Table of contents for 1496 in The Week

What happened Keir Starmer’s Cabinet ministers outlined their policy priorities this week, following Labour’s landslide victory in the general election. The immediate focus appeared to be on economic growth, housebuilding and improving the NHS. In her first speech as Chancellor, Rachel Reeves promised to “get Britain building” by reinstating housebuilding targets for councils and reviewing green belt boundaries. However, she warned of “difficult choices” ahead as she ordered the Treasury to draw up an analysis of the state of the public finances. Separately, the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, declared the NHS to be “broken” after 14 years of Tory rule, but said that he’d held “positive” talks with unions about a deal to end the junior doctors’ strikes. In his first days as PM, Starmer appointed a Cabinet that included…

Controversy of the week “Britain is, in general, ruled by the Conservative Party for a simple reason,” said The Economist: “small-c conservative voters unite behind one party, whereas progressive voters split themselves across many parties.” This rule, known as the “progressive dilemma”, was a good way to understand British politics – until the night of 4 July. At this election, for once, “it was the Right rather than the Left that was fatally split”. Labour took an underwhelming 34% of the vote; but the Tories won 24%, its lowest share in modern history. Why? Because Nigel Farage’s Reform UK won 14% of all votes. Following this historic defeat, the Tories will have to entirely rethink their positions. In the past, the party was an alliance of “the City and the…

Outdated technology, after Japan’s digital minister declared victory in the “war on floppy discs”. On being appointed in 2021, Taro Kono had vowed to scrap rules that meant people were still required to submit documents to the government on the storage devices. Kano had also promised to “get rid of the fax machine”. Faxes have been obsolete in most countries for decades, but in Japan they’re still used in many workplaces. Smartphones, as Eton College became the latest school to ban them. Boys due to start this September will be told to leave their own phones at home, and will be issued on arrival with Nokias capable only of making and receiving calls and texts (see page 11). The All England Club, which blamed the poor weather for a 4%…

44% of adults have a favourable view of Keir Starmer, up eight points since the election. 47% have an unfavourable view, a fall of seven points. YouGov Just 29% of Americans who are likely to vote, and who watched all or some of the debate, believe that Joe Biden has the mental capacity and physical stamina to serve another term. 61% say he does not. Bendixen & Amandi/Politico More than 80% of British staff who sometimes work from home say they watch television while technically working, chalking up an average of two hours a day. Come Dine with Me, Homes Under the Hammer and Loose Women are among the most watched shows. TonerGiant/The Times…

Anita Desai’s opinions The author Anita Desai hadn’t lived outside India until she was in her mid-40s, and was invited to become a visiting fellow at Cambridge. It proved a transformative period, she told Emma Brockes in The Guardian, because for the first time, she was regarded not as “anyone’s wife, or anyone’s mother, but as a writer. In India,” she says, “it was the other way round.” The change, though welcome, took some getting used to. “I had to train myself to express my thoughts and opinions. I wasn’t used to that. I was never asked my opinion in India; I just kept quiet and listened to others.” And then once she’d acquired the habit, it turned out to be hard to shake. “I’d go back to India and…

A man has been caught attempting to smuggle more than 100 live snakes into mainland China by stuffing them into his trousers. The man, who has not been named, was travelling from Hong Kong to the city of when he was stopped by customs officers, who discovered that the pockets of his trousers were stuffed with sealed canvas bags. Customs officials said that a total of 104 snakes were seized, “in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colours”. An ice cream van was swept out to sea off the coast of Cornwall last Sunday. The Kelly Whip van got stuck in the sand on Harlyn Bay Beach in North Cornwall, as the tide began to turn. With the waters rising, locals and surfers attempted to pull the van back to…

GERMANY Kicking politics out of the beautiful game Der Spiegel (Hamburg) Politics and football don’t mix. That’s the message that Uefa wished to preserve at this summer’s European Championship, says Peter Ahrens. But it hasn’t been going very well. On the contrary, we’ve heard France’s Kylian Mbappé warning of the danger to France of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party, we’ve heard Austria’s coach Ralf Rangnick expressing concern over the “shift to the right” in both Austria and Germany. More controversially still, Turkey’s centre back, Merih Demiral, performed the so-called “wolf salute” after scoring against Austria last week, a salute linked to Turkey’s Grey Wolves, a right-wing extremist nationalist group banned in Austria – and Uefa duly slapped him with a two-match ban. It had little choice: the organisation has…

