Indice dei contenuti per 1378 in The Week

Here in Ukraine, “no one can talk about anything else,” said Iuliia Mendel in The Washington Post. Every mobile phone is full of harrowing images of the dead bodies lying in the street, with their hands tied behind their backs, and of the partially buried corpses in mass graves. Every laptop carries reports of the summary executions and sexual violence, the women raped in front of their children, the bodies crushed under tanks. Before the war, Bucha, 35 miles northwest of Kyiv, was “known as a great, cosy town, an affordable option for those looking to stay close to the capital”. But following the retreat of Russian forces from Bucha, and the discovery of the horrors they perpetrated during their four-week occupation, it’s now synonymous with the murderous brutality of…

What an irony it is, said Sean O’Grady in The Independent, that the first and only person we so far know to have “copped a fine” for breaking Covid rules at Number 10, should be the then Director General, Propriety and Ethics in the Cabinet Office. Helen MacNamara, the erstwhile “ethics tsar”, is one of 20 people to have been issued with a £50 fixed-penalty notice by the Metropolitan Police over “Partygate”: she reportedly supplied the karaoke machine for a “raucous” leaving do in June 2020, when indoor gatherings were banned. And we can expect to see more penalties arising from the investigation into 12 separate events, three of which were attended by the PM. Boris Johnson says he’ll tell us if he’s fined, said Sean O’Neill in The Times.…

Roman Abramovich, who has reportedly been going cap in hand to his rich friends for loans, as sanctions bite. According to the New York Post, owing to his assets being frozen, the billionaire is struggling to pay his staff’s wages – some $750,000 a week. Bruce Willis fans, after the actor’s family announced that he is retiring from the industry, owing to aphasia affecting his language processing skills and cognitive abilities. The news prompted an outpouring of affectionate tributes to the 67-year-old actor, known for his roles in the Die Hard films, Twelve Monkeys, The Fifth Element and The Sixth Sense.…

Paris The election race: With the first round of the presidential election due this weekend, polls show Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally party, drawing closer to President Macron. Macron’s lead, bolstered by his handling of the Ukraine war, seemed unassailable, but polls now suggest Le Pen can expect 47% of the vote should she and Macron reach the second round on 24 April, as expected. As a third of the electorate has yet to decide which way to vote, the race is too close to call. Le Pen’s growing popularity is thought to be due to her party’s switch in focus from its traditional preoccupation with immigration to the cost of living and other problems facing France’s poor. Rome “Digital nomads” welcomed: Italy has become the…

“What do you reckon Churchill, or any PM before David Cameron, would have made of the ‘happy machines’ installed at No. 10? You see them in public lavatories: press sad face if you’re not satisfied with the hygiene; a straight face if it’s OK; a smiley face if it’s all good. It’s one of those management hacks that is a pretty good indicator of a dysfunctional institution, like those organisations that go to great lengths to provide mental health and resilience workshops, while laying off staff. What employees would say, given a chance, is that if jobs were secure, if people were treated properly, if you knew who to talk to when there’s a problem, you wouldn’t need resilience training, or stupid happy machines. Melanie McDonagh, Daily Telegraph…

A Church that puts a blot on Christianity Editorial The Guardian Not everyone is appalled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, says The Guardian. Vladimir Putin’s vile campaign enjoys the backing of none other than the head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. Kirill, who once hymned Putin’s leadership as a religious miracle, has now asserted that it is “God’s truth” that the people of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus should be reunited. He casts the war as a “metaphysical” struggle to save Ukraine from the clutches of a decadent West, a stance that has outraged Church leaders around the world: hundreds of Orthodox Christian clergy and laity have issued a declaration condemning the ROC’s complicity in the invasion; and there are calls for it to be expelled…

Type-2 diabetes’s alarming impact People with type-2 diabetes have an increased risk of developing 57 other conditions, a study has found. Rates of type-2 diabetes – which is linked to obesity, among other factors – have risen sharply in the past 20 years or so. The condition was already known to make people more susceptible to other illnesses, but experts say the new findings, laying bare the scale of the risk, underline the need for better preventative strategies. A Cambridge University team examined data on three million people from the UK Biobank to assess the relative prevalence of 116 illnesses commonly found in the middle-aged. Their study, which has yet to be peer reviewed, revealed that people with diabetes had a 9% increased risk of cancer, a 2.6 times higher…

