June 13, 2021 . Issue No 10,266 . sundaytimes.co.
uk
Ban ministers
from lobbying
for five years
Call for new rules in wake of Cameron scandal
Caroline Wheeler and
Gabriel Pogrund
Ministers should be banned from
lobbying for up to five years after
leaving office and face possible
fines if they break the rules, the
anti-corruption watchdog will say
this week.
Lord Evans, chairman of the
committee on standards in public
life, will make the proposal in an
emergency review being pub-
lished tomorrow in the wake of the
Greensill scandal.
The intervention by Evans, 63,
the former head of MI5, is a
response to “sustained public scru-
tiny” of the rules governing cur-
rent and former prime ministers
and other office-holders. His
report will demand an overhaul of
the rules in an attempt to stop
former ministers using their con-
tacts and expertise for private gain.
It will single out David Cameron,
the former prime minister under
whom Evans served for three years
as head of MI5, in concluding that
the current rules are inadequate,
and will demand that ministers dis-
close informal lobbying over
WhatsApp and text messages in
future.
Earlier this year, The Sunday
Times revealed that Cameron, 54,
had texted Rishi Sunak, the chan-
All in the Line of Duty for Queen
Roya Nikkhah Royal Editor
She has endured enough family
drama this year to rival the liveliest
of soap operas, but it was a grip-
ping saga of “bent coppers” that
kept her diverted during the grim-
mest of months. The Queen, 95, is
a devoted Line of Duty fan.
While coping with the death of
her husband and the fallout from
the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s
explosive interview with Oprah
Winfrey, the Queen tuned in to the
hit Sunday night BBC police
drama.
COWS ON
THE RAMPAGE
cellor, on behalf of Greensill Capi-
tal, a finance firm which employed
him as a lobbyist and whose col-
lapse has put thousands of jobs at
risk.
It has since emerged that he sub-
jected Matt Hancock, the health
secretary, and other ministers to a
deluge of WhatsApp messages and
texts, including 56 messages over a
single Covid loan scheme.
Lex Greensill, an Australian fin-
ancier, had himself enjoyed privi-
leged access to 11 Whitehall depart-
ments, having previously been
appointed as an official govern-
ment adviser without any trans-
parency.
The committee on standards in
public life was formed in 1994 in
response to the “cash-for-ques-
tions” scandal. Since then, its rec-
ommendations have formed the
basis of major anti-corruption
reforms, including the creation of
the Electoral Commission, an inde-
pendent ethics adviser to the
prime minister, and an anti-sleaze
commissioner in parliament. This
autumn, Evans will formally send
his proposals to Downing Street,
which will then issue a response.
The interim report forms part of
the committee’s “landscape
review of standards”. It will also
propose:
l Introducing anti-lobbying
While she self-isolated at Wind-
sor Castle, it is understood, the
Queen relished chatting about the
plot’s twists and turns with one of
her closest aides, Vice-Admiral Sir
Tony Johnstone-Burt. The drama
proved so complicated that many
struggled to follow the plot, which
centred on the identity of “H”.
As master of the household,
Johnstone-Burt, 63, has overseen
“HMS Bubble”, the group of staff
who cared for the Queen and her
late husband during the lockdown.
A royal source said: “The Queen
was very into Line of Duty and
clauses into the employment con-
tracts of ministers, special advisers
and civil servants.
l Designing a system of possible
civil penalties for rule-breakers.
l Banning ministers from taking
jobs for two years in sectors over
which they had direct responsibil-
ity in office.
l Giving the appointments watch-
dog the power to apply tailored
restrictions, including banning
ex-ministers from taking certain
jobs for up to five years “where
appropriate”.
l Forcing the government to
release details of lobbying every
four weeks, rather than quarterly.
l Regulating the appointment of
non-executive directors to White-
hall departments amid fears politi-
cians are appointing “cronies”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s West-
minster Hour tomorrow, Evans will
say: “I do think there needs to be
greater transparency about lobby-
ing. There’s nothing wrong with
lobbying in principle, but there
needs to be a level playing field and
it needs to be done visibly.
“At the moment, in theory, the
information about lobbying should
be published regularly by govern-
ment departments so that people
can check and see who’s been lob-
bying which minister. That hasn’t
Continued on page 2 →
enjoyed discussing the plotlines
with Tony.”
Jed Mercurio’s cop drama joins
the Queen’s mix of favourite pro-
grammes, including Dad’s Army
and The X Factor. On an official
visit to Ireland in 2011, the Queen
told The X Factor contestant Mary
Byrne: “You are the lady off The X
Factor. Your song was fabulous.”
It has also been reported that
the Queen enjoys watching the ITV
period drama Downton Abbey and
pointing out the mistakes.
Queen to hit her stride, page 10
£3 · only £2 to subscribers (based on 7 day Print Pack)
FARMER
CLARKSON’S
COLUMN
MAGAZINE
FEELING THE HEAT PM PONDERS FREEDOM DELAY
Boris and Carrie Johnson at the G7 summit in Cornwall yesterday. The prime minister’s widely expected
four-week delay to the easing of social distancing restrictions has provoked a furious response from the
hospitality industry, with a music promoter describing it as a ‘disaster for the country’ Full report, page 9
NEWMAN’S
VIEW Pay up 18% in scramble for staff
Tom Calver and Jill Treanor
Workers are enjoying bumper
annual pay rises amid fears that
the furlough scheme is contribut-
ing to labour shortages.
Salaries in hospitality and cater-
ing have risen by 18 per cent, from
an average of £22,701 last year to
£26,888 now. In retail they have
climbed 10 per cent, from £26,758
to £29,310, according to Reed, the
recruitment firm. The average rise
across all sectors is 4 per cent.
There are about 188,000 vacan-
cies in hospitality, with four in five
STEFAN ROUSSEAU/PA
venues short of waiting and bar
staff, the industry body UK Hospi-
tality said. One in three large retail-
ers struggled to fill roles in April,
according to research by Fourth, a
workforce specialist.
Le Gavroche, Michel Roux Jr’s
two-star Mayfair restaurant,
stopped its popular £76 lunch
menu — three courses plus a half
bottle of wine and petits fours —
yesterday because of staff short-
ages, and will open only for dinner.
At the same time, about 1.8 mil-
lion people are still on furlough,
Continued on page 2 →
THE
TRUTH
ABOUT
LONG
COVID
NEWS REVIEW
Footballer
collapses
during
Euro clash
Dipesh Gadher and
Emily Kent Smith
The opening weekend of the
delayed Euro 2020 tournament
was feared to have taken a tragic
turn yesterday when Christian
Eriksen, the Denmark and former
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder,
collapsed on the pitch during a
match against Finland.
Eriksen, 29, fell to the floor as
the ball came towards him from a
throw-in about 40 minutes into the
group B fixture in Copenhagen.
The match was immediately
stopped by the English referee,
Anthony Taylor, and medical staff
rushed onto the pitch to resusci-
tate him.
Footage of the incident, which
was broadcast live on BBC1,
appeared to show medics putting
Eriksen into the recovery position
to open his airways. Simon Kjaer,
the Danish captain, reportedly
stopped Eriksen from swallowing
his tongue. The match, which
restarted almost two hours later at
7.30pm, was won by Finland 1-0.
When coverage resumed, the
BBC presenter Gary Lineker apolo-
gised to viewers for any upset
caused, saying that the images
were from Uefa and outside the
broadcaster’s control.
Eriksen’s partner, Sabrina Kvist
Jensen, who had been watching
the match from the stands in a Den-
mark shirt, vaulted over the hoard-
ings to be at his side. Jensen, who
has two children with him, was
later seen being consoled by Kas-
per Schmeichel, the Denmark and
Leicester City goalkeeper.
Danish players formed a human
Continued on page 3 →
INDEX
Lottery News 2
Weather News 27
Letters News 22
Sudoku News 26
TV & Radio Culture 37
y(7HA9F6*LNSTRN( |||+?!@
2 The Sunday Times June 13, 2021

NEWS

This week in The Sunday Times

Also on our phone app, on tablet
Social workers too quick
and online at thesundaytimes.co.uk to wade in, review finds
MAGAZINE STYLEE A ‘runaway train’ of child families subjected to formal inquiries in
which no further action is taken has more
5p-sized bruise to a midwife, was asked to
give evidence to the review. MacAlister
protection investigations than tripled from 43,400 in 2010 to said that hearing from her about “still

CARRIE ON JEWEL damages families and 134,620 last year.

MacAlister said: “We’ve got a bit of a
expressing milk when she didn’t have the
baby there” had brought home to him the

CAMPAIGNING PURPOSE risks putting the young

in even greater danger
runaway train at the moment in terms of
the continual surge in investigations, ini-
tiations of child protection conferences,
trauma experienced.
He said a “false choice” was often pre-
sented in debates over child protection:
The prime Face-shaped that don’t result in further action, that “that you either support family rights and
minister’s wife accessories are Emily Dugan aren’t correlated with an increase in help for parents, or you are in favour of
and the eco-clique the hot look this Social Affairs Correspondent identified harm.” an interventionist system”.
Not enough thought was given to MacAlister believes that effective child
that’s turning the summer — check A “runaway train” of child protection the harm done by investigating too protection means working more with
Tories green out our features investigations is making children less safe readily, he said. “We need to take respon- parents. “If social workers aren’t able
and damaging families, the head of the sibility for it, because it’s not a neutral to build relationships with parents based
government’s review of children’s social process.” on trust and partnership, then they

BUSINESS & MONEY HOME & TRAVEL care believes.

In his first interview since his appoint-
ment, Josh MacAlister said: “A big
Holly Kobayashi, whose eight-day-old
son was taken away after she showed a
won’t know what’s going on for these
children — and parents won’t be honest
with them, for understandable reasons.
theme that we’ve identified in the review And the consequence of that is that we

CALLING HEROES OF so far is that we’re doing too much.

We’re investigating first when we should
won’t be acting in children’s best inter-
ests.”

THE SHOTS RECYCLING be helping. If we have an increasingly

adversarial system, it is not safe for
children.”
Balancing competing risks was what
made the job of a social worker so hard,
he said. He had seen “plenty of examples
The French- Used cartridges? The review’s first big report, The Case in the system of brilliant leaders, inspira-
Bras? Paint? How
Israeli tycoon
who is suddenly to clear your
for Change, is due to be published this
week. It is expected to be critical of many We need to take tional social workers” but was concerned
that often when children and families
BT’s biggest home and your
aspects of the system, particularly a cul-
ture of investigating families instead of responsibility had a good experience it was because a
social worker had “gone above and
shareholder conscience supporting them.
The Sunday Times has been investigat- for the harm done beyond”.
He added: “A system built on people
ing the rising number of parents sepa-
by investigations going above and beyond isn’t sustainable

NEWS REVIEW CULTURE rated from babies in cases where abuse is

ultimately unproven. The number of
in the long run.”
@EmilyDugan

DYING OF THE LIN-MANUEL’S

LIGHTBULB NEXT TRICK Court challenge to ‘apparent bias’
Will Self rages
against the ban that
Lin-Manuel
Miranda puts his
over PM’s peerage for Cruddas
leaves the world at joyous musical
the mercy of LEDs In the Heights Jolyon Maugham, the minister, for £250,000 in and informed observer,
Gabriel Pogrund and
on screen Caroline Wheeler director of the Good Law party donations. He sued for presented with the facts of
Project, a campaign group, libel and won. An appeal was the matter, would conclude
Boris Johnson faces a will now challenge the partially successful and the that there was a real
potentially embarrassing government in the courts, court ruled that the allegation possibility or danger of bias in
court case over his decision arguing that the nomination of corrupt conduct was true. the defendant’s decision
to award a peerage to a Tory for a peerage was unlawful. Cruddas’s damages were cut. making.”
donor. The prime minister Since 2010, Cruddas, the Last December, the Lords The Liberal Democrats
9.30am Sir Peter Westmacott, 10.35am Emily Thornberry, the minister of Norway and now secretary- ignored official advice not to founder of CMC Markets, Appointments Commission have demanded a criminal
former British ambassador to America Labour spokeswoman on international general of Nato grant a seat in the Lords to which specialises in spread said it could not support investigation, alleging in a
10am The foreign secretary, Dominic trade 11.20am Sajid Javid, former Peter Cruddas, a billionaire betting, a form of financial Johnson’s nomination of letter to the Met: “The stench
Raab 11am Jens Stoltenberg, former prime chancellor of the exchequer tycoon and former treasurer gambling, has donated more Cruddas, citing the “cash-for- of corruption is too strong to
of the Conservatives. than £3.3 million to the access” controversy. go ignored.” Ed Davey, the
Three days after being Conservatives. He was also a On Friday, the Good Law party’s leader, said: “When
FIND US ON NEWSPAPERS introduced to the Lords in major donor to Vote Leave. Project sent a pre-action someone donates £500,000
February, Cruddas, 67, gave In 2012, he resigned as letter to the government. It to the Conservative Party just
SATURDAY SATURDAY FRIDAY SUPPORT RECYCLING the party £500,000, his Tory co-treasurer after The said: “The nomination of days after being made a lord,
JUNE 12 JUNE 12 JUNE 11
The recycled paper content of UK largest-ever sum. No 10 has Sunday Times alleged that he Peter Cruddas for a peerage there are clearly serious
9, 11, 16, 27, 36, 52 12, 16, 24, 34, 38 9, 17, 21, 33, 39 denied that it was linked to had offered access to David was unlawful because of questions . . . I am asking the
Bonus 50 newspapers in 2020 was 67%
Thunderball 1 Lucky Stars 7, 11 the peerage. Cameron, the then prime apparent bias. A fair minded police to investigate.”

Travel industry on the march to save jobs

Ben Clatworthy
Assistant Travel Editor
Pilots, cabin crew and high
street travel agents will join
hundreds of workers at a
demonstration in support of
the battered tourism industry
at Westminster next week.
Wearing their airline or
shop uniforms and
brandishing giant postcards
as placards, protesters will
descend on Parliament
Square with simultaneous
events taking place in
Edinburgh and Belfast.
The travel industry is
teetering on the brink of
collapse with tens of
thousands of jobs at risk
unless businesses in the
sector are given additional
financial support.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, who
runs Advantage, the UK’s
largest independent travel
agent partnership, said:
“Everything changed when
the government reversed the
decision on Portugal and put
it on the amber list.
Confidence has been
absolutely shattered.”
Travel agents have told of
seeking help from the
Samaritans and suffering
sleepless nights over fears
their family-run,
independent businesses are
going to collapse, forcing
them to declare bankruptcy.
Last week, British Airways
put thousands of staff back on
furlough. Privately, industry
bosses admit that hundreds
of operators face almost
imminent collapse without
additional support.
Wednesday, June 23, is
being billed as a day of action
and is backed by Abta, the
trade body, Airlines UK,
which represents carriers,
and the Airport Operators
Association.

Desperate extra hours we’re paying.”

Last week Andy Haldane,
the Bank of England’s chief
hotels and economist, suggested that
better-paid jobs were needed

bars boost to get people off furlough

pay by 18%
→ Continued from page 1
according to the Office for
National Statistics, with the
majority thought to be in
travel and tourism. An
analysis suggests that the
scheme, which has cost the
taxpayer £64 billion, may still
be costing about £300 million
a week. It is not due to finish
until September.
Hospitality bosses want
furloughed workers in sectors
such as air travel to help out.
Andrew Stembridge, director
of Iconic Luxury Hotels,
whose portfolio includes
Cliveden House in Berkshire,
said that although furlough
had kept many businesses
alive it was now distorting the
labour market.
“The continuation of
furlough at this point is a
problem for our industry,” he
said. “There are people out
there who are potentially still
in London who could be in
the employment market. Are
easyJet going to need all of
their cabin crews back?”
He has increased entry-
level salaries by between
5 per cent and 9 per cent.
“One of our commis [entry-
level] waiters, the package is
over £30,000 at the moment
when you take into account
the service charge and the
support. “It might require a
few pay rises . . . that should
encourage people off their
sofas and back into the world
of work,” he told LBC radio.
Hotels and restaurants
have been hit by thousands of
EU staff not returning to their
roles as the UK’s new “skills-
based” immigration system
erects a barrier to lower-paid
foreign workers.
About 7.4 per cent of EU
nationals left UK payrolls in
2020, according to the ONS.
Many furloughed workers
who went home to Europe
during the pandemic have
not returned.
Michael Voigt, general
manager at The Goring,
where the Duchess of
Cambridge stayed the night
before her wedding, said:
“Hospitality staff are called
‘low-skilled’ but dealing with
the millionaire guests in our
hotel is a huge skill!”
The Goring has 50
vacancies and has had a surge
in bookings, meaning that
existing staff are having to
work much harder. Voigt
added: “It’s wonderful to
have the demand — everyone
wants to celebrate, there’s
just not enough hands to
open the champagne bottles.”
Emma McClarkin, chief
executive of the British Beer
& Pub Association, said: “In
some instances pubs are
having to reduce capacity or
close entirely because they
don’t have the staff to open.”
@TomHCalver
Cameron and Lex Greensill lobbying in Saudi Arabia
Call for a
five-year
ban on
lobbying
→ Continued from page 1
been happening as frequently
as it should in our view.”
Evans will also take aim at
Cameron, saying: “Where
that becomes a sustained or
serious attempt to influence
policy, where there are
dozens of texts, where they
are specifically relating to the
interests of a particular
company, that then needs to
be declared.”
Asked if he was shocked at
the extent of lobbying in the
Greensill case, Evans said: “I
was surprised. It didn’t look
to me to be appropriate that
that level of intervention
should be going on without it
having been properly
declared ”
Last night, Sir Alistair
Graham, the former
chairman of the standards
committee, said: “If the
government wants to be
taken seriously on standards
it needs to implement these
recommendations in full.
Trust in politics is already
very low and the
government’s credibility is on
the line.”
Bridget Phillipson, the
shadow chief secretary to the
Treasury, said: “Labour
pushed strongly for an end to
government cronyism and
waste, after Rishi Sunak,
Boris Johnson and Matt
Hancock opened a door up
for Greensill that left millions
of pounds of government-
backed loans — plus
thousands of jobs — at risk.
“Now, instead of ignoring
another review on how to
address some of the appalling
cronyism that has marked
this Conservative
government, they must show
they are cleaning up their act
and provide serious
assurances to the British
public that they won’t treat
taxpayer money with the
same disrespect ever again ”
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021 3

NEWS

Covid detector gadget can sniff out virus in crowded room in 15 minutes
Ben Spencer Science Editor as gold-standard PCR the virus even if they have yet developing a handheld device and the Department of Health or campylobacter in a barn of

British scientists have

lab-based Covid-19 tests and
far more so than quick lateral-
to show symptoms, making
them more effective even
CABIN FEVER that could be used to screen
individuals — by taking a skin
and Social Care is interested
in funding the next round of
50,000 birds.
The study leader, Professor

developed a ceiling-mounted
“Covid alarm” that can detect
whether someone in a room
is infected with the
coronavirus in as little as
15 minutes.
The highly accurate
gadget, little larger than a
smoke alarm, could
revolutionise screening in
aircraft cabins, classrooms,
care homes and offices.
Early studies by scientists
at the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine (LSHTM) and
Durham University show that
the device has an accuracy
rate of between 98 and 100
per cent, making it as reliable
flow tests.
The sensor, made by the
Cambridgeshire firm
Roboscientific, works by
detecting chemicals
produced by the skin or
present in the breath of
people who have Covid.
These “volatile organic
compounds”, which create
odour, are too subtle to be
detected by the human nose,
but a study by the research
team showed they could be
sniffed out by dogs. A
machine, however, is more
practical and gives even
better accuracy than canines.
The detectors can sense
people who have contracted
1 2
than PCR tests, which
struggle to pick up Covid-19 in
asymptomatic carriers.
The devices have huge
potential for screening large
numbers of people at a time.
It takes 15 to 30 minutes for
them to sample the air in a
large room, with the results
sent instantly to a mobile
phone or computer.
Expected to cost in the
region of £5,000, the devices
are not cheap, but if used to
conduct regular scans for
large numbers of people, they
could end up being far more
economical than frequent
swab tests.
Roboscientific is also
swab, assessing a used
Once all the The device detects the facemask or taking a sample
passengers are unique ‘chemical fingerprint’ of breath. Results are
seated, the sensor given off by the skin and breath delivered in two minutes.
runs a test of anyone infected with Covid-19 The researchers, whose
work is published in a paper
Covid-19 that has yet to be peer-
air monitor Air
reviewed, stressed that
Sensor the results were at an early
Covid-19 stage.
The device has been shown
to work so far in a study of 54
samples, half from those
infected with the coronavirus
and half not, and larger trials
are needed to verify the
findings in a variety of
settings. But it has been
proven to work with high
accuracy for other diseases,
trials.
The researchers
discovered that people with
Covid-19 produce a distinct
“odour fingerprint” that can
be picked up by sensitive
machinery, even against the
background of other
chemicals and smells. The
study showed the sensors can
differentiate someone with
Covid-19 from someone with
a different respiratory
disease, such as a cold or flu.
Roboscientific developed
the equipment six years ago
to detect infections in farm
animals. Its machines are so
sensitive that they can detect
one chicken with salmonella
James Logan, head of the
department of disease
control at LSHTM, said final
trials could be completed by
the end of the year.
“The fact that devices
already exist that we can use
will really speed this up,” he
said. “These results are really
promising and demonstrate
the potential for using this
technology as a rapid, non-
invasive test with incredible
accuracy.
“If these devices are
successfully developed for
use in public places, they
could be affordably and easily
scaled up.”
@Ben_Spencer

FRIEDEMANN VOGEL/EPA; JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Sister’s
praise for
twin in
crocodile
rescue
Hannah Al-Othman
The British woman who
survived a crocodile attack
thanks to her identical twin
has said she is extremely
grateful to her sister for
saving her life.
Melissa Laurie, 28, a
zookeeper from Berkshire,
was attacked while swimming
at night in a Mexican lagoon.
The 10ft reptile dragged
Melissa under the water and
tried to drown her in
Denmark’s Manialtepec lagoon, near
players and Puerto Escondido, southeast
supporters are of Mexico City, last Sunday.
shocked by the Her sister, Georgia, saw her
collapse of disappear and then found her
Christian Eriksen. unresponsive in the water.
The midfielder She saved her twin’s life by
was carried off punching the crocodile three
the pitch by times in the face when it tried
paramedics and to continue the attack.
taken to hospital, Georgia dragged her sister to
where his safety, pulling her by her hair.
condition “I am extremely grateful
was stabilised that I came out of this alive,”
Melissa said. “And that I had
Georgia fight my side for me.”
She sustained numerous
injuries, including a suspected
punctured lung and deep

Relief for star’s partner who ran

bites to her body, legs, hands
and wrists, some of which
became infected. She was put
into a medically induced
coma at the private hospital
where she is being treated. By

on to the pitch after he collapsed

→ Continued from page 1
shield around Eriksen as he received
treatment. Fans in the stadium were
stunned into silence and many could be
seen praying or in tears.
Eriksen was taken off the pitch on a
stretcher, wearing an oxygen mask,
clutching his head and with his eyes
open. Uefa said he was in hospital and
that his condition had been “stabilised”.
Eriksen joined Tottenham Hotspur in
2013 from Ajax for an £11 million fee and
established himself as one of the north
London side’s most gifted players, scor-
ing 56 goals at Spurs. He moved to Inter
Milan in Italy’s Serie A in January last year
for £17 million and helped the side win
the league for the first time in 11 years.
As his fate seemed unclear for about 45
minutes, support flooded in from around
the world.
Megan Rapinoe, captain of America’s
women’s team, tweeted: “My God, think-
ing of Eriksen and his family and sending
all the love and strength available.”
Liverpool’s Brazilian goalkeeper
Allison Becker posted: “Praying for you
Eriksen!” Danish and Finnish spectators
in the stadium gave a show of solidarity,
with one set chanting Eriksen’s first name
and the other responding with his sur-
name.
Ian Wright, the former England inter-
national and pundit, criticised the BBC
for continuing with the live broadcast. He
tweeted: “Cut to the studio FFS!!!” BBC1
eventually replaced the transmission
with a repeat of Garden Rescue with
Charlie Dimmock.
It was left to Lineker, the former
England captain and Match of the Day
presenter, to provide a mea culpa.
“We apologise to anyone who was
upset by the images broadcast,” he
said. “The stadium coverage is con-
trolled by Uefa as the host broadcaster
and as soon as the match was sus-
pended we took our coverage off air
as quickly as possible.”
The drama brought back memo-
ries of Fabrice Muamba, the Bolton
Wanderers player who suffered a
cardiac arrest in 2012 during a
televised FA Cup match against
Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
Muamba, who was 23 at the time,
Eriksen with his partner, survived even though his heart stopped
Sabrina Kvist Jensen, for 78 minutes. He retired from profes-
and their son Alfred sional football a few months later. He was
when he was playing for one of the first to offer his support to Erik-
Tottenham Hotspur sen last night, tweeting: “Please God.”
Marcus Rashford, the England striker,
tweeted an image of the Danish flag and
hands joined in prayer.
Eriksen’s agent, Martin Schoots, later
told Dutch radio: “Christian Eriksen
breathes and can speak; he’s awake.”
The news was met with a massive roar
from fans in Copenhagen before the
match resumed at the request of both
sides.
Muamba, now 33, was given 15 defibril-
lator shocks — first on the field and then
on his way to hospital. He said that he had
felt “perfectly fine” in the moments
before the attack and had not experi-
enced chest pains or any shortness of
breath. Suddenly his vision blurred
and within seconds he was on the
ground. He had suffered a medical con-
dition called sudden cardiac arrest
(SCA), which is when the heart suddenly
stops beating.
Fifa says on its website: “SCA usually
strikes without warning at any time, any-
where, and can affect anyone, even if
they appear healthy.” It adds that “any
player who collapses without having con-
tact with another player, the ball or
another obstacle should be regarded as
being in SCA until proven otherwise”.
The condition has “claimed one footbal-
ler’s life every month” for the past ten
years, the governing body says.
In 2003 Marc-Vivien Foé, 28, of Camer-
oon, was jogging along the pitch in the
73rd minute of the Confederations Cup
semi-final when he suddenly fell to the
ground. He later died. A post-mortem
examination found that a genetic condi-
tion called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
had led to his death. In 2016 another Cam-
eroonian, Patrick Ekeng, died aged 26
after suffering heart failure while playing
in Romania.
Aleksander Ceferin, president of Uefa,
wished Eriksen a full and speedy recov-
ery, adding: “Football is beautiful and
Christian plays it beautifully.”
@Dipesh Gadher
Full coverage, Sport, pages 2-3
Friday she had come round,
was breathing independently
and had recognised her sister.
Melissa was unable to
speak at first, her twin told
MailOnline, “because of the
soreness in her throat from
the tube”. Georgia was
treated in hospital for hand
injuries and discharged.
Their older sister, Hana,
said she was “very proud” of
Georgia for saving her sister’s
life.
The twins’ parents are
planning to fly to Mexico. A
GoFundMe campaign to pay
for medical bills and air fares
has raised more than
£43,000.
@HannahAlOthman
Melissa and Georgia Laurie

He’s trying to swallow me! Real-life
Jonah escapes humpback’s jaws
Jacqui Goddard Miami
A routine dive turned into a
biblical horror story for a
lobster fisherman when he
found himself in the mouth of
a humpback whale.
Michael Packard, 56, was
at a depth of 45ft off the coast
of Cape Cod in Massachusetts
on Friday morning when he
felt a “huge bump” from
behind. “Everything went
dark. I was like, ‘Oh my God,
did I just get bit by a shark?’,
and then I felt around and
there was no teeth.
Then I realised, ‘Oh my
God, I’m in a whale’s mouth
and he’s trying to swallow
me,’” he told WBZ-TV.
The father of two who was
wearing breathing apparatus,
could feel the creature’s jaw
muscles pressing on him as
he flailed inside its mouth for
at least 30 seconds.
“I realised there was no
overcoming a beast of that
Michael Packard: “I made it”
size — he was going to do with
me what he was going to do,
either spit me out or swallow
me,” he said.
“I thought to myself, ‘OK,
this is it. I’m going to die.’
Then all of a sudden he went
up to the surface and just
erupted and started shaking
his head. I got thrown in the
air and landed in the water. I
was free . . . I made it.”
Joe Francis, the captain of
a nearby fishing vessel, saw
Packard flying out of the
water feet first and went to
rescue him. He said: “We got
him up, got his tank off, got
him on the deck and calmed
him down and he goes: ‘Joe, I
was in the mouth of a whale!’”
Packard was treated in
hospital and released the
same day. He suffered soft
tissue damage and bruising.
The freak encounter was
reminiscent of that of Peleg
Nye, the first mate of a
whaling schooner off
Massachusetts in 1864, who
was knocked into the open
jaws of a dying sperm whale.
It dragged him down but he
was able to swim free. “When
he came up, he was most
gone,” wrote the captain,
Hiram Holmes. “He never
spoke for half an hour.”
In Jonah, the 32nd book in
the Anglican version of the
Old Testament, the prophet is
swallowed by a giant fish, in
whose belly he spends three
days and three nights
Riders risk losing licences amid
scourge of 50mph e-scooters
Hannah Al-Othman
They can travel at 50mph but
most are illegal to ride on
public roads. And now there
is an added risk for users of
electric scooters: losing your
driving licence.
Typically their top speed is
25mph, but some powerful
models can double that.
Trials of rental scooters —
limited to 15.5mph — have
started in Newcastle and
parts of London.
Ride under the influence of
alcohol, and you could face a
driving ban; use a mobile
phone while scooting, and six
penalty points could go on
your licence. And you need to
be insured
In April a rider was
arrested in South
Gloucestershire for being
twice the legal alcohol limit.
“Whilst the electric hire
scooters may be legal to ride,
they aren’t if you’re over the
drink drive limit,” Avon and
Somerset Police tweeted.
Also that month,
Staffordshire police charged
two riders with drink-driving.
In February, five riders in
Newcastle upon Tyne were
charged with driving while
over the alcohol limit.
And last week in Wisbech,
Cambridgeshire, a man was
charged with riding without
insurance while almost two
times over the alcohol limit.
Among the most powerful
Dualtron Thunder: powerful
e-scooters are the Korean-
designed and Chinese-made
Dualtron Thunder, which
sells in the UK for about
£3,000, and the Kaabo Wolf
King, a Philippine brand
available for about £2,900.
The fastest is the Rion
RE90, from Los Angeles,
which can reach 100mph. A
slower version sells for more
than £5,000 in the UK.
Rental scooters typically
come with insurance, and
riders must have a full or
provisional licence.
The use of private scooters
remains against the law. Last
week police seized 25
privately owned scooters in a
“day of enforcement” in the
West End of London
4

NEWS
G7 SUMMIT
SIMON DAWSON/NO 10 DOWNING STREET; KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS; LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; ANDREW PARSONS/NO 10 DOWNING STREET

Johnson and Macron’s barney on

the beach as sausage war sizzles
The status of Northern
Ireland was at the heart
of an explosive encounter
between the PM and
the French president
Tim Shipman at the G7 Summit
Peter Conradi Europe Editor
Emmanuel Macron enraged Boris John-
son yesterday by telling him Northern
Ireland was not a full part of the United
Kingdom as the “sausage war” with the
European Union deepened at the G7
summit in Cornwall.
The two leaders clashed when Johnson
complained that the EU’s interpretation
of the Northern Ireland protocol would
prevent cold meats from being sent to the
province from Britain after the end of the
month. “How would you like it if the
French courts stopped you moving
Toulouse sausages to Paris?” Johnson
said.
The French president claimed that it
was “not a good comparison because
Paris and Toulouse are part of the same
country”, according to a UK government
source.
A furious Johnson replied: “Northern
Ireland and Britain are part of the same
country as well.”
The prime minister later said EU
leaders “seem to misunderstand that the
UK is a single country, a single territory. I
just need to get that into their heads.”
The UK negotiated and agreed to the
protocol, which has been part of inter-
national law since the start of the year.
A source in the French delegation said
that Macron was well aware that
Northern Ireland was part of the United
Kingdom but appeared to confirm the
view that France sees it differently. The
source said it was not possible to com-
pare the four nations that make up the
United Kingdom with a unitary state such
as France and its individual regions.
Johnson signalled he is prepared to
take unilateral action within days to
ensure the free flow of goods. The prime
minister said he “will not hesitate” to sus-
pend the protocol using article 16 of the
deal signed on Christmas Eve 2020,
which enables either party to take uni-
lateral action if the implementation of the
agreement gives rise to adverse con-
sequences. Government sources said a
decision would need to be made in the
next eight days to ensure shelves remain
fully stocked in Belfast.
Johnson faced a united front from the
EU in bruising encounters with Macron,
Angela Merkel and then Ursula von der
Leyen and Charles Michel, the presidents
ELBOW-BUMP DIPLOMACY
of the European Commission and Euro-
pean Council. All three were attended by
Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, who was
sporting Union Jack socks.
A British official accused the two EU
presidents of “reading from a script”.
In the meetings Johnson said the way
the protocol was being enforced, with the
EU insisting that all food moved between
Great Britain and Northern Ireland face
checks, was angering the public and
threatening public order.
He said 30 drugs were no longer avail-
able in Northern Ireland and one innova-
tive cancer treatment had been denied to
patients there because of the way the
rules were written. “If the protocol con-
tinues to be applied in this way, then we
will obviously not hesitate to invoke
article 16,” he said.
Behind the scenes the rhetoric ran hot,
with a senior EU official suggesting that
the plight of consumers in Northern Ire-
land was of little concern to most people
in the EU. The British source responded:
“It doesn’t matter to us whether the peo-
ple of Europe care about this issue.”
The stage is now set for a trade war
between Britain and the EU, after Brus-
sels warned earlier in the week that fail-
ure to comply with the letter of the rules
would lead to the threat of tariffs.
A senior EU official said: “We made our
position clear, and the ball is now in the
British court. There will be no wavering.
Both national leaders and the two EU
leaders are on the same page. [The proto-
col] has been drafted, signed and ratified
and is now British law, European law and
an international treaty.”
French officials said Macron used their
meeting to offer Britain a “reset” in rela-
tions — but only if Johnson “kept his
word” in enforcing the deal.
A British official responded: “We are
enforcing the deal. That is the problem.”
Downing Street said it would prefer a
negotiated solution in which the EU
agreed that British food safety rules were
“equivalent” to their own and allowed
“trusted traders”. This would reduce the
need for checks in the Irish Sea.
Another UK source suggested that the
EU’s “answer for everything” is that Brit-
ain just accepts EU directives on food.
“That is literally what the prime minister
resigned from [Theresa May’s] cabinet
over,” the source said. “It isn’t going to
happen.”
But with both sides indicating that lit-
tle practical progress has been made, it
seems likely that Johnson will threaten to
suspend the protocol. “We are not going
to allow a situation to develop where we
can’t move meat from one part of the Making Covid-safe contact with Europe’s leaders yesterday, Boris
United Kingdom to another,” a senior Johnson fails to connect with Angela Merkel, is forthright with
official said. Ursula von der Leyen and on the defensive with Emmanuel Macron

WHAT MIGHT
In trade disputes, tariffs are instead established a border The last time British
the “nuclear” option. But in the Irish Sea, between the businesses were caught up

