colluding in a cover-up. It was only when the story became public
knowledge last week that they changed tack and expelled him.
This saga is a major setback for what was shaping
up to be a historic opportunity for English cricket,
said Andy Bull in The Guardian. With this squad of
players, England had its best-ever chance of winning
the World Cup – a victory that is “badly needed”,
to boost falling participation and flagging public
interest. Actually, Hales isn’t a major loss, said Scyld
Berry in The Daily Telegraph. True, he’s a highly
destructive batsman, but his inconsistent fielding and
suspect big-match temperament mean he isn’t a first-
choice player – just a valuable reserve. Far better to
rely on a “steadier character” like James Vince.
Hales: dropped And at least the dismissal of Hales will allow
England to undertake their final preparations “free
of distraction”, said Mike Atherton in The Times. They can “put
the issue behind them and concentrate on playing the excellent
one-day cricket for which they are renowned”.

Football: five minutes of “pandemonium” Sporting headlines

For the first 71 minutes, it was a
“dull” contest, said Louise
Taylor in The Guardian. Then,
for five “insane” minutes,
Sunday’s Championship clash
between Leeds United and
Aston Villa descended into epic
“pandemonium”.
It began when Villa’s Jonathan
Kodjia went down injured. But “All hell broke loose”
instead of putting the ball out of
play, Leeds carried on, and striker Mateusz Klich
wended his way past Villa players, who were
standing motionless, and put the ball in the
back of the net. Then “all hell broke loose”:
virtually every player on the pitch started
brawling, while Villa manager Dean Smith
“went berserk” in the technical area. At this
point, Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa did
something exceptional:
he instructed his players to let
Villa score. Even then, defender
Pontus Jansson, who didn’t
“appreciate the message”, tried
to dispossess Villa and prevent
a goal. “Mercifully, he failed.”
In a sport of “too many dark
arts”, this was a “rare outbreak
of honesty and sportsmanship”,
said Henry Winter in The
Times. Bielsa has done the
sport a huge favour: he showed the game can
involve fair play. I’m not so sure, said Jason
Burt in The Daily Telegraph. There may be a
gentleman’s agreement that players put the ball
out when a player is down, but on this occasion
the referee clearly waved play on. So Aston Villa
should not have stopped playing – and Leeds
arguably had a right to score.
Snooker Defending champion
Mark Williams went out in the
second round of the World
Snooker Championship,
losing 13-9 to David Gilbert.
World No.1 Ronnie O’Sullivan
and three-time champion
Mark Selby also suffered
shock early defeats.
Formula 1 Valtteri Bottas
edged teammate Lewis
Hamilton to win the
Azerbaijan Grand Prix, giving
Mercedes a record four
consecutive one-twos at the
start of a season.
Football Tottenham lost
to Ajax 1-0 in the first leg
of their Champions League
semi-final.

THE WEEK 4 May 2019

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 LETTERS
Pick of the week’s correspondence
Paying for social care
To The Times
Damian Green is to be
applauded for being brave
enough to raise the spectre of
social care costs. However,
I do not think he goes far
enough. In my view, if you can
afford to pay for your care in
old age then you should. The
average length of stay in a
home towards the end of a
person’s life is 18 months,
according to some estimates,
and given that the average
house price in the UK is
reported to be £230,000, most
estates can afford to pay this
and still leave an inheritance to
the next generation.
Where this analysis breaks
down is in the case of
dementia, where the length of
stay can be significantly greater
and the costs punitive. Here
I agree with Green about the
concept of an insurance policy,
which could help to alleviate
the burden of care home fees
when the length of stay is more
than 18 months.
Previous generations have
been the recipients of very
generous tax relief on pension
contributions that are now
denied to taxpayers like me in
their 30s. The best way to
ensure wealth cascades down
the generations is by allowing
younger generations to save
more, through tax cuts and
pension relief. That can only be
achieved by people paying their
own way in old age.
Charles Bull, London
Investment at any cost?
To The Guardian
The Government is right that
Huawei is not owned by the
Chinese regime, but it seems to
have missed the fact that it is
probably controlled by the
Chinese Communist Party.
Huawei is technically majority-
owned by its employee union.
As with all legal trade unions
in China, however, Huawei’s
union will be controlled by the
Party. Additionally, as with
other large privately owned
firms, Huawei has a party
branch, currently headed by
Zhou Daiqi. Although Zhou is
Huawei’s director of ethics, it
is almost certainly in his role as
Party secretary that he serves
as a member of Huawei’s
executive committee.
It is the Communist Party
that ultimately controls all
● Letters have been edited
29
Exchange of the week Extinction Rebellion by a long
list of academics, educators
The merits of private schools and other professionals.
Elsewhere in the car pages of
To The Times The Magazine, we discovered
Independent schools have no right to exist if they do not fulfil the perils of driving an electric
a need, but nor is it rational to abolish them if they do. Private car on a longish journey almost
schools have one particular merit that justifies their survival: anywhere, and in the Traveller
they act as a “control” to set against the endless experiments section we were informed that
of an often hyper-politicised state system. This is why the silent we may not be able to stand on
influence of good private schools has been disproportionate to ever-crowded trains. But who
the number of pupils they have taught. Over the years, they cares? In the same Traveller
have encouraged creative teaching far beyond any curriculum section, we learn we can fly to
and retained sixth forms and playing fields; they are Sharjah in the UAE and drive
unembarrassed by the competitiveness that inspires many around some sand dunes, or
children, especially boys, and have tried to harness it. They better than enjoying our 50th
have promoted music, languages and “difficult” subjects. birthday in the many good
They recognised and supported the needs of academic children venues in Cardiff, why not fly
when this was considered the height of wickedness. off to Málaga for a blast?
We have much to address, not least high fees and low levels Something more than
of social diversity. However, it makes no sense to abolish China’s massive cement
something because it is successful. industry has got to change.
Andrew Halls, head master, King’s College School, Gary Wiltshire, Bunwell,
Wimbledon Norfolk
To The Times Pulling the NHS apart
Independent schools provide affluent people with the To The Daily Telegraph
opportunity of separating their children from those of the Both your Tuesday headline
masses and buying what they imagine to be a superior (“Gag order ban for NHS staff
education. The Independent Schools Council unsurprisingly who blow whistle”) and your
argues that such segregation really does the masses a favour; leading article (“A transparent
as William would have said, “they oughter be jolly grateful”. NHS”) highlight important
Andy Connell, Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria issues regarding the way NHS
services are delivered.
government agencies, state- must respond to these NHS managers and
owned companies and, unprecedented circumstances. politicians are poles apart in
probably, private companies It should revise the current their vision of what should be
where it has a formal presence. arrangements, introduced after delivered and how it should
It seems highly likely that when significant changes in 1998, be done. Politicians want
it comes to strategic decisions, under which the leader can be quantity, not necessarily
it is the Party – via Zhou – that challenged annually if 15% quality, to convince voters that
controls Huawei. It beggars of Tory MPs write secret letters services are being delivered.
belief that the Government demanding a vote: 30% should Trust managers, though, can’t
does not understand this. become the threshold; be seen to be providing poor or
Consequently, we must ask challenges should be permitted dangerous services, as they
why it’s planning to allow the whenever it is reached, with might risk their jobs or see a
company any role at all in the disaffected making their trust put into special measures.
Britain’s 5G network. Is it names public (in the past, This means that as long as
because Brexit Britain will be letters have been forged). some service can be delivered –
in desperate need of any That will ensure that a regardless of the quality of
investment? If this were a disastrous leader cannot that service – then the problem
Labour government, the right- cling on for months without will continue.
wing media would be telling significant support. As Dr P.L. Riley (retd),
us that Jeremy Corbyn was in Churchill said, leaders who Stourbridge, West Midlands
the pay of China. But Theresa fail must be poleaxed.
May? Surely not. Lord Lexden,
Jeffrey Henderson, professor Conservative Party
emeritus of international historian
development, University
of Bristol Consuming desires
To The Independent
Getting rid of May The challenge of matching
To The Times the need for action on
The Conservative Party is in climate change to the
greater turmoil today than ever lifestyle urges of the
before in its long history. cash-affluent was amply
Theresa May has completely demonstrated in the
lost its confidence, both in and pages of today’s Daily
outside Parliament. The 1922 Edition app. “Let me go and get my manager
and see if she cares”
Committee, which determines The Letters page
how Tory leaders are elected, covered support for © DREW PANCKERI/NEW YORKER/CARTOON BANK
4 May 2019 THE WEEK
 ARTS
Review of reviews: Books
Book of the week
Appeasing Hitler
by Tim Bouverie
Bodley Head 512pp £20
The Week Bookshop £15.99
In November 1937, Viscount Halifax
(who became British foreign secretary
the following year) met Adolf Hitler in
the Bavarian Alps. “Unless I am wholly
deceived,” he wrote to prime minister
Neville Chamberlain, “Hitler was
sincere when he said he did not want Chamberlain and Hitler at Munich in 1938
war.” Needless to say, Halifax was
“wholly deceived”, said Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer. Yet
as Tim Bouverie shows in this “gripping” study of appeasement –
the belief that war could be prevented by granting concessions
to the Nazis – he was far from alone in misjudging the Führer.
Throughout the 1930s, right up until Hitler’s invasion of Poland
in September 1939, most British people were staunchly anti-war,
and supported the government’s strategy of peace at any price.
When Chamberlain returned from the Munich peace talks of
1938 – now seen as a nadir for British diplomacy – he was
“widely proclaimed a masterful statesman”. This is a complex
story with “many moving parts and personalities”, but Bouverie
“rises superbly” to the challenge of telling it.
The desire to avoid armed conflict with Germany was to
31
some extent understandable, said
Nigel Jones in The Spectator. The
Great War had instilled an attitude
of “never again”. Many in Britain felt
Germany had been harshly treated at
Versailles. And many were terrified
about the destructive potential of
aerial bombing. Yet “disturbingly”,
as Bouverie shows, there was also
“widespread” admiration for Nazi
“achievements”, and this was by no
means confined to the political Right.
The former Liberal leader David Lloyd
George called the Führer “the Greatest
German of the age”, while Labour
politician Tony Crosland praised him
for bringing “socialism” to Germany.
Recently, some historians have attempted to rehabilitate
Chamberlain, portraying him as a “super-pragmatist” whose
actions, at the very least, were “a tool to gain time for Britain
to re-arm”, said David Aaronovitch in The Times. Bouverie has
no truck with such revisionism. He paints Chamberlain as a
dangerous mix of prickliness and arrogance, and convincingly
shows that at every step of the way, appeasement “strengthened
Nazi Germany and the Axis far more than it helped Britain or its
allies”. Appeasing Hitler is a work of history of a “particularly
British kind”, said Susan Pedersen in The Guardian: pacy,
personality-driven and “ever so slightly moralistic”. It may
be rather insular in its focus, but it succeeds in narrating an
“anything-but-untold” story in an “interesting, readable way”.

