Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1318 i The Week

What happened The mutating threat The UK announced tighter border controls this week, warning that people who try to conceal their arrival from coronavirus hotspots could be jailed for up to ten years. The new rules, which come into force on Monday, will oblige UK residents returning from 33 high-risk countries, including Portugal and much of South America, to pay up to £1,750 to cover the cost of a ten-day quarantine in a designated hotel. Those who refuse to do so face fines of up to £10,000. Those arriving from any other country will continue to have to take a Covid test before their journey and, upon arrival, to self-isolate for ten days, while having to take further tests on days two and eight. Scotland is going further, requiring all…

Paris Dejeuner au bureau: In an emergency easing of the rules governing office life in France, designed to contain the spread of the coronavirus, French employees are to be allowed to eat lunch at their desks. Up until now, under Article R.4428-19 of the 3,324-page Code du travail, companies are banned from “allowing workers to have their meals in places dedicated to work”. The measure was introduced amid fears that if workers could eat a sandwich at their desks, firms would feel no need to lay on canteens, and their lunch hours would be eroded. However, there are now fears that workers congregating in canteens and other dedicated eating areas is making it harder to contain the virus. These have been more crowded than usual – though many people are…

1 Love, Reign O’er Me by Pete Townshend, performed by The Who 2 The Dark Island by Iain McLachlan, performed by the Band of the Black Watch 3* Cello Concerto in E minor Op. 85 by Elgar, performed by Jacqueline du Pré, with the London Symphony Orchestra (cond. John Barbirolli) 4 Night Lament, traditional with lyrics by Kate Rusby, performed by Kate Rusby 5 To Begin at the Beginning from Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, performed by Richard Burton 6 Keep Talking by David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Polly Samson, performed by Pink Floyd 7 Sola, Perduta, Abbandonata (from Manon Lescaut) by Puccini, performed by Maria Callas 8 Cantus Arcticus, I: The Bog, by Einojuhani Rautavaara, performed by the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra (cond. Max Pommer) Book: A History…

Although they did not launch the protests of 2011 – many of which were led by liberal students – Islamist movements were the immediate political beneficiaries of the Arab Spring. Islamists had long been brutally suppressed by authoritarian Arab regimes, but being deeply entrenched in all of these societies, they proved much more able to provide a political alternative than loose coalitions of protesters. In each nation, the Islamist response was a crucial factor. At one extreme, Tunisia’s Ennahda, an Islamist party formed after the revolution, signed up to a statement of shared principles with other groups. At the other, Isis offered an ultra-violent alternative to democracy in Syria. In Egypt, secular and Islamist forces initially stood together, protesting on “days of rage” on Fridays. However, the coalition fell apart…

We may not yet be ready to live alongside wolves, but what about tree frogs? Derek Gow, the “rewilder” behind many beaver reintroduction schemes, has begun breeding tree frogs on his farm in Devon, and is now hoping to get permission to release them into the wild – though it’s not entirely clear when the tiny amphibians last perched in British trees. Their chirping was a feature of life in the 16th century: the naturalist Sir Thomas Browne referred to a “little frog of an excellent parrot-green, that usually sits on trees and bushes”. Most likely, their populations then declined as Britain’s wetlands were drained, but they may have clung on until the start of the last century. Tree frogs can survive without wetlands, however; and they could certainly cope…

Theresa May was mocked when she was pictured holding Donald Trump’s hand on a visit to Washington in 2017 – but it was hardly her fault. President Trump had grabbed her hand, and “she couldn’t really take her hand back, so she was stuck”, says her former chief of staff Fiona Hill in a new documentary. “The first thing she said to me [afterwards] was ‘I need to call Philip to let him know Christopher Plummer, who died last week, famously dubbed his best-known film “The Sound of Mucus”. But he wasn’t the only star to diss their own movie. Accepting a worst actress Razzie for Catwoman, Halle Berry blamed everyone, including “the cast, [because] in order to give a really rotten performance like I did, you have to have…

“Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.” Carl Jung, quoted on The Browser “There’s only two kinds of people in the world – the kind of people who think there’s such a thing as enough money, and the kind of people who have money.” Fran Lebowitz, quoted in The New Yorker “You always have to go too far to get anywhere at all, in art or life.” Francis Bacon, quoted in The Sunday Times “After I’m dead, I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one.” Roman senator Cato the Elder, quoted on INews “If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.” Tallulah Bankhead, quoted in Forbes “All politics is…

