Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1074 i The Week

What happened Advantage Remain? With just a month to go before the referendum on whether Britain should stay in the European Union, the opposing sides further ramped up their campaigns this week. George Osborne unleashed new Treasury analysis predicting that Brexit could cost the UK £200bn in lost trade, and a further £200bn of foreign investment, within 15 years. There were similar warnings last week from Christine Lagarde, the boss of the IMF, and Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, who cautioned that Brexit could precipitate a recession – warnings that the Chancellor denied having orchestrated. “It’s not a conspiracy,” said Osborne. “It’s called a consensus.” In an attempt to redress the balance, more than 300 business leaders put their name to a letter this week calling…

Queen’s Speech The Government unveiled “the biggest shake-up of prisons since Victorian times” in the Queen’s Speech this week. The first six “autonomous reform prisons” were announced; their governors will be given new powers over budgets and education, in a bid to cut reoffending rates. The Government also hopes to get children out of care by introducing laws prioritising adoption over short-term foster placements. The Queen unveiled plans to grant the police and social services new powers to tackle extremism and prevent the radicalisation of children. But the planned British Bill of Rights was put on hold. BBC reforms BBC director-general Tony Hall has attacked plans – unveiled in a white paper on the future of the BBC last week – to scrap the BBC Trust, and replace it with…

Peston on Cameron Robert Peston has only just moved from the BBC to ITV, says Jessamy Calkin in The Daily Telegraph, but he’s already bringing in scoops. It was Peston who got David Cameron to admit that, through inheritance, he had benefited from his father’s Blairmore offshore fund. “I actually don’t know how much he’d intended to say,” reflects Peston. “It felt like spur of the moment rather than choreographed. I’ve known him for a long time, and maybe this is b******s but I think he was genuinely upset by the attacks on his father. Afterwards, he was chiefly concerned that he hadn’t got his argument about Europe over well enough. And all I could think, obviously, was: I don’t think that’s what you need to worry about!” Was Peston…

Reported sightings of a huge hairy werewolf in Yorkshire have raised speculation that Old Stinker – a well-known figure in local legend – may be back. Several people claim to have spotted the creature around the Barmston Drain, a man-made channel near Beverley. “It was stood upright one moment. The next it was down on all fours running like a dog,” said one woman. “I was terrified.” Help is at hand for anyone who works up an appetite as well as a sweat in the sauna: Burger King has opened a spa in one of its branches in Helsinki. Located on the ground floor of the restaurant, it includes a 15-person sauna for “social gatherings or work”, and a ten-person one equipped with a 48in TV. Both are decorated in…

SAUDI ARABIA Jailed women will always be outcasts Arab News (Jeddah) Woe betide any woman in Saudi Arabia convicted of a “violation of morals”, says Sabria S. Jawhar. She can disappear forever in its arbitrary justice system. More than a dozen Saudi women were recently arrested for making videos deemed pornographic. News reports didn’t say what the videos actually showed, and since Saudi law is highly vague about what constitutes immorality, we’re left to wonder if the women even knew they were doing something illegal. Now their lives are ruined. The “mere fact they are incarcerated has doomed their future”. On their release from prison, some Saudi women are killed by male family members. Others are cast out. Many families won’t take a woman back if she’s been convicted of…

More than a fifth of the world’s plants are at risk of becoming extinct, according to experts from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Their report, State of the World’s Plants, reveals that there are currently around 391,000 known plant species, some 82,000 (21%) of which are endangered. The greatest threats to plant life are identified as the destruction of habitats for the purposes of farming, deforestation for timber, and construction; however, climate change and invasive species are also having a serious impact. The report – the first of its kind – notes that humans have found a use for at least 31,000 plant species: of these, 17,810 provide us with medicines, while 5,538 are a source of food. On a more positive note, the report found that 2,034 “new”…

Jon Platt is a “middle-class hero”, said Martin Daubney in The Daily Telegraph. “The Isle of Wight dad took on the punitive bureaucracy that prevents parents taking their children out of school during term time” – and he won. Until recently, many parents took term-time holidays, to avoid paying the exorbitant travel charged during peak periods. But in 2013, ministers tightened the rules, so that head teachers could only grant term-time absences in “exceptional” circumstances. Platt’s request to take his daughter to Disney World in Florida for a week in April 2015 was duly declined, but that didn’t deter him. The family went anyway, and he copped a £60 fine. He refused to pay, and – aided by £25,000 raised through crowdfunding – fought the ensuing prosecution all the way…

