Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1116 i The Week

What happened SNP calls for Indyref2 Nicola Sturgeon threw a spanner in the Brexit works this week by demanding a second referendum on Scottish independence. Scotland’s First Minister said the ballot – which would need to be approved by Westminster – should be held between autumn 2018 and spring 2019, before the conclusion of the UK’s divorce negotiations with the EU. Sturgeon’s surprise intervention came 24 hours before Theresa May, fresh from quashing a Brexit rebellion in Parliament, had been expected to invoke Article 50, triggering the start of the two-year exit talks. No. 10 is now expected to wait until the end of the month to serve the EU with formal notice of its intention to quit the union (see page 25). Sturgeon said she had been forced to…

Washington DC Trump’s claims “not intended literally”: Donald Trump’s press spokesman has backpedalled on the president’s incendiary claim that his predecessor Barack Obama “wiretapped” Trump Tower in the run-up to the election. Sean Spicer (pictured) said Trump did not literally believe that Obama had wiretapped the building, but had used the phrase “wires tapped” – and put it in inverted commas in his tweet of 4 March – to cover a range of possible surveillance techniques that Trump believed had been deployed. Trump’s officials have, as yet, offered no evidence in support of his claim that the building was covertly monitored. Washington DC Storm Stella sweeps in: The states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia all declared states of emergency on Tuesday after they were struck by a…

Osborne hits jackpot with £1,350 an hour Ben Chu The Independent About £50 an hour. That was the rate George Osborne enjoyed as chancellor on a salary of £120,000 a year, says Ben Chu. His rate has improved since then. In October, he pocketed £80,240 for a two-hour speech to a company based in the City of London. “Not even Paul Pogba of Man Utd gets that kind of hourly rate.” Now he has secured a four-day-a-month gig advising the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, for which he’s paid £650,000 a year (not including share-based bonuses). That’s roughly £1,350 an hour: quite a hike on his previous employment. Not that we have grounds for assuming Osborne’s quest for high office was motivated by the prospect of extracting a fortune from…

Workers in the UK are taking fewer sick days per year than at any point since records began, reports The Times. In 2016, a total of about 137 million days were lost to illness – equivalent to 4.3 days per worker. In 1993, when the Office for National Statistics (ONS) began compiling figures, the average worker took 7.2 days off. In its report, the ONS noted that the decline had been most dramatic since the 2007 global downturn, suggesting that rising job insecurity was a major factor in people deciding not to take sick days. But the drop could also be explained by the rise of homeworking, the ONS said, which makes it possible for staff to carry out lighter duties at home rather than taking the day off. TUC…

In his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell envisaged a world in which the government keeps constant tabs on its citizens via a “telescreen” in every home. Now, dystopian fiction appears to have become fact, said the FT. A massive haul of secret CIA documents was published by WikiLeaks last week – including the revelation that intelligence experts have found a way to turn televisions into domestic spies. The programme – code-named Weeping Angel, after the predatory statues in Doctor Who – exploits vulnerabilities in the Samsung F8000 to make it record conversations in the room, even when the TV is turned off. The files also show agents discussed how to break into smartphones and operating systems; and include evidence that the CIA has been paying hackers for details of “zero…

“A professor is someone who talks in someone else’s sleep.” W.H. Auden, quoted in the London Review of Books “Happiness is beneficial for the body, but grief develops the mind.” Marcel Proust, quoted on The Browser “There is one sense in which the political class is horribly out of touch with the people. It cares about the EU and they don’t.” Philip Collins in The Times “The problem is not the liars, it’s the millions who want to be lied to.” Nick Cohen in The Observer “If everyone is thinking alike then somebody isn’t thinking.” General George S. Patton, quoted on The Huffington Post “I am a man of absolutely no convictions, or at least I think I am.” Line from The Philanthropist by Christopher Hampton,…

In sport, the credit often has to go to the equipment as much as the athlete, said Jeré Longman in The New York Times. In the 1970s, tennis stars took to using “spaghetti” rackets: the special weaving involved enabled such massive spins that the rackets were soon banned. It was much the same story with the full-body suits that competitive swimmers began wearing: they provided so much extra speed and buoyancy, they were banned in 2009. And today, the focus is on a piece of equipment used in long-distance running: Nike’s Zoom Vaporfly trainers, soon to go on sale in sports shops around the world. Nike’s trainers really do seem to make a difference. All three medal winners in the men’s marathon at the Rio Olympics wore Vaporflys, as did…