When Tom Brady joined Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season, few gave the quarterback a realistic hope of adding to his record six Super Bowl titles, said Bryan Armen Graham in The Guardian. He is after all, 43 years old. That’s right – 43. Yet on Sunday night, in this year’s NFL decider against Kansas City Chiefs, the “ageless marvel” yet again showed why he is the “greatest quarterback ever” as he steered the Buccaneers to a comprehensive 31-9 victory. The win “effectively places him out of reach of any foreseeable challenger” to his record for Super Bowl crowns: “No other quarterback in NFL history has won more than four Super Bowls – or even played in more than five.” In the match, Brady threw for 201 yards and completed 72%…

To The Times The possibility of official “vaccine passports” to allow holidays raises concerns about fairness. For the past year, young people like me (I am 24) have curtailed our social interactions and accepted significant restrictions on our lives. We have made sacrifices to protect those more vulnerable than ourselves. It is right that older people are being vaccinated first, but is it fair that they will regain freedoms that younger people will continue to live without? There has been a sense of solidarity between generations throughout the pandemic so far; I fear it may be lost if vaccine passports are introduced. Christopher Day, Eastbourne To The Times I can understand Christopher Day’s feelings on intergenerational fairness. However, allowing freedoms to those who have been vaccinated will stimulate the economy.…

The Staves: Good Woman Atlantic £12 Emily, Jessica and Camilla Staveley-Taylor – The Staves – are a trio of singer-songwriter sisters who have long attracted influential admirers from Tom Jones to Bon Iver, said Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph. Their principal gift is for “perfectly dovetailed harmonies, voices that blend so effortlessly in terms of tone and phrasing that you can’t separate them”. On this terrific third album, themes of loss, struggle, identity, insecurity and self-vindication dominate – but don’t overwhelm. On the title track, for example, a “gently assertive anthem for our times”, the “union of voices make it less a grumbling protest” than a “blissful proclamation of soft power”. When they first emerged, ten years ago, I found The Staves’ modern take on acoustic folk rock “pleasant”,…

The “brash, expensive” eight-part crime drama ZeroZeroZero (Sky Atlantic) has arrived on British screens a year after it appeared in the US and Italy, said Ed Cumming in The Independent. Based on a novel by Gomorrah writer Roberto Saviano, its grand ambition is to explore the global cocaine trade by focusing on the suppliers in Mexico, the buyers in Italy, and the middlemen operating out of New Orleans. Packed with spectacular set pieces, it’s “about as subtle as an elephant loading a dishwasher” – and it makes for “exuberant”, if “bleak”, entertainment for “long February nights”. As in most gangster dramas, Mexico comes across as a place of “pre-Christian horror and zero hope”, said Hugo Rifkind in The Times, and Italy doesn’t fare much better. It’s the US shipping family…

The Labour MP and shadow lord chancellor chooses his favourite books on the theme of belonging. His book Tribes: A Search for Belonging in a Divided Society (Constable £9.99) comes out in paperback this week A New World Order by Caryl Phillips, 2001 (Secker & Warburg £17.99). In these essays, Phillips asks what it means to feel at home in an increasingly globalised world. His writing spoke to me in my mid-20s while working and studying in the US, trying to find my true self between Boston, London and Silicon Valley. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, 1997 (4th Estate £8.99). Stories of discrimination are almost exhaustively articulated in terms of wealth, opportunities and rights. In this novel, exposing the pain and suffering of India’s system of caste,…

Tickets are now on sale for the 46 events at this year’s Jewish Book Week, which is online from 27 February to 7 March. Highlights include Hermione Lee discussing her biography of Tom Stoppard; Tom Bower on Boris Johnson; and David Baddiel on his latest book, a part-polemic, part-personal take on anti-Semitism, Jews Don’t Count. Other talks cover topics as diverse as Mahler’s relationship with faith to the perennial appeal of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. Tickets available for individual events, or a Festival Pass for £125 (jewishbookweek.com).…

Fish pie is the ultimate comfort food, says Rosie Reynolds. To make life simple, I use a fish pie mix from the shop. I also dust the fish in cornflour, which helps thicken the sauce – saving the hassle of making a béchamel. Easiest fish pie Serves 4 2 tbsp butter 6 spring onions, chopped 2 x 400g packets of fish pie mix 2 tsp cornflour 1 tbsp Dijon mustard 300ml double cream 200ml fish stock 150g cooked prawns 150g frozen peas, defrosted (optional) bunch of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped 800g pre-cooked mashed potato (if mashing your own, you’ll need about 1kg potatoes to yield this amount of mash) 50g parmesan cheese, grated handful of garlic croutons, bashed to uneven crumbs (optional) sea salt and freshly ground black pepper •…

