Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1225 i The Week

What happened Can Huawei be trusted? The US warned this week that it may restrict intelligence sharing with Britain if the Government allows the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei to build parts of the UK’s fifth-generation (5G) wireless network. Robert Strayer, a senior official in the State Department, said the US would regard the use by the UK of any Huawei equipment in its 5G network – which will provide ultra-fast data speeds, facilitating advances in many industries such as self-driving cars – as an “unacceptable risk”. Officially, the British Government is still considering whether to use Huawei equipment. But a rare leak last week from a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) revealed that despite objections from several ministers, Theresa May had decided to allow the firm to provide…

Power-sharing talks are set to resume in Northern Ireland to end the two-year impasse during which the region has been without a government. The talks will involve all political parties in Northern Ireland, as well as the British and Irish governments. Power-sharing between Sinn Féin and the DUP collapsed in January 2017. Leaders have faced renewed pressure to resolve the situation since the killing of the journalist Lyra McKee two weeks ago. In a joint statement, Theresa May and Ireland’s Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the response to McKee’s death had shown them that “what is now needed is action and not just words”.…

Paris Harassment fines: Police have handed out 447 on-the-spot fines for sexual harassment since France’s “outrages sexistes” law came into effect last August, according to the equalities minister, Marlène Schiappa (pictured). The law allows police to fine people up to s750 for harassment on the street or on public transport; the first recipient was a man who’d slapped a woman’s bottom on a bus. In a progress report to MPs, Schiappa said the number of fines issued proved the law was working, and that the government now needed to start tackling online abuse. According to a recent study, 43% of French women have experienced non-consensual sexual touching. Paris Macron launches fightback: President Macron has attempted to relaunch his presidency – rocked by months of gilets jaunes protests – by announcing…

“My local Debenhams is one of 22 set to close. Sadly I saw it coming. My advice to the brand? Stop reminding your customers they’re past it. Young trendy types would never shop there – but though middle-aged people like me might belong among endless rails of elasticated-waist jeans, we’re nowhere near ready to accept this truth. After all, this is a generation so deep in denial that many of us are still hiring yurts for festivals. To prosper again, the chain needs to acknowledge that middle age has changed, and to make customers feel modern. Good luck, Debenhams. And remember, while you might know your target demographic, they might not realise they’re middle-aged.” Barbara Ellen in The Observer…

Trashing the idea of Cabinet responsibility Heather Stewart The Guardian To say this government has a leak problem is a supreme understatement, says Heather Stewart. It’s nothing less than “a sieve”, as one despairing official has put it. Ministers walk out of No. 10 and almost immediately a host of competing accounts of their meeting emerges in the media. Last week, in an unprecedented breach of confidentiality that may lead to a full criminal inquiry, someone even told the press what ministers and security officials had talked about at a National Security Council meeting. So how did this Cabinet get to be, in the words of the Chief Whip, the “worst example of ill-discipline in British political history”? Partly it’s due to the strong passions unleashed by Brexit; partly to…

Drop in measles vaccine uptake About 169 million children worldwide failed to get their first dose of the measles vaccine between 2011 and 2017, according to a new analysis from Unicef. The figure includes half a million children in the UK, 608,000 in France and 2.6 million in the US. In 2017 alone, 110,000 people – most of them children – are thought to have died from measles worldwide, 22% more than in the previous year. And in the first three months of this year, more than 110,000 cases were reported, an increase of 300% on the same period last year. “The measles virus will always find unvaccinated children,” said Henrietta Fore of Unicef. “If we are serious about averting the spread of this dangerous but preventable disease, we need…

It’s not often that 16-year-olds are invited to address the UK Parliament, but last week the climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived at Westminster to deliver a powerful warning, said John Ashmore on CapX. Without drastic action, she told the assembled MPs and journalists, we risk “the end of civilisation as we know it”. This was just the latest event in an extraordinary two years for the young Swede, who has gone from organising a school “strike” in her native Stockholm to speaking at the World Economic Forum and meeting the Pope. Seeming to “embody the angst of a generation” that fears growing up into a “much worse world than their parents knew”, Thunberg, who was spending her holidays touring Europe by train, is a striking presence: cool, articulate, and with…

