Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1227 i The Week

What happened The Farage factor There was mounting alarm in Tory and Labour ranks this week after a poll suggested that Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party could win a bigger vote share in next Thursday’s European elections than the two main parties put together. Leave voters angry about the failure of the Government to deliver Brexit look set to defect en masse to Farage’s party, which was only launched last month. Remain voters, meanwhile, are expected to swing behind unambiguously pro-EU parties such as the Liberal Democrats and the Greens. Labour attracted more criticism this week for sending mixed messages about its Brexit stance. At a meeting on Tuesday, the Cabinet decided not to try to hold another vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal before the EU elections. The PM…

The Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp has admitted to a security flaw that has enabled hackers to install surveillance software on users’ phones by simply ringing them on the app’s call function. Devised by the Israeli cyber-intelligence firm the NSO Group, the spyware was transmitted even if the user did not answer the phone, with the call then vanishing from the log. It could then be used to turn on the device’s microphone and camera, and gather its data. WhatsApp said only a “select number” of its 1.5 billion users had been targeted, and that the flaw had now been fixed. One target is believed to have been a UK-based human rights lawyer who is working on a case against NSO.…

Washington DC Biden targeted: Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has urged authorities to look into former vice-president Joe Biden over his ties to Ukraine. Biden, who recently announced a run for the presidency, has been accused of using his influence as vice-president to further his son’s business in the country – a charge he strenuously denies. Last week, Giuliani said he would travel to Kiev to seek evidence, only to abruptly cancel the trip. Senator Elizabeth Warren said it was “unethical” for the president’s lawyer to get involved in an investigation that could influence the next US election. Separately, it emerged that Attorney General William Barr has appointed a top prosecutor, John H. Durham, to lead an inquiry into how the Mueller investigation began, and whether the Justice Department spied…

1 All the Way Around by Arthur “T-Boy” Ross and Leon Ware, performed by Marvin Gaye 2* Heaven on Their Minds by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, performed by Murray Head, featured in Jesus Christ Superstar 3 Panic by Johnny Marr and Morrissey, performed by The Smiths 4 Paid in Full (Seven Minutes of Madness – Coldcut Remix) by Eric Barrier and Rakim Allah, performed by Eric B. and Rakim 5 Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right, written and performed by Bob Dylan 6 What’s Luv? by Joseph Cartagena, Irving Lorenzo, Jeffrey Atkins and Andre Parker, performed by Fat Joe and Ashanti 7 California, written and performed by Joni Mitchell 8 One Note Samba by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Newton Mendonça, performed by Herbie Mann and Antônio Carlos Jobim…

Trilogues, as the name suggests, are informal meetings in which a few key players from each of the EU’s three main institutions – MEPs from the relevant parliamentary committee, officials from the Council and the EC – hammer out a deal on a given policy. Ever since the 2009 Lisbon Treaty stressed the need for speedy decisions, they’ve become, as the EU Observer puts it, “the main engine in the sausage factory that churns out EU laws in Brussels”. The timing of trilogues isn’t known to most MEPs, let alone the public; no minutes are taken; no one knows which of Brussels’s countless lobby groups may have brought pressure to bear. Yet deals made in them are often presented to the EP on a “take-it-or-leave-it” basis, thus shortcircuiting the democratic…

GERMANY Beware the far-right crying wolf Die Tageszeitung (Berlin) The ancient fear of wolves has returned to Germany, says Ulrike Fokken. Under communist rule, East German farmers could shoot wolves straying across the Polish border. But under EU rules, they are a protected species and as their numbers grow, scare stories are proliferating on social media. After news spread of a wolf being spotted near a woodland playground, many are now afraid to walk in the forests. Many stories are clearly made up, but that doesn’t matter to Germany’s far-right, for whom the wolves have become a hot-button issue. Alternative for Germany treats them as a threat on a par with immigration, demanding an “upper limit” and “wolf-free zones”. If left unchecked, it insists, thousands of wolves will roam the…

For 8,000 years, “Doggerland” – a vast strip of land that once connected Britain to continental Europe – has lain submerged beneath the North Sea. Now scientists have embarked on an ambitious project to chart the Mesolithic landscape, in the hopes of revealing traces of the thousands of prehistoric people who lived there until sub-Arctic ice began to melt, and it was engulfed by rising sea levels. “We can’t walk those fields looking for pottery or stone fragments, we can’t dig,” said Prof Vincent Gaffney from the University of Bradford. Instead, he and his British and Belgian team will use seabed mapping data to produce a 3D chart revealing Doggerland’s rivers, lakes, hills and coastline, reports The Guardian. They will also take core sediment samples to extract fragments of DNA…

