Innholdsfortegnelse for 1428 i The Week

“If the Tories do manage to pull off a surprise victory at the next election, we may look back on the past month as the point at which their fortunes turned,” said the Daily Mail. After the “tumult” of the Liz Truss era, there is a sense that “order and purpose” are being restored – a sense reinforced by Jeremy Hunt’s first Budget as Chancellor last week, designed to “supercharge” growth and get Britain “back to work”. It was certainly “a step in the right direction”, said the FT. Hunt benefitted from a slight improvement in the economic picture: the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) now predicts that the UK will avoid a recession this year. He used this new flexibility to opt for measures that should “directly unlock growth…

Civil servants and ministers, who were banned from having TikTok on their work phones. TikTok is owned by a Chinese firm, ByteDance, leading to fears that it could be forced to hand its data to the Chinese state. Secretary of State Oliver Dowden described the ban as “good cyber hygiene”. Rail commuters, with new figures showing that the TransPennine Express cancelled nearly a quarter of its services in the four weeks to 4 March. The operator, which covers routes in northern England and Scotland, has been affected by drivers no longer volunteering to work paid overtime shifts. The MCC, which was forced into a U-turn over its decision to drop the two oldest fixtures at Lord’s: Eton vs. Harrow and the Varsity Match. A survey of the club’s 24,350 members…

Amsterdam Shock win for farmers: A rural populist party, launched in the Netherlands in 2019 on the back of a wave of protests by farmers, has emerged as the big winner in the provincial elections that determine the make-up of the upper house of the Dutch parliament. The Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB) won 15 seats in the senate with almost 20% of the vote, putting it ahead of Dutch PM Mark Rutte’s centre-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, which was left with only ten seats. The result – in a poll viewed as a ballot on the government’s record – caps a remarkable rise for the BBB, which was founded with the single aim of blocking government plans to slash levels of nitrogen pollution from farms. Analysts said that the…

1 Over the Rainbow by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, performed by Judy Garland2 Beautiful Dreamer by Stephen Foster, performed by Sheryl Crow3* Sit Down by Jim Glennie, Larry Gott, Tim Booth and Gavan Whelan, performed by James4 Rollin’ Thunder, written and performed by Ian Stanton5 9 to 5, written and performed by Dolly Parton6 Something Good from The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers, performed by Julie Andrews and Bill Lee7 Palliative Claire (from Assisted Suicide: The Musical) by Liz Carr, performed by Claire Willoughby8 I Feel Love by Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, performed by Donna Summer Book: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Luxury: a pair of ruby slippers * Choice if allowed only one record…

Neoconservatism emerged among US liberals disenchanted with the 1960s Left. Its hallmarks were a strong belief in free markets and individual freedoms, along with the advocacy of military power abroad to promote US interests and democracy. Many senior defence officials in the Bush administration, such as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Paul Bremer, were vocal neocons and early advocates of the Iraq invasion. Bush’s powerful vice-president, Dick Cheney, and defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, were not avowed neocons, but supported their ideas. In June 2002, President Bush outlined a set of foreign policy principles known as “the Bush doctrine”: the US would act pre-emptively against its enemies; it would aim to export democracy around the world; and it would maintain clear global military supremacy. Such ideas weren’t limited to the neocons.…

A disastrous plan to drill in the Arctic Elizabeth Kolbert The New Yorker Are you confused by Joe Biden’s climate change policies? You should be, says Elizabeth Kolbert. On the one hand, the president has promised billions of dollars’ worth of tax credits to speed the transition away from fossil fuels, as part of his Inflation Reduction Act. On the other hand, that legislation also opens the way for millions of acres of federal land to be auctioned off for oil and gas drilling. In February 2020, as a presidential candidate, Biden insisted there should be “no more drilling on federal lands, period. Period, period, period,” adding that to drill for oil in the Arctic would be a “big disaster”. Yet he has just approved an immense new drilling operation…

