Table of contents for 1493 in The Week

What happened Keir Starmer unveiled Labour’s election manifesto last week, declaring that his party was ready to “turn the page decisively” on 14 years of “Conservative chaos”. There were no surprises in the document, which mainly consists of previously announced measures. These include some £8.6bn of revenue-raising policies, such as abolishing non-dom status, applying VAT to private schools (see page 19), and introducing a more stringent windfall tax on oil and gas giants. The proceeds from these tax rises will be spent on Labour’s “green prosperity plan”, 40,000 new NHS appointments per week to cut waiting lists, and on hiring 6,500 more state-school teachers. The party also plans to crack down on antisocial behaviour, with more neighbourhood police; to give 16-year-olds the vote; and to make sure that 1.5 million…

Controversy of the week Although the Prime Minister has not admitted it yet, the Tory campaign is “now predicated on the assumption of imminent defeat on an epic scale”, said Iain Martin in The Times. The Conservative Party has started running adverts that warn against giving Keir Starmer “a massive majority” or “a blank cheque”. Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, has spoken of the danger of Labour winning a “super-majority”. This is an “outlandish” electoral strategy, “counter to all democratic custom”. Standard practice is never to concede defeat, and to insist that the only poll that counts is the one on election day. But it may just be realistic, given the “brutal three-way squeeze” on the Tories – from Starmer’s disciplined and reassuring Labour, from a “skilful” Lib Dem campaign,…

Craig Williams, Rishi Sunak’s parliamentary private secretary, who is being investigated by the Gambling Commission. On 19 May, he staked £100 that there would be an election in July. Three days later, his boss called a poll for 4 July. Williams, 39, who is standing for re-election as MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr, said his “flutter” had been a “huge error of judgement”. Sir Ian McKellen, who was taken to hospital after falling off the stage during a performance in the West End. The 85-year-old actor was appearing as Falstaff in Player Kings when he lost his footing during a fight scene. The next day, the theatre said he was “in good spirits” and expected to make a “speedy recovery”.…

Vatican City Doubling down: In a meeting with priests last week to discuss the Church’s stance on barring gay men from the priesthood, the Pope allegedly remarked that even in the Vatican itself one could detect an “air of frociaggine” (faggotry). It was the same anti-gay slur that he is said to have used in a meeting with bishops last month and for which the Vatican has issued an apology. On that occasion, he had said seminaries were too full of frociaggine. The pontiff has generally adopted a more inclusive tone with regard to gay people than his predecessors, but these latest remarks have caused consternation among gay rights groups. Paris Elections fallout: President Macron’s hopes of winning a parliamentary majority for his centrist Renaissance party were dealt a fresh…

1 String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 by Beethoven, performed by the Kodály Quartet 2 Welcome to My World by Ray Winkler and John Hathcock, performed by Jim Reeves 3 Così fan tutte ossia La scuola degli amanti, K588 / Act I: “Soave sia il vento” by Mozart, performed by Kiri Te Kanawa, Ann Murray, Ferruccio Furlanetto and the Vienna Philharmonic 4 All Blues, written and performed by Miles Davis 5 Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011: 1: Prélude by Bach, performed by Paul Tortelier 6 Slave to the Rhythm by Bruce Woolley, Simon Darlow, Stephen Lipson and Trevor Horn, performed by Grace Jones 7* Long, Long Summer by Lalo Schifrin, performed by Dizzy Gillespie 8 Stomp! by Louis Johnson, George Johnson, Valerie Johnson and Rod Temperton, performed by The Brothers Johnson…

Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids like it now kill some 75,000 people a year in the US. That’s more than double the figure of 2019, and more Americans than died in the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined. To date, fentanyl – which is about 50 times stronger than heroin – has largely spared Europe: about 137 people died of drugs of its ilk in 2021, and seizures of the drug are rare. But there are fears that Europe’s immunity may not last much longer. About a million Europeans use opioids, with most of the supply historically coming from Afghanistan; but in April 2022, the Taliban banned the cultivation of opium poppies. Areas under cultivation duly shrank by some 95% last year, hindering the supply of heroin to Europe,…

