Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1054 i The Week

What happened David Cameron effectively fired the starting gun on the EU referendum campaign last week when he claimed he was “well on the way to a deal” that he would put to UK voters next year. He was speaking at the close of a two-day summit in Brussels at which he made his case for reform to the other 27 heads of government. They are amenable to three of his key aims – an end to “ever closer union”, protections for the City of London, and measures to cut EU red tape – but they unanimously rejected the PM’s proposed four-year ban on migrant workers receiving tax credits. However, No. 10 insisted the latter plan would still be adopted in some form. On Sunday, former defence secretary Liam Fox…

The Hague, the Netherlands Help for the elderly: Two supermarkets in The Hague are training their checkout staff to spot signs of distress in elderly customers as part of a pilot project which the organisers hope will be expanded across the Netherlands. Under the scheme – a joint initiative by The Hague’s city council, the Royaal Zorg care organisation and Albert Heijn supermarkets – the cashiers will be taught to spot signs of forgetfulness, loneliness or self-neglect among older shoppers, and then direct them as necessary to specialist volunteers. The idea came from a volunteer who works as a cashier. “She noticed that an old man who shopped there was getting rapidly thinner, buying tins rather than fresh food, and then one day he had to be taken by ambulance…

A Canadian company has been cashing in on China’s pollution crisis by importing cans of “fresh mountain air” to sell in smog-choked Beijing and Shanghai. A bottle of Vitality Air’s “premium oxygen” costs the equivalent of £18.50, while its standard air, bottled in Banff, costs £15.85. The firm claims to have sold out of its first shipment of 500 bottles almost as soon as they became available online last week. More stock is en route. A man has been arrested in Florida for trying to break into a county jail. Patrick Rempe, 24, smashed his car into the sliding glass door entrance, and when that failed to shatter, drove into the jail fence. He then tried to scale the fence but got tangled in razor wire at the top. Taken…

In February, staff at B&Q were advised to familiarise themselves with the bondage novel Fifty Shades of Grey, in preparation for a likely surge in demand for ropes, cable ties and tape following the release of the film version. “Understanding the storyline, and how some products that B&Q stock feature in the film, will better prepare staff for incoming queries,” read an email sent to all branches. For a grand Edwardian family, the Crawleys had remarkably little to do with God – but that was no oversight. Producers deliberately kept religion out of Downton Abbey to avoid alienating viewers, says Alastair Bruce, the show’s historical adviser. That’s why, for instance, you never saw the family sitting down to dinner: they’d have had to be seen saying grace. Around 800 ambulances…

With his brooding gaze, strong features and hairy chest, Shabani is certainly manly. He is also a gorilla, but that didn’t stop him becoming a heart-throb in Japan. Visitors to Higashiyama Zoo began commenting on his “handsome” looks in March. After that, hundreds of photos of him striking poses began circulating online – but as his fans noted, he also has a sensitive side. When not flexing his muscles, he tends to his two mates and four children. A man spotted wandering around a shop in Florida, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “WHO NEEDS DRUGS? No, seriously, I Have Drugs,” was arrested – and charged with drug possession. John Balmer, 50, was detained in a branch of Kmart after being spotted handing a small plastic bag to another…

What the scientists said in 2015 ● Porridge could be the key to a long life, we learnt in January. A small bowl (or 28g of oats) a day appears to reduce the risk of dying prematurely by 5%, and of dying from a heart attack by 9%. For a Harvard University study into the impact of whole grains on longevity, researchers tracked 100,000 apparently healthy people for 15 years, during which time 26,000 of them died. Even after factors such as body mass index and exercise levels had been accounted for, those who had regularly eaten whole grains lived longer. Of course, it doesn’t have to be porridge: a bowl of brown rice a day would do the same job. ● Eggs are full of amino acids and provide…

Rob turns up at Adam and Ian’s stag do at The Bull, much to everyone’s surprise. Ian and Rob forgo the drinking games. Instead, Rob sneakily compliments Ian on his open relationship. When questioned by Ian, Rob brings up Adam’s affair with the picker and the “on/off thing” with Charlie. Ian doesn’t let on he was unaware of Adam’s dalliances. Outside, Charlie wishes Adam well and asks not be forgotten. As Adam reassures him, Ian appears, saying he thinks it’s time they left. On the wedding day, Ian needs reassuring that Adam wants to spend his life with him. Helen’s surprised that Rob went to the stag do and is going to the wedding. Rob claims he wants to support her. At the event, Rob schmoozes Jennifer and assures her…