The Daily Telegraph “Move over Golf.” There is a new “VW of choice” – or at least there will be once we’re all committed to owning electric cars. The ID.3 is a compact, efficient family car that, just like the Golf, is “sensible without feeling boring, and comfortable without being dull”. It’s relatively affordable, and is great even in its cheapest form. This might just be the “most important new car” around. What Car? There’s no denying that this is a really good car. It has “more than enough space” inside, and plenty of room for storage, too, with a solid 385-litre boot. But if one thing lets it down, it’s the interior quality and tech. While it has a nice “futuristic feel” about it, the touch-sensitive controls (in place…

Online retail: tax raid Ocado’s latest figures are testament to the online grocer’s standing as “a lockdown winner”, said Ben Marlow in The Daily Telegraph. Thanks to “soaring” sales, Ocado is now worth an “astonishing” £20bn – “or £8bn more than Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Marks & Spencer combined”. But in common with other online giants – including Amazon and fashion outfits Asos and Boohoo – it now faces a reckoning. In an effort to “plug the black hole” in the nation’s finances and “stem the collapse of the high street”, Treasury officials are planning a “double tax raid” on online retailers who have “cashed in on the coronavirus crisis”, reported Tim Shipman in The Sunday Times. As well as a new online sales tax, they are “working up proposals”…

George Osborne The former chancellor seems bent on practising an even wider “power stance”, said Matthew Vincent in the FT. Osborne, “whose legs-akimbo pose at the Tory conference first projected his omnificence to the nation”, evidently “thinks he can stretch to more” than advising BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, and editing the London Evening Standard. He has given up both for a new job in boutique banking with “takeover gurus” Robey Warshaw. Osborne’s move to “bestride the City” has “doubtless prompted his tailor to suggest his new pinstripes have a reinforced inside leg”. And it has sparked some amusement too, said The Times. Sadly, for those who might have liked to see him “sweating over his revision”, it seems unlikely banking regulators will “insist” on him gaining the relevant…

Controversy of the week Starmer’s struggle “Prime minister is only the second most difficult job in British politics,” said Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer. “The toughest gig is leader of the opposition.” However much trouble a PM gets into, at least he or she can “always do things”: launch policies, unveil legislation, meet world leaders. The leader of the opposition, though, “can only talk”. Trying to keep the public’s attention is a grinding, “often unrewarding challenge”. The only sure-fire way to do it is with a pratfall: “struggling with a bacon sarnie”, like Ed Miliband, or falling over in public, like Neil Kinnock. Keir Starmer has so far avoided that, and has introduced himself to the public in a “favourable way”, as a reassuring presence and a sensible critic of…

Juneau, Alaska The vaccine race: The vast, sparsely populated state of Alaska has emerged as the unlikely leader in the race to get America vaccinated against Covid-19. Around 15% of the state’s population had been vaccinated by last week, compared to around 9% in New York and California. Part of the explanation is the state’s small population (around 729,000), and the high proportion of both indigenous people and military veterans; both groups qualify for federal funds that expedite the vaccine programmes. The other big reason, according to The Washington Post, is that the state is used to transporting goods quickly, using whatever means possible. “Boats, ferries, planes, snowmobiles – Alaskans will find a way to get it there,” said the state’s chief medical officer, Anne Zink. In the US as…

“My daughters, along with most of their generation, have bought into the green agenda, part of which is not wasting stuff. I approve of this, so when we have finished our meals, we religiously pack up all the leftovers in Tupperware and clingfilm-covered bowls. After a week of this, the fridge is a necropolis of little food coffins. Regrettably, nobody wants to eat any of these mummified relics. So once a week I go through the fridge and throw it all away, and the cycle starts again. The process seems to me a microcosm of environmental policy: a lot of moral enthusiasm and impressive gestures up front, but not much follow-through.” Emma Duncan in The Times…

