Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1011 i The Week

What happened Military chiefs warned last week that Britain had entered a new Cold War with Russia – one that defence cuts had left us ill-equipped to fight. “The threat from Russia, and the risk it brings of miscalculation resulting in a strategic conflict, represents an existential threat to our whole being,” said Gen Sir Adrian Bradshaw, Nato’s deputy supreme allied commander in Europe. Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, warned that there was a “real and present danger” that Putin would seek to destabilise the Baltic states on Nato’s eastern flank. Two long-range Russian bombers were spotted off the Cornish coast, the latest in a series of encroachments on UK airspace. In Ukraine, fighting appeared to ease. Having secured the strategic town of Dabeltseve, Moscow-backed separatists indicated that they were…

Pensioner benefits All pensioners will continue to get the winter fuel allowance and free TV licences if the Conservatives win the election. At present, such benefits are not means tested, and David Cameron vowed this week that this would remain the case. His plans were criticised by the Lib Dems and Labour, who both argue that richer elderly people should shoulder more of the austerity cuts. Labour has pledged to axe the winter fuel payment for the wealthiest 5% of pensioners. Sex-selective abortion MPs have defeated a proposal to explicitly outlaw sex-selective abortions. The practice of parents choosing to abort their children on grounds of sex is already illegal, but the amendment would have clarified the law. It was proposed by Tory MP Fiona Bruce, who said it provided an…

Making a family on Mars Maggie Lieu just got one step closer to fulfilling her childhood dream. The 24-year-old PhD student from Coventry has made it onto the shortlist of 100 candidates to become the first settlers on Mars. Over the next decade, Lieu – who is studying astrophysics at Birmingham University – will learn everything she needs to know about surviving on the red planet, from plumbing and horticulture to medical care. With nothing to build on but dusty red rock, the colonists will have to become selfsufficient, growing food and creating their own water and oxygen. “It’s exciting because we all have so much to learn from each other,” she told Rachael Pells in The Independent. “There’ll be no legal system or parliament so it will be really…

When did Jews arrive in the UK? There’s no firm evidence of their presence in Britain before the Norman conquest of 1066. Soon after, most likely at the invitation of William the Conqueror, Jewish financiers and merchants from Rouen, the capital of Normandy, began to arrive in London. In medieval Europe, lending money with interest (usury) – a critical function in any economy, and much needed by kings – was forbidden for Christians. Jews were willing to do the “dirty” work of banking and lending, largely because they were often banned from owning land or joining notionally “Christian” professions. Immigration of Jews from Rouen was accelerated by the sacking of the town by Duke Robert, William’s rebellious eldest son, in 1090. Within a century, there were 24 Jewish communities, or…

An eight-year-old girl who started feeding the crows in her garden was surprised when they began bringing gifts for her in return. Identified only as Gabi, the child, who lives in Rome, says they have left her dozens of objects, ranging from buttons and paper clips to a small light bulb. An escort agency in Leicester is offering its clients something a bit special: the chance to attend the reinterment of Richard III next month at the city’s cathedral. Midland Belles’ website features pictures of ten scantily clad women, and asks: “Are you fascinated by Leicester’s local history? Perhaps you would like to visit this fascinating historic event but don’t wish to alone? Then why not take along one of our educated and beautiful Leicester escorts.” A plastic Martin Luther,…

CUBA A rash lesson we must learn from the Reds Maclean’s (Toronto) If Canadians and Americans are seeking tips on how to avoid a repetition of the measles outbreak that has spread across North America, they should take a look at Cuba, says Rachel Browne. For this is one problem the communist island has got licked: it hasn’t had a single case of measles for over 20 years. That’s because from an early age, every schoolchild is taught about the importance of vaccination and told how many people used to die from diseases that are now preventable. When a group of Canadian researchers took a trip to Cuba in 2006, they were amazed to find that any random person they stopped on a Havana street could reel off their complete…

Smoking powerful strains of cannabis could be behind one in four cases of psychotic illness, new research suggests. Scientists studied 800 people from south London, about half of whom had been diagnosed, for the first time, with a psychotic illness. They found that smoking high-potency skunk was the strongest indicator of mental illness, associated with 24% of cases. Compared to people who never touched it, those who smoked skunk were three times more likely to have psychosis; smoking it daily increased the risk fivefold, reports The Daily Telegraph. Milder strains of cannabis were associated with no increased risk. While overall use of cannabis has declined in recent years, the prevalence of skunk – which contains far higher levels of the mind-altering ingredient THC than other forms – has soared. It…