A new scan is able to predict the onset of dementia years before it would normally be diagnosed. The test takes just six minutes, uses MRI scanners that are already in use in NHS hospitals, and has an accuracy rate of 80%. To develop the test, the team at Queen Mary University of London analysed brain scans from more than 1,100 people. They found that those who developed dementia showed less connectivity in a part of the brain’s system called the default mode network, which plays a role in keeping our thoughts in order, and which is the first to degenerate in Alzheimer’s patients. This allowed the development of an algorithm which could use scans to accurately predict dementia an average of 3.7 years before an official diagnosis. The ability…

As a young senator, Joe Biden was so given to verbal missteps that he called himself the “gaffe machine”. And during his 2020 campaign, his team played loud music whenever he mingled with the public, seemingly to drown out any off-colour remarks he might make. But lately, a tendency to say the wrong thing has morphed into something far more worrying, said Freddy Gray in the Daily Mail. At 81, the US president is not only physically frail – he wears trainers to aid his mobility, and has a glacially slow, shuffling gait – he has also become prone to what look like moments of senility. At the commemorations to mark D-Day, for instance, Biden was about to sit down at an event, then realised it was the wrong moment…

“If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you.”Steven Wright, quoted in Reader’s Digest “When Dr Johnson defined patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel, he ignored the enormous possibilities of the word ‘reform’.”Senator Roscoe Conkling, quoted in The Times “Age is of no importance unless you’re a cheese.”Billie Burke, quoted in The Times of India “A date is an experience you have with another person which makes you appreciate being alone.”Quote from the TV show Curb Your Enthusiasm “Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.”G.K. Chesterton, quoted in The Times “Sorry isn’t always the hardest word. It’s often the easiest.”Stephen Cherry in The New Statesman “We’re a broad church, not an Amazon warehouse.”Robert Buckland on whether Nigel Farage should be welcomed into the…

To The Guardian So many options for change lost, so few promised. Labour’s “dullifesto” could have been written by ChatGPT: “write an anodyne centrist manifesto avoiding any kind of vision that might inspire emotions, positive or negative”. Real Tories out, substitute Tories in. Ho-hum. Anthony Cheke, Oxford To The Guardian Boring? Really? I understand and agree with much of what Jonathan Freedland says about Keir Starmer’s steady-as-you-go approach (“Is Keir Starmer really a ‘political robot’?”). But I urge everyone to please read the Labour Party manifesto. And then dare to tell us it is not bold. Among other things, it includes: reform of the House of Lords; creativity restored to the school curriculum, with drama, music, art, dance and sports back where they belong to inspire children; an end to…

by Joseph O’Neill 4th Estate 304pp £16.99 The Week Bookshop £13.99 The premise of Joseph O’Neill’s latest novel could hardly be more “unlikely”, said Anthony Cummins in The Observer. Mark Wolfe is a failed scientist who now writes grant applications for big pharma. When he falls out with his colleagues at the writers’ co-op he belongs to in Pittsburgh, he decides to take up a proposal put forward by his half-brother – a former footballer-turned-aspiring agent – to travel to West Africa to snap up a gifted, but elusive, young footballer. O’Neill – best known for his 2008 novel Netherland – somehow “wrings edge-of-your-seat drama” from this story, with its echoes of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Godwin is an “exceptional” novel, with an “enthralling fireside quality”. Wolfe is a…

As Harrison grapples with his grief, Alan suggests a church service for the loss of an unborn baby, but stresses Fallon must be consulted. Bartleby impresses a woman at the Borsetshire County Show. Oliver makes up with Lilian, but his horse Duke is still struggling with strangles. Lily and Josh try to cheer up Paul, who’s downcast after his boyfriend Etienne asks to open up their relationship. At George’s invitation, Meg, Bartleby’s admirer, comes to visit; after questions from Emma, she reveals she wants to buy him. Fallon confronts Harrison after Alan lets slip his plan for the service; he tries to explain but she’s furious; Fallon tells Kirsty she wants to go out and celebrate her birthday early. Stella handles a cyberattack at Home Farm. The Grundys deliberate over…