Several cold and cough remedies have been withdrawn from the shelves owing to the risk they pose to people who are having major surgery. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said that it was acting in the light of evidence that taking pholcodine – an opioid cough suppressant – in the year before an operation, slightly increases the risk of anaphylaxis while under general anaesthetic. Pharmacists were told to stop supplying drugs that contain pholcodine, which include some Day Nurse and Night Nurse capsules, and Boots’ own-brand cough syrup, immediately. However, officials stressed that the risk of anaphylaxis (also known as anaphylactic shock) during surgery remained very small. Anyone who is scheduled to have surgery, and who has taken cough medicines in the past 12 months, is advised to…

“At last a government grasps the nettle,” said The Times. “British parents have long faced some of the highest childcare costs in Europe.” In England, full-time nursery costs about 65% of the median weekly wage, which for many parents makes it hardly worth working. But precious little has been done to help them, or to “unshackle the economy from this drag on growth”. In last week’s Budget, Jeremy Hunt made “the comprehensive offer that was so overdue”. Free childcare, which is currently provided only for three- and four-year-olds, will be extended to give working parents 30 free hours a week for all children aged between nine months and four years. For a government keen to get people back into employment, and to alleviate the cost-of-living crisis, this was an obvious…

“The right honourable gentleman has sat on the fence for so long that the iron has entered his soul.”David Lloyd George, quoted in The Hindu “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”Mark Twain, quoted in the Cape Cod Times “Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.”Immanuel Kant, quoted on Jezebel “Egotist: a person of low taste – more interested in himself than in me.”Ambrose Bierce, quoted in City Journal “Truth is fairest naked.”Schopenhauer, quoted on The Browser “In politics, a good rule of thumb is that things get serious when people who aren’t interested in politics start to notice.”Andrew Marr in The New Statesman “How heritable is intelligence? Nothing like as heritable as money.”Geneticist Steve Jones, quoted in the Guardian “I stopped believing…

To The Guardian The initiative by the Trevelyan family to pay reparations is laudable and welcome (“British slave owners’ family makes public apology in Grenada”). They directly benefitted from slavery, so this is appropriate. I have serious reservations about reparations being paid by me. The Government paying reparations means that my taxes would be used. My ancestors gained nothing from slavery. They worked in the mills and factories of Lancashire, in the most appalling conditions, and were housed in insanitary, dangerous and unhealthy accommodation with a record of disease and deprivation among the worst in Europe. Anyone who doubts this should read Friedrich Engels’s 1845 book, The Condition of the Working Class in England. If reparations are to be paid, a tax on the aristocrats and fat cats whose ancestors…

by Percival Everett Influx 276pp £9.99 The Week Bookshop £7.99 For four decades, Percival Everett has been the “unsung Jonathan Swift of modern American fiction”, churning out a series of “clever, funny and mercilessly satirical” works, said Robert Collins in The Times. His recent success with The Trees – a “stupendous novel” about the legacy of slavery, which was shortlisted for last year’s Booker Prize – finally brought him to wider attention. Now, he has published Dr. No, an “alchemical” spoof of an Ian Fleming novel that “smuggles into its harebrained pages another sly satire of race in America”. The central character, Wala Kitu, is a maths professor at Brown University whose “speciality is the idea of nothing”, said Stuart Kelly in The Spectator. His work attracts the attention of…

Oliver Bak at Cassius & Co. Peter Doig is one of several painters who spring to mind when considering the work of Danish artist Oliver Bak (b.1992). Like Doig and other apparent touchstones, including Marc Chagall and Gustav Klimt, Bak creates figurative scenes that bleed into passages of abstraction, often to ethereal effect. Caves in the Sky, a show of works inspired by the verse of the late French poet Roger Gilbert-Lecomte, presents a series of paintings and drawings full of heavily symbolic imagery: a black dog prowls in silhouette beneath a woman smoking a cigarette on a balcony; strange lights ring hazily realised figures; a floating shape that recalls the outline of a Matisse Madonna is filled with a humanoid skeleton. The most interesting works here are the most…

How to obey the laws of the fridge Last month, the Food Standards Agency reneged on its long-standing advice not to put potatoes in the fridge, in the light of new research showing that chilling spuds doesn’t make them any more harmful, and makes them last longer. But spuds aren’t the only item we’ve been storing all wrong, says Sarah Rainey in the Daily Mail. Other vegetables that people tend to keep in their fridges ought to come out: aubergines and peppers tend to go “soggy” when chilled, and are best kept at room temperature. Most fruits, by contrast, should be refrigerated – with the exception of bananas, which will turn black in the cold. As for ketchup – mainstay of fridge doors – experts insist that with all that…