To The Sunday Telegraph I regularly take refreshment in a very ordinary country pub in a Tory/Lib Dem marginal constituency. Just listening there has been an unfailingly accurate barometer and predictor of public opinion and political events. The pasty-tax Budget nonsense was sniggered at; the 2015 Tory victory and the Brexit vote were both accurately predictable. The evening after the latest Budget, dare I say it, there was once again mention of voting Labour. Philip Hammond should stick his campaign against self-employment back in the Treasury bottom drawer whence it came. If he does not, a wise prime minister would do it for him. David Raynes, Bath To The Guardian As a self-employed project manager for 20 years, I can see from comments in the media from both politicians and…

In Victorian times, it was customary for younger sons of the gentry to go into law, the army or the church. These days, it is just as likely to be the wine trade. The eponymous Haynes Hanson & Clark has been around for nearly 40 years, and with shops in London, the Cotswolds and Hampshire, they are thriving. They are also one of the best wine merchants for Burgundy, and for a growing selection of exceptionally balanced wines that do not send you into a stupor induced by high alcohol levels. With personal connections with growers at every level, HH&C promote wines you want to drink because of the sheer pleasure involved in the process – and can provide bottles of the greatest Burgundy domaines, such as Raveneau, Roumier and…

“No one gave much thought to the marble trough that was used as a planter in the grounds of Blenheim Palace,” says Simon de Bruxelles in The Times. It was exposed to the elements for decades and used to grow tulips in Blenheim’s rock garden – until it was spotted by an expert on a routine insurance valuation. On closer examination, it was identified as a 1,700-year-old Roman sarcophagus. The 6ft 6in-long piece (pictured), “elaborately carved with a frieze of rollicking gods”, would once have contained the relics of a high-status member of Rome’s patrician elite; it seems likely that it was sold to the profligate fifth Duke of Marlborough, a renowned collector of antiquities, during a visit to Italy in the early 19th century. The neglected relic has now…

If you prefer, you can make this hearty dish with 750g of diced lamb, but shanks will have more flavour because the meat is cooked on the bone Syrian lamb shanks with ginger and saffron Serves 6 2 tsps ground cumin 2 tsps ground cinnamon salt and freshly ground black pepper 6 lamb shanks 2 tbsps olive oil 1 onion, thinly sliced 10cm piece of ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks 2 garlic cloves, crushed 2 small red chillies, chopped pinch of saffron threads 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped 2 tbsps honey 100g sliced dried apricots 500ml chicken stock 100g cooked chickpeas 30g coriander leaves steamed couscous, to serve • Preheat oven to 180°C. Combine the cumin and cinnamon in a large bowl with 2 tsps of salt and 1 tsp…

Theresa May’s claim that Britain remains “open for business” despite Brexit has been considerably boosted by the latest M&A activity figures, said Deirdre Hipwell in The Times. According to Dealogic, “Britain is on track to record nearly $70bn worth of deals in the first quarter, smashing last year’s total”. News of more action this week – a takeover battle for Bovis Homes in the construction sector, and consolidation in the oil services sector – sent the domestically focused FTSE 250 index to a new record close. J.P. Morgan’s Ed Byers said the appetite for deals was growing in line with “corporate confidence” – aided by high equity valuations, which have given companies greater flexibility to finance deals, and cheap debt. Expect “a further surge in activity”. It all sounds very…

The British public’s rekindled love affair with the juniper berry is now official, said Josie Cox in The Independent. Gin has been included for the first time in the annual rejig of “the metaphorical shopping basket” used by official statisticians to measure consumer price inflation. In all, there were 16 new additions to the basket in 2017, 11 removals and eight modifications, collectively shedding an interesting light on the country’s changing consumer tastes. As well as gin, we seem to be drinking “a lot of lactose-free drinks” these days and, perhaps more surprisingly, buying rather a lot of jigsaws. We’re very keen on bike helmets, a new entry this year, but have given up buying brake pads, which have fallen off the list. The inclusion of jigsaws in the Office…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best buys Aviva The Times The insurer’s capital is “as resilient as it could be” – well ahead of market expectations – and all sides of the group are performing well. There is at least £800m of surplus cash, half of which could be returned with buy-backs. Buy. 540p. Breedon Group The Times The acquisition of rival Hope makes Breedon Britain’s largest independent construction materials firm, with a network of regional quarries. Margins are rising; and the firm is set to benefit from infrastructure spending. Buy. 79.5p. Harworth Group Investors Chronicle Harworth majors in the regeneration of collieries and brownfield land. It has low debt, planning consent for 9,500 residential plots, and good sales momentum boosted by a 43.7-acre site sale to Lidl. Profits are…

