Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1028 i The Week

What happened The prospect of Greece crashing out of the eurozone receded this week after the country offered some 11th-hour concessions to creditors. Athens submitted the proposals – which included an offer to raise some sales taxes and impose limits on early retirement – to an emergency summit of European leaders on Monday. The plan received a cautious welcome, and raised hopes that it could lead to a deal by the end of the week. Officials representing Greece’s creditors (Eurozone countries, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank) had warned that, until a final deal is signed off, they won’t release the latest tranche of bailout funds. Without that money, Greece will default on a s1.6bn loan repayment to the IMF on Tuesday, an event that could force…

Scottish land reform The Scottish government has set out proposals to widen ownership of land across the country. It has been estimated that 432 people own half of the privately owned land in Scotland, and campaigners had called for a cap on the amount of land one individual or firm can own. This has not been proposed; however, the bill would force owners of shooting estates to pay business rates, ending an exemption in place since 1994; the money raised would go into a fund that helps support community buyouts of land. Onshore wind farms Some 2,500 planned onshore wind turbines are unlikely to be built because of an early end to Government subsidies. New onshore wind farms will be excluded from a subsidy scheme from 1 April 2016, a…

Desmond’s class demons Richard Desmond likes to see himself as an outsider, says Henry Mance in the FT. The media mogul grew up in north London, and made his first foray into business at the age of five, helping his advertising executive father negotiate deals after he suddenly went deaf. At 13, Desmond got a job in the cloakroom of the nearby Manor House pub, where he worked out that by putting two coats on one hanger he could increase his takings. By his early 20s, he had enough money to start a small publishing company, and today he is a billionaire, with a portfolio including the Daily Express, Daily Star and OK! magazine, as well as TV porn channels including Filth and Dirty Talk. But he still feels insecure.…

The very public transition of Bruce to Caitlyn Jenner made her the latest in the Kardashian family to “break the internet”. (Caitlyn used to be married to the mother of reality TV celebrity Kim Kardashian.) However, it was another C.J. – Christine Jorgensen, born George, a photographer who also had a stint in the US army – who first became world famous for her “rare sex-conversion”, in 1952. “Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty,” read the headline in the New York Daily News. A year of relentless press coverage followed for Jorgensen, who had undergone surgery in Denmark. She “tossed off a Bloody Mary like a guy”, said one paper. She had a “hipswinging” gait, “slender, trembling fingers” and a “girlish blush”, said another. “Next to the recurrent hydrogen bomb headlines, reports…

China’s theft of our secrets is a disaster John R. Schindler The Daily Beast You wouldn’t have guessed it from the muted media response, says John Schindler, but the recent cyber-attack on Washington is a seriously big deal. Chinese hackers have stolen the personnel records of more than four million current and previous federal employees. These records include sensitive background checks on pretty much every government worker with security clearance. “Speaking as a former counterintelligence officer, it really doesn’t get much worse than this.” It’s bad enough that all of these people are now open to identity theft (the files included addresses, social security numbers and bank details). Worse, it has presented Beijing with a gold mine of information to use for espionage purposes. The background checks for security clearance…

If you want something done in a hurry, don’t settle for “in the blink of an eye”; what you need is for it to be done “at the speed of light”, or at least, “at the drop of a hat”. Researchers at University Campus Suffolk worked out the speeds involved in 20 clichéd sayings and found that the “blink of an eye” was the slowest: the human eyelid closes at 0.033 metres per second. By contrast, a hat dropped in a vacuum travels at 5.7 metres per second; and a “bat out of hell” is faster still – bats reach a speed of 35.8 when diving. Of course, man-made objects move even faster: “full throttle” was found to be 236 metres per second, while a speeding bullet goes at 1,524.…

It’s the “most astonishing and perhaps the most ambitious papal document of the past 100 years”, said The Guardian. Last week Pope Francis issued an encyclical on climate change addressed not just to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, but to everyone on Earth. Entitled Laudato si (“Be Praised”), it warns that the planet is rapidly being turned into “an immense pile of filth” by our unbridled consumerist greed. It wholeheartedly backs the scientific consensus on global warming, and demands that fossil fuels be swiftly phased out in favour of renewable energy. The Pope is “scathing” about the lack of action to date, and calls not just for new policies but for a fundamental change in mindset. Rather than always concentrating on what we want, he says, we must think about…

