Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1076 i The Week

What happened Tories at war Tory infighting over Brexit erupted into the open this week, with MPs publicly questioning David Cameron’s credibility, and talking of toppling him after the 23 June vote, whatever the result. Tory backbencher Andrew Bridgen claimed that more than 50 MPs were ready to move against the Prime Minister because he was “at odds with half of our parliamentary party and probably 70% of our members and activist base”. His fellow backbencher Nadine Dorries accused the PM of telling “outright lies”, predicting that he could be “toast within days” of the referendum. Priti Patel, the employment minister, suggested Cameron was “too rich” to understand people’s concerns about immigration. Boris Johnson and Michael Gove also attacked the PM on the issue, saying his pledge to bring net…

Stuttgart, Germany Floods and lightning strikes: Heavy rains and thunderstorms have swept across northern Europe in the past week, causing devastating flooding in parts of Germany, Belgium and northern France, and leaving at least five people dead. The worst of the flooding was in the Stuttgart region of Baden-Württemberg, where four people died, including a 13-year-old girl. In the town of Braunsbach, a river burst its banks, sweeping away cars and smashing them into shop windows. On Saturday, a number of people were struck by lightning as storms raged across the region: one man was killed by a lightning strike in Poland; in Paris’s 8th Arrondissement, eight children attending a birthday party were injured – one of them critically – after taking shelter from the rain under a tree in…

1 St Andrews Girls (fundraising parody of Katy Perry’s California Gurls), performed by The Other Guys (University of St Andrews)2 Brian Boru’s March (Irish folk tune), performed by James Galway3 O’Carolan’s Concerto by Turlough O’Carolan, performed by The Chieftains and The Belfast Harp Orchestra4 How Many Women (from the musical Chess) by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice, performed by Judy Kuhn and Philip Casnoff5* Cinema Paradiso by Ennio Morricone, performed by Unione Musicisti di Roma6 Green, Green Grass of Home by Claude “Curly” Putman Jr, performed by Joan Baez7 Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 Prélude by Bach, performed by Yo-Yo Ma8 Bring Him Home (from Les Misérables) by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, performed by Colm Wilkinson Book: The Collected Poems of Seamus Heaney Luxury:…

Google will live to regret not paying tax Ed Lucas The Times For what’s supposed to be one of the world’s most innovative companies, Google is “distinctly old-fashioned” in one respect, says Ed Lucas: in its approach to paying fair tax – or rather not paying it, unless forced to by the French authorities. This blithe attitude harks back to the old capitalist ideology which holds that a company’s sole concern is maximising shareholder profit. Even on self-interest grounds, this turns out to be folly. Image matters. Customers like to deal with businesses “that behave decently”. Being green; sponsoring charities; not subcontracting to sweatshops or ripping off suppliers by delaying payment – over time it dawned on managers that such behaviour is essential to preserve a company’s brand. The same…

Take aspirin after a “funny turn” If you suffer a “mini-stroke”, take aspirin straight away, scientists have advised. Transient ischaemic attacks (or TIAs), which affect around 46,000 people in the UK each year, can be a sign that a major stroke is on the way – in many cases, in the next few days. But taking an aspirin reduces the chances of this happening by up to 80%, according to a study published in The Lancet. TIAs are caused by a blood clot temporarily blocking the flow of blood to the brain, and are marked by many of the same symptoms as strokes – including dizziness, weakness of the arms, face or legs, and sudden problems with speech or sight. But because their effects are shortlived, they are sometimes dismissed…

Irish director John Carney launched a public attack on Keira Knightley last week, implying that she can’t act, and had rather ruined his film Begin Again (2013). “Keira’s thing is to hide who you are and I don’t think you can be an actor and do that,” he told The Independent. “I like to work with curious, proper film actors as opposed to movie stars.” He claimed that her “entourage” had got in the way, and when asked if he’d learned anything from the experience, replied: “I learned that I’ll never [work] with supermodels again.” Faye Dunaway honed her reputation for eccentricity last week by turning up for a gala dinner at Cannes with a weighing scale. Witnesses say that when the food arrived, she put the machine on the…

“A landmark in national life has just been passed,” said The Spectator. The latest British Social Attitudes survey has revealed that, for the first time ever, the number of people describing themselves as having “no religion” has exceeded the number who self-identify as Christian. Just 15 years ago, almost threequarters of us still regarded ourselves as Christian; now, just 44% do. By contrast, 48% of us regard ourselves as non-believers – double the proportion of five years ago. This decline in faith is a big change for Britain, and raises many questions. “Is it appropriate that we are still invited to swear on the Bible in court?” “Is it right that the Lords Spiritual should still have a role in the Upper House, or that church and state should have…