A TRADE WAR
unless a deal can be struck British mainland and in a trade dispute — the row
with the EU, or Boris Northern Ireland. It aligned between Europe and

LOOK LIKE?
Johnson has a dramatic
change of heart, that is
where we are heading.
The government
treatment of the Northern
Ireland protocol, the deal it
agreed to prevent a hard
border and physical checks
on the island of Ireland, is
behind the breakdown in
relations that has led to
insults being hurled across
the Channel.
The protocol was set up
to protect the Good Friday
agreement — the peace deal
signed in 1998 that
established the principle of
free and unfettered
movement across the
border and the removal of
checkpoints and barriers.
To preserve that free
movement, the protocol
Northern Ireland with the EU
single market on goods,
meaning that products
travelling across the Irish
Sea would be subject to
checks and paperwork.
The EU has started legal
action against the UK for
breaching the protocol and
eventually, if the dispute
escalates, we get to tariffs.
Under the withdrawal
agreement either side can
impose retaliatory tariffs on
the other’s goods exports
for breaching it.
“My guess is they are
serious. They’ve never had
too much patience with
Johnson and they are
beginning to run out,” said
Professor Alan Winters, an
economist and trade expert
at the University of Sussex.
America over the subsidies
handed to their respective
plane makers Airbus and
Boeing — it was whisky
distilleries in Scotland that
felt the pain.
The 25 per cent surcharge
on sales of whisky to the US
was estimated to have cost
the industry more than
£500 million after it was
imposed in October 2019,
before eventually being
suspended in March.
“I would really, really hope
that a UK-EU trade war will
not take place,” said Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, director-
general of the World Trade
Organisation at the G7
summit yesterday.
“It’s too costly for both
sides. This is not what the
world needs right now.”
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021
We can’t rule out Covid
lab leak, says WHO chief
Transparency is vital to
trace origins of virus,
China is told, as West
seeks to assert itself
Tim Shipman Carbis Bay
The head of the World Health Organisa-
tion has said that “every hypothesis
should be open” about the origins of
Covid-19 as the US and others investigate
whether it came from a Chinese lab.
Speaking at a G7 briefing on the pan-
demic, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,
the WHO’s director-general, said: “We
need co-operation from the Chinese side.
We need transparency to understand and
know or find the origins of this virus.”
In March the organisation said in a
report that it was “extremely unlikely”
that the virus came from a laboratory.
China, which has been accused of
obstructing investigations into of the ori-
gins the pandemic, has condemned
“smear campaigns and blame shifting”.
Last month President Biden gave his
intelligence agencies three months to
report on the theory that it came from a
PM reveals Carrie wears eco-credentials on her rented sleeve
his faith
.. . in the
power of
deflection
Tim Shipman
He is usually more
comfortable quoting the
classics than scripture, but
Boris Johnson mentioned a
line from the Bible yesterday
when put on the spot about
his religious beliefs.
Asked by ITV’s Robert
Peston whether he is a
practising Roman Catholic,
Johnson first said: “I don’t
discuss these deep issues,
certainly not with you.”
But when asked outright
whether he believes in God,
or agrees with Sir Keir
Starmer, who recently
revealed that he is an atheist,
the prime minister quoted
Psalm 14:1. “ ‘The foolish man
has said in his heart, there is
no God.’ I’ll leave it at that,”
Johnson said.
Johnson was baptised a
Roman Catholic, but first two
weddings were Anglican
ceremonies. Last month he
got married for the third time
at the Roman Catholic
Westminster Cathedral to
Carrie Symonds, the mother
of his son Wilfred, 1.
In 2015 Johnson said it
would be “pretentious” to
suggest he is a “serious
practising Christian” even
though he “thinks about
religion a lot”. Others close to
him have described him as
“pagan”.
Starmer revealed his
atheism to The Sunday Times
Magazine this year. The
Labour leader said that while
he does not believe in God, he
does believe in the power of
faith. “I don’t believe in God
— but I can see the power of
faith and the way it brings
people together ” he said
laboratory in Wuhan, the city at the cen-
tre of the initial outbreak of the virus.
Tedros made his remarks as Britain
and America vowed to challenge China’s
growing dominance on the world stage
and Boris Johnson declared: “The West
is back.”
The heads of the world’s leading
democracies announced a global infra-
structure plan to give developing coun-
tries an alternative to doing business with
the autocratic regime in Beijing. Under
the “build back better for the world”
plan, the richest democracies will offer
financing for infrastructure, from rail-
ways in Africa to wind farms in Asia. The
approach is intended to give developing
countries faster access to money and
“turbocharge green growth”, accelerat-
ing a global shift to renewable energy.
The scheme is being billed as a rival to
the Belt and Road initiative launched by
President Xi in 2013 to spread China’s
influence. More than 100 countries have
signed agreements with China to co-oper-
ate on projects such as railways, ports
and roads. Critics say that the deals often
involve Beijing lending money that bor-
rowers cannot afford to repay, giving
China part-ownership of strategic assets
in Asia and Africa. Other projects have
led to claims of environmental damage
and poor safety standards have led to the
deaths of workers.
The new plan has been dubbed
“greenbelt and road” in Downing Street.
A senior Conservative joked that it was
Johnson’s plan to get countries to “chuck
China”, just as he once campaigned to
chuck Theresa May’s Chequers deal.
The prime minister said: “We have a
responsibility to help developing coun-
tries reap the benefits of clean growth
through a fair and transparent system.
The G7 has an unprecedented opportu-
nity to drive a global green industrial rev-
olution, with the potential to transform
the way we live.”
His spokesman said that the plan was
“designed to ensure developing coun-
tries have a choice in finding support
from fair-minded countries in line with
democratic principles”. An American
official said that the West had previously
failed to offer a positive alternative to the
“coercive approach” of Beijing. “This is
not just about confronting or taking on
China,” the official said. “Until now we
haven’t offered a positive alternative that
reflects our values, our standards, and
our way of doing business.”
In March Biden and Johnson discussed
developing an infrastructure scheme to
rival China’s. Biden has also pushed for a
UCarrie
Johnson and Jill
tougher line on China’s treatment of the Biden attend a
Uighur Muslim minority. performance at
World leaders used a summit session the clifftop
on foreign policy to agree a joint position Minack Theatre;
on how to combat both China and Russia. Joe Biden
White House staff said the US would enjoys the sun;
push the other G7 leaders for “concrete Carrie and Boris
action on forced labour” in China and to Johnson’s one-
include criticism of Beijing in their final year-old son
communiqué. But draft versions were Wilfred makes
said to be “tepid” after France, Germany, an appearance;
Japan and Italy resisted. Boris Johnson
Johnson also launched the UK’s Blue takes an early
Planet Fund from the G7 summit’s ocean- morning dip
side setting in Cornwall. The £500 mil-
lion fund will support countries includ-
ing Ghana, Indonesia and Pacific island
states to tackle unsustainable fishing,
reduce marine pollution and protect and
restore coastal ecosystems such as man-
groves and coral reefs.
Sir David Attenborough will address
leaders on the importance of action to
limit global warming to 1.5 degrees today,
the final day of the summit. The G7 will
endorse a nature compact to halt and
reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
Editorial, page 20
Laura Atkinson Style Editor
A hot pink dress, a floral
silk gown and a flared
two-piece: the G7 week has
seen plenty of power-
dressing opportunities for
Carrie Johnson. Standing
out among dull suits and
dowdy dresses yesterday,
Johnson wore a royal blue
Amanda Wakeley suit,
retailing for £990 or
available to rent for £160 a
day (for both blazer and
trousers) from my-
Wardrobe.com.
The website rents out
designer clothes for
between four and 14 days,
saving consumers from
typically eyewatering
prices. It is where Johnson
rented her £2,870 Christos
Costarellos wedding dress,
for £45 a day.
She has become a pin-up
for the growing rental
fashion market, using it to
showcase her eco-friendly
credentials — a canny move
at the summit and a clever
way to communicate her
politics when the newlywed
knows that all eyes will be
on her wardrobe.
This week’s looks have
included a floral silk-satin
dress by The Vampire’s
Wife, £805 new but rented
by Johnson from
hurrcollective.com, and a
hot pink £1,400 Roksanda
Ilincic dress, also available
to rent for £107 at the site.
Wearing Wakeley is a first
for Johnson and a more
traditional choice. A British
favourite of royals including
Diana, Princess of Wales and
the Duchess of Cambridge,
the brand was last in the
spotlight when, as prime
minister, Theresa May wore
£995 leather trousers for a
Sunday Times magazine
shoot, resulting in the much
discussed “trousergate”.
Perhaps May should have
rented hers
Can we hope to
vaccinate the
world by next year?
BEN
SPENCER
ER
Science Editor
What will it take to
vaccinate the world against
Covid-19?
The G7 leaders have pledged
to donate a billion doses of
coronavirus vaccine to
poorer countries by the end
of 2022. This barely makes a
dent in what’s required. As
the World Health
Organisation (WHO) has
pointed out, it would take
11 billion doses to provide
70 per cent of the world’s
population — that is,
everyone aged 18 and over —
with two each. If countries
start vaccinating children as
well, even more vaccines will
be needed.
How many jabs have been
administered so far?
About 2.3 billion globally,
1.5 billion of them in only five
countries — China, America,
UK, India and Brazil. Lower-
income countries have
administered only 8.3 doses
per 100 people, compared
with 53.5 per 100 for higher-
income countries.
Why is this global
discrepancy such a
problem?
Nobody is safe until we are all
safe. As the Indian variant has
shown, it is almost impossible
to stop new mutations. This
means that travel restrictions
will continue to be imposed.
How long is it likely to
take?
Covax, the alliance set up by
WHO and leading health
charities, aimed to distribute
2.2 billion doses by the end of
2022 to lower- and middle-
income countries. So far
Covax has delivered only
83 million doses — 190 million
short of where it wanted to
be. Ghana was the first
recipient, in February. Since
then doses have been sent to
more than 120 countries,
including Bangladesh, Brazil,
Ethiopia and Fiji. The Indian
Covid crisis has been a severe
stumbling block. The Serum
Institute of India was meant
to provide a third of Covax
vaccines this year but had
sent out only 30 million doses
before the government
banned exports in March. It is
unlikely to deliver more
doses before the end of 2021.
Liam Sollis, of Unicef UK,
fears that unless there is a
marked acceleration in the
rollout, the programme could
“drag on through 2023 and
into 2024”.
So has G7 come to the
rescue?
The UK pledge of 100 million
doses involves providing no
more than five million by the
end of September, 25 million
by the end of 2021 and the
remainder in 2022. Unicef
calculates that the UK could
donate 20 per cent of
available vaccines now and
still hit its domestic targets.
Likewise, America has
promised 500 million doses —
200 million this year and
300 million next Britain
5
argues that its government-
backed AstraZeneca vaccine,
produced on a not-for-profit
basis, is proving a big factor
in immunising the world.
Pfizer doses are also being
distributed.
Who else is contributing?
China and Russia are using
doses for vaccine diplomacy.
China’s vaccines, Sinopharm
and Sinovac, have been
distributed to more than
80 countries in Asia, Africa
and South America, free in 53
of them. Russia has sent its
Sputnik V vaccine to parts of
eastern Europe, Latin
America, Africa and the
Middle East.
How much will it all cost?
Gordon Brown and Tony Blair
were among 100 former
world leaders who signed a
letter to G7 leaders last week
urging them to stump up
two thirds of the estimated
£47 billion cost of vaccinating
the world. A separate
estimate by the IMF this
month calculated that
vaccinating 60 per cent of the
world by the end of 2022
would cost £35 billion.
What are the other
hurdles?
Even if enough funding is
put forward and enough
The G7 has
been urged
to stump
up £30bn
doses are produced,
distributing vaccines is a
monumental task. While the
UK has been able to use the
NHS to rapidly get jabs to the
right place, many countries
have never attempted such a
feat. Anna Mouser, head of
vaccines at the Wellcome
Trust, said: “In many
countries they are effectively
building adult immunisation
systems from scratch.”
Distribution and freezer
storage are challenges
enough, but an even bigger
one is compiling accurate
databases of people’s ages
and addresses and then
contacting them to invite
them for a vaccine.
What about vaccine
hesitancy?
In parts of the world there is a
huge distrust of vaccines.
Polling in Ukraine two years
ago suggested that only half
of people believed vaccines
work; the figure for Britain
and America was above 80
per cent. That year Ukraine
experienced a severe measles
outbreak of 57,000 cases. In
Afghanistan and Pakistan —
the only countries where
polio remains endemic —
vaccine workers are
frequently killed. Suspicions
about vaccines grew in the
region after the CIA used a
fake hepatitis B vaccination
programme to track down
Osama bin Laden in Pakistan
in 2011
6 The Sunday Times June 13, 2021
NEWS
Vanilla Ice rides into town
to solve Shergar mystery
Liam Kelly Arts Correspondent
Take an American one-hit wonder, add
the intrigue of sport’s most famous kid-
napping, throw in a dash of Clare Balding
and you could have a hit on your hands.
At least that is what Vanilla Ice hopes.
The rapper, who reached No 1 with Ice Ice
Baby in 1990, has narrated a seven-part
BBC podcast exploring the unsolved
abduction of the 1981 Derby-winner
Shergar, one of the most bizarre crimes
in the history of sport.
If it seems odd, the rapper, who mostly
now uses his real name, Rob Van Winkle,
attempts to overcome that with sheer
enthusiasm. He has been “fascinated” by
horses since childhood, inspired by the
films of John Wayne, and says he gets
“emotional” watching the film Seabiscuit,
the real-life tale of the little American
horse that became a champion. He has
seen Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse on
stage in three countries and goes to polo
matches and race meetings in America.
“I love horse stories. It’s just amazing,
the connection they have with people,”
the 53-year-old says from the cinema at
his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida.
“When I started getting into this one, it
was more fascinating than any of the
others. The fastest horse in the world gets
stolen. Who kidnaps horses like that?”
What happened to Shergar remains a
mystery and no arrests have been made.
Owned by the Aga Khan, he was one of
the finest racehorses of his generation.
He won six of his eight races, including
the Epsom Derby by ten lengths, a record
margin. The runner-up, John Matthias on
Glint of Gold, briefly thought he had won
because he hadn’t seen Shergar so far
ahead.
Khan retired Shergar to Ballymany, Co
Kildare, where the £10 million stallion
was expected to have a long and fruitful
stud career. However, in February 1983 a
group of masked men kidnapped Shergar
and his groom, Jim Fitzgerald, at gun-
point. They soon released Fitzgerald but
demanded £2 million for Shergar’s
return. After a string of inconclusive
phone calls over four days, the kidnap-
pers did not call again.
It is broadly accepted that Shergar was
kidnapped and killed by IRA members at
the height of the Troubles when the para-
militaries needed cash for arms, a narra-
Since his 1990s tive given credence by Sean O’Callaghan,
stardom, an informant, in 1999. Other, more fanci-
Vanilla Ice has ful, theories include the involvement of
become Colonel Muammar Gaddafi or the New
intrigued by Orleans mafia. Shergar’s body has never
hero horses been found.
such as “Did they just throw him in a field? Did
Seabiscuit and they feed him and pamper him? What did
Shergar, above they do with the horse?” Van Winkle
asks. “There’s a big mystery that’s still
there. A lot of questions will never get
answered.”
He is the quintessential one-hit won-
der, but it was his 2019 single Ride the
Horse — with lyrics including “Ride the
horse, ride the horse, ride the pony / Sad-
dle up, baby, go wild on this donkey” —
that led producers to ask if he would nar-
rate the series. He says he had heard of
Shergar and quickly agreed.
Born in Dallas, Texas, Van Winkle told
fans to “stop, collaborate and listen” in
Ice Ice Baby, the first hip-hop single to
reach No 1 in the American charts.
Despite a copyright row with Queen and
David Bowie, who won a share of royal-
ties because the song samples the bass-
line from their 1981 hit Under Pressure,
Van Winkle says the song still “does me
really, really well: millions and millions
[of dollars]”. It was reported during his
2018 divorce that he has an income of
about $800,000 (£565,000) a year.
Though he has not troubled the charts
since 1991, except with a cover version of
Ice Ice Baby with the X Factor duo Jed-
ward in 2010 — he has kept busy. He re-
invented himself as a property guru who
builds and renovates homes, with a long-
running TV series in America. In the pod-
cast he says — a line one suspects wasn’t
written by him — that he is “just like
Kirstie Allsopp but with more tattoos”.
After performing at Donald Trump’s
New Year’s Eve party, he is lined up for a
summer of gigs called I Love the 90s with
rappers Coolio, Young MC and Rob Base.
“I’m living the dream, finally,” Van
Winkle says. “You would have thought
that back in the day ... I was living the
dream. If I was living the dream, it was
going too fast for me to absorb it or slow
down to understand. Now, I get it.”
Van Winkle’s analysis of Shergar’s per-
formance in the podcast — “that horse
was hauling ass; there must have been a
lot of horsepower in that horse” — is aug-
mented by expert insight from Balding,
Shergar’s trainer, Sir Michael Stoute, and
Cornelius Lysaght, the BBC’s former rac-
ing correspondent, as well as those
involved in the rescue efforts.
New episodes of Sport’s Strangest
Crimes are released on BBC Sounds each
Thursday.
The rapper has bought four thorough-
breds for his daughters, Dusti Rain, 23,
Keelee Breeze, 20, and Priscilla Love, 2.
However, he is hoping to sell them, as the
older girls have largely given up polo.
A teenage dirt bike champion, he has
ridden a horse only once. “I don’t want to
ride a horse. I like to be in control, as
opposed to riding something with a
brain,” he says.
“I don’t get it. I’ll hang-glide, para-
chute, rollerblade, jump off bridges,
bungee jump, ride the craziest roller-
coasters and for some reason I’m nerv-
ous to ride a horse. I don’t know if it’s
going to bite me or take off and flip me
backwards.”
Editorial, page 20
Blurring the lines
of art: pixelated
digital alien is
sold for £8.3m
Danny Fortson San Francisco
It wasn’t the first piece of
bafflingly primitive
contemporary art to attract
multimillion-pound bids at
Sotheby’s but the sale last
week of a digital portrait of a
pixelated blue-skinned alien
wearing an orange skullcap
and a face mask may well
have been the strangest.
The image, entitled
cryptopunk #7523, looks like
something your four-year-old
child might have knocked up
with some crayons. Yet Alex
Amsel, a 47-year-old video
game developer from
Sheffield, is several million
pounds richer this weekend
thanks to soaring interest in
unique digital creations
known as non-fungible
tokens. The image first sold to
a collector in July 2017 for
about £1,200. Since then the
market for digital investments
has exploded, with collectors
seeking ownership of viral
videos, tweets, games and
other online phenomena. At
Sotheby’s last week the
image, which Amsel acquired
privately for an undisclosed
price in March, fetched
£8.3 million, including
buyer’s premium.
The buyer was Shalom
McKenzie, an Israeli
entrepreneur and the largest
shareholder in the US-based
fantasy sports and betting
giant DraftKings. Amsel said
the winning bid was “several
million dollars” more than he
paid for the picture.
He celebrated his payday
by going out to play six-a-side
football with friends. “My
regular friends, they know I
do a bit of this stuff but they
have no idea the extent of it,”
Amsel said. “In the real world
you’ll find me in the Tesco
two-for-one aisle. I don’t have
expensive tastes — we have
some champagne in the
fridge but we haven’t drunk it
yet.”
The “stuff ” he refers to
requires not only advanced
understanding of blockchain
technologies but also a knack
for spotting a bargain.
Amsel’s cryptopunk image
was one of 10,000 created in
2017 but it was the only one
showing an alien in a mask.
Its accidental Covid-19
symbolism sent its value
soaring.
The image was
one of 10,000
created in 2017
but is the only
one of an alien in
a mask, making it
valuable in 2021
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021 7

NEWS
SUNDAY TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

Shoppies! High street welcomes dogs

in bid to tempt owners into spending
Retailers are relaxing
their pet policies rather
than force customers to
leave pooches worth
thousands tied up outside
Louise Eccles Consumer Affairs Editor
Shoppers have been trained to adhere to
a host of new rules since the pandemic,
but for dogs it has never been easier to
visit the high street.
Joules, Whistles, H&M, Barbour, John
Lewis, Apple, Heal’s, West Elm and White
Stuff are among chains that now allow
non-assistance dogs. Selfridges said small
dogs were welcome if carried in a bag.
Reiss and Waterstones said it was at the
shop manager’s discretion. Penhaligon’s,
the perfume store, allows dogs despite
the risk to small bottles from wagging
tails.
Most shops are staying quiet about
their dog-friendly status, with no signs
outside shops or information on web-
sites, and many customers are unaware
of the policy.
But Dogfriendly.co.uk said 2,300
retailers were listed on its database as
welcoming pets, a 10 per cent annual rise.
So far this year there have been 169 per
Louise Eccles
took Olly to the
dog-friendly
cent more searches for dog-friendly
shops than in the whole of 2020.
Steve Bennett, the site’s co-founder,
John Lewis in
Kingston, south
said: “High street shops are realising that
dog owners represent a huge proportion
London. There of their customer base.”
was the odd With the rising price of puppies, dog-
howl, but no napping has become big business and
fouling, and he owners are worried about leaving their
loved riding the dogs tied to a lamp-post. The average cost
escalators of puppies last year was £1,875, com-
pared with £808 in 2019, according to
Pets4Homes.
Charlotte and Dale Robson’s black
labradors, Denver and Welly, were stolen
from outside an M&S Simply Food store,
in Nantwich, Cheshire, in March while
Dale went into the shop briefly. M&S does
not allow non-assistance dogs into its
stores. The dogs were returned following
a social media campaign and one of the
thieves was jailed last week.
Charlotte, 31, approves of dogs in
shops. “I think it is a brilliant idea,” she
said. “It would help if we could just get a
few items and keep the dogs in sight. My
husband left our dogs literally a few min-
utes outside a police station.”
At Clarks Village in Somerset about 80
Should dogs be per cent of the shops allow dogs, while
allowed in shops? one customer even brings his baby
Have your say at alpaca with him.
sundaytimes.co.uk Several branches of Waterstones —
/poll including Kendal, Swansea and Newcas-
tle — post photographs of their canine
visitors on social media, showing
chihuahuas and pugs sitting among the
Lead the way, Olly — there’s no better
books.
As well as M&S, Next and Primark companion to sniff out bargains
remain dog-free zones other than for
assistance dogs. Next said there had been John Lewis says it to kitchenware, where Olly really love dogs, and he
“issues” with dog mess and was mindful only allows “well- sniffs the merchandise receives a huge amount of
of people’s allergies or a fear of dogs. behaved” dogs into while I nervously watch his fuss and praise.
The Dogs’ Trust said the new attitude its shops, an wagging tail and steer him Customers are delighted
on much of the high street “reduces the excellent rule that should away from the fine china. to discover the well-kept
risk of dogs being left at home, unat- surely apply to its human Staff say they have not secret that dogs are allowed
tended in the street or in the car for long shoppers too, writes Louise received any complaints in the shop and several of
periods of time”. Eccles. My friend assures me about the policy — or had them say they will bring
The RSPCA said dog-friendly shops that her rescue dog, Olly, 5, any dog mess — in their theirs in soon. One woman
could help to “avoid thefts of pets that is impeccably behaved, and shops since it was comments that she will visit
have been tied up outside”, but added will be the perfect introduced in 2019. more often now that she
that owners should consider whether companion on a trip to John However, it cannot be knows she can bring her
their dog was sufficiently confident in Lewis in Kingston, universally popular. One cocker spaniel.
new places and around new people. “It’s southwest London. woman screws up her nose The manager’s dog, a
important to think about it from the dog’s After manoeuvring him and dives down a different docile 15-year-old border
perspective, particularly with lockdown past the gift food section, I aisle as we head towards the collie called Charlie,
puppies or adult dogs who may have carry him up an escalator to saucepans. sometimes spends the
missed out on vital socialisation,” a womenswear on the first Olly is not keen on the entire day on the shop floor.
spokeswoman said. floor, which attracts curious shiny floor so we head to After visiting two
The hospitality industry has also been looks from some of our White Stuff, another dog- stores, Olly is getting
keen to show that it is dog-friendly. Hilton fellow shoppers. friendly shop, where staff restless and so we take our
launched a menu for dogs in 32 hotels last I head towards a Hush apologise for not having leave.
month, which included slow-cooked beef dress, only to discover that their usual water and dog Perhaps a dog would not
brisket with mashed potato and vegeta- Olly has other ideas and treats for him due to Covid- be the best companion for a
bles, a cup of tea made with lavender and would rather browse the 19. We seem to have shopaholic who likes
rose petals, and a non-alcoholic wine Hobbs concession. stumbled across a shop to spend hours on
infused with nettle and black carrot. Once we have resolved frequented only by end on the high
@Louise_Eccles this disagreement, we move customers who really, street.

Housing tycoon gave £150,000 to Tories
days after minister backed rural scheme
Gabriel Pogrund and
Emanuele Midolo
A billionaire property tycoon
gave £150,000 to the
Conservative Party 48 hours
after a government minister
approved a controversial
housing scheme for him.
John Bloor, 77, is a
Derbyshire businessman with
investments in property and
motorcycles and a personal
fortune calculated at
£1.3 billion by the Sunday
Times Rich List.
He is one of the largest
donors to the Conservatives,
having given more than
£3 million, including almost
£1 million in the run up to the
2019 general election.
Last year was the first time
he failed to contribute to the
party in more than half a
decade. But he resumed his
donations on March 17 this
year after decisions by the
Ministry for Housing,
Communities and
Local Government, the
department run by Robert
Jenrick, that directly
benefited his property
company, Bloor Homes.
The £150,000 was donated
two days after Chris Pincher,
a housing minister, gave the
green light to a Bloor
proposal to build hundreds of
homes on rural land in
Herefordshire, and three
weeks after officials took
control of a scheme in
Berkshire.
Asked repeatedly whether
Bloor or his representatives
had lobbied Jenrick or other
ministers ahead of these
decisions, government
officials said it would be “too
costly” to find out under
Freedom of Information laws.
They also said it would
take too much time, as
Bloor’s staff could have
lobbied with “a non-company
account without mentioning
the company by name”.
The disclosures will
reignite scrutiny over donors’
influence after Lord Cruddas,
the former Tory chairman,
donated half a million pounds
in February, three days after
receiving a peerage.
Jenrick, 39, the housing
secretary, has also faced
scrutiny over his proximity to
billionaire donors, having
approved a development for
Richard Desmond, the
publishing and property
tycoon, shortly after
attending a black-tie
fundraiser with him. He later
admitted his decision was
“unlawful” because of
“apparent bias”.
The latest controversy
centres on a plan by Bloor
Homes to build 625 homes on
rural land near Ledbury, a
market town. The town
council had rejected the
plans, with its mayor saying
they would lead to damaging
congestion and undermine a
nearby area of outstanding
natural beauty.
In March 2020, ministers
took control of the planning
application and gave
themselve the final say on the
grounds that the scheme
could “significantly impact
on the government’s
objective to secure a better
balance between housing
demand and supply”.
On March 15 this year,
Pincher, 51, the MP for
Tamworth, approved it.
Planning documents state
Plans by John
Bloor, left, to
build 625 homes
outside Ledbury,
right, were
rejected by the
council but
greenlit by the
government
that the minister “does not
consider” that the
development would affect the
tranquility of the area or the
quality of the landscape.
Another decision that
could benefit Bloor
concerned a separate plan to
build 1,000 homes in
Newbury, Berkshire. On
February 25, three weeks
before the donation, Jenrick’s
officials intervened to take
control of the plan, which has
been rejected at least four
times by the local council.
Jenrick or one of his
ministers will now have the
final say over the proposal.
Alison Dyson, a government
planning official, informed
the council: “Although . . . the
appeal was to have been
decided by an inspector, the
secretary of state considers
that he should determine it
himself.”
Bloor Homes announced
profits of £152 million last
year. The company was
approached for comment.
A government
spokeswoman said: “The
decision on the Ledbury
development was made
following a recommendation
by the independent Planning
Inspector to grant planning
permission and in line with
. . . propriety guidance.
“The decision to recover
the appeal at Sandleford
Park, Berkshire, was taken
solely by officials under
delegated powers without
ministerial involvement at
any stage. Ministers are yet to
receive any information or
advice on the next steps of
this process.”
Just glue it: eBay’s shoe
cops sniff out fake Nikes
Louise Eccles
It is one of the few jobs where
glue-sniffing is encouraged. A
new breed of footwear
detective is learning to
identify cheap knock-offs of
expensive trainers by the
smell of the glue that binds
their soles.
Soaring prices for limited
edition and other sought-
after trainers associated with
athletes and celebrities have
prompted the online
marketplace eBay to launch
its first UK “sneaker
authentication centre”.
Experts in trainer
provenance and manufacture
are subjecting new and used
footwear to microscopic
scrutiny in an attempt to
combat fake merchandise.
Any eBay UK user who sells
a pair of Nike, Adidas or New
Balance trainers worth more
than £150 will not get their
money until the shoes have
been authenticated by eBay’s
experts, who will then
forward them to buyers. The
website claims to have sold a
pair of trainers every nine
seconds last year.
The move reflects the
transformation of a humble
sporting shoe into a cultural
icon comparable to an Old
Master painting or a
Chippendale commode.
Shoes worn by Michael
Jordan, the American
basketball legend, have
fetched hundreds of
thousands of dollars at
auction; a prototype pair of
Kanye West’s Nike Air Yeezy
trainers, worn by the rapper
at the 2008 Grammy awards,
fetched £1.3 million in April.
As both trainers and their
names have become ever
more fashionable and
elaborate collectors have
flocked to new releases of
expensive designs such as the
British rapper Skepta’s Nike
Air Max Tailwind V (£160).
The shoes are often resold
You can immediately online for large
profits.
smell At eBay’s new centre in
Ruislip, northwest London,
when it’s experts have identified 52
elements of a finished shoe —
cheap from the materials used to the
box it comes in — that might
yield evidence of fakery. The
inspections examine details
Wahaaj Shabbir such as the font and quality of
is one of the team ink used for writing on the
checking trainers inside of the tongue or any
are authentic small variations in the colour.
They can also include a sniff
test to check whether the
smell of the glue is correct.
“We train our entire team
on noticing the smell of a
glue, which takes a long
time, as you can imagine, to
adjust yourself to a scent,”
said Amin Hemmaz, the
centre’s 21-year-old
authentication manager.
“Over time you get familiar
with the way it should smell
and you can tell almost
immediately when the glue is
made from cheap materials.”
Hemmaz said one of the
first pairs of shoes his centre
looked at were Dior Jordans,
“which cost in the five
figures. We often get shoes
worth thousands of pounds.”
He said the fake trainer
market dated back 20 years,
“but we are at a stage now
where some of the fake
factories in southeast Asia are
operating in the same
building as an authentic
factory and sourcing 90 per
cent of the same materials.
Our training is non-stop,
as we have to make sure we
are always up-to-date on
changes in the
manufacturing ”
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021 9

NEWS
CORONAVIRUS

Prospect of four-week delay wrecks

‘summer of fun’ for angry businesses
An expected postponement to the end of restrictions after Johnson raises ‘serious concerns’ about variant will threaten jobs, bosses warn
Caroline Wheeler, Liam Kelly and
Tim Shipman
Hospitality leaders have reacted with
fury as Boris Johnson prepares to intro-
duce a four-week delay to the road map
tomorrow amid warnings of further
damage to the economy.
The prime minister has been accused
of killing the summer of fun, with thou-
sands of events set to be cancelled, includ-
ing the potential for a second successive
summer without big music festivals.
More than 5,000 music gigs by artists
including Olly Murs, Beverley Knight and
McFly are also expected to be cancelled
at a cost of £500 million.
According to industry estimates, a
four-week delay to the end of restrictions
will cost pubs, bars, hotels and restau-
rants £3 billion in lost sales and £4 billion
to the economy overall. A further
200,000 jobs in the sector, which still has
600,000 people on furlough, could also
be lost, according to Kate Nicholls, chief
executive of lobby group UK Hospitality.
Under the government’s road map out
of the pandemic, all social distancing
restrictions were due to end on June 21.
At present, theatrical performances and
sporting events have their attendances
capped at 50 per cent capacity while
pubs, bars and restaurants are allowed to
provide table service only, with social dis-
tancing and the “rule of six” indoors. All
nightclubs are closed.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, 73, the theatre
impresario, said that another delay to the
roadmap delay would be “devastating”
and pleaded with ministers to increase
the permitted attendance from 50 per
cent to 75 per cent as a compromise.
Melvin Benn, the promoter of Wire-
less, Download, Reading and Leeds festi-
Carrie Hope Fletcher plays Cinderella,
with previews due to start on June 25
vals, said it would be “a complete and
utter disaster for the country” if the eas-
ing of restrictions was pushed back to
July 19 because test events showed capac-
ity crowds could attend safely.
Speaking on the penultimate day of the
G7 summit of world leaders in Cornwall,
Johnson prepared the country for the
road map delay, saying he had “serious,
serious concerns” about the growing
number of people hospitalised with the
Delta variant from India.
He said: “In order to have an irreversi-
ble road map, you’ve got to be cautious.
Where it’s necessary to be cautious we
will do so. You’ve got hospitalisations up,
you’ve got cases up. There are grounds
for caution. I think we’ve got to do what-
ever it takes to protect life in this country.”
The final decision on whether to can-
cel freedom day is expected to be made at
a meeting tonight, or first thing tomor-
row, ahead of the announcement by the
prime minister later the same day.
Yesterday Johnson’s “quad” of senior
ministers — Rishi Sunak, Michael Gove and
Dominic Raab — discussed ways to “sugar-
coat” the delay by finding ways to enable
more events to go ahead this summer. It is
understood that more mass events will be
added to the government’s pilot scheme.
Bigger weddings will also go ahead,
although the numbers of guests who can
attend will be capped depending on the
size of the venue.
This weekend Lord Lloyd-Webber is
pleading with ministers to allow a bigger
crowd into his shows, in exchange for
audience members wearing facemasks
and producing a negative Covid-19 test in
advance. Previews of Cinderella, his
twice-delayed £6 million new West End
musical starring Carrie Hope Fletcher, are
scheduled to start on June 25.
“Delaying the full-capacity reopening
of theatres will be devastating. A 50 per
cent house is not a viable solution for any
length of time,” Lord Lloyd-Webber said.
“At this last-chance saloon, I hope the gov-
ernment would consider a small — and
safe — step to 75 per cent capacity, with all
proven safety mitigations. A small step
from them, yet a giant leap for theatres up
and down the country.”
Johnson was last night forced to
defend the decision not to add India to
the red list of places to which travel was
banned on April 23, two weeks later than
Pakistan and Bangladesh, which had
fewer cases per capita at the time. Asked
if he regretted this decision, the prime
minister said the Indian variant had not
“even been identified as a variant under
investigation” at the time, though docu-
ments on the government’s website say it
was designated as such on April 1.