“Nine times out of ten what sounds like a gaffe is really just a flash of normality in a scenario where normality is taboo.” Hugo Rifkind in The Times “Conversation is dialogue. That’s why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.” Truman Capote, quoted by Gyles Brandreth on Twitter “All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them.” Erma Bombeck, quoted in Investors Business Daily “What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering.” George Bernard Shaw, quoted on The Browser “Someone I don’t like who drinks almost as much as I do.” Dylan Thomas’s definition of an alcoholic, quoted in the Daily Mail…

Napoleon’s brutal rule To The Guardian Martin Kettle seems to believe a Napoleonic conquest of England would have led to the establishment of a democratic republic here. If so, he needs to read more history. In 1797, Napoleon did establish a democratic republic in northern Italy, the Cisalpine Republic. By 1800, power in the Cisalpine Republic had been centralised in the hands of a council of ministers appointed by Napoleon; in 1802 he ordered that he himself be elected president of the republic; and in 1805 he abolished the republic entirely and created a hereditary monarchy with himself as king. The Italians became the first of many peoples to learn that conquest by Napoleon meant exchanging one form of tyranny for another. Napoleon did not just reintroduce slavery. As Tom…

The Festival of Insignificance by Milan Kundera Faber & Faber 128pp £14.99 The Week bookshop £12.99 (incl. p&p) Milan Kundera’s first novel in more than a decade is short and exceptionally “Kunderaesque”, said James Kidd in The Independent. The story, such as it is, features four men in late to middle age “who live in Paris, and saunter its environs pondering sex, art, fiction, death and politics, or combinations thereof”. There are philosophical ruminations concerning the navels of young women; and odd jokes, such as a French waiter posing as a Pakistani man. “The Festival of Insignificance is a curious and fascinating book.” No, it’s not, said Alex Preston in The Observer. It’s a “stinker”. The book is “a celebration of the unimportant and superfluous”; but, unfortunately, that “makes for…

For the distributors of United Passions, the timing could hardly have been worse. Fifa’s $30m vanity project premiered at Cannes a year ago – but was only released in the US earlier this month, by which time Fifa was embroiled in one of the biggest scandals in sporting history. Predictably, the film was trashed by the critics (one described it as “pure cinematic excrement”) and proved a record-breaking flop with the public too. On its opening weekend, Fifa’s sanitised retelling of its own history took just $918 at the US box office. United Passions has been a disaster for all concerned, said The Hollywood Reporter. The film’s French director, Frédéric Auburtin, has admitted that he is now seen as a “propaganda guy making films for corrupt people”. Actor Tim Roth…

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin, 1978 (Black Swan £7.99). Mary Ann Singleton finds herself, along with a crazy new kind of family, at Mrs Madrigal’s bonkers boarding house at 28 Barbary Lane. Our eyes are opened along with Mary Ann’s as she meets freaks and fruits of all flavours. San Francisco isn’t just the setting, it’s the star. Originally written as a series of newspaper columns, this book is fast-paced and fun. Prepare to leave your heart… A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh, 1934 (Penguin £9.99). Like sitting next to the bitchiest person at the most glamorous party, but with no hangover afterwards. Yes, it has surface sheen but Waugh does dive deeper, and the ending is unimaginably dark. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, 1932 (Penguin…

Programmes Cordon A neighbourhood of Antwerp is put into strict quarantine after an outbreak of a deadly virus, in the first two episodes of this new ten-part Belgian thriller. Sat 27 June, BBC4 9pm (100mins). Odyssey Gripping new American drama series starring Anna Friel as a US soldier investigating terrorist activities in Mali. Sun 28 June, BBC2 9.15pm (85mins). Dan Cruickshank’s Civilisation Under Attack Islamic State has declared war on some of the world’s most important architectural sites. Historian Cruickshank charts the likely course of Isis’s destructive advance. Tue 30 June, BBC4 9pm (60mins). Child Genius Twenty of the country’s cleverest children – and their extraordinary parents – battle for recognition, in the return of this documentary series. Tue 30 June, C4 9pm (60mins). Imagine... Jeff Koons: Diary of a…