The heads of Britain’s 2,500 fee-charging schools are a worried lot, said The Times. They’ve reason to be. Should Jeremy Corbyn get into No. 10 they’ll be in deep trouble. Labour has pledged to slap VAT on school fees, and devote the £1.5bn it hopes this will raise to providing free school meals. And a new parliamentary group is expected to call for the phasing out of private education altogether. No wonder the Independent Schools Council (ISC) last week issued a forceful defence in its annual report, setting out all the fine things its members do for the country. Its message can be boiled down to a single sentence: “Please, Mr Corbyn, if you become PM, don’t be too mean to us.” It was more than that, said Nicola Woolcock…

For the first 71 minutes, it was a “dull” contest, said Louise Taylor in The Guardian. Then, for five “insane” minutes, Sunday’s Championship clash between Leeds United and Aston Villa descended into epic “pandemonium”. It began when Villa’s Jonathan Kodjia went down injured. But instead of putting the ball out of play, Leeds carried on, and striker Mateusz Klich wended his way past Villa players, who were standing motionless, and put the ball in the back of the net. Then “all hell broke loose”: virtually every player on the pitch started brawling, while Villa manager Dean Smith “went berserk” in the technical area. At this point, Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa did something exceptional: he instructed his players to let Villa score. Even then, defender Pontus Jansson, who didn’t “appreciate the…

To The Times Independent schools have no right to exist if they do not fulfil a need, but nor is it rational to abolish them if they do. Private schools have one particular merit that justifies their survival: they act as a “control” to set against the endless experiments of an often hyper-politicised state system. This is why the silent influence of good private schools has been disproportionate to the number of pupils they have taught. Over the years, they have encouraged creative teaching far beyond any curriculum and retained sixth forms and playing fields; they are unembarrassed by the competitiveness that inspires many children, especially boys, and have tried to harness it. They have promoted music, languages and “difficult” subjects. They recognised and supported the needs of academic children…

Vincent van Gogh famously died at an early age from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Sarah Cascone on Artnet News. Less well known is that 14 years later, his muse and the only woman he ever really loved, also killed herself – and the details are revealed for the first time in Living with Vincent van Gogh, a new book by Martin Bailey, co-curator of the Tate’s current Van Gogh show. Sien Hoornik was a prostitute and single parent when she met the artist and became the model for several of his early works (see picture). Before long she’d moved into his flat in The Hague, where she gave birth to a son. (It wasn’t Van Gogh’s child but she gave him his middle name: Willem.) They had planned to…

Programmes D-Day: The King Who Fooled Hitler Documentary which reveals, for the first time, King George VI’s pivotal role in a ruse to divert German attention away from the Normandy landings. Sun 5 May, C4 20:00 (60mins). Sex on Trial Three-part documentary exploring sexual assault cases on US college campuses, and the difficulties faced in prosecuting them. Mon 6 May, C4 22:00 (60mins). Brexit: Behind Closed Doors Two-part film looking at Brexit from the other side. For two years, Lode Desmet has followed Guy Verhofstadt, the EU’s Brexit coordinator, and filmed negotiators as they worked out how to deal with the Brits. Wed 8 and Thur 9 May, BBC4 21:00 (60mins). Secrets of the Multi-Level Millionaires Multi-level marketing – direct selling, usually via social media – is big business in…