Desperate to say ‘I do’ but worried they’ll be told ‘You can’t’ ‘Pretty safe’
jab will
CLAIRE ANDREWS/LITTLE POSY

Emily Kent Smith and

Caroline Wheeler
In less than two weeks
Charlotte Lewington should
be walking down the aisle
with her fiancé, Kees James.
Their “fairytale wedding” is
something she has been
dreaming about since she was
a little girl.
Yet Lewington, 41, still
does not know if the event
she has already postponed
twice will be able to go ahead.
“I can’t sleep. I’ve never
felt anxiety like it. We are
supposed to be enjoying
this period up to the
wedding, and neither of us
can. It has taken the magic
away,” she said.
Lewington, from Newark-
on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, is
one of thousands of brides in
limbo, waiting to find out
what will happen to the
weddings they have spent
months planning and
reorganising. In some cases
couples have changed their
big day six or seven times,
according to industry
insiders.
Under the original
government schedule, all
coronavirus restrictions,
including the cap on wedding
numbers, were due to be
scrapped on June 21. But a
surge in the Indian variant,
which is thought to be 64 per
cent more transmissible than
the Kent variant, has
prompted ministers to
consider delaying the lifting
of the final stage of lockdown
by up to a month.
Insiders from four
departments said last night
that the government’s
priority was to save weddings
but no final decision had yet
been taken.
The source added: “We
think it is important that life
events be allowed to go ahead
and are conscious of what any
decision to delay would have
on the industry.”
A senior Whitehall insider
said: “There is a lot of hope
and political will from those
in No 10 and the Department
of Health to find a way
through on weddings to
ensure that people’s plans for
larger weddings are not
compromised.”
Dozens of furious brides
took to social media
yesterday. Some accused the
prime minister of sexism for
allowing large sport events to
go ahead while still putting
the brakes on couples tying
the knot.
Lewington said: “You
envisage your wedding day as
being a fairytale. It is
supposed to be the best day
of your life. Instead this time
has been filled with anxiety
and anguish.”
Lauren Hooper, 28, is due
to get married to Jay Bishop,
also 28, at the end of this
month in Gloucestershire in
front of 53 family and friends.
“We have not been excited
about the wedding. Mentally,
anxiety is high; my stomach is
in constant knots thinking
about it,” she said. “One day
you read that restrictions on
weddings are going to be
lifted, and the next there is
going to be a four-week delay.
It is emotionally draining.
Even if it is not the news we
want, we just want to know.”
The campaign group What
About Weddings says it has
heard from brides who say
their hair is falling out and
they are losing weight
because of the stress.
Jessie Westwood, 36, a
WHAT IS Ministers were hoping to be
able to remove all legal
MEANT TO limits on social contact in
England on June 21, writes
HAPPEN ON ... Liam Kelly.
Known in Whitehall as
step four on the
government’s road map out
of the pandemic, the plan
JUNE was to scrap social
were set to open for the first
time in 16 months. June 21
was dubbed “freedom day”
shortly after the plans were
announced in February.
The jump from step three,
which started on May 17, was
contingent on ministers and
their scientific advisers
being happy that four tests
Charlotte Lewington
and Kees James, left,
and Lauren Hooper
and Jay Bishop must
wait for news
and that risk assessments
were not “fundamentally
changed” by variants of
concern. The so-called Delta
variant, which was first
discovered in India, appears
to have moved the
goalposts.
Should the prime minister
announce, as expected, that
with table service only, and
limits on crowds at
performances and sporting
events.
Events that take place at
indoor venues have a crowd
limit of 1,000 or 50 per cent
of capacity, whichever is
lower. Outdoors the cap on
crowds ranges from 4,000,
protect
kids from
variant
Caroline Wheeler,
Tom Calver and
Ben Spencer
A scientist advising the
government has declared that
there is now a “very strong
argument” to vaccinate
children against the
coronavirus as infections rise
and evidence emerges that
vaccination is “pretty safe”.
Professor Peter Openshaw,
vice-chairman of Nervtag, a
committee that looks out for
emerging respiratory threats,
said there were indications
that the Indian variant was
more transmissible among
children than the original
Wuhan strain.
Openshaw, professor of
experimental medicine at
Imperial College London,
told BBC Radio 4’s Today
programme: “It strengthens
the argument for extending
vaccination to children. I’ve
been sitting on the fence on
this one, but on balance I’m
coming to the view that
there’s a very strong
argument we should go there.
“Evidence has come out
about the safety and efficacy
of generating an antibody
response in children. It looks
like it is pretty safe and there
are no adverse signals.”
Coronavirus testing in
secondary schools has
collapsed in recent weeks,
according to NHS Test and
Trace. Nearly two thirds of
secondary school pupils

The preferred option is to
allow weddings to go ahead
without restrictions on
numbers, sources said, but a
measure being considered is
to increase the present limit
of 30. Last night a Downing
Street source said that no “go/
stop” decision would be
taken until today.
21
wedding planner who co- distancing measures and had been passed: that the step four will be pushed or 50 per cent, up to 10,000 failed to take a test in the
founded the movement, said: remove restrictions on vaccination programme back from June 21 to July 19, for the biggest outdoor week before half-term. Data
“Couples are completely gatherings, such as the rule continued successfully; that we will continue to live venues where people can from Public Health England
exhausted. They are of six indoors and up to 30 vaccines continued to under the restrictions be spread out. shows 282 Covid-19 outbreaks
frustrated to see the cricket, outdoors. reduce hospital admissions imposed by step three. It is expected, however, in schools in the past four
the football and pubs full. Nightclubs and music and deaths; that infection It means that hospitality that Boris Johnson will weeks, compared with 88 in
They don’t understand the venues, which have been rates did not lead to businesses must continue create an exception to the the previous four weeks.
reasons why the government closed since the first numbers in hospital that to enforce social distancing, cap on weddings of 30 About 7,750 cases of the
has chosen to penalise lockdown in March last year, could overwhelm the NHS; providing food and drink attendees. Indian variant have been
weddings.” found among those aged
10-19, the highest of any
age group. The MHRA
medicines regulator has

Brutal third wave or harmless ripple? The scientists aren’t yet sure approved the Pfizer vaccine
as safe and effective for
children aged 12-15.
Boris Johnson has asked
the Joint Committee on

be definitive about the scale
BEN SPENCER AND of it. We’ve tried to
communicate what the scale
TOM CALVER of the potential risk is.”
A question of risk
Boris Johnson, not for the
first time, has been left to
No backward step
Johnson is desperate not to
reverse the progress of the
previous months. After all,
shops, pubs and restaurants
are all trading — albeit with
rules on masks and
household gatherings. Fans
+57%
Indian variant — which a
Public Health England report
has estimated is about 60 per
cent more transmissible than
the previously dominant Kent
strain — now accounts for
Weekly rise in Covid cases more than 91 per cent of new
cases. New infections could
are not likely to rise to
anything nearly as high as the
awful January wave, this will
mean nothing if hospitals are
overrun and people die of
other causes, unable to
access A&E. Throughout the
pandemic the government’s
numbers down. But while the
Kent variant and the original
Wuhan strain were
significantly knocked back by
just one dose, the Indian
variant needs both vaccine
doses to be properly
defeated. The latest data
Vaccination and
Immunisation to assess
whether the government
should vaccinate
schoolchildren. Any
programme will need a
formal recommendation
from the committee.

The crucial modelling paper
presented to the prime
minister late last week was far
from conclusive. The
document, which projected
the combined impact of the
take a decision about risk. It
came down to this: should he
take a chance, scrap the rule
of six, permit people to throw
away their facemasks and
allow unrestricted indoor
entertainment once more? Or
should he delay, perhaps by
up to a month, to avoid the
are back inside sport
stadiums. The PM’s advisers
have told him that the best
way to avoid having to
reimpose punishing winter
restrictions lifted in April and
May is to pause the final step
of unlocking until July.
11 DAYS
hit 10,000 a day by June 21,
and 20,000 a day by July.
Cases are not as deadly . . .
On the plus side, thanks to
vaccination, the link between
Time taken for cases cases and serious illness is
to double breaking. The people
catching the virus now are
priority has been to protect
the NHS. Provisional
estimates suggest the Indian
variant could be about twice
as likely to put people in
hospital as the Kent variant.
In England, hospitalisations
have risen by about 32 per
cent in the past seven days. In
suggests that of 28,917 adults
infected with the Indian
variant, just 1,785 (6.2 per
cent) had received two
vaccine doses. Of the 1,785,
just 12 of them, or 0.7 per
cent, died.
The vaccines minister,
Nadhim Zahawi, has said
Its scientists are divided.
Some argue that rising cases
of the Indian variant mean
that every person who can be
vaccinated should be. On the
other side of the argument
are those who say it would be
wrong to give vaccines to
teenagers, because they are at

Indian variant with a full
unlocking on June 21,
confirmed a significant third
wave of coronavirus is under
way and said it would
inevitably grow if restrictions
were lifted.
But will that surge of cases
prove to be a harmless ripple?
risk of the “disastrous” third
wave? This, his advisers told
him, would give the NHS time
to vaccinate millions more
people, particularly with the
second doses.
Rising tide
So why is Johnson in this
bind? Scientists have been
spooked by the recent speed
at which infections have risen
over the past three weeks.
Seven days ago it looked like
cases were rising by 38 per
cent a week, a doubling time
+32%
Weekly rise in English
hospital admissions
younger and much less likely
to fall seriously ill. The rate of
infection among under-60s, at
68 weekly cases per 100,000
people, is about six times
higher than in the over-60s.
Ferguson said: “Almost
certainly I think deaths
probably will be lower — the
the northwest, admissions
are up 66 per cent in a week.
There is some evidence that
hospital cases are less severe
and shorter: the number of
overnight beds has risen just
10 per cent in a week — far
less than admissions —
suggesting Covid patients
that the UK is on track to
double-dose all over-50s
and vulnerable adults by June
21. The prime minister has
been advised to then leave
another two weeks to allow
immunity to kick in, and then
a further fortnight to ensure
that hospitalisation levels
minimal risk of falling
seriously ill from infection.
Dominic Wilkinson, a
paediatrician and professor
of medical ethics at Oxford,
said: “It is unethical to give
vaccines to people at very
low risk in our own country
when there are others

Or a brutal wave which
threatens to overwhelm the
NHS once more? That, the
modellers confess, is not yet
clear. Professor Neil
Ferguson, a key member of
29m
of about 15 days. Now, it is vaccines are having a highly leave quickly. Those have not continued to rise. overseas at much higher risk
57 per cent a week, a protective effect, cases in requiring ventilator This will then offer the who are dying.”
doubling time of just 11 days. hospitals now are milder.” In treatment have risen by just maximum possible In addition, some parents
In some parts of the UK cases short, the risk of dying from 17 per cent. protection to the cohort that will refuse to put their
Deaths will are doubling as quickly as
once every 4½ days.
Covid has been drastically cut.
Jabs still work, though both
has so far suffered 99 per cent
of all Covid deaths. At that
children at risk of side effects.

the Spi-M Covid modelling

group, which produced the
document said: “We cannot
be lower This exponential growth
heightens the risk that things
will spiral out of control The
People with two
vaccine doses, 43%
of the population
... but hospitalisations are
creeping up
But although Covid deaths
doses are crucial
Vaccines are crucial to
keeping these hospital
point, with the most
vulnerable vaccinated, the
risk will fade away
I will not be giving my
children the jab, Beverley
Turner Comment page 21
10
NEWS
Pupil, 15, latest to die in
‘pandemic of violence’
The family of a boy
stabbed on his way to
school say the public
are turning a blind eye to
the killing of teenagers
Magda Ibrahim and Dipesh Gadher
A relative of a 15-year-old boy knifed to
death on his way to school in west
London has warned of a “pandemic of
violence” blighting the country.
Jalan Woods-Bell was stabbed multiple
times just after 8.30am on Friday. He
died at the scene in Hayes despite
attempts by a group of bystanders to
revive him.
Another 15-year-old boy, who cannot
be named for legal reasons, has been
charged with Jalan’s murder. The youth,
from Hillingdon, was remanded in cus-
tody after appearing in court yesterday.
Police said that Jalan’s family were
“devastated”. The attack took place in a
residential road a few hundred yards
from the Global Academy secondary
school.
“We have a pandemic of violence that
is not being treated like a pandemic,” said
John Jackson, a physics teacher and
pastor in Wolverhampton who rushed
from his work to comfort the boy’s father,
Jairzinho Bell, in London.
He added: “As long as it stays in inner
cities and urban areas then it is not being
seen as a problem that needs to be tack-
led. There is a feeling the victims are not
actually being seen as victims but have
done something to deserve it.
“Unless we do something there are
many innocent people being caught up in
it and their stories aren’t being told.”
The Metropolitan Police said that offi-
cers were called to reports of a fight on
Blyth Road, close to Hayes & Harlington
station, where they found Jalan injured.
London Ambulance Service and the
air ambulance attended but the teenager
died at the scene. A post-mortem exami-
nation is due to take place today.
Describing the schoolboy as “your typ-
ical teenager”, Jackson said that Jalan’s
family, who are thought to be of Latin
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021
EDDIE MULHOLLAND
American origin, were “still processing”
the tragedy. “It is terrible for everyone,”
he said. “ I have a 17-year-old son myself,
so it has really hit me — especially that he
[ Jalan] was on his way to school.
“Something has to be done. We have to
be determined about that and cannot
continue to treat this violence like it’s
something that just happens. This is
being played out across every urban cen-
tre, in broad daylight.”
The police commander for Hillingdon,
Chief Superintendent Peter Gardner,
said: “The effects of this terrible incident
will reverberate throughout our commu-
nities. Across London in the coming
months a large-scale operation will run
throughout the summer to challenge and
suppress violent behaviour but we need
the help of parents, carers and anyone
with information about those carrying
knives to come forward.”
Jalan’s killing came after another teen-
ager, Denardo Samuels-Brooks, 17, was
stabbed to death in Streatham, southwest
London, at around 4pm on Thursday.
Four teenagers aged 17 to 19 have been
charged with his murder.
Parents hire top
lawyer to clear boys
in sex assault claims
Emily Kent Smith
Parents of schoolboys
accused of sexual assault and
harassment have hired a top
criminal lawyer as they fight
to clear their sons’ names.
Sandra Paul, a partner at
the firm Kingsley Napley, has
taken part in many high-
profile cases involving claims
of sexual abuse or rape. Last
month she represented Lady
Nourse, 77, the widow of a
former Court of Appeal
judge, who was acquitted of
historical sexual abuse
against a minor. She also
worked with the JLS singer
Oritsé Williams, who was
cleared of rape.
Paul, 52, has received
dozens of calls from parents
whose sons have been
accused as part of the
Everyone’s Invited
movement. She said that
parents were asking her how
they could disprove claims
against boys who believed
that the encounters were
consensual. “Parents are
terrified. You know this is
damaging and catastrophic
for your child, in terms of
their reputation, their ability
to continue their education.”
The Everyone’s Invited
campaign has involved
thousands of young people
sharing accounts of sexual
abuse, harassment and rape,
which are then posted on
social media. Victims and
perpetrators remain
anonymous.
The youngest boy whom
Paul is advising is 13. “I have
had examples of allegations
where they say, ‘That person
has been too close to me in
the queue at lunch. They
have invaded my personal
space.’ That is being seen as
predatory or sexual whereas
actually the other side is
somebody trying to work out
if you are interested . . . We
are in danger of creating a
cohort of boys who are
broken and damaged as a
result of these experiences,”
she said.
The accused pupils felt
“lost” and “speechless” when
confronted with claims made
against them, she said. “Even
though we are often talking
about the same event, their
QUEEN KEEN
TO HIT HER
STRIDE AGAIN
Anyone who thought the
Queen might start taking
it easy in her 96th year
was mistaken: her aides
say she is “ramping up” for
a very busy summer,
writes Roya Nikkhah. Her
attendance at an official
birthday parade at
Windsor Castle yesterday,
accompanied by her
cousin, the Duke of Kent,
left, followed a diplomatic
reception at the G7
summit in Cornwall on
Friday, where she teased
world leaders at a
photocall and cut a cake
with a ceremonial sword.
This afternoon she will
entertain Joe and Jill
Biden at Windsor. She is
expected to attend Royal
Ascot this week and travel
this month to Scotland for
Holyrood Week. “There is
very much a desire to get
back to normal, back to
business,” said an aide.
perception is that this person
was there with me by choice.
I was polite, compassionate.”
The boys “understand that
rape and sexual harassment
are wrong”, Paul said, but do
not recognise that what they
were doing was “unwanted”.
A report by Ofsted, the
schools watchdog, published
last week found that sexual
harassment had become
“normalised” among
children and that boys were
sharing nude pictures like
“collection cards”. Everyone’s
Invited has been deluged with
allegations in recent months,
with top schools including
Eton, Latymer Upper and St
Paul’s named in testimonies.
Soma Sara, 22, founder of
the movement, urged those
using the site to “practise
empathy”, adding: “To
reconcile is to understand
both sides, to listen and try
our best to understand
They say
‘he was
too close
at lunch’
people’s experiences,
thoughts, and actions.”
For Paul, some schools
have become so concerned
about being “named and
shamed” for failing to take
action that they are viewing
allegations with an “inherent
victim bias”.
“Some people want these
young boys to be hung,
drawn and quartered. That is
not a solution,” she said.
Everyone’s Invited had led to
boys being outed as
perpetrators as part of social
media “pile-ons”, she added.
In many cases Paul is
offering parents behind-the-
scenes advice before any
action is taken by police. She
speaks to boys about what
happened and how to deal
with the school as it
investigates.
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021 11

NEWS

Female fans stir up revolt against £5m ‘soft porn’ sponsor at Delia’s club
David Collins,
Northern Editor
If Norwich City football club
thought it could be sensitive
to women on British turf but
not too fussy elsewhere in the
world, its female fans have
forced it to think again.
The club last week ditched
a £5 million sponsorship deal
with a gambling firm after just
three days because fans
objected to the soft porn
images used to promote the
business.
Norwich City, which has
just been promoted to the
Premier League, admits it
“got it wrong” and apologised
to fans, who took offence at
the images of women in
revealing clothes and
suggestive poses.
The television cook Delia
Smith, who is a Catholic, is
the joint majority owner of
Norwich City with her
husband. The club cancelled
the BK8 deal with BK8 after
an Instagram channel was
uncovered promoting its
services to Malaysian
customers, which included
“sexy baccarat” and
suggestive videos of hot dog-
swallowing contests. Norwich
used to be sponsored by
Colman’s, the local mustard-
making firm.
Using the hashtag
#hergametoo, fans said the
soft porn connotations were
at odds with the club’s
principles.
“Our club does not support
or endorse degrading or
upsetting images not in
keeping with our values as an
inclusive community club,” it
said.
Sarah Greaves, 47, the
women in football
ambassador for the Canaries
Trust supporters’ group and a
shareholder in Norwich, said:
“This is the sort of marketing
you might have seen in the
1980s. They are upsetting
images and derogatory
towards women.
“We haven’t heard directly
from Delia Smith, but I firmly
believe she would be
horrified by this. Football is
changing. There are women
commentating on matches,
we have women referees, and
we have a female host of
Football Focus in Alex Scott.
“But sexism still exists at
our football grounds. What
has happened has brought all
those issues of sexism in
football to a head.”
Norwich is not the only
club whose sponsorship deals
raise an eyebrow with some
fans. Fun88 is one of several
Asian betting companies that
are pouring millions into
Britain’s biggest football clubs
and are being accused of
using “outdated” and
“sexualised” marketing.
Fun88 has financial
partnerships with two other
Premier League clubs,
Newcastle United and
Tottenham Hotspur.
A YouTube channel called
Fun88 Angels TV shows a
young girl in an electric blue
bikini and hot pants, who Norwich City, from Fun88 and we’re here to much about the companies
exposes her braces as she owned by Delia celebrate Songkran [a they are entering into deals
squirts a hosepipe over her Smith, said sorry national holiday] with you,” with. This type of sexualised
female friend’s chest in a slow as it cancelled a says the England-capped marketing is hugely outdated
motion car wash scene. deal with BK8 striker to the camera. in Britain. What you have got
The YouTube channel after fans found “Songkran is about being is gambling companies
advertises Fun88, an its social media together and being united, so operating in other
entertainment website which channel included from Newcastle United we jurisdictions with very
offers “football betting, live soft porn images wish you a happy Songkran.” different values with regards
casinos, baccarat, slot, lottery Fun88 is the team’s official to gender equality.”
and e-sports . . . with a live shirt sponsor and Tottenham The Newcastle United
chat room with angels who Hotspur’s official betting Supporters Trust is planning
are ready to serve you partner in Asia and South to raise the issue of Fun88’s
24 hours a day”. America. The deal with “sexualised marketing” with
Marketing aimed at its Newcastle alone is reported the club.
Asian customers features to be worth more than Newcastle United and
videos of young Asian women £6 million a season. Tottenham Hotspur both
in lacy bikinis hosing down Online gambling firms refused to comment.
cars and lying suggestively on based in Asia have been Last week Norwich said it
beds with the Fun88 logo pouring money into British was “proud” of its place in
emblazoned across their football for years. Six British the local community. “We
chests. clubs are estimated to have have worked tirelessly for a
On the same YouTube
channel is a film featuring the
Sexism earned £110 million in deals
over the past four years with
considerable time building
relationships across a wide
Newcastle United players
Paul Drummett, Jamaal
exists at gambling firms in the
Philippines, according to
range of mediums and
community projects,” it said.
Lascelles, Jacob Murphy and football research by Clean Up “On this occasion, we got it
Callum Wilson, giving Gambling. wrong. For that and any
messages on behalf of Fun88 grounds Matt Zarb-Cousin, director offence caused the club
to its Thai customers. of the campaign group, said: apologies.
“Hi, it’s Callum Wilson “Clearly the clubs don’t know @DavidCollinsST

AURORE SHIRLEY/ALAMY; COLEMAN-RAYNER

Racing to
the ladies?
NHS can
now help
Andrew Gregory
Health Editor
At last! The NHS is to launch
pelvic health clinics to help
with female incontinence.
Seven million women in
the UK suffer urinary
incontinence, usually during
pregnancy and after giving
birth. It can limit the lives of
even young women.
Stress incontinence is a
tendency to leak during
exercise. Urge incontinence
features a sudden urge to

‘$15,000 bail . . . that’s just a

pass water. Some women
suffer both. Many do not seek
help, and some who do spend
years getting a diagnosis.
The NHS clinics will bring
midwives, doctors and

slap on her little pinkie finger’

physiotherapists together in
one service, offered to all
women receiving maternity
care in their areas. Eventually
all women will have access.
The setup is loosely based on
the model in France, where
new mothers get help to
Friends of police chief shot in Belize fear a Tory peer’s daughter-in-law has received special treatment retrain pelvic floor muscles.
One in three women
experience incontinence in
the year after giving birth,
magazine,” she told detectives, in a state- Security camera footage from the termi- who has got her photograph taken while and for up to three quarters it
WILL ment read out at her bail hearing last MEXICO nal seemed to bear out her story. By way handcuffed inside the police station.” persists. One in 12 women will

PAVIA week. “I struggled with it, trying to get

Belize
In Dangriga, a fishing town in southern
Belize, mourners were gathering yester-
day to hear stories of the remarkable life
of Henry Jemmott, a gregarious, hard-
charging — and vastly overweight — police
superintendent who was shot dead on a
moonlit jetty in the company of a blonde,
rich and glamorous younger woman.
Behind his sister’s house on the main
street, a tent had been erected for the
nine-nights, a wake that culminates the
evening before the funeral in a farewell
party for the deceased.
Richard McKoy, a bartender at a
beachfront restaurant, shared a few theo-
ries he had heard about Jemmott’s death.
“Something’s not really right there,” he
said. “There is still a lot of open pages in
this book.”
It is a suspicion widely shared across
this former British colony on the western
shores of the Caribbean.
The sole suspect in 42-year-old Jem-
mott’s death is Jasmine Hartin, 32, a fun-
loving, Canadian-born socialite who was
well known until now only for her links to
Lord Ashcroft, the Tory peer, whose fam-
ily wealth looms large in Belize. She is the
partner of one of his sons.
The handling of her case has sharp-
ened longstanding misgivings over the
Belizean justice system and the influence
of the billionaire former Conservative
party deputy chairman.
Hartin, who was found covered in the
dead man’s blood, has been charged with
manslaughter and freed on $15,000 bail.
“For a lady like that, that’s just a slap
on her little pinkie finger,” said Sean
Kuylen, a local celebrity chef who was
preparing a eulogy for his friend.
Francisco Arceo, another close friend,
said: “Look how she walked out of it ... If
a Belizean woman went to Britain and
killed a high-ranking cop, [she] would
never see Belize again in her whole life.”
According to Hartin’s testimony, she
and Jemmott, a friend, had stepped out in
the early hours of May 28 from the lavish
resort she runs with Ashcroft’s younger
son, Andrew, on Ambergris Caye, a nar-
row island famed for its white beaches.
Jemmott, a former commander of the
Ambergris police force, had been urging
her to buy a weapon for protection. Sit-
ting at the end of a jetty, he told her to
practise loading and unloading his pistol.
“After a while he said let’s head back
inside and asked me to hand back the
the magazine back in, and it discharged.”
Ambergris
Caye
of thanks, she and Andrew Ashcroft were
said to have invited Jemmott to stay at the
She had been charged with man-
slaughter by negligence, but the facts of
have a pelvic organ prolapse.
Last week Nadine Dorries,
Jemmott was struck in the back of the Grand Colony. the case could easily suggest a simple the health minister, urged
head. The first people to arrive found him “He called me and said he was coming accident, the lawyer said. She is “the women to challenge doctors
floating in the sea and Hartin, bloodied out,” said his friend Arceo. “He said we prime caregiver of her two children. She who fob them off. Asked on
and apparently in shock, pacing the pier. are going tomorrow fishing.” has asserted every reason to feel dis- BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour
The hugely built policeman had been San Pedro Jemmott and Arceo, who is a justice of tressed,” he added. if the NHS was sexist, she
well known throughout Belize. “When Belize City the peace on Ambergris Caye, shared a Given bail with the requirement that said: “I think it is to a degree.
you see him coming, he was probably love of fishing. The next day, May 27, they she report daily to a police station, Hartin Women are not listened to.
San Ignacio
almost 400lbs,” Kuylen said. caught 120lbs of snapper, eating some chose to do this in San Ignacio, where I’ve experienced that myself,
He had joined the police straight out of with rice that evening at Arceo’s house. Jemmott had been the police com- I know how the system shuts
Dangriga
school, rose swiftly and was tipped to be Jemmott said he was staying at the Grand mander and where his partner lives down a woman.”
commissioner. “Whenever they had a BELIZE Colony. “I said: ‘That’s big money, bro,’” with their three children. Smith said @AndrewGregory
problem area . . . they would choose him, 50 miles Arceo recalled. “He said: ‘The Ashcrofts she would live in the district while await-
because of his style of policing, which are my friends.’” ing trial.
was very no-nonsense. He was very well Jemmott left at about 9.45pm. “We Beside the police station door where
respected even by the gang members,”
Kuylen said.
Hartin, who arrived in Belize seven
Jasmine
Hartin, with an
armed guard,
hug one another,” Arceo said. Three
hours later he was woken by a call
from the island’s police commander
she must check in each day, a white table
bears Jemmott’s photograph and a Bible
opened to the Book of Job. “He was well
Door may
years ago, lived with Andrew Ash-
croft and their two children at the
has left idyllic
San Pedro
with the news of Jemmott’s death.
Arceo has a fast boat and regularly
liked here,” said Sergeant Alexandro Rod-
riguez. “Only a few officers who were
hold key
Grand Colony hotel on the seafront
at San Pedro, a resort town on
while on bail ferries people to the mainland; now
he was asked to take his friend’s
troublemakers who he had to discipline
were not so sad.” to spy in
Ambergris Caye.
Aschcroft’s company also ran the
even grander Alaia next door. But
body to Belize City. “I never
opened the bag to see him. I
never wanted to see him
Kuylen, Jemmott’s friend from Dan-
griga, happened to be up the street from the bag
she did not confine herself to that way,” he said. “I had
luxurious surroundings. my friend fishing a David Collins
She was a regular at the couple of hours ago.
Crazy House Bar N Kitchen Now I’m taking his A forensic review of the death
above a pizza place on a dusty body in my boat.” of the MI6 spy Gareth
crossroads in a poorer dis- Right from the Williams should examine the
trict of San Pedro. “She’s start there were con- front door to his London flat,
very down to earth, loved cerns over how the according to a leading
the locals,” said a drinker case would be han- cold-case scientist.
there last week. “You dled and whether The door was removed and
don’t usually find that with Hartin would get replaced by the Metropolitan
someone that rich.” “special treat- Police during the original
Gene Lopez, proprietor of ment” because of investigation in 2010, even
the Crazy House, wanted to her family connec- though there was no sign of a
counter any suggestions that tions. Hartin is said to have thanked Henry break-in. Last week the Met
Hartin cut loose on his prem- Dean Barrow, a Jemmott for help with a free hotel stay confirmed it had begun a
ises. There was one time when former prime “forensic review” of the case.
“she wanted to dance on the minister of Detectives are awaiting the
counter”, he said, slapping Belize, once the station on Thursday, shooting a cook- results of tests on unidentified
the concrete bar. claimed that ing show for television. “The only people DNA on the handle and
“I said no because people Lord Ashcroft’s that will not remember him fondly are padlock of the bag in which
eat here. It’s just one of those “net worth may the gang members that he roughed up the spy’s body was found and
practical things.” well be equal to and put behind bars,” he said. on a green towel.
Hartin knew Jemmott before Belize’s entire GDP” and that All over Belize there was talk that the Angela Gallop, former head
he was transferred off Amber- his power in the small country repre- police superintendent and the socialite of the lab expected to be
gris Caye two years ago, to San sented “new-age slavery”. must have been lovers, to wander out conducting the review, said
Ignacio, in the hills of western John Briceno, the current prime together to the end of a moonlit pier. scientists should also look
Belize. They kept in touch, as minister, has been accused by Kuylen dismissed it. “This lady Hartin is a again at the door to the
she explained in her account of political opponents of being close to very attractive, blonde lady, [the partner Pimlico flat using advances in
the events leading to his death. the billionaire. As a justice of the of ] a millionaire,” he said. “Why on earth technology such as DNA-17,
She is said to have told police peace, Arceo was present when police would she want to be with an obese which examines 17 different
that early on the morning of remanded Hartin in custody. police officer with a minimal salary?” areas of DNA. “It is the sort of
May 22 she was at a party on the “She had just taken a shower,” he He also couldn’t imagine anyone kill- outlier that shouldn’t be
mainland when a man started said. “She said: ‘Can I get a brush to ing his friend intentionally. “No criminal dismissed,” she added.
behaving aggressively towards brush my hair?’ I said to the lady police- in their right mind would ever think of The Met closed the
her. She called Jemmott, who woman: ‘No special treatment.’” putting a gun to Jemmott’s head.” investigation in 2013, saying
appears to have driven to Appealing for her release in Belize’s He added: “What we should be talking that Williams probably died
her rescue, dropping her supreme court on Wednesday, her law- about is how to get justice in terms of his by accident, despite the
at the ferry terminal in yer, Godfrey Smith, argued that it was children. How can we get a trust for these inquest ruling that he may
Belize City where she could actually Hartin who was being treated children? ... That’s where the injustice is. have been unlawfully killed.
catch a boat back to the island unfairly “She is one of the few persons The man is dead ” @DavidCollinsST
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021 13

NEWS

‘We told them the truth: INDIANA TAKES A BREATHER

STUART WALLACE/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

the boys were infected,

some would die early’
The headmaster of a boarding school where children were given tainted blood in
the 1970s reveals how his pupils dealt with the trauma of discovering their fate

Caroline Wheeler From far left,

Deputy Political Editor Andrew Cussons,
Barry Briggs,
Smiling for the camera, Nick Sainsbury Andrew Bruce,
could not have looked happier as he Norman
posed with friends on a school trip to Simmons and
Lake Ontario. Nick Sainsbury
Sainsbury, 16 at the time, was with on a school trip
Andrew Cussons, Barry Briggs, Andrew to Canada
Bruce and Norman Simmons at the exclu- in 1980
sive lakeside resort in Canada. He is the
only one who is still alive.
DEAD
Now 57, the former civil servant who
has HIV, hepatitis C and is gravely ill, was DEAD
one of 119 boys with haemophilia to
attend Lord Mayor Treloar College in
DEAD ILL
Alton, Hampshire, in the 1970s and 80s.
Only 28 are still alive. “It was our very

own holocaust,” Sainsbury said.
At least 72 died from infections, includ-
ing hepatitis C and HIV, contracted from
contaminated blood products adminis-
tered by doctors and nurses at the school.
Many died before their 30th birthdays,
killed by treatment that was supposed to
save them, victims of one of the worst
disasters in NHS history.
Sainsbury, who has watched school
friends die one by one, faces his own
death sentence as he prepares to give evi-
dence next week at a public inquiry into
the infected blood scandal. “I am begin-
ning to wonder if I will ever see the end of
the inquiry,” he said.
Ade Goodyear, 50, was also infected
while attending the boarding school,
which offered cutting-edge care for chil-
dren with haemophilia. He was told of his
HIV status while at Treloar.
“We were only 15,” he said. “It was a
bright sunny morning and we went into
the office in the medical centre in groups
of five ... The doctors cautiously
informed us, ‘You may have heard that
the factor VIII [a blood clotting protein
that haemophiliacs need] isn’t as clean as
it should be’.
“Believe it or not, we all knew what
was coming and our hearts were in our
boots. While going slowly around the
room we were told who had HIV by the
words ‘You haven’t, you have, you have,
you haven’t’ and so on.
“‘How long have we got?’ we asked, as
the doctors and nurses welled up. They
replied, ‘As we know very little about HIV
we honestly can’t say, but we think at this
time around two years but maybe more’ .
... I remember looking at the sun and I
thought, how many more days will I be
seeing the sunshine for?”
About 4,800 haemophiliacs in the UK
were infected with HIV and hepatitis C
during the 1970s and 1980s after being
given contaminated blood supplied by
the NHS. At least 2,800 have died, a toll
that is still rising.
The blood had been taken from high-
risk donors including prostitutes, drug
addicts and American prisoners.
Alec Macpherson, 86, who was
DEAD
headmaster of Treloar from 1974 to 1990, come in to see me and say, ‘Look what I
has spoken for the first time about the found in Johnny’s locker’ — you know, a
heartbreak of losing so many of his pack of condoms. ‘What should we do?’”
former pupils. Before his appearance at Those who worked alongside the
the inquiry he recalled how the tragedy headmaster included Anthony Aron-
‘How unfolded. “I was told there were prob-
lems with the blood we had been using A group stam, a haematologist, who was among
the first doctors in the UK to see the dan-
long and that some of the boys had become
infected,” he said. “I suppose that was the would ger from the blood product.
When asked in 1979 by the Public
have we start of it ... The vast majority did die.
There are only a small number left and go out Health Laboratory to transfer his patients
on to American factor VIII, he wrote
got,’ we nobody really knows how they managed
to survive.”
and get back: “As far as your suggestion about
transfusing mild haemophiliacs with this
asked Macpherson, who was forced to ban
the boys from playing football because of
drunk material is concerned, I totally disagree
with this concept. I do not wish any of my
the risk of dangerous bleeds, remembers mild haemophiliacs to develop hepatitis
the distress of his pupils when they learnt in any form.”
of their illness. His request was ignored and the prod-
“We had to tell them the truth,” he uct was administered to the children.
said. “When we discovered that they A public health warning was issued in
were probably going to die prematurely 1981 but it did not ban use of the Ameri-
. . . some of the older ones, they got very can product.
angry about it. Macpherson said: “Our main mission
“It was very difficult. On the one hand was to make the lives of our pupils as nor- A mud-spattered Harrison Ford, 78, has a break during filming for the fifth
you had to keep the school rules, and you mal as possible despite the extraordinary Indiana Jones movie in Leaderfoot, in the Scottish Borders, on Friday
had to make them behave like normal, circumstances we found ourselves in.”
civilised human beings. On the other
hand you realised that they were very,
very upset and very worried young men
who knew that their lives were going to
be cut short.
“A group of them would go out at week-
ends and get drunk — come back drunk —
and I remember once I was called to the
police station and there was one of our
boys lying in a cell being watched by a
policeman. He was 15 and completely
unconscious. He was so drunk, he was
lying on his side in the recovery position
in a police cell. These were not the kind of
problems you expect when you become a
head teacher.”
Macpherson, who still lives in Hamp-
shire, said there had been other prob-
lems, such as trying to prevent the
infected pupils from having sex with
female students. “A housemaster would