Athletics: the Russian doping scandal You might have thought you were inured to the scale of doping in modern sport, said Nick Greenslade in The Sunday Times. But nothing could have prepared any of us for the extraordinary allegations about Russia and how far it has gone to give its athletes an advantage. The evidence is so overwhelming that, last year, the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) saw fit to accuse the country of “state-sponsored doping”; it threw the book at Russia, suspending it from international athletics indefinitely. And in recent weeks, there have been even more damaging revelations. When the International Olympic Committee retested samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, it found that 54 athletes tested positive. Remarkably, almost half (22) were Russian. But that’s nothing compared to the…

To The Guardian Some of the most persistent myths surrounding Brexit concern the size and aims of the EU Secretariat, which is, according to one of your correspondents, a “vast bureaucratic machine peddling an American neo-liberal agenda”. The Secretariat is actually tiny. The number of civil servants at the European Commission is 33,000; at the European Parliament, 6,000; and at the Council of the European Union, 3,500. At a total of 42,500, it is about a tenth of the size of the UK civil service in 2015: 439,000 in total, or 406,000 full-time equivalents. In fact, the EU employs fewer people than many UK departments on their own; two-thirds of HMRC (60,900 full-time equivalents) or the Ministry of Defence (56,800), and less than half of the Department for Work and…

This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell Tinder Press 496pp £18.99 The Week bookshop £16.99 (incl. p&p) Maggie O’Farrell has a “conjuror’s sleight of hand”, said Alfred Hickling in The Guardian: many of her novels feature disappearances. Her latest is about an “internationally famous” film star named Claudette Wells, who at the height of her career stormed off set, and now lives – secretly – in a derelict house in Ireland. She has a husband, Brooklyn-born linguist Daniel (one of several narrators), but their marriage is in crisis. O’Farrell has always been superb at showing how “swiftly and silently” love can “slip out” of a relationship, and the passages dealing with the demise of Claudette’s marriage are “compelling”. Occasionally, the novel has an unnecessarily “tricksy feel”, said Christina Patterson…

There’s always a slight feeling of dread when you hear that a beloved children’s book is being turned into a film, said Jane Shilling in The Daily Telegraph. And my pessimism on hearing of the BBC’s forthcoming adaptation of Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome’s classic tale of the adventures of the Walker children – was not entirely ill-founded. Did they have to change the name of one of the children from Titty to Tatty, simply because Titty might cause the odd snigger? Was it necessary to insert a subplot involving dastardly Russian spies into an innocent story of a group of children messing about in boats in the 1930s Lake District? What makes this especially infuriating is that Titty was a real person, said Barbara Altounyan in The Sunday…

A teenager who left a pair of glasses on the floor of one of America’s biggest art galleries fooled scores of visitors into thinking it was an important work of postmodernist art. T.J. Khayatan, 17, and a group of his friends were visiting the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art last week when it struck them that while many of the works on show were impressive, a number were decidedly underwhelming – yet were being gazed at reverentially all the same. To test the theory that people will take anything seriously if it’s put on display in a major gallery, Khayatan took off his spectacles, left them on the floor and walked away. Soon, other visitors began to gather around the “work”, leaving a respectful distance as they pondered what…

Helen is in the early stages of labour. Rob is impatient when he can’t get through to Pat on the phone, so Ursula goes round to find out more. As she arrives, Pat is answering the phone to Tony. He tells her that Helen has pre-eclampsia and has gone for an emergency caesarean. As Helen comes round from the anaesthetic, Peggy tells her the baby’s fine and everything is all right. A sobbing Helen replies: “No, it’s not.” Ursula’s touched when Rob says he’s naming the baby after her father, Gideon Robert Titchener. Helen has difficulty breastfeeding. She thinks the baby looks like Rob. Tom apologises to Kirsty for leaving her at the altar. Tony tells Peggy that Helen doesn’t seem interested in the baby. Matthew visits Pip to explain…