“You may have become aware of a worsening background hum to British public life,” said Marina Hyde in The Guardian. It’s the clamour heard by the many Tory MPs who are “reluctantly deciding that it falls to them to answer the call for a leadership bid”. The field of candidates is growing larger by the day. Some, such as Andrea Leadsom, Liz Truss, Rory Stewart and Esther McVey, have openly declared their hands, while others have been more coy, signalling their credentials via wide-ranging interviews and speeches. Matt Hancock had himself pictured at a stud farm for an interview with The Times. Dominic Raab followed that by getting photographed at home with his wife for a Sunday Times profile. Penny Mordaunt and Amber Rudd are also “on manoeuvres”. And it’s…

Winning the Premier League title is difficult enough, said Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail. Retaining it is one of the toughest challenges in football: so tough, in fact, that before this season, the last team to achieve the feat were Manchester United a decade ago. But on Sunday, at the end of this “most astonishing of seasons”, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side beat Brighton 4-1 to seal the title for the second year in a row. And they pulled it off in the face of a tireless challenge from Liverpool, “one of the greatest teams the competition has ever seen”, who came second despite racking up 97 points – a haul that would have won them the title in all but three seasons in the history of top-flight football.…

To Standpoint Congratulations to Patrick Galbraith for his excellent article about “rewilding” as promoted by George Monbiot. Although Monbiot and his fellow eco-warriors claim that the lynx and the wolf should be “brought home” to the UK as lost British native species, hard evidence for the lynx’s presence in the UK is almost non-existent: two incomplete skeletons, which could have belonged to escaped animals. (Lion remains have been found near the Tower of London, but no one has ever suggested that lions were native to Britain in the present interglacial.) Some authorities assert that the first lynx definitely seen here was a Canada lynx, which was presented to Queen Elizabeth I. The introduction of the lynx into Scotland would almost certainly deliver the coup de grâce to the already threatened…

Best books… Caroline Criado Perez The writer and feminist activist picks her favourite books. She is talking about her new book, Invisible Women, on 2 June at the Hay Festival (23 May-2 June; hayfestival.com) Don’t Hold My Head Down by Lucy-Anne Holmes, 2019 (Unbound £14.99). A hilarious, poignant and much-needed book about sex, how we’ve made such a mess of it and one woman’s quest to change that. I can’t remember laughing out loud so much reading a book. Every young woman (and man) should read it. Testosterone Rex by Cordelia Fine, 2017 (Icon £8.99). The story that Jordan Peterson loves to tell is that women’s subjugation is a natural by-product of men’s testosterone-infused urges. In this witty, authoritative guide, Fine shows us the truth is more complex, and overturns…

New cars: what the critics say The Daily Telegraph There’s a lot riding on the Giulia. Alfa Romeo hopes it will break the German stronghold on performance saloons, as well as its own run of “underwhelming products” – and its “dire” reputation for reliability. For the most part, the car delivers: it is both “exciting” to drive and easy to live with – and to combat the reliability problem, the maker is offering a five-year, 75,000-mile warranty. Top Gear In terms of driving, Alfa Romeo has “smashed it out of the park”. The Giulia feels “light on its feet” and handles well. There’s a two-litre turbo petrol engine with 197 or 276bhp, and two options for a 2.2-litre diesel. Oddly, the UK gets only an eight-speed automatic gearbox. For full…

Queen Victoria’s seaside bolthole When she wanted to escape the constraints of royal life, Queen Victoria would snatch a “semblance of ‘normal’ domesticity” at her retreat on the Isle of Wight, Osborne House, says Sarah Baxter in The Sunday Telegraph. Built in 1845, the Italianate mansion was Victoria and Albert’s first home together, and is this year hosting an exhibition to mark the bicentenaries of the royal couple. Victoria was a prolific journal keeper, so much is known about the times they spent in their “little paradise”. The exhibits include a recreation of the Queen’s lavish “birthday table”, which features the 70 gifts still in the Osborne collection, as well as an erotic painting that Albert gave her. After following the trail through the house, you can stroll through the…

