Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1300 i The Week

What happened Johnson’s fightback Boris Johnson laid out his vision of post-Covid Britain this week in his speech to the virtual Conservative conference. He said his plan was not to return the country to the status quo ante, but to transform it by boosting house-building, improving education, reforming social care and turning the UK into a “world leader” in green energy. Offshore wind farms, he declared, would generate enough electricity to power every home by 2030. Hitting back at critics who’ve claimed he has yet to fully recover from Covid-19, the PM said suggestions he had lost his “mojo” were “self-evident drivel”. A pre-conference poll of party members by the Conservative Home website suggested that Johnson’s ratings have plunged, and that the party grass roots have a much more positive…

The Great British Bake Off, after the launch of its new series attracted 11 million viewers, making it Channel 4’s most watched show for 35 years. Several broadcasters have observed a trend for “comfort viewing” in the pandemic: over on Channel 5, a new version of All Creatures Great and Small has also been a hit. Mr Bean, with news that Rowan Atkinson’s bumbling alter ego has quietly become one of the most lucrative brands on social media. Mr Bean’s Facebook account has 99 million followers (more than Rihanna’s); and repackaged clips from the TV series (made in the early 1990s) attract millions of views on TikTok. The licence fee, after Charles Moore ruled himself out of consideration for the role of BBC chairman. The journalist – a fierce opponent…

46% of Britons think it was wrong for the Government to reopen pubs when it did, 41% think it was right, and 13% don’t know. 45% also think it was wrong to allow students to return to universities; 40% think it was right. However, 47% think the Government was right to encourage people to return to work, compared with 41% who do not. 60% think it was right to allow two households to meet inside and 65% to allow schools to reopen. YouGov 47% of Tory party members believe that Islam is “generally a threat to the British way of life”. Only 43% say they have “broadly positive” feelings towards Muslims, whereas 73% feel positive towards Hindus and 75% towards Sikhs. YouGov/The Times…

“I felt pretty decrepit reading the list of ‘Jilly Cooper’ words that people under 30 claim never to have heard, such as randy, sozzled, cad and bonk. But I fear it’s the tip of the iceberg. Now that fewer young people buy red-top, or indeed any, newspapers, an entire raft of uniquely British words and phrases will wither and die. Because no one in real life ever says that a copulating couple ‘frolicked’ or ‘romped’. No one ‘quips’ or ‘quaffs’. No one has ‘nookie’ from which they produce a ‘tot’. They aren’t taken to hospital in a ‘mercy dash’, nor ‘bedded’ by a ‘love rat’. I weep for the coy, tabloid kiss-and-tell euphemism.” Carol Midgley in The Times…

Too many of our kids have life sentences Camilla Cavendish Financial Times In education, they do things differently in Germany, says Camilla Cavendish. Here, we split children into a fast academic lane and a slow “vocational” one, and only the fast lane to university counts for much. Germany has much more of “a dual carriageway”: school leavers who go to technical college “emerge with similar salaries and status” to those going to uni. The result is that a mere 10% of UK adults hold a higher technical qualification as their highest degree; in Germany it’s 20%. Given the skills shortage in Britain in areas like construction, health and IT, this government’s promise of a “lifetime skills guarantee” – offering free further education courses to adults without A levels or the…

Freak rain in the First World War The atrocious conditions endured by soldiers in the trenches of the First World War were the result of freak weather – and these once-in-a-century conditions may also have exacerbated the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, a study has found. By analysing glacial ice extracted from the Swiss-Italian Alps, scientists were able to get a close look at climate patterns across Europe from 1914 to 1919. They found that the period coincided with changes in atmospheric circulation which led to much colder, much wetter weather, from Flanders to Gallipoli. The rain fell most heavily in the winters of 1915, 1916 and 1918 – when mortality rates were at their peak. As well as creating misery for soldiers, who fell victim to exposure and pneumonia –…