Mannings Hotel Lemon Street, Truro, Cornwall (01872-247900). The menu at Mannings, a handsome hotel restaurant in Truro, is long and “extraordinarily restless”, says Jay Rayner in The Observer – as if “written by a wellfunded backpacker” recalling the culinary highlights of jaunts to Italy, Japan, Mexico, Thailand and the Americas. Naturally, I feared the worst: could one kitchen really pull all this off? The answer is a resounding yes. A massaman curry of long-braised lamb has “depths you could lose yourself in”. Tom kha soup, bobbing with fat prawns, is “a big sweet-sour savoury broth, with the bellow and shout of fish sauce”. A plate of “sashimi-grade” tuna is just that, and dressed with a sticky soy-lime glaze of the sort you could happily lick off your fingers. My companions…

New cars: “one of the best-looking cars on sale” In its heyday, Alfa Romeo produced stunning cars, said Matt Saunders in Autocar. Just think of the Giulia, the Alfasud, the 75 – “handling greats, all”. Since then, however, precious few Alfas have set pulses racing. That makes the relaunched Giulia saloon a “watershed” car for the Italian firm. There’s a standard model, with a 2.2-litre engine; but the more exciting model is the topend Giulia Quadrifoglio. Boasting a 2.9-litre V6 petrol engine, and 503bhp, it’s the most powerful Alfa ever sold. So is it enough to restore the manufacturer’s reputation? The Quadrifoglio is certainly a “fast, likeable” car, said Andrew Frankel in The Daily Telegraph. It is the first family car from Alpha to offer “genuinely extreme performance”: it does…

Japan for whisky lovers Tourism in Japan has tended to revolve around temples and gardens. But now, the country’s whisky is also becoming a popular draw, says Laura Millar in The Daily Telegraph. Once obscure, Japanese malts are now world class. You can learn more about them, and their history, at the Yamazaki Suntory Distillery, near Osaka, where the first ever Japanese whisky was produced in 1923. It proved unpopular, but in 1937 a version mild enough for the “delicate” national palate was finally created, and Yamazaki’s fortunes soared (last year, its Sherry Cask 2013 won Whisky of the Year at the World Whiskies Awards). After the tour, which takes in the whole distillery process, you could head to Osaka’s Bar Augusta, where there’s a vast selection of whiskies to…

Alliance Trust: enter Rothschild Help may be at hand for Alliance Trust – the beleaguered Dundee-based fund manager that made headlines last year when its chief executive, Katherine Garrett-Cox, was dramatically ousted following a long-running shareholder dispute, said Kate Palmer in The Daily Telegraph. Jacob Rothschild’s RIT Capital Partners has confirmed that it is in talks to acquire the outfit – although it has yet to make a formal offer. The combined company would be worth around £5bn. One of the UK’s “oldest and largest investment trusts”, Alliance has had a turbulent time lately, owing to repeated attacks from activist investors lambasting its “lacklustre performance and corporate governance record”, said Chris Newlands and Arash Massoudi in the FT. Investors broadly welcomed Lord Rothschild’s interest, though some noted that RIT’s own…

Tax dodging: don’t blame it all on Trump Gillian Tett Financial Times Although it is customary for American presidential candidates to release their tax returns, Donald Trump is refusing to comply, says Gillian Tett. And critics suspect it’s because he has paid little (or no) tax in recent years. If so, he’s hardly alone. The row about his tax returns has shone a spotlight on the liability-dodging practices of real-estate developers – anything from installing goats on golf courses to a host of more opaque ruses. Big privately held property firms are rarely troubled by public scrutiny, and the US corporate tax code is so riddled with loopholes that developers “have to be pretty dumb” to pay any tax at all. No surprise that residential property was the most profitable…

Donald Trump last week clinched the Republican nomination for the US presidential race, winning the support of enough delegates to secure his place on the ballot. The New York billionaire crossed the threshold when some previously uncommitted delegates pledged their support, giving him a clear majority among the total 2,472 who will meet at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next month. He now needs only the convention’s formal endorsement. But the Democratic nomination remained in doubt after socialist contender Bernie Sanders insisted that he would stay in the race until his party’s convention, later in July, even though he now has little chance of overtaking frontrunner Hillary Clinton. In a further blow to the Clinton campaign, an inquiry found that her use of a private email server for official…

Cincinnati, Ohio Gorilla shot dead: Police are to investigate how a three-year-old boy came to fall into the primate enclosure at Cincinnati Zoo – an incident that led to the shooting dead of an endangered western lowland gorilla. Witnesses said the ape, which stood over the boy, and pulled him through shallow water, was acting protectively. However, zoo keepers said they had no choice but to kill the 17-year-old silverback, named Harambe, as he could have harmed the child (even inadvertently), and a tranquilliser wouldn’t have worked in time. Although the zoo has faced questions about its safety record, police say they will be investigating the boy’s parents; more than 420,000 people have signed an online petition calling for them to be held to account. Washington DC Snowden’s “public service”:…

