Innholdsfortegnelse for 1407 i The Week

Just weeks ago, political obituaries were writing him off as the “nearly man of modern UK politics”, said Peter Walker and Pippa Crerar in The Guardian. Allies were suggesting he might even leave Westminster and move to California to resume a finance career. But in a dizzying comeback, Rishi Sunak instead made history this week by becoming Britain’s first Prime Minister of colour – and, at the age of 42, its youngest leader since Napoleonic times. After his predecessor, Liz Truss, abruptly resigned last week (see page 22), Sunak reassembled his summer campaign team, who quickly got to work on gathering Tory MPs’ nominations. Such was the team’s momentum that within four days, they comfortably saw off other potential rivals and secured an uncontested coronation for Sunak, without him saying…

“No vote, no debate, no interview, no scrutiny, no accountability and definitely no general election.” The Tory Party certainly seems to have a strange way of picking our leaders for us, said Kevin Maguire in the Daily Mirror. Having foisted the disastrous Liz Truss upon the nation just a few weeks ago, they’ve now decided that Rishi Sunak is the man to lead our country – although this time around, not even the 160,000 or so Conservative members had a say. Instead, it was 357 Tory MPs who “parachuted him into Downing Street”, after hashing out grubby deals “behind closed doors”. Never mind that Sunak has “no mandate” for the austerity he threatens to unleash on the nation; this is how democracy works under our “Tory tinpot tyranny”. Actually, that’s…

A quarter of British parents do not know the facts of the festival of Diwali. By contrast, half of children aged 6-15 are aware of most of these: that Hindus, Jains and Sikhs celebrate it by spring cleaning, wearing new clothes, exchanging gifts, enjoying festive meals, lighting up their homes and attending firework displays. YouGov/The i Paper Concern about climate change has fallen globally, with 48.7% saying in 2021 that it poses a “very serious threat” to their country, down by 1.5% since 2019. Gallup World Risk/The Guardian 57% of Tory voters now think the party made the wrong decision by forcing Boris Johnson out. Redfield & Wilton Strategies/The Daily Telegraph…

An unlikely WAG Poppy Adams is not a stereotypical footballer’s wife. Born into the Teacher’s whisky family, she grew up in rural Kent and was privately educated before going up to Oxford. But her husband, ex-Arsenal and England player Tony Adams, is not a regular footballer, either, says Megan Agnew in The Sunday Times. Having spent years battling chronic alcoholism, he had sobered up by the time they met, and reinvented himself as a mental health campaigner. All he wanted was a quiet, loving home life, and he got it: the couple live in the Cotswolds, with five kids, dogs, pigs and chickens. At first, it worried her that he didn’t talk to her about the demons that drove him to drink. “Now I love it – he goes to…

More than 15,000 Ukrainians have signed up to join a mass orgy if Russia unleashes a nuclear bomb on the country. Organisers of the planned sex party urged people to eschew atomic bunkers in favour of a hill near Kyiv, where they’d be encouraged to decorate their hands with coloured stripes to show their sexual preferences. Three stripes are to signify a penchant for anal sex; four stripes are for those who prefer oral. “It’s the opposite of despair”, said one Kyiv woman. “Even in the worst scenario, people are looking for something good.” Students at a college in the Philippines were asked to design headgear that would prevent them peeking at others’ papers during exams last week. The resulting “anti-cheating hats” – made from cardboard, egg boxes and anything…

Every doctor practising in Britain has to register with the General Medical Council, and last year half of those who did so were International Medical Graduates (IMGs) – i.e. had been trained outside the UK and European Economic Area. Only 39%, says The Times, had graduated from medical schools in the UK. In 2017, UK graduates made up 53% of doctors joining the workforce, and IMGs 32%. “Our health services couldn’t function without IMGs,” said Charlie Massey, chief executive of the GMC: “this reliance puts healthcare systems in a precarious position. Not only is the flow of IMGs into the UK unpredictable, our data shows that IMGs leave the UK workforce at a higher rate.” He urged employers to give more structured support to IMGs as they adjust to life…