● Ideally, mattresses should be cleaned every three to six months. ● Using the upholstery attachment on your hoover, vacuum the mattress, including the sides, paying special attention to seams and other crevices. Vacuum the base if possible too, and also under the bed. ● Never sponge your mattress or pour water on it. The jury is out on the use of steamers: some people think that using them will encourage bacteria. ● Instead, to get rid of stains, buy an appropriate stain remover and follow the instructions. A DIY 50/50 mix of hydrogen peroxide and cold water can be effective on urine stains, but apply it carefully as a spray. ● Sprinkle the mattress with baking soda to deodorise it and soak up any excess moisture, then leave it…

Dame Phyllida Barlow 1944-2023 Phyllida Barlow was 16 years old, and in her first term at art school, when one of her teachers noted that her painting had a sculptural quality, and suggested that she work in clay instead. It was, she said, “an awakening”. Yet it would be 50 years before she had her first major exhibition, at the Serpentine Gallery in London. Such was its success, her work was then shown at galleries all over the world, including Tate Britain; and in 2017, when she was 73, she was selected to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale. The media lapped up this story of late-life success, said The Times, though Barlow herself wasn’t entirely happy about “the focus on the little old lady living in Finsbury Park who…

Cold turkey is the only option Julian Jessop The Daily Telegraph “All it took to trigger the latest [banking] crisis was the return of official interest rates to what historically would be seen as normal levels,” says Julian Jessop. That doesn’t bode well. Even if rates rise no higher, “the fallout from unwinding the long period of practically free money” – a hangover from the 2008 financial crisis – “could drag on for years, and show through in many different ways”. One can speculate where the problem might pop up next. Italian government bonds? Japanese debt? But this adjustment will be painful across the board. “Weaker companies, and those with riskier business models” won’t be the only ones struggling. This poses a key dilemma for central banks, this week contemplating…

What happened The Metropolitan Police is institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic and needs additional oversight after losing the trust of the public, an excoriating review concluded this week. Commissioned after the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer in 2021, Baroness [Louise] Casey’s 363-page report said that the force is beset by “systemic and fundamental” issues, including a culture in which criticism is met by “defensiveness and denial”. It found that discrimination is “baked into the system”, and that bullying in the ranks is rife. The report suggested that the Met could be broken up if sufficient progress is not made in fixing the problems identified. Casey, a cross-bench peer, detailed a litany of failings. She found that rape kits containing evidence were stored in broken fridges, and that…

Magnums and chocolate buttons have been identified as the latest victims of “shrinkflation”, The Daily Telegraph reports. Cadbury has not put up the price of its “Big Share” bags of Dairy Milk buttons, but it has reduced the amount of chocolate in them, from 240g to 184.8g, while Magnum is now selling three ice creams in its multipacks, down from four. An academic paper was published this month warning that artificial intelligence poses a major risk “in relation to honesty and plagiarism” in academia. The paper was, it now emerges, written by the AI chatbot ChatGPT. “We wanted to show that ChatGPT is writing at a very high level,” said Prof Debby Cotton, who pretended to be the paper’s lead author.…

Suella Braverman paid an official visit to Rwanda last week, shortly after insisting that the country had the capacity to take in “many thousands” of asylum seekers deported from the UK. During the two-day trip, the Home Secretary toured buildings on the outskirts of Kigali that could be used to accommodate migrants, and had a 45-minute meeting with Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame. No migrants have been sent to Rwanda yet, nearly a year after the deportation deal was struck by Braverman’s predecessor, Priti Patel. The Government was accused of trying to limit negative media coverage of Braverman’s visit by only inviting journalists from right-wing outlets on the taxpayer-funded trip.…

