Innholdsfortegnelse for 1401 i The Week

When Liz Truss rose to address the Commons last Thursday morning on her second day as Prime Minister, she already knew that the 96-year-old Queen did not have long to live. The Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case, had reportedly informed her at about 9.30am that the monarch was ailing and that it was a “matter of hours, not days”. A few hours later, the gravity of the situation became clear to the wider public when the BBC interrupted Bargain Hunt, at 12.39pm, to report Buckingham Palace’s statement that doctors were “concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision”. The BBC’s schedule was then suspended in favour of rolling news, as members of the royal family hastened to the Queen’s bedside in Balmoral. Shortly after 6.30pm, Buckingham…

I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service,” vowed a fresh-faced Princess Elizabeth on her 21st birthday. She stood by those words during a life that was long – so long that few people alive today can remember a time before Queen Elizabeth II, said Stephen Bates in The Guardian. She ascended the throne when Winston Churchill was still in Downing Street; the last of the 15 prime ministers who served her was not even born until ten years after his death. She met 13 US presidents, from Harry S. Truman to Joe Biden, and countless other world leaders. Some were villainous. Once, walking her dogs in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, she hid behind a bush…

During one of his parents’ long overseas tours, a five-year-old Prince Charles flew out to meet them in Tobruk, Libya. He hadn’t seen his mother for months, yet to the surprise of onlookers, she greeted the child with a formal handshake, said The Times. Hugs would have to wait until they were in private. The Queen was not, it was said, a demonstrative woman; her parenting style was restrained and old-fashioned – something that would put her at odds with Diana, Princess of Wales. In his authorised biography, Jonathan Dimbleby would describe Charles’s childhood as lonely, and his parents as emotionally distant. This depiction was disputed by Princess Anne, said the Daily Mail. She insisted that, although their mother had often been absent, and protocol dictated that her children had…

Oberlin, Ohio Bakery receives payout: Oberlin College, a liberal arts college, has agreed to pay $36.6m to a local bakery that claims it was falsely accused of racism, after a black student was caught shoplifting there. In November 2016, a member of staff at Gibson’s Bakery, a family business, restrained a student who had been trying to steal wine, leading to a fracas with two other black students. Oberlin students, believing the incident to be racially motivated, responded with protests and boycotts. Senior college staff handed out flyers claiming the bakery was a “RACIST establishment”. However, the accused student later admitted to theft, and recognised that his arrest was justified. The ensuing five-year legal battle ended last month when Ohio’s supreme court rejected the college’s attempt to appeal a 2019…

Finding the right words To The Times When the Queen’s death was announced I was in the audience at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, waiting for Richard III to begin. Instead, the director, Gregory Doran, came on stage and gave an improvised speech in praise of Her Majesty made up of quotes from Shakespeare. It was a memorable and moving moment when history, culture and art converged. It was also quintessentially British. As he said: “Shakespeare always had the words for it.” John Crampton, Warwick Finding le mot juste To The Daily Telegraph As a Frenchman, I can assure you of the deep admiration and affection for Queen Elizabeth among my compatriots. In a much too rare display of friendship to the British people, Emmanuel Macron found the mot…

“I have a friend in academia who is dreading going back. It’s the threat of the harsh and anonymous student feedback collected and sent to him and his bosses at the end of each term that’s got inside his head. ‘Which one of you cowards said that?’ he thinks, when he stares down his sweet-looking students at lectures. Mankind cannot bear too much feedback. It’s the curse of the teenage sleepover: when everyone starts talking about the girl who has fallen asleep, only to find out years later she wasn’t really asleep. Just permanently scarred. A colleague of my friend had it worse. Students fed back that ‘he has a baby’s head grafted on a man’s body’. He has since exited the profession.” Helen Rumbelow in The Times…

