Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1181 i The Week

What happened May’s NHS cash boost Theresa May marked the 70th anniversary of the NHS this week by unveiling the biggest funding boost for the health service since Gordon Brown’s premiership. The NHS England budget is set to increase by an average of 3.4% a year above inflation over the next five years. This means that by 2023, the budget – currently £114bn a year – will be £20bn higher in real terms. Under the plan, an additional £4bn or so will be given to the rest of the UK, although it will be up to the Welsh and Scottish governments to decide how that is spent. Insisting that the NHS was now her “number one spending priority”, the PM said the service would have to play its part to…

Christopher Chope, MP, who felt obliged to issue a statement denying that he is a “pervert”, after he blocked a bill to criminalise “upskirting” (see page 25). Chope delayed the bill by shouting “object” during its second reading, meaning that it could not go through to the next stage without a debate. In response to a barrage of criticism, including from fellow Tories, he said that he had no objection to the bill itself: what he objected to was the general principle of bills proceeding without a debate. Labour Live, which was something of a damp squib. The one-day festival in London was supposed to build on the euphoria that greeted Jeremy Corbyn at Glastonbury in 2017, but organisers struggled to sell tickets to “JezFest”, and Unite had to step…

Amsterdam Cartoon competition: Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-Islam politician – who was convicted of inciting discrimination in 2016 – has announced that he plans to hold a Prophet Mohammed cartoon competition, with a s5,000 prize, in the autumn. His Party for Freedom, which has called for the Koran to be banned and Dutch mosques to be shut down, said it had received approval to stage the contest at its offices by the Dutch counterterrorism agency. Many Muslims regard images of the prophet to be blasphemous, and previous decisions to publish cartoons featuring Mohammed have been met with deadly protests. Cologne, Germany Ricin charges: A 29-year-old Tunisian was arrested in Germany last week on suspicion of preparing a deadly biological weapons attack. Identified as Sief Allah H, the man was seized…

Christo’s useless art All Christo’s projects are insane gambles, says Bryan Appleyard in The Sunday Times. He has wrapped up the Pont Neuf in Paris and Berlin’s Reichstag in fabric; and now he has created a 66ft-high floating bench on London’s Serpentine out of oil barrels – and he wants to build one 50 times bigger in Abu Dhabi. A believer in art for art’s sake, Christo, 83, has no time for functional design: “Today all architecture around the world is universally boring. We make beautiful things, unbelievably useless, totally unnecessary.” The “we” is a reference to Jeanne-Claude, the wife he met in Paris after escaping from communist Bulgaria; nine years after her death, he still thinks of her as his collaborator. “Without her I cannot do anything. When we…

Who invited the Windrush migrants? Nobody: it was a completely unplanned event. In mid-1948, HMT Empire Windrush, a troopship taken as a prize from the Germans at the end of the War, was carrying home British servicemen from Australia via Mexico and various stops in the Caribbean. In Kingston, Jamaica, where the Windrush went to fetch West Indian RAF servicemen back from leave, the enterprising captain, finding that he had many empty berths, placed an advert in the Daily Gleaner offering passage for £28/10s – half the usual price, but still about six months’ wages in Jamaica. After a 22-day journey, the ship arrived at Tilbury docks in Essex on the night of 21 June. Who was on board when it docked? There were 1,027 passengers on the ship, 802…

A drug user who was dissatisfied with the crystal meth he’d just purchased decided to go to the police. Fearing a rip-off, 49-year-old Douglas Kelly took his foil-wrapped drugs to his local sheriff’s office in Florida and asked for them to be analysed. The test came back positive for methamphetamine – which led to a negative result for Kelly, who was arrested. “Remember, our detectives are always ready to assist anyone who believes they were misled in their illegal drug purchase,” said the police on Facebook. An American cop who pulled over a motorist for a minor traffic violation discovered that the man behind the wheel was the stranger who had delivered him as a baby. When Matthew Bailly handed over his licence, the state trooper, Michael Patterson, noticed that…

FRANCE A law that “stinks of censorship” Publico (Lisbon) What constitutes a bigger threat to democracy: fake news or the attempts to suppress it? To judge by a bill being introduced in France aimed at stopping Russian (and other) trolls interfering in elections, undoubtedly the latter, says Diogo Queiroz de Andrade. Emmanuel Macron himself is pushing it through: last year he was targeted by a website falsely claiming he’d stashed illicit wealth in a secret account in the Bahamas, and he is now making good on his promise to legislate. The law would empower any politician who felt a website was displaying damaging false stories about him or her to petition a judge to block the site; the judge would then have 48 hours to make a decision. Broadcasters backed…

Holidaymakers throw away so much plastic that the amount entering the Mediterranean surges by almost 40% during summer, a report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has revealed. Although the Mediterranean receives less attention than other marine pollution hotspots, it is one of the worst-affected seas: it holds only 1% of the world’s water, yet contains 7% of its microplastic waste, with concentration levels in some stretches up to four times as high as in the north Pacific’s “garbage patch”. Partly, that is down to its geography: because it is semi-enclosed, the plastic that enters the sea from its densely populated coastline, as well as from further afield, can be trapped there for years. The millions of tourists who surge to the coast each summer inevitably add to…

