Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1256 i The Week

What happened The London Bridge attack The issues of national security and criminal justice were thrust to the centre of the election campaign last week after an Islamist extremist, armed with knives, killed two people and injured three others in central London. Usman Khan, 28 – who was convicted in 2012 of terrorism offences, but released last year on licence after serving half his sentence – ran amok at a Cambridge University conference on prisoner rehabilitation. Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, who both worked for a programme linking university students and ex-prisoners, were killed. Khan, who was wearing a fake suicide vest, was eventually wrestled to the ground by members of the public on London Bridge and shot dead by police. The attack swiftly became a political football.…

West coast rail passengers, with the unveiling of a newly branded intercity service: Avanti West Coast. The name, according to the new operator First Trenitalia, “embodies progress and forward movement”. There is also a new logo: an orange triangle. Devised by a team of 100 creatives, it is said to symbolise how Avanti trains will bring together communities in England, north Wales and Scotland. Artistic solidarity, after the four artists nominated for this year’s Turner Prize asked if they could share it, to send a message of togetherness in troubled times. The judges accepted their request, and they will split the £40,000 prize pot between them. Harvey Proctor, the former Tory MP falsely accused of child murder by the fantasist Carl Beech, who won a £900,000 payout from the police…

A YouGov poll in The Times this week gave the Tories a slightly reduced lead of nine points. It put the Tories on 42%, Labour on 33%, the Lib Dems on 12%, and the Brexit Party and the Greens on 4% each. A BMG poll in The Independent gave the Tories a lead of only six points, with them on 39% and Labour up five points to 33%. The Lib Dems were on 13%, the Greens 5%, and the Brexit Party 4%. 53% of 18- to 24-year-olds in Russia have considered emigrating, the highest level for a decade. In 2014, during a wave of patriotic feeling after Russia annexed Crimea, just 14% of 15- to 29-year-olds wished to leave the country. Today, 21% of Russians have considered emigrating, including 30%…

How Hopkins found peace It took Anthony Hopkins a long time to find contentment. As a young man, he was angry, but after a long battle with booze, he settled down, and developed a reputation as one of Britain’s finest screen actors. “And everything in life seemed fine,” he told Mick Brown in The Daily Telegraph. “But I was restless. I went back to the theatre, and I wasn’t happy there – I wasn’t happy at all.” Then, out of the blue, in 1994, Oliver Stone asked him if he’d play Richard Nixon. Hopkins thought it was absurd – they needed an American actor – but he agreed to meet Stone for breakfast. “I was on my way across Hyde Park to the hotel and I stopped, I remember –…

Nicola Sturgeon (pictured) insisted there was “every chance” the SNP would hold the balance of power at Westminster, as she published her party’s manifesto. Scotland’s biggest party aims to “Escape Brexit”: it will back a second referendum or, if it is necessary to avoid a no-deal Brexit, the revocation of Article 50. The SNP will “demand” that the Westminster government gives Edinburgh the legal power to deliver another independence referendum at the time of its choosing. It also seeks devolution over a series of areas, including drug policy, employment law and immigration. Plaid Cymru is likewise set on a second EU referendum – even though Wales voted to Leave. Its manifesto, Ni yw Cymru, or Wales It’s Us, also calls for the pursuit of further devolution of justice, economic development…

Trump got his wall, after all Rachel Morris The Huffington Post In his almost three years as president, Donald Trump has erected precisely zero miles of wall along the southern border of the US, says Rachel Morris. He has, to be fair, reinforced or replaced 76 miles of existing fence, but he hasn’t created the 2,000-mile-long insuperable barrier that he promised – and he never will. But it doesn’t matter. He has found a far more effective means of keeping people out: red tape. Since coming to office, his administration has passed no new laws, but has introduced a series of subtle procedural changes that have cumulatively built what immigration lawyers call “the invisible wall”. Immigration forms have become longer and more complex; visa fees have gone up; rules have…

British supermarkets have increased their use of plastic this year, despite pledging to cut down on packaging – and one reason is that too many people are buying new “bags for life” each time they go to the supermarket, instead of reusing them. Some 1.5 billion of the bags were sold last year – 54 for every household, according to a report by Greenpeace and the Environmental Investigation Agency. The stronger bags use more plastic than single-use ones, and must be used at least four times to be better for the environment. The report suggests putting their price up to 70 pence. Overall, the report estimates that the ten biggest chains got through 900,000 tonnes of single-use plastic this year – 17,000 tonnes more than in 2018. Of the ten…

“Election campaigns are inevitably a time when media organisations and politicians clash,” said Roger Mosey in Prospect. But relations between the two have been particularly fractious during the current campaign. In a “deeply worrying” move last week, the Tories threatened to review Channel 4’s broadcasting licence in response to the channel’s decision to highlight Boris Johnson’s absence from its leaders’ debate on climate change by placing a melting ice sculpture in the place nominated for him. The BBC, meanwhile, got into aspat with the PM over his failure to submit to an interview with its feared inquisitor Andrew Neil, as other candidates had done. The corporation went so far as to suggest that Johnson would be disinvited from a weekend appearance on the gentler Andrew Marr Show unless he committed…