Peach and mozzarella salad with pistachio pesto Serves 4 50g shelled unsalted pistachios, lightly toasted 1 garlic clove, peeled 30g flat-leaf parsley a dash of lemon juice 100ml extra virgin or pistachio oil 4 ripe peaches, washed and dried 1 Lebanese cucumber or ½ regular cucumber 6 heirloom tomatoes, preferably mixed colours a good handful of wild rocket 2 x 125g balls buffalo mozzarella a handful of purple basil 3 tbsp aged balsamic vinegar 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil freshly ground black pepper • First make the pesto. Tip the pistachios into the bowl of a mini processor and whizz until finely chopped. Add the garlic and parsley, then whizz again. Add the lemon juice and half the oil, season well with salt and black pepper, then blend until…

Summer in rural Austria Relax at the Hotel zur Post in the village of St. Gilgen, by Lake Wolfgang. Prices from £649pp for 7 nights half board, flying from Edinburgh. Departing 11 July. 01483-791116, www.inghams.co.uk. Enjoy the midnight sun Holland America Line are offering a 14-day cruise around the Norwegian fjords and Arctic Circle. Prices from £749pp full board. Departing 4 July. 0843-374230, www.hollandamerica.com. A weekend in Windsor Stay at Beaumont Estate in Windsor from £79pn for a 1- or 2-night stay, including breakfast. Book by 30 June, for stays before 30 September, with code ESCJUNE at www.principal-hayley.com. Moroccan minibreak The 5-star Royal Palm Marrakech is offering a 3-night stay during September from £395pp. Prices include b&b and airport transfers. 01483-445610, www.beachcombertours.co.uk.…

Hopes that a deal could be reached between Greece and its creditors, following fresh reform proposals from the Greek government, saw stock markets across Europe surge early in the week. The Athens index jumped 9%. Among the biggest gainers were Greek banks, which had been reported to be on the brink of collapse as depositors rushed to withdraw funds, prompting the European Central Bank to extend several tranches of emergency liquid assistance. By Wednesday, however, the market mood was more cautious as creditors quibbled over the compromise deal, amid worries that it might anyway be thrown out by the Athens parliament. Gold enjoyed its biggest rally in a month following “doveish remarks” from the US Fed chair, Janet Yellen, about the outlook for interest rate rises, which she stressed would…

The bicentenary of the battle has “awoken interest in investing in artefacts”, says Charlotte Beugge in The Sunday Times. Here are some recent and forthcoming sale highlights: A single hair from Napoleon’s head sold earlier this month for £150 by the West Country auctioneers Cottees. A golden Irish Freedom Box presented to the Earl of Uxbridge, a Waterloo hero renowned for his stiff upper lip (“By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg”). It sold for £100,900 at a Bonhams sale in April, against an estimate of £50,000-£60,000. Wellington’s mud-splattered coat. Given to Lady Caroline Lamb, with whom he had “a fleeting affair” in Brussels before the battle, it is being sold at Sotheby’s on 14 July. Estimate: £20,000-£30,000. Wellington’s battle order, kept by the young officer to whom he gave…

John Roberts “We still have the audacity and courage to believe we can change the way Europe buys its electricals,” declared the founder of AO World last week. But following a shock £2.9m loss last year, John Roberts is in the doghouse with investors, says The Times. Shares in the online white goods retailer – founded in 2000 “on the back of a bet in a Bolton bar” – have slid more than 40% since its float last year; and it remains “one of the mostshorted stocks in Europe”. Roberts revealed in his annual report that he thinks about “being the best” and “being exceptional” every morning in the shower – and accompanied his thoughts with “a circular doodle” that looked “a bit like water going down the plughole”. A…

What happened The Chancellor George Osborne this week confirmed his intention to cut another £12bn from Britain’s social security bill. The details will be laid out in next month’s Budget, but Osborne stated that he would make “significant savings” from the £120bn spent on working-age benefits. David Cameron said on Monday that he would like to overhaul the system of tax credits, which top up the wages of low earners, and that companies should pay higher salaries instead. Britain, he argued, should move from a “low wage, high tax, high welfare society to a higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare society”. Last Saturday, tens of thousands of people protested against Government spending cuts in cities across the UK. The biggest event was in London, where thousands marched from the Bank…

