Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1081 i The Week

What happened The leadership race Tory MPs were due to whittle down their shortlist of leadership candidates from five to two this week, as recriminations about the EU referendum campaign continued to split the party and the country at large. The clear favourite to win the contest is Home Secretary Theresa May, who secured the backing of exactly half her colleagues in the first round of voting, on Tuesday. She presented herself as a unifying candidate with long experience of dealing with threats to national security, but was accused of using EU citizens living in Britain as “bargaining chips” after she refused to guarantee their right to remain after Brexit. May subsequently rowed back from that position. May’s rivals condemned suggestions that she should be elected unopposed, saying it would…

Copenhagen Brexit boosts support for Union: Support among Danes for remaining in the European Union has risen sharply (from 60% to 69%) since the UK voted to leave – and support for holding a referendum on membership has dropped (from 41% to 32%). Denmark has several sizeable Eurosceptic parties, including the Red-Green Alliance and the Danish People’s Party, and had long been seen as one of the countries that might be tempted to leave in the wake of a vote for Brexit. “This poll confirms that nobody wants to put themselves in the kind of mess the British have created for themselves,” Professor Marlene Wind, from the University of Copenhagen, told Bloomberg. Similar shifts in opinion are now being seen in Finland, where support for continuing EU membership has jumped…

1 The Trapeze Swinger, written and performed by Iron and Wine 2 Dream On by Steven Tyler, performed by Aerosmith 3 Ceremony by Ian Curtis, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner, performed by Galaxie 500 4 Delirious, written and performed by Prince 5 I See a Darkness by Will Oldham, performed by Johnny Cash and Will Oldham 6 The State I Am In by Stuart Murdoch, performed by Belle and Sebastian 7* Every Grain of Sand by Bob Dylan, performed by Emmylou Harris 8 When I Get My Hands on You by Bob Dylan, performed by Marcus Mumford Book: From Dawn to Decadence by Jacques Barzun Luxury: a kite-surfing kit * Choice if allowed only one record…

Politicians cash in on gambling addiction Dominic Lawson Daily Mail A total of £12.6bn – that’s how much Britons lost on gambling in the 12 months to September 2015, says Dominic Lawson. A 12% increase on the previous year, it equates to almost £500 for every household. And much of this phenomenal spend is attributable to the growth of fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). The “crack cocaine of gambling”, these casino-style machines enable punters in betting shops to risk up to £100 per spin every 20 seconds. It was the Gambling Act 2005 which allowed this “turbo-charged electronic roulette” to be released in our high streets, an act that also legalised promotion of gambling through TV adverts. The inevitable result? A surge in online betting. Yet because it generates so much…

Is Brexit a good omen for Donald Trump’s presidential bid? The parallels are certainly compelling, said Edward J. Rollins on RealClearPolitics.com. The UK vote showed that Brits are no longer prepared to put up with unlimited immigration and being ignored by an out-of-touch “elitist bureaucracy”. Many Americans feel much the same – and they, too, seem ready to upend what they regard as a “broken status quo”. Don’t be surprised if Trump delivers another electoral shock in November. If nothing else, said William McGurn in The Wall Street Journal, Brexit should be a warning to “the anti-Trump crowd” – who, like the UK Remain advocates, treat all their opponents as ignorant racists – about “the price of condescension in a society where the people are still sovereign”. The Brexit result…

Workouts make “insides” fitter If you start a fitness programme, don’t use your weighing scales to monitor your progress, says the Daily Mail. Exercise regimes often don’t lead to significant weight loss – but that doesn’t mean they’re not working. A new meta-analysis, conducted by a team at Liverpool John Moores University, and Radboud University in the Netherlands, has found that between two and six months of endurance training results in an average weight loss of only 1% – partly because when people start to exercise they gain muscle, which is a relatively heavy tissue. However, the study data reveals that levels of “visceral fat” – the fat that accumulates deep in the abdomen, and surrounds internal organs – falls significantly, by an average of 6%. Visceral fat is considered…

They used to say that a week was a long time in politics; now, it’s an eternity, said Charlie Cooper in The Independent. First, we had the shock referendum result – followed by the Prime Minister resigning. As the stock market tumbled and the pound plummeted, only one thing seemed certain in a newly uncertain world: Boris Johnson would take over as leader of the Tory Party. The man who, as a child, declared that he would be “World King”, who had never disguised his thirst for the top job, was just a step away from becoming PM. But wait – not so fast. In the background, a “Get Boris” conspiracy was brewing at Westminster; and leading it was not one of his known enemies, but his comrade on the…

