Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1013 i The Week

What happened Labour came under pressure this week to rule out a coalition with the Scottish National Party amid growing concern in Westminster that the SNP will hold the balance of power after the election. It follows a new poll suggesting that Nicola Sturgeon’s party could win as many as 50 of Scotland’s 59 seats on 7 May, all but wiping out Labour north of the border. That would give the SNP huge influence in the likely event of another hung parliament (see page 13). Ed Miliband has so far resisted calls from colleagues explicitly to rule out a pact with the SNP. Party insiders fear such a move would just antagonise voters and increase SNP support. The Tories sought to capitalise on Labour’s predicament this week by releasing a…

Brussels Call for an EU army: The president of the European Commission has called for the creation of an EU army to help defend the continent from Russian aggression. In an interview with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Jean-Claude Juncker said pooling the defence resources of the 28 EU nations would send a warning message to Vladimir Putin that the bloc is serious about defending its borders and its values. It would have other advantages, too. “Such an army would help us to build a common foreign and national security policy, and to collectively take on Europe’s responsibilities in the world,” he said. The UK Government’s response was immediate and unambiguous. “Our position is crystal clear that defence is a national, not an EU responsibility,” said a spokesman. But…

1. The losers may win The magic number to win a majority in the 650-seat House of Commons is 326 seats. Five years ago, in 2010, the Tories fell just short, returning 307 MPs, and thus having to team up with the 57 MPs of Nick Clegg’s Lib Dems. This time, polls suggest it’ll be harder still for any party to make the sums add up. The Tories and Labour are each projected to get about 275 seats, the Lib Dems to lose about half their MPs, and UKIP, despite an impressive share of the vote, to win a mere handful. If so, the Conservatives could well win the election but only have enough allies to muster 300 or 310 MPs. The only plausible coalition would be Labour, the Lib…

Residents of Hamburg’s red-light district have warned drunks to stop urinating on their walls – or face uncomfortable consequences. Twenty million people a year visit St Pauli’s bars, music venues and brothels. And all too often, they emerge drunk and relieve themselves on neighbouring properties. Now residents have come up with what they hope is a solution: they have painted walls with hydrophobic paint, so that when urine splashes against it, the wee bounces straight back, soaking the culprit’s shoes and trousers. “Watch out! From now on, it’s peeback time,” said a member of a local community group. A 16ft-long python has been found floating in a Lancashire canal. The snake was dead – but it’s unclear how it got there, raising speculation that it could have been abandoned while…

A daily pill to guard against HIV Healthy gay men should be offered a daily pill that protects against HIV, researchers are suggesting. In the trial, carried out by 12 NHS trusts, the drug – Truvada – was found to reduce the risk of men who have sex with men contracting the infection by 86%, reports The Daily Telegraph. The researchers say their findings are particularly encouraging because this was a “real world” study: the men given access to the drug, all of whom had multiple partners and were considered at high risk of infection, were free to take the pill or not as they saw fit. There had been fears that many would not, but the results suggest that most did. Only three of 250-odd men given the drug…

On Sunday afternoon, two news stories broke, said Stefanie Marsh in The Times. In Nigeria, Boko Haram had pledged allegiance to Islamic State. In a village in Belgium, a dog had died. It’s not hard to guess which one dominated the headlines in Britain the next day. The dog – an Irish setter – had fallen ill and died within 24 hours of competing at the Crufts dog show in Birmingham, where it had come second in its class. A post-mortem revealed that Thendara Satisfaction, known as Jagger, had eaten chunks of beef laced with toxins, and his co-owners (two couples, one Belgian, one English) are now convinced that he was “murdered”. Since then, five other dogs are reported to have fallen ill, though it’s not clear if any of…

“I sense a Cromwellian moment,” said Simon Jenkins in The Guardian. The popularity of Parliament is at an all-time low – thanks to “dodgy expenses, infantile question times, cash for access, cash for peerages, cash for everything” – and now the building itself is falling apart. The Commons Speaker, John Bercow, warned last week that the Palace of Westminster needs £3bn-worth of repairs – and fast. The roof is leaking, the walls are packed with asbestos, the wiring is so rotten that it poses a serious fire risk, and the whole place is infested with rats and mice. Even Big Ben is starting to tilt towards the Thames. Without major refurbishment, said Bercow, the world’s greatest neo-Gothic building will soon become unusable. He went on to suggest that MPs should…