White
by Bret Easton Ellis
Picador 261pp £16.99
The Week Bookshop £13.99
Having once been “brattishly in touch with his
own epoch”, Bret Easton Ellis (b.1964) has
morphed into a grumpy old man, said David
Sexton in the London Evening Standard. In these
“freewheeling” essays, the author of American
Psycho takes aim at “Generation Wuss” (aka
millennials), lambasting them for everything from
their cry-baby tendencies to their intolerance of
opposing points of view. A central theme is
“disdain” for digital culture, which Ellis (pictured) attacks on multiple fronts
(despite himself being a prolific tweeter): for polarising opinion into ever-
hardening tribes; for diminishing sex by making it too available; and for forcing
everyone to have identical reactions to art, or risk being “tagged a racist or
misogynist”. While these pieces can be entertaining – Ellis remains an “eloquent
and contrary” writer – there is something unedifying about the spectacle of a
former enfant terrible “overcome with nostalgia for his own youth”.
It’s easy to see Ellis as a much-reduced figure who hasn’t written a good novel
in years, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times. But the “real shocker” about
these essays is that they’re actually pretty “good” – especially those in which
Ellis recalls his youth as a latchkey kid in 1970s California, living in a world
without “parental filters or, for that matter, parents”. Ellis wears his identity
as an early Gen X member with pride, describing himself as part of the “most
pessimistic and ironic generation” ever, said Anna Leszkiewicz in The Guardian.
And he wants us to believe that today’s “PC, thought-police culture” has been
responsible for “ruining the world”. But while he appears to think that this is a
daring viewpoint, the reality is that it’s “reactionary and boring”. These pieces
have “all the sound, fury and insignificance of a misguided rant posted at 3am”.
To order these titles or any other book in print, visit
theweek.co.uk/bookshop or speak to a bookseller on 020-3176 3835
Opening times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5.30pm and Sunday 10am-4pm
Novel of the week
You Will be Safe Here
by Damian Barr
Bloomsbury 352pp £16.99
The Week Bookshop £13.99
In this “polished and harrowing” first novel,
“two South African stories unfold a century
apart”, said Hephzibah Anderson in The
Observer. In 1901, during the Second Boer War,
Sarah van der Watt, a Boer farmer’s wife, is sent
with her young son to a British internment camp.
More than 100 years later, Willem Brandt, a
troubled 16-year-old, is despatched by his family
to a paramilitary training camp, on the basis that
it will toughen him up. Both strands have been
“extensively researched” (the latter is inspired by
a teenager’s 2011 death at a similar camp), but
Barr wears his learning lightly and maintains a
“subtle emotional intelligence” throughout –
especially during the brutal ending, which deals
with the effects of homophobic violence.
Although a link between the stories emerges
at the end, there’s a sense that they don’t quite
“pull together”, said Antonia Senior in The
Times. The novel’s theme – that “brutality
fathers brutality” – isn’t “strong or novel enough
to supply the missing cohesion”. Barr, however,
is a “natural storyteller”, and the individual
parts are very moving. This is a “searing debut”.

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

32 ARTS Drama
Theatre: All My Sons
The Old Vic, London SE1 (0844-871 7628). Until 8 June Running time: 2hrs 35mins ★★★★
“There’s no playwright who can show “has an intimacy” that
kick you in the moral guts quite risks inaudibility. But if this is
as hard as Arthur Miller,” said a “quiet evening, its cumulative
Sarah Crompton on What’s On power takes your breath away”.
Stage. All My Sons – Miller’s I’m afraid I never believed in
first Broadway hit, which he Joe’s alpha maleness, said
wrote in 1947 when he was Quentin Letts in The Sunday
32 and on the point of quitting Times. He is supposed to be
the theatre – is particularly a ruthless industrialist, but
“devastating”. And when the Pullman plays him as “a tame
play is “as thoughtful and figure, a shuffler with a hill-
detailed” as this superbly acted billy’s amiability”. But there was
starry production directed by nothing unconvincing about the
Jeremy Herrin, it “has an terrific performances from the
intellectual and emotional power three young British actors in
that speaks as loudly today” as the key supporting roles, said
it did in the immediate aftermath The “exceptional” Sally Field, with Colin Morgan Michael Billington in The
of the Second World War. Guardian. Colin Morgan, as
The plot has loud echoes of Ibsen, as “layer upon layer of the Kellers’ surviving son Chris, and Jenna Coleman as Ann – the
deception and self-deception are peeled away”, said Sarah daughter of the jailed business partner, whom Chris now wants
Hemming in the FT. Its central character is businessman Joe to marry – are both outstanding. And as Ann’s avenging brother,
Keller, who – as we learn as the play unfolds – was the owner of Oliver Johnstone is electrifying.
a factory that turned out a batch of faulty engine parts during the
War. This led to the death of 21 pilots and the jailing of Joe’s The week’s other opening
business partner: but Joe himself was cleared. A few years later, Ghosts Royal & Derngate, Northampton (01604-624811).
we join him “in his sunny suburban garden, as guilt and Until 11 May
recrimination catch up with him”. Bill Pullman is excellent as a Mike Poulton’s version of the Ibsen classic is “triumphantly
low-key Joe, an “alpha male who doesn’t shout about it”, said unstarchy”, and gets an “exemplary” production from Lucy
Dominic Maxwell in The Times. And Sally Field is “exceptional” Bailey. Penny Downie is on superb form as Mrs Alving, with
as his wife, Kate, who is deeply in denial about their son’s death James Wilby “suitably pig-headed” as Manders (The Observer).
in the War. At times I wanted them both to speak up a bit: this

Theatre: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Rose Theatre Kingston (020-8174 0090). Until 12 May, then touring Running time: 2hrs 35mins ★★★★
Louis de Bernières’s 1994 novel sheets conjures up by turns the
– a meandering saga of life and “swirl of a roiling sea, the white
love on a Greek island occupied light of a firing squad or the
by the Italians during the Second blood-red spillages of war”.
World War – remains “adored The sound design, too, is
by millions”, said Claire Allfree superb. Dropping bombs,
in The Daily Telegraph. Yet, gunfire and the rumbling of an
with an obstinacy “worthy of earthquake literally “shake the
Pelagia’s adored goat”, Captain ground beneath our feet. It is by
Corelli’s Mandolin has resisted turns shocking and wondrous.”
attempts to adapt it into other There’s plenty of comedy
forms. The 2001 film, starring to enjoy here, said Daniella
Nicolas Cage as the mandolin- Harrison on What’s On Stage –
strumming soldier and Penélope notably Luisa Guerreiro playing
Cruz as his beloved, was an a “wide-eyed and affectionate”
abject clunker. And the book’s goat. But overall, there’s too
narrative style – “an exuberant Alex Mugnaioni and Madison Clare in an excellent adaptation much “predictable war story”
juggling act” of viewpoints that and not enough love story. It’s
splices together farce and tragedy, fact and myth, whimsy and a shame that for much of the first half we don’t meet the captain,
satire – has no doubt discouraged stage adaptations. It is to their played with such panache by Alex Mugnaioni, said Ann Treneman
enormous credit, then, that playwright Rona Munro and director in The Times. But when we do, there is a real spark and tenderness
Melly Still have pulled off this “fleet, muscular” and very moving between him and Madison Clare (“terrific” as Pelagia). “War is
retelling, which makes light work of a weighty narrative, hell, of that we are sure, but there is a bit of heaven here too.”
“marshalling the story with balletic grace”.
Munro’s excellent adaption distils the key themes beautifully,
CD of the week
© JOHAN PERSSON; MARC BRENNER

agreed Arifa Akbar in The Guardian – and Still’s staging wows

with a barrage of “spectacle, song, movement and music”. In Peter Doherty and the Puta Madres: Peter Doherty and the
fact, from the Verdi arias sung by the Italian soldiers to the tunes Puta Madres Strap Originals/Cargo Records £10.99
This new album from the ex-Libertines and Babyshambles singer
Corelli plays on his mandolin, this is not far off from being
is not a “masterpiece”, but it does contain moments of “genius”
“Captain Corelli’s Mandolin: The Musical”. Meanwhile the clever and “magic”. Paradise is Under Your Nose, for example, is a
set (from designer Mayou Trikerioti) does much to help create a “stunning ballad: fragile and beautiful” (The Sunday Times).
spectacular sense of place: a large screen made of jagged metal
Stars reflect the overall quality of reviews and our own independent assessment (5 stars=don’t miss; 1 star=don’t bother)
Book your tickets now by calling 020-7492 9948 or visiting TheWeekTickets.co.uk
THE WEEK 4 May 2019
 Film
Avengers: Endgame
A fitting spectacle from Earth’s mightiest heroes
Avengers: Endgame is “the mother of all
superhero films”, said Matthew Bond in
The Mail on Sunday. A brilliant, moving
finale to an 11-year, 22-movie series that
has made Marvel’s comic-book
characters cool and funny as well as
awesome, it took $1.2bn on its first
weekend. And it looks set to overtake
Avatar as the highest-grossing film of all
time. The opening, however, is bravely
downbeat. The evil, all-powerful
Thanos, superbly played by Josh Brolin,
has carried out his threat to wipe out
50% of living creatures in the universe – A huge sugar rush of excitement
superheroes included. And the surviving
Avengers are in a state of shock: Iron Man (Robert Downey Jnr)
has retreated into family life; Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is a
“boozy, paunchy” video-game addict. But then Ant-Man (Paul
Rudd) arrives from the Quantum Realm with new insights into
the secrets of time travel. It’s the chance our heroes need to turn
back the clock, refight battles, rekindle lost loves and set things
aright. “Amiable and reliably funny”, Rudd also ensures that
in this film of “huge” emotional range, the comedy quotient
remains high. At just over three hours, it’s a marathon – but
I didn’t begrudge a single minute.
There’s a huge sugar rush of excitement to this mighty finale,
said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. It’s often preposterous,
Eighth Grade
Extraordinary tale of an ordinary girl
The first film from US comedian Bo
Burnham is so simple and affecting it makes
other movies seem “hoarse with exertion”,
said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times. It
follows the last week at a New York state
middle school for 13-year-old Kayla (Elsie
Fisher), a socially maladroit girl who tries
to compensate for her awkwardness by
creating a YouTube vlog in which she
projects a happy, confident personality. It’s
one of those films in which nothing much
occurs, yet every scene seems freighted with significance.
Burnham has an uncanny ear for the adolescent faux pas, said
Shone, and his writing has a “sweet ache somewhere between
the touching and the cringeworthy”. And his film “completely
dismantles you”, said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent.
Ash Is Purest White
Gripping parable about the state of the Chinese nation
© 2018 XSTREAM PICTURES (BEIJING)/MK PRODUCTIONS/ARTE FRANCE CINÉMA
Spanning two decades and embracing
murder, ballroom dancing and UFO
sightings, this Chinese crime saga from
the director of Mountains May Depart is
a “sprawling portrait” of a nation in flux,
said Kevin Maher in The Times. At its
heart is a “mesmerising” performance by
Zhao Tao as Qiao, a gangster’s moll in a
provincial mining town, who is sentenced
to five years in prison for grabbing a gun
to defend her boyfriend Bin (Liao Fan)
against his villainous rivals. But the boyfriend deserts her in her
hour of need, and on her release she sets out on a 12-year journey
to track him down. It’s not just a personal journey: Jia Zhangke’s
film is also a melancholic rumination on what China has lost on
ARTS 33
★★★★
Dirs: Anthony and Joe Russo 3hrs 1min (12A)
but the sheer enjoyment that it delivers,
“the pure exotic spectacle”, is irresis-
tible. So too is its mixture of the mythic
and the grounded, the serious and the
comic. As entertainment, the Avengers
have proved “unconquerable”.
Endgame certainly offers an abundance
of “mind-bending” scenes, said Geoffrey
Macnab in The Independent, but it
undoubtedly has its flaws: it bends over
backwards to include every figure in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe; and the
final-reel battle feels a little perfunctory,
despite being on “the biggest scale
imaginable”. But it’s dazzling
nevertheless, and ends with a “huge emotional kick”.
Using time travel to resolve the plot is far from ideal, said Peter
Debruge in Variety, and there are so many nods to relationships
forged in the earlier films that you need to re-watch half of them
if you’re going to appreciate all the pay-offs. On the other hand,
this does allow Endgame to deliver the maximum number of
“surprising twists, amusing confrontations and bromance-y
bonding moments” between mismatched partners. All of which
is essential to the film’s message. With its celebration of family,
comradeship and sacrifice, the final takeaway from this decade-
long journey is that heroism isn’t defined by bravery or super-
abilities, “but by what one gives up for the greater good”.
★★★★
Dir: Bo Burnham 1hr 34mins (15)
This simple story about the most ordinary
of teenage girls speaks with the emotions
of “a true cinematic epic”. In a beautifully
nuanced performance, Fisher
communicates so much through body
language her emotions never need to
be expressed in words. She conveys the
disparity between Kalya’s chirpy screen
self and the unhappy reality with pathos,
sympathy and humour. Eighth Grade
manages to be both deeply sweet in
unexpected places and howlingly funny, said Danny Leigh in
the FT. But its theme is a serious and timely one: the “constant
simmer” of anxiety that social media creates for a 21st century
adolescent. Kayla’s story is no more than a string of vignettes,
yet the result is a triumph.
★★★★
Dir: Jia Zhangke 2hrs 16mins (15)
the path to modernisation. The last stretch
is too long, and there are “intellectually
ponderous moments”, said Maggie Lee
in Variety. But this “winding tale of love,
disillusionment and survival” is saved by
the brilliant way in which the director
explores the most vulnerable feelings of
his tragic protagonists.
This is both a gripping parable about
the vanity of human aspirations and an
impassioned exploration of national
malaise, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. It’s the “rangiest,
most bittersweet” story of a life that Jia has yet produced, said
Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph, and confirms him as China’s
boldest contemporary director.
4 May 2019 THE WEEK
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 Art ARTS 35
Exhibition of the week Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition
Design Museum, London W8 (020-3862 5900, designmuseum.org). Until 15 September
Think of the “most “terrifying” carpet
powerful moments in from The Shining, a
cinema history” and continuity memoran-
you will inevitably dum from Spartacus
alight on the films of that “casually calls”
Stanley Kubrick, said for a cast of 3,600
Jonathan Morrison in Romans and 2,000
The Times. From Peter slaves, and Kubrick’s
Sellers’ Dr Strangelove “sole Oscar statuette”,
rising from his received when 2001:
wheelchair to the A Space Odyssey won
terrifying combat the award for best
in Full Metal Jacket, visual effects.
Kubrick’s career is Nevertheless, “the
packed with pervading impression
unforgettable imagery is still of an auction
– and we Brits have house preview of a
particular claim to it. mammoth disposal
Although born and sale of Kubrickiana”,
raised in New York, and there’s “something
Kubrick (1928-1999) Kubrick’s sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey fundamentally
settled in England in disconcerting” about
1961 and, owing to his fear of flying, very rarely left. It’s strange, seeing “the smoke-and-mirrors magic of cinema” reduced to an
therefore, that it is only now that a major museum exhibition “array of static objects”. Overall, it’s a disappointment.
celebrating his work has been staged in this country. The wait,
however, has been more than worth it. This thrilling retrospective Still, it gives extraordinary insight into Kubrick’s “obsessive
is “a feast for anyone remotely interested in the movies”, guiding attention to detail”, said Oliver Wainwright in The Guardian. To
us through Kubrick’s films and shedding valuable light on his prepare for an unrealised film about Napoleon, he “produced an
craft. The show contains hundreds of fascinating exhibits, index card for every day of the French emperor’s life, with notes
including the special camera used to film Barry Lyndon by about his activities, even down to menu choices”; the interiors of
candlelight, Tom Cruise’s masks in Eyes Wide Shut and the the B-52 in Dr Strangelove were so accurately rendered that the
“erotic furniture” from the Korova Milk Bar in A Clockwork US military suspected him of spying. Elsewhere, a particular
Orange. It’s a fitting tribute to “one of the greatest directors ever “thrill” is the section devoted to 2001, featuring original artwork,
to work in this country”. model spaceships, costumes and “props galore”, and revealing the
ingenious ways in which Kubrick made his sci-fi masterpiece as
There are some marvellous things on show, said Catherine Slessor believable as possible. Ultimately, this show provides a compelling
in The Observer. In the course of the exhibition, we see the window into a “meticulous, and often disturbing, mind”.