If I were to recommend one simple healing food for all-round well-being, says Tanita de Ruijt, this soup tonic would be it. It’s packed with nutrients, and can be used as a delicious base for stews, sauces and curries Cure-all chicken broth Makes 1.5 litres 750g raw chicken (drumsticks and wings), bashed 3 litres of water 10cm x 10cm dried kombu sheet 3 tbsps apple cider vinegar 6 dried shiitake mushrooms 2cm piece of fresh ginger root, smashed 2cm piece of fresh turmeric, smashed 1 red onion, quartered (with skins) 1 garlic bulb, smashed and peeled 1 red chilli, roughly chopped (with seeds) 1 carrot, chopped 2 spring onions, washed and chopped 1 celery stick, chopped 1 tbsp whole black peppercorns • Put the chicken in a saucepan with enough…

Versatile actor who played Joe Grundy Edward Kelsey 1930-2019 Edward Kelsey, who has died aged 88, was known to millions of Archers fans as the voice of the “lovable but roguish” Joe Grundy, said The Guardian. A poacher, illicit brewer and malingerer cursed, whenever real work presented itself, by a case of “farmer’s lung”, Joe was, as Kelsey put it, one of the soap’s rude mechanicals, providing light relief from its darker themes, and a comic commentary on the more outlandish goings-on in Ambridge. On learning, for instance, that Shula, who was married to the local vet, was having an affair with the doctor, Joe observed, with Kelsey’s perfect timing, that it was a “good job there isn’t a dentist in the village”. But there was pathos among the Grundys…

Weeks after its global fleet of 737 Max jets was grounded following two fatal crashes that killed 346 people, Boeing is still trying to control “one of the biggest crises in its history”, said The Guardian. The impact is now being felt squarely on its bottom line. Even in the best-case scenario, the grounding will cost “more than $1bn”, the US plane-maker admitted last week – a “sharp reversal” from its last earnings report in January, “when executives unveiled plans to deliver more than 900 jetliners this year alongside higher sales and profits”. The obvious priority is to get the plane “back in the air” with the anti-stall software problem, linked to both crashes, fixed. Airline analyst Jim Corridore of CFRA Research reckons that’s a question of “when” not “if”.…

Controversy of the week Corbyn’s Brexit strategy “With the Conservatives in meltdown, a Corbyn government looks likelier by the day,” said Richard Johnson in The Daily Telegraph. “Poll after poll” is putting Labour ahead – most recently, a European election poll had it level with Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party on 28%, with the Tories managing just half that. But now the party risks “squandering” its advantage by engaging in a bitter public row over whether or not to insist on a second referendum on quitting the EU. Tempers flared last week when a draft leaflet for the forthcoming EU elections failed even to mention Labour’s official policy – agreed at its last conference – of keeping open the “option” of a second public vote. But things really kicked off on…

Victims of crime in England and Wales are being asked to sign consent forms, in which they agree that they will, if requested, give police their mobile phones – and are told that if they don’t, the case may be dropped. Police insist that digital evidence can be crucial to a successful investigation, and that there are rules to ensure it’s not misused. But campaigners say that rape victims will be deterred from coming forward if they’re required to hand over their phones, and go through a “digital strip search” of their private communications.…

Washington DC Low appetite for impeachment: A clear majority of Americans do not believe that Congress should launch impeachment proceedings against President Trump, in the wake of the Mueller report into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to a poll for The Washington Post. The report found no collusion by the Trump campaign, but did suggest that there might be grounds for prosecuting the president for obstruction of justice (see page 16). The poll found that 37% of voters want impeachment proceedings to begin (slightly down on last month), and that 56% do not. Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who commissioned the Mueller probe, announced his resignation this week, and issued a stark warning against the politicisation of the justice system – which was seen as a swipe…

A man has been beaten up for shouting spoilers at filmgoers queuing for the new Avengers release in Hong Kong. The man is believed to have seen the film, and then tried to ruin it for others waiting outside the cinema, provoking a violent response: a photo of the purported victim sitting on the pavement, bleeding from the head, was later circulated on social media. A parrot has been taken into custody in Brazil on suspicion of working as a lookout for a drugs gang. According to local media, the bird had been taught to alert its owners to the arrival of local law enforcement by screeching “Mum, the police!” The unnamed bird “must have been trained for this”, said one officer. But whatever it knew, it wasn’t squawking: a…