At Ashdown House, the smart prep school I attended in the 1970s, child abuse was rife, said Alex Renton in the Daily Mail. Predatory masters would stick their hands down boys’ shorts, take favourites back to their rooms and make whole dormitories of pupils strip. They rarely got into trouble, even when parents complained. At worst, they’d be quietly moved on to work at other schools. Thanks to the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), published last week, that sort of egregious negligence may at last be banished to history. The inquiry, established in 2015 in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, investigated the prevalence in England and Wales of sexual assaults against minors in institutions such as schools, care homes and churches, hearing…

“Rarely has a match orbited so much around the absent,” said Tom Kershaw in The Sunday Times. When a late penalty put Chelsea ahead in Saturday’s game against Manchester United – with only three minutes of normal time remaining – the post-match analysis seemed destined to focus on the sensational absence of club legend Cristiano Ronaldo. But Casemiro equalised in extra time, and the decision to drop the Portuguese striker looked amply justified. “There can be few doubts that United are a more dynamic, coherent and quite frankly entertaining side without the anchor of its enervated superego.” It was a watershed moment for the team and “another passed litmus test for Erik ten Hag”, their manager. Ronaldo’s season, his second since a celebrated return to his former club, has not…

Athletics Eilish McColgan’s British and European records for the 10,000m have been scrubbed after the Great Scottish Run, in which she set them, was discovered to be 150m too short. The reigning Commonwealth Games champion said “these things happen”, after human error was blamed for the mistake. Chess Hans Niemann has filed lawsuits in the US against world champion Magnus Carlsen, grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura and Chess.com. The 19-year-old, who has denied accusations of cheating, is seeking $100m in damages.…

Running time: 2hrs 45mins The 1988 Japanese animated film My Neighbour Totoro is a modern classic, about two girls who move to the countryside and encounter troll-like spirits who draw them into a mystical realm, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. This world-premiere stage version is already a “monster” box-office smash for the RSC; and it’s a pleasure to report that it fully lives up to the hype. Tom Morton-Smith’s stage adaptation is directed by Phelim McDermott, with music by Joe Hisaishi that augments his original film soundtrack with “soothing and stirring” songs. And it “beautifully” retains all that fans loved about the film: it has a “gentle, philosophical pace”, a “beguiling strangeness”. It’s a “triumph – a vital power surge of Anglo-Japanese creative electricity fit for these soul-sapped…

Overhearing Ben and Chelsea’s heated conversation, Brad works out that Ben is the father. Alan bides his time as Peggy proposes restoring the broken window with the new design. George tells Brad that Mia fancies him, and forces Brad to ask her out. When Brad makes a mess of things, George crows to Mia that he was behind it; Mia calls him unkind. Joy confesses to Lee that things with Mick are moving too fast for her. On hearing the rumour about Tracy, Chelsea goes to confront Natasha but on seeing the twins, she opens up to her. Natasha admits that she had an abortion as a teenager and it comes down to one question: does Chelsea want the baby? Alistair is not impressed by the flamboyant new vet nurse,…

Serves 2 2 small eating apples 1 strip of lemon zest (or orange) ½ vanilla pod ¼ tsp fennel seeds 4 large fennel flowers (optional) 1 rosemary sprig (or bay leaf) 50g honey 25g butter small pinch of salt For the crumble: 50g butter 50g light brown sugar 50g wholemeal flour (spelt or plain flour will also work) 25g ground almonds (almond meal) 50g pine nuts To serve: yoghurt or crème fraîche and double (heavy) cream • Preheat the oven to 180°C fan (400°F/gas 6). Place a large sheet of greaseproof paper over 2 sheets of foil. • Slice the apples in half horizontally and place in the middle of the greaseproof paper. Add the lemon zest, vanilla pod, fennel and rosemary. Drizzle over the honey and add the butter. • Sprinkle with…

Beamish, the Living Museum of the North, in Co Durham, explores centuries of life in the Northeast via an 1820s village, a colliery, an Edwardian station, a 1940s farm and a 1950s town (from £12; beamish.org.uk). Immerse yourself in Blists Hill Victorian Town, Ironbridge Valley of Invention in Shropshire. You can exchange money for old pounds, shillings and pence, ride a fairground and peruse a pharmacy (from £14; ironbridge.org.uk). The mini village at Ulster American Folk Park in County Tyrone charts the lives of the Irish migrants who set sail for North America in the 18th and 19th centuries. There’s a full-scale emigrant ship and New World log cabins (from £6; nmni.com). St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff brings together thousands of years of Welsh history through more…

