Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1117 i The Week

What happened The referendum standoff Nicola Sturgeon’s bid to be granted legal power to hold another referendum on Scottish independence looked set to be endorsed this week by MSPs in Holyrood. Sturgeon wants the vote to be held in the autumn of next year or the spring of 2019. But Theresa May rejected that option last week, saying that “now is not the time”: a referendum would disrupt the UK’s two-year exit negotiations with the EU, she said. However, the Prime Minister, who will formally notify the EU next Wednesday that the UK is quitting the union, did not rule out a Scottish independence vote at a later date, after Brexit. May accused the SNP of using the Brexit vote as a “pretext”, saying it would be unfair to ask…

Banning headscarves is a mistake Iman Amrani The Guardian The ruling by the European Court of Justice – that workplaces can ban people from wearing religious or political symbols – will affect people of all faiths, says Iman Amrani. But it’s clear from the gleeful reaction of far-right groups across Europe that the big losers will be Muslim women who wear the hijab. They’re right. Wearing a headscarf isn’t the same as wearing an easily concealed crucifix. It’s an “integral part” of who many Muslim women are. They’d no more consider taking it off in public than eating pork in the office canteen, or drinking alcohol at the after-work drinks. “It’s not up for debate.” Hence the more such women are stopped from wearing the hijab in public areas, the…

Ibuprofen linked to cardiac arrest Taking ibuprofen significantly increases the risk of a person experiencing cardiac arrest, researchers have found – a finding that has led to fresh calls for restrictions on the sale of the painkiller. Several previous studies have found a link between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, and irregular heart rhythm; researchers have also found a link between NSAIDs and an elevated heart attack risk. Now, a team has studied the records of almost 29,000 patients who suffered an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Denmark, between 2001 and 2010, and found that taking ibuprofen was associated with a 31% increased risk of cardiac arrest: using diclofenac, an NSAID available on prescription in the UK, raised the risk by 50%. Although the study does not prove a…

Philip Green marked his return from social exile this week by throwing a party at The Dorchester to celebrate his 65th birthday. The retailer recently put an end to months of negative headlines by agreeing to pay £363m into the BHS pension scheme. But perhaps mindful of the fact that his reputation hasn’t entirely recovered, the bash was relatively light on stardust. For his 60th birthday, he took over an entire resort in Mexico for four days, at an estimated cost of £6m. The A-list guests included Leonardo DiCaprio , and Stevie Wonder provided the music. This time, he simply treated 100 friends, including Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley, and ex-boxer Chris Eubank, to dinner. “It was something his family wanted to do for him out of respect for the…

This should be a “glad confident morning” for the Labour Party, said The Times. It is facing a government with a small majority, and a prime minister with “no personal mandate”. Funding crises in public services are creating a “daily diet of negative headlines”. Ministers are preoccupied with the fiendish Brexit process – something that 48% of voters opposed. You’d think Labour would be riding high; instead, its position is “unprecedentedly weak for this point in the cycle”. The Tories are fully 19 points ahead in the polls. Yet buoyed by his unwavering support from the grass roots, the astonishingly inept Jeremy Corbyn sees no reason to change tack; and Labour MPs, having failed to unseat him once, are just letting him get on with it – clinging to the…

Rugby union: England’s hollow title “The ceremony was bittersweet, the trophy heavy, England’s smiles thin and unconvincing,” said Andy Bull in The Observer. They had won the Six Nations for the second year in a row, a feat they had last achieved in 2001. Yet they concluded the tournament with a defeat – their first since October 2015. Had they beaten Ireland in Dublin, they would have won a record-breaking 19th Test in a row; instead, they lost 13-9. This defeat was “a long time coming”, said Mick Cleary in The Sunday Telegraph. In so many of those previous 18 wins, England managed to “rise from the dead”; this time, however, they were “well and truly buried”. Ireland outdid them in almost all departments: there was “venom in every Irish…

To The Daily Telegraph Amid all the bogus outrage about George Osborne’s jobs outside Parliament, leading to an inquiry by the Committee on Standards in Public Life, no one seems to care that the MPs who really do have full-time jobs outside Parliament are senior ministers. Who queried whether Mr Osborne could represent his constituents properly when he was Chancellor for five years? The only people who should decide whether an MP is fit to represent them are the voters. Michael Staples, Seaford, East Sussex To The Times Lloyd George would not have thought much of George Osborne becoming editor of the London Evening Standard. The Welsh wizard’s view was that if a leading politician went into journalism, his place was at the very top. In the last phase of…