In the aftermath of the referendum, there was an “explosion” of racist incidents across Britain, said Homa Khaleeli in The Guardian. The National Police Chiefs’ Council noted that recorded race-hate crime rose by 57% in the days after the vote. Experts called it “celebratory racism”. In Great Yarmouth, cars slowed down to jeer at Eastern European workers. In west London, a Polish community centre was daubed with insulting graffiti. In Huntingdon, hundreds of laminated cards that read “No more Polish vermin” were pushed through the letter boxes of Polish homes. And many other ethnic minorities, not just EU immigrants, were affected. A mixedrace man on a Manchester tram was told to “go back to Africa”. A Muslim taxi driver was assaulted by a man shouting: “Brexit, you Paki.” “None of…

In Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Manchester United haven’t just acquired “one of the modernday great strikers”, said Alan Smith in The Guardian. They have signed one of the “all-time great personalities”. This is a player who announced his departure from his previous club, Paris Saint-Germain, with characteristic swagger – “I came like a king,” he said. “I left like a legend” – a player who refers to himself in the third person and compares himself to God; who says, “I can’t help but laugh at how perfect I am”. He’s not far off: the Swede is a “rare and sublime talent”, who has won 12 league titles in the past 13 seasons. There are footballers who have had a type of skill named after them, but Ibrahimovic may be the only one…

Theatre Faith Healer Playwright: Brian Friel Director: Lyndsey Turner Donmar Warehouse, London WC2 (0844-871 7624) Until 20 August Running time: 2hrs 20mins (including interval) Brian Friel’s haunting masterpiece is a tough play to pull off, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. It’s made up of four monologues: the first and last delivered by Frank Hardy, the itinerant Irish “healer” of the title, who has made a living of sorts touring the fringes of Wales and Scotland. The other two, which tell different versions of Frank’s stories, are given by his wife, Grace, and his Cockney manager, Teddy. If performed “in a portentous fashion”, the “enigmatic evening has the potential to be purgatorial; as delivered in Lyndsey Turner’s beautifully measured and nuanced production, though, Friel’s lyrically written chamber piece delivers…

This “haunting, affecting psychodrama” may be too intense for some tastes, but it is undoubtedly one of the “finest films” of the summer, said Kim Newman in Empire. Shocked by her father’s death and the recent end of a relationship, Catherine (Elisabeth Moss) takes refuge with her best friend Virginia (Katherine Waterston) at the latter’s isolated lakeside summer house. It soon becomes clear that there are old, unresolved resentments between the two women, and that Catherine is on the verge of a breakdown. Stylistically a rather “mannered” film, Queen of Earth is carried by the “rich and subtle” performances of its leads, said Geoffrey Macnab in The Independent. There’s strong support from Patrick Fugit as an arrogant neighbour who takes pleasure in informing Catherine that her erratic behaviour is pure…

“The average museum-goer spends less than 30 seconds in front of a work of art,” says Anne Quito on Quartz. And even that is mostly spent skimming the wall text rather than looking at the work itself. A new TV show called Fake! The Great Masterpiece Challenge, on Sky Arts, is seeking to “allay that attention deficit”, by planting seven fake paintings in UK galleries, and rewarding those who manage to identify them. Starting this week, art museums in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Liverpool and the Wirral will participate in the month-long experiment. For example, at Manchester Art Gallery, one of the Pre-Raphaelites has been replaced with a fake. Museum-goers who correctly spot the counterfeit works and report them will be entered into an open competition to find Britain’s top…

Brian and Jennifer are back from their Orient Express trip. Jennifer spots a photo of Lilian and Justin in the Borsetshire Life and worries they look rather intimate. David tells Josh that he and Ruth will lend him the money to buy out Neil and Hayley. Josh takes Neil some whisky. He apologises for taking the hens and admits he was trying to impress Toby. En route to the pub, Toby urges Rex to make a move on Pip. Rex knows she’s not interested. They bump into Justin and Lilian, who Toby realises are having an affair. Pat and Tony see Rob as they arrive at the custody hearing. Tony notes that Rob is using a walking stick, which he never usually does. Anna starts hesitantly but hits her stride.…

Market Bistro 11 Saturday Market Place, King’s Lynn (01553-771483) Like many Cambridge residents, I tend only to visit King’s Lynn involuntarily – as a result of falling asleep on the train back from London, says Tim Hayward in the Financial Times. But now that I have discovered Market Bistro, I shall be going there more often, and with real purpose. This superb, and exceptionally welcoming, restaurant is the kind of place “our parents’ generation bored on about ‘discovering’ in rural France”: a tiny joint in the attractive market place of a remote town where a husband and wife team (Richard and Lucy Golding) do “beautiful things with local ingredients”. Breast of Norfolk quail comes “sensitively poached” and served on truffle panna cotta shot through with whole mushrooms and an intense…