Be vigilant for the species. It dies down to ground level in winter; in the spring, reddish purple shoots emerge and it then grows rapidly into tall (7ft) mottled red bamboolike stems, with large heart-shaped leaves; and in late summer, cream tassel flowers. The roots can be a couple of metres deep. If it appears in your garden, try to work out where it came from. It could have arrived in new soil, or via a plant from a knotweedy garden. Often, though, it will be spreading from a neighbouring garden. Householders have a legal duty to try to keep knotweed under control. If you think it is coming from a neighbouring garden, speak to your neighbours to find out what they are doing, and if they are not taking…

Nora Cortiñas 1930-2024 One cold morning in April 1977, Nora Cortiñas’s 24-year-old son Carlos Gustavo left the house and never came back. A former student at the University of Buenos Aires, he had become involved in left-wing politics – which made him a target of Argentina’s US-backed military dictatorship. Cortiñas went in search of her son, but when she made enquiries at public offices, she met evasiveness and worse. “I entered into a spiral of madness,” she recalled. “I was called, threatened, told I would be put in prison.” A month after Carlos Gustavo vanished, she joined forces with a group of women who were asking similar questions, and who had started to hold weekly vigils for their missing children in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires. There were…

ESG funds “are bleeding”, said Lex in the FT. A net $40bn has been pulled from environmental, social and governance funds this year, according to Barclays. Is it time for a rethink? Why the withdrawals? They are less to do with ESG’s perceived limited impact – “nations backpedalling on green pledges, say, or fresh holes in corporate governance” – than financial performance. ESG has lost out to the AI-driven tech rally: Nasdaq has generated 50% more gains than the MSCI ESG Leaders’ index over the past two years. Renewable energy paled in comparison with, say, BP and Shell, after the Ukraine War inflated oil prices. Controversy ESG has suffered from becoming “politicised”. The giant fund manager BlackRock still has $800bn under management in its sustainable investment platform, but has ditched…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best shares Coca-Cola Company The Daily Telegraph Having seen off arch-rival Pepsi, Coke diversified into coffee, water and energy drinks: sales are up by 34% to $45.8bn over five years. Still the “real thing” for big investors, the current price is an attractive entry point. Buy. $62.55. Eckoh Investors’ Chronicle Eckoh’s software secures customer payment details so companies don’t have to worry – the data is stored in the cloud. Contracted business rose by 52% to £52.6m last year. Looks cheap, given exposure to the US market. Buy. 41.9p. GlaxoSmithKline The Times A US legal battle connected to its heartburn drug Zantac wiped billions off GSK’s market value, but litigation costs are now priced in. A strong drug pipeline, rising profitability and a newly “chunky”…

What happened A Reform UK government would freeze “non-essential” immigration and enact tax cuts worth £90bn a year, declared Nigel Farage this week, at the launch of his party’s manifesto. The 24-page “contract” with voters includes pledges to lift the income tax threshold to £20,000, leave the European Convention on Human Rights and eliminate NHS waiting lists in two years. Reform said that its £141bn of tax cuts and spending increases would be funded by budget cuts and by axing the target to hit net-zero emissions by 2050; the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that the party’s sums “do not add up”. At a launch event in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, Farage admitted that his party wouldn’t form the next government, but said that it is aiming for victory in…

A luxury airline that specifically caters to pampered pooches is now going transatlantic. With tickets from New York to London costing from $8,000 for one dog, plus a human companion, Bark Air promises a “white-glove” experience, reports The Sunday Times. On board, dogs can quaff “doggy champagne” (chicken bone broth), enjoy spa treatments, and listen to relaxing reggae music. Hybrid workers say that working partly from home makes them happier, healthier and more productive. 78% of hybrid workers say that they feel less stressed than when they worked full-time in an office; 68% sleep better. Three-quarters say a return to the office full-time would damage their well-being.…