“Here we go again,” said Ian Birrell in the I newspaper. “The Tories are sliding in the polls. Labour is starting to look fit for office under a sensible leader.” Even the right-wing papers have turned on the Government. So what does it do? It casts about for a scapegoat to “divert the public gaze” from its own failings – and, “with sickening inevitability”, settles on asylum seekers. Last week, we learnt that in a “blue sky” session, Home Office policymakers had come up with a host of outlandish schemes to deal with persecuted and dispossessed people who make it to these shores, and deter others from trying. These schemes ranged from housing refugees in disused passenger ferries while their cases are processed, to despatching them to isolated remnants of…

There is an accepted way of “doing” bad news on social media, said Camilla Long in The Sunday Times. It involves “broken-heart emojis, wistful expressions, sad-face black-and-white pictures, perhaps a prayer”. Nothing, after all, gets a reaction online like a “soul-scouring calamity”. Even so, I don’t think I’ll ever quite recover from the “harrowing” close-up shots that the US model Chrissy Teigen posted on Instagram last week, in which she and her husband, the musician John Legend, are shown in the aftermath of losing their third child. Posted very soon after she had suffered a miscarriage at 22 weeks, they show Teigen “clasping her dead baby”, semi-naked and weeping. Really, I thought, “I know celebs are weird, but who live-tweets their own miscarriage”? Their raw grief had soon been “liked”…

In an average Premier League season, it would be pretty “astonishing” if there were two results that sent “shock waves around the world”, said Chris Bascombe in The Daily Telegraph. The current season, however, is proving anything but average – and last Sunday, two matches took place within hours of each other which confirmed that the English game is “currently the biggest footballing freak-show on the planet”. First came Man United’s “farcical” 6-1 home defeat to Tottenham, said Jamie Jackson in The Guardian – a loss that will seriously worry United fans and cast doubt on the future of manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær. Having led after two minutes thanks to a Bruno Fernandes penalty, United simply put on a “horror show”. Within seven minutes, Spurs were already two ahead –…

Since Émile Cohl produced Fantasmagorie in 1908 – generally considered to be the first animated cartoon – France has developed a proud tradition in the genre. Here are five French animated films of more recent decades, all available to stream online: Fantastic Planet (PG) A cult favourite from 1973, this surreal sci-fi fantasy tells of a distant planet where humans are the playthings of giant blue aliens. Echoing artists from Bosch to Redon and Dalí, its visual style is remarkable, as is its psychedelic jazz score. Belleville Rendez-Vous (12) Set in a Jazz Age urban fantasy world, this weird and energetic 2003 comedy is about a woman whose cyclist grandson has been abducted by the Mafia. She sets out to find him with the help of the Triplets – three…

Artemisia Gentileschi lived in an era when it was practically impossible for women to succeed as artists, said Rachel Campbell-Johnston in The Times. Nevertheless, she defied all prejudices to establish herself as one of the most gifted painters of her time. Born in Rome in 1593, she was trained by her father Orazio, himself a renowned artist, and developed a particular talent for self-portraits and dramatic biblical scenes. She became famous and attracted commissions from some of Europe’s most powerful figures, including both the Medici in Florence and Charles I in London. Following her death around 1654, however, Artemisia’s reputation faded into obscurity, her name reduced to a “footnote”. It is only in recent decades that scholars have begun to reappraise her achievements, a process that has culminated in this…

New cars: what the critics say The Daily Telegraph The Renault Megane has always struggled to compete with the likes of the VW Golf and the Ford Focus. “But that might all be about to change.” The new plug-in hybrid version is smooth to drive and has a “slick” power train. It comes with a five-year warranty, and despite poor predicted resale values, it is likely to appeal in particular to company car buyers who want to save on fuel costs. Top Gear Renault engineers have paired two electric motors with a 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine. The intricate system makes for smooth gear changes with no clutch – the lack of which the maker says will make this the cheapest full-hybrid system on the market. It also makes for less…