Scottish heritage break A night’s stay at the Norton House Hotel and Spa, Edinburgh, with breakfast and a three-course dinner for two, costs from £183pn. 0845-458 0901, www.handpickedhotels.co.uk. Valid until 17 July. The sounds of Colombia Celebrate Latin music during a ten-night trip to Bogotá, Medellín and Cartagena. From £2,195pp b&b & travel, excl. international flights. 020-7501 6741, www.songlines.co.uk. Depart 12 September. Five-star Rome Just minutes from Villa Borghese park, the Baglioni Hotel Regina has 3-night stays from £465pp b&b, incl. flights and city tour. 020-7838 5892, www.wexas.com. Book by 23 July; travel until 24 August. Chill out in Amsterdam Three nights at the 4-star Amadi Panorama Hotel, in the new IJburg district, cost from £149pp room only, incl. flights and city tour ticket. 020-8588 9903, www.qwertytravel.com. Select dates August-September.…

European banks: powder keg? Political stability has been “perhaps the greatest export of the City of London”, said Harry Wilson in The Times. Now it has “vanished in the space of a few long days”. But here’s “a cheery thought”, said Alistair Osborne in the same paper: “some things are even worse in Germany”. The country’s financial flagship, Deutsche Bank, is in such trouble that the IMF has just dubbed it “the most important net contributor to [global] systemic risks”. The markets seem to agree that Chancellor Angela Merkel is sitting “on a powder keg of a bank, whatever the efforts of its British boss, John Cryan, to fix it”. Deutsche shares are at a 30-year low, and the cost of insuring against default on its subordinate debt is at…

Markets and the inequality backlash Editorial The Observer “Brexit has done something remarkable,” says The Observer. It has thrust the issue of inequality to “the top of the agenda in financial dealing rooms”. Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) calls it the “biggest electoral riposte yet to [the] age of inequality” – a sentiment echoed by bond fund manager Pimco, among others. What an about-turn! Before the vote, economists and fund managers “were singing in harmony about the benefits of globalisation”. But the great divide it has caused – with the City on one side and blue-collar workers on the other – is “one reason why Brexit came as such a surprise to the markets”. The evidence, though, was always there. Half of working Britain has seen no rise in…

Islamist terrorists stormed Istanbul’s main international airport last week, killing 45 people and wounding more than 200. Passengers fled in panic as three men dressed in black and armed with machine guns burst into Atatürk airport, spraying the departure lounge and arrivals hall with bullets. Within a few minutes all three detonated suicide vests, killing themselves and dozens more. The Turkish authorities blamed Isis for the massacre, and President Erdogan called for closer international collaboration in the “joint fight” against global terrorism. The attack was one of several blamed on Isis in the closing days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At least 250 people were killed in a bomb blast in central Baghdad, and 20 people, mostly expatriates, died when militants seized a café in the Bangladeshi capital,…

What is Juncker’s line on Brexit? Uncompromising. If the British vote to leave, he warned in May, “the deserters will not be welcomed with open arms”. Now he’s calling for the EU to get tough, insisting there can be no informal talks before Article 50 is officially invoked. But then, as Der Spiegel points out, he is a leading voice in the EU faction that wants “ever closer union”, and has long seen the UK, “as a bothersome obstacle” in that quest. However, the hard line that he and Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, want to pursue is at odds with the more emollient approach favoured by Angela Merkel and other EU leaders. What kind of politician is he? A native of Luxembourg, a country sandwiched between France…

Britain’s first “cuddling agency” has launched a recruitment drive, looking for “tactile, empathic and non-judgemental” staff. BeCuddled.Today – the brainchild of holistic therapist Kitty Mansfield – offers a range of cuddle packages to people in need of affection. These include the £50 “sporty” snuggle – where recipients watch a sporting event of their choice while being embraced – and the £450 “dusk-till-dawn snuggle”. However, sexual contact is strictly forbidden; a cushion is always placed between the groin areas of cuddler and client. “The whole point of this service isn’t sexual,” says Mansfield, “it’s about reclaiming touch.” A 24-stone Iranian bodybuilder nicknamed The Hulk has volunteered to fight Isis in Syria. Sajad Gharibi – also known as the Persian Hercules – has a 138,000-strong following on Instagram, where he usually posts…