Reforming Africa To The Guardian It is no surprise Mo Ibrahim’s “previous award was the fourth in five years to have gone unclaimed” by any of Africa’s 54 elected leaders. The prize money of $5m [awarded to an individual for excellence in governance] is small change to many African leaders, who have clung to power for many years. Last year, African Spotlight, an online magazine, disclosed that Africa’s richest presidents included Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, $10m; Chad’s Idris Derby, $50m; Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan, $100m; Swaziland’s King Mswati, $100m; Cameroon’s Paul Biya, $200m; Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta, $500m; Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang, $600m; and Angola’s José Eduardo dos Santos, $20bn. Mr Ibrahim should substantially increase his prize money if he wants to persuade many African leaders to amend their constitutions in order to…

The Polio Story: The Vaccine that Changed the World Documentary about virologist Jonas Salk, his battle to rid the world of the terror of polio, and the part played by polio sufferer Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sun 15 Mar, BBC4 8.15pm (45mins). Raised by Wolves This six-part comedy, written by Caitlin and Caroline Moran, is a modern-day re-imagining of their chaotic childhood. Mon 16 Mar, C4 10pm (30mins). Ordinary Lies New six-part drama set in a car showroom, about a lie that spirals out of control. With Max Beesley and Mackenzie Crook. Tue 17 Mar, BBC1 9pm (60mins). The Billion Dollar Chicken Shop This behind-the-scenes look at the KFC chain goes inside the boardrooms as well as the kitchens. Wed 18 Mar, BBC1 9pm (60mins). Things We Won’t Say About Race…

New cars: what the critics say Auto Express When Daimler launched its Smart sub-brand in 1998, it “reinvented the city car”. Since then, the “dinky two-seater”– with its distinctive rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout – has sold more than 100,000 units in the UK and found great success worldwide. Now, with the relaunched ForTwo, Smart hopes to cement its place at the forefront of the “expanding crop” of urban runarounds. CAR magazine The ForTwo has a new shape: it has swapped its “one-box” design for a safer, more conventional “one-and-a-half box” shape. It’s “less cute” than before, which could be seen as a positive – but its “bulbous features” aren’t very attractive. The interiors are much better looking: “nicely detailed” controls and soft-touch surfaces. The car is also 10cm wider, giving it…

Prudential/Credit Suisse: what Thiam did next “Prudential boss Tidjane Thiam must like a challenge,” said Adam Gale in Management Today. After nearly six years leading the Pru, and 13 in the insurance business, he’s planning to try his hand at Swiss banking. The French-Ivorian – and former Ivory Coast government minister – will take over at Credit Suisse from American Brady Dougan in the summer. He is a banking novice; but you can see why Credit Suisse might want him. “Thiam has presided over a golden age at the Pru”: shares have trebled on his watch and profits have doubled under his Asia-led strategy. “It’s possible that Credit Suisse wants to tap his considerable expertise there”; moreover, as an “inexperienced” banker, he’s “untarnished” by the scandals. It wasn’t always such…

The week’s best buys Aviva The Times The Friends Life deal looks increasingly good for the insurer: it will add £600m to cash flow and generate £225m of synergies. The 3% yield should rise sharply as the cash piles up. Buy. 569.5p. Costain Group The Daily Telegraph The engineer’s major UK infrastructure projects include Crossrail, decommissioning Sellafield and improving Thames Water’s pipes. A sizeable cash pile is being boosted by a record £3.5bn order book and a 4.7% rise in profits. Buy. 302p. HaloSource The Sunday Times HaloSource has invented a cheap, effective water purification system using bromine. Although two years away from breaking even, it has supply deals in China, India and Brazil. Liberum Capital names a 40p target. Buy. 15.5p. ITV The Daily Telegraph Following strong results and…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 944 An Ettinger card case and two Connell Guides will be given to the sender of the first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 23 March. Send it to: The Week Crossword 944, 2nd floor, 32 Queensway, London W2 3RX, or email the answers to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Set by Tim Moorey (www.timmoorey.info) This week’s crossword winner will receive an Ettinger (www.ettinger.co.uk) visiting card case for business cards or to use as a mini wallet, and two Connell Guides (www.connellguides.com). ACROSS 6 Nip about initially in play (5) 7 OK, a cure upset American writer (7) 9 Finished article first and it’s too much (4-3-3) 10 What’s parched in the Kalahari desert? (4) 11 Promotion online of new warhead hard going…