Best books… Sarah Dunant The novelist, critic and broadcaster Sarah Dunant picks her favourite books on Renaissance Italy. Her latest novel, In the Name of the Family, about the Borgia clan, is published by Virago at £16.99 Nuns Behaving Badly by Craig A. Monson, 2010 (University of Chicago Press £15). When Monson, a musicologist, goes awol in the Vatican archives, the result is a mouthwatering account of misbehaviour behind convent walls. Witchcraft, arson and illicit trips to the opera with the local priest; Monson’s sleuthing shows just how much history is still to be discovered. April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici by Lauro Martines, 2003 (Vintage £11.99). In 1478, a plot to murder Lorenzo de’ Medici dramatically misfired. The Pazzi conspiracy left Lorenzo’s brother dead and sent…

Courgettes stuffed with garlic and feta Serves 6 12 small courgettes, about 1kg total weight 18 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 50g chopped fresh parsley 1 tsp paprika 150ml olive oil salt and pepper, to season 12 small, thin slices of feta cheese 120ml water 2-3 tbsps all-purpose (plain) flour • Trim the courgettes and, using a sharp knife, make four evenly spaced slits lengthwise along each one, taking care not to cut through to the ends. Preheat the oven to 180°C . • Combine the garlic, parsley, paprika and half of the oil in a bowl and then season with salt and pepper. Rub the garlic mixture into every slit in each of the courgettes, pressing it in with your thumbs. • Arrange the courgettes side by side in a…

Retailers across Britain are protesting against a rise in business rates which some claim will drive them out of business. How fortunate that the wallpaper company owned by George Osborne’s family seems exempt, says Andrew Ellson in The Times. The Osborne & Little shop on London’s Kings Road will benefit from “a £17,000 reduction in rates” over the next five years; by contrast, the average shop on the street faces a £41,000 increase. How did the former chancellor’s family firm get so lucky? “I’m not suggesting anything untoward has happened here,” says Paul Turner-Mitchell of rates specialist CVS, which revealed the figures. “But it is a genuine mystery.”…

Last year was “a record year for the richest people on Earth”, says Forbes, with the number of billionaires jumping 13% to 2,043, and their total net worth rising by 18% to a record $7.67trn. Leading the pack, for the fourth year in a row, was Microsoft founder Bill Gates, with a fortune of $86bn. Here are some other highlights: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos “had the best year” of any billionaire, adding $27.6bn to a fortune now worth $72.8bn, and moving into “the top three in the world” for the first time. Warren Buffett, at No. 2 on the list, had the second-best year, adding $14.8bn – largely thanks to the huge stock market gains made since the US election. The Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helú, once the world’s richest man,…

Controversy of the week Osborne’s new job No one could claim the MP for Tatton has solid journalistic credentials, said the Daily Mail. At Oxford, George Osborne briefly edited the student magazine, Isis, covering such topics as hemp and the Marquis de Sade. He then tried and failed to get on a trainee scheme at The Times. So when it was announced last week that he’d been made editor of the London Evening Standard, there were cries of disbelief in Westminster and Fleet Street. “This just tears the arse out of what’s acceptable in terms of outside jobs,” moaned a senior Tory. Not that there’s anything wrong with MPs taking on extra-parliamentary work, said The Times: “it can be a valuable bridge to life beyond Westminster”. But Osborne “has stretched…

Sanders soldiers on Bernie Sanders has seen the worst happen. The left-wing US senator ran against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination last year, but lost – and now Donald Trump is in the White House. “These are very scary times for the people of the United States, and for the whole world,” Sanders told Ed Pilkington in The Guardian. “We have a president who is a pathological liar. Trump lies all of the time. He lies in order to undermine the foundations of American democracy.” Sanders believes that Trump’s “wild attacks” on the media, the judiciary and the intelligence services are all part of a strategy to strengthen his own grasp on power. “What he wants is to end up as leader of a nation that has moved a…