Women entering the Commons for the first time may find undue attention is paid to their choice of clothes, Theresa May has warned. “When I was home secretary, one of our national newspapers did a double-page spread with the headline, ‘Is Theresa May the new Cara Delevingne?’” she recalled at a literary festival. But if she was flattered by the comparison, that faded when the same paper featured another spread headlined: “Theresa May: how not to dress when over 50.” Glastonbury has always been associated with progressive causes, but according to Noel Gallagher, the festival has become too “preachy”. “I don’t like it in music – little f**king idiots waving flags around and making political statements and bands taking the stage and saying, ‘Hey guys, isn’t war terrible, yeah? Let’s…

“Amongst democratic nations, each generation is a new people.”Alexis de Tocqueville, quoted in Forbes “Class distinctions do not die; they merely learn new ways of expressing themselves.”Richard Hoggart, quoted in The Sunday Times “The better a conductor is, the less you know why.”Cellist Robert Ripley, quoted in The New Statesman “The optimist says the glass is half-full and the pessimist says the glass is half-empty. The engineer says, ‘You need a smaller glass.’”Joke on the Quote… Unquote website “Everything was better in the 1960s, not least because we could remember the 1950s.”Alan Jones, quoted in The Times “When it comes to unleashing lunatics, there is no mind-altering substance as powerful as the Bible.”Waldemar Januszczak, in The Sunday Times “The only person who likes all kinds of art is an auctioneer.”Oscar…

To The Daily Telegraph The Liberal Democrats won 12% of the vote and 71 seats. Reform UK won 14% of the vote and five seats. Are the Lib Dems still keen on proportional representation? Robin Hawke, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire To The Times If the French had the same flawed first-past-the-post electoral system as the UK, the far-right National Rally might have had an overall majority in the French Assembly a week ago. Instead, voters were able to unite in a second round behind the candidates most likely to beat the far-right. By contrast, we in the UK now have a government with a massive majority elected on 35% of the vote. Sir Keir Starmer should not repeat Tony Blair’s mistake after 1997 of leaving us with a 19th century electoral…

by Taffy Brodesser-Akner Wildfire 464pp £20 The Week Bookshop £15.99 Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s new novel – the follow-up to her bestselling 2019 debut Fleishman Is in Trouble – may be largely about “inherited trauma”, but it’s still a “heck of a lot of fun”, said Marianne Levy in The Independent. It opens in 1980, with the kidnapping of factory owner Carl Fletcher – one of the richest men in the Long Island suburb of Middle Rock. Fletcher survives, but never recovers; and the novel explores how his ordeal impacts his three children: Nathan, who’s “so afraid of the world that he has insurance for everything”; Beamer, a screenwriter who churns out scripts about kidnapping; and “brainy and brilliant” Jenny, who rebels by becoming a union organiser. This is a novel with…

Chris raises the question with Harrison of someone being in the car with Alice on the night of the accident. He suspects Harry and later confronts him, but apologetic Harry clearly didn’t know about the accident. When Etienne misses couples therapy, Josh says Paul deserves better. Unbeknown to Lilian, Justin calls on Alice, asking her to resign from The Stables, but she refuses; Lilian is furious when she finds out. Ed and Emma enjoy their first big-tree surgery job; George gets upset when Emma enthuses about the future. Harry visits Alice and says he wants to help. Alice tells an awkward George that he’s a good person. After failing to be served by Kenton at The Bull, Alice desperately snatches a bottle of wine and gets drunk, missing her chance…

This recipe is similar to one that I first tasted in Sardinia, says Ben Tish. It’s very simple, but relies on using the best-quality fish and ripe tomatoes in season. Try to get thick tuna steaks as they will be easier to cook and allow you to achieve a nice crust on the outside while retaining a lovely pink colour on the inside. Serves four 500g vine tomatoes cored, and cut in half widthways 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 1 tsp coriander seeds, lightly crushed 2 tbsp red wine vinegar olive oil four x 200g tuna steaks, each about 2.5cm thick leaves from a small bunch of basil sea salt and freshly ground black pepper • Preheat the oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C/gas mark 5. • Place the tomatoes in a…