British Steel: emergency funding The industrial fallout from Brexit appears to be mounting, at least according to the bosses of British Steel, who this week requested “emergency government funding” to “avert collapse” with the loss of thousands of jobs, said Sylvia Pfeifer and Jim Pickard in the Financial Times. The company – the UK’s second-largest steel producer, employing about 4,500 people, mainly at its Scunthorpe plant – is in talks with ministers about “a package of support”, amounting to some £70m-£80m. The request for extra funding comes weeks after the Government stumped up £120m so British Steel could meet its EU emissions obligations – “the six-month delay to Brexit” had “left it facing a shortfall of carbon credits” and a hefty fine. The thinking in government is that “this…

Tech is a real bright spot for Britain Editorial Financial Times Needing a shot of optimism about the British economy? Look no further than our “booming tech industry”, says the FT. The sector is now “powering growth”: since the EU referendum in 2016, it has expanded by 17.6%, “compared with a sluggish 5.5% for the economy as a whole”. What explains this surge? Some argue that Britain’s liberal market economy is better placed to adopt new technologies than factory-based production, which is why we fell behind the rest of Europe in the mid-20th century. But the greatest success has come from “combining new technology with existing expertise”. According to one measure, “London now has more financial technology start-ups than San Francisco.” But if we want to preserve this asset, we…

● On a tear The world’s largest cryptocurrency, bitcoin, is “on a tear” again, hitting a nine-month high, above $7,000 per coin last weekend, and continuing to rise this week, said Bloomberg. The price, well above $8,000 midweek, remains “a long way off” bitcoin’s historic December 2017 peak when it hit a stratospheric $19,000. But the crypto rally seems to have momentum more broadly – other “alt-coins”, including the second-largest currency, ethereum, are also putting on pacy recoveries. So what’s up? ● Digital gold? Bitcoin’s recent surge “means that it is one of the strongest asset classes so far in 2019”, Simon Peters of eToro told City AM. It’s up 60% in the past month alone. A range of factors is being cited – including fears of a stock market…

Controversy of the week Baker’s offensive tweet “Farewell, then, Danny Baker’s Sausage Sandwich Game,” said Michael Hogan in The Daily Telegraph. Over ten years, the broadcaster won a devoted following for a surreal section of his Radio 5 Live phone-in, in which listeners guessed which condiment celebrity guests favoured on their sausage sarnies. But last week, his many fans could not save him from the consequences of a joke that misfired in “spectacular style”. On the day Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry introduced their new baby to the world, Baker tweeted a vintage photograph of a well-to-do couple holding hands with a chimp dressed in a suit and bowler hat, with the caption: “Royal baby leaves hospital.” When it was pointed out that to associate a mixed-race baby…

A YouGov poll for The Times taken in advance of the European elections gave Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party 34% of the vote – more than the Tories and Labour combined. Labour was on 16%, the Lib Dems 15%, the Green Party 11% and the Tories only 10%. Change UK were on 5% and UKIP 3%. In a similar Opinium poll for The Observer, the Brexit Party was again on 34%, while Labour was on 21%, the Lib Dems 12% and the Tories 11%. Although Denmark is regarded as one of the best countries to be a woman, owing to its equality laws, only one in six Danes consider themselves feminists – one of the lowest proportions in the developed world. YouGov-Cambridge Centre/ The Guardian…

Zarzis, Tunisia Scores drowned: At least 65 people trying to reach Italy from northwest Libya were drowned last Friday when their boat capsized and sank about 40 miles off the coast of Tunisia. Most of the dead were from Bangladesh; all were reportedly male. It was the worst mass drowning in the Mediterranean since January, when 117 people who had left Libya in a rubber dinghy went missing at sea (most remain unaccounted for). There were reportedly 16 survivors of Friday’s disaster, who spent several hours drifting at sea before being rescued by fishing boats and brought to the Tunisian port of Zarzis. According to the International Organisation for Migration, 2,297 migrants died or went missing in the Mediterranean last year; a total of 116,959 people reached Europe. So far…