Keep those designer handbags,

we’ll buy the empty boxes instead
Louise Eccles
Consumer Affairs Editor
If you can’t afford a Rolex
watch, a Tiffany necklace
or a Prada handbag, perhaps
the packaging alone will
suffice?
Piles of empty boxes and
paper carrier bags made for
designer labels such as Louis
Vuitton and Chanel are selling
for hundreds of pounds
online. Shoppers who want to
create the perfect walk-in
wardrobe or backdrop for
their social media posts are
buying used packaging to
create the illusion they have
been on a high-end shopping
spree.
The trend is apparently
driven by a desire to imitate
the livestyles of the rich and
famous, such as the US
reality-TV star Kylie Jenner,
who recently posted on
Instagram a photograph of
herself surrounded by Louis
Vuitton bags.
Analysis of prices on eBay
reveals that empty watch
boxes are the most valuable
pieces of branded packaging
being resold, followed by
designer shoe boxes, paper
bags and jewellery boxes.
Rolex boxes were the most
expensive with an average
list price of £160, followed by
Tag Heuer, Breitling and
Omega.
Louis Vuitton shoe boxes
were listed for an average of
£74 while listings for the
famous duck-egg blue Tiffany
boxes tied with white ribbons
averaged £51, according to a
study by the
price-comparison website
Money.co.uk. In some cases,
multiple Tiffany boxes were
sold in a single lot.
Six of the top ten most
valuable items of beauty
packaging were for perfumes,
with vintage bottles
particularly popular. Yves
Saint Laurent bottles were
listed for an average of £47.
Final sale prices were also
high. A pile of 17 black Chanel
paper bags recently sold for
£265, while a single
22cm-wide Louis Vuitton
paper bag sold for £32.
“We have heard of a few
different reasons people
might want to purchase
empty designer packaging,”
said Salman Haqqi, a
personal finance expert at
Money.co.uk.
“At times it’s for home
How to keep up decor. They might have seen
with Kylie Jenner walk-in wardrobes filled with
on Instagram: Chanel bags and Louis
buy empty bags Vuitton boxes proudly on
to look like you show on Pinterest. Or it
too shopped till could be to use them as
you dropped background props for
Instagram posts, replicating
those posted by the rich and
famous.
“On TikTok people have
spoken about upcycling these
designer shopping bags into
accessories or even art. Often
people refill expensive candle
jars or handwash bottles with
cheaper alternatives,
showing that there’s real
value not just in the designer
goods themselves but in the
boxes, bottles or bags they
come in.”
High street packaging is
also selling for a premium. A
used Jo Malone glass scent
diffuser with a box and tissue
paper recently sold for £30,
despite only costing £64 to
buy new. The description
read: “Did have English Pear
[and Freesia] fragrance.
Please note the item is
empty.”
@Louise Eccles
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021
COMMENT
Rod Liddle
With petty Covid rules running rampant, it’s
this dictatorship of doctors that’s killing me
I
t would seem that we are no longer
allowed to die of anything. Perhaps,
as a consequence, we will all live for
ever, but without even a scintilla of
enjoyment. The slightly unhinged
commie biologist Susan Michie, a
member of Sage, has said we should
continue wearing masks and
observing social distance regulations
indefinitely, to help prevent the spread
of other viruses.
This is what happens when we hand
over the governance of our country to
the medical clergy. Instead of — as some
naively expected — a clear, rational
objectivity in decision-making, we are
subjected to their manias, their pet
peeves, their prejudices. The medical
profession now thinks it can tell us what
to do with our lives.
What Michie proposes would until
recently have been thought beyond
absurd — and remember she is not
talking, primarily, about Covid, but
about seasonal flu. Under the cloak of
Covid, with the docs in charge, more and
more of this stuff has crept through.
Last July, when lockdown was lifted, I
went to a pub with my wife for a drink
and found that the outdoor smoking
corner was no longer a smoking corner.
If you wanted a cigarette with your
drink, you had to walk 30 yards to the
sewer pipe leading from the lavatories,
where an ashtray had been installed.
We both thought then that this is how
it would be post-Covid. Once restrictions
upon personal behaviour are introduced
they are rarely lifted, because
governments enjoy controlling people
and the medical profession is very
voluble in its insistence that we need to
be saved from ourselves.
So it came to be. The sainted Chris
Whitty, our chief medical officer (or
“death tsar”), delivered a fulmination
against smoking a few weeks ago. Since
then a whole bunch of councils,
including Oxford, Durham, North
Tyneside, Northumberland, Newcastle
and Manchester, have banned smoking
in the open air at pubs and restaurants.
They are all on board with Chris and
Susan’s crusade to outlaw death and
illness.
Incidentally, those of you who find
smoking a vile habit and have no
sympathy for the likes of me had better
watch out rather than gloat, because
they will come for you next. They will
come for your glass of wine or your gin
and tonic, or for the burger you eat once
a month. They will never stop. They are
incapable of stopping. Ask Susan Michie.
I am of course aware of the grave
risks occasioned by smoking — most
notably the UK’s most lethal cancer, lung
cancer, which kills 35,000 people every
year. Cancer and heart disease are our
two biggest killers, but there is another
prolific killer that neither Chris Whitty
nor Susan Michie talks about very much,
for some reason.
We have
become
astonishingly
compliant,
cowering
liked puppies
It is called iatrogenesis, a word with
which you may not be familiar. It’s death
resulting from medical incompetence
and it has been estimated to do away
with 72,000 people every year.
My point isn’t that pubs and
restaurants should have safe areas from
which people like Whitty are banned, in
case he inadvertently kills us. It is simply
to highlight that there are two sides to
the medical profession. There is the side
that knows best and is never happier
than when haranguing us about our
lifestyles, and we listen because this is
our betters speaking to us.
And then, on the other side, there’s
their monumental uselessness — the
misdiagnoses, the wrong drugs
prescribed, the wrong procedures
undertaken, the viruses and infections
passed on unwittingly. They know less
than they think they know. There are
some 850,000 “adverse events”
(read: medical cock-ups) in our hospitals
every year.
So much has been allowed in under
the cover of Covid. Sportsmen
kneeling, for example (which would
have lasted one day if fans had been in
the grounds last August). But more
important than this is the notion that
both the government and the medicos
have us in thrall and we will do their
bidding unquestioningly. We have
become astonishingly compliant,
cowering before them liked whipped
puppies.
For much of the time we were
perhaps right to put on hold our natural
scepticism, for the good of the country
as well as ourselves. But that was an
emergency occasioned by a pandemic.
When you study their long-term
manifesto, it is a bit chilling: wear masks
all the time; don’t go near other people,
ever; no smoking; no drinking; and stop
eating that stuff.
As an occasionally barked warning,
that’s all fine: I get it. But as a
succession of stipulations enforced by
government? Nah, I’d rather shuffle off
this mortal coil.
G7 summit concord
We’re in total
agreement —
Wilfred needs
a haircut
PHOTOBUBBLE: NICK NEWMAN
l Very late in the day it has occurred
to me that our rift with the European
bureaucrats want to ban British
bangers from Belfast.
Union was always about sausages.
It was about sausages back in the
It wasn’t the ERM. It wasn’t the EU
constitution. They always hated our
1980s, when bonkers Brussels
bureaucrats wanted to ban our British
sausages — that was the problem,
right from the beginning.
bangers. And it’s about sausages now,
given that bonkers Brussels
Kind of simultaneously depressing
and comforting.
15
Luvvies just haven’t
got Sussex appeal
The makers of The Crown can’t find an
actor to play that whining simpleton
Prince Harry. This is not because of a
dearth of vacuous thespians but
because not many have ginger hair.
And, unusually for a modern TV drama,
they actually want someone who
resembles the character being played.
What about that bloke all the women
fancy, Eddie Redmayne? He’s gingerish.
Or that annoying horse-faced chap
Benedict Cumbersnatch: he’s not far off.
My suspicion is that when actors are
offered the part of Harry, they run a
mile. Ginger doesn’t come into it.
Plague god goes
bats for monkeys
Two cases of monkeypox have been
found in Wales, a country not noted for
its thriving population of wild monkeys.
It is not a pleasant illness.
A spokesman for Nergal, the god of
plague, pestilence and disease, told me:
“Nergal believes people are becoming
bored with Covid — which has had an
excellent run — and thought something
more exotic might catch on, especially
as it comes with a virulent rash. Virulent
rashes are always good box office.
“Please note that Nergal is an equal-
opportunities god of disease and we
welcome victims from ethnic minority,
disabled and LGBT communities.”
l Labour is desperate not to come
second to the Tories in the Batley and
Spen by-election. That would be yet
another red wall seat lost.
The party will get its wish. It won’t
come second, but a distant third behind
George Galloway’s Workers Party.
That’s my prediction. And if I’m right,
what will that mean for poor Keir?
WORLD NEWS
16 The Sunday Times June 13, 2021

WORLD NEWS

6 GERMANY

FRANCE
5
3
ITALY Istanbul
GREECE TURKEY 2 1
4 Northwest Iran

1 2
200 miles IRAN

THE TRAFFICKING TRAIL

People-traffickers advertise “cut- Members of Iran’s persecuted Kurdish
price rates” on journeys from Turkey minority sell their belongings and in
to Britain using social media some cases their homes to meet the
platforms such as Instagram and prices charged by the smugglers.
Telegram. These include “VIP They head to Turkey to begin the
packages” that claim to offer Channel journey to Britain
crossings by high-speed boat

Don’t worry
I
n a brightly lit travel agent’s office
off a busy Istanbul street, the peo-
ple-smuggler told his lies with a
winning smile. It would only take
20 minutes to cross the Channel in
a small boat, he said. Once in
England, it would be easy to find
well-paid work and for relatives to
believable case for asylum. Others, on
Instagram, claimed that they could
source fake UK visas and passports, with
payment only due after the customer had
arrived safely in Britain.
I can’t stay According to the Home Office, more
than 8,000 people crossed the English
here . . . I have Channel in small boats in 2020, four

if you can’t
follow. Scared of drowning? Don’t
be, he said: hundreds of thousands
of people had already made the same
journey and only a couple of them had
lost their lives. The rest were living hap-
pily in the UK. All this, he said, for a very
reasonable price of about £10,000.
It was lies like these, told by a chain of
times more than in 2019. Of these, about
two choices: half were Iranian. Seven died trying,
three more than the previous year.
to risk a quick These numbers are tiny compared
with the 34,000 migrants who arrived in
death or a Italy by sea last year. They also pale in
comparison with the million or so
gradual one migrants who, in 2015, crossed the

swim: the
traffickers stretching from the Middle
East to the UK, that led Rasoul Iran-Nejad
and his wife Shiva Mohammad Panahi to
take their three young children, leave
their home in Sardasht — an impover-
ished Kurdish-majority city in Iran — and
strike out for England. They died when
the boat they were travelling in capsized
between drags of a cigarette, he laid out
the options for the Channel portion of the
crossing: €5,000 for a “jet boat” that
would take an hour, or €3,000 for a
slower boat that would take three hours.
Aegean from Turkey into Greece, then on
through the Balkans to Germany and
elsewhere in Europe.
That influx was halted by a deal
between the EU and Turkey in 2016,
whereby Brussels promised to pay
Ankara up to €6 billion to manage the
crisis. Yet the agreement has been beset

English will
in the Channel in October.
Last week, Norwegian police con-
firmed that the body of their youngest
son, Artin, had been found washed up on
the country’s southwestern coast on New
Year’s Day. He was 15 months old, and he
drowned wearing a blue zip-up overall
with a red lining.
Hiding in the back of a lorry, he said, was
more expensive and carried a higher
chance of failure because authorities in
France had sophisticated cameras that
could detect migrants inside vehicles.
“My advice is, don’t take the boat,” he
said, instead recommending that she fly
from Turkey to France and then on to
by problems. Last year, Turkey said it
would no longer take in refugees from
Greece, claiming that the EU had not
honoured its side of the bargain.
Turkey insists that it has borne a dis-
proportionate burden of the refugee
crisis. For years, public opinion has been
turning against the country’s 3.6 million

pick you up
Yet his death, and that of others like
him, has not stopped thousands of Irani-
ans — many of them from the country’s
Kurdish minority — risking all to try to
reach Britain. Nor has it stopped smug-
glers trying to take advantage of them:
spinning the dangerous route to Europe
as a mere jaunt and offering “VIP packa-
ges” that include high-speed jet boats and
comfortable berths on board sturdy ship-
England with a fake Spanish passport, at
a cost of £13,000.
Another smuggler downplayed the
risks of crossing the Channel on a small
boat, claiming that it only took 20 min-
utes to travel from France to the UK.
“Can you swim?” he asked the Iranian
undercover reporter.
“A little,” she said. “Not very well.”
“You’ll be fine then,” he said. “Don’t
refugee population, the vast majority of
whom are Syrian. Yet as Turkish officials
accuse the EU of dragging its feet on pay-
ment, Ankara’s relationship with Britain
is growing stronger.
“Turkey would very much like to have
a strong strategic partnership with a post-
Brexit UK,” said one western diplomat.
“And I think the UK are definitely going
much less hard on them than the EU are

Days after a washed-up body was ping vessels. All too often, migrants say,
these assurances come to nothing.
Last week two undercover reporters
worry. The English police will pick you up
even if you’re about to drown and take
you straight to the UK.”
over human rights. They’re much more
focused on potential trade.”
Chris Philp, the UK immigration minis-
confirmed as a Channel migrant boy, from The Sunday Times found that smug-
glers operating out of travel agencies in
ter, said: “Criminal gangs are putting
profits before people’s lives through
ADVERTISED ON INSTAGRAM
Louise Callaghan finds traffickers in the Istanbul neighbourhood of Aksaray —
the city’s nerve centre for human traffick-
ing — were offering a price of between
The payment plan was simple: 30 per
cent in cash, 70 per cent to be held in a
these dangerous and unnecessary cross-
ings. To promote or glamorise these
crossings is completely unacceptable — it
rips
Turkey brazenly selling £10,000 trips £10,000 and £15,000 per person to be
smuggled to the UK from Turkey via Italy.
money transfer shop in Istanbul and
released to the smuggler once the client
encourages people to leave safe countries
and put their lives at risk. That is why the

as if they were holiday packages One of the reporters, a young Iranian

woman posing as a would-be client, was
offered a range of routes to Britain includ-
ing fake European passports, visas and
identity cards, as well as transport on air-
craft, fishing boats and lorries, all within
minutes of walking into two different
agencies.
“Don’t worry, we can get you there,”
one of the smugglers said. “You seem
nice, so we’ll give you a discount.” In
had arrived at their destination.
These services are openly advertised
online. Last week, a simple search in Per-
sian on Instagram or Telegram revealed
hundreds of posts by smugglers offering
cut-price rates to the UK. Most of them
vastly exaggerated the ease of finding
work in Britain, while minimising the
dangers involved.
One “travel company” active on Tele-
gram even promised to help construct a
home secretary last week wrote to social
media companies asking them to remove
these unacceptable posts which encour-
age this deadly activity.”
Turkish government officials did not
respond to a request for comment, but
there have been attempts by the govern-
ment to tackle people-smuggling. In
January, Turkish security forces arrested
72 suspected traffickers in Istanbul.
People-smugglers in Istanbul told our

Worst plague James Salmon Perth Tina, had been sleeping with incidents sound like Victoria and South Australia When the food has run
her hand underneath the something from a horror film — will ruin crops worth more out, the mice have been
In the early hours of the pillow when she felt but they have become an than A$1 billion eating one another.
morning, Mick Harris was fast something nibbling her everyday occurrence in (£550 million). They are turning up in the

of mice in
asleep while his wife tended
to their newborn baby next
door.
Suddenly he was woken by
wedding ring finger.
“She was horrified,” said
Mick, 35, a farming
consultant, recalling that
Australia as it endures its
worst mouse plague in almost
30 years.
A drought in the
The government of New
The snakes South Wales, which has been
criticised for failing to take
are gorging sufficiently tough action,
most surprising places.
Last weekend Harris was
fishing at a favourite spot on
the Macquarie river and

decades gives something small scuttling

across his face.
“I felt a tickly, furry
sensation as it crawled from
unsettling night in February.
“We’ve got two young kids.
It does make you worry that
when they wake up crying it’s
southeastern state of New
South Wales has been
followed by a wet summer,
producing a bumper harvest
themselves
has just announced a
A$100 million emergency
package to combat the
plague.
caught a Murray cod.
“I noticed something at the
back of its throat,” he said.
“So I got some pliers and

desperate behind my ear across my

cheek. It made my skin crawl.
My hair stood up and I
jumped out of bed.
because they have a mouse in
their bed.”
The Harrises can consider
themselves lucky. A farmer’s
of crops such as wheat, barley
and rapeseed.
What should have
provided a much-needed
Farmers, households and
small business owners will be
given rebates on the zinc
phosphide bait used to kill
pulled it out. It was a dead
mouse, which had been
regurgitated and was covered
in slime from the fish’s

Australia the “For the rest of the night I

didn’t sleep a wink — until I
caught the mouse in a trap
under the bed.”
wife was taken to hospital last
week after a mouse bit her on
the eye as she slept.
Such flesh-crawling
boost for farmers has
fuelled a plague of biblical
proportions.
There are also fears
mice. Many fear that the
financial aid will not be
enough.
The Harrises live in a
stomach.”
The previous weekend his
friend had gutted a Murray
cod and discovered five half-

runaround Weeks earlier his wife, that the rodent

invasion — which has
also blighted the
states of
country town called
Narromine, about 250 miles
inland from Sydney.
But the infestation is far
Queensland, worse outside the towns. In
nearby farms rodents are
running amok, destroying
crops, wrecking machinery
and terrorising communities.
Locals are resorting to
putting the legs of their beds
and tables in buckets of water
to prevent mice from
crawling up them
digested mice.
“Cod are gorging on mice
because there are so many,”
said Harris. “They are having
a field day, and the fish have
never been fatter. But I would
definitely think twice about
eating a Murray cod now.”
The local, and highly
venomous, snake population
has also bulked up.
“Imagine your favourite
food served every day —
you’re going to put on a
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021 17

WORLD NEWS

3 4 5 6
Graphic: Julian Osbaldstone

In Turkey’s people-trafficking nerve- From Istanbul the migrants travel to After landing on the Italian coast, they At the coast another set of traffickers
centre, the Istanbul district of secret locations on the Turkish coast, travel the length of the country by are waiting to send them across the
Aksaray, the migrants are sold a range meeting another set of traffickers bus, train or car, heading to the north Channel in small boats and dinghies.
of options by “travel agents”. who take them on a four-day journey coast of France The aim is to reach UK shores, or to be
Journeys are charged at between to Italy on board fishing boats plucked out of the water by the British
£10,000 and £15,000 per person authorities

LUKE DRAY/GETTY IMAGES

undercover reporters that tighter border
controls along the so-called “Balkan
route” meant that migrants are increas-
ingly taken from the Turkish coast to
mainland Italy by fishing boat, a gruelling
journey of about four days. From there,
those who want to go to Britain head for
the French north coast, where they make
contact with another trafficker.
THE FAMILY’S BOAT CAPSIZED
This was the journey followed by the Iran-
Nejad family last autumn after they
crossed from Iran into Turkey. Then, on
the morning of October 27, they clam-
bered into a boat near Dunkirk packed
with 15 other migrants, despite concerns
about the rough weather conditions.
When the boat was just a few miles out,
it capsized, trapping the family under-
neath. Despite attempts by other passen-
gers to flip the boat over, they drowned.
Their tragedy, however, doesn’t seem
to have deterred either migrants or traf-
fickers. Smugglers in Istanbul were quick
to brush off concerns about difficult
crossing conditions. One, when asked
about the Iran-Nejad family, pulled out
his phone and showed a map displaying
sea conditions in real time.
“I’d never have let that family go out on
a boat in that weather,” he said. “We make
sure it’s safe before we send the boat.
Some of the other guys are just trying to
make money.”
The family were part of Iran’s 10 mil-
lion-strong Kurdish minority, most of
whom live in the mountainous areas near
the borders with Iraq and Turkey. Ana-
lysts and rights groups say that Kurds
face systemic discrimination by the
Iranian state, making it very diffi-
cult for them to find work.
“A lot of young people, even
highly educated ones, end up
unemployed,” said Kamran Matin,
a senior lecturer in international
More than 8,000 relations at the University of Sussex and
people crossed an expert on Iranian and Kurdish affairs.
the Channel in Surveillance, summary arrests, torture
small boats last and execution are more common in
year. On social Kurdish areas than in other parts of the
media the country, Matin said.
traffickers claim Farough Samani, 39, fled Iran to Tur-
they can source key last year after being called in for ques-
fake passports tioning by intelligence agencies. He had
and visas already been arrested and tortured twice
for taking part in political protests. Now,
after a year in Turkey, his residency is set
to expire and officials have told him he’ll
be unable to renew it. Legal avenues to a
life in the West such as scholarships have
taken too long to come through, partly
because of the pandemic. Smuggling, he
said, was his only option. So far, he has
been offered a rate of between €5,000
and €12,000 to be trafficked to Europe.
The news of the Iran-Nejad’s family’s
death scared him, he said. But he had no
other choice other than to try to leave.
“I can’t stay here. I can’t go back home,
and there’s no way to get legally to
Europe in time,” he said. “What are my
options? I know it’s risky but otherwise
it’s like I have two choices: to risk a quick
death or a gradual one.”
Back in Sardasht, the border town that
the Iran-Nejad family left last year, Salam
Ebrahimi was weighing up whether to
take the journey to Britain himself.
Rasoul Iran-Nejad was his second cousin
and he had known him, his wife and his
children. They were just a few of the 20 or
30 people he claimed to know who had
gone to the UK.
“The economic situation here is so
bad, it’s horrible,” he said. “The unem-
ployment is very bad, in the whole town.
There are no factories around here, no
workshops. There has been a huge wave
of emigration over the past three years,
especially among the young.”
IN ENGLAND YOU GET ASYLUM
In the last few years, as sanctions began to
tighten under the former US president
Donald Trump, the economic situation
had become unbearable, he said, and the
numbers of people leaving had
increased. Many sell their cars, homes
and land to scrape together the thou-
sands needed to reach Britain.
“It doesn’t matter how much you work
— you work so hard for months and you
put aside 100,000 tomans,” he said,
referring to a unit of currency worth
about £3. “You save it today and in the
morning it’s worth just 50,000. It doesn’t
make sense. You can’t plan. That’s why
we try to make it out.”
At family gatherings, he said,
Rasoul had been known for his singing
voice. The last time he had seen them, his
wife Shiva had been holding Artin in her
arms. Now they were all dead. But that
wasn’t enough to deter him from follow-
ing them to England, a country he knew
almost nothing about. “We prefer
England because you can get asylum
there faster, you can get residency, the
pound is very good compared to Iranian
Artin drowned currency,” he said, repeating the claims
in the Channel of smugglers. “It is a very good place.”
@louiseelisabet

bit of weight,” said Steve
Thomson, a snake-catcher
based in nearby Dubbo.
“With a mouse plague on,
there is such an abundance of
food that brown snakes and
carpet snakes are gorging
themselves.”
According to Xavier
Martin, vice-president of the
New South Wales Farmers’
Association, it is not just the
snakes that are feasting.
“The cats on our farm are as
fat as fools,” he said. “The
only good thing is that they’re
leaving the birds alone at the
moment.”
The plague of mice is
threatening the livelihoods
of many in rural Australia and
making their lives a misery.
Videos posted on social
media show farmers
drowning hordes of mice in
vats of water and pouring
hundreds of rodents from a
grain conveyor into a burning
metal drum.
Anne Cullen, a farmer in
Coonamble, New South
Wales, has seen her house
overrun by mice and her hay
stores ruined.
“The first time I had to pick
a mouse out of the pool
and smash it on
the cement to
kill it, I thought,
‘Oh gosh, I can’t
do this.’ But then I was doing
50 a day.”
Having to kill the mice is
not the only problem. “The
smell was absolutely putrid,”
Cullen said. “But if you don’t
pick the dead mice up, the
maggots will get them.”
Eris Fleming, an artist who
runs a cattle farm in the state,
responded to the infestation
of his home by putting out
more than a dozen buckets of
water into which mice fall
after being lured up a ramp
coated in canola oil and
peanut butter. Every day he
would spend hours clearing
out the buckets, which
typically contained more
than 300 dead mice, before
burying them far away from
the house.
“People are just worn out
from dealing with mice,” said
Steve Henry, an expert on
mouse plagues at the
Commonwealth Scientific
and Industrial Research
Organisation.
“There is a real social
impact to this stuff. And it just
goes on and on and
on, day in, day out.
“You live with the
smell of mice all the
time. They’re running
across your bed at
night; in the morning
you’re clearing them
out of the traps. Then
you get your breakfast
cereal out of the
cupboard and there have
been mice there or they’re
still there. And then you go
out to the car and the car
won’t start because they’ve
chewed through the electrical
cables.” He said many
farmers had started leaving
the bonnets of their cars and
farm vehicles up when not in
use to stop the rodents taking
refuge in them.
It is hoped that the onset of
the Australian winter will
help bring an end to the
plague. During a recent cold
snap the mice have gone into
survival mode, scurrying into
holes and crevices to seek
warmth. “At this time of year,
with the heating systems on,
the smell of hot mouse urine
and faeces is pretty
repulsive,” said Martin.
He is worried that the
rodents are “building their
winter pantry” on his
2,500-acre farm so that they
will be able to “burst forth”
again when the crops are
planted in spring.
“It’s like trying to control
Covid on a cruise ship,” he
said. “If some cabins are
contaminated, it’s going to
keep spreading from one to
the other. It’s the same with
paddocks: if you only do one
paddock here and there,
they’ll just spread again.”
The pressure to find a
solution is growing. “We are
worried that we’ll have an
even worse problem come
spring if we don’t control
them now.” But there are also
fears that the cure proposed
by officials will prove to be
even worse than the disease.
The New South Wales
government is seeking
approval from regulators to
allow farmers to use a
napalm-like poison called
bromadiolone on their fields.
At the moment it is permitted
for use indoors only.
Bromadiolone is an
anticoagulant, which means
it prevents blood clotting.
When eaten by mice, it causes
them to bleed to death over
several days. But the poison
remains active in the carcass,
so any animal that eats the
dead mouse — whether that is
a farm dog or a passing eagle
ILLUSTRATIONS: NICK NEWMAN
— could suffer the same fate.
According to Martin, cats
appear able to vomit up the
bait, which is laid in sheds
and homes. Farm dogs,
however, “seem to love it”,
and many have died or
needed emergency treatment
such as blood transfusions.
Maggie Watson, an
environmental scientist from
Charles Sturt University, is
not a fan of bromadiolone.
“You end up killing your
livestock; you end up killing
your dogs,” she said.
“And then you kill all the
animals and the eagles and
everything else — it’s
ridiculous.”
18 The Sunday Times June 13, 2021

WORLD NEWS
SIPA ASIA/ZUMA/ALAMY

CAN’T SEE
THE WOOD
FOR THE
WEEDS
Tourists paddle
through a
submerged
forest on
duckweed-
covered water
in Luyang Lake
Wetland Park
in Yangzhou,
eastern China.

Macron’s push to impose wind power

on France whips up a gale of protest
A bid to install hundreds of turbines in areas like the Dordogne is seen as yet another misstep by an out-of-touch president
In a recent poll of 700 local residents, right-winger during a walkabout, such birds; a potential blow to Dordogne’s elected, to introduce a moratorium on
PETER all but three voted against the project, apparent disregard of local sensibilities hunters, who target the thousands of new turbines, which her party, the

CONRADI while various resolutions opposed to it

St-Aulaye-Puymangou
On a sweltering day in the Dordogne last
week, Thierry Bonne, a retired French
navy admiral turned Airbnb host, sur-
veyed the verdant countryside stretching
out from his 17th-century chateau and
contemplated one of the toughest battles
of his career.
There was only the faintest of winds, as
is the case most days here on the edge of
the Forêt de la Double. But the area has
nevertheless been deemed breezy
enough to power five wind turbines,
more than 600ft (180m) high, the two
closest of which will be within a few
hundred metres of his Manoir de
Puymangou.
“Why put these things here in a forest,
where there isn’t even much wind?”
demanded Bonne, who is dismayed by
the project’s impact not just on the scen-
ery but also on his holiday-letting busi-
ness. “They’re completely unsuited to
the Périgord area, which is known for the
beauty of its landscapes. And once they
start putting the first ones in, others will
follow.”
The admiral and his wife, Bénédicte,
had a foretaste of what was to come a few
years ago, when a temporary measuring
tower was erected on the proposed site.
Though a mere 90m tall, it was “aggres-
sive, with a red light flashing all night”.
They are also alarmed by the noise that
will be made by the turbines’ blades.
Bonne has set up a group, Asso3D, to
organise resistance to the proposed
Grands Clos wind farm, whose five tur-
bines will be the first of 140 planned for
the Dordogne. The area is especially pop-
ular with British visitors, some of whom
settled here, among them Nick Tynan,
originally from Andover, who with his
wife Anne owns a gîte a few hundred
yards away. He calls the wind farm “the
wrong thing in the wrong place”.
have been passed by councils across the
département. About 54 local mayors
signed an open letter published in Le
Journal de Dimanche newspaper last
week organised by Yannick Lagrenaudie,
mayor of Saint-Aulaye-Puymangou, a pic-
turesque village of 1,500 people that will
be one of the most directly affected.
One of the few local supporters is
Jean-Jacques Gendreau, the mayor of
nearby Parcoul-Chenaud — though his
enthusiasm is understandable, perhaps,
There because one of the turbines will be
erected on a field belonging to him. Gen-
isn’t any dreau, who made the first approach to
Abo Wind, the company behind the
wind in project, has been under investigation
since 2019 over a potential conflict of
a forest interest. He denies any wrongdoing.
Despite such overwhelming opposi-
tion, the wind park, first mooted in the
early 2010s, was recently given the
go-ahead by the local prefect, Frédéric
Thierry and Perissat, who takes his orders from the
Bénédicte Bonne government in faraway Paris.
are among many For Lagrenaudie, a former teacher
desperate to who describes himself as left of centre,
protect the the decision is the latest manifestation of
beauty of the an over-mighty and centralised French
Dordogne. Right: state, which has become even mightier
Macron was and more controlling under Emmanuel
attacked by a Macron.
disaffected voter In a week when the president was
last week slapped by an unemployed 28-year-old
risks fuelling discontent among many
over the direction France has taken
under Macron, complicating his chances
of re-election next spring.
“It is scandalous,” Lagrenaudie told
me as we sat in the village’s impressive
hôtel de ville. “The project has been mas-
sively rejected locally, but the prefect still
gives it the go-ahead. What is the point of
having mayors and all these other people
elected?
“And then you have this week’s slap.
It’s not directly linked, of course, but
there is a sense that people in France feel
completely lost because they don’t think
they are being listened to.”
France has long been dependent on
nuclear energy, which supplies 70 per
cent of its electricity — more than any
other country in the world — and has
been far slower than Britain and many
other European countries to embrace
wind power.
Macron is determined to expand the
latter considerably, however, to meet
France’s commitments on climate
change. The government’s multiannual
energy programme, approved in April,
aims to raise the number of turbines from
the existing 8,000 to 14,500 by 2028.
Yet the plan is unpopular with many
who will have to live in the shadow of the
steel behemoths, which not only domi-
nate the landscape but also make noise
and disrupt the pattern of migratory
wood pigeons that fly through each
autumn. Groups similar to Bonne’s are
springing up across France and begin-
ning to work together.
In recent weeks the issue has also been
making waves nationally, thanks to
Stéphane Bern, a television presenter
best known for his feel-good
programmes about French heritage. In a
recent editorial in the newspaper
Le Figaro, he urged traditionalists and
environmentalists to wage a “common
fight against the real ecological calamity
represented by the abusive and anarchic
installation of wind turbines on land or at
sea”.
Bern was promptly denounced by Bar-
bara Pompili, the environment minister,
who claimed some of his criticisms were
baseless and akin to “claiming the world
is flat”.
But the much-loved presenter’s com-
ments are music to the ears of Macron’s
opponents on the right, keen to portray
the president’s enthusiasm for wind
power as further proof of his indifference
to the views of voters, especially in La
France profonde. The issue is high on the
agenda not just in the Dordogne but also
in several other contests in regional and
departmental elections being held across
the country next Sunday.
Marine Le Pen, the hard-right leader
and Macron’s main challenger for the
presidency next spring, has vowed, if
GARETH KIRKLAND/GETTY IMAGES
National Rally, regards as “an industrial
scam” because of the substantial state
subsidies they require.
“General de Gaulle made the choice of
nuclear power and it was a choice of great
foresight,” Le Pen said in a recent televi-
sion interview, warning France against
going the way of Germany, which, while
phasing out nuclear power in favour of
renewals, finds itself having to burn pol-
luting coal to fill in shortfalls.
The issue has also been seized upon by
another presidential hopeful, Xavier
This has Bertrand, the moderate-right leader of
the northern Hauts-de-France region. He
been recently denounced turbines as a “scan-
dal ... that disfigure the landscape and
rejected the lives of those who live near them”.
Although ranking far behind Covid,
locally the economy and law and order in voters’
preoccupations, the issue could prove a
tricky one for Macron: the yellow vest
protests that cast a shadow over his presi-
dency for more than a year from late 2018
were triggered by ecological policy — a
proposed hike in the price of diesel.
The rise was resisted most strongly by
country dwellers, many of whom are on
low incomes and dependent on their
cars, while proving a matter of indiffer-
ence to those in cities, who enjoy better
public transport and are more likely to
support “green” policies.
The growing row over turbines risks a
repetition of this urban-rural rift, though
back in Saint-Aulaye-Puymangou the
opponents of the project insist they are
just as concerned about the environment
as any electric scooter-riding townie.
Lagrenaudie says his village is proud of
its modest hydroelectric plant and
recently submitted a proposal to install
solar panels on its land, only for its pro-
posal to be rejected by the National Coun-
cil for the Protection of Nature because of
its impact on local flora.
“When there was a public inquiry on
the panels no one was opposed. With the
turbines it was 1,500,” he said. “We are
really in favour of renewable energy and
trying to do all we can on a local level. But
the wind farm is completely inappropri-
ate for this area.”