Little Rock, Arkansas Anti-abortion monument: A controversial bill that provides for a “monument to the unborn” to be erected on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol has been signed into law by the state’s Republican governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The purpose of the memorial is, according to the bill, to commemorate “unborn children aborted during the era of Roe v. Wade”. That era came to an end last year, when the US supreme court struck down Roe v. Wade, thereby giving effect to a law Arkansas had approved in 2019 banning all abortions except those done to save the mother’s life. The new law requires state officials to oversee the selection of an artist and design for the memorial, with input from groups funding the project. However, even some…

“I’m cross about hot cross buns. A blamelessly simple seasonal offering bearing multiple messages of joy: Christ is risen; the days are getting longer; winter is over; spring is coming. So why mess with them? On our shelves now are to be found: red velvet hot cross buns; cheese, tomato and oregano hot cross buns; salted-caramel blondie hot cross buns; and West Country mature cheddar and stout hot cross buns. What more do you want? There’s precedent for hot cross bun legislation – restrictions on their sale were imposed in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. It’s time to look at this again and stamp out the twisting, which is verging on heretical.” Adrian Chiles in The Guardian…

All those small boats lead to the car wash Bagehot The Economist You can tell a lot about a person from their shoes, says Bagehot – especially if they work in a car wash. If they’re scrubbing vehicles in soaking trainers, rather than proper boots, it’s a dead giveaway they’re working for a dodgy business. The country is awash with such black-market jobs. A study last year found that, of the car washes it surveyed, 89% didn’t provide any payslips, and only 7% carried out “right to work” checks. Yet rather than tighten the rules, the Government has opted for a totally ineffective code of self-regulation. And car washes are just one of many law-breaking businesses catering to, and exploiting, people who don’t have the right to work in Britain.…

Apes whirl around to get “high” Gorillas spin themselves around in circles, because they enjoy feeling dizzy, a study has found. Psychologists at the University of Warwick and University of Birmingham became intrigued by a viral video of an ape spinning around in a pool, and decided to investigate further. It turned out that the behaviour is relatively common: they found numerous videos of apes using ropes or vines to rotate at speeds similar to that of human circus performers. The behaviour is clearly deliberate, and since there is a long history of humans spinning around to achieve an altered mental state, it’s likely that apes do it for the same reason, team leader Dr Adriano Lameira told The Daily Telegraph. Potentially, our prehistoric ancestors also span around to get…

The Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, blotted his copybook on a trip to Washington last week by making light of Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. Talking to a new class of Capitol Hill interns about his own experiences as an intern in Washington during Clinton’s second term, Varadkar noted that this was a time “when some parents would have had cause for concern about what would happen to interns in Washington”. His spokesperson later admitted that the remark had been “ill-judged”. Rupert Murdoch is to marry for the fifth time, less than a year after his divorce from Jerry Hall. “I dreaded falling in love,” the 92-year-old billionaire told the New York Post, “but I knew this would be my last. It better be.” His fiancée is Ann Lesley Smith,…

Humanity is at a “climate crossroads”, said Damian Carrington in The Guardian. “What we do in the next few years will determine our fate for millennia.” That’s the message of the landmark report published this week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was compiled by the world’s leading climate experts and takes stock of the latest research. The window of opportunity to sustain “a liveable and sustainable future”, the report claims, is “rapidly closing”. Global temperatures are already 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels, and they’re likely to reach 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in the early 2030s regardless of what we do now. The real question is whether we stabilise the global temperature rise around that threshold or just blast right through it. The former option will require greenhouse…

Ireland’s final Six Nations match against England – played at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday – was widely expected to be a “procession” for the home team, said Daniel Schofield in The Sunday Telegraph. Ireland had been magnificent all tournament, winning all four of their previous games. England, by contrast, had been so poor, particularly in their “capitulation to France” the previous week – that a “crushing Ireland victory” seemed inevitable. In the event, though Ireland did indeed win, the match was far closer than anyone had predicted, said Robert Kitson in The Observer. With 19 minutes to go, the hosts led just 10-9, and the “ultimate Irish nightmare”, an England victory, seemed a real possibility. Although reduced to 14 men just before half-time, England “were proving stubborn opponents”. But…