“There’s a reason why we all like the Queen – even bloodthirsty republicans like me – and that’s because she never shows her feelings. She makes us feel that a safe pair of hands is steering us to a calm harbour. Regrettably, I was one of the media mob who bayed for her blood when she refused to rend her clothing over the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, but now I’ve calmed down, I get it. In a world where showing emotion is demanded as proof of our humanity, keeping calm and soldiering on looks like the sensible and the self-willed option. After the hurly-burly of the touchy-feely – to misquote Mrs Patrick Campbell – it’s understandable to crave the deep, deep peace of the stiff upper lip.” Julie…

WhatsApp is poisoning politics John Harris The Guardian For an alarming glimpse of where democracy is heading in the online age, look no further than India’s election, says John Harris. The largest vote in history, it has been contested less on the streets than on WhatsApp. Up to 300 million Indians use the messaging app, and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ruthlessly exploited this fact, deploying an army of 900,000 WhatsApp activists to spread its election messages. Once forwarded, these messages contain no information about their original source, thus giving campaigners the added advantage of being able to spread fake news and to stoke divisions with “complete deniability”. And this circulation of inflammatory material – even far-right British activist Tommy Robinson has gained a BJP following – has…

Virus treatment saves teenager In a world first, a British teenager has made a remarkable recovery from a life-threatening, drug-resistant bacterial infection after being treated with a virus. Isabelle Holdaway, 17, underwent a lung transplant last year that left her infected with a bacterial strain similar to TB. With no drugs working, and black lesions growing over her body, she was given less than a 1% chance of survival and went home for palliative care; but then her mother read about an experimental treatment called phage therapy and asked her consultant if they could try it. Discovered a century ago, phages are viruses that infect and kill bacteria. As they are very specific as to which infections they kill, their use as a mainstream treatment has been limited. Nevertheless, her…

“Politics always has been a rough trade,” said The Times, and witty insults have long been part of its cut and thrust. The best – such as Churchill’s description of Chamberlain as a man who “looks at our national affairs through the wrong end of a municipal drainpipe” – have become part of the canon. But political insults are not what they were: cleverness has been replaced by mere vulgarity. The latest example is the Liberal Democrats’ “witless” slogan for their EU election campaign: “Bollocks to Brexit.” Whether or not this is a wise choice for a mainstream party wanting pre-watershed TV exposure is up to them to decide, but the Lib Dems should not be coarsening the public discourse at a time when the atmosphere is already toxic. With…

In the end, “the unstoppable shifted the immovable”, said Paul Rees in The Observer. Last Saturday, Saracens and Leinster, Europe’s two finest sides, met in the final of the Champions Cup, the continent’s top club competition. Leinster were the reigning champions; Saracens won the tournament in 2016 and 2017. But after Leinster went 10-0 up, Sarries fought back, scoring two tries to win 20-10. This was a true masterclass from the north London side, “a display of zeal and power”, said Mick Cleary in The Sunday Telegraph. They “pounded Leinster until they cracked”. The victory confirmed that Saracens are a “genuine brotherhood”, who work as a collective. And having won the Champions Cup three times, they are now “the most successful English side ever in Europe”. This may have been…

Will and Clarrie feel terrible they didn’t notice they were overloading Mia with tasks. Ed and Jazzer are shearing at Brookfield when Tim calls. He blackmails Ed into doing another dodgy delivery job. Jazzer tells Ed that he could get thousands for constructive dismissal. Elizabeth enjoys the opening of the Brexart exhibition; she’s dazzled by the guests, the canapés and Russ’s organisational skills. Natasha messages Tom to say she’s not coming to the interview with The Echo. Tom does the interview, but has to admit to Helen that Natasha’s moved out. Jazzer’s all set to sue Bridge Farm, so Jim suggests he finds a no-win no-fee solicitor. Jazzer asks Jim to act for him. Jim informs Tom that he wants to discuss Jazzer’s severance pay, saying he will be representing…

The Fish House Fistral Unit 5, International Surfing Centre, Newquay, Cornwall (01637-872085) As a food critic, I get to eat at some excellent restaurants, but usually it does still feel like work, says Keith Miller in The Daily Telegraph. So I mean it as high praise when I say that The Fish House, on Newquay’s Fistral Beach, is somewhere I’d recommend as a place to go if you’re in the area and off-duty, and just want to “have a nice time with people you like”. The location is “heavenly, right on the yawning arc of the beach, with a westward tilt to catch the waning sun”. The vibe is relaxed and friendly, yet the service swift. And the food cooked by Paul Harwood, an ex-Rick Stein chef, is “not…