Four former Metropolitan Police detectives who ran the initial investigation into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence will not face charges, the Crown Prosecution Service announced this week. Lawrence, 18, was killed by a gang of five or six white youths as he waited for a bus in southeast London in 1993; local people named the suspects but, owing to a string of failures, it wasn’t until 2012 that two of them were jailed for murder. In its final ruling on the matter, the CPS said that the allegations against the police amounted to a series of mistakes, which, even if serious, did not constitute an offence, as there was no evidence that they were wilful or the result of reckless indifference. Lawrence’s mother Doreen said she was “bewildered” and…

Washington DC Abortion ruling: The justices of the US supreme court have unanimously rejected a case challenging the approval of a widely used abortion drug. Mifepristone is one of two drugs regularly used in medical abortions – which now account for at least 60% of terminations in the US. It is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, which had expanded access and now allows it to be mailed to patients – creating an effective workaround for women living in states that banned abortion after the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade, two years ago. The justices did not examine the case’s merits and decreed that the plaintiffs – a group of anti-abortion doctors and activists – had no legal standing to sue, because they were not harmed by the…

“I have been following the election with avidity, but I often wonder how much good it is doing me. I have consumed some policy proposals but also vast quantities of trivia and nonsense: gaffes, pseudo-scandals, meaningless PR ‘wins’. I know about Sunak’s visit to the Titanic dockyard and Starmer’s childhood; I can list all of Ed Davey’s stunts. It has been richly entertaining. I doubt it has made me a more competent voter. The writer Gurwinder Bhogal calls it ‘junk info’: an endless, bloating, unfulfilling sugar rush that renders us unable to reflect or see the bigger picture. As a society, we have yet to get used to the idea that not all information is good or useful.” James Marriott in The Times…

Art lovers of the world, let’s fight back Richard Morrison The Times Another week, another attack on an innocent artwork, says Richard Morrison. The target this time was Jonathan Yeo’s new portrait of King Charles, which was adorned with stickers as part of a protest against alleged cruelty on RSPCA-assured farms. Such stunts aren’t novel – 110 years ago suffragette Mary Richardson slashed Velázquez’s The Rokeby Venus in the National Gallery – but now they’re horribly routine. There have been dozens in the past two years, most carried out by climate activists. It’s a nightmare for galleries, who want their art to remain as accessible as possible but don’t have the funds to protect every work. Other countries are now getting tough: in the US, the woman who sprayed paint…

Hope for bowel disease sufferers Scientists have pinpointed one of the principal drivers of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) – a breakthrough that could lead to new treatments, reports The Guardian. Around 500,000 people in the UK and seven million worldwide have IBD, the main forms of which are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. It occurs when the immune system attacks the bowel, and symptoms include abdominal pain, weight loss, fatigue, bloody stools and diarrhoea. Existing treatments do not work for everyone and an incomplete understanding of the drivers of IBD has hindered the hunt for new ones. The new research, by a team at The Francis Crick Institute, focused on a “gene desert” – a stretch of DNA that is devoid of protein-coding genes – which has previously been linked…

Martin Amis liked to call himself a “father emeritus”, his daughter Fernanda recalled at his memorial service this month, but far from being absent, he was at home all the time. And though he didn’t care for theatre, he twice came to see her in her school play, and sat in the front row, “not remotely trying to hide the blue light and cloud” from his vape. He didn’t last long, however. “The plays that I was in were always avant garde slogs,” she explained. “I understood and respected his decision to leave at the intermission.” Stephen Merchant claims to have been banned by the outsize retailer High and Mighty for criticising their wares in an interview. The 6ft 7in actor discovered he was banned when he was appearing in…