“If voters don’t welcome being told the gritty truth, they shouldn’t be surprised when politicians cover it with varnish.” Dominic Lawson in The Sunday Times “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” Upton Sinclair, quoted in The Observer “Among artists without talent, Marxism will always be popular, since it enables them to blame society for the fact that nobody wants to hear what they have to say.” Clive James, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” Author Eden Phillpotts, quoted in The Times “Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It’s the other lousy 2% that get all the…

The derby between Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints has long been “rugby’s fiercest”, said Michael Aylwin in The Observer. It has produced “crackling encounters of high drama”. But the latest instalment, in Northampton last Saturday, was one of the most one-sided matches of the season. The hosts scored five tries in their 36-13 victory, maintaining their lead at the top of the table. As recently as two years ago, this ground was “the most depressing place”. Now, under their new Kiwi coach, Chris Boyd, the Saints are playing “the rugby of the gods”. Their wingers, Taqele Naiyaravoro and Tom Collins, are wreaking havoc; at full-back, George Furbank “can do no wrong”. Saracens may be England’s best side but, having been deducted 35 points for breaching the salary cap, they have…

To The Times As a Jew of British birth and parentage, Ihave often encountered anti-Semitism in various guises. I have never met it in the Labour Party, though I have been an active member since 1952. Certainly there are anti-Semites in it, as in other parties. Jeremy Corbyn is not one of them. Labour Party rules prohibit all racism, but in recent years the disciplinary process has been inadequate. A report commissioned by the party itself, and now implemented, has addressed its weaknesses. It is a sad irony that Labour is now being investigated by its own creation, the Equality and Human Rights Commission. It is wrong, however, to anticipate a finding of guilt. That some British Jews are “gripped by anxiety” is understandable, but partisan media reports contain hearsay…

Knives Out Dir: Rian Johnson 2hrs 10mins (12A) A whodunit like they used to make ’em Anyone with fond memories of all-star Agatha Christie adaptations featuring Peter Ustinov hamming it up as Hercule Poirot will relish this “deliciously entertaining” throwback of a whodunit, said Mark Kermode in The Observer. Here the Poirot stand-in is Benoit Blanc, a “gentleman detective” played by Daniel Craig with an outrageous southern accent. Then there’s Christopher Plummer as the old moneybags who gets the chop early on in his Gothic New England pile. Toni Colette, Jamie Lee Curtis and Chris Evans are among his assorted avaricious relatives. The glittering cast of this “playful, conniving and rambunctious” murder mystery throw themselves into it, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times. Yet the “standout performance” comes from…

Ged Quinn at Stephen Friedman Gallery The Cornwall-based painter Ged Quinn (b.1963) is known for his grand, disquieting canvases that draw heavily on romantic literature and Old Master paintings. This show brings together a selection of new works inspired in part by a rarely-seen trove of Albrecht Dürer watercolours as well as diverse literary sources, from Wordsworth to Jung. The result is a series of often captivating, twilit landscapes, which abound with Brueghel-esque detail and art historical reference, while simultaneously hinting at the modern world. The paintings capture the wintry damp of agrarian northern Europe, bolstering scenes of waterlogged pastures and deserted forests with psychedelic washes of pink and turquoise and the odd, sometimes slightly sinister trace of human activity; an abandoned canoe, say, or a distant group of men…

Port isn’t just for Christmas, says Susy Atkins in The Daily Telegraph: a glass of chilled tawny in summer can be “a joy”. But the fortified wine comes into its own at this time of year, its “rich, spicy flavours” being the perfect match for mince pies, dried fruits, hard blue cheeses – or even a box of dark chocolates – on a dark night. A fresh, relatively simple red port, but “appealing with its plum and damson fruit and twist of black pepper” is Taylor’s Select Reserve Port Douro (£7; Co-op, until 2 January). “Perfect for a cheeseboard.” A good example of a Tawny is Finest 10 Year Old Tawny Port Douro (£12.50; Tesco): this one has hints of Seville orange, almonds and demerara sugar. Or try Feuerheerd’s Special…

At Glow Wild in Wakehurst, West Sussex, you’ll find the UK’s tallest living Christmas tree, as well as a lantern trail (until 22 December; adult £15, child £9, under-fours free; kew.org/wakehurst). In a beautiful ancient wood, Stockeld Park’s Winter Illuminations in North Yorkshire include animated installations and a captivating soundscape (until 6 January; from £8.50; stockeldpark.co.uk). Visitors can meet magical characters among the trees at Enchanted Christmas Westonbirt in Gloucestershire (until 22 December; adult £15, child £7.50, under-fives free; forestryengland.uk). Christmas at the Botanics in Edinburgh boasts an origami flotilla and a scented fire garden (until 29 December; adult £17, child £11, under-fours free; rbge.org.uk). Huge laser projections and a light waterfall can be seen at Christmas at Kew, London (until 5 January; adult £18, child £11, under-fours free; kew.org/christmas).…