They’re debilitating; they’re uncomfortable; and among the cognoscenti, they’re not even fashionable, said the London Evening Standard. Yet in some offices, high heels are not only de rigueur but compulsory. That was what Nicola Thorp, 27, learned when she turned up for work as a temporary receptionist at the HQ of the consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). A supervisor working for Portico – which supplies PwC with temps – spotted that Thorp was wearing flat shoes, and told her to go and buy a pair with a 2-4in heel, as specified by Portico’s dress code. (The code also stipulates that women must wear five different types of make-up at all times.) When she refused, she was sent home without pay. Outraged, Thorp started an online campaign for a change in the…

F1’s boy wonder Each time Max Verstappen gets behind the wheel of a Formula One car, “his bonfire of the record books grows”, says Daniel Johnson in The Daily Telegraph. On Sunday, the Dutch 18-year-old won the Spanish Grand Prix to become the youngest ever F1 race winner – “obliterating” the previous record by two-and-a-half years. Not bad for someone who only passed his driving test last autumn. It was only Verstappen’s first race for Red Bull – he had been promoted just last week – but he was preternaturally calm nonetheless, driving “like a man well beyond his years”. After years of dominance by Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, the sport has a new “star to upset the established order”. Murray conquers clay Andy Murray used to hate playing…

Theatre Cymbeline Playwright: William Shakespeare Director: Melly Still RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon (01789-403493) Until 15 October, then Barbican, London 31 October-22 December Running time: 3hrs 20 mins (including interval) Cymbeline “has rarely had a good press”, said Michael Billington in The Guardian. Dr Johnson complained of its “unresisting imbecility”, and Bernard Shaw dubbed it “stagey trash”. Yet in production, this tricky, uneven play – which mixes the story of a king’s resistance to Rome with any number of subplots – can work just fine, and Melly Still’s new RSC staging is “vigorous and inventive”. Still and designer Anna Fleischle have set the piece in a dystopian near-future in which the court of Cymbeline (here a queen, played by Gillian Bevan) is one of quasi-druidic advisers and shabby gothic-punk costumes, said Michael Davies…

Don Quixote by Cervantes, 1605 (Penguin £9.99). The story of a nobleman obsessed by chivalry, who sets out on a quest to bring justice to the world. This feast of the imagination swept the Western world when it first appeared more than 400 years ago, and remains powerful today. It has inspired films, musical compositions, ballet, paintings and many other works of art. The Reader (Der Vorleser) by Bernhard Schlink, 1995 (Orion £8.99). The impact of the Holocaust on postwar Germany is explored in this haunting love story. It is written in such an economical style that every word counts, and it surprised me by moving me to tears. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, 1930 (Vintage £7.99). This magical children’s story follows the adventures of the Walker children –…

Programmes Jutland: WWI’s Greatest Sea Battle Nick Jellicoe – grandson of the wartime commander of the British fleet, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe – re-examines the Battle of Jutland, the biggest naval engagement of the First World War, and one of the biggest sea battles in modern history. Sat 21 May, C4 8pm (60mins). Wallander Kenneth Branagh returns for a final series as the Swedish detective. Sun 22 May, BBC1 9pm (90mins). Last Whites of the East End In the past 15 years, more than half of Newham’s white working-class population has left the area. This film investigates the exodus. Tue 24 May, BBC1 10.45pm (60mins). Boris vs. Dave: The Battle for Europe The European referendum campaign has become a battle between Johnson and Cameron. Michael Crick talks to the pair’s…

Beetroot, pink grapefruit and goat’s cheese carpaccio Serves 4 2 tbsp flaxseed oil 2 tbsp zaatar spice mix 1 large red beetroot (beet), peeled and thinly sliced with a mandoline 1 large golden beetroot, peeled and thinly sliced with a mandoline 1 pink grapefruit, peeled and thinly sliced 4 thin goat’s cheese slices, chilled 12 Kalamata olives, pitted 4 radishes, washed and sliced in half a few rocket (arugula) leaves 1 tbsp balsamic glaze red chard or spinach leaves (optional) • Using a pastry brush, lightly coat four serving plates with the flaxseed oil. • Sprinkle a little of the zaatar spice mix over the oil, then layer the red and yellow beetroot and pink grapefruit slices across each of the plates. • Place one goat’s cheese slice on each…