The best… skiing equipment Tips of the week… how to become a better skier ● Update your ski boots if they’re more than five years old, or have been used for more than about 100 days of skiing. You might want to get new skis too, as they will have more bounce and grip than old ones. ● Work on your fitness in the month leading up to your holiday. Focus on strengthening the key areas for skiing – your legs and core. ● Start gently. Skiing in powder (deep snow not yet skied on) is much riskier, so it’s a good idea to avoid it on the first day, even if you’re an experienced skier. ● To improve your technique, dedicate some of your skiing time to doing drills.…

Winners The US dollar It was “the year of the dollar”, say Michael B. Sauter and Thomas C. Frohlich on 24/7 Wall St. In 2015, the greenback rose relative to nearly every other currency. The dollar strengthened partly because other currencies weakened, but the long-signalled US interest rate hike – at a time when other major economies including Japan and Europe were “still actively engaging in quantitative easing” – played a big part too. The dollar was up 10% against the euro and up 13% against the pound this year. Tech stocks The biggest paper gains were made by “unicorns” (unlisted billion-dollar-plus tech companies) – notably “disrupters” such as Airbnb and Uber. But a few tech companies “killed it on the public markets” too, says Fitz Tepper on TechCrunch.com. Microsoft…

JANUARY The new year gets off to a choppy start. The FTSE 100 records the worst first Monday of the year on record, falling 2% in response to fears that the antiausterity party, Syriza, could win the Greek general election and trigger a disorderly exit from the eurozone. A precipitous 7% fall in the price of copper is blamed on Chinese hedge funds. The sudden Christmas collapse of parcel delivery firm City Link – owned by Jon Moulton’s firm Better Capital – leads to a post-mortem about the dangers of private equity ownership. The Swiss National Bank’s sudden decision to remove the Swiss franc’s long-standing cap against the euro sees forex dealers take heavy losses in the ensuing “francogeddon”. To stimulate Europe’s economy, European Central Bank president Mario Draghi launches…

What happened The UN Security Council endorsed a peace plan for Syria for the first time last Friday. The resolution, drafted by the US and approved by Russia, was passed unanimously. Under the plan, a ceasefire would start in January, to be followed by formal talks between President Assad’s government and rebel groups. The ceasefire would not include Isis, the al-Qa’eda-linked al-Nusra Front, or any forces fighting those groups. A unity government would follow in six months, and elections in 18 months. At the Security Council, US Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged that “sharp differences” remained over Syria – “especially about the future of President Assad”. The UN also brokered a peace deal between the two main warring factions in Libya last week. The agreement came amid concern at…

January The slogan “Je suis Charlie” is used around the world to express outrage at the attack by Islamic fundamentalists on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Its editor, Stéphane Charbonnier, is among ten people killed. Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Front, urges her supporters to boycott the subsequent “unity march”, attended by more than 50 world leaders, because she was not invited. The Greek election is won by anti-austerity party Syriza, led by former communist Alexis Tsipras. He installs Yanis Varoufakis, a leather jacketwearing Marxist, as his finance minister, promising a referendum on Greek debt. February The 87th Academy Awards are criticised for being the least diverse in years, with all 20 acting nominations going to white actors. Director Ava DuVernay and actor…

What kind of people are we? We’re a nation of TV watchers. The average Briton watches three hours and 40 minutes of television a day, and that doesn’t include box sets (Ofcom/Independent on Sunday). We’re more ethnically mixed than ever – almost one in three primary school children in England are from an ethnic minority; one in five speak English as a second language (Department of Education). We still believe in marriage, though far more so if we’re rich than if we’re poor: 90% of mothers of young children in households with incomes above £45,000 are married; but only 25% in households with incomes below £14,000 are wed (Times). Almost a fifth of us (19%) have a tattoo (YouGov). And a surprisingly large number – one in every 65 adults…

