Innholdsfortegnelse for 1387 i The Week

What happened Conservative MPs voted by 211 to 148 for Boris Johnson to remain as their party leader in a confidence ballot this week. His winning share of 59% was smaller than Tory whips had expected – and smaller than the 63% share achieved by Theresa May in her confidence vote in December 2018 – but Johnson nevertheless described it as a “decisive” victory that would allow him to “move on and focus on the stuff that really matters to people”. He urged his MPs to “draw a line” under the leadership question, promising a return to “fundamental” Tory economic policies such as lower taxes and deregulation. Earlier, at least 54 Conservative MPs, or 15% of the parliamentary party, had sent letters to Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee,…

The chaos in Britain’s airports last week must rank as one of the travel industry’s “most predictable, infuriating and unnecessary failures” in recent memory, said The Times. Airports and airlines had months to prepare for what was “obviously” going to be a very busy half-term and jubilee week. Even so, there were queues stretching out of terminal buildings, long delays at security and very large numbers of cancellations, with easyJet, British Airways and Tui particularly badly affected. Over 300 flights out of the UK and nearly 200 return flights were cancelled over the jubilee weekend alone. Passengers were sent last-minute texts to tell them that their long-awaited holidays had been cancelled, and turfed off planes they had already boarded. Countless families were stranded abroad. The Government deemed the situation “unacceptable”.…

Vikings, with claims that the word is misused, and should be withdrawn. According to historian Alex Woolf, Viking derives from wicing and vikingr – the old English and Old Icelandic terms for pirate; yet since the 19th century, the word has been used as a catch-all for Scandinavian and Norse peoples during the early medieval period. “The Vikings never existed,” he said. Ryanair, which was accused of discrimination for demanding that South African passport holders complete a quiz in Afrikaans in order to board flights to the UK, although Afrikaans (one of two official languages in the Apartheid era) is only used by 12% of the population. The airline claimed the measure was necessary to weed out people using fraudulent passports.…

Around one in four people under the age of 40 agree that they would “like to live forever if scientists were able to engineer it”, but only one in ten people over 60 do. Around 22% of under-30s agree that ”I would like to be cryogenically frozen after my death so that I can be revived centuries later”, along with just 2% of over-70s. Only 19% of British adults say they would like scientists to keep them alive forever; 60% would not and 21% are undecided. Men are far more likely to embrace the idea than women (25% to 12%), and those without a religious faith are more likely to want to live forever than those with one. YouGov/Theos/The Times 47% of British GPs say they plan to retire before…

Emma Thompson on nudity Emma Thompson’s latest role is something of a departure for her, says Caitlin Moran in The Times. In Good Luck to You, Leo Grande she plays a widow who, at 55, has never had an orgasm and hires an escort to “see what all the fuss is about”. And at 63, she appears naked on screen for the first time. So why now? “I’ve never really been offered sex scenes,” she says. “I’ve basically played a series of ‘good’ women. I have […] never conformed to the shape or look of someone they might want to see naked. And by ‘they’, I mean male executives. I’m too mouthy, not pretty enough, not the right kind of body. And, crikey, you are constantly told what kind of…

A Russian cosmetic surgeon is offering women a novel way to support their country’s war on Ukraine: “patriotic breast implants”. Available in the “Russian tricolour” or “army camouflage”, the implants are the brainchild of Moscow-based doctor Yevgeny Dobreykin, who claims he’s had a flood of interest in them. In an online advert for the implants, an unnamed model says they “will make me feel like a patriot even if I don’t have any clothes on!” It’s a “fantastic feeling”, she adds, “when the flag of your country is literally under your heart”. It was meant to be a fairytale romantic gesture; but when a man tried to propose to his partner at Disneyland Paris, he was rudely interrupted by a staff member wearing Mickey Mouse ears. Social media footage shows…

