Tuesday August 24 2021 | thetimes.co.uk | No 73558
45 to subscribers
Eat yourself smart
The best foods for your brain TIMES2
Chemists to offer free blood pressure checks in heart health drive
Kat Lay Health Editor
High street pharmacies in England will
offer on-the-spot heart health checks
from October as part of an NHS effort
to save thousands of lives that will shift
the burden away from GPs.
People aged over 40 will be able to get
free blood pressure tests in 11,300 NHS
pharmacies and will be referred for
Britain faces airlift deadline
6 Taliban warn delaying troops’ withdrawal would cross ‘red line’ 6 Johnson will press Biden for extension at G7 summit
Steven Swinford Political Editor
David Charter Washington
Catherine Philp
Diplomatic Correspondent
Britain is increasingly resigned to
having to conclude its evacuation from
Kabul by the end of the week after the
Taliban warned that any delay in the
withdrawal would cross a “red line”.
Boris Johnson will use a meeting of
G7 leaders today to push President
Biden to put back the August 31
deadline for the US withdrawal. France,
Germany and other nations are
expected to support an extension.
The Taliban said yesterday, however,
that there would be “consequences” if
western forces stayed in Afghanistan for
longer, describing the date as a “red line”
and warning that any further extension
would “create mistrust”.
Sir Laurie Bristow, Britain’s
ambassador to Afghanistan, told MPs
yesterday that remaining longer would
“provoke a reaction” and described the
Taliban’s commitment to August 31 as
“uncompromising”.
James Heappey, the armed forces
minister, said that extending beyond a
week today risked turning Kabul into a
“war zone”, with soldiers attempting to
manage the evacuation while fending
off potential Taliban attacks.
The Pentagon also played down the
prospect of an extension, saying: “Our
focus is on getting this done by the end
of the month.”
Three senior British government
sources told The Times that they
expected Biden to stick to his deadline.
Ministers have been buoyed, however,
by the recent success of the evacuation.
A total of 7,109 people have been moved
from Afghanistan by the RAF, including
1,821 on Sunday. A similar number were
likely to have been flown out yesterday,
but there was a possible security breach
when an Afghan on the government’s
“no-fly watchlist” was taken to Bir-
mingham on a military aircraft.
One government source expected
the “vast majority” of the 4,000 British
passport holders, Afghan interpreters
and other support staff in Afghanistan
to have left by the end of the week.
The Ministry of Defence also wants
to evacuate a further 2,000 people,
treatment where necessary under the
programme.
High blood pressure is a key indica-
tor of risk for cardiovascular problems,
including heart attacks and strokes, as
well as conditions such as dementia.
The NHS estimated that over the
next five years 3,700 strokes and 2,500
heart attacks could be prevented as a
result of the tests, and about 2,000 lives
British forces welcomed Afghans on to flights from Kabul yesterday amid fears there were “hours not weeks” for them to leave
including Afghan politicians, human
rights campaigners and female judges,
although the last RAF evacuation flight
for Afghan citizens is due to leave by the
end of this week so the military can
itself withdraw before the deadline.
Biden announced last month that the
20-year US mission in Afghanistan
would be over by August 31. It followed
a deal between the US and the Taliban
in which the group agreed to stop
attacking foreign forces before the
withdrawal.
Ben Wallace, the defence secretary,
said that Britain had “hours, not weeks”,
adding: “Not everyone will get out.” He
told the BBC: “The US has over 6,000
£2.20 £1.
could be saved. Up to six million
people in Britain are thought to have
undiagnosed high blood pressure.
If 2.5 million people took up the offer
of blood pressure checks, an extra
250,000 could begin potentially
lifesaving treatment to bring their
readings down, NHS bosses said.
Professor Stephen Powis, NHS
national medical director for England,
people in Kabul airport. When they
withdraw . . . we will have to go as well.”
Johnson spoke to Biden yesterday.
Their discussion included the “ongoing
efforts” to move people. The prime
minister is expected to use today’s G7
meeting, which he is chairing, to call on
other leaders to “step up support for
refugees and humanitarian aid”. He
said: “As we look ahead to the next
phase, it’s vital we come together as an
international community and agree a
joint approach.” The leaders will also
commit to protecting the West against
any threat of terrorism and preventing
a humanitarian crisis.
Rory Stewart, the former inter-
2G
I’m glad I dodged
INSIDE paternity leave
said: “More high street checks for blood
pressure will mean more rapid detec-
tion of killer conditions and quicker
treatment for patients who need it.
Pharmacies are in the heart of commu-
nities and so are ideally placed to pro-
vide these convenient checks, so if you
are worried about your health, please
do get tested — it could save your life.”
GP leaders welcomed the scheme,
LPHOT BEN SHREAD/MOD
national development secretary who
walked across Afghanistan in 2002, has
urged the government not to seek
punitive sanctions against Afghanistan,
warning that this would hurt ordinary
Afghans and create a refugee crisis.
Heappey told Times Radio yesterday
there was “every reason to think that
[the Taliban] should be proscribed as a
terrorist group” but that “they are a
group of people with whom we are very
much needing to work with right now,
in Kabul”.
Afghanistan reports, pages 6-9
The G7 and the UN have vital roles
to play, leading article, page 27
Boost for Africa jihadists, page 28
(based on 7 Day Print Pack)
Robert
Crampton
with surgeries “under enormous pres-
sure”, but said it was vital that enough
doctors were available to deal with any
patients referred after the checks.
Pharmacists will be paid £440 as a
set-up fee for the service and then £15
for each “clinic check”, which involves
identifying people at risk of hyper-
tension and offering them a blood
Continued on page 2, col 3
Shots shatter
deadly foes’
uneasy truce
Anthony Loyd
Kabul
D
eadly foes stood talking at
the gateway between the
fear-filled chaos of the
airport perimeter wall and
the fuel-reeking runway.
Separated by no more than a few
feet of earth and a waist-high strip of
concertina wire, an American officer,
his Taliban counterpart and an
Afghan commando spoke with
unsmiling deliberation in the dark of
the night as they worked out how to
allow a group of Afghan civilians
though for evacuation.
“You’re asking us to allow another
group through to you, but every time
we do so the others beyond the wall
go wild and start rushing the gate,”
the Taliban commander, a hawk-
faced southerner flanked by his own
armed and black-turbaned entourage,
told the American officer in response
to a request to let a handful of
civilians, whose documentation had
been approved, to enter Kabul airport.
“We are trying to prevent chaos, so
don’t make it worse.”
Bursts of red tracer fire erupted
along the perimeter, amid the roar of
transporter engines and the decoy
flares ejected from departing planes.
On the grass, behind the
American’s feet, sat a few huddled
groups of Afghan families lucky to get
this far. A scattered band of Afghan
commandos, heavily armed, hatchet-
faced and much the most ferocious
presence, looked on. They were due
evacuation too, but in the meantime
held the war close, stepping across the
wire to face off with the Taliban
whenever they came too near. It
Continued on page 2, col 3
2 1G M Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

News
Today’s
highlights Johnson’s private jet trip ‘broke
7.20am Ben Wallace, defence secretary
11am Matt Chorley takes an in-depth look at what
to expect from the G7 meeting on Afghanistan
rules on campaign spending’
2pm The National Gallery director, Gabriele Finaldi,
describes his plans for a radical overhaul George Grylls Political Reporter code, which sets standards in govern- Labour majority to turn the seat blue
ment, also states: “Where a visit is a mix for the first time in its history.
2.45pm Mariella Frostrup chats to Boris Johnson has been accused of of political and official engagements, it Under electoral law candidates have
the comedian Milton Jones breaking the ministerial code after it is important that the department and a limit of £100,000 on spending on by-
8.30pm Dr Leana Wen, right, on her new book, emerged that he used a taxpayer-fund- the party each meet a proper propor- election campaigns. The spending
Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey ed private jet to travel to Teesside to tion of the actual cost.” return for the campaign, obtained by
in the Fight for Public Health campaign in the Hartlepool by-elec- Last night the Conservative Party the website Business Insider, suggests
tion. admitted that Johnson’s flights had that the flights were not declared. It
The prime minister flew from been paid for by the taxpayer, but said shows that almost £87,000 was spent on
London Stansted to Teesside airport on that he had used the plane only to con- the campaign.
Listen on DAB | Smart speaker | Online at times.radio | Times Radio app April 1. On arrival he was driven to duct government business on his offi- Johnson has been investigated before
Middlesbrough on official government cial visit to Middlesbrough. for his declarations of financial inter-
business to promote an increase in the Labour accused the prime minister of ests. He was cleared last month over a
minimum wage. breaking the ministerial code and sug- holiday on Mustique, where his villa
T O D AY ’ S E D I T I O N However, he then went to Hartle- gested that he may have committed a was paid for by David Ross, founder of
pool, where he campaigned with Jill criminal offence. Angela Rayner, the the Carphone Warehouse, a Tory
Mortimer, the Tory candidate. He Labour deputy leader, has written to donor. Johnson is also being investigat-
Clue found to YouTube ‘failed Caution over accompanied her on a visit to Hart Bio- Lord Geidt, the prime minister’s adviser ed by the Electoral Commission over
logicals and went leafleting and door- on ministers’ interests, demanding an renovation of his Downing Street flat.
premature birth on incel content’ Covid boosters knocking. He flew home that evening. investigation. She added: “False elect- A No 10 spokesman said: “All rele-
The risk of a child YouTube has been Covid booster jabs for Guidance issued by the Electoral ion returns or the non-declaration of vant costs have been correctly account-
being born prematurely accused of helping to the most vulnerable Commission on spending at by-elec- election spending is a criminal offence.” ed for and appropriately proportioned.
could be predicted ten spread extremist “incel” people could be tions states that campaigners’ transport The Conservatives won the Hartle- At all times government rules and elec-
weeks into pregnancy, content by failing to available from costs must be declared. The ministerial pool by-election, overturning a 3,600 toral requirements were followed.”
according to a study by take down a channel September 6 but the
King’s College London, that has glorified Joint Committee on
which identified the misogynistic Vaccination and continued from page 1
combinations of ideology for three Immunisation is Blood pressure tests Behind the story
chemicals and bacteria years. The channel was considering delaying a

I
in the vagina that followed by the wider programme until pressure test. They will receive £45 for f the big high blood pressure, there are a variety of
were linked to early Plymouth murderer more evidence can be each patient who needs ambulatory technology or hypertension, is to treatments that can
births. Page 4 Jake Davison. Page 11 gathered. Page 12 blood pressure monitoring, in which companies are take a reading. Six bring blood pressure
monitors are worn for a longer time to pouring million people in the down, as well as
obtain a more accurate picture. This resources into UK are thought to lifestyle changes, such
COMMENT can avoid “white-coat syndrome”, answering a question, have hypertension but as eating a better diet
where readings are artificially higher it is likely to be one not to be aware of it. with less salt, taking
Pandemic responses around Europe because the patient is stressed in a worth answering (Kat Their condition more exercise and
healthcare setting. Lay writes). And puts them at higher quitting smoking, that
put cultural differences back on the map Pharmacists will then provide life- many, including risk of heart attacks, can reduce your
HUGO RIFKIND, PAGE 25 style advice to keep blood pressure Apple, are trying to strokes and dementia. cardiovascular risk.
under control, such as losing weight find a way to make Over time high Identifying those six
and stopping smoking, and share the blood pressure blood pressure can million people and
China beats US Stock shortages Clubs refuse to readings with the patient’s GP. Trials of monitoring a simple damage the arteries, encouraging them to
the checks began in autumn 2019. everyday task, such as the heart, the kidneys make changes, or to
on wind tunnel hit businesses release players Professor Martin Marshall, chairman integrating it into a and blood vessels start medication to
China has built a wind Supply bottlenecks are Liverpool and of the Royal College of GPs, said: smartwatch. leading to the brain. It bring their blood
tunnel capable of choking Britain’s Manchester City are “General practice is under enormous At present the only has also been linked pressure down, could
simulating 30 times the recovery as businesses refusing to release pressure, so it’s welcome news that way we have of telling to erectile swiftly pay dividends
speed of sound, more face stock shortages. six players for patients will be encouraged to get whether someone has dysfunction. However, for the health service.
than three times as The CBI found that a international duty in some health services from their local
much as the most net balance of -14 per next month’s World pharmacies. Having their blood
advanced US tunnel. cent of businesses had Cup qualifiers because pressure and other health checks at tice by pharmacies will have complex support sessions to smokers who have
The facilities enable adequate stock levels the ten-day quarantine pharmacies should be convenient and needs and we must ensure that we have been recently discharged from hospital.
the simulation of in the three months to required on their encouraging for patients and has the enough GPs with enough time and Thorrun Govind, chairwoman of
flight conditions for August, the worst return to Britain would potential to save thousands of lives appropriate support to provide the the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in
new hypersonic reading since records force them to miss a year. expert care they need.” England, said the blood pressure plans
missiles. Page 29 began in 1977. Page 33 club fixtures. Page 64 “However, while pharmacists are Under the new NHS contract, from were a “positive step”, adding, however,
highly trained healthcare professionals, January pharmacists will also play a that morale would be hit by a freeze in
they are not substitutes for GPs. Many greater role in services to help patients core funding for community pharma-
COMMENT 23 MARKETS 42-43 SPORT 53 of the patients referred to general prac- to stop smoking, offering 12 weeks of cies, representing “a real-terms cut”.
THUNDERER 24 REGISTER 49 CROSSWORD 64
LEADING ARTICLES 27 LAW REPORT 51 TV & RADIO TIMES2
continued from page 1 stampedes and shootings around synonymous as much with betrayal
FOLLOW US Deadly foes in airport truce Kabul airport since the Taliban’s and shame as defeat and loss.
thetimes timesandsundaytimes thetimes seizure of the Afghan capital — On the far side of the perimeter
remains unclear if the ceasefire combined with the US withdrawal fence lies something akin to bedlam,
OFFER between these sides will last. At deadline — precipitated panic. where the jostling crowds, thousands
present there are daily direct talks Yet as the adversaries, men who strong, press in the hope of securing a
Save up to 45% with a subscription to between Taliban and American just over a week ago would have place on an evacuation flight before
officers, co-ordinated by US instantly tried to kill their foe, spoke the August 31 deadline. They are
The Times and The Sunday Times Rear-Admiral Peter Vasely, the senior together close to midnight on Sunday driven in squalls of fateful panic either
THETIMES.CO.UK/SUBSCRIBE coalition commander in Kabul. If they scrutinised each other carefully. by the approach of Taliban fighters or
President Biden puts back his August The Taliban, who now control the the sudden momentary opening of a
31 deadline to extract all US forces airport’s southern gateway, almost as gate to allow some through. On the
THE WEATHER © TIMES NEWSPAPERS LIMITED, 2021. from Afghanistan, the Taliban might far as the civilian departure terminal, inside, amid the stench of jet fuel and
Published in print and all other derivative attack coalition forces and fighting stared at the Americans with a mix of roars of engines, files of Afghans,
formats by Times Newspapers Ltd, 1 London
Bridge St, London, SE1 9GF, telephone 020 7782 would begin again. If Biden adheres cold contempt and curiosity. The redacted as individuals, are led in
5000. Printed by: Newsprinters (Broxbourne) to the deadline, the sense of panic and American troops, many too young to frightened columns towards rows of
17 Ltd, Great Cambridge Rd, Waltham Cross, EN8 desperation among the thousands of remember 9/11 and on their first military transporters, clutching little
8DY; Newsprinters (Knowsley) Ltd, Kitling Rd, terrified Afghans around the airport mission in Afghanistan, were curious more than weekend bags in
Prescot, Merseyside, L34 9HN; Newsprinters
5 (Eurocentral) Ltd, Byramsmuir Road, Holytown, gates will pose a threat of its own. too — but oddly indifferent. preparation for an uncertain future.
20 9 Motherwell, ML1 1NP; Associated Printing In an incident typifying the “The Taliban don’t want to get into “I don’t even know who among
(Carn) Ltd, Morton 2 Esky Drive, Carn Industial strained last days of America’s a fight with us here, and we don’t those who fought this war to trust any
Estate, Portadown, BT63 5YY; News Press 20-year occupation, a firefight broke want to get into a fight with them,” more,” said Ismatullah, a 40-year-old
21 Ireland Limited, Kells Industrial Estate, Virginia
Rd, Kells, County Meath, Ireland; KP Services, out on the northern side of the the American officer, who preferred Hazara man pushing his elderly
22
21 La Rue Martel, La Rue des Pres Trading Estate, airport hours after this meeting not be named, explained. “Both sides mother in a wheelchair at the head of
18 St Saviour, Jersey, JE2 7QR. For permission to yesterday, resulting in the death of an know that.” his family of ten as he waited to be
copy articles or headlines for internal Afghan soldier and the wounding of The two commanders spoke for a put on board a plane for Doha. “We
21
information purposes contact Newspaper
17 Licensing Agency at PO Box 101, Tunbridge three others when unidentified while longer, agreeing on which side have always feared the Taliban, but in
Wells, TN1 1WX, tel 01892 525274, e-mail gunmen shot at units guarding the of the narrow access road to the the Americans we believed that our
copy@nla.co.uk. For all other reproduction and perimeter. US and German troops also terminal each man’s fighters could homeland had a sweeter future. That
The odd spot of drizzle in the east, licensing inquiries contact Licensing engaged the attackers. stand, before separating, leaving their belief has led us to this place of fear
Department, 1 London Bridge St, London, SE1
but generally dry with warm 9GF, telephone 020 7711 7888, At least 20 people, including infants men caught in a staring match at the and bitterness, with nothing left but
sunny spells. Full forecast, page 52 e-mail enquiries@newslicensing.co.uk and children, have died in crushes, edge of an airport that has become the wish to escape.”
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 2GM 3

News
also a tech entrepreneur, tried for
Allison Hyunh and Scott
herself. “I stayed up all night and dis-
Hassan, who did early
covered a back door that Scott inad-
programming for Google,
vertently did not close . . . so, the genius
have fought for years over
of Silicon Valley was exposed by his
how to divide his assets
wife, using her technical knowledge.
Poetic justice?” she said.
In a tweet posted hours before their
case went to court, she shared the
registration document and taunted
him: “Hi Coward . . . You live by the
sword, you will die by the sword.”
The revelations set the scene for
what promises to be a bitter spectacle
over how to split Hassan’s assets —
worth more than $1 billion — with the
woman whose support was, she says,
integral to his success. She has accused
him of “divorce terrorism”.
Hassan, 51, was a research assistant at
Stanford University in 1996 when he
met Larry Page and Sergey Brin, fellow
students with whom he worked on a
project building a search engine. As
lead programmer, he wrote much of the

Google guru code for the project but was no longer

on the team when Page and Brin
launched Google two years later. He
bought 160,000 shares for $800 when it
launched, which by 2004 were worth
$200 million.

created site to In 2001 he married Hyunh, also a

former Stanford student, who came to
the US from Vietnam as a refugee. She
is a senior research fellow at Stanford’s
robotics laboratory.
She claims that when they met she

shame wife in helped to pay for costs including their

engagement party because Hassan was
$60,000 in debt — a claim he disputes.
She put her career on hold to raise their
three children and assisted her hus-
band’s business endeavours, she claims.

divorce battle But in 2014, while she was away on a

Jacqui Goddard Miami
As the “third founder of Google” and
driving force behind several more
internet companies, Scott Hassan, 51,
rose from a debt-ridden university stu-
dent to a giant of Silicon Valley, amass-
ing a multibillion-dollar fortune.
But the code-savvy entrepreneur
whose early work helped to create the
world’s biggest search engine took a
misstep before the opening of a bitter
divorce trial in California last night.
Earlier this month his wife, Allison
Hyunh, 46, found a mysterious website
bearing her name that published em-
barrassing stories from her past. “It was
basically intended to shame and scare
me by impersonating me and trying to
turn the world against me. I was dis-
traught,” she told the New York Post.
The website, www.allisonhuynh,
showcased lawsuits and salacious
details about a former relationship.
Hassan admitted to the Post that he was
behind the website and said that he had
since taken it down.
“It came together in a moment of
frustration when I felt Allison and her
attorney were telling one-sided stories
to the press. I thought aggregating
publicly available information without
commenting or editorialising would
help. It only ended up making our
dispute more public and tense, which
was never what I intended,” he said.
After experts failed to track down
who was behind the website, Hyunh,
business trip related to her virtual
reality company, MyDream, she re-
ceived a text from her husband saying
he wanted a divorce. She told The New
York Times she was “shocked”. Hassan
said she should not have been since they
had argued days earlier over her asser-
tions that he was having an affair.
For seven years the pair have feuded
over how to divide his assets, which do
Silicon Valley splits not include his Google investment,
now converted to $13 billion of stock in
6 Jeff Bezos, the remained the 22nd “separation contract” its parent company, Alphabet.
founder of Amazon and richest person, worth for dividing their Their marriage was dissolved in 2020
the world’s richest man, $56 billion. property. They each and they share custody of their three
became slightly less recruited a crack team teenage children. Hyunh told the Post:
rich two years ago 6 The Microsoft of lawyers, just in case. “His miserly position is ludicrous. I pray
when he agreed a co-founder Bill Gates’s that a Big Tech billionaire will not get
record-breaking divorce split from Melinda after 6 Elon Musk, the away with his attempt to cheat his
settlement of about 27 years could rival the billionaire founder of children and me while he walks away
$35 billion with Bezos-Scott record. The Tesla and SpaceX, with everything.”
MacKenzie Scott. Scott pair have a combined divorced the British In remarks to The New York Times,
became the world’s net worth of more than actress Talulah Riley for Hassan stated: “At the end of a relation-
third richest woman $130 billion, although a a second time in ship and through a divorce this lengthy,
and despite giving away divorce petition filed in October 2016. He had things are never easy and no one is at
several billion dollars to May asked a US court to given her $16 million in their best . . . I have no doubt we will land
charity, as of June she honour an existing the first divorce in 2012. on a resolution that makes her a
woman with generational wealth.”

Bowie photographer ‘harassed bakers’ Beatle’s memoir of lyrics

Sam Tobin
A former music photographer who has
worked with stars including David
Bowie, Rod Stewart and Barry Manilow
has denied harassing four members of a
Jewish baking dynasty.
Leon Lecash, 69, allegedly sent
abusive messages to Esther, Debora,
Jennifer and Ray Rinkoff, whose family
have run the eponymous bakery in the
heart of the East End of London for
more than a century.
Lecash, of South Kensington, west
London, admitted sending letters
between December 2020 and March
this year to the Rinkoffs, as well as to
Sarah-Jane Adler, a lifestyle manager;
Geoffrey Kluman, the former bakery
supplier; and Victoria Hoskyns, a
business consultant.
However, he denied that they
amounted to harassment and told
police when he was interviewed that
the communications were part of a
technique he was using “to get interest”
for a documentary on the Rinkoff
family, Westminster magistrates’ court
was told yesterday.
Nathan Fuller, for the prosecution,
said: “The complainants have all re-
ceived messages from Mr Lecash by
email or letter. The messages them-
Leon Lecash, 69,
said that he was
trying to build
interest for a
documentary
selves, the defendant does not deny
sending. The defendant maintained it
was sent to get interest for the docu-
mentary he is making on the family.”
Lecash, who denies harassment with-
out violence, will stand trial in January.
He was bailed on the condition that he
does not contact the complainants.
He is credited as the photographer
behind several iconic record covers
from the 1980s, including Bowie’s 1987
single Never Let Me Down, Stewart’s
1983 album Body Wishes and Manilow’s
1984 album 2:00 AM Paradise Café.
Lecash’s photos were also used by Jef-
ferson Starship — a supergroup formed
by musicians including former mem-
bers of Jefferson Airplane — Jermaine
Jackson and Pat Benatar before he be-
came a TV and film producer.
Rinkoff’s, established in 1911 by
Herman Rinkoff, a Ukrainian Jewish
refugee, when he was 25, is a family-run
bakery originally located in Old
Montague Street, Whitechapel, east
London. The business is now split
between a bakery and a deli.
The bakery still sells traditional
challah breads among others, but re-
cently branched out into a “crodough”
— a mix between a croissant and a
doughnut — devised by Herman’s
great-granddaughter, Jennifer.
includes unknown song
Jack Malvern
A handwritten scrawl in one of Sir Paul
McCartney’s old notebooks has been
identified as an unknown Beatles song
that the band never recorded.
The words to Tell Me Who He Is,
written by McCartney in the early
1960s, will be published for the first time
in November in The Lyrics, a collection
of songsheets compiled by the musician
from his archive. The book will feature
154 songs illustrated with photographs
of the lyrics and annotations by
McCartney describing the inspiration
for some of the lines.
Allen Lane, which will publish the
book in Britain for £75 for two volumes,
did not give further details on the song.
The notebook will go on display on
November 5 at the British Library.
McCartney, 79, has written in the
foreword that the book is the closest he
has come to writing an autobiography.
“More often than I can count, I’ve been
asked if I would write an autobiography,
but the time has never been right,” he
said. “The one thing I’ve always
managed to do . . . is to write new songs.
“I know that some people, when they
get to a certain age, like to go to a diary
to recall day-to-day events from the
past, but I have no such notebooks.
“What I do have are my songs,
hundreds of them, which I’ve learnt
serve much the same purpose. And
these songs span my entire life.”
The songlist includes eight songs dis-
missed by John Lennon as McCartney’s
“granny music”, including Ob-La-Di,
Ob-La-Da, Honey Pie, When I’m Sixty-
Four, Your Mother Should Know, Max-
well’s Silver Hammer, Martha My Dear,
Good Day Sunshine and Lovely Rita.
4 1G M Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

News
GRAHAM HUNT/ALAMY LIVE NEWS

Quintagram® No 1089
Solve all five clues using each
letter underneath once only
1 Railway track (4)

----
2 Underfoot conditions in racing (5)

-----
3 Privacy barrier (6)

------
4 List of timings (8)

--------
5 Having cordial relations (7,2)

---------
C C D E E E E E
E G G G G H I I
I L L N N N N N
O O R S S T T U
Solutions MindGames in Times2
Cryptic clues Page 10 of Times2

Online grooming rise

A 68 per cent rise in online
grooming crimes against children
in England and Wales since 2018
is due to “tech firms’ failings”, the
NSPCC children’s charity has
said. It accused them of failing to
adjust safety controls as the
problem grew in lockdown, with
5,441 offences between April last
year and this March. Instagram
was the most commonly used app
in offences where the means of
communication was known.
Scarlet sky The sturgeon moon, the traditional name for the full moon in August, appears to glow red as it rises behind the Queen Mary 2 near Weymouth in Dorset Messenger, WhatsApp and
Snapchat were also used.

Test predicts risk of premature Largest autism study

Scientists are seeking 10,000
people with autism for Britain’s
largest study into the condition,
the causes and effects of which

birth ten weeks into pregnancy remain poorly understood. An

estimated 700,000 people in
Britain are autistic. Researchers
hope to examine the genes linked
to different forms of autism and
Kat Lay Health Editor infection and premature birth if this learn more about the factors that
Behind the story happens earlier in the pregnancy. may affect foetuses in pregnancy.
The risk of a child being born pre- The study, published in the Journal of

maturely could be predicted ten weeks
into pregnancy by testing chemicals
and bacteria in the vagina, a study has
found.
Each year about 60,000 babies are
born early, making them more likely to
develop life-long health problems and
raising their risk of dying as newborns.
The reason for premature birth is not
always clear and it can be hard to pre-
dict. Researchers at King’s College
London were able to identify combina-
tions of chemicals and bacteria in
women’s bodies that were linked to
their babies being born early.
The findings could help to identify
first-time mothers who are at higher
risk of giving birth early, the research-
ers said. For those who have already
had children prematurely and are
therefore known to be at risk of doing so
again, they could form the basis of
monitoring tools.
The research team also found for the
first time that higher levels of a specific
T
here are face higher rates of premature and offer Clinical Investigation, used data on 346 No promise on welfare
about 60,000 neonatal and infant treatments that can UK women, 60 of whom gave birth pre-
babies born death. Those who help the baby stay in maturely. They looked at samples from Labour has refused to commit to
prematurely survive have the womb for longer. the cervix and vagina taken at between a permanent £20 uplift in
each year in increased rates of These include a 10 and 15 weeks and at 16 to 23 weeks. universal credit, which was
the UK — about one disability. stitch to support the Women who had a particular combi- introduced last year during the
in 13 (Kat Lay writes). The risk of severe cervix, or vaginal nation of glucose, aspartate and calci- pandemic and is due to end in
The rate has been health problems progesterone. Both um metabolites alongside the bacteria October. Jonathan Reynolds, the
fairly stable for more decreases the closer must be started Lactobacillus crispatus and acidophilus shadow work and pensions
than a decade. the birth is to full between 16 and 24 were more likely to give birth at or secretary, said the party would
While their survival term, so doctors are weeks of pregnancy, before 34 weeks. Seven metabolites — introduce a new £10 minimum
chances have keen to identify cases making early leucine, tyrosine, aspartate, lactate, wage but would decide on welfare
improved, they still that are likely to be identification vital. betaine, acetate and calcium — were spending at the next election.
linked to birth at or before 37 weeks.
The links were equally significant Five jailed for 70 years
bacterium, called Lactobacillus acido- you can only manage the risks, not stop when mothers were tested in the first
philus, was linked to a lower risk of it from happening. and second trimester, meaning women Five men who mowed down a
premature birth, raising the hope of “The sooner we can find out who’s at identified as high-risk might benefit cyclist have been jailed for a total
new preventative therapies. risk, the more we can do to keep moth- from treatments not possible in late of 70 years. Amrou Greenidge, 18,
Andrew Shennan, professor of ob- ers and babies safe.” pregnancy, such as a stitch to support was rammed in Fulham, London,
stetrics at King’s and the author of the During pregnancy the cervix, or the cervix. The research team said their in August 2019, then attacked with
study, said: “My team has developed opening of the womb, lengthens and working hypothesis was that vaginal knives. He died two days later. At
preterm birth prediction tools that are produces chemicals to protect the baby bacteria might cause an inflammatory the Old Bailey, Kai McDonald, 18,
very accurate later in pregnancy, like before shortening and softening for environment, affecting the cervix. Connor Gwynn-Bliss, 21, Darrel
foetal fibronectin tests, but at that stage, labour and birth. The baby is at risk of Dr Mark Porter, Times2, page 4 Mortimer, 21, Anas Osman, 19,
and Levar Jackson-Scott, 18, were

Three glasses of red wine a week ‘lowers blood pressure’ convicted of manslaughter.

Prisoners to fill jobs

Sam Tobin
Drinking red wine in moderation can
help to lower your blood pressure,
according to a study.
A team of experts from Queen’s Uni-
versity Belfast and Kiel University in
Germany found that higher intakes of
flavonoid-rich food and drink, which
also include berries, apples and pears,
are associated with lower blood and
pulse pressure. Flavonoids are believed
to help the muscles in people’s arteries
to relax, which allows them to widen,
improving bloody flow. They are bro-
ken down by microorganisms in the
gut, known as the microbiome.
The study of just over 900 people in
northern Germany, which has been
published this week in the journal
Hypertension, said that three glasses of
red wine a week could help to lower
your blood pressure. Participants with
the highest intake of flavonoid-rich
foods had almost 3 per cent lower sys-
tolic blood pressure than those who
consumed less, the study found. How-
ever, some of the link between flavon-
oid-rich foods and blood pressure could
be explained by participants’ gut micro-
biome, researchers said.
Aedín Cassidy, professor of nutrition
and preventive medicine at Queen’s
University, said: “Our gut microbiome
plays a key role in metabolising flavon-
oids to enhance their cardioprotective
effects. This study provides evidence to
suggest these blood pressure-lowering
effects are achievable with simple
changes to the daily diet.”
She suggested that more research
should be done on how differences in
people’s metabolisms changed the ef-
fect of flavonoids on blood pressure.
Abattoirs, butchers and meat
processors are set to employ
prisoners and former inmates to
help to plug labour shortages.
The Association of Independent
Meat Suppliers held talks with
the government to discuss a
looming recruitment crisis, with
14,000 job vacancies attributed to
the pandemic, Brexit and
perceptions over career paths.
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 2GM 5

Mission accomplished as late-running Cruise lands in family’s field
Miranda Bryant
It was a mission so simple Alison Webb
did not hesitate to accept it.
What she did not bargain for, how-
ever, was crossing paths with Holly-
wood royalty after agreeing to let a
“VIP who was running late” use her
field in Warwickshire as a landing pad.
Tom Cruise touched down in a heli-
copter at her home in the village of
Baginton when Coventry airport was
temporarily closed.
“I thought it would be kind of cool for
Alison Webb said
that meeting Tom
Cruise was surreal
the kids to see the helicopter land in the
garden,” Webb told the BBC. “He [Tom
Cruise] basically arrived and got out
and it was like, ‘Wow’.
“He went straight over to the child-
ren for a chat, then came over and
elbow-bumped us and said thank you
very much. Then he said if the kids
would like they could go up in the heli-
copter.” Her children and their friends
were taken on a ride by the pilot while
the Mission: Impossible 7 star went to a
meeting.
“It turned out to be an incredible
day,” Webb said. “It was surreal, I still
can’t believe it happened.”
Webb said that Cruise, 59, who was
dressed in jeans, T-shirt, facemask and
sunglasses, made a beeline for the
children as soon as he emerged from
the helicopter and posed for photos.
It was the latest in a string of UK
appearances by Cruise, who is in the
country filming the latest Mission:
Impossible film. The seventh instal-
ment, due to be released in May next
year, is directed by Christopher
McQuarrie and also stars Simon Pegg,
Ving Rhames and Vanessa Kirby.
Most recently, the actor has been
filming at Bullring & Grand Central
shopping centre in Birmingham with
his co-star Hayley Atwell. On Saturday
he was said to have been spotted visit-
News
ing Asha’s, an Indian restaurant in the
city centre. He apparently ordered two
chicken tikka masala dishes, leading to
some on social media nicknaming him
“Two Tikkas Tom”.
On Friday he was spotted at Stoney
Middleton in Derbyshire for a scene
involving a steam locomotive crashing
into a quarry.
Earlier this year he surprised locals in
the villages of Levisham, North
Yorkshire, and Heath and Reach,
Bedfordshire, when he arrived for
helicopter shoots.

NETFLIX

F
Fiona Lamptey,
We are not w leads
who
N
Netflix’s UK
a threat, fi division,
film
s
said that the
Netflix c
company was
n planning a
not
tells BBC “
“snatch
g
grab”
and
on talent.
Netflix signed

N
etflix has no
ambition to
“ride
roughshod”
over the BBC
and other British
broadcasters after
becoming a fixture in
the nation’s living rooms,
according to its UK
programming chief
(Jake Kanter writes).
In a rare interview at
the online Edinburgh TV
Festival Anne Mensah, a
Netflix vice-president,
attempted to position
the American streaming
giant as a friend not a
foe of traditional TV
broadcasters.
More than half of UK
households have a
Netflix subscription,
according to Ofcom, and
the company’s rise has
put pressure on the
BBC, Channel 4 and
others in the
increasingly intense
battle for audiences and
talent. Mensah, a former
lu
lucrative
e
exclusive deals
w Peter
with
M
Morgan, creator
o The Crown,
of
a the Black
and
M
Mirror writer
C
Charlie Brooker.
I both cases
In
N
Netflix was
s
stealthy about
s
signing the
c
contracts amid
in
industry
c
concerns that it
that it “did well” for hoo
was hoovering up talent
Netflix. “It’s about to the detriment of local
collaboration, not broadcasters and
competition. We do a lot producers. Mensah said
of co-productions with that Netflix was not
the PSBs [public service looking to “aggressively
broadcasters]. The BBC pursue” similar deals in
is on a roll right now — I the future.
love their shows, why She also voiced her
wouldn’t we work with support for Channel 4 as
them? It’s not a winner- the government explores
Netflix, which broadcasts Sky and BBC executive, global audiences. She murder manhunt series, takes-it-all type thing.” privatising the state-
The Crown, has spoken said that Netflix cared gave the example of The starring Jenna Coleman, Netflix spent $1 billion owned broadcaster.
highly of partnerships with about the UK and Serpent, which was recorded 33 million (£730 million) in the UK “Channel 4 is
public broadcasters, such wanted to partner with shown on the BBC in the iPlayer streams in the last year on shows unbelievably important
as its co-production of The broadcasters to co-fund UK but by Netflix in first three months of the including The Crown. to the ecology of the
Serpent, right, with the BBC shows for domestic and other countries. The year, while Mensah said Mensah’s colleague UK,” she said.

Euros final steward caught Cummings took part in

in sting is spared jail term
John Simpson Crime Correspondent
A Wembley steward was caught selling
stolen lanyards, wristbands and hi-vis
jackets to people trying to sneak into
the Euro 2020 final.
Yusaf Amin, 18, was detained after a
fan helped police in a sting operation.
He had guaranteed potential buyers on
Facebook entry to the England versus
Italy game or their money back.
A judge raised concerns about the
vetting and training of staff at Wembley
as he spared Amin jail but warned him
that he had risked the safety and secur-
ity of fans.
An investigation by The Times
exposed claims of widespread corrup-
tion among stadium staff and high-
lighted the scale of the security breach-
es as well as apparent intelligence fail-
ures by police prior to the match.
The Football Association has an-
nounced an independent review, over-
seen by Baroness Casey of Blackstock,
after disorder outside Wembley, vio-
lence and cocaine use on the terraces.
Amin, the first person sentenced over
the Wembley chaos, last month admit-
ted theft and posting the stolen items to
a Facebook group with the words:
“Steward pass available x2 with uni-
forms and pass and I’m outside Wem-
bley, anyone wans (sic) to get in.
“I have two passes and two uniforms
and wristbands for you to go in and
watch the game. Looking for serious
people only. Guaranteed entry or
money back.”
District Judge Denis Brennan, at
Willesden magistrates’ court, praised
Michelle Gallagher, the fan who helped
catch Amin, a student from Canning
Town, east London.
Yesterday he wiped tears from his
eyes as he heard he could have faced 12
months behind bars for “putting at risk
the security and safety” of fans. Instead
he was given a six-month jail sentence,
suspended for 12 months, because of his
early guilty plea, lack of previous con-
victions and the “real prospect of re-
habilitation”.
He was also ordered to carry out 200
hours of unpaid work, regularly report
to an attendance centre, and pay court
costs of £218.
The court was told that Amin, who
had worked at the ground as a steward
on a zero-hours contract since 2019 to
help pay for his studies, wanted to sell
the items to pay his mother’s debts.
The judge added: “I do have serious
concerns about the vetting, training
and supervision of someone so young
in a position of responsibility at
Wembley given what had occurred
previously.”
Brennan added: “I would like to end
by commending Michelle Gallagher
who was looking for a ticket. Instead of
acting out of greed to go and buy that
ticket to go into Wembley, very publicly
spirited, she contacted the police.
“Without people like her, acting in
such a public-spirited way, I don’t know
what guilt you would bear on your
shoulders now if you had sold it
to someone else, and that person
had behaved very badly within the
ground.”
Brexit debate on holiday
George Grylls Political Reporter
Dominic Cummings took part in a
three-hour debate about Brexit with
the staff of a restaurant in the High-
lands while on holiday with his family.
The prime minister’s former chief
adviser arranged to speak with the staff
of the Ceilidh Place after hearing that
waiters were uncomfortable about
serving him because of his role in the
EU referendum.
Cummings, the 49-year old architect
of the Vote Leave campaign, first went
to Ceilidh Place in Ullapool on Tuesday
last week, according to an article in the
Ross-shire Journal. Although the meal
passed without incident, staff members
were angered when he returned the
next day and they complained to Jock
Urquhart, 44, the owner.
Urquhart had previously blamed
the divisions stoked by Brexit for an
incident in 2019 when a French waiter
was abused by two elderly customers.
Sensing the unease over Cummings’s
continued patronage of his business,
which also includes a hotel and a book-
shop, Urquhart decided to serve the
former No 10 adviser personally so that
he could explain the ill-feeling. To Urqu-
hart’s surprise, Cummings offered to
come and debate his political differences
with the staff the following night.
At 8.20pm on Thursday, Cummings
returned for a three-hour debate that
Urquhart later characterised as a “very
forthright exchange of opinions”. Urqu-
hart told the Ross-shire Journal that the
discussion ended with “a grudging
mutual respect”, though neither side
convinced the other of their case.
He said: “Some members of our staff
had a political ambivalence towards
him and were keen not to serve him.
However, the Ceilidh Place felt that
refusal of service on the grounds of
political belief is a slippery slope.
“Mr Cummings was aware of this ani-
mosity but he chose to dine with us and
offered to spend time in a robust and
frank exchange of views with those
members of staff less enamoured with
his presence. It was a very interesting
experience for all concerned.”
Cummings later took to Twitter to
recommend the Ceilidh Place to his
171,000 followers.
6 2GM Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

News
News Afghanistan

Afghan guard dies in gunfight

Catherine Philp
Diplomatic Correspondent
David Charter Washington
An Afghan guard working alongside
German and American soldiers was
shot dead in a standoff with gunmen at
Kabul airport yesterday, hours before a
fire broke out inside the perimeter
secured by allied troops.
Seven people were trampled to death
outside the gates at the weekend, with
the Taliban blaming Nato for the tur-
moil. “America, with all its power and
facilities ... has failed to bring order to
the airport,” Amir Khan Muttaqi, a Tal-
iban official, said. “There is peace and
calm all over the country, but there is
chaos only at Kabul airport.”
The US struck a deal with the Taliban
to withdraw all forces by the end of
August on condition that the militants
halted attacks on foreign forces. That
agreement may be critical to the
restraint the Taliban have shown in
allowing Nato troops to carry out their
evacuation.
Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s
English-speaking spokesman in Qatar,
said yesterday there could be no change
to the August 31 deadline for foreign
troops to leave even if the evacuation
was incomplete, calling the date “a red
line”. The militants say they have yet to
receive any request for an extension but
if they did, “the answer is no,” Shaheen
told Sky News. “Or there would be con-
sequences.”
Jake Sullivan, the US national secur-
ity adviser, said President Biden would
make the final decision on the with-
drawal deadline, notwithstanding Tali-
ban threats. “We are engaging with the
Taliban, consulting with the Taliban on
every aspect of what’s happening in Ka-
bul right now, on what’s happening at
the airport, on how we need to ensure
there’s facilitated passage to the airport.
Ultimately it will be the president’s de-
cision how this proceeds, no one else’s.”
Jen Psaki, Biden’s press secretary,
bridled when a reporter said that Amer-
icans were stranded in Afghanistan. “I
think it’s irresponsible to say that
Americans are stranded. They are not,”
she said. “We are committed to bringing
Americans who want to come home,
home.”
US officials said 16 American citizens
were picked up by US special foces yes-
terday two hours outside Kabul airport.
John Kirby, the Pentagon spokes-
man, had said earlier that the US was
still planning to finish the withdrawal
by August 31. “That is the mission that
we’ve been assigned by the command-
er-in-chief and that’s what we’re trying
to execute.”
However, Ben Wallace, the defence
secretary, admitted yesterday there was
no prospect of British troops remaining
to carry out evacuations once the
Americans had left. “We will have to go
as well,” he said. “I don’t think there’s
any likelihood of staying on after the
US. If their timetable extends, even by a
day or two, then that will give us a day
or two more to evacuate people. We are
really down to hours now, not weeks.
We have to make sure we exploit every
minute to get people out.”
A man seen waving a UK passport
outside a temporary British embassy in
Kabul yesterday told an ITV news crew
that he wants Boris Johnson to “get me
and my kids out of here”, adding: “My
message for the prime minister is, just
get us out of here otherwise my kids are
struggling and we’re all in a big mess
here. The British Army is right behind
these fences, they’ve closed the gate
and they’re not letting no one in.”
Foreigners have mostly been allowed
through to the airport but many
Afghans have been stopped, including
translators for the British military who
have permission to leave. News organi-
sations have been unable to get staff
through Taliban checkpoints without
the help of Qatari interlocutors.
Gunfire broke out early yesterday
near an entrance to the airport, where
at least seven Afghans died earlier in a
stampede of thousands of people. An
unknown assailant shot at Afghan
security forces at the airport’s northern
gate, leading Afghan, US and German
troops to open fire in response. An
Afghan soldier was killed and several
Afghans were wounded, according to
the US military. Smoke from a fire
inside the airport perimeter drifted
over a neighbouring road last night.
The chaos over the evacuation is
straining transatlantic relations.
According to a British diplomatic cable
seen by Bloomberg, Biden promised
G7 leaders in Cornwall in June that
“critical US enablers” would remain in
place to keep Kabul safe after the draw-
down of Nato forces. British officials de-
termined that the American presence
would be enough to keep their embassy
in Kabul operating but were forced to
rethink as the Taliban swept across the
country and up to the gates of the capi-
tal. Britain abandoned its embassy the
day before the Taliban took the city.
France said yesterday that it needed
more time to complete evacuations.
“We are concerned about the August 31
deadline,” Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s
foreign minister, said at the al-Dhafra
air base in the United Arab Emirates,
from where France is operating its air
bridge. “Additional time is needed.”
Heiko Maas, Germany’s foreign min-
ister, said talks were being held with
Nato allies, and with the Taliban,
to keep the airport open to a civilian
evacuation beyond the August 31
deadline.
Germany has won plaudits for send-
ing forces into Kabul to rescue a mother
and her two children, aged 19 and 12,
and escort them into Kabul airport,
German media reported. They have
Afghan roots but live in Munich and
had been visiting relatives in Kabul.
The Taliban dismissed the panicked
rush for the airport as “hysteria”, point-
ing to the general amnesty they an-
nounced for those who worked for the
former government and with foreign
forces. The promises have been met
with scepticism, however, in light of
their concerted campaign of assassina-
tions over the past few years.
A leaked UN intelligence report has
warned that the Taliban are going door
to door as they hunt for former officials
and those who worked with Nato
troops.
Shaheen dismissed those reports as
“fake news” and suggested that fleeing
Afghans were motivated not by fear but
hopes of economic advancement. “This
is about wanting to resettle in western
countries. And that is a kind of eco-
nomic migration because Afghanistan
is tiny, poor country. Everyone wants to
settle in western countries to have a
powerful, prosperous life. They exag-
gerate fear and terror.”
Africa could be the next national security
disaster, William Hague, page 23
The failure of foreign intervention in
Afghanistan, letters, page 26
G7 and the UN have vital roles to play in
restoring order, leading article, page 27

Pullout hits president’s popularity Members of the UK armed forces, including the Royal Military Police, above, are

Major general praises

David Charter
President Biden’s popularity has fallen
amid the Afghanistan crisis but Amer-
ican voters remain convinced that US
News with the Republican pollster Bill
Trouble at home McInturff. Their poll showed Biden’s
approval rating down four points from
How many Americans...
a similar poll in April to 49 per cent,
Agree the withdrawal has gone badly with disapproval at 48, up nine points.
74%

troops should be brought home and are
much more focused on economic and
health issues.
The average approval rating of Biden,
78, has slipped below 50 per cent for the
first time as president, while three quar-
ters of Americans told CBS that the
Afghan withdrawal was going badly.
Only 25 per cent approved of his hand-
ling of the pullout in an NBC poll.
However, Biden’s calculation that
he would not be hurt electorally by
bringing troops home is supported
by polling on the most important
issues facing voters. While the eco-
nomy remains by far the big-
gest factor in deciding how
to vote, Afghanistan is
not even mentioned.
Pollsters said that
Biden’s falling ratings
probably had more to
do with the surge in cor-
onavirus cases and its
knock-on effect on the
economy than the evacu-
Agree troops should come home
63%
Approve of Biden's handling of events
47%
Who is to blame for Taliban takeover?*
Afghan government
60%
Afghan army
55%
Source: CBS poll
President Biden
*Respondents could give
36% more than one answer
ation of Kabul. “It is the domestic
storm, Covid’s Delta wave, that
is causing more difficulties at
this stage here at home and
for President Bid-
en,” said Jeff Hor-
witt, a Democratic
pollster who conduct-
ed the survey for NBC
Biden’s approval rating
is below 50 per cent
“The best way to understand this poll
is to forget Afghanistan,” McInturff
said. He pointed to the responses when
voters were asked for the number one
issue: 26 per cent said the economy and
jobs, 10 per cent immigration and the
border and 7 per cent coronavirus.
Approval of Biden’s handling of the
economy has fallen to 47 per cent, from
52 per cent in April. Inflation is rising,
record numbers of illegal immigrants
have been caught at the southern bor-
der and Covid cases have been surging.
A CBS poll put his approval at 50-50.
While 74 per cent of Americans said
they thought the withdrawal had gone
badly, 63 per cent still believed that the
troops should come home. Approval of
Biden’s handling of the situation was
down 13 points in a month to 47 per
cent. When asked who bore “a lot of
responsibility for the Taliban taking
over”, the Afghan government was
named by 60 per cent, the Afghan army
by 55 per cent, Biden by 36 per cent and
President Trump by 25 per cent.
Ben Ellery
Soldiers who protected Kabul airport
face the threat of death at “any
moment”, according to a letter written
by the major general of the Parachute
Regiment.
Andrew Harrison praised “our
incredible paratroopers” and wrote
that: “A second’s loss of concentration
could lead to separation and death and
any moment rifle or rocket fire could
bring disaster.” He highlighted the work
by soldiers working in close proximity
alongside the Taliban, “our enemy for
decades”, while ensuring the safety of
those rushing to the airport to evacuate
the country.
In 2000, Harrison was trapped be-
hind rebel lines in Sierra Leone for two
months after being captured by rebels
of the Revolutionary United Front. He
was rescued by the United Nations.
Here The Times prints his letter
praising the efforts of paratroopers in
Afghanistan in full.
‘‘
Over the last week I
have, once again,
witnessed our incredible
paratroopers at the very
front line of a dangerous, dynamic
and debilitating operation. Only those
on the Kabul airport front line will be
able to understand the pressure they
face, but they are bravely squaring up
to an incredible challenge to save
thousands of lives.
As our soldiers deployed on to the
runway to face the chaos of a
crumbling nation, they had no idea
what the operation would bring. The
Taliban, our enemy for decades, was
manning ad hoc checkpoints in
dangerous proximity. The threat of
attack, from either the Taliban or
from thousands of recently released
prisoners, was everywhere. A second’s
loss of concentration could lead to
separation and death and any
moment rifle or rocket fire could
bring disaster.
For days they have had no sleep.
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
amid mayhem at Kabul airport
working around the clock to keep the evacuation effort going at Kabul airport but will not stay on once US troops have left
‘incredible’ British paratroopers
Most will have witnessed
unimaginable levels of human
desperation, viewed through the
prism of fatigue and pressured
decision-making. Few, if any, will ever
have seen anguish and fear on quite
this scale and at such proximity.
But once again our troops have
proved ready for anything. Young
paratroopers have proved the value of
high readiness, incredible training,
supreme fitness and an awe-inspiring
combination of courage and
compassion. This operation is far
from over, and we wish them the very
best of luck as they seek to forge
order from chaos, to extract hope
from despair.
Having spent years in Afghanistan
over multiple tours, I understand how
painful this final chapter in the UK’s
involvement will be.
I feel for the Afghan population.
But I also feel desperately sad for the
families of our bereaved, the
wounded, the veterans and our
1G M
Andrew Harrison
said his troops had
made him proud
families. This campaign has not
ended in the way any of us would
have wished, but I want you to know
that our reputation, carved out of the
soil of Afghanistan by our soldiers,
will endure for ever. The stories of
courage and stoicism displayed by
paratroopers in Afghanistan will
resonate in our national history for
ever.
The many gallantry awards the
regiment has earned, including two
Victoria Crosses and a George Cross,
and the numerous other meritorious
awards, are testament to the
collective valour and efforts of all
four battalions. They fought in some
of the most iconic and audacious
LPHOT BEN SHREAD
actions of this century. Our
Afghanistan veterans have
honourably served our nation. They
have marched through Afghan dust
to the sounds of the guns and built on
the extraordinary reputation this
regiment holds. I will always be proud
to be an Afghan veteran and will
forever tell the amazing stories of our
soldiers with pride.
I will now salute fallen friends with
a tear in my eye and my Herrick
campaign medal worn proudly on my
chest. As painful as it has been, I
would not have wanted to be
anywhere else.
For all those on the baseline at the
airport, stay safe and continue to be
strong. For all our serving soldiers,
for all our veterans, for all the
relatives of our soldiers and for all
our bereaved families, on the good
days and bad, the
’’
regiment is always there
for you.
Utrinque Paratus!
Riddled with bullets
on way to buy fruit
Hospitals in the capital
are at breaking point as
wounded bystanders
seek treatment,
writes Charlie
Faulkner
in Kabul
Lying in a hospital bed, his body riddled
with bullets and wincing in pain with
every movement, Fateh Ahmad recalls
the moment he was shot.
The farm worker, 42, who earns
about 30,000 Afghani a year,
equivalent to a little over £270, had
visited a bazaar in Kabul to buy fruit in
the immediate aftermath of the
Taliban’s takeover. As violence broke
out among armed groups emboldened
by Afghanistan’s descent into lawless-
ness, people in two vehicles began
shooting at each other. Ahmad was
caught in the crossfire. “I didn’t see who
it was,” he says. “I have two bullets in
each leg, two bullets in my right arm
and three in my left. I’ve had three sur-
geries so far and there are more to go.”
Growing numbers are finding
themselves in a similar position as the
country counts the cost of the Taliban’s
rapid advance. Kabul’s main hospital,
which is run by aid workers under the
direction of the Italian medical co-ordi-
nator Alberto Zanin,, reached
full capacity by the begin-
ning of last week. “We re-
ceived 80 casualties on
Sunday,” Zanin says..
“We normally have a
capacity for 100
patients but we had
to increase it to 120.”
Initially, he says,
there was tension
caused by heavily
armed Taliban fighters rs
Fateh Ahmad, was shotot
ar
seven times at a bazaar
I feel guilty, says ex-soldier
who left his staff behind
Larisa Brown, Peter Stubley
A former British soldier who worked for
a private contractor in Kabul said he felt
“overwhelming guilt” at leaving his
staff after catching an evacuation flight
home.
Lloyd Comer, 60, said hundreds of
people had begged for help to escape
the Taliban. His Afghan friends wanted
him to “find them a way out as if I’m
some sort of messiah”, he told Today on
BBC Radio 4.
“Unfortunately I’m not,” he said. “My
heart bleeds for those beautiful people
and that crazy country.”
Comer spent 35 years with the army
before going private in 2013. He said his
team had told him to leave because the
Taliban were “on the doorstep” of the
capital. Comer wore a shameez (shirt)
and shemagh (scarf) and climbed into a
local man’s car. “These guys drove me
from camp, about a 30, 40-minute drive
7
News
News
entering the building as they accompa-
nied their injured and walking wound-
ed. Now, however, that has changed.
“Just yesterday we met with the Taliban
health director, who guaranteed us
their full co-operation,” says Zanin.
As he speaks two children are
brought into the emergency room,
their arms and faces bandaged. Neither
is moving. They are from Paktia, about
80 miles south of Kabul, and were in-
jured when an improvised explosive
device detonated. The emergency
room is quiet as doctors work on the
children. They have fallen victim to a
familiar Taliban tactic: laying IEDs in
areas they capture to slow down any
effort to retake territory by what little
resistance remains in Afghanistan.
Outside, Khan Zarin, 35, is wearing
Mickey Mouse pyjama trousers as he
sits on a bench in the sunshine in the
hospital’s garden. He nurses his right
arm, which is in plaster. He says he was
selling fruit at a market in Pul-e-Chark-
hi, to the east of Kabul, when fighting
erupted nearby. “I think it was the
Taliban and government troops but I
can’t say for sure,” he says. “A bullet
went through my arm and I’ve been
here ever since. It all happened so
quickly I didn’t get a chance to hide.”
Like many others who speak at
Kabul’s hospital, Zarin, a father of eight,
does not care who runs Afghanistan; he
just wants peace. “We are poor people
just trying to earn a living,” he says.
Back on the wards Malangjar, 28, a
carpenter, was also injured when the
Taliban entered Kabul. “As I
travelled home two military
vehicle
vehicles began a shoot-
out iin front of me and I
got shot in the cross-
fir
fire,” he says. His
in
injuries, however,
aare not his main
cconcern. “I worry
ab
about my daugh-
te
ters’ future, about
the access to educa-
their
tion and their freed-
oms,” he says. “When I
sho I thought I’d
got shot
never see tthem again.”
through Taliban checkpoints. [Near the
airport] the Taliban were firing into the
air. It was a very, very tense atmos-
phere. I really don’t like to dwell on
what would have happened if we’d been
stopped. Having worked for the
[Afghan National Army] would defi-
nitely make me a target for the Taliban,
and being a westerner, doubly so.”
Habib, a former British interpreter
whom The Times wrote about yester-
day, made it into the airport with his six
children. He had been told he was eligi-
ble weeks ago but had raised concerns
about his 21-year-old son who was not
deemed a dependant because of his age.
After making their way through crowds
they were all rescued by British troops.
Another interpreter was still waiting
outside with his family for the second
day having been told to come forward
for a flight by the UK. He said British
soldiers were temporarily allowing in
only UK passport holders.
8 2GM Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