The autocrats will always get their way... Simon Tisdall The Guardian The democratic West is losing its grip, says Simon Tisdall. Everywhere you look, “the bad guys are winning”. In Myanmar, the generals, who’ve just overthrown an elected government, are guilty of genocidal attacks on Rohingya Muslims; yet the international community has been unable or unwilling to punish them. The US could conceivably have made a deal with China to lean on them – except that President Xi, too, stands accused of genocide against a Muslim minority, the Uighurs. Then there’s the “underpants poisoner” in the Kremlin, who has followed up the bungled hit on Alexei Navalny by having the opposition leader incarcerated. And he has got away with it. Germany could have hurt Moscow by cancelling its lucrative gas…

The number of teenage girls admitted to hospital for self-harm has tripled in a decade, according to new data released by NHS Digital. It shows that English hospitals recorded around 3,235 cases of self-harm among girls aged 13 to 17 in the year 2019/20, up from 980 in 2009/10. In total, there were 9,675 self-harm admissions for patients aged 13 to 30 – 84% up from the 5,245 recorded a decade ago. The number of girls and women admitted for self-harm has doubled; the number of male self-harm patients has also increased, but not as dramatically – from 2,295 to 2,955, a rise of 29%. Tom Madders, of the charity YoungMinds, described the figures as “deeply concerning”. He warned that many people don’t seek help until they reach “crisis point”,…

For a government that likes to boast about its green credentials, the decision to allow a £165m new coal mine in Cumbria is “deeply embarrassing”, said Sean O’Grady in The Independent. Boris Johnson has set “ever more exacting deadlines” on CO2 emissions, and places “huge importance” on the COP26 global climate change conference scheduled for Glasgow in November. But lately all that has been overshadowed by the decision of Robert Jenrick, the Communities Secretary, to wave through plans to build the first new deep coal mine in the UK in 30 years, at Whitehaven. Two weeks ago, the Government’s own Climate Change Committee said Jenrick’s failure to block the local-council-approved plans gave a “negative impression” of the UK’s climate priorities; last week, the influential former Nasa climate scientist James Hansen…

Scotland travelled to London for this year’s Calcutta Cup (as the Six Nations clash between England and Scotland is known) having not won at Twickenham since 1983, said Paul Rees in The Observer. And on a rainswept night, Gregor Townsend’s men brought nearly four decades of hurt to an end with a comprehensive 11-6 victory. The score-line, if anything, flattered England, said Oliver Brown in The Sunday Telegraph: “if there can be such a thing as an 11-6 trouncing, here it was”. Scotland were superior in every department: cannier in their play, monopolising both territory and possession, and displaying far more attacking zeal, mainly thanks to Finn Russell, their “pocket dynamo” of a fly-half. In fact, Scotland’s one real failing was profligacy: Russell missed several makeable penalty kicks, and they…

Tennis British No. 1 Dan Evans beat Félix Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 6-3 to claim the Murray River Open – his maiden ATP Tour title. However, he lost to his compatriot Cameron Norrie 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 5-7 in the first round of the Australian Open. Rugby union Wales beat Ireland 21-16 in the first round of the Six Nations after Peter O’Mahony became the first Irishman to get a red card in the history of the tournament; France beat Italy 50-10. Cricket England won the First Test against India in Chennai by 227 runs.…

With its enticing, heady mix of creativity, money and power, the film business has long been a favourite subject for film-makers. Here are five great products of this self-reflection: Sullivan’s Travels Joel McCrea plays a director of Hollywood farces intent on making a worthy social drama, in Preston Sturges’s 1941 comedy. It’s funny but complex – paying tribute to escapist entertainment (in a famous climactic scene), but satirising Hollywood too – and featuring an unusually frank depiction of poverty in Depression-era America. 8½ Often named as a favourite by other directors, Fellini’s 1963 masterpiece is a surreal journey through the life and mind of a big-name director (played by Marcello Mastroianni) suffering from creative block. It is sprawling, self-indulgent, and often obscure, but full of scenes of dreamlike intensity. Beware…

At an auction in New York last month, a portrait by Sandro Botticelli (c.1445-1510) became “the second most expensive” Renaissance painting ever sold, said Alastair Sooke in The Daily Telegraph. Its price tag of $92.2m has been exceeded only by the $450m paid for Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi in 2017; and while this may be a huge sum to “splurge” on a painting (and one which is only 23in x 15½in at that), its buyer, reportedly a private Russian collector, can be confident of the work’s art-historical importance. The portrait, Young Man Holding a Roundel (c.1475) depicts a long-haired youth in three-quarter profile holding a small, “decorative medallion” bearing the image of a saint copied from a 14th century Sienese altarpiece. It is a “particularly gorgeous example” of Botticelli’s…