Trampolinist vows to give Shining Path returns to carve bloody

Greens back their bounce
Peter Conradi
Europe Editor
Annalena Baerbock, who was
confirmed yesterday as the
Greens’ candidate for
German chancellor in
September’s general election,
attempted to give her party
back its bounce after seeing
off attempts by activists to
insert radical policies into the
party’s manifesto.
“The wind is turning this
summer after the winter of
pandemic,” Baerbock, 40,
wearing a bright red dress,
told the Greens’ conference
after winning the backing of
98.6 per cent of delegates.
“An era is coming to an end
and we have the chance to
establish a new one.”
In her acceptance speech
the former trampolinist, who
has been battling falling poll
ratings, vowed to reconcile
the needs of industry and the
environment, replacing the
“social-market economy”,
which has been the basis of
Germany’s postwar success
with a “social-ecological
market economy”.
Declaring that “our future
is Europe”, Baerbock also
promised a tougher foreign
policy against the “enemies
of liberal democracy” and
denounced as “wrong” the
proposed Nord Stream 2
pipeline that will carry
Russian gas to Germany — a
sign of how far her party has
come since it emerged from
the 1980s peace movement.
Support for the Greens
soared after Baerbock was
chosen in April over Robert
Habeck, 51. Seen as a breath
of fresh air, she topped the
polls as a contender to
succeed Angela Merkel, who
is stepping down after 16
years in power. Support for
the Greens edged close to 30
per cent, putting them neck-
and-neck with Merkel’s
Christian Democratic Union —
a huge leap from the 8.9 per
cent the party won in 2017.
The novelty appears to
have faded, and latest polls
show its support barely above
20 per cent — five to six points
behind the CDU. In last
Sunday’s election in the
eastern state of Saxony-
Anhalt, they won only 5.9 per
cent of the votes and a
disappointing sixth place.
However, the Greens look
set to become the second
largest force in parliament in
September, making them the
likely junior partners in a
coalition led by Armin
Laschet of the CDU. Baerbock
would then become vice-
chancellor and hold one of
the top ministerial jobs,
making her Europe’s most
powerful Green politician.
The party’s slide in the
polls was blamed in part on
gaffes by Baerbock and
Habeck and a vicious
campaign on social media, in
which some see the hand of
the Kremlin, angered by the
party’s foreign policy.
Pollsters said that voters may
also have been put off by the
Greens’ plan for an 80mph
speed limit on motorways.
@Peter Conradi
inroads into bitterly divided Peru
Stephen Gibbs
The bodies were strewn
beside a riverbank outside a
bar frequented by prostitutes
and drug dealers in an
impoverished village in
central Peru. Sixteen lay
dead, including two children.
Some of the victims showed
signs of burns. Locals said
three men carrying automatic
weapons had pulled up on
motorcycles and carried out
the massacre. They had given
no warning.
As they left, they scattered
dozens of pamphlets on the
ground, placing some on the
corpses. The Peruvian army
said the notes called on
people to boycott last week’s
presidential election and had
been signed by a group
calling itself the “Militarised
Communist Party of Peru”.
That group is well known
in the area, where everyone
refers to it by its former,
notorious name: El Sendero
Luminoso — the Shining Path.
Were those mysterious
murders on May 23 a
declaration that one of the
world’s most vicious terrorist
groups, held responsible for
almost 40,000 killings during
the 1980s, was preparing a
new campaign of violence?
“They are still dangerous,”
said the Peruvian
investigative reporter
Gustavo Gorriti, who has
studied the Shining Path for
decades. But he believes the
organisation, which at one
time was likened to the
Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, is
AFP
Shining Path guerillas before the controversial peace deal
not what it was. It once had
thousands of followers but
now has about 450. Whereas
in the 1980s the Shining Path
controlled nearly a quarter of
Peru, its remaining fighters
are now cornered in the
mountainous region known
as VRAEM — Valle de los Rios
Apurimac, Ene y Mantaro —
in the central Andean region.
The group’s founder and
former leader, Abimael
Guzmán, a megalomaniac
Maoist philosophy professor,
has been in a Peruvian
maximum-security jail for
almost three decades. Now
86, he is likely to remain
there until he dies. Most of his
former devotees have
branded him a traitor,
claiming that his arrest in
1992 was a cowardly
surrender. They have also
quietly shelved his ambition
of leading Peru along a
supposed “shining path” to
an egalitarian utopia.
Instead, the communist
fighters have embraced
capitalism in its rawest form,
evolving into what Gorriti
described as an extortion
gang. Local drug traffickers
that pass through the area
pay for “security” from the
bandits, he said.
Nevertheless, last month’s
massacre is a troubling
symptom of Peru’s instability.
Peruvians took the streets last
year to protest about
government corruption and
incompetence, and the
country went through three
presidents in the space of a
week The country is now
governed by a caretaker
president, Francisco Sagasti.
His successor will be one of
two maverick populists who
both claim to have won last
week’s presidential contest.
The official count puts
Pedro Castillo, 51, a Marxist
former teacher with little
political experience, ahead of
his divisive right-wing rival
Keiko Fujimori by a mere
60,000 votes out of 17.5
million cast. Almost all rural
electors choose Castillo,
while the capital, Lima,
backed his opponent, the 46-
year-old daughter of Alberto
Fujimori, the country’s
former president, who in
2009 was jailed for 25 years
for human rights abuses. He
is credited with defeating the
Shining Path by handing
sweeping powers to the army.
Whoever wins will be
deeply unpopular with half
the country. There will be few
beneficiaries from such a
volatile situation. But the
remnants of the Shining Path
could be one
COMMENT
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021 19

Camilla Long
The young expect good vibes and zero stress
in the office. Fine, but only if they work hard

W
hat is it about open
letters? To me they seem
the last refuge of the
seriously passive
aggressive. Why are they
always written in
sentimental hush-hush
pearl-clutching Oprah-
speak — “brave acts”, “dear England”,
“we hope we’re wrong”? On Wednesday
there was a new one written by a group
called Punks with Purpose — now there’s
an oxymoron — about the “feeling of
fear” and toxic work culture among
employees at the Scottish beer company
Brewdog.
Vastly long and typed in the usual
small, nibbly text to give a sense of real
grievance, it felt at first like your average
snowflake communication: the world’s
out to get me; I had to work at this
company and it didn’t do exactly what I
wanted; now I’m hitting back with the
usual moralising diatribe filled with
unattested, vague allegations of sexism,
misogyny and something about mental
health.
I read the whole thing with my face
pressed up against the laptop,
wondering: but what are these people
really complaining about? Who hasn’t
worked at a successful company where
there wasn’t at least some element of a
“rotten culture” of “harassing,
assaulting, belittling, insulting or
gaslighting”? Why are they surprised
that decisions in businesses are
generally “business-led”? Isn’t that how
companies get results?
But then, just out of curiosity, I
decided to look up the company’s
founders. And let’s just say: what a pair
of extraordinary baseball-capped alpha
bro douchebags these men were. “Like
hipster Philip Greens,” gasped my friend
as we read their shameless self-publicity
and their hollow, cringeworthy
statements about their brewing
“mission”.
“We are going to nail our colours to
the mother f***ing mast,” they wrote on
an awful blog six years ago. “We are
going to live and die by what we believe
in and the values we hold true.”
And what were those values? Using
private jets while pretending to be eco-
friendly. Pledging to donate vast sums to
charity and then slashing the donation.
Burning through employees who tried to
keep up with their “fast-paced” and
“challenging” vision. Dropping anyone
who didn’t comply with their “preferred
ways of working” or wouldn’t fit in with
their mafioso, top-down, bullying way of
conducting business. Having favourites
while pretending they were a friendly,
inclusive, hip place to work.
I have no time for anyone who
screams “mental health” or indeed uses
the word “damaging” when they simply
mean “stressful”, but these guys looked
just as domineering as the original
monsters who screamed: “Lunch is for
wimps.” Even their response seemed
oily and managed. The letter was “so
upsetting, but so important”, said
Brewdog’s founder, James Watt. But
didn’t we realise he had “thousands of
employees” and “a fast-growing
business”? Even at the moment of
apology, he couldn’t help promoting
himself. Can you imagine the shrieking
rage behind closed doors?
Will anyone now work for Brewdog?
Thirty years ago the answer would
probably have been a grudging yes. For
people over 40, a cut-throat, stressful
working environment — or as Brewdog’s
founder put it, “a fast-paced culture” —
is still closely associated with good
results. For some, there is even a
romance to an adrenaline-filled office:
on Wednesday a journalist was quoted in
the Press Gazette saying that he missed a
“proper” newsroom with all the
“yelling” and the “bottling of lightning”
that goes on in the making of a paper.
You could practically smell the cigar
smoke curling up from the meetings
where foul-mouthed editors decided
what the world would be thinking and
reporters were ritually humiliated.
But if you are under 40, the idea of
working for somewhere that isn’t calm
SUNDAY TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES GLOSSOP
James Watt
of Brewdog: A ‘feminine’
self-promotion
dressed up response to
as an apology
the virus?
Stop trolling
us, PM
What in God’s name is a
“gender-neutral and more
feminine” recovery? It
sounds like some kind of
confused tampon
commercial. But this didn’t
stop Boris Johnson
announcing at the G7 photo
circus that after the
pandemic he would like
everyone to “build back” in a
greener, “more gender-
neutral and feminine way”.
Cue howls of derision at
this presumably Carrie-
inspired PR word salad. Was
this the same Boris who once
said that “voting Tory will
cause your wife to have
and friendly is horrifying. Young people
simply won’t work for places that don’t That’s not a name, it’s a slap bigger breasts”? Didn’t he
think some women went to
offer good vibes. In America, where
companies these days can’t hire people in the face for the Queen university just to get
married? How can
fast enough, hotels are offering free something be feminine and
holidays and stays to attract good staff.
Jobs are competing for people, rather
If you are I’m still crying with laughter
over Lilibet Diana. How can
the peasants in the village
who have pictures of the
gender-neutral? It was
classic Boris trolling:
than the other way round.
Is cosseting one’s workers and giving
under 40, the something that’s supposedly
a compliment feel so like a
royal family on their walls and
mantelpieces, sorry,
reminding us how utterly
hilarious he finds it that he
them nap times the way to boost
business? Or does it just generate an
idea of an stinging slap in the face?
“What will the Queen like?”
chimney-pieces. Like the
villagers, Meghan and Harry
gets to be prime minister.
And what did he actually
atmosphere in which they feel they can
complain more? I’m tempted to scorn
office that “Let’s call her something that
feels like the ultimate
appear to be true believers,
ladling syrup on syrup by
mean by “feminine”? You can
just imagine the answer: “Oh,
crybaby snivellers but, increasingly,
companies behave as if they’re
isn’t calm and bonding gesture but is
somehow also intrusive and
shortening the royal
nickname Lilibet even further
flowery pillows, chocs, some
of that fizzy wine they like.”
invaluable. Perhaps, then, we should
strike a deal: if the older generation
friendly is creepy.”
These aren’t the thoughts
to “Lili”. I bet the interior of
that 16-bog California
Of course, given the recent
women in his life, “a feminine
promise to tone down the bullying and
shouting, then will the younger
horrifying and actions of royals; they’re
the thoughts and actions of
mansion is entirely covered
with medals, mementos and
recovery” could also mean
“an initially attractive and
generation accept they must stop royal fans. In her memoir, commemorative ribbons bubbly recovery that later
playing the mental health card, work Hons and Rebels, Decca plus endless pictures of the turns out to be a shrieking,
hard and suck it up? Mitford describes with horror Queen. terrifying liability”.

ATTICUS
GABRIEL POGRUND
Trudeau flip-flops into a new fashion crime
Justin Trudeau is no
stranger to clothing
controversies.
In 2018 the Canadian PM
was pilloried for wearing a
traditional wedding outfit
during a disastrous trip to
India, with local politicians
saying it was insulting and
the sort of a thing a groom
might wear in a bad
Bollywood film.
Then the following year it
emerged he had worn a
turban and robes and
brownface makeup during
an “Arabian Nights” party,
briefly imperilling his re-
election prospects.
Now, another sartorial
decision has Tory aides
spluttering into their white
wine at the G7 conference in
Cornwall.
According to a source,
Trudeau, 47, was spotted
at dinner in Carbis Bay on
the first night of the
conference milling around
and fraternising with his
fellow leaders.
LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Justin Trudeau wore “dad uniform” to meet other leaders
Only when they looked
below the waist did they see
he was wearing traditional
“dad uniform”: a disastrous
denim jeans and flip-flop
combo.
A crime against fashion,
perhaps but, as an observer
points out, not a culturally
insensitive one. If anything,
he will have fitted right in
with legions of other
holidaying dads on the
southwest peninsula.
Case may
be about to
pack his bags
Relations continue to
atrophy between the prime
minister and his young
cabinet secretary.
A Whitehall source says
that Simon Case, 42, and
Boris Johnson, 56, have not
reached the stage of open
acrimony. Worse, both
seem “weirdly apathetic”
and “disengaged” from
each other.
One source cited a recent
example of officials warning
the PM that he needed a
game plan on Ireland before
his meeting with Joe Biden.
Johnson, they said,
replied that he would make
the US president chuckle
during their photo-op,
stopping any substantive
disagreement or tension
dominating the narrative.
A source close to Case
denied he was irritated by
this incident, but few doubt
the PM’s general approach
has jarred with his.

Corbyn back in the firing line Odd couple A question of growing

significance is whether Case

Labour tells Atticus it is conducting a preliminary take on China would spare Johnson the
political pain of removing a
investigation into comments by Jeremy Corbyn saying that cabinet secretary — and
the former MP Luciana Berger was not “hounded out” of A controversy over Chinese simply quit himself.
the party. influence at Jesus College,
During his leadership Berger infamously needed a Cambridge, has made some
police escort to attend a party conference while heavily improbable bedfellows.
pregnant but, speaking at the Cambridge Union on Last month, Iain Duncan
Thursday, Jezza said her “unfortunate” departure had Smith met its master behind
nothing to do with him. closed doors to discuss its
Now officials in the party’s governance and legal unit apparent reluctance to
have received complaints and are considering whether or debate the Uighurs and
not to launch a formal inquiry. Corbyn, 72, has had the Hong Kong, which may or
party whip indefinitely suspended but remains a Labour may not have something to
member in a personal capacity. do with the £350,000 it has
The incident puts Sir Keir Starmer in a bind. A full accepted from the Chinese
investigation would lead to an ugly confrontation with the state and Huawei of late.
left before the Batley and Spen by-election, where the party Now members of the
is doing its best to display its pro-Palestine credentials. But student union have backed
ducking out of an investigation could lead to more criticism the former Tory leader with
that the leader has lost his nerve after suspending Corbyn a letter condemning the ties.
last year. Fair play to China. Few
Of course, Starmer could keep doing what he’s done on could bring IDS and student
the Corbyn front all along: nothing for as long as possible union wokesters together
20
COMMENT
ESTABLISHED 1822
It’s time for the country to
talk realistically about risk
T W
here will be no formal
announcement until Monday,
but it will be a big surprise if the
prime minister does not
announce a four-week delay to
“Freedom Day”, which had
been planned for June 21. His
“cautious but irreversible” path
to the removal of remaining Covid restric-
tions has been thrown off course by
another variant. In December Boris John-
son was scuppered by the Kent variant.
Now it is the Indian, or Delta, variant.
It is hard to be too critical of a prime
minister who in the past was cavalier
about the risks posed by rapidly rising
infections. Proceeding gung-ho with the
June 21 unlocking after pledging to be
driven by “data, not dates” would have
been strange, even foolhardy. Case num-
bers are rising — up more than 50 per cent
in a week — as are hospital admissions and
deaths, though more slowly.
It is possible, however, to be critical of a
prime minister who failed to shut down
travel from India quickly enough, proba-
bly because he did not want to jeopardise
trade talks with his Indian counterpart.
This allowed the Delta variant, now
responsible for more than 90 per cent of
new UK cases, according to the health sec-
retary, to seed itself in this country.
Not so long ago the big concern was ris-
ing infections in Europe and the risks of a
spread from that wave to the UK. Now, fall-
ing European cases are crossing on the
graph with rising UK infections, and this
country is seen as the risk. British travel-
lers, discouraged by the government from
travelling to many European states, are
also subject to strict limitations by many
of those countries.
A four-week delay will upset those who
bemoan the continued assault on our lib-
erties and who see genuine freedom as a
mirage on a distant horizon. Public opin-
ion in general, however, is risk averse on
the pandemic and will support the gov-
ernment in putting health first. Such sup-
port has been one of the unexpected
bonuses for the Johnson government,
which 15 months ago feared strong public
resistance to restrictions.
Nor will a delay have much impact on
the economy as a whole. The easing of
restrictions so far, particularly on non-
essential retailing and hospitality, has
led to a powerful bounce in economic
activity. Official figures on Friday showed
that the economy grew by 2.3 per cent in
The democratic world has
finally united over China
The G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall,
may be remembered for the updated
Atlantic Charter signed by Boris Johnson
and Joe Biden. Or, for a formidable display
of British soft power, via a combination of
the 95-year-old sovereign, beautiful
beaches and a charming curly-haired tod-
dler. But it deserves to go down too as the
moment when the West’s big economies
came together on China.
For too long the West has tolerated
China’s human rights abuses and its unac-
ceptable behaviour in Hong Kong and
elsewhere. The world was too willing to
admit China into the fold and to bow down
in the face of the country’s growing eco-
nomic clout. There has been no adequate
western response to China’s imperialist
ambitions via the Belt and Road initiative
and aggressive vaccine diplomacy.
The G7 summit thus marked a signifi-
cant change. China’s brutal treatment of
Vanilla Ice’s very cold case
At last, progress can be expected in
solving a mystery that has baffled the
nation for decades.
Those still troubled by the disappear-
ance of the racehorse Shergar can breathe
a sigh of relief: as we report today, Vanilla
Ice is on the case.
True, the 1990s rapper who gave the
world Ice Ice Baby seems an unlikely
equine sleuth. But, as any fan of detective
fiction knows, it’s bold lateral thinking
April alone and is getting close to where it
was before the pandemic.
Yet the big picture masks the heartache
and financial pain that a delay will bring to
arts, entertainment and events. The com-
poser and theatrical impresario Lord
Lloyd-Webber has said a delay could be
the death knell for many theatres and that
he will risk arrest by opening theatres on
June 21. His anguish is widely shared.
It’s bleak too for the travel industry.
Freedom Day was always a deception
as far as that was concerned. An impor-
tant sector is in despair about the fact
that travel to popular holiday destinations
is more severely curtailed this summer,
when the UK has the benefit of a success-
ful vaccine programme, than it was
last year.
The furlough scheme is supposed to be
winding down but British Airways has
just put thousands of its employees back
on to it. A staycation is no great sacrifice
for most people, but restrictions are dam-
aging an important industry that millions
rely on for their livelihood.
All of which means that this delay
cannot be allowed to morph into fresh
lockdowns in the autumn and winter as
cases rise. People and businesses need
certainty, not lurches into more lock-
downs and restrictions.
We need to accept that Covid will not
be eliminated, as the prime minister has
admitted. Even more so than with flu, we
will have to get used to regular booster
jabs against the virus and its mutations.
The work of the vaccine heroes rightly
recognised in the Queen’s birthday hon-
ours list is not yet done.
This means we cannot panic over the
emergence of every new variety that
appears on the scene. “If we scamper
down a rabbit hole every time we see a
new variant, we are going to spend a long
time huddled away, so we do need to keep
a bit of balance to the discussion,” said Sir
John Bell, regius professor of medicine at
Oxford and distinguished immunologist.
The public, as noted above, are risk-
averse about Covid. They have been per-
suaded to be so because of the dangers
that the virus exposed them to before vac-
cines were generally available. Now they
have to be nudged towards a different risk
assessment, one in which we learn to live
with the virus and the dangers are limited
for the overwhelming majority of fully
vaccinated people. It is, in truth, the only
realistic way forward.
its Uighur minority, which numbers many
millions of people, was one set of human
rights abuses too many. President Biden is
determined, through infrastructure and
vaccines, to provide a democratic, capi-
talist alternative to China for the develop-
ing world. The G7 backs him.
The fact that the West is coming
together in a common approach reflects
well on the new president. Supporters of
Donald Trump would point out that he
was the first occupant of the Oval Office to
call out China. But his “bull in a China
shop” approach to the People’s Republic
was one that other western powers could
never endorse. So this is a welcome
change. We have to engage with China,
and every country will do so. But it is
important that such engagement is from a
position of western unity and strength.
This weekend we can have more confi-
dence in that.
like this that can crack the most intracta-
ble of conundrums.
Tracking down Lord Lucan? Send for
fellow rapper MC Hammer. Finding
Atlantis? The gardening guru Charlie Dim-
mock may have answers. Leading our
country to a bright post-Brexit future? Mr
Blobby is a phone call away.
Cynics may scoff. But when you look at
where the conventional approach has got
us, we could do a lot worse.
Dominic Lawson
Britain won’t slide into
a full-on culture war
A resistance is mustering to stem the divisive politics of race and gender
hat with the coronavirus and
record waiting lists of patients
whose treatment for other
conditions has been postponed,
the NHS has its rubber-gloved
hands more than usually full of
medical challenges. Apparently,
though, it still has time to launch
an A-Z glossary related not at all to health, but
entirely to the politics of race and gender.
This was revealed by Janan Ganesh, a US-
based contributor to the Financial Times. Last
week he wrote a column reeling with aesthetic
horror at its linguistic obscurantism (not to
mention spelling mistakes in headings such as
“Islamaphobia” and “White Supresmacy”).
Within days the NHS had taken it down, after
criticism from, among others, the Conservative
MP Neil O’Brien, who is Downing Street’s
“levelling-up” adviser: “A number of concepts
in this alphabet of woke are highly divisive . . .
that should not be being pushed by HR
managers in the NHS as a sort of gospel.”
The NHS insisted the glossary was a “draft
document” not intended for publication and so
had been removed. This had a familiar ring. A
few weeks ago Cambridge University, under
the aegis of its vice-chancellor, Professor
Stephen Toope, published and then within
days took down a list of inadmissible “micro-
aggressions”, which had been part of his
Change the Culture programme. This had set
out “behaviours” it said students could
anonymously report as “inappropriate”. They
included “raising an eyebrow”, if the recipient
of this shockingly disrespectful gesture were
from an ethnic minority.
After a barrage of complaints from
academics (standing up for the eternal right of
Cambridge dons to raise an eyebrow during a
tutorial), Toope said the list of unacceptable
micro-aggressions had been published “in
error”. Though, as one of the academics who
had protested pointed out: “The university has
been planning this new policy for over a year
and they have had to do a U-turn within a week
of it being launched. It raises questions about
how anything like this could have come within
a mile of being approved by people at the
university and published on their website.”
Whatever the truth of these documents’
allegedly accidental publication by Cambridge
and the NHS, they reveal the agenda of those
behind such schemes. These are highly
instructive presentational blunders. In the
language of maths teachers, we can see their
“working-out”.
It is also instructive — and perhaps, to many,
surprising — how rapidly these organisations
India Knight
High times at BoJo’s
boho beach bonanza
Buttered rum and shanties look eccentric, but why can’t the suits have fun
D
oesn’t the G7 summit look, well, fun?
There’s a sentence I never expected
to write, nor you to read, I imagine.
When it was announced last year that
the event was to take place in Carbis
Bay, a neck of the woods I’m familiar
with, I felt as though I’d had a cheese
dream and invented it. You might as
well host global leaders in a field in Somerset,
or in a big yurt in Norfolk, I thought: it’s an
absurd idea. But now they’ve been at it for a
couple of days, I have changed my mind. Far
from being absurd, it’s kind of inspired. I would
even go as far as to say it’s reinvented the way
these boring summits and conferences and
gatherings of the powerful are done, by
removing much of the formality and pointless
posturing and turning them into a total vibe.
So instead of leaders’ wives clacking about in
their heels, you have Carrie Johnson and Jill
Biden paddling barefoot in the sea,
accompanied by baby Wilfred, who, rather
than the kind of awful formal babywear that
involves smocking and patent leather sandals,
is just hanging out in his nappy. There are flip-
flops. There is beach hair. Instead of boring,
stiff dinners you have last night’s toes-in-the-
sand event, as follows. First, a delicious-
sounding, very informal dinner cooked on the
beach by Simon Stallard, of the Hidden Hut in
Porthcurnick. They ate scallops, crab claws
and mackerel, followed by barbecued steak
and lobster with chips and local veg, and
sundaes for pudding. This is really likeable
food, of the kind you’d serve your friends —
compare and contrast with the usual poncy
banquet-style fare. It’s also food you eat with
your hands. Maybe lots of secret service people
were standing by with jumbo packs of kitchen
roll.
And then they all gathered around fire pits
on the beach and listened to sea shanties, sung
by a Cornish group called Du Hag Owr, while
feasting on an after-dinner snack of baked brie,
hot buttered rum and toasted marshmallows.
I’m very much in favour of after-dinner snacks
retreated when their working-out was exposed
to the gaze of the wider public. As soon as
Janan Ganesh published his article, I
congratulated him on his scoop and asked this
Londoner how he was finding life in America.
He replied: “Living here is like having a five to
ten-year preview of cultural changes that are
coming to Britain.” A similar view was
expressed to me a fortnight ago by the
American focus-group king Frank Luntz, who
is recovering from the US culture wars by
spending some months in the UK as a fellow of
the Centre for Policy Studies think tank.
Luntz appeared convinced the UK would
soon be suffering just as much from the deeply
divisive and racially charged ideological
conflict that has poisoned political debate
there. Indeed, in April he wrote a column for
The Times entitled “Resist the US-style woke
mob coming for the royal family”. He seemed
to judge me complacent when I retorted that
the British were too sensible and moderate to
descend into anything like the same level of
fanaticism (on both sides of the cultural ravine:
observe the massed ranks of Trump-
worshipping “robbed election” conspiracy
theorists). Despite Luntz’s doom-filled
warnings to the UK, I still maintain that not
only do we have nothing approaching the
maniacal Salem-style persecutions of the US
culture war, but that the pressure will actually
fall, here.
It is true that the language of the British
“woke” movement is entirely derivative of the
US experience: indeed, the term itself is an
American import. A cultural appropriation,
one might say. So, for example, the NHS
glossary repeatedly refers to “BIPOC”, which
stands for black and indigenous people of
colour. In the US the “I” would mean Native
Americans, in Canada (the country of
Professor Toope) the First Nations and Inuit.
But it is weird in the context of the UK. In the
British political struggle I had only ever heard
the term “indigenous people” being used by
the British National Party, and that unlovely
We have nothing like
the extremes of the
US culture clashes
and sea shanties, for that matter, even though
they make everybody cry. Maybe a cry-in was
partly the point: very bonding. I’m also
thinking that this “after-dinner snack” is
exactly what you’d want to eat if you had the
munchies. I’m sure nobody did have the
munchies, but I can’t help imagining. Angela
Merkel would take impressively enormous
drags and become extremely giggly; she’s
leaving soon, so she wouldn’t care what
anyone thought of her impromptu cartwheels
or Trump impressions. Ursula von der Leyen
would become weirdly intense in 17 languages.
Either Emmanuel Macron or Justin Trudeau
would snitch on them, except Joe Biden would
give him a disappointed look and shoo him
away. I have absolutely nothing to base this
theory on, but I know I’m right.
Anyway: the jollity! It’s got to take your mind
off the travails of sausage wars and climate
change. And it’s clever, too. It’s a great deal
easier to communicate with people — and to get
your way — if they’re relaxed and having a nice
time, and it is strange that this crashingly
obvious fact has never apparently been taken
into account before. Also, I don’t know if Joe
Biden, 78, was one of the 400,000 people at
the original Woodstock in 1969, but it seems
more than likely he was there in spirit if not
physically: he comes across very much like a
cool dad from the 1960s. Laying on what is
effectively a mini-festival will have played well
with him (as will the Johnsons’ Catholic
It’s got to take your
mind off sausage wars
and climate change
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021
lot meant something quite different, although
the would-be gauleiters of the BNP did have
in common with the woke an obsession with
race and an inability to judge people purely
by the content of their character, rather than
the colour of their skin (to quote Martin
Luther King).
The gender wars are almost as divisive, and
that NHS glossary made its own contribution
by referring to “sex” as something that is
“assigned at birth”. No, it isn’t. You might think
an organisation containing thousands of
qualified doctors would have a firmer grasp of
biology. The sex of a person is not an assigned
thing, like a legal document, but determined at
the moment of conception and thereafter
unalterable. This lay at the heart of the appeal
by Maya Forstater, who last week overturned a
perverse tribunal ruling that her (true) belief
that it is impossible to change sex — for
expressing which she had been sacked by her
American employer — was so “offensive” as to
be unworthy of legal protection.
Last week Justin Webb of BBC Radio 4’s
Today programme conducted a debate
between Simon Fanshawe, a founder of
Stonewall — who quit the organisation because
it has fought against the idea that biological
women should have “safe spaces” not
automatically available to anyone born male
but identifying as a female — and Benjamin
Cohen, chief executive of Pink News. Stonewall
had refused to debate with Fanshawe. And, in a
way, so did Cohen, who challenged even the
permissibility of holding such a discussion
“without a single trans voice being heard”
(earning the memorable rebuke from Webb:
“You don’t know anything about me”).
Cohen is a highly intelligent man, but the
querulousness of his approach (he refused
even to address, for example, Fanshawe’s
concerns about the effects of allowing “male-
bodied” people into women’s sport) created
an impression of intellectual fragility and
testy intolerance, not helped by his tweet
later that day that the BBC licence fee should
be abolished.
As Kathleen Stock, the author of Material
Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism, and a
supporter of Forstater, observed to me: “Simon
Fanshawe did very well for our side on the
Today programme. So did Benjamin Cohen.”
In short: if it can’t or won’t make a reasoned
attempt to persuade the unpersuaded, woke —
at least in the UK — is wobbling.
dominic.lawson@sunday-times.co.uk
How the Tories weaponised woke, News
Review, page 23
wedding). Jill Biden, who on Thursday wore a
Zadig & Voltaire jacket that said “LOVE” on the
back, seems genuinely delighted to be there in
all the photographs. The whole thing looks like
a party — big it up for the G7 massive — and
maybe it is. Put it this way: it’s the sort of thing
that would appal the former occupier of the
Oval Office.
You can’t force these things, and it could
have gone horribly wrong. The reason the
summit looks so engaging is the authentic feel.
Johnson, whose early childhood could be
described as occupying the space between
bohemian and feral, knows how to hang out
being convivial and eating crab with his hands
while chatting to his parents’ mates, which is
what Biden must seem like. Carrie’s choice of
wedding dress a fortnight ago suggests that in
an ideal world she too would prefer not to wear
any shoes.
If you leave the politics aside for a moment,
they come across as very un-Tory Tories, the
hippie-ish sort of Tories who are confusing to
their shire cousins, because what’s wrong with
a fascinator and nice court shoes? I was going
to say that if they played their cards right, the
Carbis Bay summit could conceivably sow the
seeds of Cool Britannia redux, but I think that’s
probably not realistic.
Still, you can’t fault the optics of barbecued
lobster and hot buttered rum on the beach. By
dismantling the format that’s been applied to
gatherings of the so-called great and good for
centuries, Johnson and by extension the UK
come across as fresh and modern, and the fact
that he is so willing to divest himself of the
signifiers of power and social class makes past
events — and past host countries — look old-
fashioned and rigid. Who’s going to want to go
back to the conference centre after this?
Not Germany, which is hosting the event
next year. I’m thinking Bavaria, with swimming
and rowing boats and lakeside sausage feasts
and humungous barrels of beer. And maybe
some bell tents.
@IndiaKnight
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021
COMMENT
Matthew Syed
In our rush to embrace diversity, let’s
not put symbols above substance
I don’t doubt the sincerity of players who take the knee but will it solve the problem they highlight?
I
guess, like half the nation, I’ll be
watching England play Croatia in
their opening match of the Euros
this afternoon. It is a strong team
that, with a fair wind, might make it
to the business end of the
competition. In some ways I can’t
believe it is a quarter of a century
since England last made the semi-finals,
in one of the most memorable
competitions of my lifetime.
Yet I have to be honest: when it comes
to the gesture that the players will enact
before the opening whistle, I am left
cold. If I were in the stadium, I wouldn’t
boo the taking of the knee and I certainly
wouldn’t turn my back on it. But when
Wilfred Zaha, the striker for Crystal
Palace, argued that the gesture is doing
little for the cause of anti-racism and
could be undermining it, I found myself
nodding.
I should perhaps stress that I have
nothing negative to say about the
players, who are evidently sincere. No,
my concern is the millions who conflate
their “solidarity” with the gesture with
the cause of anti-racism. The people
who post black squares on their feeds,
who tweet virtuous hashtags, who
“kneel in solidarity” and generally enact
the liturgy of anti-racism. You see, I’m
not sure that they are the engines of
progress they might imagine.
The background is worth pondering.
A paper by Stanford University
researchers found that those who
publicly proclaim their anti-racist
credentials are more likely to behave in a
racist way.
Psychologists call it moral licensing:
the finding that when people do good,
NEWMAN’S
WEEK
“... and if things go badly, we’ll marry
our girlfriends in secret”
they feel more latitude to do bad. “This
is the psychological equivalent of when
people in casual conversation say
something like, ‘Many of my best friends
are black,’” one of the researchers said.
“They say that because they’re about to
say something else that they’re
concerned might be construed as
prejudiced.” Just last month a study of
the tech industry found that companies
that had made public statements in
support of Black Lives Matter had 20 per
cent fewer black employees than those
that hadn’t. They had made the
superficial gesture, they projected the
right image, but this is why they felt little
obligation to go any further.
A report by the consultancy Mind
Gym underlines the point, finding that
most diversity initiatives are not based
on empirically grounded action but on
box-ticking exercises that look good on a
press release. “Not only have bosses
potentially wasted a fortune — $19 billion
a year is spent on diversity training — but
the methods that they are adopting risk
doing more harm than good by
increasing prejudice and fuelling a new
polarisation within their companies,” it
said. A survey of black professionals
found that only 15 per cent thought
diversity initiatives were effective.
Symbols can, of course, be powerful:
one thinks of the Black Power salute at
the Mexico Olympics of 1968. But now
we have an obsession with symbolism,
an inflationary phenomenon in which
hashtags and retweets are elevated
above actions and consequences.
How else could the complicated
question of how to improve the lives of
millions in left-behind communities
“It says to avoid the sea off St Ives”
have morphed into a pseudo-debate
about whether 11 millionaires kneel at a
footie game?
In this context it was depressing, if
predictable, that when the Sewell report
on racial disparities was published in
March, almost nobody debated the
proposals over how to improve school,
job and health outcomes — policies that
might make a tangible difference to a
youngster from a Caribbean background
living in poor housing, worried about
gang violence and hoping to make
something of his life. Instead, the report
was largely attacked by those who felt
that it had diluted the definition of
institutional racism, a symbolic dispute
utterly detached from the real world.
It perhaps goes without saying that
sport has a particular talent for elevating
symbolism above substance. Just last
week the England and Wales Cricket
Board suspended the bowler Ollie
Robinson for bigoted tweets sent almost
a decade ago while he was a teenager
(and for which he had offered a
wholehearted apology). Tom Harrison,
the chief executive, talked piously about
sending the right signal but didn’t
Cricket and mention that the governing body is
happy to take cash to play in nations
football take where misogyny is codified under law,
homosexuality is punishable by death
cash to play and religious discrimination is rife.
Football is perhaps even more brazen,
in nations a sport whose administrators are largely
selected on their capacity for
that codify commercially exploitable hypocrisy.
They wear badges, confect slogans and
misogyny organise press conferences on anti-
racism. But the sport will roll up next
in law year in Qatar, a nation that has been
“Like an idiot he avoided the road and was
run over by an e-scooter on the pavement”
condemned by Amnesty International
for its abuses of ethnic minorities, and it
continues to distance itself from
criticism of the Uighur genocide,
paranoid about compromising its
commercial links with the Communist
Party of China and its proxies.
I should reiterate that I much admire
the England players. I was struck by
Gareth Southgate’s defence of taking
the knee last week and noted his fear
that ceasing now might look like
conceding defeat to the bigots. But my
worry is precisely the reverse: that the
gesture will become wildly successful;
will be retweeted, recycled; will become
a meme, a hashtag, forming the basis for
a million uploads, perhaps even an
accompanying jingle; and that
progressives will bask in their moral
superiority just as the recommendations
of the Sewell report and previous race
audits continue to gather dust.
The UK has made massive strides on
racial equality in recent decades, a point
that even the critics of the Sewell report
conceded. Most people understand that
when we harness the talents of
everyone, whether in an organisation or
society, it is good not just for them but
for the collective. But I can’t help
thinking that the project has become
unhinged not because of the dwindling
posse of hardcore racists but because of
the superficiality of all too many
progressives.
So while I hope that nobody boos the
players this afternoon, something that
would be crass and mean-spirited, I also
hope we can move on from this sterile
debate. Taking the knee is not for me.
@MatthewSyed
“Who can honestly say they haven’t
been mildly racist in the past?”
21
Beverley
Turner
Why I will
not be giving
my children
the Covid
vaccine
I
was appalled but not shocked last
week when the Medicines and
Health Products Regulatory
Authority granted approval for
“emergency use” of the Pfizer-
BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in
children aged 12 to 15. Over the
past six months the age groups
targeted for jabs have dropped from the
over-70s through middle age down to
children, with no scientific explanation
of why we are medicating an entire
population against a virus that
contributed to the deaths of those with
an average age of 80.
There is no “emergency” from which
children require saving: the risk of
Covid-19 to them is tiny. The infection
fatality rate in this age group is
practically zero, and most remain
asymptomatic or experience only mild
symptoms. Do we now live in a world
where parents can’t tolerate their child
developing a sniffle? Has the undiluted
narrative of terror caused us to lose sight
of how precious our children are? They
are not guinea pigs to be used in an
experiment.
My three kids, Croyde, 17, Kiki, 12, and
Trixie, 10, have received all the state-
recommended childhood inoculations,
from rotavirus to measles. My choice to
protect their health in this way was not
driven by fear, or worry about what the
neighbours might say or that they would
not have access to music festivals, but by
logic and a detached assessment of risk.
A child’s response to Sars-CoV-2 is
different from that of an elderly adult.
With 95 per cent of the deceased having
at least one pre-existing medical
condition, and 95 per cent of the over-
65s now having antibodies, we should be
talking about protecting the frail, not
debating jabbing healthy kids.
What keeps me awake at night is that
we have no idea of the medium or long-
term effects of Covid-19 vaccines on
neurology, fertility, immune systems or
carcinogenesis because of the short
duration of the phase 3 safety trials,
which won’t have run their full course
until 2023.
As an entirely new technology that
bears no resemblance to traditional
vaccination methods but instead
employs either mRNA or viral vector
If side effects
emerge, uptake
of all vaccines
could be
damaged
DNA, which have had limited or no
previous use in humans, it is a leap into
the unknown. It could be fine, but
whereas a vaccine with no long-term
safety data may be worth taking if you
are 80, it is not if you are eight.
Manufacturers have been granted
exemption from liability for any
resulting harm. Ruud Dobber, a member
of AstraZeneca’s senior executive team,
said: “This is a unique situation where
we as a company simply cannot take the
risk if in ... four years the vaccine is
showing side effects.” (The government
has taken on the liability and has an
insurance scheme in place.)
So it’s OK for manufacturers to be
worried about the significant financial
risk from legal claims, but not for adults
to worry about the risks to children? If
any are harmed by these jabs, the
reverberations could damage vaccine
uptake of all varieties for decades.
Some believe children must get a shot
to protect adults (though transmission is
dramatically reduced, one can still
transmit the virus after receiving the
vaccine). If, as a species, we have
reversed the evolutionary instinct that
adults protect children, rather than vice
versa, humanity is doomed. This is to
admit that you will potentially sacrifice
your child’s health to save an adult. I
would call that criminal neglect.
Even without vaccines, there is
growing evidence that children do not
play a significant role in transmission to
adults. Teachers are no more likely to
contract Covid than other professions.
Child-to-adult infection rates were
practically zero in school studies across
Norway, America and Australia. In fact,
families with young children have been
proven to experience lower rates of
Sars-CoV-2 infection.
A petition has been launched urging
the government not to vaccinate
children until phase 3 trials have run
their course and peer-reviewed safety
data is complete. It is creeping towards
the 100,000 signatures required to be
considered for debate in parliament.
MPs should decide now that children
must be left well alone. It is safer to wait.
Beverley Turner is a radio presenter and
co-host of the podcast As Good as It Gets?
22 The Sunday Times June 13, 2021