What happened Iraqi forces closed in on the strategic city of Tikrit this week in their biggest offensive yet against Islamic State (Isis) militants. With heavy support from local Shia militias, they captured the town of al-Alam, the last jihadi stronghold barring the way to the city itself. If successful, the assault on Tikrit, home city of Saddam Hussein, would mark a first victory for the Iraqi army and the Iranianbacked militias as they attempt to roll back the Islamists’ advance. The victory was overshadowed, however, by mounting controversy over Iran’s pivotal role in the conflict. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal warned that Iran was being allowed to “take over” Iraq. In the US, meanwhile, 47 Republican senators infuriated President Obama by writing an open letter to the “leaders…

Madison, Wisconsin Police shooting: A police officer shot dead an unarmed mixed-race teenager, Tony Robinson, in Madison last Friday night, prompting days of protests in the state capital. Officer Matt Kenny, 45, was responding to reports of an assault in Madison when he shot Robinson (pictured). Police say Kenny only opened fire after the 19-year-old assaulted him. Days later, residents of Atlanta, Georgia, reacted in disbelief to the fatal police shooting of an African-American US Air Force veteran, who was not only unarmed but also naked. Anthony Hill, 27, had been behaving erratically and may have suffered from a mental illness. Washington DC Email controversy: Hillary Clinton has sought to quell the controversy over her use of a private email address during her years as secretary of state by claiming…

In the run-up to the last election, Lord Ashcroft, the billionaire deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, turned out to be a headache for David Cameron. His “non-dom” tax status made for damaging headlines. But since resigning from the party in 2010, Ashcroft has reinvented himself as something potentially even more influential: Britain’s best-funded and most ambitious psephologist, or “The Poll-father”. He is estimated to have already spent more than £1m on individual constituency polls – at around £10,000 a go – in the 150 key marginal seats in the election. National polls, he says dismissively, are “simply mood music”. Ashcroft’s polls give voters a virtually unprecedented opportunity to see just what’s going on in their constituency. In January, he revealed that Nick Clegg was 3% behind Labour in the…

It’s finally here, said The Guardian: after years in development, the remote-controlled cockroach – a live insect with a miniature computer system fused into its nervous system – has arrived. It sounds revolting, but its purpose is benign. Fitted with tiny sensors, the robo-roach could be used to retrieve vital information from places that humans cannot go – whether down sewers or into the rubble of collapsed buildings. “Insects can do things a robot cannot,” explained lead researcher Prof Hong Liang, from Texas A&M University. “They can go into small places, sense the environment and, if there’s a movement, from a predator, say, they can escape much better than a system designed by a human.” The system works by stimulating nerves on the insect’s sides. Normally, their legs work in…

What is it about Britain and immigration, asked The Times. Other countries, such as Australia and Canada, have managed to devise immigration systems that work for them, so why can’t we get our act together? Our current system is delivering the worst of all worlds. It’s deterring the skilled migrants we need by throwing bureaucratic obstacles in their way: a Brighton firm that builds car engines for McLaren, for instance, was recently forced to suspend work because the chief engineer had to return to India to renew his work visa. At the same time, the system is doing nothing to bring low-wage, low-skilled immigration under control. Despite David Cameron’s pledge to reduce net migration to below 100,000 a year, it is currently running at almost three times that level. “Three-quarters…

“It is a peculiarity of our times that we want politicians to be more human, and then, when they screw up, we demand they be more professional.” Ann Treneman in The Times “I wish people weren’t so set on being themselves, when that means being a bastard.” Robertson Davies, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “It is often easier to fight for a principle than to live up to it.” Adlai Stevenson, quoted on Forbes.com “Always borrow money from a pessimist, he won’t expect it back.” Oscar Wilde, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” George Bernard Shaw, quoted in The Times “Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias, I’ve been seeing it everywhere.” Jon Ronson, quoted in The Guardian “Wealth, in even…

Still Alice Dirs: Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland 1hr 39mins (12A) Julianne Moore’s Oscarwinning turn as an Alzheimer’s sufferer ★★★ A film about an intelligent middle-aged woman succumbing to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease may not be everyone’s idea of a good time. But don’t let that deter you from seeing Julianne Moore’s “incredibly moving” achievement in Still Alice, for which she “deservedly” won an Oscar, said David Sexton in the London Evening Standard. The actress plays a 50-year-old university professor who is diagnosed with a rare form of dementia. After that, her decline is rapid and heartbreaking. Although there’s strong support from Alec Baldwin as her wellmeaning husband and Kristen Stewart as her rebellious daughter, this is Moore’s film, said Peter Debruge in Variety. Her wonderfully restrained performance “guides us through…

