Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1359 i The Week

What happened Downing Street this week rejected claims that Boris Johnson had lost his “grip”, insisting he was “very much focused on delivering for the public”. It followed the Prime Minister’s rambling address to the CBI conference on Monday, in which he lost his place in his notes and launched into a lengthy digression about the joys of Peppa Pig World, a Hampshire theme park he had visited the previous day. His performance prompted one reporter to ask: “Is everything okay?”. The poorly received speech added to the pressure on the PM, who has been accused of presiding over a series of missteps. No. 10 suffered a backlash last week over the decision to scale back investment in northern rail infrastructure (see page 20). And there was a sizeable Tory…

When it comes to stopping the flow of migrants in small boats from France, the Home Secretary Priti Patel talks a good game, said Michael Crick in the Daily Mail. She recently vowed to prevent “100%” of such crossings. But that looked unlikely from where I stood last week on the shingle of Dungeness beach in Kent. Over just a few hours, I watched “almost 100 bedraggled migrants” – mostly young men from Syria and Afghanistan – reach the “promised land”. The authorities are struggling with the rate of new arrivals, which not long ago reached 1,185 in a single day. Numbers for 2021 are set to top 25,000, three times those of 2020. Next year they’ll surely rise further. It has become a major political problem for Boris Johnson’s…

Decapods, after a government review recommended a ban on the sale of live lobsters and crabs to the public, saying they had feelings, and needed to be treated more humanely. It said the creatures should be stunned with specialist equipment before being cooked, and that fishermen should be banned from de-clawing crabs before returning them to the water. Kamala Harris, who became the first woman to serve as acting president. The beleaguered vice president (see page 14), officially took control of the country for 85 minutes while President Biden was undergoing a routine procedure under anaesthesia.…

Paris Sexism protest: Thousands of French women took to the streets of Paris and other cities on Saturday to demand more action to combat violence against women. Protesters highlighted the numbers killed by their partners or former partners – more than 100 so far this year – and demanded more shelters and other measures to protect victims of domestic violence. According to a survey in 2017, some 220,000 French women are physically or sexually abused by their partners each year. There were also protests about the treatment of female politicians, sparked by an open letter in Le Monde, signed by 285 women in politics, highlighting “sexual and sexist violence committed by our representatives”. It noted that three contenders in the forthcoming presidential election “have already been named in numerous accounts…

1 Castles by Freya Ridings and Daniel Nigro, performed by Freya Ridings2 Fleurs Du Mal by Frank Peterson, Matthias Meissner, Martin Himmelsbach, Thomas Schwarz, Klaus Hirschburger and Sarah Brightman, performed by Sarah Brightman3 Brand New Key, written and performed by Melanie4 Some Girls by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, performed by Racey5 Slave to Love, written and performed by Bryan Ferry6 Barcelona by Freddie Mercury and Mike Moran, performed by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé7 The Windmills of Your Mind by Michel Legrand, Alan Bergman, and Marilyn Bergman, performed by Noel Harrison8* Bette Davis Eyes by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon, performed by Kim Carnes Book: The Centenary Book of Sark by Chris Andrews, Fiona Kelly and Amy McKee Luxury: his own pillow * Choice if allowed only one record…

Norway struck oil on Christmas Eve 1969, at the Ekofisk oil field bang in the middle of the North Sea. Production started in June 1971, and in the following years a number of major discoveries were made. Foreign firms such as the Phillips Petroleum Company at Ekofisk dominated exploration in Norwegian waters in the initial phase, and developed the country’s first oil and gas fields. But in 1972, Norway’s state oil company Statoil (now Equinor) was created, and the principle of 50% state participation in each project was established. As a latecomer to oil, Norway was keen to avoid the “resource curse”, whereby oil-rich countries do less well than those without it. Despite the riches rolling in, there was no spending bonanza. In 1990, the Government Pension Fund Global, better…

Paralysed mice walk again Paralysed mice have walked again, after being injected with a protein-based gel, raising hopes that a simple jab could one day restore movement to humans with spinal cord injuries. Made of individual protein units that bind together in water to form long chains, the gel works by creating a scaffold on which cells can grow. It also sends signals that trigger the regeneration of nerve cells and blood vessels, and the removal of scar tissue that would normally block cell regeneration. A team at Northwestern University in the US gave mice whose back legs were paralysed either a single injection of the gel, at the site of their injury, or a placebo. Four weeks later, they tested their ability to walk, and scored them according to…

In the run-up to the Conservative Party conference, Tory sources briefed that Boris Johnson was the “delivery man”, said Jessica Elgot in The Guardian. Having pushed through an extraordinary vaccine roll-out, he’d now be bringing the same sense of ambition to his domestic agenda. Yet when Transport Secretary Grant Shapps unveiled the Government’s much anticipated Integrated Rail Plan last week, it added to a distinct sense that the wheels are coming off the “delivery van”. As recently as 2019, the PM had promised to build a high-speed Northern Powerhouse Rail line from Manchester to Leeds, to “unleash regional growth”; earlier this year, he said he was also committed to the eastern leg of HS2, from Birmingham to Leeds. But both have now been all but scrapped, prompting outrage from MPs…