EUROPEAN UNION Brexit-bungling Juncker must be sacked n-tv.de (Cologne) Mired in the “greatest crisis in its history”, the EU needs a fresh start, says Wolfram Weimer. And what better way than by giving European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker the boot? More than anyone outside Britain, Juncker bears responsibility for the Brexit vote. He could have found meaningful reforms to strengthen David Cameron’s position; instead, his negotiations were marked by “snobbish EU arrogance” – having struggled to keep “marginal” Greece in the Union, he virtually “threw Britain overboard”, even though it’s “one of the EU’s cornerstones”. (Asked if he’d manage to “keep the British in the boat”, he “smugly” replied, “they can swim”.) Now, rather than building bridges, he’s acting like a betrayed spouse, insisting “out means out”. He wants the…

Scientists have created two vaccines that appear to inoculate animals against the Zika virus – raising hopes of a human vaccine soon being available. In laboratory tests, the vaccines protected mice against Zika for at least two months. One is made using “genetic snippets” from a Zika strain from Brazil, the other from an inactivated form of the virus from Puerto Rico. The Harvard-based researchers, who published the results in the journal Nature, now want to trial the vaccine on humans. However, Zika’s close similarity to other viruses, such as dengue fever, poses a challenge for any vaccine: people who’ve had dengue may still have antibodies in their system that could attack a Zika vaccine, rendering it ineffective; more worryingly, the antibodies introduced by a Zika vaccine could make future…

Carla Bruni once declared herself “terribly bored by monogamy”. But after eight years of marriage to Nicolas Sarkozy, the former model has had a change of heart. “If ever I learnt that my husband had cheated on me, I’d be sure to take it very badly,” she told Elle magazine. “I could go so far as to commit extreme acts like slitting his throat or cutting off his ears while he was asleep, for example.” Judi Dench has become the latest celebrity oldie to get a tattoo. David Dimbleby was 75 when he got a scorpion inked onto his shoulder; Felicity Kendal got the first of several tattoos at 63. Now Dench, 81, has had “carpe diem” inscribed on her wrist. Michael Gove has “an emotional need to gossip, particularly…

“We’re politicians and we shouldn’t be detained for too long by sorrow.” Angela Merkel, quoted in The Times “I’ve always thought how terrible it must have been for the person on the next table to the Algonquin Round Table.” Jon Ronson, quoted in The Guardian “All things that are, are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.” Shakespeare, quoted in The Observer “The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions without becoming disillusioned.” Antonio Gramsci, quoted in The Guardian “History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.” Israeli diplomat Abba Eban, quoted in The Times “Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary.” Sebastian Junger, quoted in The Guardian “An artist is somebody who produces things that people…

Leave’s lies To The Daily Telegraph Boris Johnson is wrong to claim that the country is in “a contagious mourning” about the Brexit vote. I was on Saturday’s march in London (though way outside the observable demographic that day). But I was not, nor am I, in mourning. On the contrary, as an older, educated voter, I share with many of my peer group a visceral, all-consuming, whitehot fury at the toxic drip of misrepresentation, outright lies and barely disguised xenophobia which fuelled the Leave campaign. The anger many of us feel is rapidly morphing into a hatred of the people who got us here. They have made the UK an uglier place and we will never forgive them. Jeremy Harmer, Cambridge Experience counts To The Observer As a 67-year-old…

William Collins 384pp £16.99 The Week bookshop £12.99 When Angus McMillan, a “shrewd” young man from Skye, was dispossessed by the Highland Clearances of the 1830s, he “bought a passage on a ship bound for Australia”, said Melanie Reid in The Times. There, he became a “great man”, helping to found the state of Victoria and exploring Gippsland, a fertile region favoured by pioneers. Little wonder, then, that when the young journalist Cal Flyn first discovered that McMillan was her great-great-great uncle, she felt a “thrill of pride”. Yet when she “delved deeper”, the picture grew “dark”: she learnt he had massacred hundreds of Aborigines, all but wiping out one tribe – the Gunai. She found it “unthinkable” that a “pious” Scotsman, who had been displaced by “bullying” aristocrats, could…

“Would it be fabulous, sweetie?” That was the question plaguing every fan of Absolutely Fabulous on learning that their favourite 1990s sitcom was going to get the big-screen treatment, said Stefan Kyriazis in the Daily Express. They need not have worried, said David Edwards in the Daily Mirror. This feature-length outing for Edina and Patsy – the swearing, booze-swilling, fag-toting British fashionistas (played by Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley) – is a “Bollingersoaked, age-defying, diamond-encrusted triumph”. It will “make you laugh so loud and long you may need a facelift”. It’s not quite the instant classic that implies, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. The sketchy plot sees Edina attempting to save her ailing PR firm by signing Kate Moss as a client. Accosting the supermodel at a party, she…