Strudels in Austria Delight in all things Austrian during a 7-night stay at Chalet Hotel Elisabeth, Lech. From £599pp including Gatwick flights and transfers. 01483-791116, www.inghams.co.uk. Depart 30 July. A taste of Kyrgyzstan A 10-day Celestial Adventure from Bishkek to the peaks of Tien Shan – via the Issyk-Kul lake – costs from £1,569pp all inclusive (with flights). 01962-737630, www.adventureworldwide.co.uk. Departs 23 July. Springtime in Marrakech Three nights at the delightful Riad Adore, close to the Medina’s souks and squares, cost from £275pp b&b, with flights and transfers. 020-7112 0019, www.fleewinter.com. Depart 31 May. Thrill-seeking in France An action-packed week of abseiling and a 2-day canoe descent of the Ardèche Gorge costs from £1,299 (2 adults, 2 children 8+). 01273-803030, www.familyadventureholidays.com. Depart 13 or 20 August.…

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, defended his warning that leaving the EU could lead to recession in Britain, following an outcry from Brexit campaigners who claimed he had undermined the independence of the Bank and risked creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg called for Carney to be “fired”. The Chancellor, meanwhile, was accused of colluding with both the Bank and the IMF to highlight the risks of Brexit; the IMF will release a detailed warning of the consequences a week before the vote. The CBI, which cut its UK growth forecasts for this year and the next, came under fire for encouraging companies to discuss the risks with staff. The oil price moved closer to the $50/barrel mark for the first time since November,…

Official figures show that Britain’s trade deficit is at its highest since 2008, says Richard Tyler in The Sunday Times. But this year’s SME Export Track 100 – which ranks the UK’s fastest-growing small and medium-sized exporters – is encouraging. Almost a quarter of the companies on it have achieved “tripledigit growth”. Here are the top rankers: Black Swan Data (international sales up 357%). London-based Black Swan designs algorithms and analytics to capture smartphone consumer data, which it then crunches into market insights for companies. Multinationals making use of its predictions include Disney, Panasonic and GSK. Shiner (up 346%). This family-run sports goods distributor, headquartered in Bristol, is growing strongly on the back of a lucrative deal to supply Heelys (trainers with a skateboard wheel inserted in the heel) across…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best buys Assura The Mail on Sunday This healthcare real estate investment trust (Reit) works with GPs to create primary health centres, and has raised cash to continue acquiring and developing properties. Benefits from safe, Government-backed rental income. Buy. 57.25p. Compass Group The Times The caterer is suffering weakness in Brazil, Australia and emerging markets, but European markets are on the up, and the North American business is thriving. Good growth potential from acquisitions. Buy. £12.51. Hiscox The Times The underwriter is making hay in a “benign” catastrophe environment, identifying niche areas to exploit – gross written premiums are up 10%. Shares represent good long-term value: take advantage of falls to acquire. Buy. 947p. Mondi The Times The paper and packaging group continues to raise…

David Cameron’s much-heralded global summit on combating corruption ended last week in London with a pledge “to drive out corruption wherever it is found”, but few firm commitments. In his opening speech, the Prime Minister told politicians and business leaders from more than 40 countries that corruption represented “the cancer at the heart of so many of the problems we need to tackle in our world”. But only six countries agreed to publish registers revealing who really owns assets held in their territories – a key goal of anti-corruption campaigners. The summit was overshadowed by controversy after the PM was caught on camera telling the Queen that Nigeria and Afghanistan – whose leaders were both attending the meeting – were “fantastically corrupt”. In response, President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria called…

Paris Sexist politics: A group of senior female politicians in France have written an open letter to their “sexist” male colleagues, demanding they mend their sleazy ways. Signed by 17 women, including the current IMF boss Christine Lagarde (pictured), the letter says women have a right not to be subject to wandering hands and sexist comments, warning that men can’t tell a woman: “Your skirt is too long, it needs to be shortened”, or “Do you wear a G-string?” The move follows the resignation of National Assembly vicepresident Denis Baupin over claims he had groped a Green Party spokeswoman and “sexted” other politicians (see page 16). Oslo Wealth fund to sue Volkswagen: Norway’s $850bn oil fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, has announced that it plans to sue Volkswagen…