When I was growing up, there wasn’t much to keep me occupied after I’d done my homework, said Zoe Strimpel in The Sunday Telegraph. Sure, I could watch TV – but it was strictly capped. So out of sheer boredom, I would often end up picking up a book. For today’s children, there’s really no need to develop a love of reading, because if streamed TV doesn’t provide constant entertainment enough, there are a host of other screen-based distractions to choose, from the compulsive pleasures that are Snapchat and Instagram, to online gaming. We’re all addicted to our screens, said Judith Woods in The Daily Telegraph. I can lose hours browsing the John Lewis website and I know people who won’t book a campsite if it doesn’t have a signal.…

Britain’s drug laws are stuck in the “dark ages”, said Simon Jenkins in The Guardian. That much is clear from the case of Billy Caldwell. The 12-year-old has a severe form of epilepsy that once caused him to suffer as many as 100 seizures a day. His health was transformed 18 months ago, however, when a US doctor prescribed daily droplets of cannabis oil. He was then given the medicine on the NHS, before his GP was told not to renew his prescription. Last week, Heathrow officials confiscated a supply of the oil that his mother was bringing back from Canada. The seizures returned and he had to be rushed to hospital. It took days of appeals before the Home Office relented, allowing Billy three weeks’ supply as an emergency…

With an hour to go on Sunday, it looked as if Tommy Fleetwood had done enough to win the US Open, said James Corrigan in The Daily Telegraph. The 27-year-old Englishman had just hit a record-equalling 63 – a score that had been achieved on only five previous occasions at this major. But even that wasn’t enough to stop Brooks Koepka from winning by a single shot, becoming only the seventh golfer in history to successfully defend his US Open title. There can be no doubt that Koepka, a 28-year-old American, is “the real deal”, said Iain Carter on BBC Sport online. Last year, when the tournament took place in Erin Hills, the big hitter was “the best bomber in a bomber’s paradise”. This time around, at Shinnecock Hills, he…

To The Times The way in which the cry of “object” by a single MP has sabotaged the progress of the upskirting bill in spite of wide support for it by MPs (“New upskirting law is blocked by veteran Tory MP”) highlights the need for reform of the procedures for private members’ bills. The obstacles to the enactment of such bills are excessive and arbitrary. There are obstacles enough in the need for the support of at least 100 MPs on a Friday, when they are sparse in attendance, and the difficulty in securing enough time through the successive legislative stages. The cry of “object” should be abolished, as should the iniquitous way in which a bill can be “talked out” by one opponent. Furthermore, the selection of private members’…

Hereditary Dir: Ari Aster 2hrs 7mins (15) A new horror classic ★★★★ From The Shining to Rosemary’s Baby, many of the best horror films locate their darkest terrors in family relationships, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times. Hereditary, a “skin-prickling slow-boiler” of a movie, does the same. It stars Toni Collette as an artist whose job involves constructing uncannily realistic miniature-room dioramas. And from the outset the unnerving implication is that, just as she controls the figures in her art, some malevolent force is controlling her, her dope-smoking son (Alex Wolff) and her troubled, aged-looking daughter (Milly Shapiro) – all of whom, after the death of her austere and dominant mother, suffer increasingly disturbing visions and visitations. First-time director Ari Aster proves himself a “natural-born master of horror”, said…

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, 1966 (Penguin £7.99). The first time I read this book – about Bertha, the mad wife in Rochester’s attic in Jane Eyre – I hated it. I’d wanted to know more about this intriguing, tragic West Indian character, but Jean Rhys’s book about the perils of white creoles in the Caribbean left me confused. Re-reading it again as an adult was like night and day. It’s a masterpiece. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, 1860 (Vintage £8.99). Maggie Tulliver is one of my female heroines – compulsive, impulsive, loving, loyal and punished by a conservative society for being too principled, too clever and too brown. Growing up, it was the closest I got to a literary character I could relate to. The…

Brian’s worried that news of the groundwater contamination is spreading. Kirsty overheard the contractors discussing it, while David’s had the full story from Ruth after hearing a voicemail from Adam. Jennifer doubts that Ruth has told the full story, but warns him that Kate may. Shula tells Lilian that she and Alistair are starting mediation. She is expected to be honest and Shula wonders if she should tell Alistair about Philip. Being attracted to Philip showed her what she was missing in her marriage. Lilian warns against it; nothing happened and it would hurt Alistair and Philip’s friendship. Christine visits the doctor; she’s not suffering from dementia, just a UTI. After the mediation session, Alistair accuses Shula of allowing her emotions to hold up proceedings. Later, Alistair tells Philip he…

When buying a sauvignon blanc, lots of people pick whichever one of the New Zealand wines in their local supermarket is on offer, says David Williams in The Observer. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does risk missing out on some other great sauvignons. The Loire, for example, offers “a more restrained version of sauvignon’s natural verdancy” in wines such as The Society’s Exhibition Sancerre 2017 (£15.50; thewinesociety.com) and Domaine André Vatan Les Perriers Blanc Sancerre 2017 (£17.95; yapp.co.uk). It is also the source of the “pristine but still exuberant elderflower raciness” of Waitrose’s Blueprint Sauvignon Blanc Touraine 2017 (£7.49). If you’re looking for something between Loire restraint and New Zealand vibrancy, look for wines from the coastal vineyards of Chile, such as the “brisk and citrussy” Co-op Irresistible…