GERMANY The respected artist who backed Hitler Die Presse (Vienna) An art-hating “hysteric”. That’s what conservative pundits have been calling Angela Merkel after she took down two oil paintings by the great German expressionist Emil Nolde from the walls of her office, says Karl Gaulhofer. Nolde, whose works are now on show in Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof, is held in high esteem in Germany – hence the tirades against Merkel. Under the Third Reich, his art was banned as “degenerate” and “unGerman” (Hitler abhorred modernism in art); and Nolde himself is often seen as – and after the War presented himself as being – a brave victim of the Nazis. However, that myth is exploded by the Berlin exhibition, which highlights the less familiar facts that Nolde was a Nazi Party…

The great white shark’s reputation as the ocean’s most fearsome apex predator may not be justified. Biologists have discovered that the sharks are terrified of killer whales (orcas) – and with some reason: it seems that orcas have developed a taste for the sharks’ nutrient-rich livers. Researchers who tagged great whites off the coast of California for more than a decade noticed that whenever orcas appeared, the sharks would abruptly vanish, often not returning for months. They didn’t observe any orcas killing great whites, but discovered that in 1997, fishermen in the region had observed a pair of orcas beating to death a great white and then feasting on its liver; and that in South Africa in 2017, five liverless great white carcasses had washed ashore after a pod of…

Robert Pattinson drives a ten-year-old car that cost $1,000. “It’s quite good,” says the Twilight star. “Everything in it is broken. It has a hole in it. People see it and they’re frightened, so they get out of my way.” He once bought a vintage Ford Mustang, against the advice of his father, a dealer in antique cars. “It stalled constantly. To have an attention magnet that breaks down and you have to get out and push it round corners – that’s the hubris people love to see come undone.” Francis Bacon took revenge on his art dealer, Erica Brausen, when she pressured him into finishing paintings inspired by Vincent van Gogh for a London exhibition. In a previously unheard interview, he tells his friend Barry Joule: “Two of the…

“Where others see the river of time flowing as it always has, the reactionary sees the debris of paradise drifting past his eyes.” Mark Lilla, quoted in The Guardian “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” Dorothy Parker, quoted in the LA Times “I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.” Galileo Galilei, quoted in the I newspaper “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Friedrich Nietzsche, quoted in The Sunday Times “It is better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” Marilyn Monroe, quoted in The Independent “Tradition is tending the flame, not worshipping the ashes.” Gustav Mahler, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “Nobody who says, ‘I told you so’ has…

Snooker Defending champion Mark Williams went out in the second round of the World Snooker Championship, losing 13-9 to David Gilbert. World No.1 Ronnie O’Sullivan and three-time champion Mark Selby also suffered shock early defeats. Formula 1 Valtteri Bottas edged teammate Lewis Hamilton to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, giving Mercedes a record four consecutive one-twos at the start of a season. Football Tottenham lost to Ajax 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final.…

Best books… Tim Waterstone Tim Waterstone, founder of the eponymous bookshop chain, picks his six favourite books. His memoir, The Face Pressed Against a Window, was recently published by Atlantic Books at £17.99 Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson, 1995 (Black Swan £8.99). Kate Atkinson’s first novel, covering the experiences of Ruby Lennox, a working-class girl from York, was immediately highly regarded and launched a career that I think will rank her as one of our best novelists of recent years. She is so smart and so funny and plots her novels with such a deft skill and touch. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, 1958 (Vintage £9.99). Lampedusa’s only novel was published posthumously. Set in the 1860s, it follows the moral and material decline of…