Majorca beach escape Just steps from the sandy beach of C’an Pastilla, the BQ Aguamarina hotel has 4 nights half-board from £452pp, including Liverpool flights. 0871-474 3000, onthe beach.co.uk. Depart 25 June. Poland multi-centre break Spend 2 nights in cultural Kraków and 2 nights in Zakopane, a mountain resort, from £229pp b&b, London flights and trains included. 020-3326 1516, viva-holidays.co.uk. Depart 1 July. Four-star Slovenia A 5-night stay at Hotel Piran, which is situated next to the harbour and has beautiful sea views, costs from £586pp b&b, including Birmingham flights. 020-3788 4844, ebookers.com. Depart 12 July. 7 nights in Costa Rica An all-inclusive stay at the 5-star Hotel Riu Guanacaste, in the small beach town of Matapalo, costs from £683pp, including London flights. 020-3451 2720, firstchoice.co.uk. Depart 10 June.…

Stock markets globally tumbled after Beijing retaliated against the US tariff hike on Chinese imports, vowing to raise duties on $60bn of US goods to between 10% and 25%. The escalating trade tensions caused heavy losses in New York, while global stocks fell to the lowest level since March. Worries over trade spread to emerging market currencies and sent investors heading for the comparative safety of government bonds, gold and alternative assets, such as bitcoin. It set the tone for a tumultuous IPO for Uber, whose shares went heavily into reverse soon after trading started. Britain’s economy enjoyed a strong start to the year: GDP grew by 0.5% in Q1, up from 0.2% in the previous quarter, according to government figures. Widespread stockpiling by retailers, fearful of a no-deal crash…

Travis Kalanick In 2015, the Uber co-founder “compared going public to going to the prom”, said Forbes. Sadly, years of bad behaviour and a toxic culture meant Kalanick, who reaped the largest individual payout from the float, didn’t get to be “prom king” when Uber debuted last week. But he did have fun keeping everyone guessing. When the current boss, Dara Khosrowshahi, refused Kalanick’s request to ring the opening bell on the famous balcony of the New York Stock Exchange, traders were left playing an updated version of Where’s Wally. “TV crews eventually spotted Kalanick high above the exchange floor with his father in tow,” reported City Spy in the London Evening Standard. Unsportingly, he wasn’t wearing “the trademark striped red and white jumper and woolly hat”. Pauline Walsh A…

Keen on playing the markets, but lacking confidence? Why not “join forces with your friends to spread the risk”, says Marc Shoffman in The Times. Investment clubs are a great way to learn the ropes of investing Join the club Anyone over 18 can join or set up a club: the UK has thousands, mostly started by friends, neighbours or colleagues. Members pay a regular sub (ranging from £10 to £100 a month), which is invested in the joint portfolio. Set the rules Crucial for avoiding disputes. The Proshare Investment Club manual has a useful set of templates and guidance. When it comes to selecting stocks, “you need a balance between healthy debate and consensus”. Prepare to accept some ideas you don’t necessarily like. Find a broker A DIY investment…

Eton College is adding gratitude, kindness and empathy coaching to its curriculum to build its pupils’ “character”. Following a review into what values Eton should be promoting, boys at the £40,700-a-year school are being taught to take a moment each day to acknowledge how others have helped them and what they have to be grateful for. In an attempt to boost the number of female applicants to Stem (science, tech, engineering and maths) jobs, the Institute for Apprenticeships is to try using “gender-neutral” language in its job adverts. This will mean removing words deemed masculine, such as “confident” and “decisive”, and replacing them with words such as “kind” and “dependable”.…

Moerdijk, Netherlands Booby-trapped boat: A Dutch raid on a cargo ship that was being used as a floating crystal meth lab had to be aborted last week when the vessel suddenly began to sink. Police believe it had been sabotaged in an attempt to destroy evidence. Having become suspicious during a routine check on the 80-metre cargo ship as it was moored in the port of Moerdijk, officers boarded the vessel and found 300 litres of methamphetamine oil, seven kilos of “unstable” raw chemicals and pans for cooking up the drug. But before they could remove this evidence, the vessel began taking on water – the result of a pump being turned on, probably via a remote control. The ship was later stabilised, however, and towed away. Three Mexican men…