Elegant classics Bold doesn’t have to mean modern; this romantic spring dragonfly design dates back to 1896. The delicate soup and dinner plate set is made by Milanese vintage brand La Double J (£98; www.ladoublej.com). Wall features Rather than using paint to add colour, you could cover a wall with these subtly toned, glazed terracotta tiles, or for a lesser impact, hang decorative plates (from £279.50/m²; www.indigenous.co.uk). Bold ornaments A winner of Liberty’s Open Call for new design talents, Lithuanian artist Ruta Bartkeviciute draws inspiration from ancient Baltic symbols, like the tree of life that decorates this vase (£550; www.libertylondon.com). Country rustic The glaze on Michael Taylor’s hand-thrown stoneware, such as this 10cl jug, is inspired by the West Country landscape around his studio in rural Devon (£11.50; www.davidmellordesign.com). Shock…

Three nights in London Located in the heart of the capital’s West End, The Strand Palace Hotel is moments away from Covent Garden. A room-only stay costs from £233pp. 0800-083 4000, www.lastminute.com. Arrive 27 July. Lovely Amsterdam Hotel V Fizeaustraat has a sun terrace as well as great views of the city. A 3-night stay costs from £384pp b&b, including Southend flights. 020-3499 2461, www.bedfinder.com. Depart 3 August. Four-star Barcelona stay The Senator Barcelona Spa Hotel has a rooftop pool and is close to Camp Nou. 4 nights b&b costs from £347pp, including Birmingham flights. 020-3897 1185, www.loveholidays.com. Depart 27 July. Charming Budapest Situated in a historic building from the 1870s, Residence Baron offers a 4-night stay from £406pp b&b, including Edinburgh flights. 020-8974 7200, www.travelrepublic.co.uk. Depart 30 July.…

Markets tumbled on fears of a full-blown international trade war after the US announced it would slap a further $200bn of tariffs on Chinese imports. Equities rallied midweek as China called for calm, but the mood remained jittery. In a widening of hostilities, the EU confirmed it would begin charging import duties of 25% on s2.8bn’s worth of US goods, from Harley-Davidson motorbikes to bourbon and peanuts. The move is in retaliation for the US tariffs imposed on EU steel and aluminium. The European Central Bank announced that it would phase out quantitative easing, despite evidence of a slowdown in the eurozone. The present s30bn monthly bond-buying programme will be slashed to s15bn in the autumn, and finish completely at the end of the year. In the ongoing battle for…

Unsung no more Apart from a few exceptions, such as Francis Bacon, Barbara Hepworth and David Hockney, modern British artists have been “relatively neglected” by investors, said Carol Lewis in The Times. That’s changing. Investors in their 30s and 40s – priced out of the heavyweights – are “pushing up the prices of lesser-known 20th century British artists”. At a recent Cheffins auction in Cambridge, a painting by the colourist Winifred Nicholson went for £44,000, more than twice its estimate. Other names in demand, according to valuer Brett Tryner, are the painter and textile designer Enid Marx (prices of her lithographs jumped from £650 in 2016 to £4,400 last year), and the artist and illustrator Evelyn Dunbar – who shot to fame when an expert on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow…

Elizabeth Holmes In her heyday, she was dubbed “The Next Steve Jobs”, said Reed Abelson in The New York Times. But Elizabeth Holmes’ dreams of “revolutionising healthcare” are at an end. The disgraced founder of Theranos and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, its former president, have been indicted on charges of wire fraud. If convicted, they could face decades in prison. Theranos was once valued at nearly $10bn, said Vanity Fair – before an exposé by journalist John Carreyrou revealed its blood-testing technology to be an elaborate fraud. Holmes, 34, has previously settled a civil suit, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused her and Theranos of obtaining $700m in investment by making exaggerated or false statements about the firm. Theranos has now been plunged into bankruptcy. The charismatic Holmes…

As we seem determined to enjoy our drinks outdoors during the summer months, our wine should be uncomplicated and refreshing enough to drink unaccompanied by food. Here, rosé wines come into their own. More than a quarter of world production comes from France and the very best of these are produced in Provence. The finest of them, like the Chateau Beaulieu offered here, are made by only exposing the freshly harvested juice to the grape skins for a few hours. It’s not just rosé that makes an ideal summer drink – a crisp sauvignon blanc can be perfect, along with staple wines from the Liberty List such as their Gavi di Gavi. Liberty is renowned for its superb range of Italian wines but their expertise extends across the globe. The…