HUNGARY Brussels has been bullied by Orbán Népszava (Budapest) No one in Brussels is happy with Hungary, says Tamás Rónay. European leaders are seething at the obstructive tactics pursued by its PM, Viktor Orbán, over Russian sanctions. To reach agreement on an EU embargo on Russian oil, they’ve had to buckle to his demand that pipeline deliveries be excluded from the ban; but what has really stuck in their craw is having to agree to Orbán’s lastminute demand that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, be removed from the list of individuals subjected to travel bans and asset freezes. Kirill is a highly controversial figure. He is notorious for his mysteriously accumulated wealth, his love of bling and, as recently revealed, for having been an active…

It’s no secret that Kim Kardashian makes an effort to look good: she’s had multiple procedures, and before last month’s Met Gala, she lost 16 pounds in three weeks, in order to fit into the gown that Marilyn Monroe wore to serenade John F. Kennedy on his birthday. Now she’s revealed that she would go far further even than that. “I’ll try anything,” she told The New York Times. “If you told me that I literally had to eat poop every single day and I would look younger, I might. I just might.” A source of tension at past royal Christmases has been revealed: the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. The Duke of Edinburgh was a member of the “anti-Stratfordians”, who are convinced that the Bard’s plays were written by others.…

“He who has a ‘why’ can bear any ‘how’.”Friedrich Nietzsche, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle “Any long-haul flight can plausibly be described as an act of violence.”Travel writer William Atkins, quoted in The Critic “Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.”George Orwell, quoted in Reader’s Digest “Bad news isn’t wine. It doesn’t improve with age.”Colin Powell, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it’s not – it’s a visa, and it runs out fast.”Julie Burchill, quoted in the London Evening Standard “Everybody complains of their memory, but nobody of their judgement.”La Rochefoucauld, quoted on The Browser “A government which robs Peter to…

To The Daily Telegraph Older readers may have memories of the Queen’s coronation in 1953. I recall waiting for an Underground train, only to find the carriage full of the nobility in their robes, as central London roads were still closed. A friendly duke moved up for me to sit down and explained that he had put sandwiches inside his coronet, as he remembered being hungry at George VI’s coronation. I held his train while we walked along the dirty platform and he hobbled in his satin buckled shoes with heels. I will never forget the sight of the up escalator, with each peer holding the ermine-and-velvet train of the one in front. Jenny Selby-Green, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire To the Financial Times Britain’s majority support for the monarchy is both…

by Julie Myerson Corsair 288pp £16.99 The Week Bookshop £13.99 In 2009, the novelist Julie Myerson found herself at the centre of a media storm after publishing a non-fiction account of her eldest son’s addiction to marijuana, said Hephzibah Anderson in The Observer. The episode, she has said, drove her to a “kind of breakdown”, and she has never directly addressed it in her writing. Except that now, in a way, she has. This, her 11th novel – entitled Nonfiction – is all about “teenage drug addiction”. The narrator is a once “happily married” writer, who is looking back on her attempts to save her heroin-addicted daughter “from self-destruction”. Given her own backstory, Myerson is risking a lot with such a novel – but “the results are nothing less than…

Showing now For its “illuminating” Picasso/Ingres: Face to Face, the National Gallery brings together two paintings by the two painters, showing how closely related they are (London Evening Standard). Until 9 October, The National Gallery, London WC2 (nationalgallery.org.uk). There’s an “epic quality” to Girl on an Altar, playwright Marina Carr’s “audacious” retelling of the bloody revenge story of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon (Guardian). Until 25 June, Kiln Theatre, London NW6 (kilntheatre.com). A selection of recent work by Tracey Emin comes to the galleries and grounds of Jupiter Artland. The exhibition takes its name – I Lay Here For You – from the large-scale bronze of a female figure that is set in the sculpture park’s woodland. Until 2 October, Jupiter Artland, near Wilkieston, Edinburgh (jupiterartland.org). Book now Gardeners, writers, artists and…