A Thai man was recovering in hospital this week after a 10ft python emerged from his squat toilet and sank its teeth into his penis. Attaporn Boonmakchuay said the snake was “yanking very hard”, but that he eventually managed to prise its jaws apart while his wife pulled it away. The snake, which had slithered in through the plumbing, was later found and released back into the wild. Mr Boonmakchuay, 38, says he now plans to replace his squat toilet with a sitting one. An Italian baker who paid his child support in pizza has been told he won’t be prosecuted. Nicola Toso, 50, from a village outside Padua, agreed to pay w400 a month in his divorce settlement, but when he fell on hard times, began sending pizza, calzone…

UNITED STATES Those “damn emails” aren’t going away New Republic (Washington DC) “One of the most memorable moments of the Democratic primaries,” says Jeet Heer, came in the first debate in October, when Bernie Sanders surprised everyone by proclaiming that he wasn’t going to go after Hillary Clinton for wrongly using her personal email account for official business when she was secretary of state. “Let me say something that may not be great politics,” Sanders declared. “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.” Sanders’s highminded stance did wonders for his profile. But it might have been better for the Democrats if Sanders had gone after Clinton. Part of the function of primaries is to test candidates and prepare them for the battle ahead –…

Before the show aired, Chris Evans said he hoped to get at least five million viewers – and given all the hype, that didn’t seem unduly optimistic. But in the event, he was disappointed, said The Daily Telegraph. Average viewing figures for the revamped Top Gear were only 4.4 million: that still made it the most-watched show at 8pm on Sunday, but it was Top Gear’s lowest rating for a season opener in a decade; and when social media users delivered their verdict, it was, in large part, merciless. Viewers complained about everything from the lack of chemistry between Evans and co-presenter Matt LeBlanc and the paucity of jokes, to Evans’s shouty delivery. Some dubbed it Flop Gear; several posted old clips of the show’s former presenters – Jeremy Clarkson,…

She became famous for appearing in a sex tape; and on the back of that has built a major career… doing what exactly? I know Kim Kardashian stars in a reality TV show; is married to a rapper; and likes posting selfies of her naked bum, said Victoria Coren Mitchell in The Observer. But I still don’t get it: “the 45 million Twitter followers, the mainstream British newspaper coverage”. And now this: the revelation that Harriet Harman – of all people – is a fan. On Good Morning Britain last week, the feminist and Labour MP praised the Kardashians, saying she likes the way they control “their own agenda”, and “make their own decisions”. What? Surely Harman should be taking the contrary view: that Kim Kardashian is encouraging young women…

Master of Monaco After eight races without a victory, “covering seven painful months”, Lewis Hamilton’s drought is over, says Daniel Johnson in The Daily Telegraph. On Sunday, in his adopted home town, the Mercedes driver won the Monaco Grand Prix with a drive worthy of his “great hero” Ayrton Senna. Hamilton mastered the rainy conditions, and his bold decision to make only one pit stop paid off. Before this race, his Mercedes teammate and arch-rival Nico Rosberg seemed to be running away with the drivers’ world championship; but he was as “dismal” as Hamilton was dazzling, and his lead has now been cut to just 24 points. All of a sudden, a fourth championship for Hamilton looks “a lot more likely”. Sarries do the double For years, Saracens were “European…

Theatre The Threepenny Opera Playwright: Bertolt Brecht Composer: Kurt Weill In a new adaptation by Simon Stephens Director: Rufus Norris Olivier, National Theatre, London SE1 (020-7452 3000) Until 1 October Running time: 3hrs (including interval) Rufus Norris has had a choppy start as boss of the National Theatre, said Claire Allfree in The Daily Telegraph. He needs a “copper-bottomed hit” to silence the doubters. Alas, I doubt The Threepenny Opera is it. Admittedly, this “bleak” reimagining of the Brecht/Weill classic about East End lowlifes (itself a satirical update of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, from 1728) is at times “very good indeed”. The evening “soars” during the musical numbers, performed by an onstage band dressed like “ghoulish apparitions from a Weimar cabaret”. And there are some cracking performances: Sharon Small…