English wine is on a roll, says Susy Atkins in The Daily Telegraph, but lots of us aren’t sure where to start. I was recently a judge at the 2019 Independent English Wine Awards; here are three winners I’d strongly recommend. Wiston Estate Brut NV, West Sussex (£26.50; wistonestate.com). This scooped the IEWA trophy for best sparkling wine. It’s a fresh fizz with green apples and citrus that’s lively, but with an underlying yeasty richness. Stopham Estate Pinot Gris 2017, West Sussex (£16; stophamvineyard.co.uk). This rare English pinot gris was the trophy winner in the IEWA still wines section. It’s ripe and soft, with fairly rich apple and pear flavours. It would be delicious with cold chicken or fresh salmon steak. Langham Rosé English Sparkling Wine NV, Dorset (£28; langhamwine.co.uk).…

Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas, has been “drawing alternative visitors for half a century”, says Tim Moore in the Financial Times. They come seeking spiritual enlightenment – to meditate and cleanse their souls on the banks of the sacred Ganges, “and then maybe go white-water rafting down it”. In 1968, four young Liverpudlians, frazzled by their global fame, also fled to this town in Uttarakhand. As a result, it is now also a “magnet for Beatles pilgrims of a certain age” – myself included. Upstream from Rishikesh town, the Ganges is lined with ashrams, temples and garish pyramid domes; there are “creaky” footbridges and “steepling flanks of greenery”. Away from the great river, the town’s “chaotic streets” are a parade of “endlessly entertaining characters”: sadhus in orange robes,…

J.Sainsbury/Asda: what’s plan B? Sainsbury’s £10bn tilt to buy Asda “was the most audacious move in the grocery sector in years”, said Jon Yeomans in The Daily Telegraph. Had it gone through, the tie-up would have created Britain’s largest supermarket, giving the combo 30% of the market – “just leapfrogging Tesco’s 28%”. But it was essentially a defensive move: neither player felt big enough to compete alone in the UK’s “cut-throat” market. And now the deal has finally been scuppered by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), on the grounds that it would “be bad for consumers and suppliers”. That’s bad enough for Asda which, for the moment, can count on the fat pockets of its US owner, Walmart. But it’s “a disaster” for Sainsbury’s, whose shares have fallen…

The old lady needs her head examined: fast Alex Brummer Daily Mail “No-one can accuse the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, of playing a game of favourites in the search for the next governor of the Bank of England,” says Alex Brummer. In contrast to the US, where Donald Trump “has been trying to stuff the Federal Reserve with supporters”, the Treasury has hired recruitment specialists to widen the search. The job has several facets, including keeping inflation “under control without sacrificing growth” and maintaining financial stability. But the choice this time “has been rendered all the more important by Brexit uncertainty”. Although criticised for being “too political”, the current governor, Mark Carney, has succeeded in preparing the City for Brexit, shoring up confidence and encouraging “a more open Bank”. It’s crucial…

● Blossoming Japan? Japan’s stock market has been “a slumbering giant” since Emperor Akihito took the Chrysanthemum Throne in 1989, said Mark Atherton in The Times. The Nikkei 225 index hit a high of 38,916 that December – and hasn’t “come close to reaching that level” since. After falling as low as 7,054 in 2009, it rebounded above 24,000 last year, assisted by PM Shinzo Abe’s economic reforms. Some pundits now hope that Akihito’s abdication in favour of Crown Prince Naruhito, 59, will inject further momentum into a market often written off for its “false dawns”. But there are other factors in Japan’s favour too. ● No more zombies… Jesper Koll, of fund manager WisdomTree, reports progress in investor-friendly corporate reforms, and a shift away from the damaging “keiretsu” structure…

The Scottish Maritime Museum has decided to stop referring to ships as “she” on its notices, after two were vandalised. Admiral Lord Alan West, a former First Sea Lord, described it as “an insult to generations of sailors”, but Lloyd’s List, the maritime bible, said it abandoned the tradition 20 years ago. Its editor, Richard Meade, said that he could see why it had arisen: wooden sailing ships had personality. But “I challenge anybody to look at the rusting hulk of [a vast modern container vessel] and assign a gender to it”. Short breaks to long-haul destinations are booming, according to Thomas Cook. The travel firm says its three-night trips to cities such as Cape Town and San Francisco are becoming increasingly popular.…