Debates over gender and identity are now among “the most heated in our politics”, said Robert Colvile in The Sunday Times. That’s why “all hell broke loose” last week when the Government indicated it was planning to U-turn on its promise to ban all types of “conversion therapy” – whether aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or their gender identity. It finally settled on a compromise: to outlaw gay therapies, but not trans ones. Its reasoning is as follows. Imagine two children: the first develops feelings for someone of the same sex, and is dragged by their conservative parents before an “authority figure” to “crush” their inclinations; the second is unhappy in their gender, but their “tolerant” parents still want them to wait before having irreversible medical treatment. The…

To The Times Dominic Lawson argues that the West should not offer a solution to the Ukraine crisis that allows Vladimir Putin to save face. I disagree. As the great American journalist Walter Lippmann wrote in 1961, at the height of the Cold War: “This being the nuclear age, it is the paramount rule of international politics that a great nuclear power should not put another great nuclear power in a position where it must choose between suicide and surrender”. President Kennedy allowed Nikita Khrushchev to extricate the Soviet Union from the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 without humiliation, and nuclear Armageddon was prevented. The West should similarly offer Putin an escape route from the present crisis in Ukraine to prevent a possible catastrophic nuclear war 60 years later. This…

by Rob Percival Little Brown 384pp £18.99 The Week bookshop £14.99 There’s no shortage of books pontificating on why we “need to swap the sausage sarnies for tofu tempura”, said Christina Patterson in The Sunday Times. What this one does is “much more interesting”. Rob Percival, the head of food policy for the Soil Association, sets out to explore our “psychological relationship with meat”. Meat-eating, he believes, involves a “paradox”, said Julian Baggini in The Guardian. Most people feel sympathy for animals – and yet are prepared, by eating meat, to condone their mass slaughter. He sets out to understand what makes these contradictory viewpoints possible. Percival does a “powerful job” of detailing the damage done by “modern meat-eating”, said Bee Wilson in the Financial Times. And yet his book…

RRS Discovery in Dundee was the last wooden three-masted vessel built in the UK. Launched in 1901, it is best known for carrying Captain Scott and his crew (£11.50 adults, £6.40 children; rrsdiscovery.co.uk). Portugal’s last sailing warship, the frigate Dom Fernando II e Glória, launched in 1843 but never saw active combat. It is now a dry-docked museum in Lisbon (£3.40 adults, £1.70 children; ccm.marinha.pt). Henry VIII’s favourite ship, The Mary Rose, sank in 1545 and was raised 437 years later. The ship’s remains and contents can be seen in Portsmouth, where it was built (£24 adults, £19 children; historicdockyard.co.uk). The luxurious tender SS Nomadic ferried passengers to the Titanic. It now forms the centrepiece of the Titanic Belfast experience (£21.50 adults, £10 children; titanicbelfast.com). Santa Eulàlia is a schooner,…

Buenos Aires shines again Twenty years ago, Buenos Aires was a city in decline, plagued by corruption and hyperinflation. But since then, its fortunes have changed radically, says Matthew Bell in The Times – indeed, there’s never been a better time to go. This vast metropolis on the Río de la Plata is cheap, “vibrant” and “well set up for tourism”. Stay in Palermo Hollywood, a leafy central district where the “chic” Home Hotel makes a good base. Indispensable for first-time visitors are trips to a milonga (tango house) and to a steak restaurant such as the “stylish” Don Julio. But the city’s “B-side” is inexhaustible and includes a particularly rich food scene – “a salt- and sugar-infused maximalisation of its Spanish, Italian, French and Jewish forefathers”. Matthew Bell’s sister…

Elspeth Howe 1932-2022 Elspeth Howe, who has died aged 90, was so often described as formidable, or redoubtable, that it became something of a joke in her family, said Julia Langdon in The Guardian. But such adjectives proved irresistible in describing a woman who was intelligent, independent-minded and politically powerful. Known as Heppy, she was married from the age of 21 to the Tory politician Geoffrey Howe, and she did much to steer the career of the young lawyer – while pursuing a separate one of her own. Committed to public service, she sat on countless committees, and chaired quite a few (including the Broadcasting Standards Council). Known as a champion of women’s rights, she was described as a “Tory feminist”. Her espousal of radical causes did not endear her…