Huston on Ryan O’Neal Anjelica Huston came to regret cheating on Jack Nicholson with Ryan O’Neal in the late 1970s. The actor turned out to be “deeply disturbed” and violent, says Huston, 67: she left him after he headbutted her. But when they first met, he swept her off her feet. She and Nicholson were going through a bad patch, and then O’Neal turned up, in a maroon Rolls-Royce. “It was eye-watering, that car,” she told Andrew Goldman in New York magazine. “Ryan was a great beauty. If I were to say to you that this red-gold burnished god walked in the door and went on one knee and said, ‘You’re the most fantastic, wonderful, amazing person I’ve ever had the privilege to be in a room with’, you’d have…

A man has been arrested in Wisconsin after mislaying a backpack containing crystal meth and asking for it at the local police station. The bag, which had been left at Shawano County Library, also contained nunchuks, the martial arts weapon. Its owner, Joel Mullin-Romo, claimed that he had taken the meth from his girlfriend, while investigating her alleged drug dealing, and that the nunchuks were to protect himself from her. Shawano’s police chief, Dan Mauel, observed that such finds were common, but it’s rare that people show up to claim them. Fifteen sheep have been enrolled at a French primary school. The Jules Ferry school, in the village of Crêts-en-Belledonne in the French Alps, was told that it must lose one of its 11 classes because it didn’t have enough…

INDIA The BJP’s hygiene problem The New Republic (New York) India is modernising fast, says Rafia Zakaria, but one habit is proving stubbornly resistant to reform: “open defecation”. Narendra Modi pledged to change this when he was elected PM in 2014 at the helm of the Hindu nationalist BJP: he launched a $31bn programme to ensure every household had a lavatory. But little has changed. Last year, a study in the state of Tamil Nadu found that 55% of people still chose to defecate in the open despite having access to a toilet. This has a lot to do with the caste system. Higher-caste Hindus associate menial tasks such as emptying pit toilets with “untouchable” work – which is a problem, as the Dalits themselves have moved on to other…

Sherpas owe their remarkable ability to cope with life at high altitude to genes they inherited from a long-extinct ancient people who colonised the Himalayan region more than 160,000 years ago, a new study has concluded. Previous DNA analysis had suggested that Denisovans – cousins of the Neanderthals – had interbred with Homo sapiens, and passed on a genetic variant that enables Sherpas and Tibetans to power their muscles with less oxygen than other people. However, it was unclear why Denisovans possessed the adaptation: the one place their physical remains had been found was at a site in Siberia that is only 700 metres above sea level, and it seemed unlikely that they’d have reached such an inhospitable environment as the Tibetan plateau. Now, the discovery of a well-preserved 160,000-year-old…

Oprah Winfrey (pictured) agonised over whether to buy a private jet. It was seeing Bill Cosby’s wife, Camille, sitting alone on the couple’s plane that got her thinking about it. “I said, ‘Where is everybody?’ And she said, ‘There’s only me.’ I said, ‘You’re going to use this whole plane?’ And she said, ‘I’m worth it’ – just like that. And I went, ‘Well, if she’s worth it, maybe I’m worth it.’” But it was an encounter with a fan at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in 1991 that decided it. Winfrey was sitting on a bench waiting for her flight when she was approached by the woman. “She says, ‘I see you, trying to be incognito. On TV you always give people hugs. I want a hug.’ So I stood up…

“When everyone is somebody, then no one’s anybody.” W.S. Gilbert, quoted in The Sunday Times “Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.” American novelist Erica Jong, quoted in The Independent “People for whom politics is absolutely everything have very little to bring to it.” Douglas Murray on UnHerd “Wrinkles are hereditary. Parents get them from their children.” Doris Day, quoted in The Times “It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.” Rabindranath Tagore, quoted on The Browser “A critic is a man who knows the way, but can’t drive the car.” Theatre critic Kenneth Tynan, quoted in The New York Times Magazine “The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.” Julia Child, quoted…

Causes of knife crime To The Guardian Statistics quoted in The Guardian confirm that there is a correlation between cuts to youth services across England and the high incidence of knife crime committed by young people in some communities. The closure of much-needed youth clubs is only the tip of the iceberg, because youth provision encapsulates the whole range of services designed to meet the developmental needs of young people, from outreach work, advice and drop-in sessions, anger management and conflict resolution, to drugs and alcohol abuse advice. For many young people living in deprived communities, local youth clubs have often been the springboard to opportunities that lead to meaningful employment and lifelong volunteering, and participants have developed a range of skills such as resilience and leadership. Outdoor activities and…