Despite the ongoing Brexit uncertainty, only 55% of Britons think it would have been better never to have held the EU referendum. Opinium/The Observer Support for remaining in the EU is above 80% in most EU countries. Asked how they would vote in an in-out referendum, 94% of people in Luxembourg said “in”, as did 92% of people in Portugal, and 91% in Ireland and the Netherlands. In the UK, the poll found that 55% want to remain, making it the most Eurosceptic country; followed by the Czech Republic on 66%, and Italy (72%). Kantar/The Independent 63% of Britons say there is a climate emergency. 76% say they would vote differently to protect the planet. Opinium/The Guardian…

Chasing hurricanes At 49, Josh Mogerman has experienced nearly 50 hurricanes – by choice, says S.I. Rosenbaum in Outside. He’s a storm chaser, someone who seeks out hurricanes, often arriving just as everyone else is trying to get away. “It’s like a hunger for food or sex,” he explains. “It drives you.” He thinks his obsession dates back to seeing The Wizard of Oz when he was four. Growing up in Long Island in New York, he started bombarding the US National Hurricane Centre with questions. “People see me as this adrenaline junkie,” he says, “but I’m really a category 5 nerd.” Now he works in Los Angeles as a brand consultant, but he always has one eye on the global forecasts. As hurricane season approaches, he feels himself going…

Bollywood used to be studiedly unpolitical. But that‘s changed with the rise of Narendra Modi. Never before, says Anshul Chaturvedi in The Times of India, has there been “such a committed, unapologetic support group for a government or a party within the Hindi film industry”. It began with the large Bollywood turnout at Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in May 2014, and several big names have become defenders of government policies on TV news channels. Now there has been a slew of movies in which actors portray real politicians. In many of these Modi is depicted as India’s strong, patriotic champion. Uri: The Surgical Strike, which glorifies Modi’s military response to a 2016 terrorist attack, is the year’s highest-grossing film. In another fawning biopic entitled PM Narendra Modi, the actor Vivek Oberoi,…

The Pentagon could learn from Agincourt Bret Stephens The New York Times In the Battle of Agincourt, says Bret Stephens, the “humble and effective English longbow made short work of the expensive and vulnerable French cavalry”. Is America at risk of suffering the same sort of military humiliation? Christian Brose, the former staff director of the Senate armed services committee, believes so. The traditional model of US power – based on large, expensive and heavily manned systems – has, he says, become a dangerous anachronism. It no longer makes military or economic sense to invest in $13bn aircraft carriers and $89m fighter jets when the US is fighting technologically primitive enemies in the Middle East, and when its “relatively small number of ultra-sophisticated platforms are increasingly vulnerable to detection and…

Fewer wild salmon were caught in Scotland last year than in any of the previous 70 years, renewing fears that the species is in crisis. Only 37,196 salmon were caught in 2018, two-thirds of the average over the previous five years, and far fewer than the 111,405 caught in 2010. A major factor in the decline is thought to be last year’s unusually hot summer, which caused some rivers to dry up, and left many migrating salmon trapped in estuaries. Yet there is clearly a longer-term trend at work, and conservationists have warned that a range of factors are to blame, including pollution from farm waste, an increase in man-made obstructions in rivers and the spread of parasitic sea lice from salmon farms on Scotland’s west coast. Dr Alan Wells,…

The idea of a full state visit by President Trump has been controversial ever since Theresa May extended the invitation back in January 2017, said The Independent. So much so, in fact, that for a long time it looked as if it would never happen. A “diplomatic fudge” last year involved Trump popping over “for tea with the Queen and a slice of cake at Chequers, but without the pomp and ceremony that accompanies the complete state occasion”. Even that relatively low-key visit prompted big protests. But Trump is now “set to return for the full shebang, including a banquet at Buckingham Palace”. The three-day visit, at the start of June, will coincide with events commemorating the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. It’s a “clever piece of planning” that…