Where to buy… Van Gogh’s tragic muse

The Week reviews an Vincent van Gogh
exhibition in a private gallery famously died at an
early age from a self-
Denzil Forrester inflicted gunshot wound,
said Sarah Cascone on
at Stephen Friedman Gallery Artnet News. Less well
known is that 14 years
later, his muse and the
It wasn’t easy being young and black in only woman he ever
1980s London. A toxic combination of really loved, also killed
heavy-handed policing, poverty and herself – and the details
are revealed for the first
© WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.; DENZIL FORRESTER. COURTESY THE ARTIST AND

institutional racism created an

environment in which the descendants
of the Windrush generation faced
appalling prejudice and few prospects.
But it was also an environment that
gave rise to first-rate music and poetry,
cult cinema and some terrific visual art.
In this survey exhibition, the Grenada-
born artist Denzil Forrester (b.1956)
vividly recreates the atmosphere of the
STEPHEN FRIEDMAN GALLERY, LONDON
After Carnival Dub (1990)
verve of 1980s street art, depicting
scenes of uninhibited revelry that also
time in Living with
Vincent van Gogh, a new book by Martin Bailey,
co-curator of the Tate’s current Van Gogh show.
Sien Hoornik was a prostitute and single parent
when she met the artist and became the model
for several of his early works (see picture).
Before long she’d moved into his flat in The
Hague, where she gave birth to a son. (It wasn’t
Van Gogh’s child but she gave him his middle
name: Willem.) They had planned to get
married, but split 18 months later – though not

period, evoking the heady fug of the
dub sound systems, underground clubs,
and the constant threat of unwarranted
arrest in a series of paintings that make
extensive use of odd perspectives and
bright colours. The compositions meld
the dynamism of cubism or Italian
futurism with the explosive, anarchic
contain hints of darkness; the
policemen in the periphery of many of
these images cast a shadow of paranoia
over the riotous scenes depicted. Prices
from £125,000.
25-28 Old Burlington Street, London
W1 (020-7494 1434). Until 25 May.
before Hoornik had told Van Gogh that she’d
become a “whore” out of laziness and that it
was “bound to end up with me jumping in the
water”. It did. Having tracked down her death
certificate in the Rotterdam municipal archive,
Bailey discovered that she drowned after
throwing herself into a Rotterdam canal in 1904.

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

 N
EW
Introducing our brand new website full of unique trips around the world.
Inspire your next adventure with our selection of tours designed exclusively for readers of The Week.

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 The List 37
Best books… Tim Waterstone Television
Tim Waterstone, founder of the eponymous bookshop chain, picks his Programmes
six favourite books. His memoir, The Face Pressed Against a Window, D-Day: The King Who
was recently published by Atlantic Books at £17.99 Fooled Hitler Documentary
which reveals, for the first
Behind the Scenes at the Sublime and sweet melancholy (1961), form Waugh’s Sword time, King George VI’s pivotal
role in a ruse to divert German
Museum by Kate Atkinson, suffuses the story. Beautiful. of Honour trilogy, his witty, attention away from the
1995 (Black Swan £8.99). exquisitely written look at the Normandy landings. Sun
Kate Atkinson’s first novel, War and Peace by Leo Second World War. 5 May, C4 20:00 (60mins).
covering the experiences of Tolstoy, 1869 (Penguin £9.99).
Ruby Lennox, a working-class The novel, placed around the Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Sex on Trial Three-part
girl from York, was immed- Napoleonic invasion of Russia Angus Wilson, 1956 (Faber documentary exploring sexual
iately highly regarded and in 1812, is perhaps of daunting £15). Wilson was a satirical assault cases on US college
launched a career that I think length, but read it once and writer of the very highest class, campuses, and the difficulties
will rank her as one of our best throughout your life you will and this is perhaps his best faced in prosecuting them.
Mon 6 May, C4 22:00 (60mins).
novelists of recent years. She return to it. Pierre Bezukhov novel. There’s a wonderful
is so smart and so funny and – the illegitimate son of a dying Dickensian sweep in his Brexit: Behind Closed
plots her novels with such a and wealthy count – is the sharply drawn characters. Doors Two-part film looking
deft skill and touch. character that holds the vast at Brexit from the other side.
canvas together, and is The End of the Affair by For two years, Lode Desmet
The Leopard by Giuseppe superbly drawn. Graham Greene, 1951 (Vintage has followed Guy Verhofstadt,
Tomasi di Lampedusa, 1958 £8.99). Moving and intense, the EU’s Brexit coordinator,
(Vintage £9.99). Lampedusa’s Men at Arms by Evelyn and perhaps Greene’s most and filmed negotiators as they
only novel was published Waugh, 1952 (Penguin £9.99). famous book. A forensic and worked out how to deal with
the Brits. Wed 8 and Thur
posthumously. Set in the This novel, along with its probably autobiographical 9 May, BBC4 21:00 (60mins).
1860s, it follows the moral follow-ups, Officers and account of love, and the
and material decline of a Gentlemen (1955) and failure of love, and indeed the Secrets of the Multi-Level
family of Sicilian aristocrats. Unconditional Surrender underside of love – hatred. Millionaires Multi-level
Titles in print are available from The Week Bookshop on 020-3176 3835. For out-of-print books visit biblio.co.uk marketing – direct selling,
usually via social media – is
big business in the UK. But
The Week’s guide to what’s worth seeing and reading are the opportunities for self-
enrichment MLM companies
Showing now offer real, or are they just
Come From Away at Phoenix Theatre, London pyramid schemes? Ellie Flynn
WC2 (comefromawaylondon.co.uk). This signed up as a seller for two
“brilliant” musical, based on true events, is set MLM firms, both selling
in a small town in Newfoundland in the days beauty products, in order
to investigate. Wed 8 May,
after the 9/11 attacks, when 38 planes were
BBC1 22:35 (60mins).
grounded and 7,000 passengers were stranded
there (Times). Ends 14 September.
Films
Maps to the Stars (2014)
Henry Moore at Houghton at Houghton Hall, David Cronenberg’s darkly
Norfolk (houghtonhall.com). The first signif- funny tale of Hollywood
icant exhibition of Moore’s work in East Anglia. dysfunction. Sun 5 May,
Several monumental pieces are on show in BBC2 23:00 (105mins).
Houghton’s spectacular grounds, and smaller Henry Moore at Houghton
works are on display inside. Ends 29 September. The Survivalist (2015)
12 UK cities until 6 May. The works will then Mysterious post-apocalyptic
Book now be incorporated into larger shows, first at the thriller. Wed 8 May, Film4
22:50 (130mins).
A new festival, Porthilly Spirit is a celebration Queen’s Gallery, London SW1, from 24 May-
of food, music and outdoor life. Tom Odell and 13 October, and then in Edinburgh (rct.uk). Personal Shopper (2016)
Gilles Peterson are headlining. Activities include Kristen Stewart stars in this
surfing and dolphin watching. 24-26 May, Just out in paperback terrifying ghost mystery about
Trefresa Farm, Cornwall (porthillyspirit.com). Where Shall We Run To? by Alan Garner a fashionista haunted by her
(4th Estate £8.99). Garner, “widely acclaimed as dead twin. Fri 10 May, BBC2
To mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo one of Britain’s greatest writers”, has produced a 23:05 (100mins).
da Vinci’s death, some of his greatest drawings “hauntingly beautiful memoir” of his childhood
from the Royal Collection are being exhibited in in Cheshire in the 1930s and 1940s (Guardian).
Podcasts of the week
Against the Rules
The Archers: what happened last week Moneyball author Michael
The Lower Loxley Easter event draws a big crowd. Tom and Natasha are there and being super-nice Lewis takes an in-depth look at
to each other. Russ is stung while dressed as the Easter bunny so Kenton asks Tom to fill in. Natasha fairness. Each episode tackles
tells Emma she finds Ambridge a bit intimidating. Talking to Shula, Kenton scoffs at Russ’s idea for a areas where regulators are
Brexart exhibition – his first as curator of the gallery. Tom’s unhappy Natasha’s going for lunch with under attack, from banks to
Trev, her ex. She makes it clear she won’t be told who she can see. Alan persuades Shula to return referees at sports games.
to church. Natasha and Emma chat. Emma says she’s lucky with Ed; they think the same way about
most things. Natasha’s surprised to learn that Susan hears some of what’s going on in the flat. Tony Out to Lunch With Jay
Rayner The food critic dines
© ROBIN GILLANDERS

lets slip to Natasha about a honeymoon Tom’s booked. Tom makes dinner for Natasha and buys her
lilies. Natasha’s late and admits she doesn’t like lilies, so Tom bins them. She’s horrified to learn with celebrities, including
he’s booked their honeymoon at a lodge in Borsetshire. She’s not going. Trev was right – Ambridge Richard E. Grant and Stanley
would stifle her. She makes to leave; Tom begs her not to. Natasha goes, saying she needs space. Tucci to chat about their lives.