COMMENT

Robert Colvile
Freewheeling Johnson will spoil his G7 afterglow
unless he shows Brexit Britain can be trusted

T
he G7 is one of those strange
things that exists because it
exists. Every year, pandemics
permitting, the leaders of a
slightly miscellaneous group of
countries — not quite the richest
or the largest or the most
democratic, but pretty close on
all three counts — get together to solve
the world’s problems. Their wives (and
nowadays even some husbands) get a
separate little outing, the modern
equivalent of leaving the menfolk to
chew the fat over port and cigars. There
is plenty of awkward small talk and a
profusion of awkward photo ops. If the
press is lucky, there may be a fight.
All of which makes Britain a perfect
host for this year’s summit. We lead the
world in things that exist because they
exist — institutions that you’d never
invent today but that stick around
because they’re already here. Like the
royal family. And the Labour Party. And,
you might say, our status as a global
power.
Unkind? Perhaps. But this is one of
the two lines of attack made by the
Brexit sceptics. The first is that the vote
was about turning inwards — closing our
borders, cutting overseas aid,
prioritising hoarded sovereignty over
pooled prosperity. The second accepts
(rightly) that we are not in fact retreating
from the world but still sees “global
Britain” as a blustering exercise in
imperialist nostalgia, the diplomatic
equivalent of the middle-aged man who
buys a sports car after splitting up with
his wife but loses the house.
In fact, those in charge of Britain’s
foreign policy have a rather more
convincing case. Their big strategic bet is
that diplomacy is starting to look like the
real world. In the old days you might
hang out with the same friends every
day, a rigidly defined group that dressed
the same, talked the same and listened
to the same bands. But now you’re more
likely to have friends from work, friends
from school, friends you play five-a-side
with and friends you made online who
like the same TV show. Some of these
groups will overlap; others won’t.
In other words, they think the world is
not about blocs but about coalitions.
Britain can stand with Nato on security
and with the “D10” (the G7 plus
Australia, India and South Korea) on
containing China. It can host a global
conference on climate but work with
New Zealand on sustainability and
resilience. It can build bridges and strike
deals with old friends such as Australia
and Canada. It can apply for
membership of a pan-Pacific trade
group, the CPTPP, because that is where
the action is. And of course it can, and
must, co-operate with the European
Union on a whole host of areas.
At the heart of this strategy,
inevitably, is the personality of the
prime minister, the freewheeling Boris
Johnson. His vision of Brexit is not about
bringing it all back home. It is about
dancing with multiple partners, about
chancing your arm in the belief that
you’ll succeed more often than not.
It is also an implicit rebuke to the EU.
On the economy as well as diplomacy,
the Brexit gamble is that we can position
ourselves to take maximum advantage of
future opportunities; that we are better
off dining à la carte than from the set
menu. When an exciting technology
emerges, we can be ushering
entrepreneurs through the door while
the EU is still arguing over the
membership of the relevant sub-
committee. The vaccine programme
stands as the first great proof of this.
The EU, by contrast, is built on the
idea of strength in numbers. But the
problem with “all for one and one for
all” is that all the ones increasingly want
different things. The bloc does remain
Nobody forced
us to sign the
protocol. If we
set it aside, our
partners will ask
what other deals
we will break
formidably united on trade. But on
Russia, on China, on human rights and
on tech, Europe’s performance has been
frankly pitiful. And in economic terms it
is increasingly living on past glories. As
The Economist recently pointed out, of
the 43 firms worth more than
$100 billion established in the past
half-century, only one is from mainland
Europe.
The great challenge of Brexit Britain
to the EU is therefore not so much
financial as philosophical — or even
theological. What if we end up showing
that fluid can be better than rigid? That
even without the weight of the EU
behind it, Britain can still get things
done; indeed, that we can actually get
more done? What if it is better to be a
solo act in small stadiums than part of
the chorus — especially when no one can
agree on what they’re meant to be
singing?
While this is a convincing argument,
there is one essential problem. Britain’s
new strategy still requires the trust of its
partners. Or, to put it another way, it’s all
very well to play the diplomatic field, but
you have to remember that your
conquests do compare notes.
Joe Biden, for example, considers
himself Irish. His friendship with Irish
leaders is not merely political but
personal and long-standing. Tony
Blinken, his secretary of state, was
raised in Paris and speaks impeccable
French. They are not likely to take
Britain’s side in its disputes with the EU
purely on our say-so.
That is one reason the Northern
Ireland protocol has become such a
tough problem. The EU is living down to
its reputation as an inflexible,
bureaucratic superstate by imposing the
harshest possible interpretation of the
protocol’s terms. It is indeed appalling
that (to give one example) we may soon
face grave difficulties in selling sausages
made in the UK in another part of the
UK. Tensions are being inflamed in a
country with a grim history of sectarian
violence. But set against this is a very
simple argument. Britain signed the
protocol. Nobody forced us to. It may be
dysfunctional. But if we set it aside
unilaterally, our international partners
would be entitled to ask what other deals
we might break.
There is unlikely to be a stand-up row
on this subject at this weekend’s summit,
not least because the prime minister will
be keen not to poop his own party. But
he urgently needs to find a way to
resolve the situation without
disappointing either his supporters at
home or his allies abroad. Because if too
many other countries end up concluding
that they can’t trust us, global Britain
may start to look less like the cool new
kid on the international dancefloor and
more like the oldest swinger in town.
@RColvile

LETTERS BIRTHDAYS POINTS

The Sunday Times,
1 London Bridge Street,
London SE1 9GF

TO THE EDITOR
Email: letters@ Kathy Burke, actress, 57
sunday-times.co.uk Dame Sarah Connolly,
mezzo-soprano, 58
Alan Hansen, footballer, 66
Friend in high places Elective amnesia
Your article about Matthew Chris Payne says Ed
Perry made his ventures Miliband’s north London
other than Friends seem lifestyle may have

China’s Covid yarn Cigarette caper

Barber’s article was a
disgusting glamorisation of a
Peter Scudamore, jockey, 63
Stellan Skarsgård, actor, 70
Sir Andreas Whittam Smith,
failures (News Review, last
week). It didn’t mention my
film The Whole Nine Yards, in
contributed to the loss of red
wall seats (Letters, last week).
It would seem those voters

is a likely story deadly habit — and I loved it. I

Regarding the origin of
Covid (“Stifling debate on the
virus makes another one
more likely”, Comment, last
week), here’s a scenario to
consider. Let’s say a new virus
emerges in Dorset. Boris
Johnson goes to
extraordinary lengths to stifle
any news about it but the
outbreak cannot be contained
and rips through the world,
claiming millions of lives.
The government clears its
throat and announces that,
while the geographical centre
of the outbreak may appear
to be at Porton Down, its
origin was in fact just down
the road at a clearly dodgy
farmers’ market.
I wonder, would that be
widely believed?
Will Bridge, Bath
Improbable cause
I do not know if the virus
originated in a lab or in a wet
market, but I would pose two
questions: how many labs are
there in China like the Wuhan
Institute of Virology? And
how many wet markets like
the Huanan Seafood
Wholesale Market? I would
hazard a guess that the
answers are, respectively,
“not many” and “hundreds,
even thousands”.
Surely the chances of an
outbreak of the virus in the
very same city as there is a
virus lab are extremely slim.
Steve Coltman, Loughborough
millions and take years, and,
thanks to published
investigations (including your
own), we already know about
our government’s delays,
mistakes and misjudgments.
The only public inquiry I
would like to see is a Chinese
one — and, no, I’m not
holding my breath.
David Griffiths, Cheltenham
Jab hits the mark
Congratulations to Camilla
Long on her article “Holidays
are out for the rest of us,
but that won’t stop Johnson’s
pals jetting in” (Comment,
last week).
Our government boasts
about its vaccination success
but apparently does not have
the confidence to let those of
us who have had the two jabs
take advantage of them.
Hugh Ball, Eastbourne
Self-fulfilling paranoia
Tony Blair creeps out of his
box to revive his ID card
obsession (“Give vaccinated a
travel pass: Blair”, News, last
week).
Why? In a few months we’ll
all be vaccinated bar a
minuscule number with
foolish, paranoid objections.
Putting pressure on those
folk to get vaccinated can
produce the nocebo effect.
The placebo effect’s evil twin,
this comes into play when
someone is forced into a
procedure that they believe
Lynn Barber wrote of the camaraderie of smoking areas
Let’s stub out the
smoking myths
Lynn Barber (News Review,
last week) perpetuates the
myth that smokers have all
the fun and non-smokers are
pitiable bores. On the
contrary: deluded smokers
My God does not
want suffering
I join Lord Carey and Rabbi
Romain in calling for an
assisted dying law (News, last
week). Life is God’s gift, but
many progressive Muslims
like me believe we are also
autonomous agents with
control over the decisions
that shape our life and death.
In a highly medicalised
society, where life can be
prolonged but its quality may
not be maintained at the end,
there must be choice if
someone is terminally ill. Is it
God’s will to inflict suffering
upon people in the final
phases of their lives?
are the sanctimonious bores,
led by the wearisome David
Hockney and his smoking
crusade.
She describes the cages in
airports as the worst smoking
zones, calling them “pretty
disgusting”. In fact smoking
anywhere is pretty disgusting.
Adrian Brodkin, London N2
Stepping stone
As a person of faith, I believe
in a compassionate God who
never intended humans to
suffer long, distressing
deaths. We shouldn’t always
see death as a failure, when
we believe we are going to a
better place.
Ann Wills, Ruislip, London
Final frontier
Laws, like nation states, are
more secure when they have
natural frontiers. The law we
have now rests on just such a
frontier — the principle that
we should not involve
ourselves in deliberately
bringing about the deaths of
others. Once exceptions are
made, the boundary becomes
smoked for 40 years on and
off and always had great
times. The best was a flight —
or should I say party — on the
two back rows of a jumbo to
Sydney in about 1994. It was
free booze and 15 hours of fun
with people I had never met
before then. Good times.
Chris Payne, Cowbridge, Vale
of Glamorgan
Skew whiff
I care not one iota if Barber
wishes to kipper herself with
cigarettes, but surely — as the
ban imposed by five northern
councils suggests — people
are entitled to eat outdoors
without smoke wafting over
them. The ban can’t come
south soon enough.
Lin Wells, Chelmsford
William will not
sway nationalists
How out of touch the Palace
is! You report that courtiers
are planning for the Duke and
Duchess of Cambridge to
spend more time in Scotland
to “save the Union” (News,
last week). Most of those who
came out to kowtow to
William and Catherine on
their recent visit were not
SNP supporters; in fact, many
Scots see the royal family as
an English symbol of privilege
and entitlement.
Graham Smith, Falkirk
Them and us
This is a mistake, a bad one,
newspaper editor, 84
Alan Hansen is 66 today
ANNIVERSARIES
1842 Victoria is first British
monarch to travel by train
1964 Nelson Mandela
arrives on Robben Island to
begin life sentence
1981 A 17-year-old is
arrested after firing six
blanks at the Queen during
Trooping the Colour
interfering in politics, siding
against the SNP. This puts its
future at risk in both
countries.
And it’s poorly
implemented if, as proposed,
William takes up residence at
Balmoral. This would simply
emphasise how disconnected
the monarchy is from
ordinary voters in Scotland.
For the plan to have a
chance, he should be in
Edinburgh, with his children
educated there.
Bill Sheldon, Sliema, Malta
Holyrood awakening
Do they take us for complete
fools, who will change our
political views because two
privileged (albeit decent)
which Matthew starred
opposite Bruce Willis. It was
No 1 at the US box office, and
Matthew was very creative
and very funny.
Jonathan Lynn
Locust Valley, New York
Oaterly appalled
I have bought Scott’s Porage
Oats for many years, not only
because of the quality but
because of the hunky
Scotsman on the front of the
box. In my local Waitrose
today I was dismayed to see
its rebrand: gone is the alpha
male with the sexy nugget
smile, replaced by a strange
millennial with no pecs. I am
outraged.
Johanna Seccombe
London SW19
Happy ending
Having had more than 300
short stories published in
women’s magazines, I gather
Jeanette Winterson includes
my work in her snobbish
phrase “wimmins fiction of
the worst kind” (News, last
week). I console myself by
thinking that if, over the past
awful year, I have made just
one anxious, lonely woman
(or man) smile, my career will
have been worthwhile,
despite Winterson’s derision.
Barbara Dynes, Poole
Pay up
You report that the retail and
hospitality sectors cannot
recruit enough staff. There is
a capitalist solution to this.
Pay higher wages.
Rich Morrall, Walsall
much prefer a party led by an
Eton-educated reprobate,
whose latest shameless act is
to award a peerage to a
former party treasurer for
donating half a million
pounds to party funds. Just
the sort of levelling-up
gesture appreciated up north.
David Middlemiss
Beverley, East Yorkshire
Smart money
The minister contemplating a
return to imperial measures
(News in Brief, last week)
should think more
ambitiously. What about a
return to imperial currency?
It would give children an
excellent grounding in
arithmetic through
calculating in base 4
(farthings), base 12 (pennies)
and base 20 (shillings) as well
as base 10 (pounds).
Gilbert MacKay
Newton Mearns, East
Renfrewshire
Looking after No 1
I see that a new female urinal,
the Peequal, was unveiled in
the Bristol Comedy Garden
(News, last week). Wouldn’t
Looe or Leek have been
better?
Stan Labovitch, Windsor
Letters should arrive by noon
on Thursday and include the
full address and a phone
number. We may edit letters,
which must be exclusive to
The Sunday Times

Foregone conclusion
Must we have a public inquiry
into Covid-19? It will cost
We’re losing the
National Trust
You report on the battles
within the National Trust (“A
terribly stately firefight”,
News Review, last week). My
constituency’s market town
of Ashby-de-la-Zouch is the
furthest town from the sea:
we are quintessentially
middle England. Thousands
of my constituents visit the
trust’s sites and volunteer
their time to support it.
They are the sort of people
more likely to proudly sing
the national anthem than
will harm them: the nocebo
effect will ensure it does.
Barry Tighe
Woodford Green, London
take down portraits of Her
Majesty. For them the trust is
a celebration of our past, not
a vehicle for the woke agenda.
They sadly regard the trust
as an old friend who has lost
their way and become distant
from them. I hope they can
regain trust in our much-loved
national institution soon, but
that will require a reversion
to its original purpose.
Andrew Bridgen, MP for
North West Leicestershire
Context is all
As a middle-aged, middle-
class white man with a strong
interest in history, I want to
Taj Hargey, Provost of the
Oxford Institute of British
Islam and Imam of the Oxford
Muslim Congregation
know about links to slavery. A
recent visit to Bath left me in
awe of the architecture but
uncomfortable that it was
built on the proceeds of sugar
plantations. That explosion in
wealth which helped to build
our country houses — many
now run by the National Trust
— needs to be discussed.
What I don’t want is to
have this rammed down
people’s throats as the only
factor that matters. It needs
to be put into historical
context. That’s where the
trust is falling down.
Chris Godsmark
Tunbridge Wells
just a line in the sand, easily
crossed. We should be careful
what we wish for.
Robert Preston, St Albans
Kept from the Woolfs’ door
The hundreds of curators
sacked by the National Trust
are not the only victims of its
Covid cull. Opening hours of
smaller properties have been
slashed. Monk’s House, once
home to Virginia and Leonard
Woolf, is now open to only
those who can visit on a
Wednesday or Thursday. The
opposition group Restore
Trust might consider whether
the trust is breaching the
terms of the endowments
under which these properties
were donated to it.
Jane Bramwell
Saltdean, Brighton
and, worse still, it’s poorly
implemented.
It’s a mistake because the
monarchy is directly
Our society’s an
emotional wreck
I couldn’t agree more with
Jeremy Clarkson (News
Review, last week).
Selfishness, self-obsession
and public emoting are
turning society infantile.
I had to switch off the news
today in exasperation when a
person gave as their reason
for refusing to have the Covid
jab that there would be no
compensation if she were to
have an adverse reaction to it.
There was no gratitude to the
taxpayers who funded the
so-called royals come to stay
in a palace in Edinburgh now
and then?
Ian Kinghorn, Edinburgh
vaccine or the NHS that
offered it free of charge — and
would treat her, also free, if
she became ill.
Frances Dobson, Dundee
Empty feeling
I disagree that “bottling it all
up” has never done Clarkson
any harm. It has left him with
not one shred of empathy
with people who suffer from
mental health problems. On
the plus side, it has given him
a superhuman power to
determine, with no medical
training, that half of such
people are merely “unhappy”.
Jerry Green, Cranage, Cheshire
Population delusion
Dominic Lawson mocks
concerns about
overpopulation as a kind of
Malthusian paranoia, on the
grounds that we have not yet
gone over the edge
(Comment, last week). He is
like the man who observes
that he has woken up alive
every morning so far and
concludes he is immortal.
Tim Haigh, Hounslow
Charge of the bike brigade
If electrically powered cars
are considered to be
motorcars, why are
electrically powered bikes not
considered to be motorbikes
— with all the legal
requirements that entails?
Alan Brooks
Eaglesham, Glasgow
CORRECTIONS &
CLARIFICATIONS
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inaccuracies in all sections of
The Sunday Times should be
addressed to complaints@
sunday-times.co.uk or
Complaints, The Sunday
Times, 1 London Bridge
Street, London SE1 9GF.
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Independent Press Standards
Organisation (Ipso) will
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about editorial content in
UK newspapers and
magazines. Please go to our
website for full details of how
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JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE

Our Justice for Families
campaign has been focusing
on parents who have had
their children taken away
after wrongful accusations of
physical abuse. A sense of
“there but for the grace of
God” was palpable in
commenters such as
Harbass: “My blood ran cold
when I read this. Would my
elder son have been taken
from me when I (wrongly)
thought that he had taken
some of the tranquillisers that
I had been prescribed? Thank
goodness he was born in the
Sixties.” One of the virtues of
the ST comments boards is
that inside knowledge is
rarely far away. Gladys
wrote: “As a court-appointed
child psychologist, I am
overwhelmed with post-
lockdown referrals. Many of
my current cases have been
‘known to’ social services for
years. Often action is delayed
by inexperienced social
workers who are intimidated
by hostile parents, often with
significant criminal records.”
Elsewhere in news, the
divorce lawyer Ayesha Vardag
suggested we take a more
“French” approach to marital
infidelity. NameChanged
toavoidaggravation spoke
for many: “Having an affair
means a basic level of
contempt for your spouse.
There is no way back from
that.” JS saw a bigger
problem: “If you look at
marriage logically, it’s an
absolute impossibility”,
drawing a response that must
have given one Yorkshireman
Your comments from
thesundaytimes.co.uk READERS’ POLL
a warm glow: “I certainly “Almost the perfect front- Last week we asked:
never wanted anything about page story for a Sunday: Should assisted dying be legalised in the UK?
the Lad to change,” said utterly fascinating and also
Yorkshire lass, “and 26
years later I still don’t.”
very sad.” Richard
Chisholm provided the YES NO
Finally, to our account of
how the newspaper magnate
schoolboy humour: “As an
eccentric, this fellow takes a
88% 12%
Brendan Bracken passed lot of beating.” “I see what From a poll of 6,099 Times and Sunday Times readers
himself off as a prematurely you did there!” sniggered
aged schoolboy, apparently Paul Goulding. So did we, This week’s question:
to have himself beaten. Paul. So did we. Should dogs be allowed in shops?
Fastandlouche loved it: Rob Nash Have your say at sundaytimes co uk/poll
NEWS REVIEW
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021 23

NEWS REVIEW

HOW THE
Ministers are wading into debates over
trans rights, taking the knee and cricketers’
tweets. It’s all part of a vote-winning plot

TORIES
masterminded by Dougie Smith, the most
powerful man in politics you’ve never
heard of. Tim Shipman reports

WEAPONISED
O
W KE
liver Dowden is a pretty replacement for Gavin Wi Williamson as
sober sort of chap, so when education secretary. Smith is pressing
the culture secretary the case of Kemi Badenoch
Badenoch, the junior
tweeted last week that the equalities minister who grew g up in
England Cricket Board had Nigeria but who he has identifiediden as a
gone “over the top” by sus- culture warrior. “She fights his war on
pending 27-year-old bowler woke,” said a No 10 source.
Ollie Robinson from the Test Smith’s approach can lead le to ten-
team for a series of racist and sions, even with the prime prim minister.
sexist tweets made when he Insiders say Smith and Mirza’s Mir deter-
was 18, it raised some eyebrows in West- mination to set the PM up a as implaca-
minster. bly opposed to the righ right of trans
On Wednesday, Gavin Williamson pro- women to self-identify as women left
voked a social media storm by condemn- Johnson uneasy. “Bor “Boris worries
ing the decision by students at Magdalen that some of the rhetoric
rhetor on trans
College, Oxford, to remove a portrait of is just unkind, that it m mirrors the
the Queen from their middle common tone of some Tory stuff about
room. They said the monarch repre- gay people in the th 1980s.”
sented “recent colonial history”. The However Liz Truss,
Trus the cabi-
education secretary called the decision net minister responsible
r
“absurd”. for equalities, and Bade-
By Friday, Downing Street was noch did push through a
engaged in a standoff with the England ban on self-identification
self-ide
football team over whether Boris John- while announcing
anno a
son supported the decision of the players package to b boost other
to “take the knee” in the style of Black trans rights.
Lives Matter protesters. The same issueis has left
This was the week that the govern- Labour tied in knots. In a
ment weaponised the war on woke. message to supp support pride
To critics, these tactics smack of the events around Brita Britain Sir Keir
classic racist “dog whistle” that is heard Starmer issued a video on We Wednesday in
by voters of a certain stripe. In fact, they which he threw his party party’s support
are one of two key strategies by No 10 they would not teach Oriel students 58, is a graduate of St Andrews university Smith’s influence was also key to Dow- behind self-identification. Th This puts the
to convince working-class voters in the because the statue remains. and was a player in the notorious Federa- den’s decision in February not to keep party on the wrong side of a divisivedi issue
new swing seats in northern England that Perhaps naturally, Boris Johnson inter- tion of Conservative Students, which Aminul Hoque, a lecturer at Goldsmiths, with many of the voters they llost in 2019,
the government sees the world through vened when the statue of his great hero even Norman Tebbit thought was too University of London, on the board of something that apparently surprises
their eyes — and behind it lies the most Winston Churchill was boarded up in Par- right wing. He had a spell working for Sir Royal Museums Greenwich. Hoque, a Labour MPs. When Dawn Butler, a
powerful man in Britain you’ve never liament Square to stop it being defaced, a James Goldsmith, who set up the Refer- Bangladesh-born Briton, has advocated former shadow equalities minister,
heard of. move he branded “absurd and shame- endum Party to campaign for a public “decolonisation” of the curriculum and recently conducted a Twitter poll asking
Commenting on Dowden and William- ful”. Removing statues of controversial vote on leaving the EU. Then, in 2002, “liked” messages on Twitter from Labour whether people trusted Stonewall, Ston the
son, one government aide said: “They’re figures was “to lie about our history”, he after an ideological journey, Smith MPs critical of the government. gay-rights group which has been cam-
not blowing a dog whistle, it’s a Dougie said, arguing that the protests that fol- helped set up C-Change, a campaign “Dougie has Dowden on a string,” said paigning on self-identification,
self-identification or Truss,
whistle. We’re all culture warriors now.” lowed the death of George Floyd in the US group devoted to Tory modernisation a senior political source. “Dougie is 90,000 people voted and Trus Truss secured a
Dougie is Douglas Smith, a Tory fixer had been “hijacked by extremists”. In the same building was the modern- always calling up cabinet ministers and landslide win with 69.5 per cent. ce
for three decades who is married to If this looked like an impromptu ising think tank Policy Exchange, where saying: ‘This is what Boris wants.’ Hardly The enthusiasm with which whic the gov-
Munira Mirza, Johnson’s Downing Street response to live news, it was not. Smith Mirza, now 43, was working. The couple anyone questions it. He has his own ernment has pushed the war o on woke has
policy director. Together they are the was instrumental in urging Johnson to met and fell for each other. Theirs is agenda.” its dangers, however, even iin working-

S
power couple behind the war on woke. weigh in and he has continued to do so. reputed to remain one of the strongest class communities, where football is
A former cabinet minister who knows To govern is to choose and Smith’s marriages in politics. mith is presumed to take a salary king. Gillian Keegan, the Tory MP for Chi-
Smith well said: “He is pathologically approach, according to one who knows It was while Smith was at C-Change from Conservative campaign head- chester, on BBC Question Time on Thurs-
opposed to publicity.” His proximity to him well, is that there is an opportunity that The Sunday Times ran a headline quarters but he also has a Downing day suggested England footba footballers taking
power is perhaps surprising when you to realign British politics. “Westminster proclaiming “Top Tory aide is king of the Street pass. Sometimes he is not the knee before matches were wer “creating
learn he was previously best known for likes to bracket people as left and right,” urban swingers”, revealing his role in seen in No 10 from one week to the new divisions”. No 10 aides had h repeat-
running high-end swingers’ sex parties in they said, “but the real gap in the political hosting opulent orgies in London man- next. At other times, Smith is a regular edly refused to say whethe whether Johnson
the 1990s. market that Boris identified and has suc- sions for couples and single women, in fixture at the back of the morning meet- backed the gesture.
To win the minds of inhabitants of the cessfully filled is people who lean left on some cases personally selected by Smith. ing, clad in casual trousers and a sweater. By the next morning, Nadhim Nadh Zahawi,
“red wall” the prime minister talks about spending and public services but are cul- Smith believes previous Tory govern- “Sartorially, he is only two steps up from the vaccines minister, was tak taking a more
“levelling up”, pledging to deliver infra- turally conservative. A lot of the voters ments were negligent in failing to get Cummings,” said one No 10 aide. conciliatory approach, saying the players
structure, government jobs and opportu- who have turned to us care about their more Conservatives into key posts. Smith Smith and Mirza are also credited with were right to kneel if they wanted w to.
nity to communities who have felt country and their Queen and don’t like pays very close attention to appoint- securing a peerage for Claire Fox, a Brexit Later that day No 10 was forc forced to con-
neglected for years. The battle for their being told everyone is racist. They want ments to quangos and public bodies. He Party MEP who was friends with Mirza firm that Johnson wanted fan fans to “cheer
hearts is where Smith comes in. tolerance but they don’t like the way the pressed for months to see Sir Robbie when they were both members of the not boo” the team.
Largely unseen, and almost wholly trendy left overreacts to these issues.” Gibb, the former No 10 communications Revolutionary Communist Party. However squeamish, MPs insist that
unchecked, he is a key influence on Tory pollsters, even those who are not director, put on the board of the BBC, Smith also has a vice-like grip on the refusing to buy into the new o orthodoxies
issues such as race, trans rights and Clockwise from natural culture warriors, seem to agree. forcing it through despite a lack of enthu- Conservative candidates’ list, ensuring on race and identity is hel helping them
attacks on historic statues. He controls top left: Munira James Johnson, Theresa May’s former siasm from Johnson. “He kept putting new MPs elected in 2019 would be whole- amass votes. After Andrew Br Bridgen, the
access to the Conservative candidates’ Mirza and pollster, said: “I can understand being Robbie’s name on the list and Boris kept hearted supporters of Johnson. “You MP for North West Leic Leicestershire,
list, appointments to public bodies and Dougie Smith; frustrated if the government creates taking it off,” one aide have far more chance of being an MP if accused England footballers of pander-
even the House of Lords to reshape Brit- Marcus culture wars, especially for political gain. recalled. The plan you are an enthusiastic Brexiteer and you ing to the “Marxist” politics of Black Lives
ain in an image those red-wall voters will Rashford kneels But responding to things that to send Paul Dacre, are happy to get stuck into the culture Matter, he was contacted las last week by
find more congenial. for England; an happen that antagonise and the former editor war,” said one Tory aide. “We are creating Edleen John, diversity lead at tthe Football
Ambitious ministers like Dowden, who Oxford college create division is literally of the Daily Mail, a party in Dougie’s image.” Association, who said kneeling kneel had a
got to know Smith when they worked for removed a what politics is about.” to run broadcast- Smith’s world view is why Priti Patel, 200-year history and was not a political
David Cameron and who also oversees portrait of the While the prime minister is ing watchdog the child of immigrants taking a tough act. He wrote back saying his co constituents
appointments to cultural bodies, have Queen; and the frontman, Smith has oper- Ofcom is from line on asylum seekers, is home secre- associate itt wi
wwith
th “Marxist” polpolitics.
gone along for the ride. “He’s identified the statue of ated behind the scenes with the the same tary. Another key appointment at the Bridgen,
Bri
B
Brr dge
gen
ge n,, who o has
hass been
ha been campaigning
cam in
that one of the ways to get on in this gov- Edward Colston past four Tory prime ministers. playbook. next reshuffle will be a widely anticipated
anticip
c atate
at d h Batley
tthe
th t y & Spen by-election
Batle
Ba
ernment is to follow Dougie’s agenda on Smith, who friends say is 57 or Westt Yorks
in Wes
W Yorkshire, said:
this stuff,” a senior Tory observed. “Voters
“V
“Vo there hear that
ters ther
This campaign first burst to the surface they
the
th
h y are be beneficiaries
ER
last year when campaigners tore down PETE
BAK of white privilege.
AN /
the statue of the slave owner Edward Col- HER
NEM There’s
The
T
Thh re’s n not a lot of
SEL
RUS
ston in Bristol and Oxford students white pr privilege in
demanded the removal of Cecil Rhodes seats
eats like that.
sea
ea th It’s the
from Oriel College. The row continues: culture
ulture war a
cul
ul and on the
last week 150 academics in Oxford said doorstep
d
do
doo rstep we’re winning
win it.”