Kipchoge’s brilliance leaves Farah in the shade It was a week Mo Farah will want to forget, said Sean Ingle in The Guardian. It began with the most “extraordinary spat” with another long-distance legend, the Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie. Farah claimed he’d been robbed during a stay in a hotel near Addis Ababa owned by the Olympic gold medallist. A furious Gebrselassie responded with his own accusation of “disgraceful conduct” by Farah during his stay, and that he had failed to pay his $3,000 bill despite having been given a 50% discount. But this Sunday he received what he may well have felt to be an even more “painful beating” by another track legend. In the London Marathon, he “trudged home” in fifth place, four places behind Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya.…

Paying for social care To The Times Damian Green is to be applauded for being brave enough to raise the spectre of social care costs. However, I do not think he goes far enough. In my view, if you can afford to pay for your care in old age then you should. The average length of stay in a home towards the end of a person’s life is 18 months, according to some estimates, and given that the average house price in the UK is reported to be £230,000, most estates can afford to pay this and still leave an inheritance to the next generation. Where this analysis breaks down is in the case of dementia, where the length of stay can be significantly greater and the costs punitive. Here…

Denzil Forrester at Stephen Friedman Gallery It wasn’t easy being young and black in 1980s London. A toxic combination of heavy-handed policing, poverty and institutional racism created an environment in which the descendants of the Windrush generation faced appalling prejudice and few prospects. But it was also an environment that gave rise to first-rate music and poetry, cult cinema and some terrific visual art. In this survey exhibition, the Grenada-born artist Denzil Forrester (b.1956) vividly recreates the atmosphere of the period, evoking the heady fug of the dub sound systems, underground clubs, and the constant threat of unwarranted arrest in a series of paintings that make extensive use of odd perspectives and bright colours. The compositions meld the dynamism of cubism or Italian futurism with the explosive, anarchic verve of…

The Lower Loxley Easter event draws a big crowd. Tom and Natasha are there and being super-nice to each other. Russ is stung while dressed as the Easter bunny so Kenton asks Tom to fill in. Natasha tells Emma she finds Ambridge a bit intimidating. Talking to Shula, Kenton scoffs at Russ’s idea for a Brexart exhibition – his first as curator of the gallery. Tom’s unhappy Natasha’s going for lunch with Trev, her ex. She makes it clear she won’t be told who she can see. Alan persuades Shula to return to church. Natasha and Emma chat. Emma says she’s lucky with Ed; they think the same way about most things. Natasha’s surprised to learn that Susan hears some of what’s going on in the flat. Tony lets slip…

The Fishmarket 23A Pier Place, Newhaven, Edinburgh (0131-552 8262) Ondine, a superb fish restaurant near the top of the Royal Mile, is my favourite place to eat in Edinburgh, says Jay Rayner in The Observer. I love its perfect tempura squid; its “heaving hot shellfish platter”; its scallops with garlic butter and bacon jam. So I was excited to learn that its chef, Roy Brett, was opening this harbourside sister restaurant (and takeaway) in Newhaven. However, my trip to The Fishmarket was both “hugely enjoyable and utterly baffling”. The seafood cookery remains of the first order. There’s terrific tempura squid, familiar from Ondine (but £10 instead of £14). There are excellent crab claws, “thumping great” langoustines and a hearty smoked haddock chowder. There are fishcakes, mussels and a terrific…