“Another day closer to the general election and I’m at my daughter’s prep school in Oxfordshire,” said Arabella Byrne in The Spectator. Once again, “I’m having a ‘VAT chat’ with a fellow mother”. We’ve known about Labour’s plan for months – stripping the VAT exemption from private school fees. But as the election draws near, the reality is starting to sink in. It will lead to a likely 20% rise in fees, which for many parents, including me, will be unaffordable. “I will have to take my daughter out of the school that she loves.” This is an appalling policy, motivated by “the politics of envy” and “simple spite”, said Martin Stephen in The Daily Telegraph. The success of independent schools has always been “an embarrassment” to Labour. The policy…

Since Gareth Southgate took over as manager, England haven’t once dropped points in the opening game of a tournament, said David Hytner in The Guardian. And at Gelsenkirchen on Sunday, his team maintained that impressive record with a 1-0 victory over a determined Serbia. With Denmark having drawn against Slovenia, this result puts England in control of Group C: a win in their second game – which will take place against Denmark on Thursday – will guarantee they advance to the knock-out stages. Yet “the hordes of English in the Arena AufSchalke, and those back home”, are unlikely to have been reassured by England’s performance, said Jonathan Northcroft in The Times. Although Southgate’s team were excellent in the opening half-hour, during which Jude Bellingham put them in front with an…

Cricket England advanced to the second stage of the T20 World Cup with a 41-run victory over Namibia in a rain-reduced match. Their next match will be against West Indies on Thursday. Cycling Britain’s Adam Yates won the Tour de Suisse. The 31-year-old claimed victories in two of the race’s eight stages, and came second in Sunday’s closing time trial. Football Romania won their first match at the Euros in 24 years, with a 3-0 victory over Ukraine. France’s 1-0 victory over Austria was clouded by their star player, Kylian Mbappé, breaking his nose.…

Run time: 4hrs 35mins (incl. intervals) In recent years Britain’s leading opera companies have sought to “broaden their audiences and expand their repertory”, said Nicholas Kenyon in The Daily Telegraph. We’ve had Sweeney Todd at the Royal Opera and Gilbert and Sullivan at English National Opera; Opera North was an early adopter with its RSC-linked Show Boat in 1990, and currently has My Fair Lady running at Leeds Playhouse. Now Glyndebourne has jumped on the bandwagon, with a staging of Franz Lehár’s “pseudo-opera” The Merry Widow (1905) directed by Cal McCrystal, the specialist in physical comedy whose stagings of H.M.S. Pinafore and Iolanthe were “runaway successes” at ENO. “Everything has been thrown at this snazzy, frothy tunefest,” said Jessica Duchen in The i Paper; and though the production is not…

The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson, 2022 (Pan £9.99). In a chaotic, crumbling house in north London, an ageing, self-obsessed tyrant wants everyone and everything to shout that he is a better artist than his wife. But he isn’t, and he “tends his grudge like a sacred lamp”. A vicious and darkly funny novel, with a deeply satisfying comeuppance. Leviathan by Paul Auster, 1992 (Faber £9.99). I hadn’t heard of Auster until I saw his recent obituary and was recommended this as a starting point. It’s set in 1980s America but reads like film noir. Narrated by his friend, it tells the story of an author who loses faith in his writing and turns to direct, violent action as an art form. Bizarre, but strangely plausible. I’m already onto the next…

Programmes Suranne Jones: Investigating Witch Trials Two-part documentary in which the actress investigates how witch trials swept through Europe in the 1600s. Sun 23 Jun, C4 21:00 (60mins). Undercover A&E: NHS in Crisis Secretly filmed over two months, this Dispatches special report exposes the severity of the crisis engulfing A&E services. Mon 24 Jun, C4 21:00 (60mins). Douglas Is Cancelled New comedy-drama starring Hugh Bonneville as a television news anchor whose career goes into free fall after he’s filmed telling a sexist joke at a wedding. Thur 27 Jun, ITV1 21:00 (60mins). Andy Murray: Will to Win In-depth documentary using archive footage and interviews to trace the tennis player’s journey from childhood in Dunblane to world No, 1. Fri 28 Jun, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). The Terracotta Army with Dan Snow…