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

Fairy-tale homes

▲
▲
on the market

▲
▲

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What the experts recommend
The Fishmarket 23A Pier Place,
Newhaven, Edinburgh (0131-552 8262)
Ondine, a superb fish restaurant near
the top of the Royal Mile, is my favourite
place to eat in Edinburgh, says Jay Rayner
in The Observer. I love its perfect tempura
squid; its “heaving hot shellfish platter”;
its scallops with garlic butter and bacon
jam. So I was excited to learn that its
chef, Roy Brett, was opening this
harbourside sister restaurant (and
takeaway) in Newhaven. However, my
trip to The Fishmarket was both “hugely
enjoyable and utterly baffling”. The
seafood cookery remains of the first order.
There’s terrific tempura squid, familiar
from Ondine (but £10 instead of £14).
There are excellent crab claws, “thumping
great” langoustines and a hearty smoked
haddock chowder. There are fishcakes,
mussels and a terrific thick wedge of
snowfield-white halibut on nutty purple
potatoes with broccoli and pesto. The
“baffling” bit is that a plate of simple fish
and chips was “merely OK”. The fish was
“fine, but here fine isn’t good enough”.
And the chips were fully subpar – “pale
and uninteresting”. Very odd. Great puds,
though. Mains from £7.
The Royal Oak 2 Upper Farm Barn,
Whatcote, Warwickshire (01295-688100)
Gastropubs can fill us critics with profes-
sional despair, says Tom Parker Bowles in
The Mail on Sunday. There’s only so much
LEISURE
Food & Drink
Yopo: perfect food, “psychoactive” setting
you can say about yet another perfectly
pleasant lamb shank, pork belly or salt
and pepper squid. Happily, The Royal
Oak at Whatcote is “a cut above”. The
dining room is on the starker side of
modern: whitewashed walls, bare beams
and milk-coloured chairs. But while the
decor is the epitome of cool, chef Richard
Craven’s cooking “dazzles and delights”.
A starter of smoked eel with dill and new
potatoes combines “Nordic purity with
a very English charm”. Crisp Cotswold
legbar egg “oozes over hogget with serious
bleat”, the flavours “big and bold”. Pig’s
head and black pudding lasagna is an
“elegant, beautifully thought-out dish”
41
that comes with toasted hazelnut for
much-needed crunch. And pollock, so
often a dull fish, works splendidly with
bottarga-sprinkled monk’s beard and
the most gentle of curried dressings. The
flavours “whisper, sing and holler.
Balance is all.” About £40 a head.
Yopo The Mandrake, 20-21 Newman
Street, London W1 (020-3146 8880)
Yopo is named after a plant found in the
jungles of South America that is known
for its hallucinogenic properties, says
William Sitwell in The Daily Telegraph.
And The Mandrake hotel in Fitzrovia,
where you will find this outstanding
Europe-meets-South America fusion
restaurant, has something of the “psycho-
active entheogen” about its design. Nip to
the loos and you’ll find yourself navigating
an Indiana Jones-type maze of dark pas-
sages, stone walls and hanging vines. But
even if it’s a “jungle out there”, Yopo will
“take you by the hand and lead you on a
path of enlightened discovery”. Oysters
with champagne granita offer a “sweet
and heavenly zing”. Sourdough pieces
with anchovies, pecorino and harissa are
achingly beautiful and “naughtily more-
ish”. Crisp-skinned duck with soft quince
chutney and braised endives is “perfect”.
And gently grilled octopus with avocado,
lime, and two relishes – of Peruvian
peppers and tomatillo – is stupendous.
Dinner for two, £114 plus drinks.

Recipe of the week English wines

English wine is on a roll, says
If I were to recommend one simple healing food for all-round well-being, says Susy Atkins in The Daily Telegraph,
Tanita de Ruijt, this soup tonic would be it. It’s packed with nutrients, and can but lots of us aren’t sure where to
be used as a delicious base for stews, sauces and curries start. I was recently a judge at
the 2019 Independent English
Cure-all chicken broth Wine Awards; here are three
winners I’d strongly recommend.
Makes 1.5 litres 750g raw chicken (drumsticks and wings), bashed 3 litres of water
Wiston Estate Brut NV, West
10cm x 10cm dried kombu sheet 3 tbsps apple cider vinegar 6 dried shiitake
Sussex (£26.50; wistonestate.
mushrooms 2cm piece of fresh ginger root, smashed 2cm piece of fresh turmeric,
com). This scooped the IEWA
smashed 1 red onion, quartered (with skins) 1 garlic bulb, smashed and peeled
trophy for best sparkling wine. It’s a fresh fizz
1 red chilli, roughly chopped (with seeds) 1 carrot, chopped 2 spring onions,
with green apples and citrus that’s lively, but
washed and chopped 1 celery stick, chopped 1 tbsp whole black peppercorns
with an underlying yeasty richness.

• Put the chicken in a heat to low and add the Stopham Estate Pinot Gris 2017, West
saucepan with enough rest of the ingredients. Sussex (£16; stophamvineyard.co.uk). This
hot water to cover it, Leave to infuse for at rare English pinot gris was the trophy winner
bring to the boil and least an hour. in the IEWA still wines section. It’s ripe and
blanch for 5 minutes, • After 3 hours, the soft, with fairly rich apple and pear flavours.
then drain and rinse. broth should have It would be delicious with cold chicken or
• Put the blanched meat reduced by half. Strain fresh salmon steak.
and the water in a large the broth and enjoy it
saucepan or stockpot on its own or to use as Langham Rosé English Sparkling
and bring to a simmer a base for other recipes. Wine NV, Dorset (£28; langhamwine.co.uk).
© GREGORIO SOAVE; PATRICIA NIVEN

over a medium heat. The broth will keep for I adore this sparkling pink, a gold medal
Cover and simmer for up 2 days in the fridge. winner. It is dry with subtle hints of
to 2 hours, skimming off any foam Alternatively, freeze it in portions strawberry and cranberry with a dab of
that appears. After 2 hours, turn the to use another time. cream, and masses of teeny-tiny, satin-like
bubbles. Match it with seafood.
Taken from Super Roots by Tanita de Ruijt, published by Hardie Grant
at £16.99. To buy from The Week Bookshop for £13.99, call 020-3176 3835
or visit theweek.co.uk/bookshop. For our latest offers, visit theweekwines.com

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

 Consumer LEISURE 43

New cars: what the critics say

Autocar
On the face of it, there’s
nothing wrong with the
new Sport version of the
HR-V. The car’s perform-
ance has been given a
significant boost; the
179bhp 1.5-litre turbo-
charged petrol engine
makes it Honda’s fastest
Honda HR-V Sport SUV. It remains a practical,
from £27,595 comfortable car. But in
this price bracket – it costs
far more than most of its
rivals, and thousands more
than the basic HR-V – it’s
simply “out
The Daily Telegraph
The Sport adds a few
subtle changes to the
exterior. Inside, though,
the car has “come over
all boudoir” – there’s red
leather everywhere. It all
feels very “racy”, but out
of place in a small SUV.
Its infotainment system
remains “impenetrable
and slow-witted”.
On the plus side, it’s
extremely spacious, with
a decent 470-litre boot,
and Honda’s trademark
folding seats.
Auto Express
The big news with the
HR-V Sport is the engine,
and “you’d rarely want
more power in a car of this
shape or size”. It’s “lively”
to drive, and body control
is great thanks to new
“performance damper”
tech, but the trade-off for
that is a firm ride. Since
cars like this are mostly
used around town – where
power-train benefits are
“impossible to exploit” –
it’s hard to imagine who
this car is meant for.

The best… Bluetooth speakers

Ruaark MR1 MkII As

▲

w a
well as connecting to
our Bluetooth devices, B
Bow
hese stylish speakers ▲
((which are wired Z ppe n re ess ormer y one o e mos
Ze
ogether) have digital a poppullar iPod docks, the Zeppelin has now been
analogue inputs, so co
a upddatted for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Complete with
ake an upgrade for a a 6in
in subwoofer, this is a powerful home hi-fi
C or TV audio system replaccement (£499; bowerswilkins.com).
((£329; johnlewis.com).
▲
Tivoli Andiamo The goal with the Andiamo
JBL Charge 4 was to get the absolute best sound quality into
▲

SOURCES: T3/THE INDEPENDENT/WHICH?

The portable ▲ ltimate ars th 13.5cm wide, the
Charge 4 can BOOOM 3 Portable t since it’s not
be used to but tough, UE’s ter-resistant it’s
charge your lattest
estt BOOM 3 iis ot as practical
smartphone or fully waterproof s some of its
other USB d can withstand ivals (£189;
devices. It is a few knocks. The ivoliaudio.co.uk).
fully waterprooff 360 0-degree sound is
and can connectt to two Bluetooth werful with plenty
devices (£160; amazon.co.uk).
a tail (£100; johnlewi

Tips of the week… how
to use your phone less
● Get an alarm clock. Using your phone as
an alarm makes it the last thing you see at
night and the first when you wake up, so
you’re much more likely to have a ”quick”
scroll through social media.
● Do a “deep dive” into your notification
settings. Even when you put your phone
down, it often buzzes so you pick it back up.
Try turning off notifications that aren’t from
people, so that you’re alerted to messages,
but not to “15 people liked your photo”.
● The latest versions of both Android
and iOS allow you to track your screen
habits. Do that, and then delete apps you
overuse, or try to limit your time on them.
● Switch your phone to greyscale. This
neuters carefully designed prompts (such
as red notification bubbles). It also ensures
that real life is the more vivid option.
● Before you pick up your phone, ask
yourself: “Why am I doing this?” When the
answer is: “I’m bored during this seven-
second lift journey”, you may reconsider.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
And for those who
have everything…
Jeremy May makes you a piece of jewellery
inspired by, and out of, your favourite
book – a Kafka bracelet, for instance, or a
Lord of the Rings ring. He reads the entire
book for inspiration, then creates the
jewellery by cutting and layering its pages.
from £600; littlefly.co.uk
SOURCE: FINANCIAL TIMES
Where to find… adults-
only
y hotels in Eu
urope
Sitting on the marina on the Croatian island
of Brac, Hotel Osam has an outdoor pool
and rooftop bar overlooking the boats
(doubles from s63; hotel-osam.com).
The four-star enclave of Leonardo Plaza
Cypria Maris Beach in Paphos, Cyprus, is
fittingly serene, given it’s where Aphrodite
allegedly emerged from the Mediterranean
(doubles from £168; leonardo-hotels.com).
Away from the crowds on Rhodes, the
five-star Lindos Blu offers rooms with
Jacuzzis and sweeping views of the
Aegean (doubles from £190; lindosblu.gr).
With just four suites, Keromoussi lies on
the Greek island of Meganissi, next to
tiny Skorpios – formerly home to Aristotle
Onassis and Jackie Kennedy (a week from
£1,511 per person; simpsontravel.com).
Fully refurbished in 2018, the four-star
Guayarmina Princess on the westerly
Costa Adeje, Tenerife, is designed to look
like an ancient Greek palace (doubles from
s116; princess-hotels.com).
SOURCE: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