“There must be a quiet satisfaction right now in the upper echelons of the Church of England,” said Peter Stanford in The Independent. Two years ago, Anglican leaders took a risk by enthroning a relative unknown as Archbishop of Canterbury. But their faith in Justin Welby – an old Etonian former oil executive and father of six – has been amply rewarded. Under his leadership, the Church has finally managed to put inward-looking squabbles about gay marriage and women bishops to one side, and to start making its voice heard again in “the public square”. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York sparked a debate last month by publishing a book of essays in which they lamented the widening gulf between rich and poor. And last week, Welby and the entire…

The footage “lasts just 57 seconds”, said John Mullin in The Independent, but it seems “to take us back 40 years”. Taken at Richelieu-Drouot station on the Paris Metro, it shows a group of Chelsea supporters, in France to watch last Tuesday’s game against Paris Saint-Germain, pushing a black Frenchman off a train. The man, later named as Souleymane S, tries to get on again, and is again pushed away. He and a black woman are seen backing away as the men chant: “We’re racist, we’re racist, and that’s the way we like it.” This was a revolting incident: “cowardly, horrible and, let’s not forget, criminal. It shows the travelling ‘fan’ at his worst: drunk, racist and secure only in the like-minded company of other pathetic souls.” This clip –…

Over the past decade, Great Britain’s cycling team has been the envy of the world, says John Westerby in The Times. In Beijing seven years ago, they picked up eight gold medals, and they repeated that feat at the London Olympics. So when they failed to win a single gold at the UCI Track World Championships at the weekend, “alarm bells started ringing”. Team GB is struggling to replace recently retired greats, particularly Chris Hoy. That’s partly a question of ability: the talent pool is “shallower” than in previous years. But more than anything, Britain’s cyclists miss Hoy’s “charismatic” leadership – Jason Kenny, the senior rider in the men’s sprint squad, is no match. Help may soon be at hand, however. Bradley Wiggins (pictured) is about to return to the…

Cake Dir: Daniel Barnz 1hr 31mins (15) Trauma drama with Jennifer Aniston ★★★ If I were Jennifer Aniston, I’d be “wondering what exactly I had to do to get an Oscar nomination”, said Wendy Ide in The Times. Best known for her roles in frothy romantic comedies, the actress delivers a terrific, vanity-free performance in Cake, which has been inexplicably overlooked by the Academy. Aniston plays an LA lawyer left in chronic pain after a car crash, bingeing on painkillers and being vitriolic to everyone from her smug therapist (Felicity Huffman) to her long-suffering maid (Adriana Barraza). Aniston excels at the “deadpan humour” of the role, said Charlotte O’Sullivan in the London Evening Standard. Standing by the gravestone of a deceased friend, she asks: “Is that granite? I’m thinking of…

An attempt by two Spanish swindlers to sell a forged Goya painting has backfired spectacularly, says El País (Madrid). The unnamed brothers from Girona in Catalonia bought the portrait of the artist Antonio María Esquivel (right) in 2003, believing it to be a genuine Goya; when it was declared a 19th century fake, a court allowed them to keep it for a fraction of the agreed price. Then, late last year, the men arranged to sell the painting to a man claiming to be an Arab sheikh, using the same bogus authenticity certificate which had deceived them a decade earlier. An Italian middleman then charged the pair g300,000 as a commission; the brothers duly borrowed the money, and travelled to Turin, where they received a down payment of 1.7m Swiss…

When Rob hears Tina’s walked out, he suggests Helen takes over at the shop. Phoebe asks Hayley if there’s any hope for her and Roy. Hayley says she’s doing a lot of thinking. David finds Dan Archer’s farm diaries from the 1920s and is riveted by them. Ruth’s keen to get up to Hadley Haugh to sort out the milking parlour, but David says he can’t during lambing. Ruth plans a visit for the following week, and hopes to exchange contracts then. Ed gets a good price for his cows. Shula tells Caroline she lied to PC Burns about the sab. Shula confronts Rob, who’s unrepentant. Rob tells Shula that she didn’t have to lie. Shula says she only did it for the hunt and for Helen. Shula tells Caroline…