Cheetah heaven in Tanzania A remote area of the eastern Serengeti, the Namiri Plains have an unrivalled reputation for big cat sightings. The lions and leopards here are thrilling enough – but more exciting still are the cheetahs, says Brian Jackman in The Daily Telegraph. These rare animals, the fastest on Earth, are vulnerable to predation by other big carnivores because they have a weak bite and claws that become blunt with running. On the Namiri Plains, however, they have thrived, thanks to careful conservation work. For 20 years, the area was closed to the public, but in 2014 a new lodge, Asilia Africa, opened. It’s a “stylish” and “unashamedly high-end” base from which to seek out the cats, but also to revel in the beauty of the “golden” grasslands…

Jonathan Miller 1934-2019 Jonathan Miller, who has died aged 85, was one of the great polymaths of the last century. A qualified doctor, he made his name as a satirist, before turning his attention to TV, theatre and opera. His intellectual curiosity was almost unlimited, but he was unlucky enough to have been born in a country where intellectuals are regarded with suspicion, said The Times. He was often a target for mockery (Private Eye skewered him as “Dr Jonathan”), and was thin-skinned enough to mind. “There is a tremendous feeling in England that if you think and enjoy thinking, you are arrogant, pretentious or befuddled by your own notions,” he noted. “Too clever by half, they say.” Born in 1934, Miller grew up in north London. His father was…

The pound broke through the psychologically important $1.30 barrier for the first time since October after a poll by Kantar put support for the Conservatives at 44%. The currency hit its highest level against the euro since May 2017. Stock markets recovered on Wednesday, following several torrid sessions caused by global trade fears. Australian equities fell steeply when President Trump suggested that he was in no rush to strike a deal with China – a major market for Aussie commodities. The UK manufacturing sector shrank for its seventh straight month in November, according to IHS Markit, causing bosses to cut jobs at the fastest pace in more than seven years. The London-listed fund manager M&G suspended trading in its £2.5bn Property Portfolio after facing “unusually high and sustained outflows” it…

The week’s best shares Asos The Daily Telegraph One of the original retail portals for style and clothes has grown to encompass 900 brands. Asos’s systems – “better than anything Amazon has” –are adept at gleaning information onproduct sales. Set for recovery. Buy. £31.43. Aviva The Times This “composite insurer” is a recovery play, with a newboss. Aviva’s component parts have “much to offer”, with strong cashflow to cover debt reduction. Shares yield 8% and are “extremely cheap”. Buy. 401.75p. Howden Joinery Group Investors Chronicle The trade-focused kitchen retailer has established a loyal base of repeat customers (mainly small builders) and is performing resiliently. Ramping up depot openings, with potential to expand in France. Buy. 620p. Pets at Home The Daily Telegraph The pet specialist is aiming to fend off…

Controversy of the week An unhappy birthday? The celebration of Nato’s 70th birthday “should have been a triumphal march”, said The Economist. Founded to counter the Soviet threat, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is arguably “the strongest alliance in history”, as its secretary general Jens Stoltenberg recently declared. It outlasted the Cold War and continues to bind Europe in a military union with the US and Canada, having brought in adozen countries that once were behind the Iron Curtain. Yet it has approached its anniversary year “with all the caution of an army entering hostile territory”. Its leaders met at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, and then at a hotel in Watford for a three-hour summit the following day, amid genuine fears about the alliance’s future. Ever since Donald Trump was…

Manly chests, with news that Vladimir Putin has kept his under wraps this year. In previous years, the president’s annual calendar has presented him as abare-chested strongman. But the 2020 calendar focuses on Putin as a sober and suited international statesman, glad-handing world leaders. And Russians seem to like it: the calendar is reported to have already sold out online. Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, who was said to be in danger of losing his seat. Last week, apoll in Raab’s Esher and Walton constituency only gave him a five-point lead over the Lib Dems, though he secured a massive 23,298 majority in 2017.…

Berlin Left-wingers’ shock win: Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) have plunged the country into political uncertainty by electing two new leftist leaders, who are opposed to the party’s coalition partnership with Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU. In a surprise result that could lead to the collapse of the government, the left-wing candidates, Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken, narrowly defeated the centrist Olaf Scholz, who is Merkel’s finance minister. The SPD, which has seen its support fall sharply in recent years, will hold a congress later this week to debate its next move. On Wednesday, the new leaders, who are facing a split in their party, appeared to be pulling back from their demand to end the coalition, and have engaged Scholz in talks about the party’s role inthe coalition. They are…