Wall Street traders were kept on their toes by a series of shock developments in the White House: from President Trump’s CV-19 diagnosis, to his mixed messages over the new $1trn US stimulus bill. The Cboe’s Vix index – which measures expected volatility and is known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge” – hit an elevated reading of 29, well above its long-run average. In his speech to the Conservative Party’s virtual conference, Boris Johnson promised to help private enterprise build “a new Jerusalem” after the crisis. But Chancellor Rishi Sunak warned of hard choices, saying the Government had “a sacred duty” to future generations to get borrowing under control. Economists warned that consumer confidence had taken a major hit on the back of regional restrictions. The Government launched a £40m…

● Wine times “For investors struggling to find a good source of returns in a world of ultra-low interest rates”, fine wine is shaping up to be a “compelling asset haven”, said Lex in the FT. “Although it carries no yield”, it offers good potential for capital growth. The industry’s Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 index – which tracks the prices of sought-after wines such as 2005 Lafite and 2000 Latour – has “barely budged of late”, rising just 1.2% for the year to the end of August, as Covid-19, US tariffs and unrest in Hong Kong “put a cork on gains”. But trends are looking up. Home consumption has soared during lockdown, and “as the rich get richer, thanks to the stock market recovery, the top end of the wine…

Pam Ayres & Suli Breaks “Could rhymes help prevent financial crimes,” asks Claer Barrett in the FT. Santander thinks so. The high street lender has turned to poets Pam Ayres and Suli Breaks to lead a new fraud-awareness campaign. Both are renowned spoken poets and, unlike many victims, both admit to disturbing brushes with fraudsters. Breaks, 32, wrote his poem Too good to be true after he fell for an online investment scam. Ayres, 73, “smelt a rat and hung up” on a “very convincing-sounding man”, but admits it was a close-run thing. She’s keen to spread awareness – despite the difficulties of dealing with sometimes crunchy financial and regulatory terms. Having to find a rhyme for “FCA” isn’t the kind of thing she’s used to, she confesses. John McAfee…

Controversy of the week Failing the test? Britain’s Covid-19 test and trace system has long been a “huge embarrassment”, said the Daily Mail. From the start, it has been dogged by poor decisions, administrative cock-ups and delays. But the news that nearly 16,000 positive cases went unrecorded last week, because of a computer foul-up, marks a new low. Some 15,841 people who tested positive in the week to last Friday did not have their details uploaded to the NHS Test and Trace dashboard, meaning that though they were informed of the result and told to stay at home, their contacts were not traced. Consequently, around 40,000 potentially infectious people were not told to self-isolate, and may have unwittingly put others at risk. It also meant that some regions were given…

Italians, who may soon be forced to wear face masks outside, at all times of day, in all parts of the country. The government said it was considering the measure after 2,844 new Covid cases were recorded on Saturday. That was its highest daily tally since April, but is still far below the numbers in France, Spain and Britain. Jeremy Corbyn, after a photo of him breaking the “rule of six” at a dinner party was leaked to the press. The ex-Labour leader later apologised, admitting that he should have left when more guests arrived. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley, was caught on camera not wearing a mask properly, first in a shop, then waiting for a train. He thanked the public for their vigilance.…

Edinburgh On the rocks: Holyrood has written to UK Trade Minister Greg Hands, imploring him to show greater urgency in getting Donald Trump to remove tariffs on Scottish whisky. The US is the most valuable market for scotch, worth more than £1bn a year, but since last October the US has imposed a 25% tariff on imports of single malt scotch (and cheese and cashmere) as part of a wider dispute over EU subsidies to Airbus, the aircraft-maker. Hands recently made it plain to MSPs that Scotland should not be “at the table” for international trade talks, but in the meantime tariffs are costing the whisky industry £30m a month, and the fear is that agreement may be further delayed if a solution isn’t found before next month’s US election.…