Simpsons. He liked impersonating Mr Burns, the series villain, by tapping his fingertips together and saying “excellent”. In exchange for a modest salary, Dean provided information about al-Qa’eda’s network in London, including Abu Qatada, a Jordanian-Palestinian cleric. The intelligence services set him up in a gloomy one-bedroom flat in Purley. As far as al-Qa’eda knew, he was convalescing. With MI5 listening in, he would regale home-grown jihadists with tales about life in the Afghan camps before quizzing them about their plans. “So rich was south London in jihadist contacts that I could jump off at pretty much any stop of the No. 77 bus and find a ‘like-minded’ militant,” he says. He passed on everything he heard, including details of a plot by a group of jihadists from the Midlands.…

The “Brexit plot” is becoming “hideously complex even for those of us paid to follow it”, said Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer. The Cabinet, let me remind you, is still angrily divided over which form of customs union – all of them already rejected by Brussels – to propose to the EU; the issue of “time-limiting the backstop” remains bitterly contentious. Meanwhile, on Wednesday the Commons voted again on an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill designed to give MPs a “meaningful vote” on the outcome of Brexit negotiations. The amendment had been rejected last week by MPs after Theresa May struck a last-minute deal with Tory Remainer rebels led by Dominic Grieve, but was later revived by the Lords amid claims that May had gone back on her word.…

Widespread delays in universal credit payments are causing hardship to the poorest in society, and the reformed benefits system is not delivering value for money, the National Audit Office (NAO) said last week. In 2017, a quarter, or 113,000, of new claims were not paid in full on time. Of those, between January and October, 40% were at least 11 weeks late, and in 20% of cases they were at least five months late, forcing many to turn to food banks for help. The official public spending watchdog accused the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) of “dismissing evidence of claimants’ difficulties and hardship”. A DWP spokesperson countered by saying that 83% of claimants are satisfied with the service and most agree that it “financially motivates” them to work. The…

New York State sues Trump’s charity: In an extraordinary move against a sitting US president, the attorney general of New York state has filed a lawsuit against the Trump family’s charity, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, accusing it of violating charity laws and seeking to have it closed down. Barbara Underwood filed her action last week, following a two-year investigation. The lawsuit accuses the charity and the Trump family of multiple illicit dealings – such as using the foundation’s funds to settle legal claims against Trump’s businesses – and violations of campaign funding laws. The state is seeking $2.8m in restitution and penalties, and to have the foundation’s remaining $1m in assets handed to other charities; it also wants Donald Trump to be banned from managing a charity for ten…

1* Three Lions by Ian Broudie, David Baddiel and Frank Skinner, performed by Baddiel & Skinner & The Lightning Seeds 2 When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin’ Along by Harry Woods, performed by Billy Cotton & The Johnston Singers 3 Diana, written and performed by Paul Anka 4 Daniel by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, performed by Elton John 5 Annie’s Song, written and performed by John Denver 6 Don’t Cry for Me Argentina from Evita, by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, performed by Elaine Paige 7 Abide with Me by Henry Francis Lyte and William Henry Monk, performed by Martin Neary and the Westminster Abbey choir 8 The Boy in the Bubble by Forere Motloheloa and Paul…

Under the tradition of “Civis Britannicus sum” (I am a British citizen) all subjects of the British Empire had, in theory, equal rights and privileges. These included the tradition that, as Attlee put it, “British subjects... of whatever race or colour... should be freely admissible to the United Kingdom”. The latter was formalised just as the Windrush docked, by the British Nationality Act 1948. This gave UK citizenship to all the inhabitants of British colonies and the Commonwealth – a fifth of the world’s population. Remarkably, when this law was debated in the Commons, says the historian Randall Hansen, “there was not a single reference” to the possibility that it might lead to mass immigration. Instead, says Hansen, the law was merely meant to iron out legal inconsistencies created by…

Clinton gets his belated comeuppance Maureen Dowd The New York Times “Book tours can be brutal,” says Maureen Dowd. Just ask Bill Clinton. In an interview this month in which Clinton was touting his new thriller, written in collaboration with the author James Patterson, the former president finally experienced his #MeToo moment. He was asked whether recent controversies about sexual harassment had made him think differently about his conduct back in the 1990s. And his testy, self-exculpatory reply has prompted widespread condemnation. Until now, Clinton has largely escaped a proper public shaming over the way he treated Monica Lewinsky and other women while he was president. At the time, even many prominent feminists were willing to make excuses for “Saturday Night Bill”, as the dark side of his character was…

A fifth of British mammals are in danger of becoming extinct within the next decade, according to the largest survey of its kind for 20 years. Natural England and The Mammal Society’s review used data collected by the public as well as scientists to conduct an audit of all 58 of the country’s wild land mammal species. Twelve were placed on a “red list”, meaning they’re at risk of becoming extinct in the next decade: these include the wildcat, the black rat, the red squirrel and the beaver. (One species, the greater mouse-eared bat, is so endangered there is just one known individual left in England.) The researchers also found steep declines in species such as the hedgehog and the water vole, populations of which have fallen by nearly 70%…