One of the world’s most famous paintings, Johannes Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window has a “decidedly protracted” provenance, says Meilan Solly on Smithsonian.com. First, the canvas was attributed to Rembrandt – and then to Pieter de Hooch – before finally being identified as a Vermeer original in 1862, more than two centuries after it was painted. In February 1945, it “narrowly escaped” destruction during the Second World War firebombing of Dresden; later, it fell into the hands of the invading Soviet army, and was only returned to Germany in 1955, after the death of Stalin. Now, restorers at Dresden’s Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister have added a remarkable new chapter to the tale of the enigmatic 1657-59 masterpiece, one of only 34 paintings firmly attributed to Vermeer (1632-75).…

Programmes Gentleman Jack Sally Wainwright’s eight-part period drama about the 19th century polymath and landowner Anne Lister, who married a woman. With Suranne Jones. Sun 19 May, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). What We Do in the Shadows This US comedy series, set on Staten Island, is based on the hit New Zealand mockumentary following four vampires who live in a flatshare in Wellington. Sun 19 May, BBC2 21:45 (50mins). Walter Presents: Locked Up The acclaimed Spanish thriller set in a women’s prison returns for a third series. Sun 19 May, C4 23:20 (65mins). Thatcher: A Very British Revolution Revelatory new series charting the rise and dramatic fall of Margaret Thatcher, with contributions from her inner circle. Mon 20 May, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). The Hunt For Jihadi John C4/HBO documentary about Mohammed…

The combination of asparagus and peas is a classic one, says Chetna Makan, and mint is often added to bring freshness to the mix. In this dish, spices also work their magic to make a crisp, light and truly delicious spring salad Asparagus and pea salad Serves 2 200g asparagus 200g fresh or frozen peas handful of fresh mint leaves, finely chopped for the dressing: ¼ tsp chilli powder ¼ tsp ground cumin ¼ tsp ground ginger pinch of salt pinch of freshly ground black pepper 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil • Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add the asparagus and boil for 2 minutes, until the asparagus is half cooked. Now add the peas and boil for another 2 minutes, until the vegetables are…

The Pig at Bridge Place Kent The latest addition to The Pig stable is a Jacobean mansion “with a racy past”, says Susan d’Arcy in The Sunday Times. In the 1970s, the Grade II building was a country club that became notorious for hosting “raucous” gigs by Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. Now, it’s all “softly lit nooks, bashed bricks, battered beams” and plush sofas for a cosier kind of clubbiness. Rooms in the house come in all sizes and have the kind of flourishes you’d expect, such as gargoyles and carved four-posters, while the wooden Hop Pickers’ Huts, on stilts in a water meadow, are straight out of Little House on the Prairie. Doubles from £110 per night. 0345-225 9494; thepighotel.com.…

Hollywood legend who sang Qué Será, Será Doris Day 1922-2019 “The face of Doris Day, eerily beautiful in its buttery-blonde wholesomeness, beamed over Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s like a roadside billboard advertising the American way,” said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. In the period of “white America’s postwar prosperity”, she was a huge star, with a crossover career that easily equalled that of alpha males such as Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, though she was never granted their iconic status. Her uncoolness – her straightforward good nature, “can-do optimism” and lack of irony – was a “vital” ingredient in her success. But it was “held against her. No one says Doris Day is their favourite star, in the way no one says vanilla is their favourite…

There was no logical reason why panicked Brits were queuing up to withdraw their cash from Metro Bank last weekend – beyond the fact that “Facebook and its sub-brands seem immune to the libel laws”, said Jim Armitage in the London Evening Standard. Rumours on WhatsApp that the bank was “going bust” and “about to start raiding people’s safety deposit boxes” were “absurd, ill-founded and should be the matter of a legal inquiry”. All UK deposits up to £85,000 are guaranteed and Metro was hardly about “to go looting” its “customers’ Patek Philippes and gold bars from the vault”. That said, “the way this bank has been mismanaged is enough to spark alarm in anyone”. The cash crisis at Metro, which was launched by the US billionaire Vernon Hill in…