Azeem Rafiq’s testimony to MPs last week about the racism he faced as a Yorkshire cricketer was grimly compelling, said Jonathan Liew in the New Statesman. The media focused on the overt bigotry: the references to Asian players as “elephant washers”, the jokes about corner shops. But the most poignant parts of Rafiq’s story were those that described the sense of isolation he felt as a result of more insidious forms of bias: the “sniggers and whispers, the imagined subtexts, the unvoiced suspicions”. This was perfectly illustrated by a letter sent by some Yorkshire staff to the club in October, before Rafiq’s complaints became big news. In it, the staff described him as “problematic in the dressing room” and accused him of not sharing the club’s “White Rose values”. “This…

Alexander Zverev has been one of tennis’s “star performers” in the second half of the year, claiming gold at the Tokyo Olympics and winning 31 of 35 matches, said Stuart Fraser in The Times. And on Sunday, the world No. 3 brought his season to a triumphant close by beating world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev to win the ATP finals in Turin. Having lost to Medvedev in the tournament’s group stages, Zverev turned the tables on the Russian when they met again in the final, said BBC Sport. Serving superbly, he did not face a single break point in running out a comfortable 6-4, 6-4 winner. The victory means that the 24-year-old German – who so far in his career has never won a Grand Slam – will head to…

To the Financial Times It was the comment made by an anonymous investment banker [about working from home] that caught my eye. Nobody, the banker said, “will really know how much/little someone is in the office on a day-to-day basis. Performance will be more bluntly judged according to results.” I do not agree that judgement by results is a more blunt measure than judgement by presence. Surely it is the other way around. Presence is only important where the function cannot otherwise be fulfilled (supermarket checkout staff; bus drivers). The remark sounds more like an inability and/or reluctance to trust employees to get the job done on time and to the required standard, if out of sight. Such control-freakery now looks very outmoded. Businesses should value managers capable of establishing…

Zadie Smith’s “inspired” reworking of Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale is a “gloriously staged” triumph, said Susannah Clapp in The Observer. For this, her debut play, she has moved the tale itself from the court of King Arthur to 18th century Jamaica. And she has shifted the setting of its lengthy Prologue – in which our lusty heroine “describes how she bamboozled her five husbands and kept their peckers up”, while decrying those who judge her (priests in the original, “slut shamers” now) – to the boozer across the road from the theatre, in the novelist’s home borough of Brent. Robert Jones has turned the auditorium into a pub-cum-cabaret space, where “light bounces off shelves of bottles” and the “punters – from church, temple, mosque, shul and utter godlessness…

Sathnam Sanghera’s two-part film on the legacy of empire opens with him reading at home, said Fiona Sturges in the FT. He’s looking at letters from disgruntled readers of his well-received book, Empireland. “You are just a little man terrified of saying anything good about your benefactors,” says one. Sanghera’s voice is cheerful, but his “glance to camera offers a glimpse of his real feelings”. In the film, he travels all over Britain to explore where the indignation in these letters comes from. He argues that empire still shapes attitudes today, and notes that many Britons have “wilful amnesia” about their forebears’ conduct in colonial outposts. His central thesis is that centuries of colonialism has left a legacy of racism, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph: an internalised belief…

A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd, 1981 (Penguin £8.99). I re-read this brilliant novel on an annual basis. The riotous exploits of Morgan Leafy, a junior diplomat serving in Africa, is just the tonic for lifting spirits. Living Better by Alastair Campbell, 2020 (John Murray £10.99). This book makes a double contribution to one of the most important health issues of our time: Campbell continues the de-stigmatisation of depression, while giving hope and encouragement to those who live with it. An Imperfect Offering by James Orbinski, 2008 (Rider £14.99). Rooted in the searing pain of the Rwandan genocide, this book charts the international community’s failure to meet its humanitarian obligations and the devastation that results – as seen through the eyes of a Médecins Sans Frontières doctor. We…

Programmes Freddie Mercury: The Final Act On the 30th anniversary of the Queen frontman’s death, friends and fellow musicians contribute to this documentary on his final years and the moral panic that surrounded HIV/Aids at the time. Sat 27 Nov, BBC2 21:00 (90mins). Escape from the Taliban: Dispatches Local journalists working in Kabul as the city fell to the Taliban recount the story of the Afghans who tried to get out of the country. Sat 27 Nov, C4 18:30 (30mins). Bernardine Evaristo: This Cultural Life The Booker Prize-winning novelist discusses her cultural influences and looks back on her Catholic upbringing in South London. Sun 28 Nov, BBC4 19:30 (30mins). Cancelled Richard Bacon investigates the phenomenon of “cancel culture”, speaking to those who have been shunned and exploring the limits of…