Weymouth in Dorset has all the elements of a proper British seaside town: donkey rides, Punch and Judy, a harbour with “tutti frutti-coloured houses” and a sheltered beach, plus great seafood restaurants. Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear, still exudes “a gracious charm” with its sweeping Victorian crescent and Grand Hotel, and has its own perfect cove, King Edward’s Bay. Sheltered by cliffs and reached by steep steps, it is like something from a Famous Five adventure. There is no theme park nor “Airbnb madness” at New Brighton, Merseyside. Instead, you’ll find an “epic promenade”, an early-19th century castle, a lighthouse and a great sweep of beach. In town, Victoria Road has a village feel with independent shops. Perched prettily on cliffs, Cromer in Norfolk has a working lighthouse, a pier with…

Farasha Farmhouse Marrakech A “clubhouse with rooms” (and a 50-metre pool), this “dusty pink” converted farm set in olive groves near Marrakech “wouldn’t be out of place in Ibiza or Joshua Tree”, says Chloe Sachdev in Condé Nast Traveller. Located between the Atlas and Jbilet mountains, a 45-minute drive from the city centre, it has a “slightly groovy 1960s feel”, with vintage Italian sofas and “shaggy” locally made rugs set off against smooth and curvy tadelakt finishes. There are three “spacious” suites with mountain views, and a separate casita in the grounds. Meals are “jovial” communal affairs, served on a shaded patio. Doubles from £300; farashafarmhouse.com.…

French poll has delivered small mercies Jon Sindreu The Wall Street Journal The second round of French legislative elections delivered “a widely expected hung parliament, but not its predicted makeup”, says Jon Sindreu. “Political gridlock” continues – but, “counterintuitively”, the current impasse “is probably the best investors could have hoped for”. It should at least take some of the volatility out of financial markets. There may still be doubts about how France will handle its budget deficit, which rose to 5.5% of GDP in 2023, forcing the EU to launch an “excessive deficit procedure” against the country. “Still, a fiscal crisis isn’t on the cards because the European Central Bank is ultimately in control of France’s bond market.” As for economic growth, there’s not much to lose. Despite his “pro-business…

What happened In a shock result, a Left-Green alliance, the New Popular Front (NFP), won the second round of France’s parliamentary election. The NFP took 182 seats, the largest share, but fell well short of the 289 required for an absolute majority in the 577-seat assembly. Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance, Ensemble, staged a strong recovery to come second with 168 seats, while Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) came third, with 143. President Macron had called the snap election in response to RN’s victory in last month’s European elections. RN also dominated the first round of the election on 30 June, and was widely expected to emerge victorious from Sunday’s run-off (held in seats where no candidate won more than 50% of the vote). But though RN again received…

New Renault cars will mark their drivers’ performance, with scores out of 100, and points will be deducted if the driver gets too close to other vehicles, strays from their lane, breaks speed limits or seems not to be paying attention to the road. Drivers may be able to give insurers their marks to get lower premiums. A section of the felled Sycamore Gap tree is to go on display as part of an art project aimed at helping people to go through the “grieving process”. Discussing the work, artist Charlie Whinney told the BBC: “We are going to try and create a really beautiful place for people to come and spend time with the tree.” The exhibition will be at The Sill, a museum about a mile from where…

The new Labour Government has dropped the de facto ban on new onshore windfarms in England. In 2015, two footnotes were added to national planning rules to the effect that new onshore projects could not proceed if they received a single local objection. These have now been deleted, putting onshore wind farms on an equal footing with other proposed infrastructure projects. The Government has also launched a consultation about whether to categorise onshore wind farms in England as “nationally significant infrastructure”, which would mean the Energy Secretary would sign them off, rather than local councils.…

Berlin Symbol banned: Berlin’s state assembly has banned displays of the downward-pointing red triangle, a symbol used by Hamas in graffiti and videos to mark enemy targets. The motion, proposed by the city-state’s ruling Christian Democrat and Social Democrat coalition, says the icon represents a threat to Jews and to people committed to the security of Israel. The state is a strong supporter of Israel, and though Berlin has the largest Palestinian population of any city in Europe, the state government initially banned protests over Israel’s offensive in Gaza. Social tensions over the conflict have flared, and the red triangle symbol has appeared in graffiti next to the names of pro-Israel figures, Berlin’s mayor, Kai Wegner, among them. The symbol, taken from the Palestinian flag, was also used by the…