Modern and intuitive, Net Nanny has excellent web filters. It can track location, set time allowances and schedules, and block apps. The built-in App Advisor lets you know which apps to look out for and it has content screening within social media apps such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube ($55/year). Like Net Nanny, Kaspersky Safe Kids allows you to monitor and control activity on PCs and Macs as well as smartphones. The paid tier ($15/year) includes unlimited devices, and the free plan lets you set screen-time limits, filter websites and manage other apps. However, the app is not well designed and the web portal can be slow. With broad multi-platform support including Amazon Fire tablets and Chromebooks, Qustodio, lets you set time limits for apps and devices. It has location…

Son Bunyola Mallorca It’s been a year since Richard Branson reopened this 16th century finca in Mallorca’s wild Tramuntana Mountains as a 27-room hotel, and it has proved a great success, says Rick Jordan in Condé Nast Traveller. Its setting is spectacular – with “teetering” sea views – and the interiors have been beautifully restored, with “Riviera stripes” and “lobster pinks” in public areas and more restful tones in the rooms. There are also three villas with private pools. The main restaurant serves excellent “vegetable-forward”, farm-to-table food; there is also a large pool, a tennis court, and a pebble beach that’s usually pretty deserted. Doubles from €600; virginlimitededition.com.…

Barclays/Live Nation: sponsorship woes Hot on the heels of fund manager Baillie Gifford’s withdrawal from the Hay, Edinburgh, Henley and Cheltenham literary festivals, another big sponsor has been forced to quit. Barclays has suspended its links with all Live Nation music festivals in the UK in 2024 – including Download, Latitude and the Isle of Wight, said Laura Snapes in The Guardian – “after protests from bands and fans” over its provision of financial services to defence companies supplying Israel. The protest group Bands Boycott Barclays called it “a victory for the Palestinian-led global BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] movement”. The decision to pull the plug was agreed with Live Nation, which signed a deal with Barclays in 2023, after several bands (including Pest Control, Speed, Scowl and Ithaca) withdrew from…

Inflation: we’re not out of the woods Chris Dorrell City AM Doubles all round at the Bank of England, says Chris Dorrell. For the first time since July 2021, inflation is back at its “target” 2%. But while the move may give a much-needed boost to Rishi Sunak’s election campaign, it doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet – or that an imminent interest rate cut is on the cards. Services inflation, seen as “a more accurate gauge of domestic inflationary dynamics”, is still sticky at 5.7% and will continue to spook rate-setters. There are also lingering worries about annual wage growth, which is currently running at 5.8% in the private sector – “nearly twice the level consistent” with 2% inflation. The Bank is also expecting “a slight uptick…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1419 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 1 July. Send it to The Week Crossword 1419, 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 Mike enters design for a light meal (5,3) 6 Labour starts to turn off its loyalists (4) 8 Strict on cast this evening (5) 9 Who could target man roughly? (9) 11 Announcement about leave in Washington office (5,10) 12 Bats cross about team half out…

The longest and deepest canal tunnel in the UK is to open to canoeists. Enthusiasts can apply to join a guided trip down the narrow Standedge Tunnel, which was built in 1811 and runs 3.5 miles from Marsden in West Yorkshire to Diggle in Greater Manchester. At 194 metres under the ground, it is “cold, grimy and not a place for claustrophobes”, reports The Guardian. However, it offers a “thrilling” opportunity for adventurous canoeists to paddle under the Pennines. When a mother collapsed following a major operation, her five-year-old daughter saved her life. Poppy Davies was playing in a princess costume at home in Caerphilly when her mother Leisha, who had recently had surgery on her bowel, slipped into septic shock. Poppy’s father was working a night shift, so Poppy…