A zoo in Moscow is suing a production company for “exploiting” one of its raccoons by using the animal in an “erotic” photo shoot, when the zoo had been told the animal would merely be advertising duvets. Keepers say that Tomas was made to pose on a bed with a topless woman, and that he has displayed an unhealthy attraction to women’s breasts ever since. In its lawsuit, the Animals Aren’t Toys petting zoo claims that Tomas was “humiliated” by the experience, and that the shoot has damaged the reputation of his species, which will now forever be “associated with erotica”. In a counter-suit, the company claims Tomas stole the model’s bra and ate it. When a photograph of Ed Miliband blowing his nose was used as a stock “man…

Religious decline has made us sourer Peter Beinart The Atlantic America has witnessed a remarkable decline in religious observance over recent years, says Peter Beinart. The percentage of people rejecting any religious affiliation has shot up from 6% in 1992 to 23% in 2014. The hope among many observers was that this “new secularism” would have the welcome effect of easing the “culture wars”. It hasn’t turned out that way. As people have drifted away from organised religion, they “haven’t stopped viewing politics as a struggle between ‘us’ and ‘them’”. Instead, they’ve “come to define us and them in even more primal and irreconcilable ways”. Research shows that lapsed white evangelicals are more relaxed about former hot-button cultural issues such as the legalisation of cannabis and gay marriage, but “more…

The Great Barrier Reef – the world’s largest living structure, stretching more than 1,400 miles along the coast of Queensland – has suffered “unprecedented damage” in the past year, and vast sections of it are dead, scientists reported last week. Data from aerial and underwater surveys shows that record sea temperatures in 2016 triggered the most damaging and widespread coral bleaching event on record. “We didn’t expect to see this level of destruction to the Great Barrier Reef for another 30 years,” said Professor Terry P. Hughes, of Australia’s James Cook University. According to his study in the journal Nature, almost 50% of the reef’s coral is now “extremely bleached”, and more than 90% of it is showing signs of bleaching. In one long section of the reef north of…

A gunshot, some swearing and a few garbled instructions. If that was all that had been captured on his fellow marine’s body camera, Sergeant Alexander Blackman might have escaped a murder charge for killing a wounded Taliban insurgent in 2011, said Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian. But the footage is altogether more damning. It shows Blackman – who was carrying out a battlefield assessment after an Apache helicopter had fired on two Taliban fighters – telling one of his men not to waste time tending to a badly wounded insurgent. After checking the Apache is out of sight, Blackman shoots the fighter in the chest. “There you are, shuffle off this mortal coil, you c***,” he says as the body convulses. “Obviously, this doesn’t go anywhere, fellas… I’ve just broken…

It is nearly three weeks since President Trump “first tweeted his still unsubstantiated allegations that Barack Obama had tapped his phones during the election campaign”, said Peter Westmacott in The Guardian. Since then, the claim has been denied by, among others, the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, the FBI and the National Security Agency. But the story has now moved on “from farce to serious political drama”. Last Thursday, the president’s spokesman Sean Spicer repeated the allegation made by a commentator on Fox News that, instead of using a US spy agency, Obama had asked Britain’s GCHQ to tap Trump’s phones on his behalf. GCHQ broke its traditional silence and moved quickly to dismiss the allegation as “utterly ridiculous”. No. 10 followed suit soon afterwards, stating: “We’ve received assurances from…

A year ago, Roger Federer resembled “a fallen Hollywood star who kept auditioning for the same role”, said Kevin Mitchell in The Guardian. Unable to break the “duopoly” of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, he hadn’t won a Grand Slam since 2012; and when he took six months off to recover from knee surgery, his glory days seemed numbered. But now, at 35, Federer is playing tennis “virtually indistinguishable from that which held his rivals transfixed” in the 2000s. In January, he won the Australian Open; and on Sunday, he beat Stan Wawrinka to win the Indian Wells Open. “Quick, sharp and merciless”, Federer seemed to be “rising again by sheer force of will”. By the time they reached Federer’s age, every “modern giant” other than Andre Agassi had “crumbled…

Book of the week Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith William Collins 272pp £20 The Week Bookshop £17 Octopuses, the subject of Peter Godfrey-Smith’s Other Minds, are extraordinarily intelligent, adaptable creatures, said Damian Whitworth in The Times. They can navigate mazes and unscrew jars. Because their bodies contain so “few hard parts”, they can squeeze through holes the size of their eyeballs, which helps to make them “adept escapologists”. They have strong likes and dislikes, and are canny at getting what they want. At a lab in New Zealand, an octopus “took exception” to one staff member and spurted jets of water at her “whenever she passed”. Others have learned to short-circuit annoyingly bright lab lights by squirting them with water, or to express resentment at unsatisfactory meals by throwing food…