 Travel 45

Extraordinary adventures on foot

The Incas’ Royal Road and bird-stocked wetlands”, as well
On Peru’s Inca Trail, you could as hamlets such as the “ridiculously
join the one-million-plus throng to pretty” Triesenberg, where “Heidi
Machu Picchu, or you could head houses” are framed by “flawless
for an equally “astonishing” feat of views of glittery summits”.
Incan engineering that’s far less well Other highlights are the path to
known, says Hugh Thomson in The Profatscheng, a “forgotten nook
Guardian. Stone-lined, and up to ten with farm huts and frolicking deer”,
metres wide, the Royal Road of the and the stretch along the Rhine at
Incas stretches for around 3,000 Vaduz, where you’ll find the “last
miles down the length of the Andes surviving covered wooden bridge”
from Ecuador to Peru, snaking up to on the Alpine Rhine. On top of
altitudes of more than 4,000 metres. this is the fabulous, if “wincingly
SA Expeditions recently launched a expensive” food, including
“supported trek” along a fine and “deliciously gooey fondue” – ideal
mountainous stretch of this “most to restock all the calories burnt.
impressive and ancient of roads”, Liechtenstein’s “ridiculously pretty” Triesenberg hamlet The Liechtenstein Trail app will
with llamas to carry supplies. You’ll be available free from 26 May.
stop at historic sites such as Chavín de Huantar, a “fascinating
Coastal walking in glorious Galicia
complex of labyrinthine tunnels”, as well as farms where you can
Spain’s Galicia region in the far northwest feels “far removed
spend nights stargazing under “startlingly clear” skies. But the
from the rest of the country”, says Helen Ochyra in the London
road itself – crossing high passes, winding along river canyons and
Evening Standard. Its coastline is “no sun-soaked Costa lined
at one point “widening into a broad staircase that wouldn’t look
with hotels and bronzed expats”. Instead, it’s wild and rocky,
out of place in a Busby Berkeley musical” – is “the real star of the
and riven by deep inlets. For walkers, there are irresistible clifftop
show”. It ends at Huánuco Pampa, where the Incan ceremonial
paths passing tiny stone villages and overlooking bays where the
platform is the largest surviving example in Peru. This is a
golden sand has been “beaten smooth by the Atlantic”. Casa da
sensational trekking route – “it certainly deserves to become
Cabaza, a remote b&b in a converted farmhouse on the shores
a well-trodden one”. Visit saexpeditions.com.
of a lake, is a comfortable base from which to explore the region.
Mountains and villages in tiny Liechtenstein One of the most striking nearby spots is Playa de las Catedrales,
Squeezed between Switzerland and Austria, Liechtenstein is an a beach with soaring, cone-shaped rock formations reminiscent
“itsy-bitsy” country that many would “struggle to pinpoint” on of a cathedral’s nave (hence its name). For sustenance, take a
a map, says Mike MacEacheran in The Times. This year it turns short drive to Ribeira Sacra, a wine region since Roman times,
300 and is celebrating the birthday by launching the Liechtenstein where banks of vines are organised in steep, stately rows. You
Trail – a zigzagging 50-mile route taking in 150 attractions can sample the spoils at Adega Algueira winery. Be careful
and plotted on an online map “loaded with augmented-reality though: sitting here, you may be tempted to give up on the
wizardry”. Passing through mountains that rise to nearly 2,000 day’s walking, and instead while away the afternoon “getting
metres above sea level, it takes in vineyards, “mulberry forests gently sozzled”. Visit casacabaza.com.

On the trail of The Beatles in India Hotel of the week

Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Deplar Farm
Himalayas, has been “drawing alternative Iceland
visitors for half a century”, says Tim This former
Moore in the Financial Times. They 18th century
come seeking spiritual enlightenment – sheep farm lies
just over an
to meditate and cleanse their souls on the
hour’s drive
banks of the sacred Ganges, “and then from Akureyri
maybe go white-water rafting down it”. on northern
In 1968, four young Liverpudlians, Iceland’s
frazzled by their global fame, also fled to mountainous
this town in Uttarakhand. As a result, it Troll Peninsula. It’s luxurious, but not
is now also a “magnet for Beatles pilgrims of a certain age” – myself included. “ostentatious”, says Alice Howarth in the
London Evening Standard: it leans towards
Upstream from Rishikesh town, the Ganges is lined with ashrams, temples and a rustic, “impeccably curated cosiness”.
There’s art on the walls and a well-stocked,
garish pyramid domes; there are “creaky” footbridges and “steepling flanks of
firelit library. The muted colour scheme and
greenery”. Away from the great river, the town’s “chaotic streets” are a parade mid-century furniture throughout blend with
of “endlessly entertaining characters”: sadhus in orange robes, garlanded yogis, “sumptuous textiles” to create a place that
and “beatific old Europeans who came to find themselves and never left”. The “feels lived-in and well-loved with no formal-
Beatles’ ashram was abandoned in 1981 when the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ities”. The 13 suites are all different, with
lease ran out, and it now lies in ruins: there is no glass in the windows, and queen- and king-sized beds, “impressive”
weeds grow between crumbling buildings that nature is reclaiming. Most of the bathrooms and balconies to “take in epic
compound post-dates The Beatles’ stay in any case, which only adds to the sense views”. No corners have been cut in the spa,
of disappointment. However, I persevere up “leaf-buried paths” and, venturing a which has indoor and outdoor geothermal
pools, a swim-up bar, a “Viking” sauna and
little deeper, find the bungalow where people “gathered to listen to the squeaky-
flotation pods. Guides are on hand to arrange
voiced little guru”, and the spot where the Fab Four posed for that “fabled different ways of experiencing this remarkable
flower-necklaced group photo”. And then I see it: the band’s own bungalow landscape, from pony riding to snowmobiling
where John and Paul were pictured “side by side on those steps out front, and ice fishing. Doubles from about £1,800.
strumming happily on guitars” (above). All is not lost. 020-8102 9800, elevenexperience.com.

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

 46 Obituaries
Versatile actor who played Joe Grundy Drummer and
Edward spoken man and Joe’s broad nearly Beatle
Edward Kelsey Kelsey, Borsetshire burr was entirely
1930-2019 who has assumed. He was born Johnny
Johnny
died aged in Hampshire in 1930, the Hutchinson
Hutchinson
88, was known to millions of son of a bookkeeper and a was a
1939-2019
Archers fans as the voice of dressmaker. As a boy, he gave Merseybeat
the “lovable but roguish” Joe theatrical performances in his drummer who could have
Grundy, said The Guardian. parents’ front room to raise been the fourth Beatle. On
A poacher, illicit brewer and money for the Red Cross, the day Pete Best was fired
malingerer cursed, whenever before joining an amateur in 1962, The Beatles’s
real work presented itself, by dramatics society in his teens. manager, Brian Epstein,
a case of “farmer’s lung”, Joe His parents encouraged him asked Hutch, as he was
was, as Kelsey put it, one of to go to medical school, but then known, to stand in on
the soap’s rude mechanicals, after National Service, he drums for a gig in Chester.
providing light relief from its dropped out and took up Afterwards, he invited him
darker themes, and a comic a place to study speech and to join the band full time.
commentary on the more drama at the Royal Academy Epstein advised Hutch that
outlandish goings-on in of Music. He left with the his own band, The Big
Ambridge. On learning, for Gold Medal in acting, and Three, was going nowhere,
instance, that Shula, who was was soon appearing in rep, whereas for The Beatles,
married to the local vet, was Kelsey: spent 34 years on The Archers and later on television, in “the world was their
having an affair with the everything from Z Cars and oyster”. But Hutch said
doctor, Joe observed, with Kelsey’s perfect The Avengers to The Vicar of Dibley. His talent he didn’t want to “do the
timing, that it was a “good job there isn’t a for voice work was made clear when he was cast dirty” on Best, who was a
dentist in the village”. But there was pathos in the children’s spy parody Danger Mouse. friend; he also thought The
among the Grundys too, said The Daily From 1981, Kelsey was both the “M” figure Beatles were “poseurs”,
Telegraph. In 2000, with their debts spiralling, Colonel K (a chinchilla), and Danger Mouse’s and disliked John Lennon.
they were evicted from Manor Farm. In a nemesis Baron Greenback, a supervillain toad Both sides of Epstein’s
devastating scene, Joe learns that no pets are with an evil “mwahaha” laugh. predictions came true. But
allowed in the council flat that will be his new half a century on, Hutch,
home, and in his desperation, he bludgeons his Kelsey joined the cast of The Archers in 1985, who has died aged 79,
ferrets to death with a hammer (chicken breasts taking over the part of Joe from his friend insisted he had no regrets.
were used to create the sound in the studio). Haydn Jones, who had died. He recorded his
last episodes a few days before his death, though Brought up in Toxteth,
Kelsey played Joe for 34 years and, wearing a he was by then living in a nursing home. He was Johnny Hutchinson started
tweed cap, he could pose as him convincingly married to his Swedish wife Birgit, an actor and his musical career in 1959,
enough for publicity photos – but he sounded dancer, from 1955 until her death last year. when he joined Cass and
nothing like the character. Kelsey was a softly Two of their three children survive him. the Cassanovas. One of
the first of Liverpool’s beat
groups, it morphed into
A giant of the science fiction genre The Big Three – an R’n’B
trio whose aggressively
Gene Wolfe, and The Wizard of Oz to Flash loud sound was powered
Gene Wolfe who has Gordon. He began writing by Hutch’s drum beat. In
1931-2019 died aged 87, stories at university, where he 1960, he played with
was often studied engineering. He dropped Lennon and McCartney’s
described as one of America’s out after a year and, after a stint Silver Beetles at the Blue
finest living writers. In a more with the US army fighting in Angel Club, standing in for
just world, he might have been Korea, went to work for Procter Tommy Moore, and deci-
awarded a Nobel Prize for & Gamble, where he developed ded they were “not worth
literature, said The Daily the machine used to cook a carrot”. By then, Hutch
Telegraph. “Instead, where Pringles crisps. was considered the best
he was known at all, he was sticksman in Liverpool; The
pigeonholed as a writer of With a young family to support, Big Three were hip, and in
‘genre fiction’: science fiction, Wolfe began selling short stories 1962 Epstein agreed to
fantasy, magical realism.” Yet in the 1960s to supplement his manage the band. Epstein
Wolfe, a man known for his income; he turned to novels in got them a deal with Decca,
good humour, claimed not Wolfe: helped invent Pringles the 1970s and was able to retire but they refused to follow
to mind, observing that were to write full time in 1984, his advice – to be less
Homer and Shakespeare writing today, they thanks to the success of his four-volume The rowdy and more melodic –
would be put in the same category. And even if Book of the New Sun. Citing Tolkien, Dickens and did not prosper. Hutch
he wasn’t as well known as he should have been, and Marks’ Standard Handbook for Mechanical soldiered on until 1966,
he had many fans among his peers, including Engineers among his influences, and never then left the business.
George R.R. Martin and Ursula K. Le Guin, who shying away from complex real world themes, He became a property
said he was so good, “he leaves me speechless”. he said he could not understand why science developer, and refused all
fiction was pejoratively labelled “escapist”. requests to talk about his
Gene Wolfe was born in New York, in 1931, Science fiction and fantasy have a serious Merseybeat past until 2015,
the son of a travelling salesman. Aged six, message, he said, “that the world doesn’t have when he attended a reunion
he contracted polio, and began reading to be the way it is... things can be different. Our at the Cavern Club.
© BBC

voraciously, anything from Edgar Allan Poe society can be changed.”

THE WEEK 4 May 2019

A different perspective.