This week’s edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs featured the director Asif Kapadia 1 Tears Dry On Their Own by Amy Winehouse, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, performed by Amy Winehouse 2 Good Times by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, performed by Chic 3 Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Mein (from Kabhi Kabhi) written by Khayyam and Sahir Ludhianvi, performed by Lata Mangeshkar and Mukesh 4 Rebel Without aPause, written and performed by Public Enemy 5 No Good (Start The Dance) by Liam Howlett, performed by The Prodigy 6* Man with aHarmonica (from Once Upon a Time in the West), performed by Orchestra Ennio Morricone 7 A Morte (from Senna), written and performed by Antonio Pinto 8 Just, written and performed by Radiohead Book: The Autobiography of Malcolm X,written with…

Brexit: in, out, or shake it all about? Brexit is the defining issue of this election. Boris Johnson plans, as you may have heard, to “Get Brexit Done”. The Tories have pledged to leave the EU with their “oven-ready” deal by 31 January, and not to extend the post-Brexit transition period past December 2020. This gives them less than a year to complete a free trade deal. If they don’t manage it by then, in theory, a no-deal exit will result. Labour’s policy is more ambiguous: Jeremy Corbyn would rip up Johnson’s deal, and negotiate a new Brexit deal in a mere three months, based on a new UK-EU customs union and close single market alignment. That deal would then be put to voters in a new referendum, pitting the…

It’s the Tories who are waging class warfare Frances Ryan The Guardian Funny how, for some people, “class war” can only ever be waged in one direction, says Frances Ryan. The right-wing press is full of warnings about the terrifying threat Jeremy Corbyn poses to the middle classes. Yet where were the cries of “class war” when “universal credit claimants were left to live on £6 a day”? If any section of society is under siege today, it certainly isn’t the comfortably off; it’s those at the bottom of the heap. Since 2010, reforms to taxes and benefits have stripped the poorest families with children of a fifth of their income. We live in asociety where the poorest households pay a greater proportion of their income in taxes than the…

Call for earlier inductions Inducing pregnancies at 41 weeks – instead of 42 – could lead to areduction in the number of women who experience a stillbirth, a new study has found. A team at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden recruited 2,760 pregnant women who had no known complications, and randomly assigned them to have inductions at 41 or 42 weeks, if they hadn’t gone into labour by then. In the event, 33were induced at 41 weeks, and 31 at 42 –but the trial was halted midway through after six babies in the 42-week group died: five were stillborn, and one died soon after birth. There were no deaths in the other group. Reporting their findings in the British Medical Journal, the researchers conclude that the risk of stillbirth…

Jonathan Miller (see page 46) needed all his diplomatic skills when he directed Laurence Olivier (pictured) as Shylock in a National Theatre production of The Merchant of Venice. Olivier – who was also head of the National – arrived at the first read-through word-perfect, but carrying a bag of prosthetics that included a hooked nose, a wig with Orthodox sidelocks, and a set of jutting false teeth, apparently inspired by a Jewish member of the theatre’s board. Miller was appalled, and told him they were not acceptable. Olivier took the point: “In this play, dear boy, we must at all costs avoid offending the Hebrews. God, I love them so!” he said. But he wasn’t willing to forgo all of his props. After some negotiation, the actor was allowed to…

“Whether Conservatives can be trusted with the NHS is an old question at election time,” said The Guardian. “Whether Boris Johnson can be trusted on anything is an issue for the current campaign.” Together, the two questions make “a dangerous combination” for the Tory leader. For weeks, he has been asking the country to believe that he would protect the NHS in a post-Brexit trade deal with the US. But last week, Jeremy Corbyn claimed to have found proof that the NHS is, as he has often claimed, “up for sale” to the Americans. He called a press conference, and brandished leaked minutes from US-UK trade talks which included discussions about access to British markets for US drug companies. “It is no secret that the US resents the leverage available…

Last week, Arsenal finally decided to put Unai Emery out of his misery, said David Hytner in The Guardian. They announced that they had sacked their Spanish manager. For weeks, he had looked “every inch the condemned man”. The club had won just one game in their last nine matches, and many of the players who wanted him out made little effort to hide their feelings on the training ground. Having been appointed Arsène Wenger’s successor last year, Emery lasted just 18 months in the job. He has been replaced, for now, by his assistant, Freddie Ljungberg, who spent almost a decade at the club as a midfielder. Emery’s Arsenal career “started promisingly enough”, said the author and Arsenal fan Nick Hornby in The Sunday Times. He bought “the kind…

Rugby union In the Premiership, Exeter beat Wasps 38-3. Harlequins beat Gloucester 23-19. Formula One Having already won the world championship title, Lewis Hamilton finished the season with a victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Football Watford manager Quique Sánchez Flores was sacked. Manchester City’s 2-2 draw with Newcastle left the champions 11 points behind Liverpool. Manchester United drew 2-2 with Aston Villa. Cricket David Warner scored 335 in Australia’s Test victory over Pakistan.…