1 Galician Overture by Paddy Moloney, performed by The Chieftains 2* This Is to Mother You, written and performed by Sinéad O’Connor 3 Nocturne No. 11 in G Minor, Op. 37 No. 1 by Chopin, performed by Maurizio Pollini 4 Bluer Than Midnight by Matt Johnson, performed by The The 5 Hey by Black Francis, performed by Pixies 6 Fire in the Hole by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, performed by Steely Dan 7 Plainclothes Man by Elliott Smith, performed by Heatmiser 8 Rock Lobster by Fred Schneider and Ricky Wilson, performed by The B-52s Book: any Alice Munro short story collection Luxury: a piano * Choice if allowed only one record…

In the 1860s, the transcontinental railroad opened up the American west – and, with it, the rich bone beds of Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska. The result was the Great Dinosaur Rush – and a heated rivalry between two leading palaeontologists, Edward Drinker Cope, of Philadelphia, and Othniel Charles Marsh, of Yale, who both directed and funded multiple expeditions. Initially, their relationship was amicable, but it degenerated into a personal feud as they tried to outdo each other in discoveries and discredit each other’s theories. Marsh insulted Cope by pointing out that he’d put a Plesiosaur’s head at the wrong end of its skeleton. The tensions led, in time, to stone-throwing battles between rival teams of excavators, and to damage to rival sites. The battle eventually brought both men to financial…

Gun violence: a true public health crisis Robin Abcarian Los Angeles Times Good news, says Robin Abcarian: US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has declared gun violence a public health crisis. Such declarations are the “equivalent of sending up a flare”, reserved for situations requiring urgent action. It’s about time. Since 2020, firearms have surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death among children and adolescents. Over the past decade, young adults have experienced what Murthy described as a “staggering increase” in gun suicide rates. According to one study, more than half of Americans have had some sort of exposure to firearm violence. Nearly three-quarters of adults say they worry about the possibility of a mass shooting, and one-third say the fear of such incidents stops them from going to…

We’ve heard a lot recently about the rise in right-wing nationalism in Europe, said Ziang Liu in the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong). But “ultranationalism is boiling over” in China, too, where anti-Japanese rhetoric is hitting new highs on social media. In January, an advert celebrating the Lunar New Year was taken down in the city of Nanning after enraged internet users claimed it resembled the Japanese “rising Sun flag”. Acts as innocuous as wearing a kimono are often met with fury online. Anti-Japanese hatred came to a head last month in the city of Suzhou, said Matthew Loh in Business Insider (New York), when a knife-wielding assailant attacked a Japanese woman and her son at a school bus stop. Both were injured; but it was a third victim…

A moss that grows in some of the harshest environments on Earth could help humans colonise Mars. Syntrichia caninervis, or steppe screw moss, is found in both Antarctica and the Mojave Desert. Now, Chinese scientists have established just how hardy it is. In tests, they found that it could withstand being stored at-80°C for five years; and at-196°C for a month. It survived almost total dehydration, as well as doses of radiation that would be lethal to humans. The team then exposed it to Mars-like conditions, including an atmosphere with 95% carbon dioxide, temperatures that fluctuated from-60°C to 20°C, and low atmospheric pressure. Even after a week in the simulator, it was able to fully regenerate in 30 days. The moss is inedible, but it could help enrich the Red…

“In the end it was a walkover,” said Mick Brown in The Daily Telegraph. “Having tried, and failed, on seven occasions to win a seat in Parliament, the most controversial, disruptive, and in many ways the most significant British politician” of recent years finally won a seat in the House of Commons – where, as he has put it, he will “make a bloody nuisance” of himself. “Wearing a mid-blue suit and a Cheshire cat grin”, Nigel Farage overturned a Conservative majority of 24,702 on Thursday to win Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, by a comfortable margin of 8,405 votes. He vowed to build Reform UK into a “mass national movement”, and declared: “This is just the first step of something that is going to stun all of you.” He may well…