• Go peat-free; there are lots of alternatives available including Dalefoot Compost, which uses surplus British wool fleeces mixed with bracken, or you could try making your own. Check that your plug plants and bulbs aren’t grown in peat. • Avoid chemical sprays, and plant wildflowers to attract bees. Provide shelter for insects with stacks of circular tubes of untreated wood. Bugs like cool, damp conditions; bees need to be in full sun. • Slug pellets containing metaldehyde have been banned. Instead make a beer trap with Guinness in a half-submerged saucer. Or try a seaweed slug repellent from Sarah Raven or Shell on Earth’s ground-up whelk shells. • Try swapping plants – The Plant Exchange helps members trade, swap or sell plants. • Avoid plastic pots and opt for…

Andrew Fletcher 1961-2022 If in every successful band there has to be a quiet one, a solid and dependable one, then that was the role that Andy “Fletch” Fletcher played in Depeche Mode, said Dorian Lynskey in The Guardian. As the “truest believer in electronic pop” in the band, he was “an important sounding board in the studio”; he played synthesisers, but he wasn’t a virtuoso; and he didn’t sing or write songs. What he did was act as the diplomat, a bridge between the bigger egos; he was like the childhood friend that stars take with them on tour, to keep their feet on the ground. On top of that, he was, for many years, effectively the band’s manager: making deals, planning tours, and driving them forwards. It was…

Cheryl Calverley On the Eve Sleep website, they’re offering up to “50% off” mattresses. “How stingy is that,” asked Alistair Osborne in The Times. Over on the stock market, shares in the company – now run by Cheryl Calverley and up for sale – are “99% off” their 2017 listing price. Back then, Eve’s sweet dream was to “disrupt” a European sleep market valued at £26bn. It has certainly disrupted the sleep of anyone “daft enough” to invest – including “chief victim” Neil Woodford, who once owned a 42% stake. A psychology graduate who has held marketing roles at the AA, Birds Eye and Unilever, Calverley is reportedly fascinated by what makes people tick. Her latest move at Eve is a push into CBD oils. “You’d need the real stuff…

What happened Russia launched its first air strikes on Kyiv in over a month, while heavy fighting continued in eastern Ukraine this week. The strikes on sites in Ukraine’s capital followed warnings from Moscow that it would step up attacks in retaliation for the supply of new US weapons to Ukraine. Kyiv said its forces had recaptured a fifth of Severodonetsk, a Russian-occupied city in the eastern Luhansk province. After a visit to the front line, Ukraine’s President Zelensky warned that his forces were outnumbered in Severodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk, but said they had “every chance” of fighting back. Russia will control the whole of Luhansk if it takes the cities. The US announced that it would send a new rocket system, doubling Ukraine’s artillery range; the UK will send…

The NHS has been accused of risking the well-being of patients by making the word “women” less prominent in its online health advice. For instance, the main NHS page for ovarian cancer used to describe it as “one of the most common types of cancer in women”. Now its overview of the disease says “anyone with ovaries can get ovarian cancer, but it mostly affects those over 50.” Critics say that “desexing” health advice makes it potentially confusing, especially to patients who don’t have English as a first language. Younger people use cash so little that they struggle to remember their banking Pin. Lloyds, Britain’s biggest retail bank, reports that 60% of the people who have asked for Pin reminders this year have been under 40.…

Rail workers will strike for three days in late June, in an action that is likely to bring swathes of the national rail network to a halt for the best part of a week. The strike, by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, is scheduled to take place on Tuesday 21, Thursday 23 and Saturday 25 June. The major events occurring within that time frame include the Glastonbury Festival. On 21 June, there will also be a strike on the London Underground. The union says it wants guarantees against redundancies, and pay rises for its members, many of whom had their pay frozen during the pandemic.…

Paris Football anger: Pressure is growing on the French government to hold a full investigation into the chaotic scenes outside last week’s Champions League final match in Paris, when thousands of football fans became trapped in an underpass and were tear-gassed by police. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has repeatedly tried to blame Liverpool’s supporters for the chaos at the Stade de France, saying around 40,000 of them had turned up with fake tickets. But this figure is believed to be massively inflated; early inquiries suggest the crush was actually caused by tens of thousands of legitimate ticket holders being diverted onto a route that was unsuitable for such a large crowd. In France, Darmanin has been accused of lying to protect the police, who are routinely accused of repressive tactics,…