1 Respect by Otis Redding, performed by Aretha Franklin 2 Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens by Joan Whitney and Alex Kramer, performed by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five 3 Morning Mood – Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46 by Edvard Grieg, performed by the Ulster Orchestra and Vernon Handley 4 Could You Be Loved by Bob Marley, performed by Bob Marley and the Wailers 5 A Man is in Love by Mike Scott, performed by The Waterboys 6 Don’t Stop Me Now by Freddie Mercury, performed by the cast of the Queen musical We Will Rock You 7* Pata Pata by Dorothy Masuka, performed by Miriam Makeba 8 Sweet About Me by Gabriella Cilmi, Miranda Cooper, Brian Higgins, Tim Larcombe and Xenomania, performed by Gabriella Cilmi Book:…

Britain has been at odds with the CAP from the start. Thanks to free trade, notably with the Commonwealth, Britain benefited – unlike the six founding states – from low food prices. And it had a small, efficient farming sector. So when Britain joined the EEC in 1973, it paid a great deal in budget contributions and higher food prices, but got relatively little back in subsidies. Nothing was done about this until Margaret Thatcher became PM in 1979. She fought a bitter war, blocking Community business in the cause of “getting our money back”. In 1984 a substantial budget rebate was agreed. Even so, the UK is still a net loser from the CAP. Even British farmers, who benefit from it, grumble that the policy is bureaucratic, badly targeted…

We judge candidates on how they look Robert M. Sapolsky Los Angeles Times “Science can tell us lots about how voters will make their decisions in 2016,” says Robert M. Sapolsky. And what it tells us, alas, is that “subterranean, unconscious forces are constantly percolating up to influence our decision-making”. In evaluating political candidates, voters place an outsized emphasis on the candidate’s appearance and on their own gut feelings. One study found that, regardless of their policies, politicians judged to look more “competent” won 68% of elections. Other studies show that voters tend to choose the candidate generally seen to be “better-looking”. The voters’ choice can also hinge on a politician’s use of pronouns: in a study of Australian elections, the winner, 80% of the time, was the one who…

Eco-cars may produce fewer CO2 emissions than normal cars, but they may also kick out as much toxic particle pollution as “dirty” diesel vehicles, reports The Sunday Times. All cars throw up tiny particles made up of brake dust, rubber from their tyres, and bits of bitumen from the road when they accelerate or brake. But a new study claims that since hybrid and electric cars are heavier than other models (because of their batteries), they throw up more of this type of pollution. In fact, their “nonexhaust emissions, from brakes, tyres and the road, are far larger than exhaust emissions in all modern cars”, said Peter Achten, author of the small study published in the journal Atmospheric Environment. “These are more toxic than emissions from modern engines, so they…

“The British people are owed an apology,” said Allison Pearson in The Daily Telegraph. A “huge sorry” is due to every parent who can’t get a school place for their child; to every woman turned away from a “full” maternity unit; to every person damned as a “racist” for questioning why their family can’t get priority on social housing. Why? Because our politicians have for years been deceiving us about the true extent of immigration from Europe. Until last week, the common understanding was that in the five years to 2015, just under a million immigrants had come to Britain from the EU. But new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that, when “short-term immigrants” are taken into account, the true number of arrivals is 2.4 million.…

“A dirty mind is a perpetual feast.” John Mortimer, quoted in The Times “Live every day like it’s your last, and one day you’ll be right.” A line from the latest Woody Allen movie, Café Society, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “School was probably a lot easier for Shakespeare because they didn’t have to study Shakespeare.” Philomena Cunk, on BBC Two’s Cunk on Shakespeare “If there’s one thing I hate more than the Welsh, it’s the young. I hate young people with a passion. I wish them all ill. People under the age of 40 don’t see anything. Even if they do, they don’t really know what they are seeing.” Dennis Potter, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “Don’t talk unless you can improve the silence.” Jorge Luis Borges, quoted in…

A new Tory age To The Sunday Times We are seeing the beginning of the end of the “arrogant posh boys” era in the Tory party. A big part of the Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson’s appeal is that she comes from an ordinary family and went to a state school. Look also at Stephen Crabb, the Welsh Tory recently promoted to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. His background is even more “real” than Davidson’s – a violent father and a mother who often held down multiple jobs to make ends meet. He’ll never receive the sort of taunt other Tories do about their capacity to understand what life is like for those on benefits. Zac Goldsmith’s embarrassing London mayoral campaign shows how tired the public are of…