This hearty lamb stew with butternut squash and potato is full of colour – orange from the squash, yellow from the saffron and a hint of red from the tomato and chilli. Simple to prepare, this one-pot meal makes a delicious family meal or an informal dinner with friends Lamb stew with butternut squash and saffron Serves 4 700g stewing lamb, cut into chunks salt and freshly ground black pepper 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 onion, finely chopped 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 red chilli, halved lengthways 2 sprigs of rosemary 4 small sage leaves a pinch of saffron, diluted in 1 tbsp water 2 tbsp canned chopped tomatoes 4 tbsp dry white wine 200ml vegetable stock – or use a stock cube 200g potato, cut into…

Philips Viva Collection Juicer Just 31cm tall, this good-value machine is conveniently small. But it still makes up to 1.5 litres of juice at a time, and it has a handy extraction system to prevent the pulp container from filling up too quickly (£50; www.currys.co.uk). Novis Vita Made in Switzerland, the Novis Vita is a stylish combined juicer and citrus press which comes with an attachment for making smoothies. Once you’ve used it, all the dirty components can go straight into the dishwasher (£299; www.ukjuicers.com). Bugatti Vita Citrus Juicer The Vita only works with citrus fruit, but what it lacks in versatility it makes up for with its elegant design. Available in six colours, it’s sturdier than it looks (£126; www.johnlewis.com). Vitamix Professional Series 750 This sets the benchmark for…

Centrica: turning up the heat Ouch, said Allister Heath in The Daily Telegraph. “The pain being felt by Centrica’s shareholders is intense.” Shares in the British Gas owner plunged 9% in a day last week when it announced a 35% collapse in profits, slashed its dividend by 30% and warned that profits would soon fall further. Fair enough, around 70%-75% of the fall in operating profits was due to lower oil and gas prices, over which the company has no sway; but around a fifth was purely “self-inflicted” – including IT issues, a fault at the nuclear plants and poor cost control. Centrica’s most fundamental problem is that shareholders want it to remain a safe, dividend-paying utility, but it has become much too focused on higher-risk exploration and production (E&P),…

Crispin Odey For a man with an estimated fortune of £520m, Crispin Odey is notably gloomy, says Nils Pratley in The Guardian. That’s because the fund manager (who made millions shorting bank shares before the financial crisis) believes the world economy may once again “be about to harvest some pain”. Chinese growth is collapsing, he argues, and other one-time engines of growth are entering the “sick bay” – yet investors still have an irrational faith that central bankers will sort everything out. The consensus view, says Odey, “is: ‘Hey, why are you so bearish? You know Carney is in charge, he can magic anything.’” But look behind the curtain, he warns. The Wizard of Oz, don’t forget, was filmed in the 1930s. Zeev Godik “Dashing Dutchman” Zeev Godik opened his…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 942 An Ettinger card case 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 2 March. Send it to: The Week Crossword 941, 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) visiting card case for business cards or to use as a mini wallet, and two Connell Guides (www.connellguides.com). ACROSS 8 Start of a website in start of present era (4,4) 9 Secure gold carriage (6) 10 Clever detective? (4) 11 Sound of a charger? Sounds like a no (5) 12 Tale that shouldn’t be started is blue (4) 13…

What happened Two former foreign secretaries were caught up in a “cash-for-access” scandal this week. In meetings with undercover reporters claiming to represent a bogus Chinese firm, Jack Straw, Labour MP for Blackburn, and Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Tory MP for Kensington & Chelsea, offered to use their influence on the firm’s behalf in return for a fee of at least £5,000 per day. Straw boasted that he had operated “under the radar” to change EU rules for a commodity firm. Rifkind said he could give “useful access” to any British ambassador in the world. Both men claimed not to have breached MPs’ regulations. However, Straw was suspended from the Labour Party and referred himself to the parliamentary standards commissioner. Rifkind did the same; after initially defending himself tenaciously, he then…

Paris Church challenge to sex site: Hundreds of posters for a dating website that facilitates extra-marital affairs have been removed from streets in Paris following complaints by residents. Now a Catholic pressure group has begun a legal action against Gleeden, which was started by two Frenchmen who live in the US. The group argues that Gleeden’s slogans – “taking a lover is cheaper than antidepressants”, for example, or “cheating on your husband isn’t the worst thing you can do” – contravene the Napoleonic civil code, the basis of French law. Article 212 of the code states that: “Married couples owe each other respect, fidelity, help and assistance.” Paris End of the presidential bounce: François Hollande’s popularity – which surged from 13% to 40% in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo…