News
News Afghanistan

Housing grants for

councils to assist
big Afghan families
Steven Swinford Political Editor
Councils will be given grants to rent,
and even buy, large family homes under
plans to house Afghan families.
The Times has been told that the av-
erage size of families coming to the UK
through the government’s scheme for
Afghan interpreters and other support
staff is seven people. At least one of the
families has 12 people. While councils
have offered accommodation for just
over 2,500 people, the final number
could be almost five times that.
One in three councils have come for-
ward with offers to accommodate and
provide support for Afghan refugees.
Ministers hope that more will do so and
reduce the number in temporary ac-
commodation.
Most Afghans are arriving at
Birmingham airport and then going in-
to hotel quarantine for ten days. They
are subsequently offered accommoda-
tion either in married quarters at
Ministry of Defence bases or in hotels.
Officials from the Home Office and
Ministry of Housing are working with
councils to find more accommodation,
particularly for larger families.
“The greatest challenge is that coun-
cils simply don’t have enough vacant
properties,” a government source said.
“We are looking at other options which
could see councils renting properties of
the right size or even purchasing them
and adding them to their long-term
housing stock.”
Councils are already offered about
£10,000 per Afghan migrant to provide
them with accommodation and
support. A further £5 million has been
offered to help provide housing, an
amount that could be increased.
The number of people expected to
come to the UK from Afghanistan has
risen significantly. The defence minis-
try said last week that 6,000 people
could come under the RAF’s evacua-
tion programme. That figure is now ex-
pected to be about 12,000 after more
cases were identified.
The success in evacuating people has
also seen numbers rise. Ministers be-
lieve that up to 2,000 people a day could
be airlifted out as the week goes on.
The Afghan refugees are being re-
housed across the country, with council
leaders and mayors in Liverpool,
London, Kent and Essex sharing strong
statements of support. Others have
been moved to West Yorkshire, Ports-
mouth, Hampshire, Surrey and Melton
in Leicestershire.
Ministers want more councils to
come forward with “hard offers” of ac-
commodation amid concerns about the
number of refugees in temporary ac-
commodation. The government has
rejected suggestions that councils
should be mandated to accommodate
migrants, and believes that the volun-
tary approach will eventually supply
enough housing.
Boris Johnson said last week as plans
were drawn up to resettle refugees: “We
owe a debt of gratitude to all those who
have worked with us to make Afghan-
istan a better place over the last 20
years. Many of them, particularly
women, are in urgent need of our help.
I am proud that the UK has been able to
put in place this route to help them and
their families live safely in the UK.”
Charities have raised concerns about
the suitability of temporary accommo-
dation. On Wednesday a five-year-old
boy fell to his death from a ninth-floor
hotel window in Sheffield. Mohammed
Munib Majeedi’s father is understood
to have worked at the British embassy
in Kabul. The Refugee Council called
on the Home Office to investigate.
Emma Haddad, director-general of
asylum and protection at the Home
Office, described last night the heart-
break she and her colleagues feel over
the tragedy. Writing in The Daily Tele-
graph, she said: “That could have been
my eight-year-old. We are not faceless
bureaucrats with no empathy — the
emotions are overwhelming us.”
Haddad added that her team had no
option but to house refugees in hotels
as councils’ offers of housing had failed
to keep pace with the number of people
arriving in the UK.
The Home Office said: “We are
extremely saddened by the tragic death
of a child at a hotel in Sheffield. The
police are providing support to the
family while the investigation contin-
ues and we cannot comment further at
this time.”
Robert Jenrick, the housing secre-
tary, said last week: “There is already an
enormous effort under way to support
those arriving from Afghanistan, with
close to a third of councils already step-
ping up to support new arrivals.
“However, we urgently need more
offers of support to welcome Afghan
families who have stood shoulder to
shoulder with the UK, serving our
troops and our country so bravely in
recent years.
“With this extra support in place I’m
calling on all councils who have not yet
come forward to contact us with a firm
offer of support to help our Afghan
friends and their families as they build
a new life in safety here.” Jubilant Taliban fighters patrol the streets in the city of Kandahar. Meanwhile

Plan for regional refugee hubs dropped Ex-Guantanamo detainee

George Grylls Political Reporter
Britain appears to have abandoned
plans to establish regional hubs to pro-
cess Afghans fleeing the Taliban, with
migrants likely to be resettled directly
from refugee camps in neighbouring
countries instead.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans
are expected to try to cross the border
into Iran and Pakistan once the evacua-
tion of US troops from Kabul airport is
complete, aid agencies have suggested.
On Sunday Ben Wallace, the defence
secretary, said that Britain would set up
“processing hubs” to help refugees in
third countries to get to the UK.
Subsequent reports speculated that
Turkey could be one location for a hub.
This prompted the country to issue a
statement denying it would host
centres to process Afghans fleeing to
Britain.
It has now emerged that processing
hubs will not be set up in third countries
at all, and the UK is likely to resettle
people directly from UN-administered
refugee camps instead.
There are an estimated 2.6 million
Afghan refugees worldwide, 86 per
cent of whom are in Pakistan and Iran.
About 550,000 Afghans have been
internally displaced this year alone.
There are concerns, however, that
Afghans will not be able to leave the
country because of the worsening
security situation. There are also fears
that those travelling as families could
struggle to make the arduous journey
into Pakistan or Iran.
The UNHCR, the UN’s refugee
agency, is urging Afghanistan’s neigh-
bours to keep borders open to allow re-
fugees to escape the Taliban.
Matthew Saltmarsh, a UNHCR
spokesman, said: “The Iranian and
Pakistani borders have been open on a
sporadic basis and primarily for trade or
for those with documentation.
“We urge all states to open their bor-
ders to people fleeing Afghanistan. If
there is a major influx into neighbour-
ing countries the international com-
munity will need to provide sustained
support. We are in discussions with host
countries about contingency plans.”
Amnesty International estimates
that “hundreds of thousands” of Af-
ghans could attempt to cross the coun-
try’s borders with Iran and Pakistan
once US troops evacuate Kabul airport,
shutting off the last safe route out of the
country.
Steven Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty
International UK’s refugee and mi-
grant rights programme director, said
that faced with such numbers Pakistan
and Iran could be tempted to close their
borders. He said: “Turkey is building
walls along its borders with Iran.
Greece is doing the same with Turkey.
All prompted, it seems, by this crisis. So
the message being sent to Iran and
Pakistan is not an encouraging one.
“If people are able to get out of the
country then we should probably ex-
pect that we would be looking at hun-
dreds rather than tens of thousands of
people crossing those borders.”
Wallace wrote in The Mail on Sunday
that the UK government would set up
regional centres to process asylum
applications for Afghans coming to
Britain. “We will establish a series of
processing hubs across the region out-
side Afghanistan for those Afghans we
have an obligation to bring to this
country,” he wrote. He later said that he
had never touted Turkey as one of the
potential locations.
The Turkish foreign ministry said:
“The news in the UK press saying there
are plans to establish an asylum
processing centre for Afghan asylum
seekers in Turkey does not reflect the
truth. No official request has been
conveyed to us from any country.
Should there be such a request, we
would not accept it anyway.”
hails ‘peaceful’ takeover
Jack Malvern
A scholar at the Islamic Sharia Council
and a former Guantanamo Bay
detainee are among British people wel-
coming the return of the Taliban to
power in Afghanistan.
Khola Hasan, of the sharia council,
said that “every single person I know as
a Muslim — whether on social media or
as friends — are celebrating” the Tali-
ban’s rapid restoration as western
forces prepared for a final withdrawal.
Asked on Radio 4’s Sunday pro-
gramme why Afghans were so desper-
ate to flee the country that some had
clung to the landing gear of departing
aircraft, she replied that in the 20 years
when the Taliban were not in control,
“young Afghan men were getting into
dinghies trying to get to Europe. Thou-
sands drowned. Why are we focusing
on those trying to get out now?”
Moazzam Begg, who was detained at
Bagram airbase in Afghanistan and was
later moved to the US military outpost
at Guantanamo Bay before his release
in 2005, also celebrated the end of “oc-
cupation by an imperial superpower”.
Begg, who is outreach director of the
human rights group Cage, wrote on its
website: “Cage pays tribute to the
Afghan people for their steadfastness in
resistance and for the great costs they
have had to suffer to see their country
free from occupation by an imperial su-
perpower .” His statement was prefaced
with a description of the Taliban retak-
ing the country “in a largely peaceful
and negotiated transfer of power”.
Other commentators were cautious-
ly optimistic about the Taliban’s return.
Yvonne Ridley, a former journalist for
the Daily Express who was captured by
the Taliban and subsequently convert-
ed to Islam, suggested that the Taliban
had learnt from the extreme strictures
they imposed when last in power.
“They’ve had 20 years to think about
that period of time and in those 20 years
I think they’ve realised the errors that
they made,” she said in a discussion on
the YouTube channel Afghan Eye.
“[The Taliban] are still very puritani-
cal . . . but I really despair of some of the
reports that we’ve seen comparing
them to Isis or Daesh.” She said that the
Taliban would be “shocked and dis-
tressed” at the behaviour of Isis mem-
bers who raped and sold Yazidi women.
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
resistance forces gather in the Panjshir Valley, top left, where they are preparing to hold back the advancing militants
Syrians who settled on Scottish island
Case study
F
rom a table
outside Helmi’s, a
little Syrian café
and bakery on
the Isle of Bute,
the view across the
harbour is beautiful
(Mike Wade writes).
It has been a great
summer, said Moumen
Helmi, who works for the
business. “This is one of
the best tourist
destinations on the west
coast, and this summer
one of the most popular
in the whole UK,” he said.
“Everybody loves Bute.”
In one way or another
it seems the sun has been
shining on his family
since they arrived on this
island of calm in the Firth
of Clyde six years ago,
refugees from war-torn
Damascus.
Bashar, Helmi’s father,
owned a clothing factory
in the suburbs of the
2GM
Syrian capital, and
Mohamad, his brother-in-
law, was a pastry chef.
Three years ago the
two men founded their
excellent café in
Rothesay, the first in the
island capital to serve
baklava and layali cakes.
Helmi and his siblings all
work for the business.
The reviews have been
glowing and trade has
been brisk, enabling a
second branch to open in
Bearsden, Glasgow’s
prosperous northern
suburb.
“We might open a third
or fourth branch next
year,” Helmi said
cheerily.
While he loves the
calm and peace of Bute,
population 7,500, for
some the island proved
too quiet. Mounzer al-
Darsani had been a
barber in Damascus and
had no hesitation when
he arrived in Rothesay in
establishing his Orient
Salon on the opposite side
of the harbour from
Helmi’s. He was, he
insisted, the first Syrian
barber in the UK and
employs a small team of
his countrymen on Bute
and at his shop in
Greenock, on the
mainland.
“Bute is a very nice
place to live, very safe for
my family, but there’s
nothing to do,”
al-Darsani said.
“Greenock is more of
a city, with many
things to do and
more choice. I
thought I could
improve my
business here,
and show
people more
of Syrian
culture.”
His near
business
neighbour in
Greenock is
EPA/STRINGER ; AAMAJ NEWS AGENCY/REUTERS
Security fears after
passenger on ‘no-fly’
list arrives in Britain
Ben Ellery
An Afghan on the UK’s “no-fly watch-
list” has made it to the UK in a British
military plane in a potential security
breach.
The person, who is not being identi-
fied by the government, was wrongly
flown to Birmingham as part of the
British evacuation operation.
The no-fly watchlist was brought in
to block suspected militants or others
considered a security threat from
reaching Britain.
Officials later said that they had con-
cluded the person was “not a person of
interest to the security agencies”,
meaning they were free to go. However,
it raises questions about how they were
able to board the flight.
Had they been considered a threat, it
would not have been possible to return
them to Afghanistan as Britain has sus-
pended flights.
The revelation, reported by Sky
News, emerged at a briefing for MPs by
ministers and officials yesterday.
Four other people on the list were
prevented from leaving Afghanistan
with British help.
Government sources said the fact
that the person had been identified
showed that the watchlist was working.
They also said that people could be on
the “no-fly” list for many reasons.
British officials at Kabul airport have
warned of a rise in impersonations and
forged documents. Ministers said it was
why we could not “open the gates” to
allow in anyone without checks.
Sky News said that the US did not
have any such checks, and that people
would be processed there on arrival.
The revelation was made by a senior
Border Force official in a call to MPs.
Oxford students in hiding
after being denied flights
Emma Yeomans, Liz Perkins
Two University of Oxford students are
trapped in Kabul despite having paper-
work entitling them to come to the UK.
another who has quit The two students, whom The Times is
Bute. Fadel Helmi opened not naming over fears for their safety,
Brunch All Day, a Syrian- are postgraduate students and are in
Scottish café, two months hiding in Kabul because of threats from
ago, after the pandemic the Taliban.
forced him to close his Both have been turned down for
takeaway in Rothesay. evacuation flights to the UK. They have
Helmi, 45, was a been studying their courses at Oxford
construction engineer online but in a normal year would be
before he fled to Scotland attending in person.
with his wife, Raham, and Ahmad, not his real name, a post-
three children. A fourth graduate student, moved to Kabul after
child arrived and all have his father was captured and tortured by
thrived, with the eldest the Taliban in 2015, and has been work-
about to start a ing as a senior official in the Afghan
pharmacology course government.
at Strathclyde Although he had the option to come
University. “There to the UK to study, he chose to stay in
was a great welcome Afghanistan after the death of his
from the people and father to support his family.
the government in Ahmad does not have a visa but
Scotland, but Oxford has given him a letter proving
wherever you his eligibility for a postgraduate student
are in the UK, it visa. Under UK law postgraduate
is a very good students can also normally bring their
place to live families to live in the UK while they
for us as study.
refugees,” he He fears that his work for the Afghan
said. “We had government will make him a target.
a war in our “They have executed some police
own country.” and soldiers from Kandahar and Hel-
mand who used to work on the prem-
9
News
News
He said that one other person had been
intercepted in Frankfurt and stopped
from continuing to Britain but that his
family had been allowed to continue.
Kevin Foster, a Home Office minis-
ter, told MPs on the call that although
the UK must help those under threat
from the Taliban, they must be “mind-
ful” of people who pose a threat to Brit-
ain.
Ministers are warning against dilut-
ing or speeding up checks to get desper-
ate Afghans out of the country as Ben
Wallace, the defence secretary, warned
that the operation on the ground could
be over in “hours now, not days”.
A government official said: “There
are people in Afghanistan who repre-
sent a serious threat to national secur-
ity and public safety. That is why
thorough checks are taking place by
government, our world-class intelli-
gence agencies and others.”
James Heappey, the armed forces
minister, has defended the slow pace of
the UK’s evacuation operation. He told
Today on BBC Radio 4: “There are
people in Kabul trying to get on to Brit-
ish flights that we have identified in our
checks as being on the UK no-fly list. So
the checks are entirely necessary
because there are people trying to take
advantage of this process to get into the
UK to cause us harm.”
British officials said there was a risk
of Islamic State militants seeking to ex-
ploit the scheme designed to help
former Afghan interpreters and others
who worked for the British military and
diplomats in Afghanistan over the past
20 years.
A huge effort is under way to run
security checks on each application,
but there is also an urgency to get fami-
lies out before the rescue has to stop.
ises of the government,” he said. “There
is supposed to be an amnesty but there
are killings.
“There are fears and concerns among
government employees. The Taliban
are assembling themselves in institu-
tions. We were not anticipating this to
happen so fast.
“My concern is how they are going to
treat us as ex-government employees. I
worked for the government for around
ten years and did negotiations with the
British embassy.”
He has a young son and a three-
week-old baby, and together with his
wife they are locked down in their flat.
“I have lost my father and my job and
will lose my home,” he added.
Khan, also not his real name, works
in banking and has a visa for the UK,
but like Ahmad was studying remotely.
He is hiding in his apartment block with
his family and said the Taliban had
already come to his block.
He said: “They are enquiring about
special forces, translators and anyone
who is well educated when they came
to our flat block. They think we have
worked with Nato, the US and the Brit-
ish.”
“If they know that I am studying in
Oxford University and will see that I
am in Western education in their defi-
nition I will be their enemy . . . They are
gathering information from relatives,
social media and they are active in
Facebook and LinkedIn,” he added.
10 1G M Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

News
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL ; PETER NICHOLLS/REUTERS

Extinction Rebellion
blockades West End

E
xtinction
Rebellion
protesters shut
down one of
the West End’s
busiest junctions
yesterday as police made
eight arrests (Tom Ball
writes).
About 1,000
environmental activists
began a wave of summer
demonstrations
modelled on the group’s
2019 protests which shut
down vast parts of the
capital and resulted in
hundreds of arrests.
The relatively low
number of arrests
suggests that the police
have taken into account
a Supreme Court ruling
that obstruction can be
a legitimate and lawful
form of protest.
The Ziegler judgment,
handed down in June,
ruled that the exercising
of protest rights could
constitute a “lawful
excuse” for obstructing
the highway, even if the
protest is considered
disruptive. There were a
further ten arrests on
Sunday, when activists
scaled the Guildhall
building.
Yesterday activists
marched from Trafalgar Police made few arrests as Malcher, 66, was among
Square to Covent up to 1,000 protesters shut those lying in the middle
Garden, where they set down the junction in of Cranbourn Street
up a blockade. Leicester Square and with her arm in a
Protesters erected a erected tents and a 13ft- suitcase. She said this
13ft-high pink table near high pink table complete was her first time
Leicester Square Tube with sleeping quarters locking on. “It’s
station with “Come to certainly quite the
the Table” written on it. with sleeping quarters experience,” she said.
The table is and areas where they By mid-afternoon,
reminiscent of the pink can lock themselves in. protesters had set up
boat that protesters Others lay on the tents with the intention
erected in Oxford Circus ground with their arms of holding the area
during demonstrations encased in a suitcase overnight. Police
in April 2019. packed with concrete as blocked roads and
Protesters quickly a means of preventing prevented foot traffic.
climbed on top of the police from dispersing Extinction protests,
table, which is equipped the protest. Marion letters, page 26

Deadly floods nine times Food waste on rise as home

likelier in warmer climate
Ben Webster Environment Editor
Climate change has made extreme
rainfall similar to the downpours that
caused last month’s devastating floods
in Germany and Belgium up to nine
times more likely, a study has found.
More than 90mm of rain fell in a
single day around the Ahr and Erft
rivers in Germany, far more than previ-
ous records. The resulting floods killed
at least 220 people.
Scientists calculated the role of
climate change on the intense rainfall
that caused the floods by analysing
weather records and computer simula-
tions to compare today’s climate, which
is about 1.2C warmer on average
globally than in pre-industrial times,
with the climate of the past.
They found that climate change had
made such intense rainfall between 1.2
and 9 times more likely to happen and
had also increased the amount of rain
that fell in one day by between 3 per
cent and 19 per cent.
They said similar events could be
expected to hit any part of western
Europe from the north of the Alps to
the Netherlands about once in 400
years in the present climate, meaning
that several such events were likely
across the wider region over that time-
frame. The scientists analysed rainfall
rather than river levels partly because
some measurement stations were
destroyed by the floods.
The results reinforce the conclusions
of this month’s report by the Intergov-
ernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), which said there is unequivocal
evidence that humans are warming the
planet, and that human-caused climate
change is the main driver of changes in
weather extremes. The report found
that as temperatures rise, western and
central Europe will be exposed to more
extreme rainfall and flooding.
The study of last month’s flooding
was conducted by the World Weather
Attribution group, which studies the
possible influence of climate change on
extreme weather events such as storms,
extreme rainfall, heatwaves, cold spells
and droughts.
It includes scientists from the Uni-
versity of Oxford, the Met Office and
universities and meteorological agen-
cies in Belgium, France, Germany, Lux-
embourg, the Netherlands and the US.
Dr Friederike Otto, an author from
the Environmental Change Institute at
the University of Oxford, said: “These
floods have shown us that even devel-
oped countries are not safe from severe
impacts of extreme weather that we
have seen and [know will] get worse
with climate change. This is an urgent
global challenge.”
A study by the same group found that
climate change made last year’s heat-
wave in Siberia and the Australia bush-
fires in 2019-20 more likely, and that
the recent heatwave in North America
would have been almost impossible
without climate change.
Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrol-
ogy at Reading University, said the
study, in which she was not involved,
showed the importance of preparing
communities for more such events in
future. “It is crucial to highlight how
climate change makes floods and other
impacts more likely, but it is important
that we do not use climate change as an
excuse for inaction,” she said.
“Individuals, local authorities and
governments still have the power to
make specific, local changes that can
save lives and protect property from the
worst impacts of floods. Blaming others
far away, or long ago, for these problems
just shirks responsibility.
“We must tackle climate change, or
these problems will only get worse in
the future. We have to do more to adapt
ourselves to deal with the natural haz-
ards that we face now, whether they are
made worse by climate change or not.”
cooks abandon good habits
Ben Webster
People who eat out frequently and buy
lots of takeaways are almost twice as
likely to waste large amounts of food as
the average person, a survey has found.
More than half (56 per cent) of those
who have eaten ten or more restaurant
or takeaway meals in the past month
are “higher food wasters” compared
with a national average of 30 per cent,
according to the research by Wrap, the
waste reduction charity.
It said that time pressures often
caused people to buy meals prepared
outside the home but that this resulted
in food in their fridges, which they had
intended to eat, going to waste.
The survey also found that house-
hold food waste had rebounded to pre-
pandemic levels, with the less wasteful
habits adopted by many people during
lockdown largely abandoned.
Food waste fell sharply last year as
people confined at home started using
up leftovers, batch cooking, planning
meals better and freezing food rather
than throwing it away.
However, last month the proportion
of food wasted in the home was on par
with pre-pandemic levels at 19.7 per
cent, with 30 per cent of people once
again falling into the category of “high
food waste”, up from 20 per cent in April
last year.
According to Wrap, “high food
wasters” are people who either waste
large amounts of milk or large
quantities of at least two out of three
other common items: chicken, bread or
potatoes. Its researchers found that
people who wasted those items tended
to waste more food overall.
The average combined proportion of
milk, chicken, bread and potatoes
thrown away per adult fell from 24.1 per
cent in November 2019 to 13.7 per cent
in April 2020 when the UK was in lock-
down. By June this year it had risen to
19.7 per cent.
Wrap also found that half of those
following a diet such as paleo, Atkins,
Dukan or intermittent fasting were
higher food wasters, as were 59 per cent
of people who had bought a
ready-made meal kit or fruit and veg
box in the past month.
The research, which was funded by
the government, also revealed a
significant rise in the number of meals
delivered or eaten outside the home,
from six per month in September to 7.6
in the past month.
Sarah Clayton, head of citizen behav-
iour change at Wrap, said: “One of the
few positives of this extraordinary time
has been people taking up new habits
that prevent food from going to waste.
“But the return of busy lifestyles
means we are falling back into our old
ways, and that risks these key skills not
being used.”
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 2GM 11

News

YouTube channel ‘spreads incel hate’

Tom Knowles
Technology Correspondent
Fiona Hamilton Crime & Security Editor
YouTube has been accused of helping
to spread extremist “incel” content by
failing to take down a channel that was
followed by the Plymouth murderer
Jake Davison and glorifies its misogy-
nistic ideology.
The video-sharing platform has been
accused of giving a “false sense of credi-
bility” to videos posted on its site that
show “adoration” for men who have
murdered women in anger over the fact
that no one has had sex with them.
A channel on YouTube with more
than four million views, which has been
running for three years, contains doz-
ens of videos encouraging men who
have not lost their virginity to embrace
the incel ideology.
Incel is short for involuntary celibate.
People who define themselves as incel
say they cannot get a romantic or
sexual partner. Discussions in incel fo-
rums often centre on self-pity around
their looks, anger and disgust at
women, and a sense that their lack of
sexual success is permanent as women
will always choose attractive men.
The channel, which The Times is not
naming, urges viewers to take the
“black pill” — a nihilistic term within
the incel community which states that
a man’s sexual success is entirely deter-
mined by biological traits such as his
jawline, height, race and cheekbones,
and so there is no point trying to get
women to like them romantically as
their fate is sealed from birth.
One video features a man saying that
once viewers hear his “black pill” opin-
ions, they will want to commit suicide.
Callum Hood, head of research at the
Center for Countering Digital Hate
(CCDH), said: “When you look at vid-
eos on that channel, they are all about
supporting this worldview that the
world is stacked against men, particu-
larly what they think of as unattractive
men, and there’s a genetic or social lot-
tery that determines your place in the
world, and that you just need to accept
it. But it also encourages an anger with
that system. This is the most toxic poss-
ible advice for men who might be feel-
ing this kind of dangerous anger and
despair, as it is harmful to themselves,
and to others.”
The CCDH is an international non-
profit organisation that researches and
tackles misinformation and online
hate. It says that Davison, 22, who shot
dead six people in Plymouth last week,
had been a subscriber to the channel it
has highlighted. In some of his posts,
Davison suggested that sexual assaults
were justified because “women don’t
need men no more”.
The YouTube channel Davison fol-
lowed also shows sympathy for the
mass murderer Elliot Rodger, 22, who
killed six students at the University of
California, Santa Barbara in 2014
before shooting himself. Rodger, 22,
had left a “manifesto” explaining how
he was dissatisfied with his life because
he had never had sex, and then explicit-
ly called for violence against women.
The CCDH criticised YouTube for
failing to take the incel channel down,
adding that its publication gave such
videos a sense of credibility.
A spokeswoman for YouTube said it
was looking into the video The Times
highlighted. She said: “Hate and vio-
lence have no place on YouTube,” add-
ing that there were “strict policies to en-
sure our platform is not used to incite
violence”. She said that in the first three
months of this year, YouTube removed
more than 85,000 videos and over
11,000 channels for violating the plat-
form’s policies on violence.

KENNEDY NEWS/GARY JONES

Iron Maiden
settle over
fraud claims
Jack Malvern
The heavy metal group Iron Maiden
have settled a court battle with T-shirt
sellers who accused them of stealing
money. The legal claim accused the
British band of an act “akin to a high-
tech and sophisticated bank robbery”.
Iron Maiden were in dispute with
Viral Style, an online selling platform
based in America, which they claimed
was responsible for selling unauthor-
ised merchandise.
The group made legal claims last year
against designers it accused of infring-
ing intellectual property rights, includ-
ing Beatee and 89artshirt, which sold
their products through Viral Style.
Viral Style removed itself from the
lawsuit in Illinois by arguing that it was
merely a selling platform. Iron Maiden
and their lawyers, AMS Law, won the
case against the remaining defendants.
However, in February Viral Style
lodged a claim at a Florida court that
Iron Maiden Holdings and AMS Law
had caused its Paypal account to be
frozen. When it recovered the account,
$200,000 (£146,000) was missing.
AMS Law claimed that the account
was shared between Viral Style and the
two designers.
The parties have now reached a
settlement for an undisclosed sum. Danse macabre Two white-tailed, or sea, eagles, the largest birds of prey found in Britain, tussle 100ft above a loch on the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides

Love Island cheat proves a winner Ruling over Sex Pistols songs
Miranda Bryant
Broadcast from a Spanish villa and
featuring plenty of un-socially dis-
tanced contact, Love Island was the
ultimate in pandemic escapism.
After nearly two months of relation-
ship dramas, and record Ofcom
complaints, the latest series of the hit
ITV2 dating programme reached its
finale last night when a bricklayer from
Wales and an admin worker from Essex
were crowned the winners.
Liam Reardon and Millie Court,
nicknamed “Milliam”, will be catapulted
into minor stardom after beating
competition from three other couples
to win the reality show best known for
its whirlwind relationships, question-
able tans and even more contentious
tantrums.
Their relationship and fame may
prove to be fleeting but there were
promising signs yesterday as Court, 24,
opted to split the £50,000 prize money
with her new partner. She had
Millie Court and Liam Reardon, who
will share the £50,000 prize money
considered splitting from Reardon after
he was unfaithful to her during “Casa
Amor week” — when a second villa is
introduced — but they reunited.
The other finalists were Chloe
Burrows and Toby Aromolaran, Faye
Winter and Teddy Soares and Kaz
Kamwi and Tyler Cruickshank. Laura
Whitmore hosted the live final from the
garden of the show’s Mallorcan villa in
front of a cheering audience.
During his “declaration of love”,
Reardon described their “special” first
kiss and apologised for straying from
Court with fellow contestant Lillie
Haynes. He said: “I then had a chal-
lenge thrown my way and I was so sorry
for what I had done. Seeing you
distraught . . . I never want to see you
that way ever again.” He said in an
interview: “Thank you everyone. We’re
leaving together and we’re going to
continue our journey so thank you.”
The latest series has not had the same
impact as previous ones. Facing compe-
tition from the Euros and Wimbledon,
the opening episode attracted its lowest
overnight launch viewership since 2017,
according to the Broadcasters’ Audi-
ence Research Board. One episode
prompted a record 25,000 Ofcom
complaints.
Authenticity is overrated, give us
competence, Martha Gill, page 24
leaves Lydon feeling rotten
Jonathan Ames Legal Editor
The former frontman of the Sex Pistols
has lost a High Court battle with two
bandmates over the use of songs in a
television series.
John Lydon — better known as John-
ny Rotten — had accused Paul Cook
and Steve Jones of treating him as
“slave labour” in their attempt to al-
low the songs to be used in a Dis-
ney series due for release next year.
Directed by Danny Boyle, who
made Trainspotting and Slumdog
Millionaire, the series is based on
Jones’s 2016 memoir, Lonely
Boy: Tales From A Sex Pistol.
Jones and Cook, both 65,
told the High Court that
under a “band member
John Lydon said that the
series was “disrespectful”
agreement” struck in 1998 decisions
regarding licensing requests for their
back catalogue could be determined on
a “majority rules basis”.
Lydon, also 65, argued that despite
the agreement licences could not be
granted without his consent, which he
did not grant because he regarded the
series as the “most disrespectful shit
I’ve ever had to endure”.
Sir Anthony Mann found that
Cook and Jones were entitled to
invoke “majority voting rules”.
Lydon’s lawyers had argued that
the agreement had never been
used and that he considered
it a “nuclear button” for
the claimants.
The band formed in
1975 and disbanded in
1978 but have performed
live shows since, most
recently in 2008.
12 1G M Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

News
News Coronavirus

Booster shot for most vulnerable ous week. Patient levels were last this planned for the largest possible booster
Chris Smyth Whitehall Editor
Kaya Burgess Science Reporter high on March 14, when the total stood campaign but it is increasingly coming

Booster jabs for the most vulnerable

could start within two weeks but
at 6,039, according to data published by
NHS England.
Yesterday ministers announced a
round to the view that a more limited
number will need jabs.
A recommendation to ministers is
Unjabbed mother
healthy over-70s may have to wait until
more evidence amasses.
£1 billion deal for a further 35 million
doses of the Pfizer vaccine in case all
due this week or next and may well be
limited to those who are immunocom-
died before she
The NHS aims to begin the booster
campaign on September 6 and the Joint
Committee on Vaccination and Immu-
over-50s need extra jabs both this year
and next. Sajid Javid, the health secre-
tary, said the deal would “future-proof”
promised, such as by an organ trans-
plant or cancer treatment. The group is
also looking at whether it is possible to
could meet baby

nisation (JCVI) is under pressure to
issue firm advice so that planning can
be finalised. However, the group wants
to see more evidence from trials look-
ing at the effectiveness of booster pro-
grammes after scientists were pleasant-
ly surprised by how slowly immunity
seems to be waning.
Sources close to the committee said
that the JCVI was likely to end up au-
thorising a booster campaign in stages,
mirroring the gradual approval of vac-
cination of teenagers.
The number of patients with Covid-
19 in hospital in England hit 6,000 yes-
terday for the first time in more than
five months. The figure, which is a
snapshot of patients as of 8am on
August 23, is up 11 per cent on the previ-
The national picture
How many people have Covid-19?
There were 31,914 new cases reported yesterday,
bringing the total so far to 6,524,581 or 97.7 for
every 1,000 people
Daily cases
13.4% increase from
r seven days ago
(based on seven-day
moving average)
Seven-day
average
National
R number
0.9 to 1.2
A S O N D J F M A M J J A
How many are in hospital?
There are 6,441 patients in hospital being
treated, of which 928 are on ventilators. An
additional 948 patients have been admitted, up
6.6 per cent in seven days to August 17 when
this data was last updated
Hospital admissions
Seven-day average
A S O N D J F M A M J J A
A
Britain’s vaccination drive, providing identify others for whom the first two mother
enough vaccine to wage the battle jabs did not work so well. who had
against Covid-19 “for years to come”. The JCVI has traditionally been wary not had the
The doses will be delivered in the of recommending vaccination without vaccine
second half of 2022, the Department of a clear benefit and fears damaging trust died of
Health and Social Care (DHSC) said. in routine immunisation by rushing to Covid-19 shortly after
Ministers signed off the £1 billion con- vaccinate people at lower risk of Covid. giving birth to a
tract despite a price increase of 22 per Scientists have said that the over-80s daughter she was
cent per dose after Pfizer told them and “immuno-suppressed” people, never able to meet
Britain would otherwise risk being un- such as those undergoing chemothera- (Charlotte Wace
able to buy extra jabs next year. py, are certain to benefit from a booster writes).
The government is planning on the jab as they are likely to have shown the Samantha Willis, 35,
basis of interim recommendations last weakest immune response to their first died last week in the
month from the JCVI, which said that two doses. These were also the first intensive care unit of
boosters should be given to all over-50s groups to be vaccinated in the first Altnagelvin Hospital
and those with underlying conditions, a round of doses, meaning that their im- in Londonderry,
total of 32 million people. The JCVI is munity is likely to have waned more Northern Ireland,
understood to have made this recom- than those in younger and less vulnera- according to her
mendation to ensure that the NHS ble groups. husband. Josh Willis
Francois Balloux, a director at Uni- shared the details of
versity College London’s genetics insti- her death as he urged
tute, said: “Most people have been start- others to have jabs.
ing to feel that a blanket booster pro- “Get your vaccine so
How many have died?
gramme at this stage is not needed in you or your family
Yesterday, there were 40 deaths reported,
bringing the total number of deaths in the
the UK. The vaccine is really doing its don’t have to go
past seven days to 701. The rolling average job well.” through what I have
number of daily deaths is 100.1, up from 89.1 a He added that routine antibody tests had to,” he wrote on
day a week ago could be used to assess who needed a Twitter. “As I write
booster. The government said this week this I am laying beside
Deaths 1,500
60,000 Seven-day that up to 8,000 home antibody tests her, she is 35,
average
1,000 per day would be made available. unvaccinated and in a
40,000 However, Professor Peter Open- coffin.”
shaw, an immunologist at Imperial Col- He added on
500
lege London, said that “a broad-based Facebook that he had
20,000 booster campaign would be a perfectly “lost the love of my
0
A S O N D J F M A M J J A reasonable way to go” given the risks of life”. His wife died
0 How does 2021 compare?
a surge in cases as people return to nor- with her husband,
mal habits in the autumn. mother and two eldest
There were 10,187 deaths from all causes
recorded in England and Wales in the week to
Those who are healthy and under 50 children at her side.
are deemed unlikely to be offered a “Whilst in hospital
August 6, of which the coronavirus accounted
for 5.2 per cent. The number of weekly deaths booster jab in the near future as scien- she also had to deliver
was 1,101 higher than the five-year average for tists think it would provide little extra our newest addition to
the same time of year protection in those who responded well the family who she has
20,000 to their first jabs. never met properly or
2020/21 There are also concerns that offering held in her arms,” “main priority”, the last few weeks.”
5,000 15,000 booster jabs to young, healthy people in Willis wrote. “I will adding: “All I want to In April the Joint
4,000
the West would limit the supply of vac- make sure that do now is make Committee on
10,000 cine in parts of the world where many Eviegrace will know Samantha proud. She Vaccination and
3,000
are yet to receive their first doses. This all about the mother was a wonderful, Immunisation advised
2,000 may increase the likelihood of new var- she will never meet.” loving and caring that all pregnant
5,000
1,000 Five-year average iants emerging among unvaccinated Willis said the person and she has women should be
0 0 populations, which could set back the children were his been our superhero offered the vaccine at
Feb May Aug Nov Feb May Aug global fight against Covid-19.

Q&A
Will I get a booster jab?
If you have a
compromised immune
system you almost
certainly will. If you are
healthy and under 50, you
will almost certainly not.
For everyone else the
question is moot. Under
interim advice last month,
the NHS is planning to
start giving boosters in
September to everyone
over 70, along with the
clinically extremely
vulnerable and health and
care staff. However,
guidance due in the next
week or so could limit the
programme to those who
are immuno-suppressed or
whose response to two
doses has been weaker
than expected.
I thought all over-50s
were going to get one?
The Joint Committee on
Vaccination and
Immunisation (JCVI)
interim recommendations
said that after the over-70s
and most vulnerable were
vaccinated, boosters
should be offered “as soon
as practicable” to the over-
50s and those younger
people normally offered a
flu jab. The NHS is
planning to do this by
Christmas but could be
told to hold off on some
groups while scientists
amass more evidence.
What are the risks and
benefits of a booster jab?
There is little hard
evidence either way, with a
study of the benefits of
third doses yet to report.
The hope is that a third
vaccine wil top up waning
immunity amid signs that
antibody levels are
slipping among the elderly.
So far, first and second
doses have proved safe
and there is no reason to
think a third dose will be
dramatically different.
Will boosters prevent a
fourth wave?
No one can be sure but
they are likely to blunt it.
Ministers are keen to cover
as many people as
possible with a top-up
campaign as the autumn
return to normality
increases the risk of a big
surge in cases. With Britain
now having an abundance
of vaccines, they see little
downside even if immunity
is holding up well. But the
JCVI is more cautious,
stressing that it will
recommend boosters jabs
only when there is a clear
benefit for a particular
individual, something that
is less obvious if second
doses are holding up well.
Is there political pressure
for a wider campaign?
Scientists on the JCVI are
keenly aware of ministers’
desires, but have been
willing to resist them over
rapid vaccination of
children. The same
process may play out over
booster campaigns and
the committee is likely to
get its way; so far ministers
have not attempted to
coerce the group to reach
particular conclusions. The
result could be a gradual
extension of the
programme as more
evidence accumulates.
Is the government
considering scaling back
a booster campaign to
offer doses to the
developing world?
No. Despite the pleas of
the World Health
Organisation and others
for rich countries not to
press ahead with boosters,
ministers are insistent that
people in Britain will be
proritised. Although many
scientists think that both
ethically and practically it
would be better to focus
on parts of the world that
are unprotected and may
incubate new variants, the
JCVI remit is only to focus
on this country.
When will the booster
programme start?
The NHS is planning to
start with the most
vulnerable on September
6. However, that could yet
be put back if JCVI final
advice is delayed.
How long does immunity
last?
This is not known. Many
scientists are encouraged
that immunity has lasted
at least eight months and
probably will last longer.
Some say that immunity
against mild infection
starts to wane relatively
quickly, but that immunity
against severe illness lasts
a lot longer.
What is Israel doing?
Israel, which led the world
in its initial programme, is
offering all adults over 40
a third dose because of
fears that immunity is
waning, particularly
against the Delta variant.
Ravi Gupta, a clinical
microbiology professor at
Cambridge, said that Israel
appeared to be trying to
“drive down mild
infections as well as severe
illness”, explaining that
there is more focus in
Britain on preventing
severe cases. “We
shouldn’t necessarily
follow what Israel is
doing,” he said.
How do I know if I am
immune?
Again, this is not
completely clear. The
presence of antibodies is a
good sign but lack of them
does not mean you are
unprotected. It is thought
that T cells and B cells,
long-lived components of
the immune system that
are harder to detect, may
fight the virus in some
people even if they have
no detectable antibodies.
Will I need a booster to
go on holiday?
Not any time soon. The
government is considering
whether vaccination
passports used for travel
should be adjusted to
require proof of up-to-date
vaccination, but any
change would take time to
agree globally given that
very few countries are
starting booster
campaigns. This could be
an issue next summer, but
breaks this year are
unlikely to be affected.
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 2GM 13

News
News

within weeks but rest must wait LIAM MCBURNEY/PA; PACEMAKER PRESS

Antivaxers storm ITN

and lambast Jon Snow
Charlie Parker
Jake Kanter Media Correspondent
Anti-vaccine and anti-Covid passport
activists stormed ITN’s headquarters in
central London and abused the news
reporter Jon Snow.
Scores of protesters dressed in black
and shouting through megaphones
entered the reception of the building,
where news programmes for ITV,
Channel 4 and Channel 5 are produced.
A small breakaway group chased
Snow, 73, down a side street as he was
Josh Willis spoke of his end of July, Public being escorted inside by police. One
despair at the loss of his Health England said. called him a “f***ing rat”, while another Protesters occupied the reception
wife, Samantha, after The number has yelled: “Are you a paedophile Jon?” area of ITN’s headquarters in London
she delivered Eviegrace, risen by 10,587 from Video taken by protesters elsewhere
who was held by a July 18, when data showed others chanting “bring me chanted: “You can stick your soggy
relative at her funeral suggested only about Peston”, referring to the senior ITV mask up your a***.”
one in ten pregnant presenter Robert Peston. They appeared to be led by Pat
workers or vulnerable. women might have Staff were locked in the offices and Wilson, a DJ; Andreas Michli, a body-
Scientists from had a first dose. advised not to approach the protesters builder; and the former Coronation
Oxford University said This month Carrie as security and police tried to prevent Street actor Sean Ward. They were also
last month that more Johnson, the prime them from progressing through the involved in a protest when activists
than 99 per cent of minister’s pregnant building. A line of police officers tried to storm an old BBC studio in west
expectant mothers wife, urged other formed outside the front doors to pre- London this month.
admitted to hospital women expecting vent further breaches. At both locations yesterday, Wilson
with Covid-19 were babies to have the Police units had been following the and Michli tried to hand receptionists
unvaccinated. vaccine. protest since it started at King’s Cross and other staff members sheets of paper
Data released last She wrote on rail station at midday, but organisers with a list of “demands”. Ward said in a
week showed the Instagram: “Just had kept their destination a secret to con- video on Instagram: “We are at war
number of pregnant my second jab and fuse security operations. with the government.”
women having feeling great! After a short march, a large crowd Piers Corbyn, the brother of the
t
the “I know there are strolled through the glass doors of the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
v
vaccination lots of pregnant ITN building and packed its lobby. and an active leader of the anti-vaccine
h risen by a
had women who are The leaders of the group told those movement, also joined the protest.
fi in recent
fifth anxious about getting gathered inside to prepare for a “long An ITN spokesman said: “News
w
weeks after their Covid vaccine day”, adding: “We’re not f***ing leav- organisations have provided a vital
r
reassurance but the evidence is ing!”. They also suggested journalists source of information during the
e
efforts. incredibly reassuring.” were “terrorists” because of how they pandemic.
A total of She added: “Most covered the pandemic. “The abuse of journalists because of
6
62,311 women importantly, the data The protesters, who oppose vaccine their reporting on coronavirus is a
w reported
who shows there is no passports and giving the jab to children, worrying development, which ITN has
t
they were increased risk of left the building at 3.30pm and re- been closely monitoring and actively
the same time as p
pregnant or miscarriage.” grouped outside the nearby Google and ensuring staff are aware of precautions
the rest of the c
could be When Johnson Facebook headquarters, where they to avoid coming to any harm.”
population. p
pregnant at the announced that she
Previously the t
time of was expecting her
vaccine was only
offered to pregnant
r
receiving
v
vaccine
the
had
second child, she
revealed she had
Care homes likely to lose
women who were r
received their previously had a
frontline health fi dose by the
first miscarriage. thousands of staff over jab
How working from home grows on you James Callery
Six in ten care homes believe that they
will be forced to sack members of staff
vate care home based in southeast
London said: “We don’t want to sack
them, and it’s very hard to recruit new
staff. This is a massive infringement on
Tom Knowles 15 per cent of workers were back in the who refuse to get vaccinated, it was re- their human rights and it puts me in the
How Britain compares week starting July 26. ported last night. invidious position of blackmailing
Enthusiasm for home working has Percentage of population who have Mobility data from Google, which It will be compulsory for all care people to keep working for me. I’m the
risen as the coronavirus pandemic has received at least one vaccine dose tracks how people move based on the home staff in England to be fully vacci- scapegoat.”
gone on, a survey suggests, with bosses (total doses administered in brackets) location history on their phone, shows nated from November 11 unless they The institute also found that 27.6 per
predicting that a hybrid approach may that the number of Britons at work is are medically exempt, according to cent of those questioned had already
soon become the norm for companies. UAE 84.2% (17.7m) still down by about 40 per cent com- government guidance. lost between one and five staff mem-
A report by the professional services Portugal 80.6% (14.2m) pared with normal, against about 30 The Department for Health and bers who were against vaccination.
giant PwC found that people warmed to per cent in the US and Germany. Social Care has ordered all care home Managers said the main reasons staff
working from home the longer that Malta 79.9% (791,240) Many British and US businesses have staff to get their first dose by September gave for refusing to get jabs were related
People
they did it. The company said that Spain 75.8% (63.1m) vaccinated already postponed return dates for 16 to allow them to get a second shot by to pregnancy or fertility, religious or
41 per cent of workers who were sur- in UK workers to come back to the office full- the deadline. ethical concerns and fear of or outright
Denmark 75.4% (8.3m) First dose
veyed this month wanted to remain at 47.7m time, or have embraced remote work- The government previously estimat- opposition to vaccinations.
home full-time for work, up from 29 per Chile 74.8% (28m) Second
ing. The banks HSBC and JP Morgan ed that the policy would result in about The National Care Association has
cent in January. It added that in June Canada 73.2% (52.4m) dose
have said that some staff will now work 40,000 care home staff — 7 per cent of previously suggested that the main rea-
last year 73 per cent of people surveyed 41.8m permanently from home, while many the workforce — leaving their roles or son why some care home staff have re-
said that they deemed remote work UK 70.2% (89.5m) First dose other large businesses have told staff to being dismissed. It could cost the sector fused to get inoculated is related to “cul-
successful but that this had risen to France 69.6% (82.9m) daily work some of the week at home, includ- £100 million to replace them. tural issues”.
83 per cent when they were surveyed August 22 ing the energy giant BP, the British Gas However, the Institute of Health and Jane Brightman, director of social
again in January this year. Netherlands 69.6% (21.7m) 40,345 owner Centrica, the telecoms group Social Care Management suggests that care at the institute, said: “I am pro-vac-
The survey was of American work- Italy 68.6% (75.3m) dose daily
Second Vodafone and the publisher Pearson. 60 per cent of care home managers be- cines but I feel strongly that now is not
ers, but a similar sentiment appears to In the US the tech giants Apple, lieve they will have to sack unvaccinat- the right time to mandate them in care
be emerging in the UK. Research from Israel 68.2% (12.8m) August 22 Amazon and Facebook have told em- ed staff, The Daily Telegraph reported. homes. Nobody in power has thought
116,352
the Centre for Cities think tank found Germany 63.5% (99.3m) ployees they need not return to offices The institute surveyed 530 care the consequences through properly.”
that only 18 per cent of staff in the 31 until January next year. Pat Gelsinger, home managers across Britain and A health department spokesman
US 60.2% (362.7m)
largest cities had returned to their city chief executive of Intel, predicts that found that 318 expected to have to sack said: “It is our responsibility to do
centre workplace a week after “free- Source: Our World in Data (latest figures available) and gov.uk hybrid and remote work will remain the staff by November 11. everything we can to reduce the risk for
Note: Selected countries. Figures as of 6pm yesterday
dom day” on July 19. In London only norm for businesses for years to come. One chairwoman of trustees at a pri- the most vulnerable in our society.”
14 1G M Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

News
News Coronavirus World
NARENDRA SHRESTHA/EPA

Secondary pupils
in Israel to have
vaccines at school
Anshel Pfeffer Jerusalem
Israel is planning to begin a nationwide
vaccination drive in secondary schools
next week despite some fears within
government that it would subject child-
ren to peer pressure to get inoculated.
Parents will have to approve their
children being vaccinated and masks
will be compulsory inside when pupils
return from their summer holidays.
Israel has also introduced a national
serological survey focused on children
aged 3 to 12, who are not yet eligible for
the vaccine but might have developed
antibodies after having had an
unrecorded case.
The country is battling a surge in
cases driven by the Delta variant first
identified in India, despite having one
of the most vaccinated populations in
the world. A total of 6,467 new cases
were recorded on Sunday, with 1,142
people taken to hospital.
Although those aged 12 to 18 have
been receiving vaccines since the start
of June, the rate among this age group
remains at only about half. This has led
to fears that a return to class will drive
a new surge in cases.
Yifat Shasha-Biton, the education
minister, had opposed the plan because
children “spent the last year and a half
at home and suffered emotional dis-
tress. They shouldn’t have to be under
pressure to be vaccinated. It should be Milk maids Traditional dress got a twist at the cow festival in Kathmandu, Nepal, celebrating those who died last year
the parents’ decision.”