Exhibition of the week Michelangelo and Sebastiano National Gallery, London WC2 (020-7747 2885, www.nationalgallery.org.uk ). Until 25 June “You probably haven’t heard of Sebastiano del Piombo,” said Olivia McEwan in City AM. Born in Venice in 1485, he was an artist mostly notable for his links to the “Renaissance superstar” Michelangelo. The latter was ten years Sebastiano’s senior, and at the time they met was completing work on his masterpiece, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The two men went on to collaborate artistically and “shared a friendship that lasted 25 years”, with Michelangelo acting as a mentor to the younger man. Now, a “rigorously academic” new show at the National Gallery tracks the “twists and turns” of their partnership, bringing together an impressive selection of their…

Warmer spring weather, if not firmly established, is at least making a tentative appearance. Here are some suggestions if your thoughts are turning away from hearty winter reds and towards refreshing whites, says Fiona Beckett in The Guardian. Many wine lovers have a soft spot for white Burgundy: if you’re one of them, and a member of The Wine Society, pick up a few bottles of Domaine Cordier Viré-Clessé Vieilles Vignes 2014 for a very reasonable £13.95. Alternatively, Majestic has the 2015 for £13.99 in its Mix-Six deal. If Italian wine is your thing, Lea & Sandeman has the mouthwatering Felugan Feliciana Lugana 2015 (£14.25, or £12.95 as part of a mixed case) from around Lake Garda. For more everyday drinking, I’d suggest two Italian whites from Booths: the fresh,…

“I wrote about love, because everyone wants that. I wrote songs white people could buy, because that’s nine pennies out of every dime.” Rock ‘n’ roll superstar who caught the teen spirit Chuck Berry 1926-2017 Chuck Berry didn’t invent rock ’n’ roll – no one person could claim credit for that. As Phil Everly once put it, there were “four or five avenues rolling toward one another” in the 1950s. But with his “indelible guitar licks, brash self-confidence and memorable songs”, he was certainly one of its defining figures, said Jon Pareles in The New York Times. While Elvis Presley was rock’s first heartthrob, Berry was its conceptual genius: the songwriter who picked up on the spirit of teen rebellion in postwar America before the teenagers had felt it themselves,…

UK inflation hit its highest level since 2013, jumping to 2.3% on the consumer price index and prompting speculation that the Bank of England could raise interest rates sooner than previously thought. The Bank kept rates unchanged at 0.25% following last week’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting, but for the first time since July, the vote wasn’t unanimous. As expected, the US Fed raised rates to 0.75-1%, and suggested there may be two more rises this year. Stock markets took that in their stride – the FTSE 100 rose to new highs last week. But fears that the Trump administration may fail to deliver on growth promises saw indices on both sides of the Atlantic tumble. The imminent triggering of Article 50 prompted Goldman Sachs to reveal its Brexit “contingency plan”.…

The nasty inflationary squeeze ahead Larry Elliott The Guardian The Bank of England appears “blissfully unconcerned” about the unexpectedly sharp surge in inflation to 2.3% in February – its highest level since 2013, says Larry Elliott. The governor, Mark Carney, dismissed the rise as “a single data point”; yet it’s hard to think of “many bigger issues” for millions of voters, when a nasty combination of rising inflation and slowing wage growth threatens to squeeze living standards. Carney is actually more concerned “than his apparent nonchalance would suggest”. Prices have been steadily ticking up since last summer, thanks to rebounding oil prices and the devaluation of the pound following the EU vote – a “double whammy” that could “hardly have come at a worse time” for UK businesses already struggling…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best buys Balfour Beatty The Times The construction firm’s recovery plan has largely been implemented – it’s now focused on both the UK and the US and has a decent cash pile. Margin improvements should also push up the share price. Buy. 271.5p. Cineworld Group Investors Chronicle Profits were hit by a one-off pension buyout, but the cinema operator’s European revenues are growing, and it suffers minimal impact from forex rates as costs are paid in local currency. Expansion is a top priority. Buy. 645p. Fidelity Asian Values The Mail on Sunday Fidelity is invested in about 160 fast-growing, undervalued businesses in Asia and Australasia: from a Bollywood studio to a semi-conductor maker. A ruthless focus on delivering growth is spurring impressive results. Buy. 387p.…

