Table of contents for 1462 in The Week

What happened Rishi Sunak took Westminster by surprise this week with his appointment of David Cameron as Foreign Secretary. Lord Cameron, as he now is, is the first former prime minister to return to a Cabinet role since Alec Douglas-Home, who took the same post more than 50 years ago. His appointment was the centrepiece of a wider-than-expected reshuffle brought forward by a bust-up with Suella Braverman. He sacked her as home secretary days after she accused the police of bias in an unauthorised article about pro-Palestinian marches. In a scathing resignation letter, the former home secretary accused Sunak of betrayal, saying that he had repeatedly failed to deliver key policies (see page 6). Cameron replaced James Cleverly, who was given Braverman’s old job in the Home Office. Steve Barclay,…

Controversy of the week “Very few people can claim to have been sacked from the same job twice,” said Madeline Grant in The Daily Telegraph. Suella Braverman achieved this feat on Monday, when her second term as home secretary was ended by Rishi Sunak. The final straw was her article in The Times that – in defiance of orders from No. 10 – took issue with the Metropolitan Police’s decision to allow a pro-Palestinian march on Armistice Day (see page 22), and claimed that the police “play favourites” when it comes to protesters: they are tougher on right-wing extremists, she said, than on pro-Palestinian “mobs”. After her sacking, Braverman issued a resignation letter that, “even by the standards of some of the great knifings in Tory history”, was “brutal”. She…

Nestlé, which provoked dismay and outrage by announcing the discontinuation of the Caramac. The multinational said sales of the caramel-flavoured bar had been in “steady decline”. Caramac – the name is a portmanteau of caramel and Mackintosh, the bar’s original manufacturer – was launched in 1959. Michael Matheson, the Scottish Health Minister, who caved in to pressure to repay £11,000 in roaming charges that he had put on expenses. Matheson had taken his official iPad when he went on a week’s holiday to Morocco, and had failed to follow the official advice to switch off roaming or get a roaming package. Anne Hidalgo, Paris’s mayor, who was criticised for going on a three-week, part taxpayer-funded trip to French Polynesia, while posting photos on social media that implied she was in…

Paris Leaders march: Around 100,000 people, including senior politicians, marched through Paris on Sunday to protest against a sharp rise in antisemitism. Nearly 1,250 antisemitic acts have been recorded in France since 7 October – nearly three times as many as in the whole of last year. Politicians from all sides joined the march, including Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally, PM Élisabeth Borne (pictured) and former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande. President Macron, who has called for a ceasefire in Gaza, did not attend (but said he’d be there “in my heart”); radical-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon boycotted it. Madrid Mass protests: Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of cities across Spain this week to protest against plans to grant an amnesty to…

“Whenever a new storm name comes up, I suspect I’m not alone in making fun of them. What’s all this about Storm Babet and Storm Ciarán, I ask the telly. Now we’ve got Debi, with Elin, Fergus and then Gerrit the next in line. So I looked up how these storms are named. The process is a joint effort by the Irish, British and Dutch meteorological services. The names honour workers striving to keep everyone safe. Ciarán Fearon, for instance, is employed by the Northern Ireland Department for Infrastructure. Debi Garft worked for the Scottish government’s flooding team. So the nomenclature is basically a shout-out to decent, ordinary folk doing sterling work. I feel a tiny bit ashamed.” Robert Crampton in The Times…

A diet of cakes, corpses, kittens and cruelty Mary Wakefield The Spectator “An Israeli child hostage; the perfect pumpkin spice latte; bodies in the rubble in Gaza; try this simple cure for neck pain; corpses; cake.” That was the “satanic mix” delivered to me as I flicked through the stories on my Instagram feed the other day, says Mary Wakefield. And this is how the young get their news these days – Snapchat and other social media sites serve up a restless mix of real-world stories, internet memes and updates from friends. But what does it do to their brains, I couldn’t help wondering. The platforms talk of delivering “curated” news feeds, of offering their customers a “personalised” experience. Sounds cosy, but the real aim is to keep people glued…