Angela Lansbury 1925-2022 Angela Lansbury became a household name in the 1980s thanks to her role in the series Murder She Wrote. The show, about a writer and amateur sleuth, ran for 12 years and made her one of the richest women in America, with an estimated $100m fortune. But her career had begun decades earlier. Having moved from London to Hollywood during the War, she worked with some of the greatest stars of that era – from Ingrid Bergman to Spencer Tracy, Joseph Cotten to Judy Garland – before enjoying a yet more successful career on Broadway. Often cast as women far older than she was, she excelled at playing warm grandmotherly figures. But she was capable of going darker, said Alexander Larman in The Daily Telegraph. In 1961,…

HSBC kicked off the earnings season for Britain’s big listed banks, posting a “smaller-than-feared” fall in quarterly profits to $3.1bn, said Ben Martin in The Times. Like other lenders, the Asia-focused bank has been buoyed by higher interest rates as central banks globally “battle to contain inflation”. Deploying a traditional ruse, they’ve boosted their “net interest margins” by foisting higher rates onto borrowers, but not passing them on to savers. Nonetheless, HSBC’s shares took a hammering, said City AM. They tumbled to the bottom of the FTSE 100 on Tuesday after shedding more than 6% of their value. The problem probably wasn’t the appointment of a new finance chief, Georges Elhedery (now favourite to succeed Noel Quinn as chief executive), so much as the growing gap between European and Asian…

Gwen Campbell Ordinarily, a financial adviser beloved by clients is a great asset. But it’s proving quite a headache at JPMorgan, said the FT. The Wall Street bank is riven by an internal “tug of war” for rich customers, pitting its “storied private bank” against JPMorgan Advisors, its wealth advisory business. At the centre of the squabble is Gwen Campbell, who is suing her employer, claiming clients have been “ruthlessly” poached from her billion-dollar book, and that she has been locked out of JPMorgan’s systems. The author Malcolm Gladwell has come to her defence, firing off a letter to Jamie Dimon, the bank’s boss. “My life savings are with JPMorgan,” he complained, and yet “my financial adviser has been exiled like Napoleon on Elba”. Dietrich Mateschitz The creator of Red…

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A single image from last week’s Chinese Communist Party Congress underlined “the utter ruthlessness of Xi Jinping’s pursuit of absolute power”, said Con Coughlin in The Daily Telegraph. It was the sight of Hu Jintao, Xi’s predecessor as president of China, being “reluctantly but firmly escorted from the closing ceremony”. Was Hu taken ill, as officials claimed? Or, more likely, was he being humiliated, symbolically purged? Either way, the Congress was “the crowning moment” of Xi’s autocratic rule, as he began a third five-year term. That in itself is unprecedented in recent history: after Mao Zedong died in 1976, a two-term limit was imposed to ensure no leader could repeat his tyranny. But the Party lifted the ban in 2018, allowing Xi to stay in power for life, should he…

Potsdam Messing up Monet: Two weeks ago it was van Gogh; now it’s Claude Monet who has received a pelting from climate change protesters. On Sunday, two activists from Last Generation went into Potsdam’s Museum Barberini and threw mashed potato over Monet’s Haystacks and then glued themselves to the wall. “We are in a climate catastrophe and all you’re afraid of is tomato soup or mashed potatoes on a painting,” said one, referring to a recent incident at the National Gallery in London when Just Stop Oil activists threw soup at van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Haystacks, valued at $110m, is framed behind protective glass and remains undamaged. Brussels Energy price cap: The EU took a tentative step forward last week in its efforts to tackle the energy crisis, when Germany conceded…

1 Across the Universe by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, performed by The Beatles 2 And at the Hour of Death by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Vikingur Ólafsson 3 Rockaway Beach by Dee Dee Ramone, performed by The Ramones 4 Us V Them by Tyler Pope, James Murphy and Pat Mahoney, performed by LCD Soundsystem 5 I Believe in You, written and performed by Neil Young 6* Holy Affirming, Holy Denying, Holy Reconciling by George Gurdjieff, performed by Thomas de Hartmann 7 The Dangling Conversation by Paul Simon, performed by Simon & Garfunkel 8 The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Ewan MacColl, performed by Roberta Flack Book: The Red Book by Carl Jung Luxury: tarot cards * Choice if allowed only one record…