This week’s edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs featured tenor Jonas Kaufmann 1 The Overture to Die Fledermaus by Strauss, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Carlos Kleiber 2 Ombra Di Nube by Licinio Refice, performed by Claudia Muzio 3 Aria – The Goldberg Variations by Bach, performed by Glenn Gould 4 O glaive promis par mon père from La Walkyrie, by Wagner, performed by Georges Thill and the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire 5 Der Abschied from Das Lied von der Erde by Mahler, performed by Christa Ludwig and the New Philharmonia Orchestra 6 Der Müller und der Bach from Die Schöne Müllerin by Schubert, performed by Aksel Schiøtz and Gerald Moore. 7 Im Traum Hast Du Mir Alles Erlaubt by Robert Stolz, performed by Jonas Kaufmann 8* Granada by Agustín…

The particular character of Judaism – it is difficult to convert into; one’s Jewish identity, strictly speaking, passes through the mother’s line – has made it hard to define. British officialese is confused about whether it’s a racial or religious category. In 1991, the census carried an ethnic identity question for the first time but Jewish wasn’t listed as an option. In 2001, an optional religious question surfaced, allowing for Jewish as an answer. The official 2011 census number of 263,346 people describing themselves as of the Jewish faith is estimated to include 80%-90% of Britain’s Jews. The law, however, says something else. The Race Relations Act of 1976 recognises Jews and Sikhs as having a racial identity as well as a religious one. In 2009, the Supreme Court ruled…

“Dear Congress: I humbly request the authority to do whatever the hell I want even though I already have the authority to do it anyway. Love, Barack.” That, said Rosa Brooks in Foreign Policy, is the gist of a draft bill the White House has submitted to Congress authorising him to use military force against Islamic State. Isn’t it a bit late for that, you ask: hasn’t the US spent the past six months bombing Isis? Indeed it has, but it seems that Obama – who already claims a spurious authority under a bill passed in the wake of 9/11 – wants at least to play lip service to procedural niceties. The Constitution, after all, specifies that the power to declare war is the preserve of Congress, not the president.…

People associate dining at expensive restaurants with sexual pleasure – the food is “seductive” or “orgasmic” – whereas fast food is more likely to be compared with crack cocaine. Researchers analysed the language used in 900,000 online reviews of 6,500 restaurants across the US. They found that the more expensive the restaurant, the more likely the diner was to have compared the food to a sexual experience: from “sensual” foie gras to “very naughty” deep-fried pork belly. By contrast, when people eat cheap food – fries, burgers etc – they tend to use words associated with drug addiction: people spoke of “craving” food that was like “crack” or “heroin”. “By saying you are ‘addicted’ or you crave something, you are really putting the agency on the food,” said Dan Jurafsky,…

It’s “excruciating” being Greek these days, said Loukia Gyftopoulou in The Independent. My own world collapsed in 2013 when I lost my job as a foreign language teacher and spent a year “veering between insanity and apathy” until I upped sticks to England. The reason I and so many of my compatriots have lost our jobs or live below the poverty line is that successive governments have mangled the nation’s finances, allowed corruption to flourish and turned public service into “a luxury home for those with the right connections”. So, yes, Europe is right to demand major structural reforms as a condition for bailing us out and enabling us to keep the euro. But we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place: people are so drained they can’t take…

“Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.” W.C. Fields, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet.” Damon Runyon, quoted in The Spectator “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Robert Frost, quoted in The Times “Keeping a journal is like taking good care of one’s heart.” Poet Ted Kooser, quoted in The Boston Globe “I remember the first time I had sex. I kept the receipt.” Groucho Marx, quoted in The Times “It is far more important for people to be able to lose themselves than to find themselves.” Theodore Dalrymple in The Spectator “When I give…

The Illuminations by Andrew O’Hagan Faber 304pp £17.99 The Week bookshop £15.99 (incl. p&p) Scottish writer Andrew O’Hagan’s fifth novel, The Illuminations, is an “ambitious” exploration of love, memory and the secrets we keep “sometimes even from ourselves”, said Elizabeth Day in The Observer. Its heroine, Anne, is a pioneering photographer who gave up her art for mysterious reasons decades ago and now suffers from dementia. As she seeks “remembrance of things past”, her beloved grandson, Luke, struggles to forget traumatic experiences as a soldier in Afghanistan, told in chapters full of blazing action and “furious” army banter. The illuminations of the title are partly metaphorical – Anne’s fragmentary memories, or Luke’s “epiphanies” about masculinity, said Stuart Kelly in The Spectator. But they are also the lights of Blackpool, where…