Waterloo, Belgium Bicentenary: Some 60,000 spectators from around the world watched re-enactments at Waterloo last weekend to mark the bicentenary of the battle that ended the Napoleonic wars. A total of 5,000 actors took part in two re-enactments, which also featured 300 horses, 100 cannons and four tonnes of gunpowder. Last Thursday, the actual anniversary, descendants of Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington and other commanders met to shake hands on the battlefield. In his host’s speech, King Philippe of Belgium hailed the EU as a successor to the Concert of Europe, which ushered in a century of fragile peace following Waterloo. Madrid Passports for exiled Jews: The Spanish parliament has approved a law granting citizenship to the descendants of some 200,000 Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, when the country’s…

1 The gigue from Partitia No. 1 in B-Flat Major by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Glenn Gould 2 Variations 2 & 3 from Piano Quintet in A Major by Franz Schubert, performed by the Belcea Quartet, Thomas Adés 3* String Quartet No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op.131 – Presto by Beethoven, performed by the Guarneri Quartet 4 I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free by Billy Taylor and Dick Dallas, performed by Nina Simone 5 O Sink Hernieder, Nacht der Liebe by Richard Wagner, performed by Kirsten Flagstad, Ludwig Suthaus, Wilhelm Furtwängler and the Philharmonia Orchestra 6 Changes by Alan Price, performed by Hugh Laurie 7 Do I Love You? by Cole Porter, performed by Ella Fitzgerald 8 Barwick Green (theme to The Archers) by Arthur Wood, performed by Sidney Torch…

Stop selling houses to foreigners Zoe Williams The Guardian “It is the one point on which all people and parties agree,” says Zoe Williams: “Britain’s housing problem is one of supply and demand.” If only we built more homes, the crisis would ease. But it’s not that simple. For instance, in London new flats are going up all the time, yet housing remains in chronically short supply because so many properties – old and new, but mostly new – are being sold to overseas investors. In 2012, foreign buyers accounted for almost three-quarters of new homes sold in central London. And many developers and estate agents now market their properties in China and elsewhere before even offering them for sale to people who live in the UK. It sounds “almost…

The nightingale’s “father song” The male nightingale’s famously beautiful song is designed to attract a mate – by showing her just what a great father he would make. Scientists believe it’s not the elaborate melody itself that impresses the female, but the effort the male has to make to produce it. This signals that he will be a good father – ready and able to feed his young and defend them from predators. It may also be the case that more challenging songs indicate age and experience on the part of the singer, says a report in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. The researchers, at the Free University of Berlin, recorded 20 male nightingales singing before pair formation, then compared the quality of the songs with how good a parent…

Gwyneth Paltrow is planning what may be the most awkward family holiday in history, claims Radar Online. The actress wants to go to Hawaii with her new boyfriend, TV producer Brad Falchuk, her “consciously uncoupled” ex-husband, Chris Martin, and Martin’s girlfriend, Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence. Paltrow will also bring along her two children by Martin. “Gwyneth recognises it’s time for Jen to meet the whole family,” claims a friend, “and she wants Chris to be there for Brad’s first proper bonding experience with the children.” But not everyone is keen, says the source. “Poor Jen is dreading it.” At 91, Nicholas Parsons may be a little hard of hearing, says The Times. His Just A Minute colleague Paul Merton revealed this week how Parsons once muddled up the late…

Dylann Roof had been sitting in a Bible study session at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, for an hour last Wednesday night, when he rose and drew a gun. Roof, 21, later told police that he “almost didn’t go through with it because everyone was so nice”. But he did, telling the mostly elderly churchgoers that he was there to shoot black people. “You are raping our women and taking over the country, and you have to go,” he declared. He then fired at Susie Jackson, 87, the group’s oldest member; her great-nephew Tywanza Saunders, 26, leapt in front of the gun, to protect her. Roof killed them both, before shooting dead seven others. Before the killings, Roof seems to have posted a “hate-filled manifesto”…