The BBC still offers excellent value for money. For £159 a year (£27.12 more than a standard annual Netflix subscription), it provides eight TV channels, 62 radio stations, international news in more than 40 languages, five orchestras, and a huge web presence, among other things. But it’s no longer a creative powerhouse in its own right. In many respects it’s now more of a commissioning body (albeit one with 22,000 employees) that buys content from independent producers. It has sold off its technology division, its publishing arm, its costume and wig department, and its main London studios. Last year, the BBC raised £3.8bn in licence fee revenue, and made £1.5bn from its commercial ventures. (In real terms, its funding has been cut by 25% since 2010.) Last year, it spent…

A screening test for dementia A simple test of memory and logic could be used to spot dementia nearly a decade before doctors are likely to detect symptoms, a new study has found. The research drew on data from around 500,000 people aged 40 to 69 who had enrolled in the UK Biobank project. As well as submitting information about their health, they had taken part in a series of tests – of problem-solving ability, reaction time, memory and grip strength. By comparing their test results to their health outcomes, the University of Cambridge team were able to see subtle variations in the scores of those who’d gone on to develop dementia. “When we looked back at patients’ histories, it became clear that they were showing some cognitive impairment several…

“I am a fighter not a quitter”, Liz Truss declared in the House of Commons last Wednesday. Yet a mere 24 hours later, she was gone – and in the Daily Star’s offices, the lettuce that had been pitted against her, to see which one wilted first, celebrated its victory, said Tom Whipple in The Times. Truss had lasted just 44 days at Downing Street. She had spent ten days more campaigning for the role of Prime Minister than being it; and now holds the dubious honour of being the shortest-serving PM in British history, having easily defeated the record set by George Canning: he served for 119 days before dying of pneumonia in 1827. When the end came, it came quickly, said Peter Walker in The Guardian. Of course,…

Series five of Netflix’s TV show The Crown is “making real-life waves”, said Autumn Brewington in The Washington Post. John Major described the glossy royal drama as a “barrel-load of nonsense”, after a trailer for the new series was released showing Prince Charles confiding to the then PM his desire for the Queen’s abdication. Then Dame Judi Dench wrote a blistering letter to The Times, complaining that “the closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism” (see page 27). Dench complained that it was “cruelly unjust” to Charles and Diana, whose marital woes the show depicts, and was misleading viewers by failing to warn that it’s not “wholly true”. Last week, Netflix bowed to…

“Cometh the hour, cometh the absolute bedlam,” said Simon Burnton in The Guardian. India vs. Pakistan – the most eagerly anticipated fixture of the men’s T20 World Cup – lived up to the hype. The mania within the 90,000-strong crowd, like nothing Melbourne Cricket Ground had seen before, peaked in the final, which contained a catch, a stumping, a no ball, a wide, and India’s match-winning batsman, Virat Kohli, being bowled off a free hit. Pakistan, who had scored 159 and reduced India to 31 for 4 in reply, “were left heartbroken”, said Mike Atherton in The Times. And it was all thanks to Kohli, India’s greatest sporting celebrity, who simply refused to be beaten. Kohli, nicknamed “The King” and married to the Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma, has struggled to…

What makes a good MP? To The New Statesman Andrew Marr makes excellent points about the changed character of MPs. In former times, many of them served “apprenticeships”, sometimes for as long as 20 years, on councils. They would learn about managing services, handling budgets and engaging with their local electorate. Eventually they might fight an unwinnable seat to demonstrate their campaigning skills and, with a fair wind, later find a safe seat. By the time they arrived in Parliament, they were likely to have developed a good base of legislative knowledge or have a specialism in a key topic such as health or housing. Les Bright, Exeter A broken system To The Guardian It is to be welcomed that IICSA has highlighted the sexual abuse that many thousands of…

by Brenna Hassett Bloomsbury Sigma 384pp £17.99 The Week Bookshop £13.99 What is the point of childhood, asked David P. Barish in The Wall Street Journal. From an evolutionary point of view, what advantage do humans receive from their uniquely slow path to maturity? In Growing Up Human, Brenna Hassett – a biological anthropologist at University College London – answers the question “admirably”. An “often hilarious writer”, Hassett begins by pointing out that human infants are “ridiculously helpless” compared with the offspring of other species. Babies come out of the womb requiring non-stop care, and take an inordinate amount of time to mature. Since all this requires considerable investment of parental resources, it’s just as well, Hassett argues, that there are some significant “payoffs to our extended childhood” – chiefly…