A “statin” for breast cancer A daily pill that can slash the risk of breast cancer is to be offered to hundreds of thousands of women in England. Anastrozole has been used to treat breast cancer for years, but has now been licensed for use as a preventative measure, in much the same way as statins. Recent trials have shown that post-menopausal women who are at moderate or high risk of the disease are almost 50% less likely to develop it if they take the pill once a day for five years. It has been estimated that almost 300,000 women – mainly those with a strong family history of the disease – will be eligible for the pill, which costs just 4p a day. Some may opt not to take…

Congratulations to Booths, the supermarket chain known as the “Northern Waitrose”, on its “joyous decision” to rip out its self-service checkouts, said Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph. By removing the machines from all but two of its 28 stores, Booths is bucking a baleful trend. It claims that the decision is about customer service, said Claire Moses in The New York Times. “Delighting customers with our warm Northern welcome is part of our DNA,” said a spokesman. But there may be another reason. One study showed that, at stores with self-service tills, shoplifting increases to more than double the industry average: the machines make theft less detectable, and “tempt shoppers to act in ways they normally would not”. Whatever the reason, it’s a blessed relief, said Emily Watkins in…

“To sighs of relief all round”, England rounded off their “tortured World Cup campaign” with a couple of decent performances, said Simon Wilde in The Sunday Times. After beating the Netherlands in their penultimate match, they played even better against Pakistan, bowling them out for 244 after posting an imposing 337 for 9. They went about the match as they “should have gone about things all along” – with a sense of a coherent plan. Yet you can’t read too much into this result, said Geoffrey Boycott in The Daily Telegraph. “Winning does not matter when the pressure is off.” Only one question is important now: where do England go from here? Their first step is to acknowledge that they were hugely complacent, said Lawrence Booth in the Daily Mail.…

by Paul Caruana Galizia Hutchinson Heinemann 336pp £18.99 The Week Bookshop £14.99 On 16 October 2017, the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia “climbed into her grey Peugeot and set off for the bank”, said Christina Patterson in The Sunday Times. Moments later, a huge explosion sent her car flying 50 metres into a field. Caruana Galizia had been killed by a car bomb – “the favoured method in Malta of removing people who were inconvenient”. It was in many ways “a death foretold”, said Oliver Balch in the FT. In her columns and blogs, the 53-year-old had dedicated herself to exposing corruption among Malta’s business and political elites. While this had made her a celebrity on the island nation of 500,000 people, it had also brought endless threats: her dogs…

The journalist Tristan Redman’s new podcast has an “unremarkable” title, but the tale Ghost Story tells is astonishing and gripping, said Fiona Sturges in the Financial Times. It’s a haunted-house story, in that it begins with a Victorian house in London – Redman’s childhood home – and sightings of a ghostly faceless woman. But it is also a real-life murder mystery: Redman discovers that in 1937 his wife’s great-grandmother, Naomi Dancy, was killed in the house next door. She was shot in the face, supposedly by her brother, who had returned from the First World War with shrapnel in his brain. “I hesitate to reveal more, though I can tell you that there is a spy subplot and a cameo from the crime writer Dorothy L. Sayers.” The podcast has…

David Hockney is “justifiably proud of his drawing skills”, said Mark Hudson in The Independent. Like most artists of his generation, he underwent “years of enforced practice” drawing nude models, a discipline which “left him with a confidence and fluency in capturing immediate reality with pencil, pen or brush that today’s young artists can only dream about”. This exhibition of his drawings originally opened at the National Portrait Gallery in early 2020, but was forced to close after just 20 days owing to the pandemic. Following the gallery’s three-year refurbishment, it has now reopened, bolstered with 30 new portraits realised since the end of lockdown. Featuring everything from his very earliest 1950s self-portraits to pictures created on his iPad, it charts Hockney’s innovations and experiments in the form, focusing principally…

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, 1884 (Penguin £7.99). This is the greatest novel by an American. Jim, a slave, flees south down the Mississippi. An odd plot is redeemed entirely by the humanity of the relationship between the young white boy Huck Finn and Jim himself. Middlemarch by George Eliot, 1871 (Penguin £8.99). The great novel of change in England. The stuck-in-the-past pedant Casaubon is an early 19th century Jacob Rees-Mogg, a living fossil. Eliot’s masterpiece is full of life and insight interwoven with the strains of an England in flux. Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney, 1966 (Faber £12.99). The first book of poetry I could relate to as a teenager. Physical language – frog slobber in the pond; digging the turf in peat bogs;…