Another week, another Twitter “lynch mob”, said Fraser Nelson in The Daily Telegraph. The latest victim of our “digital Salem”, where “to be accused is to be guilty”, is the novelist Lionel Shriver. This month, she wrote a column in The Spectator mocking the publisher Penguin Random House for its new policy of hiring staff and authors based on whether they reflect a “diverse” society; diversity was to be established by a tick-box exercise so long and PC that it contained options for both “bi” and “bisexual”. Her perfectly “rational” argument – that publishers should be concerned with talent, not social quotas – was greeted with uproar. Shriver was accused of every kind of bigotry. And after a few days, “the mob got its scalp”: she was dropped as a…

“Sometimes you need to get knocked down before you can really figure out what your fight is.” Actor Chadwick Boseman, quoted in The Washington Post “What I loved as an actor was working with me as a director.” Rupert Everett, being interviewed about his new film on The Andrew Marr Show “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” Dolly Parton, quoted in USA Today “The imagined community of millions seems more real as a team of 11 people.” Eric Hobsbawm, quoted in The Guardian “Getting your history wrong is part of what makes a nation.” French philosopher Ernest Renan, quoted in The Sunday Telegraph “One reason to imagine that Theresa May has hidden depths is that the thought of the…

The England rugby team are in “freefall”, said Chris Foy in The Mail on Sunday. Last Saturday, for the second week in a row, they “threw away a commanding lead” against South Africa: having been 12-0 up, they failed to score in the final 67 minutes and lost 23-12. They fell victim to the same old shortcomings: “missed tackles, ruck problems and a lack of composure”. England have now lost their last five Tests; having been second in the world rankings as recently as February, they have dropped to sixth. Last year, when the side were celebrating their 18-Test winning streak, there was talk of a “new golden age”. Now, however, they face a “growing crisis”. England aren’t in a rut, said Tom Fordyce on BBC Sport online. They’re in…

Programmes Reporting Trump’s First Year: The Fourth Estate Four-part series about the first year of Trump’s presidency, as seen from the offices of The New York Times. Sun 24 June, BB2 21:00 (75mins). The People vs. The NHS: Who Gets the Drugs? The fascinating true story of how doctors, activists and Aids charities came together to force the NHS to offer PrEP – a drug that prevents HIV transmission – to people deemed at high risk. Wed 27 June, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Storyville: This Is Congo The shocking, award-winning film by photojournalist Daniel McCabe about war-ravaged DR Congo – a place of “beauty and horror, hope and despair”. Wed 27 June, BBC4 22:00 (85mins). Napoleon Originally shown in 2007, this one-off drama – introduced by Andrew Roberts – charts Napoleon…

Leroy 18 Phipp Street, Shoreditch, London EC2 (020-7739 4443) I’ve got no time for Michelin-bothering earnestness, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. “No, give me a dark, noisy, naughty wine bar with a pleasing menu any day”, one like Leroy – from the owners of Ellory, a Michelin-starred gaff that closed a few months ago. “Any restaurant that purposefully combusts and begins again with a name like a drunken memory is good by me” – especially when it’s “much, much better” than the original. Smoked trout is a “world class plate of smoked magic” with a pickled red onion salad. Beetroot salad with hazelnuts is so delicious I “demolish it like a large greedy squirrel”. A plate of white asparagus, roasted simply in butter, and “titivated” with a dipping…

● Pollen sticks to everything, so it’s important to wash it off. When you get home from outside, take a shower, wash your hair and change your clothes. ● For the same reason, avoid drying your laundry outdoors on high-pollen days – sunny, humid, warm days without rain. ● Wear sunglasses to stop pollen getting in your eyes, wrap-around ones if possible. ● Dab Vaseline around your nostrils to trap the pollen before you breathe it in. ● Pollen accumulates indoors too, so dust with a damp cloth and vacuum regularly. ● If you’re really struggling, avoid being outside at the worst times of the day for pollen levels. Typically, that means early morning and late afternoon and evening. ● The Met Office has a daily pollen forecast, so you…

Set deep in the Wiltshire countryside, this medieval inn was refurbished by Ben Maschler, former director of food at Soho House and son of restaurant critic Fay. It’s a “culinary treat” and good value, says Tom Chesshyre in The Times. There are old church pews to sit on in the low-ceilinged, candlelit bar, and rooms are furnished in “pared-down, Scandichic style”, with sisal carpets and whitewashed walls brightened with blankets and low-slung sofas. The “excellent” food includes pub staples and more sophisticated British dishes, and there’s lovely walking country all around. Doubles from £100 b&b. 01722-714318, thecompassesinn.com  .…

Former convict who enthralled the nation as “Dirty” Den Leslie Grantham 1947-2018 On Christmas Day 1986, more than 30 million people in the UK sat down to watch the landlord of the Queen Vic serve divorce papers on his long-suffering wife, said BBC News online. It was a seminal moment in British television – those viewing figures, in these multichannel days, are never likely to be reached again; nor has any soap character since gripped the nation’s attention as tightly as “Dirty” Den Watts. A complex character, Den was capable of roguish charm, even kindness, but also of chilling brutality. On that Christmas Day, he offered EastEnders fans a “masterclass in sneering, scowling, superbly controlled spite. The pleasure taken in inflicting pain was both unforgettable and unbearable.” If Den was…