The Princess of Wales, who made her first public appearance since her cancer diagnosis. On Saturday, the King’s official birthday, she took part in a carriage ride down the Mall, and watched the RAF flypast from Buckingham Palace’s balcony. Kew Gardens, with the rare flowering of titan arum – the world’s smelliest plant, also known as the corpse plant. Hundreds of visitors were drawn to Kew’s Princess of Wales Conservatory to experience the foul aroma, which is emitted for just a single evening when the plant comes into flower. Tracey Emin, who was made a dame in the King’s birthday honours list. Other awards went to Lulu Lytle (OBE) whose design company supplied Boris Johnson’s wallpaper at Downing Street; Gordon Brown (Companion of Honour); and Alan Bates, the former subpostmaster…

Just 21% of British adults would vote Conservative in an election held tomorrow, according to a poll by Savanta for The Sunday Telegraph. It found 46% would vote Labour, 13% Reform and 11% Lib Dems. A seat-by-seat analysis by Survation for the campaign group Best for Britain has predicted that Labour will win a landslide of 456 seats – 38 seats more than Tony Blair won in 1997, and giving it a majority in the Commons of 262. The analysis leaves the Tories on 72 seats; the Lib Dems 56, the SNP 37, Reform UK 7, Plaid Cymru 2 and the Greens 1. Ipsos predicts that Labour will win 453 seats, the Conservatives 115, the Lib Dems 38 and Reform 3. According to Public First, 46% of UK adults agree…

People vs. nature at Knepp In 2000, the Knepp Estate in West Sussex was a typical English farm, and £1.5m in debt, says Patrick Barkham in The Guardian. Then its owners, Charlie Burrell and his wife Isabella Tree, took the radical decision to auction off all the farm equipment and let nature take its course. Today, Knepp is thriving: a maze of flowery glades and thickets, it supports 90 employees, is home to cuckoos, nightingales and storks, and is popular with visitors, who flock to its shop, footpaths and café. In fact, Tree says, the challenge now is to strike a balance between “engaging people with nature” and not allow visitors to overwhelm the wildlife. For example, dog owners declare Knepp’s ponds great for their pets to swim in, but…

A Scottish baby was officially named Pasty, rather than Patsy, after council staff got the spelling wrong on her birth certificate. James and Abbie Gallacher, from Clydebank, had wanted to name their first child after his great-great-grandfather Patsy Gallacher, the Celtic football legend. They were notified of the mix-up by The Sun on Sunday. “I dug out the birth certificate and just thought, ‘Oh my God,’” said Abbie. “We spent such a long time picking the name as a tribute and it feels like a slap in the face.” The name has now been corrected. A statue unveiled in Kosovo to honour Tony Blair’s role in securing the country’s independence has been mocked for its poor likeness to the former PM. “Why have they put a statue of Jason Donovan…

“With relatively little to lose in this election, or indeed win”, the Green Party of England and Wales has been able to be impressively candid, said The Independent. Tax is “the issue that the bigger parties don’t like to talk about”; they pretend that public services can be improved without greatly increasing the tax burden. But the Greens have looked at the state of the NHS, education and welfare, and at the need for new national infrastructure, and have concluded that personal tax rises amounting to £50bn-£70bn a year will be required. Their manifesto’s “centrepiece” is a wealth tax of 1% a year on assets over £10m, and 2% over £1bn, plus higher taxes on capital gains and property. The Green manifesto promises “everything the Labour party should be doing……

Never mind the election, said Emma Guinness in The Independent. The story preoccupying many people this week was the tale of Beau Lucy, the runaway cow brutally apprehended by Surrey Police. The incident occurred last Friday after the ten-month-old animal was spotted roaming the streets of Staines-upon-Thames, having apparently escaped her enclosure by swimming across the river from Staines Moor. Police arrived at the scene and sought to capture her. When that failed, they resorted to ramming the calf with their 4x4 vehicle, knocking her an estimated 30ft down the road. As she struggled to her feet, they drove into her again, leaving her trapped under the car’s bumper. Footage of the incident went viral and provoked widespread outrage. James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, demanded an explanation from Surrey Police;…