“Picture the typical claret drinker and you might imagine some fusty old boy in a gentlemen’s club,” says Jane MacQuitty in The Times. But red Bordeaux is attracting a younger crowd these days – and the wine is changing too. New-wave vintners are adopting progressive techniques – such as shorter maceration and fermentation in tanks, not oak barriques – to produce “lighter, fresher reds” that remain capable of ageing, but which are also delicious when young. And these wines are often very good value. At the supermarkets, there are lots of bargains to be had – the most extreme being Tesco’s 2020 Claret (£5), with “lashings of juicy Victoria plum fruit”. Over at Co-op, there’s a “glut of new-wave claret”. Try the merlot-led 2019 Château Joanin, a Castillon Côtes de…

Tell the FlightAware app which flight you are booked onto, and it will send you an alert if the flight is delayed or cancelled. You can use it to monitor a flight’s progress in real time, and it also has a handy interactive Misery Map, where you can look at airports around the world and see which routes are experiencing the most delays and cancellations. LoungeBuddy can make the experience of being significantly delayed more bearable for those who don’t have automatic access to airport lounges. It sells day passes to more than 400 lounges in 68 countries, starting at around £20. AirHelp will help you claim compensation for delays and cancellations. If the delay was weather-related, you’re probably out of luck, but it’s always worth checking (and it’s free…

A Greek ghost village lives again Perched in forest near the top of Corfu’s highest peak is the island’s oldest village, Old Perithia. It was abandoned in the 1960s, but has come back to life in the past 12 years, and is now utterly “spellbinding”, says Alex Sakalis in The Guardian. The revival began when a visiting couple, Mark and Saskia Hendriksen, opened a “luxurious” b&b, The Merchant’s House, in the village; since then, their success has encouraged former inhabitants to return. Now one-third of the village’s “elegant” medieval mansions have been faithfully restored, along with the church and five tavernas. It is a wonderful retreat from Corfu’s “packed and gaudy” coastal resorts (though only a 15-minute drive from the unspoilt beach of Agios Spyridon), and a great base for…

Wilbur Smith 1933-2021 Wilbur Smith, who has died aged 88, used to respond to his critics by saying that he wasn’t setting out to produce great literature: his books were stories. Ripping tales of derring-do, mainly set in Africa, they “featured virile, lantern-jawed hunks, delicate English roses who might be ravished by pirates or find themselves enslaved in Arab harems, and a cast of Johnny Foreigners who generally took a thrashing”, said The Daily Telegraph. They were, in other words, about as “politically correct as Black and White Minstrels”; yet they were translated into 30 languages, and they all sold in their millions. While he claimed his readers were “real men”, his publisher said that his books mainly appealed to women, and “hormonal teenagers”. Born in 1933, he was raised…

Black Friday, the annual discount shopping frenzy, used to be a “one-day” event, said Ashley Armstrong in The Times – but this year it has “stretched to a month”, as retailers “try to reduce the strain on the country’s already shaky supply systems”. Some are hurting already. Just eight weeks ago, the online white goods retailer AO World was forecasting earnings of £35-£50m. It has now slashed that range to £10-£20m, citing a list of woes, including sourcing difficulties, a shortage of drivers and rocketing inflation, said City AM. This “downbeat assessment” prompted AO’s stock to tumble 24% in an hour. The gloom was contagious: both the FTSE 250 and the FTSE 100 fell in sympathy.…

“I hear you” Ostensible meaning: You’re making a legitimate point. Actual meaning: Be quiet. “Let’s work on this asynchronously” Ostensible meaning: We’ll each work on this task in our own time. Actual meaning: I have to go to my Pilates class now. “We are planning for the metaverse” Ostensible meaning: We are ready for the shared, immersive digital world. Actual meaning: Ooh, look! A bandwagon! “I’m just curious…” Ostensible meaning: I’d like to know why you think that… Actual meaning: …because it makes no sense to anyone else. “We should all learn to walk in each other’s shoes” Ostensible meaning: Shared understanding results in better outcomes. Actual meaning: I need you to know that my job is a living hell. “Do you have five minutes?” Ostensible meaning: I have something…

What happened Violent protests erupted in cities across Europe this week, in reaction to sweeping new measures to combat a surge in Covid cases. Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic all brought in restrictions following warnings that there could be 500,000 Covid deaths in Europe this winter. In Vienna, 40,000 people took to the streets, to protest against a national lockdown and plans for mandatory vaccinations. In Rotterdam, police opened fire on people demonstrating against plans for a three-week partial lockdown in the Netherlands. In Brussels, water cannon were deployed after a mass protest turned violent. In Britain, however, Health Secretary Sajid Javid played down the need to impose “Plan B” measures such as making face coverings mandatory, or reintroducing advice to work from home. Our “hugely successful”…