Rosen’s long Covid Michael Rosen knows all too well what it can be like to survive Covid-19, says Simon Hattenstone in The Guardian. In the spring, the children’s writer spent seven weeks in intensive care – six of them on a ventilator. He recalls being told he had only a 50-50 chance of survival when he was put under sedation, and when he emerged from the coma, that entire period was a blank – “it felt like a pre-death”. Unable to stand, he was sent into rehabilitation, with no clue as to what state he’d be in by the end. At first, he thought he might be in a wheelchair. “Then I got to stand up with the Zimmer thing and I thought: ‘Oh, I know, I’m a Zimmer person.’…

A Romanian mayor has been re-elected in a landslide – ten days after his death. Ion Aliman won a record third term as mayor of the village of Deveselu, despite having died from Covid-19 in the run-up to municipal elections. News of the 56-year-old’s passing had spread fast through the village of 3,000 people, but voters still turned out for him in their droves, with many visiting his grave to pay their respects after casting their ballots. Aliman’s deputy, Nicolae Dobre, said after the result: “None of the other contenders got the same trust from voters.” A ten-hour film showing nothing but drying paint has been awarded a “U” rating by the British Board of Film Classification. Charlie Lyne made the film, entitled Paint Drying, in protest at the Board’s…

PAKISTAN Let children be taught in their mother tongue Dawn (Karachi) What language should Pakistan teach its children in? Officials have been agonising over this question for months, says Zubeida Mustafa. Some think all pupils should continue using Urdu, which although not the mother tongue of 90% of the population, is the national language used for wider communication. Others favour switching to English, on the basis that “without fluency in English one cannot get a job”. Both sides are wrong. The key to a good education system is good teaching – and making all teachers use English won’t help that. Most don’t speak it well, if at all, and forcing the language on pupils from an early age will only breed “a sense of alienation and inferiority”. Let children begin…

Two fifths of plant species are at risk of extinction, owing to habitat-destruction and climate change, according to a new report. Based on research by 210 scientists in 42 countries, “State of the World’s Plants and Fungi” warns we are in a race against time to conserve plants that could be vital as medicine, food and biofuel. Last year, 690 million people suffered from hunger, yet many “neglected” plants are rich in nutrients, resistant to pests and diseases, and can grow even in difficult conditions, the report said. Realising their potential is difficult, however, as industrialised food systems are geared towards uniformity, with an over-reliance on a few staple crops: four billion people are entirely dependent on rice, maize and wheat. Similarly, the report identified 2,500 plants as potential sources…

Rupert Everett has dedicated fans: one even followed him into a Florida sex shop. “She said, ‘Can I have your autograph?’,” he told Charlotte Edwardes in The Times. “And I shouted: ‘CAN’T YOU SEE I’M BUYING PORN?’”, before storming out. Later, feeling guilty, “I went back in and said, ‘Sorry, I will sign your thing’, even though it was awkward with my arms full of Take It Like a Man: All Nine Inches.” Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, the veteran journalist and former Sunday Telegraph editor who died last week aged 96, rubbed shoulders with no fewer than eight American presidents during his long career. When he was introduced to Dwight Eisenhower on the campaign trail, the Republican president remarked that the young reporter’s name was a mouthful, and asked him to…

“Fame is proof that people are gullible.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, quoted in Commentary “The desire to be a politician should bar you for life from ever becoming one.” Billy Connolly, quoted in The Times “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” Isaac Asimov, quoted in Forbes “Beware of monotony; it’s the mother of all the deadly sins.” Edith Wharton, quoted on The Huffington Post “There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’: illegal drugs and software.” Statistician Edward Tufte, quoted in The Denver Post “One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect, the whole world looks like home for a time.” Hermann Hesse, quoted in The Times “God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.” J.M. Barrie, quoted in Parade “We do…