Controversy of the week The gig economy The shape of Britain’s workforce has changed dramatically in the last 40 years, said John Harris in The Guardian. In 1975, only 8.7% of the workforce was self-employed. Now, it’s nearly 16%, and rising, thanks to the growth of casual labour, and the expansion of platforms such as Uber, Deliveroo and Amazon. Today, the 4.8 million self-employed include “a great crowd of IT contractors, plumbers, hairdressers, cab drivers, cleaners and accountants”. But for many, this is a precarious existence: they have no paid holidays or sick leave, and no employer pension contributions. Hence the fury last week when Chancellor Philip Hammond implied that the self-employed were “freeloaders”, and hiked their National Insurance payments. Hammond “stepped flat-footed onto a political landmine”, said Trevor Kavanagh…

A woman at the top Earlier this year, Dany Cotton became the first-ever female head of the London Fire Brigade, responsible for 5,600 staff. Part of her job, she told Tracy McVeigh in The Observer, is to ensure that more of them are women. “One single thing that would help bring women into the fire service? Stop saying ‘fireman’,” she says. “Why did they have to go for Fireman Sam? What’s wrong with Firefighter Sam? We have to change that perception of a six-foot hairy-arsed bloke who can kick a door down.” It doesn’t help that some firefighters cling to that image themselves. “If a woman can do the job, then it isn’t the big hero job it was. It de-machos their role.” In fact, says Cotton, the job has…

A British man who checked in to a hotel in the Russian city of Rostov was astonished to discover comprehensive instructions in his room on what to do in the event of a kidnapping. The guidance, written in broken English, advises guests that they should “not resist” their kidnappers, and warns that terrorists can be “people with unhealthy state of mind and behave unpredictable”. It urges guests to comply with their kidnappers’ demands, and to lie on the floor “during the operation of releasing”. The instructions were posted on Twitter by a guest named only as Matt, one of a group of Man Utd fans who had travelled to Rostov for a Europa League match. Pictures of a Ukrainian judge went viral this week, after users noted that she appeared…

No sex please, we’re American Americans of all ages are having significantly less sex than they were two decades ago, scientists have reported – a finding that echoes recent research into sexual habits in the UK. The study, published in Archives of Sexual Behaviour, was based on data from the annual General Social Survey. This asks people across America a range of questions about their opinions and behaviour, but the researchers focused on just one: “About how often did you have sex during the last 12 months?” From the responses, they concluded that the average adult had sex 53 times in 2014, down from between 60 and 62 times a year in the 1990s. The fall – which was broadly consistent across ages, races, regions and income brackets – is…

Uri Geller foresaw that Theresa May would one day lead the country. May visited the psychic two-and-a-half years ago, at his house in Sonning-on-Thames. “I took her out to the Cadillac in my garage, which is covered in bent spoons from every era, which were owned by every famous person you can think of,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “I touched the Churchill spoon and told her she would be prime minister.” Geller, 70, won’t say what else they discussed. “I can’t tell you why [she] wanted to see me back then, or whether I am working with any intelligence agencies now.” Adele has to go to extreme lengths to get on stage without being mobbed by fans. The British singer – currently on tour in Australia – hides inside…

“That’s it,” said Polly Toynbee in The Guardian. The way is clear for Theresa May to lead the country on a “self-destructive journey” into the unknown. This week Parliament passed the Brexit Bill; some time this month the Government will trigger Article 50, launching the country on its inexorable two-year trajectory towards leaving the EU. The House of Lords last week voted to make Brexit conditional on final parliamentary approval. But after MPs voted to overturn their objection, on Monday night the peers backed down – “as everyone in Westminster knew they would”, said Fraser Nelson on his Spectator blog. “The Lords had sent the legislation back as a protest, but nothing more than a protest.” Ultimately, both Houses accepted “that the people had spoken” in last year’s referendum. “It…