Football Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrović potentially faces a lengthy ban after receiving a red card for shoving the referee during his team’s 3-1 loss to Manchester United in the FA Cup quarter-finals. F1 Sergio Pérez won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, defeating his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen. Snooker British player Mark King has been suspended from the World Snooker Tour, in light of suspicious betting patterns following his defeat at the Welsh Open last month. Ten Chinese players have also recently been suspended from the tour.…

by Oliver Soden W&N 656pp £30 The Week Bookshop £23.99 (incl. p&p) If Noël Coward had never lived, “nobody would have dared to dream up such varied talents for one man”, said Dominic Maxwell in The Times. Born in southwest London in 1899, Coward was an astonishingly prolific playwright, whose best-known work – Hay Fever, Private Lives – “can still dazzle today”. He wrote more than 300 songs, acted in many films (from the wartime drama In Which We Serve to The Italian Job in 1969), and wrote the screenplay for Brief Encounter. “He was also a painter, a novelist and a director.” Oliver Soden’s Masquerade – the first “cradle-to-grave” account of Coward’s life for nearly three decades – is an “assiduous, even-handed” and readable portrait of a man who…

With hits ranging from One Man, Two Guvnors and The History Boys to Miss Saigon, it is fair to say that Nicholas Hytner “knows how to put on a show”, said David Benedict in Variety. So it was always likely that if he took on “arguably the greatest musical comedy ever written”, he’d produce something special. But he’s done more than that. His production of Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls is a “solid-gold knockout” that raises the bar – as well as the roof – sky high, and that could happily run forever. His “game-changing” masterstroke (with designer Bunny Christie) is to stage the piece in the round, on a series of platforms that rise and fall in front of a promenade audience, said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out. There’s…

Nearly 30 years after Challenge Anneka was last on our screens, “Anneka Rice is back”, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. “And frankly, I don’t know how we’ve managed without her” – the woman is a “ray of sunshine”. The show was a massive hit at the time, and “wisely, the executives in charge” haven’t messed with the format, so we also have “lovely Dave the Soundman returning as Rice’s loyal companion”. As before, each episode revolves around Rice carrying out a community project with the help of an army of volunteers. The first episode features an animal rescue centre in Kent, which needs new kennels and a hydrotherapy pool for a disabled pug. Rice is “enthusiastic, warm and generous” throughout; and it all adds up to a radiant…

The indigenous Canadian artist Norval Morrisseau (pictured) was known in his lifetime as “the Picasso of the North”, said Will Pavia in The Times. Morrisseau (1932-2007) founded the Woodlands School, which drew on the history and legends of the indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes area. However, Canadian police now believe that no less than three groups of forgers have produced more than 1,000 paintings under Morrisseau’s name “in what is being described as the largest art fraud in history”. Eight people have been arrested. Ontario provincial police allege there have been “three distinct groups” of forgers at work, some dating back to the 1990s. Indigenous painters, including the artist’s nephew, Benjamin Morrisseau, were recruited to turn out bogus works. Detectives assembled a large number of brightly coloured paintings for…

Clarrie is irritated by Eddie shirking jobs and guesses he’s up to no good. Alice gets a shock when she sees Joy wearing one of Jennifer’s scarves; Brian comforts her and announces he’s leaving Willow Cottage. It’s Paul’s last week in Ambridge before Denise’s return; Josh suggests he move into The Stables. Helen announces to Susan and Clarrie that the dairy window is going in the next day – they’ll get two paid days off. Adam takes Brian to the Cheltenham Festival for some bonding. Susan convinces Clarrie to have a day out, while pretending to be at work. Eventually, Clarrie is rumbled by Eddie only to discover that he’s relocated Susan’s pergola to Grange Farm, while Neil builds Susan a summer house. Susan continues to help Jim petition against…

Serves 1 For the tomatoes: olive oil, for frying 290g plum tomatoes, quartered ½ tsp flaky salt, plus extra to season and finish 1 garlic clove, finely sliced a splash of red wine vinegar For the fish: a chunky hake steak, skin on 35g butter 1 garlic clove, finely sliced ½ a small red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped a pinch of smoked paprika thick slices of good bread a few sprigs of flat-leaf parsley, roughly torn a few big basil leaves flaky salt a lemon wedge, to serve (optional) • Heat a good glug of olive oil in a small frying pan or a casserole pan with a lid over a very low heat. If you can, pick a pan that is going to be able to fit the tomato wedges in…