If you’re a Burgundy drinker, then the newly released 2019 vintage is very definitely one to buy, says Jane MacQuitty in The Times. It’s baffling how a year with such crazy weather – regular frosts in winter and heat spikes in summer – produced such vibrant wines. But with its “sparky spine of acidity”, this is a seriously refreshing vintage – and one with the “wherewithal for a long life”. For reds, my tipped appellations include Morey-St-Denis and Gevrey-Chambertin, both in the Côte de Nuits. Aldi’s lively, tobacco-leaf scented 2019 Jean Lefort Gevrey-Chambertin costs £24.99, and is well worth snapping up. From the Côte d’Or, Benjamin Leroux’s 2019 Bourgogne (£18.95; bbr.com) is delicious, silky and red-fruited. For the 2019 whites, chablis has come up trumps. Those with big budgets will…

Singer Heavy Duty 4432 Sewing Machine If you want to work on heavy fabrics such as denim or leather, or multiple layers of fabric, this heavy-duty, quick-working model is a good option (£335; johnlewis.com). Silver 12 Stitch Mini Sewing Machine Suited to beginners looking for a cheap machine to get started, this model has 12 stitch options with clearly labelled buttons. Bear in mind that it will work best on lightweight fabrics (£59; johnlewis.com). Janome 6234XL Overlocker This advanced model has an overlocker, for a professional finish on hems and seams. It gives precision control over all kinds of fabric, and comes with a useful instructional DVD (£479; sewing machines.co.uk). Bernette by Bernina B35 Sewing Machine Bernina is the “brand of choice” for most professionals; this is in their value…

Global shares hit an all-time high on Covid recovery hopes. The FTSE All-World index climbed 0.3%, boosted by optimism about vaccine efficacy – particularly reports the Pfizer/BioNTech jab gave two-thirds protection after one shot. European and Asian bourses also rose. In the US, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both hit new highs, buoyed by bumper quarterly earnings in Big Tech. Bank of America reported a record $4.2bn was invested by fund managers in “Faang” stocks last week. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen held talks with regulators over the impact of market exuberance. In Britain, Chancellor Rishi Sunak extended the terms of the Bounce Back Loan scheme, enabling 1.4 million small businesses to spread repayments over a longer period to allay fears of failures. Officials have planned for a “pay as…

Overtrading A symptom of fear, greed, excitement – and no investment strategy. Given that each trade costs money in fees, tax and bid-offer spreads, “overtrading can be as self-defeating as undertrading: never having the guts to put your money into anything”. Selling too soon I have owned shares in the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust “on and off” for the past five years, during which it has risen 470%. I sold out at 800p, but the fund – which has big US tech investments – has gone on to trade at £13.21. A painful lesson: just because something goes up lots, it doesn’t mean it can’t go up more. Buying on a whim I bought into a small software house, Globo, on the back of a tip. Soon after, it admitted…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best shares Amazon The Times Founder Jeff Bezos may be stepping back, but the online retailer’s “staggering” financial performance shows little sign of losing momentum. Highly profitable, with room for growth in its Web Services arm. Buy. $3,312.53. Dunelm Group The Sunday Times The kitchen equipment and soft furnishings retailer has made hay as families opt for home improvements during lockdowns. Gaining market share from bricks-and-mortar and online retailers through web sales. Buy. £12.61. Frontier Developments Investors Chronicle Video-gaming specialists have benefited from market growth of 8% in the pandemic. Frontier’s intellectual property has boosted margins and generated a 15% revenue rise from its existing portfolio. Buy. £32.35. Greencoat UK Wind The Times This infrastructure fund owns stakes in 38 wind assets across the home…

Edinburgh Hotel stay: Travellers flying into Scotland from overseas will from next week have to quarantine in a hotel for ten days, the country’s Transport Secretary Michael Matheson announced this week. He confirmed that the government was “block booking” 1,300 rooms at hotels near airports, and that travellers would have to bear the £1,750 cost of the stay. The scheme is stricter than the one being imposed in England, where only people arriving from 33 “red list” countries will need to quarantine, and Matheson conceded that people could still fly into an English airport, then travel on (illegally) to Scotland. However, he said he was working with the UK Government to see if such individuals could be obliged to quarantine wherever they arrived. He said 1,600 people had arrived in…