Fleet 304pp £16.99 The Week bookshop £14.99 (incl. p&p) When Hope Jahren was growing up in rural Minnesota, her family “didn’t much go in for talk”, said Rachel Cooke in the New Statesman. Snow lay on the ground for nine months of the year, and no one really discussed anything. No wonder Jahren gravitated to the laboratory of her father, a science teacher; it was for her a “sanctum”, a place whose secrets “made bad weather and failures of human communication alike irrelevant”. In this “singular” memoir, Jahren, now professor of geo-biology at the University of Hawaii, tells the story of her life in science, recounting the cerebral excitements along with the practical challenges, such as how to build up a lab from scratch. In addition, punctuating Jahren’s own story…

Everybody Wants Some!! Dir: Richard Linklater 1hr 57mins (15) Easy-going 1980s nostalgia trip It took Richard Linklater 12 years to shoot his awardwinning rights-of-passage movie Boyhood, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph. So to follow it up with a comedy drama taking place over a few days at a Texas college in 1980 was a bold move. Yet he pulls it off in fine style. Jake (Blake Jenner), a student on a baseball scholarship, and his “hot-blooded, thinskinned” teammates initially come across as stereotypes: the alpha male (Tyler Hoechlin), the stoner (Wyatt Russell), and so on. But as this “inhalably pleasurable” film progresses, the complexity of each character is revealed. There are the inevitable scenes of high jinks and heroic alcohol consumption, said Geoffrey Macnab in The Independent, but…

British Drawings and Watercolours at Guy Peppiatt Fine Art This exhibition of drawings and watercolours truly has something for everyone. It contains a wealth of works by virtuoso draughtsmen, from Edwin Landseer to the artist and nonsense poet Edward Lear – not to mention J.M.W. Turner. The drawings on show by Turner include two recently identified drawings of ships run aground off the Kent coast. The pencil strokes in this pair of works are dazzlingly economical, and Turner’s use of white chalk to evoke the swelling waves and towering cliffs is astonishing. Other highlights include a remarkable series of works created by Alfred Gomersal Vickers during a visit to Russia in the 1830s; caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson’s action-packed depiction of riders in pursuit of a highwayman; and David Cox’s stunning view…

On a budget? Here are three of the best great-value bottles currently available, as recommended by The Daily Telegraph’s wine writers: Cremant de Jura Chardonnay 2013, France (£7.29; Aldi). This is consistently one of the most reasonably priced sparklers on our shelves, says Susy Atkins – dry and elegant, lightly toasty and with mouth-watering lemon and pineapple fruit flavours. Bravo. Tesco Finest Las Lomitas Merlot Colchagua 2015, Chile (£6; Tesco). With aromas of dry chocolate powder and heavy black fruit, this delicious merlot would be a great choice to go with smoky barbecued dishes, says Victoria Moore. Or serve with chilli con carne with a little dark chocolate added during cooking. Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil “Les Graviers” 2014, Domaine du Bourg, Loire, France (£9.99; Waitrose). This has dark, intense fruit, but with a…

Sound of Harris, Isle of Harris Perched on a cliff at the southern tip of the Isle of Harris, this modern single-storey building contains two separate onebedroom apartments. Both are stylish and sustainable, and the whole structure – clad in spruce and roofed with corrugated steel – sits seamlessly in its “raw, rugged” surroundings, says Lucy Gillmore in The Independent. Triple-glazed floor-to-ceiling windows offer spectacular sea views. The living spaces are decorated with restored mid-century furniture, and the bathrooms have monsoon showers and deep, square Japanese-style bathtubs. From £316 for three nights in one apartment (minimum stay is three nights). www.soundofharris.com…

Brilliant magazine editor who struggled with mental illness Sally Brampton 1955-2016 Sally Brampton, who has died aged 60, was one of the most prominent female journalists of the 1980s, said Lisa Markwell in The Guardian. As the first editor of British Elle, she helped create the template for a new kind of women’s magazine, one that combined high fashion with in-depth news features and interviews. Elle readers were young, ambitious and independent, capable of discussing fashion as well as wearing it: Elle models – Yasmin Le Bon, Naomi Campbell – were strong and healthy-looking. And at the centre of it all was Brampton herself, with her pared-back clothes, bleached blonde hair, hoop earrings and perpetual cigarette. Friends described her as witty and warm, subversive and stylish; she lunched at Le…

Enough of the chilling Brexit warnings Larry Elliott The Guardian “Bloodcurdling warnings” about the dire economic consequences of a vote to leave the EU have been coming thick and fast, says Larry Elliott. Yet they haven’t had much impact on the polls. If anything, they’ve added to a “mood of stubborn resistance” reminiscent of the 1949 Ealing comedy Passport to Pimlico, in which the inhabitants of the London district set up their own mini-kingdom, and defiantly resist “attempts by Westminster to bludgeon them back into line”. The Remain camp should be wary of overstating its case. “The sky would not fall in” if Britain were to vote to quit the EU: there is no certainty of a housing crash, and the likely fall in sterling could actually “help rebalance the…