Programmes The Princes in the Tower: The New Evidence Philippa Langley – who helped find Richard III’s grave – presents a fresh investigation into another royal mystery. Sat 18 Nov, C4 20:00 (105mins). When Blondie Came to Britain Documentary charting Britain’s part in Blondie’s global success, from their arrival in Bournemouth in 1977 to their headlining set at Glastonbury in 2023. Sat 18 Nov, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Scrublands Australian crime drama. A year on from a mass shooting by a young priest, an investigative journalist arrives in a rural town to follow up on the story. Sat 18 Nov, BBC4 21:00 and 21:50 (50mins each). Kin Gangland drama set in Dublin. When a boy is killed, his family go to war with a drug cartel. Aidan Gillen is among the…

Last-minute Tenerife break Jet off for a 7-night stay at the five-star Hard Rock Hotel, a vibrant beachfront resort with three pools. From £1,229pp b&b (incl. flights). 020-7084 6500, trailfinders.com. Selected November departures. Eight-day Tuscany tour Experience the Italian region’s picturesque charm, with stops in Florence and Pisa. From £1,049pp half-board (incl. flights). 020-3966 5882, traveldepartment.co.uk. Depart 11 April. Code TW50. Rhodes escape Stay 7 nights at the Oceanis Park Hotel, set next to the beach and a short drive from Rhodes Town. From £622pp all-inclusive (incl. flights). 020-3451 2688, firstchoice.co.uk. Depart 4 May. Four nights in Marrakech The four-star traditional style Diwane Hotel is located in the French Guéliz district of the city. From £178pp b&b (incl. flights). 020-4586 2408, planmytour.co.uk. Depart 3 February.…

Homeowners who don’t own their homes Merryn Somerset Webb Bloomberg Help is in sight for the many “homeowners” who do not own the freeholds of their properties, says Merryn Somerset Webb. A bill in the King’s Speech, making it easier and cheaper to buy them – or, if that’s not possible, increasing the standard lease extension from 90 to 990 years – should correct abuses such as fee and ground-rent “gouging”, and prevent properties from becoming “wasting assets” as the years pass. The irony is that just as leaseholders are finally being awarded “a few crumbs of the rights of real ownership”, so too are those who are not themselves owners at all – tenants. A proposed rental reform bill aims to ban no-fault evictions and limit fixed-term tenancies: a…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1389 Two Connell Guides and three Week-branded items will be given to the sender of the first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 27 November. Send it to The Week Crossword 1389, 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 Week-branded items including a notebook, coffee mug and tote bag, as well as two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Ideas that mean moving put out (13) 8 One-time running rival of S Coe beat it! (5) 9 Paper run from temporary accommodation (9) 11 Ravel opera in unenclosed space (4-3) 12 Place for cuttings in new Surrey newsroom primarily (7) 13 Places to park behind…

What happened Israeli forces entered Gaza’s largest hospital on Wednesday. Israel said that its “targeted” operation at the Al-Shifa Hospital was aimed at dismantling a Hamas “command complex” located in tunnels beneath the building. Witnesses said troops were searching the hospital room by room, and interrogating some of the 2,000 people who have taken shelter there from the fierce fighting in the area. Even before the raid, conditions in the hospital, in Gaza City, had been the focus of growing international concern: 32 people, including three premature babies, have died in Al-Shifa since it lost power on Saturday; with incubators no longer working, doctors reported having to wrap babies in foil to keep them alive. Hamas denies using the hospital as a military facility; but Israel’s claims to the contrary…

A secondary school in Pontypool has been forced to deny rumours that it is providing litter trays for children who identify as cats. “Whilst we are an inclusive and welcoming school, we do not make any provision for any pupils who might identify as an animal of any kind,” reads a letter to parents from the deputy head of West Monmouth School. “This kind of behaviour is not acceptable at school, and as such, no provision is in place.” Almost 80% of adults in Great Britain think it is very or fairly important to mark Remembrance Day. That includes 90% of baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), 81% of Gen X-ers (1965-1980), 74% of millennials (1981-1996) and 65% of members of Generation Z (1997-2012).…