Prince and the papers To The Guardian Confirmation in the Cabinet Office “precedent book” that Prince Charles has had access to cabinet papers for decades will come as no surprise to historians. The clue’s in the name. The issue has a far longer history, but we know from an earlier precedent book – declassified in 2006 – that, as first in line to the throne, Charles’s mother began receiving cabinet minutes and memoranda in June 1950. Given that our constitutional monarchy is largely constructed around precedent, it would have been more surprising to learn that Charles hadn’t enjoyed similar access. And his supporters will claim that this follows naturally from his future role as monarch. Nevertheless, as citizens, we surely have the right to be “educated” in how constitutional monarchy…

Meal in a pill A tablet designed to tackle obesity, described as an “imaginary meal”, could trick the body into believing it has just eaten. Fexaramine, expected to hit the market in five to ten years, triggers the release of digestion acids, alters blood-sugar levels and switches on the fat-burning process, without the body consuming a single calorie. It has already worked on obese mice and is now being tested on humans. Water on Mars Nasa was “tremendously excited” this year to reveal the evidence of running rivers and streams on Mars, because it makes a manned mission to the Red Planet more feasible. When images of dark streaks running down sun-facing mountain slopes were seen in 2011, the search for water began in earnest. Nasa has now shown that…

The first year I received my thick, formal invitation, I was flabbergasted. She was the prime minister. The most important person in the land other than the Queen (a fact which she made very clear at any opportunity). And she reminded me a bit of my mother. I never considered not going. You don’t turn down an invitation like that. But was it fun; was it jolly? No, of course not. It was trying and traditional and terribly polite. And sort of horrible, really. There were absolutely no presents – presents were not part of Christmas as far as Margaret was concerned. No Christmas jumpers. No opennecked shirts. No charades. No games. And no children – apart from the year we had our three-month-old baby Daisy and she was too…

If… The Graphic Novel by Steve Bell, 2015 (Jonathan Cape £18.99). I love any book by the great Steve Bell, the master of invention, but his latest is his biggest tome ever: 224 pages and weighing 3lbs. It’s now impossible to look at Cameron without seeing a pink condom on his head. Brilliant. Testing Times by Peter Brookes, 2015 (Robson Press £18.99). Wonderful cartoons, but also stupendous caricature portraits and satirical writing – all done with breathtaking skill, ease and enjoyment. Cameron appears on the cover, sweating and trapped between the big buttocks of Angela Merkel, who is depicted as the Athena tennis poster girl. Trog: Forty Graphic Years – The Art of Wally Fawkes by Frank Whitford, 1987 (out of print). Wally Fawkes is not only a superb strip…

Stolen One art historian described it as “the most serious theft in the history of Italian art”; the mayor of Verona called it “a wound for the city”. On Thursday 19 November, three armed men burst into the museum in Verona’s 14th century Castelvecchio fortress, just as it was closing. They tied up a security guard and a cashier, before snatching 17 paintings worth an estimated total of s10ms15m (£7m-£10m), and escaping in the guard’s car. The paintings, by a number of Renaissance masters, included The Judgment of Solomon by Tintoretto (pictured, main image), Madonna of the Quail by Pisanello (top left), Giovanni Caroto’s Portrait of a Child with a Drawing (bottom left) – as well as works by Peter Paul Rubens and Andrea Mantegna. Mayor Flavio Tosi suggested the…

A “dovish hike” still carries risks Larry Elliott The Guardian Throughout the year, the US Federal Reserve has shown “Hamletlike indecision” in weighing up the pros and cons of raising interest rates, says Larry Elliott. Now “the die is cast”: rates have been hiked by a quarter point, to 0.25%-0.5%. Wall Street took the decision in its stride, and no wonder. “This has been one of the best flagged interest rate decisions in history.” The Fed’s “emollient language” was exactly what traders had expected. This was a “dovish hike”; the key word in the statement was “gradual”. The Fed’s forecast suggests that there will be further increases next year “but these will be modest and intermittent”. Some analysts have argued that the Fed shouldn’t be raising at all. Apart from…