The number of people waiting for elective NHS treatment in England has risen to a record 5.9 million, the Health Secretary has confirmed. Before the pandemic, the waiting list in England stood at 4.4 million. And the figure will rise before it falls, Sajid Javid warned, owing to demand from the up to eight million people who “stayed away” from the health service when the pandemic was at its height. “If you take that along with normal demand, that’s huge pressure,” he said. There is also pressure on ambulance services: the average response time to Category 2 (emergency) calls was almost 54 minutes in October, compared with the target time of 18 minutes.…

Paul Dacre, the former editor of the Daily Mail, who pulled out of the running to become the head of Ofcom, saying that, with his views, he had “more chance of winning the lottery than getting the job”. Instead, he has returned to a senior role at the Mail. Black Friday shoppers, who were warned to be on their guard for fake bargains. Having monitored last year’s deals, the consumer group Which? said that 98.5% of the products being promoted as a Black Friday bargain are likely to be available for the same price, or even cheaper, within the next six months. It also noted that 92% of last year’s products had been on sale for the same price or less in the six months before the event. The Andrew…

Vancouver, Canada Flood chaos: Several days of extreme rainfall – described as a “once-in-a-century” weather event – caused devastating flooding in British Columbia last week, and in the northwestern US state of Washington. The city of Vancouver, where a month’s worth of rain fell in two days, was cut off from the rest of the country by the floods; and across the region, mudslides swept away cars and destroyed major roads and bridges. Tens of thousands of homes in Canada and the US were left without power, and at least one person was confirmed dead. In Canada, the military was deployed to help an estimated 18,000 people left stranded, and to distribute emergency supplies to cut-off communities. Some of the worst-hit areas were those devastated only three months ago by…

“The latest edition of France’s favourite dictionary, Le Petit Robert, includes the word iel – a new pronoun for “nonbinary” people who don’t wish to be referred to as either il (he) or elle (she). Traditionalists are appalled. In my view, however, the French are in no position to complain: they insist on imposing a gender identity on everything under the sun, without any consistent logic. Every baby is referred to as le bébé, even if it’s a girl. Whales and seagulls are feminine, even when they’re male. Canals are masculine, rivers are feminine. Skating and show jumping are masculine, but wrestling and boxing are feminine. French traditionalists have no business accusing others of having funny ideas about gender.” Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph…

Legalise pot? You must be off your head Clare Foges The Times “A slow-motion car crash.” That’s the only way to describe the West’s steady progress towards cannabis legalisation, says Clare Foges. Luxembourg recently relaxed its laws. Germany may soon do likewise. God forbid the UK does the same. In the old days, hashish contained about 2% to 5% concentration of the main psychoactive component, THC. Modern skunk is five times more potent, and can have devastating psychotic effects. The first NHS clinic for cannabis-induced psychosis, which opened in 2019 in London, has been swamped by the number of referrals. Some say that legalisation would bring back the weaker variety. Not so. The $2bn market in Colorado, which legalised cannabis in 2012, is “dominated by products with high levels of…

Birds nests festooned with feathers may look cosily attractive to humans; but it’s unlikely birds arrange them for aesthetic reasons. On the contrary, some experts suspect that they use the feathers to make it look as though there has been a massacre there – and thereby scare their rivals away from the homes they’ve so painstakingly built. To test the theory, researchers in Norway put out a series of nesting boxes, some of which had white feathers in them, and waited to see what happened. The cavity-nesting birds studied – the pied flycatcher, the blue tit and the tree swallow – hesitated to enter boxes with feathers; yet they picked up the feathers left on the ground. “We suggest that naive prospecting birds may perceive feathers in nests as the…

Benedict Cumberbatch went to great lengths to prepare for his role as a rancher in 1920s Montana in The Power of the Dog (see page 31). As well as learning ironmongery and woodwork, he refused to wash. “I wanted that layer of stink on me,” he told Esquire. In fact, he was so anxious to stay in character, he refused to answer to his own name. “If someone forgot… and called me Benedict, I wouldn’t move.” But his method acting came at a cost: he smoked so many roll-up cigarettes, he gave himself nicotine poisoning three times. “Filterless rollies, just take after take,” he reflects. “When you have to smoke a lot, it genuinely is horrible.” When Adele announced two concerts in Hyde Park, front-row tickets were going for as…

“Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”Viktor Frankl, quoted in The Times “If I was as rich as Rockefeller, I’d be richer than Rockefeller. I’d do a spot of window cleaning on the side.”Ronnie Barker, quoted in the London Evening Standard “Legend remains victorious in spite of history.”Sarah Bernhardt, quoted on The Browser “Familiarity breeds contempt – and children.”Mark Twain, quoted in The Times “Arguing with a fool proves there are two.”Doris M. Smith, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle “It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it.”Warren Buffett, quoted in the FT “After…

F1 Lewis Hamilton won the Qatar Grand Prix to cut Max Verstappen’s lead in the title race to eight points. Football Chelsea stayed top of the Premier League with a 3-0 win over Leicester. Second-placed Manchester City beat Everton 3-0. Women’s rugby England beat the US 89-0 in their final Test of the year. Golf Nine months after being badly injured in a car crash, Tiger Woods has posted a video (titled “Making progress”) of himself hitting golf balls on a driving range.…