“Is it too much to call it Boyhoodgate?” said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. At Sunday’s Oscars ceremony, the “marvellous” coming-of-age drama Boyhood, which director Richard Linklater shot over the course of 12 years, bafflingly failed to win an award for either Best Picture or Best Director. Those Oscars instead went to Birdman, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film about a fading star losing his grip on reality – an “exciting” piece of film-making, to be sure, although for my money Linklater’s masterpiece is “deeper and more substantial”. This, however, was the only controversy at an otherwise “unexceptional” Oscars. The Best Actor and Actress awards went to Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything and Julianne Moore for Still Alice: worthy winners both. Don’t weep too hard for last weekend’s losers, said…

Best books… Michael Boyd Sir Michael Boyd, theatre director and former artistic director of the RSC, picks his five favourite books. He is directing The Harvest at the Ustinov Studio, Bath, 12 March-11 April (01225-448844, www.theatreroyal.org.uk) Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, 1980 (transl. Robert Chandler, Vintage £9.99). A thundering epic, and worthy 20th century response to War and Peace, this is the most comprehensive fictional critique of Stalin’s Russia, which lays out the consequences of hypocrisy, autocracy and persecution, on the battlefields as well as on civil society. What is the What by Dave Eggers, 2006 (Penguin £9.99). Eggers tells the tragedy of Sudan through the life of a “lost boy” walking from his devastated Sudanese village to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, and as an immigrant in…

Discerning wine drinkers revere the premium reds of Tuscany (chianti, brunello, key grape: sangiovese) and Piedmont (barolo, barbaresco, from nebbiolo), but really good examples don’t come cheap, says Susy Atkins in The Daily Telegraph. For fresh affordable reds, head south to Puglia, Sicily and Basilicata, where wines have improved vastly over the past 20 years – delivering “far more juicy, tangy red-berry succulence than ever before” – at excellent value. Here are three worth trying: Negroamaro 2013 Salento, Puglia (£7.50; M&S). A rounded, ripe cocktail of black cherry, plum and mulberry, perfect with tomato-based pasta sauces. Casa Planeta 2012 Nero d’Avola-Syrah Sicily (£9.99; Co-op) is another terrific buy; soft, ripe and mocha-toned, but with a core of juicy blackcurrant. Vigneti del Vulture, Aglianico del Vulture Pipoli 2013 Basilicata (£10.99; Vallebona)…

● Brick and concrete can work well as materials for a greenhouse base, but you should consider using recycled plastic lumber instead: it requires no maintenance, and will never rot. ● It’s important to get the base’s exact dimensions right – suppliers of the frame should be able to give you instructions. ● If you live in a rainy part of the country, steer clear of a western red cedar frame. It may look fantastic, but it will rot. Aluminium is a good, no-hassle alternative. ● To ensure your vents let in the optimum amount of air, consider installing louvres. These are worth the extra expense, as they draw in cooler air at the greenhouse’s base and maintain a constant flow. The manufacturer should be able to advise you on…

Highclere London Lodge, Hampshire Highclere is familiar to millions of TV viewers as the setting for Downton Abbey. And while most of us will never be invited to the castle itself, one of the gate lodges is available to book, says Ben Macintyre in The Times. It is a bit smaller, with only one bedroom to the castle’s 61. And you have to cook your own dinner. But there’s an open fire, the fridge is well stocked (Waitrose, of course) and everything’s modern and “fluffy”, in “the best possible Farrow & Ball” taste. If Downton is starchy and formal, then the lodge is the opposite: “deliberately casual” while “happily exploiting” the connection. From £350pn. 01635-253210, www.highclerecastle.co.uk.…

The OECD commended the UK Government’s “textbook” policies such as quantitative easing and support for the housing market, which the think tank said had contributed to growth of 2.6% – the highest in the G7. They said further progress depends on increasing productivity. US Fed chair Janet Yellen hinted that interest rate rises would come later rather than sooner, helping send US and global shares to fresh highs. The FTSE 100 hit a record high. Supermarket chain Morrisons announced its new boss: ex-Tesco retail director David Potts. In its first year as a standalone bank, TSB said it had increased profits by 2.3% and is attracting an 8.4% market share of new accounts – beating its targets. The Government named 70 firms that have failed to pay workers the minimum…