Doctor, where art thou? To The Daily Telegraph A recent experience has made clear to me why non-Covid deaths are increasing. I called my GP surgery for an appointment but got no answer, so I went there. It was locked and the lights were off, but I rang the intercom and an irate person came to the door and put a leaflet through the letterbox telling me I had to contact them online. After a lengthy process, I managed to do this, but was then informed that appointments were not currently available. No means of leaving a message was offered. Charles Holt, London The forgotten oil boom To The Times The open letter by a group of more than 30 economists, academics, business people and politicians overlooks the role of…

As Jolene and Elizabeth talk through plans for Jill’s upcoming 90th birthday, Elizabeth recounts some of her online dating exploits. Chris is organising a birthday celebration for Alice, though she herself isn’t keen. He’s excited about the baby and fusses over Alice, who snaps at him. Later, she calls a counsellor to express her difficult feelings about the pregnancy. Jolene and Lilian are disappointed by photos of Jakob as the Naughty Milkman. Lynda summons Lilian to thank her for her plain speaking a few weeks back, and reveals that she’s giving up directing the Christmas Show. Philip and Gavin cover up another near-miss with Kirsty, who overhears them arguing about the “horses” and vows to help Gavin with his gambling problem. Freddie visits Lynda and tells her how bad business…

What the experts recommend Benefits of the 5pm supper In an attempt to stay in business despite the new 10pm curfew, some restaurants are now opening for dinner as early as 5pm, says Marina O’Loughlin in The Sunday Times. The hope is that they can still fit in the same number of sittings – and if diners prove willing to give it a go, they might find they actually like it. As a restaurant critic, I’ve long made a habit of eating early (you often have to, to get a table at the “hottest” new establishments), and I’ve discovered that I rather love it. Early in the evening, staff are at their most “energised and engaged”, and the specials are never sold out. Added to that, there are said to…

The singer who had a hit with I Am Woman Helen Reddy 1941-2020 In 1971, the singer Helen Reddy decided that her debut album should have a song on it that reflected her growing interest in female empowerment. She couldn’t find one that fitted the bill – so she wrote some lyrics herself. I Am Woman (“hear me roar, in numbers too big to ignore”) didn’t make any impact at first, and nor had she expected it to, but after it was featured in the 1972 film Stand Up and Be Counted (a forgettable comedy about women’s lib), sales started to creep up. Radio disc jockeys who’d been reluctant to give the song airtime were bombarded with requests to play it, and in December 1972, I Am Woman…

After more than 20 years of ownership by the US behemoth Walmart, Britain’s third largest supermarket, Asda, is “back in British hands”, said Alex Ralph in The Times. The chain has been bought for £6.8bn by the Lancashire-based Issa brothers, in conjunction with the private equity firm TDR Capital. It ends a prolonged “battle for Asda” after a proposed merger with J. Sainsbury was blocked on competition grounds last year. The current deal is also likely to face regulatory scrutiny. The move is a major coup for the publicity-shy billionaires Mohsin and Zuber Issa, aged 49 and 48 respectively. The pair have enjoyed a remarkable rise, said Rupert Neate in The Guardian. Born in a Blackburn “two-up, two-down”, the sons of immigrants from Gujarat, India, they have parlayed a single…

A “race for space” is reshaping the UK property market as householders flee the capital in search of gardens, green spaces and home offices, says The Observer. There are winners and losers: Winchester, Exeter and York are hot Letting agents in Winchester say they have “never seen such a surge” and are lamenting a “severe shortage of properties”. Strutt & Parker in Exeter also reports an “unprecedentedly busy three months”, with househunters from London, Manchester and Birmingham all considering a move to Devon. But rival Carter Jonas reckons “the city seeing the biggest increase in inquiries – albeit from a low base – is York”. Farewell Nappy Valley According to Carter Jonas, 37% of those looking to quit London live in the city’s “wealthy southwest”. Battersea SW11, sometimes called “Nappy…