Start gathering ideas for projects big and small

on our website, but for inspiration, nothing quite
beats a visit to one of our stores.
 CITY CITY 49
Companies in the news
...and how they were assessed
J.Sainsbury/Asda: what’s plan B?
Sainsbury’s £10bn tilt to buy Asda “was the most audacious move in the grocery sector in
years”, said Jon Yeomans in The Daily Telegraph. Had it gone through, the tie-up would
have created Britain’s largest supermarket, giving the combo 30% of the market – “just
leapfrogging Tesco’s 28%”. But it was essentially a defensive move: neither player felt big
enough to compete alone in the UK’s “cut-throat” market. And now the deal has finally
been scuppered by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), on the grounds that Seven days in the
it would “be bad for consumers and suppliers”. That’s bad enough for Asda which, for Square Mile
the moment, can count on the fat pockets of its US owner, Walmart. But it’s “a disaster”
for Sainsbury’s, whose shares have fallen to a 30-year low due to investor fears that Receding Brexit angst continued to fuel
there’s no “plan B”. The CMA was “right to be sceptical” of claims the merger would a rally in sterling, which rose to around
$1.30 against the dollar. Some analysts,
mean “a £1bn windfall for shoppers”, said Larry Elliott in The Guardian. It is “a basic
including UBS, expect the pound to hit
rule of economics” that “the smaller the number of suppliers, the greater the opportunity $1.38 over the next year, mainly because
to exploit market power”. Sainsbury’s boss, Mike Coupe, “made a catastrophic of dollar weakness. Currency speculators
misjudgement” in assuming the authorities would “wave the deal through” – and then have also turned positive on sterling: last
“compounded the error” by being filmed singing “We’re in the Money” on the day the week, the ratio of long and short positions
merger was announced. “Coupe needs to come up with a different song – and fast.” turned marginally in favour of positive
bets for the first time since June 2018.
Deutsche Bank/Commerzbank: no deal The rising oil price continued to cause
After six months of rumours, the news is in, said The Economist: Germany’s two biggest disquiet – Oxford Economics predicted
it could reach $100/barrel before 2020.
lenders, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, will not, after all, be merging. The pair said
Recession-hit Italy was said to have
the benefits of the proposed deal weren’t enough to justify the “execution risks” and returned to growth in the first quarter.
integration costs. Plenty of people had reached the conclusion that “two troubled lenders
In the US, markets continued to notch
looked unlikely to make one strong one” even before talks got under way: Commerzbank
up record highs, fuelling hopes of more
has been making “paltry returns” and Deutsche “eked out only a tiny profit in 2018, its bumper tech IPOs. Uber set a price-range
first for four years”. Indeed, arguably the deal’s main attraction – certainly as far as the of $44 to $50 per share for its forth-
German government was concerned – was that it would prevent Commerzbank being coming float, valuing the firm at $91bn
snapped up by a foreign suitor, like Italy’s UniCredit or Dutch lender ING. This “merger – well below the $120bn touted last year.
of weakquals” had few fans, said Lex in the FT. Even so, consolidation in Germany’s The battle for Anadarko Petroleum, the
“overcrowded” banking sector looks inescapable, and the collapse of “Deutschmerz” only US shale specialist, escalated following
“delays the inevitable”. The weakness of Europe’s banking system hurts the continent’s an intervention from Warren Buffett.
economies – and “alone, Deutsche faces continued decline”. Its bosses’ “failure of nerve” Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway pledged to
is “consistent with Europe’s epic foot-dragging in reviving its damaged financial system”. inject $10bn into Occidental, which is
challenging rival Chevron’s already-
British American Tobacco: vaping probe agreed deal for Anadarko with a higher
$55bn offer. Shares in FTSE 250 miner
E-cigarettes are seen by many in the City “as a major growth driver” for Big Tobacco, Ferrexpo plunged after auditor Deloitte
said Michael Bow in the London Evening Standard. Get ready for the clampdown. abruptly resigned. The music-streaming
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has begun an investigation into whether brand Spotify said it had notched up
British American Tobacco breached rules “by promoting vaping to underage teens” on 100 million users worldwide. RBS chief
social media. This is the first time the watchdog has examined the use of Instagram for Ross McEwan announced his departure,
“pushing” e-cigarettes, said the FT. The ASA is particularly concerned about the “specific fuelling speculation about his successor.
social media channels” BAT has created for its Vype vaping product, and endorsements NatWest’s Alison Rose is the likely front-
received from celebrities such as Lily Allen. “Concern over the popularity of e-cigarettes runner. If selected, she’d become the
among young people” led US authorities to warn last year of an “epidemic”. first woman to run a major UK bank.

Boeing: is it time to drop the pilot?

Weeks after its global fleet of 737 Max jets
was grounded following two fatal crashes
that killed 346 people, Boeing is still trying
to control “one of the biggest crises in its
history”, said The Guardian. The impact is
now being felt squarely on its bottom line.
Even in the best-case scenario, the
grounding will cost “more than $1bn”,
the US plane-maker admitted last week – a
“sharp reversal” from its last earnings report
in January, “when executives unveiled plans
to deliver more than 900 jetliners this year
alongside higher sales and profits”.
Grounded 737 Maxes in California
The obvious priority is to get the plane “back
in the air” with the anti-stall software problem, linked to both
crashes, fixed. Airline analyst Jim Corridore of CFRA Research
reckons that’s a question of “when” not “if”. “We remain firm in
our view that Boeing will survive this with its order book largely
intact.” But reports in The Wall Street Journal that there may be
an “additional” safety-alert software problem
have spooked some investors and customers.
Meanwhile, according to the Financial
Times, Flydubai – “one of Boeing’s largest
customers” – has now “threatened to order
aircraft from arch-rival Airbus”, even as it
seeks compensation for the grounding of
its 14 Max jets.
Boeing boss Dennis Muilenburg (who is both
CEO and chairman) has indicated he “isn’t
going anywhere”, said Natalie Kitroeff in The
New York Times. Yet investors controlling a
third of shares have voted to strip him of his
chairmanship. “Boeing can’t simply ignore
this” – any more than it can ignore concerns that it “rushed the
aircraft to market”, said Alistair Osborne in The Times. “A new
chairman won’t fix the 737 Max problem”, but given mounting
“lawsuits, compensation claims and a consumer backlash”,
Boeing badly “needs a fresh pair of eyes in the boardroom”.

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

50 CITY Commentators
“No-one can accuse the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, of playing
a game of favourites in the search for the next governor of the City profiles
The old lady Bank of England,” says Alex Brummer. In contrast to the US,
Leonie Schroder
where Donald Trump “has been trying to stuff the Federal
needs her head Reserve with supporters”, the Treasury has hired recruitment
Should a billionaire heiress
sit on the board of a £438bn
specialists to widen the search. The job has several facets, including
examined: fast keeping inflation “under control without sacrificing growth” and
fund manager because the
firm was founded by her
maintaining financial stability. But the choice this time “has been family? The question has
Alex Brummer rendered all the more important by Brexit uncertainty”. Although prompted howls from
criticised for being “too political”, the current governor, Mark “governance purists”, who
Daily Mail Carney, has succeeded in preparing the City for Brexit, shoring would like to see Leonie
up confidence and encouraging “a more open Bank”. It’s crucial Schroder stripped of the
directorship she “inherited”
that work continues. Britain may be only the world’s fifth-largest
at Schroders when her
economy, but we host one of the planet’s largest financial centres. father, Bruno, died earlier
The new governor therefore needs to speak “not just for Britain, this year, said Patrick
but for the value of free and open global markets”. An appoint- Hosking in The Times.
ment should be made as soon as possible – if only to reduce the They claim, with some
chance of a socialist like Jeremy Corbyn selecting a successor. justification, that Schroder,
44, doesn’t have the
“The sense of pessimism that hung over the world economy requisite “sectoral expertise”
early this year has begun to lift,” says The Economist. But rising – her only known job is as
The looming oil prices could yet spoil the mood. The price of Brent crude “a part-time trustee of the
Red Squirrel Survival Trust”.
shot above $74 last week owing to supply threats in Iran. Low
spectre of an inventories mean it may rise higher. Of course, “working out what
But that shouldn’t rule her
out. For one thing, she
oil shock pricier oil means for the world economy is more complex than it
used to be” because of the US shale revolution. What’s certain,
represents the wider family,
which still owns 47.9% of the
though, is that it would hit weaker spots hardest. “Europe, whose firm they founded in 1804.
Editorial economy is in worse shape than America’s, has no shale industry And as a City “outsider”
to compensate for a hit to its consumers.” And China, which she may bring valuable
The Economist imports vast quantities of oil, “was the source of much of the “perspective”. Who better to
declare when “the emperor
recent global growth scare”. Costlier oil would also exacerbate
has no clothes”?
the economic crises in Turkey, Argentina and Pakistan, and could
“reduce central bankers’ leeway to see off any downturn” if it Lisa Osofsky
forces an interest rate rise to ward off inflation. A serious oil
shock remains a possibility rather than a probability. But with the
global economy still fragile, it’s “an uncomfortable risk to run”.

Another year, another financial crisis in the residential care sector,

says Nils Pratley. The latest casualty is Four Seasons, which cares
Let’s ban the for 17,000 elderly residents. After a prolonged spell in private
equity ownership, the company has gone into administration,
shysters from overwhelmed by debt. Its fate now lies in the hands of a US
hedge fund, H/2 Capital Partners, “whose chief talent is bagging
our care homes distressed loans at knock-down prices”. Excessive debt, it’s true,
is not the only problem facing the industry: it also has to grapple
Nils Pratley with squeezed social care budgets and increases in the minimum
wage. “Yet it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that all would be
The Guardian easier to manage if the buyout brigade was off the pitch.” The When Lisa Osofsky took
collapse of Carillion a year ago prompted the Government “to charge of the Serious Fraud
Office in August, some
insist that providers of public services should have solid balance
wondered how a former US
sheets”. Why, then, should care homes be different? Would it not federal prosecutor, schooled
be prudent to ban hedge funds, financial engineers and junk bond on Chicago’s mean streets,
opportunists from owning them. At the very least, we should would adapt to the British
draw up rules “to prevent would-be debt wizards playing games system. Would she take a
in a sector that ought to be a model of balance-sheet stability”. tougher line? Not so far, said
Barney Thompson in the FT.
“The only surprise about the two-year delay to Crossrail Dredging the Office’s own
announced last week is that it took so long to be confirmed,” says internal swamp has taken
Refusing to Oliver Shah. Rumours of a delay and budget overshoot have been priority. “I came here to take
a proper ‘drains-up’ look,”
swirling for almost a year. The project’s cost has since swollen
face reality from £14.8bn to £17.6bn and, “for all Crossrail’s protestations”,
says Osofsky. “Some cases
I could tell weren’t going to
over Crossrail could well exceed even that. London’s new east-west line is an
“undeniably impressive engineering feat”, but it’s also “a classic
go anywhere” – including
long-running probes into
example of the conspiracy of optimism that often afflicts big GSK and Rolls-Royce. As she
Oliver Shah infrastructure projects”. A report by the London Assembly diplomatically puts it: SFO’s
© CARL FOX/EVENING STANDARD/EYEVINE

confirms that Transport for London, a co-sponsor of the scheme, “top-notch investigators” are
The Sunday Times painted “an unduly rosy picture” of progress for the mayor, Sadiq brilliant at gathering “every
last scrap of evidence”, but
Khan. And TfL “is still playing games” when it comes to being
they need a bit more “focus”.
frank about software and signalling problems with the new trains, Ideally, cases should come
which are the biggest barrier to the line opening. This costly saga to court with “witnesses and
looks to have further to run, and will doubtless be repeated. defendants still living, and
“Look no further than High Speed 2”, the £56bn north-south the evidence still alive”.
railway, for another project with many of “the same symptoms”.

THE WEEK 4 May 2019

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 Talking points CITY 53
Issue of the week: WeWork heads to market
Another loss-making “vision” company has filed to go public. What does it say about the state of stock markets?
Is it a property company, or a tech the company is big on “vision”. Its stated
unicorn? Who knows, said The Wall mission, says Neumann, is “to elevate
Street Journal. But the giant the world’s consciousness”. To that end,
“co-working” company WeWork has he has sought to add “more and more
become the latest in a “slew of highly services, some of which appear only
valued start-ups” to head for the public tenuously related to corporate life”. They
markets. Details of the filing haven’t include WeLive (which provides dorm-
been made public, but the surprise like apartment buildings with communal
move, confirmed in a memo to staff by areas), WeGrow (children’s education)
founder Adam Neumann, “will test the and a wave-pool company.
company’s rich valuation and heavy
spending”. Valued at $47bn by Japanese Neumann’s baby is essentially an office
tech investor SoftBank, WeWork began company out to command a tech IPO
life as a single space in Manhattan nine price. And good luck to it, said Thornton
years ago. It has since morphed into a McEnery on DealBreaker. “WeWork is
global empire of trendy shared offices so brazenly full of shit about so many
and business services – the largest Neumann: elevating the world’s consciousness things” it’s hard not to respect it. How
occupier of space in both New York and not to love a property arbitrage company
London – and “a prodigious spender”. Last year alone, WeWork that creates “nonsense accounting principles out of thin air”, and
burned through more than $2.3bn. That’s even more than Uber. makes Uber look “profitable by comparison”? The more serious
point, said Rett Wallace in the FT, is what these giant flotations
Most of the biggest “decacorns” (privately held companies with of huge loss-making companies say about the state of markets.
valuations of at least $10bn) have filed for IPOs in recent months, When Microsoft floated in 1986, its 52-page prospectus provided
among them Lyft, Pinterest and Uber, said Michael J. de la Merced more than four years of financial detail, “showing healthy profits
and Andrew Ross Sorkin in The New York Times. All are still in every year”. By contrast, Uber’s “enormous, vague” 431-page
loss-making, but WeWork, whose parent company rebranded as IPO document is full of “platitudes and gobbledegook”. It
the We Group earlier this year, stands out for its “combination of grandly claims that its “mission is to ignite opportunity by setting
high flying ambitions and unsettled financial outlook”. As well as the world in motion”. But modern IPO investors would settle for
becoming “one of the biggest corporate landlords in the world”, getting some “simple and reasonable questions answered”.