New cars: what the critics say Autocar On the face of it, there’s nothing wrong with the new Sport version of the HR-V. The car’s performance has been given a significant boost; the 179bhp 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine makes it Honda’s fastest SUV. It remains a practical, comfortable car. But in this price bracket – it costs far more than most of its rivals, and thousands more than the basic HR-V – it’s simply “out of its depth”. The Daily Telegraph The Sport adds a few subtle changes to the exterior. Inside, though, the car has “come over all boudoir” – there’s red leather everywhere. It all feels very “racy”, but out of place in a small SUV. Its infotainment system remains “impenetrable and slow-witted”. On the plus side, it’s…

Deplar Farm Iceland This former 18th century sheep farm lies just over an hour’s drive from Akureyri on northern Iceland’s mountainous Troll Peninsula. It’s luxurious, but not “ostentatious”, says Alice Howarth in the London Evening Standard: it leans towards a rustic, “impeccably curated cosiness”. There’s art on the walls and a well-stocked, firelit library. The muted colour scheme and mid-century furniture throughout blend with “sumptuous textiles” to create a place that “feels lived-in and well-loved with no formalities”. The 13 suites are all different, with queen- and king-sized beds, “impressive” bathrooms and balconies to “take in epic views”. No corners have been cut in the spa, which has indoor and outdoor geothermal pools, a swim-up bar, a “Viking” sauna and flotation pods. Guides are on hand to arrange different…

Receding Brexit angst continued to fuel a rally in sterling, which rose to around $1.30 against the dollar. Some analysts, including UBS, expect the pound to hit $1.38 over the next year, mainly because of dollar weakness. Currency speculators have also turned positive on sterling: last week, the ratio of long and short positions turned marginally in favour of positive bets for the first time since June 2018. The rising oil price continued to cause disquiet – Oxford Economics predicted it could reach $100/barrel before 2020. Recession-hit Italy was said to have returned to growth in the first quarter. In the US, markets continued to notch up record highs, fuelling hopes of more bumper tech IPOs. Uber set a price-range of $44 to $50 per share for its forthcoming float,…

Leonie Schroder Should a billionaire heiress sit on the board of a £438bn fund manager because the firm was founded by her family? The question has prompted howls from “governance purists”, who would like to see Leonie Schroder stripped of the directorship she “inherited” at Schroders when her father, Bruno, died earlier this year, said Patrick Hosking in The Times. They claim, with some justification, that Schroder, 44, doesn’t have the requisite “sectoral expertise” – her only known job is as “a part-time trustee of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust”. But that shouldn’t rule her out. For one thing, she represents the wider family, which still owns 47.9% of the firm they founded in 1804. And as a City “outsider” she may bring valuable “perspective”. Who better to declare when…

Britons are reportedly saving “less than ever”, said Amelia Murray on ThisisMoney.com. Fortunately, there’s “a new breed of smartphone apps” to “help you build a savings habit without even trying”. The one caveat is that “you should avoid leaving cash languishing in these accounts” – they seldom “offer the best interest rates”. Tandem Rounds up spending to the nearest pound when you use your debit card, and moves the extra to a savings account paying 0.5% interest. A “safe to save” feature “calculates how much extra you can afford to put away each month”. Monzo The app-only bank’s savings tool, Coin Jar, works on a similar “rounding up” principle, but you can set “multiple pots for different goals” – including “a penalty pot”. You could, for instance, “agree to tax…

The week’s best shares Boku The Sunday Times Boku’s “direct carrier” billing service lets users make payments for goods and services via their mobile phones. Shares are up 80%, but it’s in a prime position to capitalise on a growing market. Buy. 120.5p. Hill & Smith The Times This galvanising specialist also makes road barriers, anti-terrorist bollards and industrial fencing. Business is “booming”. Well placed to benefit from UK and US infrastructure spending. Yields 3.1%. Buy. £12.95. Northbridge Industrial Services The Daily Telegraph Northbridge provides drilling equipment for oil and gas firms and electrical testing rigs. Sales are recovering and debt is coming down. There’s “significant potential” for shares to rise to 240p. Buy. 157.5p. President Energy The Mail on Sunday This cash-generative oil firm is upgrading its Argentinian wells…