The week’s best shares Axon Enterprise The Daily Telegraph Axon makes Taser weapons (for which it has a key patent and no competition) and has developed promising software for its bodycams to help police collate evidence. Moving to a recurring revenue model through renting. Buy. $88.33. CVS Group Investors Chronicle Lockdown dealt a blow to the vet group’s small animal, specialist referral and equine revenue streams. But CVS furloughed more than half its staff and preserved cash, and the stock’s defensive markets remain intact. Buy. £11.70. Ideagen Investors Chronicle Ideagen’s profits have grown by a fifth as demand for risk management software holds steady. The transition to software-as-a-service is progressing successfully, and continuing growth should drive profits. Buy. 198p. Jet2 The Times A vaccine could significantly boost demand for this…

British turkey farmers are facing a likely slump in demand if the rule of six keeps Christmas to a minimum this year. Richard Griffiths, chief executive of the British Poultry Council, has said birds may need to be slaughtered early, before they grow too large, and then frozen. Others hoping to meet demand for fresh birds are putting them on a crash diet. Universities have been paying Instagram influencers to promote courses that they did not take. Mari Alonso, a lifestyle blogger, told her 82,000 followers that Anglia Ruskin University would “change your life”, though she studied in Brazil. It is unclear how much she and others were paid, but the university spent £1.19m on social media marketing last year.…

Anglican Bishops should be stripped of their responsibility to investigate and punish cases of clerical sex abuse, according to a damning independent report. The Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse found that over 70 years, the Church harboured hundreds of paedophiles, and undermined its own “moral purpose” by putting the protection of its reputation over the welfare of children. The 154-page report stopped short of backing two key demands of survivors: the mandatory reporting of abuse to state authorities and independent oversight of Church safeguarding policies. But these issues will be examined in a future report. The inquiry found that in 2018 alone, more than 2,500 “safeguarding concerns” were reported to dioceses, including 449 claims of recent child sexual abuse.…

Paris Anti-Islamist laws: Emmanuel Macron has set out plans for tougher laws aimed at tackling “Islamist separatism”, and defending the “republican values” of secularism, equality and “emancipation”. In a long-awaited speech, the French president said that Islam was in “crisis all over the world”, and warned that a minority of France’s estimated six million Muslims were in danger of forming a “counter-society” governed by “an ideology that claims its own laws should be superior to those of the Republic”. The new measures, which are to be introduced in parliamentary legislation by December, will ban foreign funding of mosques, and will require that imams are trained and certified in France. In addition, they will remove state funding from sports and social clubs that “indoctrinate” members; outlaw the separation of men and…

This week’s edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs featured actress and director Samantha Morton 1 Burden of Shame by UB40 and Van Morrison, performed by UB40 2 Flower by John Baker, Martin Blunt, Tim Burgess and Rob Collins, performed by The Charlatans 3 The Town I Loved So Well (Live) by Phil Coulter, performed by Luke Kelly and The Dubliners 4 This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody), written and performed by Talking Heads 5* Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (A Cappella) by Jason Pierce, performed by Spiritualized 6 Blume (French version) by Blixa Bargeld, Mark Chung, F.M. Einheit, Alexander Hacke and N.U. Unruh, performed by Einstürzende Neubauten 7 Dream Baby Dream, written and performed by Suicide 8 I Remember, written and performed by Molly Drake…

In 370 BC, Plato lamented the introduction of writing as he thought it might weaken people’s capability to memorise. Since then, every media development, from the printing press to radio and television, to videos and computer games, has been vilified, and its positive aspects underestimated. “It may be, we have nothing important to communicate,” declared Henry David Thoreau of the telegraph. Parents and teachers today tend to have grown up in the pre-digital era, and certainly the pre-smartphone era. There is consequently a deep mismatch of knowledge, fears and expectations between them and children. They are disturbed by the powerful attraction exerted by screens relative to so many other activities, and the way they have reshaped children’s lives. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the adults are wrong. The Growing Up…