New Zealand However, she reneged on her posi-

tion and said yesterday that returning
to school safely was “vital to students’
Cafés and cinemas to ask for proof of jabs
extends latest stability and mental resilience”.
Naftali Bennett, the prime minister,
announced that schools would return
germany
Proof of vaccination, a negative World update
lockdown on schedule on September 1, despite a
number of ministers calling for a post-
test or recovery from Covid-19 are
now required to gain entry to Global cases Global deaths Deaths per million population
Rank Now Jan 31
ponement because of the surge in cases. venues such as cafés and cinemas. 211,841,976 4,431,457 1 Peru 6,000 1,234 (16)
Bernard Lagan Sydney Israel’s main response to the latest The rules also cover visits to Most new cases 2 Hungary 3,110 1,296 (14)
wave of infections has been to roll out hospitals and care homes, and to 1 US 36,692 6 Brazil 2,703 1,048 (24)
New Zealand’s strict nationwide lock- third, or “booster”, vaccination doses businesses that offer services 2 Iran 36,419 8 Argentina 2,442 1,057 (23)
down has been extended until at least for everyone over the age of 40, and to involving physical closeness. Pupils 3 UK 31,914
, 9 Colombia 2,441 1,047 (25)
Friday and parliament suspended as try to convince the unvaccinated. who are tested in school and small 4 India 25,072 11 Belgium 2,185 1,833 (3)
the nation battles growing infections As part of this campaign, the health children are exempt. Germany also 5 Japan 22,364
14 Italy 2,129 1,460 (6)
from the Delta variant. ministry introduced for the first time plans to create a financial 6 Russia 19,977
15 Croatia 2,022 1,225 (17)
Cases have reached more than 100 yesterday mobile vaccination teams to incentive to get vaccinated by Countries reporting most deaths 16 Poland 1,990 982 (29)
after a single infection was discovered operate in areas where the level of vac- charging for tests from October 11. 1 US 628,503 17 Mexico 1,963 1,214 (18)
in Auckland a week ago — ending New cination remains low. Nitzan Horowitz, In the southwestern own of 2 Brazil 574,527 18 UK 1,940 1,555 (4)
Zealand’s six months without a locally the health minister, said that it could be Sonneberg hundreds of people 3 India 434,756
21 US 1,899 1,309 (11)
transmitted case. “a tie-breaker in fighting the spread of have come forward to claim a free 4 Mexico 253,155
24 Spain 1,778 1,375 (9)
On Monday health authorities re- the Delta variant”. bratwurst with their jab. 5 Peru 197,818
25 France 1,738 1,194 (21)
ported 35 new infections of the fast- The government has set a target of A trip round Europe through apps and 6 Russia 173,003 Source: Our World in Data, selected countries
34
FiguresSweden
as of 6pm yesterday 1,452 1,156 (22)
spreading variant, New Zealand’s high- vaccinating 70 per cent of pupils in each masks, Hugo Rifkind, page 25 7 UK 131,680
45 Germany 1 095 1 204 (20)
est number of daily Covid-19 cases school to allow learning to continue in
since April last year. Most people must local council areas where there are high china japan Medigen vaccine, the country’s
remain at home, leaving only to buy infection levels. In primary schools Beijing reported no new local Tokyo may turn Paralympic venues first domestic anti-coronavirus
food or medicine, or to exercise. there will be weekly PCR tests and cases of Covid-19 for the first time into medical centres as anger over dose, which was approved last
Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, masks will be mandatory inside. in 33 days after a strict lockdown handling of the crisis took support month. Her jab was broadcast live
suspended parliament for a week. Her The serological tests are being con- covering tens of millions of people. for Yoshihide Suga, the prime on Facebook. She replied “No” to a
spokesman said that “the last thing you ducted in the hope of cutting the num- More than 1,200 people were minister, to a low of 26 per cent. shouted question from reporters
want is 120 people converging from all ber of children who need to quarantine infected in an outbreak that asking if she was nervous. “It
parts of New Zealand into Wellington” if a classmate has Covid-19. So far, how- officials said was brought in from taiwan doesn’t hurt, I’m going to continue
during an outbreak. She also said Auck- ever, only 2 per cent of those tested abroad. No deaths were reported. President Tsai was injected with the working for the day,” she said later.
land’s lockdown would be longer. have been found to have antibodies.
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
Love letter from prison cell costs buy-to-let boss £1.4m
Jonathan Ames Legal Editor
Many a besotted romantic will have
penned a love letter they came to
regret. Rarely are they so costly,
though.
A property tycoon has been ordered
to pay his ex-partner £1.4 million after
promising it to her in a missive he wrote
from prison before making his fortune.
Twenty-four years ago Shaun Collins
pledged to share the empire he
intended to build on his release from jail
with Nicola Oberman.
While his business ambitions
became reality, however, the relation-
ship foundered. Now the buy-to-let
mogul has been told he must hand over
the money to his former lover on the
basis of the commitments he made in
the letters.
In the final stage of a ten-month
court battle last week a High Court
judge in London determined the figure,
having previously ruled that she was
entitled to a share of his £8 million
property empire.
Oberman, 54, had two children with
Collins, 53. After serving six months in
TMS
diary@thetimes.co.uk | @timesdiary
Beefy’s bother
in tricky Oz
Only nine months ago, our new
trade envoy Lord Botham said he
would be attending the House of
Lords “when they are debating
something I know about”.
Unpresciently, he then added:
“Not much point if it’s a trade deal
with Japan.” Perhaps the former
cricketer is more qualified for his
new posting in Australia given his
long record of diplomatic success
Down Under. While there in 1992,
he stormed out of an official
dinner, described the crowd at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground as
“100,000 convicts” and responded
to the pro-republican arguments
of Paul Keating, the Aussie PM, by
saying he would “flatten” him.
With him batting for Blighty, I
fear our days of cheap Kangaroo
burgers are still a way off.
Our series of transatlantic
misunderstandings continues with
Geoff Douglass, who recalls having
drinks in Canada when a young
lady colleague of his was offered a
Babycham. He says: “Not liking the
garnish, she asked the assembled
party: ‘Who wants my cherry?’” An
unfortunate mistake that just
showed her inexperience.
crank caller
Actors can be haunted by their
past roles, particularly if those
roles are haunting in their own
right. According to QI’s podcast,
Robert Helpmann found this out
shortly after playing the
Child Catcher in Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang, right. A
friend of Helpmann’s
invited him for lunch but
called beforehand to
explain that his children
had seen the film and
were terrified of meeting
him. “Could you say
something over the phone
so they know you’re not
really the Child Catcher?”
2GM 15
News
prison for false accounting he trans- Oberman “and was reliant upon her for Oberman had been made a the company or in Collins’s name
formed himself from an estate agent financial support”. Oberman event- major shareholder in the alone.
into a multimillionaire. ually sold her flat and poured the pro- business because it was a joint The judge found that consist-
They never married, but the court ceeds into what she assumed was a joint operation and not simply a ently between 2008 and 2015 all
was told that Oberman stood by Collins business with Collins. decision made out of “love of the properties had been treat-
in 1997 when he was jailed, even though She also invested money that had and affection” by Collins. ed as part of “a single portfolio
she had been in a relationship with him been given to her by her parents and Judge Leech ruled in common ownership”,
for only a year. worked long hours without pay for the that all the contested adding that there had been
In letters written from prison, Collins property business. properties were an “express agreement”
promised Oberman that she would be During the subsequent two decades, shared, whether they on that point. The judge
an equal partner in the property empire Oberman and Collins started a family were held in the ordered Collins to buy
he was planning. He built a portfolio of as the business became increasingly former couple’s joint out Oberman and said
more than 40 properties in Kent and successful. names, the name of that in addition she
London before the couple split in 2015. In court, Watson said that Collins must receive a share
The court was told that after the split had “continuously represented” that Nicola Oberman had of any future income
Collins denied that Oberman was a they were joint owners of the portfolio. two children with that was made from
joint partner in the business and insist- In his ruling, the judge said that Shaun Collins the properties.
ed that she had been a “stay-at-home
mother” who “did not like working”.
Judge Tom Leech QC ordered that
Collins must pay his former lover
£1.4 million to buy her out of the joint
business.
Jack Watson, Oberman’s barrister,
had told the court that while in prison
Collins sent several letters to her which
“discussed the business they would
build together”. After he was released
from prison, Collins moved in with
he asked. Helpmann agreed and
waited until the phone was passed
over to the little ones before
adopting his character’s voice and
shouting: “I’m coming to get you,
children!”
jupp fumes at typecasting
Miles Jupp is weary of being given
what he calls “whoops there,
vicar” roles. The comic actor once
complained after being cast at the
National as “just another guy in a
V-neck and a pair of chinos” until
a friend said: “What are you
expecting to play? A Mexican drug
dealer?” The only dope-peddler
Jupp is likely to be asked to play is
an amiable chemist.
News that the cabaret dancer and
resistance leader Josephine Baker is
to be entombed in France’s
Panthéon reminded TMS’s Parisian
elf of how popular Baker was in the
City of Light. She even has a piscine
named after her and, despite hailing
from Missouri, had a very Gallic
attitude when she was challenged
about her topless dancing. “I wasn’t
really naked,” she explained. “I
simply didn’t have any clothes on.”
kafkaesque relationship
J Alfred Prufrock measured out
his life in coffee spoons but a new
book has taken a much more
standardised approach. Four
Thousand Weeks is named after a
milestone you reach if you make it
to your late seventies and looks at
how people have spent, and
wasted, their time. A great
timewaster was the novelist Franz
Kafka, who had a lengthy,
indecisive romance with Felice
Bauer. They barely met but
exchanged hundreds of letters,
even after their engagement
collapsed. Kafka struggled to
draw a line under it. “It is
quite right that we should stop
this business of so many
letters,” he wrote to her.
“Yesterday I even started a
letter on this subject, which
I will send tomorrow.”
jack blackburn
16 1G M Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

News

Botham drafted in to beef up Killer tortoise leaves

experts shellshocked
post-Brexit trade Down Under
A
killer flightless tern chick.
tortoise has The unlikely predator
Peter Stubley England’s greatest cricketers after his experience in that country, he knows been belongs to the species
performances with both bat and ball led the people well and we’re confident observed Aldabrachelys
Lord Botham has been named the UK’s England to overturn a 1-0 deficit into a that he can help British businesses sell for the first gigantea, which are
new trade envoy to Australia, almost 3-1 victory in the home Ashes of 1981. more products to our Australian coun- time, with scientists “generally assumed to
exactly 40 years after he led England to After his retirement from the game in terparts.” “horrified and be strict herbivores”,
victory in the Ashes. 1993 he worked as a cricket analyst and Botham, who is nicknamed “Beefy”, amazed” to see the scientists from
The former cricketer, who sits as a commentator for Sky Sports. He has told The Sun: “It’s a great honour to creature previously Cambridge University
crossbench peer in the House of Lords, also been heavily involved in raising carry out this role in a country that I thought to be a strict said in their study
“will do a brilliant job”, Liz Truss, the money for charity, most notably with a love and have come to know so well. I herbivore attack and published in the
international trade secretary, wrote in a series of long-distance walks. have spent a significant amount of my devour a baby bird journal Current
Twitter post confirming the appoint- He was knighted in recognition for career in Australia, and I am excited to (Kaya Burgess writes). Biology.
ment. “Ian will bat for British business his services to charity in 2007 and was have the opportunity.” Described by This assumption has
Down Under and help them seize the awarded a life peerage last year. Truss said: “I am delighted the prime researchers as the now been undermined
opportunities created by our historic Botham was one of ten new unpaid minister has appointed ten trade en- “first documented after a female giant
trade deal,” she said. “We might be rivals trade envoys named by Boris Johnson voys who will boost opportunities for evidence of a tortoise tortoise spotted a
on the cricket pitch, but Britain and yesterday, including the former Labour British businesses in some of the going in for the kill”, a “lesser noddy” tern
Australia share a strong belief in the MP Baroness Hoey to Ghana, the Tory world’s fastest-growing markets. video filmed on chick and moved
power of free and fair trade.” MP David Mundell to New Zealand “By boosting exports, promoting in- Fregate Island in the towards it, snapping
The government confirmed three and the Labour MP Stephen Timms to ward investment and creating high- Seychelles last its mouth at the bird.
months ago that it had agreed a post- Switzerland and Liechtenstein. value, high-paying jobs, our trade en- summer shows a giant The tern chick
Brexit trade deal with Australia. The prime minister’s official spokes- voys will help us build back better from tortoise launching a fluttered its wings and
Botham, 65, is regarded as one of man said of Botham: “He has business Covid-19.” deliberate, albeit very hopped away a few
slow, attack on a inches, prompting the

French trawler reignites fishing dispute ttortoise to

la
labour
fo
forward
s
slow
in
pursuit.
Will Humphries While controlled fishing for the species and out of Jersey’s and Guernsey’s terri- Tern chicks
Southwest Correspondent is allowed in French waters, they are torial waters. Don Thompson, presi- a usually
are
protected under Jersey’s wildlife laws. dent of the Jersey Fishermen’s Associa- r
raised in
A fishing dispute is threatening to erupt Government officials in Jersey tion, said that records made at a fish n
nests in trees.
in the Channel over allegations that a confirmed that they had begun an auction house in Granville, Normandy, W
When they
French trawler illegally caught a blue- investigation into reports of an illegal showed that 1.2 tonnes of bluefin tuna fa out they
fall
fin tuna in protected grounds. catch but declined to reveal whether had gone under the hammer. a unable to
are
Bluefin tuna is classified as endan- the trawler was French. Thompson said: ‘‘Where they were I rrun away
gered and is known as the world’s most The boat was reportedly seen via am almost certain they were targeting ffrom
expensive fish, with large specimens marine tracking software working in an tuna — there are not a lot of other types p
predators.
selling for £1 million in Asian markets. area called the “Sark Box”, passing in of fish there this time of year.”
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 1G M 17

News
A female giant tortoise,
believed to be a strict
herbivore, was filmed
Staycationers form ‘supermarket
queues’ atop Britain’s mountains
attacking a helpless tern
chick in the Seychelles

With its life hanging

in the balance, the
bird attempts to Miranda Bryant caught out by the early nights too — we
dissuade its attacker had three girls navigating their way
with a few pecks of its Snowdon’s mountain paths are being down with just mobile phone torches —
beak, but it never eroded and spoiled with litter left by the and conversely we have had a lot of de-
moves more than a rising number of tourists, conserva- hydrated walkers in the hot spells. It is
few inches away. This tionists have said. different weather that high up on the
proves fatal. After 90 Hikers have faced 45-minute queues summit.”
seconds of chasing, the to reach the Welsh mountain’s peak He said 90 per cent of the 70 calls his
tortoise delivers a after visitor numbers reached about rescue team had had so far this year had
lethal snap of its 700,000 a year, up from 500,000 in been to Ben Nevis, which is visited by
mouth. “The chick, 2018. about 160,000 walkers each year.
now dead, was The increase is believed to be a result “Most people who are well prepared
dropped and the of the pandemic staycation trend which will have a memorable day but people
tortoise had to climb has led to people holidaying at home need to be warned that it is an increas-
off the log to retrieve because of restrictions on travelling ingly crowded mountain, particularly
it,” the study notes, abroad. at this time of year, and there can be a
adding: “Once John Harold, director of the Snow- queue at the summit because a lot
retrieved, the chick donia Society, which helps to maintain Visitors to the summit of Snowdon people want to have their picture taken
was swallowed whole.” the mountain, told BBC Radio Wales: have risen to about 700,000 a year on top of the summit cairn. Don’t ex-
Some tortoises have “Litter, footpath erosion, wild camping, pect a quiet day — just be prepared for
been observed eating traffic, parking — in a sense, none of mit. John Stevenson, leader of Locha- all eventualities,” he said.
snail shells, bones and these are new, but they’ve all acquired a ber Mountain Rescue Team, said Ben “With the large numbers, there is
the flesh of dead really sharp edge in the last 18 months.” Nevis in Scotland, which is 4,413ft high, also the issue of the wear and tear on
animals. There have He added that large numbers of stay- was seeing “one of the busiest years” he the path — it all adds up.”
been reports of cationers did not have the proper fit- could remember. The Highlands has recorded “con-
tortoises attacking ness, hiking experience or gear to walk He added: “I’ve seen queues 60 me- cerning” numbers of Covid cases, espe-
birds but “these were up the 3,560ft (1,085m) peak. “Snowdon tres back from the summit. There are so cially in Fort William, the nearest town
not recorded and is a very big mountain, it’s not a walk in many people going up and down the to Ben Nevis, which last week had some
consumption of the the park, it’s not a day in town, or a day mountain it is something of a super- of the highest rates in the country, ac-
bird was not on the beach . . . people need to be pre- market-like queue — only steeper. cording to the region’s health board.
observed”, the study pared,” he said. “There have been thousands on the New confirmed cases were close to
said. The discovery Similar complaints have been made Ben on certain days. It really is crowded 600, with 193 of them confirmed on
has raised questions by mountaineers at other popular spots and obviously staycations have boosted Thursday.
over whether hunting in the UK. The leader of a mountain numbers.” In Cumbria, another popular stayca-
is a new evolved skill rescue team that covers Ben Nevis said He said that walkers needed to come tion destination, tourists have been
or whether the reptile that Britain’s highest peak had become prepared “for extremes” on the summit asked to take lateral flow tests before
was reviving a lost art. so crowded that “supermarket-like” which has had both sleet and hot wea- visiting after a sharp increase in cases
queues were forming around its sum- ther. He added: “People are getting around Penrith and the Eden district.
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 2GM 19

News
PETER CZIBORRA/REUTERS

More names to watch out for

6 The Paralympics open Ellie Simmonds, below,

today with a ceremony at
8pm local time, or noon
BST, and run until
September 5.
6 The games will be
broadcast on Channel 4
and available to watch
on All 4.
6 About 4,400 athletes
from nearly 160 countries
and territories are set to
take part. There will be 228
British athletes competing
in 19 of the 22 sports.
Paralympians’ dating Team GB aims to take
home between 100 and
who has won five
Paralympic gold medals,
will compete on Thursday
in the first heat of the
200m swimming medley.
Emma Wiggs hopes to
defend her 2016 title in
the canoe sprint on
September 2.
John Stubbs, the archer,
will compete in his fourth
Paralympics, appearing in
the men’s compound and
men’s team compound
events on Friday.

advice is TikTok gold 140 medals. The team won

147 medals including 64
golds in the 2016 games in
Natasha Baker, who has
won five Paralympic gold
medals, and Sir Lee

T
wo Team GB
Paralympians
have taken
TikTok by
storm with a
video joking about
whether men who date
them are looking for
love or “just want to use
their blue badge” (Arthi
Nachiappan writes).
In a video filmed in
their hotel room in the
Olympic village in
Tokyo, Maria Lyle and
Polly Maton, both 21-
year-old sprinters, poked
fun at dating issues they
faced. Lyle, from
Dunbar, East Lothian,
asked: “Is he interested
or does he just want to
travel free on the bus?”
Maton, from London,
asked: “Is he interested
or does he have a
disability fetish?”
In the video, which
has been viewed more
than 158,000 times, the
athletes joke about their
dating dilemmas while
dancing to an edit of
Michael Jackson’s Pretty
Young Thing and
Twerkulator by City
Girls, the US rap duo.
The pair were taking
part in a challenge in
which users dance to the
Maria Lyle, left, and Polly Maton poked fun at the dating problems that they faced
song while listing
questions that challenge
societal norms.
Lyle competes in the
T35 classification, for
athletes who have co-
ordination impairments.
She won a bronze medal
in the 100m and 200m at
the 2016 Games in Rio
de Janeiro and a silver
for the 4x100m relay.
Maton, who is also a
long jumper, competes
in the T47 classification,
for competitors with an
amputation below the
elbow or wrist. This is
Rio de Janeiro. Pearson, who has won
11 gold medals at six
Paralympic games, will
compete in the dressage
events from Thursday until
Tuesday next week.
Kadeena Cox, who
won gold in cycling
and athletics in Rio de
Janeiro, will begin her
her first Games after campaign to defend her
taking silver at the 2017 title in the 500m time trial
World Championships in cycling event on Friday
London. The opening before participating in the
ceremony takes place mixed-team sprint event
today. the following day. Her bid
Go For Glory, leading to retain her 400m sprint
article, page 27 title will take place on
Sport, page 56 September 4.

Church invited paedophile vicar to Police name

return after fine for molesting boy
Sam Tobin
The Church of England invited a
paedophile vicar to resume his duties
after he was convicted of molesting a
boy in the 1980s, a court has been told.
David Beater, 80, was jailed for other
sex offences yesterday: he was sen-
tenced to four and a half years for sexu-
ally assaulting two boys between 1982
and 1985.
Maidstone crown court was told that
Beater had been convicted in 1985 of
molesting a teenage boy, for which he
was fined £250. He resigned from St
Botolph’s and St Mark’s church in
Northfleet, Kent.
Despite knowing about the offence
the church “invited” him back into the
ministry and he resumed his duties
until retiring. The church said the case
raised “concerning questions about
decisions and actions taken in relation
to [Beater’s] ministry”.
Beater, of Birchington, Kent, admit-
ted five charges relating to abuse, which
Judge Philip Statman said “constituted
a profound and grave breach of trust”.
Sophie Shotton, for the prosecution,
said that Beater’s abuse of the two boys
had not come to light until 2017 and
2018. One, who was eight or nine years
old at the time he was assaulted, later
One of the victims
of David Beater,
left, tried to kill
himself after the
abuse
tried to kill himself and has had post-
traumatic stress disorder diagnosed.
In a victim statement to the court, the
man said that the abuse had affected
“every facet” of his life and left him feel-
ing angry, with low self-esteem and an
“immense” sense of guilt.
He also said that he hoped that by
speaking out about child abuse other
victims may be able to do the same.
The second victim was sexually
assaulted by Beater after a squash game
he had organised between local boys. “I
still struggle to talk about what hap-
pened because it is extremely painful,”
the man wrote in his statement.
Simon Taylor QC, Beater’s barrister,
said there had been no repeat behav-
iour since his 1985 conviction, which
had “served to rehabilitate him”. “He
told his employers, the Church of Eng-
land, that he wished to resign from his
position and he did,” Taylor told the
court.
“They invited him back and at all
times he has been open about his con-
viction. He sought counselling and was
invited back by the church to act as a
vicar. On one view that is extraordina-
ry, but he had undertaken the counsel-
ling and continued until his retirement
in 2005.”
Beater was able to work in churches
and had contact with parishioners until
2010, it is understood.
The court was also told that Beater
entered a “safeguarding contract” with
the church, ensuring that his congrega-
tion was aware of him being a sex
offender, and that the church had
carried out a risk assessment in 2002.
Hugh James, a law firm that repre-
sented one of the victims, said after the
hearing that Beater “used his position
within the ministry to perpetrate his
crimes against vulnerable children
under a cloak of respectability”. The
case raised questions about how he was
able to return to the ministry, it said.
One of Beater’s victims told the BBC
that allowing Beater to remain in the
church after his previous conviction
“compounds what I have suffered”.
In a joint statement, the dioceses of
Rochester and Canterbury said: “The
facts of this case raise concerning ques-
tions about decisions and actions taken
in relation to David’s ministry.”
stab victims
in manhunt
John Simpson
A manhunt continued last night after
the police released the names of a man
and woman killed in central London.
Clinton Ashmore, 59, and Sharon
Pickles, 45, were found dead at separate
properties. Neighbours believed they
were killed in a row over drugs. Detect-
ives want to question a man called Lee
Peacock, 49, after the bodies were
found in Marylebone.
Officers were called at 9.30pm on
Thursday to an address in Ashbridge
Street where they found Pickles, who
was pronounced dead at the scene. At
2.15am on Friday police were called to
an address in nearby Jerome Crescent
after reports of a stabbing. There they
found Ashmore, who was also pro-
nounced dead at the scene.
The Metropolitan Police said the two
incidents were being treated as linked
and that each victim died from a stab
wound to the neck. The force said on
Friday they wanted to find Peacock for
“urgent questioning”. Scotland Yard

Provence dream up in smoke for British winemakers
Neil Johnston
A British couple have told of their dev-
astation after a wildfire swept through
their terroir in the south of France.
Stephen Cronk, 57, and his wife,
Jeany, 48, moved to Provence in 2009
after selling up their home in southwest
London to pursue their dream of open-
ing a French winery.
Last week the wildfires sweeping
across the continent reached their
9,600-acre (39 sq km) terroir, burning a
fifth of their vines and leaving many
more potentially damaged by smoke
taint. Two wooden barns and farm
machinery were also destroyed.
The couple are among several rosé
winemakers in southeast France who
are assessing the impact of the recent
wildfires, which could drive up prices of
wine from the region.
The Cronks’ award-winning Mirab-
eau wines are popular in the UK, the
Netherlands, Australia and the US.
Two years ago they bought their first
vineyard near the village of La Garde-
Freinet in Côtes de Provence. The es-
tate is set in the Plaine des Maures
national nature reserve, which Cronk
said until last week was “paradise”.
The couple are assessing the damage,
which has come weeks before harvest.
They will be able to produce wine but
far less than previous years.
“Vineyards tend to be quite good fire-
breaks in the sense that when the vines
are quite green they don’t burn that eas-
ily but we’ve probably had 20 per cent of
our vines burnt,” Cronk, a father of
three, said. “We were lucky. There are
three other estates very close to us that
have much more damage.”
Cronk said that he believed that a
combination of carelessness and
climate change was leading to a rise in
wildfires and called for more protection
for forests. “Governments need to step
up to the plate and take some
courageous steps understanding the
impact of humans on the environ-
ment,” he said.
said of Pickles and Ashmore: “Their
families have been informed and are
being supported by specialist officers.”
Detective Chief Inspector Wayne
Jolley, from the Met’s specialist crime
command, said: “This is a shocking
crime and we will not rest until we bring
the person or persons responsible to
justice. Key to that is finding Lee Pea-
cock. We believe he knew both victims
and urgently need to locate him to talk
to him about their murders. I would
urge anybody who knows his where-
abouts to contact police immediately
by calling 999. If seen, we would urge
the public not to approach him, but to
contact police as soon as possible.”
20 1G M
News
DOMINIC LIPINSKI/PA
NHS first in world
to offer children
hepatitis C cure
Kat Lay Health Editor
Children in England will be offered a
cure for hepatitis C in a world-first pro-
gramme on the NHS as part of plans to
eradicate the disease.
Beauty in the everyday Installations by Phyllida Barlow, known for her colourful use of low-grade materials such as More than 100 children aged
cardboard, plywood and cement, went on display yesterday in the Artist Rooms exhibition at Tate Modern in London between three and 18 have already been
identified for treatment and are being
offered a course of five antiviral tablets,
with two follow-up blood tests. If both
are negative it indicates that the child
has been cured.
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus
that can infect the liver; untreated it can
cause serious or life-threatening dam-
age, including liver cancer.
Children with the virus are typically
infected via their mother during birth
or when receiving immunisations or
other healthcare abroad.
Professor Stephen Powis, medical di-
rector for NHS England, said: “It is not
very often we get the opportunity to
completely eradicate a disease but this
world-first treatment for children will
help the NHS achieve its goal to elimi-
nate hepatitis C in England way ahead
of the 2030 target set by the World
Health Organisation.
“Getting children access to this treat-
ment as early as possible will transform
the lives of children and their families
and is the latest life-saving drug offered
to children by the NHS, following inno-
vative gene-therapies to cure blindness
and the world’s most expensive drug,
Zolgensma [whose list price is £1.79 mil-
lion per dose], which can cure paralysis
in babies, made available on the health
service this year.”
The NHS has not said how much the
new treatment is likely to cost, citing
commercial sensitivity, and the exact
drugs used will depend on the strain of
hepatitis C being treated.
Similar courses of treatment in
adults cost about £30,000, and more
‘Confused’ police are failing
victims of domestic violence
John Simpson Crime Correspondent
Domestic abuse prosecutions have
halved in three years and forces are fail-
ing to use measures designed to protect
victims, watchdogs have warned.
Women are subject to an “epidemic”
of violence and abuse and officers are
not seeking enough protection orders
or ensuring that breaches are punished,
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary
(HMIC), the Independent Office for
Police Conduct and the College of Po-
licing warned in joint report.
The report said that in one case a
drunk man had called police to say he
was at his partner’s address and needed
to be arrested. The call handler includ-
ed in the incident log that the man was
subject to pre-charge bail conditions
which prevented him from contacting
his partner. The detail was not written
in the appropriate section, meaning of-
ficers were not made aware.
They arrived at the scene but left
without making any arrests. The man
was arrested the next day after he was
found on top of the woman strangling
her and saying he was trying to kill her.
The report, prompted by a complaint
from the charity Centre for Women’s
Justice, found a series of failures to safe-
Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times
than 50,000 NHS patients have been
cured since 2015. The drugs, known as
direct-acting antivirals, only recently
gained regulatory approval for use in
under-12s.
The children will be treated at hospi-
tals near their homes but under the care
of specialists at Birmingham Children’s
Hospital, who will see them virtually.
Ashleigh Thomson, from Milton
Keynes, said she was “over the moon”
after being told that her five-year-old
son would be eligible for treatment. She
unknowingly contracted the virus via a
tattoo or piercing but did not receive a
diagnosis until she began experiencing
symptoms when pregnant in 2014.
“When I found out that James was
getting this treatment I was so happy I
cried for three days straight,” she said.
“The guilt I felt as a mother at passing
the virus on to him was so immense it
felt like grief, as I feared for his future.
But now some of that burden has been
lifted from my shoulders as I know that
he can be cured thanks to the NHS.
“There is still a huge stigma attached
to hepatitis C and there needs to be a lot
more education around it. James is just
like any other boy.
“Even if you don’t have any symp-
toms, I would encourage everyone to
request a simple blood test and get test-
ed, because the sooner you act the
sooner you can get cured.”
Rachel Halford, chief executive of
the Hepatitis C Trust, welcomed the
programme. She said: “These treat-
ments are effective, with few side ef-
fects, and are taken as pills.
“This is a massive improvement on
old treatments which had major side-
effects and could often fail to clear the
virus. It is fantastic that this network
will mean children can access these
treatments easily, close to their home,
with their care discussed and overseen
by the leading experts in the country.”
guard victims by placing alleged abus-
ers on police bail with strict conditions
or deploying injunctions and other civil
measures designed to prevent violence.
The report reveals that domestic
abuse prosecutions have collapsed by
50 per cent. In 2017 18 per cent of re-
ported cases led to prosecution, com-
pared with only 9 per cent in 2020.
Restraining orders are granted in less
than a quarter of domestic abuse
prosecutions. Women have been
increasingly turning to civil injunc-
tions, which have increased by 48 per
cent from 2010 to 2019.
Nogah Ofer, a solicitor with CWJ,
welcomed the findings but said the rec-
ommendations were too vague. “Two
women a week are still being killed and
many women live in fear,” she said.
Zoë Billingham, the lead inspector on
domestic violence at HMIC, said: “The
police have made vast improvements
over the last decade in how they
respond to these crimes but sometimes
officers are not aware of the powers
available to them, or the processes are
confusing.
“Recent changes in legislation will
address some of these concerns but it is
essential these changes are communi-
cated to frontline police officers.”
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
Face to face Shots above; and
by David Bailey of Catherine Bailey
Jerry Hall, with can be seen at
the photographer Photo London,
Helmut Newton; Somerset House,
Jean Shrimpton, next month
Blairs promoted children’s
charity after debt warning
times investigation
Paul Morgan-Bentley
Head of Investigations
Tony Blair promoted a child protection
organisation despite having been
warned of allegations that it had mis-
used grant money and failed to pay tens
of thousands of pounds in debts, a
Times investigation can reveal.
The former prime minister received a
letter in November 2012 from a former
director of Miss Dorothy.com, stating
that the Blair family’s association with
the organisation was “a significant rep-
utational risk”.
John Hoey, a former assistant chief
fire officer, stated that he had stopped
working with Miss Dorothy.com
because its founders had used Euro-
pean grant money in a way that “in my
view was in clear contravention of the
financial regulations”.
He said “a number of eminent profes-
sionals and organisations” were “owed
tens of thousands of pounds” and he
had written statements from them that
he could pass on to support his claims.
Within weeks a liquidation report
was published confirming that the Miss
Dorothy.com organisation was
£157,000 in debt. Those owed money
included Margaret and Barry Mizen,
campaigners against youth violence
after their 16-year-old son, Jimmy, was
murdered in 2008.
A few days later Blair and his daugh-
ter, Kathryn, 33, made speeches in
support of Miss Dorothy.com at a tenth
anniversary event and when the
founders started a new charity Kathryn
became its chairwoman.
A spokesman for Blair confirmed
1G M
that he had received the letter. He said
Blair raised the concerns with the
organisation’s founder and “satisfacto-
ry assurances were given at the time”.
The findings come after this news-
paper revealed that Miss Dorothy.com,
which was founded by the former BBC
newsreader Sharon Doughty, 56, and
received millions in public funding, is at
the centre of allegations of fraud and
money being owed to victims of crime.
The Charity Commission is investi-
gating the charity’s governance.
Sir Hugh Orde, the former head of
the Association of Chief Police Officers
and a regular supporter of Miss Doro-
thy.com, said the allegations were
hugely disappointing. “When you
support charities you do so based on
trust,” he said. “The level and breadth of
support it had gave it credibility.”
Hoey, a non-executive director of
Miss Dorothy.com, wrote to Blair by re-
corded delivery on November 5, 2012.
Miss Dorothy.com was then no longer
a charity but was a community interest
company (CIC), a type of limited com-
pany that operates for a social purpose.
Documents seen by The Times show
Hoey reported to the CIC regulator
that Doughty, her husband Neil Evans,
58, a former Metropolitan Police offi-
cer, and another director “sanctioned
the use of grant money towards the
payment of staff wages”.
He wrote that the wages were not
linked to the project that had been
funded and the decision contravened
the grant’s rules. He stated that this
meant “about £13,000 of European
grant money being used for the person-
al gain of paying their own wage and
not to the benefit of the young people
targeted by the project”. Once the com-
pany entered liquidation the issue went
outside the CIC regulator’s remit.
Blair was not told these specific de-
tails that were reported to the regulator.
Despite the warning letter, and the
liquidation of the organisation, Blair
and his family continued to support
Doughty and Evans’s programmes, giv-
ing speeches at fundraising events and
Kathryn being appointed chairwoman
of their new charity, Dot Com Child-
ren’s Foundation, until January 2017.
In August 2019 Dot Com Children’s
Foundation filed accounts declaring
that two people recently brought in as
trustees “were reported to be using the
charity to further their own business”
Tony Blair was told
about claims of a
misuse of funds
and that this had been reported to
police.
The fraud allegations are not related
to the Blairs, the charity’s founders or
the most recent trustees, including
Nick Wood Dow, 68, a former environ-
mental adviser to David Cameron.
Wood Dow, who became a trustee after
the fraud allegations, has resigned.
The Times also found that most of the
money given for Miss Dorothy.com
educational programmes went to asso-
ciated companies, whose directors took
about £1 million in earnings. Funds
were spent on designer clothes, includ-
ing a gold ballroom dancing dress worn
by Doughty to fundraising events.
The Blair family said they were “early
supporters of the important work”
done by the organisation and that
Kathryn left due to work commit-
ments, before the allegations relating to
alleged frauds.
A spokesman said: “The concerns set
out in his letter were raised with Sharon
and satisfactory assurances were given
at the time. In his letter Mr Hoey went
on to explain that he had also reported
his concerns to the regulator — the
appropriate way to deal with it. Mr Blair
heard nothing further.”
Doughty and Evans said Hoey’s com-
plaint was made after he was asked to
resign over a separate issue and that
grant money often required salaries to
be paid to enable the objectives to be
completed.
They said that they ran private com-
panies alongside the charities based on
professional advice that Doughty
should retain intellectual property
rights, they took only modest wages
and personally paid charity bills. They
said that public bodies knew of the
structure and the charities were run by
separate trustees.
Doughty and Evans said there was no
wrongdoing in relation to the liquida-
tion, which was due to loss of funding;
dance costumes were “essential” for
fundraising events; and the debt to the
Mizens could not be paid as the organi-
sation’s bank account had been frozen.
They said they believed the Charity
Commission had previously concluded
that no action was needed in relation to
the allegations of fraud. Doughty and
Evans said that the success of their
learning programmes was independ-
ently evaluated and “the Dot Com
learning programme was made avail-
able to more than a million children”.
21
News
DAVID BAILEY AT PHOTO LONDON/IMITATE MODERN
Pop-up bars
‘will not hurt
Edinburgh’s
Unesco status’
Mike Wade
Edinburgh will keep its world heritage
status, Unesco officials said, despite
campaigners’ warnings about the
damage done to the city by the
“populist hedonism” of its festivals.
Officials told The Times that there
had been “no talk of delisting
Edinburgh” despite campaigners de-
ploring the sudden appearance of tem-
porary theatres and bars in some of the
city’s most historic streets and squares.
Alarmist predictions suggested that
Edinburgh would join Liverpool, which
was stripped of its world heritage status
last month, “on the international
naughty list”.
Terry Levinthal, director of the
Cockburn Association, Edinburgh’s
civic trust, said that festival businesses
were allowed to bypass planning rules.
“The underlying trend . . . may well re-
sult in Edinburgh being registered as
world heritage at risk,” he said.
Cliff Hague, the association’s chair-
man, wrote in Scottish Affairs that
objections to “painted plastic ele-
phants” could be “washed away in
waves of populist hedonism”.
However, Unesco officials said:
“Edinburgh is not about to be removed
from the WH List.” In Unesco’s most
recent report on the city, published in
2013, inspectors found that tourism’s
impact on the value of the world heri-
tage site was “minor”.
Critics of the heritage lobby point out
that “overtourism” and temporary
structures are features of life in cities
such as Venice, Florence and Rome,
though there has been little clamour to
have them stripped of their world
heritage credentials.
22 1G M Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

News

Parking now rivals tax as councils’ big earner

Graeme Paton Transport Correspondent
Local authorities in parts of England
are bringing in so much money from
car parking that it matches three quar-
ters of their council tax income.
An analysis published yesterday
showed that income from parking rose
to a record high of almost £1.8 billion
last year.
Income for the year ending in March
2020 included money paid for tickets
and permits for car parks and on-street
bays, combined with fines.
In all, councils made a “profit” of
almost £900 million when operating
costs were stripped out. In the five years
to 2020, income from parking has
increased by more than 22 per cent —
from £1.44 billion to £1.76 billion.
The conclusions prompted claims
that drivers were being used as “cash
cows” by local authorities to prop up
their loss-making services.
Income from parking is supposed to
be invested in transport but the AA said
that it was rarely spent on facilities that
could provide a genuine alternative to
travelling by private car, such as park-
and-ride facilities or improvements in
bus, train and tram services.
It is feared that income derived from
motorists could rise further in future as
councils outside London are given
powers to penalise them for other traf-
fic offences.
From December local authorities in
England will be able to enforce “moving
traffic offences”, such as stopping in
yellow box junctions, driving in the
wrong direction down a one-way street
or performing banned turns.
Edmund King, president of the AA,
told the Daily Mail: “Council cash-
guzzling from parking charges,
residents’ permits and fines can be
staggering, particularly in London.
“Drivers see the huge irony of being
told to use their cars less while many
councils can’t get enough from car
owners driving into town, parking and
paying millions of pounds in charges.”
He added: “It brings a new meaning
to the phrase ‘car dependency’.
“Sadly, all those millions of pounds
rarely get re-invested in facilities such
as park-and-ride, that would allow
drivers to leave their vehicles on the
outskirts of towns and cities and to
travel on more environmentally friend-
ly transport.”
The AA analysis showed that West-
minster council in central London
collected the most money in the finan-
cial year to March 2020, at £74.4 mil-
lion. It comprised 75.1 per cent of the
total collected from council tax, the
study said, and amounted to £204,000
a day.
In Hammersmith & Fulham the total
stood at £39.1 million, or 45.8 per cent of
council tax income. Kensington &
Chelsea collected £52.6 million from
motorists, which equalled 45.1 per cent
of the money it got from council tax.
Outside London, income from car
parking equalled 22.2 per cent of
council tax receipts in Brighton &
Hove, 18.4 per cent in Nottingham and
14.1 per cent in Newcastle.

OLIVER DIXON

Roll out the barrow The Chelsea Pensioners start work on the RHS Flower Show,
which opens next month and will celebrate autumn gardens for the first time

I N T H E T I M E S T O M O R ROW

BUSINESS
DAVID SMITH
Don’t increase FASHION
national FLARES
insurance ARE BACK!
— there’s a Here’s how
better way to wear
MAIN PAPER them
TIMES2