L’Artisan 30 Clarence Street, Cheltenham (01242-571257) L’Artisan is run by Yves and Elisabeth Ogrodzki, a French couple who ran a country inn in Leicestershire before relocating to Cheltenham, says Jay Rayner in The Observer. The restaurant does not feel daringly contemporary: the era it channels is “about the mid-1980s”. Diners sit on “high-backed velour chairs” and order from leather-bound menus, while the “sounds of La Vie en Rose waft across the small, brightly lit room”. Many of the dishes are so old-school they “probably sat Common Entrance”: escargots swim in garlic butter; confit rabbit leg comes “smothered in a ripe, grain mustard sauce”. But here is the thing: the Ogrodzkis “know what they are doing”. Yves’ cooking is pretty well faultless, and Elisabeth provides wonderfully attentive front-of-house service, which even…

Honda HR-V Price: from £26,960 The Daily Telegraph In its third iteration, Honda’s compact SUV is a cracking small car, offering “interesting but not unique styling” with “pretty good specifications”. Inside, it feels comfy and reasonably spacious – though the boot is small at 319 litres – and on the road, it is a decent ride, refined and, for the most part, fairly quiet. Performance is “brisk rather than swift, with a top speed of 106mph and 0-62mph in 10.7sec”. Top Gear In its interior design, Honda says it has followed a principle it calls “man-maximum, machine-minimum”, which “sounds like something weird RoboCop would come out with if you spilt a glass of water on him”. In practice this means Honda has done away with any tech for tech’s sake.…

Countryside escape Stay 3 nights at Bowden Hall, a 4-star Cotswold hotel set in stunning parkland, from £142pp b&b, with dinner on the first evening. 0333-212 5532, countryhotelbreaks.com. Arrive 20 December. Ultimate 80s sailcation Cruise around the islands of the Canaries to the live sounds of 80s icons, including Tony Hadley, for 11 nights from £1,099pp full-board. 01793-575224, imaginecruising.co.uk. Depart 21 March. Seven nights in Tobago An all-inclusive stay at the Magdalena Grand Beach, in the Tobago Plantations Estate, costs from £999pp (including London flights). 01782-654823, caribbeanwarehouse.co.uk. Depart 6 May. Five-star French luxury Located downtown and offering views of the Rhône, Sofitel Lyon Bellecour has four nights from £255pp room-only (excluding flights). 020-8974 7200, travelrepublic.co.uk. Arrive 11 February. Covid-19: please check government websites for testing and quarantine requirements, and the…

Amazon/Visa/Mastercard: payment politics Amazon’s move to ban UK-issued Visa credit cards from January is an “odd” and “unfortunate” decision, remarked Visa boss Al Kelly. Top marks for diplomacy, said Louise Beaumont on City AM, but there’s no mistaking the threat to his company. Amazon claims that Visa (which plans to hike fees from 0.3% to 1.5% on UK card purchases in the EU) “charges too much”. It’s an old bugbear, but until recently even a retail behemoth like Amazon wouldn’t have risked picking a fight with Visa. The emergence of “open banking” – enabling third-party providers to move cash directly from bank accounts to merchants – has changed all that. The retailer is now betting that “access to Amazon trumps loyalty to Visa”. “The good times are coming to an…

Is Labour the new party of business? Kate Andrews The Daily Telegraph “To have a Labour leader standing on a CBI platform championing the role and success of business shows just how far the party has come,” observed the organisation’s president Lord Bilimoria this week. Indeed, Keir Starmer now has an opportunity “to fill the widening gap” between the Johnson Government and the corporate world, says Kate Andrews. Did he grab it? Well, up to a point. After the PM’s performance, “simply showing up with a level head” was a bonus. Moreover, Starmer’s rejection of Jeremy Corbyn’s “mass nationalisation plans” has put him “in the good books of business” without the need to make “much in the way of meaningful pledges”. In fairness, Labour has already made some inroads onto…

A device that stems bleeding from stab wounds has won this year’s international James Dyson Award, worth £30,000. The Rapid Emergency Actuating Tamponade – or REACT device – works by expanding in the wound tract to apply internal pressure, which reduces bleeding. It was developed by Joseph Bentley, 22, while he was a student at Loughborough University. Bentley is now working on getting the device into the hands of as many first responders as possible. Two former best friends whose lives were uprooted by the Nazis have been reunited in Florida, 83 years after they last saw each other in pre-war Germany. Betty Grebenschikoff and Ana María Wahrenberg were nine when they said their goodbyes in a playground in Berlin, soon after Kristallnacht. The former fled to Shanghai, while the…