With its opening day lost to rain, and its second to national mourning, England’s third and deciding Test against South Africa at the Oval had to be reduced to a three-day game. But in the event it made no difference, said Ali Martin in The Guardian. England needed barely more than two days to claim yet another “rapid-fire” victory and bring a memorable summer of Test cricket to a hugely satisfying close. These past few months have shown just how significant a change in personnel at the top can be, said Mike Atherton in The Times. When Ben Stokes was appointed England’s Test captain in April, he inherited a side cripplingly short of confidence, having managed just one victory in its previous 17 matches. Yet without significantly altering the side’s…

The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk, 2008 (Faber £10.99). Pamuk should be with you on every trip to Turkey. I also love Istanbul: Memories and the City, especially when winter presses down on the Bosporus. This novel is about a doomed love affair that took place as Istanbul embraced modernity in the mid-20th century. Pamuk even created a real-life museum of innocence in Istanbul, full of relics left by the tragic lovers and their time. River of Time by Jon Swain, 1995 (Vintage £9.99). This is Swain’s memoir of his time as a young journalist in the last years of the wars in Indo-China. It’s about love, beauty and brutality as Saigon and Phnom Penh fell in 1975. I’ve given a copy to my daughter who is going to…

Programmes Hitler: The Lost Tapes Documentary series exploring the public and private lives of the Nazi leader through the images produced by Heinrich Hoffmann, his official photographer, and Eva Braun, his lover. Sat 17 Sept, C4 20:00 (60mins). Crossfire Tense three-part thriller starring Keeley Hawes: when gunmen invade a luxury resort, Jo’s family holiday turns into a nightmare. Mon 19, Tue 20 and Wed 21 Sept, BBC1 21:00 (60mins each). Sensationalists: The Bad Girls and Boys of British Art Keith Allen narrates this three-part account of the rise of the Young British Artists, who featured in 1997’s Sensation exhibition. Tue 20 Sept, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Storyville: One Day in Ukraine Documentary following the lives of ordinary civilians and activists living under siege during one day of the war, in March…

Florida & the Caribbean See Turks and Caicos and the Dominican Republic during a 7-nights cruise on the Marella Discovery. From £1,509pp allincl. (including Manchester flights). 020-3636 1862, tui.co.uk. Depart 7 May 2023. All-inclusive Crete break A 7-night getaway at the 5-star Serita Beach Hotel, with its own private stretch of sand. From £299pp, including London flights. 020-7183 2819, planmytour.co.uk. Depart 15 April 2023. 5-star Ischia hotel Located at the heart of the island, a 4-night stay at the Terme Manzi Hotel and Spa costs from £216pp b&b (two sharing, excluding flights). 020-3608 0135, secretescapes.com. Arrive 19 October. Austrian escape for two Stay 3 nights in a one-bed apartment at the Ramada Residences by Wyndham Saalfelden. From £135pp b&b, excluding flights 0800-031 9066, bookaresidence.com. Arrive 20 October. Covid-19: please check…

Shares in De La Rue “have risen sharply” in anticipation of new business imprinting the likeness of King Charles III on some 4.7 billion UK bank notes, said Lex in the FT. Given the likely staggered introduction, the optimism seems “misplaced”. CEO Clive Vacher has been streamlining a business “already diminished by the loss of a contract to print UK passports”, and the sale of its citizen “identity” business – now at the mercy of rivals that are willing to sell at cost-price or below. A decade ago, De La Rue was worth £1bn; today it is valued at just £200m. It will take more than a new monarch to revive its fortunes.…

Dark clouds loom as a great era ends Jeremy Warner The Sunday Telegraph “In one respect at least, the second Elizabethan age has ended up as it began – with a nation up to its neck in debt,” says Jeremy Warner. Sadly, the crucial difference between now and the straitened early 1950s is that then there was “a sense of hope, and a better future to come”. That hope was more than fulfilled. “While there have been crises aplenty” over the past 70 years, the great bulk of Britons have “known only rising living standards and growing wealth”. Recent events have shattered such comfortable expectations. “Whereas the public debt overhang at the start of the late Queen’s reign was on a strongly declining trajectory”, three extraordinarily costly state-financed bailouts in…