SWEDEN The sinister facts about a ferry disaster Dagens Industri (Stockholm) “The hole in the wreck of MS Estonia needs to be investigated,” says P.M. Nilsson. The passenger ferry sank in a storm in the Baltic Sea in 1994, en route from Tallinn in Estonia to Stockholm, causing the second deadliest maritime disaster after the Titanic: 852 people died; there were only 137 survivors. The cause at the time was found to be a broken bow door. However, a new documentary featuring underwater footage of the wreck suggests a more sinister explanation: a four-metre-high gash below the waterline. This calls into doubt previous investigations. Estonia wants a new inquiry. Its lead investigator at the time, Margus Kurm, has claimed that the ferry must have collided with a Swedish submarine. For…

A nasal spray designed to help fight the common cold has shown signs of being remarkably effective against Covid-19. In an animal study (which has yet to be peer-reviewed), the product – INNA-051 – reduced viral replication by 96%, and its developers at Australian biotech firm Ena Respiratory say it could be ready for human trials within four months. The spray, which might be administered once or twice a week, works by interacting with cells in the nasal cavity to trigger the body’s immune system – providing a first line of defence against incoming pathogens. For the study, groups of ferrets were given varying doses of the spray, or none at all. They were then exposed to the virus that causes Covid-19. Five days later, throat swabs taken from the…

Margaret Ferrier is not the first public figure to have flouted the Covid rules, said Kirsty Strickland in The Herald (Glasgow), but the SNP politician is surely guilty of “the most flagrant breach” yet. Pretty much everyone understands that if you develop Covid symptoms, you should book a test and keep away from other people until you get the all-clear. For reasons best known to the MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, she didn’t stay at home after getting her test. She attended Sunday Mass in Glasgow, and then jumped on a train the next day to London. She then spent hours at Westminster, meeting people and making a speech in the Commons. Then, after receiving a positive test result, she took a train all the way back to Scotland.…

The London Marathon, which unfolded in driving rain last Sunday, was by far the “most surreal” in its 39-year history, said Sean Ingle in The Guardian. The race, usually held in April, was attended by a small group of elite athletes who ran 19.6 times around a special “closed-loop course” in St James’s Park, “cheered on by cardboard cut-outs of the Queen”. Meanwhile, another 45,000 people from 109 countries participated “virtually”, running 26.2 miles in venues of their own choosing and logging their times into a custom app. Despite the “biblical” conditions, some virtual runners even turned up in fancy dress. Russ Brookes, of Gloucester, ran his race “dressed as a dinosaur to raise money for the child bereavement charity Winston’s Wish”. The women’s race was won, as expected, by…

To The Guardian Your long read on the airline industry’s collapse was really quite depressing. Yes, the airlines are suffering huge losses and many jobs have been lost, but the assumption that passenger numbers will eventually return to pre-pandemic levels would be to throw away one of the only big gains from the lockdown. Airlines pay no duty on fuel and their tickets are very cheap, but they are costing the Earth as a result. It is disingenuous to assume that biofuel will ever be available in sufficient volume or that enough trees will be planted to offset the carbon. The real cost of air travel needs to be recognised, especially by frequent flyers. Businesses will surely seek to stop wasting time and money on excessive flights to meetings when…

Fleet Foxes: Shore Bella Union £11 Following the relative disappointment of 2017’s sprawling Crack-Up, Fleet Foxes are back with a “beautiful homecoming of an album”, said Will Hodgkinson in The Times. Shore marks a return to the “innocence, beauty and sadness” of the band’s self-titled 2008 debut, as well as its “exquisite songcraft”. That record’s rustic neo-folk and skybound harmonies proved a “gigantic hit, critically and commercially”, and this one deserves the same success. It’s an optimistic listen – not “uplifting exactly”, but “welcoming, thoughtful and brimming with rich, bittersweet melody”. Even if you’re the sort of “grinch” who finds Fleet Foxes’ “golden-beard aesthetic a little silly, the beauty here” is undeniable, said Jon Dolan in Rolling Stone. Listening to this album, you “feel like you’re floating in an amniotic…