Cricket: a “new dawn” for England Can it really be only four months since English cricket’s “greatest humiliation”, asked Mike Selvey in The Guardian. At the World Cup, England suffered their worst defeat in a one-day international (ODI) when they scored just 123 against New Zealand. Two weeks later, they crashed out of the tournament in the group stages. Yet in Durham on Saturday, England beat their erstwhile tormentors to win the series 3-2 – their first home ODI series victory since 2012. Again and again, it looked as if victory was out of reach: at one point, England needed 54 off 35 balls to win. But in this series they have repeatedly confounded expectations: in the first match, they made 408, their highest ever ODI total; in the fourth,…

To The Daily Telegraph David Cameron is right to call for Muslims to renounce acts of terror more actively. It will help to strip barbaric acts of a cloak of religious respectability. Nevertheless, I suspect that many of the young British men and women who become involved with terrorism do so because of a twisted factional tribalism or youthful pursuit of “glory”, rather than a truly held religious belief. They identify themselves as a group separated from others, in conflict with them and under threat from them. The “others” they are against may be the “West” here, or different strands of the Islamic faith in Iraq and Syria. In that sense, the position is similar to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, in which “Catholics” and “Protestants” were driven not by…

Theatre The Motherf**ker with the Hat Playwright: Stephen Adly Guirgis Director: Indhu Rubasingham National Theatre, London SE1 (020-7452 3000) Running time: 1hr 45mins (no interval) ★★★ “Don’t be deterred by the title,” said Michael Billington in The Guardian. This play – first staged on Broadway in 2011 – confirms the promise shown by Stephen Adly Guirgis’s earlier work, Jesus Hopped the “A” Train – and “has an exhilarating dash and bravura that put me in mind of the movies of Pedro Almodóvar”. The action starts in a grotty apartment off Times Square. There Jackie, a Puerto Rican drug dealer – “just out of jail and ready to go straight” – is settling down to make love to his coke-snorting girlfriend when he sees an unfamiliar hat on her table. Like…

If any wine variety is ever to break the dominance of sauvignon blanc, I have a hunch it could be vermentino, says Fiona Beckett in The Guardian. Produced mainly in Sardinia, Corsica and Provence, it has more character than pinot grigio or picpoul, and is incredibly versatile with food. The Nord Est Vermentino 2014 (£9.99, or £7.49 if you buy two bottles; Majestic Wine) is a good introduction to the crisp, slightly saline Sardinian style; or try Santadi’s 2014 Villa Solais (£10.95; Great Western Wine). Other makers’ names to look out for are Capichera, Sella & Mosca and Argiolas – the latter’s rich, delicately peachy, 14% abv 2013 Is Argiolas (£15.24; Buy Fine Wine) is a terrific buy. Southern French vermentino – also referred to as “rolle” – tends to…

Sovereign’s Gate, Osborne House, Isle of Wight Anyone can create a nice holiday rental, says Will Dean in The Independent. But they won’t all have a location like this. Sovereign’s Gate is the ceremonial entrance to Osborne House – Queen Victoria’s seaside retreat on the Isle of Wight. Divided into two cottages, the gatehouse retains much of its “19th century glory, albeit with a power shower and Wi-Fi”. The cottages sleep four, in two bedrooms, and are deceptively light and spacious. On arrival, guests receive a “hamper of treats” that includes wine, Duchy Originals butter and English Heritage jams – most of it from the local Waitrose. 0370-333 1181, www.englishheritageorg.uk. From £414 for three days.…

“Home economist” who transformed Britain’s cooking habits Marguerite Patten 1915-2015 Marguerite Patten, who has died age 99, was Britain’s “first and most enduring” celebrity chef, said the Daily Express – not that she’d have described herself as such: she was, she insisted, neither a celebrity nor a chef, but a home economist. During the War, her positive, straightforward advice on making appetising dishes out of the meagre range of ingredients available to British families “did as much for morale as Vera Lynn’s songs”. Later, “she introduced a suspicious nation” to elements of French, Italian and North African cuisine, through television and radio programmes, live demonstrations and, above all, books: she wrote about 170 books, which sold a total of 17 million copies. Hilda Elsie Marguerite Brown was born in Bath,…