David Hockney is a “relentlessly experimental artist”, said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian. His “restless quest for visual truth” has taken him from pop art to plein-air painting to “cubist photomontages” – and now to this “intriguing exploration of the nature of portraiture” at the Royal Academy. The show brings together 82 identically sized portraits of 79 different people – one subject is painted three times – all posing “in the same elegant chair”. (There’s also one still life; the sitter failed to turn up.) They were all painted in identical conditions at Hockney’s LA studio, over a maximum of three days. And now they are on show as a single work. The subjects range from famous faces (including the comedian Barry Humphries and the textile designer Celia Birtwell) to…

Pet Sematary by Stephen King, 1983 (Hodder £8.99). The most frightening of all King’s novels. He famously thought of the worst thing he could imagine happening and wrote Pet Sematary. When a man’s young son is run over, he brings him back to life via a pet cemetery that is said to have supernatural powers. The story is horrific, but as a study in grief it is quite unparalleled in the genre. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, 1959 (Penguin £9.99). One of the great ghost stories. Jackson has created the Mount Everest of haunted houses. Upon arriving at Hill House, one of the guests (freed for a weekend from her domineering sister) is actually excited to be there – until she sees the house. “The house was…

Programmes Exodus: Our Journey to Europe A year ago, refugees attempting to reach Europe were asked to use camera phones to film their own journeys. This three-part series tracks their progress across the Sahara and the sea. Mon 11 to Wed 13 July, BBC2 9pm (60mins). Child Genius Return of the series that follows British children (and their pushy parents) taking part in the Child Genius of the Year competition. Tue 12 July, C4 8pm (60mins). The Job Interview Series exploring the interview process. Using multiple cameras, it follows a teenager applying for their first job, and a single mother hoping to return to work. Tue 12 July, C4 9pm (60mins). The Secret Life of Brothers and Sisters The team behind The Secret Life of 4, 5, and 6-Year-Olds returns…

Pan-fried halloumi and roast Florence fennel salad with orange dressing Serves 4-6 2 fennel bulbs (about 400g), cut into 1cm-thick slices 2 tbsp extravirgin olive oil a large handful of watercress, rocket or lettuce leaves a handful of seedless green or red grapes, halved 250g halloumi cheese, cut into ½cm slices a few fronds of wild fennel or dill, stems discarded salt and black pepper For the dressing: 1 tsp finely grated orange zest 100ml freshly squeezed orange juice (approx. 2 small oranges) 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil • Preheat the oven to 180°C. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Add the fennel slices and boil for 5-10 minutes, until just tender. Drain. • Lay the slices on a baking tray, brush with the oil and season. Roast…

Playa Grande Beach Club, Dominican Republic Set beside a huge, “sugar-soft” beach on the Dominican Republic’s quiet northeast coast – “a world away from the megaresorts of Punta Cana” – this new, American-owned retreat offers “blessed solitude” in gorgeous surroundings, says Condé Nast Traveller. Its nine “candycoloured” bungalows have been thoughtfully designed to look as though they’ve stood here for a century. Interiors also have a vintage air, with pastel colours, retro kitchens, wicker furniture and copper bathtubs. Menus are pleasingly simple, and there’s superb service from a 100-strong local team. Doubles from £415. www.playagrandebeachclub.com.…

New cars: what the critics say Auto Express The Amarok has always been a premium pickup – you’re more likely to see one “towing a jet ski” than carrying a pallet of bricks. And like other luxurious 4x4 pickups – including the Nissan Navara – this updated model is aimed at buyers who’d otherwise opt for a big SUV. In that respect, it has an advantage: a tax break on “dual usage” light vehicles which could save company car drivers thousands. What Car? Already the most distinctive – and “arguably most desirable” – pickup around, the Amarok looks much the same from the outside. But inside, a new, “clean and ergonomically sound” dashboard makes it feel more like a car than previous models. The driving position is good, and even…

Outlining a financial framework to tackle short-term uncertainty, the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, hinted at an imminent interest-rate cut and raised the prospect of further quantitative easing. Carney warned that the financial risks of Brexit “have begun to crystallise”. The Bank eased its capital requirements on banks, urging them to continue offering loans. The Chancellor abandoned his fiscal target to eradicate the deficit by 2020. He also slashed corporation tax to 15% as part of a “five-point plan” to restore investor confidence and galvanise the economy. The FTSE 100 recorded its strongest weekly gain in five years, but sterling fell to a new low of $1.28. Market anxiety centred on the commercial property and construction sectors. PMI figures, suggesting shrinking activity before the referendum, further pressured…