1 A Message to You Rudy by Dandy Livingstone, performed by The Specials 2 Cabaret by John Kander and Fred Ebb, performed by Jane Horrocks 3 Underground, written and performed by Tom Waits 4 Drivin’ on 9 by Steve Hickoff and Dom Leone, performed by The Breeders 5 Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear, written and performed by Randy Newman 6 Extraordinary Machine, written and performed by Fiona Apple 7 America by Paul Simon, performed by Simon & Garfunkel 8* Jersey Girl (live at Meadowlands Arena, 1981) by Tom Waits, performed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Book: a book of Magnum photography Luxury: legal medical marijuana * Choice if allowed only one record…

The idea of filtration – fil’tratsiia – emerged at the end of the Second World War, when the Soviet Union received back very large numbers of soldiers and civilians who had been captured or encircled by the Nazis and their allies. About five million Soviet citizens were repatriated, of whom four million were filtered: screened and interrogated to ensure their political loyalty. More than 200,000 were transferred to the NKVD, the interior ministry – meaning that they ended up in the Gulags, Stalin’s vast network of labour camps. Filtration camps reappeared during the Chechen wars, of 1994-1996 and 1999-2000, when large numbers of Chechens were arrested in order to filter out militant separatists. According to the Russian human rights group Memorial, about 200,000 people of Chechnya’s population of less than…

Trump is a victim of his own success Jason Willick The Washington Post Is Donald Trump’s hold over the Republican Party starting to loosen, asks Jason Willick. Much has been made of the fact that in recent primaries in Georgia, the candidates he anointed ended up being routed. That scorecard has some predictive value for the presidential primary; but just as important is the shift in the political landscape. In 2016, there were particular conditions in the GOP that enabled Trump’s rise – and which no longer exist. Back then, Trump saw a gap between the GOP establishment and a critical mass of voters, and he “rushed to fill it”. Acting almost as a third party, he touted isolationist, anti-immigrant policies, and adopted a confrontational approach to the culture war…

Two million adults in the UK, or 3.1% of the population, have long Covid, the latest research from the Office for National Statistics has suggested. The figure – the highest so far – includes 376,000 people who’ve had symptoms for at least two years. The estimates were based on a survey involving nearly 300,000 responses that was conducted over four weeks in April. Fatigue was the most common symptom, followed by shortness of breath, a cough and muscle ache. Long Covid symptoms adversely affected the routine activities of 71% of respondents, with one in five saying that their ability to go about their day-today life had been “limited a lot”. Certain groups had particularly high rates of long Covid, including women, people aged 35 to 69, those in deprived areas,…

When the news was announced that Johnny Depp had won his defamation case against Amber Heard, I “instinctively let out a little whoop”, said Sarah Vine in the Daily Mail. As the six-weeklong trial in Virginia reminded us, Depp is no saint. “But it’s one thing to be a troubled individual with multiple substance and behavioural issues and quite another to be an abuser.” When in 2018 Heard, recently divorced from Depp, wrote an article in The Washington Post claiming to represent “domestic abuse”, the #MeToo movement was at its height. It had exposed some shocking behaviour, but it also tended to see “men as predators, women as victims”. And as a result of her allegations, Depp was “cancelled”: he lost film roles, and was branded a “wife beater”. But…

During the final, torrid months of his tenure as England captain, Joe Root cut an increasingly careworn figure, said Mike Atherton in The Times. He would answer questions robotically, as if drawing on pre-scripted excuses. The captaincy – he has subsequently admitted – was proving “unhealthy” for his mental well-being. So what a relief it was last Sunday to see him back to doing what he does best: “scoring a mountain of runs” for his country, and looking happy while doing so. His “superbly crafted” unbeaten fourth innings century, the 26th of his Test career, brought to an end a “dismal run of one win in 17 Tests”, and guided England to victory at Lord’s in their first Test against New Zealand. It also ensured that England’s new captain, Ben…