In its quest “to douse down rampant inflation”, the BoE’s monetary policy committee has lifted interest rates “at three meetings in a row” for the first time since 1997, said Jack Barnett on City AM. But according to JPMorgan forecasts, the fun is only just beginning. The Wall Street investment bank expects Threadneedle Street to lift borrowing costs “four more times this year”, in “a 1980s-style rate hike cycle” that will eventually see rates “settle” at 1.75% by the end of the year. Whether or not that will be enough to tame the beast is open to question. Inflation, currently running at a 30-year high of 6.2%, is likely to peak at near 9% in October, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility. The US Fed, meanwhile, is preparing “to…

The week’s best shares AG Barr Investors’ Chronicle The Irn-Bru and Rubicon maker has profited from marketing investment and the reopening of hospitality. Cocktail brand Funkin is a star performer, and it’s expanding into natural energy drinks and plant-based milk. Buy. 542p. Dechra Pharmaceuticals The Sunday Times Since nuzzling into the FTSE 100 in December, shares in the vet pharma, which also specialises in pet food, have been hit by a sector sell-off. Still, it’s well-run with rising revenues and a strong emphasis on R&D. Buy. £40.88. Keywords Studios The Times Keywords provides services to the booming video games sector. Highly cash generative, growing organically and deal-hungry. Benefiting from demand for content creation developers, and expanding. Buy. £23.38. OneSavings Bank The Times Thanks to a buoyant rental market, the buy-to-let…

Barbara Streisand caused a stir when she revealed, in 2018, that she had used a firm called ViaGen Pets to create clones of her beloved dog. Since then, ViaGen reports that hundreds of pet owners have followed suit, despite the cost – £38,000 for a dog – and ongoing ethical concerns about the process. Animal charities have warned that extracting eggs for cloning is invasive and causes unnecessary suffering – owners won’t get a replica of their pet, just one that looks like it. House plant ownership has become so popular among younger generations that it has its own hipster-speak, says The Guardian. Adapted from US rapper slang, “plant flexing” means displaying one’s wealth via the size of one’s variegated monstera.…

No-fault divorce has come into force in England and Wales. Until now, anyone who wanted to divorce quickly had to accuse their spouse of adultery, desertion or unreasonable behaviour. If they declined to apportion or accept blame, they had to live apart for two years before a divorce could be granted, rising to five years if one party did not agree to the divorce. Campaigners said the law caused unnecessary rancour, and hardship too, by trapping people in unhappy or abusive marriages. Now, one party need only state that the marriage is over. The process can be completed in six months – including a “period of reflection” of 20 weeks.…

What prompted this new plan? In a word, Ukraine. English libel law is notoriously friendly to wealthy claimants who wish to silence their critics. The issue of “libel tourism” – foreigners choosing to sue in London – has been acknowledged for decades. But a series of recent cases brought by Russian oligarchs has pushed the issue to the fore, along with the wider issue of London law firms helping to “launder” the reputations of shady clients from abroad. Last month, the Department of Justice launched a consultation on “Slapps”, a US term which stands for “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation”. These are defined as libel or privacy cases brought by wealthy companies or individuals, “where the primary objective is to harass, intimidate and financially and psychologically exhaust one’s opponent via…

When a French pensioner noticed a blue jacket hanging on a wall in Paris’s Picasso Museum, she assumed it had been abandoned. The 72-year-old duly took it home, tried it on, and – finding it was a bit long – asked her tailor to alter it. A few days later, she returned to the exhibition, and was promptly arrested. It turned out the garment was actually a contemporary work by the Spanish artist Oriol Vilanova, and a “little old lady” had been identified on CCTV as its thief. When she explained her mistake, she was let off with a warning, and the work of art was restored to its peg. A billionaire from the United Arab Emirates has built the world’s biggest Hummer – a two storey vehicle complete with…

NORTH KOREA Some dictators can’t afford to face reality Die Welt (Hamburg) Nuclear weapons matter hugely to the dictator Kim Jong Un, says Torsten Krauel. A symbol of national pride, they guarantee the regime’s security. So it was a major setback when, on 16 March, North Korea’s new intercontinental ballistic missile, Hwasong-17, blew up on its test flight above Pyongyang. A state-of-the-art, two-stage long-distance rocket, it had been Kim’s “pride and joy”. But pride was restored when a week later, the rocket was launched on a second attempt. Or was it? Discrepancies in the glossy video recording of the second launch indicate an older model of rocket was used for the launch, together with shots of the new rocket. Kim’s resort to subterfuge wasn’t just a matter of preserving his…