“It was predicted to be the most competitive Six Nations yet,” said Paul Rees in The Observer. “And so it is: for second place.” With a match still to be played, England are already champions – for the second year in a row. They sealed the title at Twickenham last Saturday by demolishing Scotland 61-21; it was their 18th successive victory, equalling New Zealand’s record for the longest winning streak by a top-tier rugby nation. The Scots started the match as England’s “only rivals for the title”, but it proved to be a “contest of unequals”: never, in any of the 135 games between these sides, have England scored more points. They “dominated from start to finish”, said Chris Foy in the Daily Mail. It was a “riot of attacking…

Golf Muirfield golf club voted to admit female members for the first time in its history. Tennis Andy Murray was knocked out of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells in the second round by world No. 129 Vasek Pospisil. Johanna Konta was defeated in the third round by Caroline Garcia. Football In the FA Cup quarter-finals, Chelsea beat Manchester United 1-0. Tottenham beat Millwall 6-0. Arsenal beat Lincoln City 5-0. Rugby union In the Six Nations, Wales beat Ireland 22-9. France beat Italy 40-18.…

Best books… Clover Stroud The writer Clover Stroud picks her favourite books. Her memoir, The Wild Other, about the shattering effect of an accident that left her mother permanently brain damaged, is published by Hodder & Stoughton at £20 Le Grand Meaulnes (The Lost Estate) by Henri Alain-Fournier, 1913 (Penguin £7.99). A poignant study of an adolescent gripping the “lost domain” of the past, while on the exhilarating cusp of adult life. “It’s better to forget all,” wrote Fournier, who was 24 when he wrote this, and killed in action in 1914, a month after he joined the army. Princes in the Land by Joanna Cannan (Persephone £12). A subtle depiction of the claustrophobia and melancholy of thwarted maternal ambition. It deals with the loss of a mother who realises…

The Spanish wine map has been redrawn in recent years by any number of great producers in “uncelebrated” corners of the country, says Victoria Moore in The Daily Telegraph. So if you are a Spanish-wine fan still sticking to Rioja, it’s time to branch out; here are three good places to start: Bodega Jiménez-Landi Bajondillo 2015 Méntrida (£7.75; The Wine Society). From the central region of Méntrida this “gem” is based on old-vine garnacha with a little syrah and cabernet sauvignon, gently aged in oak. “Alert with pinging red berry flavours.” Pizarras de Otero 2015 Bierzo (£8.49; Majestic). Bierzo is a suddenly-sought-after wine region in northwest Spain. The mencia grape here has a slightly spicy-savoury taste, “like strawberries with black pepper”. Valdesil Montenovo Godello 2015 Valdeorras (£10.99; Majestic). Valdeorras wines…

Pioneering transplant surgeon who hated surgery Thomas E. Starzl 1926-2017 Dr Thomas E. Starzl, who has died aged 90, was a pioneer in transplant surgery and, by the end of the 20th century, the most widely cited author in clinical medicine, having published more than 2,200 scientific articles. But he was not a “stereotypical surgeon bristling with self-confidence, and waving his scalpel like a wand”, said The Times. Performing surgery made him sick with fear, and though his work saved countless lives, he dwelt more on his failures than on his successes. For him, the patients were at the centre of the story, and the memories of those who’d died during surgery, or soon after, never left him. Starzl was famous for carrying out the world’s first successful human liver…

The US Federal Reserve looked poised to raise interest rates for only the third time since the financial crash of 2008, against a backdrop of rising stock markets. The consensus among traders was that the Fed would increase rates by a quarter point to 0.75-1%. Currency and stock markets were calm in Europe as the UK government passed the Brexit Bill, clearing the way for Article 50 to be triggered. The oil price fell almost 10% over six consecutive days to its lowest level since November. An HSBC reported concluded that UK consumers remained “unfazed by current uncertainty” surrounding Brexit and the economy. But Paul Johnson, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies , warned of potential trouble ahead, noting that, on current forecasts, average UK earnings in 2022 would be…