The Supreme Court dealt a severe blow to the Government’s immigration policy this week when it ruled that the plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful. Reading out the unanimous judgment, Lord Reed said that there was a “real risk” that applications would not be properly considered in Rwanda, leading to refugees being wrongly returned to their countries of origin. As evidence of this, the court pointed to the failure of a similar deal between Israel and Rwanda. Reed stressed that the policy fell foul not only of the European Convention on Human Rights but also the UN convention for refugees. Rishi Sunak said the ruling was “not what we wanted”, but insisted that he was still determined to make the Rwanda plan work.…

Toronto, Canada Tycoon guilty: The Finnish-Canadian former fashion mogul Peter Nygård has been found guilty by a court in Canada of sexually assaulting four women. Prosecutors alleged that between the 1980s and 2005, the 82-year-old had used his “status” to lure young women he’d met at social events to his firm’s HQ in Toronto. There, he’d give them a tour which ended up in a private office, which contained a bed and sliding doors that he could lock using a keypad. Nygård, who denied the charges, has been in jail since late 2020 and will be sentenced later this month. He is facing two other cases in Canada, and is fighting extradition to the US, where he is suspected of trafficking girls as young as 14. Many were allegedly assaulted…

An Australian police officer has been sentenced to two years of community service, for pointing his gun at a colleague who threatened to give away the plot of the film Top Gun: Maverick. Dominic Gaynor, 30, was behind the counter at a Sydney police station in May 2022 when a colleague said he’d just seen the film, adding: “I’ll spoil it for you.” Gaynor retorted: “Don’t spoil the movie, c**t,” before pulling out his Glock handgun. Gaynor’s lawyer admitted there had been an “unfortunate lapse of judgement”. He has been suspended from the force. There was panic in the seaside town of Ladispoli, 35km west of Rome, last week, when a lion escaped from a circus and roamed the streets for hours. In a video of the incident, a woman…

JAPAN Another PM afflicted by the two-year itch The Japan Times (Tokyo) “When the public doesn’t even want free money, you know you’re in trouble,” says Gearoid Reidy. Japanese PM Fumio Kishida is overseeing a booming economy, but with real wages in decline, his popularity has plummeted to “worrying new lows”. He has overcome bad poll ratings before; but opposition to his centrepiece tax-cutting policy suggests he’s in a really tight spot this time. Under the plan, each voter would receive a one-off payment of ¥40,000 (£213), with a further handout for low-income households. Kishida says this will help with living costs; but some 64% of voters disapprove of the package, viewing it as a “cynical ploy” to win support in a possible snap election. It looks to me as…

Angela Merkel was no great fan of Donald Trump. Yet according to a new book about the former president, Trump repeatedly boasted to a US congressman that the German chancellor had privately complimented him on the size of his rallies, telling him there was “only one other political leader who ever got crowds as big”. It seems that Trump may not have realised that Merkel was likening him to Hitler. Sherlock star Louise Brealey (above) was a journalist before she became an actress, and in that capacity she was once invited to meet Michael Caine on a set. They got chatting in his trailer, then Caine asked, “‘Would you like to marry me?’” Brealey told The Sunday Times. “I blushed and started stammering at him. And then he politely pushed…

“Only in logic are contradictions unable to coexist; in feelings they quite happily continue alongside each other.”Sigmund Freud, quoted on The Conversation “You can observe a lot just by watching.”Yogi Berra, quoted in the Greensboro News & Record “The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good.”Robert Graves, quoted in The Sunday Telegraph “I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best; they are merely the people who got there first.”Peter Ustinov, quoted on Forbes “I don’t see any good art made out of happiness.”Marina Abramovic, quoted in The New York Times “All of us labour in webs spun long before we were born.”William Faulkner, quoted in The Knowledge “The surest…