This week’s crossword winner will receive an Ettinger (www.ettinger.co.uk) Brogue Collection nut coin purse, which retails at £150, and two Connell Guides (www.connellguides.com). ACROSS 8 President to embrace bishop and French priest (4) 9 Indigenous oil bargain settled (10) 10 Playing music in Scotland is sort of hot (6) 11 Certainly not inside, songbirds returning move fast (4,2,2) 12/21 Time and again written off, actor I adored in plot at sea (8,8) 14 Lead on diamonds after ten put out (6) 16 Look out for hollow in rock (4) 17 Where to find everything in a department store (5) 18 William, say (4) 19 See dog fouling rocks (6) 21 See 12 23 Measure taken in networks for ID holders (8) 26 Dave’s missus gets everyone back for the animals (6)…

In Britain, we have long looked down on the Eurovision Song Contest in a way which “borders merrily on the xenophobic”, said Hugo Rifkind in The Times. As well we might. “This is the land of The Beatles, for God’s sake.” We can stand aloof from this annual kitsch fest, in which “Scandinavians dressed as zombies” and sexy milkmaids join “sonic battle” with the daughters of Urals oligarchs “doing thinly veiled karaoke”. But for many other nations, Eurovision is something more. It’s a matter of national pride. “It’s geopolitics”, as we saw at this year’s final in Stockholm last Saturday night. The prize did not go to Russia’s Sergey Lazarev, a well-known pop star and the bookies’ favourite. Instead, it went to Ukraine’s Jamala, for her “sequinned dirge” 1944 –…

Portland, Oregon Race continues: Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in Kentucky by a slim majority this week, while her socialist rival Bernie Sanders took Oregon. Afterwards, he told supporters he was now looking forward to winning California: but as Clinton (pictured) is within 100 delegates of securing the nomination, his chances of overall victory remain very slim. In the Republican race, Donald Trump came under fire for declining to release his tax return. Running effectively unopposed, he won Oregon this week, but still hasn’t got the 1,237 delegates he needs. New York Pfizer blocks “execution drugs”: Pfizer, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, has decided to forbid the sale of its drugs for use in state executions, a move already taken by all the other drugs companies licensed…

I may not be girly, but I’m still a woman Janice Turner The Times Are you “gender fluid”? A younger friend suggested I might be the other day, says Janice Turner – and it’s true I’ve never been a “girly” sort of girl. But it had never occurred to me that this made me any less of a woman. That’s what bothers me about today’s transgender lobby. It’s one thing to defend the rights of those who genuinely believe they were born in the wrong body; quite another to push the view that the gender of anyone who doesn’t conform to a narrow stereotype of a “boy” or a “girl” is up for grabs. A letter from Brighton and Hove City Council recently asked parents to help their four-year-old reception…

A “second skin” to banish wrinkles Every chemist in the country has shelves loaded with creams that promise to reduce the signs of ageing – but now, US scientists have developed an alternative treatment they claim delivers far more immediate results: an invisible film that acts like a “second skin”, tightening and smoothing the real skin underneath. Devised by a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the so-called cross-linked polymer layer (XPL) works in two stages. First the polymer gel is applied across the face like a cream, to create a perfectly fitting mask. Then a liquid is added to activate the material, making it hard but very flexible. The effect is to restore elasticity to skin that has slackened with age, smoothing out wrinkles and “lifting” eye bags.…

Serena Williams’s diet is a bit of a dog’s dinner. The tennis champion revealed last week that, while staying at a plush hotel in Italy, she couldn’t resist sampling the gourmet “doggy menu”. She ordered a rice and salmon dish for her terrier, Chip, and then tucked in. “I thought: ‘What the heck, I’m going to try a piece. It looks good.’ So I ate a spoonful. I mean, it did taste weird. I force-swallowed it. It tasted a little bit like a house cleaner kind of thing.” Two hours later she had to make a dash to the loo. “I don’t think it’s consumable for humans,” she said. “They should have wrote that!” Brian May has threatened to leave Kensington in protest at the influx of “basementbuilding barbarians”. The…