Debenhams announced in April that it would cut the size of at least 30 stores to counter what CEO Sergio Bucher has called “exceptionally difficult times” on the UK high street. That clearly wasn’t enough, said Zoe Wood and Julia Kollewe in The Guardian. Shares in the department store group plummeted again on Tuesday after a third profit warning this year. They’ve now halved in value in 2018. Debenhams is one of a string of retailers, including its ailing rival House of Fraser, using a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) – a form of insolvency – to close outlets. Bucher said it would seek to negotiate rent reductions with landlords on 25 stores that are up for lease renewal in the next five years. “New Look, Carpetright and Mothercare have already…

“There’s nothing worse than being hit with an unexpected tax bill that knocks a damaging hole in your carefully constructed budget,” says Mark Atherton in The Times. “But imagine if the taxman sent you a rebate.” Here are some useful tricks for getting money back from HMRC. Being married If one partner does not pay tax, and the other pays basic-rate tax, you qualify for the Government’s marriage allowance – worth £1,190 this financial year. You can claim back for three previous years to April 2015 and “earn” about £900. Working at home The simplest way to claim back some of your costs is to use the taxman’s ready reckoner, which will allow you to claim up to £18 a month in tax relief to cover utilities, “without having to…

The week’s best buys Cairn Energy The Times The oil and gas explorer has a “clear road map” for increasing production over the next five years. A $1.6bn tax dispute, which has been hanging over Cairn since 2014, is set to clear and a special windfall from the arbitration would be an added boost. Buy. 233p. Impax Asset Management Investors Chronicle This sustainable investment specialist has a record of beating market expectations. Having gained £1bn in net inflows, the acquisition of US-based Pax World earlier this year added another £2bn. Continuing momentum. Buy. 207.5p. Speedy Hire The Sunday Times The power drill supplier has rationalised stock lines and is expanding its services arm. Debt is down and infrastructure projects, such as the Thames Tideway Tunnel, will cushion it in a…

Parents of children at a Cardiff primary school have been scolded for using “video evidence” to challenge the results of the egg and spoon race. In a letter to parents, Sian Evans, the head teacher of Ysgol Mynydd Bychan, warned that a growing number of parents were filming the races on sports day, then using the footage to question the staff’s verdicts at the finish line and on social media. “Teacher’s word is final,” she wrote. Royal Ascot has become such a riotous occasion, police sniffer dogs are patrolling the racecourse this year in search of illegal drugs, while racegoers suspected of being drunk on arrival will be breathalysed. The new security policy covers all areas, including the Royal Enclosure.…

Many Scots would rather Russia won the football World Cup than England. 29% said they would be sad if England won the tournament; 28% said the same about Russia. 22% said they’d support “any team” playing England. Panelbase/The Sunday Times 75% of Britons think doctors should be able to prescribe cannabis for medicinal purposes; 12% disagree. 51% support a softer stance on cannabis in general; 27% say it should be legalised and 24% that it should be decriminalised. 40% support the current policy. YouGov 66% of voters, and 63% of Conservatives, would be willing to pay more income tax to fund the NHS. YouGov/The Independent…

Tehran Lawyer held: One of Iran’s most prominent human rights lawyers has been arrested and told she will serve five years in prison, according to her family. Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was awarded the EU’s Sakharov Prize for human rights in 2012, was arrested at home and told she had been convicted in absentia of propaganda against the state and collusion with a defendant. The charges appear to relate to her defence of one of a group of women who had been arrested for protesting against Iran’s hijab law by taking off their headscarfs and waving them in the street. Damboa, Nigeria “Safe” area attacked: Suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers attacked the town of Damboa in Borno, northeast Nigeria last Saturday – just hours after the head of the country’s army…

“I love the NHS because we pay for it with our taxes, and because the care we receive is the same whether we’ve paid a million pounds or nothing. If we want to save the NHS, we need to celebrate tax. We need to think of it not as money the Government steals from us, but as our contribution to a safe and just and healthy society. It’s thanks to the NHS that my wife and our youngest son are still alive. But the true worth of the NHS is not that it saved my family. It is that it would make the same effort for every family, even if that family were destitute. The true worth of the NHS is that those of us who are lucky enough to…

It’s our fault we’re short of nurses Mary Dejevsky The Independent The “cap” has gone, says Mary Dejevsky. In response to “a loud chorus of special pleading”, the Government has relaxed immigration rules to let the NHS recruit more medical staff from outside the EU. The decision was “inevitable”, but that doesn’t make it right. The real question is why we still suffer such staff shortages. More than eight years have passed since the Department of Health asked consultants to project future requirements so that sufficient doctors and nurses could be trained. Had it followed the advice and started the training, the NHS could have had four years’ worth of extra nurses by now, and two of junior doctors, with more in the pipeline. But it didn’t, because importing experts…

“We still talk about American fascism as a looming threat, something that could happen if we’re not vigilant,” said Michelle Goldberg in The New York Times. “But for undocumented immigrants, it’s already here.” Under a new zero-tolerance policy – introduced this spring – of prosecuting everyone who enters the US illegally, hundreds of immigrant children have been forcibly separated from their detained parents and sent to overcrowded shelters. This has produced “countless horror stories”. Earlier this month, there was a heartbreaking report about a five-year-old boy from Honduras who had been separated from his father, and who cried himself to sleep at night with a stick-figure drawing of his family under his pillow. Another report revealed that an asylum seeker, also from Honduras, had hanged himself in a Texas jail…