The Brit Awards have scrapped separate gender categories in a bid to become “as inclusive as possible”. Best international artist will replace best international female or male solo artist. Previously, nonbinary stars, including former winner Sam Smith, had complained that they were not represented by the categories. The Grammys went gender-neutral almost a decade ago. First there was “Fomo”, the fear of missing out. Now it seems people are suffering from “Hogo” – the hassle of going out. Restaurateurs say they are experiencing a wave of “no-shows”, owing to people deciding they can’t face leaving the house after all. The group Gusto Italian said its 12 restaurants had had 1,000 no-shows in the last week alone.…

88% of Labour voters say they dislike Conservative politicians, and 73% dislike Conservative supporters; 74% of Conservative voters say they dislike Labour politicians, and just under half dislike Labour voters. Hostility between political camps is starker still in the US, where 93% of people who voted for Donald Trump say they dislike Democratic politicians, and 73% dislike Biden voters. Among Biden voters, 90% say they dislike Republican politicians, and 86% dislike Trump voters. The Guardian/YouGov and Cambridge Globalism Project 84% of over-60s support the return of mandatory masks in shops and on public transport. The Daily Telegraph/Silver Voices…

Colman on her Oscar When Olivia Colman won an Oscar for her role in The Favourite, she could scarcely have looked more shocked, says Sophie Heawood in The Guardian. “Oh, it’s genuinely quite stressful,” she said, in an acceptance speech that went viral. “This is hilarious. Got an Oscar!” Looking back now, she says the whole night passed in a blur. “It was bonkers. You’re being swept along by people and you’re going: this can’t be happening.” But it was; and even if she didn’t take it all in, her family certainly did. Her husband told her it was the best night of his life. Their children watched the awards on TV with a babysitter. “And she filmed them. That was a really beautiful thing she did.” She looks wistful.…

A calendar depicting the “benches of Redditch” is proving a surprise festive hit. Retired printer Kevin Beresford, 69, says he’s been overwhelmed with orders for the calendars, which he makes in his flat, featuring outdoor seating around his West Midlands hometown. “It’s a sort of egalitarian calendar because I don’t just photograph picturesque ones, there’s a council estate one in there with cigarette butts,” he says. This isn’t his first foray into calendars: Car Parks of Britain also did well. So what will it be next year? “Rubbish tips,” he says. “I’m going to go around Britain for that.” A new combat sport is vying for a slice of the competitive world of pay-per-view TV: pillow fighting. Competitors at the Pillow Fight Championships in Florida will be armed with a…

INDIA Modi bows to the power of the farmers Bloomberg (New York) Narendra Modi has suffered the most “serious political setback” of his seven years in power, says Ruth Pollard. Last year, India’s prime minister proposed radical farming reforms, which would abolish the country’s state-run wholesale markets to allow private sales. That some kind of reform was needed was widely accepted; but his rushed proposals, and a lack of consultation, sparked “fury”. Thousands of farmers camped outside the capital for over a year, braving extremes of heat and cold, and Covid-19; 750 are said to have died. They feared losing minimum-price guarantees on crops, deaf to government claims that competition would make them better off. Modi is “used to forcing through controversial decisions”, but this time, he seems to have…

Black women are still four times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than white women, reports The Independent. The risk for Asian and mixed race women is twofold; and women in the most deprived areas are two times more likely to die than those in the most affluent ones, a new study has found. Its authors described such discrepancies as “unacceptable”, but noted that, overall, pregnancy in the UK is still “very safe”. Of the more than two million women who gave birth in the three-year period between 2017 and 2019, 191 died during pregnancy or within six weeks of it from a cause related to their pregnancy; 495 died during or up to one year after their pregnancy. Social services were involved in the lives of 17%…

“White supremacist, vigilante, gun nut, all-American hero, a boy trying to protect businesses as police stepped back.” Which one was the real Kyle Rittenhouse, asked David Charter and Hugh Tomlinson in The Times. Everyone in the US has a view on the teenager, who shot dead two men and wounded another during chaotic street unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020. Rittenhouse, now 18, had armed himself with a semi-automatic rifle and travelled to join a group of men who wished to “defend” Kenosha during riots that were triggered by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an African-American man. During a fracas, he killed two (white) men, Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and was charged with homicide. But last Friday, a jury unanimously acquitted him on all charges. America was…

Football: Manchester United sack their manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær, agrees, is a “thoroughly decent man”, said Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail. But it has long been clear to virtually everyone that he is simply not an “elite-level” manager. Everyone, that is, aside from Manchester United’s board, who “plugged away” with the amiable Norwegian even when he was “plainly drowning”. Star players deteriorated under his watch, the team never developed a consistent identity, and he prioritised vainglorious signings – Cristiano Ronaldo being the most glaring – over building a coherent squad. All this resulted in the current run of five Premier League defeats in seven games, including humiliating losses to Liverpool and Manchester City. Even then, United stuck with Solskjær, seemingly accepting his assurances that better results were around the…