To The Guardian As a temporarily embarrassed billionaire who has slept rough for many years, I can’t work up too much loathing for Suella Braverman after her comments about homelessness being a lifestyle choice. Like most of the public, the [former] home secretary will be ill-informed about how people can become trapped in this situation. Drugs, alcohol and mental health issues are only superficial causes; many, perhaps most, homeless people have none of these afflictions. The real causes are housing costs, which have gone through the stratosphere, driven by a demand for housing that has increased dramatically in the past 20 years. We are only offered dire accommodation by organisations that cynically exploit this situation to charge sky-high rents. Suella, I can’t really recommend homelessness to you as a career…

by Jilly Cooper Bantam 448pp £22 The Week Bookshop £17.99 Jilly Cooper’s latest novel – her 11th set in Rutshire – marks an unlikely shift in direction, said Cleo Watson in The Daily Telegraph. Rather than being about polo or opera, it is set in the world of football. Rupert Campbell-Black, Cooper’s swaggering hero, has just bought a local team, Searston Rovers FC, and “with the kind of determination that only an Olympic show-jumping gold medal can instil, he sets his sights on winning the Premier League”. This ambition is amusingly challenged by his players (led by star striker, Facundo Gonzalez), who are more interested in wife swapping than on-pitch glory. Cooper has always offered “huge pleasure”, and I found it a struggle not to “gobble” this novel up “in…

Georg Baselitz at Cristea Roberts Gallery Georg Baselitz (b.1938) is a giant of German contemporary art. Although it is frequently divisive, his style is instantly recognisable: notable among his hallmarks is his tendency to turn his canvases upside down, forcing the viewer to contemplate his textures and mark making, rather than what they represent. Belle Haleine, the first of two shows, displays a 2002 series of monumental prints based on 19th century erotic postcards. Measuring up to two metres in height, they are imposing and just a bit bombastic, pitting masses of jagged white lines against night-black backgrounds; and in place of the subjects’ genitalia, the artist has superimposed large white circles – an act of knowing self-censorship. A companion exhibition, Prints, 2017-2021, is a quieter affair. In its course,…

Can any steak be worth £760? Last month, a Japanese steak restaurant opened in Mayfair that is “so discreet, the only outward sign of its existence is the name in Japanese on a brass bell plaque”, says Damian Whitworth in The Times. But as the media swiftly noted, there is “nothing restrained” about the prices at Aragawa, the first overseas outpost of a lauded Tokyo eatery. Steaks here start at £500, and go up to £900 for a 400g sirloin. The reason for these prices lies with the beef, which comes from the “super-premium Tajima strain of wagyu cattle”. The cows are “reared indoors with all manner of fussing” – including “soothing music” and “exquisite hoof trimming”. The result is exceptionally well marbled meat, which is cooked in a kiln…

● The best used phones are manufacturer refurbished and can be bought direct from them. These are like new, but will cost more than third-party refurbished devices. ● High street retailers CeX and Game sell refurbished phones with warranties. Envirofone and musicMagpie sell online, and give a 12-month warranty. Back Market is a marketplace for small refurbishers who are vetted for quality; but do check reviews. ● Check the model is still getting software updates. Many Android phones only get three or four years of updates; Apple, Google and Samsung offer five to ten years. ● Battery life is always an issue, so check if the battery has been replaced. Look out for signs of damage in the charging port, which is one of the first parts to break. Check…

Martti Ahtisaari 1937-2023 One night in June 2000, the former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari met Cyril Ramaphosa (the former secretary-general of the ANC, and future South African president) and flew with him to Dublin. From there, this “unlikely duo” were taken to an IRA safe house in the city’s suburbs, said The Times. Early the next morning, first in a car, and then in the back of a windowless van, they were driven through the countryside to a remote farmhouse with drawn curtains. When darkness fell, their hosts led them to an abandoned barn, where rubbish was cleared away to reveal a trapdoor. Only Ramaphosa was slim enough to descend the ladder. There, he found a workshop full of tubes and other parts used to make weapons, which he lashed…