Blood pressure and dementia People aged 50 with only moderately raised blood pressure still have a significantly higher chance of developing dementia, a new study has found. The link between hypertension – defined in the UK as a reading of 140/90 mmHg or more – and dementia is well established, but this is the first evidence to suggest that more modest spikes increase the risk. Drawing on a cohort study of 10,000 British civil servants who were subjected to a range of health tests in the mid-1980s and followed up over subsequent decades, researchers found that a systolic blood pressure reading of just 130 mmHg at the age of 50 was associated with a 45% greater risk of developing dementia. The findings, which were reported in the European Heart Journal,…

Robert De Niro may have won a standing ovation for shouting “F**k Trump” at the Tony Awards (see page 14), but the president lost no time in hitting back at the star of Raging Bull. “Robert De Niro, a very Low IQ individual, has received to [sic] many shots to the head by real boxers in movies,” he tweeted. “I watched him last night and truly believe he may be ‘punch-drunk’... Wake up Punchy!” The natty suits worn by Hugh Grant playing Jeremy Thorpe in A Very English Scandal were supplied by another controversial politician – George Galloway, who together with his wife owns a vintage clothes shop in Notting Hill. “I met Thorpe once,” says Galloway, “and was reminded of what Auberon Waugh said: he knew Thorpe was a…

Whoever said sport and politics don’t mix? If there’s one thing we can already say for sure about this World Cup, said The Independent, it is that it’s virtually a “global party political broadcast” for Vladimir Putin. Political leaders from all over the world are endorsing him just by turning up. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia was a high-profile guest at the opening event. President Macron will attend if France makes it to the semi-finals. Theresa May and Prince William kept away – the Salisbury poisoning made that inevitable – but Robbie Williams was there to make up for it. Boycotting the World Cup was the one chance the West had to embarrass Putin for his provocations – annexing Crimea, colluding with Assad in the use of…

It was shaping up to be a typical World Cup opener for England, said Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail. “Soft penalty. Tick. Raheem Sterling missed sitter. Tick.” An underwhelming scoreline; clear room for improvement; frustrated fans watching at home. “Tick, tick and bloody tick.” And then, in the 91st minute of the Tunisia match in Volgograd on Monday, Harry Kane scored his second goal of the game, giving England a 2-1 victory. It was a deserved win – England’s first in their opening match of a tournament since the 2006 World Cup. “Had the scoreline reflected England’s supremacy, Gareth Southgate’s side would have laid down the most emphatic marker of any nation at this World Cup so far.” It was all “a far cry” from England’s last appearance at…

Why Trump succeeded To The Guardian It is not difficult to understand why Donald Trump succeeded where Barack Obama and others failed on North Korea: contrary to the stand taken by previous US presidents, Trump concentrated on denuclearisation, not on regime change. North Korea embarked on its nuclear programme because it was not oblivious to how Washington treated its non-nuclear adversaries after the Cold War. If the US mugging of Serbia did not convey the message sufficiently, the ejection of Saddam Hussein’s regime certainly did – the North Koreans started reviewing their nuclear programme around the time of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Jonathan Freedland, reiterating the language of the previous US administrations, calls Kim Jong Un a “pariah” and a “tyrant”. But Trump is the first US president who…

Theatre The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Adapted by David Harrower from the novel by Muriel Spark Director: Polly Findlay Donmar Warehouse, Earlham Street, London WC2 (020-3282 3808). Until 28 July Running time: 2hrs 35mins (including interval) ★★★ The roll call of actresses who have played Muriel Spark’s “brilliant” creation Jean Brodie – the “dangerously influential” teacher in 1930s Edinburgh who inspires and destroys the young girls in her charge – is impressive indeed, said Paul Taylor in The Independent. Vanessa Redgrave starred in the first stage version in 1966; Maggie Smith won an Oscar for the film three years later. And Geraldine McEwan, Fiona Shaw and Patricia Hodge have all given notable interpretations. But even by these standards, Lia Williams is revelatory. She strides from the shadows of her…

Burrata with pomegranate and pistachio Serves 4 75g pomegranate seeds 75g pistachio nuts, roughly chopped 4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil 2 tbsps pomegranate molasses 1 x 150g buffalo burrata sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper • Place the pomegranate seeds in a bowl with the pistachio nuts, olive oil and pomegranate molasses and stir. Season to taste. • Tear the burrata into large pieces, arrange on a serving plate and spoon over the pomegranate mixture. Leave to stand for 10 minutes, then serve. Ricotta with black olives and rosemary Serves 4 4tbsps extra virgin olive oil 75g oil-cured black olives, pitted ½ tsp Calabrian chilli flakes 2 small rosemary sprigs, de-stalked 2 tbsps red wine vinegar 150g fresh ricotta • Heat the oil in a small frying pan,…