Shooting the pilot To The Times The M42 pilot for smart motorways was excellent. I travelled this stretch for years on the way to work. The escape bays were well spaced; the hard shoulder was used only at busy times. In short, it was safe. The Highways Agency took everything good from the pilot and made it bad for the wider roll-out. All-lane running was introduced, so drivers expected to be using the shoulder instead of checking the gantries for permission. Escape bays were spaced out by double, if not triple, the distance. The new designs were, it seems, introduced without proper testing. If a carmaker did this, and people died because their cars had not been crash-tested, the fines would be huge. I want smart motorways; just give us…

Sour Grapes by Dan Rhodes Lightning 384pp £14.99 The Week Bookshop £11.99 In 2017, Dan Rhodes “severed all ties” with his long-standing publisher, Canongate, following a row over missing royalties, said David Sexton in The Sunday Times. His new novel is an act of revenge, targeting the “whole books business”. In the village of Big Bottom, a “preposterous literary festival” is being held – at which arrives Wilberforce Selfram, a “tall, cadaverous writer” known for using absurdly long words and for pronouncing everything as “symptomatic of a broad cultural malaise”. Fun is poked at various other literary eminences: J.K. Rowling, Salman Rushdie, the festival director Peter Florence. “The effect is just hilarious”: I read this novel in one sitting, “laughing like a banshee”. It didn’t have that effect on me,…

The Power of the Dog 2hrs 5mins (12A) A searing western from the director of The Piano The Power of the Dog could just as well be called The Power of Benedict Cumberbatch, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator, as he is so “spectacular” in this “wonderfully complex” western. The Sherlock actor plays a “ruggedly masculine cowboy” named Phil who runs a cattle ranch with his brother George (Jesse Plemons) in 1920s Montana. The pair are opposites: Phil is “clever, but mean-spirited and cruel”, and so macho he can castrate a bull with his bare hands; while George is “slower, softer, kinder, stockier”. Their equilibrium is upset by the arrival in their lives of Rose (Kirsten Dunst), a widow who marries George. When she comes to live at the ranch…

The sale of the century A bitter divorce between a couple who built up one of the most spectacular private art collections in America has resulted in Sotheby’s most valuable ever auction, says Harriet Sherwood in The Guardian. A total of 35 works from the collection amassed over the past 50 years by property tycoon Harry Macklowe and his estranged wife Linda were sold last week for more than $676m, making it the most valuable single-owner sale ever staged. Mark Rothko’s 8ft-tall painting No. 7 (1951) fetched $82.5m, while Le Nez, a 1965 sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, went for $78.4m; Jackson Pollock’s painting Number 17, 1951, raised $61.2m. The works were put on sale after both the former couple and their lawyers failed to agree an estimate for their art…

Kirsty tells Roy that the approach of Christmas is bringing back uncomfortable memories of Philip, before admitting that she plans to visit him in prison. Roy objects, riling Kirsty. Ben and Elizabeth try to reassure Jennifer about her lack of communication with Ruairi. Tony tells Adam that Natasha’s business is moving to Bridge Farm orchard, but Adam leaves when Tom arrives. Lynda asks Kirsty and Roy to help at a rehearsal and offers Kirsty the role of God. Overwhelmed, Kirsty refuses and leaves. Roy suggests that Lynda herself would be perfect for the role; flattered, Lynda accepts. Kirsty apologises and she and Roy make up. Fallon is not happy when Natasha tells him about her move to the orchard. Natasha offers to reduce his rent on the Tea Room. Pat…

Tandoori lamb chops Serves 4 120ml vegetable oil 1 heaped tbsp tomato purée 300ml plain yoghurt juice of 1 lemon 1 cube frozen crushed garlic, defrosted, or 3 garlic cloves, crushed 2 tbsp garam masala 1 tbsp paprika 1 tsp fenugreek powder 1½ tsp salt 8 lamb chops small handful fresh coriander, leaves picked, to garnish cooked rice, flatbreads or wraps, to serve • Preheat the grill to high and line a grill pan with foil, or prep a barbecue. • Put all of the ingredients except the lamb in a large bowl and stir to combine. Add the lamb chops to the bowl and use your hands to coat them with the marinade. If you have time, you could leave these to marinate in the fridge for a few…

• Start early: if you see something you think someone will like, buy it and lay it down. And listen out for clues. If your mother mentions that her favourite chopping board has split, make a note. • If you’re not sure if a present is right, ask someone who might know – a partner, say, or sibling. They may run the idea past the recipient and spoil the surprise, but better that than waste money on a duff present. • Consider their interests – but don’t go overboard: just because someone is a bird watcher doesn’t mean they’ll welcome a pile of bird-themed trinkets at Christmas. • In a world where people tend to have too much stuff, experiences can be welcome. Consider vouchers for a cooking class or…