It’s very rare for a black British film to be funded by a major Hollywood studio like Paramount, said Amon Warmann on NME.com. So it was quite an event when Blue Story – which is also backed by BBC Films – came out in the UK on 22 November. The critically lauded drama, about two friends caught up in gang warfare in Peckham, grossed £1.3m in its first weekend. Then, without warning, the cinema chains Vue and Showcase banned the film from their screens. Vue insisted there had been “significant” violent incidents at 16 of its cinemas where it was being shown. The worst, and the one that triggered the ban, occurred at Birmingham’s Star City multiplex: it ended with five teenagers arrested and seven police officers in hospital. It…

A bronze cockerel looted from Nigeria by British colonial forces is to be returned by Jesus College, Cambridge, says Lanre Bakare in The Guardian – “an unprecedented step that adds momentum to the growing repatriations movement”. The cockerel, known as the Okukor, was taken from the Kingdom of Benin in what is now southern Nigeria by a British punitive expedition in 1897, along with thousands of other bronzes. It was bequeathed by a member of the expedition to the college in 1905, and sat for decades in the dining hall; it has been in storage since 2016, when students passed a motion calling for its return. Sonita Alleyne, master of the college, said that consultation had “led us to believe that this royal ancestral heirloom belongs with the current Oba…

Jill stops Leonard from proposing: she loves him but doesn’t want to marry; both are relieved. Johnny apologises to Lily about his outburst. Later, at Bridge Farm, Bella tells Johnny they’re over. He gets angry when he discovers that Bella kissed Josh. Later, at The Bull, Freddie pushes Johnny to talk. Ruth and David tell Pip they want to lease Oakey Bank for rewilding. Helen and Lee have an awkward, unexpected meeting on a Christmas shopping outing. Phoebe makes the pitch to the BL Board – Martyn Gibson isn’t impressed and Justin asks tricky questions. Tracy and Lynda plan a Greek-themed leaving do for Dimitrios. Jim is annoyed when Elizabeth reveals that Russ will direct Ghost Stories. After clashes in rehearsals, it’s agreed that Russ will only design the sets.…

Hummus holiday bowl I like to serve a really big bowlful of hummus topped with seasonal vegetables, says Karoline Jönsson Makes about 1kg 4 medium raw beetroot, scrubbed and cut into wedges 1 garlic clove, skin on and cut in half 100ml olive oil, plus extra for drizzling 4 x 400g cans of cooked chickpeas, drained juice of 1 lemon 1 tsp sesame oil 1-2 tsp dried thyme salt and black pepper for the topping: olives chioggia beetroot thyme rosemary unhulled white and black sesame seeds • Preheat oven to 220°C. Place the beetroot in an ovenproof dish with the garlic, drizzle a little olive oil over and roast for 30 minutes or until the beetroot have softened. Leave to cool slightly, then squeeze the garlic out of its skin.…

Fabienne Chapot lobster oven glove Made from 100% cotton, this oven glove would make a whimsical addition to any kitchen. The same lobster design is available on tea towels, cushions and crockery (£9; amara.com). Canopy self-watering planter This clever self-watering planter, developed in partnership with the Eden Project, is handmade from completely recycled glass (£36; lsa-international.com). toCHARGE MINI This power bank is only 8.5cm by 4.5cm in size, so it’s easy to carry around wherever you go. It works with smartphones, tablets and other similar devices (£24; kreafunk.com). Body Glove Balance Board and Roller Great for balance, and core and leg strength, this balance board can be incorporated into lots of home workouts (£100; atbshop.co.uk). Master & Dynamic MW50+ Wireless Headphones These classic leather headphones use a Bluetooth connection to…

Buzzing Austrian ski resort Located near Lake Zell, the serene Hotel Tirolerhof offers a 4-night stay from £811pp half-board, including Birmingham flights. 020-8610 3123, crystalski.co.uk. Depart 26 January. Bulgaria beach getaway Facing Golden Sands’ super-long shoreline, seven nights at The Grifid Encanto Beach hotel costs from £564pp all-inclusive, including flights. 020-3451 2720, firstchoice.co. uk. Depart 11 May. Seven-nights in Tunisia An all-inclusive stay at the Steigenberger Marhaba Thalasso Hammamet for two costs from £510pp, including Manchester flights. 020-3636 1931, tui.co.uk. Depart 14 February. Five-star Montreal hotel Spend five nights at the newly refurbished Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth hotel. From £932pp room-only, including Edinburgh flights. 0344-493 0122, britishairways.com. Depart 12 February.…

Eon/Npower: pulling the plug Employees at the energy company Npower “had been bracing for bad news”, but even so, last week’s announcement came as a shock, said Emily Gosden in The Times. Some 4,500 jobs – nearly all those in the household supply business, plus most corporate functions – are likely to go within the next two years as the firm is absorbed into its parent company, Eon. The move is “another big step” in the restructuring of the British energy market, as dozens of new entrants, “from start-ups run out of spare bedrooms to oil majors such as Shell”, woo customers with cheap deals, chipping away at formerly dominant Big Six suppliers like Npower. Its German owner, energy giant Eon, lost no time wielding the axe at its…