Chris Rock was praised for his calm reaction to Will Smith’s slap at the Oscars. In The Guardian, Ed Byrne recalls that he was less composed when faced with a difficult crowd at a financial services awards. “I was dying on my hole and I said: ‘Look, I’m just going to go because either I’m a terrible comedian or you’re a terrible audience. I’ve been a comedian for 20 years, how long have you been an audience?’ And I walked off. Then the organiser goes: ‘Well, now you have to do the charity auction.’” The late Karl Lagerfeld was so devoted to his cat Choupette, he left her a share of his $200m estate. But his friend Carine Roitfeld, ex-editor of French Vogue, was rather less besotted. “She’s a very…

“Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?”George Carlin, quoted on NBC “A man is only as faithful as his options.”Chris Rock, quoted in The Times “Confidence is 10% hard work and 90% delusion.”Tina Fey, quoted on Good Reads “Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”Primo Levi, quoted on NextDraft “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”Winston Churchill, quoted in The Atlantic “Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first call promising.”Cyril Connolly, quoted in The Times “He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to…

Tennis Poland’s Iga Świątek, the world No. 1, defeated Naomi Osaka of Japan 6-4, 6-0 in the final of the Miami Open. Football Brentford beat Chelsea 4-1 in the Premier League. Manchester City remain one point ahead of second-placed Liverpool after beating Burnley 2-0. In the Women’s Super League, top-placed Chelsea beat Reading 5-0. Golf America’s Jennifer Kupcho won her first major at the Chevron Championship in California. The 24-year-old beat her compatriot Jessica Korda by two strokes.…

Aaron Sorkin’s “blistering” stage adaptation of Harper Lee’s tale of racial injustice in 1930s Alabama was a huge hit on Broadway, and it looks set to storm the West End too, said Patrick Marmion in the Daily Mail. The brilliance of Sorkin’s “Hollywood-tight script, peppered with great one-liners”, is that it makes this 62-year-old literary classic “feel like it was minted yesterday. Far from creaking like a period piece,” it is a riveting drama that “chimes with modern racial conflicts on both sides of the Atlantic”. Directed by Bartlett Sher, the production is innovative too, in the way it makes the decent white lawyer Atticus Finch “squirm” in his position as the middle-class liberal who must avoid “seeming patrician”. Rafe Spall is “stunning” in the role of Finch, said Clive…

Sexual intercourse began in 1963, wrote Philip Larkin, “and so, by absolutely no coincidence, did the 30-year campaigning career of Mary Whitehouse” – which is the subject of this “even-handed” two-part documentary on BBC2, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. Banned! The Mary Whitehouse Story looks at how and why the former art teacher from the West Midlands began her battle to stem what she saw as Britain’s moral decline, and evaluates her crusade against the norms of her day and ours. Troubled above all by nudity and obscenity in the media, Whitehouse founded the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association in an effort to get the voices of “the non-metropolitan and non-elite” heard. Her bête noire was the BBC and its progressive director general Sir Hugh Greene – “the devil…

With tensions rising over Berrow’s future, Susan orders Lilian out of the shop. After the Mothering Sunday service, Kate confronts Alan and Amy and berates Amy for sleeping with Chris. Furious, Alan yells at Kate and Amy flees in tears. Later, Kate tells Lilian she’s considering making an official complaint. Jazzer and Hannah worry about their futures if Berrow closes. Lilian calls on Alan to warn him about Kate’s complaint, and later Alan warns Chris against hurting Amy. Alice opens up to Fallon, who confesses she knew about Chris and Amy. At the BL board meeting, members vote to save Berrow for now, but Justin wants to discuss a mystery project with Martyn. Alan apologises to Kate and the two make up. Alan reports this to Amy, but she believes…

½ a large pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into bite-sized cubes, about 400g prepared weight sunflower oil ground cinnamon 75g walnut halves 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 onion, chopped 7cm piece of cinnamon bark 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp ground turmeric 2 x 400g can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed 100ml pomegranate juice 75g pomegranate molasses ½ tsp salt ¼ tsp ground black pepper freshly grated nutmeg, to taste, or a pinch of ground nutmeg 1 unwaxed orange, zested about 500ml water, as needed maple syrup, optional 80g pomegranate seeds salt and ground black pepper chopped flat-leaf parsley or coriander, to garnish • Preheat the oven to 220°C. Put the pumpkin cubes on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle with sunflower oil and…