Casa Brava, Loulé, Portugal Set in undulating hills a few miles inland from some of Portugal’s most crowded beach resorts, this “eco b&b” is a great base from which to explore the rural heart of the Algarve, says Condé Nast Traveller. Recently opened by a French couple with Portuguese roots, it occupies a renovated farm near the “lively” market town of Loulé. There are just three guest rooms, each housed in its own outbuilding, and all furnished with repurposed objects sourced from the region’s vintage markets. Organic, vegan breakfasts are served beside a small “biological” swimming pool filtered by plants and river stones. Doubles from £80 b&b, casabrava.pt.…

Clarissa Eden 1920-2021 Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon, who has died aged 101, was married to Anthony Eden, and was at his side during his brief and troubled period as prime minister. In particular, she will be remembered for her comment, in 1956, that “for the past three months I have felt as if the Suez Canal was flowing through my drawing room”. An elegant, well-connected and independent-minded woman, she had found herself “almost unwittingly” at the centre of British political life, said Cate Haste in The Guardian. Until she married Eden – who was 23 years her senior – she had frequented artistic and intellectual circles. And when illness and the taint of the Suez Crisis forced him to resign, in early 1957, she was sad for him, but…

A surge in European Covid cases, combined with new lockdown measures in several countries, prompted the euro to fall to its lowest level against the dollar since July 2020. The regional Stoxx 600 index suffered its biggest slide since September. Investors were also rattled by the threat of economic crises in Turkey and Argentina, which may need another multibillion-dollar debt deal from the IMF. In the US, President Biden nominated Jay Powell for a second term as chair of the US Federal Reserve, and said that the US would tap its national oil reserves to release 50 million barrels – in a move to combat high petrol prices and inflation. The governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, said that a “land grab” for employees, driven by the expansion…

Elizabeth Holmes The trial of the founder of the medical start-up Theranos “is headed towards a dramatic finish”, said DealBook in The New York Times. Until last week, Elizabeth Holmes’s lawyers had tried to counter charges that she knowingly duped investors into believing Theranos’s blood-testing technology was effective, by portraying her as “inexperienced” and “led astray by others”, including her ex-boyfriend and business partner Sunny Balwani. Yet when she unexpectedly took the stand, Holmes “presented herself as an expert in the technology”. Ultimately the trial is “a referendum on Silicon Valley’s start-up culture”. If Holmes is found guilty, it will put other “truth-stretching founders” on notice. If acquitted, it will bolster the prevailing “fake it till you make it approach”. Daniel Kretínsky The billionaire wheeler-dealer, who has just nabbed a…

• The continuity candidate By choosing to reappoint Jerome “Jay” Powell for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve, President Biden has opted for “the safest bet” at a hazardous time, said Gina Chon on Reuters Breakingviews. “The Fed’s biggest conundrum is what to do about inflation”, which has just put in its “biggest jump since 1990” – rising 6.2% in October year-on-year. Powell has said he will be “patient about rate hikes” and the nomination of “dovish” Lael Brainard as his vice-chair suggests the Fed will stick to its path of giving the labour market “more time to heal” before biting the bullet. • Safety first? Most in the market were relieved at the outcome, said the FT. “Powell’s reappointment reduces uncertainty, and hence, should be a…

British Land The Times The commercial landlord is a “powerhouse” – with quality London “campuses” offering office, retail and leisure, and fast-growth urban logistics centres. The improving 93% rent-collection rate has ignited divi hopes. Buy. 523p. CVS Group Investors’ Chronicle With 500 surgeries in the UK, Netherlands and Ireland, the vet operator is on a recruitment drive to support expansion plans. Revenues are up 19%, and its progressive dividend policy should be reinstated. Buy. £23.35. DX Group Shares The logistics, freight and courier firm has cut costs and addressed legacy issues. Thanks to strong cash generation and a focus on customer service, it is now in growth mode with a pipeline of investments. Buy. 30.25p. Escape Hunt The Mail on Sunday This operator of live “escape the room” experiences is…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1288 An Ettinger travel pass case and two Connell Guides will be given to the sender of the first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 6 December. Email the answers as a scan of a completed grid or a list, with the subject line The Week crossword 1288, to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive an Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) travel pass case (assorted colours), which retails at £105, and two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 6 Get back on horse-drawn carriage with no end of trouble (6) 8 Part-time judge’s instrument? (8) 10 Old fellow dropped by United (4) 11 Show scholarship (10) 12 TV control that’s often not at all close? (6) 13 Call James East to…

Children’s Parliament wants children living in Scotland to be healthy, happy and safe. It does this by encouraging organisations and individuals to adopt the UN’s Rights of the Child, and by supporting children to share their voices with key decision-makers. Its current work includes: supporting children to explore the topic of mental health; understanding the impact of lockdowns on children; and supporting children to meet with the First Minister, her cabinet and senior government figures on a regular basis. Children’s Parliament was formed 25 years ago in partnership with children. Since then, the charity has developed a range of creative approaches to understand what matters to children, and to support children to share their concerns and calls to action with adult decision-makers across Scotland. For more information, please visit childrensparliament.org.uk.…

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