The euro fell to a near 12-year low against the dollar, coming ever closer to parity as markets digested the implications of the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing programme and growing expectations of a US interest-rate hike. The strong dollar weighed against US stocks, as investors worried about the implications on corporate earnings. The S&P 500 wiped out all its gains for the year. The FTSE 100 shed more than 2.5%. Advertising chief Martin Sorrell of WPP issued a gloomy election warning, describing it as “Morton’s fork”: a no-win choice between Tory uncertainty over Europe and Labour “bashing business”. The Government sold a further tranche of shares in Lloyds Banking Group, taking the taxpayer’s stake to less than 23% and returning £500m to the public purse. Aldermore staged a successful…

The long shadow of the election Simon Nixon The Wall Street Journal The markets seem remarkably complacent about an imminent UK election “that offers investors few good outcomes and the potential for some very bad ones”, says Simon Nixon. The serious risk that no party will be able to form a stable government means no clear answer to three big issues hanging over the economy: the possibility of a Brexit; Scotland’s future in the union; and the risks posed by Britain’s giant twin deficits. So why the complacency? Perhaps because the “market’s preferred outcome is an inconclusive election”, which would reduce the risk of “dramatic policy changes” – be it the “considerable short-term damage” wrought by the Tory promise of an EU referendum, or the costly impact on business of…

Controversy of the week “Here’s a list of things that you wouldn’t want to be called if you were a party leader facing an election in 60 days’ time,” said Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer. “Scared. Arrogant. Cynical. Hypocritical. Cowardly. Calculating. High-handed. Feeble. Duplicitous. Undemocratic. Chicken.” These are the insults being flung at David Cameron, over his “final offer” to appear in only one TV election debate, featuring seven party leaders – instead of the three proposed by the broadcasters, which would have included one head-to-head with Ed Miliband. It has been clear for months that, while claiming to support them, the Tories were doing whatever they could to stop the debates – stalling repeatedly and throwing various “spanners in the works”. Cameron is now blaming the BBC, ITV, Sky…

Agassi’s stubborn father Andre Agassi started playing tennis before he could walk, says Matthew Syed in The Times. His father – an Iranian immigrant who was determined to give his children a better life in the US – hung a mobile made from tennis balls over his cot, taped a ping-pong bat to his hand and urged him to hit, hit, hit. During the course of his childhood, Agassi estimates he hit one million practice balls per year, with his father screaming at him every time he missed. All of which helps to explain how he became a world champion – but also why his relationship with his father has often been strained to breaking point. “He just couldn’t stop himself pushing, pushing, pushing.” For years they hardly spoke –…

We’re no saints and Putin is not Hitler Peter Hitchens The Spectator A clash between the peaceable forces of civilisation and an evil empire bent on conquest. That, says Peter Hitchens, is how the standoff between the EU and Russia over Ukraine is portrayed. It is a grotesque misrepresentation. The truth is that since the Soviet Union fell, Russia has ceded control of “700,000 square miles of valuable territory”, while the EU has gained control of 400,000. So put yourself in Vladimir Putin’s shoes: he sees Nato expand up to his border with the Baltic states; he sees the EU make an Association Agreement with Ukraine; he sees Ukraine’s pro-Moscow president toppled in what US security expert George Friedman calls “the most blatant coup in history”. Yes, his regime is…

Henry Kissinger can be a hard task master, says Philip Collins in The Times. One veteran White House speechwriter recalls delivering a draft of a speech to Kissinger, who thrust it back into his hands with a curt: “Is that the best you can do?” The writer went away and worked on the speech, but Kissinger handed it back with another: “Is that the best you can do?” The speechwriter then reworked it completely, massively improving it. The third time he presented it, Kissinger held the draft in the air again and asked: “Is that the best you can do?” The infuriated writer shot back: “Yes, it is actually.” “Good,” replied Kissinger with a smile. “In which case, I’ll read it then.” Maggie Smith’s film career is still going strong,…