Controversy of the week It’s hard to imagine what practical use Isis might have for three “idiot” sisters from Bradford and their nine children. But if nothing else, said Matthew Parris in The Times, the apparent defection to Syria of the Dawood sisters produced some fantastic press coverage for Isis last week. It was front page news everywhere, with journalists waxing hysterical over the radicalisation of British Muslims. Even the Prime Minister himself succumbed, giving a speech in which he warned that Muslim communities must do more to combat the lure of Isis among young people. You can just imagine Isis’s PR director rubbing his hands in glee. All that free publicity – and for what? The number of “ninnies” leaving Britain to fight for Isis is actually pretty small:…

What has brought it to a head? Last year Time magazine declared that America was reaching “The Transgender Tipping Point” after Laverne Cox, an actress, became the first transwoman (somebody who used to be a man but now identifies as a woman) to win an Emmy. Earlier this month, Bruce Jenner, the former US Olympic decathlete and reality TV star, made headlines when she reintroduced herself as Caitlyn on the cover of Vanity Fair. Their elevation to a sort of cult status marks a turning point in a long and increasingly acrimonious campaign for acceptance and equal rights that has been going on since the 1950s. Why has it been so acrimonious? Because it has huge implications for the way the world is organised and for our conception of what…

A young City worker was filmed apparently snorting cocaine on the Northern Line one Friday night earlier this month, and offering it around to other passengers. In the two-minute clip, the wellspoken man, dressed in a dark suit and brogues, is seen repeatedly tipping white powder onto the back of his hand and snorting it, while chatting animatedly to the people sitting around him. Waving a bag of powder in front of him, he tells them: “I just like taking it.” The City worker – who seems to be fully aware that he is being filmed – then explains that he is “f***ing annihilated”. Organisers of the annual World’s Smallest Penis competition are having to change the rules this year, to cope with a dearth of contestants. Up for grabs…

RUSSIA Putin’s nuclear threat is pure posturing International Policy Digest (Tappahannock, Virginia, US) The revelation that Russia is beefing up its nuclear arsenal has caused shock and dismay, says Mark Galeotti. Vladimir Putin’s dramatic announcement – made while flanked by generals at the opening of a military theme park – was a typically “petulant” response to the Pentagon’s plan to store heavy weaponry in Poland and the Baltic States so as to reassure them of a rapid Nato response if attacked. But it’s less than it seems. Forty new ballistic missiles hardly signals a return to the Cold War stand off of the 1960s. It’s not a new initiative but a repackaging of an existing plan, and there’s no guarantee these “fabled” missiles, said to be capable of penetrating US…

Late last year, six people were sent on all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii – but they didn’t spend any time on the beach. Instead, they were cooped up for eight months in a plastic dome high up on the arid flank of a volcano, and only allowed out encased in 18kg space suits. The scientists, who finally emerged this week, were taking part in the Mars Analog project, designed to simulate the conditions of living and working on the Red Planet. Their challenges included being enclosed in the 1,300ft² geodesic dome, with just a few partition walls for privacy; consuming only freeze-dried food – mainly chilli; showering for no more than eight minutes a week; and being stuck with each other. “One of the hardest parts was not being able to…

Two hundred years ago, in a valley south of Brussels, 200,000 soldiers gathered to fight one of the most decisive battles in European history, said Bernard Cornwell in The New York Times. By nightfall, around a quarter of them were dead. “I had never seen anything to compare,” wrote British officer Major Harry Smith. “The whole field from right to left was a mass of bodies. The sight was sickening.” Even the Duke of Wellington – who had led the victorious coalition against Napoleon – said it was “impossible to think of glory” amid such wretched scenes. Yet that “blood-soaked afternoon” was also “the dawn of a century of peace, prosperity and progress in Europe that justly earned the label Pax Brittanica”, said The Times. After 20 years of war,…

It’s only a few months since we were told that refurbishing the Palace of Westminster would cost £3bn, said Marina Hyde in The Guardian. “A not inconsequential sum of money,” opined Speaker John Bercow at the time, “with the worldly air of a man who knows you could get a short war for that and still have change for a duck house”. Now, a new £2m official report has put the figure at about £4bn – and that’s the bargain basement option: it involves MPs, peers and 2,000 staff moving out for up to six years. Alternatively, they could stay in situ while the works are done around them: this would cost no less than £7bn, “and take 32 years – 32 years!” Either way, it won’t be popular with…