● Gated! After the initial post-Brexit sell-off, financial markets quietened, and the FTSE 100 even chalked up a major rally. “But investor concerns have shown up in another market,” said Buttonwood in The Economist: property. On Monday, Standard Life suspended redemptions in its £2.9bn UK Retail Property Fund after a rush of investors sought to cash out. The following day, M&G’s £4.4bn Property Portfolio (the UK’s largest commercial property fund) and a £1.8bn Aviva fund also “gated” investors. It looked like “the first real sign of post-Brexit financial stress”. The market clearly agreed. The news sent share prices tumbling for other fund managers and companies exposed to property, and put renewed pressure on the pound, which fell to a new post-vote low. ● Illiquidity issues “The last time commercial property…

Barclays’s Libor trio The conviction of three former Barclays bankers for conspiring to rig Libor interest rates marks a victory for the Serious Fraud Office in its ongoing investigation, said Simon Bowers in The Guardian. During a threemonth trial, the defendants, who included Barclays’s former “star trader” Jay Merchant (pictured), gave various explanations for their behaviour. But the jury found they had “knowingly” manipulated the dollar Libor rate to favour their own derivative positions, in a transatlantic conspiracy running from 2005 to 2007. Email evidence made that plain. One message read: “We just need to f***ing smash it. Have set it low.” Before his banking career, Merchant, 45, who holds both Indian and British nationality, had been one of India’s top tennis players. His tactic during the trial was to…

One morning in March 2011, Albert Chretien and his wife, Rita, loaded their Chevrolet Astro van and drove away from their home in Penticton, British Columbia. Their destination was Las Vegas, where Albert planned to attend a trade show. Rather than sticking to the most direct route, they decided to take a scenic road, Idaho State Highway 51. The Chretiens figured there had to be a turn-off from Idaho 51 that would lead them to US Route 93 all the way to Vegas. During their 38 years of marriage, Albert and Rita had rarely been apart. They worked together, managing their own small excavation business. A few days before the trip, Albert had purchased a Magellan GPS unit for the van. They had not yet used it, but as 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 1 Excellent England footballer (8) 5 Posh boy and girl (2-2-2) 9 Record of famous individual (4,4) 10 Key, for instance given to stringed instrument (1,5) 12 Father and daughter in dock (5) 14 Refund that can give extra beat (3,6) 15 Fancy dates embraced by a Frenchman herein? (5-1-5) 16 Rested for a day (3) 18 Bar staff (3) 19 Do in North & South Asia and seats arranged (11) 21 Nothing right with a slice of peach in flan slated (4,5) 22 What’s needed when a rope breaks? Patience, perhaps (5) 23 Mere learner and adult talk at length (6) 24 Bound to cover…

Since the result of the referendum, “I have been angry”, said Kazuo Ishiguro in the Financial Times. “I began by feeling angry with those who voted Leave.” Then I felt even angrier with David Cameron, for allowing such a complex, “destinyshaping” decision to be made not through our parliamentary democracy, “but in a referendum few had demanded”. I am furious that the great European project – and the UK itself – have been undermined by a myopic, xenophobic campaign with no clear plan for the future. “Democrats have no duty to endorse democracy’s every outcome,” said David Hare in The Guardian: just think of the German elections and referendums of the 1930s. I do not accept that this “carnival of dishonesty” represents the true “voice of the people”. Besides, said…

Lumley’s breakdown Joanna Lumley’s faith in humanity helped her back from the brink. In 1971, when she was a struggling single mother barely scraping a living from acting, she suffered a breakdown from stress. While appearing in a play at the Garrick Theatre in London, she thought she saw snipers aiming at her from the boxes. The next day, she took a train to her parents’ house, where she spent six months convalescing. “I was pretty badly shaken up. I didn’t dare go to the shops,” she told Andrew Billen in The Times. “I had those panic attacks when you think, ‘breathe in, breathe out, just keep breathing in. Study the flowers.’ Anything to stop your mind going mad.” She finally cured her terror of leaving the house by “imagining…

During the course of his EU career, Juncker has made a series of what one newspaper called “astonishing declarations” about Europe’s politics, many of which seem to indicate a rather cavalier disdain for democracy and open debate. He famously said of France’s 2005 referendum on the EU constitution: “If it’s a ‘Yes’, we will say ‘on we go’, and if it’s a ‘No’, we will say ‘we continue’.” (It was a “No”, and his analysis was correct.) Of the euro’s introduction, he said: “I’m ready to be insulted as being insufficiently democratic, but… I am for secret, dark debates.” During the euro crisis, he held a meeting to discuss whether Greece could remain in the euro, and then denied it was taking place. Later, he said: “When it becomes serious,…