Henry Fuseli was “obsessed with sex”, said Mika Ross-Southall in The Daily Telegraph. Wherever he could insert a fetishistic touch into his art, he would: indeed, around a third of the works on show in this exhibition at the Courtauld – subtitled Fashion, Fantasy, Fetishism – “depict women’s backsides”. Some are “hidden, teasingly bulging under ribbons and puckered skirts”, others “exposed, often through wisps of gauze”. Typically, Fuseli’s pictures of female subjects project desire mixed with “contempt” and “mistrust”. Born in Zurich in 1741, he initially trained as a Protestant priest before reinventing himself as a writer and draughtsman in London, where his painting The Nightmare (1782) “became an overnight sensation”. Depicting a “putrid incubus” squatting on a “supine woman”, the image invited fascination and outrage. The painting is not…

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, 1920 (OUP £7.99). I’m a late convert to the work of Edith Wharton, who in the old joke “wrote like a masculine Henry James”, only twice as funny. This novel is a tragedy of emotional cowardice. Newland Archer knows that he ought to marry well-born May, but is helplessly in love with her unlucky cousin Ellen. The agony of his indecision is exquisitely unfolded. The Tortoise and The Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins, 1954 (Virago £14.99). One of the most chilling portraits of a marriage in literature. Jenkins, her eye as beady and unyielding as Austen’s, plots the sidelining of a wistful, pliant wife by her dowdy but fiercely competent rival. While it says much about sexual politics in 1950s England, it also poses…

Programmes SAS Rogue Heroes Boisterous dramatisation of Ben Macintyre’s book about the formation of the SAS during the Second World War, from Peaky Blinders creator Steve Knight. Sun 30 Oct, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). Italia 90: When Football Changed Forever On the eve of another World Cup, this three-part documentary looks back at Italia 90 and a defining moment in English football. Mon 31 Oct, C4 21:00 (60mins). Imagine… Malorie Blackman: What If? The bestselling author talks about her life and work, including the groundbreaking Noughts & Crosses series for young adults. Mon 31 Oct, BBC1 22:40 (70mins). Jimmy Akingbola Handle with Care Drawing on his own experiences, the actor examines the care system and its impact on those who come through it. Tue 1 Nov, ITV1 21:00 (60mins). Films Song…

Early Bird Sale ends 31st October THEWEEK Christmas gift subscriptions starting from just £41. 99 £31. 99 Order online: subscription.theweek.co.uk/earlybird or call: 0330 333 9494 Quoting offer code: P22XME Gift subscriptions start with the first issue in the new year. Calls charged at your standard network rate. Direct debit offer. Additional terms and payment options available with a £1O discount. Prices quoted are UK only, overseas offers also available.…

Soak up Spanish culture Spend 3 nights in downtown Barcelona at the Gran Hotel Barcino, nestled in the buzzing Gothic Quarter. From £472 (incl. Birmingham flights). 020-3564 4855, expedia.co.uk. Depart 26 February. Luxury in Cork Escape for a long weekend to the Montenotte Hotel, a short walk from the city dubbed Ireland’s culinary capital. From £301pp (incl. London flights). 020-3386 8413, bravofly.co.uk. Depart 3 March. In Cézanne’s footsteps Surround yourself in the landscape that inspired the artist. A 7-day stay in Aix-en-Provence costs from £1,975pp half-board (incl. Eurostar and tours). 01707-386700, adagio.co.uk. Depart 27 March. Peruvian adventure Stay 7 nights at the Palacio Manco Capac hotel in central Cusco, once capital of the Inca empire and the closest city to Machu Picchu. From £510pp. 020-8612 8000, booking.com. Arrive 12 January.…