The nation demands that Andy Murray “reserves his best for Wimbledon”, said Barry Flatman in The Times. And this year, he could scarcely be “in a better position to grant their wishes”. On Sunday morning, the Scot completed his Queen’s semifinal victory over Viktor Troicki; he then had a break of just two hours before facing Kevin Anderson in the final. But if he was tired, it didn’t show: he produced his “most convincing grass-court performance” since his Wimbledon triumph two years ago. Against one of the most fearsome servers in tennis, Murray showed the “precision and glorious variety” of his attacking game, polishing off his opponent in just 64 minutes. It was his fourth Queen’s Club title, maintaining his record of winning it every other year since 2009. Murray’s…

Mr. Holmes Dir: Bill Condon 1hr 45mins (PG) The strange case of the senile detective ★★ In Mr. Holmes, we get to see “our greatest fictional detective played by our greatest actor”, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. And predictably enough, Ian McKellen makes a “marvellous” Sherlock Holmes. In this adaptation of Mitch Cullin’s 2005 novel A Slight Trick of the Mind, he plays the detective both as a 93-year-old, living in retirement in Sussex in 1947, and – in a story told in flashback – as he works on his last case, the details of which the older Holmes is struggling to remember. “This Holmes is as ancient as a Galápagos tortoise,” said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, “and McKellen’s physical impression of a very old man is…

“A British wildlife filmmaker has returned from one of the most inaccessible parts of the world with extraordinary footage of ancient rock art that has never been photographed before,” says The Observer. In Chiribiquete National Park in Colombia – an area so vast and remote that it is still largely unexplored – the filmmaker Mike Slee and his team located hundreds of paintings, daubed in red on vertical rock faces, depicting hunters and animals. They include images of jaguar, crocodiles and deer, as well as hunters celebrating. Rock art had previously been discovered and photographed elsewhere in Chiribiquete, but this group of pictures, in an area called Cerro Campana, was previously unknown to experts; Slee’s team had to use a helicopter to gain access to the area. Professor Fernando Urbina,…

Fallon tells Harrison she doesn’t want to do anything for her 30th and says she hates surprises. He persuades her to meet him for a drink in the Flood bar. Secretly, he decides to show Fallon’s favourite film on the big-screen TV and invite her friends. Kenton’s horrified that the fete’s been cancelled. He insists that The Bull can’t survive without these kind of events, and starts the Save the Ambridge Fete Campaign. Christine tells Peggy that she’s outstayed her welcome at the Stables. Peggy suggest she move in with her; Christine is delighted. Kenton’s furious when he hears from Jill that Elizabeth’s offered Lower Loxley to the fete committee. He rants that having the fete outside Ambridge will turn the village into a ghost town. It seems his whole…

V Deep 60 Henderson Street, Leith, Edinburgh (0131-563 5293) At Hardeep Singh Kohli’s new “curry and beer” venture in Leith, the comedian’s touch is “unmistakable”, says Marina O’Loughlin in The Guardian. “Staff sport vintage Adidas. Sprawling murals feature our hero in expansive guru mode. Tables (old doors plastered with vivid beer labels) are communal.” It’s a buzzy, slightly hectic vibe, and as dishes arrive speedily it can be tricky to tell which “aromatic brown stew” is which. “Only by diving in do you get the wicked, slightly sour, chilli heat of mutton achari and its little bombs of dark, pickled onion.” Other treats include the “treacly” reduced tomato of bhuna beef made with “so-now” short ribs; and vindaloo of “equally modish” pork cheeks sharpened with “masala vinegar” and raspberry beer. And…