● Japan and Europe With the US stock market broadly flat, and the FTSE going backwards, some of the best gains in established economies in 2015 were found in Japan and Europe – both still buoyed by QE cash. The Nikkei has returned around 11%; European markets are broadly up by around 8%. Good stockpicking, however, counted for a lot, said Kyle Caldwell in The Daily Telegraph. The top-performing Japanese-focused fund, Legg Mason Japan Equity, is up 43%. In Europe, Man GLG Continental European Growth led the pack, rising 27% on the back of top bets including Ryanair. The adage that small is beautiful counted in both Britain and continental Europe, where small firms benefited from the ongoing recovery, while larger, globalised companies struggled. The best-performing major UK fund is…

Politics Leon Brittan, former Tory home secretary, died 21 January, aged 75. Lee Kuan Yew, first PM of Singapore, died 23 March, aged 91. Charles Kennedy, former Liberal Democrat leader, died 1 June, aged 55. Tariq Aziz, Iraqi foreign minister under Saddam Hussein, died 5 June, aged 79. Chris Woodhead, educationalist, died 23 June, aged 68. Denis Healey, former Labour chancellor, died 3 October, aged 98. Geoffrey Howe, former Tory chancellor, died 9 October, aged 88. Michael Meacher, Labour politician, died 21 October, aged 75. Ahmed Chalabi, Iraqi politician, died 3 November, aged 71. Helmut Schmidt, former German chancellor, died 10 November, aged 96. Greville Janner, Labour peer, died 19 December, aged 87. Writers and critics John Bayley, Oxford don and literary critic, died 12 January, aged 89. André Brink,…

Controversy of the week “It all started with some excrement,” said Andrew Harding on BBC News online. Earlier this year, a student called Chumani Maxwele “scooped some poo” from a portable toilet in a run-down South African township, took it to the elegant campus of the University of Cape Town and smeared it over a statue of the university’s benefactor – the arch British imperialist Cecil Rhodes, often called an “architect of apartheid”. In doing so, Maxwele “ignited a furious and fascinating row about history, race and equality”: copycats defaced colonial statues on other campuses; black students demonstrated against the symbolic legacy of white supremacy. In response to the demands of a newly formed “Rhodes must Fall” campaign, the statue of Rhodes was boarded up. And now “Rhodes rage” has…

Broken dreams of a white Christmas Andrew Martin The Independent on Sunday When I was a child, says Andrew Martin, I used to feel sorry for Australians. What was the point of Christmas, I felt, if it didn’t have snow or at least the prospect of snow… if there was no link between one’s own experience of Christmas and the wintry images on the Christmas cards propped up on the mantelpiece? Besides, I’m from the North, which is where cold is meant to come from, and where men are meant to be tough in dealing with it. So I still love the idea of giving myself “manly chores at Christmas: scraping the ice off the drive, bringing in the coal…” Yet as I write this, I’m smoking a cigar at…

The name Gary is on its way out. In 2013, just 28 British babies were named Gary, less than the number (37) named Loki, after the Norse god of mischief. The Daily Telegraph The name Gary is on its way out. In 2013, just 28 British babies were named Gary, less than the number (37) named Loki, after the Norse god of mischief. The Daily Telegraph One in four front gardens in Britain has been paved over. BBC News online Britian’s public sector workforce has fallen by 960,000 since 2010, while the private sector has created 2.7 million jobs. Office for National Statistics One in four British adults aged under 25 are teetotal. The Daily Telegraph Just 13% of the white children in the poorest social class in Britain get…

To The Independent My dad reaches 95 at the end of this week. He lives at home with my mum, 89, in David Cameron’s constituency. He fought in the War, was mentioned in dispatches for gallantry and worked as a modestly paid builder until retirement. My dad has retained his full mental faculties but struggles to walk and remains always at risk of falling. His life is supremely enhanced by the twice daily visits of a carer who helps him to shower and dress in the morning and gets him ready for bed in the evening. His carer is a Romanian migrant who delivers a very high standard of care, with great empathy and kindness, in faultless English, of course. Without such care, my dad couldn’t live in his home…