Whatever the outcome of England’s semi-final against the Netherlands (played after The Week went to press), one thing has become clear over the course of these Euros, said Jason Burt in The Daily Telegraph: that Gareth Southgate doesn’t deserve the “ridicule” (to use his word) that has been thrown at him. Yes, England’s football has been largely unconvincing and valid questions have been asked about their tactics and approach. They’ve also been lucky with their draw, having so far avoided the best teams. Yet the barrage of vitriol directed at their manager – from being called “inept” by Gary Lineker to being pelted with cups in Cologne – has been “unacceptable and unfair”. After all, this is now the third time in four attempts that Southgate has guided England to…

Rugby union England lost to New Zealand 16-15 in the first of two Tests. Football Spain beat France 2-1 in the first semi-final of the Euros. Lamine Yamal became the tournament’s youngest-ever goalscorer. Tennis The women’s second seed, Coco Gauff, lost to Emma Navarro in the fourth round. Top seed Iga Świątek went out in round three. The men’s No. 1, Jannik Sinner, was also knocked out. Cricket Gus Atkinson and Jamie Smith made their Test debuts for England this week against West Indies at Lords.…

Running time: 2hrs “Stand well back and hold on tight,” said Patrick Marmion in the Daily Mail. More than two decades after Starlight Express finally ran out of steam in the West End after an 18-year run, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “train-racing musical-on-roller-skates” is back – bigger, bolder and more bonkers than ever. At the Troubadour, a huge industrial unit near Wembley Stadium, audience members sit within the loops of a “supersized Scalextric track”, while the cast – attired in a “futuristic cavalcade” of glam-rock excess – flash past on skates. “And did I mention the lasers? Or the roll-on oil drums, belching tongues of fire?” The whole thing is an “audio-visual blitzkrieg, the like of which I’ve never seen before”; ultimately it is “more like a trip to the circus…

If there is one “tiny shred of good” that has come out of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is that we have finally started to take notice of this “fascinating and crucial” country, said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times. Where once we might have considered it “a foggy blob in our lopsided imagining of Europe”, occupied by various neighbouring powers for much of its history, its people and culture have now taken centre stage in our collective imagination. In the past, the story of modern art has seldom contained a “single paragraph” about Ukraine. Now, this “involving” exhibition, featuring more than 60 works created by Ukrainian artists in the first decades of the 20th century, sets that right. It tells “a complex artistic tale that keeps bumping tragically…

Glued to the Box by Clive James, 1983 (out of print). The first grown-up book I recall buying with my pocket money was this compilation of Clive James’s TV reviews, which features a display of linguistic pyrotechnics every bit as eye-catching as the Sydney fireworks on New Year’s Eve. In the land of Waugh and Greene, I joined a cohort of aspiring journalists who wanted to mimic “the kid from Kogarah”. Not even James’s buddy Christopher Hitchens could have pulled off a zinger likening Arnold Schwarzenegger to “a brown condom full of walnuts”, or comparing the mascara and geisha-white complexion of Barbara Cartland to the corpses of two crows that had crashed into a chalk cliff. Wifedom by Anna Funder, 2023 (Penguin £10.99). Animal Farm was a formative influence on…

Programmes The Jetty Crime drama, with Jenna Coleman. A recently widowed detective suspects that a predator is targeting underage girls. First two episodes: Mon 15 and Tue 16 Jul, BBC1 21:00 (60mins each). Daley: Olympic Superstar Forty years after winning gold at the LA Olympics, the west London-born decathlete Daley Thompson tells his story. Includes interviews with Seb Coe and his former mentor Caitlyn Jenner. Tue 16 Jul, BBC2 21:00 (105mins). Britain’s Unsolved Crime Wave: Dispatches Reporter Isobel Yeung meets criminals and victims in areas where up to 100% of neighbourhood crimes go unsolved. Tue 16 Jul, C4 22:00 (65mins). Why Trains Crash In 2023, nearly 300 people were killed in a train crash in the Indian state of Odisha. This film investigates the causes of the disaster, and asks…