Francis Bacon has become the “iconic artist de nos jours”, said Alastair Smart in The Daily Telegraph. Any museum exhibition of his paintings will “attract visitors by the lorryload”, and his “disturbed” and “isolated” works command “multiple millions” at auction: recently, one of his diptychs sold for $35m (£24m) at Sotheby’s. Indeed, Bacon’s legacy has been so thoroughly explored that you could be forgiven for thinking there was nothing left to say about his work. This “revealing” exhibition at Tate Liverpool sidesteps the problem by focusing on an often “neglected” technical aspect of his career – namely, the ghostly “transparent cages” he used to frame the figures in his compositions. The show brings together 30 paintings realised over the course of his career, and by concentrating on Bacon’s technique, reveals…

Unhappy the Land: The Most Oppressed People Ever, the Irish? by Liam Kennedy, 2015 (Merrion Press £19.99). While debating the morality of the Irish 1916 rebellion, I’ve found inspiration in these witty and iconoclastic reflections on Irish history by a friend whose distinguishing features include deep humanity and mischievous enjoyment in dispatching sacred cows to the slaughterhouse. James Connolly: My Search for the Man, the Myth and His Legacy by Sean O’Callaghan, 2015 (Century £18.99). This is by another friend who – inspired by the rhetoric of James Connolly (a Marxist executed after the 1916 rising) – joined the IRA at 15, and later devoted himself to destroying it. Here he writes about violent extremism and why ordinary people become True Believers. J: A Novel by Howard Jacobson, 2014 (Vintage…

Programmes Reg Tim Roth stars in Jimmy McGovern’s new drama based on the true story of Reg Keys, who took on then-PM Tony Blair after his son, a Welsh soldier, was killed in the Iraq war. Mon 6 June, BBC1 9pm (90mins). Rich Brother, Poor Brother Cutting Edge explores the wealth gap in Britain through the case of two estranged siblings, multimillionaire Tory businessman Ivan Massow and his younger brother David, who works as an oddjob man and lives in a van. Tue 7 June, C4 9pm (60mins). Cameron and Farage Live: The EU Referendum The UKIP leader and the PM take questions from a studio audience in London. Tue 7 June, ITV1 9pm (60mins). Power Monkeys Jack Dee and Claire Skinner star in this new six-part Brexit-themed series –…

Ishikari-nabe (salmon and miso hotpot) Serves 4 400g waxy potatoes such as Charlotte or Maris Piper 1 postcard-size piece of dried kelp 50ml sake 50ml mirin 2 tbsp soy sauce 2 onions, peeled and cut into 5mm thick slices 2 carrots, peeled and cut into 5mm-thick rings 200g spring cabbage (hard core removed), cut into bite-size pieces 50g white or lightcoloured miso 150g red or medium-dark miso 50g butter, softened 400g salmon fillets, cut into 2cm-thick chunks 4 tbsp salmon roe mixed with 2 tsp sake (optional) • Peel and cut the potatoes into large chunks. Bevel all the edges then soak in cold water to wash off excess starch. Drain. • Put the kelp, sake, mirin, soy sauce, onions, potatoes and 1.2 litres of water into a large casserole…

Cornish cottage A 4-bed Cornish cottage sleeping 10 and close to Padstow and local beaches, is available for a week’s stay in August for £1,475. 07921-268056, www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/13073116. Fabulous Phuket Relax with a 7-night holiday at the Manathai Surin Phuket, on a beach on the west coast of the island. Prices from £759pp b&b including flights. 01204-824619, www.destinology.co.uk. Until 31 October. Sicilian palace Enjoy the views of Mount Etna during a 7-night stay at the San Domenico Palace Hotel, on the Taormina coast. Prices from £835pp b&b with Luton flights. 020-7838 5892, www.wexas.com. Travel 1-31 Oct. Resort break in Fujairah The 5-star Fujairah Rotana Resort & Spa offers a 4-night stay from £519pp b&b, with flights to Dubai and transfers. 0844-871 6650, www.thomascook.com. Book by 30 June, for August-September travel.…

The pound fell to a two-week low after several opinion polls suggested an erosion of the Remain campaign’s lead in the run-up to the EU vote, despite further warnings from economists of the dangers of Brexit. The OECD forecast that the UK economy would suffer “a large negative shock” and that GDP could fall by more than 3% by 2020. It predicted the rest of the EU would be 1% weaker as a result. A survey of FTSE 350 companies found that more than a third had spent up to £1m preparing for the consequences of Brexit. In its latest financial stability report, the European Central Bank singled out populist political parties as a growing risk. Opec oil ministers gathered in Vienna for their half-yearly meeting amid hopes of a…