Carmen Callil 1938-2022 Carmen Callil, who has died aged 84, revolutionised the book world in the early 1970s when she founded the Virago Press, London’s first feminist publishing house. She promoted the work of many contemporary female novelists, including Angela Carter, Maya Angelou and Margaret Atwood, but it was the Modern Classics series, with their distinctive green covers and bitten apple logo, for which Virago became best known. Numerous early 20th century writers, whose work had been overlooked or neglected, had their reputations revived thanks to Callil and her team, including Vera Brittain, Antonia White, Rosamond Lehmann, Rebecca West and Elizabeth Taylor. She was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1938. Her father, a barrister, had an extensive library, and she read voraciously from its shelves – Dickens, Georgette Heyer and…

Best account for in-credit interest: Nationwide The group has upped the “introductory” rate on its FlexDirect current account to “a market-leading 5%” on balances up to £1,500 for the first 12 months. After that, beware – the rate plummets to 0.25%. Best for a large balance: Virgin Savings accounts linked to current accounts offer some of the best deals on the market. Virgin’s, linked to its Money M Plus account, means you can earn 2.02% on balances up to £25,000 and 1.51% after that. Best for signing up “bribe”: Nationwide Four account providers currently offer “cash freebies” to entice new customers. NatWest and RBS are dangling £175; Lloyds, £150. Nationwide’s £200 beats the lot. Best for cashback: Santander The only bank offering cashback on bills: given rising energy costs, this…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best shares Bellway The Sunday Telegraph The house-builder’s shares are in the “bargain basement”. Near-term prospects are “highly challenging”, but uncertainty is priced in and it has £245m cash to invest in lower land prices. Buy. £17.61. Bunzl The Times Accelerating inflation and a stronger dollar are a boon for this heavily acquisitive global distributor of goods ranging from first-aid kits to coffee cups. Revenues are up, margins are healthy, and there’s potential for strong compound growth. Buy. £27.20. Diploma The Daily Telegraph Diploma supplies wiring, cables, seals and gaskets to many sectors and regions. Solid finances and a capacity to strengthen its market position through acquisitions adds up to a “stunning” opportunity. Buy. £24.44. Finsbury Growth & Income Trust The Daily Telegraph Finsbury invests…

“In the end, he was not so much the Comeback Kid, as the Comeback Kidder,” said Clár Ní Chonghaile in The New European. Boris Johnson’s fruitless “economy-class dash home” from his latest Caribbean holiday after Liz Truss’s resignation set off the kind of “breathless media stir” that the former PM lives for. He never publicly declared that he wanted to replace Truss, said Robert Hutton in The Critic, but his backers assured us he was serious about a comeback. “I’m going to do it, Dudders!” he told James Duddridge, a supportive MP. Yet there was always “a hint of desperation” around “Team Boris”. There were the photos of a “haggard, jet-lagged Johnson phoning round for support, looking like a past-it cricketer flogging hair implants”; there were the dubious claims that…

A waste company has warned that growing numbers of households are indulging in “wish-cycling”, by putting non-recyclable items into their recycling bins. Coffee cups, juice cartons, salad bags, greasy pizza boxes, crisp packets and used kitchen roll are among the most common culprits, according to Biffa, which urged the public to check labels for guidance before throwing things out. Waitrose has seen its sales of fish heads and Spam rise, by 34% and 36%, compared with last year, as even its typically affluent customers adjust to the cost-of-living crisis. A report for the supermarket also found that one in five UK shoppers have now switched from packaged to loose vegetables, and that 39% are using their freezer more.…

New York Spacey cleared: Kevin Spacey has been cleared of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy more than 30 years ago. In a case that helped end the Oscar-winner’s Hollywood career, Anthony Rapp had accused Spacey of making unwanted sexual advances towards him at a party in his flat in 1986, when they were both acting on Broadway. Rapp said that Spacey, who was then 26, had lifted him onto a bed, and pressed his groin into his hip. He had sought $40m in damages. But at the end of a three-weeklong civil trial, jurors decided that he had failed to prove his case. Spacey, who has always protested his innocence, had tears in his eyes when the jury delivered its verdict. Rapp’s allegation, first made in 2017, was followed by…