SOURCES: THE INDEPENDENT, STYLIST, EVENING STANDARD…

Ismail Kadare 1936-2024 One of the greatest writers of the late 20th century, Ismail Kadare was often tipped for the Nobel Prize in Literature. That honour eluded him, said The New York Times, but in 2005, he was the inaugural winner of the Man Booker International Prize for his life’s work. The other finalists included Philip Roth, Margaret Atwood and Gabriel García Márquez. Most of his books were set in his native Albania, or a disguised version of it, where for the first 30 years of his career, he lived and worked under the regime of that “brutal and idiosyncratic dictator Enver Hoxha”. To avoid persecution in a country in which thousands of dissidents were executed or sent to labour camps, he trod a delicate line. He served in the…

James Timpson In a radical appointment, said Ryan Hogg in Fortune, the UK’s new government has appointed the heir of a key-cutting and shoe repair empire – “known for hiring hundreds of ex-offenders” – as its Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation. James Timpson, 52, became CEO of the family business in 2002, working alongside his father, Sir John. He introduced the policy after hiring a young inmate named Matt, who is now “one of Timpson’s most successful managers”; 10% of staff are now “prison leavers”. The family, whose fortune was put at £210m in 2019, have always been hands-on philanthropists. Sir John and his late wife fostered some 90 children. Timpson may be “the most dangerous man in Britain”, said Rory Geoghegan in The Daily Telegraph. The…

Officials in Copenhagen have come up with a novel way to mitigate the environmental impact of the millions of tourists who visit the Danish capital each year. From this month, visitors will be offered rewards including free drinks, meals and museum tours if they take part in litter-picking initiatives, use public transport, or cycle during their stay. The scheme is being run in partnership with local businesses who might, say, give a free cup of coffee to a tourist who arrives by bike. An extraordinary photograph has emerged showing Lionel Messi – arguably the greatest-ever footballer – cradling a baby who grew into Lamine Yamal, the 16-year-old Spaniard whose dazzling play has been the talk of the Euros. The photo was taken for a charity calendar in 2007, when Messi…

Wheelie bins, which finally arrived in New York. Mayor Eric Adams hailed the bins as part of a “trash revolution”. However, he conceded that new rules insisting that householders put their rubbish in a ratproof bin with a lid – rather than letting it pile up on the street – were overdue. “When I visit other countries, they are blown away that we still use plastic bags,” he said. Me+Em, which experienced a rush in sales after Victoria Starmer and Angela Rayner both wore outfits from the fashion brand on three consecutive days last week. The £275 red midi dress that the PM’s wife wore at Downing Street on Friday proved a particular hit: it was reported to have sold out within 48 hours.…

Around 400,000 people may have been prevented from voting last week because they lacked the necessary photo ID, polling has found. Of those surveyed by the campaign group More in Common, 3.2% reported having been turned away at a polling station at least once for lack of ID, which if reflected across the UK would equate to more than 850,000 people. More than half of those who were turned away either gave up, or returned later and were stopped from voting again. The rest did later vote.…

Washington DC Digging in: Joe Biden insisted this week that he is “not going anywhere”, as he launched a fightback against attempts to replace him as the Democrats’ presidential nominee. In a letter to congressional colleagues on Monday, the 81-year-old president noted his sweeping victory in Democratic primaries earlier this year, and urged his party to unite behind him against Donald Trump. Hours later, he called in to a cable news show and gave a defiant interview in which he criticised Democratic “elites” and dared his internal critics to challenge him for the nomination at the party’s convention in August. He also phoned major Democratic donors, some of whom had announced that they were pausing contributions in the wake of his disastrous performance in last month’s TV debate with Trump.…

“Strawberries seem to taste better this year. I suspect it is because the strawberry-growing business has gone full circle: from the delicious berries of my childhood, through fruit selected only for fast growth and appearance, to realisation that consumers will pay for flavour. This process has already transformed the Brussels sprout. Remember how they used to taste horrible? That’s because food scientists, in creating prolific new varieties, accidentally made sprouts bitter. They had to partially reverse the process to make them taste better, while still growing fast. I guess strawberries are on the same positive trajectory. Capitalism often gets things right in the end, but sometimes it takes a while.” Emma Duncan in The Times…