Frankfurt, Germany Erodogan row intensifies: About 30,000 Turkish Kurds held a rally in Frankfurt last weekend, in support of a No vote in next month’s referendum in Turkey on whether to grant President Erdogan sweeping new powers. Many of them carried pictures of the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan (pictured), who is reviled as a terrorist by Ankara. Turkey accused Germany of hypocrisy for allowing the “unacceptable” No rally, after Berlin blocked rallies in support of the referendum in German cities. An estimated 1.4 million Turks living in Germany are eligible to vote in the crucial plebiscite, the result of which is expected to be very close. Earlier this month, in response to the cancellation of his rallies, Erdogan accused Germany of “Nazi practices”. This week, he denounced Angela Merkel…

POLAND Stop giving troublemakers free money Aftonbladet (Stockholm) Brussels must get tough with its troublemaking members in Eastern Europe, says Ingvar Persson. It turned a blind eye to the anti-democratic policies of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, and now seems ready to overlook the assault on judicial independence by Poland’s right-wing government. So be it. But the “sabotage” of last week’s European Council summit by Poland’s PM, Beata Szydło, was a step too far. Enraged that the Council had reappointed as its president the Polish politician Donald Tusk, whom her party reviles, she vowed she’d not put her name to the Council’s collective decision. As these aren’t legally binding, this has just caused embarrassment; but down the line, when Europe has to tackle big issues such as Brexit and far-right extremism, it…

Doctors in Newcastle have been granted the first UK licence to practise a new fertility technique that involves creating babies with DNA from three people. Mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) was developed to stop children inheriting incurable genetic conditions from their mothers. The mitochondria are tiny structures that power the cells, and which carry a very small set of their own genes. This DNA is always inherited from the mother and, though it has no influence over individual characteristics such as personality and appearance, mutations in it can cause serious problems – including brain damage, blindness, heart and liver disease, and seizures. The therapy – a form of IVF – involves replacing the faulty mitochondria in the mother’s egg cells with those of an unaffected donor before the egg is fertilised…

“In poor democracies, votes are bought directly,” said The Guardian. “In rich ones, money is spent to secure votes.” Instead of being bribed, voters are subjected to a “deluge” of adverts and door-knocking. That is why election spending in the UK is tightly controlled by law, to ensure a relatively level playing field. Last week, the Electoral Commission found that the Conservative Party had broken those laws, and fined it £70,000. The Tories had failed to accurately report how much they had spent on the 2015 general election campaign, and three by-elections in 2014. The party was essentially accused of using the muscle of its national party to get local candidates elected – breaching strict limits on spending in individual constituencies. I first noticed something fishy when I was looking…

“I have to be seen to be believed.” The Queen, quoted in The Guardian “Faith is what someone knows to be true, whether they believe it or not.” Flannery O’Connor, quoted on The Browser “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” George Bernard Shaw, quoted in The Observer “Don’t get into a stinking contest with a skunk.” Arnold Schwarzenegger on Donald Trump, quoted in The Times “Voting Conservative is like buying a James Blunt album. You know for a fact millions of other people must have done it, but weirdly you never meet them.” Geoff Norcott, quoted in The Sunday Telegraph “Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given.” Historian Timothy Snyder, quoted in The Guardian “A luxury, once enjoyed, becomes…

Myths about the Raj To The Guardian It is disingenuous of Shashi Tharoor to pretend that religious hatred did not exist in India before “the British introduced it” with their policy of “divide and rule”. He must know that when Mahmud of Ghazni brought Islam to the subcontinent in the tenth century, his invasion involved incalculable violence, massive loss of life and a destruction of Hindu religious sites on a scale that Isis could only dream of. The Mughals, who were Persian, were as foreign to India as the British. Those British were, of course, lucky that a power vacuum had been created by the collapse of the Mughal empire in the second half of the 18th century, which the well-organised East India Company was better able to fill than…