The week’s best shares Accesso Technology Group The Sunday Times Accesso’s virtual queuing and ticketing software helps theme park and theatre operators to gain efficiency, reduce labour costs and optimise revenue. This Reading-based tech firm is highly cash-generative with repeat customers. Buy. 578p. DS Smith The Times Shares in the packaging supplier have had a torrid year on economic fears. Yet it has proved that it can handle adverse conditions – revenue is up 26%, profits by 71%, and the yield should rise too. Buy. 263p. EnQuest The Times A “scavenger” oil firm, this nimble operator feasts off declining North Sea assets shed by big players offloading “uneconomic” wells. Also investing in decarbonisation and green hydrogen. Profits and production are up. Buy. 31.15p. Midwich Group Investors’ Chronicle The audiovisual hardware…

World leaders went “far beyond the diplomatic formalities demanded by protocol” in sharing their reflections on the Queen and her role on the world stage, said The Times. In a tribute of “remarkable elegance”, France’s President Macron wrote that: “She who stood with the giants of the 20th century on the path of history has now left to join them.” Joe Biden ordered all flags on US government buildings to be flown at half-mast until her funeral. Similar gestures were made in scores of countries (see below). The “warmth and generosity of the tributes” is a testament to the Queen’s status as “the world’s longest-serving head of state”, a woman who had met more world leaders than anyone else on the planet by the end of her reign. And it…

It was often said that the Queen was never more relaxed than in the company of her dogs. Her love of corgis began when she was a child and her father acquired a dog named Dookie. He was an ill-tempered little animal, but the princess loved him – and aged 18, she was given her own Pembroke corgi, Susan, who became her near-constant companion. All of the 30 or so corgis and dorgis (a dachshund cross) owned by the Queen were descended from Susan, until the death of Willow, in 2018. Then, in 2021, Prince Andrew gave her two new puppies (which he and his ex-wife will now care for). She also bred gun dogs; and at Sandringham, she kept racing pigeons. But racehorses were her passion. The Royal Stud…

The Queen famously said that she had to be “seen to be believed”, and her wardrobe was designed with this in mind. On her walkabouts, official visits and openings, this “diminutive but sturdy figure” would be dressed from top to toe in a single rainbow colour as “solid and bright as a Cluedo piece”, said Jess Cartner-Morley in The Guardian. She knew that people had come to see her; she wanted them to be able to spot her in the crowd. Her outfits – a plain knee-length coat layered over a dress, set off by neutral accessories – were sharply cut, elegant and unshowy. Her shoes were sensible: low-heel loafers that were broken in for her by a member of staff because she couldn’t risk blisters. As unchanging and dependable…

To The Times In 1954 the Queen visited Bradford. My mother took me, aged seven, and my brother, aged nine, to watch her arrival at the town hall. All we saw was the roof of her Rolls-Royce, and we were in tears. So our mother took us to see her departure from Manningham station. Again, we couldn’t get anywhere near. Tears again. My resourceful mother then led us along a street or two, darted down an alley, pushed us up on a wall, and told us to watch and wait. After the music and cheering at the station died down, half-a-mile to our right the royal train drew towards us. Behind a glass carriage door stood our Queen and Prince Philip. They had thrown off their coats, and stood together…

Guardian angel of the special relationship Oliver Wiseman RealClearPolitics Among the Queen’s many talents, says Oliver Wiseman, was her extraordinary ability to beguile American presidents. She met 13 of them during her reign – every commander-in-chief from Harry Truman to Joe Biden, with the sole exception of Lyndon B. Johnson – and she reduced many to “overexcited fanboys”. While preparing for an important European tour in 1982, Ronald Reagan fretted about having the right gear to go horseback riding with the Queen. Jimmy Carter was so nervous on meeting her that he accidentally kissed the Queen Mother on the lips. Even the “usually cool-headed” Barack Obama confessed that he struggled to maintain his composure when he met her. It wasn’t just the pageantry and the Queen’s “unparalleled fame” that disarmed…