Broadcast from 1984-96, Spitting Image broke new ground for television with the sheer savagery of its political satire. Now the puppets are back for a new series on BritBox – and its fans will be relieved to know it hasn’t lost its “willingness to shock”, said Mark Lawson in The Guardian. Early on, we meet Donald Trump’s “asshole”, busily tweeting on the president’s behalf. Prince Harry is unemployed in LA, and trying to earn a buck by dressing as a Nazi; and Dominic Cummings appears as an alien who wants to eat Boris Johnson’s baby, but the PM, a “jibbering half-wit”, dare not sack him. The satirist’s job is harder these days, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. Many of today’s politicians seem beyond parody, and society is quicker…

Best books… Abdulrazak Gurnah The novelist and academic chooses his favourite books. His latest work, Afterlives (Bloomsbury £16.99), explores the colonial history of German East Africa through the interconnected lives of three characters Maps by Nuruddin Farah, 1986 (Arcade £12.99). This is Farah’s most powerful novel. As in all of his fiction, it is set in his homeland of Somalia. Maps is an absorbing account of an orphaned boy growing up among women in the midst of the Ogaden War between Somalia and Ethiopia. A poetic and superbly organised work. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, 1992 (Bloomsbury £8.99). The English Patient is a novel of many achievements. Its location is a ruined palace turned into an abandoned military hospital in Italy towards the end of WWII. Its one patient…

The Royal Opera House welcomes socially distanced audiences to its main stage with 4/4. Curated by the ROH’s director of opera Oliver Mears, it will pair celebrated directors, including Deborah Warner, with conductors and singers for works by Handel, Britten and others. 17 October, London WC2; also available to stream (roh.org.uk). Wells Festival of Literature goes ahead in hybrid form, with live and streamed events, from 16-24 October. The line-up includes Gina Miller, Max Porter and Jeremy Vine. Live events will be at Wells Cathedral School, Somerset (wellsfestivalof literature.org.uk).…

Roasting small whole fish is an excellent way to make a super simple quick supper, says Rosie Sykes. The herby tarragon sauce served with this dish has enough acidity to cut through the richness of the mackerel. Serves 2 2 whole mackerel, gutted 1 lemon – half thinly sliced, the other half cut in half to serve a small handful of herbs (parsley, tarragon, etc.) 2 tbsp olive oil 6 spring onions, trimmed and left whole sea salt and black pepper for the sauce: 100g stale bread 2 tbsp white wine vinegar small handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped 5 sprigs of tarragon, leaves removed – use the stalks to go in the fish cavities 1 egg, hard-boiled – white finely chopped, yolk crumbled 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1…

Cineworld: blackout “The pandemic-driven crisis facing the entertainment industry” has taken another turn for the worse, said R.T. Watson in The Wall Street Journal: Cineworld, the world’s second-largest cinema operator, is “closing its doors again”. The decision to shutter operations, following a partial re-opening in August, follows a “cascade of postponements for big-budget movies”, including the new James Bond title No Time to Die. Spelling out the predicament, CEO Mooky Greidinger observed: “We are like a grocery shop that doesn’t have vegetables. We cannot operate for a long time without a product.” Shares in the group, which also operates Picturehouse in the UK and the Regal brand in the US, fell 36% as investors took fright that it could be closed indefinitely, with the loss of 45,000 jobs, said…

Lessons from Chicken Licken Liam Halligan The Sunday Telegraph The week before last, the Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, gave a speech riffing on the story of Chicken Licken, whose groundless fears about the sky falling in “whipped up terror among the other farmyard animals”, says Liam Halligan. While acknowledging that Britain faces an “unholy Trinity” of threats from Covid, unemployment and Brexit, he argued that pessimism risks holding us back. He’s right – up to a point, anyway. Haldane correctly points out that, partly thanks to “catastrophising” in the media, we tend to overlook the postlockdown recovery. Although GDP shrank by a terrifying 19.8% between April and June, the unsung summer bounce-back means “the economy could already be just 3-4% smaller” than before Covid. But this outlook…