SPORT
MIKE
ATHERTON
Can England
turn round
the India
Test series?
MAIN PAPER

COMMENT
Roger Boyes
How to stop the Taliban creating the next Iran
MAIN PAPER
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
I can’t write — there’s not
enough to distract me
Giles Coren
Page 24
Africa will make Afghan crisis seem a sideshow
Unless we adapt quickly to the changing face of the continent it will become the national security disaster of the century
William
Hague
B
oris Johnson is right to
convene the G7 leaders to
discuss the Afghanistan
debacle. While they are
talking, diplomats and
troops will be showing extraordinary
fortitude in trying to fly thousands of
people out before what started as a
completely arbitrary deadline to
leave next week. But the discussion
will be painfully revealing of the
scale and nature of the humiliation
of the western world.
These powerful heads of
government are reduced to
discussing how they can keep an
airport open with the tacit consent
of the Taliban, who in turn might
struggle to prevent an Isis or al-
Qaeda attack. These leaders might
be unable to honour the
commitments they have made to
thousands of Afghans to get them
out. They will seek an international
contact group in which China and
Russia will inevitably now call the
shots. And they are discussing all this
when it is too late to salvage things.
A discussion a few months ago
would have been a better idea.
The exit from Afghanistan means
western nations will face increased
threats of terrorist attacks and a flow
of refugees; they will often be
preoccupied with those issues.
Yet it will be vital to lift our eyes to
another part of the world, whose fate
over the next 20 years or so will have
an impact that will make Afghanistan
seem like a sideshow: Africa.
Depressingly, this whole, richly
varied continent merited only one
paragraph in the interim national
1G M
security guidance issued in March by
the Biden administration. French
forces struggle to fight growing
Islamist insurgencies there, without
conspicuous success. G7 leaders would
be well advised to define a strategy
and elevate the opportunities and
dangers arising from the continent
to the forefront of their minds.
According to the latest UN
forecasts, half the growth in the
world’s population over the next 30
years will take place in just nine
countries, and five of those are
African. The total expected increase
in Africa is more than 1.1 billion, or
more than 100,000 more people
every day for the next three decades.
That is almost like adding a new
China, in numerical terms.
That much bigger population will
become rapidly more urbanised,
leading to the emergence of vast
mega-cities of digitally connected
young people, while many other
places around the world enter an era
Nigeria is predicted to
become more populous
than the United States
of stagnant or declining populations.
By 2050, Africa is expected to host
well over three times the entire
population of Europe, a disparity
never known in the modern world.
Nigeria alone is predicted to be more
populous than the United States.
The future of Africa will therefore
be one of the decisive factors in
world affairs; it will be the region of
many tipping points that determine
the course of global politics and
economics. There, even more than
in central Asia, will be the vital
crossroads between building good
governance or sliding into despair,
civil conflict and terror. This will be
the continent that determines
whether most of the world will
be using Chinese or American
technology and standards.
Such vast growth in numbers
means Africa could become such a
success that it lifts more people out of
poverty even than China in the past
40 years; or such a disappointment
that outward migration, on a scale
hundreds of times greater than
anything seen so far, dominates the
politics of Britain and the rest of
Europe. Either way, this is one of the
big events of the 21st century — and
this time, no one can claim they
can’t see it coming.
There is a case for optimism. Over
the five years before Covid-19, four of
the ten fastest-growing economies in
the world were in Africa. Millions of
young people are demanding better
governance and an end to
corruption. Last week’s election in
Zambia led to an unpopular president
being voted out, despite accusations
of rigging. South Africa has pursued
the prosecution of its former
president Jacob Zuma to show the
rule of law can prevail over cronyism
and state capture. The commercial
opportunities across the continent
are immense, as burgeoning cities
demand housing, infrastructure,
financial services and technology.
Yet there is also a very credible
pessimistic scenario. Lack of land
registration in many countries
inhibits the growth of property
ownership and entrepreneurship.
Many cities lack the infrastructure to
reap the benefits of high productivity
that accrue to urban centres in rich
economies. Political instability deters
foreign investment. Climate change
will hit the whole continent hard. It
is hard to look at Egypt, one of the
richer African nations, growing from
100 to 160 million people without
feeling that new cycles of crisis,
Comment
TIM GRAHAM/GETTY IMAGES
The population of Africa is set to grow
by 1.1 billion in the next 30 years
revolution and dictatorship will
follow. It is difficult to imagine the
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
one of the poorest, growing to nearly
200 million people and becoming a
success story of human development
if its recent standards of governance
are not radically improved upon. It is
impossible to envisage insurgencies
in multiple countries being
suppressed without external help.
Which way Africa goes is
predominantly in the hands of
Africans, as it should be. The West,
however, has a colossal interest in
pushing things the right way. A G7
meeting that looked ahead to the
future of Africa would say: “We are
stepping up what we do across this
continent, with more consulates,
embassies and trade missions. We
will provide much more expertise
on how cities can work well, and
23
co-ordinate with each other the help
we give to improve education and
women’s rights. We are sending you
the vaccines you need. We will
encourage our companies to help
with your digital future.” It would say
that Europeans, who complain about
their strategic dependence on the
US, will demonstrate in Africa their
ability to give a judicious mixture of
long-term military, diplomatic and
economic help to states in trouble,
Africa will help decide
the strategic contest
between US and China
without swinging between extremes,
as we have in Afghanistan. In
Somalia, western countries did work
together to pay for African forces
to fight al-Shabaab terrorists, to give
aid and to sponsor at the UN a
legitimate government. None of this
involves inserting large western
ground forces on African soil.
A great deal of good work is already
taking place. But in Washington it is
not understood that what happens in
Africa could be more important than
any events in the South China Sea
in deciding a strategic contest with
Beijing. And in Europe, the
overwhelming consequences of a
future crisis in Africa have not been
fully absorbed. Today in Kabul, we
are leaving people in the hands of
extremists, to be exploited by China,
and feeling betrayed by the West. We
cannot afford to do the same in Africa.
red box
For the best analysis
and commentary on
the political landscape
thetimes.co.uk/redbox
24
Comment
Authenticity is overrated, give us competence
From Love Island to politics, we prize relatability above all yet it often leads to zealots or fakes
Martha
Gill
@martha_gill
T
here can be no consumer
trend that better defines
this decade than the
demand for authenticity.
We want it in everything
— our coffee, our clothes, our trips
abroad. We want it in the way these
things are sold to us (blame this for
the larky faux-amateurism that is
now everywhere in advertising);
and in the “back story” of those
who sell it (so we get large successful
corporations affecting to be local,
craft ones). We demand it even
in places where it simply cannot
be found.
Take, for example, Love Island, a
reality TV show that is suffering a
collapse in viewers because —
according to the loudest complaints
— contestants are “too aware” they
are on a reality TV show, or “seem
like they want to win”, and are
therefore “inauthentic”. A young
man called Jake was pilloried after
he appeared to be “playing up to the
cameras” in a bid to get his hands on
the show’s £50,000 prize. Candidates
who appear not to be “trying” are by
contrast showered with praise.
To summarise: if you want to win
this show, the best strategy is to
pretend winning is the last thing on
your mind. And not to have a
strategy. And perhaps, to be unaware
Giles Coren Notebook
I can’t write
— there’s not
enough to
distract me
W
ith the sudden
Restart of
Everything, it has
again become
possible to film TV
shows in hotels around the world.
And so, after holding fire for more
than 18 months, that is what I am
doing, somewhat intensively.
At present, I sit typing between
scenes in my bedroom in a grand old
lady of a hotel in Madeira that has
played host in its storied past to the
likes of Winston Churchill, Lord
Halifax, Edward and Mrs Simpson,
Guglielmo Marconi . . .
You might think that a vast, air-
conditioned room with hand-painted
wallpaper and views over the
shimmering bay would be an
excellent place to write. It isn’t.
Like most writers, I spend most
of my designated writing time not
writing. On column days, I generally
flip open my laptop and then
immediately go and do a spot of
you are competing in a show on
television at all.
The irony is that these clamours
for sincerity end up favouring the
most dishonest candidates (or the
truly befuddled). There is no way to
be truly authentic on reality TV — it
is just too contrived. So rewards go to
those insincere enough to be able to
fake it, on cue.
Love Island’s paradox has echoes
in the lives of politicians and the
strange demands we make of them.
Authenticity is among the most
prized qualities an aspiring leader
can have. The biggest boost you can
give a campaign is to make the
candidate seem relatable. But it is
rather difficult to achieve in practice.
Clamours for sincerity
on TV favour the most
dishonest contestants
Try to be authentic and you’ve failed.
To this end some hapless
politicians become caught in a
sort of quantum situation analysts
have called the “authenticity doom
loop”, where every attempt to show
off your relatability is seen as
proof of the opposite. After Hillary
Clinton was accused of being
unapproachable in her presidential
campaign, she made efforts to reveal
her personality, only for this to be
greeted as a “cynical marketing
ploy” to get voters on side (which in
a way it was).
Ed Miliband suffered from a
similar problem as Labour leader.
Trying to recover after a famously
botched photo opportunity, he made
laundry, then tidy the whole house,
make endless cups of tea . . . anything
to defer the fraught moment of
setting word to page.
But with hot and cold running
flunkies on hand to do all of that
— and much more — for me, I’m
struggling to get started.
Shaw footed
T
he hotel is very pleased with
nd
its celebrity past and
the grand marble
lobby is adorned with
black and white photos
of its starriest former
patrons relaxing here in n
the old days.
“Oh dear,” said one
guest I overheard on
the way to breakfast.
“That looks like a
photograph of
Charles Darwin
getting mugged.”
“Not quite, madam,”
intoned the elegant
manager at her
shoulder. “It is
George Bernard Shaw
learning to tango.”
Premier inn
L
eafing through an
old guest book,
I came upon the
signature of no less a
former British prime
the case for himself as a regular
bloke for whom only policies
mattered. “I am not from central
casting,” he said. “You can find
people who are more square-jawed,
more chiselled, look less like
Wallace.” Why, then, the questions
followed, had he hired a voice
coach, a body language guru and
a spin doctor?
In fact, the project of appearing
authentic is almost impossible for
any politician from the start. The
act of joining a party and
committing to collective discipline
means you have, from day one,
agreed to prioritise a message over
what you really think. You always
have a motive for what you are
saying (you are selling a policy, your
party, yourself), and voters know it.
The more sincere you try to be, the
more they see through the act.
Some politicians manage
authenticity some of the time, but
often only when a policy or national
moment happens to strike deeply at
their true interests. Tom Tugendhat’s
speech last week in the Commons on
the chaos in Afghanistan, in which
he called on his own experience as
an officer, was one such example.
Jess Phillips attains it more often
than most, but she chooses her
subjects carefully. She would not
have that luxury were her party in
power.
It takes a highly unusual politician
to seem authentic all the time.
And the trouble is that these aren’t
always the best candidates. In fact,
I’d make the case that they are
often the worst. They can be divided
into two types. The first succeeds in
staying true to themselves because
minister than David Lloyd George.
Underneath it were the names of his
wife, Margaret, and also of Megan
and Gwilym Lloyd George, whom a
little light googling revealed to be
two of their five children. I had
never thought of post-Edwardian
statesmen as taking family holidays
in the sun and I had a sudden,
unexpected vision of The Man Who
Won The Great War in the hotel
restaurant here, in blac
black tie, more
than 100 years ago, becbeckoning a
waiter over to say, “Loo
“Look, do you
have any sort of kids’ m menu? Just a
burger or a pizza or sosomething?
The à la carte looks dedelicious, but
these two won’t touch aany of it.”
Lynx Island
Islan
I
see that while I’ve
been aw
away, something
unusua
unusually wretched
Lo Island
on Love
has generated a
re
record 33,000
complaints to
Ofcom, and
I have to say
II’m somewhat
su
surprised. I
nev
never thought
of th
the sort
of people
peo who
complain to Ofcom
(bifocals, Vi
Viyella shirts,
faint whiff of G Germolene)
as having much
muc in common
1G M
they prioritise it above everything
else, their careers, the interests of
their party, even winning elections.
Jeremy Corbyn belongs to this group.
His “authenticity” as Labour leader
made him totally unwilling to
compromise or even listen to other
viewpoints. As a consequence his
party split and became a narrow sect,
haemorrhaging support.
The second type pulls off a more
complicated trick: to do away with
sincerity altogether. This type —
Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg
qualify — has clocked that voters
think all politicians are insincere, or
playing a part, and the only way to
appear honest is to acknowledge it.
Rather than attempt sincerity, then,
Corbyn’s unwillingness
to compromise turned
his party into a sect
they ham up the act, winking now
and then at the audience to reassure
them they don’t believe a word of it.
“We all know I’m only saying this
because this is the sort of thing
politicians have to say”, is the
subtext. That type is hardly desirable
either. When insincerity is a
cornerstone of your political
performance, it is all too easy to lie.
In fact it might be time to drop
the idea of authenticity from our
wishlist of political qualities
altogether. There is a reason it is so
rarely found among professionals in
politics. But professionalism — and
competence — has a place too.
Melanie Phillips is away
with the sort who watch Love
Island (thick, buff, half-naked,
strong whiff of Lynx).
Amber warning
B
eing out of the country does
nothing to stem the flow of
bonkers press releases into my
email, obviously, and this morning
I learnt that a study by Homecure
Plumbers of “how food availability
could be impacted by the climate
crisis and increased risk of droughts”
has determined that — wait for it —
“the price of a pint of beer could rise
by 193 per cent to over £11”.
This changes everything. Nobody
seems to care about extreme weather
events, wildfires, species extinction,
the increased likelihood of wars and
refugee crises, mass homelessness
and the possible end of civilisation
as we know it, but if we can get the
message across that anthropogenic
climate change could affect the price
of a pint, well, I think people might
finally sit up and listen.
Poolside attire
T
he Lloyd George children are
still bothering me. Did he have
to come down to the pool in his
top hat and tails very often to tell
them off for bombing, under threat
of severely reduced screen time?”
@gilescoren
RM Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times
Plaster casts show
idiocy of seeing in
black and white
Melanie McDonagh
Y
ou know why plaster casts
are white? That’s right, it’s
because plaster of Paris,
gypsum, is white. So no
offence need to be given by
the fact that plaster casts are almost
always the colour of their material.
But this simple fact isn’t enough for
the clever clogs in the Classics
faculty at Cambridge. They’re going
to be plastering — sorry — the
exhibition space in the Museum of
Classical Archaeology with placards
explaining the want of visual
diversity in its collection. And it is a
remarkable collection: about 450
casts of Greek and Roman statuary
from collections all over the world.
And obviously, many of the originals
are made from white marble.
The reason for this is exactly as
you’d expect. Last year, some
students and a few staff submitted an
open letter to the faculty calling for
“public acknowledgement of the
problem of racism within Classics
and the need for active anti-racist
work within our discipline”. And
instead of telling them to go away
and rewrite it in Latin — and good
luck with that — the faculty, being as
woke as any other, caved in and this
preposterous exercise is the result.
The academics are presenting the
placards as an opportunity to draw
attention to the actual diversity of
subjects in the collection and the
ways in which colour has been lost
and restored and the “role of
classical sculpture in the history of
racism”. It’s nothing new; there was
exactly the same fatuous explanatory
material on “whiteness” in a recent
exhibition of Rodin plastercasts at
Tate Modern.
In fact, ancient temples and
statues, like medieval churches and
statues, were not skeletal white; they
were a riot of colour. They’d have
looked terrifically vulgar to our
sensitive tastes when they were fresh.
You can tell as much from the
residual painting you often get on
ancient statues; the effect is
especially creepy when the eyeballs
are painted. But this has absolutely
nothing to do with colour in the
sense of race. And granted, race
in the ancient world was seen
differently. Many Roman slaves were
white, sometimes blond, as with
barbarian Germans and Britons.
The annoying thing about this
idiocy is that it distracts us from
the genuinely useful function that
plaster casts have, which is that they
replicate perfectly the finest artefacts
of the ancient world without
appropriating them. Lord Elgin didn’t
just remove the Elgin marbles; he
had plaster casts made of them
which are, interestingly, better
preserved than the originals.
The cast collection at Cambridge
is morally blameless, something its
curators really should be pointing
out. But none of this is relevant to
the diversity brigade who really do
see things in black and white.
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
Buy prints or signed copies of Times cartoons from our Print Gallery at timescartoons.co.uk or call 020 7711 7826
A trip round Europe through apps and masks
From German diligence to French enforcement, countries’ pandemic responses put cultural differences back on the map
Hugo
Rifkind
@hugorifkind
I
have been to mainland Europe,
and I can report that it is still
there. Road signs, baguettes,
Alpine lakes, beaches; none of it
has gone away. I suppose I knew
this already — the foreign pages still
mention these places, and why
would they lie? — but it doesn’t feel
real until you see it for yourself.
Four of us and a dog in a Kia. We
came out of the Eurotunnel and on
to the wrong side of an empty road
and it was like an apocalypse movie,
because the French don’t go up there
if they can help it (“C’est le nord!”
they all shuddered in the 2008 hit
French film Welcome To The Sticks)
and the Brits weren’t yet coming
much either.
When we left, France was still
amber plus. Had this continued, we’d
have needed Covid tests not only on
arrival and return, but also tests on
days two, five and eight thereafter.
Which, for a family of four, meant
wasting almost as much money up
your nose as Spandau Ballet.
Our first destination, eight hours
of autoroutes and autobahns later,
1G M
was Konstanz in Germany. Here,
unvaccinated kids needed to
quarantine, although we were with
friends and family and by a lake, so
they barely noticed.
They don’t mess around, Germans.
Three days in, a friendly city official
got in touch to check we knew the
rules. Two days later, the four
children in the house were given
appointment times at the (free) local
testing centre of 10.03, 10.04, 10.05
and 10.06, while three adults who
needed tests to fly home got 10.07,
10.09 and 10.10. Results came by text
in 15 minutes. I’m still not sure what
those lazy German medics were
doing at 10.08. Just loafing, I expect.
I’m also not sure what would have
happened if we hadn’t told them we
They obey rules in
France, but with
palpable resentment
were there. The law said we should
fill out an online form, but with no
real borders after Folkestone, how
would they ever have known? We
had our British car parked outside,
so maybe there would have been a
knock on the door. For you, my
friend, ze holiday is over.
In Germany, you wear masks in
shops or when you stand up from a
restaurant table, and they’re proper
medical ones, too. No trendy fabric.
Daily cases are rising, but they’re still
only 8 per 100,000 people each day,
as compared with 47-ish here and
not much less in France.
This makes diligence feel
ritualistic, particularly in rural
Germany where Covid is a semi-
mythical bogeyman, much like
Rumpelstiltskin, or some child-eating
forest witch of the Brothers Grimm.
And yet being German, they still
obey all the rules anyway, and expect
that you will, too.
From Germany, we went down to
the south of France. It’s some drive,
that, going through a million tunnels
from lush German meadows,
through Swiss Alpine peaks, through
dusty middle Italy and down to
Mediterranean palms, and pandemic
or not, Schengen still does its magic.
You only know you’re in Italy
because the tunnel lights have gone
and the driving is terrible, and you
only know you’re back into France
because the latter gets very
marginally better.
They obey the rules in France, too,
but with a somehow more palpable
resentment. Here, masks were
enforced almost everywhere except
the beach. You wear them on the
street, you put one on when you get
out of your car at a motorway
service station. You wear them if
you’re a wizened old French lady
with a boob job, shoulder-barging
your way irritably through St
Tropez market to buy yet another
sequinned kaftan.
In the romantic, cobbled village of
Gassin, I saw gendarmerie chiding
honeymooners who forgot to put
them back on after taking selfies. At
a nearby fairground — and I swear
this is true — I saw people actually
bungee jumping in them. Because
obviously plunging towards the
ground without a state-mandated
thin paper mask over your mouth
The German app is
keen for you to not
think it’s the Stasi
just wouldn’t be safe at all.
I saw a testing centre in France,
too, and that one was a tent with a
bored-looking line of people coming
out of it, on a terrain de pétanque
next to a boulangerie. Was there an
accordion playing? Hell, probably.
And while I’m in the business
of sweeping national generalisations,
I should probably also throw in
the large Italian family who set up
half a metre away from us on
Pampelonne beach, even though it
was relatively empty. Or I could tell
you about the respective French and
German Covid apps, both of which
will upload your NHS pass if you
really try. The first, TousAntiCovid,
25
Comment
is officious and frankly a little
bullying, taking advantage of a
Frenchman’s willingness to click
away his liberté when it’s lunchtime
and he wants to get into a restaurant.
Meanwhile, the German equivalent,
Corona-Warn, is apologetic, and
privacy focused, and basically just
really, really keen for you to not
think it’s the Stasi.
These, I suppose, are the cultural
differences that bubble away under
all those graphs and charts about
what laws apply where, and what
differences they make. These are the
things that remind you that, while
some governments have surely done
well, and others badly, there is
always more going on.
We came back on Friday, anyway,
off those still-deserted Calais
freeways into the tunnel, and then
out again into the perpetual, grinding
gridlock of our southeast. And I
wondered, as we crept towards
home, what equally stereotypical
Covid characteristics would shine
out to a Frenchman or a German
about us right now, as we tell
ourselves and everybody else that
our pandemic is over, even when it
so glaringly isn’t. Is it optimism? Is
it exceptionalism? Is it just blunt
chaos? If, of course, they haven’t
stopped believing in us altogether.
Even though we’re still only a
short drive and a cotton bud up
the nose away.
26
Letters to the Editor
Truncating HS2
Sir, Further rumours that the
government is shortly to announce
the “mothballing” of the eastern leg
of HS2 raise substantial questions
about previous reassurances (“HS2
section could go”, News, Aug 23). It is
patently obvious that any investment
cancelled as a consequence of this
decision would not be handed over to
local authorities, elected mayors or
educational institutions in the East
Midlands, Yorkshire and the North
East. The government’s “levelling up”
agenda would, as a consequence, be
revealed as propaganda rather than a
serious endeavour to balance the
economy of the UK.
David Blunkett
House of Lords
Extinction protests
Sir, Members of Extinction Rebellion
will only alienate the public if they
persist in disrupting the working life
of the capital (“Climate change tribe is
its own worst enemy”, Clare Foges,
Aug 23). If they cared to read a
newspaper, listen to the radio or even
watch TV, they would discover that
efforts are being made everywhere to
reduce our carbon footprint. However,
if they were to admit that, they would
have to admit also that their prejudice
against modern life is on shaky
ground. These kinds of protesters
always choose to ignore any sign that
they might be wrong. The UK is such
a small player in the worldwide spread
of pollution that whatever we do will
make little difference. Perhaps the
protesters should take their argument
to larger, more polluting countries
such as China, India and the US.
Avis Eaton
Tonbridge, Kent
Duty calls
Sir, I do not think anyone would
disagree with Dr Brian Austin’s
remarks about MPs and civil servants
deserving their holiday (letter, Aug
23). However, when events are of the
scale and urgency as they surely are
in Afghanistan, then it is MPs’ duty to
put the needs of the country first. Let
us not forget, no one forced Boris
Johnson to be prime minister or
Dominic Raab to be foreign secretary.
They could have chosen a simpler life
of the back benches without the
responsibilities of office.
Robbie Cathcart
Laxfield, Suffolk
Sir, Why should all MPs go on
holiday at the same time? The closing
down of parliament in the summer
smacks of the old Wakes Weeks.
Philip Browning
Newport, Shropshire
Corrections and
clarifications
We are
committed to
abiding by the
Independent
Press Standards Organisation rules and
regulations and the Editors’ Code of
Practice that IPSO enforces. Requests
for corrections or clarifications should
be sent to feedback@thetimes.co.uk
Failure of foreign intervention in Afghanistan
Sir, Matthew Parris is right about the
Afghan war (“Sad truth is our Afghan
fallen died in vain”, Comment, Aug
21). Twenty years of trials and we still
cannot win. The reason is simple: if
the Taliban could have been brought
to a conventional battle the allies
would certainly have destroyed them.
However, a man with an AK47 and
200 rounds of ammunition who can
march 50km a day is not easy to
locate. The Taliban can fight where
they wish and then vanish into their
mountain fastnesses. We and the US
should have known better. For Britain
our third adventure in Afghanistan
left us with the same result as the two
others: a bloody nose. For the
Americans, Vietnam was a similar
war. Instead of trying to run the world
we should put our own country to
rights by dealing with poverty,
including the many rented homes
that are not fit for purpose and the
food banks with queues stretching
into the distance.
John Warburton
Lowestoft, Suffolk
Sir, Matthew Parris writes well about
the need to admit defeat and cut our
losses but it is worth noting that a
relatively small military presence in
Climate targets
Sir, Your headline about the report on
behavioural change and sustainability
from the Tony Blair Institute for
Global Change (“Only minor change
needed to hit climate target, say
experts”, Aug 20) risks creating
further complacency about the
urgency of response required of
citizens and states to the climate
emergency. Of course behaviour
change needs to be portrayed as
achievable if it is to take place at all,
but to suggest that almost nothing
needs to be done and that somehow
things will turn out for the best is
dangerous. Achieving net zero is going
to demand significant personal,
corporate and institutional discomfort:
future generations will not thank us if
we duck these responsibilities. The
scale of the challenge is captured in
the finding that, despite the world
being paralysed by the pandemic,
global carbon dioxide emissions fell by
only 6.4 per cent, or 2.3 billion tonnes,
last year, according to the journal
Nature Communications.
Professor Roger Jones
Emeritus professor of general practice,
Kings College London
R38 IN
FINAL
TEST FLIGHT
from the times august 24, 1921
The airship R38 left Howden
Aerodrome, Yorkshire, yesterday
morning on a long flight over sea
and land. She had on board many of
the officers of the United States
Navy who will fly her across the
Atlantic, and was commanded by
Lieutenant A H Wann, RAF, who
has skippered the vessel on all her
previous flights. The object of the
flight was twofold. First, there were
tests of engines, navigating
instruments and other gear and,
second, the airship had to be taken
from Howden to Pulham, in Norfolk,
before setting out on the long voyage
Afghanistan maintained stability for
several years, and that in South Korea
substantial western military forces
have been maintained for more than
50 years compared with only two
decades in Afghanistan.
Dr Bill Jones
Beverley, E Yorks
Sir, Tony Blair is surely right to
condemn President Biden’s decisions
and actions in Afghanistan (“West’s
enemies will cheer, says Blair”, News,
Aug 23). Indeed, he could have gone
further in describing as imbecilic the
most shameless act of international
humbuggery since Chamberlain’s
proclamation of “peace in our time”.
An enfeebled president has in effect
yielded to the isolationists in the US
and destroyed Nato. The fortress on
which the West has relied since the
days of Harry Truman and Ernest
Bevin has now got the resilience of a
paper bag. After Biden blamed the
Afghan army for his administration’s
own cowardice, why should any of
the smaller nations in the alliance
ever trust America’s word again?
Perhaps politicians in the Ukraine,
Taiwan, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia
and even Britain should in future look
to make their own dispositions rather
Sir, On a simple cost/benefit analysis
I will happily pay an extra £100 a year
levy (“Households with gas boilers
face green levy, says review”, Aug, 23)
and continue to use my gas boiler
until such time as it needs replacing.
Alistair Nicoll
Sheffield
Inequality fixation
Sir, In line with the Institute of
Economic Affairs’s opposition to a
national minimum wage, its director-
general, Mark Littlewood, opposes
giving attention to growing inequality
and calls for more capitalism and
liberalisation (“A fixation with
inequality ignores rise in wealth of
the poorest nations”, Business, Aug
23). In the same edition it is claimed
in a news report that outsourced
delivery drivers working for an
agency contracted to Ocado take
home as little as £5 an hour after
paying for their own vehicles, fuel, tax
and insurance. The chief executive of
Ocado, Tim Steiner, took home
£58 million in 2019. That is where
ignoring inequality has taken us.
Christopher Clayton
Chester
across the Atlantic. On Sunday night
the R33 was flown from Pulham to
Cardington, in Bedfordshire, to leave
berthing space for the R38 at the
Norfolk aerodrome, and yesterday
the staff there was augmented so
that there should be sufficient men
on the spot to take her into a shed if
it were decided not to use the
mooring mast. The R38 was brought
out of her shed at Howden soon
after 6am and cast off at 10 past 7.
Lieutenant Wann set her on a course
east by south-east and the first
wireless message showed her to be
four miles ESE of Skegness at 9am.
The weather was fair at the start but
a mass of low-lying cloud hung over
the Humber. At noon the R38
signalled her position 12 miles NE of
the Outer Gabbard Lightship, which
is about 28 miles east by north of
Felixstowe, and two hours later she
was 31 miles ENE of the same point.
At 4 o’clock she was due east of
Lowestoft, 33 miles out at sea. Up to
1GM
Letters to the Editor should be sent to
letters@thetimes.co.uk or by post to
1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF
than depend on the United States.
Joe Haines
Press secretary to Harold Wilson,
1969-76; Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Sir, The fall of Afghanistan is the end
result of a decision made two decades
ago: the US refusal to allow the
return of the country’s former king,
Mohammed Zahir Shah, as the
constitutional monarch he offered to
be. The most progressive politician in
the country until he was deposed by
his cousin Daoud in 1973, he was a
member of the Barakzai dynasty that
had ruled Afghanistan from 1823 and
had commanded the assent of all of
the ethnic groups. As a Pashtun, like
the majority of the Taliban, he had
their respect, and he was also
acceptable to the Uzbek, Tajik,
Hazara and other northern
minorities. American anti-
monarchism led to a rejection of his
offer. His belated designation as
“Father of the Nation” in 2004, after
his lonely return to Kabul for the last
few years of his life, was too late and
too little. He was his country’s last
best hope of a precarious unity.
Professor Norman Hammond
Co-editor, The Archaeology of
Afghanistan
Aspire to this list
Sir, Trevor Phillips’s excellent article
on child poverty and Wes Streeting’s
suggestion of providing children with
ten specified extracurricular activities
by the age of ten (Comment, Aug 23)
chimed strongly with my experience
of growing up. Phillips is right about
the fear of making mistakes, the lack
of confidence and the not knowing
how to behave in unfamiliar situations.
These can range from such seemingly
simple things as which cutlery to use
in restaurants to understanding the
language used in universities, eg,
alumni, seminars and semesters.
Keren Gwinnell
Bristol
Sir, This is not a new idea: the
National Trust came up with “50
things to do before you’re 11¾” in 2012,
with the aim of getting children out
and about doing things. It has
sometimes turned out to be a box-
ticking exercise, doing a lot of things
superficially rather than a few
substantial ones in more depth, as
Wes Streeting seems to be suggesting.
Richard Ellis
Carew Cheriton, Pembrokeshire
about 7 o’clock last night it was
expected that she would return to
Pulham before dusk. The weather
conditions, however, which at no
time had been ideal, grew worse; at
half-past 8 the mist round the coast
of Norfolk had become dense. It
penetrated inland and with clouds as
low as 300ft it was decided that the
berthing of the airship would be
attended with some risk, and
accordingly she remained out at sea,
cruising off the coast of Norfolk. It is
hoped to finish the voyage at 5 or 6
this morning; and the airship, when
she comes to the aerodrome, will be
taken into a shed, and not moored to
the mast. There is some doubt as to
how the R38 will be berthed when
she gets to the other side of the
Atlantic. She will fly to Lakehurst, a
few miles south of New York, where
a mooring mast is being erected.
thetimes.co.uk/archive
Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times
Hundred’s impact
on Test cricket
Sir, Elizabeth Ammon is right to
highlight the dangers of the Hundred
adversely affecting the quality of
English Test cricket (“Hundred
worked but wider impact could be
severe”, Sport, Aug 23). Already this
summer we have seen English
batsmen unable to adjust to the
rigours of Test cricket with their poor
defence, inability to build the
foundations for a long innings,
shuffling across their wicket in an
attempt to work the ball through the
leg side, playing across the line and
failing to remember precisely where
their off stump is. The captain, Joe
Root, is one of the few exceptions.
In red ball cricket, batsmen’s
wickets are more valuable because the
game is longer, highlighting the
importance of playing oneself in
before indulging in expansive
strokeplay. The crash, bang, wallop of
the Hundred or “carnival cricket” has
resulted in most modern players
being unable to adjust their
techniques to the demands of the
longer Test match game. Red ball
cricket needs to be played in July and
August when the conditions for
batting are more propitious.
Geoffrey Wyborn
Walton-on-Thames, Surrey
Sir, I suggest that the name for a
five-ball over (letters, Aug 19, 20 &
21) should be a “Michelle”. The name
has been used colloquially for a
five-wicket haul (which is called a
“five-for” or “fifer”) in an innings and
honours the actress Michelle Pfeiffer.
I think it would be very appropriate,
given the interest in, and popularity
of, the women’s Hundred.
Nigel à Brassard
London SW7
Beautiful game
Sir, Eddie Jenkins wants to change
the laws of football unnecessarily
(“Penalty for heading”, letter, Aug 23).
Long aerial passes and heading
battles are surely the most exciting
and skilful features of the game.
Those who believe that football is too
risky a sport are not forced to
participate, just as I choose never to
be a boxer so as to avoid being
punched repeatedly in the head.
Peter Froggatt
Dorking, Surrey
Not worth stealing
Sir, Older Times readers may
remember a quick and effective
method of preventing car theft (Giles
Coren, Aug 21): lifting the bonnet and
removing the distributor arm. It
surprises me that in this era of
fingerprint phone identification, facial
recognition and one-time passwords,
modern car manufacturers are unable
to build in a removeable device that
cannot be replicated by the “crims”.
Martin Grindley
Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex
Sir, There is certainly something in
the theory of not going to great
lengths to protect your property
(letter, Aug 23). I have a blueberry
bush in my garden and for years had
it netted to stop birds stealing the
fruit, to no avail: each year they found
a way in to eat all the berries. This
year I did not cover the bush and yet
had my best harvest for years: the
birds were simply not interested.
Perhaps anything left uncovered
will make it less desirable to a thief.
Diana Nason
Colyford, Devon
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 1GM
Daily Universal Register
Japan: Paralympic Games opening
ceremony. The games run until September 5.
Germany: GDP figures for the second
quarter published.
Nature notes
A red-brown
mustelid with a
short tail flowed out
of the dry summer
grass thatching the
base of an old oak,
pursued by a
curious but tentative terrier. And then it was
gone: vanished into some underground
fastness, or along an invisible track hidden by
vegetation into the shady wood. In Britain,
stoats mainly eat rabbits, which they will
pursue for several miles and kill with a bite
to the back of the neck. Litters are large, at
up to 13 kits; the young females will usually
mate before they are weaned, although the
implantation of the eggs is delayed for nine
to ten months, with kits born the following
spring. melissa harrison
Birthdays today
Stephen Fry, pictured,
actor, Jeeves and Wooster
(1990-92), presenter, QI,
BBC2 (2003-16), and
writer, 64; Anne Archer,
actress, Fatal Attraction
(1987), 74; Dame Antonia
Byatt, writer, Possession:
A Romance (Booker Prize, 1990), 85; Peter
Gummer, Lord Chadlington, chief
executive, Huntsworth public relations
group (2000-15), 79; Paulo Coelho, author,
The Alchemist (1988), 74; Dr Penelope
Curtis, director, Museu Calouste
Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2015-20), Tate Britain
(2010-15), 60; Elizabeth Debicki, actress,
Vita & Virginia (2018), 31; Simon Dennis,
rower, Olympic gold medallist (2000), 45;
David Freiberg, musician, Jefferson Airplane
and Jefferson Starship, Jane (1979), 83; John
Green, author, The Fault in Our Stars (2012),
44; Rupert Grint, actor, Ron Weasley in the
Harry Potter films (2001-11), 33; Poppy
Gustafsson, chief executive and co-founder
of the cybersecurity firm Darktrace, 39;
Dafydd Iwan, folk singer and politician,
president, Plaid Cymru (2003-10), 78; Jean-
Michel Jarre, musician, Oxygène (1977), 73;
Linton Kwesi Johnson, dub poet, 69; Roger
Lewis, president, National Museum Wales,
chairman, Cardiff airport (2015-20), chief
executive, Welsh Rugby Union (2006-15), 67;
Prof Alexander McCall Smith, novelist, The
No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (1998), 73;
Charlie Massey, chief executive and
registrar, General Medical Council, 51;
Marlee Matlin, actress, Children of a Lesser
God (1986), 56; Amanda Millar, president,
Law Society of Scotland (2020-Jun 2021), 50;
Dr Madsen Pirie, founder and president,
Adam Smith Institute, 81; Ali Smith,
novelist, Summer (2020), 59; Sir John
Sunderland, chancellor, Aston University,
president, Confederation of British Industry
(2004-06), 76; Joe Tilson, pop art painter,
sculptor and printmaker, 93; Sam Torrance,
golfer with 21 European tour wins, 68; Ewan
Venters, chief executive, Fortnum & Mason
(2012-Jan 2021), 49.
On this day
In AD79 Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying
Pompeii and Herculaneum in volcanic ash;
in 410 Rome was overrun by the Visigoths, a
Germanic people; in 1814 British troops
stormed Washington and set fire to the
White House presidential mansion.
The last word
“We sometimes need to create unreal
monsters and bogies to stand in for all the
things we fear in our real lives.” Stephen
King, American novelist, The Shining (1977)
Kabul on a Knife-edge
The G7 and the UN have vital roles to play in bringing some order to the
power transition in Afghanistan and avoiding wider global instability
Boris Johnson has a chance in a virtual G7 summit
today to take the West beyond its present apoca-
lyptic view of the Afghan meltdown towards a
more reasoned response. The Taliban takeover
certainly does not lend itself to calm. Afghans are
rushing not only to Kabul airport but also by foot,
car and cart across the borders into Pakistan and
Iran. The foreign community is fleeing. The
Afghan economy is on the brink of collapse. The
country is in many respects lawless space.
And yet when so many countries share a com-
mon anxiety about Afghanistan, above all about it
becoming again a place of shelter and conspiracy
for terror groups, there is scope for productive
common action. The G7 offers one such platform.
In the first place there will be an attempt to per-
suade Joe Biden, the US president, to extend the
process of evacuation beyond the August 31 dead-
line. That may be complicated by the Taliban’s
public refusal yesterday to consider any extension
to the deadline for Nato forces to leave the coun-
try, which it said would “provoke a reaction”.
The crucial decisions, though, will come later
this week at a session of the permanent members
of the United Nations Security Council: China,
Russia, France, the UK and the United States.
That is because a managed exit from Afghanistan
A private equity shopping spree reflects confidence in Britain
As the rest of the country tries to shrug off the
effects of the pandemic, the City appears gripped
by deal fever. Last week the bidding war for Morri-
sons intensified when the supermarket group’s
board accepted a £7 billion offer from US private
equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, trumping a
£6.7 billion bid from rival private equity group For-
tress — which may yet increase its offer. Now
Sainsbury’s has also been engulfed by bid specula-
tion following a Sunday Times report that Apollo,
yet another US private equity group, was mulling
a bid. That sent the grocer’s shares soaring by
15 per cent. So far this year takeovers of British
firms are running at their highest level by value
since the eve of the global financial crisis in 2007.
US private equity firms are leading the way, with
bids for 13 listed companies.
In some quarters, this explosion of private equi-
ty activity is a source of consternation. Takeovers
are always unsettling, particularly for employees.
Private equity companies have a justified reputa-
tion for being ruthless owners as they bid to boost
profits by driving efficiency gains. Private equity’s
public reputation has been further damaged by a
Good luck to Team GB in the Paralympic Games
This summer of sport has been one for the ages.
There was the excitement of football’s European
Championship, which ended in the heartbreak of
England’s loss to Italy in the final; the ferocious
duel between the British & Irish Lions and the
mighty Springboks, decided on the slenderest of
margins; and the exhilarating spectacle of the
Tokyo Olympic Games, which defied the odds to
provide 17 days of glorious sporting entertainment
ending in a record-equalling British medal haul.
And there is still more to come. Tokyo will today
hold the opening ceremony of the Paralympic
Games. British audiences have much to look
has to be based on a consensus that is broader than
the like-minded G7. The UN has been largely quiet
during this crisis, working diligently on humani-
tarian relief, reluctant to push for a resolution that
might be vetoed by Beijing or Moscow. Such is the
general dismay about the abruptness of the US-
led withdrawal that it was thought that Russia and
China might be more inclined to sit on their hands
and exploit Mr Biden’s obvious discomfiture.
There are, however, some clear measures that
ought to find broad support. The Taliban leaders
should allow humanitarian organisations to con-
tinue their help for sufferers from Covid-19 and
from drought. Aid would be conditional on a pro-
visional government including women represent-
atives and members of all ethnic groups, not just
Sunni Pashtuns but the Tajiks, the Hazaras, the
Uzbeks and the Balochis. The Taliban should hon-
our its promise of a general amnesty and cease tar-
geted killings. No museums should be demolished.
More controversially, there is a strong case for a
guaranteed evacuation corridor. And all neigh-
bouring countries should open their borders.
The G7 will of course be urged by Mr Johnson to
take in Afghans from groups that have in the past
been targeted by Taliban zealots. That would
include women activists, those from the LGBTQ
Bargain Hunters
handful of blow-ups, including the former high
street stalwart Debenhams, insurer Saga and the
AA, which emerged from private equity owner-
ship saddled with debt and stripped of their free-
hold properties. Given that Morrisons and Sains-
bury’s are some of the country’s biggest employers,
and with substantial property assets of their own,
it is hardly surprising that some have questioned
whether private equity are suitable owners.
In fact Britain should welcome this explosion of
private equity interest, not least as an expression
of confidence in its long-term economic prospects
in the aftermath of Covid and Brexit. Since 2016,
British shares have traded at a substantial dis-
count to global markets, a discount that widened
during the pandemic. What’s more, this relative
decline in asset values reflected a wider slump in
investment, both foreign and domestic. The fact
that private equity groups are willing to make such
large bets on British companies is a signal that
they regard the market as cheap. It may also signal
a much-needed acceleration in business invest-
ment. After all, private equity companies typically
look to sell their acquisitions at a substantial profit
Go For Glory
forward to, not least because Channel 4 plans to
feature more than 17 hours of daily sport. Team GB
has historically been successful at the Summer
Paralympic Games, aided by National Lottery
funding, consistently finishing in the top three
since Sydney 2000. With a mix of young stars,
such as 21-year-old sprinter Thomas Young, and
stalwarts, such as 14-time Paralympic gold medal-
winning cyclist and swimmer Dame Sarah Storey,
the team looks set to continue its run of success.
These stars can be sure of widespread public
support. Britain’s enthusiasm for the Paralympics
is in part a legacy of London 2012, which put the
27
Leading articles
communities, journalists and human rights
campaigners. This too will require international
co-operation given that once the land bridge clos-
es the main legal route to safety for those with
rights to asylum in western countries will necessa-
rily have to come via refugee facilities in third
countries. Britain’s credibility in this respect
would be boosted if it offered haven to more than
its promised 20,000 Afghans over several years.
The West has a moral obligation to be generous.
The shared goal is clear. Afghanistan, already a
failing state, cannot be allowed to become a global
disruptor, a refuge for those who believe that
shooting down airliners is an appropriate way of
glorifying their god. No country can feel comfort-
able with the misery or the spreading panic on the
Hindu Kush, least of all Afghanistan’s neighbours
which are most exposed to instability spilling over
its borders. China and Russia both fear a radical-
ised Islam establishing terror camps close to their
borders and seem ready to do their bit in support-
ing regional allies including Pakistan and central
Asian countries at risk of being overwhelmed by
the influx from Afghanistan. But all must ac-
knowledge that the only way out of the crisis is an
intra-Afghan agreement. The alternative, a
bloody civil war, is too grim to be contemplated.
within seven years. It is fanciful to think that this
can be achieved purely by cost-cutting and asset-
stripping, rather than investing in growth.
Besides, it makes little difference from the
public’s perspective whether a company’s shares
are listed on a stock exchange or privately held.
These days much of the firepower wielded by pri-
vate equity firms is provided by the same pension
funds that invest in listed companies. Although
the government has armed itself with new powers
to block takeovers on public interest grounds,
these should be used sparingly. While Kwasi
Kwarteng, the business minister, was justified in
ordering a review last week of the proposed pri-
vate equity takeover of defence firm Ultra Elec-
tronics, it is hard to argue that any vital national
interest is threatened by takeover activity in a
highly competitive sector such as retailing.
In any case, no one can force shareholders to
sell. If there is money to be made for private equity,
it is there to be made by listed companies too. The
real mystery is why public company shareholders
keep selling out to private equity at the bottom on-
ly to buy back their shares at far richer valuations.
Games, long treated by spectators and broadcast-
ers as an afterthought, on equal footing with its sis-
ter competition. An equally important legacy of
the London Games was how it inspired a genera-
tion of able-bodied and disabled spectators to
push themselves to the limit and overcome the
obstacles they face. Among the inspired specta-
tors was Maisie Summers-Newton, a 19-year-old
Paralympic swimmer who in 2012 watched her
future team-mate and fellow achondroplasia suf-
ferer, Ellie Simmonds, win two gold medals.
To the world’s Paralympians, we say good luck:
go for glory and inspire another generation.
28 2GM Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

World
Taliban victory inspires
jihadist attacks in Africa
The Sahel since January. Support for the Islamists
has flourished in part because of an
Jonathan Clayton Macron told Jihadists in the Sahel incompetent response by the region’s
Islamist groups are believed to have corrupt governments. National armed
been emboldened by the Taliban take- to rethink MAURITANIA
NIGER LIBYA Sahel region
forces have been accused of killing
over of Afghanistan to launch a series civilians, eliminating political rivals and
of murderous attacks in west Africa. cutbacks to MALI CHAD
Lake
harassing local populations during
In the past few days more than 200 botched crackdowns on militants.
people have been killed in four attacks French force 16,000-
strong UN
Chad
Before Kabul fell, Iyad Ag Ghaly,
in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, Peacekeeping BURKINA SOMALIA head of the Islamist umbrella grouping
evidence of the jihadists’ growing Charles Bremner Paris Mission in Mali, FASO Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin,
confidence on the continent as chaos 5,000 French DR CONGO was quoted by the BBC monitoring unit
soldiers plus NIGERIA
unfolds in Kabul. President Macron is as saying: “We are winning.” He was
The death toll from the worsening being urged by the 300 British CAMEROON referring to France’s decision to reduce
troops MOZAMBIQUE
insurgency linked to surrogate groups opposition to renew its forces from 5,000 to about half that
of al-Qaeda and Islamic State has risen France’s commitment number by early next year.
to more than 700 since the start of the to fighting Islamist the newspaper Le French presidency Chad said at the weekend that it
year, and several thousand since 2018. forces in western Journal du Dimanche. added that Paris had would cut its contribution to the G5
The mayhem has displaced seven mil- Africa after al-Qaeda “It is imperative for the learnt the lessons of regional force — which also includes
lion people in the west African Sahel hailed the US debacle security of our country Afghanistan even Mauritania — from 1,200 troops to 600.
region, which has also been crippled by in Afghanistan as an because terrorism in before the Taleban Chad has its own problems with
drought. inspiration. Mali today is terrorism takeover and had used jihadist violence in the Lake Chad
The failure of thousands of United Xavier Bertrand, on our street corners them to define its region that borders Niger, Nigeria and
Nations, regional and western troops frontrunner in the field tomorrow. We will not strategy in the Sahel. Cameroon. At the start of the month
— including about 300 British troops in of conservative remain there eternally The need to reinforce militants killed at least 26 Chadian
Mali — to defeat Islamist insurgents contenders for next but we cannot local armed forces and soldiers and wounded 14 in an attack at-
has reawakened fears that the biggest April’s presidential disengage in Mali like a capacity to adapt tributed to Boko Haram, the Nigerian
threat to Europe now lies across the election, said Macron the Americans have policies to a changing group notorious for kidnapping school-
Mediterranean, from a plethora of had made a major done in Afghanistan. environment were girls. It has merged with a rival, the Isis-
jihadist groups. Tony Blair has written error in announcing Our European amongst the Afghan affiliated Islamic State West Africa
that the decision to abandon Afghan- the imminent end of partners must take a lessons, the source Province (Iswap), and relaunched a
istan has left “every jihadist group France’s Operation share of the effort.” added. campaign of kidnappings and killings in
around the world cheering”. Barkhane in Mali and French officials With the end of the Nigeria and across the border in Niger.
Organisations monitoring such surrounding countries. insist that there are Barkhane operation, To the south, al-Qaeda groups have
groups and their websites concur, France has lost 55 wide differences Macron wants a created mayhem in the notorious
arguing that the fall of Kabul was widely personnel in fighting between Afghanistan, European task force to “three border” zone where Burkina
celebrated on extremist social media, since 2013 and will a 20-year-war against take charge of some Faso, Mali and Niger meet. Ten people
with triumphant praise for the Taliban.
Africa-based groups had already drawn
inspiration from the US decision to quit
shrink its deployment
of 5,000 troops after
mounting casualties in
a nationalist group
intent on retaking
power, and the diffuse
anti-terrorist missions
currently carried out
by the French.
were killed in an attack on Saturday.
In December Britain sent 300 troops
to bolster the 16,000-strong UN peace-
Proud Boys
Afghanistan; now, according to regional
experts, they are certain to step up their
the vast region.
“We should stay in
regional fighting since
2013 against motley
Under his plan,
the remaining
keeping mission in Mali, where the
Sahel crisis was triggered after mili- and leftists
attacks. Mali right up to the militia groups with no French forces will tants linked to al-Qaeda took control of
Somalia, Mozambique and the
Democratic Republic of Congo are also
annihilation of the
armed terrorist
aspirations to national
power.
focus on neutralising
important jihadist
the north of the country in 2012. The
French presence is deeply unpopular
slug it out
fighting Islamist extremists. A new fear
is that some of the sophisticated US
weaponry left behind in Afghanistan
groups,” Bertrand told A source at the leaders. both at home and in many parts of Mali,
where France is remembered as an
exploitative colonial power.
in Portland

could be smuggled into Africa along the
well-used drug routes via Pakistan and
the dhow trade from the Gulf states to
East Africa. Libya, now the favoured
departure point to Europe for people-
traffickers, is also home to many radical
Islamist groups.
“It appears Africa is rapidly becom-
ing the centre of armed Islamist activity
and abuse. In the Sahel these groups
have overwhelmed the region’s armies
and fed on challenging geography and
weak and often corrupt governance,”
Corinne Dufka, Sahel director at
Human Rights Watch, said.
These groups had cleverly exploited
ethnic, economic and religious lines to
garner more recruits, she added. “The
crisis should be of concern to us all,
given the geopolitical dynamics and
their spread to elsewhere in West
Africa, including coastal states.”
Large parts of Burkina Faso, previ-
ously one of the most stable countries
in Francophone Africa, are now under
the control of Islamists who mix jihad
with banditry, drug-smuggling and
people-trafficking. In Niger militants
have killed more than 420 civilians and
driven thousands from their homes
“Many people are afraid because the
situation is likely to be the same [as
Afghanistan],” wrote Bouraima Guindo,
editor-in-chief of Le Pays, a Malian
newspaper. “The presence of those
foreign soldiers is very necessary
because if they leave tomorrow, the
situation will be more dangerous.”
West has a duty to steer Africa in the
right direction, William Hague, page 23
P
rotests by right and left-
wing groups in Portland
ended with running
brawls in the streets at the
weekend, with at least one
man arrested after firing a gun at
rival demonstrators (Alistair
Dawber writes).
The two groups had planned to
gather in different parts of the city
in Oregon, which has become a
flashpoint for violence in the past

Sydney orders white roofs and trees to cool climate
Australia
Bernard Lagan Sydney
Sydney is to ban dark roofs on new
houses and insist on a tree in every gar-
den in an effort to combat climate
change and the effects of rising summer
temperatures that can soar past 50C.
The rules will initially apply to the
sprawling outer suburbs in the south-
west, where developers have erected
row upon row of large, dark-roofed
homes in treeless streets.
The roofs not only retain heat and
raise ambient street temperatures but
also lead to high electricity bills
because of the need to cool homes, said
Rob Stokes, planning minister for New
South Wales. “The need to adapt and
mitigate urban heat isn’t a future chal-
lenge, it’s already with us,” he added.
Lighter-coloured roofs will be man-
datory, and new plots must be big
enough for a tree in every back garden.
The Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change report released this
month said there was very high confi-
dence that urbanisation had exacerbat-
ed the effects of global warming in
cities, and that Australia’s land areas
had warmed by about 1.4C since 1910.
Stokes, 46, said that the report
showed that there might be catastro-
phic impacts on health, the economy
and environment if the government
failed to act. “When designing lots for
detached housing we need backyards
which are big enough to plant a tree or
have a garden. We need to say goodbye
to the trend of having dark roofs.”
Studies have found parts of Sydney’s
outer west to be among the least leafy in
urban Australia. Some parts have a
canopy cover of barely 1 per cent while
Sydney’s expensive north shore enjoys
tree cover of up to 60 per cent.
Mattheos Santamouris, professor of
high performance architecture at the
University of New South Wales, said
that “cool roofs” could decrease the
energy consumption of uninsulated
buildings in western Sydney by up to 50
per cent. He told The Sydney Morning
Herald that the city’s western suburbs
had summer extremes consistently far
hotter than the east and were affected
by hot desert winds.
However, Stephen McMahon, New
South Wales branch president of the
Urban Development Institute of
Australia, criticised the new laws as
“ill conceived and unworkable”, saying
that he objected to rules requiring
“every roof to be painted white”. He
added: “It will result in bureaucratically
imposed blandness for new communi-
ties and will bring negligible improve-
ment in thermal performance.”
12 months. Last year protests were
held for more than 150 consecutive
nights after the murder of George
Floyd, a black man, at the hands of
a white officer in Minneapolis.
On Sunday evening about 100
members of the Proud Boys, a far-
right group, held a rally in the car
park of a shop. As it was coming to
an end clashes erupted with left-
wing Antifa demonstrators. The
two sides aimed fireworks and
similar devices at one another. It
was not immediately clear whether
anyone suffered serious injuries.
Shots were later fired downtown,
leading to the arrest. Dustin
Brandon Ferreira, 37, a left-wing
activist, told The Oregonian he was
with others when a man used a
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
racial slur against a black man n
in the group and then fired
multiple rounds in their
direction. Demonstrations
associated with the Antifa
group had drawn more than
200 people in the area.
Portland is braced for
Saturday’s first anniversary
of a clash between right-wing
and leftist crowds in the city.
The violence last year
culminated in the shooting dead ad
ear-
of a right-wing protester, 39-year-
old Aaron Danielson, on August st 29.
The suspected killer, Michael
ascist
Reinoehl, a 48-year-old anti-fascist
activist who provided security for
Black Lives Matter protesters, was
shot and killed on September 4 by
police as they sought to arrest him.
Chuck Lovell, Portland’s chief of
police, said on Friday that officers
would not necessarily intervene to
2GM
break up fights between the groups
but added: “Just because arrests are
not made at the scene when tensions
are high does not mean that people
won’t be charged with crimes.”
Portland has been plagued by law
29
Bidders clamour for prime Blind French crab hunter
South African vineyard becomes a film star
Page 31 Page 32
ALEX MILAN TRACY/AP; NATHAN HOWARD/GETTY IMAGES
Wind tunnel gives
China advantage in
hypersonic weapons
China
Didi Tang Beijing
China has developed the world’s most
advanced wind tunnel, capable of
simulating 30 times the speed of sound,
as Beijing steals a march in the race for
hypersonic weapons.
The JF-22 facility in Beijing could
replicate speeds of up to 23,000 mph —
more than three times that of Nasa’s An artist’s impression of the type of
most advanced wind tunnel, the Lens II hypersonic warheads China is testing
in Buffalo, New York — and is due for
completion this year. Han Guilai, a basic thought for this JF-22 wind tunnel
researcher at the Chinese Academy of is for our country’s space aircraft
Sciences, estimated that it would place system,” Jiang Zonglin, head of the
China 20 to 30 years ahead of the West. project, told China Central Television.
The US and Russia are developing Jiang said that a hypersonic aircraft
hypersonic missiles that can be could easily reach anywhere in the
launched into space carrying nuclear world within two hours.
payloads but first they must build wind Western powers view China’s reach
tunnels to simulate the conditions such into space with growing concern.
weapons would experience in flight. President Biden’s latest budget re-
The new wind tunnel uses chemical aligned defence spending priorities in
explosions, rather than mechanical favour of modernising the US’s nuclear
compressors, to generate high-speed arsenal, with money set aside to
air flow. This creates shockwaves, research and develop hypersonic weap-
temperatures and pressures similar to ons and “next generation” systems.
those experienced by high-velocity The development is being hailed in
aircraft. There are wind tunnels using China as a landmark moment in its
similar technology in development in burgeoning space programme, which
Japan and Germany. has sent rovers to the Moon and Mars.
Russia’s hypersonic weapons chief, “A wind tunnel is like the cradle of the
Professor Alexander Kuranov, 73, was spacecraft,” Jiang said. “Only with a
arrested by FSB agents this month on wind tunnel can we build engines and
suspicion of handing classified informa- spacecraft. It’s been the goal of our team
Proud Boys and Antifa protesters tion to a foreign state. “Representatives for the past five or six decades.”
sprayed mace at each other and of the US and China showed interest,” The Chinese military has success-
fired paintballs, left, and fireworks, sources told state media after his arrest. fully tested two new missiles. The state
below. Portland is bracing itself for The Chinese breakthrough could broadcaster said they “precisely hit the
more clashes at the weekend fuel fears of a new nuclear arms race in target with multiple protections several
space. Writing in The Times in June, hundred kilometres away” and “effect-
and order problems for more than a Lord Hague of Richmond, the former ively paralysed the crucial information
year. In June last year police had to foreign secretary, warned that hyper- point of the enemy’s defence system”.
step in to prevent the building of an sonic weapons represented a growing Observers believe the missiles were
“autonomous zone” by social justice threat to the West. from the DF-16 family, which has a
protesters. A similar site in Seattle Chinese officials stressed the wind range of 500 to 620 miles and would
lasted a month before it was cleared tunnel’s non-military capabilities. “The most likely be used against Taiwan.
by the police. By the time it was
dismantled a doctor’s practice had
been established along with a food
co-ope
co-operative and a poetry corner.
Last month it was revealed that
It ain’t over till the fat people sit
Portla
Portland’s police department was
strugg
struggling to find recruits to tackle
so
the social unrest. As well as
in San Francisco’s opera house
viole
violence between political United States data, in the early 1960s the typical adult
act
activists, the city has a rising man in the US weighed about 12 stone.
Alistair Dawber Washington
mu
murder rate. Half a century later the average for men
The leader of the Proud Boys The show isn’t over until the fat lady is 14 stone.
w
was sentenced to five months in sings but larger fans can sit more “I think anything we can do to break
p
prison yesterday for burning a comfortably until she does thanks to down barriers and improve the experi-
B
Black Lives Matter flag and for bigger seats installed at San Francisco’s ence we should be doing,” Matthew
b
bringing two high-capacity opera house. Shilvock, the opera house’s general
fir
firearms magazines to The venue has replaced a number of director, told The New York Times. “If
W
Washington two days before the its lumpy seats that dated back to 1932 someone is having an uncomfortable
Jan
January 6 riots. with 12 bariatric chairs, designed to let a evening at the opera, that is an experi-
En
Enrique Tarrio was arrested as 21-stone person sit happily throughout ence they should not be having.
h
hee arrived
ar in Washington 48 hours Tosca or The Barber of Seville. “The seats have historically been
before thousands of supporters of A $3.53 million regeneration project, patrons’ number one concern for the
then-P
then-President Trump — including which was first conceived in 2013 but building. Letters to me. Letters to the
memb
members of the Proud Boys — finally realised only when the San box office. Letters to the city. And with
descen
descended on the US Capitol to try Francisco Opera was forced to close some justification. We had springs
to disr
disrupt the certification of Joe last year because of the coronavirus coming through some of the seats.”
Biden
Biden’s electoral victory. pandemic, has replaced each of the The San Francisco Opera is not the
The authorities say that the venue’s 3,128 seats. While the majority first big American venue to adapt itself
Proud Boys stole the flag from of the new chairs simply provide extra to accommodate larger customers.
the Asbury United Methodist comfort, larger visitors can request one Several Broadway theatres have
Church on December 12 and then of the 12 wider seats. installed wider seating, as has the New
set it ablaze. The addition of larger seats reflects York Yankees baseball team in its
expanding waists. According to federal stadium.
30
World
Delhi unveils ‘smog tower’ to clean its filthy air
India
Amrit Dhillon Delhi
Environmentalists have decried Delhi’s
“smog tower” as a doomed attempt to
appease public unrest over the city’s
choking air pollution.
Officials said that the £1.5 million
tower would lower pollution levels that
are blamed for thousands of deaths
every year. Clean air campaigners com-
pared the 25m (82ft) tower to “turning
on an air conditioner in a desert”. Forty
Qatar takes a
step towards
democracy
Qatar
David Rose Beirut
The Emir of Qatar has named a date for
the country’s first general election but
has banned those not “of Qatari origin”
from standing, including members of a
prominent Bedouin tribe.
The oil and gas-rich nation has
started registering candidates for the
poll on October 2 to elect its Shura
Council, an advisory body to the Emir,
Sheikh Tamim al-Thani. Thirty of the
45 Shura Council members are to be
elected, with the rest appointed by the
Emir. It is the closest that any Gulf
monarchy has got to a parliamentary e
lection. Although al-Thani, 41, will re-
tain executive and legislative power the
council will approve the budget and be
able to hold ministers to account.
Anyone aged 18 and over with at least
a grandfather born in Qatar will be
allowed to vote, rendering 90 per cent
of the population of 2.6 million, mainly
expats or migrant workers, ineligible.
Only those who can trace family
roots in Qatar back to 1930 can stand.
The Al Murrah tribe, one of the Gulf’s
largest Bedouin groups, has staged
protests in recent weeks at their exclu-
sion, though these have not been
acknowledged by state media.
The reforms come a year before
Qatar hosts the Fifa World Cup and are
likely to infuriate Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates, which remain
reluctant to make any concessions to
democracy.
Hackers expose Tehran jail abuse
Iran
David Rose Beirut
Hackers have accessed security camera
video from inside an Iranian prison
where British citizens are being held,
and posted clips of guards beating
inmates.
In the videos from Evin prison,
Tehran, inmates are seen fighting each
other, being dragged along the floor
and abused by guards.
In one clip a prisoner smashes a bath-
room mirror to try to cut open his arm.
In another a Muslim cleric steps over
the body of an inmate, seemingly obliv-
ious to the prisoner’s plight.
A group called Adalat Ali, or “Ali’s
Justice”, released the videos after
apparently staging a cyberattack on the
prison, where Britons with dual Iranian
citizenship, such as Nazanin Zaghari-
Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, have
been held on disputed spying charges.
The videos from the prison include a
scene in the control room, where -
monitors were manipulated to show a
Critics say Delhi would have to build
2.5 million smog towers to clean the air
The new king Morani, 14, is now the oldest lion in the Masai Mara reserve in Kenya after the death of his brother, Scarface
message from the group. It referred to
President Raisi, who was voted into
office in June and has been accused of
ordering mass executions and oversee-
ing torture at Evin in the 1980s.
The message reads: “Evin prison is a
stain of shame on Raisi’s black turban
and white beard.” A stunned official is
shown watching the monitors then
filming them on his phone.
The hackers hoped the release of the
videos would draw attention to the
conditions at the prison. One sequence
shows what appears to be an emaciated
man collapsing after being dropped off
by car then dragged through the prison
by guards. A cleric, identified by his
white turban, is then seen walking over
the same prisoner, who is lying on the
ground.
Guards in another video are seen
beating a prisoner in a hallway as other
staff look on. Guards also fight among
themselves, as do the prisoners.
Ashoori, 67, a retired engineer, is
among the inmates in wing four of the
prison. He is four years into a ten-year
giant fans pump 1,000cu m of air per
second through filters that are meant to
halve the amount of deadly particulates
in one sq km (0.4 sq miles).
Concentrations of particulates often
exceed safe limits by up to 20 times.
During the smog season, when crop
burning in the countryside further wor-
sens pollution, schools are closed to
protect children’s lungs, flights have to
be diverted, and families buy expensive
air purifiers that many can ill-afford.
According to the World Health
A guard abuses an inmate in a clip
from the hacked security videos
sentence for spying for Israel, which he
denies. Mehran Raoof, 66, a British-
Iranian labour rights activist, was de-
tained in Evin for five months before
being sentenced.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, is on bail at her
parents’ home in Tehran but her family
fear that she will be called back to Evin.
In a letter to The Times this month,
Sherry Izadi, Ashoori’s wife, from south
London, criticised the UK government
for not doing enough to secure his re-
lease from the prison. She said last
1G M
Organisation, India has 14 of the
world’s 15 most polluted cities. In Delhi
the air quality index often soars to
1,200; the internationally recommend-
ed safe limit is 50.
Experts suggest that given the city’s
size and the scale of its pollution,
2.5 million smog towers would be
needed to clean its air.
Arun Mishra, a Supreme Court Jus-
tice, said of Delhi’s residents: “It’s better
to finish them with explosives in one go
instead of suffering for this long.”
LEIGHTON LUM/CATERS NEWS
night: “Watching this is extremely
harrowing for us as a family and as a
reminder of what Anoosheh continues
to go through. This should expedite the
Foreign Office to intensify its efforts
and bring our loved ones home.”
SentinelOne, an American cyber-
security company, said that another
attack last month targeting Iranian
railway stations involved a program
called MeteorExpress.
Much of the video from Evin ap-
peared genuine, according to former
prisoners, and bears timestamps from
last year and this year. In some undated
clips guards are wearing facemasks,
suggesting that it was filmed during the
pandemic.
The hacker group’s name could be a
reference to Ali, the prophet Muham-
mad’s son-in-law, who is revered by
Shia Muslims, or a mocking reference
to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the su-
preme leader of Iran.
The Foreign Office has said that it
liaises regularly with Iran regarding
British prisoners in the country.
Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times
Putin tries using cash
to lure wavering voters
Russia President Putin has been
accused of bribing voters after
ordering one-off payments of
about £100 and £150 respectively
to pensioners and military staff in
an apparent attempt to boost his
ruling party’s flagging ratings
before parliamentary elections
next month. Although United
Russia is expected to win, polls
suggest that only one in four
voters back it after corruption
allegations and anger over a five-
year rise to the retirement age in
2018. Pension payments are small
and many pensioners rely on
family for money. Military towns
showed weak support for Putin in
last year’s referendum to allow
him to stay in power until 2036.
Villagers evacuated as
fire hits tourist island
Greece Firefighters backed by
three water bombers are battling
a forest blaze in the south of Evia
island, two weeks after an inferno
tore across the north. Strong
winds have driven flames towards
Fygia and villagers have been
evacuated. The fire threatens the
resort of Marmari and boats are
ready to help people to reach
safety. Evia is the second-largest
Greek island after Crete. (Reuters)
EU states call for action
over Belarus migrants
Poland The country has joined
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in
urging the United Nations to take
action against Belarus for
encouraging migrants to cross
illegally into the European Union.
The prime ministers of the
countries, which have land
borders with Belarus, said the
influx had been “systematically
organised by the regime of
Alexander Lukashenko”. (AFP)
Beijing sees red over
Taiwan Le Mans flag
France Organisers of the 24-hour
Le Mans race told a Taiwanese
team to remove the island’s flag
from their car and replace it with
the “less political” Chinese Taipei
flag that Taiwan uses at the
Olympics. The Chinese company
Tencent had said it would not
broadcast the race as a “team
from Taiwan, China, used the
non-Olympic flag”. Beijing claims
Taiwan as its own territory. (AFP)
Ukraine blocks access
to Russian news sites
Ukraine President Zelensky
ordered the websites of 12
Russian news organisations to be
blocked in Ukraine’s latest round
of sanctions against Russia, which
it has accused of spreading
propaganda. Ties between the
former Soviet countries have
deteriorated sharply since Russia
annexed Crimea in 2014 and
threw its weight behind armed
separatists in east Ukraine. (AFP)
Female footballers are
‘not marriage material’
Tanzania President Hassan has
come under fire for saying female
footballers have “flat chests” and
would not be attractive
candidates for marriage. She
made the comments at a
ceremony on Sunday to celebrate
the victory of the national men’s
U23 team in a regional football
championship, where she also
called for better funding for
women’s sports. (AFP)
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 1G M 31

World

Cointreau family puts vintage ‘Superyacht

traffic jams’ as
Stellenbosch winery up for sale back to Riviera
mega-rich sail

Adam Sage Cannes

The Morgenhof estate covers nearly 520 acres on the lower slopes of the Simonsberg mountain near Stellenbosch in the Western Cape province of South Africa
South Africa
Jane Flanagan Cape Town
A wine estate that was founded as
William of Orange was settling into his
rule in England is to become the oldest
property to be auctioned in South
Africa. Potential buyers who have
flown in to view the 329-year-old
Stellenbosch farm include Americans
intrigued at the prospect of owning a
piece of history that is older than their
own country for less than the price of a
flat in a smart Manhattan block.
Morgenhof covers nearly 520 acres
of the Simonsberg mountain’s lower
slopes and is expected to fetch up to
£5 million at tomorrow’s online sale.
The property includes two manor
houses, a wedding chapel, conference
centre and 170 acres under vine.
While the estate’s pedigree is extra-
ordinary, it is eclipsed by that of its
A grey Bugatti Chiron valued at €3 mil-
lion is parked outside a hotel in Cannes
beside a bright green Lamborghini
Huracán. In nearby Nice the €300 mil-
lion Amadea superyacht rises above
the old port, complete with sauna,
jacuzzi, wine cellars and cinema.
The display of extravagant wealth
has brought relief to the French Riviera
which is hailing the return of wealthy
globetrotters for what is proving to be a
profitable summer season.
The Riviera’s ports testify to the
upturn. Nice-Matin, the regional daily,
said they had “superyacht traffic jams”
this summer, with berths at a premium,
adding that “billionaires have rediscov-
ered their habits on the coast” after
their absence on the Côte d’Azur
last year.
The newspaper said the finest hotels
in Cannes had registered an average
occupancy rate of 88 per cent. The
Hôtel Martinez, where rooms cost up to
€2,000 a night, said it was on course for
its best season in terms of receipts.
“We are experiencing an exceptional
summer,” Yann Gillet, the director, said.
“I am a happy hotelier.”
He told local media that visitors from
the Middle East, northern Europe,
America, Russia and Ukraine had
arrived in bigger numbers than he had
expected and were staying longer,
sometimes up to two months. It is a sim-
ilar story at Le Majestic, where rooms
cost €500 to €4,000 a night.
Pierrick Cizeron, the hotel’s chef, said
departing French owner, Anne Coin- genhof that would represent great style blend. But it is the weddings she he was struggling to keep pace with
treau, whose family were producing South African wines and show the has hosted that have given Cointreau demand, particularly for his octopus
wine, champagne and spirits for four world the quality this country repre- most joy. salad, which features squid confit with
centuries before Morgenhof was built. sents,” she told The Times. Within wine “Thousands of people have been lemon, garlic, chilli pepper, red onion,
Her great-grandfather, the confection- circles, southern hemisphere wines married on the estate, starting their chickpeas and capers, for €35.
er Adolphe Cointreau, created the tend to be classified as “New World”, lives and their families in this beautiful “The squid is amazing this year. Even
orange liqueur that bears the even though bottles pro- place. To be able to make a difference to our suppliers were taken aback at the
family name. duced in the Cape have people’s lives in that way; to make amount we have been ordering,” he told
Cointreau, who en
been enjoyed in Euro- memories for others in the way that this France 2 television.
bought the farm in pean palaces since estate has made decades of beautiful Olivia Gordon, head of customer
1993, the year beforee the 18th century. wines and beautiful memories for me, is relations at Port Vauban Antibes —
South Africa’s first M
Morgenhof’s something I will carry with me for the nicknamed Billionaire’s Quay — told
democratic elec- vi
vineyards are rest of my life,” she said. Nice-Matin that the delayed Cannes
tions, is in her fa
farmed as “dry Joff van Reenen, who is auctioning Film Festival, which was held in July
seventies and retir- la
land”, relying the property, said there had been huge not May, had helped to lure the rich,
ing to France. o
only on rainfall, overseas interest, including from who had headed for the Riviera and
“When I arrived I w
which results in America’s Napa Valley. Four bidders stayed on during the summer.
wanted to create sm
smaller but more from Britain have registered for the The owner of an upmarket tour agen-
something at Mor- int
intensely fla- auction along with a further 16 from cy, who declined to be named, said bil-
vour
voured yields. Europe. lionaires were making the most of the
Anne Cointreau, of the
he Durin
During Cointreau’s Van Reenen said: “This is an lifting of restrictions: “We have the im-
liqueur family, bought
ht era it has become established and well-diversified busi- pression they ... want to enjoy them-
the estate in 1993 known for
known fo a Bordeaux- ness with multiple income streams.” selves and take what can be taken.”