Investing in Japan: what the experts think Drip, drip, drip

● Blossoming Japan?
Japan’s stock market has
been “a slumbering giant”
since Emperor Akihito took
the Chrysanthemum Throne
in 1989, said Mark Atherton
in The Times. The Nikkei
225 index hit a high of
38,916 that December –
and hasn’t “come close to
reaching that level” since.
After falling as low as 7,054
in 2009, it rebounded above
24,000 last year, assisted by
PM Shinzo Abe’s economic A country that looks exciting Japan looks “exciting”.
reforms. Some pundits now
hope that Akihito’s abdication in favour of ● Fund picks
Crown Prince Naruhito, 59, will inject
further momentum into a market often
written off for its “false dawns”. But there
are other factors in Japan’s favour too.
● No more zombies…
Jesper Koll, of fund manager WisdomTree, stock-pickers, “especially in smaller
reports progress in investor-friendly
corporate reforms, and a shift away from
the damaging “keiretsu” structure of
interlocking business relationships that
© THE SUNDAY TIMES/NEWS SYNDICATION
Canaccord Genuity.
Alongside Germany –
another country at risk from
a shrinking population –
Japan is “a world leader in
automation and
robotisation”, which helps
boost productivity and cash
flow in its companies. Add
in the potential for further
progress on corporate
reforms, plus the enthusiasm
generated by the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics, and the case for
All the more so because, compared with
other markets, shares in “the world’s third
largest economy” still look cheap, said
Brian Dennehy of FundExpert in The
Times. Japan remains “massively under-
researched”, so there’s plenty of scope for
companies”. Fundexpert’s favoured funds
include M&G Japan Smaller Companies
(good for “services” and “basic material
sectors”) and Baillie Gifford Japanese
Britons are reportedly saving “less
than ever”, said Amelia Murray on
ThisisMoney.com. Fortunately, there’s
“a new breed of smartphone apps” to
“help you build a savings habit without
even trying”. The one caveat is that
“you should avoid leaving cash
languishing in these accounts” – they
seldom “offer the best interest rates”.
Tandem Rounds up spending to the
nearest pound when you use your
debit card, and moves the extra to a
savings account paying 0.5% interest.
A “safe to save” feature “calculates
how much extra you can afford to put
away each month”.
Monzo The app-only bank’s savings
tool, Coin Jar, works on a similar
“rounding up” principle, but you can
set “multiple pots for different goals”
– including “a penalty pot”. You could,
for instance, “agree to tax yourself £5
every time you order a takeaway”.
Chip Another app majoring on
spending analysis: every few days
Chip compares your purchases with
“your usual spending patterns”.
If you’ve spent less than expected,

helped “zombie” companies survive. Weak Smaller Companies, which majors on
demand and lower investment saw GDP
plummet last year, but a big factor fuelling
reform, he says, is “the rise of China”: it
“has focused Japanese minds like nothing
else”. Japan’s “poor demographic profile”
has also spurred innovative ways of
tackling the problem, says wealth manager
healthcare, tech, media and telecoms. The
preferred choice of Mick Gilligan of Killik
& Co is the Schroder Japan Growth
investment trust – because it’s “run by an
investment house [with] a long track-
record in Japan and a distinct value style”,
and “it outperforms long-term”.
“the difference will be stashed away”.
Non-interest paying.
Plum Also monitors daily spending,
transferring small amounts into a zero-
interest savings account around five
times a month. You can also opt to
invest the cash in stocks and shares.

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

 Shares CITY 55

Who’s tipping what

The week’s best shares Directors’ dealings
Boku Northbridge Industrial Segro Asos
The Sunday Times Services The Times
Boku’s “direct carrier” billing The Daily Telegraph Segro owns and operates
service lets users make Northbridge provides drilling warehouses used for 5,000
Director
sells 410,000
payments for goods and equipment for oil and gas firms manufacturing, storage,
services via their mobile and electrical testing rigs. Sales food preparation and parcel
phones. Shares are up 80%, are recovering and debt is deliveries. In an “extremely 4,000
but it’s in a prime position to coming down. There’s hot sector”, it has a healthy
capitalise on a growing market. “significant potential” for pipeline and yields 2.9%. Buy.
Buy. 120.5p. shares to rise to 240p. Buy. 684.5p. 3,000

157.5p.
Hill & Smith TT Electronics
The Times President Energy Investors Chronicle Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr
This galvanising specialist The Mail on Sunday The electronic sensors-maker

SOURCE: INVESTORS CHRONICLE

also makes road barriers,
anti-terrorist bollards and
industrial fencing. Business
is “booming”. Well placed
to benefit from UK and US
infrastructure spending. Yields
3.1%. Buy. £12.95.
This cash-generative oil firm is
upgrading its Argentinian wells
and investing in infrastructure.
Previously loss-making, but
profits should soar thanks to
doubling revenues. One for the
adventurous. Buy. 6.95p.
is currently reinventing The online fashion retailer’s
first-half profits were
itself – pushing into higher- “ravaged” last year by
margin electromagnetic and logistical and tech investment,
connectivity products. R&D but capex is now slowing.
spend is up, sales and margins Founder Nick Robertson sold
are rising, and the dividend £15m of shares – but retains
a substantial 5.53% stake.
is increasing. Buy. 242p.

…and some to hold, avoid or sell Form guide

AB Dynamics
Investors Chronicle
Shares in this automotive-
testing systems provider have
“marched steadily upwards”
and now trade at a
“significant” premium. With
autonomous vehicles still
15-20 years away, it faces
“softer” margins. Take profits.
Sell. £20.55.
Associated British Foods
Investors Chronicle
A healthy 25% profits boost at
budget-clothing chain Primark
has helped compensate for
tough trading in ABF’s sugar
business. Cash-generation, and
the net cash position, has
improved. Hold. £25.51.
Entertainment One
The Times
This “high quality and diverse”
programme-maker is upping
expenditure to fulfil demand.
Revenues are flowing thanks
to the continued popularity
of Peppa Pig, but the yield is
meagre. Hold. 483.5p.
Hargreaves Lansdown
The Times
The asset manager is an
“impressive market leader”
with “very high” operating
margins and “room to grow”.
It nonetheless faces the
“spectres” of Brexit, ebbing
consumer confidence, and
encroaching competition.
Hold. £22.32.
Shares tipped 12 weeks ago
Purplebricks Group
Investors Chronicle Best tip
Sluggish markets in the UK Blue Prism Group
The Mail on Sunday
and Australia, as well as the
up 38.02% to £18.55
rising costs of expansion and
admin, are hurting the online Worst tip
estate agent. Cash is Mondi
dwindling fast, and US Investors Chronicle
revenues are likely to miss down 7.32% to £16.92
expectations. Sell. 122.4p.
Serica Energy Market view
Investors Chronicle “We’re never going to
The oil and gas producer has understand any other culture,
completed a “game-changing” or the tax laws or the customs,
as well as the US, but we can
deal to buy BP’s Bruce, Keith come awfully close in Britain.”
and Rhum assets in the Warren Buffett, of Berkshire
North Sea. That said, UK Hathaway, outlines his
gas prices have softened on willingness to buy into the
lower demand and strong UK. Quoted in the FT
supply. Hold. 125p.

Market summary
Key numbers for investors Best and worst performing shares Following the Footsie
30 Apr 2019 Week before Change (%) WEEK’S CHANGE, FTSE 100 STOCKS
7,500
FTSE 100 7418.22 7523.07 –1.39% RISES Price % change
FTSE All-share UK 4067.98 4115.59 –1.16% NMC Health 2822.00 +7.67
Dow Jones 26523.46 26656.11 –0.50% Reckitt Benckiser Gp. 6197.00 +4.29 7,300
NASDAQ 8085.09 8107.45 –0.28% Standard Chartered 700.00 +4.23
Nikkei 225 22258.73 22259.74 0.00% Hikma Pharmaceuticals 1765.50 +3.58
Hang Seng 29699.11 29963.24 –0.88% Severn Trent 2036.00 +3.40 7,100
Gold 1279.50 1275.70 0.30% FALLS
Brent Crude Oil 72.25 74.33 –2.80% Glencore 304.35 –9.73
DIVIDEND YIELD (FTSE 100) 4.36% 4.29% Anglo American 1981.40 –8.48 6,900
UK 10-year gilts yield 1.18 1.23 Royal Bank of Sctl. Gp. 239.60 –7.78
US 10-year Treasuries 2.51 2.57 Whitbread 4460.00 –7.47
6,700
UK ECONOMIC DATA Smurfit Kappa Gp. 2245.00 –7.27
Latest CPI (yoy) 1.9% (Mar) 1.9% (Feb)
BEST AND WORST UK STOCKS OVERALL
Latest RPI (yoy) 2.4% (Mar) 2.5% (Feb) 6,500
Edenville Energy 0.07 +222.89 Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr
Halifax house price (yoy) +2.6% (Mar) +2.8% (Feb)
Eight Peaks Gp. 4.00 –57.89
6-month movement in the FTSE 100 index
£1 STERLING $1.306 E1.163 ¥145.582 Source: Datastream (not adjusted for dividends). Prices on 30 Apr (pm)

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

56 The last word

The mysterious case of

murder on the allotment
When the body of an 80-year-old woman was found in a locked hut at her local allotment garden, it was clear a terrible crime had
been committed, says Jenny Kleeman. But who was responsible for the murder of the kindly committee secretary, and why?