A BBC documentary about a notorious Delhi gang rape “has hit a raw nerve” in India, said Amy Kazmin in the FT. India’s Daughter – which was aired in Britain last week – tells the harrowing story of the rape and murder of Jyoti Singh, a 23-year-old medical student, on a bus in 2012. But it also exposes the attitudes that made the crime possible. One of the men sentenced to hang for his part in it, Mukesh Singh, blamed the young woman for her own death. “A girl is far more responsible for a rape than a boy,” he told the film-makers. “A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night.” Still more shockingly, the man’s defence lawyers echoed these views. “If you keep sweets on the…

Cycling: how serious is the doping problem? For almost as long as cycling has been a sport, it has been “scarred” by doping, said Matt Dickinson in The Times. Decades ago, riders drank champagne and rum to “reduce fatigue”. Today, they’re more likely to ingest erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone that increases endurance, or GW1516, a drug that has to be manufactured illegally because it is thought to cause cancer. Professional cyclists are taking these things in huge numbers: 90% of them are doping, according to one expert quoted by the Cycling Independent Reform Commission, which published a damning report this week. Another source put the figure at 20%, which is still “very worrying”. Undeterred by all the scandals that have affected the sport, riders are still going to extraordinary lengths…

Theatre Antigone Playwright: Sophocles Translation: Anne Carson Director: Ivo van Hove Barbican, London EC2 (020 7638 8891, www.barbican.org.uk) Until 28 March Running time: 1hr 40mins Any production starring Juliette Binoche and directed by Ivo van Hove (whose A View from the Bridge is currently wowing the West End) is bound to be seen as a “prestige show”, said Michael Billington in The Guardian. But this Antigone – set for a world tour following its Barbican premiere – is far more than just a “snob hit”. This “profound” and unusual version of Sophocles’s tragedy “combines a sombre aesthetic beauty with a sense of the ambivalence” that lies at the heart of the play. One of its more striking aspects is its “democratic nature”: almost every member of the cast at some…

Best books… Bear Grylls Bear Grylls, TV presenter and former SAS soldier, picks his favourite books. He has written the foreword to The Volunteer: A Guide to Volunteering by Hugo Chittenden. His own book, A Survival Guide for Life, is out now in paperback The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz, 1956 (Robinson £7.99). A gripping account of a Polish cavalry officer’s escape from a Soviet gulag during WWII. This book describes the extraordinary three-month journey undertaken by Rawicz and his fellow prisoners, who travelled from Siberia through the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalaya to India. Questions of Life by Nicky Gumbel, 1993 (Alpha £6.99). In this book Gumbel attempts to answer some of the most common questions we ask about our existence: from why are we here, to…

The meteorologist who made history Lawrence Hogben 1916-2015 Lawrence Hogben, who has died aged 98, helped produce one of the most important weather forecasts in history, said The Times. In the spring of 1944, he and five other meteorologists were asked by Allied commanders to advise them about the timing of the D-Day landings. As Hogben recalled, the military planners seemed to think meteorologists had almost God-like powers over the elements. “Just name us five fine, calm days and we’ll go,” they said. In reality, the decision was fraught with uncertainty. There were four possible dates in June, but they calculated that on each of them, odds of the right conditions were 13 to one against. Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Hogben came to England in 1938 to study maths…

The Chancellor didn’t mince his words last week when discussing the future of RBS, said the Financial Times. George Osborne admitted that he’d made a mistake in not radically restructuring the state-controlled bank in 2010 (he’d backed the then chief Stephen Hester’s insistence that its investment arm could be a viable global business). And he now says he’d like “to get rid of it” as quickly as possible after the general election. Given the still “massive” size of the bank, that could take years. On some measures, said Osborne, it would be “bigger than all the privatisations of the 1980s put together”. One can see the attraction of firing the gun straight after the election, when “the political cost of taking responsibility for a 33% loss” on the Government’s stake…

Rona Fairhead One of Rona Fairhead’s former teachers once remarked on her “amazing grit”. She certainly needed it this week when she came before MPs on the public accounts committee, said James Titcomb in The Daily Telegraph. The head of the BBC’s governing body, who doubles as a non-executive at HSBC and PepsiCo, is the latest to be engulfed in the political storm over allegations that HSBC’s private Swiss bank helped wealthy clients hide billions of pounds to escape taxes. Accused of being “either incredibly naive or totally incompetent” by committee chair Margaret Hodge, she faced calls to quit the boards of both the BBC and HSBC. “I wouldn’t want to meet Margaret Hodge in a dark alley,” said Ann Treneman in The Times. “Small, ferocious and, frankly, a bit…