Up to 890,000 UK taxpayers face a £100 fine for failing to file their returns before the 31 January deadline, says David Budworth in The Times. The penalty is waived if you have a “reasonable excuse” such as family illness or bereavement; if you’ve received a latefiling penalty you think is unfair you can check what to do by visiting www.gov. uk and searching for SA370, the form for appeals. A word of advice, though: “don’t use any of the excuses below, which are all real-life examples that were used in unsuccessful appeals”. “My pet dog ate my tax return... and all the reminders.” “I was up a mountain in Wales, and couldn’t find a postbox or get an internet signal.” “I fell in with the wrong crowd.” “I’ve been…

The week’s best buys Accesso Technology Group Shares Accesso has developed a “best-in-class cloud-based queue-beating technology platform” used by blue-chip theme park operators. Cash generative and profitable with an excellent growth record. Buy. 556.5p. Galliford Try The Daily Telegraph With a healthy order book, strong balance sheet and a stable housing business, Galliford is well placed to profit from the infrastructure construction market’s recovery. The prospective yield is 4.7% rising to 6%. Buy. £14.20. Pendragon The Times Profits and revenues at the car dealer have surged, driven by new car sales, and debt is well down. It’s now focusing on improving its used-car operations and servicing business, and has pledged a dividend rise. Buy. 37p. Speedy Hire The Mail on Sunday The equipment rental group is set for recovery after…

Controversy of the week For 160 years it has been “as integral a part of British life as the long shadows on cricket grounds, warm beer and cycling to evensong that John Major once invoked”, said The Guardian. Even those of us who didn’t share The Daily Telegraph’s politics admired the accuracy of its reporting. But its reputation suffered a “body blow” last week, when the paper’s chief political commentator went public with a devastating resignation letter. Writing on the website Open Democracy, Peter Oborne claimed that the Telegraph’s editorial judgement was being distorted by commercial considerations. Journalists were obliged to do the bidding of the advertising department, with thinly veiled plugs for films or holidays run as editorial. Worse, genuine news stories had been suppressed to avoid embarrassing advertisers.…

Edmonton, Canada A skate route to work: Plummeting temperatures have caused havoc for commuters across North America, but one Canadian city – where freezing winters are routine – has come up with a potential long-term solution to the chaos. Officials in Edmonton, where winter temperatures average -12°C, are considering flooding an 11km route to create a “Freezeway”, so that residents can skate across the city. The idea was originally mooted by a councillor who suggested the difficulties experienced by commuters in colder months might be solved by “cracking the fire hydrants open, flooding the streets and letting people skate to work”. He was joking, but his remark inspired landscape architecture student Matthew Gibbs to design a Freezeway, which is now being seriously considered by city planners: they are hoping to…

“I can’t stand the word ‘mum’, except when my children use it with me. It is the three-letter word that obstetric consultants use to reduce pregnant or post-partum females to the status of milk cows, and newswires use to make headlines shorter, as in ‘Bodies of kids found in Lowestoft mum death’. Somehow ‘mum’ signals the end of having a life and a self, and the beginning of an existence in which you are defined by your children. You spend whole days with women who actually describe themselves [when you meet them] as ‘Freddy’s Mum’ and fail to tell you their own name, as if that no longer matters.” Rachel Johnson in The Times Farewell Richard Beeston, foreign correspondent, died 19 February, aged 88. Alan Howard, actor, died 14 February,…

The big taboo: joining a political party Martin Plaut New Statesman The surest way to feel small at a dinner party, says Martin Plaut, is to confess you belong to a political party. At that point “women tilt their heads to one side” and men “push back their chairs and stare at you in faint amusement”. Really? How quaint? And the Labour Party to boot? Yet more often than not, these selfsame people lament the decline in our political culture. And it is declining: all UK parties combined have just over half a million members. Pathetic. The National Trust has over four million. But ask your companions why they won’t join and they’ll say it’s too much of a commitment, or bad for their reputation, or that they find all…

The strongest teeth in the world No wonder limpets are all but impossible to pull off rocks, reports the New Scientist: the molluscs’ tiny teeth are made from the strongest biological materials known to man, according to new research. Limpets have tongues bristling with teeth, made from a mineral protein composite, which they use to scrape food off rocks. A team of engineers at the University of Portsmouth used a diamond saw to break down this material, and bombarded the bits with atoms from an ion beam to reduce them even further. They then examined the fragments’ tensile strength – the amount of force they could withstand without breaking. This revealed that the teeth, which are made from a material called goethite, are not only stronger than spider silk, the…