Far-right pundit closes in on Élysée run Robin Hood mayor ‘sacked

France
Charles Bremner Paris
A far-right polemicist and popular TV
pundit is close to standing for the
French presidency in a move that could
upset the campaign of Marine Le Pen.
Support committees for Éric Zem-
mour have already raised 100 of the 500
signatures from elected officials re-
quired for candidacy in the elections
next April, according to BFMTV. He is
said to have almost completed a mani-
festo that focuses on Islam, immigra-
tion and French decline at the hands of
the EU “dictatorship”.
Zemmour, 62, the darling of far-right
voters who believe that Le Pen, the
leader of the National Rally, has gone
soft, has been teasing France with the
prospect of an unvarnished anti-
immigrant and anti-Islam candidacy
since supporters called for him to stand
early this year. This month he said that
he was hesitating because of the 500
signatures and the money required, but
added: “I have a lot of friends . . . We’ll
see after the holidays. You don’t have
long to wait.”
Polls show that Zemmour, who at-
tracts a million viewers a day to his
evening slot on CNews, a conservative
channel, would gain only 5.5 per cent of
the vote if the first round of the presi-
dential election were held now.
President Macron and his La Répub-
lique en Marche party would welcome
Zemmour’s candidacy because it would
steal votes from Le Pen, 53. Although
behind in the polls, she remains the
main challenger to Macron despite a
setback for her party in regional elec-
tions in June. Zemmour would also take
votes from the candidate for the main-
stream conservative Republicans, who
has yet to be designated.
Gabriel Attal, the minister who acts
as a spokesman for Macron’s govern-
ment, said: “Zemmour is more about
causing headaches for the National
Rally than stirring public enthusiasm.”
However, some backers of Macron,
43, fear that Zemmour could disrupt the
race in the same way as media enter-
tainers elsewhere, such as Donald
Trump in the US, Volodymyr Zelensky
in Ukraine and Beppe Grillo, the com-
edian who led the Five Star movement
to shared power in Italy.
A cabinet minister expressed worries
in Le Monde that Zemmour’s harsh doc-
trines would have the effect of making
Le Pen more palatable. Le Pen has ap-
pealed to Zemmour to stay away but he
is backed by Marion Maréchal, 31, her
niece, who is disillusioned with her.
carer who wanted a holiday’
Spain
Charlie Devereux
A mayor dubbed the “Robin Hood of
Spain” has been accused of sacking an
employee for going on holiday.
Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo has
been mayor of Marinaleda for four
decades, hosting weekly TV shows to
explain how the town of 2,500 people
has become a communist utopia.
Now a home carer is threatening to
shatter his image after claiming that in
23 years as an employee of the
municipality she was not allowed to
take paid holiday once, and that she was
sacked for demanding that right.
Concepcion Gonzalez said: “He told us
that in our town there is no culture of
holidays, that it was bourgeois.” She is
Juan Manuel
Sánchez Gordillo
runs Marinaleda, a
communist town
in Andalusia
being backed by one of Spain’s most
powerful unions.
Sánchez Gordillo was hailed a hero
for expropriating land from an aristo-
crat and setting up a co-operative farm.
He disbanded the police, saying locals
could police themselves. Townspeople
are encouraged to volunteer and carry
out repairs. During the financial crisis
he organised raids on supermarkets to
collect food for families hit by the crisis.
He was unavailable for comment.
32 1GM Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

World
AMY DAVIS/THE BALTIMORE SUN/AP

Blind crab man

comes out of his
shell to adulation
France will be on my own. No one else does this
any more.”
Adam Sage Paris
In the 50 years that he has been noo-
Crabs were often fished out of the dling, Leboucher says he has memo-
English Channel by hand off the sea- rised the rocks off Étretat and the 270 or
side resort of Étretat in Normandy so holes in them that are likely to con-
when Christophe Leboucher was a boy tain edible crabs, velvet crabs, lobsters
in the 1960s. and prawns. Some are natural cavities
Today he is just about the only local formed by the sea; others were widened
who still goes in for noodling, as the art decades ago by peasants.
of fishing with bare hands is known. “I have an inventory of them all in my
The blind fisherman’s attachment to mind and I know exactly where I am
tradition is turning him into something just by touching the rocks. Sometimes
of a media star, with Le Figaro becom- when I go out with people who are
ing the latest outlet to feature him. sighted they take longer than me to
The paper devoted a full-page article identify where they are.”
to his habit of wading through the Beneath the surface the crabs and the
coastal waters of the Channel in search lobsters are invisible and the only way
of crabs and lobsters, which he plucks of catching them is to stretch a hand in-
from rocks beneath the surface, mostly to the murky waters. Leboucher’s sense
without getting hurt. Martin of touch is inval-
Benoist, a film- u
uable. “When I
maker, spent a t
take people out
year following t show them
to
Leboucher for a h
how to noodle Sticking power US Naval Academy students in Annapolis climbed the greased 21ft Herndon Monument to place a hat on top
52-minute televi- t
they often put
sion documentary, t
their hands in-
La Saison des Tour- t the hole and
to
teaux (The Season
of Edible Crabs),
s
say:
n
nothing
‘There’s
there’.
Racehorse beats traffic, survives inferno
which was shown T
Then I put my
on the state-owned h
hand in and United States leaving her overnight is for the best, staff and trainers jumped in trucks and
France 3 channel in c
come out with then there’s a barn fire. How much golf carts to follow her, joined by police
Jacqui Goddard Miami
2020 and which will a
an edible worse can it be?” Michael Ann Ewing, and an equine ambulance.
be screened in cine- c
crab.” A horse that unseated her jockey then her trainer, told BloodHorse She galloped for a full 30 min-
mas in Normandy. He says that bolted from a racecourse and galloped magazine. utes — still carrying her
Benoist, who met Leboucher lobst and
lobsters d velvet crabs tend to pinch along a motorway with police in hot Bold and Bossy was saddle and wearing blink-
when he moved to Etretat, told Le Figa- when disturbed. “They are swift and pursuit faced a second ordeal when the being treated at an ers — until her muscles
ro: “Christophe has something mytho- they attack,” he said, adding that he had stable in which she was put to unwind equine hospital forr seiz
seized up. She was
logical about him. He is a character who a technique which involved catching burnt to the ground. burns to her neck, se
sedated and given
seems to float outside the world.” them off guard and grabbing them Bold and Bossy was set to make her shoulders, withers 30 litres of fluids over
Leboucher began noodling when he before they could use their claws. “The race debut at Ellis Park in Kentucky but and back yesterday, th ensuing hours.
the
was five years old, like many locals. hand has to move faster than the got spooked on her way to the starting but was expected to “S lost a couple of
“She
“They kept the crabs to eat themselves, animal.” gate, dumping her jockey, Miguel make a full recovery. sh
shoes, she ran more
often at big festive meals. I can remem- Noodling enthusiasts are known to Mena, and heading on to an interstate The drama began th
than six miles,” said
ber great meals with cider and Calva have lost fingers but Leboucher has had highway as trainers and emergency on Saturday as the filly Ew
Ewing.
and everyone together,” he said. no such misfortune, despite the odd responders gave chase. re
was startled just before At 4am on Sunday
As he prepared to go out at 6.30pm pinch over the years. He goes out about After being recaptured she was taken her first race and took off what is thought to have
one night this week he said: “I know I ten times a month, depending on the to the racetrack’s 48-stall barn to calm etrack
into the distance. Racetrack been an
been a electrical fire
tides, and eats his catch at home rather down for a night and undergo treat- consumed th the barn where Bold
Christophe Leboucher’s passion for than sell it. Like the farmers of old, he ment for dehydration and cramps, only Bold and Bossy galloped ed for six miles re
and Bossy was recuperating for the
noodling has captured the imagination enjoys it with friends over a bottle or for a fire to break out. All seven horses after unseating her rider and escaping night. “It’s been a busy weekend,” Jeff
of film-makers and journalists alike two of white wine. in the barn were rescued. “You think on to the interstate in Kentucky Inman, the track manager, said.
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
world markets (Change on the day)
FTSE 100
7,109.02 (+21.12)
7,500
7,000
6,500
6,000
Jul 23 Aug 2 10 18
Federer shoe
firm takes
a step up
A
Swiss
shoemaker
backed by the
tennis player
Roger Federer has filed
for an initial public
offering in New York
(Callum Jones writes).
On, which sells
trainers and apparel,
reported that net sales
had risen by 85 per
cent in the first half of
the year. Filings also
showed that it swung
into profit, with net
income of 3.8 million
Swiss francs
(£3.03 million) in the
six months to June 30.
A year earlier it showed
a loss of 33.1 million
Swiss francs.
Founded by three
friends in 2010, On
was valued at almost
$2 billion following its
last funding round and
Reuters reported it
could seek a valuation
of between $4 billion
and $6 billion when it
goes public.
Economic recovery hit by
record shortages of stock
Lack of staff and materials plaguing manufacturing and services
Gurpreet Narwan
Economics Correspondent
Supply bottlenecks are choking the
UK’s economic recovery as businesses
grapple with record stock shortages
and a lack of staff, surveys show.
After rebounding strongly from the
lockdown, economic activity is slowing
more sharply than expected because
companies are struggling to boost
production to meet demand.
The challenges are particularly acute
in the manufacturing sector, where a
closely watched survey showed the
worst stock shortages on record. A net
balance of -14 per cent of businesses
had adequate levels of stock in the three
months to August, according to the
CBI’s latest industrial trends survey.
This was down from -11 per cent in
July and the worst reading since
2GM
commodities
Dow Jones Gold
35,335.71 (+215.63) $1,805 (+19.39)
36,000
34,000
32,000
30,000
Jul 23 Aug 2 10 18 Jul 23 Aug 2
records began in 1977. It was also the
third record low in as many months.
The problem has been particularly
acute in the consumer electronics
industry, where a global chip shortage
has held back production.
The CBI said that manufacturing
output growth eased from record highs
last month, although it remains high by
historical standards. Alpesh Paleja, lead
economist at the CBI, said: “It is notable
that stock adequacy deteriorated to a
new record low for the third consecu-
tive month. Many firms are feeling the
pinch from ongoing supply chain dis-
ruption, which also partly explains the
continued strength in pricing pres-
sures. Despite the rebound in activity,
ongoing disruptions could choke off
future manufacturing growth.”
Supply problems are plaguing the
manufacturing and service sectors. The
Brent crude (6pm)
$ $68.57 (+3.03)
2,000
1,800
1,600
1,400
10 18 Jul 23 Aug 2 10
latest IHS Markit purchasing manag-
ers’ index found that the proportion of
businesses saying staff or material
shortages were affecting output was 14
times higher than usual, and the high-
est since the survey began in 1998.
Meanwhile, manufacturers blamed
supply bottlenecks for the biggest in-
crease in suppliers’ delivery times since
the start of the pandemic.
The IHS Markit/CIPS flash compos-
ite purchasing managers’ index fell from
58.2 in July to 55.3, the third consecutive
monthly drop and worse than the 58.4
forecast by economists. The 50-mark
separates growth from contraction.
“The sharp fall in the composite PMI
in August suggests that the economic
recovery is starting to be choked off by
supply constraints,” Samuel Tombs,
chief UK economist at Pantheon Mac-
roeconomics, said. “All told, Markit’s
Business
currencies
£/$
$ $1.3716 (+0.0091)
80
75
70
65
18 Jul 23 Aug 2 10
CLIVE BRUNSKILL/GETTY IMAGES
survey supports our longstanding view
that after a strong rebound in quarter
two, the recovery would shift down to a
much slower gear in the second half of
the year, putting little pressure on the
monetary policy committee to hike the
Bank rate early next year.”
The Bank of England expects the
headline rate of inflation to hit 4 per
cent this year before falling back to the
2 per cent target over the coming years.
However, others fear that inflation will
be more sustained.
IHS Markit said higher wages and
severe shortages of raw materials and
critical components pushed up pur-
chasing prices in August. That said, the
overall rate of input cost inflation eased
to a four-month low, after a 20-year
high in July, and factory gate charges
increased at the slowest pace since May.
Growth in output prices also slowed.
33
£/€
$ €1.1690 (+0.0035) ¤
1.450 1.200
1.400 1.175
1.350 1.150
1.300 1.125
18 Jul 23 Aug 2 Aug 10 18
Sainsbury’s
rockets on
rumours of
possible bid
Alex Ralph, Tom Howard
Shares in J Sainsbury surged 15 per cent
yesterday amid speculation that it
could be the next bid target, hitting
short-sellers and boosting the paper
profits of a Czech billionaire, one of its
largest investors.
Sainsbury’s shares rallied to their
highest point in seven years, amid signs
of a short squeeze as hedge funds that
had bet against Britain’s second-largest
grocer cut their exposure.
The rise in Sainsbury’s shares came
after The Sunday Times reported that
Apollo, the US private equity firm, was
exploring interest in Sainsbury’s.
Morrisons, Britain’s fourth-largest
supermarket chain, is in the middle of
a £7 billion bid battle.
However, sources have talked down
Apollo’s interest, saying the firm was
not working on an approach and had
not held talks with Sainsbury’s.
Sainsbury’s and Apollo both declined
to comment and neither issued a state-
ment to the stock market. A City source
said takeover rules did not require
companies to issue denials.
Despite the scepticism about the
prospect of a bid, shares in Sainsbury’s
held on to large gains to close up by
45¼p, or 15.4 per cent, at 340p.
Shares in Sainsbury’s had already
rallied more than 30 per cent this year
amid the prospect of Wm Morrison
being taken private and the £6.8 billion
takeover of Asda last year.
Yesterday’s jump boosted the paper
profits of Daniel Kretinsky, dubbed the
“Czech Sphinx” for his inscrutable
nature, to an estimated £225 million.
Kretinsky, 46 became Sainsbury’s
second largest shareholder in April,
with a 10 per cent stake, after his Vesa
Equity Investment vehicle acquired
shares from the Qatar Investment
Authority, Sainsbury’s largest investor.
He said then that it reflected a “long-
term interest in acquiring strategic
minority” stakes in the sector and
backed the management strategy led by
Simon Roberts, the chief executive.
Roberts, 50, played down takeover
speculation last month, saying that
while the sector had been undervalued
for some time, “you’ve seen the im-
provement in our share price”.
The share price rally was painful for
hedge funds who held a 5.91 per cent bet
against the stock overall, according to
regulatory figures from Castellain
Capital. It meant five short-sellers, in-
cluding Dan Loeb’s Third Point and
Marshall Wace, nursed an estimated
£62 million hit after yesterday’s move.
Bargain hunters, leading article, page 27
Alistair Osborne, page 35
Taste the difference, pages 38-39
34 1GM Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

Business

Need to know
1
Enthusiasm for home working
has risen as the coronavirus
EasyJet summons Take flight
easyJet
(three months to June 30)

crisis manager for

pandemic has gone on, a report
by PwC, the professional services Passenger numbers
giant, suggests, with bosses
predicting a hybrid approach may 2019 26.4m
soon become the norm for
companies. Page 13 2020 117,000

2
Lord Botham, the former
cricketer, who sits as a
crossbench peer in the House
of Lords, has been named the UK’s
new trade envoy to Australia. The
government confirmed three
blue-sky thinking 2021 3m

months ago that it had agreed a

post-Brexit trade deal with Stephen Hester gained
Australia. Page 16
a reputation at RBS
and RSA for rescuing
3
Supply bottlenecks are
choking the UK’s economic
recovery as businesses troubled companies,
grapple with record stock
shortages and a lack of staff, the Ben Martin reports
CBI’s latest industrial trends
survey suggests. After a strong The turnaround expert who led RSA
rebound from lockdown, Insurance and Royal Bank of Scotland Number of flights
economic activity is slowing more has been appointed the next chairman
sharply than expected because of easyJet as the budget airline seeks to 2019 165,656
companies are struggling to boost recover from the turmoil caused by the
production to meet demand. coronavirus pandemic. 2020 709
Page 33 Stephen Hester will join the low-cost
carrier as a non-executive director at 2021 24,682

4
Shares in J Sainsbury surged
15 per cent yesterday amid
speculation that it could be
the next bid target, hitting
short-sellers and boosting the
paper profits of Daniel Kretinsky,
the Czech billionaire who is
the start of next month before taking
charge of its board three months later.
He is replacing John Barton, who has Load factor (Percentage of seats sold)
been easyJet’s chairman since May
2013 and is approaching the nine-year 2019 91.7
point beyond which the City’s corpo- Behind the story he was chief executive structure review to
rate governance code recommends a of British Land, RBS examine its funding 2020 88.9

S
one of its largest investors. change at the top. tephen Hester and RSA. options.
Pages 33, 38-39 Hester, 60, will be faced with the has built his His most pressing The new chairman 2021 66.4
immediate challenge of overseeing a reputation in task will be will also be required

5
Stephen Hester, the revival of easyJet from the Covid-19 the City by overseeing the board to set the tone on
turnaround expert who has crisis under Johan Lundgren, the chief overhauling as Johan Lundgren, environmental, social Profit/loss before tax
led RSA Insurance and Royal executive. some of Britain’s chief executive, tries and governance
Bank of Scotland, has been Like other carriers, the airline has biggest quoted to steer easyJet clear issues. Climate 2019 £175m
appointed the next chairman of been hit by the widespread disruption companies. All that of the chaos caused by change worries are
easyJet as the budget airline seeks of the aviation industry caused by the experience is likely to the pandemic. rising up the agenda 2020 -£347m
to recover from the turmoil caused pandemic. The group reported last come in handy when Keeping the founder and the aviation
by the coronavirus pandemic. month that it carried fewer than joins the board of and biggest industry faces 2021 -£318m
three million passengers between April Covid-hit easyJet next shareholder Sir pressure to tackle

6
Sir Richard Branson is
preparing to list another pillar
of his business empire on the
stock market after signing off on a
$3.2 billion blank-cheque merger
in New York of Virgin Orbit, the
satellite launch company.
and June, down 83 per cent on pre-Cov- month and becomes Stelios Haji-Ioannou carbon emissions.
id levels, and suffered a £318.3 million its chairman at the on side will also be at Stephen Furlong, an regarded in City circles. Hester was
pre-tax loss during the quarter, taking start of December the top of his agenda. analyst at Davy, the mostly recently chief executive of RSA,
its total loss for its financial year to date (Ben Martin writes). Otherwise, his stockbroker, said that the FTSE 100 insurer he took charge of
to more than £1 billion. Even so, the job will expertise in finance, easyJet might benefit in 2014, after it had been hit by profit
Hester will also have to handle demand a different gleaned from his from a reinvigorated warnings and an accounting scandal at
easyJet’s often fractious relationship skill set. It is the first earlier career as an approach towards its Irish division.
with Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, 54, the time Hester has been investment banker communicating its He returned RSA to health and last

7
Marty Walsh, President
Biden’s labour secretary, has
expressed concern that
America’s latest wave of Covid-19
could dent its economic recovery
as expectations rise that the
Federal Reserve could start paring
back support. Page 36
airline’s founder, whose family is the chairman of a and his spells at RBS strategy to investors. November struck a £7.2 billion deal to
FTSE 250 group’s biggest shareholder London-listed and RSA, is likely to “Probably the sell the group to two rivals from Canada
with a stake of about 25 per cent. Sir company. This non- be drawn on by the message has got a bit and Denmark. The takeover completed
Stelios has often been critical of the executive role will rest of the board. muddled with Covid,” this year, putting Hester out of a job.
carrier’s bosses since stepping down require him to be This is because Furlong said. “More Before RSA, Hester was chief execu-
from its board in 2002. He declined to much more hands off easyJet is in the medium-term targets tive of RBS, the high-street bank now
comment on Hester’s appointment. than in the past, when middle of a capital would be helpful.” called NatWest. He was parachuted in
The incoming chairman is highly to replace Fred Goodwin, who was

8
Oil prices jumped more than
4 per cent as the market
rebounded from the worst
week in nine months. Brent crude,
the global benchmark price, was
trading at just over $68 a barrel,
driven in large part by weakness in
the dollar. Page 36
9
The price of bitcoin, the
leading cryptocurrency, has
risen to three-month highs of
more than $50,000. PayPal said
that it would allow its British users
to trade cryptocurrencies from this
week. Page 40
Virgin Orbit set for Spac and beyond More time for
Callum Jones
US Business Correspondent
Sir Richard Branson is preparing to list
another pillar of his business empire on
the stock market after signing off on
Virgin Orbit’s $3.2 billion blank-cheque
merger in New York.
The satellite launch company ex-
pects to raise about $483 million
through going public at the end of the
year. It plans to invest the funds in
The company has carried out three
launches since June of last year
listing their shares on a stock exchange.
They then search for an acquisition.
companies to
Once a deal is struck, the Spac takes its
target public by absorbing it and its in- meet safety
vestors take a slice of the new company.
Merging with NextGen, which holds
about $383 million in cash, would draw
Virgin Orbit on to America’s Nasdaq
standards
market with a pro-forma enterprise
value of about $3.2 billion. A further Richard Tyler
$100 million of private investment in
public equity has also been committed Businesses selling goods that require

10 The £32 billion takeover

of the data group IHS
Markit by S&P Global, an
American rival, faces an
investigation by the Competition
and Markets Authority, Britain’s
competition watchdog, to assess
whether the deal will lead to “a
substantial lessening of
competition within any market or
markets in the United Kingdom”.
Page 41
building its rocket manufacturing oper-
ations and space solutions business.
Its planned combination with Next-
Gen Acquisition Corp II, a special pur-
pose acquisition company (Spac),
comes after a surge in such activity
crashed down to earth. Branson’s Vir-
gin Galactic space tourism venture
went public via a Spac merger almost
two years ago, before a boom in blank-
cheque mergers that peaked this year.
Virgin Atlantic, the airline, is gearing up
for an initial public offering in London.
Virgin Orbit, spun off from Virgin
Galactic in 2017 and based in Long
Beach, California, has promised to
transform access to space. It uses a cus-
tomised 747 jet as a mobile launch site,
releasing a rocket which carries small
satellites into orbit. The company has
conducted three launches since last
June and is planning another this year.
Six more are currently slated for 2022.
Blank-cheque funds raise money
from investors through IPOs before
by investors including Boeing. Dan
Hart, Virgin Orbit’s president and chief
executive, is a Boeing veteran.
Currently 80 per cent of Virgin Orbit
is owned by Virgin Group, the venture’s
management and its staff. Mubadala,
the United Arab Emirates sovereign
wealth fund, holds the rest. After the
NextGen deal, Virgin Group, manage-
ment and staff would retain 68 per cent
of Virgin Orbit and Mubadala would
hold 17 per cent. Incoming investors are
set to take 15 per cent.
product safety marks have another 12
months before UK standards will apply,
the government has announced.
It said the move to delay the require-
ment to display the new UKCA kite-
mark until January 1, 2023, would give
companies affected by the pandemic in
England, Wales and Scotland more
time to get their products assessed.
Companies making medical devices
have until July 1, 2023, to comply.
Goods sold in Northern Ireland can
continue to bear the familiar CE mark
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
easyJet
Share price
2019 2020
ousted in 2008 during the lender’s
£45 billion government bailout in the
depths of the last financial crisis.
Hester spent what he would describe
as a “bruising and difficult” five years
driving a restructuring of the taxpayer-
backed lender before stepping down in
2013 amid a rumoured rift with George
Osborne, who was then chancellor.
Hester does not have any experience
of the aviation and transport sector but
neither did Barton, who had been a
former chairman of Next, the retailer.
Barton, 77, said he was “delighted”
with Hester’s appointment. “His
used by the European Union. The
decision came after months of lobbying
by industry groups, which had warned
that many products would not be
assessed in time.
Make UK, representing manufactur-
ers, said “common sense” had pre-
vailed. “This had the potential to be-
come a blockage for companies caught
up in the bureaucracy of trying to ac-
cess new testing facilities,” it added.
Ministers said the new date was the
“final deadline” for companies to com-
ply. However, the British Chambers of
Commerce (BCC) warned the govern-
ment against “pulling the plug” on the
CE mark before the implications were
fully understood.
William Bain, head of trade policy at
the BCC, said: “Complex supply chains
such as those in the automotive
industry still face having to duplicate
markings on certain components and
incurring large costs for testing as a
result. This could compromise the
output of these industries, limit
availability of goods for consumers and
create mounting cost pressures on
British businesses.”
1GM
Net debt
2019 £332m
2020 £835m
£2bn
2021
2021
significant and varied experience lead-
ing major international businesses in
regulated industries, coupled with his
outstanding strategic thinking, will
serve the airline well as it leads the re-
covery in the post-pandemic era, com-
plementing and adding to the skills of
the existing board and leadership
team,” Barton said.
Hester attracted attention for his pay
while at the state-controlled RBS and is
thought to have enjoyed a multimil-
lion-pound payout from the RSA sale.
EasyJet said he would be paid an annual
fee of £314,568 in his role as chairman.
Boots hopes to make fast
work of Deliveroo tie-up
Louisa Clarence-Smith
Boots is hoping to improve its online
service by launching a partnership with
Deliveroo promising to deliver health
and beauty products within 20 minutes.
The high street retailer said it will test
the speedy delivery of its products from
14 stores across Britain, including in
Edinburgh, London and Nottingham.
From today, more than 400 Boots
products will be on the delivery app,
ranging from medicines for minor
ailments and beauty products to
toiletries and baby essentials such as
nappies. Boots sandwiches, snacks and
drinks will also be available.
Boots, which is owned by Walgreens
Boots Alliance, traces its roots back to
1849 when John Boot opened a
herbalist store in Nottingham offering
affordable alternatives to traditional
1,500p
1,000
500
0 Morrisons, so knows its way around
Source: Refintiv
He spent 20 years as an investment
banker before joining the management
team of Abbey National, where he
helped to restructure the troubled
lender before its sale to Santander in
2004. He then became chief executive
of British Land.
Hester said: “As a longstanding
admirer of easyJet, and from my own
experience as a customer, I am very
excited to be joining the airline and
look forward to playing my part in
driving its continued success.”
EasyJet shares closed up 1¾p, or
0.2 per cent, at 800¾p.
medicines. It has 2,336 stores in the UK
and employs about 52,000 people.
It has suffered during the pandemic
as shoppers moved online. In-store
sales have fallen, with footfall much
lower in large towns and airport and
railway station shops. It said that online
orders at boots.com were up 85 per cent
year-on-year for the period between
March 2020 and March 2021 and have
continued “on a strong trajectory”. It
already offers next-day delivery.
Paula Bobbett, ecommerce director
at Boots, said the Deliveroo partnership
“will be super handy for times when you
need something urgently but can’t
leave the house, like if you’re feeling
unwell or are looking after your kids”.
She added: “Our online business
continues to grow and this partnership
offers our customers [a] way to access
our products quickly and easily.”
Don’t rule out a real
Sainsbury’s bid
business commentary Alistair Osborne
S
ome supermarket chains get
real offers from rival bidders.
Others just get a bid story.
Still, the tale in The Sunday
Times was enough to lift
shares in Sainsbury’s 15 per cent to
340p, despite the obvious missing
ingredient — not a word from the
company or mooted suitor Apollo.
If the private equity outfit really
was set on a shopping trip for
Sainsbury’s, the Takeover Panel
would have forced some sort of
statement. Ditto from the grocer’s
board, chaired by Martin Scicluna, if
it was in talks with Apollo or
anyone else. And, if anything was
going on, non-exec director Adrian
Hennah would have been sailing
pretty close to the wind: he bought
15,000 Sainsbury’s shares on Friday
at just under 290p.
Even so, the non-bid — so far
anyway — at least gave public
market investors another chance to
reassess their chronic inability to
value UK-listed companies properly.
A year ago Sainsbury’s shares traded
at 180p. And it’s taken bids for two
rivals to force a rethink. First, the
Issa brothers and TDR Capital
winning the auction for Asda last
October with a £6.8 billion debt-
fuelled offer, a deal that pipped
Apollo’s bid. And now the £7 billion
ding-dong for Morrisons between
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and the
Fortress-led consortium.
Apollo mulled its own tilt at
the supermarket aisles. And since
then it’s been prevaricating over
teaming up with Fortress. So, a yarn
about an “exploratory” switch to
Sainsbury’s could be a negotiating
tactic for that — even if Apollo
denies that’s what’s going on.
Whatever, Sainsbury’s got its day
in the sun. And, as rehearsed here
after last month’s first-quarter
update, with reason too. All that’s
turned up so far in its bagging area
is the Czech Sphinx: Daniel
Kretinsky, the Prague-based
billionaire, who’s built a 9.99 per
cent stake to go with his 15.6 per
cent parcel of Royal Mail. Yet, even
after the latest share price leap,
Sainsbury’s trades at a big discount
to Morrisons. CD&R’s 285p-a-share
offer values Morrisons at 20.7 times
historic earnings. Citi estimates
point to a prospective multiple of
about 20 times this year too.
Contrast Sainsbury’s: trading on a
forward multiple of just 15.6 times,
on UBS forecasts.
Yes, just 57 per cent of Sainsbury’s
property estate is freehold versus
87 per cent for Morrisons’. But
Sainsbury’s southeast bias brings far
more redevelopment potential, as a
£1.7 billion deal for its Ladbroke
Grove site in London shows. And its
portfolio’s in the books for £10.1
billion — well above its £7.9 billion
market value. True, it has
£6.5 billion net debt and is more
highly geared than Morrisons:
3 times v 2.4 times on UBS figures.
Yet, if you believe Sainsbury’s boss
Simon Roberts, it’ll have annual free
cash flow of £500 million over the
three years to March 2025 and cut
debt by £950 million.
To boot, Sainsbury’s beats
Morrisons on three other things: a
convenience store estate, online
shopping and non-food, via its
35
Business
ownership of Argos. And so what if
it doesn’t own 19 food-making sites
and a trawler? Bidders won’t have to
promise to look after the farmers
and throw back all under-sized fish.
A bidder could acquire a quarter of
Sainsbury’s, too, simply by talking to
Kretinsky and 15 per cent investor
Qatar Holdings.
In short, it’d be daft to rule out a
takeover bid — even if Sainsbury’s
clearly hasn’t got one yet.
Expect turbulence
L
ucky the new man in the
easyJet chairman’s seat has the
“ability to tackle complex
challenges”, as senior independent
director Julie Southern put it.
Despite his stints running British
Land, Royal Bank of Scotland and
insurer RSA, Stephen Hester still
hasn’t had a challenge quite like Sir
Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the holder of
just over 25 per cent of the shares.
Yes, Hester used to say that his
role at RBS was to “defuse the
biggest time bomb ever put on a
bank’s balance sheet”. And he got
ousted from the taxpayer-controlled
bank after a delightful bust-up with
George Osborne. But whatever his
skills, Hester’s yet to try defusing
Mount Stelios when he’s about to go
off. True, the walking volcano’s been
dormant lately, refusing to comment
on Hester’s £314,568-a-year new job
that left the shares marginally
higher at 800¾p. But who can forget
how Stelios began the pandemic?
From the comfort of his St Barts
sunlounger, he tried to oust four so-
called easyJet “scoundrels” over its
Airbus contract.
They included John Barton, the
chairman now making way for
Hester. And, despite losing May
2020’s EGM, Stelios can claim a
victory of sorts. Six directors have
since quit, even if ex-finance chief
Andrew Findlay was the only other
one he was trying to oust. Whatever,
the airline has limped through the
crisis, raising £5.5 billion liquidity,
including debt finance, without any
help from Stelios, who cut his stake
rather than participate in an equity
raise. Liquidity is now down to £2.9
billion. And while Hester is probably
right the airline “can be winners in
the European airline industry of the
future”, there’s talk of another
£500 million cash-call to come.
The smart thing may be to have
one and hope Stelios gets diluted to
below the 25 per cent where he can
block special resolutions. It could
make Hester’s life easier.
Difficult test
J
ust a little prick. But enough to
put Abingdon Health shares up
97 per cent to 60p (report, page
36). The reason? The launch of a
20-minute self-test kit to check
Covid antibody status. And maybe
it’ll have its uses for those desperate
to know. Or anti-vaxers who hope
they’ve had corona. But the shares
are only back to where they were in
May. And, assuming annual booster
shots eventually work, Abingdon
may only have a pin-size market.
alistair.osborne@thetimes.co.uk
36
Business
Employment has risen in the US over the past six months and new applications for unemployment benefits are at their lowest levels since the pandemic began
America braced for slowdown in
jobs growth after Delta cases rise
Callum Jones
US Business Correspondent
President Biden’s labour secretary has
expressed concern that America’s latest
wave of Covid-19 could dent its eco-
nomic recovery as expectations rise
that the Federal Reserve could start
paring back support.
Marty Walsh raised the prospect of a
slowdown in jobs growth next month,
following a rise in infections, as policy-
makers consider when to act. “I was
hoping that we could have a nice recov-
ery here in the month of September,”
Walsh told Bloomberg News. “We’ve
had some good job growth here in the
last six months . . . I get worried that this
is going to slow some of that.”
Jerome Powell, chairman of the Fed-
eral Reserve, will deliver a highly antici-
pated online speech on Friday. Inves-
tors will scrutinise it for any signal as to
how the world’s most powerful central
bank will approach the coming months.
Oil prices swing back upward with weaker dollar
Emily Gosden Energy Editor
Oil prices jumped by 5.5 per cent yester-
day as the market rebounded from the
worst week in nine months.
Brent crude, the global benchmark
price, was trading at $68.75 a barrel in
New York last night, driven mainly by
weakness in the dollar. Oil is traded in
dollars so a fall in the value of that cur-
rency makes it less expensive in others.
Brent crude fell about 8 per cent last
week because of fears over increasing
restrictions in response to the surge in
cases of the delta variant of coronavi-
rus. Last week’s sell-off was also
exacerbated by the dollar rising to a
Most US policymakers agreed at
their last rate-setting meeting that,
provided the recovery remains on
course, the Fed could begin winding
down its vast $120 billion monthly asset
purchase scheme this year.
The American workforce added
938,000 jobs in June and 943,000 in
July, fuelling hopes of a sustained pick-
up in employment growth. It remains
some 5.7 million off its pre-pandemic
level. A sharp rise in inflation, which
reached a 13-year high this summer, has
also intensified calls on the Fed to
change course.
Economists are closely monitoring
the impact of the rapid spread of the
coronavirus’s Delta variant, however.
Average daily cases in the US reached
150,000 for the first time since January
at the weekend.
Business activity across America’s
service and manufacturing sectors has
fallen to its lowest level this month
since December, according to the PMI
nine-month high as investors bet that
the US Federal Reserve would start ta-
pering or scaling back stimulus policies.
That trend reversed yesterday as the
dollar weakened after comments on
Friday by Robert Kaplan, the Dallas
Federal Reserve president and a vocal
supporter of tapering, who said he
might reconsider an early move to ta-
per if the virus harmed the economy.
Ole Hansen, head of commodity
strategy at Saxo Bank, said: “Crude oil
as well as most other commodities has
started the week with gains in response
to improved risk appetite, not least
supported by a softer dollar.”
He added: “While the virus remains a
index compiled by IHS Markit, which
retreated from 59.9 to 55.4. A reading
above 50 indicates growth.
Chris Williamson, the group’s chief
business economist, cited sustained
supply chain delays and “increasing
frustrations” around recruitment. “Jobs
growth waned to the lowest since July
55.4
US activity in IHS Markit composite PMI
for August, down from 59.9
of last year as companies either failed to
find suitable staff or existing workers
switched jobs,” he said.
An unexpected drop in consumer
sentiment has also raised concern. A
regular index released by the Univers-
ity of Michigan showed a 13.5 per cent
fall this month, to its lowest reading
since 2011. New applications for unem-
Brent Crude
Source: Refinitiv
2020 2021
Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2
threat to the short-term demand
outlook, despite signs of an improving
situation in China, this week’s Jackson
Hole summit [of central bankers] may
give the market some ideas about the
timing of tapering.”
Brent fell below $20 a barrel last year.
2GM
MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES
ployment benefits have continued to
decline, slipping to 348,000 last week
— their lowest level since the pandemic
began. Economists at Goldman Sachs
cut their third-quarter forecast for US
GDP from 9 per cent to 5.5 per cent.
Markets are watching closely as
Powell, 68, puts the finishing touches to
his address before Friday. US Treasury
yields held steady yesterday in light
trading volumes amid complaints of
poor liquidity. The S&P 500 showed a
gain of around 1 per cent.
James McCann, senior global econo-
mist at Aberdeen Standard Invest-
ments, cautioned that Powell was un-
likely to “demonstrate genuine convic-
tion” in his speech without a clear signal
from the Fed’s policy committee. “If you
want fireworks, go elsewhere,” he said.
“That does not mean that Powell will
avoid the tapering question entirely
and he might add to the hints he’s
already dropped about wanting to kick
the process off this year.”
Supply curbs by Opec and resurgent
demand took prices above $70 a barrel
$80 this summer but the situation has
remained volatile amid uncertainty
60
over the pandemic and the speed with
40 which Opec will resume supplies.
20 On Sunday, Michael Tran, commodi-
0
ty strategist at RBC Capital Markets,
Q3 predicted that “benchmark oil prices
will remain, for now, stuck in a period of
trendless rangebound volatility”.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs reiter-
ated their bullish stance yesterday with
a target of $80 a barrel for the fourth
quarter, claiming “steadily tightening
commodity fundamentals” would push
prices higher.”
Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times
Foreign direct
investment
in UK halves
Philip Aldrick
Foreign direct investment in the UK
more than halved last year as China
leapfrogged the US for only the second
time to become the world’s most
sought-after investment destination
during the pandemic.
Inward investment by foreign com-
panies to the UK fell by 57 per cent to
$19.7 billion, down from $45.4 billion in
2019, making Britain the 12th most
popular nation for foreign investors
behind Germany, Mexico, India, Swe-
den, Canada and Brazil.
The figures, compiled by Money-
Transfers.com using data from the Or-
ganisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development, reflect the amount
of investment in or profits made by for-
eign companies in a certain country.
China was the single largest recipient
of foreign capital, with inward flows in-
creasing 14 per cent to $212 billion in
2020. The US fell to second place as
inward investment dropped 37 per cent
to $177 billion. The only other time
China attracted more overseas capital
than the US was 2014.
The pandemic appears to have accel-
erated the shift to Asia. India was the
third largest recipient of foreign capital
as inflows rose 27 per cent to $64 billion.
OECD nations, a group of 38 largely
rich countries, have seen their com-
bined share of inflows dwindle from
58 per cent in 2018 to 52 per cent in 2019
and just 38 per cent last year.
Inflows are likely to be boosted this
year by the rebound in takeover activity
with Britain proving an attractive desti-
nation. Since the start of the year, 1,462
UK companies worth £183 billion have
attracted bids, Dealogic data shows.
Antibody test
delivers boost
to Abingdon
Alex Ralph
A Covid-19 testing company was given
a boost yesterday after the launch of an
antibody self-test it manufactures
almost doubled its share price.
Shares in Abingdon Health rose
29½p, or 96.7 per cent, to 60p on the
Aim, London’s junior market.
The launch followed the signing last
month of an exclusive manufacturing
agreement with BioSure, a private Es-
sex-based diagnostics testing company.
The new test uses a fraction of a drop
of finger-prick blood, with results in 20
minutes, and is designed to let people
know and monitor their antibody sta-
tus before and after vaccination, as well
as following infection with the virus.
The BioSure product, intended for
self-testing, is being made at Abing-
don’s facilities in York and Doncaster.
Abingdon Health was founded in
2008 and is based in York. It floated on
the Aim in December, when it raised
£22 million placing shares at 96p each.
The funds were raised to help increase
contract manufacturing of testing for
Covid and other conditions. Its stock is
still only back to where it traded in May.
It has been weakened by a judicial
review relating to a government con-
tract for Abingdon’s own professional-
use antibody test. The company said
this month that it was owed £6.7 million
under the contract and had made about
60 people redundant.
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
Patrick Hosking
Diversification is all the rage but
‘‘
isn’t it better to stick to the knitting?
Is it me or are
business leaders
increasingly
diversifying into
new industries they
know little or nothing about? You
might call it Saatchi syndrome, after
the advertising agency brothers who
in their pomp in 1987 revealed
tentative plans to buy Midland Bank,
despite zero experience in the
complex and highly regulated world
of mortgages and deposits.
The Saatchis were met with ridicule
and bafflement and soon abandoned
their plan. The hapless Midland was
eventually gobbled up by another
bank, HSBC. For the next 30 years,
business leaders mostly have stuck to
the knitting, expanding only in the
sectors they are already masters of, or
closely aligned ones.
So what are we to make of Philip
Morris International, the American
tobacco giant, with its plans to move
into respiratory pharmaceuticals? The
group behind Marlboro Man has
enraged and discombobulated the
medical establishment with its plan to
buy the UK inhaler group Vectura for
£1 billion.
Or Lloyds Banking Group, which
last week unwittingly disclosed much
larger ambitions for a new property
rental division than it had been
letting on? An internal job ad
revealed that from a standing start
the bank aims to own as many as
50,000 flats and houses by 2030,
which would probably make it the
biggest private sector residential
landlord in Britain.
Or John Lewis Partnership, which
has just unveiled a suite of investment
products as stage one in an ambitious
plan to grab a much bigger share of
the financial services market? The
department stores group has teamed
up with Nutmeg, the fintech now
owned by JP Morgan, n, to sell
Isas and general
investment accounts. s.
These strategic
contortions go
against orthodox
board thinking.
According to
Jaideep Prabhu of
the Cambridge
John Lewis, led by
Sharon White, has
teamed up with
Nutmeg to offer
investment productss
1GM
Judge Business School, the academic
literature strongly supports the notion
that in developed markets, focus and
sticking to the knitting produces
stronger shareholder returns than
diversification.
There are exceptions, of course. Sir
Richard Branson has made a decent
living plonking the Virgin moniker on
everything from flights to credit
cards, mobile phone subscriptions and
satellite launchers. His winners do
seem to have more than offset the
flops such as Virgin perfumes, Virgin
cola and Virgin car retailing.
What links the diversification plans
mentioned is not entrepreneurial
opportunism but anxiety about the
existing business model. Philip Morris
may be a $160 billion goliath but it is
still largely dependent on a health-
ravaging product, the cigarette, which
even the company itself has said it
wants to stop making.
Lloyds is hemmed in by
competition rules. It was created out
of a monopolistic merger with HBOS
in the depths of the banking crisis,
which would never have been
accepted in normal times. The bank is
pretty much as big as the competition
authorities will ever allow it to get in
its core businesses of mortgages,
deposits and credit cards.
Meanwhile, John Lewis has in
effect conceded that its department
store model has only a limited future,
announcing 16 closures in the past
two years, from Birmingham and
Sheffield to Aberdeen and
Peterborough. It has decided to try its
luck in financial services and — like
Lloyds — residential letting.
For John Lewis, an employee-
owned group, the need to find new
revenue streams with minimal capital
outlay is especially urgent. There are
no outside shareholders to fall back
on and the group is heavily
indebted — with more than
£2 billion of loans and
pensio liabilities.
pension
Last year it reported
f
its first ever loss, of
£5 million.
£517
It has been
fl
flirting with
fi
financial services
for 20 years but
fo
is about to
be
become much
mo
more serious,
acco
according to the
fformer
orme Experian
executiv
executive Amir Goshtai,
who was brought in two months ago
to spearhead the move: “We’re going
through a major gear change. People
are going to see that in the coming
months.”
The aim is to quadruple the
financial services division in five
years, thanks to £100 million
earmarked for capital investment in
the sector. JLP’s non-retail businesses
overall are intended to create 40 per
cent of profits by 2030. That will
require huge expansion. Just badging
a few insurance products with the
John Lewis name won’t be enough.
The hope is that the trusted John
Lewis brand will be enough to rustle
up demand, and that the group will
through database crunching be able
to harness the lifetime relationship it
has with millions of its customers.
Parents and grandparents buying cots
for newborns are ripe to cough up for
a junior Isa at the same time.
But other retailers are if anything
pulling back from financial services.
Tesco Bank and Marks & Spencer
have both recently abandoned new
current account openings. The
competition is fierce and John Lewis’s
plucky £100 million looks footling
beside the billions being plunged into
rival fintechs with — let’s be honest
— more exciting product ideas. How,
too, can John Lewis ensure the
quality its customers expect when its
services so far are executed by white-
labelling incumbents, whether RSA
and Munich Re in insurance, Banque
Nationale de Paris in consumer credit
or, now, Nutmeg in investments?
Staff in these organisations are at
least being given training in the John
Lewis philosophy of customer care,
but there are plenty of sceptics who
question how the retailer can build a
lasting business in financial services
by doing little more than licensing its
name to third parties over which it
has only limited authority.
Unlike the Saatchis and Midland,
no one is completely scoffing at JLP’s
’’
ambitions for financial services. A
trusted provider with patience,
capital, attention to detail, a golden
touch with regulators and carefully
selected partners might pull it off —
over, say, 25 years.
It looks like a long
shot and bruised
John Lewis might
not have that long.
Patrick Hosking is Financial Editor
of The Times
Philip Aldrick
There’s a good case for
axing stamp duty given
the holiday was a dud
T
he stamp duty holiday was
a waste of taxpayer money,
the Resolution Foundation
has concluded. Exempting
home buyers from the levy
on the first £500,000 of their
purchase in the year to July, and a
reduced £250,000 until October, will
cost £4.7 billion in “forgone tax
revenues” and do little to stimulate
the property market, the think tank
estimates.
House prices in the UK may have
rocketed 13.2 per cent, the sharpest
annual rise since 2004, but the
biggest increases have come in areas
that benefited least from the relief.
“Prices grew 13 per cent in the fifth
of local authorities where savings
were negligible [and] 7 per cent in
the fifth where the highest savings
were achieved,” Resolution said.
Further proof came from the US,
Housing equity withdrawal
Net
withdrawal
Net injection
2000 05 10 15 20
Source: Bank of England
France, Germany, Canada and
Australia, which saw similar price
inflation with no tax holiday.
“Stronger forces [are] at play such as
enforced savings, changing housing
preferences and super-low interest
rates.” The stamp duty holiday “cost
over £4 billion and we didn’t get
much”, Torsten Bell, Resolution’s
chief executive, said.
The state may have missed out on
property market riches but others
didn’t. Extrapolating from the
£30,000 rise in average house prices
and the million-plus transactions in
the past year, as much as £30 billion
has been passed up the ladder,
dwarfing the stamp duty giveaway
— a maximum saving of £15,000 on
a £500,000 home. For first-time
buyers, the saving above their pre-
existing tax break was just £4,000.
Existing homeowners now feel so
flush that for the first time since
early 2008, they withdrew equity —
£4 billion in the three months to
March, or 1 per cent of disposable
income. Few indicators are as
bullish about consumer confidence,
echoing the boom years of the early
37
Comment Business
2000s when equity release
mortgages were used to finance
lifestyles and buy second homes.
With any luck, Resolution’s
analysis will draw a line under the
Treasury’s recession-fighting
doctrine that stamp duty must be
cut in a slump. Alistair Darling
suspended it in the financial crisis
for properties under £175,000 with
negligible effect, before the levy
became a political battleground in
the 2010 election.
Yet it was interest rate cuts that
rescued struggling homeowners a
decade ago. And it was low rates,
combined with lockdown savings,
that lit a rocket under the market
this time — enriching the well-off at
the expense of the young. Surely the
lesson is there is no need for stamp
duty relief if rates are being cut.
Yet the Treasury’s response is
telling. “The cut is helping to protect
hundreds of thousands of jobs which
rely on the property market by
£15bn
10
stimulating house moves,” it said. Is
5
that an implicit acknowledgment
0
that stamp duty acts as a block on
-5 growth by deterring people from
-10 moving home, thereby reducing job
-15 mobility, as many economists argue?
A report last month for the Family
Building Society also put a number
to the Treasury’s claim. By bringing
forward housing activity, stamp duty
relief may have lifted GDP by
£2.7 billion as “movers are
improvers”, it said. Though poor
value for money, the mortgage
lender unsurprisingly wanted the
holiday extended or “more
fundamental reforms”.
Given the Treasury’s comment, it
might agree. Scrap stamp duty and
one obstacle to moving home for a
job vanishes, increasing labour
market flexibility and enlarging the
army of “improvers”. All that
remains then is to replace the lost
£12 billion of annual tax receipts.
How about capital gains tax on
primary homes and a long-overdue
reform of council tax? Asking those
whom the market rewards to pay a
share of their excess profit seems
more reasonable than making
poorer buyers borrow to pay their
tax. The Treasury removed stamp
duty for an estimated 90 per cent of
all transactions until July. From
there, it’s not such a giant step.
Philip Aldrick is Economics Editor of
The Times
38 1GM Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

Business

Investors taste the difference as

Rumours that private equity
has Sainsbury’s in its sights
has shareholders racing to
keep up, Alex Ralph writes
At the equestrian park in Tokyo this
month Daniel Kretinsky, the Czech
tycoon and large J Sainsbury inves-
tor, had flown in to watch Anna Kell-
nerova, his partner, compete in the
Olympic showjumping team qualifi-
er riding Catch Me If You Can.
Yesterday it was the turn of
shares in Sainsbury’s — and
Kretinsky’s paper fortune —
to jump sharply after a
weekend report that Apol-
lo, the US private equity
firm, was running the rule
over Britain’s second larg-
est grocery chain.
Shares in Sainsbury’s
rose 15.4 per cent, or 45¼p,
to 340p on the London
Stock Exchange to their
highest in seven years as
investors raced to keep up
with the latest bid speculation that
has been circulating around a revived
food retail sector this year and short-
sellers rushed to cover their expo-
sure. Even before yesterday’s short
squeeze, the stock had rallied by al-
most a third this year.
Vague rumours that Sainsbury
could be the next grocery takeover
target have circulated amid a
combination of this summer’s
£7 billion battle for Wm Morri-
son, Britain’s fourth-largest gro-
cer, last year’s £6.8 billion take-
over of Asda by the Issa brothers
and TDR Capital, another pri-
vate equity firm, and Kret-
inksy, 46, buying up an
estimated £380 mil-
lion worth of Sains-
bury’s shares from
the Qatar Invest-
ment Authority
(QIA), the state’s
sovereign wealth
fund, in April.
Acquired via
his Luxembourg-
based Vesa Equi-
ty Investment
vehicle, it boost-
ed Kretinksy’s stake in the grocer to
almost 10 per cent, making him the Rolling in the aisles
second-largest shareholder after the
Qataris, who retain about 15 per cent.
With the two holding about a
quarter of Sainsbury’s stock com-
bined, it makes them key players in
determining the future of the 152-
year-old grocery chain.
Analysts at UBS — Sainsbury’s
house broker — said yesterday that
both were “financial investors” and
“could support a bid at the right
price”.
Despite the QIA potentially taking
a big hit on its 2007 investment, when
it bought shares for more than 500p,
there has been speculation that the
Qataris may be looking to check out
after 14 years.
Although Lord Sainsbury of Pres-
ton Candover, Sainsbury’s life presi-
dent, retains an active interest in the
fortunes of the grocer, the family’s
control has lessened since CVC,
another US private equity firm,
abandoned its takeover pursuit of
Sainsbury’s in 2007 amid opposition
from members of the family.
A decade ago Judith Portrait, a
trustee of various settlements, in-
cluding charitable trusts, held 4.1 per
cent and Lord Sainsbury of Turville, a
former chairman of the grocer,
5.9 per cent, putting them among the
company’s top four shareholders.
Today no family member is Sainsbury’s top 10 investors
thought to retain a holding above the
required regulatory disclosure Qatar Investment Authority 15%
threshold. Daniel Kretinsky 10%
Clive Black, veteran retail analyst BlackRock 6.4%
at Shore Capital, the City stock- Schroders 5.2%
broker, said yesterday that the family
stake was understood to be in the Pzena Investment 4.7%
“mid-single digits” now. Management
There had been speculation sur- Brandes 2.3%
rounding Apollo’s potential interest Vanguard 2.2%
in Sainsbury’s after it lost out on the Norges 1.7%
sale of Asda last year. LSV Asset Management 1.4%
Apollo was also interested in ac- Kiltearn Partners 1.2%
quiring Morrisons, before opting to
enter talks with a consortium led by
Fortress Investment Group, the US 2017 2018 2019
private equity firm, bidding for the
Bradford-based grocer. Simon Roberts, top left, Sainsbury’s hamkali, at UBS, said that Apollo’s
Sources have talked down Apollo’s chief executive; top right, the Czech exploratory interest in Sainsbury’s
interest in Sainsbury’s, saying that it businessman Daniel Kretinsky was “yet again highlights the attractive
was not working on an approach and in Tokyo to watch his partner, the free cash flow-based valuation of the
had not appointed advisers or law- showjumper Anna Kellnerova UK supermarket assets with a grow-
yers, nor had it held talks with Sains- ing profit pool as the discounters’
bury’s, led by Simon Roberts, the stable gross margins, lower operating threat is largely neutralised and the
chief executive. costs, capital discipline and the profitability of the large online busi-
However, Black said the broader “better understood and maturing nesses improves”.
bid interest in the sector reflected the German discount chains” of Aldi and Analysts had suggested earlier this
“improved strategic economic out- Lidl. summer, after bids for Morrisons,
look of the industry” because of The improvement had boosted free that although it was “wise to rule
stronger sales and online returns, cash flow generation. Sreedhar Ma- nothing out”, a takeover of Sains-

Rain keeps shoppers home and dry

Robert Miller
The unseasonably wet weather put a
dampener on shopping last week
with footfall slipping across UK retail
destinations by 1.7 per cent compared
with the week before.
There was a drop of 2.2 per cent on
high streets but more modest de-
clines of 1.3 per cent in shopping cen-
tres and 1 per cent in retail parks.
By contrast in the same week last
year, when the Eat Out to Help Out
scheme was in its final weeks, footfall
rose by 4.1 per cent across all
destinations, according to the latest
Springboard survey, which has been
tracking retail data since 2002.
Footfall declined in all but one UK
region, with week-on-week drops
ranging from 0.6 per cent in the
South East to 3.3 per cent in the
North and Yorkshire. The only in-
crease occurred in Greater London,
where footfall rose marginally by 0.2
per cent.
The impact of the rainy weather on
visits was clear, with declines in
footfall in coastal and historic towns
of 2.9 per cent and 3.3 per cent
respectively.
Even local high streets and city
centres held little appeal, with a de-
cline of 3.9 per cent in market towns
and 4.6 per cent in cities outside
London.
By contrast, footfall in central
London rose by 5 per cent compared
with the week before. The seven-
week run of continual increases in
the heart of the capital is the longest
since the same period in 2020.
The impact of the drop in activity
last week meant that the gap from the
2019 footfall level widened once
again to 20.6 per cent, with the
greatest impact being on high streets,
where the gap compared with 2019
moved to 26.3 per cent from 21.7 per
cent last week.
The glimmer of good news is that
footfall overall is 15.1 per cent higher
than in the same week last year and
20.8 per cent on high streets.
The gains made from last year in
shopping centres and retail parks are
more modest — up 10.4 per cent and
7.7 per cent respectively.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at
Springboard said: “The penultimate
week of the school summer holiday
period was something of a damp
squib.
“Rain most days across all areas of
the UK accompanied by cool
temperatures led to footfall across
UK retail destinations dropping from
the week before, eradicating all of the
uplift gained in the previous week.’’
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
grocer hits seven-year high
2020 2021
bury’s seemed less likely because of its
lower freehold ownership and its more
complicated structure, including its
ownership of Argos and its bank.
Barclays said last month that Sains-
bury’s has “relatively less real estate,
higher starting leverage and a more
complicated pension funding situa-
tion”.
Mahamkali said yesterday that Mor-
risons had the higher ownership of its
properties at 87 per cent, compared
with Sainsbury’s 57 per cent and Tesco’s
Clampdown
holds no fears
for retailer
Callum Jones
US Business Correspondent
JD.com said it does not expect a regula-
tory clampdown by China to damage its
business after beating Wall Street’s
expectations in the latest quarter.
The New York-listed Chinese digital
retail group posted a 26 per cent jump in
sales to 253.8 billion yuan ($39.3 bil-
lion). Net income attributable to ordi-
nary JD.com shareholders slumped
from 16.4 billion yuan to 794.3 million
yuan ($123 million) in the three months
to June 30. It added 32 million new
users, a record increase.
Chinese officials have intensified
2GM
350p
300
250
200
150
58 per cent, and its “gearing of 2.4 times,
including operating leases, is the lowest
in the industry while it has a pension
surplus”. Sainsbury’s has a higher
gearing of three times for 2022.
Sainsbury’s, nonetheless, has “clear
attractions”, Mahamkali added. It leads
the industry in the “crucial digital
agenda, its online business is larger,
better organised and likely more profit-
able”, and it had a property market
value of £10.1 billion at the last disclo-
sure. It compares with a market capital-
scrutiny of the technology sector in
recent months, introducing new poli-
cies and targeting large companies they
concluded had broken rules. They have
also moved to sharpen oversight of
Chinese companies listed overseas.
JD.com is confident it will not face a
significant impact from the regulations
after conducting “a round of internal
self-review and rectification”, Xu Lei,
head of its JD Retail division, said.
Valued at about $100 billion, JD.com
is one of China’s largest e-commerce
companies. It has more than 320,000
employees and is backed by Walmart
and Google, which want to tap into
China’s growing online retail sector.
The business was founded in 2004 by
Richard Liu, 47, who serves as chair-
man and chief executive.
Shares in JD.com closed up 3.3 per
cent at $65.73 in New York last night.
The company has previously found
itself in the crosshairs of Chinese regu-
lators. Last year it was among a number
of leading retailers each fined 500,000
yuan ($77,000) for irregular pricing.
isation, after yesterday’s’ share
h jump of
jump,
£7.9 billion.
The exposure of the property port-
folio to London and the southeast also
means it is likely to have greater devel-
opment potential.
UBS expects an average free cash
flow of about £520 million over the next
three years, “an attractive” 8 per cent
yield versus 5 per cent for Morrisons’
free cash flow yield at the agreed £7 bil-
lion offer from Clayton, Dubilier &
Rice, the US private equity firm.
Business
Email briefing
Get up to speed in five minutes
Get the best of the morning’s
results, deals, profit warnings
and sackings and the latest from
the markets by 8am. Also get
lunchtime analysis of the
breaking news and what’s
moving markets, currencies and
commodities at 12.30pm. Direct
by email from the Business
Editor, Richard Fletcher
Sign up at
home.thetimes.co.uk/myNews
Questions over Morrisons
A top ten shareholder in Wm
Morrison has said it has questions
about plans to take the FTSE 100
grocer private despite a bidding war
taking offers to £7 billion (Ben
Martin writes).
Legal & General Investment
Management (LGIM) said yesterday
that its concerns about the retailer’s
property portfolio being sold too
cheaply had been somewhat
alleviated, but it was still assessing
commitments about the chain’s
“future management”.
It comes after the Morrisons
board accepted a 285p-a-share offer
from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the
American private equity firm, last
Thursday night. CD&R is vying with
a consortium led by the US
investment firm Fortress for control
of Morrisons.
The latest bid trumped a 272p-a-
share offer Fortress had made.
CD&R’s initial proposal in June had
been pitched at 230p and the
Morrisons board had previously
accepted a 254p offer from the
Fortress consortium in early July.
LGIM said last month that it was
concerned about a lack of
disclosure by Morrisons about the
valuation of its property portfolio. It
had warned that any returns
generated by an acquirer “should
not come from buying its property
portfolio too cheaply, levering the
company up with debt, and
potentially reducing the tax paid to
the exchequer”.
Andrew Koch, a senior fund
manager at LGIM, said yesterday
that the more competitive offers
submitted by suitors indicated that
the bidders “will have paid close
attention” to the grocer’s property
during due diligence. This gives us
some comfort that the true value
should be realised for shareholders,
including our clients,” he said. “We
continue to look into the other
aspects of the bid, including
commitments for the future
management of the business.”
CD&R has pledged to safeguard
pension and employment rights at
Morrisons and does not anticipate
“any material change” to its
headcount.
Wm Morrison shares closed at
292p, up 1p on the day.
Morrisons and CD&R did not
comment on LGIM’s remarks.
M&S shows its gratitude by
giving staff Boxing Day off
Time Business Staff
Marks & Spencer has followed Morri-
sons in becoming the second big retail-
er to give its staff a holiday on Boxing
Day, which falls on a Sunday this year.
In a letter to 70,000 staff, Steve Rowe,
chief executive, said: “M&S will once
again be closing its operations on Box-
ing Day this year. This is to say thank
you to colleagues for their hard work
and efforts during recent months.’’
Last week Morrisons said it will give
its 110,000 staff in almost 500 shops
Boxing Day off. The supermarket, the
UK’s fourth-largest, said it wanted to
reward them for working hard in the
pandemic. Aldi, Lidl, Asda, M&S, Pets
at Home and The Entertainer were all
shut on December 26 last year.
39
Business
Show will go
on for shops
and offices
in West End
Louisa Clarence-Smith
London’s West End is coming back to
life with footfall, rental income and
lettings all recovering, according to one
the biggest landlords in the area.
Shaftesbury, which owns a 16-acre
estate centred around the Carnaby,
Chinatown and Seven Dials districts,
said footfall was between 50 per cent
and 60 per cent of pre-pandemic levels
— up from about 45 per cent at the end
of May. The area, which normally at-
tracts international tourists, has been
supported by a rise in visits from
Londoners and domestic visitors.
Vacancy across the estate, which in-
cludes hundreds of restaurants, cafés,
pubs and shops, fell to 4.1 per cent from
8.4 per cent in March.
Shaftesbury said there was “healthy
occupier interest” for its shops, includ-
ing from online retailers looking for
stores to provide consumer experience
and brand promotion. Office inquiries,
viewings and lettings continue at a
“steady pace” as businesses prepare for
workforces to return.
It is optimistic that the area’s “excep-
tionally large office-based working
population” will return from early
autumn. Interest in flats has improved
significantly and rents have stabilised.
At the end of July, Shaftesbury had 32
office suites available across 29,000
sq ft, down from 50 suites across
62,000 sq ft at the end of March.
Letting terms agreed since the start
of April have been generally in line with
its expectations. It warned there was a
greater degree of short-term income
uncertainty in retail leases agreed with
a significant element of turnover-
linked rent. Many retailers are report-
ing better trade, particularly at week-
ends. Reports have suggested that
youth fashion brands across its estate
are gaining customers after Oxford
Street and Regent Street shops closed.
Shaftesbury was founded in 1986 by
the late Peter Levy. It is a FTSE 250
member with a £2.4 billion market capi-
talisation.
It reported net debt of £729.1 million
at the end of June, with £330.7 million of
available liquidity. In July, it collected
55 per cent of rent owed, up from 51 per
cent in the three months to the end of
June.
The shares closed up 7p, or 1.1 per
cent, at 628½p.
M&S said the day off will apply to all
the stores it owns in the UK and
Ireland, its Castle Donington distribu-
tion centre and all of its support centres
— including its customer contact
centre.
Rowe said: “Up and down the coun-
try, our colleagues have been there for
our customers in the most challenging
of circumstances.
“As a small thank you for their in-
credible hard work, we’ve taken the de-
cision to close our operations on Box-
ing Day once again this year, to enable
our colleagues to spend more time with
their family and loved ones.”
M&S has said that it will extend the
opening hours of more stores in the
week leading up to Christmas Day.
A more promising diet, Tempus, page 42
40 2GM Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

Business

PayPal backs crypto trades

as bitcoin stages a recovery
Emily Gosden
The price of bitcoin has risen to three-
month highs of more than $50,000 as
PayPal announced it would allow its
British users to trade cryptocurrencies
from this week.
Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency,
peaked at almost $65,000 in April
before falling back to less than $30,000
amid fears of a crackdown on digital as-
sets by China. It has recovered to trade
above $50,000 for the first time since
May on renewed optimism that crypto-
currencies will be more widely adopted.
The latest rally coincided with Pay-
Pal announcing that it would allow
users in the UK to buy, sell and hold
cryptocurrencies through its platform.
Customers will be able to trade
ethereum, bitcoin or bitcoin cash, with
a minimum purchase of £1.
Describing itself as a “trusted brand”,
PayPal said its move would mean that
“access, knowledge and the exploration
of cryptocurrency has the potential to
become mainstream in the UK”.
It comes despite the Financial
Conduct Authority warning this year
that investors in digital currencies were
at “high risk of losses” and should “be
prepared to lose all their money”. Con-
cerns over cryptocurrencies remain,
including lax regulation and the dan-
gers of retail investors losing money,
with the FCA noting that digital cur-
rencies “have no inherent value”.
Bitcoin was trading up 3 per cent yes-
terday morning at $50,191 and other
cryptocurrencies including ethereum
and dogecoin also advanced.
Created in 2008 as strings of comput-
er code with no physical form, bitcoin
was intended as an alternative means of
paying for goods and services but has
primarily been used for speculative
trading to date. Its rally to record highs
earlier this year was aided by the
disclosure in February that Tesla had
invested $1.5 billion in it. There has also
been speculation over Amazon
exploring cryptocurrencies.
PayPal, founded in 1998, is a leading
online payments platform with more
than 400 million consumers and sell-
ers. It became one of the biggest compa-
nies to embrace digital currencies late
last year when it enabled customers in
America to buy, hold or sell cryptocur-
rencies directly from their PayPal ac-
counts. This year it began enabling US
customers to make purchases using
their cryptocurrency holdings.
PayPal’s new UK service is its first
international expansion of the crypto-
currency offering. It is initially focused
on trading and the company has not
confirmed if or when it will allow cus-
tomers to spend their crypto holdings.
It said they would be able to view real-
time prices through its website or app.
Jose Fernandez da Ponte, vice-presi- Race to turn
dent and general manager for block-
chain, crypto and digital currencies at
PayPal, told CNBC: “We are very
power back
deliberate about starting with initial
functionality and then we’ll see where on for homes
the market is going to take us.”
As in the US, PayPal’s UK cryptocur-
rency offering will be run in partner-
hit by storm
ship with Paxos, an American

N
cryptocurrency brokerage. ational Grid said it had
Da Ponte said: “We are committed to restored power to more
continue working closely with regula- than 52,000 customers
tors in the UK and around the world to in Rhode Island and
offer our support — and meaningfully Massachusetts in the
contribute to shaping the role digital wake of damage caused by
currencies will play in the future of Tropical Storm Henri (Robert
global finance and commerce.”