Our nation’s new state religion Joel Kotkin The Orange County Register California is in the grip of “an incipient state religion”, says Joel Kotkin. The religion is liberal secularism, and it’s no less intolerant and dogmatic than the state religions of Saudi Arabia, Iran or the former Soviet Union. California’s legislature has introduced a bill that would forbid religious universities and schools from discriminating against students, faculty, or administrators based on sexual orientation or gender identity – making it illegal for a conservative Christian school, for example, to turn away students or teachers who do not share its stated religious beliefs. Another bill, “the Orwellian-named ‘California Climate Science Truth and Accountability Act of 2016’”, would enable the state to prosecute any individual or company that has challenged the orthodoxy on…

A group of vets is calling for a ban on homeopathic remedies being prescribed to pets. They argue that homeopathy, which is based on the idea that ailments can be cured with watered-down versions of substances that, in larger quantities, would produce symptoms of the ailment, has no scientific basis – and only ever works on humans because of the placebo effect. But since animals don’t know they are being treated, it can’t possibly benefit them. Writing in New Scientist, Danny Chambers, a researcher at Edinburgh University, said it was “amazing” that at least 46 vets’ practices in the UK still offer homeopathy. Using it instead of orthodox treatment could cause unnecessary suffering and even death, he said. He has started a petition, so far signed by more than 2,600…

Britain is becoming a “one-party state”, said Dan Hodges in The Mail on Sunday. Her Majesty’s Opposition – that “vital corrective” in a healthy democracy – is rapidly ceasing to function. The “biblical” flood of resignations from Jeremy Corbyn’s front bench means that more than 60 of 115 shadow cabinet positions are unfilled. And with 81% of Labour MPs backing last week’s vote of “no confidence” in their leader, Corbyn barely has a party to lead. The Opposition literally cannot do its job: it doesn’t have the manpower to table questions, amend bills, or participate properly in debates, committees and departmental sessions. Yet even in the face of this constitutional crisis, Corbyn refuses to resign. Last week he released a video in which he insisted he would stay on to…

Euro 2016: Wales raise their g “This is how to ignore your population size, your status in world football, the pressure of the occasion,” said Paul Hayward in The Daily Telegraph. When Wales came up against Belgium – the team ranked second in the world – in the quarter-finals of Euro 2016, they refused to be cowed. They simply raised their game “to a level they have never reached before”, crushing the Belgians 3-1. What a glorious achievement, said Henry Winter in The Times. And all the more glorious because this is the first time Wales have even qualified for the Euros. However their tournament ends, it will go down as one of the greatest moments in their sporting history. When Wales arrived at the Euros, all eyes were on…

To The Times A referendum is an advisory vote. It is right that “the will of the people” should be respected and that Parliament should be asked to ratify the majority decision of a referendum. It is, however, equally the case that our citizens need to be presented with objective facts and figures to enable them to make a rational decision. In the recent referendum on Britain’s continuing membership of the EU, this has simply not been the case. The Leave campaign conducted the most dishonest political campaign this country has ever seen. It is highly likely that a significant majority of all MPs will not want to vote in favour of Article 50 – which leaves only one satisfactory solution. That is to recognise that it is up to…

The Essex Serpent Serpent’s Tail 432pp £14.99 The Week bookshop £11.99 Sarah Perry’s follow-up to her “much praised” debut, After Me Comes the Flood, is a Gothic love story set in the 1890s, said Nick Rennison in The Sunday Times. Following the death of her “malignant” husband, naturalist Cora Seaborne moves to the Essex village of Aldwinter. There, she finds in the local vicar, William Ransome, the “intellectual companion she has long sought”, and the pair are drawn into an “intense relationship”. Meanwhile, a “shadow” hangs over the village in the form of the “Essex Serpent” – a monstrous sea creature believed to roam the marshes. Packed with “rounded” characters and “vivid” set pieces, this is “one of the best historical novels of the past decade”. Despite its Gothic set-up,…

You could argue that this fascinating dramatised documentary by Pete Middleton and James Spinney “should have featured an entirely black screen for most of its running time”, said Edward Porter in The Sunday Times. It’s a film that tells the story of John Hull, a Birmingham University theology lecturer who went completely blind in the 1980s. The narrative consists of the actual recordings Hull made during that devastating process, recordings in which he discusses his condition with an eloquence that is often “extremely moving”. How do you render cinematic an experience that is “inherently uncinematic”? Here’s how, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator. Portraying Hull and his wife, actors Dan Renton Skinner and Simone Kirby lip-sync to the couple’s real-life recorded words so skilfully that you forget they aren’t actually…