If there were an Oscar for awkward moments, John Travolta would have won it this year, said the New York Post. Shortly before the ceremony began, the 61-year-old was photographed stealing up on Scarlett Johansson as she posed on the red carpet, slipping a hand across her tummy, and planting a wetlooking kiss on her cheek. Johansson – consummate red-carpet pro that she is – never flinched: though a grimace briefly played on her lips, she kept her arms by her side and her steely gaze fixed on the cameras in front of her. Later, doctored images of Travolta, stealing up to kiss everyone from Vladimir Putin to the Statue of Liberty, began appearing on social media. Sources close to Victoria Beckham have angrily denied that her “concept store” –…

The last time 15-year-old Shamima Begum’s mother saw her, she was getting on a bus, claiming to be going into school to attend a half-term class. Instead, the teenager met up with two friends – Amira Abase, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16 – with whom she travelled to Gatwick Airport, and thence onto a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul. Police say that the trio – all said to be “straight-A students” at Bethnal Green Academy in London – were then smuggled into Syria, presumably to join the brutal forces of Islamic State. Their families say they had no idea what the girls had planned, and begged them to come home. However, at least one of them was reported to have followed jihadis on Twitter, and been in touch with Aqsa…

Cricket: why England can’t win the World Cup England’s cricketers are accustomed to “disaster”, said Mike Selvey in The Guardian. But even by their lofty standards, the thrashing by New Zealand last Friday was something else: it “went beyond the realms of simple humiliation and entered that of fantasy”. In their second match of the World Cup, they scored a pathetic 123 runs, losing by eight wickets with 226 balls remaining – their joint worst ever one-day international (ODI) defeat. Sure, they beat Scotland three days later, said Jarrod Kimber on ESPN Cricinfo. But everyone beats Scotland. And once the fantastic Moeen Ali went out on a ton, the side had a “mini-collapse”, eventually “limping” to a total of 303. It may have been a muchneeded victory, but it was…

To The Independent Newspapers and TV have given a great deal of coverage to the 70th anniversary of the bombing raids on Dresden in 1945, with much debate about “war crimes”. But as yet, I can find virtually no reference to the far more destructive raid that took place just three weeks later. On the night of 9/10 March 1945, 21st Bomber Command of the US Army Air Force, based in the Mariana Islands, launched an all-out incendiary raid on Tokyo. Three hundred and thirty-eight B-29 “Superfortress” bombers dropped 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs on the Japanese capital, with the deliberate intention of setting it alight. The flimsy materials from which Japanese structures were built made them susceptible to this type of bombing. The Americans were more successful than they…

Theatre Harvey Playwright: Mary Coyle Chase Director: Lindsay Posner Malvern Theatre until 28 February, then Richmond Theatre and Theatre Royal Haymarket, London (www.harveyonstage.co.uk) Running time: 2hrs 20mins ★★★ Mary Coyle Chase wrote Harvey to cheer up Americans during the Second World War, said Lyn Gardner in The Guardian. It must certainly have cheered her up. This hoary old piece of fluff about a middle-aged eccentric whose best friend is a six-foottall white rabbit – invisible to everybody except him – was a Broadway sensation, and Chase was reputedly paid $1m for the rights to the 1950 film version starring James Stewart as the sweet-natured hero, Elwood P. Dowd. Rather astonishingly, this “soothing” hokum also won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for drama, beating off competition from The Glass Menagerie. “Tennessee Williams…

Programmes How We Got to Now with Steven Johnson The third in a five-part series about the innovators who made modern life possible looks at the revolution of refrigeration. Sat 28 Feb, BBC2 7.45pm (60mins). Arthur & George Three-part adaptation of Julian Barnes’s novel about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s investigation of a reallife miscarriage of justice. With Martin Clunes. Mon 2 Mar, ITV1 9pm (60mins). Storyville: 1.7 Billion Dollar Fraud – Full Exposure Film about Michael Woodford – CEO of Japanese firm Olympus – who was fired after blowing the whistle on a $1.7bn fraud the company had kept secret for decades. Mon 2 Mar, BBC4 10.15pm (75mins). Drugs Live: Cannabis on Trial Jon Snow and Matthew Parris are among the volunteers taking part in a six-month trial looking at…