New cars: what the critics say The Daily Telegraph It’s taken 51 years, but the Mustang is finally being released in the UK. The “archetypal muscle car” has sold nine million units – almost all of them to Americans “seduced by a formula that has been copied but never bettered”. On wide highways or mountain passes, the Mustang makes you feel “like a million dollars”. Will it have the same charm on a “drizzly Tuesday on the M62”? Autocar Whether you opt for the coupé or convertible, the Mustang comes with a choice of two engines. We drove the more powerful 5-litre V8, which is “initially lazy” but really “gets going”, doing 0-62mph in 4.8 seconds. The gearshift is “extremely slick”, brakes are strong and the steering is accurate. On…

Moldova’s Soviet-era capital Moldova was recently rated the “unhappiest place to live in the world”, says Mike Carter in the Financial Times. And residents of the capital, Chisinau, have reason to feel glum. Their city was hit by a major earthquake in 1940, before being “finished off by the Luftwaffe and then rebuilt by the Soviets”. Very little of the historic centre remains, so it’s “unlikely to become the new Prague”; yet there is a sense of “restless energy”, even if there are no tourists – which is itself “an extraordinary thing in Europe in 2015”. On the street, battered Ladas jostle for space with black-windowed Mercedes; babushkas sell babushka dolls; folk musicians in embroidered tunics play waltzes on pan flutes; people jog and rollerblade beneath “benevolent” statues of Comrade…

Thorntons/Ferrero: chocolate daddy “Ambassador, you are really spoiling us,” cooed the guest in Ferrero Rocher’s camp 1990s television ad. In opting to gobble up Thorntons for £112m (a 66% premium to its three-month average share price), the Italian confectioner really is, said Jonathan Guthrie in the FT. Attacked at the low end by supermarkets, and higher up by new chains such as Hotel Chocolat, “Thorntons is a box of chocolates that has melted in the sun”. Most investors “will be heartily glad Ferrero is taking this serial disappointment off their hands” – none more so than Crystal Amber, the activist investment fund, which has been agitating for a sale. It’s a mystery why the Italian “chocolate daddy” is so interested, said Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail. The Ferrero family…

● Many unhappy returns The champagne flowed at Old Billingsgate Market last week at a City dinner to celebrate 20 years of London’s Alternative Investment Market, said Claer Barrett and Kate Burgess in the FT. A “best of British menu” included asparagus with a cocklebutter sauce. “Investors may have found lobster a more appropriate menu choice.” Many have found there are hundreds of small and illiquid “lobster pot” companies on Aim – so-called, according to Professor Elroy Dimson of London Business School, because “it’s easy to get your money in, but impossible to get it out again”. Over the past two decades, 72% of the 3,000-odd companies that have listed on the junior index have never produced a return for investors. “Worse still, nearly one in three have resulted in…

How to kneecap the the recovery Editorial The Economist When David Cameron put a cap on skilled non-EU migrants in 2011, limiting their number to 20,700 a year, “it made little difference, since so few firms were recruiting”, says The Economist. That has now changed. For the first time, the cap’s monthly limit has been reached, and companies across the country have had visa applications rejected. “The problem is easy enough to fix: the inflexible annual quota should be raised, or, better, scrapped altogether.” But, “despite howls from business”, the rules are getting tighter. Multinationals will face more restrictions moving overseas employees to UK offices, and a new levy could be imposed on visas. “This is daft.” The targets of the crackdown, mostly young and well paid, “are the very…

The week’s best buys Anite Group The Times Anite supplies testing devices to the likes of BlackBerry, Nokia and Motorola, and has yet to reach its full potential. Rival Keysight has put in a takeout bid offer at a 22% premium; there’s a good chance a higher offer will emerge. Buy. 127.5p. Ashtead Group The Times Fleet hire firm Ashtead has benefited from recovering US and UK construction markets. Rental revenues are up 24%, despite the cold US winter and the energy market slowdown, and prospects for further growth are solid. Buy. £10.97. Compass Investors Chronicle The catering giant’s long-term prospects remain unchanged, despite recent worries over an emerging market slowdown. Highly cash generative, with a resilient business model, and geographically diversified. Buy. £11.15. Greene King Shares The acquisition of…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 959 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 6 July. Send it to: The Week Crossword 959, 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 5 Goods train crashing in Eastern Maryland (13) 8 Appreciates temporary accommodation (4) 9 Scribe hit the wine leading to regret on the way back (10) 10 Minister in split always restricted (8) 12 Part of dance in parties? One…