Green shoots on London’s pavements Oliver Shah The Sunday Times The general thinking is that house prices in London will go on heading down, says Oliver Shah. Yet there are tentative signs that “London’s depressed property market has bottomed out” and is set for recovery. That, at least, is the view of Tony Pidgley – the founder of the Berkeley Group and a veteran housebuilder known for “his astute reading of the capital’s cycles”, Pidgley has kept Berkeley’s share price moving up through the downturn by switching focus from prime London to the suburbs and Birmingham, but now he reckons that London (average house price £471,500) is “cheap compared with other global cities”, and that super-low interest rates will keep mortgages flowing. And a jump in the number of buyers…

Amazon is planning to alter the robotic voice of its Alexa devices so they can express some emotions. In future, the firm says Alexa in the US could sound “happy/ excited” when congratulating users for answering a trivia question correctly, but “disappointed/empathetic” if it has to inform them that their favourite sports team has lost a game. Users can hear the new voices online, but they’re only available to developers for now. After 18 years policing the nation’s punctuation, the society dedicated to ensuring proper use of the apostrophe has conceded defeat to “barbarians” and has closed down. John Richards, 96, who founded the Apostrophe Protection Society, said he’d tried his best but that “ignorance and laziness” had won.…

David Duckenfield, the former South Yorkshire police chief superintendent, has been found not guilty of the gross negligence manslaughter of 96 Liverpool fans at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough. The verdict was delivered at Preston Crown Court last week, ending a retrial that began on 7 October; the first trial on the same charge ended in April with the jury unable to reach a verdict. The ruling was met with anger by the families of the victims, who say that as an inquest into the tragedy in 2016 found the victims were “unlawfully killed”, someone had to be responsible. The original 1991 coroner’s verdict of accidental death was quashed in 2012, after years of campaigning.…

Washington DC Impeachment report: President Trump abused his power for personal and political gain; he placed his own interests “above the national interest” and undermined national security, according to the Democrat impeachment report released this week. Evidence of misconduct is “overwhelming”, it says. The 300-page report, which was approved by the House Intelligence Committee by 13 to nine ina vote that went along party lines, will now to go the House Judiciary Committee, which will consider impeachment charges. In a 123-page rebuttal, issued before the report was released, Republicans accused the Democrats of trying to “undo the will of the people”, and said that they had found nothing to justify an impeachment. “None of the Democrats’ witnesses testified tohaving evidence of bribery, extortion, or any high crimes or misdemeanours,” they…

“There is one life skill I don’t believe young people are taught these days, and that is the fine art of work experience. I first wandered into the BBC in 1992 and resolved to make myself as useful as possible. If that meant making tea, so be it. I stayed there for 15 years, so I must have done something right. I made an awful lot of tea. I have come across hundreds of work experience people since then. Almost none of them have asked if they could make me some tea. Often Iend up making tea for them. As an intern you are not going to get near the big stuff. But make enough tea and, trust me, the recipients will be grateful, speak highly of you and miss…

The Lib Dems are the first mainstream British party to advocate the legalisation of cannabis. Party leader Jo Swinson said it would reduce crime and that a regulated market for adults would raise £1.5bn in tax. The Green Party is promising to introduce a universal basic income of £89 per week for every adult by 2025. Labour wants to reduce the voting age to 16, and to launch an official government inquiry into “fake news”. The Conservatives have seen fit to declare their backing for a UK-Ireland bid for the 2030 FIFA World Cup. Both the Tories and Labour have pledged to repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act of 2011, which mandates five-year electoral terms. So we are very unlikely to be condemned to December elections in perpetuity.…

Electronic underpants that are designed to encourage young people to spend less time on their phones, and more time in bed together, have proved a hit in Germany. Sold in his-and-hers pairs, each is fitted with a microchip that sends a signal to the partner’s phone if they come within five metres. The owners are then sent an alert, advising them to put their phone in “love mode” so it blocks incoming calls and plays mood music. Originally designed as a joke, the first batch of Connected Underwear sold out within weeks. “Mobile devices are frequently cited as getting in the way of true intimacy,” says a spokesman for Deutsche Telekom. “We want to bolster young couples’ ability to combat this digital alienation.” A farmer in the Indian state of…

SLOVAKIA Bringing the communist killers to court Pravda (Bratislava) More than 300 people were killed trying to leave Czechoslovakia for the West between 1948 and 1989. Now, at last, some of those responsible are being held to account, says Marián Repa. Miloš Jakeš, 97, the secretary general of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, and two other officials, are being tried for abuse of power over the killing of nine people who died at the border between 1976 and 1989. It’s a disgrace we’ve done nothing until now. The Germans put the ousted East German leader Erich Honecker on trial in 1992, just three years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, for having ordered guards to shoot those attempting to escape to the West. Some argue that we should let these…