What the experts recommend: Asian cooking in London Smoking Goat 7 Denmark St, London WC2 (no phone, no bookings) Smoking Goat is the “perfect restaurant name for 2015”, says Giles Coren in The Times. “The sort of name you’d use for a fictional restaurant in a book about NOW”; a name “that simply nails the excitement of going out to eat” food that is “simultaneously comforting and yet wildly exotic”. Smoking Goat – which serves various kinds of Thai barbecue (but not goat) – appeared on the “rim of the Tottenham Court Road Crossrail crater in November” and has been attracting crowds ever since. Miraculously, it entirely lives up to the hype. A dish of barbecued chicken wings with fish sauce had me “surrendering” myself up to the sheer pleasure of…

Auto Express When it arrived in 1999, the TT was an “instant icon”. Since then, Audi has wisely refrained from giving the car a radical shake-up: the new Roadster just “refines the formula”. It’s very similar to the Coupé that came out last year – the key difference being, of course, the roof, which retracts in ten seconds. And with the fastest model, the TTS, Audi is hoping to rival the Porsche Boxster. The Sunday Times There’s no doubt the TTS looks the part: its exterior blends “crisp angles”, a “rounded profile” and sleek LED lights. The same kind of “cosseting minimalism” can be found inside the cabin, where there’s a remarkably uncluttered dashboard. That’s because Audi has refined the instrument panel to a single display, so you can access…

Lensical has lots of useful filters and presets. But you’ll have more fun with the “face-morphing” effects, which enable you to artificially age people and add beards and moustaches to their faces (free; iOS). Snapseed lets you edit pictures intuitively. It’s easy to customise how powerful you want an effect to be – and you can apply it to just an area of an image, rather than the whole thing (free; Android and iOS). Popkick turns your photos into pop art. Its 12 filters give everything a neon sheen, which you can tweak using the app’s colour wheel (£2.29; iOS). SKRWT corrects the perspective distortion to which iPhones are prone. It’s ideal for architecture lovers who want parallel lines in their snaps of buildings (£1.49; iOS). TouchRetouch is an easy…

Billionaire “candyman” who gave the world Nutella Michele Ferrero 1925-2015 Michele Ferrero, who has died aged 89, was a billionaire confectioner perhaps most obviously associated with the gold-wrapped chocolates that are served at the finest ambassadorial receptions (or so we’re told). He also came up with Tic Tacs and Kinder Eggs. But his great gift to the world was surely Nutella. The spread was invented by his father, Pietro, a patissier who supplied goods to his wife’s pastry shop in Piedmont. After the War, cocoa was expensive, and hazelnuts were plentiful – so in 1946 Pietro used them to create a cheaper treat with cocoa as its base. Following his father’s death, Michele built the small business into a corporate giant, and Nutella into a global brand. By 2013 he…

Where were you on Millennium Eve? If you were an equity trader, said James Quinn in The Daily Telegraph, you were probably out celebrating the boom in tech stocks. On the last trading day of the old century, 30 December 1999, the FTSE 100 closed at 6930.2 points, a level it hadn’t seen since – until this week, when the index overtook its millennial pre-crash peak, to hit a new record high of 6949.63. So is it time for investors to party like it’s 1999? Short answer: probably not. Political uncertainty in the UK and economic weakness in Europe mean that the Footsie’s record-breaking level could be short-lived. Are these so-called “psychological barriers” in market indices really important anyway, asked Simon Read in The Independent. After all, if you look…

The dream of every investor: a big shed Editorial The Economist “Britain is dotted with so-called golden triangles,” says The Economist. There’s an academic one between Cambridge, Oxford and London. There’s a “posh one”, beloved of Yorkshire estate agents, between Leeds, York and Harrogate. But the triangle that is currently looking “peppiest” to investors is in the Midlands: the “golden triangle of warehouses” that is roughly bounded by the M1, M6 and M42 motorways. The boom in online shopping means a boom in demand for “big sheds” – and where better to site them than within a few hours’ drive of all of Britain’s big cities? Last year, £4bn was spent on 149 deals for warehouses bigger than 100,000ft², more than double the amount that was invested in 2012. That…

During every minute of every day of 2014, according to Andrew Keen’s new book, the world’s internet users – all three billion of them – sent 204 million emails, undertook four million Google searches, shared 2.46 million pieces of Facebook content, published 277,000 tweets, posted 216,000 new photos on Instagram and spent $83,000 on Amazon. For a network that has existed recognisably for barely 20 years (the first graphical web browser, Mosaic, was released in 1993), those are astonishing numbers: the internet, plainly, has transformed our lives, making so much of what we do every day – communicating, shopping, finding, booking – unimaginably easier than it was. A Pew survey in the US last year found that 90% of Americans believed the internet had been good for them. So it…