Currently, doctors can only diagnose Parkinson’s by assessing a patient’s symptoms and medical history. Now, however, researchers are developing a swab test for the disease that works in just three minutes. The project was inspired by Joy Milne, a retired nurse with a sensitive nose, who noticed, years ago, that her husband Les was giving off a strange musty odour, especially from his neck and back. When Les was diagnosed with Parkinson’s more than a decade later, she realised that other patients she met at a support group had the same smell – and put two and two together. Since then, the University of Manchester team has analysed sebum samples from around 150 people, half of whom had Parkinson’s, and found scores of compounds that are unique to Parkinson’s sufferers.…

“Booker shortlists are usually sombre affairs”, stuffed with “long, grave, chin-stroking novels”, said Robbie Millen in The Times. But “praise be, not this year”: under the chairmanship of Neil MacGregor, the judges have remembered something important – that “most people read for pleasure in their spare time”. They’ve produced what is “by far the funniest shortlist in years”, with three novels that “made me laugh out loud”. All three are political satires, which use humour to tackle serious subjects. In NoViolet Bulawayo’s Animal Farm-inspired Glory (Chatto & Windus £18.99), Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe is reimagined as an animal kingdom headed by the “corrupt Old Horse and his Gucci-wearing donkey wife”. Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Sort of Books £16.99) is another work that “fizzes with energy and ideas”:…

• To remove stains from tarnished copper and brass, use brown sauce. Paint it on thickly with a brush and leave it to sit before washing off. Then polish up with Brasso. • To remove stickers cleanly, try gently warming them. If you still end up with residue, use lighter fluid or WD40 to remove it. Avon Skin So Soft oil also works (and is good for repelling mosquitoes, too). • A dry duster just moves dust around; instead, use a vacuum upholstery nozzle to remove layers on books and behind things. Try damp dusting instead of spray polish: wring out a cloth in water and wipe surfaces free of dust. Regularly dunk the cloth and change the water when it looks very dirty. • For ring marks, try rubbing…

The UK now has “considerable experience rolling out vast, multibillion-pound support packages to cushion households and the economy”, said Helen Thomas in the FT. The pandemic furlough scheme had to be extended four times. The new PM, Liz Truss, “appears to have learnt from that”. Her pledge to cap the average household energy bill at £2,500 lasts for fully two years – a sensible timespan, given that “futures markets suggest wholesale gas prices could be very high next winter and stay elevated into 2025”. The scale of support, from a leader who once “eschewed the very idea of handouts” is also welcome. But there remain “crucial questions” for households and businesses and, ultimately, the taxpayer. Although government borrowing will initially take the strain, “it remains unclear” how the estimated £150bn-£170bn…

As news of the Queen’s death spread, flags were lowered to half-mast everywhere from Brussels to Cuba; flowers were laid on the streets of Kyiv and Tokyo; God Save the Queen echoed across the canals of Venice. The Eiffel Tower dimmed its lights; major landmarks, from the Sydney Opera House to the Brandenburg Gate, Jerusalem’s Old City wall and the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, were illuminated with images of the Queen, or in red, white and blue. In Hong Kong, people mourned the loss of the woman they referred to as “boss lady”; across the Commonwealth and beyond, leaders past and present expressed their condolence. The Queen was greeted by a million people when she arrived in Washington on her first state visit in 1957,…

Copenhagen Asylum agreement: Denmark is moving ahead with plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing. The country passed a law back in 2021 which would allow the government to set up an asylum centre outside the EU; now, the two nations are in talks about the “mechanism” by which a transfer of refugees could take place, Copenhagen announced this week. The countries’ declaration of mutual cooperation specifies that they are working together to enable asylum seekers to remain in Rwanda after processing. It’s not clear if they would be obliged to stay. If a deal is reached, it would make Denmark the first EU country to set up an offshore processing centre. Denmark’s ruling Social Democratic Party – led by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen – was elected on…

The lyrics of the national anthem have changed to “God Save the King”. Her Majesty’s Government has become His Majesty’s Government; HMS now stands for His Majesty’s Ship; the Bar Council has announced that QCs, Queen’s Counsels, have become KCs. But after 70 years of rule, the Queen’s image and symbols are embedded in our national life, and changing many of these will take years. There are 4.5 billion sterling bank notes in circulation with the Queen’s face on them, worth a combined £80bn. These will be slowly replaced over a matter of years, and new coins will be minted with King Charles III’s likeness; the portrait changes orientation with each reign, so he will face left. Postage stamps will be redesigned, too. This will happen, a Royal Mail source…