Back to “normal” for central banks? Editorial Financial Times The rise in US interest rates expected this week was so “well telegraphed” that it seemed “unlikely to create any great gyrations in financial markets”, says the FT. Central bankers must continue to exercise caution – monetary tightening would still be premature for the Bank of England, Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank. But it says something about the changing environment that the US Fed can raise rates so calmly and predictably. After almost a decade battling “to stave off corrosive deflation of the kind that threatened a rerun of the Great Depression”, central banks “are finally seeing the fruits of their actions”. Extraordinary measures such as quantitative easing have worked. The “calculus” for the bankers has now shifted:…

Rotterdam, Netherlands Parliamentary elections: The Dutch went to the polls on Wednesday in their most bitterly fought general election in living memory. During an acrimonious TV debate two days before, Geert Wilders, anti-Muslim leader of the far-right Freedom Party, called on the centre-right PM, Mark Rutte, to “close the borders”. Rutte responded by urging voters to put a halt to what he called the global “domino effect” of the “wrong sort of populism”. But though the two men (pictured) have grabbed the headlines, their two parties between them command less than 35% of the vote. In a poll this week, 54% of voters said they were still undecided. The final days of the campaign were dominated by a vicious diplomatic assault on the Netherlands by Turkey’s President Erdogan. Enraged that…

When did child migration begin? The earliest recorded British child migrants left Britain for Virginia in 1618, but most of them were sent in the late 19th and the 20th centuries. Exact figures are hard to come by, but it seems that between 130,000 and 150,000 children – usually orphaned, abandoned, illegitimate, or just poor – were sent to live in foster homes and institutions in the colonies: mostly Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). In the last big postwar wave, which ended in 1970, at least 3,000 children were sent to Australia. Why were they sent there? For a range of reasons. British officials wanted to reduce the costs to the state of looking after destitute children. There were also labour shortages in the colonies, and…

To find out how prehistoric people lived, look at their teeth. Dental plaque traps microorganisms and fragments of food, and as it hardens into tartar, their genetic material is often “locked up”. Analysis of tartar scraped off ancient teeth has yielded numerous insights into the diets and habits of early homo sapiens; now, the technique has been applied to Neanderthals. Researchers examined Neanderthal remains found in caves in Belgium and Spain, and found radical differences in their diets: while the hominids in northern Europe 50,000 years ago appear to have lived mainly on the woolly rhino and sheep that would have roamed the local landscape, their southern counterparts survived on pine nuts, moss and mushrooms. (However, it would be wrong to suggest these groups were vegetarian: their own bones suggest…

Jenni Murray is a brave woman – or cis woman, as some would demand, said The Daily Telegraph. You’d think that after what happened to her fellow feminist Germaine Greer, she’d have kept out of transgender politics. Yet last week, Murray – the presenter of Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour – decided to wade straight into the quagmire. In an article in The Sunday Times, she defended LGBT rights, but questioned whether transwomen were “real” women, given that they have grown up male, with “the privileges” that entails. Cue outrage from the trans lobby, and a warning from the BBC, which said Murray had broken a rule that bans presenters from expressing views on controversial topics covered on their shows. Murray doesn’t know what she’s talking about, said L.J. Ferris on…

Theresa May is going to be so busy with Brexit over the next couple of years that she’ll struggle to find time for any other reforms, said Toby Helm in The Observer. But one issue that will get plenty of parliamentary attention is her plan to open more grammar schools in England. In last week’s Budget, Chancellor Philip Hammond made £320m available for 140 new free schools, which will – unlike other state-funded schools created since 1998 – be allowed to impose academic selection. The policy has already attracted a lot of opposition. At least 30 Tory MPs object to it, and Justine Greening, the Education Secretary, was last week jeered at the annual conference of the Association of School and College Leaders as she sought to defend it. Most…

For England, this West Indies tour has been little more than “match practice”, said Josh Burrows in The Times. They won all three of their one-day internationals (ODIs) in the series, despite losing the toss every time; they won the final match last Thursday by 186 runs to inflict West Indies’ heaviest ever ODI defeat at home. It was a “handsome” win, with centuries for both Alex Hales and Joe Root – even if it is difficult to judge “where England’s ability ends and West Indies’ weaknesses begin”. Against such weak opposition, Hales and Root “helped themselves” to the “scoring opportunities on offer”, said Scyld Berry in The Daily Telegraph. Playing for the first time since fracturing his hand, Hales scored a “highly meritorious” 110. It was his fifth ODI…