Closing the revolving door of politics… Rohan Silva The Times In recent years, Britain’s “stiflingly bureaucratic planning system has become a major political issue”, says Rohan Silva – because of its “ruinous impact” on housebuilding, and on the cost of new infrastructure. One “under-discussed aspect of [this] broken regime is that lucrative planning decisions depend on backroom access to local bureaucrats and councillors”. The rules are lax, which is a recipe for a “very British” kind of corruption. Most of the time, no laws were broken. But when a planning officer steps down from a local council, they “can quit their job and start working for property developers the next day”, while their contacts are still fresh. They can call up their friends, and rush through applications or “wangle an…

Egyptian scribes got bad backs Today’s office workers often suffer stiff necks and back pain as a result of being bent over a computer all day – but such problems are not new. A new study has indicated that Ancient Egyptian scribes also suffered with their backs as a result of hunching over their papyruses. For the study, scientists from the Czech Republic analysed the remains of 69 men who were buried at the necropolis at Abusir, in Egypt, which was in use between 2700BC and 2180BC. Just under half of them are believed to have been scribes. At a time when only 1% of the population could read and write, scribes had high social status and would have lived relatively privileged lives. But it seems their work took its…

Labour’s nationwide election victory was remarkable enough, said The Times, but Scotland has seen an even more extraordinary “political earthquake”. It was the only part of the UK where the party’s vote share actually rose sharply, with a swing from the Scottish National Party to Labour of 16.7%, causing the “virtual extinction” of the SNP at Westminster. Having won just a single seat last time, Labour took 37 of the 57 in Scotland (on a 35.3% vote share). The SNP, which previously held 48 seats, crashed to just nine (on a 30% share). The Tories, as in England, also had a “dreadful” night, said Brian Taylor in The Herald. They saw their vote collapse by half (to 12.7%) and won five seats (down one). The Liberal Democrats tripled their seats…

“Qualifiers are dangerous”, declared Emma Raducanu ahead of her fourth-round match against Lulu Sun of New Zealand. Well, she should know, said Emma John in The Guardian: after all, she occupied a “similarly humble position” when she went on her celebrated run at the 2021 US Open – which ended with her becoming the first qualifier in tennis history to win a grand slam title. Nonetheless, the 21-year-old was heavily favoured to beat the world No. 123 last Sunday, having played so convincingly in her three previous matches that some were already making comparisons with her fairytale run at Flushing Meadow. Disappointingly, however, Raducanu “struggled to replicate” that form against a determined opponent, said Stuart Fraser in The Times. “In a tough battle lasting two hours and 50 minutes, she…

A calm transition… To The Guardian Kudos to Rishi Sunak for showing Americans the proper way to transition leadership from one political party to its opposition. Paul L. Newman, US …is excitement enough… To The Guardian Jonathan Freedland calls Keir Starmer “unexciting perhaps, but capable and decent”. I think “capable and decent” is pretty exciting. Wendy Bradford, Huddersfield …so TV take note To the Financial Times With a change of UK government, perhaps it is also an opportunity for the media to re-examine its approach to interviewing politicians. Over the past decade, these interviews have become increasingly pointless – a battle for the journalist to score a point on a transient issue of the day versus a politician trying to get away without making a mistake. The public learns and…

by David Baddiel Fourth Estate 368pp £22 The Week Bookshop £17.99 This “wincingly funny” memoir by the comedian David Baddiel is an account of growing up in a north London suburb with two “distant, distracted and erratic” parents, said Nick Duerden in The i Paper. Baddiel’s father, Colin, was a misanthropic research scientist who, upon losing his job at Unilever, set up a market stall selling Dinky Toys. His mother, Sarah, was a “flamboyant damsel hoping that others might see her distress”. The pair didn’t seem to like each other much (though young David would regularly overhear their noisy sex) and Sarah compensated by having an “enduring dalliance” with a “pipe-smoking golf enthusiast” named David White. This affair, which lasted some 30 years, was “obsessive and barely concealed”, said Tim…