● Brexit bets Hedge funds and banks are commissioning their own private exit polls to determine voting patterns in the EU referendum, with a view to laying “big bets” on the result, said Chris Giles and Jim Pickard in the Financial Times. Their hope is that they’ll be the “first to benefit financially from a Government-induced swing in sterling since George Soros bet against the pound” in 1992, when sterling crashed out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. The cost of a “rudimentary” exit poll is about £500,000, a trifling sum compared to the “potential profits available from finding out whether Leave or Remain is likely to win”. A “modest” rise in the pound is expected if Remain wins, and a sharp drop if Brexit does. Financial markets have recently…

Sir Denys Henderson The former ICI boss, who has died aged 83, “was no revolutionary”, says the FT. But if “events turned against him, he fought like hell”. When the corporate raider Lord Hanson moved in on the company in 1993, “Henderson was furious and his defence spectacular”. He not only stalled the potential bid, notes Jeremy Warner in The Sunday Telegraph, but fought a “vicious, clandestine campaign to blacken Hanson’s name” – and he largely succeeded. Hanson was never quite the same after his “mauling”, and a few years later his company was broken up. But the encounter also marked the end of ICI, which underwent a similar fracturing. All that’s left of the once-mighty industrial powerhouse that was Imperial Chemical Industries is the pharma AstraZeneca. Sanjiv Mehta When…

Controversy of the week A war on privilege What school did you attend? What postal code did you grow up in? What were your parents’ professions? Those are the questions which Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock wants companies to start asking job applicants, said Dan Carrier in The Guardian, and which the civil service may soon have to ask. It’s part of a bid to stop discrimination against the poor. “Social justice is at the heart of everything this one-nation Government is trying to achieve,” Hancock explained. You can see what prompted him, said Brendan Cole in the International Business Times. A report from the Sutton Trust, which campaigns for social mobility, has found that half the Cabinet were privately educated, as were 74% of High Court judges; 71% of…

A Yorkshire pilgrimage A few years ago, while on a religious retreat, the Archbishop of York heard a voice. It said just three words – “on the road”. “It took me a while to study it,” he told Joe Shute in The Daily Telegraph. “But then I realised. That is what I am going to do.” And so, on 1 December last year, the Most Rev Dr John Sentamu pulled on his walking boots, packed a bag of porridge oats, and set off on a six-month pilgrimage around the Diocese of York. “I’ve been in York for ten years and wanted to get to know the place better,” he explains. Since then, he has visited more than 480 churches and 130 schools, waded through winter floods, and carried out impromptu…

More than a million refugees crossed into the EU in 2015: almost 4,000 are believed to have drowned in the attempt. Britain has so far been shielded from the crisis because, under the EU’s “Dublin system”, responsibility for asylum claims falls on the member state where asylum seekers first arrive. But the system is proving untenable: border nations such as Greece are simply unable to cope with such vast numbers. Yet the UK and Eastern European states have resisted attempts to create a Europe-wide asylum system, while Germany’s offer to take in large numbers has caused chaos, with some nations allowing refugees to pass, and others, such as Hungary, erecting barriers to block their route; thousands have been left in makeshift camps. This year an EU deal with Turkey has…

TURKEY Erdogan’s empty threats don’t scare us Deutsche Welle (Berlin) Europeans are hostile towards Turkey because they’re “jealous” of its fine bridges, dams and subway trains. That’s the latest extraordinary claim by President Erdogan, says Gunnar Köhne, and we will be hearing more of this sort of thing, now that Europe has cooled on promises to give Turks visa-free travel in return for stopping the flow of migrants. Germany’s Angela Merkel now says that perk won’t be given until Erdogan agrees to a number of conditions, notably that he stop using terrorism laws to hound opponents: a recent travesty was lifting the immunity of MPs, which means Kurdish opposition members can be labelled terrorists and expelled. Infuriated, Erdogan is threatening to retaliate by unleashing a new wave of migrants. Yet…

A coalition of international doctors and researchers has called for stomachstapling surgery to be used far more routinely to treat Type 2 diabetes. “Bariatric” operations – which drastically reduce the amount patients can eat – are the closest thing to a “cure” for the condition: studies indicate they lead to remission in up to 50% of cases. But despite this, the NHS still isn’t offering them as standard care, said the experts: only about 6,000 such operations are performed in the UK each year, even though up to 100,000 people a year could benefit from them. Wider use of the procedure (which costs about £6,000) wouldn’t just improve the lives of Type 2 diabetes patients; it would also save money, the panel claimed. Treating diabetes and its complications is a…