Rock en Seine in the Paris suburbs features a stellar line-up for its 20th anniversary – The Strokes, Foals, Placebo, Billie Eilish and Florence + the Machine are all performing (23-27 Aug; rockenseine.com, £66-£155). The last two are also on the line-up at Budapest’s quirky Sziget, on an island on the Danube, along with David Guetta and Lorde (10-15 Aug; szigetfestival.com, £308). The Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona is famed for the diversity of the acts. This year the Pet Shop Boys, Jake Bugg, New Order and Calvin Harris are headlining (1-3 Jun; primaverasound.com, £110-£296). Open’er, in Gdynia on Poland’s Baltic coast, hosts the Arctic Monkeys, Lizzo, Lil Nas X, Kendrick Lamar and Christine and the Queens (28 Jun-1 Jul; opener.pl, £84-£222). Launched in 1971, Roskilde in Denmark is the…

Wine tasting in Sideways territory Perhaps best known as the setting of the hit film Sideways, the Santa Ynez Valley is “one of California’s most intriguing wine regions”, says David Amsden in Condé Nast Traveller. Fifty years since its first vineyards were planted, it is still dominated by independent producers, and offers “the thrill of discovery” as well as “back-road charm” with its quirky small towns, lively tasting rooms and flourishing restaurant scene. Stay at Skyview or Hotel Ynez (both “chicly reimagined” motels), The Ballard Inn or the (“exquisite”) The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern. Good places to eat include the “French-inspired” Bell’s (recently awarded its first Michelin star) and Bar Le Côté, “arguably the hottest restaurant in the Valley these days”. Be sure to plan your itinerary in advance –…

Shou Zi Chew The former Goldman Sachs banker turned TikTok boss faces a steep challenge, said Carol E. Lee on NBC News. As efforts in Washington to ban the Chinese-owned app – deemed a security threat by many – reach “fever pitch”, Chew has been preparing for “a showdown with lawmakers” in congress. His mission is to win over the Biden administration, which is demanding that the Chinese owners of TikTok’s parent, ByteDance, either sell their stakes or face a US ban. He appears to have decided that safety lies in numbers. As well as citing TikTok’s 150 million US users, he’s playing the “economic” card – claiming a ban could harm the livelihoods of many Americans. As part of the lobbying effort, a posse of “several dozen TikTok creators”…

The week’s best shares 4imprint Group The Mail on Sunday The world’s largest promotional products group sells millions of customised pens, mugs, bags and so on across the UK and US. Profits more than tripled in 2022 and the divi soared. Shares have a £50 target. Buy. £46.70. Bloomsbury Publishing The Mail on Sunday Thanks to its growing online US academic arm, and book sales driven by video reviews on TikTok’s “BookTok”, the Harry Potter publisher’s profits are up around 14%. Well run: shares should keep on rising. Buy. 450p. Greencoat UK Wind The Mail on Sunday This investment trust bolsters the UK’s supply of homegrown power via its 45 offshore wind farms and more than 1,000 turbines. Led by “industry thoroughbreds” who aim to preserve capital and increase divis.…

Here in Amsterdam, the Van Gogh Museum is throwing a spectacular birthday party – not for Vincent van Gogh, but for the museum itself. It’s 50 years since the gallery opened, back in 1973. The home of the world’s biggest van Gogh collection, it attracts millions of visitors every year. However, this golden jubilee isn’t just about the numbers. What makes the Van Gogh Museum so special is its unique connection with three members of van Gogh’s family – his brother Theo, Theo’s wife, Jo, and their only child, Vincent Willem. It was this familial trio who kept van Gogh’s legacy alive. Without them, the museum would not exist, and van Gogh would never have become the iconic figure who is so familiar to us today. The story of how…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1355 An Ettinger pass holder 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 3 April. Send it to The Week Crossword 1355, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive an Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) travel pass holder in assorted colours, which retails at £115, and two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Cutters try to cut two seconds (6) 4 Mishap involving detective in centre of vessel (8) 9 Litre missing from favourite bottle (6) 10 Spot on lad’s back removed from below disc (8) 11 Tom comes to pumas, say (10) 13 Noble peers holding…