Roe 5 Park Drive, Wood Wharf, London E14 (020-7078 8808) This restaurant in Canary Wharf, from the team behind the much-loved Fallow in St James’s, is definitely for “people who like other people”, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. An “absolute beast of a venue”, it has 500 covers. But while the experience of dining here is “far from intimate”, the cooking has “geeky precision”. Dancing daintily between “pub grub” and “Noma”, the kitchen offers up crowd-pleasers as you’ve never seen them before: a buttery baked potato in a bowl of rich cheese sauce, topped with shoestring fries and brown kombu ketchup; salty, oil-drizzled flatbreads topped with “snail vindaloo” and bacon. Though it all sounds “kind of mad”, the food here is really quite something; and at times, it’s “sheer…

For longer runs, aim to get the lightest possible shoes, to reduce fatigue and for a more efficient stride. But if you are trail running, aim for something heavier, to ensure stability on uneven terrain. Your shoe should also be suitable for your gait. Running shops will usually offer gait analysis. Or look at the tread on the sole of your existing shoe to see where it is most worn. If you overpronate – lean to one side – get shoes that compensate for that. If you are prone to shin pain, cushioning can help. For super-long distances, try maximum-cushion shoes; memory foam inner soles boost shock absorption. Consider buying more than one pair, particularly if you do long runs and sprint sessions. Like you, they'll last longer if they…

Joss Naylor 1936-2024 As a child, living on a farm in rural Cumbria, Joss Naylor injured his back and was advised to avoid all strenuous activity, said The Times. Yet he grew up to become the “King of the Fells” – known for his superhuman feats of endurance on long-distance runs across the Lake District, and for smashing a series of records. Among his more extraordinary achievements was running up all 214 of the Lake District summits listed by Alfred Wainwright in seven days, one hour and 25 minutes, knocking days off the record. Wainwright had taken 13 years. Another time he got up and down Scafell Pike in 47 minutes. Wiry, sure-footed and tenacious, Naylor not only dominated the sport in the latter part of the 20th century, said…

In a new setback for UK manufacturing, appliance-maker Dyson announced plans to reduce its British workforce by almost a third, as part of a restructuring to meet what it calls “increasingly fierce and competitive global markets”, said The Times. Around 1,000 of its 3,500 UK jobs are at risk. The firm, founded by James Dyson in 1987, moved its global HQ to Singapore in 2019, attracting criticism because of its founder’s “vocal support of Brexit”. Dyson, in turn, has been very critical of the UK government – claiming last year that ministers talked “hubristically” about making Britain a tech superpower, while overseeing “woeful policies” that rendered the concept a “mere political slogan”.…

The presidential election campaign “has taken a notable turn”, said Jeff Cox on CNBC. Cue renewed talk of the “Trump Trade” – coined to describe the big market movements following Donald Trump’s 2016 election win. What might happen in 2024? Treasuries Bond traders reacted fast to President Biden’s fumbling debate showing on 28 June, said Sam Goldfarb on WSJ.com – sparking a sell-off that saw yields surge. The bet is that Trump policies, particularly tax cuts, “could drive up deficits and inflation”. Many are sceptical. Both inflation and Trump’s fiscal approach are “hard to predict”, said Robert Armstrong in the FT. Stocks The S&P 500 could enjoy a “knee-jerk” boost, said Ed Mills of wealth manager Raymond James, on Yahoo Finance – particularly in highly regulated sectors such as banking.…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best shares James Latham Investors’ Chronicle Supply chain uncertainty and elevated freight costs have hit the timber distributor, which fluctuates with economical and geopolitical swings. Still, it has a big cash pile and pays decent divis. Buy. £12.05. London Stock Exchange Group The Times The Refinitiv takeover saw the exchange evolve into a data and analytics business, with margins north of 40% – and 70% recurring revenues give good visibility. A partnership with Microsoft is “key to growth”. Buy. £92.74. Raspberry Pi Holdings The Times The low-cost, single-board computer maker is a vertically integrated, asset-light, business with a loyal customer base of educators and enthusiasts. Shares have cooled since floating, but growth prospects are promising. Buy. 395p. Sanofi The Daily Telegraph Spinning off its consumer…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1422 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 22 July. Send it to The Week Crossword 1422, 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 Inca material scattered here? (5,7) 8 GP holds one back next to Emergency Room? (5) 9 Almost time to hit place for an evening out (5,4) 11 Head's covering points showing stupidity (9) 12 Pop group love staying unchanged (5) 13 Craft broadcasts with it (7)…