“The world wept last year,” said the Daily Mirror, “when the tiny, lifeless body of Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi was scooped from a Turkish beach.” Might we soon witness a similar tragedy on our own shores? All the signs are that the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean is now spreading to the Channel. Last weekend, 18 Albanians had to be rescued from a sinking dinghy as they attempted to reach the Kent coast under cover of darkness. That came only days after 17 migrants had been arrested at Chichester Marina. Britain has been guilty of complacency, said The Times. A few months ago, the Home Office assessed the risk of migrants being smuggled into this country on small boats as “not significant”. Yet it’s clear that people traffickers have now…

“We rather enjoy being told by our wives and sweethearts that we’re smoking and drinking too much. It enables us to feel devil-may-care at little trouble or expense.” Kingsley Amis, quoted in The Spectator “Politicians fear the press, and we should fear the disappearance of anything which makes them worry.” Iain Martin on CapX “The freedom of nasty people is the liberty of us all.” Libby Purves in The Times “Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wicker picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.” Tom Stoppard, quoted in The Mail on Sunday “In the midst of great tragedy, there is always the horrible possibility that something terribly funny will happen.” Philip K. Dick, quoted on TheBrowser.com “Evils which are patiently endured…

Sold out from under us To The Guardian Aditya Chakrabortty is spot on that austerity is about privatising everything we own. But not only by the state. It is happening everywhere at a local level. The cinema on Kensington High Street where I saw Saturday morning flicks for a tanner has been sold to build luxury flats. The school I and my children attended, Holland Park comprehensive, sold half its footprint for luxury flats. Kensington and Chelsea FE College recently agreed to sell its site off Portobello Road, where I worked for 25 years, for luxury flats. The professional development centre I used in Ladbroke Grove was sold to a private prep school. Now the library I have used for 40 years, built by public subscription in 1891, will be…

by John Guy Viking 512pp £25 The Week bookshop £21 (incl. p&p) Historians have generally been kind to the ageing Elizabeth I, accepting the image of her as the “selfless” Virgin Queen, said Craig Brown in The Mail on Sunday. Not so John Guy, author of this “exceptionally good” study of her final two decades: “it is hard to find a single word that he says in her favour, other than that she had beautiful hands, and was nimble on the dance floor”. Elizabeth emerges as being not unlike her Blackadder portrayal – petulant, vindictive, forever “ranting and raving”. Guy shows that many of the “key details” of her reign are actually myths. Rather than being a “warrior queen”, she mostly tried to restrain her commanders. And the idea that…

Love and Friendship Dir: Whit Stillman 1hr 32mins (U) A hilarious, elegant Jane Austen adaptation On learning that an American independent film-maker was adapting Lady Susan, Jane Austen’s early novel, I was filled with foreboding, said Nigel Andrews in the FT. Needlessly so. Whit Stillman’s film is wonderful. Kate Beckinsale plays the unscrupulous Lady Susan Vernon, a widow devoted to finding rich husbands for herself and her pretty daughter (Morfydd Clark), in the face of every obstacle thrown in her path by the targets’ concerned relatives. “What audacity, what elegance,” said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. Thanks to the verbal flair Stillman brings to Austen’s lightweight tale, this comedy feels like “an undiscovered Oscar Wilde play”. It has a great supporting cast, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator, Tom Bennett…

Martin Finnin at John Martin Gallery Irish artist Martin Finnin’s loud, sprightly abstract paintings belie a superb technical skill and a mastery of colour. Joyous things, without seeming in the slightest bit kitsch, it’s hard to look at the works on show in this new exhibition and not feel cheered up in some way. The inspiration for much of Finnin’s work comes from the industrial skyline of the port in Cork, his home town, but his paintings transform the cooling towers and cranes into exuberant, expressive shapes in turquoise, explosive orange or warm yellow. They seem to have much in common with the more whimsical side of 1960s British pop art – Peter Blake in a good mood, perhaps, or even Eduardo Paolozzi’s bright collages. Serious contemporary abstract painting can…