Football England lost 1-0 to Hungary in the Uefa Nations League group stage, following a second-half penalty by Dominik Szoboszlai. Tennis Andy Murray reached the semi-finals of the Surbiton Trophy, before losing in three sets to Denis Kudla of America. Golf Australia’s Minjee Lee won her second major, the US Women’s Open, finishing 13 under par. Racing Desert Crown, the 5-2 favourite, won the Epsom Derby, coming home two-and-a-half lengths clear of 150-1 outsider Hoo Ya Mal.…

First we had the comically awful Marble Arch Mound; last week, London was given another potentially divisive piece of “faux foliage”, said The Art Newspaper. Thomas Heatherwick’s Tree of Trees was erected outside Buckingham Palace, to celebrate the Queen’s Green Canopy – a tree-planting campaign marking her Platinum Jubilee year. The 21-metre-tall living sculpture (funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies) consists of a castiron trunk, with 80 steel branches that support 350 saplings in aluminium pots. It was illuminated for the Jubilee weekend; now the whole thing will be dismantled and the saplings given to community groups to plant. On Twitter, some described the Tree as beautiful. But The Guardian’s art critic was not impressed. It stands as “a massively over-engineered structure that recalls a hastily disguised mobile phone mast”, said Oliver…

Stella advises a stressed Brian to take some time off. Jazzer tells Tracy he’s lost his job and suggests moving in with her to make up Gary’s rent – she says she’ll need to ask her kids. After some awkward admissions, Adil and Roy have lunch at The Bull and talk about their pasts. Chelsea puts Jazzer off moving in, making excuses about his pet spider. Chelsea finally admits that she’s actually just afraid he’ll do a runner like all of Tracy’s past boyfriends; Tracy and Jazzer promise he’s there to stay. Ruairi’s home and Brian suggests a drink together in Borchester, but Ruairi ends up cancelling and spending the night with his “friend” Julianne, who insists he keeps his phone off. Brian goes to the office instead and Alice…

Set somewhere between a cassoulet and Boston baked beans, this rich, hearty recipe is absolutely perfect for cooking round a campfire, says Gill Meller. You’ll need to get it going in the afternoon, and then let it simmer away gently, until dusk. Serve with good bread or campfire baked potatoes. Serves 4 250g dried haricot beans 1 tbsp sea salt 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil 200g bacon lardons or bacon off-cuts 3 celery sticks, cut into 2-3cm pieces 1 large onion, chopped 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 7-8 sage leaves, cut into ribbons 1 rosemary sprig, leaves picked and chopped 1 x 400g can of chopped tomatoes 1 tbsp light brown soft sugar 1 tbsp red wine vinegar 250g piece of smoked bacon 2-3 bay leaves 6-8 pork sausages freshly…

The Met Office app is straightforward with a basic forecast and good, simple maps. It has a UK video forecast and colour-coded weather warnings (free; Android/iOS). Weather Underground is customisable with interactive radar maps to zero in on a particular aspect of the weather, such as rainfall or temperature (free; Android/iOS). Hosted by an entertaining AI, Carrot Weather features animations and can be customised in the premium version. Free on Android and iOS, it works best on iOS. If you want a simple weather app, Appy Weather has bold icons and includes sunset times and a line about how tomorrow’s weather will be different (free; Android). With the Air Matters app you can easily monitor local air quality and pollen data in a table or on a browsable map. It…

A lofty perch in Portugal Set on a ridge 500 feet above the Guadiana River, with “magnificent” views of the surrounding plain, Monsaraz was named as one of Portugal’s seven prettiest villages in a recent nationwide poll. Two hours’ drive east of Lisbon, it is “day-trip territory”, says Amanda Linfoot in The Times – but if you can stay longer, it’s well worth it. Stop en route in Évora, the handsome capital of the Alentejo region, and spend a night at the simple guest house of Dom Nuno in Monsaraz itself. There’s plenty to see here: a 13th century castle, the forbidding 16th century House of the Inquisition, a museum of frescoes; and, for longer stays, there are two beautiful rural retreats beside the vast Alqueva Reserve nearby – the…