“Despite the furore (OK, sniggering) over Krishnan Guru-Murthy calling Steve Baker the C-word off-camera last week, many people, including me, found something far more offensive contained within his apology. ‘I have reached out to Steve Baker to say sorry,’ he tweeted. Reached out? No! Stop the Meghan Markle-ising of our language. Energy companies thank you for ‘reaching out’, as if you had stroked their cheek. When I check something for work, I’m told, ‘We appreciate you reaching out on this.’ Eh? I didn’t. I sent an email. I know Americanisms are here to stay, but I still baulk at being told to ‘sit with my feelings’. Any clue how I sit without them?” Carol Midgley in The Times…

Leave plastic in the ground, not in the sea Tom Chivers The i Paper Do you think green? Do you want to protect the oceans? Then stop recycling plastic, says Tom Chivers. Seriously. Though the UK does have a few advanced plastic recycling facilities, most plastic waste is still shipped off to poorer countries such as Thailand or the Philippines, where it’s negligently stored and ends up polluting waterways. A recent study estimated that “of the 37,000 tons of plastic food packaging exported annually by the Netherlands, 6,000 tons ends up in the sea”. From an environmental viewpoint, we’d do better putting our plastic waste in landfill here in the UK. Modern landfills aren’t as bad as people think. They’re lined with high-strength “geotextile” fabrics to prevent liquids polluting the…

Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, has revealed that he once mistook Gary Oldman for a cleaner on set. “He just had that look: a scruffy older bloke wearing an old pair of jeans and a T-shirt,” he recalled in his memoir. Felton, who was then 16, assumed that Oldman had just polished the floor of the Great Hall – so he squeaked his shoes on it, gave him a thumbs up and said: “Top work, mate.” How long before people forget that Liz Truss was Britain’s 56th prime minister, wondered Patrick Kidd in The Times. Alec Douglas-Home was PM for 363 days – “or about one heptatruss” – later retiring to his estate on the River Tweed. His biographer D.R. Thorpe wrote that Douglas-Home…

“The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.”Economist Thomas Sowell, quoted in The New York Times “Libertarians are like house cats. They are convinced of their fierce independence while utterly dependent on a system they don’t appreciate or understand.”John Spaulding on Twitter “A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognised.”Fred Allen, quoted on The Knowledge “There is nothing as ex as an ex-MP.”Charles Walker MP on BBC News “You can’t build up a reputation on what you are going to do.” Henry Ford, quoted in Forbes “At 18, our convictions…

To The Times John Major is not alone in his concerns that the latest series of The Crown will present an inaccurate and hurtful account of history. Indeed, the closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism. While many will recognise The Crown for the brilliant but fictionalised account of events that it is, I fear that a significant number of viewers, particularly overseas, may take its version of history as being wholly true. Given some of the wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series – that King Charles plotted for his mother to abdicate, for example – this is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent.…

by Barbara Kingsolver Faber 560pp £20 The Week Bookshop £15.99 Barbara Kingsolver’s latest novel is a retelling of David Copperfield, transposed to the “valleys of southwest Virginia at the height of America’s opioid crisis”, said James Riding in The Times. Demon Copperhead, the “rambunctious hero”, is “born in a trailer to a teenage single mother”, and grows up in a world of neglectful child protection services and dubious guardians. The characters are all recognisable from the Dickens novel – but appear in new guises: “Steerforth becomes Fast Forward, a pill-popping quarterback; Uriah Heep is U-Haul, a football coach’s errand boy”. Daring and entertaining, Demon Copperhead is “shockingly successful” – “like Dickens directed by the Coen brothers”. It’s a promising premise, not least because in its extreme inequality, post-industrial America resembles…

Shane MacGowan at Andipa Gallery In the 1980s, The Pogues became notorious for their unlikely mix of traditional Irish music and punk energy. Their lyrics were weirder still, with singer Shane MacGowan rasping expletive-ridden tales of bedsits and bars like a latter-day Baudelaire. What few realised at the time, however, was that the perma-sozzled MacGowan was also a prolific sketcher – and a rather fine one, too. Anyone familiar with his songs will find few surprises here, his artistic stock-in-trade being an anarchic Ralph Steadman-meets-Basquiat explosion of cartoonishly expressive mark-making, mostly in Biro, or more rarely, watercolour. In its course, we see all sorts of ephemera, sketched over the years: there is a raincoat-clad Bono, drinking a Guinness; an impressively impressionistic Manhattan skyline; and a Schiele-like nude necking spirits straight…