Sinatra’s cold shoulder Nancy Sinatra is a showbiz legend, said Kate Hutchinson in The Independent – but she hasn’t always been made to feel like one. After a faltering start, her career took off in the mid-1960s when she dyed her hair blonde, put on a mini skirt, and adopted a sultry singing voice. But even after she had a string of hits, she was never accepted by the movers and shakers in the 1960s counterculture. “My contemporaries, girl singers – they sort of looked down on me,” she says. “I don’t think they knew what to make of me and my so-called career. [So] I wasn’t allowed in.” It went on for years. She recalls attending an event at the Clinton White House with Sheryl Crow and Stevie Nicks,…

A French woman has spent three years trying to prove to the authorities that she isn’t dead. Jeanne Pouchain, 58, from near Lyon, was declared dead by a court in 2017, after a disgruntled former employee fighting a long-running legal dispute claimed that she must have passed away. Despite the lack of a death certificate, Pouchain was scratched from official records, invalidating all her administrative documents. “I have no identity papers, no health insurance, I cannot prove to the banks that I am alive... I’m nothing,” she lamented. “It’s time someone said ‘stop’.” A Texas lawyer accidentally left a kitten filter on during a virtual hearing on Zoom, and couldn’t change it. Judge Roy Ferguson of Texas’s 394th judicial district asked attorney Rod Ponton why he was being addressed by…

The young are forgetful too When people are in their 50s, memory lapses can seem like an alarming indicator of impending old age; but it turns out that you don’t need to be old to experience senior moments, says The Times. A British study has found that men and women in their 20s often forget everything from why they went into a room to where they put their keys. Dr Laura McWhirter, a neuropsychiatrist at Edinburgh University, questioned 124 healthy adults, aged 18 to 59, about their memories. A mere 13% described their memory as excellent; almost 39% said it had deteriorated over the previous five years; 24% thought their memory was worse than that of their peers; and more than half were scared of developing dementia (with 13% “very…

“Some day, surely there will be a statue to Jackie Weaver,” said Gaby Hinsliff in The Observer. The long-serving chief officer of the Cheshire Association of Local Councils found fame last week, as the star of an “unexpected” viral hit. Footage of a fractious Zoom meeting of Handforth Parish Council’s planning and environment committee was leaked onto YouTube, and millions ended up watching this petty and “terribly British” power struggle. It shows Weaver coolly dealing with a series of “pompous and aggressive men”, who tell her to shut up, and rant and rage about points of procedure. She emerges from it as a heroine: “the patron saint of women who are having absolutely none of your nonsense”. If you haven’t seen the clip, you should, said the playwright James Graham…

When, back in 2019, Pep Guardiola – who once managed Lionel Messi – called Phil Foden the most talented player he’d ever seen, many people scoffed, said Chris Sutton in the Daily Mail. Yet given the 20-year-old’s performances in recent weeks, one can’t help feeling Manchester City’s boss “was onto something”. At Anfield on Sunday, the diminutive left-footer gave the full exhibition of his talents, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph. In the second half, with the score locked on 1-1, he slalomed past Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson, and delivered a “delicious cut-back” from which İlkay Gündoğan scored. Ten minutes later, he capped City’s 4-1 victory with a goal that, dare I say it, was positively Messi-esque. “Finding himself one-on-one with Andy Robertson, arguably the best left-back in the…

Purity of Seoul To The Daily Telegraph My daughter has just completed two weeks in a quarantine hotel in South Korea. After 24 hours in a medical facility at the airport, waiting for a Covid test result, she was moved by special taxi to a hotel in the suburbs of Seoul. She was given three meals a day, left outside the door, which was alarmed. She could only open the door for the food and at 6pm each night to put out her rubbish. There was no cleaning. On her last day she was released after another negative test, to take a Covid-approved taxi to her destination. I’m not convinced that we could do that here. Patricia Madge, Bentworth, Hampshire Thoughtless altruism To The Guardian It would be noble to…

Thatcher’s lavish unveiling The row over Margaret Thatcher’s statue rumbles on, said Neil Johnston in The Times. The 10ft-high, £300,000 bronze work by the sculptor Douglas Jennings was originally commissioned for Parliament Square, but it was rejected by Westminster Council on the grounds of “monument saturation”. It was then offered to Grantham, the Lincolnshire town where Thatcher grew up – a plan finally approved in 2019 after years of dispute (police advised that it would need to be “elevated” to deter vandals). Now plans for a grand unveiling ceremony have prompted a fierce “backlash” from locals. The Tory-run South Kesteven District Council has approved a lavish unveiling ceremony on the grounds that it would “attract international attention”, with a budget of £100,000. One particularly controversial aspect is an “optional extra”…