Theatre My Brilliant Friend – Parts 1 & 2 Adapted by April De Angelis, from the novels by Elena Ferrante Director: Melly Still Rose Theatre Kingston, High Street, Kingston (020-8174 0090) Until 2 April Running time: 2hrs 30mins each (including interval) ★★★ Compressing Elena Ferrante’s four Neapolitan Novels into a stage drama (lasting five hours, over two parts), is a serious theatrical challenge, said Holly Williams on WhatsOnStage.com. So all credit to the Rose Theatre Kingston, the adaptor April De Angelis, and director Melly Still for their “huge achievement” in producing “an epic stage show that is absolutely as addictive as the books”. As a fan of the novels, I adored this theatrical take on the story of Lenù and Lila and their six decades of friendship and rivalry. I…

The usual quiet of the National Gallery was broken at 2.15pm last Saturday, when a 63-year-old man started slashing at The Morning Walk – a 1785 painting by Thomas Gainsborough (pictured) – with a screwdriver. Keith Gregory, of no fixed abode, was soon overpowered by gallery assistants and visitors and then arrested, but not before inflicting two long scratches in the paintwork. It was a “shocking attack”, said Mark Bills, director of Gainsborough’s House, the artist’s former home in Suffolk, not least because “it’s a picture I can’t imagine anybody finding offensive – what an odd thing to want to do”. Yet though unusual, an assault like this has a long history, said Bills and “we all prepare for it in museums”. Suffragette Mary Richardson slashed Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus with…

Tabure 6 Spencer Street, St Albans, Hertfordshire (01727-569068) The Turkish places I tend to love in London are “essays in romantic primitivism, with terrible folk art and faded posters from the Cappadocia Tourist Board on the walls”, and salads that “might as well have been assembled with a chainsaw”, says Keith Miller in The Daily Telegraph. Tabure in St Albans is not like that – it’s “more of a modern brasserie, right down to the swishy velvet curtain keeping the draught out”. Even so, the uncluttered, low-lit dining room is charming and warm, and the food “exudes confidence”: classic Eastern Mediterranean dishes are here served with “gestures of refinement”. A bulgur wheat salad is “adorned – to its advantage – with little cubes of beetroot”; a roast supreme of…

New cars: what the critics say Car Buyer Specialising in low-cost, “no-nonsense design”, Dacia has been “a success story” since it arrived from Romania four years ago. Its new Sandero isn’t the most sophisticated city car: many of its components come from discontinued Renaults and Nissans. The basic models have very few frills, but fork out £7,490 for the (mid-range) Ambiance trim level, and you’ll get the cheapest car in the UK with air con. The Daily Telegraph The Sandero isn’t pretty. Yet it’s not ugly, either – “just extraordinarily dull”. The doors shut with a “cheap thunk”, and the plastics on the facia are rough to the touch. It’s a practical vehicle, though: there’s room (“genuinely room”) for five adults inside, and a spacious 320-litre boot. And if you…

Vodafone: Indian adventure “Some markets are too important to ignore,” said Lex in the Financial Times. “BP was burnt in Russia but still went back for more.” The same is true of Vodafone in India. Having already taken some $6.6bn in write-downs on the sub-continent, the UK mobile operator now plans an ambitious merger, with rival Idea Cellular, which will create “the biggest telecoms group in the country, with almost twice as many customers as Vodafone India”. The combined company will have an enterprise value of around £19bn, a market share of 35% and almost 400 million customers. “Nobody could accuse Vodafone of lacking ambition” in India, said Alexandra Frean in The Times. But this deal “follows a price war that proved too difficult for the British telco to fight…

Whitney Wolfe “Whitney Wolfe is the perfect first date,” says Alice Fishburn in the FT: a keen, generous conversationalist. But that’s no surprise: she is “the high priestess of dating”. In 2012, Whitney co-founded Tinder, “the app that revolutionised millennial relationships”, before quitting two years later “in a swirl of sexual harassment allegations”. She then launched Bumble, “the matchmaking app of choice for 13 million people and counting”. All this and she’s not yet 28. Many of Bumble’s customers are “young hipsters attracted by its feminist credentials”: the app insists its female users make the first move. This has highlighted interesting cultural differences in target markets. In the US, Bumble is “strongly associated with empowered women”. In Britain, “some moan that it just caters to lazy men”. Eduardo Elsztain “In…