The only sound that can be heard from Buckingham Palace right now, said Mary Dejevsky in The Guardian, is the “swishing of damask covers” being discreetly pulled over a diplomatic mess. Of the two “embarrassing conversations” broadcast last week, both featuring the Queen, the most awkward concerned the behaviour of Chinese state officials. Introduced at a Buckingham Palace garden party to Lucy D’Orsi, the police officer who was in charge of security during President Xi Jinping’s state visit last year, the Queen was heard to remark: “Oh, bad luck.” When D’Orsi complained about the demanding behaviour of the Chinese delegation, the Queen added: “They were very rude to the ambassador.” Buckingham Palace later brushed off the remark; but the fact that the famously tightlipped monarch raised the subject at all…

Rugby union: Saracens storm Europe All season long, Saracens have been untouchable, said Steve James in The Sunday Telegraph. They topped the Premiership table, and go into the playoffs next week as the favourites; they powered through the European Rugby Champions Cup en route to the final. And last Saturday, Sarries “stormed the European summit”, beating the French side Racing 92 to win the tournament for the first time. Two years ago they come so close, only to crumble in the final; this time, however, the London side never looked under threat. “They were that good.” The first English Champions Cup winner in nine years, they are also the first side in the competition’s 20-year history to win all nine of their matches. It was hardly the most exciting of…

To The Times Surely David Cameron was just stating the blindingly obvious when he told the Queen that Nigeria and Afghanistan were appallingly corrupt states. Given the conference on corruption, the PM should have given Her Majesty a more detailed list, including Russia, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Paraguay and Uzbekistan. Nevertheless, one thing I have noticed on my travels to both corrupt and “clean” countries (e.g. New Zealand, Luxembourg, the Scandinavian states, Switzerland and Singapore) is that corrupt countries have a certain joie de vivre and sparkle, while clean countries tend to be boring and dessicated. The only exception to this almost perfect correlation is North Korea. Paul Thomas, Oxford To The Times Mr Cameron would be well advised to heed the old adage about glass houses and stones. Corruption…

Zero K Picador 288pp £16.99 The Week bookshop £14.99 (incl. p&p) Don DeLillo “prefers to work a particular set of seams”, said Sam Leith in the Literary Review: he’s interested in conceptual art, big money, television, death and time. His new novel “covers them all”. Jeffrey Lockhart, a “directionless man in his mid-30s”, is invited by his billionaire father to a “secure facility” in the former USSR. An underground bunker of “numberless levels”, it proves to be a “cryogenic freezing facility” where Lockhart’s stepmother (who is terminally ill) is due to be frozen. What follows is an “uneasy” novel that’s both “riddlingly opaque and weirdly over-explicit”. This being DeLillo, there is, of course, a high “quotient” of beautiful sentences, said James Lasdun in The Guardian. But the scenes at the…

Disneyland is not coming to England, but something that sounds very much like it probably is, says The Guardian. The London Paramount theme park – which is set to sprawl over 388 acres of marshy land on the Swanscombe Peninsula of the Thames in Kent – will host attractions that include theatres, restaurants, a vast water park, and rides inspired by some of Paramount’s best-loved movies, including Top Gun and the Indiana Jones films, along with popular BBC TV shows such as Doctor Who and Sherlock. It will also house a large science and education visitor complex and “the biggest performing arts centre in Europe”. If the £2bn project, financed by Kuwait’s Al-Humaidi family, gets the green light, it should be ready by 2021, said Becky Pemberton in the Daily…

In November last year, 17 paintings worth more than £12.5m – including works by Rubens, Tintoretto and Mantegna – were stolen from Verona’s Castelvecchio Museum by armed robbers, says The Daily Telegraph. But the good news is that they have now been found… in a woodland in Ukraine. They were discovered last week wrapped in plastic bags and buried under some trees a mile from the border with Moldova. The recovery was the outcome of “a brilliant operation”, said Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, one that “reminds the world about the efficient struggle of Ukraine against smuggling and corruption, inter alia, smuggling of works of art”. No further details of the police operation were given (though 13 suspects were arrested in Italy and Moldova in March). The Ukrainian authorities have invited…

As work at the tea room is slow, Emma and Fallon are relieved to be catering for Brian and Jennifer’s 40th anniversary party. Rob reads Hansel and Gretel to Henry and seizes the chance to explain to him that even nice mothers do very bad things, and that Henry must tell the truth when people ask about his own mother. Peggy calls on Jennifer to let off steam over the refusal to grant Helen bail. She insists they must all support Helen, no matter how difficult it is. Ed and Jazzer shear the Brookfield sheep. Ed’s tired after a late finish on the estate. Jazzer reckons it’s all the work on Keira’s elf grotto that’s wearing Ed out. Ed tells Jazzer that Bridge Farm would welcome him back, but Jazzer…