Everyone knows how to work out how old a dog is in human terms: simply multiply its age by seven. But while this crude formula is based on a logical-seeming premise (the fact that the human lifespan is about seven times longer than that of a dog), researchers have pointed out that the method fails to reflect the different rates at which the two species age, as reflected by changes in their DNA – using the so-called “epigenetic clock” test. The team at the University of California, San Diego compared the DNA of labradors and humans, and found that in their early years, dogs age far more rapidly than humans. An eight-week-old puppy is equivalent, in terms of biological ageing, to a nine-month-old human baby, but by the age of…

On 16 October 2017, Daphne Caruana Galizia – an investigative journalist with a fearsome reputation for uncovering corruption in Malta – drove away from her home in a rental car. Moments later, a massive bomb detonated under the driver’s seat. Her son Matthew, also a journalist, ran outside to find his mother’s body strewn across the road. There are many parts of the world where press freedom is not a given, and journalists risk being murdered or imprisoned, said Jon Allsop in the Columbia Journalism Review. The killing of Caruana Galizia stood out because it happened not in a repressive regime, but in an EU member state. Although three suspects were arrested soon after, they were presumed to be only paid assassins. Rumours about who might have ordered the killing…

She was once a“rising star” of the Metropolitan Police, tipped to become the “first black head of Scotland Yard”, said Chris Dyer in the Daily Mail. But now the career of Novlett Robyn Williams lies in ruins following her conviction at the Old Bailey; she may lose her job altogether. The 54-year-old acting chief superintendent was sentenced last week to 200 hours of community service after being found guilty of possessing indecent images of a five-year-old girl. The court heard that Williams had been sent a “disturbing and disgusting” 54-second video by her sister (and co-defendant) Jennifer Hodge via WhatsApp; the prosecution argued that rather than reporting the matter, as the law requires, she chose instead to keep quiet through fear it would implicate her sister. After ten hours of…

“Joe Root punched the air, removed his helmet and kissed his badge,” said Lawrence Booth in the Daily Mail. The England captain’s 17th Test century, in the second Test against New Zealand, had been “a long time coming” – eight months, to be precise. And hedidn’t stop there. At 191 runs, he passed his highest Test score as captain; at 201, he overhauled the Test record innings at Seddon Park. And by the time he was bowled out, after ten hours at the crease, Root had scored 226 runs, the fifth-highest score by an England captain in Test history. It might not have been enough to give England victory – the match ended in a draw, giving New Zealand a 1-0 lead in the series – but it was enough…

Talking heads To The Daily Telegraph I read with interest Eleanor Steafel’s account of time spent with The Silver Line helpline. After I retired as chair of the Scottish Association for Mental Health, I established a forum to discuss how loneliness and isolation among older people could be addressed. Not long ago, a woman sat down opposite me on a train and I began a conversation by asking: “How’s your day?” After we got off the train a few minutes later, we sat on the platform bench. An hour and a half later, her uncle came and drove her off to Linlithgow. A year later, I was in the station and the same woman came up to me, gave me a hug, said: “Thank you” and walked off. We don’t…

Dora Maar (1907-97) has been largely relegated to afootnote in art history, said Rosemary Waugh in Time Out. She isremembered, dismissively, as asecond-tier surrealist photographer, but primarily she is thought of as Pablo Picasso’s lover. For nearly a decade from 1936, Maar was involved in a turbulent relationship with the Spanish master, who painted her many times before unceremoniously abandoning her. Consequently, she has been regarded more as a muse than an artist in her own right – a demeaning status that this “fascinating” exhibition sets out to correct. The show demonstrates that, far from being a minor talent, Maar was a restlessly creative force who experimented in all kinds of formats from her early 20s until her death. Bringing together dozens of portrait photographs, “uncanny” photomontages, paintings and candid…

The Two Mrs Grenvilles by Dominick Dunne, 1985 (Ballantine $17.99). I savour every paragraph, every word of this brilliant social novel. Navy ensign Billy Grenville, heir to a vast New York fortune, spots a showgirl on the dance floor and it islove at first sight, much to the horror of the family matriarch. They marry, but it all ends very, very badly. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope, 1875 (Wordsworth £2.50). The story of Augustus Melmotte, mysterious financier and swindler, who mesmerises society with his wealth, is a familiar one. I can think of at least four contemporary Melmottes on both sides of the Atlantic. The story is so believable, so subtle, that it should be taught in every school, as a warning about immoral billionaires with vast…