Oliver confides in Tracy that Grey Gables is in trouble and he may soon be forced to sell the business. Tracy gives him a pep-talk, ignoring texts from Jazzer who’s expecting her for another date. When she eventually takes his call, they argue again. Later, a miffed Jazzer texts his old flame, Jade. Lilian drags Tony out shopping for his 70th birthday present; she envies his laid-back attitude to ageing. Tempers flare when Natasha tells Tom she’s venturing out again with Kirsty, and he tries to stop her. Tom later tells Harrison, who warns Natasha that she and Kirsty could be accused of witness tampering. Tracy apologises to Jazzer and learns about his date with Jade; slightly taken aback, she wishes him well. Meanwhile she’s spotted ways Oliver could save…

What the experts recommend Why cooking is all in the finishing It may not be possible to copy every aspect of a professionally cooked meal at home – but there’s one thing home cooks can easily work on – their “finishing touches”, said Tony Turnbull in The Times. Chefs know that “impressive results” can be achieved by simply scattering toasted seeds and nuts over a dish before serving – or adding a “soothing dollop” of harissa-flavoured yoghurt. And such additions are not hard to prepare. One of the best to have in your arsenal is pangrattato: crunchy breadcrumbs that can be added to pasta dishes as an alternative to parmesan. To make it, mix stale breadcrumbs with crushed garlic, a little chopped rosemary or thyme and a pinch of chilli…

Tips of the week… how to make your own herbal tea ● Consider planting herbs that go well in tea together, to create a “tea pot”. Try lemon verbena, lemon bee balm (or bergamot) and Indian mint. If you prefer a strong minty tea, go for Spanish mint, which has a spearmint flavour, or black peppermint, which goes well with black tea. ● Pick leaves, flowers or ripe seed heads early in the morning before the Sun has evaporated the essential oils. Older, stronger leaves are best for tea. ● Hang bunches of herbs upside down in a warm dry place, with a paper bag tied around them, to air-dry. You can also lay them on a drying frame (muslin stretched over a wooden frame, turning every 12 hours), use…

Versatile Canadian actor who played Captain von Trapp Christopher Plummer 1929-2021 Christopher Plummer was a “tremendous” Canadian actor, with “sculpted features, an imposing physique and a magnificent voice”, who is “destined, or doomed”, to be primarily remembered for his role as Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1965), said Michael Coveney in The Guardian. It was a box office smash, and remains one of the best-loved films ever made; and it is hard to imagine any other actor bringing such charm to the role of the suave but authoritarian patriarch of the von Trapp family, yet Plummer never liked the film. Considering it “sentimental and gooey”, he referred to it as the “Sound of Mucus”, and resented the way it overshadowed much of the rest of his career.…

When the British high-street jeweller Gerald Ratner described his products as “total crap” in 1991, he wiped £500m off the company’s shares in days and nearly sank the firm, said Berny Torre in the Daily Star. Bosses have been making similar gaffes (“Ratner moments”) ever since, but perhaps none quite so insouciantly as Elon Musk. Taken to task last week by an industry analyst, who compared Tesla’s $36,490 Model 3 to “a Kia in the 1990s” because of its dodgy paint jobs and shoddy exteriors, Musk agreed the criticism was “accurate” – and warned against buying his electric cars during a “production ramp” when “it’s super-hard to get everything right”. A damning admission? Apparently not. Shares in Tesla, which is valued at around $805bn, barely budged on Musk’s comments. On…

Don’t punish directors for audit errors Matthew Lynn The Daily Telegraph Most company directors, especially in the crucial medium-sized sector, have been through enough uncertainty this last year “to last a couple of lifetimes”, says Matthew Lynn. “But, hey, here’s a good idea. Let’s dump a whole new pile of rules and regulations on them.” A highly unwelcome measure in the Government’s proposed clean-up of British auditing is a plan to impose fines and bans on directors for inaccuracies in their accounts. Following scandals at firms ranging from Patisserie Valerie to Carillion, there’s certainly a case for “going after the auditors”, who are supposed to check figures and “ring alarm bells” where necessary. But handing that responsibility to company directors is a different matter. Sure, you can argue that “if…