Alison Rose The former NatWest boss is counting the financial, as well as reputational, cost of being kicked out of her plum job following the Nigel Farage/Coutts “debanking” debacle, said The Times. She has just “forfeited” £7.6m from a package that could have topped £10m because, although no findings of “misconduct” were made, she didn’t qualify for “good leaver” status. The taxpayer-backed bank is now “trying to draw a line” under the scandal. Good luck with that. Farage has instructed lawyers to take action for “breach of confidence” and “lying” – and hopes to make it “a class action”. NatWest confirmed, however, that Rose would continue to receive her salary, share allowance and pension during her 12-month notice period, amounting to £1.75m. Bim Afolami Spare a thought for the former…

Nigel Farage, with reports that he is being paid a rumoured £1.5m to appear in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, making him the highest-paid person to take part in the jungle-based reality show. In common with other politicians who have appeared on the ITV show, the former UKIP and Brexit Party leader, 59, said he was doing so to connect with younger voters. Ridley Scott, 85, who received generally favourable reviews for his epic drama Napoleon, in advance of its cinema release next week. Critics praised the central performances, by Joaquin Phoenix as the doomed emperor and Vanessa Kirby as his wife Joséphine, and the spectacular battle scenes, but warned that the 158-minute-long biopic is not a history lesson.…

Were an election to be held tomorrow, Labour would win by a landslide, polling suggests. The party would win 431 seats, leaving the Tories with 156. Labour’s majority, of 212 seats, would be 33 seats bigger than the one it had in 1997. Survation/UK Spirits Alliance Two-thirds of British adults do not know what words such as mascarpone and torte mean. Three-quarters have no idea what a coulis is and eight in ten are baffled by a posset. Pots & Co/Guardian According to a poll taken before the event, only 16% of British adults aged over 65 said they thought that the pro-Palestinian march in London should be permitted. Electoral Calculus/Find Out Now…

Resisting the lure of Marvel For years in the 2010s, Jeremy Allen White (pictured below) plugged away in relative obscurity in the US version of the TV comedy drama Shameless. Then he won the lead role in The Bear. It proved a huge hit, said Cam Wolf in GQ, and he became a global star almost overnight. The past year, White admits, has “been insane”. He has had to learn how to handle paparazzi, as his most mundane moments are now deemed news events (whether he is “Taking A Post-Lunch Walk”, or “Out Running Errands”). Not long ago, he was standing naked in a spa in LA, when a stranger came up and started talking to him about a script. So what comes next? He’d love to do some work…

Conspiracy theories existed before the death of JFK: there was a long tradition of suspicious political thinking in the US, particularly on the Right. But the assassination helped conspiracist thinking become a cultural phenomenon. It began in earnest with Mark Lane’s 1966 book, Rush to Judgment, which critiqued the Warren Commission. As the official theory fell out of favour, alternatives were proposed: JFK had been killed by the Soviet or Cuban governments; by Cuban exiles; by the CIA, with which he often clashed; by the Mafia; by Texan right-wingers. In 1967, the New Yorker noted that amateur experts – “assassination buffs” – were poring over every detail: the ballistics; the autopsy; the 8mm film taken at the scene by Abraham Zapruder; unconfirmed reports of a second shooter on the “grassy…

Soak the rich – and they’ll be off to Florida Jeff Jacoby The Boston Globe “Seattle, you will always have a piece of my heart.” So declared Jeff Bezos the other day as he announced his decision to relocate from Washington state, his home for almost 30 years, to Florida. The Amazon founder says he’s moving to be nearer his parents, says Jeff Jacoby. He’ll also be closer to Cape Canaveral, an increasingly active base for his Blue Origin rocket company. But tax considerations may also have been a factor. The move will save him a lot of money. Washington has a new capital gains tax, which takes a 7% bite from all investment gains above $250,000. It’s estimated that Bezos saved nearly $1.1bn by selling shares of Amazon stock…

British women are the joint heaviest binge drinkers in the world, a new report has warned. Some 26% of women in the UK binge drink, meaning they consume at least 60g of pure alcohol (equivalent to about six small glasses of wine) in a single sitting at least once a month. The figure is more than twice the global average of 12% and is matched only by Denmark, according to the analysis of data from 33 countries by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Denmark had the highest proportion of binge drinkers overall, with 37% of adults indulging at least once a month. The UK came joint third with Luxembourg, after Romania, on 35%. By contrast, 21% of adults in France binge drink, along with just 6% in…