Bernard Heath 1928-2022 In 1965, Bernard Heath stopped off at a bothy during a cycling trip through the hills of Galloway, said The Guardian. In its visitors’ book, he was struck by a comment expressing dismay that so many of these basic shelters – abandoned shepherds’ cottages and gamekeepers’ huts – were falling into ruin, and wishing there was an organisation that could take the matter in hand. Heath, an accountant, decided that this was a project for him. That summer, he and some friends restored the bothy at Tunskeen, and around that time, the Mountain Bothies Association (MBA) was born. Its volunteers now maintain over 100 shelters in remote parts of Britain, “for the use and benefit of all who love wild and lonely places”. These shelters are very…

London pub-goers could be forgiven a sinking feeling, said Alice Hancock in the FT. The price of a pint has hit £8 for the first time, according to industry tracker CGA. That compares with an average price of £3.95 across the country and £1.79 in Lancashire. Even allowing for the extra expense of operating in the capital, the differential seems excessive. Could this be a case of a new phenomenon that economists have dubbed “Greedflation”? “When all prices are rising, consumers lose track of how much is reasonable to pay,” said Lydia DePillis in The New York Times. That offers “a great opportunity for every firm to realign their prices as much as they can”, observes Prof Z. John Zhang of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. It’s tempting to…

The week’s best shares Camellia The Times The tea, nuts, fruit and avocado producer’s revenues fell in 2021 due to “unprecedented” challenges. But Camellia, which also has an engineering arm, is expecting “solid demand” to boost sales and profits. Buy. £59.50. Dr. Martens The Times The boot-maker’s sales have soared by 1.4 million in a year, with profits rising 4.3%. The brand is “stronger than ever”, expanding into Europe, the US and Asia as it moves into sandals and socks. Yields 3.7%. Buy. 216.4p. Games Workshop Group The Sunday Times Shares in the fantasy figure-maker have been hit by rising freight costs and the cost-of-living crisis. But Warhammer is addictive to diehard fans. Sensibly run, with a good pipeline of new games and a generous divi. Buy. £72.25. Kingfisher The…

Broaden your worldview with The Week magazine and enjoy a balanced, unbiased and refreshing take on current affairs. Join over 300,000 readers who rely on The Week to cut through the noise of the media and see the bigger picture. Subscribe today and your first 6 issues are completely free. Why subscribe? Money-back guarantee If for any reason you're not satisfied with your subscription, you can cancel anytime and we' ll refund on any issues not received. Great savings As a subscriber you'll benefit from great savings off the RRP and from special offers and discounts. Free delivery A subscription includes free delivery so you can receive the magazine directly to your door every week. Visit theweek.co.uk/offer Or call 0330 333 9494 Offer code P1387 Your subscription will start with…

Brexit defections, with news that Antony Gormley is applying for a German passport, because of the “tragedy” of Britain’s decision to leave the EU. The sculptor, whose mother is German, said he felt “embarrassed” about Brexit. The half-German artist Cornelia Parker has also said she might apply for citizenship, because she doesn’t want to be a “little Englander”. Kate Bush, who scored her first US top ten hit. The musician’s song Running Up That Hill, which was first released 37 years ago, has also become Spotify’s fourth most played song since being used in Stranger Things, Netflix’s 1980s-set sci-fi drama. Bradford, which was named the UK City of Culture 2025, after months of competition, taking the baton from Coventry. Council officials described it as an “absolute game changer” for the…

The first “deportation flight” taking migrants to Rwanda is due to leave on 14 June. Around 100 asylum seekers deemed to have arrived in the UK “irregularly” – in a small boat, or in the back of a truck – have been selected for “offshoring”. Their claims for asylum will be processed in the central African nation, and if successful, the refugees will be allowed to stay there. However, over 90 of them have already lodged legal challenges to their deportation. The BBC reports that so far this year, 10,000 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats.…

Washington DC Biden says “enough”: President Biden made an impassioned plea for new federal gun-control laws last week, in a rare primetime televised address to the nation. “How much more carnage are we willing to accept?” he asked, as he called on congress to ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, to strengthen background checks for gun buyers, and to withdraw legal immunity for gun manufacturers. In the weeks leading up to Biden’s speech, the US had been rocked by a series of gun massacres, including the attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in May that left ten people dead; the attack on a school in Uvalde, Texas, two weeks ago, in which 21 people were killed; and the killing of two doctors, and two others, at a clinic…