Chinese ride-hailing app

suspends UK launch plan
Robert Miller
DiDi Global, China’s ride-hailing app,
has suspended its plans to launch in
Britain and continental Europe, against
the backdrop of a regulatory backlash
at home over data privacy.
The move comes on the heels of a
regulatory clampdown on China’s huge
internet sector, which includes compa-
nies like DiDi, for antitrust, customer
data privacy and other violations.
Regulators have removed its mobile
app from app stores amid a cybersecu-
rity investigation triggered by concerns
about user data leaving China.
Staff working on the launches have
been told that they face possible
redundancy and DiDi has stopped
hiring in Britain, pulling the launch
plans for at least 12 months, according
to The Telegraph.
The Times reported this month that
MPs were calling for the ride-hailing
app to be blocked from launching amid
concerns that users’ data will be har-
vested by Chinese spies.
DiDi Global has its first licences to
operate in Salford, Sheffield, Wolver-
hampton and Manchester. It was
expected to seek more as it competes
with Uber, the American taxi app.
A group of cross-party MPs fear that
China’s national security law could be
used to require DiDi to hand over data
if asked. It requires Chinese companies
to “support, co-operate with and col-
laborate in national intelligence work”.
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 2GM 41

Business
TOM BRENNER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Miller writes). The FTSE 100 utility
company added that about 80,000
customers across the two states
were still without power, which was
expected to be restored by
tomorrow.
National Grid has 17,000
employees in the US serving more
than 20 million people in New York,
Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
The company traces its origins to
1906 when Malcolm Chace and
Henry Harriman obtained charters
from Vermont and New Hampshire
to build a dam and hydroelectric
plant at Vernon, Vermont.
In the UK the company owns
much of Britain’s electricity and gas
transmission networks. National
Storm Henri brought chaos to America’s
northeast including Rhode Island, top,
leaving many residents without power
Grid said the US power outages
were most prevalent in coastal
Rhode Island, including South
Kingstown, Narragansett, Westerly,
Jamestown, Charlestown and North
Kingstown.
The storm forced the star-studded
Homecoming concert in Central
Park, New York, to be cut short on
Saturday when 4.5in (11.4cm) of rain
fell, breaking the previous record,
held since 1888. The concert was to
mark the city’s comeback after
months without live music.
Dan McKee, governor of Rhode
Island, said that the top priority
was to restore power to tens of
thousands of residents and
businesses.
The Democratic leader said
National Grid had crews working
on restoring electricity and the
goal was to have everyone back
online by midweek.
“We are expecting temperatures
in the 90s beginning Tuesday, and
that is why getting power restored
is critical for the health and safety
of our residents, our economy, and
our small businesses,” he said.
Terence Sobolewski, president of
National Grid Rhode Island, said it
is expected to take a couple of days
to get power fully restored.
Watchdog to
investigate US
rival’s takeover
of data group
Ben Martin Senior City Correspondent York bourse as well as clearing houses
and futures exchanges, struck an
The £32 billion takeover of the data $11 billion deal a year ago to buy Ellie
group IHS Markit by S&P Global, an Mae, a mortgage data platform.
American rival, faces an investigation IHS Markit is also the product of this
by Britain’s competition watchdog. spate of dealmaking. It was formed in
The Competition and Markets 2016 after the $13 billion merger of the
Authority announced yesterday that it Colorado-based IHS with Markit,
had begun an inquiry into S&P Global’s which has its headquarters in London.
acquisition of the London-based IHS The combined business is listed in New
Markit to assess whether the deal will York.
lead to “a substantial lessening of com- Neither S&P Global nor IHS Markit
petition within any market or markets commented on the CMA’s decision.
in the United Kingdom”. It will decide However, the pair have already
by October 19 whether to take the deal sought to alleviate regulators’ concerns
to a more in-depth “phase two” review. by unveiling a plan this month to sell
The investigation by the watchdog is IHS Markit’s oil price and commodity
a potential blow to S&P Global, which information businesses to News Corp
unveiled the planneded takeover billio News Corp is
for $1.15 billion.
last November and hopes medi group behind
the media
ans-
to complete the trans- Ti
The Times, as well as
action before the endnd The Wall Street Jour-
of this year. The tie-- nal and HarperCol-
up would create a lin the book pub-
lins,
giant of the infor- lis
lisher.
mation and data S&P Global and
industry by com- IH Markit said
IHS
bining two of the a the time the
at
leading players. di
disposal was an-
The New York- no
nounced that it
listed S&P Global, rep
represented “an
right, can trace its ts imp
important milestone
ate
roots back to the late th path to regula-
on the
19th century and now tory approval”
tory ap for their
has a sprawling business tie-up.
tie-up.
redit rating
that includes its credit p
They also pledged to “con-
es arm
agency and its indices arm, which is be- tinue to work constructively
constru with all
hind the Dow Jones Industrial Average regulatory bodies and antitrust author-
and the S&P 500. ities on their continued review of the
Its $44 billion deal for IHS Markit proposed merger, including the ade-
comes amid a wave of consolidation in quacy of the proposed divestiture”.
the data and analytics industry, as busi- The LSE Group’s deal for Refinitiv
nesses seek to bulk up so that they can had also faced competition concerns in
become full-service shops for clients. Europe. To assuage regulators’ con-
Information has become an increasing- cerns the owner of the London ex-
ly important commodity in markets as change agreed last year to offload its
more trading becomes electronic and Italian business to Euronext for
fuelled by financial and economic data. €4.3 billion.
The London Stock Exchange Group Interested parties have been invited
this year completed its $27 billion take- by the CMA to submit comments as
over of Refinitiv, the information and part of its investigation.
data provider group, while Interconti- Shares in S&P Global and IHS Mark-
nental Exchange, which owns the New it both closed higher in New York.

Burford stumbles as it anticipates loss F1 memorabilia licensing

Jonathan Ames Legal Editor
Burford Capital, one of the market’s
biggest litigation funders, anticipates a
$70 million loss over the six months to
June 30.
The shares fell 2.5 per cent yesterday
to 826p on the news.
Early steep falls were pared, however,
as it also announced that it had backed
a record number of cases and allocated
more than $500 million to claims in the
first half of this year.
Burford said that its funding commit-
ments were four times more than in the
first half of 2020, although it acknowl-
edged that more than 40 per cent of
cases had been delayed because of the
coronavirus pandemic.
The company also announced that it
was considering adopting the US’s
generally accepted accounting princi-
model into a business
ples (GAAP) for its full-year report in reported 2019 operating profit down by with £18 million in sales
December.
Muddy Waters, a US investment
about 8 per cent.
At the time, Burford described the
T
firm, criticised Burford’s accounting claims as being “without merit”.
practices last year. It described Bur- Burford said yesterday: “Our consid- Top of the agenda
eration of converting to US GAAP has
. . . caused us to examine the accounting
Jennifer Sundberg, left,
$500m
Amount allocated to claims in the
first half of 2021 by Burford Capital
practices of comparable US finance
firms to identify certain common prac-
tices adopted by US GAAP issuers”.
It highlighted last month’s settlement
of the dispute over the UK’s biggest
Enterprisee
explains
p how to avoid
directors spending
dir
hours discussing
h
Source: Burford divorce award as having boosted its
accounts by more than $100 million.
Network procedure
p rather
ford’s 2019 figures as presenting “a mis- Five years of wrangling between Ta- than
th practice
leading picture of the business”. tiana Akhmedova and her former hus- Pole position
The Muddy Waters report added that band Farkhad Akhmedov, the Russian Sign
Sig
Sign up fo
for The Times
“cutting through the new bulls***”, it oligarch, ended when she accepted a Barry Gough, founder
der Enterprise Network’s
had adjusted Burford’s cash receipts to deal for £150 million in cash and art.
show a year-on-year decline of 11.8 per Burford said the Russian divorce litiga- of The Memento weekly newsletter
cent. Muddy Waters also claimed its tion had generated a return of more Group, has honed the thetimes.co.uk/newsletters
researchers had readjusted Burford’s than 230 per cent on its investment.
42 1GM Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

Business Markets
Emma Powell Tempus news in brief
Buy, sell or hold: today’s best share tips
WPP acquires tech firm
WPP, the advertising firm, has

Food sales hint at more promising diet

marks & spencer
Market cap revenue growth
£3.19bn One-year 29.1 per cent
Marks & Spencer is an expert in false
starts. The British high street
stalwart has been stuck in a
perpetual cycle of turnaround
initiatives for years. Does a rare
profit upgrade show that the latest
shake-up will yield results?
The boost to pre-tax profit
guidance for this year indicated that
the latest reboot might have legs.
M&S’s earnings read like a tug of war
between its food and clothing-and-
bought Satalia, a fast-growing
British technology company.
Satalia will bring clients including
BT, DFS, Tesco and Unilever into
WPP’s group. It will also bring
Daniel Hulme, who set up the
Rent liabilities here have shrunk firm in 2008. He becomes chief
Tasty and may reduce further as it plans to artificial intelligence officer at
cut its full-line stores from 255 to WPP. Satalia has two big
Share price Revenue
180p 180, closing about 30 and turning 45 products. One helps allocate
UK clothing and home UK food into food-only shops. Hard-up work to staff and the other helps
2018 commercial landlords might be more vehicle fleets find the best way to
£3,741m willing to give more generous lease reach customers’ homes. The
160 terms in the near-term, too. latter is used by the tool hire
£5,870m Analysts have forecast 22 per cent group HSS and Australia’s
2019 growth in pre-tax profit next year, Woolworths, among others.
140 £3,537m from £324 million for the current
financial year. Pfizer to buy Trillium
£5,903m Bets against Marks and Spencer
2020 have diminished; short interest in the Pfizer is to buy the Canadian
120
£3,209m stock stands at 2.85 per cent, against drug developer Trillium
a June 2018 peak of just over 12 per Therapeutics in a $2.26 billion
£6,028m cent, according to Castellain Capital. deal to strengthen its blood
Source: Refinitiv

home businesses. Food sales might
have provided a lift, but the latter has
been an albatross.
But the severe impact of non-
essential retail closures last March
led to an acceleration in the overhaul
of the store estate and improving
online sales across the business.
In November, the FTSE 250
constituent announced the launch of
its “MS2” division, with the lofty aim
of competing with online pure-play
clothing rivals. That includes faster
delivery by expanding its Castle
Donington fulfilment facility in
Leicestershire, selling third-party
labels in the hope of broadening the
customer base, and testing demand
for products online so it can repeat-
buy those that sell well.
In three years’ time the target is to
generate more than 40 per cent of
clothing and home sales online. A
62 per cent rise in online clothing
and home sales in the 19 weeks to
blackrock world mining trust
Market cap Dividend yield
£1.04 billion 3.9 per cent
2020
Oct Jan Apr
ADVICE Buy
WHY Progress in food sales
and online could forge a path
back to profit growth
August 14, versus the pre-pandemic
level, bodes well, although there’s
naturally the caveat that the
lingering effects of Covid in pushing
shoppers from stores to the website
might still be skewing the picture.
But what about the other 60 per
cent? A question mark hangs over
whether it can revive in-store sales of
its clothing and home ranges. The
strategy is to focus on specific lines
trust has delivered decent returns.
There’s no official benchmark, which
makes measuring performance less
straightforward. The trust references
consumer price inflation, the
100 2021
£2,239m
2021 £6,139m
80
Jul *Financial years
and reap supply chain benefits from
buying fewer ranges in bulk. It has
also switched its focus from formal
wear to more casual clothing, which
includes a new activewear range.
The much higher profit margins
on clothing and home sales
compared with food give added
urgency to stem the slide here. Over
the 14 weeks to mid-August, clothing
and home store sales fell almost a
fifth below the pre-pandemic level.
Square-footage that’s not bringing
sales growth is a bigger drag when
you consider the retailer’s large rent
bill. Full line stores — those that sell
food and non-food — accounted for
41 per cent of the £2.4 billion in lease
liabilities at the start of April.
Environmental, social and
governance concerns might spring to
mind. It still has some exposure to
thermal coal via Glencore, which
accounted for 6 per cent of total
At a forward enterprise value/ cancer therapies. Pfizer, which
ebitda (earnings before interest, acquired a $25 million stake in
taxes, depreciation, and Trillium last year, will buy the
amortisation) multiple of just under remaining shares for $18.50 each
six, the shares, justifiably, trade at a — a 203.8 per cent premium on
substantial discount to those of Next, the stock’s closing price last week.
its more digitally advanced rival. But Trillium’s US-listed shares were
that also leaves the stock valued trading at $17.59 yesterday, having
slightly below the average multiple fallen 59 per cent in 2021. Pfizer
achieved since Steve Rowe was bought nearly 2.3 million Trillium
appointed chief executive in April shares at $10.88 last September.
2016, and at the bottom of its
publicly-listed peers. Bank holiday boost
That’s despite progress on food
sales and online clothes and home Almost 60 per cent of small and
ambitions looking their most medium-sized businesses in the
promising in recent years. Surely hospitality and leisure sectors
bidders will start circling soon. Only expect an increase in revenue
40 per cent of M&S’s estate is either over the August bank holiday,
freehold or on very long leases, with 13 per cent anticipating their
which would preclude a potential busiest bank holiday in a decade.
sale and leaseback of the scale Research by Barclaycard
afforded by Morrisons’ vast property Payments found that confidence
holdings. But the group’s current among SMEs is returning to pre-
valuation looks too inviting. pandemic levels, with hospitality
and leisure companies forecasting
a revenue boost of 27 per cent in
paid was backed by dividends from the third quarter, compared with
its holdings, but the rest was from the previous three months.
selling put and call options, fixed
income investments and royalty Mitie sells its files unit
income from mining production. The

A
n investment trust focused on
global miners has proved the
perfect recovery play over the
past 18 months. Blackrock World
Mining Trust’s share price has
delivered a 123 per cent return
relative to the FTSE 100 since the
end of March last year, propelled by
the boom in commodity prices.
Whether the pace of the rise
continues is much less certain. The
fortunes of it are in sync with the
wax and wane of metal prices.
But for longer-term investors, the
resource-heavy FTSE 100 and a assets. On the other side, it argues idea is to give shareholders a more Mitie Group, the Glasgow-based
more diversified version of the MSCI that investments in groups producing consistent income. outsourcing company, is to sell its
ACWI metals and mining index. commodities like copper and battery- Fluctuating commodities prices document management business
Over the first half of 2021 its share related materials will play a key role are always a risk but a sector-wide to Swiss Post Solutions for
price total return outperformed all in decarbonisation efforts and reduction in debt and miners so far £40 million. The buyer, which is
three, but more importantly, its building renewable energy systems. not splurging on acquisitions or big part of the Swiss Post Group,
cumulative performance has beaten The quarterly dividend has projects is a good sign. bought Mitie Document
the MSCI ACWI metals and mining become a more important part of the Management, which helps
index and the FTSE 100 over a past investment case. For the first half of businesses organise and access
three and five-year basis. The the year it declared an ordinary ADVICE Buy their files, on a debt-free, cash-
discount in the share price against dividend of 10p a share and 20.3p for WHY Offers a good dividend free basis. Mitie will continue
net asset value has narrowed to just 2020, which gives it a dividend yield offering document management
over 2 per cent against a 35 per cent roughly north of 3.5 per cent. at an attractive valuation services under a partnership deal.
peak during the 2008 crash. Almost two thirds of the income Shares in Mitie were up 1¾p, or
2.5 per cent, at 73p.

PRICES
Major indices London Financial Futures Commodities
New York Zurich Period Open High Low Sett Vol Open Int ICIS pricing (London 7.30pm) Brent (9.00pm)
Dow Jones 35335.71 (+215.63) SMI Index 12476.87 (+61.21) Long Gilt Sep 21 130.27 130.27 129.91 130.13 349717 709563
Dec 21 129.33 129.33 128.89 129.10 191422 78513 Oct 68.57-68.55 Jan 67.17-67.13
Nasdaq Composite 14942.65 (+227.99) DJ Euro Stoxx 50 4176.42 (+28.92) Nov 68.16-68.14 Feb 66.74-66.22
3-Mth Sterling Sep 21 99.925 99.925 99.920 99.920 16238 489023
S&P 500 4479.53 (+37.86) Crude Oils ($/barrel FOB) Dec 67.66-67.63 Volume: 1840477
Dec 21 99.880 99.885 99.880 99.880 16687 470797
London Mar 22 99.715 99.715 99.705 99.705 22867 465158
Tokyo FTSE 100 7109.02 (+21.12) Brent Physical 68.93 +3.45
Jun 22 99.620 99.620 99.605 99.610 20075 297507 LIFFE
Nikkei 225 27494.24 (+480.99) BFOE(Oct) 68.85 +3.57
FTSE 250 23740.49 (-10.40) Sep 22 99.555 99.555 99.535 99.540 20335 360056 BFOE(Nov) 68.50 +3.62
3-Mth Euribor Sep 21 100.54 100.55 100.54 100.55 19848 404728 WTI(Oct) 65.64 +3.50 Cocoa
Hong Kong FTSE 350 4107.01 (+9.65)
Dec 21 100.54 100.55 100.54 100.54 11663 414851 WTI(Nov) 65.34 +3.53
Hang Seng 25109.59 (+259.87) FTSE Eurotop 100 3395.57 (+22.05) Mar 22 100.54 100.54 100.53 100.54 19140 304225
Sep 1723-1713 Dec 1762-1745
Dec 1779-1778 Mar 1760-1734
FTSE All-Shares 4092.12 (+9.59) Jun 22 100.53 100.53 100.53 100.53 14662 321176 Mar 1785-1770 May 1760-1673
Amsterdam
FTSE Non Financials 4919.17 (+10.85) Sep 22 100.51 100.52 100.51 100.52 14975 439652 Products ($/MT) May 1787-1775
AEX Index 780.28 (+8.87) 3-Mth Euroswiss Sep 21 100.78 100.78 100.77 100.78 61 34641 Jul 1780-1742
techMARK 100 7510.96 (-15.64) Sep 1760-1755 Volume: 75119
Dec 21 100.78 100.78 100.77 100.78 1877 54046 Spot CIF NW Europe (prompt delivery)
Sydney Bargains n/a Mar 22 100.75 100.75 100.74 100.75 1104 38509
AO 7761.10 (+36.00) US$ 1.3727 (+0.0105) Jun 22 100.75 100.75 100.74 100.74 320 37892 Premium Unld 637.00 639.00 +23.00 RobustaCoffee
FTSE100 Sep 21 7090.0 7131.0 7064.0 7092.0 60692 611814 Gasoil EEC 565.25 567.25 +23.00
Frankfurt Euro 1.1685 (+0.0044) 3.5 Fuel Oil 367.00 371.00 +15.00
Dec 21 7056.0 7061.5 7056.0 7059.5 27 3959 Sep 1894-1863 Jul 1940-1836
DAX 15852.79 (+44.75) £:SDR 0.98 (+0.00) FTSEurofirst 80 Sep 21 5745.5 Naphtha 621.00 623.00 +24.00 Nov 1914-1911 Sep 1862-1836
Exchange Index 81.41 (-0.24) Jan 1910-1895
Dec 21 5728.5
Singapore May 1940-1867 Volume: 21960
Bank of England official close (4pm)
Straits 3087.56 (-15.19)
CPI 111.30 Jul (2015 = 100) ICE Futures
© 2021 Tradeweb Markets LLC. All rights reserved. White Sugar (FOB)
Brussels RPI 305.50 Jul (Jan 1987 = 100) The Tradeweb FTSE Gilt Closing Prices information contained
BEL20 4316.37 (+39.03) Gas Oil Reuters May 503.80-501.60
RPIX 290.10 Jun (Jan 1987 = 100) herein is proprietary to Tradeweb; may not be copied or
re-distributed; is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely; and does not constitute Aug 493.40-489.80
Sep 567.50-567.25 Dec 562.50-562.25 Oct 479.70-479.20 Oct 483.30-480.00
Paris Morningstar Long Commodity 677.16 (+5.72) investment advice. Tradeweb is not responsible for any loss or damage that might result Oct 568.25-568.00 Jan 560.25-559.75 Dec 498.20-496.00 Dec 482.80-476.60
CAC-40 6683.10 (+56.99) Morningstar Long/Short Commod 4703.45 (+27.75) from the use of this information. Nov 566.00-565.75 Volume: 682471 Mar 508.20-503.20 Volume: 55164
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 1GM 43

Markets Business
CHRIS TUITE/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES

Investors hang up on BT as
rival dials down valuation
Tom Howard Market report

S
hares in BT fell to the bottom
of the FTSE 100 amid talk manufacturing
that one of its smaller rivals
was looking to raise money at
a lower valuation than had
been expected.
Gold for Olympic chain maker
CityFibre, which is competing with

T
BT’s Openreach business to build its he maker of profit will be “higher
superfast fibre-optic network, is said Team GB’s than both market
to be close to selling a £500 million bicycle chains expectations and the
stake to a couple of investors, used in the Olympics equivalent prior-year
including Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s said that this year’s period”. Analysts at
sovereign wealth fund. profits would be Peel Hunt, the house
The mooted stake sale, according to bigger than investors broker, had pencilled
The Wall Street Journal, will value had expected. in an annual
CityFibre, which is backed by Renold, which is operating profit of
Goldman Sachs, at about £2 billion. It better known for its about £12 million, but
seems that many in the City had chains used in factory have lifted this
thought it was worth more than that. conveyor belts and Renold, which made prediction to
preparing to spin it off executive of Universal, “Feedback today suggests the value heavy construction bike chains for Team £13.2 million. They
Universal onto the Euronext said: “Aerosmith’s at which CityFibre is reportedly machinery, boasted GB, had record sales said Renold raising its
Amsterdam stock global success places sales of £62.5 million profit guidance was
not going to exchange by them in rarefied air over the past four frigates being built by particularly
miss a thing September 27. among the all-time Wall Street report months — almost BAE Systems, stands impressive given the
Yesterday Universal greatest rock icons. 20 per cent higher at £70.5 million, the “considerable” rise in
said it would become “On the band’s 50th Indices started the week on a than a year earlier. highest in Renold’s raw material and

U
niversal Music the home for all of anniversary, positive note on the back of good The order book, history. transport costs.
Group has Aerosmith’s recorded Aerosmith continues vaccine news. The Nasdaq closed at which includes the Given the “strong The stock enjoyed
announced an music, including future to influence the course a new record with a gain of 227.99 recently announced momentum” in the its best session in
exclusive deal with new releases, as part of of music not only points, or 1.6 per cent, to 14,942.65. £11 million contract to business, bosses more than a year,
Aerosmith to house a “multifaceted through their iconic The Dow Jones rose 215.63 points, supply parts for the reckon that this year’s closing up 4½p, or
the band’s entire partnership” to begin catalogue but also or 0.6 per cent, to 35,335.71. Royal Navy’s Type 26 adjusted operating 22.8 per cent, at 24p.
recorded catalogue, as next year. Financial through film, television
the world’s largest terms were not and video games and
music label prepares to disclosed. Aerosmith is their inimitable style.” willing to sell equity is considered to sessions. The price of a barrel of 3 per cent at “historic lows”. The
go public next month the bestselling US hard Vivendi recently be low,” Jerry Dellis, a telecoms Brent crude zipped 5.3 per cent up to shares dropped 44p, or 3.4 per cent, to
(Callum Jones writes). rock band of all time, reported a 17 per cent analyst at Jefferies, noted. “This is $68.65, but remained some way shy of £12.68, although Credit Suisse thinks
Vivendi, the French the company said. rise in sales at being read across to the value of the $77 a barrel it hit last month. that they are worth less than £11.
media group which Sir Lucian Grainge, Universal in the first Openreach.” J Sainsbury, the supermarket Pearson, the school textbook
owns Universal, is chairman and chief half to €3.83 billion. There has been much talk of BT chain, was the stand-out as it shot up publisher, was in analysts’ good books
spinning off Openreach, and a lot of 45¼p, or 15.4 per cent, to 340p, its though, which sent its shares up 15p,
its potential valuation — as much as dearest in more than seven years. or 2 per cent, to 773p. The stock was
Results in brief £30 billion, Jefferies reckons — was Some of Sainsbury’s short-sellers, who raised to “overweight” at JP Morgan,
Name Pre-tax figure Dividend baked into the share price earlier this had bet that the share price will fall, which thinks that the shares, down
Profit (+) loss (-) year. The worries that it might not be rushed to close their positions after a more than 10 per cent in the past few
BATM Adv Comm (technology HY) $19.9m ($1.9m) nil
worth as much as thought dented its report in The Sunday Times claimed weeks, have been “oversold”. The
stock, which lost 5¼p, or 3 per cent, to that Apollo, the American private analysts expect the US higher
SigmaRoc (construction HY) £7.1m (£3.5m) nil 168¼p. The fall left BT’s shares down equity group, was mulling a bid. education market to return to growth
6 Results in brief are given for all companies valued at more than £30 million. f = final p = payable by almost a fifth in the past two A tier below, the more UK-biased next year, while President Biden’s
The day’s biggest movers months to their cheapest since May. FTSE 250 traded sideways in a plans to spend $300 billion on US
Investors were happy to dial into typically quiet August session as it community colleges bodes well too.
Company Change the wider market, though, after the edged 10.40 points down to 23,740.49. The price of gold broke back above
J Sainsbury Talk of private equity mulling a takeover bid 15.4% wobble late last week. The FTSE 100, Among those holding back the $1,800 an ounce for the first time in
Harbour Energy Oil prices snapped their seven-day losing streak 8.3% London’s leading index, closed 21.12 mid-caps was Pennon, the water three weeks as the US dollar fell and
Hochschild Mining Gold price rose back above $1,800 an ounce 7.0% points, or 0.3 per cent, up at 7,109.02, company that owns South West silver added the best part of 3 per cent
Auction Technology Group Struck its dearest price since February float 4.5% led by its big-name resources stocks. Water, after it was downgraded to to $23.64 an ounce. That lifted
Ferrexpo Attracted buyers after recent share price dip 4.0% Shares in BP flowed 7¼p, or 2.5 per “underperform” at Credit Suisse. The London’s precious metals miners:
Tyman Recent weakness endured; hit four-month low -2.9%
cent, up to 295p while Royal Dutch shares are floating around their Hochschild, the Peruvian gold miner,
BT Group CityFibre stake sale raises questions over Openreach valuation -3.0%
Pennon Downgraded to “underperform” at Credit Suisse -3.4% Shell, its fellow supermajor, added highest level on record but the added 10¼p, or 7 per cent, to 155½p
Morgan Sindall Fell back from record highs -3.5% 26½p, or 1.9 per cent, to £14.13¼ as oil analysts think that is “extreme”, and the Egypt-focused Centamin
Workspace Investors took profits after summer rally -4.9% prices rose for the first time in seven especially with the dividend yield of gained 1¾p, or 1.8 per cent, to 99½p.

Gold/Precious Money rates % Dollar rates Exchange rates

London Grain Futures metals (US dollars per ounce) Base Rates Clearing Banks 0.10 ECB Refi -0.50 US Fed Fd 0.00-0.25 Australia
Canada
1.3864-1.3872
1.2666-1.2666
Bid Change
LIFFE Wheat (close £/t) Halifax Mortgage Rate 3.74 Denmark 6.3356-6.3361 Australia $ 1.905 -0.01
Because of a technical issue the gold fix Canada $ 1.740 -0.01
Euro 0.8520-0.8520
Nov 194.00 Jan unq Mar 197.00 figures are from Friday Denmark Kr 8.691 +0.02
May 199.50 Jul unq Volume: 994 Treasury Bills (Dis) Buy: 1 mth 0.020; 3 mth 0.050. Sell: 1 mth 0.005; 3 mth 0.000 Hong Kong 7.7925-7.7927
Bullion: Open $1779.23 Japan 109.80-109.80 Euro ¤ 1.169
Close $1804.95-1805.06 High $1806.13 Malaysia 4.2240-4.2280 Hong Kong $ 10.691 +0.09
London Metal Exchange 1 mth 2 mth 3 mth 6 mth 12 mth Norway 8.9064-8.9089 Hungary 409.073 +0.77
Low $1776.60
(Official) Interbank Rates 0.0498 0.0625 0.0684 0.0969 0.2074 Singapore 1.3571-1.3573 Indonesia 19772.403 +95.22
AM $1782.95 PM $1779.05 Sweden 8.7138-8.7168 Israel Shk 4.430 +0.02
Cash 3mth Dec 22 Eurodollar Deps 0.05-0.25 0.06-0.26 0.07-0.27 0.10-0.30 0.16-0.36 Switzerland 0.9133-0.9133
Krugerrand $1886.00-2982.00 (£1374.43-2173.14) Japan Yen 150.558 +1.06
Copper Gde A ($/tonne) Platinum $1027.00 (£748.43) New Zealand $ 1.994
9237.0-9237.0 9221.5-9221.5 9189.0-9189.0 Silver $23.66 (£17.24)
Sterling spot and forward rates Other Sterling Norway Kr 12.224 -0.09
Poland 5.357 +0.01
Palladium $2421.50 (£1764.67) Mkt Rates for Range Close 1 month 3 month Argentina peso 133.65-133.66
Lead ($/tonne) Russia 101.688 +0.30
Australia dollar 1.9031-1.9033
2473.5-2473.5 2289.0-2289.0 2231.0-2231.0 European money Copenhagen 8.6521-8.6952 8.6917-8.6967 46ds 134ds Bahrain dinar 0.5139-0.5209
S Africa Rd
Sweden Kr
20.782
11.955
-0.07
-0.06
Euro 1.1695-1.1639 1.1691-1.1690 5pr 14pr Brazil real 7.3767-7.3809
Zinc Spec Hi Gde ($/tonne)
2942.0-2942.0 2947.5-2947.5 2926.5-2926.5
deposits % Montreal 1.7366-1.7477 1.7378-1.7381 2pr 5pr
Euro 1.1687-1.1693
Switzerland Fr
Turkey Lira
1.253
11.586
Hong Kong dollar 10.692-10.694
Currency New York 1.3627-1.3725 1.3721-1.3722 1pr 2pr USA $ 1.372 +0.01
Alum Hi Gde ($/tonne) India rupee 101.73-101.74
1mth 3mth 6mth 12mth Rates supplied by Morningstar
Oslo 12.208-12.303 12.221-12.225 1ds 60pr Indonesia rupiah 19748-19748
2609.0-2609.0 2589.0-2589.0 2555.0-2555.0 Dollar Kuwait dinar KD 0.4118-0.4141
Nickel ($/tonne) 0.13 0.20 0.29 0.55 Stockholm 11.941-12.016 11.957-11.961 23ds 66ds Malaysia ringgit 5.7832-5.7886
18895.0-18895.0 18898.0-18898.0 18910.0-18910.0 Sterling Tokyo 149.70-150.74 150.66-150.67 3ds 9ds New Zealand dollar 1.9903-1.9907 Data as shown is
0.05 0.07 0.09 0.21 Singapore dollar 1.8621-1.8625 for information
Zurich 1.2477-1.2557 1.2531-1.2533 10ds 28ds
Tin ($/tonne) 15mth Euro S Africa rand 20.753-20.766 purposes only. No offer is made by
33170.0-33170.0 32634.0-32634.0 30794.0-30794.0 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.50 Premium = pr Discount = ds U A E dirham 5.0340-5.0368 Morningstar or this publication
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 1GM 45

Business
The Times unit trust information service
Yld Yld Yld Yld Yld Yld
Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- % Sell Buy +/- %