Looking back on 2015 1 This year, Harper Lee finally published a second book, a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird. Name the small town that provides the setting for both books, and Lee’s hometown, on which it is based. 2 Who made headlines for allegedly referring to an easyJet pilot as a “basic bitch” as she was escorted off a plane at Luton Airport? 3 “Their Royal Heilnesses” screamed a front-page Sun headline in July. To what was it referring? 4 “They’re cheating dirtbags and they deserve no such discretion,” said a group calling itself The Impact Team. What had the group just done? 5 “At my age I’m not likely to be a longterm contender, am I?” was which politician’s assessment of his future? 6 Which small business…

Theatre Peter Pan Goes Wrong Playwrights: Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields Director: Adam Meggido Apollo Theatre, London W1 (0844-482 9671) Until 11 September 2016 Running time: 2hrs 5mins (including interval) ★★★ Mischief Theatre, the young troupe of crack farceurs behind this riotously funny gem of a play, seem to be taking over the West End, said Matt Wolf on TheArtsDesk.com. Their Olivierwinning smash The Play That Goes Wrong is packing them in at the Duchess Theatre. A new show, The Comedy About a Bank Robbery, is due to open at the Criterion in April. And now the company has found a seasonal West End berth for Peter Pan Goes Wrong, a stupendous “study in comic delirium” first seen on the London fringe two years ago. The mystery of how…

Christmas isn’t Christmas without bubbles, said Jane MacQuitty in The Times. For my money, the best own-label bubbly around this festive season is Waitrose Brut Champagne, Duval-Leroy (£19.99). It’s bouncy, bold and nutty, and makes a great all-round aperitif, canapé and party buffet fizz. Another great buy is Lanson Black Label Brut Champagne (Co-op, £19.99 until 5 January, down from £33.99; Sainsbury’s, £20 until 1 January; Tesco, £20 until 29 December). It’s “easy-sipping, verdant and yeasty” with vanilla-scented bubbles. If you must buy prosecco (I find most of it bland and too sweet), try the 2014 Taste the Difference Conegliano Prosecco Superiore Brut, Italy (Sainsbury’s, £7.50 bottle, £14.50 magnum, both until 1 January). It’s a terrific, light, quince and pear-stashed wine with only 10.5% abv. “Worth the price asked.” If…

Christine Lagarde The IMF chief faces an uneasy new year, says Kim Willsher in The Guardian: she is to stand trial in France in connection with a s403m payment made by the French finance ministry to the businessman Bernard Tapie in 2008. Tapie, a politician and former pop star, accused the (formerly state-owned) French bank Crédit Lyonnais of purposely undervaluing his stake in Adidas when it was sold in 1993. French detectives have long been probing whether Nicolas Sarkozy offered Tapie a compensation deal in return for his support in the 2007 presidential election. Lagarde, then Sarkozy’s finance minister, signed off the payment. Lagarde’s term as IMF chief ends in July, but she has suggested that she would seek a second mandate. The unwelcome return of the Tapie case could…

“Some managers perform consistently well over the longer term, no matter which way the wind is blowing,” says Eleanor Lawrie in the Daily Mail. Here are the top four from Tilney Bestinvest’s 2015 list: 1. Angus Tulloch, First State Investments. A long-standing investor in emerging markets, Tulloch has outperformed in 50% of months over a five-year period. He’s “a very cautious manager” says Bestinvest, and has weathered stormy Asian markets far better than the competition. 2. Giles Hargreave, Hargreave Hale (Marlborough Funds). “A no-nonsense investor whose forte is UK smaller companies.” His rating also reflects his record on Marlborough’s UK Micro-Cap Growth and Nano-Cap Growth funds. 3. Mark Slater, Slater Investments. The Slater MFM Growth fund has raced ahead of the FTSE-All-Share in the past five years, with a return…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 985 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 11 January. Send it to: The Week Crossword 985, 2nd floor, 32 Queensway, London W2 3RX, or email the answers to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Set by Tim Moorey (www.timmoorey.info) This week’s crossword winner will receive an Ettinger (www.ettinger.co.uk) Brogue Collection coin purse in black, which retails at £150, and two Connell Guides (www.connellguides.com). Some clues have previously appeared as a Clue of The Week. The red squares read from top to bottom, then up ACROSS 1 What could be put out in Switzerland in the form of housing let? (7) 5 M Ali’s conversion - was to…