Alagiah’s life with cancer George Alagiah has lived with cancer for the best part of eight years, says Peter Stanford in The Sunday Telegraph. He was first diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in 2014; since then, it has spread to his lungs, and he has a “tumour site” at the base of his back. During that time, he has promoted the message that you can live, and live well, with cancer; he has continued to read the news on the BBC, and has retained a positive outlook on life. But he also asks himself if he will “be around tomorrow”; and “when it comes to my family, I still have this sense of…” He stumbles briefly, and his tone changes. “One of the things I want to do is…

The “lazy stoner” trope is a myth Have “stoners” had a bad rap? There’s a common perception – reinforced by countless films and TV series – that regular cannabis users are slow-talking layabouts. But according to new research, the lazy pothead stereotype is false, and users are no more likely to lack drive or motivation than non-users. The University of Cambridge study involved 274 adults and adolescents who said they’d used cannabis at least weekly over the preceding three months, and a similar number of nonusers, all of whom performed tests and filled in questionnaires to assess their levels of apathy and anhedonia (loss of interest in, or pleasure from rewards). Cannabis users were found to be slightly better at enjoying themselves than non-users, but there was little difference in…

People have been saying it for some time, and now we know it’s true, said Simon Briggs in The Daily Telegraph: the “Spanish prodigy” Carlos Alcaraz is the “future of men’s tennis”. On Sunday night at Flushing Meadows, Alcaraz confirmed his status as the sport’s new superstar by claiming an “extraordinary treble in New York”. First, he won his maiden grand slam title by beating Casper Ruud of Norway 6-4, 2-6, 7-6, 6-3. Second, at the age of 19 years and 130 days, he became “the youngest man to claim the world No. 1 ranking, smashing Lleyton Hewitt’s record by more than 16 months”. Third – and perhaps most significantly – he “won over the 24,000 fans in Arthur Ashe Stadium as if he were an American”. Not only is…

Tennis Iga Świątek of Poland, the world No. 1, claimed her first US Open – and the third grand slam of her career – by beating Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 6-2, 7-6 (7-5). F1 Max Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix to claim his 11th victory of the season. The Dutchman now leads the drivers’ table by 116 points. Golf The PGA Championship at Wentworth – reduced to 54 holes following the death of Queen Elizabeth – was won by Shane Lowry. In the final round, the Irishman hit 65 – enough to hold off Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm by a single shot.…

Running time: 2hrs 40mins In an “illuminating” essay in the programme for this terrific staging of Tennessee Williams’s semi-autobiographical memory play, Rosanna Vize explains that when the production was postponed during the pandemic, she completely overhauled her design. A sign for the Paradise dance hall, originally tiny, now dominates an almost bare stage. “Its huge neon letters hang over the action, slowly revolving, as if to taunt” the unhappy Wingfield household below. The effect is “tremendous, ironic, melancholic”, said Susannah Clapp in The Observer. The sign glows or dims, spins faster or slower, according to the momentum of the play, said Mark Fisher in The Guardian. Typical of a production that is “as intelligent as it is adventurous”, this boldness lets us see Williams’s “tale of thwarted desire afresh”. Some…

Advanced scanning technologies have given art historians new insights into Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece The Milkmaid (c.1660), said Bruno Waterfield in The Times. Scans have revealed Vermeer’s preliminary sketches, and show that the famously plain Dutch interior depicted in the painting was originally much less plain: Vermeer included a row of jugs on the wall, for instance, and a fire basket, used for keeping babies warm, on the floor (above), but later painted over them. “It took great effort to achieve the simplicity of his work,” said Taco Dibbits, director of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which undertook the research. “We tend to look at Vermeer’s paintings like photographs,” he said, believing “that they depict reality, a snapshot. These discoveries show he carefully and with great effort composes these paintings.” The research…