ALLIANZ GLOBAL INVESTORS Moneybldr Glob 327.60 327.60 -0.10 0.21 Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Acc ‡@128.20 … -0.07 3.61 Stg Corp Bd A Inc ‡@ 60.56 … -0.10 … MARKS & SPENCER UNIT TRUST LTD Dynamic A Inc ‡@ 341.61 … +2.59 …
Inv Serv: 020 7065 1400 Helpline: 0800 317 573 Moneybldr Gwth ‡@ 76.12 … -0.95 … Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Acc Gross ‡@125.82 … +0.20 … UK Act 350 A Acc ‡@ 199.00 … -2.20 … 0808 005 5555 Growth A Acc ‡@ 387.94 … +2.55 0.79
Gilt Yield A ‡@ 206.01 … +0.27 … Moneybldr Inc ‡@ 38.54 … -0.08 … Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Inc ‡@81.45 … -0.05 5.15 UK Dynamic Acc ‡@ 212.60 … +2.40 1.16 High Income 110.60 110.60 +0.10 3.73 Income A Acc ‡@ 279.45 … +1.34 …
Strategic Bond Fund ‡@ 200.06 … -0.38 3.35 Moneybldr UK Ind ‡@ 120.77 … +1.07 2.19 Emerging Mkts Equity A Acc ‡@172.15 … +0.87 0.21 UK Dynamic Inc ‡@ 155.50 … +1.80 1.10 High Income Acc 290.70 290.70 +0.30 3.64 Sterling Bond Acc ‡@ 242.37 … -0.28 …
UK Corp Bond C ‡@ 104.79 … -0.78 … Special Sits ‡@ 4445.00 … +34.00 0.94 Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt A Acc ‡@186.25 … -0.06 … UK Equity A Acc ‡@ 401.90 … +0.60 … UK 100 Comp Acc @ 404.60 404.60 +1.70 1.87 Sterling Bond Inc ‡@ 97.00 … -0.11 …
UK Eqty C ‡@ 6317.26 … -14.91 3.28 Wealthbuilder 69.75 72.18 +0.53 … UK Equity A Inc ‡@ 46.44 … +0.07 … UK 100 Cos @ 211.50 211.50 +0.90 2.31
Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt A Inc ‡@80.75 … -0.03 …
UK Eqty Inc A ‡@ 329.09 … +2.62 3.11 UK Eqy & Bd Inc Acc ‡@ 167.10 … -0.20 3.41 UK Select Pflo @ 322.50 322.50 +1.70 2.05
Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt Gross I Acc ‡@220.49 … -0.05 …
UK Gwth A ‡@ 7703.42 … +38.15 1.05 UK Eqy & Bd Inc Inc ‡@ 90.29 … -0.48 3.50 UK Selection Port Acc @ 636.30 636.30 +3.30 2.06
Enhanced Natural Resources A Acc ‡@134.24 … -1.25 … UK Higher Inc A Acc ‡@ 1132.00 … +7.00 … THREADNEEDLE INVESTMENTS
UK Index A Inc ‡@ 1423.81 … -5.83 3.01 HALIFAX INVESTMENT FUND MGRS LTD Worldwide Mgd Acc @ 968.90 968.90 +1.60 0.28 Client Serv: 0800 0683000
Global Bond A Acc ‡@ 139.30 … +4.03 0.82 UK Higher Inc A Inc ‡@ 531.30 … +2.00 …
UK Mid Cap A ‡@ 6382.08 … +40.64 … 01296 386 386 Wwide Mgd @ 575.80 575.80 +1.00 0.28 Intermediary Serv: 0800 0684000
Global Bond A Inc ‡@ 109.33 … +3.00 0.82 UK Sm Cos A Acc ‡@ 773.60 … +6.60 …
Authorised Inv Funds Global Bond I Gross Inc ‡@1167.00 … +29.78 1.25 UK Str Eq Inc A Acc ‡@ 198.90 … +2.30 1.86 Institutional Shares (Class 2) (163500,000 min)
Share Class `C Global Dynamic A Acc ‡@ 205.12 … +1.67 0.24 UK Str Eq Inc A Inc ‡@ 104.40 … +1.20 1.83 MORGAN STANLEY INVESTMENT MGMT LTD UK Oseas Earns ‡@ 125.18 … +1.18 0.79
Corporate Bond ‡@ 41.13 … -0.09 … Global Energy A Acc ‡@ 170.97 … -1.14 … US A Acc ‡@ 1036.00 … +25.00 … Enquires: 0800 0961 962
ARTEMIS FUND MGRS LTD US Sm Cos A Acc ‡@ 1090.00 … +16.00 … The Morgan Stanley Funds (UK)
Ethical ‡@ 115.30 … +1.00 … Global Equity A Acc ‡@ 220.86 … +1.01 0.04
0800 092 2051 Class A Shares
European ‡@ 113.70 … +1.20 … Global Franchise A Acc ‡@313.23 … +0.80 …
Authorised Inv Funds Equity Managed Funds
Far Eastern ‡ 118.00 … +1.00 1.22 Global Free Enterprise A Acc ‡@1286.48 … +10.09 0.11
Capital R Acc ‡@ 1937.47 … +23.80 2.30 Fund of Inv Tst ‡@ 152.20 … +1.70 … Eur (Ex UK) Eq A Acc ‡@1310.92 … +4.24 1.25 Def Eqty & Bd Acc @ 128.00 128.00 +0.10 0.74
Global Gold A Acc ‡@ 173.52 … +1.32 …
Euro Opps R Acc ‡@ 91.26 … -0.48 … Intl Gwth ‡ 121.00 … +0.80 0.69 Glob Brands A Acc ‡@ 13146.06 … +57.09 0.81 Eqty & Bd Acc @ 179.90 179.90 +0.50 …
Euro Opps R Inc ‡@ 85.36 … -0.46 … Global Special Situations A Acc ‡@282.76 … +1.81 …
Japanese ‡ 69.06 … +0.56 0.56 UK Eq A Acc ‡@ 1184.53 … -0.02 … Mgd Income @ 77.80 77.80 +0.13 …
European Growth R Acc ‡@373.40 … +5.08 1.89 Global Special Situations A Inc ‡@218.70 … +1.39 … JUPITER UT MGRS LTD
North Amer ‡ 141.80 … +0.50 0.31
Global Energy R Acc ‡@ 24.12 … +0.25 2.58 Smaller Cos ‡@ 137.50 … -1.00 … Managed Growth A Acc ‡@290.33 … -0.54 0.30 020 7581 3020
Global Growth R Acc ‡@ 334.07 … +3.79 1.49 Special Sits ‡@ 52.77 … +0.44 1.34 Monthly High Income A Acc ‡@246.43 … +0.14 3.41 Fixed Income
Absolute Return ‡@ 39.03 … +0.10 …
Global Income R Acc ‡@ 149.75 … +0.64 2.69 UK Equity Inc ‡@ 87.64 … +1.04 3.10 Monthly High Income A Inc ‡@65.10 … +0.04 4.81 Retail Shares (Class 1)
Distribution and Growth ‡@108.34 … +0.78 2.49 Stg Corp Bd A Acc ‡@ 2618.35 … -3.81 2.00
Global Income R Inc ‡@ 99.45 … +0.43 2.77 UK FTSE 100 IT ‡@ 62.92 … +0.70 1.89 Multi-Asset Protector A Acc ‡@175.53 … +0.27 … Emg Euro Opps ‡@ 249.17 … +2.15 2.56 Stg Bd Ret Inc ‡@ 62.21 … -0.24 0.54
UK Ind Lnkd A Acc ‡@ 1350.60 … -3.80 …
Global Select R Acc ‡@ 162.25 … +1.42 … UK FTSE All-S IT ‡@ 75.35 … +1.22 1.70 Strategic Bond A Acc ‡@ 244.54 … +0.19 … Euro Special Sits ‡@ 544.86 … +5.22 … Strat Bd Ret ‡@ 48.33 … -0.01 2.20
UK Long Bd A Acc ‡@ 1288.90 … … …
High Income R Inc ‡@ 73.98 … +0.11 4.58 UK Growth ‡@ 81.77 … +0.98 1.73 Strategic Bond A Inc ‡@ 119.47 … +0.09 … European ‡@ 3228.58 … +26.14 … UK Corp Bond ‡@ 67.22 … -0.10 1.76
Income R Acc ‡@ 486.21 … +4.46 3.38 Target Return A Acc ‡@ 102.03 … +0.44 0.82 Financial Opps ‡@ 899.14 … +7.79 … UK Corp Ret ‡@ 67.08 … -0.11 1.44
Income R Inc ‡@ 226.27 … +2.08 3.48 Target Return A Inc ‡@ 87.63 … +0.01 0.87 Income Trust ‡@ 486.18 … +4.99 3.20 SANTANDER UNIT TST MGRS UK Eqty Inc Ret ‡@ 100.74 … +0.77 2.90
Monthly Dist R Inc ‡@ 70.92 … +0.11 3.29 Merlin Bal (Acc) ‡@ 227.86 … -0.08 1.75 08457 413002 UK Gwth & Inc Ret ‡@ 97.98 … +0.83 1.99
HSBC GLOBAL ASSET MGMT (UK) LTD UK Alpha A Acc ‡@ 2704.03 … +23.87 0.94
Strategic Assets R Acc ‡ 78.86 … +0.71 … Merlin Gwth (Acc) ‡@ 531.83 … +4.35 … UK Hi Yld Bd 1 ‡@ 42.77 … +0.01 3.60
UK Blue Chip A Acc ‡@ 770.11 … +3.15 … Bal Pfolio Inc ‡@ 110.50 … +0.40 2.41
Strategic Bond R M Acc ‡@107.08 … -0.03 1.80 Enq: 0845 745 6123 Dlg: 0845 745 6126 Mon-Fri 8-6 UK Inst Acc ‡@ 176.97 … +1.89 0.90
UK Smaller Companies A Acc ‡@7387.75 … +49.88 … Merlin Inc (Acc) ‡@ 351.86 … +0.49 … Bal Port Gwth Acc ‡@ 245.70 … +0.80 1.28
Strategic Bond R M Inc ‡@ 58.78 … -0.01 1.82 HSBC Index Tracker Investment Funds (OEIC) UK Mnthly Extra Inc ‡@ 85.71 … +0.44 2.74
UK Smaller Companies A Inc ‡@6626.42 … +44.75 … Merlin Wwide (Inc) ‡@ 386.79 … +2.62 … Equity Inc Inc ‡@ 232.50 … +2.00 3.30
Strategic Bond R Q Acc ‡@106.89 … -0.03 1.80 Amer Ind Acc ‡@ 882.14 … +3.62 1.01 UK Growth ‡@ 257.92 … +2.33 0.23 UK Mnthly Inc Ret ‡@ 71.47 … +0.68 3.50
N&P UK Gwth Inc ‡@ 182.80 … +0.10 3.09
Strategic Bond R Q Inc ‡@ 58.76 … -0.01 1.82 Amer Ind Inc ‡@ 715.84 … +2.94 0.97 UK Special Situations A Acc ‡@1356.91 … +14.27 0.58 UK Retail ‡@ 139.73 … +1.44 1.07
UK Special Sits (Inc) ‡@ 193.13 … +2.17 1.10 Stkmkt 100 Tkr @ 233.80 233.80 +2.30 1.45
UK Growth R Acc ‡@ 742.61 … +7.38 0.33 Euro Ind Acc ‡@ 1193.47 … +12.49 1.72 UK Special Situations A Inc ‡@498.05 … +5.24 0.59 UK Sel Retail ‡@ 128.10 … +1.41 1.70
UK Growth Acc ‡@ 511.60 … +4.10 2.41
UK Smaller Cos R Acc ‡@2071.45 … +6.47 … Euro Ind Inc ‡@ 782.40 … +8.12 1.72 UK Smaller Cos ‡@ 504.07 … +3.83 …
UK Growth Inc ‡@ 287.20 … +2.30 2.46
UK Special Sits R Acc ‡@ 749.78 … +8.04 0.80 FTSE 100 Ind Acc ‡@ 246.26 … +1.44 2.61
FTSE 100 Ind Inc ‡@ 117.57 … +0.69 2.61
FTSE 250 Ind Acc ‡@ 341.47 … +2.76 1.43 SCOTTISH MUTUAL INV MNGRS LTD
FTSE 250 Ind Inc ‡@ 215.87 … +1.75 1.39 0141 248 6100 For Resolution see Ignis
LEGAL & GENERAL (UT MGRS) LTD
AXA FRAMLINGTON UNIT MGMT LTD FTSE All-S Acc ‡@ 660.17 … +6.99 2.49 TU FUND MANAGERS LIMITED
For ISIS Asset Mgmt see F&C Fd Mgmt Ltd (OEICS) Enquiries: 0870 050 0955 Dealing: 0870 050 0956 European Inc 1783.23 1880.12 +18.37 0.80
Dling: 0845 602 1952 Priv Clients: 0845 777 5511 FTSE All-S Inc ‡@ 350.46 … +3.71 2.49 Far Eastern Inc 584.69 617.09 -0.73 … British 995.40 995.40 +9.80 0.48
Equity Acc @ 2616.00 2639.00 -8.00 2.12
Jap Ind Acc ‡@ 144.02 … +1.47 1.54 JANUS HENDERSON INVESTORS Intl Growth Inc 380.56 400.59 +0.02 … European 210.70 219.40 +1.00 …
Equity Inc ‡@ 572.40 … -2.70 … Equity Dist @ 893.80 902.00 -2.70 2.15
Jap Ind Inc ‡@ 114.86 … +1.17 1.53 Japanese Inc 41.85 41.85 +0.43 0.56
Gilt Acc @ 201.30 211.80 +0.10 … Investors Serv: 0800 832 832 Dlng: 0845 946 4646 Euro Ind Acc ‡@ 527.90 … +5.50 1.13
Pac Ind Acc ‡@ 509.10 … +7.74 2.08 Mutual European 2857.38 3011.92 +29.43 0.80
Gilt Inc @ 74.35 78.24 -0.39 … Euro Ind Inc ‡@ 354.30 … +3.70 1.14 * Yield expressed as CAR (Compound Annual Return);
Pac Ind Inc ‡@ 328.92 … +5.00 2.08 Mutual Far Eastern 1036.04 1093.45 +7.60 …
Health Acc ‡@ 2784.00 … +16.00 … All Stks Credit A Inc ‡@ 144.60 … -0.20 1.48 Fixed Int Acc ‡@ 162.90 … -0.30 … † Ex dividend; ‡Middle price; . . . No significant data. #
Jap Smlr Co Ac @ 62.56 66.09 -0.19 0.30 Asian Div Inc U Trst Inc ‡@86.18 … +0.37 … Fixed Int Dist ‡@ 78.60 … -0.18 … Mutual North Am 1983.00 2092.88 +6.23 0.24 Periodic charge deducted from capital; @ Exit charge
Managed Inc ‡@ 138.30 … … … Mutual UK Eq 1326.68 1400.19 +13.96 2.25
Monthly Inc Inc ‡@ 254.80 … +1.40 … Nth American Inc 1227.65 1295.67 -7.28 …
HSBC Investment Funds (OEIC) - Retail Share Class
UK Equity Inc 573.80 605.59 +6.05 2.30
UK Growth Inc ‡@ 266.70
UK Select Opps Inc ‡@ 2199.00
…
…
+2.60
+17.00
0.43
0.30 Balanced Acc ‡@
Balanced Inc ‡@
247.50
151.95
…
…
+0.99
-0.14
0.52
…
British funds
UK Sml Cos Inc ‡@ 430.70 … +1.60 …
Corp Bd Acc ‡@ 325.94 … -0.57 … SCOTTISH WIDOWS UNIT TRUST MGRS 12 month Price Int Yld Grs rd
Corp Bd Inc ‡@ 132.22 … -0.23 … 0845 300 2244 High Low Stock (£) +/– % yld
Gilt & Fd Int Acc ‡@ 497.78 … +1.62 … Authorised Inv Funds (OEICs)
Gilt & Fd Int Inc ‡@ 74.17 … +0.24 … OEIC A Class Index-linked
AXA FUND MANAGERS LTD Income Acc ‡@ 645.68 … +8.84 2.97 Managed Investment Funds 111.74 107.69 Tr IL 1Y% 22 107.80 + .02 1.79 –4.16
Admin & Enq 0117 989 0808 Income Inc ‡@ 282.40 … +3.86 3.08 364.38 354.43 Tr IL 2K% 24 * 359.94 + .28 1.50 –3.07
Bal Port A Acc ‡@ 237.60 … +0.80 …
AXA Trusts Monthly Inc Acc ‡@ 310.20 … +2.85 2.96 112.37 108.92 Tr IL 0V% 24 109.26 + .08 … –3.29
Caut Port A Acc ‡@ 207.10 … +0.30 0.43 120.25 115.34 Tr IL 0V% 26 116.38 + .04 … –3.17
Gen Acc ‡@ 2101.00 … +6.00 2.64 Monthly Inc Inc ‡@ 134.64 … +1.24 3.01 Caut Port A Inc ‡@ 152.00 … +0.30 0.60 136.38 128.69 Tr IL 1N% 27 130.71 + .07 1.05 –3.16
Gen Inc ‡@ 1079.00 … -2.00 2.70 UK Grth & Inc Ret B Acc ‡@134.46 … +1.84 2.84 Opps Port A Acc ‡@ 280.20 … +1.30 … 129.83 122.67 Tr IL 0V% 28 125.33 + .06 … –3.11
UK Grth & Inc Ret B Inc ‡@63.17 … +0.87 2.90 Prog Port A Acc ‡@ 266.60 … +1.10 … 131.98 123.92 Tr IL 0V% 29 127.17 + .05 … –3.04
UK Gth & Inc Acc ‡@ 134.46 … +1.84 2.84 136.78 130.97 Tr IL 0V% 31 135.97 + .06 … –2.95
393.65 366.57 Tr IL 4V% 30 * 382.45 + .17 1.69 –2.90
UK Gth & Inc Inc ‡@ 63.17 … +0.87 2.90 163.88 149.94 Tr IL 1N% 32 156.04 + .09 0.80 –2.92
UK/Global Investment Companies Overseas Growth Investment Funds 161.19 146.68 Tr IL 0O% 34 154.31 + .14 … –2.82
Eur Sel Gth A Acc ‡@ 3619.00 … +15.00 0.32 310.21 284.82 Tr IL 2% 35 * 305.92 + .35 0.80 –2.71
Euro Acc A ‡@ 234.70 … … 1.18 159.59 143.91 Tr IL 0V% 36 155.15 + .27 … –2.76
Extra Inc Inc B ‡@ 86.74 … +0.24 … HSBC Specialist Investment Funds (OEIC) 186.42 167.60 Tr IL 1V% 37 180.05 + .33 0.66 –2.75
Global Gwth Acc R ‡@ 288.80 … +1.90 0.48 163.10 151.90 Tr IL 0V% 39 162.84 + .46 … –2.66
American Index Retail Acc ‡@882.14 … +3.62 1.01 Tracker and Specialist Investment Funds 181.84 162.72 Tr IL 0X% 40 179.15 + .54 … –2.65
Japan Acc A ‡@ 172.70 … +1.70 1.61 173.61 153.83 Tr IL 0V% 41 172.68 + .59 … –2.62
American Index Retail Inc ‡@715.84 … +2.94 0.97 UK Trkr A Acc ‡@ 340.90 … +1.40 2.04
Pac Gwth Acc A ‡@ 524.20 … +5.00 … 192.77 170.46 Tr IL 0X% 42 192.03 + .68 0.33 –2.59
Asian Gth Acc ‡@ 147.77 … -0.07 … UK Trkr A Inc ‡@ 179.80 … +0.70 2.08 182.47 158.61 Tr IL 0V% 44 181.92 + .82 … –2.54
Asian Gth Inc ‡@ 130.99 … -0.06 … 190.76 163.05 Tr IL 0V% 46 190.24 +1.04 … –2.51
Chinese Eq Acc ‡@ 513.81 … +0.27 … 223.12 190.09 Tr IL 0O% 47 222.48 +1.19 0.34 –2.52
Chinese Eq Inc ‡@ 434.76 … +0.22 … UK and Income Investment Funds 202.90 169.38 Tr IL 0V% 48 202.34 +1.21 … –2.51
CIS UNIT MANAGERS LTD Euro Gth Acc ‡@ 981.46 … +11.10 0.42 225.61 187.79 Tr IL 0K% 50 224.98 +1.34 … –2.48
Corp Bond A Acc ‡@ 359.20 … +0.10 … 224.92 183.97 Tr IL 0N% 52 224.22 +1.56 … –2.45
08457 46 46 46 Euro Gth Inc ‡@ 823.34 … +9.31 0.45 Corp Bond A Inc ‡@ 137.10 … … … 299.48 243.63 Tr IL 1N% 55 298.45 +2.30 0.46 –2.43
European Gwth ‡@ 213.80 … +2.20 0.19 Envir Invtr A Acc ‡@ 402.90 … +1.80 0.52 242.56 192.25 Tr IL 0V% 56 241.27 +2.09 … –2.40
Sus Leaders ‡@ 829.20 … +6.00 0.67 Hi Inc Bond A Ac ‡@ 257.60 … +0.10 … 251.16 196.27 Tr IL 0V% 58 249.76 +2.68 … –2.41
291.93 223.37 Tr IL 0W% 62 290.31 +3.49 … –2.38
UK Growth ‡@ 679.10 … +5.50 0.69 Hi Inc Bond A Inc ‡@ 82.39 … +0.04 … 302.98 224.55 Tr IL 0V% 65 301.11 +4.05 … –2.40
IGNIS ASSET MGMT
UK Income ‡@ 217.70 … +1.00 3.89 Hi Res A Acc ‡@ 386.10 … +1.60 3.03 327.47 240.40 Tr IL 0V% 68 325.75 +4.42 … –2.45
Dlg: 0141 222 8282
Hi Res A Inc ‡@ 127.60 … +0.50 3.09
American Gth Inc @ 322.55 340.42 -3.34 … Safety Plus A Acc ‡@ 40.49 … … … Longs (Over 15 years)
Balanced Growth @ 262.17 276.69 -0.93 1.52 Strat Inc A Acc ‡@ 230.20 … … … 156.30 140.76 Tr 4N% 36 147.41 – .20 2.88 0.79
Balanced Growth Acc @ 393.13 414.92 -1.40 1.49 Strat Inc A Inc ‡@ 105.70 … … 1.70 119.23 106.39 Tr 1O% 37 113.14 – .19 … 0.87
CLOSE FUND MANAGEMENT LTD
Corporate Bond ‡@ 99.69 … -0.89 … UK Gwth A Acc ‡@ 192.70 … +1.10 1.49 172.92 154.30 Tr 4O% 38 162.54 – .27 2.92 0.85
0870 606 6402 165.73 147.55 Tr 4N% 39 156.15 – .25 2.72 0.88
European Growth @ 403.88 426.26 -3.57 2.18 UK Sel Gwth A Acc ‡@ 2434.00 … +15.00 0.87
Beacon Inv ‡ 84.88 … +0.35 0.01 European Growth Acc @ 475.71 502.07 -4.21 2.24 168.75 149.58 Tr 4N% 40 159.08 – .26 … 0.90
111.54 97.05 Tr 1N% 41 105.56 – .21 … 0.95
Glob Gwth @ 331.53 349.90 -3.09 0.12 155.07 135.48 Tr 3N% 44 146.28 – .24 … 0.95
Higher Yield @ 83.98 88.64 -0.29 … OEIC B Class 179.39 157.72 Tr 4K% 42 168.94 – .29 2.66 0.92
Higher Yield Acc @ 275.04 290.28 -0.92 … Tracker and Specialist Investment Funds 162.61 141.72 Tr 3K% 45 153.39 – .25 … 0.95
Japan @ 49.06 51.78 -0.03 0.94 184.83 160.09 Tr 4N% 46 173.81 – .32 2.45 0.96
Dealing: 020 7426 6232 UK Trkr B Acc ‡@ 375.80 … +1.50 2.46 101.07 87.91 Tr 0Y% 46 97.70 – .19 … 0.98
Winchester ‡ 3707.90 … -25.53 0.69 Managed @ 130.89 138.15 -0.06 … UK Trkr B Inc ‡@ 179.00 … +0.80 2.51 119.35 101.25 Tr 1K% 47 112.42 – .23 … 0.96
Managed Trust @ 71.96 76.96 +0.17 … 126.89 107.13 Tr 1O% 49 119.25 – .26 … 0.95
Mngd Pfolio Inc @ 95.54 100.84 -0.11 … 193.72 166.14 Tr 4N% 49 182.24 – .35 2.33 0.93
Pacific Grth @ 498.71 526.34 -2.81 … UK and Income Investment Funds 97.84 80.47 Tr 0X% 50 91.81 – .22 … 0.95
Cautious Man Fd A Acc ‡@301.90 … +1.20 3.11 Glob Gwth Acc @ 243.90 243.90 -1.30 1.15 213.54 175.21 Tr 0V% 51 212.91 +1.39 … –2.45
Smaller Comp @ 756.24 798.14 +1.64 0.15 Corp Bond B Acc ‡@ 370.70 … +0.90 … 107.88 95.12 Tr 1N% 51 107.51 – .24 … 0.96
EDENTREE INV MGMT LTD Cautious Man Fd A Inc ‡@155.40 … +0.70 3.16 Glob Health Acc ‡@ 105.10 … +1.10 0.71
Smaller Cos @ 628.94 663.79 +1.36 0.21 Corp Bond B Inc ‡@ 136.30 … +0.30 … 187.66 158.62 Tr 3O% 52 175.51 – .40 … 0.93
0800 358 3010 China Opp Fund A Acc ‡@1537.00 … +14.00 0.13 Glob Tech Acc ‡@ 97.23 … +2.05 0.20 136.30 110.32 Tr 1O% 57 126.28 – .40 … 0.89
Emg Mkts Opps Fd A Acc ‡@234.80 … +2.50 0.02 Gwth Tst Acc @ 106.00 106.50 -1.00 0.17 UK Gwth B Acc ‡@ 205.60 … -0.30 1.79
Amity European A ‡ 319.90 … +2.60 0.83 217.37 179.62 Tr 4% 60 202.63 – .45 … 0.86
Erpn Grth Fund A Acc ‡@ 296.40 … +2.50 0.40 High Inc Acc ‡@ 143.30 … +0.10 4.51 UK Sel Gwth B Acc ‡@ 2481.00 … … 1.09 96.18 73.87 Tr 0K% 61 88.48 – .28 … 0.84
Amity International A ‡ 369.90 … +3.10 0.03 174.06 139.05 Tr 2K% 65 161.01 – .40 … 0.84
INSIGHT INVESTMENT FDS MANAGEMENT LTD Erpn Sel Opps Fd A Acc ‡@2270.00 … +21.00 0.27 Japan Ind Acc ‡@ 70.70 … +0.70 1.39
Amity Sterling Bond A ‡ 106.10 … -0.10 3.36 128.57 105.36 Tr 1X% 54 119.73 – .37 … 0.93
Client Servs: 0207 163 4000 Fix Int Mnthly Inc Fd Acc ‡@34.83 … +0.02 4.08 Pacific Ind Acc ‡@ 204.20 … +2.20 … OEIC C Class 149.84 114.27 Tr 1X% 71 136.02 – .37 … 0.76
Amity UK A Inc ‡ 273.60 … +1.60 0.38
Insight Investment Multi-Manager Funds Global Equity Fund Acc ‡@4793.00 … +26.00 … UK 100 Ind Acc @ 180.90 180.90 +0.90 3.19 UK and Income Investment Funds 220.73 177.31 Tr 3K% 68 204.25 – .43 … 0.82
Higher Income A ‡ 134.20 … +0.70 3.54
Global Equity Income A Inc ‡@65.05 … +0.35 3.01 UK Active Opps Acc @ 249.90 252.90 -0.10 … 212.62 178.26 Tr 4N% 55 198.58 – .43 2.14 0.90
UK Equity Growth A ‡ 364.00 … +3.00 0.53 Well Bldr Bal Acc ‡@ 96.05 … -0.32 … UK Gth C Inc ‡@ 132.50 … +0.70 2.24
Global Tech A Acc ‡@ 3346.00 … +22.00 … UK Index Acc ‡@ 325.00 … +3.30 2.25
Well Bldr Gwth Acc ‡@ 93.79 … -0.36 …
Instl UK Idx Opps A Acc ‡@108.58 … +1.16 1.86 UK Index Dist ‡@ 164.60 … +1.70 2.29 UK Sel Gwth C Acc ‡@ 2598.00 … … 1.29 Mediums (5-15 years)
M-Asset Abs Ret A Acc ‡@155.40 … … … US Ind Acc ‡@ 792.30 … +9.30 0.71 102.64 101.18 Tr 0O% 23 101.24 – .03 … 0.10
M-Man Active Fd A Acc ‡@269.20 … +1.10 … Worldwide Acc ‡@ 376.60 … +2.90 0.39 107.21 104.32 Tr 2N% 23 104.35 – .04 … 0.11
F & C FUND MANAGEMENT LTD (OEICS) STANDARD LIFE INVESTMENTS 100.64 99.69 Tr 0V% 24 99.85 – .04 … 0.19
INVESCO FUND MGRS LTD M-Man Inc Grth A Inc ‡@ 162.40 … +0.10 2.01 0845 279 3003
Enqs: 0870 601 6183 Dealing: 0870 601 6083 104.23 102.18 Tr 1% 24 102.26 – .05 … 0.15
Dling: 0800 085 8571 Inv Serv: 0800 085 8677 M-Man Inc Grth Fd A Acc ‡@200.20 … +0.20 1.98 Investment Funds (OEIC) - Retail Shares 111.65 107.75 Tr 2O% 24 107.82 – .06 … 0.17
Share Class 1 - Retail Sterling Bond U Trst Acc ‡@253.70 … -0.50 … 123.21 116.93 Tr 5% 25 116.97 – .09 4.27 0.19
Brkr Serv: 0800 028 2121 M & G SECURITIES
Corporate Bd ‡@ 61.13 … -0.08 … Sterling Bond U Trst Inc ‡@70.80 … -0.14 … AAA Inc CAT Acc ‡@ 102.00 … -0.10 … 103.60 101.32 Tr 0X% 25 101.63 – .08 … 0.19
INVESCO Funds Enq: 0800 390 390 Dealing Line: 0800 328 3196
Emerging Mkts ‡@ 135.50 … +1.30 … Strategic Bond A Inc ‡@ 131.90 … … 3.31 AAA Inc CAT Inc ‡@ 58.37 … -0.08 … 110.77 107.00 Tr 2% 25 107.22 – .09 … 0.20
UK Str Inc N/Trl ‡@ 323.57 … -0.12 7.05 Authorised Inv Funds AAA Income Acc ‡@ 110.40 … -0.10 … 101.04 98.61 Tr 0V% 26 99.40 – .09 … 0.26
Euro Gwth & Inc 1 ‡@ 1348.00 … +17.00 … UK Abs Ret Fd A Acc ‡@ 168.60 … +0.10 … 109.41 105.42 Tr 1K% 26 106.07 – .11 … 0.25
Extra Inc Bond ‡@ 50.17 … … 1.65 UK Alpha Fund A Acc ‡@ 181.20 … +1.60 0.25 Charifund Inc ‡ 1558.30 … +10.31 4.34 Amer Eq Gth Acc ‡@ 221.60 … +1.20 …
108.78 104.13 Tr 1N% 27 105.38 – .10 … 0.33
FTSE All-Shr Track ‡@ 420.80 … +4.50 2.13 UK Irsh Sm Co Fd A Acc ‡@742.50 … -1.70 … Corp Bond Acc ‡@ 192.80 … -0.30 … 130.84 123.55 Tr 4N% 27 124.27 – .12 3.42 0.34
Global Gwth SC1 ‡@ 353.70 … +2.30 … UK Property A Acc @ 240.27 252.37 +0.04 2.46 Corp Bond Inc ‡@ 67.31 … -0.14 … 100.62 96.45 Tr 0V% 28 98.35 – .09 … 0.38
INVESCO PERPETUAL Funds Euro Eq Gth Acc ‡@ 269.90 … +2.60 0.33 112.91 106.76 Tr 1X% 28 108.70 – .12 … 0.39
High Inc Trst @ 12.84 13.52 +0.02 4.89 UK Property A Inc @ 98.07 103.01 +0.01 2.50 Sterling Class A Investment Funds 1 148.52 138.76 Tr 6% 28 140.02 – .15 4.29 0.42
Childrens Acc ‡@ 479.39 … +4.11 1.32 US Growth Fund A Acc ‡@1953.00 … +12.00 … Glb Advtg CAT Acc ‡@ 163.50 … +0.90 0.58
Max Inc Bond ‡@ 49.97 … +0.02 … Euro Smlr Cos Acc ‡ 549.29 … +4.91 … 106.90 100.42 Tr 0Y% 29 103.14 – .11 … 0.48
Corp Bond Acc ‡@ 228.73 … -0.14 … Glob Advtg Acc ‡@ 216.00 … +1.20 0.56 101.85 94.93 Tr 0W% 30 98.36 – .12 … 0.56
Multi Man Caut ‡@ 70.41 … … 3.18 Euro Smlr Cos Inc ‡ 486.69 … +4.35 …
High Income Inc ‡@ 320.14 … +2.84 2.97 Glob Eq Uncstrd Acc ‡@ 169.10 … +0.70 … 146.51 135.20 Tr 4O% 30 138.12 – .17 3.44 0.54
Multi Man Distr ‡@ 60.44 … … 3.37
Income & Grth Inc ‡@ 424.91 … +3.02 2.71 Higher Inc Acc ‡@ 153.70 … +0.10 … 99.94 92.54 Tr 0N% 31 96.37 – .14 … 0.63
North Amer ‡@ 796.30 … +3.30 … 145.77 133.57 Tr 4N% 32 137.57 – .18 3.09 0.64
Income Inc ‡@ 1287.88 … +11.37 2.38 Higher Inc Inc ‡@ 51.02 … +0.02 …
Pacific Gwth ‡@ 522.70 … +7.10 … 155.85 141.18 Tr 4K% 34 146.68 – .18 3.07 0.74
Money Acc ‡@ 91.00 … … … Sterling Class A Investment Funds 2 Japan Eq Gth Acc ‡@ 125.00 … +2.20 … 101.77 91.57 Tr 0X% 35 97.32 – .14 … 0.83
Strategic Bd ‡@ 210.80 … … 0.64 JP MORGAN ASSET MGMT
Monthly Inc Plus Inc ‡@ 108.33 … +0.13 … Managed Acc ‡@ 348.20 … +1.90 0.49
UK Equity ‡@ 3440.00 … +26.00 0.32 OEIC Extra Income Inc ‡ 745.71 … +4.54 4.13
UK Aggressive Inc ‡@ 154.28 … -0.24 3.15 Select Inc Acc ‡@ 98.24 … -0.19 2.59 Shorts (under 5 years)
UK Gwth & Inc Acc 1 ‡@ 658.50 … … … Gilt & Fxd Int Inc ‡ 103.38 … -0.35 0.78
UK Growth Acc ‡@ 741.84 … +9.26 1.38 Asia A Acc ‡@ 297.80 … +3.00 … Select Inc Inc ‡@ 56.53 … -0.11 2.63
UK Gwth & Inc Dist ‡@ 234.70 … … … Gl Hi Yd Bd Inc ‡ 47.98 … +0.32 4.37 103.96 100.14 Tr 3O% 21 100.14 – .01 … 0.04
UK Sml Cos Eqty Acc ‡@ 1835.43 … +8.47 … Emerging Mkts ‡@ 314.90 … +2.00 … UK Eq Gth Acc ‡@ 365.30 … +3.40 1.41 142.92 135.65 Tr 8% 21 141.44 – .10 5.66 1.19
UK Smaller Cos ‡@ 1270.00 … +9.00 … Index Linked Bd Inc ‡ 171.68 … -0.61 …
UK Sml Cos Gwth ‡@ 82.54 … +0.04 … Eur Dyn (ex-UK) A Acc ‡@293.50 … +3.30 0.53 UK Eq Hi Alpha ‡@ 226.10 … +2.30 2.31 101.18 100.36 Tr 0K% 22 100.39 – .02 … 0.07
Index Trckr Inc ‡ 75.86 … +0.81 2.83 103.79 101.74 Tr 1O% 22 101.74 – .02 … 0.08
Euro Smllr Cos ‡@ 1114.00 … +13.00 … UK Eq Hi Inc Acc ‡@ 249.60 … +2.50 2.98
Short Dated Corp Bd Inc ‡ 26.09 … -0.01 1.32 106.20 102.14 Tr 4% 22 102.14 – .02 3.92 0.03
Europe A Acc ‡@ 1898.00 … +21.00 1.57 UK Eq Hi Inc Inc ‡@ 73.65 … +0.75 3.06
UK Select A Inc ‡ 3346.47 … +9.70 1.95 100.57 99.96 Tr 0V% 23 100.02 – .02 … 0.11
Gbl Hi Yld Bd A Acc ‡@ 128.90 … +0.10 4.33 UK Ethical Acc ‡@ 254.00 … +1.50 0.45 100.41 99.18 Tr 0W% 26 100.24 – .11 … 0.33
FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL INVESTEC FUND MGRS Gbl Hi Yld Bd A Inc ‡@ 35.69 … +0.04 4.44 UK Opps Acc ‡@ 358.40 … +3.40 …
Private Clnts 0800 414161 Broker Dlgs 0800 414181 Broker Support and Dealing: 020 7597 1900 Gl ex-UK Bd A Acc ‡@ 292.00 … -0.20 … UK Opps Inc ‡@ 325.80 … +3.10 … * maturities having an eight-month indexation lag.
Amer Spec Sits ‡@ 1980.00 … +6.00 … OEIC Series i,ii,iii, & iv Gl ex-UK Bd A Inc ‡@ 223.70 … -0.20 … Sterling Class A Investment Funds 3 UK Smlr Cos Acc ‡@ 1181.00 … +11.00 …
American ‡@ 5941.00 … +20.00 … American A Acc ‡@ 695.45 … +2.48 … Glb Fins A Acc ‡@ 1077.00 … +1.00 1.03 This is a paid for information service. For
Corp Bd A Inc ‡ 41.72 … -0.07 2.58
Euro Opps ‡@ 615.70 … +5.80 … Asia ex Japan A Acc ‡@ 817.67 … +8.46 … Global A Acc ‡@ 2345.00 … +17.00 … Dividend Inc ‡ 55.59 … +0.43 4.62
further details on a particular fund, readers
European ‡@ 3302.00 … +31.00 0.28 Capital Accumulator A Acc ‡@231.48 … -3.81 … Japan A Acc ‡@ 676.30 … +11.30 … SVS BROWN SHIPLEY FUNDS should contact their fund manager.
Recovery A Inc ‡ 122.46 … +1.39 1.69
Extra Income ‡@ 28.71 … -0.02 3.06 Cautious Managed A Acc ‡@421.79 … +0.30 1.62 Multi-Man Tst A Acc ‡@ 1467.00 … +18.00 0.71 Enquiries: 0141 222 1151
Sml Cos Inc ‡ 477.63 … +4.24 …
Glob Spec Sits ‡@ 5715.00 … +37.00 … Cautious Managed A Inc ‡@272.69 … +0.19 1.64 Multi-Man Tst A Inc ‡@ 1310.00 … +16.00 0.73 Balanced A Acc ‡@ 156.34 … +0.78 0.85
Global Focus ‡@ 3162.00 … +19.00 … Diversified Growth A Acc ‡@142.86 … +0.11 0.54 Nat Resources ‡@ 663.10 … +6.80 1.87 Balanced A Inc ‡@ 141.50 … +0.71 0.85
Data as shown is
International ‡@ 149.50 … +0.20 … Diversified Growth A Inc ‡@152.19 … +0.12 0.56 New Europe A ‡@ 257.90 … +1.90 1.94 Cautious A Acc ‡@ 127.08 … +0.42 1.35 for information
Japan ‡@ 521.20 … +6.20 0.22 Diversified Income A Acc ‡@337.62 … -0.22 2.43 Portfolio ‡@ 326.80 … +0.80 1.06 Sterling Class A Investment Funds 4 Cautious A Inc ‡@ 112.39 … +0.37 1.36 purposes only. No offer is made by
Moneybldr Bal ‡@ 48.07 … +0.11 3.09 Diversified Income A Inc ‡@76.20 … -0.05 3.86 Stg Corp Bd A Acc ‡@ 106.20 … -0.20 … Episode Allocation A Inc ‡@143.93 … +1.39 1.90 Dynamic A Acc ‡@ 374.86 … +2.84 … Morningstar or this publication
46 1GM Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

Business Equity prices

Dividend yields Please note dividend yields are 12 month Price 12 month Price 12 month Price 12 month Price
supplied by Morningstar. The yield is the sum of a High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E

company’s trailing 12-month dividend payments 248K 144O M&G‡ 212 + 2 8.4 4.8 544O 322 Br Land 520 – 1K 1.6 -4.6 104 43 SigmaRocv 104 + 2K … 44.2 1W X Feedbackv X … … -3.9
divided by the last month’s ending share price 219 107K Man‡ 214K – 1O 3.3 31.5 152K 110 Caledonian Tstv 145 … … … 125 71W Sirius Real Estate 123W – 1W 2.5 10.3 1550 972 Gooch Hsegov 1445 + 30 … …

9N 6K Manx Finv 8 … … 6.4 186N 99 Cap & Count Prop 169O + W 0.5 -2.0 126K 111K Smart (J) 126K + 1 2.5 12.9 3580 2790 Goodwin 3285 + 35 2.4 36.9
12 month Price 12 month Price 6V Y Marechale Capv 2 … … … 92 34Y Cap & Regnl 67O + O 16.2 -0.3 53K 23K Steppe Cementv 53 + 1 7.2 14.2 3001 2158 Halma 3001 – 12 0.5 55.9
High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E
11463X 7536 Marsh McLn 11463X + 155Y 1.1 36.1 1850 1720 Cardiff Prop 1850 … 0.9 12.3 191X 99V Taylor Wimpey 173K – 1Y … 27.9 1820 1170 Hill & Smith 1784 – 50 0.5 59.4
145N 81K Town Centre 135N + 3O 3.7 -2.6 68K 37K Holders Techv 68K … 0.7 …
W Drumzv … … -1.4 760 625 Mattioli Woodsv 722K + 2K 2.7 19.6 47K 28 Carecapitalv 38W – K … -4.3
Automobiles & parts 122
O
89 EFG-Hermes Hldg 104Y
K
… … 5.8 32K 19 Metal Tigerv 25K – N … -0.4 154K 79W Clarke T 137 – 1K 3.2 50.9
1900N 989 Travis Perkins 1769 + 4 … … 4N 1Y Image Scanv 2W … … …
407 197K EPE Special Oppsv 407 … … 3.4 235W 150 Tritax Big Box REIT‡ 235W – V 2.7 8.9
149Y 58 Metro Bank 100V + V … -0.5 262 191 CLS Hldgs‡ 245K – 4 3.0 12.9 1790 1019 IMI‡ 1760 – 7 1.9 28.1
2273 965K Aston Martin Lag 1910 – 5 … -3.5
786O 499W FBD 654X … … 60.9 507 199 Tyman‡ 406 – 12 … 21.3
1452V 871X Nat Aust Bk 1437K – 1 2.3 17.0 565 310 Countryside Prop 565 + 6 … … V … Inspirit Energyv … … … -4.0
85 65 Fiskev 80 … … … 98W 51K U + I 92 … … -1.3
Banking & finance 70 41 Frenkel Toppingv 70 + K 2.8 68.6
220 93N NWG‡ 212O … 1.4 … 76O 30 Craven Housev 42X – 1O … -0.2
1237 809K Unite Group 1205 – 19K … …
6760 4800 Judges Scientificv 6700 – 50 0.7 52.0

398 286K Numisv 355 – 7 3.3 7.5 3846 2636 CRH 3757 + 1 1.7 36.2 96K 66K LPAv 76K … … 17.9
720 345 Georgia Capital 625 … … 3.4
1346K 529 Vistry Group 1184K – 17K … 34.1
331 208Y abrdn‡ 263X – N 8.1 6.9 955 662K Gresham Housev 903 + 18 0.5 … 501K 254W Onesavings Bank 498K – 7W … 11.7 3773 2360 Derwent London 3718 – 22 1.9 … 834V 252 Meggitt 834V – 4K … …
3686 2556 Admiral 3686 + 10 3.0 21.6 167K 105 Warehouse REITv 163O + O 3.8 4.6
1665 955 Gresh Hse Stratv 1590 … 1.5 3.3 N … Origo Partnersv V … 76.0 … 4K 2Y Dolphin Capitalv 4V … … -2.3 186O 95W Melrose 164N – K … …
83 11 ADVFNv 66K … … 39.8 958 482W Workspace Grp 923K – 47K 2.6 -7.0
325 198 H&T Groupv 301K – 2K 0.8 9.3 712 497 PayPoint 712 + 9 4.3 32.5 40 28K First Propv 31O + 412 210 Morgan Advanced 390 – 5 0.5 …
475 403 AJ Bell 427V – 2O 1.1 51.2 N 5.2 11.8
735 565 Wynnstay Propsv 735 … 2.1 5.4
223 148 Amryt Pharmav 174K + 1 … -4.3 65 30X Hansard Global 59K + 2K 7.4 18.0
30K 18K PCF Groupv# 24 … 1.6 10.4 47K 31K Fletcher Kingv 47K … 3.1 -9.5 610 280 Mpacv 581 … … 35.8
20554O 13173N Aon Corpn 20426K + 62X 0.6 30.7 1788 1348K Hargreaves L 1484 + 8 2.5 21.6
786V 624 Phoenix Gp‡ 624 … 7.6 … 74V 32V Foxtons Group 54K – W … … 240 107K MS Intlv 230 … 1.5 32.8
46
1175
24 Appreciate Groupv
607K Arbuthnot Bkgv
28
1020
+
–
1
10
… 34.6
… …
213Y 95 Helios Underv 157K … … …
… … Plutus PowerGenv# … … … 8.3 165V 70 Galliford Try 164 + 3V … -4.4
Consumer goods 125 66K Northbrdg Indv 111K … … -3.9
1108K 710 Hiscox‡ 926W – 5V … …
22 9 Arden Partnersv 21 + K … 5.2
455K 283N HSBC‡ 395N – Y 2.7 18.8 346V 179W Provident 337 – 7V … … 747 396 Genuit Group 747 + 18 … 88.9 2575 1474 Oxford Inst 2545 + 30 … 44.7
23K 18K Argo Groupv 19 … … 6.4 6V 3O Agriterrav 5V … … -0.5
479K 342K Ashmore Gp 381W + 5K 4.4 13.5 952K 750 IG Group 932 – 4K 4.6 10.0 1585K 934W Prudential‡ 1495 + 40K 1.5 25.0 900 518 Gleeson (MJ) 828 … … 48.0 4346O 3200W Philips El nv 3283 + 35Y … 28.0
36 26 Aireav 32K … … 32.5
1546Y 862N Aus New Z 1486W + K 2.2 16.2 1314 460 Impaxv 1270 – 20 0.6 76.5 11O 4O PipeHawkv 11O … … …
3O V Quantum Blockchain techv1W … … -8.7 1327 644 Grafton Gp Uts 1304 – 38 … 28.9 724 467K Anglo-Eastern 590 – 19 … 10.0
426V 256K Aviva 418K + 4W 3.1 8.7 2340 1141 Intermed Cap 2158 – 20 2.4 13.7
168Y 120O Quilter PLC 147 – X 3.0 29.4 321W 259K Grainger 317W + W 1.6 22.3 113K 58 Pressure Techv 89 – 1K … -0.9
300K 133 Banco Santander 271N + 3V … -6.8 366 152K Animalcarev 361 … 0.5 …
155 44 IPF 151 + W … -5.2
1654 858 Bank of Georgia 1454 – 22 … 6.1 191 155 Randall & Quilterv 165 … 2.3 14.8 803K 543 Gr Portland 775K – 3 1.6 -9.7 6900 4664 Renishaw 5155 – 10 … 82.7
176K 154V Intl Public Pntshp 171 – 3O 4.2 45.4 2494 1639K AB Foods 1993K – 21K … 39.4
189V 91K Barclays‡ 180K + 1N 0.5 9.1 28K 8N Renoldv 23Y + 4W … 17.1
311O 127 Investec 287O + 3K 1.9 11.5 2005 1414 Rathbone Brs 2005 + 11 3.4 42.1 44N 15 Hammerson 33K … 0.6 -0.4 140V 48K Bakkavor Group 114V + 4K … 19.6
438W 293W Beazley 396 – 1O 1.9 …
316 265 Investment Co 309 … 2.1 -6.7 2N O RiverFort Global Oppsv 1W … 1.3 6.6 160 86O Harworth Gp 158 + 1K 0.2 19.7 582 372K Barr (AG) 559 – 2 … 32.5 134Y 38Y Rolls-Royce 113X + 3K … -2.1
N V Blue Star Capitalv V … … 2.8
335 225 BP Marsh&Ptnrsv 311 – 4 0.7 8.1 134W 71 IP Group‡ 127K – 1W … … 2950 1475 S & U 2900 – 50 3.7 24.0 385 235 Heath (Samuel)v 375 … … 24.1 13 1O Bidstack Groupv 1Y … … -1.1 4 1 Ross Gp 3W … … -5.1
128K 16K Braveheart Invv 27O + O … 0.7 365 160 Jarvis Securitiesv‡ 312K + 5 4.2 21.5
3O 2 Sancus Lending Grpv 2O … … -0.6 497 246 Helical Bar 481 – 8K 1.8 33.1 200 115 Brand Architektsv 160 – 2K … -6.6 376K 276O Rotork‡ 330O + 1W 3.0 30.0
386K 225K Brewin Dolphin 382 … 4.2 24.0 306K 201V Jupiter Fund Mgmt‡ 263W – 1 6.4 12.6
94 45 Cenkos Secsv 79K + K 2.5 24.0 52V 28X Schroder REIT 50Y – K 3.1 56.5 865 610 Highcroft Invs 865 … 5.5 … 2924 2448 Brit Amer Tob 2706 – 5K 7.7 9.7 215 59W SDI Groupv 164 – 8K … 51.4
111W 41X Just Group 92W + 1N … 5.8
512K 220 Charles Stanley 507K – 5 1.7 25.4 1006 728 Britvic 985 + 10 2.1 29.6 180X 42O Senior 171N – 1 … -4.4
774K 610 Lancashire Hdgs‡ 630K + 2K 1.7 … 3750 2603 Schroders‡ 3662 + 6 3.1 21.6 385 264N HK Land 303Y … 5.2 -3.6
310 258K Chesnara 284K + 2 7.5 20.2
2264 1356 Burberry Grp 1877 + 52 … 20.2 82 51O Severfield‡ 81 – 1 3.5 13.3
94 64 City of Lon Gpv 72 – 5K … -3.2 296W 178 Legal & Gen‡ 265K + 3 6.6 12.6 2735 1770 Schroders N/V‡ 2595 + 80 4.3 15.3 242W 143 Ibstock‡ 232 + 5V … …
560 376 City Lon Inv Gp 522 + 8 5.7 18.9 42429 428Y Liberty Group 428Y + 10K 5.0 … 298 135X C&C Grp 237O – 6O … -8.6 16K 7O Six Hundredv 13 … 1.9 …
1646K 885K St James Place 1592 – 4K 1.2 32.7 578 438 James Halsteadv 570 + 8 2.5 33.9
1685 946K Close Bros 1517 – 7 2.6 20.9 2290 1175 Liontrust 2290 + 30 1.5 49.5 24 9 Capital Metalsv 12N + O … … 2136O 1400W SKF B 1783N + 12K 3.0 20.2
521K 336O Stand Chart‡ 450 + 2N 1.4 22.5 404W 273K John Laing Group 400 – K 1.3 …
538 309K CMC Markets‡ 416K + 5 5.1 6.8
47O 34 Livermore Invsv 43O … 5.7 … 167K 94O Carr's Grp 161N – 1N 2.9 17.9 300 210 Slingsby (HC)v 210 – 40 … 0.7
586V 341 Commerzbk 444V + 2W … -2.6 32K 12 Starvestv 14K … … 0.8 1010 506 Keller‡ 960 – 4 3.5 16.4
50 23Y Lloyds Bkg Gp‡ 43Y … … 17.5 705 305 Character Grpv 670 + 5 0.7 18.0
1072 579N Deutsche Bk 898 + 2Y … 16.7 1661 1304K Smiths 1424 + 3 2.4 75.7
37O 27X LMS Capital‡ 36 … 0.8 -6.6 41 26 STM Groupv 35K … 3.6 13.1 8343 4528V Kingspan Group 7997O – 217N … 43.7
338 263K Direct Line Ins‡ 308K – K 2.4 12.1 1900 1010 Churchill Chinav‡ 1900 + 25 0.5 39.6 1070 560 Solid Statev 1050 + 20 1.1 26.9
58N 52K Downing ONE VCT‡ 57 … 5.7 14.2 9910 6914 Lond Stk Ex Gp‡ 8092 + 56 0.9 74.6 3835 2963O Sun Life Can 3821V – 1V 3.3 13.1 750K 489 Land Sec 712W + 1V 2.5 -3.7
2784 1755 Coca Cola HBC 2654 + 4 2.0 26.0 495 205 Somero Enterv 477K … 2.6 19.7
615 375 Colefaxv 615 … … 23.9 3861 2380 Spectris 3861 – 9 2.8 19.5
Investment companies 4148 3200 Cranswick‡ 4046 – 38 1.5 23.0
16045 10175 Spirax-Sarco 16045 + 85 0.6 68.3
227K 146W Devro 221 + 2K 4.0 16.1
12 month Price Yld Dis(-) 12 month Price Yld Dis(-) 79 22N Surface Trsfmsv 65 + 1 … …
High Low Company (p) +/- % or Pm High Low Company (p) +/- % or Pm 3635K 2440 Diageo 3531K + 8K 1.9 72.8
3K 1Y Tanfieldv 2V … … -5.2
3 1V Distilv 2 … … 30.0
481 286 Thorpe FWv 470 … 1.2 41.1
1347 865W 3I Group 1317 – 1 3.6 26.4 425 286 Invesco Asia Tr 340 – K 3.9 -9.6 754 550 Evans (M.P.)v 718 – 4 2.2 26.3
325K 283 3i Infrastructure 317 – 4K 3.7 22.1 203 163O Invesco BondInc 189 + 2N 5.2 -4.8 7K 3V TP Groupv 6 … … -9.4
103K 87X Abrdn Div I&G 99 … 4.5 -17.6 170 135 IPST Bal 167K … … -1.5 96 51V Finsbury Foodv 92 … … …
110 47K Transense Techv 110 + 2K … …
1618 796 Aberforth Smlr 1578 – 2 1.9 -10.6 235N 175 IPST Gbl Eq 232 … 2.9 -4.2 12100 8505 Games Workshop‡ 11890 + 190 1.0 40.0
1024 786 Alliance 1020 + 6 1.3 -6.2 104Y 101 IPST Managed 103K … 0.9 -3.4 8K 4 Tricornv# 4K … 4.2 -2.8
1283K 666V Glanbia‡ 1253X + 22N 1.9 28.8
604 403W Asia Dragon Tr 492 … 0.8 -9.3 184K 136 IPST UK Eq 183 … 3.5 -6.2
3370 1856 Ultra Electrncs 3290 – 28 1.6 27.9
260 155 Athelney Trust 245 … 3.2 -20.9 662W 363 IP UKSmallerCos 647 … 0.4 -7.9 170O 89V Greencore 132W + 1 … …
1026O 708 AVI Global Trust 957 … 1.5 -8.8 690 489N JPM American 688 + 1 0.9 -5.2 590 387 Vesuvius‡ 559 – K 0.5 36.7
536 246 Headlam 522 + 2 … …
658 387Y Baillie Gifford Ch Gr 409 + 1 1.7 3.4 550 402 JPM Asia 441O – 4K 4.1 1.4 1565 670 Vitec 1565 + 50 … …
162O 113 Baillie Gifford Eu Gr 161V + 2W 0.2 -2.0 875Y 476 JPM Chinese 533 – 1 3.7 -3.4 1240 996 Hilton Food 1150 – 8 1.9 24.0
1136 804 Baillie Gifford Jpn Tr 993 + 6 0.4 2.4 770 515 JPM Claverhs 756 + 6 4.0 -0.2 388 159K Volexv 377K + 2K 0.8 35.1
71K 32K Hornbyv 45 … … …
274K 192V Baillie Gifford SN 236K + 2K … 3.4 105 100 JPM Elect Mg C 102K … 0.7 -0.7 2107 1196K Weir 1651 + 28 … 31.2
1066X 770W JPM Elect Mg G 1040 + 15 1.5 -6.3 1674 1219 Imperial Brands‡ 1558K + 1K 11.9 9.8
253 172K Baillie Gifford UK Gr 250 – 1 0.9 0.1
111 76K JPM Elect Mg I 104 + 1 4.3 -5.8 5700 3960 XP Power 5480 – 110 0.6 34.1
119W 89O Bankers 117O – W 1.8 0.2 1K W J Lewis Hfordv 1V … … -3.8
3730 3139V BH Macro 3650 + 40 … 7.1 152Y 103V JPM Em Mkts 129O – K 1.0 -6.5 180 100 Zytronicv 152K … … …
372 254 JPM Eur IT Gth 364 – 5K 1.0 -10.7 11065Y 8577N Kerry Gp 10654 – 171V 0.6 38.0
1750 1130N Biotech Growth 1234 + 56 … -4.0
110 59 BlckRck Com Inc 87 + 1 4.0 -9.7 160K 107W JPM Eur IT Inc 157 + 2K 3.8 -9.9 94K 56Y McBride 77 + 1 1.4 10.8
130
686
91K BlckRck Fro Inv
431 BlckRck Grt Euro
122
686
+
+
1N
8
4.1
0.9
-7.4
1.7
538
162
360 JPM Euro disc
110 JPM GEMI
537
144O
+
+
11
1N
1.1
3.4
-13.7
-7.4
407 140 Mulberry Groupv 285 … 1.7 -4.5 Health
200 148 BlckRck Inc & Gwth 178 … 3.6 -12.4 454O 332 JPM GG&I 450 + 1 3.0 3.4 1640 982 Nicholsv‡ 1352K + 17K 2.0 …
427O 297 BlckRck Latin Am 355 – 2 4.8 -12.0 800 536O JPM Indian 793 + 1 … -15.0 1719 1149 Abcamv 1499 + 7 0.2 …
336 136 Norcros 290 + 4 … 15.5
204 142K BlckRck Sustain Amer 183 – 2O 4.1 -6.5 569Y 423 JPM Jap Sml Co 494 + 11 4.2 -7.0
339Y 267V Origin Entsv 290Y … 0.9 17.8 297K 196 AdvancedMedicalv 272K – 4 0.5 69.1
2131X 1141V BlckRck Smlr 2120 + 10 1.5 -4.3 744 542 JPM Japan# 643 + 14 0.7 -6.2
1004 563V BlckRck Throgmorton 998 + 5 0.8 1.3 1585V 840W JPM Mid Cap 1490 – 2K 1.9 -5.0 62K 37 Pittardsv 62K + 2 … -3.5 32N 12O Allergy Therapv 32N + 1N … 33.2
699V 378N BlckRck Wld Min 568 … 3.3 -2.0 110N 80K JPM Multi-Ass G&I 107O + 1N 3.7 -2.6
700 365 Portmeirionv 620 … … … 109 71O Allnce Pharmav 108W + 1V 0.4 71.3
780 535 JPM Russian 768 + 5 4.2 -11.5
33 19 Blue Plan Int Fn# 27K … 8.4 -6.5
444 240N JPM Smllr Co 431 + 2 1.2 -5.9 1 K Provexisv O … … … 139 39O Anglev 102K – 3 … …
339 235X BMO Cap&Inc 336 … 3.4 -1.3
360 244 Keystone IT 353 + 4 3.2 -3.5
101Y 58X BMO Comm Prop 99W – W 3.0 -17.4 274K 201K PZ Cussons 247 – K 2.3 50.9 715 390 Anpariov 710 – 5 1.0 39.8
805N 478 Law Debenture 789 – 2 3.5 1.9
170W 116W BMO Glbl Smaller 167W – 1W 0.9 -6.8
1450 888 Lowland 1392K – 2K 4.1 -3.7 67K 45W REA 56K + 1 … -2.5 … … Aqua Bounty … … … …
450 250K BMO Priv Eq Ord 446K + 6 3.4 -7.9
253V 175 Majedie 230K + 1 4.1 -17.7
81K 51 BMO Real Estate 74W … 3.1 -27.4 5 2W Real Gd Fdv 2W – W … -0.1 8812 6794 AstraZeneca‡ 8624 – 107 2.3 39.2
428W 324N M Currie Port 422 + 2K 1.0 1.6
100K 72K BMO UK HIT 99 + K 5.0 -6.2
124Y 99 Marwyn Val In 121K … 2.5 -32.6 394 195W Stock Spirits 394 + 7 2.0 44.6 41N 21K Circassia Groupv 38Y – N … -5.5
104 74V BMO UK HIT B 103 … … -2.0
290K 168K Mercantile IT 286 – K 2.1 -7.3 4Y 1N Tavistock Invv 4X … … -4.6 13 7K Lon & Assoc 12K … … -1.5
408 285 BMO UK HIT UNIT 394 … 2.8 -6.2 705 330 Tandemv 605 … 1.0 9.3 262K 174Y Convatec Group 226W + K 1.8 55.2
545 325 Merchants 528 – 2K 5.2 -1.3 1430 875 TBC Bank Group‡ 1400 – 10 … 6.9
1470 914 Brown Advsr US Smlr1390 + 7K … -7.4 259K 206V London Metric Prop 257O – 2W 3.3 9.0 815O 595V Tate & Lyle 714K – 8V 4.1 13.2
816 632 Mid Wynd 816 + 4 0.8 1.9 118K 46 Creighton 108 – 2K 0.1 19.3
1080 712 Brunner 1060 – 5 1.7 -9.3 30N 5O Ternv 19 + O … 63.3
1490 1072K Monks Inv Tst 1412 + 4 0.1 1.8 73 61 Macau Prop Op 65K + 1K … -3.5 1225 566 Treatt 1100 + 5 0.5 61.2
3360 2118 Caledonia Inv 3350 … 1.4 -22.1 5405 3088 Dechra Pharma 5405 + 60 0.6 …
2080 1297K Montanaro Eur Sml 2060 + 10 0.4 1.9 31O 15O Time Financev 24K … … …
203 163O Invesco BondInc 189 + 2N 5.2 -4.8 794K 569 Marshalls 773 + 6 … … 5O 5 Ukrproduct Gpv 5N … … -1.8
959K 694 Murray Income Trust 929 – 1 3.5 -5.5 307O 186N TP ICAP PLC 193W – 5 7.7 12.7 2N 1 Deltex Medicalv 1X … … …
404 304V City of Lon IT 399 – 1 3.6 2.0
1240 904 Murray Int 1126 – 6 4.7 -3.3 239 176 McKay Secs 227 + 4K 3.1 … 5322 4305K Unilever (NV) 4807 – 15K 0.7 25.3
110K 73K Crystal Amber Fd 108 + K 3.6 -22.8 212X 71N Virgin Money UK 200X – N … … 32K 12K e-Therapeuticsv 28N + O … …
90O 75O Nb Global Floating 88O – 1V 4.5 -5.3
432W 278 Dunedin Entp 419 … 0.4 -15.0 1550 1275 Volverev 1280 … … … 162K 87N Michelmershv 141 + 1K … 28.4 4892 3733 Unilever‡ 4115K – 20 3.5 21.6
358 253 Pacific Assets 345K + 4K 0.6 -7.5 395 202K Eco Animal Hlthv 310 + 5 … 61.8
647 430V Edinburgh IT 609 + 2 4.3 -8.6
3713 2030 Pantheon Int 2715 + 5 … -23.3 58K 35 WH Irelandv 57 … … … 1190 297K Victoriav 1030 … … …
425 215 Edin Wwide 321 + 5 … -1.5 2485 1088 Morgan Sindall 2450 – 90 0.8 24.9 83 51K EKF Diagnosticsv 77 – K 1.3 31.8
2845 1924 Pershing Sq 2495 – 45 0.8 -25.8
674 165 Electra Pte Eq 582 – 12 … 15.5 36K 25K Walker Crips Grp 31K … 1.9 …
49500 43840O Personal Assets 49400 – 100 1.1 1.5 14300 10300 Mountview 13900 + 50 2.8 17.5 67K 12K Futura Medicalv 38K + K … …
300
146
239 EP Global Opp
98O European Assets
289
144O +
…
1
1.9
4.9
-9.1
-5.2
2553
206
1950 Polar Cap Tech
105K Prem Glb & Inf
2486
168K
+ 12
…
…
5.4
-7.5
-9.9
3744V 1547W Wells Fargo 3478 + 21K 1.6 33.0
106O 44K NewRiver REIT‡ 80 – 1Y … -1.6
Engineering 5960 3344 Genus 5955 – 85 0.4 80.9
1411N 840O Westpac 1353 + 1 1.2 20.9
857 594 European Opp Tr 854 + 1 0.3 -10.1 139O 118O Renewables Inf 130V – K 6.0 15.1 1532K 1190O GlaxoSmKline‡ 1502W – 13 5.3 14.4
31K 24K Worsley Investors Ltd 30X … … 95.9 365 117K NMCN# 117K … 7.6 3.2
897N 660 F&C Investment Tr 893 + 3 1.3 -6.6 3635N 1763O RIT Cap Ptnr 2620 + 30 … -2.5 385 215 Amiad Water Systv 346 + 36 … 50.8
510 324 Fidlty Asian Val 474 – 10 1.7 -0.3 273 182 Palace Capital 255 … 3.9 … 2K O Gunsyndv 1V … … -7.5
415 243W Riverstone 410 + 10 … -41.4 32699W 24000N Zurich Fincl 32520K + 143X 4.6 17.3
… … Ass Br Eng# 15 … … -0.2
503 272 Fidelity China Sp 331 – 4 1.2 -1.7 551 391 Schroder TotRt 495 + 5K 1.4 0.5 2695 2193 Hikma Pharms‡ 2563 – 17 1.3 19.3
275 175 Panther Securitiesv 245 – 10 2.4 16.4
328 243K Fidlty Euro Val 325K … 1.9 -7.3 686N 472K Schrd Asia Pac 582 – 3 1.2 -8.2 4625 1890 Avon Rubber‡ 1890 – 10 1.4 95.2
241V
305O
177Y Fidlty Jap Tru
169 Fidlty Spec Val
223
300
+
–
4
3
…
2.1
-6.6
1.5
321 228 Schrod Inc Gwth 311 – 2 4.0 -0.2 Construction & 3238 2271 Persimmon 2812 – 34 3.9 14.0 363 199 Babcock 360 + 4W 2.0 -6.6
624 352 Hutchmed Chinav 554 + 2 … …

380 182 Immunodiag Sysv 378 … 0.5 …

928 774 Fins Gwth & Inc 913 … 1.7 -2.5
219
775K
164 Schrod Jap Gwth
433O Schrod UKMid
209
763
+
+
1
2
2.1
1.7
-10.7
-7.2
property 17K 3N Pires Investmentsv 8 + X … … 582K 397 BAE Sys 572 – 1O 4.0 14.1
16N 7V ImmuPharmav 7O … … -2.2
155K 88V GCP Infrastructure 107 – O 5.3 6.2 39Y 24Y Schroder UK PP Tr 30O … … -23.1 425 20 Plaza Cent 125 – 255 … -0.2 956K 555 Bodycote 936 – 8K 2.0 …
216 107V GCP Student Living 212 – K 1.1 8.8 526 416V Scot American 520 + 3 2.4 2.0 195N 94K Indivior 195N + 3W … 20.7
277K 76K Alumascv 217K – 2K 0.9 16.1 168 138O Primary Hlth 166 – 1 3.5 19.0 2400 1340 Braime A N/Vv 2150 … 0.5 36.2
950 732 Gen Emer Mkts 855 … 1.4 -7.2 847V 657N Scot IT 751 + 5 2.6 -10.5
24Y 23V Aseana Props# 23V … … -1.9 150 62 Inspiration Healthv 132 – 1K 0.1 26.0
68K 42 Gldn Prosp Prc Mtl 43K … … -5.7 1418K 842K Scot Mtge 1352K – 1K 0.2 -0.1 31N 23O Raven Property 27 + N … -9.0 2350 1475 Braime Groupv 2300 … 0.5 38.8
144W 113X Greencoat UK Wind 131K – W 5.7 6.0 219 174W Secs Tst Scot 216 – 2K 2.6 -1.5 82V 70Y Assura Grp 77K … 3.6 18.9 123K 62K IXICOv 76 – K … 28.3
450 270 Caffyns 450 … … 8.6
248 156 Hansa Investment 222 … 0.7 -33.3 114K 102 Sequoia Eco 114K + 1W 6.0 10.4 125 106K Raven Property Gr‡ 113K + K … …
2 1V Aukett Swankev 1Y … … -4.6 344K 246 Mediclinic Int 294W + 1O … 32.0
238 159 Hansa Inv Co 'A' 218 … 0.2 -34.6 1182 631N Temple Bar 1064 + 4 3.2 -8.4 13O 3K Cap XX Ldv 5Y … … -8.3
322O 208O Balfour Beatty 283 – 6K … 64.3 42O 27 Real Estate Invsv 41 … 6.1 -3.5
2725K 1375O Hbrvest Glbl Pt Eq 2360 … … -18.0 216 160K Tplton Emg Mkt 177 – X 2.8 -9.0 420 302 Castings‡ 370 – 2 4.0 38.9 12K 5 N4 Pharmav 9N + W … -9.6
1666O 1196K Hend Euro Foc 1615 + 2K 1.8 -8.8 Y V Tiger Royal and Invv W … … 33.3 794O 432K Barratt Devs 709O – 5W … 17.9 712 361V Redrow 675V – 2W … 18.4
13O 7 Chamberlinv 9 + V … -0.6 86.92 70.42 Novartis CHF85.97 + 0.50 3.5 27.2
189K 121 Hend High Inc 177O + 1 5.5 -0.6 511X 287X TR Property 500 – 6 2.9 -1.8 3712 2060 Bellway 3327 – 48 1.5 22.5 1137 735K Safestore 1137 – 2 1.6 9.8
1337O 721 Hend Smlr 1328 + 6 1.7 -7.1 79V 67 Troy Inc&Gth 78X … 2.1 -1.7 66 42 Checkitv 59 … … -7.1 107 43 Omega Diagsv 49K + 7K … …
4943 4001 Berkeley 4811 – 59 4.2 16.6
2465 1512 Herald 2325 – 15 … -12.7 286O 145K Utilico Ord 279 + 1 2.0 -27.6 1388 774K Savills 1364 – 14 … 28.4
678 494 Cohortv‡ 540 + 3 1.8 24.0 18 8O Ovoca Biov 11O … … -4.6
408O 258V HgCapital Trust 395 – 1 1.4 18.1 229 166 Utilico Emerging Mkt 212 … 3.2 -12.9 1533 1019 Big Yellow Group 1530 – 7 2.2 10.0
6K 5 Secure Propertyv 6N … … … 2710 940 Dewhurstv 2230 – 40 0.5 38.8 1424 783 Oxford Biomedica 1424 + 4 … …
180K 158X HICL Infra 173K – 1V 5.4 13.9 141 121 UtilFin RdZDP 2022 139K … … 2.0 342 264 Billington Hldgsv 297 … … 11.3
274 192 Highbridge Tactical 256 – 8 … -4.0 726 418K Vietnam Ent Inv 658 – 17 … -18.4 1290 871V Segro‡ 1290 + 2 1.6 10.4 9N 5V Physiomicsv 7 + V … …
289 234 Boot (Henry) 275 – 7 1.2 30.9 362 238 Dialight 362 + 3 … …
1182 762 ICG Ent Tr 1130 – 6 1.7 -18.5 324O 180V Witan 247K + K 2.0 -6.7
505Y 334 Impax Env Mkts 503 + 2 0.4 2.0 3965 3260 Ww Health 3720 + 10 0.5 0.7 112O 68K Breedon Groupv‡ 103O + 2K … 52.1 63K 22 SIG 52 + 1 … -2.1 2171X 1484N Electrolux 'B' 1848K – 2K 4.9 11.3 9Y 3V Proteome Sciesv 5Y – V … 59.7
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 1GM 47

Equity prices Business

12 month Price 12 month Price 12 month Price 12 month Price 12 month Price 12 month Price
High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E

7706 5519 Reckitt Benck‡ 5580 – 47 3.1 35.0 1690 1175 GlobalDatav 1540 … 1.0 85.0 43 14 Galantas Goldv 33K … … -7.2 360K 202K Wood Grp (J) 233K + 7 … -9.3 526 228K SThree 526 + 6 … 38.1 29O 8O Nanoco Gp 19V + X … …
176K 99W RUA Life Sciencesv 119 … … … 152 49Y Hyve Group 124K – 1N … -2.7 15N 5W GCM Resourcesv 5K … … -3.1 7X 2V Woodboisv 4K … … … 150 90 Synecticsv 119 + 3 … -5.9 4N 1V NAPSTER GROUP PLCv 1N … … -1.1
9V X Sareum Hldgsv 6W – X … … 646 397 IG Design Grpv 522 + 2 1.5 85.7 8K 1V Xtract Resourcesv 3K … … … 28V 23V Thruvision Groupv 24W … … … 78K 37 Netcallv 78K + 1 0.3 66.5
78W 28 Gem Diamonds 61 – 1V … 7.0
649 339 Silence Therapv 580 – 5 … … 7 W Zephyr Energyv 5Y … … … 110 59 Tribalv 104 – K 1.0 33.5
40K 12Y Immedia Grpv 12Y … … -1.8 43N 10W Getechv 21N – X … -4.8 77 51K Northamberv 61K + 2K 0.4 41.0
1668K 1336K Smith & Neph 1407 – 18 1.9 37.5 6W 3V Universe Grpv 4Y … … …
598K 354W Informa 525O – 5V 1.4 -9.8 341N 155K Glencore 317K + 7Y … … 58 22K Zoltav Resourcev 44 – 1 … -6.4 106K 16K Online Blockchainv 46K + 4K … …
253 89 Spire Hcare 233 + 2K … -3.9 112K 60K Vianetv 109 + 1 … …
132K 57 ITV 115 … … 16.2 1K W Global Petrolv K … … -0.5 110K 74 Oxford Metricsv 107 … 1.6 47.9
246K 77 Synairgenv 150 + 1K … …
O N Tissue Regenixv X … … -3.0
16K 2 Jaywingv 11K – K … -1.2 114683Y 665Y Gold Fields 665Y + 3N 1.6 11.2 Professional & 1010 604 Vp 986 + 16 … …
13K 7 Parityv 8Y + V … …
8 3Y Westminsterv 5X + W … …
204 50K Tiziana Life 50K – 2O … -9.3
11 3W Live Company Gpv 4K … … -0.4
8O 6X Goldplatv 6O … … 4.1 support services 51K 30N Pennant Intlv 32K – K … -4.5