I need to make a confession, said Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer. I’ve been oblivious to the biggest political story of our era. Like the rest of the country, I believed that Iain Duncan Smith, Theresa May, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson were all ousted as Tory leaders for various kinds of incompetence and mendacity. It now emerges, in a story that “can be told at last thanks to the tenacity and courage of Nadine Dorries”, that they were all brutally dispatched by a “clandestine cabal” – known as The Movement – that has controlled the Conservative party for decades. Dorries’s “bizarre” new book The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson, describes this cabal in detail, said Christopher Howse in The Daily Telegraph. Its prime movers include Dominic Cummings…

The “pressure was enormous” on Chelsea’s Cole Palmer as he stepped up to take his 95th-minute spot-kick last Sunday, said Ian Ladyman in the Daily Mail. The 21-year-old knew that, with his team trailing 4-3 to Manchester City, his penalty was realistically their last hope of salvaging something from the game. Not only that, he was facing – in Ederson – a goalkeeper who knew him well: Palmer had been a City player until August, before “very suddenly” being sold to Chelsea. Yet if Palmer was nervous, he showed no sign of it: he struck his shot “so purely and so true” that Ederson had no chance of keeping it out, even though he guessed the right way. It was the last significant act of a match that had “flipped…

Tennis Andy Murray has split with his long-time coach Ivan Lendl after an unsuccessful third stint together. World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz suffered a defeat on his debut at the ATP Finals in Turin, losing in three sets to Alexander Zverev. Cricket India maintained their perfect record in the World Cup group stage with a 160-run defeat of the Netherlands. In the semi-finals held this week, India took on New Zealand, and Australia faced South Africa. Football In the Women’s Super League, Arsenal beat Leicester City 6-2. Leaders Chelsea beat Everton 3-0.…

Running time: 2hrs 15mins Backstairs Billy is “the best new play about the royals since Peter Morgan’s smash-hit The Audience”, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. Packed with witty lines, it imagines the relationship between the late Queen Mother and William “Billy” Tallon, the flamboyant Clarence House steward (an “elevated Coventry commoner”) who was her trusted right-hand man for many decades. Marcelo Dos Santos’s comedy has shades of both Noël Coward and Joe Orton, said Dominic Maxwell in The Sunday Times. He weaves together farcical shenanigans (in one sequence, Billy passes off a pick-up from the night before as a visiting African prince) with “nimble dialogue, a keen sense of absurdity and traces of tenderness too”. The two leads – Penelope Wilton as the Queen Mother and Luke Evans…

“It’s a boom time for celebrity documentaries,” said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. “David Beckham and Coleen Rooney currently have their vanity vehicles. Now we have the four-part Robbie Williams (Netflix), a deep dive into the former Take That star’s tortured psyche.” Each episode involves Williams looking at footage of himself in his heyday, and commenting on it. Williams is pretty candid about his life (“he doesn’t even put his trousers on” for most of the documentary, and is mainly seen in his pants or under his duvet). And though it feels like “an extended therapy session”, and endless shots of the singer pacing around his palatial home in LA become rather deadening, the series offers some valuable insights into the costs of fame. As a “hardened” Robbie fan,…

At Bonfire Night, Eddie ignores rumours of Oliver’s plans to sell Grange Farm land. Overwhelmed by office tasks, Jazzer has second thoughts about Hannah’s job. Eddie and Ed are stunned when Oliver announces he’s selling ten acres; it will ruin Ed’s Texel business. Helen learns that Jack is insisting on meeting Rob; Joy comforts her, saying Jack will lose interest. Alan is worried about church finances and considers desperate measures – Usha suggests a fundraising event. Emma tells Ed to stop whingeing and make new plans for his flock; meanwhile Oliver reassures her that the sale won’t affect Little Grange. Hannah realises that Jazzer doesn’t want the job; he’s afraid to tell Tracy, but she’s fine. Hannah is staying on anyway after finding a room at Stella’s. Emma tells George…