Banish the bottle! Bring on the greyformation

Lockdown has had a silver lining: brushes and wands and
touch-up sprays soared. We
women are going back to their roots spent hours glued to YouTube
how-to videos and learnt
and doing it in style, says Sarah Jossel high-maintenance techniques
example, colour menus now
list grey in the same category
as blue, green and pink.”
For Irwin, the language
around grey shades is so
much more uplifting. “It’s not
as one-dimensional. There’s a
much wider range of colours
within grey on offer which is
our appearances,” says
marketing executive Kate
Gilmore, 51, who is still
deciding whether to stop
colouring her hair. “We
slower and steadier route,”
explains Irwin. “Your stylist
will start by putting micro-
fine lighter pieces through
the hairline and the parting,
called Mother of Pearl is
set to be this summer’s
hottest hue.
Upkeep is not always easy
either. People often complain

S
hout it out loud: “GAP”.
Grey and proud. It’s the
colour mood of the
moment. Move aside
strawberry blondes and
chocolate brunettes. The
post-pandemic pantone
colour for hair is 50 shades of
grey.
“There has been an
incredible rise in women
embracing their natural greys
lately,” says Shona Bain,
signature colourist at Gielly
Green hairdresser in
Marylebone. “For a lot of
women, lockdown was the
perfect opportunity to finally
grow out that tint they’d been
having every six weeks. It’s
given people a chance to see
their natural colour, and most
of my clients who would have
wanted every white covered
are now happy to see greys.”
Celebrities are getting in on
the action too: Mary Berry,
86, has recently swapped her
golden bob for an icy-snow
blonde do. The actress
Tamsin Greig, 54, has given
up the bleach bottle and
Hollywood star Andie
MacDowell, 63, took to
Instagram to announce that
her kids persuaded her to
give her curls a silver-siren
makeover.
Things have come a long
way since lockdown began,
when we were hurled into
colour chaos. Our long-
standing safety blanket of
colour appointments was put
on the red list and sales of
at-home hair powders and
like root blotting, blending why I believe so many of my celebrate grey-haired men by which is where we tend to go that grey can look dull or dry.
and smudging. clients in their early forties calling them silver foxes but grey first.” The middle stage is “Avoid using silver shampoos
But by the latest lockdown, are opting for it.” women just get lumped in going more and more blonde. too often,” says Irwin. “They
something very different was It’s no secret that grey ‘granny grey’.” “Once you’re used to that, tend to strip hair and make it
emerging. Enter the era of traditionally held “old lady” But now women across the your stylist will carry on even drier.” Instead, build a
“statement grey” — a term connotations. “It’s learnt country have taken a adding lighter pieces.” hydrating haircare regime at
coined by Zoe Irwin, Wella behaviour to associate it with liberating “let it be!” The other option is the home. Wella Colour Fresh
Professionals’ colour trend ageing or not taking care of approach. “Life’s too short,” extreme makeover, Stars in Masks are brilliant for weekly
expert, in response to the rise says beauty industry PR Their Eyes style. “You go in conditioning and
of women choosing grey Actresses including Barbie Simpson, 45. “And the with a version of grey roots, brightening. For those who
rather than being stuck with Tamsin Greig, below, biggest revelation is that my mousy brown ends, warm are thinking of following in
it. “Women now want to have adopted the look husband doesn’t mind either copper tones — and six hours Berry’s footsteps, invest in
embrace their natural hair way.” Inessa Jones, 32, had later you walk out a silver Josh Wood’s Icy Blonde gloss
colour but they need to feel the lockdown epiphany that bombshell,” says Irwin. to neutralise any brassy tones
like it matches who they are “grey is in fact cool. I’m The latter is a bit like ripping that might crop up. The best
and the way they wear their young and I’m seeing it as a off a plaster. “Most of my haircare for perking up
clothes,” she says. power move. My long-term clients find it more rewarding dullness is Virtue's recovery
Irwin cites the model Erin relationship with hair colour and less effort,” says Irwin. shampoo and conditioner.
O’Connor, 43, as the perfect upkeep is officially over.” The spectrum is endless: The silver sirens of
example. The hair stylist For those on the fence, Grombre (ombre grey), lockdown look great, but this
Larry King adds: “It’s no note that the growing-out Gronde (blonde grey), not entirely natural brunette
longer seen as an ‘old’ colour. phase — the greyformation — Titanium, Sultry Steel, Lilac has missed her colourist far
It’s being treated more like a is rarely straightforward. “It’s Frost and, according to too much. Now, when can she
‘different’ colour For an issue if you want to go the Irwin a creamy silver shade squeeze me in
24
NEWS REVIEW
Why is Britain now the
capital of long Covid?
Compared with other nationalities, we seem especially prone to the lingering illness. Its
causes, symptoms and even existence leave medical opinion deeply divided, says Josh Glancy
I
n May 2020, Simone Benatti helped
set up what may well have been the
world’s first long Covid clinic. The
city of Bergamo, in Lombardy, had
been ground zero for the first wave
of the pandemic in Europe. Pic-
tures of swamped Italian hospitals
shocked the world. And, sure
enough, within a couple of months
doctors and researchers realised
that for many patients, surviving Cov-
id-19 was just the beginning. Patients
started returning with all manner of now-
familiar ailments, from organ damage to
less explicable symptoms such as chronic
fatigue, breathlessness and brain fog.
The Bergamo long Covid initiative ran
from May to December 2020. Then it
stopped. “In truth we didn’t have so
many numbers,” said Benatti, who is an
infectious disease consultant. “There’s
no doubt here in Italy we have the prob-
lem of long Covid, but it is not one of the
main topics on the public agenda. There
isn’t a large public health structure
devoted to this problem.”
The situation in Britain is very differ-
ent. In April, the NHS chief executive Sir
Simon Stevens promised to have 83 long
Covid clinics open by the end of the
month. The Office for National Statistics
has estimated that more than 1 million
people in Britain have had long Covid.
Danny Altmann, a professor of immunol-
ogy at Imperial College, London, esti-
mates that up to 20 per cent of Covid suf-
ferers could have longer symptoms;
many of them will be younger patients
who didn’t initially face severe illness.
It seems Britain is the long Covid capi-
tal of the world. This became immedi-
ately apparent to me upon moving back
here from the US last month. American
media has led much of the discussion on
long Covid, but fear of the syndrome
hasn’t penetrated public sentiment the
way it has in Britain, where many young
people are terrified of getting the virus
not because they fear it will kill them, but
because of the potentially debilitating aft-
er-effects.
The question is why? Is there more
long Covid here? And if so, for what rea-
son? Are we simply doing a better job of
diagnosing and discussing it, much as we
lead the world in using genomic sequen-
cing to find new Covid variants? Or might
there be other cultural and societal fac-
tors underpinning our pervasive long
Covid issue?
The answer could well be some combi-
nation of the above. The difficulty in
researching long Covid is that every
expert that you ask gives you a slightly dif-
ferent answer as to what the illness is and
what causes it.
“The simple answer is I don’t know
[what causes this] and nor does anybody
else,” says Dr Paul Harrison, head of
Oxford University’s Translational Neuro-
biology Group. “We have to start with
‘nobody knows’ and keep that uncer-
tainty — and therefore open-mindedness
— at the forefront of our approach.”
What we know for sure is that hun-
dreds of thousands of people are suffer-
ing daily with very real issues. Serena
Meljan, 45, is an English teacher in Leeds.
She caught Covid last March in the first
wave, now almost 16 months ago. Her
acute illness lasted three weeks, but she is
still battling long Covid. “I still can’t
breathe properly,” she says. “I can’t con-
centrate. My memory has gone.”
An amateur triathlete, Meljan fears her
athletic days may be over. “I think the
damage is permanent,” she says tearfully.
“It comes in waves. You think you’re bet-
ter, you find some energy and it hits you
Rage, rage
against the
dying of the
lightbulb
First they came for our
60Ws; now halogen
lights are to be banned
on efficiency grounds.
Will Self is incandescent
I
remember a time when, the old wooden table lamp
stumped for cash by beside my mattress so I could
reason of being acutely read before lights out. In the
workshy (although this morning I’d unscrew it and
was the 1980s, so I wasn’t take it with me to the kitchen.
the only slacker to be couch- One thing about poverty: it
surfing the zzzzeitgeist), I was teaches you to make your
down to my last incandescent own entertainment. I’d spend
lightbulb. My hand gloved in happy hours observing the
a sock, I’d decouple it from tiny T-shaped bit of tungsten
the length of flex that dangled in the glass-globed and pear-
in the dank bathroom of the shaped vacuum, marvelling
squat and then bayonet it into as it coruscated its way
again. I used to be so confident, now I’m
crying and depressed and exhausted all
the time."
Most experts draw a fairly clear dis-
tinction between patients suffering the
after-effects of severe Covid, who tend to
be older and have faced considerable The UK’s
physical trauma, and patients whose
Covid may have been milder or even chronic
undiagnosed, but are still facing months
of profound exhaustion, forgetfulness, fatigue
aches, loss of hair, extended loss of taste,
depression and difficulty breathing. This lobby
latter group tends to be younger and
female. In many of these cases, doctors has
are struggling to identify an organic basis
for their symptoms, which often tend to shaped
wax, wane and evolve.
“The problem is these things don’t get the
adequately separated from one another,”
says Dr Rubeshan Perumal, a pulmonolo- debate
gist at the University of Cape Town.
“Because we’ve put all of these groups on long
together, it has become difficult for any
two doctors to agree on what is happen- Covid
ing and what the best way forward is.”
At the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape
Town, Perumal helps run what he
believes is South Africa’s only dedicated
long Covid clinic. As a result he gets much
of his data from the UK, where there is a
far deeper body of research available.
He describes long Covid as a “growing
concern” in South Africa, but not yet
towards entropy, while
basking in its warm,
wholesome light.
Yes, with an incandescent
bulb — especially one
containing a soupçon of
halogen — there’s a very
particular quality of
luminescence. You might
even say: as the candle is to
the gas jet, so the
incandescent bulb is to its
hateful successor, the light-
emitting diode, or LED. Those
of us who grew up in the
1960s and 1970s still have
memories of evenings when
the power was cut and our
parents were freaking out
about the end of civilisation
as they knew it — while we
basked in the buttery glow of
candlelight. In those far-off
days lightbulbs seemed to
provide pretty unforgiving
illumination — but how wrong
we were! As, throughout the
1980s, the world outside
began to grow brighter and
brighter in a fluorescent
frenzy, so our
60W interiors became
dimmer and cosier.
Damn it, if an incandescent
lightbulb was good enough
for Marilyn Monroe to put on
her make-up by, then it was
good enough for the rest of
us. (Indeed, arguably Monroe
was the representative
DAMIEN MEYER / PETE BAKER
comparable to Britain, quite possibly y On the front lines, one issue doctors
because of differences in how the two
societies approach illness.
“Contextual factors play into health-
seeking behaviour,” he says. “Some socie-
ties are better able to provide a platform
for people to express their difficulty in
recovering from Covid. It may be easier
to express your difficulties in recovering
[in Britain].”
In Lombardy, Benatti also believes that
contextual factors may be accounting for
some of the variation. “It’s possible that
in Italian culture it is more difficult to
believe someone who is not evidently ill:
we are more likely to suppose they are
malingering,” he says.
“Many of these symptoms are very
subjective in nature so it’s an act of faith
that the doctor must take, believing those
patients who actually look normal, but
have such huge fatigue that they can’t
even go to work.”
In other words, could some cases be
rooted in the mind?
Some in the psychiatric community
view long Covid as being primarily rooted
in mental health. “It’s psychosomatic,”
says Jeremy Devine, a resident psychia-
trist at McMaster University in Ontario,
Canada. In March, he wrote a controver-
sial column for The Wall Street Journal,
arguing that long Covid was being incor-
rectly used as a catch-all for a whole host
beauty of the incandescent
era, her skin seemingly
sheathed in a sort of silvery
halo reminiscent of a
lightbulb’s frosting.) But the
time came when I grew to be
a proper middle-class man,
with a proper middle-class
home and a proper middle-
class family — and this
coincided with the LEDs
having landed.
My first encounter with the
ghastly things came in the
form of the GU10. Yes — you
all know what I’m talking
about: those little LED bulbs
shaped like the bell of a duff
trumpet that throughout the
early 2000s came to stud in
huge numbers the kitchen
ceilings of the British
bourgeoisie. Thing is, as with
so many gimcrack gentrifiers,
we grafted our GU10 lighting
onto antediluvian wiring, so
that far from giving us the
acme of energy efficiency,
they blew out with the
rapidity of the flashbulbs at
one of Monroe’s press
conferences. Yes, while the
British army was struggling to
contain the situation in Basra
and southern Iraq, thereby
bringing to this benighted
realm the Light of Reason, I
was teetering on a dining-
room chair as I struggled to
replace LED after LED
of ailments and issues, many of them psy-
chological. There was a fierce backlash,
with several UK-based patient groups
writing furious letters to his supervisors.
Devine doesn’t deny that there are
organic after-effects from Covid. But he
believes that most of the less diagnosable
long Covid complaints are driven by the
mind and the broader context of isola-
tion, grief and fear, as well as the medical-
isation of daily life that has come with the
pandemic.
“I don’t think people are overtly malin-
gering,” he says. “I do think they fall into a
cycle of disability and it stems maybe
from this subconscious desire to be sick
in some cases, maybe just a belief that
they are sick rooted in depression and
anxiety.”
This is where the long Covid debate
enters highly contested and fractious ter-
ritory, striking at the heart of the “mind v
body” debate that has consumed physi-
cians since the dawn of medicine.
Devine thinks that the root of the UK’s
long Covid abundance is in the fierce
debate over myalgic encephalomyelitis/
chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).
“The reason this is so prevalent in the UK
is because of the chronic fatigue lobby,”
he says. “They have shaped the discourse
on long Covid. You guys are the origin.”
Most experts I spoke to diverged from
Devine’s uncompromising approach.
Perumal says: “I don’t think it is help-
ful to discount all of the experiences of
long Covid by attributing them to psycho-
somatic origins. We may miss important
medical conditions — people may be lost
to the system if we attribute their suffer-
ings to psychosomatic experiences.”
Elaine Maxwell, who has led the
National Institute for Health Research’s
work on long Covid, thinks the more psy-
chosomatic approach could be actively
harmful. “I’m not ruling out the possibil-
ity that some people have health anxiety,
but I think it’s a minority and shouldn’t
be the default starting point,” she says.
As the typical long Covid sufferer is
a working-age woman, Maxwell also
believes there is “plenty of gender
stereotyping” going on, with long Covid
being depicted as a “hysterical” women’s
disease.
are facing is that in the absence of any
physical or organic evidence of illness,
with blood work, lung and brain scans
often coming up clear, sometimes a
psychological treatment is the only obvi-
ous resort.
“The conflation of all the psychologi-
cal issues plus all these bizarre symptoms
is really difficult,” says one leading con-
sultant at a long Covid clinic in London.
“For a significant number of patients, the
psychological driver is really strong. Anx-
iety and depression are much more com-
mon in Covid survivors.”
Many patients are becoming increas-
ingly frustrated with doctors telling them
their symptoms could be at least partly
driven by psychological factors.
“A lot of people feel like they aren’t
being listened to,” says the consultant.
“It’s very difficult to reassure these
patients because they’re getting a lot of
mixed messages.”
As the pandemic wanes, the long
Covid consultant believes for many this
issue may end up fizzling out. But those
patients who remain are likely to be in the
system for a long time, at significant cost.
“They will need a lot of input from physi-
otherapists, psychiatrists and so forth,”
says the consultant. “Those who con-
tinue to struggle with this are likely to
struggle for a long time.”
The whole point of these
new-style bulbs is that they’re
meant to be more energy-
efficient, but my own life
experience tells me that there
can be no end to the blind,
insensate groping of humans
toward maximum
enlightenment. So, more
energy efficiency simply
means more lighting.
If the government is
insisting on phasing out
incandescent lightbulbs, why
doesn’t it ban candles as well
— and flaming brands, for that
matter? I can see a future in
which the entire dirtball is lit
up by LEDs — so many of
them that it’s as if the planet
has become a star blazing in
the heavens.
Perhaps that’s the real aim
of the Pecksniffs who’ve
popped our bulbs — they
insist on something called
“sustainability”, but really it’s
a scintillating progress
they’re after: the cold bluish
light of their own moral
rectitude.
They can carry on into the
future without me — I’m
stopping here with my illegal
60W incandescent bulb and
my failing eyesight in happy,
underlit obscurity.
Will, by Will Self, is published
by Penguin at £9 99
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021
Ditch the
apps, here’s
how to date
in real life
If you’ve had enough of online dating
don’t despair, you can still meet the
old-fashioned way. Vogue dating
columnist Annie Lord shares her tips
'N
ope, that’s it, I’m
sorry, I can’t do this
any more,” screamed
my housemate Grace
as she collapsed on
the sofa and lobbed her
phone to the other side of it.
She’d just returned from
another unsuccessful Hinge
date. I suggested she maybe
should have known this guy
wasn’t going to be up to much
given that on his profile he
had listed Proust under the
heading “Simple Pleasures”.
That’s the problem with
dating apps: you see some
decent cheekbones and
pretend to yourself that they
might actually be able to hold
a conversation. Had either of
these men approached us in
the wild, we wouldn’t have
wasted weeks messaging
them in the ad breaks of Line
of Duty. We would have done
the classic “would love to
chat but, sadly, I have a
boyfriend” and been done
with it.
Apps revolutionised dating
— and, let’s be honest, hot
hook-ups — but we are falling
out of love with them.
According to the research
agency Fullscreen, 61 per
cent of 18 to 34-year-olds
would now rather remain
single than rely on apps to get
dates. Last week Matt
Hancock, the health
secretary, piped up in
support of a new Hinge
feature where you can list
whether or not you’ve been
vaccinated. Antivaxers are
going to start messaging you
to chat about their
coronavirus conspiracy
theories. It really is time to
log off.
Problem is, these days
meeting someone IRL — in
real life — sounds like
something from The Lord of
the Rings. It happened to a
mate of mine recently. Her
friends surrounded her, jaws
on the floor. “He just came
over and ... spoke to you?”
Covid restrictions are
hardly helping. In the pub,
you can’t mingle away from
your allocated table. You
have to put a mask on every
time you stand up to visit the
loo. Chances for a meet-cute
of rom-com proportions are
limited. But let’s not get too
downhearted. There are
things you can do to raise
your chances of a hot, app-
free summer.
First of all, stop looking at
your phone. How’s that guy
sitting across from you at the
bar going to catch your eye
when you’re busy googling
what Rita Ora did before her
EE advert? Connections can
only be found when you’re
connected to the world.
I genuinely don’t think I’ve
ever been chatted up before
(I’m 26), unless you count
how men say “excuse me”
and then grope your hips as
they walk past on the way to
the bar. The #MeToo
movement has made men —
rightly — more cautious of the
way they approach women.
But guys, I don’t know any
woman who doesn’t want to
be approached. Just don’t say
creepy stuff like: “Your
boyfriend’s brave leaving you
out here alone.” Try talking to
us like normal human beings,
and if opening with a
compliment, pick something
specific such as “I like your
freckles”. Do not tell me I
have nice eyes because I just
won’t believe it.
Women, if you’re
approaching men, be a tinge
ruder than you usually are.
I’ve seen it work. My friend
Hannah responds to almost
everything men say with a
sarcastic “well, that was
interesting” and while I’m
there ready to apologise on
her behalf, they start visibly
salivating. Maybe it’s like
those bankers who enjoy
being dressed up in rubber
and humiliated by a specialist
because no one in their day-
to-day life ever disrespects
them.
A friend of mine made me
feel mildly sick the other day
when she started explaining
to me that the way to find
guys is by volunteering at
your local food bank.
“They’re hot and you know
they have good morals,” she
said. But surely it must be
worth getting your face out
there in as many different
places as possible. For one
thing, it’s much easier to start
a conversation when you
have a shared activity or sport
right in front of you to
reference. Say you’re at a
breadmaking course and you
Her friends’
jaws hit the
floor. ‘He just
came over
and ... spoke
to you?’
comment on how moist their
dough is. At tennis you ask
them for advice on that
backhand. Soon enough
you’ll be hitting more than
just a ball.
Months in isolation means
that, chances are, Sophia the
humanoid robot probably has
better social skills than you
right now. But you can mask
this reality by asking a
potential date lots of
questions and then bouncing
off their responses. Don’t
start thinking “what’s an
interesting provocative story I
can tell that will make me
sound cool?” because then
you’ll probably just end up
boring them with some tired
old anecdote about that
mountain you climbed in
South America six years ago.
No one enjoys being rejected.
But if you leave it ambiguous
as to whether you’re
approaching someone as a
friend, or something more,
then no one will realise it’s a
rejection if you get turned
down.
And remember, you’re not
the only one who has spent
the last year doing nothing
but rewatching Friends in
takeaway-stained tracksuit
bottoms. Their standards
have probably lowered too.
Happy (not appy) dating!
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021 25

NEWS REVIEW

I’m not a
ZED NELSON
an emergency use authorisation, so clini-
cal trials are not complete.”
This is not entirely unexpected. She
also has concerns about 5G radio signals.
“Since November I’ve been noticing
weird things happening in the clouds,

conspiracy
and also been noticing some strange
group consciousness in Manhattan,” she
observed in a YouTube video on the
“huge health hazard” of the 5G roll-out.
“I have reported on other people’s
concerns about 5G,” she says when I ask
her about it. Does she have concerns? “I

theorist.
don’t have enough information to know
one way or another, but that is the kind of
thing that traditional journalism needs to
investigate fully.” This is her standard
response: I am asking the questions that
you should be.
Perhaps she is right. Cover-ups do hap-

I’m asking
pen, and newspapers have been guilty of
missing stories they shouldn’t have. But
traditional journalism comes with checks
and balances, lawyers and editors who
push back against your theories and force
you to provide proof. I worry that Wolf is

important
in an echo chamber. O’Shea’s Twitter
feed suggests that he’s in there with her.
The couple met in 2014 when she was
receiving death threats “for defending
Palestinian human rights”, she says. “I
was advised to call a security consultant.
If you want more information, The New

questions
York Times has a piece about our wed-
ding.” The article describes O’Shea, the
chief executive of Striker Pierce Investi-
gations, as a disabled army veteran and
the son of a doughnut shop owner.
What does he actually do, I ask? There
is a prolonged silence on the line, then
she apologises. His clients have confiden-
After spreading outlandish theories tiality, “so I can’t say anything”, she says.
(O’Shea is in the room with her.)
about vaccines and 5G, the crusading

feminist Naomi Wolf has been chucked
off Twitter. She is in no mood to
backpedal, she tells Rosie Kinchen
INTERVIEW
W
olf has never been afraid to chal-
lenge conventional wisdom. It is
how she made her name. The
writer Sarah Ditum has sug-
gested, “perhaps it’s not that
Wolf is a feminist who’s degenerated into
conspiracism, but instead that she’s a
conspiracy theorist who happened to fall
into feminism first”. It certainly feels pre-
about vaccines at the time of her suspen- scient that the prologue to The Beauty
sion, she says, but a recording of her Myth includes the line: “This is not a con-

T
alking to Naomi Wolf is like walk-
ing through a blizzard. There is a
hail of opinion, a lot of bluster
and an occasional glimmer of
clear sky. Mostly though, it is
just very hard work.
Until quite recenty, Wolf was
a darling of the liberal left. Her
first book, The Beauty Myth, which was
published in 1990, is credited with kick-
starting feminism’s “third wave”. Since
then she has written another seven best-
sellers, served on Bill Clinton’s re-elec-
tion campaign in 1996 and as a consultant
for Al Gore in the late nineties. Lately,
though, things have taken a surprising
turn. Since March 2020 she has become a
crusader against lockdown restrictions,
mandatory masks and vaccine passports.
Last weekend she was suspended from
Twitter, cutting her off from her 140,000
followers amid rumours she was spread-
ing vaccine misinformation.
Speaking to me from a hotel in South
Dakota, it is clear that she is livid. “I think
this situation raises very important issues
about journalism and free speech,
because social media platforms have
become our agorae, it’s where people
have public discussions,” she says. “I
should be able to contest it or have space
to respond. I can’t, so it’s a challenge for
public discussion that Twitter isn’t
responsive. They can just hang up on
reading a press release from an Oregon
state senator called Kim Thatcher, who
wants to ban vaccine passports and com-
pulsory mask-wearing. She sends me the
video so I can check. But the day before,
she had posted a video of her husband,
Brian O’Shea, reading out the CV of Ralph
Baric, an epidemiologist with links to the
research lab in Wuhan. The video, which
is still on O’Shea’s Twitter feed, discloses
sums of money he has received from vari-
ous US agencies and the Gates Founda-
tion — as well as the somewhat troubling
disclaimer: “I haven’t verified if this is his
actual CV but am posting it FYI.”
I’m not clear what the relevance of this
is at first, but then, while discussing the
arguments for treating social media plat-
forms as publishers, out it pops.
“Anthony Fauci’s daughter works as a
software engineer for Twitter, so for me,
journalistically, there is a conflict of inter-
est. We can’t know that my posting is
something of public record, a piece of evi-
dence that is not great for enquiries into
Dr Fauci and the Wuhan labs.”
Does she really believe the daughter of
America’s chief medical adviser is
involved in her suspension? “No, I did not
say that. I don’t have any evidence of that.
But you and I know that journalistic eth-
ics . . . again they are not a publisher so it
doesn’t apply — but it raises the problem
with social media platforms that they
don’t have journalistic ethics preventing
conflict of interest.”
Myth, arguing that a man-made ideal of
female beauty has been used to under-
mine women.
Her next seven books, covering sub-
jects from the rise of fascism to sex, were
all bestsellers. There have been surprises
along the way. In 2011 she was arrested at
the Occupy Wall Street protests wearing
an evening dress; she was leaving an
awards ceremony and said she had
stopped to tell protesters about their
legal rights. In 2018, in the wake of the
#MeToo movement, she spoke out about
being raped, aged 7, by a male babysitter
— a fact she reminds me of at the very last
moment of our interview. “That was so
awful and so scary, that nothing much
scares me or upsets me,” she says.
Strangely, it is the only time, in the hour
and a half we talk, that she seems to relax.
America with O’Shea, a private detective
who rallies the troops on Twitter on her
behalf: “Wake up with grit, walk with it,
live with true grit when facing every foe
. . . Goodnight from Naomi and myself,
we are proud to be among all of you fight-
ing for freedom!” he posted last week.
She has identified a “fascistic atmos-
phere” in America and compared
Covid-19 restrictions to the Jim Crow
laws, which enforced racial segregation
in the south. “I wouldn’t say I’m on a
tour,” she says. “I’m driving across the
country with my husband. I have visited
at the request of the state representative
in Maine, and I spoke to 60 state legisla-
tors in Maine . . . I went to Michigan to tes-
tify at the request of state legislatures
there.” She lists a few other fixtures in
what is clearly a busy holiday calendar.
Wolf, a former
Rhodes scholar at
Oxford, has been
suspended from
Twitter for “spreading
vaccine myths”
says. She has “spoken to friends and
loved ones” and read A State of Fear by
the journalist and photographer Laura
Dodsworth about government powers
during the pandemic. “The rules, quote
unquote, are so draconian. There is so
much suffering in my view.” Does she
mean masks? “I’m not in Britain. The
[news] algorithms don’t feed me the
same that they would feed you,” she says,
but she has spoken to “member of parlia-
ment Claire Fox,” (actually in the Lords, a
former Brexit Party MEP and an ardent
spiracy theory; it doesn’t have to be.” But
a combination of sloppiness and defiance
has damaged her reputation over the
years. Questions had been raised over
her use of statistics as far back as the early
nineties, but in 2019, she gave an inter-
view to the BBC’s Matthew Sweet about
her latest book, Outrages, a study of the
criminalisation of same-sex relationships
in the Victorian era.
Wolf thought she had made a new dis-
covery — of “several dozens of execu-
tions” of men for sodomy. Sweet very
politely pointed out that she was basing
this on a misreading of a legal term,
“death recorded”, which did not mean
execution, but a pardon from the death
sentence. At first she was contrite, then
she pushed back, even as her US publish-
ers pulped the book.
She still bristles two years on. “There
isn’t a backlash against the book cur-
rently,” she snaps. A revised edition was
published last October. “It has been well
reviewed by a number of writers for the
LGBTQ press. I was interviewed by the
Stonewall National Archives and
Museum ... ” and on she goes. The Ama-
zon reviews tell a slightly different story.
“While waiting for it to arrive I did some
research — something it turns out the
author is famous for not doing,” says one.
The truth is that when it comes to her
following, it doesn’t seem to matter a
great deal either way. “Twitter has
de-platformed me, but my followers are

people.” She was not tweeting her views
‘Radicalised’: the young Wolf
This is the template for the rest of the
interview. I ask Wolf a question, she tee-
ters on the edge of saying something out-
landish, backtracks, bristles and then
reminds me of her credentials: “as a jour-
nalist”, “as a former political adviser”, as
a “former political spouse” (her first hus-
band, David Shipley, was a speech writer
for Bill Clinton) and round and round
we go.
There is no doubt that Naomi Wolf has
had an impressive career. The youngest
child of Leonard Wolf, a Romanian-
American poet and intellectual, she grad-
uated from Yale and went to Oxford as a
Rhodes scholar, saying that she was “rad-
icalised” by the “raw sexism, overt snob-
bery and casual antisemitism” she expe-
rienced there. Her plans to pursue a
doctorate ended when her tutor told her
it would be hard to defend her angry
polemical writing to the board of examin-
ers, so she left and wrote The Beauty
I
n recent years she has railed against
“the shoppers at Whole Foods and
drivers of hybrid cars, the educated
left, my people, [who] sat smugly at
home while the very pillars of Ameri-
can democracy were being systemati-
cally chipped away”. Today she is
increasingly out on a limb. Last week she
was the guest on a podcast hosted by the
former Donald Trump adviser Steve Ban-
non. “Look, I’m a progressive democrat,
I would be delighted to be talking to CNN
and MSNBC and publishing in The New
York Times like I used to, but those are
not the platforms that are calling me,
they aren’t the ones who want to talk
about rights and freedoms — those have
tended to be conservative.”
She has always been an activist, she
says, but these days her activism looks
very different. Her home is in New York,
but she is currently driving through
The pandemic is a crisis point in all
democracies, she believes. “We are in a
time that is terribly jeopardised, and I’m
going to say especially in Britain and
Canada right now.” Why Britain, I ask?
“Well, first of all Britain is an island,” she
The difficulty with
interviewing Wolf
is that she is
defensive to the
point of absurdity
libertarian). “She was very concerned
about restrictions on liberty. She talked
about parliament not gathering in person
and the effect on democratic process.
That is a very serious thing.”
The difficulty with interviewing Wolf is
that she is defensive to the point of
absurdity. She is not an antivaxer, she
says. “My focus has consistently been
against medical coercion and in favour of
personal choice.” Has she had the vac-
cine? “I think your question is not appro-
priate,” she replies. “It is a personal medi-
cal decision. I’m not going to tell you
what contraception I’m using.” OK, do
you think that people should have
Covid-19 vaccines? “It is entirely up to
individual people if they want to have any
medical procedure.” Deep breath. Does
she believe these vaccines are safe? “I
can’t know that. I’m not a doctor or an
epidemiologist. I am aware as most peo-
ple are that the vaccines are in use under
migrating wherever I am going. I have
had 20,000 visits to the website, I have
140,000 followers on Facebook, my
books are bestsellers, I am being offered
podcasts,” she says. Nor does she care if
they are Trump-loving Republicans or
antivaxers. “I am sure a lot of people sup-
port these freedoms that I personally
don’t vote alongside, but the constitution
is not partisan,” she says.
There is a lesson here for Twitter and
for society. Pushing Wolf off mainstream
platforms does not make her opinions or
her followers go away. If anything it
makes them more determined; and she
will carry on, burning masks and drafting
bills like a modern-day Boudicca, what-
ever the critics throw at her.
She is as defiant as ever. “I don’t like
bullies, I don’t like people trying to
threaten and intimidate women. I won’t
ever be quiet about it.” Defiant, and
exhausting.

Heard this? Y
ou may have missed Not all the tracks I listened
it, but music was to blew my mind. Retrofitting
reinvented last week. a song to fill a 3D
Some are calling it environment can just reveal
the biggest shift in the how weedy the original was.