A “Catholic” PM To The Times Michael Gove may well be correct in his suggestion that Mrs May’s thinking is informed by Catholic social teaching, but surely Harold Macmillan was the country’s first “Catholic” prime minister, with his lifelong Anglo-Catholic faith nurtured by his tutor and friend Ronnie (afterwards Monsignor) Knox? In Mrs May’s case, it is doubly ironic that the founding fathers of the European Union were all committed Catholics strongly influenced by Catholic social teaching, and that the principles of Catholic social teaching formed the basis for the EU. One of those founding fathers, Robert Schuman, has even been discussed as a candidate for canonisation – now, clearly, a distinction that Mrs May seems happy to forgo. John A. Sibbald, Edinburgh Why are we waiting? To…

Theatre Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Playwright: Edward Albee Director: James Macdonald Harold Pinter Theatre, Panton Street, London SW1 (0844-871 7622) Until 27 May Running time: 3hrs (including interval) ★★★★ Edward Albee’s modern classic – in which a late-night campus drinks party descends into the matrimonial equivalent of Dante’s Inferno – is the “most wickedly entertaining, most viciously nasty, most incrementally harrowing play in the American canon”, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. And never before have I seen a production of it that “ticks all those boxes with such pen-breaking vigour”. Audience members have been politely asked not to eat during this “flawless” show, and I can see why: “there’s every danger of mid-show scoffers either choking to death as they’re seized by convulsive laughter, or disgorging the…

Palatino 71 Central St, Clerkenwell London EC1 (020-3481 5300) In his younger days, Stevie Parle worked at The River Café, says Keith Miller in The Daily Telegraph – and something of that restaurant’s “sure judgement and absolute clarity, its strange alchemical blend of austerity and luxury” is in evidence at Palatino, but for about half the price. This is the fifth outpost in Parle’s burgeoning London empire, and like his Rotorino in Dalston, it serves “fairly echt” Italian food, cooked simply but well. At Palatino, the menu draws specifically on Roman cookery. We devoured crisp battered sage leaves with an off-dry wine vinegar; a crudo of salt cod with cubes of blood orange. I then went for “a rarity on these shores”, rigatoni con pajata (pajata being the intestines…

New cars: what the critics say Car Magazine In its previous life, the 5008 was a people carrier that mainly “collected dust in showroom corners”. But now, in a “sign of the times”, the car has been reincarnated as a seven-seater SUV. It’s basically a longer version of the 3008, Peugeot’s “thoroughly decent” five-seater, costing a couple of grand more, model-for-model. Offering “epic space”, it’s available with a range of competitive diesel and petrol engines. Auto Express The car is certainly “more desirable than before”: sharing the 3008’s high bonnet and wide grille, it looks good from the outside. The interior has had an overhaul, using fine materials, that is “almost completely for the better”: only the frustrating-to-use screen lets it down. The third-row seats can only fit children; but…

BT/Openreach: together forever? BT shares jumped last week on news that the company had struck a groundbreaking deal to retain ownership of its broadband arm, Openreach, after two years of tense negotiations with the telecoms regulator Ofcom. Call it a case of “conscious uncoupling”, said Lex in the FT. Under the deal hammered out with Ofcom’s Sharon White, BT gets to hang on to Openreach – its “biggest earner”, which owns most of the UK’s broadband infrastructure – but it will be split off into a separate legal entity, with its own board. So “BT and Openreach will not divorce, but will spend more time apart”. The governance changes are “cosmetic”. Openreach’s new chief executive will answer only to the spin-off’s chairman, but “BT’s chief has a veto on who…

Mark Tucker HSBC’s new chairman has made history by becoming the first outsider in 151 years to chair the bank. He has plenty on his plate, says Management Today. HSBC’s profits fell 60% last year, and it is still dogged by “reputational problems” including money laundering and tax avoidance. A former Prudential boss, Tucker has spent most of his career in insurance, most recently running the Asian giant AIA. But he started out playing professional football, for Wolves, Barnet and Rochdale. Tucker’s love of the beautiful game has endured. He reportedly spent his 50th birthday “with black eyes and a broken nose” after being headbutted on the pitch the night before. “He’ll be hoping to avoid such scuffles in HSBC’s boardroom.” Bill Ackman The flamboyant billionaire behind the Pershing Square…