In a quiet corner of London, strawberries, leeks, peppers,

close to the Edgware Road, onions and tomatoes as well
there is a secret garden. The as lavender. “I remember her
words “Colindale Gardens digging potatoes – she would
and Allotments Association” share those with us.” We stop
are messily painted on the in front of the plot that used
gate – beyond lies a broad to be hers. “She was very
expanse of grass and earth, organised. She was getting
greenhouses, polytunnels and older, and she’d often sit in
sheds. In the distance you can a deckchair in her little
see cranes constructing flats to polytunnel greenhouse. I’ve
house the next generation of seen her asleep in there a
gardenless Londoners. But the couple of times as well.”
space here is so peaceful, so Originally from Belgium,
lush and full of birdsong, you Adri-Soejoko had a special
almost forget where you are. combination of softness and
strength. She was a private
The allotments are home to person – but “very kind.
90 plots, mostly 20m x 8m, Quirky. Funny,” Clargo says.
arranged along two parallel And “strong-willed”, too.
grass avenues – giving it the “That’s one of the things
look of a miniature suburban that made her so good as a
neighbourhood. Everything secretary. She’d badger people
on the site is overseen by the when they hadn’t paid.” A
allotment committee, a team widow, she lived close by, and
of seven plot holders who “would come and water every
meet regularly in a concrete Lea Adri-Soejoko was the allotment association’s strong-willed treasurer day. This was her passion.”
trading hut by the entrance.
Beside it is the only other permanent structure on the site: a shed A few spaces along, we come to an overgrown plot, covered with
with a corrugated iron roof where the Mountfield lawnmower, untamed blackberry bushes. It belongs to Rahim Mohammadi,
used to maintain the communal pathways, is kept. the man convicted of murdering Adri-Soejoko. He was sentenced
to life with a minimum of 19 years last November, following
This is where Lea Adri-Soejoko, the site’s secretary and treasurer, a retrial after a jury failed to reach a verdict. Mohammadi is a
was found dead at 2am on Tuesday 28 February 2017. She was 42-year-old Kurdish-Iranian, who first came to the allotments in
lying on a wooden pallet, her face covered with a blue coat, still 2008 as part of an “allotment therapy” programme run by the
wearing her wellingtons. The charity Freedom from Torture,
lawnmower’s starter cord had which provides rehabilitation
been pulled out to its fullest “Lea liked to grow delicious things. She services to torture victims. While
extent and wrapped tightly would come to the allotment to water her the precise details of what caused
around her neck. She had been him to leave Iran are unclear, he
strangled by a fellow allotment
plants every day. This was her passion” arrived in the UK with a
holder, a man whose plot was permanent injury to one eye
only metres from hers, someone she had known for nearly a and scars on his body. He sought asylum in Britain in 2005,
decade. What might have driven him to murder an 80-year-old and received indefinite leave to remain in 2010. By 2016 he had
woman, in the place she had loved for 20 years? a plot to himself, and a role on the committee. “He enjoyed his
growing,” Clargo says. “And he was very helpful” – offering to
Allotments are precious. There is huge competition for them – mow the grass avenues. But he was intolerant, too. “He didn’t
with 100,000 people on waiting lists in England alone – and the like how the Portuguese community did things – he was very
benefits are proven: as well as providing fruit and veg, they keep anti-Portuguese. I would say he was racist in that way,” Clargo
holders’ minds and bodies healthy. “They are little green oases,” says. “But that’s something that we see in society. It’s not unique
Adrian Clargo, the Colindale committee chair, tells me as we to him.” Clargo was also surprised to discover that Mohammadi
walk down one of the grassy avenues. “They provide a space for lived in Hackney, well over an hour’s journey from Colindale.
reflection, to meet people, to engage with growing something “I thought, why on earth are you not registered with an allotment
organically.” Only a handful of those with plots here identify closer to you?”
as British, he adds: many are Iranian and Portuguese. “The
waiting list operates on a strictly first-come, first-served basis. Jochen Encke, a psychotherapist for more than 40 years, has some
It’s just the way people have applied,” he explains. idea why Mohammadi wanted to stay in Colindale. He spent a
decade working with Freedom from Torture, providing therapy to
Clargo was lucky: when he acquired his plot in 2014 the person people with post-traumatic stress disorder from around the world.
across the path was Adri-Soejoko, a Colindale veteran and Mohammadi was one of his clients, and he spoke in his defence
committee member since 2004. “She was our neighbour and during his trials. “There was always a group of people who could
she welcomed us in,” he says. She liked to grow delicious things: not receive psychotherapy,” Encke tells me. “Sometimes the

THE WEEK 4 May 2019

 The last word 57
trauma was so immense, talking about it how she is, whether everyone [is] all right.
wouldn’t have helped.” Allotment therapy For me it was just implausible.”
offered an opportunity for people to escape
their trauma. “The idea was to explore The investigative tools that are normally
whether we could open up something there. the cornerstone of a murder investigation
When you’re distressed and you walk in weren’t immediately relevant in this case:
nature, you feel better.” Over ten years, there was no CCTV. Mohammadi’s travel
more than 100 people came to Colindale for card placed him in Colindale at the time
therapy. They came from Iraq, Iran, Sudan of the murder, but he readily admitted to
and across Africa, and had all experienced being there, and he mowed the lawns, so it
traumas, from sleep deprivation to having made sense for his DNA to be all over the
their fingernails pulled out. mower shed. “He put forward in his defence
that he was responsible for maintaining the
Every Wednesday, they met at the allotment mower. But his DNA was very low down on
and worked on the five plots the charity the pull cord.” There would be no reason for
rented, often cooking what they grew on touching the furthest extent of the cord if
a barbecue. “It was immensely successful,” you were simply using it to start the mower.
Encke tells me. “It was amazing how people The locked shed padlock also became central
who were so traumatised, within months Rahim Mohammdi: sentenced to life in prison to the investigation: it required a key both
started laughing about the world.” When I to lock and unlock it. “Whoever killed Lea
ask him what Mohammadi was like, he sighs. “When I first met would have to have locked the padlock and would have needed
him he was withdrawn. He couldn’t look at you. He was just a the key to do it.” Five keys were known to exist: Mohammadi
frightened little puppy.” Encke doesn’t know what Mohammadi had one, Adri-Soejoko’s copy was found on her body, and the
endured in Iran, beyond that he was a political dissident, part of three others were accounted for. Mohammadi was charged with
a wealthy family, and his father had also been tortured. “Slowly, her murder a week after her body was found.
he became more alive, more active. I knew him for eight years on
the allotment, and he [became] quite self-sufficient.” In court, Mohammadi claimed to have spent most of the afternoon
in his shed, but said he also went to buy opium, which he used
The project stopped four years ago; Encke says the charity cut it to ease his back pain, and later visited local shops for water and
to make savings. He kept in touch with Mohammadi – but “I tobacco. But it has been difficult to establish what actually
could feel things were shifting. All my work was to focus on happened between him and Adri-Soejoko that day. It was
finding peace by letting yourself go. Once I left, it became another pouring with rain, and no one saw them together. Perhaps the
little society where people most important insight came
competed with each other. from a committee meeting, four
They wanted a bigger allotment “Mohammadi turns up at the allotment – months earlier, that became part
and a bigger greenhouse and police are there. He doesn’t ask about what of the case against Mohammadi.
Rahim got into that, too.”
Encke says he doesn’t know had happened. For me it was just implausible” “It was in here,” Clargo says as
he leads me into the cold, dark
what happened that February trading hut next to the mower
day with Adri-Soejoko – “but I can imagine that if they had a row shed. Clargo explains that six members of the committee had
and he was threatened with having to leave the allotment, that been sitting around the table, and Mohammadi was talking
would have been a lot – the allotment was everything to him”. loudly about how he wanted a certain Portuguese allotment
holder evicted. “Lea just said, ‘Oh Rahim. Shut up.’ And he took
On the other side of London, in a tower block in Putney, I meet real, violent offence at that. He stood up and was pointing at her,
DCI Noel McHugh, the police detective who led the investigation. gesticulating.” Clargo stands in the space where Mohammadi had
“It’s rare for a female to be killed outside of domestic abuse,” he stood, pointing down at the empty chair where Adri-Soejoko had
tells me. “And an elderly lady, too. It makes you think – really?” been sitting. “‘Don’t tell me to shut up, you fucking bitch!’ he
On the evening of 27 February 2017, Adri-Soejoko was meant to said. He had his keys around his finger. He was quite a tall chap.
attend a meeting in Barnet, but she never arrived. Her daughter, I think everybody there felt threatened.”
Tess, and granddaughter, Amber, rang her mobile. When there
was no answer they tried her house, and searched the local streets, The prosecution argued that anger exploded once more on the
before reporting her missing at 1.40am. It was only then, accom- day Adri-Soejoko was killed, this time manifesting in physical
panied by police officers, that they went to the allotments; the violence; that Mohammadi beat her in a rage, and then, realising
gates were locked so they crawled through a hole in the fence. his outburst would cost him the allotment, he took her to the
They carried on calling Adri-Soejoko’s phone, eventually hearing mower shed and killed her in cold blood. Clargo is still baffled
her ringtone coming from the padlocked mower shed. The police by what happened. “Rahim is an immigrant who came to this
forced the lock, and found her body. There were no signs of a country because he was experiencing violence in his own
struggle, but she had a fractured spine and ribs, and abrasions country,” he says. “He had a wonky eye and he didn’t speak
on her face – injuries that suggested someone had struck her and English very well. So if you were looking to find somebody who
rendered her unconscious, before strangling her here. would look like an oddball in society, he fits a lot of the criteria.
That’s what makes me feel slightly uncomfortable. But that
The allotments were cordoned off so investigations could begin. doesn’t mean he didn’t do it.”
In his initial police interview, Mohammadi said he had travelled
to Colindale on 27 February and picked up a key from Adri- Meanwhile, the shed remains boarded up, the mower still inside,
Soejoko’s house before going to the allotments; he claimed to untouched, since being declared a crime scene. A few paces away,
have been to her house many times, doing odd jobs for her. “He a small garden – with a plaque dedicated to Adri-Soejoko’s
painted it as a very close relationship; [but] the family and other memory – is filled with vibrant colours: narcissus, tulips,
allotment owners presented that Lea was very uncomfortable rhododendrons and red-leaved Acer palmatum. There are
around him,” McHugh says. Mohammadi’s behaviour on the day tea-light lanterns, a bird bath and a tiny pond. It is a place for
© SOLO SYNDICATION

her body was found added to the investigating team’s suspicions. attracting life.
“He turns up at the allotments – it’s all taped off, the police are
there. He approaches the police cordons and doesn’t ask about A longer version of this article appeared in The Guardian.
what had happened. He doesn’t try to check in with Lea to see © Guardian News & Media 2019.

4 May 2019 THE WEEK

 Crossword 59
THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1156 k’s winner will receive an
An Ettinger travel pass case and two Connell Guides will be given to the sender of the (ettinger.co.uk) Sterling travel
first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 13 May. e in orange, which retails
Send it to: The Week Crossword 1156, 2nd floor, 32 Queensway, London W2 3RX, or email and two Connell Guides
the answers to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.info) guides.com).

ACROSS
1 Irish actor bores engaging male
relative and female one (6,7)
10 French novelist seen in a tree
from the east (5)
11 Fellow surrounded by unsociable
types, city people (9)
12 Angry boy tackles one US
president (7)
13 Princess showing European
spirit (7)
14 Patriarch with tax-free investment
on account (5)
16 Explosive wrapped in newspaper
could be these (4,5)
19 A writer figures range in Italy (9)
20 Eat a lot of Cheddar? (5)
22 Loose dentures for nothing! (3,4)
25 Not the traditional Left in Welsh
city (7)
27 Foreign gentleman in taxi, old
Austin with no end of juddering (9)
28 Big beef, serious complaint by
individual (1-4)
29 I’m only er... Norma in another
guise (7,6)
DOWN
2 I’m next to referee without
delay (9)
3 Stands for higher
remuneration (5)
4 Duke losing head remains
a Duke! (9)
5 Stove in farmhouse no good
at first (5)
6 Terrible smell in barges at sea?
Not right place for deodorant (6,3)
7 Some of the private investigators
did not dine out (3,2)
8 Southern river very good for
crustaceans (6)
9 On the way up, hostel sing partly
in minor keys (6)
15 Singers on trial caught briefly
out (9)
17 Third notes in class deceive (9)
18 Italian traveller showing
damage on company car (5,4)
19 First signs of lovely spring
in one superb part of France (6)
21 Beautiful wife shakes up terse
husband (6)
23 Bill left with a couple of
drums (5)
24 One against revolutionary
Yemen (5)
26 Ring character beginning
to worry old Brown (5)
Name
Address

Clue of the week: Real Madrid’s high flyer (3,7) The Independent, Klingsor Tel no
Clue of the week answer:

Solution to Crossword 1154

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Clue of the week: What’s hidden by chap in kilt gets one looking slightly PLEASE TICK THE SUBSCRIPTION TERM YOU REQUIRE:
embarrassed maybe! (4) N Full Subscription: 6 issues for £1, then just £40.49 every 13 issues
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Solution: PINK (hidden inside “chap in kilt”) N Print only: 6 issues for £1, then just £35.99 every 13 issues
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The winner of 1154 is Simon Collyns from London
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Sudoku 700 (very difficult) POSTCODE

6 2 5 7 9 Fill in all the squares so that DAYTIME TEL NO. EMAIL

each row, column and each

of the 3x3 squares contains
all the digits from 1 to 9
3 6 7 Solution to Sudoku 699

7 5 3 8 7
6
1
5
4
8
8
2
3
9
6
7
5
3
2
4
9
1
1 6 9 2 5 9 3 2 1 4 5 6 8 7
1 8 3 6 5 9 2 7 4
2 9 6 4 7 1 8 5 3
5 4 7 3 8 2 9 1 6
7 3 4 8 2 9 7 1 3 4 6 5
4 7 5 9 6 8 1 3 2
3 6 1 5 2 4 7 9 8
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