Lily is delighted when Russ suggests they buy their dream flat in Felpersham. Tracy tries to talk to Chelsea about her pregnancy but ends up yelling at her. The next morning, Tracy finds that Chelsea has run away. Panicked, she contacts Harrison, who files a report. As everyone rallies around to distribute flyers, Tracy is beside herself. Lily comments to Russ on how sweet he’s always been to Chelsea. Later, Brad admits to Tracy that he thinks Chelsea had a crush on Russ. Tracy confronts Russ, calling him a predator. Russ denies everything, but Lily wonders to Freddie if it’s true. As Russ and Lily argue, she lets slip about her earlier one-night stand and Russ says it’s over. Tracy gets a text from an unknown number claiming to be…

Serves 4 400g good-quality sausage meat (or 8 nice sausages, skins discarded) 70g stoned dried prunes, finely chopped 1 tbsp finely chopped sage 1½ tsp fennel seeds 1 x 320g pack ready-rolled puff pastry 1 egg, beaten with a splash of milk 1 tbsp sesame seeds pepper For the mustardy chicory salad: creamy mustard dressing (made by whisking 67ml of olive oil, 1 tbsp of red-wine vinegar, 1½ tsp Dijon mustard, 1 tbsp lemon juice, salt and pepper) 4 heads of red and/or white chicory or radicchio, leaves halved lengthways 8 radishes, halved a handful of parsley leaves 1 tbsp capers, soaked if salted • Preheat the oven to 220°C. • Put the sausage meat in a bowl with the prunes, sage and fennel seeds, grind in some pepper and combine…

All the flowers supplied by Arena Flowers are sourced from ethical suppliers and Fairtrade farms. There is a subscription service from £25 (arenaflowers.com). Floom is an online marketplace for smaller local florists. Check the postcode of the delivery address to see which bouquets are available. Free delivery for first-time users if you spend more than £50 (floom.com). Bunches is a family-owned business that dispatches flowers quickly to anywhere in the UK. The company uses plastic-free packing, recyclable wrapping and compostable flower food (bunches.co.uk). Floward claims to provide the fastest delivery service for flowers and other gifts. Customers can place orders any time up to 8pm for same-day delivery in London until 10pm. Prices start at £25 (floward.co.uk). Founded in 1949 and family-run, Smith & Munson grows premium-quality seasonal flowers –…

The wild side of Tenerife Most visitors to Tenerife stay in the big resorts of the arid south. The north of the island is very different, says Oliver Smith in National Geographic Traveller – a rainier, greener, wilder world of “brooding” blacks- and beaches, spectacular sea cliffs and “mist-shrouded” mountains. The most graceful of its historic towns and villages is Garichico, but Puerto de la Cruz, La Orotava (the highest town in Spain) and the university town of La Laguna are delightful, too. Be sure to visit the Cueva del Viento – the Cave of the Wind – a labyrinth of natural lava tunnels that was sacred to the pre-Hispanic Guanche people; take the cable car up Mount Teide, Spain’s highest peak; and hike through the otherworldly laurel forests of…

Rupert Soames While his older brother, Sir Nicholas, has been doing the rounds of TV studios discussing royal matters, the Serco boss – who has just announced his departure – has become the toast of the business world. When Soames arrived in 2014, he inherited a vast clean-up job, likening Serco to a horse “in a pile of manure”, said Alistair Osborne in The Times. The outsourcer was then under investigation “after overcharging for tagging criminals”, some of whom were already dead. A culture of dodgy accounting prevailed. Soames, Sir Winston Churchill’s grandson, knew he’d take a kicking (“that’s why I have a big arse”), but persevered and turned Serco round, while rivals Carillion and Interserve went bust. He bowed out with typical verve, stating: “It is now time for…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1329 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 26 September. Send it to The Week Crossword 1329, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/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 Slip on mountain pass and crack up (8) 5 Duck, one of a pair flying out of two-wheeled vehicle? (6) 9 Ten years of eccentric Einstein? (8) 10 Cans drunk with Ed Balls (6) 12 Older PM of old (5) 13 They may be…