“Many people yearn for a press that is fairer and more balanced. They deprecate partisanship, and sometimes admiringly point to more even-handed American newspapers. Yet it is the outrageous partiality of British publications that often leads to light being shone into the murkier recesses of our political life. Without the Boris Johnson-hating Daily Mirror, we wouldn’t know about Partygate. Without the Keir Starmer-loathing Daily Mail, there would be no Beergate. Investigations require enormous stamina, and this stamina has to be fuelled by political animosity. We need newspapers that know how to take on their enemies.” Stephen Glover in The Oldie…

The pandemic has taught us how to count James Kirkup The Times In today’s welfare state, an accurate people count is a key policy tool, says James Kirkup. It informs housing targets and a host of other decisions. Yet, sad to say, we’re bad at counting. Why? Since 1841, we’ve relied on a once-a-decade census to determine population size and distribution – and as a result, shifts within that period go unnoticed. “The three million EU residents thought to be in Britain at the time of Brexit turned out to exceed five million.” At local level, census figures are even less reliable: Slough lost millions of pounds as a census had vastly underestimated its population size. Thanks to the pandemic, though, we’ve been alerted to a far better counting method:…

Diabetes linked to brain ageing Type 2 diabetes is already known to have a host of life-threatening complications, including kidney disease and stroke. Now a study has found that the condition may also accelerate brain ageing and cognitive decline. Researchers in New York analysed data on 20,000 adults from the UK Biobank project, who were aged 50 to 80. Around 1,000 of the participants had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and the researchers found that these people tended to perform less well in cognitive tests than the others. On average, they performed 13% worse in tests of their ability to plan complex tasks, and nearly 7% worse in tests that measured their mental-processing speed. Scans also showed that parts of the brains of the diabetics were shrinking at a…

Many people responded with understandable cynicism last week, said Charles Moore in The Daily Telegraph, when the Government launched a review to restore the rights of imperial measurements against metric ones. But even if the move was just an attempt to distract attention from Boris Johnson’s political travails, it addresses a legitimate issue. The fact is, many Britons have never warmed to the metric system, first introduced here in 1965, and would be happy to see greater use of the imperial one. These ancient measurements are easier to relate to: you can see where feet and stone came from, and “understand why an acre (meaning ‘field’) arose from how much an ox-drawn plough could manage in a day”. For some internationally traded goods – medical equipment, say, or precision tools…

It should have been a moment of undiluted triumph, said Tumaini Carayol in The Guardian. In Sunday’s French Open final, Rafael Nadal romped past Norway’s Casper Ruud to win 6-3, 6-3, 6-0, proving yet again why he is the “king of clay”. The victory – the Spaniard’s 14th at the tournament – moves his grand slam tally to 22, two clear of both Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. It also made him, at 36, the oldest ever male champion at Roland Garros. Yet after the match, there was a “bittersweet feeling in the Parisian air”, said Simon Briggs in The Daily Telegraph. For, as Nadal admitted, his career “hangs in the balance”. He has long suffered from Mueller-Weiss syndrome, a disease which restricts the flow of blood to a bone…

Tories are too tentative To The Times A century ago Tory MPs got rid of their coalition prime minister, David Lloyd George, and their own party leader, Austen Chamberlain, within an hour at a meeting in the Carlton Club. The party must rediscover the capacity to settle changes of leadership briskly when the need arises. This has not happened since November 1990, when overwhelming pressure was brought to bear on Margaret Thatcher by her most senior colleagues. Monday’s vote brings into focus once again the faulty processes by which Tory leaders are chosen. The final decision ought to rest with MPs, as it did until 2001, when an ever-shrinking party membership was given the right to select the leader. The party at large has long-established channels through which to make…

Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov, 1957 (Penguin £9.99). Maybe my favourite novel, much better than Lolita. A Russian academic tries to find a permanent home in America. Nothing dramatic happens, but the world he left behind is full of the horrors of 20th century European history. Part of its charm is that, at the height of the Cold War, Pnin loves America, and most of the Americans he meets “get” Pnin. Black Boy by Richard Wright, 1945 (Vintage £9.99). Wright’s novelised memoir of his often brutal childhood in the American South. Somehow he manages to write as clearly, and critically, about himself and his own family as he does about the deeply racist and oppressive society in which he grew up. An incredible book. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, 1853 (Penguin £6.99).…

Programmes The 15 Billion Pound Railway With the long-awaited Elizabeth line finally open in London, engineers and staff race against time to fix bugs in the system’s software. Sun 12 Jun, BBC2 20:00 (60mins). Our Falklands War: A Frontline Story Ten servicemen who fought alongside each other 40 years ago talk about the war and how it changed their lives. Sun 12 Jun, BBC2 21:00 (90mins). Sherwood New six-part drama, starring David Morrissey and Lesley Manville. Police investigate two murders in a Nottingham village still haunted by the 1984 miners’ strike. Mon 13 & Tue 14 Jun, BBC1 21:00 (60mins each). The Real Derry: Jamie-Lee O’Donnell The Derry Girls actress visits her home city to discover what life is really like for its young people and the divisions that still…

Sherwood Forest getaway A romantic cabin for two in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire. Three nights from £895 (two sharing), self-catered. 0333-011 0495, forestholidays.co.uk. Arrive 8 July. Glaciers of Iceland Tour the wonders of Iceland, including icebergs, glaciers, hot springs and volcanoes. 5 nights from £1,695pp b&b (including London flights). 0117-453 4770, regent-holidays.co.uk. Arrive 11 August. Romantic Barbados break Spend 4 nights at the Crystal Cove resort, with a beach offering a range of water sports. From £1,541pp all-incl. (including London flights). 0344-472 9646, virginholidays.co.uk. Arrive 23 September. Six nights in the Algarve Stay at the clifftop São Rafael Atlântico hotel and spa in Albufeira. 6 nights from £492pp b&b (including London flights). 0871-277 1070, lastminute.com. Arrive 23 September. Covid-19: please check government websites for testing and quarantine requirements, and the…

Woodford/Link: multimillion pound claim Finally, the chance of redress for some of the thousands of investors who lost their shirts owing to the 2019 collapse of a fund run by “the former star stockpicker” Neil Woodford, said Kalyeena Makortoff in The Guardian. The London law firm Harcus Parker has launched an initial claim on behalf of 1,500 people, and is “aiming to recoup at least £18m”. But Woodford himself “is not the target”; the administrator, Link Fund Solutions, is in the cross hairs for “failing in its duty to protect investors”. Lawyers expect to expand the suit to represent at least 7,000 claimants – piling pressure on Link, which is also fighting an action from another firm, Leigh Day, representing 12,000 investors. The Harcus Parker claim was filed on the…

How bad will things get in the US? Irwin Stelzer The Sunday Times Last week, the US Fed belatedly said “goodbye QE, hello QT”, says Irwin Stelzer. Instead of buying asset-based securities to keep their prices up (quantitative easing), it will be reducing its stash (quantitative tightening) in the hopes of shrinking a balance sheet bloated by more than $4.5trn since the pandemic set in. It took its time, while vainly waiting for “transitory” inflation to cure itself. The challenge now is to tighten without provoking a recession or “a deep, prolonged setback”. What are the odds? The messages, almost everywhere you look, are mixed. Consumer sentiment is weak – “two in three Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction”. Yet these same unhappy consumers are also…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1315 An Ettinger shoe horn 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 20 June. Send it to The Week Crossword 1315, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid or listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive an Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) Bridle Hide travel shoehorn in black, which retails at £75, and two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Can be prisoner in play (6,7) 9 Stone me! Earl and Duke mixing outside (7) 10 Grumble by one about National Trust in a state (7) 12 Meet Carol after work – she’ll turn up eventually (9) 14 Survey on two clubs…