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Finland, which was named the world’s happiest country for the sixth year in a row. Britain slipped two places to 19th in the UN’s World Happiness Report, based on data from the Gallup World Poll. Eight of the nations in the top ten were European. Lebanon and Afghanistan came last. It also found that satisfaction rates had remained remarkably stable since 2020, despite the pandemic. Jilly Cooper, as an all-star cast for the new TV adaptation of her classic bonkbuster Rivals was confirmed. Among those appearing in the eight-part series, set in the cut-throat world of 1980s TV, will be David Tennant, Danny Dyer and Poldark’s Aidan Turner.…

Only 6% of UK voters expect to be left better off by last week’s Budget. 56% believe it will not make much difference to their lives, while 25% think it will make them worse off. 26% of voters believe the Government is handling the economy well. YouGov/The Times 43% of voters in Great Britain trust Labour to improve public services. 17% trust the Conservatives. Opinium/The Observer More adults in Great Britain believe the BBC has a right-wing bias (24%) than a left-wing bias (21%). A quarter (26%) think it is “generally neutral”. BBC News has a net trust rating of +14% (40% trust it, 26% distrust it) down from +21% in August. ITV’s is +23. Opinium/The Observer…

Escape from Putin’s Russia A year ago, the Russian TV editor Marina Ovsyannikova walked in front of the camera during a live news broadcast in Moscow, and held up a banner denouncing the war in Ukraine. She hadn’t even told her family she was going to do it: she’d made the poster in secret, while her children were visiting their father. The footage was seen all over the world and Ovsyannikova paid a high price for it: she lost her job, her home and many of her friends. Her mother told her she belonged in jail; her ex-husband declared her unfit to be a parent. “I lost a lot,” she told Barbara Davies in the Daily Mail, “but not as much as the Ukrainian people.” She spent months under house…

A scaffolder from Devon says he has “no regrets” after having the QR code from his Tesco Clubcard tattooed onto his wrist. Dean Mayhew, 31, has collected £18 worth of points since he got the tattoo last July. “I love the tattoo so much,” he said. “Sometimes when I go in there, the cashier doesn’t believe it’s real – I have to tell them ‘just scan it please!’” He is now considering getting a tattoo of his Nectar card, for when he goes to Sainsbury’s. A waxworks museum in Poland has been mocked for its botched models of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Footage of the figures, which went viral on TikTok, led viewers to wonder why Kate looked so “dishevelled” and had such a large forehead, and why…

FRANCE A political class brought low by pension reform Le Figaro (Paris) President Macron has forced through his pension reforms – but at what cost, asks Guillaume Tabard. He and his PM, Élisabeth Borne, failed to win the backing of the French parliament to raise the retirement age by two years, to 64; so they used a constitutional tool to ram the plan through with no vote last week. That infuriated opposition MPs, and has sparked angry protests. What a “fiasco”. Macron’s assertion that our pension system needs reform is right; but the way he pursued his plan was incredibly “clumsy”. Ministers’ communications were hopelessly “vague” and they made tactical “blunders”, offering big concessions early on (they had wanted to raise the retirement age to 65), while failing to win…

It’s amazing what “negotiating in good faith” and making a few compromises can achieve, said the Evening Standard. Months of damaging strikes by nurses and paramedics have been put on hold after unions agreed a pay deal for England last week – of a 5% rise from April and a one-off extra payment covering the 2022/3 financial year of at least £1,655. Rishi Sunak said the agreement, being put to union members for approval, was “a fair deal” that would “put disruptive strike action behind us”. Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, urged junior doctors, who held a three-day strike last week, to show “leadership” and accept the same terms. Sunak’s allies are trumpeting this breakthrough as another win for his “calm, forensic, pragmatic style of government”, said Andrew Grice in…

Antonio Conte, Tottenham Hotspur’s manager, has given some “extraordinary” press conferences of late, said Jason Burt in The Daily Telegraph. After Spurs’ exit from the Champions League, he accused the fans of having “no patience”. And in a ten-minute rant after last week’s 3-3 draw with Southampton, he berated his players for being selfish and not wanting to “play under stress”, before pointing out that the team hadn’t won a single trophy during chairman Daniel Levy’s 22-year tenure (ignoring the League Cup win in 2008). Conte’s contract expires at the end of the season, but he appears to “want out now”. It is of course possible that Conte’s outburst was designed to summon Levy to the negotiating table to “talk severance”, said Matt Barlow in the Daily Mail. An early…

Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall, 1959 (Dover £10.99). This coming-of-age story, set in Brooklyn, about a young woman and her fractious Barbadian family is vivid, heartbreaking but also full of hope: a migrant story that lays bare both human frailty and potential. Reading it was the first time I saw elements of my life in literature. The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James, 1938 (Penguin £12.99). In this masterclass in historical writing, Trinidadian intellectual and activist James tells the story of the Haitian revolution, the world’s only successful slave rebellion that sought to apply the principles of the French Revolution to once enslaved people – an aspiration that remains unfulfilled to this day. The Color Purple by Alice Walker, 1982 (Orion £9.99). Through a series of letters, Alice Walker turns…

Programmes Fortress Britain with Alice Roberts A look at Britain’s obsession with invasion through history, starting with Henry VIII’s fear of the threat from Catholic Europe. Sat 25 Mar, C4 20:30 (60mins). Great Expectations New six-part adaptation of Dickens’ coming-of-age classic by screenwriter Steven Knight, with Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham. Sun 26 Mar, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). Blue Lights New crime drama set in Belfast, about three PSNI officers. New recruit Angela promises to help a woman whose son has been drawn into a gang. Mon 27 Mar, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). Bear Grylls Meets President Zelenskyy Film following Grylls on a three-day trip to Ukraine to meet its president in Kyiv, and his encounters with ordinary Ukrainians on the way. Tue 28 Mar, C4 20:00 (60mins). Get On Up: The…

Four nights in Sardinia Enjoy dazzling views from Hotel Castello, set at the heart of one of Golfo Aranci’s most beautiful bays. From £606pp b&b (incl. flights). 0871-4743000, onthebeach.co.uk. Depart 22 June. Two-city Polish break The 5-day adventure begins with 2 nights in Warsaw; then a train takes you to Gdansk for a further 2 nights. From £399pp b&b (incl. Manchester flights). 020-3993 8311, viva-holidays.co.uk. Depart in May. Australia in 12 days Explore the vibrant cities of Sydney, Cairns, Adelaide and Melbourne on this exciting trip. From £3,399pp b&b (incl. London flights). 020-3883 6220, exoticca.com. Depart 31 October. A touch of Vietnam From the vibrant metropolis of Ho Chi Minh to the beaches of Phan Thiet, an 8-night trip costs from £1,814pp b&b (incl. Dublin flights). 020-8175 1145, tourcompass.co.uk. Depart…

SVB/Signature/First Republic: the clear-up American watchdogs “tend to give bank mergers a tough time”, said John Foley on Reuters Breakingviews – “until a lender hits the skids”. That much was apparent over the weekend when “chunks” of Signature Bank, the second domino to fall after Silicon Valley Bank, were snapped up “for a song” by a rival “after getting a lightning-fast nod” from regulators. Markets were gung-ho at the prospect: shares in Signature’s acquirer, New York Community Bancorp, jumped 39%. But elsewhere, the clean-up after the crash is proving less easy. The fate of SVB itself still hangs in the balance, said the Financial Times. In the absence of any firm offer “for the bank as a whole”, a carve-up seems likely. Federal regulators have “extended the bidding period… while…

The emergency takeover of Credit Suisse means the end of a bank that began life in 1856 as the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt, “to finance the expansion of the railroad network and industrialisation of Switzerland”. So much for the history, said Anna Cooban on CNN. Bring on the merch. Within hours of the deal, hats, bags, gold bars and other memorabilia emblazoned with the lender’s logo began appearing on Swiss resale sites. “Dozens of bars of gold”, stamped with the name of the issuer, were uploaded onto the country’s most popular online market places, ricardo.ch and tutti.ch, said Reuters. Meanwhile, blue and red “CS” ski hats – “which were the height of fashion in the 1970s” – were getting bids close to SF200 ($216). There was also a brisk trade in stamps,…