The Daily Telegraph The A6 turns 50 this year, but it really has kept up with the times. The new model, available from September, offers no fewer than 39 driver-assistance systems, including programs for traffic sign recognition and lane departure. But while the car is a thing of beauty, it does bring to mind one of those “ultra-modern hotels where you spend all your time working out how to switch on the lights”. Top Gear The 3-litre diesel and petrol engines are fine, but the “punchy” 2-litre diesel is especially impressive, and likely to be by far the UK’s biggest seller. All three use a “mild hybrid” technology that lets the engine coast at cruising speeds, making the A6 “super-smooth” on stop and start, and blissfully quiet. The steering feels…

At Murmur, set in six arches on Brighton’s new seafront plaza, Michael Bremner’s imaginative menu includes charred cauliflower with nori puree and shallot bhaji (www.murmur-restaurant.co.uk). A steel and glass box cantilevered over a sandy beach, The Seafood in St Andrews offers unparalleled views and local seafood with an Italian twist (www.theseafoodrestaurant.com). For more casual dining, try The Glorious Oyster at Sandhills in Instow, Devon – a rustic blue wooden hut with tables outside run by award-winning chef Lyndsay Platt (www.thegloriousoyster.co.uk). The Ship Inn, a pub overlooking the rugged coastline at Low Newton, Northumberland, offers local crab, smoked kippers and ales brewed on-site (www.shipinnnewton.co.uk). Every table has a sea view at art deco Dylan’s in Criccieth, Gwynedd. Try Menai mussels and lamb shoulder wrapped in parma ham (www.dylansrestaurant.co.uk). SOURCE: THE TIMES…

A wild South African road trip Running through the Klein Karoo desert of the Western Cape, South Africa’s Route 62 offers natural glories to match those of the Garden Route, to its south – but far fewer tourists, says Duncan Craig in The Sunday Times. To see its enticing western half, fly to George and then drive the 230 miles to Paarl, not far from Cape Town. Hundreds of ostriches stalk the “dusty terracotta” plains around Oudtshoorn; beyond lies the magnificent Swartberg Pass and, below it, the “vast subterranean cathedrals” of the Cango Caves. On game drives from the “sprawling” Buffelsdrift lodge, there are rhinos, giraffes and elephants to see. And further on, as the landscape grows more green, you’ll find excellent vineyards and the quiet and relaxing natural hot…

KPMG: knuckles rapped Will regulators try to break up the Big Four auditors after a series of damaging scandals? There’s no sign of that yet, but the screws are tightening, said Caitlin Morrison in The Independent. This week, the Financial Reporting Council called for an overhaul of audit practice across Deloitte, EY, PwC and KPMG. However, it singled out KPMG for particular censure, lambasting an “unacceptable deterioration” in the quality of its audit work; upon inspection, 50% of the firm’s UK audits required “more than just limited improvements”, compared with 35% last year. This “stern rebuke” from the FRC, “itself under heavy pressure to demonstrate a tougher approach to monitoring the audit market”, will intensify pressure on KPMG to get its act together, said Madison Marriage in the Financial Times.…

The return of bullish banks Editorial Financial Times “Investment bankers have their mojo back,” says the FT. Profits at the top nine global investment banks hit $78bn last year, topping their 2007 level, before the crisis hit. “The natural reaction, for anyone who lived through 2008, can be summed up in one word: sell.” Investment banks are “creatures of the good times” and, on top of their bullishness, there are now other indications of a cyclical top: assets are expensive worldwide, US business confidence is at a peak and tax cuts have delivered a big fiscal stimulus. If ever there was a moment for bankers to take on too much risk, “planting the seeds of a nasty downturn”, it is now. But one of the most compelling reasons to think…

Gavi di Gavi “Montessora” 2016, La Giustiniana, Piemonte, Italy This is one of the most renowned single vineyard wines from Gavi di Gavi, which has been going through a renaissance recently. Donato Lanati, one of the leading Italian wine academics and consultants, has been involved here for two decades, which is why it is the Gavi di Gavi of choice for many Michelin-starred restaurants. With its straw colour, floral nose and minerally backbone, it’s ready to drink now, but could easily age for a decade or more. Perfect with oysters. Sauvignon Blanc 2016, Blank Canvas, Marlborough, New Zealand This is far more up front than the French equivalents from the Loire Valley. Winemaker Matt Thomson has worked with Liberty Wines for nearly a quarter of a century, first as a…

Standing outside Finsbury Park Mosque, Aimen Dean seems uneasy, and with good reason: the last time he came here, he was a spy gathering information on Islamist extremists. A former member of al-Qa’eda, he betrayed the terror group to become an informant for British intelligence. Now his life is in danger: the “brothers” put a fatwa on him and want him dead. Dean is diminutive, with thick glasses and fine hair. Hard as it is to guess from his unthreatening demeanour, Dean, a Bahraini who grew up in Saudi Arabia, was once a Kalashnikov-toting jihadist, a graduate of a terrorist “finishing school” in Afghanistan and, for years, the most important spy the West had in al-Qa’eda. Under the codename Lawrence – as in Lawrence of Arabia – he tipped off…