All-inclusive resort & casino Spend 7 nights by the beach at the Royalton Bavaro, an Autograph Collection hotel in the Dominican Republic. From £1,429pp (including London flights). 020-3451 2585, tui.co.uk. Depart 31 August. A week in Cape Verde The Budha Beach Hotel is a seafront hotel with a chilled-out atmosphere; seven nights cost from £983pp b&b (including Birmingham flights). 020-8175 1145, loveholidays.com. Depart 11 June. Adults-only getaway Five nights at the AluaSoul Mallorca Resort, with dreamy sea views and away from the bustle, cost from £837pp b&b (including Manchester flights). 0344-493 0125, britishairways.com. Depart 26 October. Four-night boat hire Sail down the Llangollen Canal where the awe-inspiring Pontcysyllte Aqueduct spans the Dee Valley, from £765. 01252-796400, waterwaysholidays.com. Depart 24 May, from Whixall. Covid-19: please check government websites for testing and…

Channel 4: privatisation row Following protracted rows about Channel 4’s future, “the Government has given the green light” to its privatisation, said Martin Robinson on MailOnline. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries is “pushing ahead with plans to sell the broadcaster” for around £1bn. There’s already a good deal of interest: “US TV giants Paramount and Discovery are said to be vying with ITV and Sky” to acquire it, but a backlash is also in play. Labour claims the Government is selling Channel 4 to punish it for its critical coverage of issues such as Brexit, and senior Tories have also called for a rethink: Ruth Davidson called the proposed sale of the publicly-owned channel the “opposite of levelling up”. Channel 4 itself says it is “disappointed” by the decision. The “commercial…

British business is badly in need of a boost Ben Wright The Daily Telegraph No. 10 has “excitedly announced” that Australian companies are committed to making £28.5bn of new investments in the UK, says Ben Wright. “It seems having foreigners snap up British assets is back in vogue.” But while the PM dresses up this development as “Global Britain in action”, no amount of rhetoric can gloss over the Treasury’s “empty toolbox” when it comes to business investment – a vacuum that’s now putting growth at risk. Even the one concrete move the Chancellor has made (the “super-deduction” policy introduced last year, which allows companies to cut their tax bills if they invest in plant and machinery) has fallen flat. The Office for Budget Responsibility had predicted it would result…

Ed Sheeran, who won his lengthy legal battle over accusations that he had plagiarised another artist’s song in writing his megahit Shape of You. The High Court ruled that the singer and his co-writers had “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” copied a refrain from a 2015 song called Oh Why. Sheeran said he hoped the ruling would put an end to “baseless” plagiarism claims. In court, he had testified that the refrain involved “a basic minor pentatonic pattern”, which is “entirely commonplace”. Breaking glass ceilings, after the most senior woman in the British Army was given a promotion. Major General Sharon Nesmith is to be made a Lieutenant General, and has also been appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff. Cinderella ravers, with news that DJ Annie Mac is creating a…

The Duke of York was embroiled in fresh controversy last week, when it emerged that he had been given £750,000 by a Turkish millionaire. According to papers filed in the High Court, Nebahat Isbilen, 77, was tricked into paying the money by a Turkish banker named Selman Turk, whom she had employed to move her assets out of Turkey. Turk allegedly told her that the money was for help in getting a new passport. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by the duke, and the money had been repaid.…

The real Nicolas Cage Nicolas Cage would like to clear up a few misconceptions about himself. The actor, 58, may share his house with a crow, and it’s true that he once spent $80,000 on a two-headed snake; but he is not the wildman of popular imagination, says Gabriella Paiella in GQ. For a period early in his career, he cultivated that image: in 1990, he somersaulted onto the chat show Wogan in a leather jacket, before delivering a round of karate kicks at the audience (“understatement is the watchword tonight”, observed his host). And it stuck: YouTube is full of videos called things like Nicolas Cage Ultimate Freakouts, and he is the subject of countless memes. But Cage points out that if he really was wild, he wouldn’t be…

In England, civil actions for libel emerged after the banning of duelling: from the 18th century, lawsuits were largely brought by insulted nobles. Hence the “presumption” that any slur on their character must be false, which contributed to a long history of damages being awarded for statements that were subsequently proved true. John Profumo collected damages over the suggestion that he was having sex with Christine Keeler, Liberace when the Daily Mirror hinted that he was gay. Robert Maxwell repeatedly sued Private Eye (and many others) for insinuating that he was a crook, while Lance Armstrong received damages from The Sunday Times for claiming that he was a drugs cheat. Since the late 1980s, various reforms have been introduced, starting with attempts to bring damages awards down. These culminated in…