Long Friday 46 Brentwood Avenue, Newcastle upon Tyne (01912-815626) Anna Hedworth’s first restaurant, Cook House, began life in a shipping container and is now a Newcastle “favourite”, says Marina O’Loughlin in The Sunday Times. Her second, Long Friday, is another gem – the sort of place that “makes you feel instantly at home”. The interior is tiny and “cute”, with “upholstered banquettes, pot plants, a dash of neon”, and the cooking is intriguing. Confit duck and orange salad is paired with fermented red peppers, making for a “fresh reinvention of a hoary old trouper”. Curried pea and rocket fritters are “extraordinarily airy”. Desserts are more imaginative still: there’s apricot and bourbon sorbet; popcorn ice cream with almond tuile; and rosemary caramel with ricotta-stuffed doughnuts – a pairing of “actual genius”.…

• Check that your torches are working and sufficiently powerful; stock up on batteries and long-lasting candles. Make sure you have battery packs for phones and laptops, and that they are fully charged. • Put all the items you might need during a blackout – Thermos flasks, charged battery packs, matches, a first-aid kit, cash – and keep them in one box, along with a list of emergency phone numbers. Download some films and shows onto your tablet, to watch if you have enough charge. • Check if key devices that use electricity – garage doors, gates, fish tanks, stairlifts – will work without power. Keep your car filled up as pumps may be affected, and if your car is electric, keep it charged. • Conserve your phone battery in…

Architectural wonder in Vicenza It’s overshadowed by nearby Venice and Verona, but Vicenza is a rewarding destination in its own right, says Tim Jepson in The Daily Telegraph. Its cuisine is wonderful, and it has lots of appealing small shops – but its biggest boast is its association with the renowned architect Andrea Palladio, who designed 23 buildings in the city between 1524 and 1580. Among the most “dazzling” are the immense Basilica (it’s medieval, but he reconceived its exterior); the Palazzo Chiericati, which now houses Vicenza’s Museo Civico, and paintings by Tintoretto and Veronese; and the Teatro Olimpico, the world’s oldest surviving indoor theatre. Palladio enthusiasts should also consider a cruise along the Brenta canal from nearby Padua, to see some of the villas he designed in the surrounding…

Infosys: family fortunes Rishi Sunak’s father-in-law, the retired Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, broke “his customary silence” to celebrate Sunak’s appointment as UK Prime Minister, said Amrit Dhillon in The Guardian. “We are proud [and] confident he will do his best for the people of the United Kingdom,” he said. But the new PM’s links with Indian commerce are bound to come under scrutiny. Sunak supporters resist the claim that the £630m stake in Infosys held by his wife, Akshata Murty, “will bias him against Britons on modest incomes”, said Lex in the Financial Times. “What they cannot deny”, though, is that both Sunak’s political fortunes, and his family’s private wealth, are “playthings of the dollar”. The US greenback is up 10% against the rupee this year – a helpful rise…

Europe’s successful dash for gas Stanley Reed The New York Times In a sea of bad economic news, there is at least one hopeful development, says Stanley Reed: “natural gas prices in Europe are suddenly plunging”. The benchmark price has fallen more than 70% below its record high in August, easing concerns of a spike in heating and power prices as winter sets in. The mild autumn has helped, but what has really made the difference is a strategy of aggressive replenishment over the summer, when “Europe went on a global buying spree” after its long-time main supplier, Russia, reduced flows. Attracted by high prices, suppliers from Qatar to the US piled in with shiploads of liquefied natural gas (LNG). “The rush to sell” was so great that vessels are…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1335 An Ettinger pass holder 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 7 November. Send it to The Week Crossword 1335, 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) travel pass holder in assorted colours, which retails at £115, and two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Chums getting unpleasant rebuke from the east (4) 3 Shop inventories neglected Scots kilts (5-5) 10 Intricate detail (9) 11 Italian lake recalled as a tedious experience (5) 12 Brave leaving hospital swiftly (5) 13 Touching bottom, do I nag about it! (8) 15…