Paying for GP visits… To The Times Further to your article “Should the NHS charge for care?”, the UK is hopelessly shackled to a system that does not deliver for its customers, but is instead focused on protecting the interests of the institution and its employees. In France, one pays €26 to see a GP and €53 to see a specialist. Of this, 70% is reimbursed by state insurance within a few days. The system is not perfect – getting registered with a GP or a dentist can be a problem – but long waiting times for treatments are virtually unheard of. It is immeasurably superior to the NHS. Ian MacDonald, France …will hurt the poor… To The Times More than two million children – almost 25% of pupils –…

by Kurt Wagner Hodder & Stoughton 368pp £25 The Week Bookshop £19.99 The social media platform Twitter (now known as X) has been inextricably linked in the public mind to the unpredictable figure of Elon Musk, ever since he paid $44bn for it in 2022, said Hugo Rifkind in The Times. But as Kurt Wagner reminds us in this “definitive history”, the “madness didn’t start with him”. Before Musk took over, Twitter was run by someone equally “weird”. Jack Dorsey (right) co-founded the platform in 2006, aged 29, and became its first chief executive, despite nursing the “vague idea” that it should perhaps be more like email: a protocol instead of a company. Within a year, the board “kicked him upstairs” to the chairman role, but he returned as CEO…

Celebrating 150 Years of Impressionism at the Stern Pissarro Gallery A century-and-a-half ago, the group of artists who would soon become known as “the impressionists” opened their first independent exhibition in Paris. It was a scrappy affair, but the genuinely disruptive pieces on show – by Degas, Monet and Cézanne, to name a few – would change the way we looked at art forever. This exhibition presents a good excuse to reacquaint ourselves with some of the movement’s leading lights, containing some first-rate pictures and sculptures. Camille Pissarro is particularly well-represented, notably with a teeming street scene depicting a Paris crossroads after a downpour. Gustave Caillebotte gives him a run for his money with a spooky view of seaside villas, while a clutch of Mediterranean plein air scenes by Renoir…

Oma 2-4 Bedale Street, London SE1 (020-8129 6760) “David Carter is one of those rare restaurateurs who cannot seem to put a foot wrong,” says Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on Sunday. His first restaurant, Smokestak, a barbecue place in east London, “has earned the respect of even the most grizzled of American pitmasters”. He followed it up with the thrilling, Italian-inspired Manteca. Now, for his latest venture, in Borough Market, he has switched to a menu inspired by what he describes as the “serenity and simplicity of the Greek isles”. But don’t expect anything resembling taverna fare: Oma’s menu melds Greek with Mexican, Israeli and even Chinese influences – and the result is “nothing short of inspired”. A stream of marvels flows from the kitchen: melted feta and…

SOURCES: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH/THE INDEPENDENT…

Françoise Hardy 1944-2024 A cultural icon in France, Françoise Hardy, who has died aged 80, emerged as one of the yé-yé girls who dominated the French charts in the early 1960s: confident young women, many of them still in their teens, who sung breezy, US-influenced pop. Hardy was one of the most successful of them: her debut single, Tous les garçons et les filles, sold two million records in 18 months (more, it was noted, than Édith Piaf had in 18 years). But, shy and introspective, she was a different kind of yé-yé girl, said Alexis Petridis in The Guardian: her songs were “invariably” melancholic; rather than relying on older male writers, she wrote most of them herself; and she insisted on controlling her own recording sessions to create a…

Andrew Rees “Countless fashion brands have been on a boom-to-bust journey,” said Jim Armitage in The Sunday Times. “But few have gone from boom to bust to boom again like Crocs.” When the current CEO, Carlisle-raised Andrew Rees, took over in 2014, the US ugly shoe firm was “a profit warning-riddled basket case” on its (plastic) uppers. He has built it back to a $9bn company, selling more than 120 million pairs a year and striking deals with designers such as Balenciaga. Crocs is the ultimate “brand tension” shoe – like Marmite, “lovers and haters” enjoy arguing about the product. “If you wear these and she still goes out with you, she really loves you,” ran one internet meme. “Crocs – the world’s most efficient birth control,” went another. For…