Programmes James Galway at the BBC Musical tribute to “The Man with the Golden Flute” to mark his 80th birthday. Sun 8 Dec BBC4 20:00 (60mins). Elizabeth is Missing Glenda Jackson plays Maud, a woman with dementia attempting to solve the mystery of her missing best friend. Sun 8 Dec, BBC1 21:00 (90mins). The Case of Sally Challen Documentary about Sally Challen, the woman convicted of her husband’s murder in 2011, who appealed on the grounds that she had been the victim of the new crime of “coercive control”. Mon 9 Dec, BBC2 21:00 (90mins). Christmas at Chatsworth House Behind the scenes at one of England’s grandest stately homes, as Christmas preparations get under way and family and staff struggle with to cope with flooding. Thur 12 Dec, C4 21:00…

The Sea, The Sea 174 Pavilion Road, London SW1 (020-7824 8090) This new Chelsea seafood bar has in its window dead fish “ageing in aglass case like prime joints of meat”, says Tim Hayward in the FT. For the “unwary”, they serve as a warning: this is “anything but an average fish restaurant”. Executive chef Leandro Carreira used to be at the much-praised Londrino, which I always found rather “lacking in soul”. This more relaxed set-up seems to have liberated him, and his cooking here is a “tremendously exciting” take on raw and aged fish in all its forms. Monkfish liver parfait served on brioche toast is “extra rich” and “profoundly satisfying”. Flanks of blowtorch-seared sardine “smack of the ocean”: they’re “some of the best I’ve eaten”. But best…

● While some houseplants can cope with shady conditions (aspidistra, maranta, calathea, peace lily, boston fern), most do best in good light, but not direct sunlight. ● Most plants will struggle with big nightly drops in temperature, so don’t put them near radiators, or single-glazed windows. ● Over-watering is a common houseplant killer, and if the edges of leaves start to go brown, people assume the plant is too dry, when often it’s the opposite. Don’t let plants sit in a tray of water, and check the soil’s surface is dry to touch before watering. ● In winter, you can reduce watering. ● Tropical plants do best in humid conditions, so try to spray them with a mister daily. You can also place them on a tray of damp gravel…

Stock Exchange Hotel Manchester Owned by footballers Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, this 40-room hotel opened last month in Manchester’s former stock exchange. The results of their £20m conversion are impressive, says Susan d’Arcy in The Sunday Times – which is just as well, given that suites run to a “Wag-tastic” £4,000 a night. The 1906 building is “pure Grade II listed grandeur”: rooms are sleek but “restful”, and the grand, “airy” restaurant serves “fuss-free” food from the Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge. But the classy vibe is undermined by the presence of eight giant TVs tuned to sports channels, and the hotel would benefit from a gym and spa. Doubles from £200, stockexchangehotel.co.uk…

Clive James 1939-2019 During the Second World War, Clive James’s father survived forced labour in a Japanese PoW camp, only to die in a plane crash on his way home, said The Guardian. James, who was six years old at the time, would describe this as the “defining event” of his life. He went on to become a renowned essayist, poet, broadcaster and memoirist, producing countless books and hosting “umpteen” TV shows, in a “fever of busyness” designed to compensate not only for the death of his father, but also the devastating impact it had onhis mother. “I am trying to lead the life they might have had,” he said in 2009. “It’s a chance to pay them back for my life. I don’t like luck; I’ve had alot of…

Ted Baker is at the centre of another scandal – this time of the accounting variety, said Cat Rutter Pooley in the FT. The fashion retailer has discovered that the value of inventory held on its balance sheet has been overstated by as much as £25m. It has appointed law firm Freshfields to investigate what may turn out to be a storm in a teacup; but investors, already spooked by “multiple profit warnings” this year, not to mention the departure of founder Ray Kelvin over a “forced hugging” scandal, sent shares tumbling by 10%. “Few things terrify investors in an under-performing company quite like the arrival of a new finance chief,” said Alistair Osborne in The Times. The panic comes just three weeks after Rachel Osborne arrived at the emporium…

Mark Carney News that the Bank of England governor will be the UN’s special envoy on climate action is a reminder that, due to Brexit stalemate and the general election, “we still don’t know who will be in charge” of the Old Lady after 31 January, says Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail. “The notion that it is good practice for market confidence to get the next governor in place early has gone by the board.” The short time window “means that the Government“, whoever that is, “needs an oven-ready candidate” (to borrow a term from Boris Johnson). If that’s Labour, “the proposed shift in the size of the state will make it imperative that the choice is someone who can command the confidence of traders and strategists”. Carney’s new…

The Man Who Solved The Market by Gregory Zuckerman (Portfolio Penguin Random House £20). Jim Simons is a far less famous investor than George Soros or Warren Buffett, but no less successful, says The Economist. This is a vivid account of how Simons, after a stellar career in mathematics and code-breaking, went on to found Renaissance and spark a “quant” revolution that changed the financial landscape. Legacy: One Family, a Cup of Tea and the Company that Took on the World by Thomas Harding (William Heinemann £25). The J. Lyons catering and food empire was once ubiquitous in the UK, says the FT, and this is the tale of the close-knit families “who nurtured the business, colourfully told by one of their descendants”. Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber by…