Jolyon Fenwick at Sladmore Contemporary A century on from the Battle of the Somme, few people in this country can be unfamiliar with the appalling statistics of the campaign; between July and November 1916, more than 600,000 Allied soldiers lost their lives to gain just seven miles of territory; nearly 20,000 British troops died on the first day alone. With these figures in mind, photographer Jolyon Fenwick’s panoramas of the battlefields today present an eerie spectacle. The first thing you notice in this show, titled The Zero Hour Panoramas, is that these annotated landscapes – all based on images used as tactical aids for officers, and taken at the exact positions from which 14 battalions launched their attacks – seem unremarkable, even placid. Yet looking closer, we see visible signs…

The current big thing in sherries is “en rama”, which is basically untreated sherry straight from the cask, says Fiona Beckett in The Guardian. Now is the time to try one, as they are mostly bottled in the spring and are best drunk fresh. The Lustau winery has released a range from the three sherry towns, Jerez, El Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar; I particularly like the Fino en Rama de el Puerto de Santa María (£14.99 for 50cl, www.laithwaites.co.uk). If you’re a Puerto fan, Lustau also bottle an excellent one for Waitrose’s Solera Jerezana range at £9.99 for 75cl. They don’t use the term en rama, but most of Majestic’s well-priced Pedro’s Almacenista sherries have also been given the en rama treatment. I like the full-flavoured Fino (£10.99…

The Penzance renaissance It is scruffier than “chichi” Cornwall resorts such as St Ives, but Penzance has a “bohemian” charm of its own, says Carl Wilkinson in the FT, with a busy, steeply sloping high street, a good proportion of independent shops, and some fine restaurants, including The Shore and the Tolcarne Inn. If you want to stay in the town, try Chapel House, a boutique hotel overlooking the sea which opened last year; the Landmark Trust’s self-catering The Egyptian House; or the historic Abbey (now a luxurious holiday let, but once a hotel owned by Jean Shrimpton). To cap it all is the Jubilee Pool – the UK’s largest seawater lido, which has just reopened after a £3m restoration. Opened in 1935, it is a fantastic sight, its “glacial”…

Holocaust survivor who won the Nobel Peace Prize Elie Wiesel 1928-2016 For almost two decades following the Nazi’s systematic slaughter of nearly six million European Jews, the traumatised survivors of that genocide “seemed frozen in silence”, said The New York Times. “No voice had emerged to drive home the enormity of what had happened and how it had changed mankind’s conception of itself and of God.” In the 1960s, Elie Wiesel – a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald – became that voice. His devastating memoir, Night, was translated into English in 1960. He then dedicated the rest of his life to writing and speaking about the Holocaust. He could not let the world forget, he said, because “if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices”, because “the opposite of…

“There is no Plan B.” That is what many companies across Europe have been telling investors since Britain voted to leave the European Union, said Robert Wall in The Wall Street Journal. Few had “meaningful contingency plans to either defend against the fallout, or take advantage of the opportunity”. Now some are contemplating big moves. Vodafone has outlined that it may have to move its HQ from Newbury to the continent; easyJet has been making similar noises. HSBC has confirmed that it will retain its London HQ. But elsewhere in the City, “speculation is rife over which American or Swiss bank will blink first and begin moving staff to other European financial centres”, said Simon Duke in The Sunday Times. It is “perhaps understandable” that any new government would want…

Shares Whatever happens, you still have to eat, light your home, and use your phone, says the Share Centre’s Helal Miah. “So food retailers, utilities and telecoms stocks should be on your buy list.” He picks GSK, Vodafone and the National Grid. Laith Khalaf, of Hargreaves Lansdown, tips Nurofenmaker Reckitt Benckiser, and “vice stocks” such as Diageo and BAT. Exchange-traded funds Justin Urquhart Stewart, of Seven Investment Management, has three defensive picks: a global stock market index (iShares Edge MSCI World Minimum Volatility); a UK Government bond ETF (Barclays 15+ year Gilt) and a “safe haven” commodity (Source Gold ETC). Investment Trusts Jason Hollands, of Tilney Bestinvest, goes for Personal Assets and Ruffer Investment Company. Both “have a strong emphasis on wealth preservation”. Bonds Sam Lees, of Fund Expert, cautions…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best buys 3i Group The Times An “outstanding” investment in Dutch discount retailer Action accounts for a third of the venture capital group’s portfolio. Expect more uplift as Action expands into France and Germany. Yields 4%. Buy 547.5p. B&M The Sunday Times This variety discount retailer has opened its 500th store and is expanding in the UK and Germany. It has a healthy balance sheet, margins of more than 30%, and profits are up 150%. Peel Hunt names a 440p target price. Buy. 257p. Greene King The Times The pub group is well placed to endure any downturn in consumer spending, thanks to advantages from the Spirit deal. By concentrating on food, it has increased market share and has a strong record of lifting dividends.…