Streaming way we listen since mono

became stereo more than 60
years ago.
It’s called “spatial audio”,
A bad song is still a bad song. I
know — I listened to the new
Maroon 5 album.
However, play a track filled

sounds
and we have Apple to thank with ideas, intricacy and
for introducing this to our clarity, and the results are
ears. Seeing as one Apple cinematic. I listened, as
innovation left us all with a U2 delighted as a man who had
album on our iTunes, I was just seen his first wheel, to

better in 3D wary. But then a man from

What Hi-Fi? said: “Sounds
will appear to be coming from
in front of you, the sides, rear,
even above.” Even someone
Apple’s ‘spatial audio’ is being who has never set foot in a
Richer Sounds listening
hailed as the biggest change room, like me, could not
resist.
in how we listen to music I started with a song I know
since stereo. Jonathan Dean well, Here Comes the Sun by
the Beatles, headphones on,
puts on his headphones sitting at my desk, phone in
hand, staring at a wall. OK, so
the opening acoustic riff is
going to a middle bit of my
left brain while, hang on,
those delicate early synths
are, somehow, in the bottom
right. George Harrison is
everywhere! I experience
layers harmonies probably a
bit of spit. Guitar to the left of
me, drum to the right,
everything as crisp as
Walkers. “Here comes the
sun, and I say . . .” It’s more
than all right — it made my
head feel bigger.
An apology if this sounds
like an ad for Apple and its
steaming service, Apple
Music, but this is an
important development. As
streaming has taken hold,
and sales of CDs have fallen
off a cliff, the biggest gripe
about the music we listen to is
how dreadful it sounds. You
can buy expensive
headphones, but streamed or
downloaded sound is so
compressed it can destroy
some songs This led the
From left:
St Vincent,
Lady Gaga,
Prince and
the Beatles
HOW TO GET SPATIAL AUDIO
l You’ll need a Mac, iPad or
iPhone — it is coming soon to
Android — and Apple Music,
from £9.99 a month with a
free three-month trial
l Make sure you have the
latest operating system
l Go to Settings or
Preferences and set Dolby
Atmos to always on
l Find a track with the ‘Dolby
Atmos’ logo and press Play
l Don’t put on Maroon 5
rocker Neil Young to launch
Pono, a high-end digital
service with huge,
uncompressed files. “My goal
is to rescue the art form I’ve
been practising for the past
50 years,” he said.
The old man had a point.
Streaming is hated by
musicians because it pays so
little that most now have
second jobs; but it also
mushes their work. Spatial
audio stretches it out.
It works by tricking the
brain, adjusting the
frequencies each ear can hear
to create the illusion of lots of
speakers. It is like picking
individual elements of a tune
and dotting them around a
planetarium above our head
The effect is completely
three-dimensional.
“Spatial gives you a sense
of space beyond conventional
stereo, the format we listen to
90 per cent of the time,” says
Mirek Stiles, head of audio
products at Abbey Road
studios. “This is the most
significant development in
sound since stereo in 1958.”
Thousands of songs re-
engineered in spatial are
available on Apple Music,
labelled with a “Dolby
Atmos” logo — Dolby
developed the tech that Apple
is now bringing to the masses
(it could previously be heard
in cinemas and on some
programmes and videos on
Apple TV)
new bits in old music from
Kraftwerk, Mahler and Lady
Gaga. Most impressive was
the art-rocker St Vincent’s
recent album Daddy’s Home.
Now spatial is readily
available, artists will record
with it in mind, plotting
where sounds enter our
heads. Great news for
everyone but Spotify, which
does not yet have the system.
That said, the files are big.
A download of a song in
spatial is about 30MB,
compared with 10MB for a
standard MP3. I may have to
delete photos of the kids to
make space. It is them or an
update of When Doves Cry so
immersive I thought Prince
was living inside my brain
26 The Sunday Times June 13, 2021

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puzzle.feedback@sunday-times.co.uk or Puzzles
Editor, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street,
London SE1 9GF

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE JUMBO CROSSWORD 270 Across Down

SUKO
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1 Preference for local rather than central government (12) 1 India’s most populous city (6)
7 County town of Cumbria (8) 2 Songwriter who played Jess Robin in The Jazz Singer
12 13 American state in which many Stephen King novels are set (5) (1980) (4,7)
14 Word for rubbish which meant “offal” in the 15th century (7) 3 French city whose distinctive gothic cathedral was built
13 14 15
15 Works out using logic (7) with black lava stone (8-7)
16 The type of muscles forming a six-pack (9) 4 Relating to leaves (of a particular type) (7)
17 Former Arsenal and Chelsea footballer (pictured) who won 5 The aristocrat John Bingham was also known as ____ (4,5)
16 17 seven FA Cup winners’ medals (6,4) 6 The Man With the Golden Gun (10)
19 Island of the West Indies whose capital is Castries (5,5) 8 Former test cricketer and captain, knighted in 2019 (6,7)
18 20 Appointed to office but not yet in office (9) 9 Displaying spontaneous playfulness (5)
22 As an Australian colloquialism, to ____ off means to depart (5) 10 A type of pastoral dance, named after an Italian island (9)
19 20 21
23 Full name of the USS Enterprise’s engineer (10,5) 11 Harry “Scud” ____ looks after the fictional Tom Brown when
24 Anglicised name of a notable peak south of Dolgellau (5,5) he arrives at Rugby school (4)
26 In the translated title of a Verdi opera, Manrico is the ____ (10) 12 The trepang or “sea slug”, a delicacy in oriental cuisine (5-2-3) Place the numbers 1 to 9 in the
22 23 29 English soldier in Henry V, played by his namesake in a 18 In physics, a particle, often an electron, ejected from spaces so that the number in
1989 film adaptation (7,8) matter by ionizing radiation (5,3) each circle is equal to the sum of
32 ____ Peggoty was David Copperfield’s childhood sweetheart (5) 21 Author of Madame Bovary (7,8) the four surrounding spaces,
33 Music genre which began with the likes of Abba and Boney 22 Samuel Johnson said this should be sliced, dressed with and each colour total is correct.
24 25 26 27
M (9) pepper and vinegar, then thrown out as good for nothing (8)

CELL BLOCKS
28
34 Ornithorhynchus anatinus is commonly called the ____ 23 North Yorkshire town with an art gallery called Mima (13)
platypus (4-6) 25 Architect who designed the layout of Covent Garden’s
29 30 31 32 37 Gordon Kaye’s character in ’Allo ’Allo! (4,6) central square (5,5)
39 A loggerhead, hawksbill or leatherback (3,6) 27 ____ by Dickens was subtitled The Parish Boy’s Progress (6,5)
41 Small dog described by the Kennel Club as “Sturdy, 28 Role played by Ruth Madoc in the sitcom Hi-de-Hi! (6,4)
abundantly but not excessively coated, with distinctly 30 A White Friar (9)
33 34 35
arrogant carriage and ‘chrysanthemum-like’ face” (4,3) 31 “Each has his own tree of ____, but at the top of all sits
36
42 “Oh, when shall Britain, conscious of her claim, / Stand ____ Probably Arboreal” (RL Stevenson) (9)
of Greek and Roman fame?” (Alexander Pope) (7) 35 In golf, the traditional name for a number two wood (7)
37 38 39 43 Order proclaimed by a sovereign 36 Alloy often used to make
or government (5) tableware (pictured), up to
40 44 Anglicised name for a dagger around 1800 (6)
used as part of traditional 38 Welsh education and training
41 42 43
Highland costume (5,3) inspectorate, whose name Divide the grid into square or
45 Magazine which published its means “to reach out or rectangular blocks, each
10,000th issue in 2020 (3,9) stretch” (5) containing one digit only.
44 45 40 In Egyptian mythology, mother Every block must contain the
of Horus (4) number of cells indicated by
the digit inside it.

SUDOKU WARM-UP VERY HARD — PRIZE 1435 KILLER SUDOKU HARD POLYGON
Each row, column and 3x3 box Each row, column
must contain the digits 1 to 9. and 3x3 box must
Winners will receive a Collins contain the digits
English Dictionary & Thesaurus. 1 to 9. The digits
within each group
To enter, complete the Very Hard puzzle and call 0901 292 of cells joined by
5275 (UK only) (ROI 1516 303 500), leaving your answer
(the numbers in the three shaded squares) and contact dotted lines must
details. Or text SUNDAY2, followed by a space, then your add up to the From these letters, make
answer (three numbers) and contact details — eg figure in the top- words of four or more letters,
SUNDAY2 123 John Smith, etc — to 84901 (UK only). Calls
cost £1.00 (ROI €1.50) plus your telephone company’s left-hand corner always including the central
network access charge. Texts cost £1 plus your standard of each group. letter. Answers must be in the
network charge. Winners will be picked at random from all Within each Concise Oxford Dictionary,
correct answers received. Lines close at midnight on
Saturday. If you call or text after this time you will not be dotted-line group, excluding capitalised words,
entered but may be charged. When entering by phone or a digit cannot be plurals, conjugated verbs
text, please provide your FULL name and address details, repeated. (past tense etc), adverbs
as incomplete entries may be charged but not entered.
STUCK? Call our clue line to get four clues for the Very ending in LY, comparatives
Hard puzzle on 0901 293 6265 (ROI 1514 515 120). Calls and superlatives.
cost £1 (ROI 76c) plus your telephone company’s network How you rate
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thesundaytimes.co.uk/comprules. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 18 words, average; 25, good;
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CONCISE CROSSWORD 1734 MEPHISTO 3172 Don Manley Across Down

CROSSWORD 4959 Robert Price

1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 Orders mother employs 1 Fly I had found under 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

going after husband? (10) nasty scum (6)
10 11 10 Compound in waste 2 Unhealthy lumps of
liquid’s imagined to be nasty nature covering old 9 10
7 8 lacking nitrogen (5) mother (9)
12 13
11 Tree beginning to shrivel 3 Hint of cold in European 11

14 15 on icy area with spring (5)

12 13
9 10 11
temperature dropping (6) 4 Inspection of cloth, a
16 17 18 12 Resist SM’s order on product one put out with
12 parade ground (4) silver lining (6)
13 What could make maiden 5 Conservative group of 14 15
19 20
13 14 15 16 pine is being trapped — theologians in order upset 16 17
21 22 23 24 heart going astray? (7) one of mixed race (8)
17 14 Nightshade plants in the 6 Saving scheme for African 18

25 26 region of flowing water (7) people (4)

18 19 20 21 19 20
17 I’ll be blooming pleased — 7 Stop having water to flush
27 28 I love the French (8) away a pesticide (6) 21 22 23
19 Expletive restrained, 8 Female domination at
29 30 curtailed (5) home with the
22 23
20 Leaping around? You introduction of a German 24 25
31 32 could do without a ___! (6) governess? (8)
21 Certain to look untidy with 9 Part of waterway, say,
24 33 hair finally neglected, with weak pillar erected
26 27
growing out? (6) on it (6)
23 Port cracked open? (5) 15 Join up together in
NAME ................................................................................... 25 Stew supplying seaman international entrance to NAME ...................................................................................
Across Down with energy (8) the south of Scottish
ADDRESS ................................................................................... 28 French dad meeting girl as island (9) ADDRESS ...................................................................................
1 Watch (12) 1 Came to understand (3,3,5) equal (7) 16 Birds of a similar nature
................................................................................... ...................................................................................
7 Esteemed (4-7-2) 2 Preclude (4,3) 29 Citadel needs isle’s accommodating (8)
9 Rowdy (7) 3 Laud (5) EMAIL ................................................................................... reconstruction, in a 18 A head twitching and Across Down
11 Pastoral piece (5) 4 WC (3) manner of speaking (7) merging in with the
12 Personal (3) 5 Hook and line activity (7) Post your solution to The Sunday Times Mephisto 3172, 30 Parliament’s short background (8) 1 Sober? Drink punch! (8) 1 Strip clubs opening from
13 Water lily (5) 6 Spiteful (5) PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ, or email periodical publication (4) 21 Old turtles here will have 5 Wearing sandals on tomorrow (6)
15 Small wood (5) 8 Exile from heaven (6,5) puzzle.entries@sunday-times.co.uk 31 Come into American moseyed around (6) vacation, remove socks (6) 2 With fish, work craftily (6)
17 Zero (3) 10 Cast (5) The first correct solution picked at random after next canals (6) 22 One involved in bomb- 9 Fine veal stuffed in 3 Volume of goat used by
18 Very beginning (3-2) 14 White mountain peak (7) Saturday wins Collins World Atlas: Complete Edition, 32 Innocent-looking child making is an informer (6) this? (4,4) pork pie producer (5,4)
20 Miniature display (7) 16 Speech (7) worth £30. Four runners-up will each receive £20. given stroke with love (5) 23 Angel rushes up — priest is 10 Stands back, in part 4 Number Ten is at haste to
Open to 18+ UK & ROI residents only.
22 Protracted (4-9) 19 Partly Indonesian island (5) 33 Sermon with chapter enthralled (6) sorrowful (6) shift position (12)
24 Relative (12) 21 Round skylights (5) The Chambers Dictionary 13th edition is the primary given new twist, 24 Loft with remarkable set 12 Rash beginning in 6 A vocalist’s opening
23 Negative conjunction (3) reference. Readers may email comments or queries to enthralling chaps (10) of old books (6) someone poorly (5) sound (5)
puzzle.feedback@sunday-times.co.uk
26 Plant needs artificial light? 13 Vehicle’s bodyguards 7 Digs end up hiding crack (8)
I’m not sure (5) keeping step with it (9) 8 Flight impressed those at
27 Jock’s able companion (4) 14 Delighted flights are so the rear (8)

TETONOR EASY untroubled (5-7)

18 Rudest dancing in
11 Staple fare to a top
cryptic? (6,6)
underwear, cast if 15 Drinks provided in
required (12) parties, on the rocks (9)
23 160 42 44 CODEWORD KENKEN 21 First course at Pisa, not
soup (9)
16 Set eleven without a
reserve (3,5)
23 Cover that excludes son’s 17 Issues rabble-rousing
In the grid, each condition (5) leader put to the other
number represents 24 Annoyance about working side (8)
320 36 84 37 a letter of the
alphabet — all 26
hard finally decreased (6)
25 Did alarm as dad locked
19 Submerged in canal, to
one’s ears (6)
letters are used. up (8) 20 Raw volunteer (6)
Use the initial clues 26 Bogus appeal put in to 22 Loveless philosopher’s
in the code table to head off physicist (6) welcomed back to the

42 102 13 297 work out the rest of

the code.
STUCK? To get
27 Deliberate hoax by helter-
skelter rides (8)
fold (5)

four random extra

letter clues, call
0901 293 6266
48 37 252 19 (ROI 1514 415128) or
text STCLUE to
84901 (UK only). All the digits 1 to 6 must appear in every
The first correct solution opened after next Saturday wins a chrome finish Cross
Calls cost £1 (ROI row and column. In each thick-line Townsend Medalist fountain pen with 23-carat gold-plated nib, worth £175. Three
75c) plus your “block”, the target number in the top others win £125 Townsend Medalist ballpoint pens. All the pens have lifetime
telephone left-hand corner is calculated from the guarantees and 23-carat gold-plated appointments, and embody classic elegance
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network access the operation indicated by the symbol. 18+ UK & ROI residents only.
Each number in the main grid can be formed by adding or charge. Texts cost
multiplying a pair of numbers in the strip below the grid. Each £1 plus your
pair of numbers should be used twice: once as part of an standard network CLUE WRITING CONTEST 1869: STAPLE GUN
addition and once as part of a multiplication. For example, a 10 charge. SP: Spoke,
and 24 in the main grid may be solved by the sums, 4 + 6 and 4 0333 202 3390 You are invited to write an original cryptic clue for the Winner 1866: Lynne Davis, London NW7, and Ross Harrison,
Dechmont, West Lothian, who both sent …
x 6, respectively. Enter each sum in the boxes below its answer. (ROI 0818 205 403) word above, in Sunday Times crossword style. Email Scoreboard: This records overs bowled against runs
Any blanks in the strip must be deduced, bearing in mind the (Mon-Fri 9am- your entry to puzzle.entries@sunday-times.co.uk.
numbers are listed in ascending order 5 30pm) The best entry selected after next Saturday wins £25 For a full report, visit thesundaytimes.co.uk/cluewriting
The Sunday Times June 13, 2021 27

NEWS REVIEW

Jeremy Clarkson
I eat meat, use petrol and say the wrong thing. My
days in gainful employment must be numbered

A
barrister called Joanna Toch
has been suspended from her
practice with immediate effect
for going on Twitter and
suggesting that the Markles
should have named their new
girl child Doprah, an
amalgamation of the names
Doria and Oprah.
Nope. I can’t see what’s wrong with
that either. But it turns out that the
Sunday Telegraph columnist Julie
Burchill has also been axed, for taking
part in the conversation with Ms Toch.
And now both of them will have to join
the dole queue with various cricketists
who said several years ago that girls who
play video games get more sex than
those who don’t. And the Bulgarian
swimming instructor who had a full-on
naked lady fight with her supervisor.
Which doesn’t sound a sackable offence
to me at all.
For some time now I’ve harboured a
worrying sense that soon everyone will
be sacked, because all of us are in a
minefield and eventually we are bound
to tread on something that goes bang. Or
we will be hit by shrapnel from
something we trod on back when we
were teenagers.
I know that the Sunday Times sub-
editors do their very best every week to
delete views that they fear will cast me
into a vat of scalding-hot public opinion,
but the fact is that sooner or later I’ll
come here and say something that is
deemed by the hysterical court of public
opinion to be unacceptable, and that’ll
be that. I’ll be gone.
Remember Rebecca Wrong Daily? The
Labour MP once called the actor Maxine
Peake “an absolute diamond” and
probably thought as she pressed “Send”
that she’d done a lovely thing that would
brighten someone’s day. Nope. It
transpired that Ms Peake had once said
that taking the knee was an Israeli
invention, so Wrong Daily was called to
the headmaster’s study and sacked.
And don’t think you’re safe just
because you run a shoe shop in out-of-
the-limelight Welwyn Garden City. One
day you will ask a new salesgirl to make
you a cup of coffee, and it’ll be curtains.
Then you’ll lose your house; your wife
will leave you; and your children,
devastated by the break-up, will end up
on the street sniffing glue and
vandalising bus shelters.
You don’t even have to make the
mistake of asking for a cup of coffee. The
salesgirl only has to say that you did, and
you’ll get the same result.
Look at the case of the American actor
Armie Hammer. I met him once and he
didn’t eat me, but it’s been decided that
many men in the Hammer family have a
dark side and that he may be a cannibal,
so he’s toast. Closer to home, there’s the
actor Laurence Fox, who famously went
into the socialist bear pit that is Question
Time and suggested that the hounding of
the Duchess of Sussex had nothing to do
with race. And now? He’d struggle to get
work as the standard-issue useless
husband in an ad for washing-up liquid.
Others who have gone from gainful
employment in recent years include the
newsreader Alastair Stewart, who got a
karate chop to the neck for quoting
Shakespeare to a Twitter user who
turned out to be black; Brian Leach, a till
worker at Asda who was let go for
sharing a Billy Connolly sketch on his
private Facebook page; Baroness
Nicholson, who was axed from the
Booker prize foundation for calling a
transgender enthusiast “weird”; and
Maya Forstater, who in 2019 was told by
an employment tribunal judge that her
views that people cannot change their
biological sex are “not worthy of respect
in a democratic society” (last week she
won an appeal).
You are therefore not safe. And don’t
think that going halfway makes you
immune. Walk into the office tomorrow
Everyone I know
is scared they’ll be
out on their ear for
what they said and
did and ate in 1974
morning and tell everyone that you’ve
become vegetarian, and I can pretty
much guarantee you’ll be fired for not
going the whole hog — possibly the
wrong word — and becoming vegan.
It’s like buying a hybrid car. You
proudly turn up in it at the Dog and
Guardian in Shoreditch and immediately
you will be pelted with cabbages and
sunflower seeds for not getting
something with no engine at all.
You may imagine that because you
have a handle on all the current thinking
and would never dream of saying or
doing something inappropriate, you are
on safe ground. But there will have been
a time, back in the Seventies probably,
when you didn’t think to ask someone
what pronoun they preferred, and when
that oversight surfaces, it’ll be P45 time.
Or someone in the office will discover
that your great-great-great-grandfather
once sold a cat to a man who lived next
door to Edward Colston. And then you’ll
have to be thrown in the harbour as well.
Figures released last week show that
on average British people spend more
than three and a half hours every day
online. Obviously you’re mostly
watching old Dad’s Army clips on
YouTube or buying cucumbers from
Ocado, which is fine. But if you are
spending nearly a quarter of your
waking moments on the internet, it’s
inevitable that occasionally you’re going
to see something that will get you fired.
It’s really scary for people who still eat
meat and use petrol and continue to
share inappropriate jokes on private
WhatsApp groups. Because you’re on
borrowed time, and soon you’ll get a tap
on the shoulder from the HR Stasi.
I speak often to my friends about this,
and all of them are frightened to death.
They know that if they continue to eat
and do and say whatever they’ve eaten
and done and said for the past 40 years,
they’re going to be out of a job. And even
if they don’t, they’ll still be out on their
ear for having eaten and said and done it
back in 1974.
All we can do, then, in a world where
you’re guilty until proven innocent, and
then you’re still guilty, is tiptoe through
life trying to get as much hay in the barn
as possible so that when we’re kicked
into touch, it’s not completely the end of
the world.

TEASER 3064 year’s winning entry

consisted of a mobile made
up of many different plain
each such possible size
(where, for example, a 3-by-2
rectangle would be the same
How old is the artist?
WEATHER
Victor Bryant white rectangular or square
tiles hanging from the ceiling.
as a 2-by-3 rectangle). Last
week one of the tiles fell and
AROUND THE WORLD TODAY’S WEATHER
Send your solution to: The Sunday
Turnip prize The sides of the tiles were all smashed and then yesterday Times Teaser 3064, PO Box 29,
Amsterdam 23C s London 29C s
whole numbers of another tile fell and smashed. Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ or email
puzzle.entries@sunday-times.co.uk. Athens 27 th Los Angeles 29 s
The Turnip Prize is awarded centimetres up to and However, the average area of
The first two correct solutions opened Auckland 17 sh Madrid 32 sh
to the best piece of work by including the artist’s age, and the hanging tiles remained after next Saturday win £20. Open to
Bangkok 28 sh Mexico City 22 th
an artist under fifty. This there was precisely one tile of the same throughout. 18+ UK & ROI residents only.
Barcelona 32 s Miami 33 th
Beijing 36 th Moscow 25 th 23
12
CHESS BRIDGE
Belgrade 24 th Nairobi 24 f
rough
David Howell Berlin 21 f New Delhi 41 th
Sally Brock
Bogota 15 sh New Orleans 35 th
Boston 26 sh New York 24 sh
There was an abundance of the checks run out, …Qxb2 will Despite the fact that the has the queen of spades.
Brussels 25 s Oslo 22 f
high-quality fighting chess on be mate. 39 Ne4+ Kc6 40 expert probably has a However, rather than doing 21
Budapest 21 f Panama 29 th 15
offer in Gibraltar at the Bd5+ Kxd5 Not 40…Kb6? 41 better idea of where the that, declarer exited with ace
Buenos Aires 21 s Paris 27 s
Women’s Grand Prix. In Rb7+ Ka5 42 b4 mate. 41 Rd7+ outstanding cards are than and another club. The slight
Cairo 37 s Prague 17 s
contrast to some recent online Kxe4! Black’s courage is his less-expert contemporary, defenders took two club tricks
Calgary 28 f Rio de Janeiro 21 sh
round-robins, there were few rewarded. The advantage he (or she) hates taking but declarer was down to
Cape Town 21 s Rome 33 s
quick draws and it was clear the would slip away with a timid finesses if he (or she) can three trumps in each hand 25
Caracas 26 th San Francisco 17 f
players were enjoying being king retreat: 41…Kc6 42 Rd6+ avoid it. Look at today’s deal, and whatever either defender
Casablanca 26 s Santiago 23 s
back at a physical chessboard. Kc7 43 Qh7+ Kb8 44 Rb6+! (the covering up the East and West played, had to make three
Chicago 29 s Seoul 32 f
The end of the following game saving resource) 44…Nxb6 45 hands for the moment. trump tricks.
Dubai 33 s Seychelles 27 s
epitomised the unpredictable Nc5! (not 45 Nd6? Nd7 46 Qxd7
Dublin 26 f Singapore 30 th 24
nature of the action. Qh1, showing off the black EW vulnerable, Dealer West Last week’s problem
Geneva 24 f Stockholm 20 f 20
White: Irina Bulmaga queen’s agility) 45…Kc8 46
♠ AJ96 ♠ 987 Gibraltar 27 s Sydney 17 s
Black: Elizabeth Paehtz Qb7+ and White’s initiative ♥ 10 9 3 ♥ A4 Guatemala 25 th Tel Aviv 28 f
FIDE Women’s Grand Prix, suffices for a draw. 42 Qh7+ ♦ A87 ♦ K Q J 10 7 2
♣ AJ7 Helsinki 19 sh Tenerife 22 f
Gibraltar 2021
W________W Kf4 43 Qh2+ Kf5 44 Qh7+ Kg4 ♣ 87
The king must walk a tightrope: ♠ Q72 ♠ 85
Hong Kong 29 th Tokyo 28 f 5 29
áWDWDW4WD] ♥ 85
N
♥ QJ42
♠ 6542 N ♠ K J 10 Istanbul 25 sh Toronto 27 th
àDWDWDBDR] 44…Ke6? 45 Qh3+ leads to mate W E ♥ 10 6 ♥ 98732 slight
♦ K962 ♦ 10 5 4 3 ♦ 854 W E ♦A Jersey 25 s Trinidad 29 th 24
ßpDWiWgWD] next move. 45 Qe4+ Qf4 The ♣ Q 10 9 2 S ♣ K83 ♣ AQ42 S ♣ J 10 6 3 Johannesburg 20 s Tunis 34 s
black queen finally jumps to
ÞDpDW0W0Q] ♠ K 10 4 3 ♠ AQ3 La Paz 11 s Venice 27 s 5 slight
the defence of her king, and the ♥ AK76
ÝnDWDWDWD] extra material seals the win. 46 ♥ KQJ5 Lagos 29 th Vienna 21 s
♦ QJ ♦ 963
Ü)NDWDWDW] Qg2+ Kf5 47 Qh3+ g4 48 Qh7+ ♣ 654 Lima 20 f Warsaw 18 th
UK and Ireland forecast
♣ K95
ÛK)PDWDWD] Kg5 49 Rd1 Rh8 50 Qa7 Rh2 Lisbon 26 s Washington DC 29 th
High pressure will build across the British Isles, bringing dry
ÚDWDWDqDW] West North East South Key c=cloud, dr=drizzle, ds=dust storm, f=fair, fg=fog, g=gales, h=hail,
51 Qa8 Qc4+ 52 Ka1 Rxc2 The bidding was: Pass 1NT * conditions with long spells of sunshine to England, Wales,
ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ m=mist, r=rain, sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, th=thunder, w=windy
White resigns Pass 3NT All Pass southern Ireland, and southern and eastern Scotland,
The black king is in mortal Spot the Move 1275: West North East South * 15-17 although with patchy cloud in northwestern areas. Cloudy
danger. With accurate play, Black to play. Pass 1♣ Pass 1♥ with outbreaks of rain in northwestern parts of Ireland and
W________W
White should be able to build
up a fearsome attack. However,
áWDWDWDri]
Pass
Pass
1NT *
2♥
Pass
Pass
2 ♦ **
2♠
Partner leads the five of
spades to your king and
EUROPE Scotland. Moderate to fresh southwesterly winds in the
northwest, lighter further south
àDWDWDp1p] Pass 3♠ Pass 4♠
two moves short of the time ßW0nDWDWD] All Pass declarer’s ace. Declarer plays
control on move 40, Bulmaga
underestimated the
Þ0W0n)NDW] * 12-14
** game-forcing relay
a diamond to the king and
your ace. What now? 23
REGIONAL FORECASTS
opponent’s counterplay. 38
ÝWDWDWDWD] The Rule of 11 tells you that
London, SE England
Nd2? A natural attempt to Ü)PDP)W4P] West led a diamond which if partner has led fourth
Hot and dry with largely unbroken sunshine. Light winds,
ÛWDWDW!WI] variable in direction. Max 30C. Tonight, dry and clear. Min 11C
bring another piece towards ran to declarer’s queen. highest you can subtract his 19 20
ÚDRDW$BDW] Midlands, E England
the black king, but this leaves a Declarer played the jack of spot card (the five) from
ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ A dry, hot and mainly sunny day. Light southwesterly winds.
key square undefended. 38 diamonds to the ace and eleven and that will tell you
27 Max 28C. Tonight, dry and clear. Min 14C
Qg4 (planning 39 Qe6+) or 38 Variation from Lupulescu- ruffed a diamond before the number of cards higher 20 Channel Is, SW and Cent S England, S Wales
Qg6 both guarantee a decisive Grischuk, Bucharest 2021. playing off ace, king and than the five in the other 30 Warm and dry with long spells of unbroken sunshine. Light
attack. 38…Qc1! Suddenly White had seen this position in another heart, hoping to set three hands (six). But you 28
31
3 27 southwesterly winds. Max 27C. Tonight, clear spells. Min 10C
Black is the one with venomous advance and assumed he was up the long heart for a club have seen seven cards 28 26
N Wales, NW England, Isle of Man
threats. White must now throw winning. Which hidden counter- discard. East won and played higher than the five, so 33
Warm with sunny spells and areas of cloud. Light to moderate
everything at the black king. If blow for Black had he missed? a fourth heart, West partner must have led from a 24
33 southwesterly winds. Max 25C. Tonight, patchy rain. Min 9C
discarding a club and a poor suit and you need to
Send your solution (first move only), to Sunday Times Spot the Move 1275, Cent N and NE England
diamond, and declarer ruffing take some tricks quickly.
The Sunday Times, PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ, or email to Warm with patchy cloud and sunny spells. Light to moderate
puzzle.entries@sunday-times.co.uk. The first correct answer drawn after next in dummy. It looks now as if Switch to the jack of clubs,
¬ Hot in Spain and Portugal ¬ Sunny spells and showers southwesterly winds. Max 26C. Tonight, patchy rain. Min 12C
Saturday wins £20. Open to 18+ UK & ROI residents only. declarer needs to guess who your only chance.
with sunny spells, but with in western Poland, Slovakia, Scotland
the risk of thunderstorms Hungary, Czech Republic, Rain in the northwest. Dry and sunny elsewhere. Moderate to

LAST WEEK’S SOLUTIONS GENERAL KNOWLEDGE JUMBO CROSSWORD 269

Across: 1 Smeg, 4 Prefab, 8 Misdoubt, 13 Scaremongering, 14 Orphan, 15 Robe de nuit,
16 Lounge suit, 17 Aerostat, 19 Franco Baresi, 21 The Third Doctor, 23 Baboon,
later, especially in the west
¬ Feeling hot and staying
Croatia and Slovenia
¬ Unsettled across the Baltic
strong southwesterly winds. Max 24C. Tonight, rain. Min 4C
N Ireland, Republic of Ireland
largely dry and sunny in states, western Russia, Rain on the northwestern coast. Otherwise, sunny. Moderate
25 Pigs treat us as equals, 27 Planer, 28 Stephen Barclay, 31 Epithalamial, 33 Great ape,
SUDOKU WARM-UP CODEWORD 34 Joan Rivers, 36 Nathan Hale, 38 Woburn, 39 Interpretation, 40 True blue, 41 Eccles, 42 Haar France and Italy, but a few Belarus, Ukraine, eastern southwesterly winds. Max 25C. Tonight, rain. Min 7C
Down: 2 Micromesh, 3 Gorse, 5 Renault, 6 Fleet of foot, 7 Brilliant, 8 Magnus Carlsen, heavy and perhaps thundery Poland, Bulgaria, Greece
9 SpongeBob SquarePants, 10 Opposer, 11 Bhaji, 12 Amnesty International, 18 Octagon, 20 Scots,
22 Deep Space Nine, 24 Bearcat, 25 Polyp, 26 St Helens RFC, 29 Erik Satie, 30 Appaloosa,
32 Tonsure, 33 Guthrie, 35 Odour, 37 Hitch
showers are possible
¬ Mainly dry in Germany, the
and parts of the Balkans with
heavy rain or thunderstorms THE WEEK AHEAD
Low Countries and the Alps, ¬ Heavy rain in Finland. A
MEPHISTO 3171 with just a few showers few showers in Scandinavia
Across: 1 Cough, 5 Hiccup, 10 Hydria, 11 No-one, 12 About-sledge, 13 Damn, 14 Italian, 16 Yodle, 29 25 32
17 Catsup, 19 Treasury tag, 23 Dyeing, 26 Oaths, 28 Clootie, 29 Item, 30 Marlinspike, 31 Adman,
32 Gas oil, 33 Nesses, 34 Honey Down: 1 Chadic, 2 Udometer, 3 Grunts, 4 Hit it, 5 Hasty puddings, 16 19 18

SUN, STREET LIGHTS & MOON

6 Inlayer, 7 Coelom, 8 Ungallant, 9 Peened, 15 Marmalade, 18 Stiction, 20 Sistine, 21 Socman,
22 Pholas, 24 Eo ipso, 25 Gamely, 27 Pesah
17 18 21 21 16 24

SUDOKU 1434 KENKEN CROSSWORD 4958 Sun Sun sets/ Lights Moon Moon
Across: 1 Manger, 5 Sluggish, 9 Logo, 10 Swallowing, 11 Self-portrait, 13 May queen, 15 Hoof it, 29 24 30
rises lights on off rises sets
16 Nevada, 18 Pinotage, 20 Illustration, 23 Raring to go, 24 Myth, 25 Studious, 26 Struck
Down: 2 Above-named, 3 Go off, 4 Rissole, 5 Starting pistols, 6 Unleash, 7 Go without, 8 Sink, Aberdeen 04:12 22:04 04:12 06:22 00:52(Mon) 5 11 6
12 Diagnostic, 14 Qualified, 17 Allegro, 19 Narrows, 21 Timor, 22 Bait
Belfast 04:47 22:00 04:47 06:59 00:49(Mon)
Monday Tuesday Wednesday
Birmingham 04:44 21:30 04:44 06:57 00:19(Mon)
SPOT THE MOVE 1274 CONCISE CROSSWORD 1733 Bristol 04:53 21:27 04:52 07:06 00:16(Mon)
Bright spells and Windy with rain in Thunderstorms
1…Rc6! wins material due to White’s weak Across: 1 Fade, 3 Club foot, 9 Explain, 10 Inept, a few showers, the northwest. Dry in the south.
11 Identical twin, 13 Girls, 14 Aloud, 17 Train spotters, Cardiff 04:55 21:30 04:55 07:09 00:19(Mon)
back rank. 2 Qxc6 Qxc6 3 Rxc6 is met by mainly in the elsewhere. Elsewhere, a few
3…Ra1+ with mate to follow 18 Uh-huh, 19 Dingbat, 21 Perspire, 22 Snip Cork 05:14 21:53 05:13 07:28 00:43(Mon)
Down: 1 Feeling, 2 Dip, 4 Lunacy, 5 Brilliantine, north. Max 30C Max 25C showers. Max 30C
Dublin 04:56 21:53 04:56 07:09 00:42(Mon)
TEASER 3063 6 Overwrote, 7 Titan, 8 Partisanship, 12 Earbasher,
15 Desktop, 16 Spider, 17 Thump, 20 Ban Glasgow 04:31 22:02 04:31 06:42 00:51(Mon)
8 & 5 centimetres, and 16; 7; 4 & 17; 10
London 04:42 21:18 04:42 06:56 00:06(Mon)
KILLER SUDOKU TETONOR 13 13 8
TODAY’S SOLUTIONS Manchester 04:39 21:38 04:39 06:52 00:26(Mon)
18 17 19
Newcastle 04:27 21:45 04:27 06:38 00:34(Mon)
37 22 70 10 SUKO CELL BLOCKS POLYGON Norwich 04:30 21:19 04:30 06:43 00:07(Mon)
33 + 4 16 + 6 5 x 14 10 x 1
beige, berg, biog, bodge, bodger, Plymouth 05:05 21:28 05:04 07:19 00:17(Mon) 17 21 16 18 19 21
21 96 17 72 bodgie, bogie, bridge, brig, dirge,
diverge, doge, dogie, edge, edger,
NIGHT SKY Venus,
2 + 19 16 x 6 8 + 9 8 x 9 27 23 22
ergo, geode, geoid, gibe, gird, girder, 146 million miles away, shines brightly
132 19 90 28 giro, give, giver, gobi, goer, gore, gori, very low in the NW at 10.30 tonight. The crescent 13 5 15
33 x 4 5 + 14 6 x 15 2 + 26 grebe, grebo, greed, grid, grieve,
griever, grove, ogee, ogive, ogre, Moon, brightly earthlit, lies above and to its left
11 52 21 38 overbridge, ridge, rigor, roger, vegie, and is 2° above-right of Mars, 217 million miles Thursday Friday Saturday
1 + 10 2 x 26 6 + 15 2 x 19 verge, verger, vigor away. The star Arcturus in Boötes is high in the S Heavy rain in Rain or showers Breezy with heavy
and more than 30° above Spica in Virgo. The the south and in places, heavy at rain in the west.
Winners Crossword 4956 J Scaysbrook, St Albans, Hertfordshire, W Goodland, Hereford, G Gough, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, J Jodrell, Wokingham, Berkshire Elsewhere, a few
Mephisto 3169 J Little, Halifax, West Yorkshire, J Carper, Sevenoaks, Kent, G King, Westbere, Kent, J Kingdon, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, J Tarry, Hawkshaw, Moon is near Regulus in Leo on Tuesday and east. Otherwise, times. Some bright
Greater Manchester Teaser 3061 J Martis Hamilton Lanarkshire I Turner Colchester Essex Chess 1272 H Sayers Bath Somerset Sudoku 1432 N Steele London NW2 above Spica on Saturday Alan Pickup showers. Max 27C spells. Max 24C showers. Max 24C