If you didn’t know that they make wine in India, you’re forgiven, says Fiona Beckett in The Guardian. Given the climate, it’s by no means obvious. But at a tasting for the launch of Peter Csizmadia-Honigh’s new book, The Wines of India: A Concise Guide (it isn’t: it runs to 452 pages), I was taken aback by the quality. My favourite was the very cool-looking Myra Vineyards’ Misfit 2013, a really gorgeous blend of cabernet and shiraz from Karnataka state; it’s available in small quantities from this month from Premia Wines (www.premiawines.com). More widely available is Soul Tree’s full, ripe, oak-aged Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2013 (£10.99; www.soultreewine.co.uk). When it comes to whites, Sula’s Sauvignon Blanc was the pick of the sauvignons: it’s also available from Marks and Spencer under the…

Hotel de Tourrel, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France Occupying a grand 17th century town house in the heart of charming Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (where van Gogh painted The Starry Night), the Hotel de Tourrel is “gorgeously restored” and “super-stylish”, says Lanie Goodman in Condé Nast Traveller. Hidden behind its unmarked walnut front door are seven bedrooms of varying sizes, with exposed stone walls, high ceilings, and 1920s and 1930s furniture. Cocktails and tapas are served by the rooftop pool; the restaurant offers “refined” Provençal dishes; and the adjacent wine shop and tasting room stocks some 350 bottles. Doubles from £195. +33 4 84 35 07 20, www.detourrel.com.…

Radical priest who was jailed for burning US draft cards Daniel Berrigan 1921-2016 Daniel Berrigan was a writer, peace activist and Roman Catholic priest who, with his brother and fellow priest Philip, inspired a wave of non-violent protests against the Vietnam war, said The New York Times. On 17 May 1968, the Berrigans and seven other activists, most of them in holy orders, marched into a draft office in Catonsville, Maryland, and seized the records of almost 400 men who were about to be conscripted into the US Army. They then carried the files to a nearby car park, doused them with home-made napalm and set them alight, before being dragged away by police. The group became known as the Catonsville Nine, and their actions – six weeks after the…

“Every new M&S boss has a bright idea for fixing the clothing business,” said Alistair Osborne in The Times. “Steve Rowe has the best one yet” – he’s planning to make the clobber “wearable”. Who would have thought of it? Something radical is certainly needed. Shares in the retailer suffered their biggest one-day fall since 2009 last week after it revealed a 2.9% decline in like-forlike UK clothing sales in the year to March. Pre-tax profits overall were down by 19.5%. Rowe spooked investors by warning that his turnaround strategy could hit profits further in the short term, but if he rights the ship, who cares, said Nils Pratley in The Guardian. Indeed, the most “encouraging” part of Rowe’s strategy rejig is that, after five successive years of decline, “he…

Diversity is supposedly the lifeblood of modern companies. But the latest FTSE 100 CEO Tracker – from recruiter Robert Half – suggests that the bosses of Britain’s biggest firms are ticking much the same boxes, says Emma Haslett in City AM. Background: 55% of FTSE 100 chiefs have a background in finance or accounting. 15% come from marketing; 14% technology. The best industries for working through the ranks are retail and hospitality, where around 21% of bosses started out in lowly roles. Education: The majority of CEOs have at least one university degree; more than a quarter have an MBA or PhD. The number of Oxbridge graduates has fallen from 21% in 2012 to 18%. Age and sex: The average age is 55. The oldest FTSE 100 CEO today is…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best buys Acal The Mail on Sunday This electronics specialist, focused on transport and medical devices, has improved its central monitoring. Good growth prospects, rising profit margins and an expected dividend are reasons to ignore the sceptics. Buy. 257.5p. French Connection Investors Chronicle Things are looking up for the fashion retailer, which is expected to report positive like-for-like sales. Rumours of takeover possibilities, teamed with an impressive cash pile, add to its credentials as a recovery play. Buy. 37p. Hogg Robinson Group Shares A set of slightly disappointing sales figures shouldn’t detract from another solid performance from the corporate travel management giant. Chunkier margins have boosted confidence of earnings growth in the year ahead. Buy. 70p. Intermediate Capital Group The Times This investment business has…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1007 An Ettinger coin purse 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 13 June. Send it to: The Week Crossword 1007, 2nd floor, 32 Queensway, London W2 3RX, or email the answers to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Set by Tim Moorey (www.timmoorey.info) This week’s crossword winner will receive an Ettinger (www.ettinger.co.uk) Brogue Collection nut coin purse, which retails at £150, and two Connell Guides (www.connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Right away, hard worker goes to get bathroom items (10) 7 Quack comes from duck in US district (3) 9 Time for a kipper in lands abroad (6,3) 10 Face university pressure, study intensively (3,2) 11 Draw back from carbon in Beaujolais? (5)…