Som Saa 43a Commercial Street, London E1 (020-7324 7790) I once went to Bangkok to learn about Thai cooking, says Giles Coren in The Times, but I “ended up drunk in a lot of ‘nightclubs’ and came back with no memory of a single morsel eaten”. Even so, I know enough to tell you that the food at Som Saa is “incredibly good and incredibly spicy. An epic onslaught of pleasure and pain.” Som tam Thai salad was unlike any I’ve ever had, with green papaya, snake beans and amazing, rich, chewy dried shrimp. Dtom saep ped was a “nosebleed-spicy” hot and sour soup of duck meat and offal. Deep-fried whole sea bass, the white meat “steaming gorgeously when you cracked through”, came with garlic and scallions and lemongrass and…

New cars: what the critics say What Car? For any carmaker, launching a successful family hatchback is a tall order. They must do battle with two of the UK’s bestselling cars, the Vauxhall Astra and Ford Focus, which have ruled the cheaper end of the market for years. Fiat’s audacious plan, with the new Tipo, is to “muscle in” on this market by undercutting the Astra and Focus to the tune of at least £2,000. Auto Express In terms of design, the Tipo is, for Fiat, surprisingly dull. The exterior has some nice features, including a “bulging” bonnet, but little of the retro charm of the 500. Inside, the plastic surfaces already look dated. On the plus side, it is “one of the most practical cars in the class”: there’s…

Colombia’s untamed Pacific coast “Wet, wild and mostly roadless”, northwest Colombia’s Pacific seaboard – the Chocó region – is rich in wildlife, quiet beaches and uncrowded surfing breaks: and unlike the country’s Caribbean coast, it attracts only a trickle of foreign tourists, says Murray Carpenter in The New York Times. An impoverished settlement with a population of 3,000, the coastal town of Nuquí is accessible only by plane or boat. Visitors can stay in the few simple ecolodges at nearby El Cantil – a good base from which to visit the “magical, utterly relaxing” hot springs of Termales, and the surfing beaches along the coast to the south. Rising up along the route are steep jungled hills “unparalleled” in their biodiversity, where you might spot poison dart frogs, hummingbirds or…

BHS: Goldman embroiled There was bad news for Goldman Sachs this week as MPs widened the scope of two parliamentary inquiries into the collapse of BHS, said Dominic O’Connell in The Sunday Times. One of the US bank’s top London employees, Anthony Gutman, has been “ordered” to account for its role in Sir Philip Green’s disastrous £1 sale of the chain. “The full glare of a parliamentary hearing” won’t be welcome to Goldman, which baulks at disclosing its advice on “sensitive deals”. In this case, Gutman appears to have worked for Green “for nothing” during the early stages of the deal. He will have to explain “why Goldman didn’t give the one piece of advice that Green would have paid for”: namely, don’t sell to a consortium run by Dominic…

● Equities exodus Is that it for the bull run? Investors are pulling money from global equity funds at their fastest pace since 2011, with redemptions from stock funds globally hitting nearly $90bn so far this year, said Eric Platt in the Financial Times. “Markets have rebounded from a steep selloff at the start of the year, but confidence has slipped.” According to data provider EPFR Global, $7.4bn was withdrawn from equities in the past week alone. “Many of the concerns that plagued markets when the year began – the collapse in oil prices, fears of a Chinese hard landing and even talk of recession in the US – have eased, but investors are now looking at a horizon pockmarked by risk”; ranging from fears that efforts to revive growth…

Stewart Butterfield The boss of Slack, the company credited by some with transforming office communication, “is not the typical leader of a striving start-up”, said The Economist. Named “Dharma” by his hippy parents, he spent his early years in a Canadian commune with no running water or electricity. At 12, he renamed himself Stewart because it was the “least weird” name he could think of. Butterfield went on to take a master’s degree in philosophy from Clare College, Cambridge, and, in 2002, designed Game Neverending, an online video game that morphed into the photo-sharing site Flickr. He cashed out three years later when he sold it to Yahoo for around $25m. “Compact and somewhat manic”, Butterfield “flaunts a wide-ranging, hyperactive intellect”, said The Wall Street Journal. Playfulness, he says, “means…