Isn’t $800bn enough for the military? Paul Waldman The Washington Post It’s a sign of the troubled times we live in, says Paul Waldman, that few have questioned President Biden’s plan for a hike in the military budget. Indeed, the only debate about the proposed increase – from $782bn in 2022 to $813bn in 2023 – has been whether America should be spending even more. The Republicans think it should. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell declared that the proposal reflects Biden’s “far-left values” and “falls woefully short”, depriving the defence budget of “the robust growth we need to keep pace with Russia and China”. Such complaints are a perennial feature of debates about Pentagon spending, but when you look at the figures, it’s clear they’re nonsense. The US spends two-and-a-half…

MPs have voted to retain early “at-home abortions” for women in England – a service introduced as a temporary measure during the first lockdown in 2020. Until then, patients seeking a termination before ten weeks of pregnancy had to have a face-to-face consultation in a clinic, and usually had a scan too. They could then take two pills – the first pill at the clinic and the second at home within 48 hours, and they were routinely scanned. Under the new regulations, they need only have a telephone or online consultation; they can take the pills at home, and they are only scanned if concerns are raised. This “pills by post” service has been used by 150,000 people in England since May 2020. The Government had wanted to end it,…

The plan to begin “living with Covid” sounded great in theory, said Charlotte Lytton in The Daily Telegraph. In practice, though, it’s proving problematic – as anyone who has tried to take a trip abroad lately will be all too aware. Covid-related staff absences caused massive delays at airports this week, and the cancellation of hundreds of flights. And with Covid case numbers at an all-time high in the UK – almost five million people are estimated to have the virus – other sectors are also struggling to function. Offices and schools are facing continuing disruption, and the NHS is feeling the strain as admissions and staff sickness rise. In a further sign of how far we are from living in a “post-virus world”, the NHS updated the official list…

Cricket: England flattened by Australia It has been obvious for a while now to fans of women’s cricket that Australia are the “best team in the world”, said Raf Nicholson in The Guardian. And last Sunday, they “made it official”. Facing reigning champions England in the final of the Women’s World Cup, Meg Lanning’s side confirmed their dominance with a comprehensive 71-run victory. Australia are a class side, but they were handed a huge advantage by Heather Knight’s decision to bowl first on a flat wicket at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval. And their task became simpler still when England’s fielders dropped several chances. Australia’s openers alone put on 160 runs; Alyssa Healy struck 170 off 138 balls; and they finished on 356 for five – easily the highest total of the…

Profit distorts child care To The Guardian I have worked in children’s social care for many years and remember when privatisation was first promoted. Rather like academies and free schools, the rhetoric was about handing over control and rescuing services from bureaucratic control. Gradually, private equity has taken over and started cost-cutting to maximise profit. One such move was to sell the properties in the urban areas where the children had grown up and replace them with cheaper alternatives, often disused farmhouses and remote cottages – as authorities placing vulnerable children have to take what is on offer. When a child needs a placement is when there should be a suitable vacancy – yet, to maximise profit, facilities need to be full most of the time. Only financial investment can…

by Douglas Stuart Picador 400pp £16.99 The Week bookshop £13.99 Douglas Stuart’s debut, Shuggie Bain – the winner of the 2020 Booker Prize – was a “bleak autobiographical novel about a young boy caring for his alcoholic mother in 1980s Glasgow”, said Johanna Thomas-Corr in The Sunday Times. His follow-up is “cut from the same cloth”. Fifteen-year-old Mungo lives with his mother and two older siblings in Glasgow’s East End. “His brother, Hamish, is a Faginesque Protestant gang leader; his sister, Jodie, is a do-gooding fallen angel; and their mother, Mo-Maw, is a woman ruined by alcohol.” As the novel opens, Mungo is shooed off by his mother on a fishing trip with two menacing strangers from her Alcoholics Anonymous group, who promise to teach him “masculine pursuits”. Interspersed with…

You might have never heard Joanna Hiffernan’s name, but you probably know her face, said Alastair Smart in The Daily Telegraph. Born in Ireland in the 1840s, Hiffernan was the lover of the American artist James McNeill Whistler, and the model for his 1862 painting Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl – one of the most controversial works of its era. Depicting Hiffernan in “a white house dress standing before a white muslin curtain”, it broke all the rules of contemporary portraiture: its scale was “almost lifesize”, a format generally reserved for pictures of “important men”; the use of white on white was “radical”. The appearance of its model, meanwhile – notably her “free-flowing” red hair – lent itself to accusations of lewdness. It was a “succès de…