The Clock Clinic is a family-run business in London where specialist clock repair skills are being kept alive (clockclinic.co.uk). The Workhouse Gallery in Powys restores antique rugs and carpets, and sells bespoke dyed carpets (01544-267864). The Seam is a UK tailoring service offering virtual consultations to connect users with local dressmakers and tailors (theseam.uk). Scottish knitwear firm Collingwood-Norris specialises in the “visible mending” of moth-damaged knits, worn elbows and so on (collingwoodnorrisdesign.com). Stairway to Kevin, in London’s West End, mainly fixes guitars, but will repair fretted instruments from all over the world; by appointment only (stairwaytokevin.com). The Audio Centre in Croydon has been the go-to place for repairing old hi-fi equipment for the past 50 years (theaudiocentre.com). KPA Shoe Repair and Services in northwest London fixes designer handbags and luggage…

A historic beach town in Florida Founded by the conquistador Tristán de Luna in 1559, Pensacola is the oldest European settlement in the US. It is also a near-perfect seaside town, says Jonathan Thompson in The Times, with vast whites- and beaches, “calm turquoise waters” and “handsome” old streets. For “an excellent twin-destination trip”, you might fly in to New Orleans, which lies an easy, scenic three-hour drive away (much closer than Miami), and spend a few days there before moving on to Pensacola. This will doubtless remind you of the bigger city – it has the same “raised Creole houses, pocket-sized courtyards and grand cast-iron balconies”, together with some “stellar” restaurants and “intriguing” galleries and museums. But it is also a “water-sports heaven”, with more than 100 wrecks for…

David Berglas 1926-2023 Before Uri Geller, and long before Derren Brown and David Blaine, there was David Berglas – a refugee from Nazi Germany who became one of the first magicians on British television. A master of prestidigitation, auto suggestion and misdirection, he amazed audiences with his card tricks and ability to make objects levitate, said The Daily Telegraph, but also pulled off a series of extravagant televised stunts. He drove around central London blindfolded, and once made all the activity – cars, pedestrians, even a dog – on Piccadilly Circus freeze at his command. Having apparently suspended time, he then gave the order “Carry on, London”, which brought the scene back to life. The feat had been meticulously organised. He’d hired a dog that had been trained to freeze…

Avon, the 137-year-old travelling cosmetics company famous for its slogan “Ding dong! Avon calling!”, may be coming permanently to a neighbourhood near you, said The Guardian. The company, owned since 2019 by the Brazilian beauty group Natura, is opening its first UK stores, in partnership with Superdrug. “We are on the cusp of new frontiers,” said Avon CEO Angela Cretu. It is the last standard-bearer for Natura, which is divesting famous brands at a rate of knots, said the Daily Mail. Having sold Aesop to L’Oréal for around £2bn, it has now offloaded The Body Shop to private equity group Aurelius for a knockdown £207m. Call it a new beauty regime.…

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has signalled his intention to overhaul tax-free savings and investment accounts in the Autumn Statement, said Claer Barrett in the Financial Times. Here are five ways “he could put more fuel in the tank”: ● Raise the £20,000 annual Isa limit. A request that is unlikely to be answered, but for many people it would solve “a looming savings tax problem”. ● Kill off the Lifetime Isa. Martin Lewis, of the Money Saving Expert consumer advice site, has branded the Lifetime Isa a “dead duck” – unless the Chancellor fixes the “property price cap penalty” and removes “complicated rules” that mean “none of the major banks” currently offer the “Lisa” to customers. ● Bring back the Help to Buy Isa. The need to help first-time buyers is…

The week’s best shares Dotdigital Group The Mail on Sunday Dotdigital provides tech services to help clients – from Volkswagen to the NHS – understand their customers and improve comms. R&D investment is paying off, with strong growth in sales, profits and divis expected. Buy. 88p. Greencoat UK Wind The Times This investment trust has interests in 40 onshore and offshore UK wind farms. Its valuation has sunk as interest rates have soared, but it offers a well-covered 7% yield and has embarked on a buyback programme. Buy. 142.2p. JP Morgan Emerging Markets Investment Trust The Daily Telegraph Majoring on IT, financials and consumer staples in India and China, this trust has been shunned due to economic and geopolitical worries. That overlooks its excellent record, large discount and “growth potential”.…

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