What is Life? by Erwin Schrödinger, 1944 (Cambridge University Press £14.99). A true classic written by the Austrian physicist of cat-in-the-box fame. It has remained in print because it is still highly relevant. In it, Schrödinger asks if life is special because it is able to utilise the trickery of quantum mechanics. The Emperor’s New Mind by Roger Penrose, 1989 (OUP £10.99). Penrose is best known for his work with Stephen Hawking on black holes and the Big Bang (not to mention winning a Nobel). But this book inspired scientists across many disciplines, from quantum physics to computer science, AI and philosophy. It is still one of my favourite popular science books. Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks, 2000 (Orbit £9.99). Banks is one of the great science-fiction authors…

Programmes Gentleman Jack Suranne Jones reprises her role as the formidable industrialist Anne Lister in season two of the costume drama set in 1830s Yorkshire. Sun 10 Apr, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). Alvin Ailey: A Legend of American Dance The life of the great African-American choreographer, told in part via previously unheard audio interviews in which he described his childhood in Jim Crow-era Texas. Sun 10 Apr, BBC4 21:00 (90mins). Derry Girls The much-loved comedy set in 1990s Northern Ireland returns for a third and final series. It’s GCSE results day, and the girls fear the wrath of their mammies. Tue 12 Apr, C4 21:15 (30mins). Gazza Documentary series about the troubled footballer’s rise and fall. Part one opens in the late 1980s, as the young Geordie becomes the golden boy…

• Use a microwave for jacket potatoes and to reheat food, and if you are using a hob, keep the heat as low as possible: if you feel heat above the pan, you’re wasting energy. • Remove excess trays from your oven. Don’t bother to preheat the oven; just add a few minutes to the cooking time. • Defrost your freezer regularly and, unless you are conservative with your water when washing up, use the dishwasher instead. • Turn off the heating if you’re going out; and turn off the radiators in rooms you’re not using. Don’t block radiators with furniture; and close curtains. If you have a chimney, invest in a chimney balloon. • Electric blankets only cost about 1p per night to run, and can be used on…

June Brown 1927-2022 In the postwar years, June Brown, who has died aged 95, worked in the classical theatre with the likes of Alec Guinness and Peggy Ashcroft. She took the title role in Hedda Gabler at the Birmingham Rep (Nigel Hawthorne described her as “one of the most beautiful creatures I’ve seen on stage”), and played Lady Macbeth opposite Albert Finney. But her career had rather stalled when, in 1985, she was offered a part in a recently launched BBC soap opera. She was booked for just three months, but viewers took to the character of Dot Cotton – the gossip-mongering, chain-smoking, Bible-quoting manager of Mr Papadopoulos’s laundrette – and Brown was given a long-term contract. Over the next 35 years, Dot faced innumerable dramas, many of them involving…

Nelson Peltz Veteran US financier Nelson Peltz has been sniffing around some of the world’s biggest asset managers, said Tom Richardson in the Australian Financial Review. Last October, his activist investor group, Trian, bought significant stakes in both Invesco and Janus Henderson – prompting speculation he would push for a mighty merger. That hasn’t occurred yet. But meanwhile, Peltz, 79, has been grappling with “a real mega-merger”. This weekend, his actress daughter Nicola is marrying Brooklyn Beckham, son of David and Victoria, and there are reports of an “epic” prenuptial agreement. Despite allying with British celeb royalty, the father of the bride looks to be taking no chances. Quite right. His fortune, estimated at $1.7bn by Forbes, makes the Beckhams’ estimated $450m “look rather pathetic”. A native “Brooklynite”, Peltz dropped…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1306 An Ettinger travel pass case and two Connell Guides will be given to the sender of the first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 18 April. Email the answers as a scan of a completed grid or a list, with the subject line The Week crossword 1306, to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive an Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) travel pass case (assorted colours), which retails at £105, and two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 8 Flowering plant primarily put on a little ground (10) 9 Milk producer needing right liquid container (4) 10 A number on ecstasy prevalent in part of Spain (8) 11 Draw out a response from Kendal essentially (6) 12 Hard in Indian class…

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