V … Mediazestv … … … -1.8 514V 331Y Playtech 393 + 1K … …

43N 16Y Totallyv 34N – N 1.4 … 14K 6N Goldstone Resv 13W … … …

680 417K Tristelv 600 … 1.0 53.6

75 58K Merit Grpv 58K … … -3.3
37N 12O Greatld Gldv 17 + 1 … …
3115 1744 4imprint Grp 2905 – 35 … … Retailing 356 236W QinetiQ‡ 334K + V 1.9 15.4

59K 13N ValiRxv 23K – O … -6.1 85 60 Miradav 71 … … -9.9 640 490 Andrews Sykesv 540 … 4.1 14.5 255 157 RM‡ 225 – 9 1.3 16.1
153K 58 Griffin Miningv 90K – 4W … …
433K 178 AO World 228W + 1K … 47.5
173 99X Vectura Grp 163K – V … 8.1 89K 54K Mission Groupv 78 + K … … 5708 2545 Ashtead‡ 5574 + 84 0.7 40.7 758K 558K Sage Gp 733K – 1K 2.3 26.0
201 68 Gulf Keystone 152 + 9 … -9.2 5918 3744 Asosv 4015 – 65 … 22.3
308O 237V Moneysupermarket‡ 255V + 2O 4.5 24.3 74 20K Asimilar Groupv 38K … … 2.3 12V 2Y Seeing Machinesv 11V – N … …
647V 225V Harbour Energy 343W + 26W … … 601 455O B&M European 580V + 11K 1.6 13.5
Industrials 2023N 949W News Corp A 1632 + 21V 0.9 …
270W 146N Hochschild 155K + 10V 1.8 70.8
2300 380 AssetCov 1690 … … 5.3
79Y 43K Brown (N)v 53K … … 20.3
215 129 Shearwater Grpv 146 – K … …
1899K 942O News Corp B 1591Y + 25K 0.9 … 51 25K Avisenv 37K … … … 6K 5N SimiGonv 5N … … -1.7
9Y 4X Horizonte Minrlsv 6Y … … … 84 47K Cambria Autov 81 … … 7.4
188 85 Accsys Techv 158K – 2K … … 992 369 Next 15 Commsv 940 + 6 … … 146 80 Begbies Traynorv 134V + 1V 2.0 … 182K 77K Smartspace S'warev 150K + 1K … …
40 18X Hummingbird Resv 18O – V … 5.1 95K 30K Card Factory 66 + 7 … …
6209W 3987V BASF 5580N + 37X 5.0 … 869W 484 Pearson‡ 773 + 15 2.5 18.8 292 190 Blancco Techv 250 … … … 2106 1100 Softcat 2106 + 12 0.7 47.2
289K 122 Hunting 197K + 4K 1.8 -1.8 2495 1142 CVS Groupv 2450 + 50 … …
4958N 3451W Bayer DM50 4089X + 32K 6.1 -2.8 78O 43X Photo-Me 69 – 1 12.2 7.7 2700 2150 Bunzl 2700 + 9 1.9 21.0 303 228K Spirent Comms‡ 296 – 1 1.3 29.5
28K 7Y IGas Energyv 14X … … -0.4 355 248V Dairy Farm Intl 251W … 5.6 17.1
505 155 Biome Techv 395 … … -7.7 5 2O Primorus Invv 3Y … … 1.3 50Y 23X Capita 50N + N … … 45 30 SRT Marinev 36K … … -7.7
300 148V DFS Furn 274K + 8 … …
9O 4O Byotrolv 4O … … 10.7 1W N Independ Resv K … … -0.6
94K 46K Quarto 94 … … 11.0 … … Carillion# 14V … 129.9 … 1002N 786W Tele. Ericsson 838Y + 4 1.7 18.1
1561 1141 Dunelm 1320 – 3 … 24.5
7 5 Camb Gbl Timberv 5O … … -7.1 235 186 Indus Gasv 227 … … 11.7 38K 22K CEPSv 38K … … -6.9
411 49 Reach‡ 392 + 6K … … 229 125W Telit Commsv 228K … … 67.9
635K 334V Frasers Group 635K + 5K … 28.2
72K 50O Coats Grp 70 + X … 52.8 51W 17N Infrastratav 17N … … 1.3
3X Y REACT Grpv 2K … … 65.0 136 65K Christie Groupv 120 … … -6.2
27K 5V French Conn 20O … … -1.0 90 37 Touchstarv 80 – 2K … 77.6
9240 5824 Croda 9240 + 2 0.9 59.6 1N N Ironveldv X … … -5.3
2180 1527K Relx‡ 2180 + 5 2.1 34.4 1646 1055 Compass 1473K – 1K … …
2993 1119 Greggs 2962 – 30 … … 1040 505 Tracsisv 1015 – 15 … …
1440 815 Cropper (James)v 1375 … … 83.8
729V 555O Rightmove 705V – 1V … 56.1 717 227 ITM Powerv 463V + 3W … … 567K 239 CPPGroupv 451 – 5 … …
435 160K Halfords‡ 371V + O 1.6 18.5 19 13K Trakm8v 15K … … -6.2
161X 69 Elementis 148N + W … …
16K 4 SpaceandPeoplev 11 … … -0.7 37K 16 JKX Oil & Gas 25N – O … 2.8 79K 59 Croma Securityv 78 … 2.5 …
42K 21K Hardidev 28K … … -6.4 956W 539 Howden Join 943K – 4 0.9 22.0 150 24 Triad Grp 108K … … 25.5
370 209O STV Group 360 … … 20.5 21Y 5V Jubilee Metalsv 13X – K … 9.2 6866 5006 DCC 6082 + 78 2.4 20.5
4933O 2856N Jardine Math 4030V – 51O 3.1 … 917 425 Inchcape‡ 895 – 6K … … 7O 4Y Wamejav 7O … … …
358 109K System1 Groupv 313 + 13 … 23.8 6K 3V Karel Diamd Resv 3N … … -4.4 207 127K De La Rue 177W – K … 4.3
3300 2149 Johnson Math 2995 + 18 1.7 28.1 14Y 4N IQ-AI 6W – N … … 584 322 Wandiscov 325 – 5 … -7.4
3234 1852X 21st Cent Fox Inc A 2697 + 17W 1.2 14.4 2K 1K KEFI Gold and Copperv 1O … … -7.7 940 414 Dignity 767 + 18 … …
2068 1438 Mondi 2046 + 2 2.2 19.0 995W 677O JD Sports 995W – 1W … 43.1 1295 330 Water Intelv 1120 + 30 … 81.4
466 225 Kenmare Res 415 + 3 1.3 37.8 3078 1711 Diploma 3072 + 8 0.6 70.6
169 112 Robinsonv 117K … 4.6 13.9 3033W 1831W 21st Cent Fox Inc B 2495O + 16O 1.3 13.3 376W 260N Kingfisher 361 + 1 … 12.9 258K 81 Xaar 221 – 4K … …
445K 252X Smith (DS) 442V + 2K 0.9 33.5 82W 21V Lamprell 38X – X … -3.3 1122 560 Discoverie PLC 999 – 9 0.3 76.8 72W 33O Lookers 67 – X … …
V … Vela Techv … … … -1.2 21N 11Y Yourgenev 14O … … …
602N 331X Swire Pacific 490V – 10O 4.5 -7.1 64K 44K Driver Groupv 56 … 1.3 31.1 171 88X Marks Spencer 163Y + 1 … …
224 118 Wilmington 217 + 5 … 32.1 39O 18K Landore Resv 25N – K … -8.4 151 51K Zoo Digitalv 139 – 2K … …
30 14N Symph Environv 25K … … … 118 58 DWF 115 – 4 2.8 … 292 161O Morrison (W) 292 + 1 2.3 26.8
1017K 563K WPP 974K + 2V 1.0 -4.0 2K X Lansdowne O&Gv X … … …
564 300K Synthomer 543K – 1K 0.5 … 1099 641K Electrocompnts 1045 + 8 1.4 38.0

2872X 2160O Takeda Pharm 2476 + 46W 5.1 30.4

1330 810 YouGov PLCv 1330 + 110 0.3 … 29K 11 Leeds Groupv 27K – 1K … …
182O 99V Equiniti Group 178W … … …
17Y

888
5Y Mothercarev

415 Naked Winesv

15

865
+

…
V … -2.0

… …
Telecoms
74 52K Zinc Mediav 58K … … -0.8 5Y 2K Lexington Goldv 3O … … -8.8
11 4 Velocysv 4N – V … -4.1 332K 234 Essentra 279K – 3K 1.1 47.3 8320 5698 Next‡ 7940 + 14 … 35.7
8K 5 MC Miningv 6 … … -1.5 315 196 AdEPT Technologyv 251 … … …
2706 1825 Victrex 2634 + 4 1.7 42.5 3251 2273 Experian 3208 + 9 1.0 50.5
592 282K Wynnstay Groupv 543 … 2.6 17.2
Natural resources 3 1N Metals Explornv 1N … … 4.0
10510 7080 Ferguson 10210 + 50 1.4 28.7
2895 1731K Ocado Gp 1958K + 31 … …
205K 97O BT Group 168V – 5N … 11.5
20K 7 Pendragon 18K … … …
X V Nostra Terrav W … … -1.6 159V 79Y Dixons Carphone‡ 139V + 1V … 6.5
500 360 Zotefoams 444 – 1 0.4 30.3 290 200 FIH Groupv 225 … 0.8 -4.7
6K 2K ADM Energyv 2K … … -0.6 501K 276K Pets at Home 496 + 12V 1.5 25.5
15 7Y Nostrum O&G 10N + V … … 2290 1455 Gamma Commsv 2290 + 55 0.4 34.3
272 44 Gattacav 204 – 8 … … 2131V 120K Saga 353K – 4K … -5.2
3K 1K Advance Energyv 3N … … -4.6
Leisure 85 17 AFC Energyv 59O … … …
239W 132 Oil Search 194V + K 1.6 …
8N 4 Grafeniav 5Y … … -1.8 340 179V Sainsbury J 340 + 45N 0.9 …
181K 137V Helios Towers 166K + 4O … …

W … Oilexv V … … -4.1 9980 5736 Just Eat T'away 6810 + 9 … …

568 200 Hargeaves Servv 536 – 6 0.8 … 2016 930K Smith WH 1640 + 3 … -6.1
… … Afentra PLC … … … … W V Mobile Streamsv V … … -1.3
450 181W 888 Hldgs 405V + 1K 1.1 … 1X N Oriole Resourcesv K … … … 1342 924 Homeserve 924 – 9 2.6 … 36 13X Sosandarv 31K – K … -8.7
K … Alba Mineral Resv V … … -5.1 5Y 3V Mobile Tornadov 3N … … …
720 250 Accesso Techv 714 + 10 … … 2Y X Ormonde Miningv Y … … -4.0 350 220 Impellam Grpv 343 … … -7.4 4V 2K Stanley Gbbnsv 2O … … -2.9
3440 700 Best of the Bestv 700 – 30 0.4 8.2 2Y N Alien Metalsv O … … … 1494 1016 Telecom Plus 1024 – 16 5.5 24.7
39 3O Orosur Miningv 16K – N … … 88V 19 Ince Gv 57 … … 3.1 315 222 Studio Retail Group 293 + 5 … 16.9
1865W 838V Carnival 1477O + 32O … -2.2 101N 70X Alumina 86K + 1K 5.4 23.2 142W 101X Vodafone Gp 122N – N 6.2 …
26K 15N Pan African Resv 15O – V 4.2 6.6 6440 5156 Intertek 5240 – 10 2.0 34.3 212W 85 Ted Baker 147X + 3X … -2.6
127K 94K Celticv 108K … … -4.1 1K W Aminex K … … -4.9
59Y 21Y Pantheon Resv 52K + 2K … … 383K 252V IWG 293Y – 1X … -5.0 312K 219N Tesco 251K + 5 4.8 33.3
122 24N Cineworld 62Y + N … -0.4 2Y 1N Amur Mins Corpv 1Y … … …
55 26W Parkmead Grpv 42K – K … … 180W 86 Johnson Srvcev 150W + 2W … … 75W 43 Topps Tiles 73W – V 3.1 … Transport
431K 301K Domino's Pizza‡ 409O – O 1.3 23.1 1081661V 7778N Anglo Amer Plat 7778N + 472V 1.7 13.5
Y W Pathfinder Minsv X … … -3.8 134 43K Journeov 129 … … 57.0
1971K 748W Entain 1863K + 14K … … 3444 1760X Ang Am‡ 2911 + 42K 1.8 23.8 96 60W Air Partner 83 + 1 0.9 8.9
16915 11170 Flutter Ent 13700 – 20 … … 177 108 Anglo Asian Mngv 137 + 3 4.7 9.2
2N 1N Petra Diamonds 1X … … -0.1 133 37V Kier Gp 128K + 4V … -1.9 Technology 310 123 Braemar Ship‡ 290 + 10K 1.7 11.4
954 520 Fullr Sm A 810 + 14 0.9 … 5O 1X Petrel Resourcesv 1O … … -7.1 1285 800 Latham (J)v‡ 1205 … 1.2 21.9
1925 980K Antofagasta 1428 + 29 0.6 38.5 3640 2000 Clarkson 3590 + 10 2.1 …
795 486 Lok'n Storev 785 … 1.6 64.2 138K 72K Access Intellv 128 … … …
47 17O Gaming Realmsv 39 – N … … 8K 2N Petro Matadv 2O … … -7.8
8V 3 Arc Mineralsv 3N … … 2.3 1095 470X easyJet 800O + 1O 5.4 -3.0
2550 2020 Lon Securityv 2400 … 2.5 16.4 170 115 Aferian plcv‡ 150K + 2 … 50.4
450 325 Heavitreev 325 … … … 177K 91W Petrofac 101Y + 3K … -2.6
6N 4V Ariana Resv 4X … … 7.6 37X 15 Esken Limited 15V + V … -0.2
305 195 Heavitree Av 200 – 10 … … 490 204 LSL Prop Services‡ 474 – 1 … 30.1 153K 72V Alfa Financial 148 + 1 … 21.8
1Y X Arkle Resourcesv X … … -1.6 4K K Petroneft Resv 3N … … -8.3
44 19K Allied Minds 26 … … -1.6 97V 37N FirstGroup 89O – V … -4.2
120 90 Hermes Pacificv 90 … … … 129 79K Macfarlane 117 – O 0.6 18.2
5N 3 Armadale Capv 4V … … … 38X 19 Petropavlovsk 19V + V … …
5312 3870 Intercont Htls 4490 + 18 … … 725 414 Aptitude Software‡ 627 + 5 0.8 50.9 1316 737 Fisher (James) 960 … 0.8 -8.4
410 207 Maintel Hldgsv 315 … … …
6 2 Asiamet Rsrcsv 2N … … -3.7 8X 4 Phoenix Globalv 4X … … -0.9
150O 114V Mandarin Orntl 147V … … -3.7 609W 420 Avast 607V + 4K 1.7 51.8 1435 551K Go-Ahead 979 + 1 … -9.1
N … Malvern Intlv N … … -1.1
360 151 Atalaya Minev 318 + 2 … 17.5 24 8K Plexus Holdingsv 13K … … -4.2
1K Y Minoan Gpv 1 … … -5.0 4110 3107 Aveva Gp 4110 + 17 0.9 … 217O 91 Intl Cons Air 160W + 1K … -0.9
220 105K Mears Group 220 – 4 … …
337K 107N Mitch & Butlers 283 – 2 … -8.3 V … Baron Oilv … … … -3.1 2032 1389K Polymetal Intl 1521 + 3K 4.0 9.1 235 142K Bangov 215K + 1 … … 425N 276N Irish Cont Uts 376 – N … …
353 99 Menzies (John) 315 + 1 … -2.0
504 210 On The Beach 347 + 6K … … 6X 3X Beowulf Miningv 3O … … … 690 480 Porvair‡ 642 + 2 0.7 29.5 135 78 BATM Adv Coms 91 + 3V … 56.2 1564K 639K Jet2v 1174 + 5 0.2 -7.0
76 27N Mitie Gp 73 + 1O … …
1774 928 PPHE Hotels 1488 – 26 … -7.7 W … Bezant Resv V … … -3.8 3N 1W Prospex Energyv 2O – V … -1.3 53K 12K Berkeley Res 16 … … -1.8 328V 114 Natl Express 261O – 1O … -4.5
45 8N MobilityOnev 19 – 1 … 24.9
207 86 Rank Grp 172K + 2K 1.6 -8.7 2375K 1490V BHP Group 2207K + 24 3.9 21.9 125 39 Proton Motor Power Sv 40 – K … -0.7 40 16X Blackbirdv 32 … … … 1135 620 Ocean Wilson 1045 + 5 4.9 13.0
1W 1 Newmark Secv 1V … … …
139K 40 Restaurant Gp 117W – V … -5.5 2K K Border & Sthn Petv Y … … -4.2 8W 3 Providence Resv 3O … … -3.2 115 59 Cloudcall Groupv 60K … … -4.0
162K 66 Norishv 162K … … 32.3 1496K 951O Ryanair 1375K + 17K … …
36 18K Rotalav 29 … … -3.5 37V 12 Bougainville 20V – N … … 1O 1 CloudCoCo Groupv 1N … … -3.6
6N 1O Quadrise Fuels Intlv 3Y … … -8.4 108 35O Stagecoach 72Y + 3O 5.2 …
10N 4 Norm Broadbentv 6O … … …
40V 11 Sportechv 39V – W … -7.2 469 229 CML Micro 402 … 1.0 83.9
8N 3K BowLevenv 4N … … -6.7 110 20O Rambler Met&Minv 20O … … -2.8 27K 15K Sutton Harbourv 25 … … …
59 48 Northern Bearv 49K … … -5.1
346 147N SSP Group 266 + K … -2.7 2922 1999 Computacenter 2922 + 22 0.4 21.8
332X 193W BP‡ 295 + 7V 6.4 -7.2 O N Reabold Resourcesv W … … … 470 180 Wincanton 403 + 5 0.7 12.2
230 180 NWF Grpv 215 … 3.2 12.3
7Y 1N Tastyv 4Y … … -0.5 117K 80 Concurrent Techv 86 … 2.9 22.9
31 10W Cadence Minv 23O – O … 3.5 1N K Red Rock Resv K … … 1.1 5565 3034 Wizz Air Hldgs 4942 + 80 … -8.6
87K 40 Tintra PLCv 87K + 12K … -0.7 625 356W PageGroup 616K + 6 … …
5K 2N Cadogan Petrol 3K … … -1.6 16 7X Corerov 10K … … …
452O 166O TUI 308 – 2K … -0.9 7040X 4765 Rio Tinto Ltd 5599X – 28N 5.0 12.7 117K 36K PCI-PALv 90K … … …
2830 1370 Cranewarev 2400 + 20 1.0 51.5
6K 1N Webis Holdingsv 4V + N … 34.5
251X 125K Cairn Energy 187V + 3X … …
6658 4266 Rio Tinto‡ 5254 + 28 5.3 11.9 18N 6W Petardsv 10 … … -9.9
3Y 2Y Crimson Tidev 3 … … 18.7
Utilities
1565 880 Caledonia Miningv 900 … 2.7 7.1
1404 773K Wetherspoon JD 1098 – 20 … -6.6 1583K 900 Ryl Dtch Sh A‡ 1422V + 29O 3.3 -9.5 24 10K PHSCv 22 … 4.5 …
14 3Y CyanConn Hldgsv 12K … … -4.9
3V 1K Caspian Sunrisev 2Y – V … … 58 37V Centrica 50O … … …
3595 2049 Whitbread 3045 + 11 … -6.3 1518 866W Ryl Dtch Sh B‡ 1413O + 26W 3.3 -9.4 10N 2N PowerHouse Egyv 3X + N … -6.4
400 177 D4t4 Solutionsv‡ 375 – 4K 0.7 56.1
1675 778 Young & Co - Av 1550 – 20 … … 218X 95N Centamin 99K + 1O 8.8 10.1 219 189V ContourGlobal‡ 191 – 4 6.1 …
45 22 San Leon Energyv# 40O + 3W … … 78 42K Prime Peoplev 67 … 2.6 -2.4
2Y 1K DeepMatter Gpv 1K … … -5.1
970 496 Young & Co - N/Vv 940 + 8 … … 293 149K Cent Asia Metalsv 234K + 5 2.5 13.3 454V 255 Drax Group 407K – 8O 4.0 -8.3
2W O Scirocco Energyv Y … … -1.9 102 31X Record 88 – 1K 2.6 32.2
27K 15 Dillistone Groupv 24 – K … -7.1
39N 20N Chaarat Goldv 23K – V … -7.3 443 177K Redde Northgate 439 + 1K 2.3 16.7 595 463 Jersey Electricity 595 … 2.7 15.6
117 61 Serabi Goldv 61K … … 5.6 138 74K Elecov 126K + 3 … 32.4
Media 11W 1K Chariot Oil & Gasv 5O – V … -0.4
157 92X Serica Energyv 149O + 4V 2.0 49.9
795 420 Renew Hldgsv 766 + 9 1.0 20.5
2O W EQTECv 1N … … …
968O 806W Natl Grid 968 – 11 5.0 20.9
14 6X China Nonferr Goldv 8 … … -6.5 590 190 Renewi 530 – 2 … 44.4 21N 9K OPG Powerv 13V … … 3.8
20N 11K Shanta Goldv 13 … … 8.8 1266 959 FDM Group‡ 1266 + 12 1.4 45.0
3N X 7digital Gpv X … … -8.0 K N Clontarf Energyv N … … -6.7 579 464K Rentokil Itl‡ 579 – 5V … 58.0 1827 1203 Pennon‡ 1268 – 44 3.4 66.7
3 1V Sound Energyv 1K … … -1.0 12K 7V Filtronicv 12K + V … …
37 18K Aeorema Commsv 37 … … -8.7 55 37O Condor Gldv 44 + 1 … … 510 286 Restorev 494 – 4 … … 1X K Rurelecv K … … -0.8
W V Sunrise Resourcesv N … … … 3520 1962 First Derivtsv 2410 – 55 … 75.3
57 11N Altitude Groupv 31 … … -7.1 2N O Corcelv 1K … … 2.5 489 310 Ricardo 374 – 7 1.6 … 2915 2168 Severn Trent 2840 – 17 3.5 32.0
954 694 GB Groupv 873K – 3 0.3 64.7
208 147K Arcontech Grpv 166 … 1.5 19.2 K V Tertiary Mineralsv N … … -0.7
12226X 66N DRD Gold 66N + Y 4.9 17.5 3K N Ridgecrest Plcv# 1V + V … -6.0 1639K 1171 SSE‡ 1635 – 31K 4.9 7.5
176 106K GreshamTech 160 … 0.4 88.8
454W 267 Ascential 415K + 2W … … 1N K Thor Miningv X … … -9.6
4N 1W ECR Mineralsv 1W … … -7.2 756 353 Robert Walters 686 + 6 2.2 29.3 1088K 822O Utd Utilities 1073 – 10K 3.9 16.1
271N 74O Ilikav 133 + 2 … …
660O 539O Auto Trader 638V + 3V … 48.3 4349W 2171X Total Eng SE 3165X + 56W 7.1 …
57K 23K Edenville Energyv 28 … … -1.4 606W 171N Royal Mail‡ 496V + 3 … 8.0 87K 52 Ingentav 66 … 2.2 42.5
401 190K Bloomsbury Pub‡ 351 + 5 0.3 21.0 K V Tower Resourcesv N … … -4.5
8K 3N Empyrean Energyv 5O … … … 118W 38 RPS Group 105 … … -8.1 117K 66K Intercedev 98 … … 35.0 uAIM company; # Price at suspension;
17N 5N Bonhill Groupv 11N … … -0.8
24K 9V EnQuest 24N + 1K … -0.8 64Y 14N Tullow Oil 43 + 1K … -0.6 † Ex dividend; ‡ Ex scrip; s Ex rights issue;
65 35K RTC Groupv 51 … … 12.3
54K 37 Catalyst Mediav 40K – 1 … -4.5 375 232 Iomartv‡ 232 – 7K 2.8 22.7 t Ex all; § Ex capital distribution; * figures
42K 16K Eurasia Miningv 16K … … … N … UK Oil & Gasv V … … -0.5 or report awaited; . . . No significant data.
747 523 RWS Hldgsv 631K + 4 1.4 45.7 88N 43N IQEv 48 – X … …
4V O Catenaev 1 … … -2.0 Companies in bold are constituents of the
2 Y Europa Oil&Gasv 1K … … -2.6 535 205 URU Metalsv 390 – 15 … -2.6 460 235 Science Groupv 460 … 0.4 27.5
1120 634 Daily Mail 1066 – 6 2.2 46.5 217 86 K3 Business Tchv 195 … … -4.0 FTSE 100 Index. Investment Cos sector Nav
698V 318N Evraz‡ 560 + 15O 7.7 13.2 20K 6K Vast Resv 7 … … -1.8 145O 106K Serco Gp 134O – 1Y … 12.6 2840V 958Y LG Electronics 2143 – 14K 1.8 6.2
Dis or Prm supplied by Morningstar.
250 137K DCD Mediav 155 … … 77.5
501 168W Ferrexpo‡ 367O + 14V 3.2 4.6 6W 2 Victoria Oil&Gasv 3K … … -1.3 45W 24K Smiths News 40K – 1 2.4 8.2 Y N Location Sciencesv K … … -2.4
58 18N Ebiquityv 58 + 1 … … Data as shown is
1112 794 Euromoney In Inv 1048 + 8 2.1 36.3 1357K 745V Fresnillo‡ 846V + 10O 1.2 22.7 18 6O W Resourcesv 7 – V … -1.5 4214 2674 Smurfit Kappa 4214 + 11 2.3 20.8 587K 211O Micro Focus Intl 423W + 8Y 2.6 -0.9 for information
purposes only. No offer is made by
3880 1452 Future 3848 – 32 … 84.7 28 … G3 Exploration# 28 … … -2.6 22 7O Westmount Engyv 9O – N … … 76V 22O Staffline Gpv 75 + O … -1.0 91K 35 MTI Wirelessv 80 + 2 1.8 28.5 Morningstar or this publication
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
Obituaries
Jill Murphy
Bestselling children’s author and illustrator known for her quirky books about a school for witches
Jill Murphy was a teenager when pub-
lishers first rejected her crisp, illustrated
stories about cauldrons, spells and
broomsticks. “They said children would
be frightened about a school for witch-
es,” she recalled in 2015 with a wry smile.
“They got that wrong,
didn’t they?”
Not that she mind-
ed too much when the
theme cropped up in
the works of more
recent writers, such as
JK Rowling’s Harry
Potter series.
The Worst Witch, a
witty and original vari-
ation on the Malory
Towers-type story, was
published in 1974 when
she was 24. It was based
on Murphy’s experien-
ces at Ursuline Convent
in Wimbledon, south
London, which became Miss Cackle’s
Academy. “I was being taught by nuns
in long black robes, and you couldn’t see
anything except their faces,” she said.
“The school had lots of creepy corridors
and we would be muttering about the
teachers, something like, ‘We can’t
stand Mother Joseph’, and she would
suddenly appear behind you.”
It was her own mother who inspired
Mildred Hubble, the Worst Witch. “A
couple of friends came home to tea
from the convent and my mum opened
the door to us. We were all drenched
with rain and killing ourselves laughing
in exactly the same uniform as Mildred,
and she said, ‘Look at you lot, you look
like the three witches.’ At the time, I was
casting around to write a school story
with a difference. And that was it: a
school for witches.”
The book was “an absolute smash
hit”, though Murphy continued to work
as a nanny until its sequel, The Worst
Witch Strikes Again, appeared in 1980.
In 1986 the original story was made into
a television film starring Diana Rigg,
though Murphy was disappointed with
the “appalling script”. A television se-
ries, which ran from 1998 to 2001, was
more to her liking and a stage adapta-
tion, The Worst Witch Live, was
performed in the West End in the sum-
mer of 2019, winning an Olivier award
last year.
Her other picture books include the
Large Family series, depicting the do-
mestic chaos of an elephant family. It
started with Five Minutes’ Peace (1986),
inspired by a pregnant friend with a
host of children. “She once had some
leftover cake and she said, ‘I’m deter-
mined to have this bloody cake, they’re
not getting it.’ They followed us up-
stairs. She said, ‘Why do you think I had
so many children? It’s so you’ll play by
yourselves and keep an eye on the baby.’
So I went to the bathroom with her and
sat on the floor and she balanced her
cup of tea in the bubble bath, on her
stomach. I thought it was so funny.”
Although Murphy’s books have sold
more than five million copies, her am-
bitions had initially been more modest.
“I hadn’t thought in terms of a career.
The only reason I wanted to have The
Worst Witch published was because I
wanted a book between The Lion, The
Witch and the Wardrobe and The Secret
Garden with my name on the spine, and
1GM
Reclusive businessman
and property developer
Eddie Healey
Page 50
Jill Murphy at home with her mischievous dog, Elsie, in 2016. Her books were often inspired by elements from her own life
then I could put them on my bookshelf
and feel clever. I never thought any fur-
ther than that.”
Jillian Frances Murphy was born in
London in 1949, the younger of two
children of Eric Murphy, an Irish air-
craft engineer at Vickers, and his wife,
Irene (née Lewis), a former librarian
with a hankering to write who made sure
her daughter was widely read. She was
“an ordinary little girl” growing up in
Chessington, Surrey, and winning a
scholarship to the Catholic grammar
school in Wimbledon. By the age of six
her wizardry with words and pictures
was clear. She was stapling together her
own 30-page books.
By her late teens Murphy had written
91 stories, many of them lovingly pre-
served by her mother in an old knitting
By the age of six she was
writing and illustrating
her own 30-page books
bag. They included The Worst Witch,
which she started at 15. “So much of
Mildred is based on me at that age, but
she doesn’t have a talent for writing the
way I did,” she told The Times in 2007.
“No matter how bad I was at all the aca-
demic subjects I always knew I could
write and draw. If you’re a bit of an indi-
vidual, you have to find your own path.”
Her writing career was put on hold to
attend Chelsea School of Art, but she
was thrown out because she “didn’t
really like being there and sort of fell to
pieces really”. She fared little better at
Croydon art school, where her illustra-
tions were considered twee.
Instead she progressed through a se-
ries of domestic jobs, as a cleaner, work-
ing in a children’s home and as a nanny,
before spending time in Togo and
Ghana with her first husband, Peter
Wilks, a Marxist economist who was
studying there and whom she had
married in 1971. While she was overseas
a friend who had typed out The Worst
Witch manuscript mentioned the story
to Margaret Busby, the co-founder of
Allison & Busby, a publishing company.
Busby called the day after Murphy re-
turned to Britain. “It was the most as-
tonishing piece of luck,” Murphy said.
“After I got the call I cycled from Chess-
ington to Great Marlborough Street
with the manuscript, and they said,
‘This is wonderful, just what we were
looking for.’ ”
When The Worst Witch was pub-
lished she was living in a commune in a
large stucco house in Notting Hill. “My
advance was £150; I was so excited I
didn’t want to put the cheque in the
bank,” she said. The print run was 5,000
copies. “I remember wondering how
many aunts and uncles I had, and what
we would do with the rest.” She need
not have worried: within two months it
had sold out.
Murphy also enjoyed critical success
with other children’s books including
Peace at Last (1980), a classic bedtime
story about a bear family trying to settle
down for the night, and The Last Noo-
Noo (1995), about a monster called
Marlan who will not give up his dummy.
Her first marriage had been dissolved
in 1979 and in 1988 she married Roger
Michell, a potter. They separated in
1990 while she was pregnant with Char-
lie, a musician, who survives her, and
the marriage was dissolved in 1994. For
the past 30 years she lived in an idyllic
19th-century cottage with a bright red
front door in the picturesque village of
Register
ANDREW CROWLEY / THE TELEGRAPH
St Mabyn, north Cornwall, with an Aga
in the kitchen and Elsie, a mischievous
bearded collie, for company.
Murphy’s writing often reflected ele-
ments of her own life, such as her battle
with weight in the 1980s and 1990s. In A
Piece of Cake (1989), one of the Large
Family stories, Mrs Large decides to put
the whole family on a diet. “At the be-
ginning of the book Mrs Large is stand-
ing in her pink slip saying, ‘I’m fat’,” she
recalled. “All the children are nice to
her about it but it’s funny, in my head I
wasn’t that sympathetic. I thought,
‘Why don’t fat people just eat less and
pull themselves together?’ But when I
started to put on weight . . . I realised just
how hard it was.”
In 2006 she discovered a weight-loss
programme on the internet, but by then
she had been absent from the literary
scene for a decade, coping with breast
cancer, a mother with dementia, and
single motherhood. Her return with
four more Worst Witch books was wide-
ly welcomed and 40 years after Mildred
Hubble first flew into bookshops, First
Prize for the Worst Witch (2018) was the
final tale in the series, with Mildred
wanting to be head gir.
As for whether the Harry Potter phe-
nomenon owes anything to The Worst
Witch series, Murphy preferred not to
say. She grew a little irritated when
younger interviewers wondered if it
was her who had jumped on to the
witch-school broomstick, but would
simply say politely: “I don’t talk about
that. It would be nice, I suppose, if
people would say thank you. But you
have to be gracious.”
Jill Murphy, children’s author, was born
on July 5, 1949. She died of breast cancer
on August 18, 2021, aged 72
49
Lives remembered
Jon Lindbergh
Peter Mackay writes:
You mention in the
obituary of Jon
Lindbergh (August
12) that he stayed
with his parents,
Charles and Anne
Lindbergh, in 1936
at “their home” at
Long Barn, near Sevenoaks. In fact the
house belonged to Harold Nicolson
and Vita Sackville-West, who had
befriended the Lindberghs and given
them sanctuary in England. Harold
had first met them in 1934 when he was
in the US writing the biography of
Anne’s father, the banker Dwight
Morrow. Nicolson recorded then that
Jon was guarded by an enormous and
intimidating police dog called Thor,
which was “predatory, savage and
hungry” while Jon, who had difficulty
going down steps except on his tummy,
was “a dear little boy with the silkiest
fair curls”. By 1936 the Nicolsons had
moved to Sissinghurst, while retaining
ownership of Long Barn, so were glad to
lend it to the Lindberghs.
Len Gibson
Carole Dennison
writes: Len Gibson’s
obituary (August 21)
evoked memories of
my first eight years
of teaching at the
Sunderland pri-
mary school of
which Len was dep-
uty headteacher. His presence was al-
ways felt as the school’s “heartbeat”. He
enjoyed the company of the young fe-
male staff and teaching many children
and teachers to play the guitar. He
looked out, particularly, for those boys
not included in the activities of their
peers and found them a “place in the
sun”. His prisoner of war experience was
always with him, although he rarely let
it influence his school life. Although a
more than capable Pied Piper he ex-
celled as Fagin in one of his joint pupil/
teacher musical productions well ahead
of its time. Music was, indeed, a lifeline.
Professor Ian MacGillivray
Samantha Budd
writes: I read with
great interest your
obituary for Profes-
sor Ian MacGilli-
vray (August 19). I
was born at St
Mary’s Paddington
in 1963. My mother
had eclampsia and always told me
about how lucky both she and I were to
be alive and that it was thanks to being
at St Mary’s under the personal super-
vision of the country’s leading eclamp-
sia expert. She never told me his name
but I have a recollection that she spoke
of him being a chain smoker and I
therefore realise that it must have been
Professor MacGillivray. The following
year my mother ended up in a coma as
a result of eclampsia and lost the baby,
but the same expert “saved her life”.
@ recollection
If you would like to add a personal view or
to a published obituary, you
can email it to tributes@thetimes.co.uk
550
Register
Eddie Healey
Reclusive property developer who built one of Britain’s largest retail parks and was the victim of a terrifying home robbery
Eddie Healey made his first fortune by
building the Status DIY chain and sell-
ing it, but it was developing Sheffield’s
Meadowhall shopping centre that
made him a billionaire. As steelworks
closed, overseas as well as in his native
Yorkshire, Healey developed the sites
to replace the industrial jobs lost.
A private man, he retreated even fur-
ther from publicity after a robbery in
1995 in which he and his family were
bound, gagged and held captive in their
home, West Ella Hall, by a masked
gang. Healey subsequently intensified
security at the house in Kirk Ella, west
of Hull, but ten years later his family
suffered another ordeal when his niece
was found strangled at her home in East
Yorkshire.
Despite his low profile Healey loved
extravagant parties. He paid the pop
group Girls Aloud £125,000 for a
45-minute set at his 70th birthday
celebration in 2008 and a decade earlier
he spent £100,000 securing the Amer-
ican singer Belinda Carlisle to perform
at his daughter’s 21st birthday party,
where guests included the disc-jockey
Dave Lee Travis and the comedian Row-
an Atkinson.
It was two days after celebrating his
wife Carol’s 50th at Carlton Towers, the
Duke of Norfolk’s house near Goole,
where they had been entertained by the
likes of Freddie Starr, that the robbers
targeted their family home. Healey, his
wife and two of their sons were hand-
cuffed while the robbers took £250,000
of jewellery plus cash. The four-man
gang, dubbed by police “the Quality
Street raiders”, punched one of his sons
in the face.
The family tragedy in 2005 involved
the daughter of Healey’s younger
brother Malcolm, himself a successful
businessman who built up the Hygena
Kitchens business. Suzy was killed aged
39 by a former boyfriend at Ellerker
Hall, East Yorkshire. He was tried for
murder but convicted of manslaughter.
Edwin Dyson Healey was born in
1938 in Hull and continued to live in the
area even as his business empire ex-
panded. His father, Stanley, had run a
paint and decorating materials shop
that Healey joined after leaving school
at 16. He and his brothers helped their
father to expand the business into Sta-
Phyllis Gould
Wartime metal worker who was thought to be last of the original ‘Rosies’, so called after a famous poster campaign
Phyllis Gould was a young mother
when, shortly after America joined the
Second World War, she resolved to
learn to weld so that she could work in
a shipyard in Richmond, California.
Defying her husband, she enrolled on
one of the welding courses being run
round the clock. Her lessons ran from
4am to 8am, and after two weeks she
reported to the hiring hall where she
was told that she had to join the Boiler-
makers’ Union if she wanted to work.
In a 2002 interview she recalled: “This
big man dressed in dark clothes just said:
‘No. We don’t take women or blacks.’ So
I went home. The next day, I went again
— same routine. The third day when
they said ‘no’ I started to cry.” Her tears
caught the attention of a man who asked
what the problem was, made a call, and
gave her a job. “Then they hired five or
six more women, and a chaperone —
because we were the first.”
Similar stories unfolded at defence
plants across the States and this origi-
nal wave of female defence workers in-
spired the “We can do it!” posters which
showed a muscle-flexing woman sport-
ing a boilersuit and a red and white pol-
ka dot scarf fashioned into a turban. She
tus Discount, a chain of do-it-yourself
shops, later called Status DIY. Eddie be-
came chairman and Malcolm manag-
ing director of the company, which
grew to more than 40 stores and was
floated on the stock market in 1972.
Status DIY was taken over for
£30 million in 1980 by MFI, the flat-
pack furniture retailer, allowing a third
brother, John, to retire to Portugal and
providing the capital for Eddie to start a
career in property, although he re-
mained with MFI for two years. Mal-
colm had left to form what became Hy-
gena, which he sold to MFI in 1987.
Healey used his retailing skills at his
new company, Stadium Developments,
building warehouses for retailers such
as Harris Queensway and MFI. After
the Rotherham Enterprise Zone was
established in 1983 — a job-creation
scheme that exempted companies from
rates and gave generous tax allowances
He loved parties, paying
Girls Aloud £125,000 to
play at his 70th birthday
— he spent 18 months buying 18 parcels
of land from 14 different owners, with
the intention of building one of the
UK’s largest retail parks.
He was criticised locally for not pro-
viding “proper industrial jobs” on the
former Parkgate steelworks site at Roth-
erham and when Marks & Spencer
pulled out as a tenant, a stubborn Healey
mothballed the quarter-finished
£100 million scheme. He phoned Paul
Sykes, a Barnsley miner’s son who
owned an old steel site outside Sheffield,
four miles away on the M1, for which he
had similar grand plans. Rather than
compete, Healey agreed to transfer his
tenancy agreements to Sykes’s site.
Though they had never met, the two ob-
stinate Yorkshiremen got on instantly.
Healey said: “There are five basics to
property development. Find the site, tie
it up, get planning permission, find ten-
ants and find finance.” Sykes had done
the first three but Healey regarded him
as a dealer rather than a developer and,
arguing that without money and rents
the new Meadowhall centre would be
worthless, negotiated a 60 per cent
GETTY
Gould, right, pushed for
several Rosie memorials
became known as Rosie
the Riveter.
Gould had to be particu--
ob
larly determined to get her job
done because she had a baby by to
factor in to her schedule andd her hus-
band had signed up to help withith repairs
i i l d iin th
at Pearl Harbor. “It was a steady parade
of relatives” until her mother came and
Eddie Healey at the site that would eventually become Meadowhall in 1988
stake in the venture, leaving Sykes
holding the minority.
Construction started in June 1988
and was completed in time for the
centre to open before Christmas 1990.
Healey had fulfilled his promise to put
one of Britain’s biggest shopping cen-
tres in South Yorkshire, but to Rother-
ham’s annoyance it was over the council
border in Sheffield. It had 270 stores
and parking for 12,000 cars.
Meadowhall was among the first
shopping centres to open on Sundays
and continue trading until 10pm at
Christmas. Healey calculated that eight
million people lived within an hour’s
drive and 30 million visited during its
first year. When it was sold to the Brit-
took a job painting ships at the shipyard.
Gould signed up for the night shift “so
we could take turns in the bed”.
After the war the millions of Rosies
gradually gave up their wartime jobs.
Despite leaving a cultural legacy in the
form of the “We can do it!” image, many
felt they did not receive the recognition
they deserved for their contribution to
the war effort.
Phyllis Gould campaigned to rectify
that situation. She helped push for the
creation of a Rosie the Riveter
nationa historical park in
national
Richm
Richmond, near San
Fra
Francisco, and she and
ot
other Rosies met
P
President Obama
a
and Joe Biden in
2
2014. Through writ-
in letters and mak-
ing
in phone calls, she
ing
lob
lobbied for the decla-
ratio of a national
ration
Rosie the Riveter day,
Rosie
which is now held annually
which
on March 21, and she was
on
involved the d i of a congressional
design
gold medal to be issued next year to
honour all the Rosies.
1GM
ASADOUR GUZELIAN/TIMES NEWSPAPERS LTD
ish Land property group for £1.2 billion
in 1999, Healey and Sykes split the pro-
ceeds between them. Healey made
£420 million from the sale and con-
tinued as Meadowhall’s president.
Stadium Developments subsequent-
ly sold several adjacent packages of
land and in 2004 British Land bought
the original Parkgate shopping centre
for another £260 million. The deals
made Healey a billionaire. With Mal-
colm following his Hygena success by
creating an American kitchens busi-
ness that he sold for £800 million, the
brothers entered the top 25 of the 2007
Sunday Times Rich List. Their com-
bined worth in this year’s Rich List
stood at £2.2 billion.
Phyllis Louise McKey was born in
Fort Lewis, Washington, in 1921. Her
father, Louis, had worked in an adminis-
trative role for the US army, and her
mother, Mildred, was a housewife. The
family moved from camp to camp,
though by the 1930s was settled in
Oregon, where her father had bought
five acres of land and built a home and
chicken houses to accommodate 2,000
of the birds. Phyllis and her siblings “had
total freedom” and became “free spirits”.
It was a basic lifestyle, with no electri-
city and a pump outside the back door.
When she was 17 years old she married
Rupert Randall, a labourer, and felt that
she had gone from having total free-
dom to being a prisoner. “Our first
home was a room; didn’t even have
doorknobs, just a leather strap with a
nail.” They had recently moved to Cali-
fornia because Randall had found a job
there as a roofer, and were living in a
sawmill camp with their baby son, Rory,
when, in December 1941, they heard
that Pearl Harbor had been bombed.
She divorced Randall, married Rich-
ard Gould, and lived for a while in
Houston, Texas, where she worked at
the Todd shipyard and became a
Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times
Healey was proud to be the wealthi-
est Yorkshireman. Although he gave
six-figure sums to the Conservative
Party when its fortunes were low in
1996, he did not have the political ob-
session that led Sykes to provide mil-
lions to it and other parties that shared
his anti-Europe agenda. Healey gave
generously to charity but could spend
extravagantly too: besides his UK par-
ties he entertained at Bachelor’s Hall,
the Cunard family’s former Barbados
home, which he bought for £17 million.
His local football club, Hull City,
hoped Healey would be its financial
saviour before it joined the Premier-
ship. Though connected with several
clubs, his interest was always financial.
In 1998 he rescued Falkirk FC from liq-
uidation but his plan at the time was to
build a shopping centre as well as a
15,000-seat stadium for “the Bairns” to
share with their fellow club, East
Stirlingshire. In 2003 Stadium formed a
joint venture with the sportswear
retailer JJB for a series of “soccer-
domes” comprising five-a-side pitches
with JJB stores.
Healey was never scared to abandon
schemes if planners were uncoopera-
tive. It was in Germany where he repeat-
ed his Meadowhall success: with P&O
he developed the £500 million CentrO,
Germany’s largest shopping mall, on the
200-acre former Thyssen site at Ober-
hausen on the Ruhr. It opened in 1996
with nine cinemas, a sports arena, an
11,500-seat concert hall, 200 shops and
six office blocks.
He married his wife Carol in 1966 and
they had five children. His son James
became a Yorkshire amateur golfing
champion and turned professional.
Healey handed over the running of Sta-
dium to another son, Paul, in 2003,
while his most recent business interest,
Blue Energy, a wind and solar power
company, is run by his son Mark.
The success of Meadowhall re-
mained a source of pride to Healey,
whose stocky frame — little over
five foot — and heavy eyebrows are
said to be immortalised in a brass statue
there.
Eddie Healey, property developer, was
born on April 23, 1938. He died after a
long illness on August 21, 2021, aged 83
Navy-certified welder. That marriage
produced four more children — Steven,
Lori, Dona and Michael — but it also
ended in divorce.
After her children had grown up she
worked as an interior designer and,
during a spell in Alaska, as a cook.
Gould may not have been the only in-
spiration for the morale-boosting prop-
aganda posters, but the “We can do it!”
philosophy was part of her DNA.
Recalling how her foreman initially
always gave her tacking work to do, and
assigned welding to her male col-
leagues, she said that one day she had
had enough. “I walked right behind him
— every step he took I was in lock-step
with him and every time he’d point to
that and start to tell some guy to do it,
I’d say: ‘I can do it.’ And finally, he just
said: ‘Well, do it, then!’ ” She turned out
to be a very good welder. “I loved it. It
was so satisfying. I had always done
embroidery and you want your stitches
all to be even and look nice. Well, it was
the same with welding.”
Phyllis Gould, welder and campaigner,
was born on October 7, 1921. She died
after a stroke on July 20, 2021, aged 99
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
Law Report
Lack of common intention between family
prevents rectification of Land Registry form
Court of Appeal
Published August 24, 2021
Ralph v Ralph
Before Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of
the Rolls, Lord Justice Peter Jackson
and Lord Justice Popplewell
[2021] EWCA Civ 1106
Judgment July 22, 2021
Rectification for common
mistake required a common
intention between the parties at
the time the contract was made,
and an accord between them as
to that common intention.
Consequently, where a father
and son purchased a property in
joint names with no discussion
as to the beneficial ownership,
but the Land Registry TR1 form
declared that the property was
to be held on trust for the parties
beneficially in equal shares,
there was no power to rectify
that declaration for common
mistake because the parties
lacked a common intention.
The Court of Appeal so held,
allowing the appeal of the claim-
ant son, Dean Ralph, against the
order of Mr Justice Morris
([2020] EWHC 3348 (QB)) up-
holding the decision of Judge
Monty QC, sitting at the Central
London County Court on Janu-
ary 6, 2020, that the TR1 had
been completed by mistake, and
ordering rectification of the
form so that it recorded no dec-
laration of trust, the defendant
father, David Dean, being the
sole beneficial owner of the
property.
Clifford Darton QC and Ge-
orge Woodhead for the son;
Robin Green and Riccardo
Calzavara acting pro bono for
the father.
The Master of the Rolls said
that the bulk of the cases con-
cerning common mistake recti-
fication had been between com-
mercial parties and related to
commercial contracts.
The question in the present
case was whether a Land Regis-
try transfer form TR1, signed by
the transferors but not by the
transferees, ought to be rectified
so as to remove a manuscript
cross from box 11 that “the trans-
ferees are to hold the property
on trust for themselves as ten-
ants in common in equal
Readers’
Lives
Commemorate the life
of a friend or relative in
Readers’ Lives, a service
in contracted tributes
Call 020 7782 5583 or email
readerslives@thetimes.co.uk
1GM
shares”, on the grounds that, as
the trial judge held, no such
thing had actually been agreed
between the father and son, who
were the transferees.
The father had wanted to buy
the property he was living in
with his family but could not
afford the mortgage advance on
his income without the
assistance of the claimant, his
oldest son, who was working
and earning. The son agreed to
become a joint owner to assist
with the purchase. The
mortgage was obtained, the
father paid the balance of the
purchase price and made the
mortgage payments. The son
made no contribution to the
purchase price.
The main ground of the son’s
appeal was that the rectification
permitted by the judges below
was inadmissible because there
had been no positive subjective
common agreement between
the parties at the time of the dec-
laration of trust, and no suffi-
cient outward expression of ac-
cord: see FSHC Group Holdings
Ltd v GLAS Trust Corp Ltd
([2020] Ch 365). The father con-
tended that there could, in law,
be a sufficient outward expres-
sion of accord without express
communication, at least in the
family context.
Neither side had fully argued
that the principles applicable to
rectification of commercial con-
tracts did not apply. The ques-
tion should, therefore, be left
over in case it arose again in
future. However, the following
preliminary points could be
made.
First, the rules relating to rec-
tification of a commercial con-
tract assumed that the parties
had, in some sense, negotiated
that contract. The rationale of
the authorities was that there
would have been exchanges or
discussions that led to the writ-
ten agreement in question. In
the present case, there had been
no such discussions on the trial
judge’s findings, and more
importantly, nor could there
have been.
Had the single solicitor acting
for the parties known that they
disagreed about how the benefi-
50%
discount for
subscribers
cial interest was to be divided, he
would have been required by
professional best practice to
advise that separate representa-
tion be sought.
Second, it had to be relatively
common for family members
buying property jointly not to
discuss openly how the
beneficial interest was to be
held. Third, like pension scheme
cases and settlements, declara-
tions of trust like the present one
could demonstrate special
features that distinguished
them from the commercial
context.
It was not necessary in order
to decide the present case to
consider whether or not there
was a need for an outward
expression of accord, or whe-
ther in the present case such an
expression was to be taken to
have occurred tacitly. That was
because, on the facts found by
the trial judge, there had been
no continuing common inten-
tion shared by the parties at the
time of the completion of the
purchase of the property as to
the beneficial interest that each
was to hold.
His findings simply did not
admit of the conclusion that the
parties actually agreed any-
thing, nor that they had the
same intention. In fact, it
appeared that nothing was
actually discussed, apart poss-
ibly from the fact that the pur-
chase would be a good and sens-
ible investment for the family.
In one sense, the conclusion
reached by the courts below was
the just result. But in another
sense, either outcome would
produce a result that neither
party expected. The father
never expected to be 100 per
cent owner of the beneficial
interest, and the son had no
expectation that he would get a
full 50 per cent either.
The law did not make con-
tracts for people unless they
had, in the way explained in
FSHC, agreed to them or shown
a continuing common intention
as to the term or terms in issue.
In the present case the parties,
on the evidence found by the
trial judge, simply gave no
thought to the matter at all.
For the avoidance of doubt, it
was not a “goes without saying”
case. Had the matter been
raised, the father would have
said “this is for my family
(perhaps including the son)”,
and the son would have said: “I
want a share” — what share was
not clear, but there was no
finding that he was happy to
have the same share as his
siblings.
It was worth mentioning in
relation to that conclusion that
the merits were not all one way.
The son had in fact been lum-
bered with legal liability under a
mortgage that had prevented
him buying a house of his own.
Rectification of the TR1 would
be refused.
Finally, it should be noted that
the case was one that had cried
out for the parties to reach a
mediated settlement. The case
demonstrated how important it
was for the courts to be able to
direct mediation in appropriate
cases: see the report of the Civil
Justice Council on Compulsory
Alternative Dispute Resolution
(June 2021).
Lord Justice Peter Jackson
and Lord Justice Popplewell
agreed.
Solicitors: Verisona Law,
Portsmouth; Porter & Co Law
Ltd, Sutton, acting pro bono.
Court Circular
Balmoral Castle
23rd August, 2021
By command of The Queen,
Mr Alistair Harrison
(Marshal of the Diplomatic
Corps) telephoned His
Excellency Mr Guy Mayers
this morning in order to bid
farewell to His Excellency
upon relinquishing his
appointment as High
Commissioner for St Lucia
in London.
Births, Marriages and Deaths newsukadvertising.co.uk
IT IS a sin to despise one’s neighbour, but
blessed is the one who is kind to the needy.
Do not those who plot evil go astray? But
those who plan what is good find love and
faithfulness. Proverbs 14.21-22 (NIV)
Bible verses are provided by the
Bible Society
Births
SALMON on 18th August 2021 to Shani
Salmon (née Joel) and Toby Sebastian
James Salmon, a daughter, Paloma Gaia
Salmon, beyond beautiful.
Forthcoming Marriages
MR G. F. CONNOR
AND MISS A. O. DE COURCY
The engagement is announced between
George, first son of Mr and Mrs Terence
Connor of Furneux Pelham, Hertfordshire,
and Alice, younger daughter of Mr Joe
de Courcy, of Compton Abdale,
Gloucestershire, and the late
Mrs de Courcy.
MR P. COLVILLE
AND MISS C. GOLDSMID
The engagement is announced between
Patrick, son of The Hon and Mrs Andrew
Colville of East Woodhay, Hampshire, and
Clare, daughter of Mr Nicholas Goldsmid of
Stockbridge, Hampshire, and Mrs Gilly
Goldsmid of London.
MR M. R. STOW
AND MISS F. J. C. NALSON
The engagement is announced
between Matthew, second son of
Mr Andrew Stow and Mrs Diane Stow
of South Cave, East Yorkshire, and
Florence, youngest daughter of
Mr Paul Nalson and Mrs Nadine
Nalson-Loos of Caterham, Surrey.
MR H. C. HEWETT
AND MISS L. H. E. STANDEN
The engagement is announced between
Harry, younger son of Mr and Mrs Paul
Hewett of Angmering, West Sussex, and
Lucy, daughter of The Reverend Canon and
Mrs Mark Standen of Angmering.
Marriages
MR J. E. STUCHFIELD
AND MISS C. J. JOHNSON
The marriage took place on Friday 20th
August, at the Parish Church of Pentlow, of
John Edward, eldest son of Mr and Mrs H
Martin Stuchfield of Pentlow Hall,
Cavendish, Suffolk, and Caroline Julie,
youngest daughter of Mr and Mrs A Robert
Johnson of Weybridge, Surrey.
Join us for breakfast
Listen to Aasmah Mir and
Stig Abell on Times Radio,
Monday to Thursday at 6am
Britain’s first nuclear
submarine engineer
known to all as Spam
PETER HAMMERSLEY, WHO DIED AGED 91, WAS
FEATURED IN THE TIMES ON MARCH 28, 2020
51
Register
Deaths
BALLANTYNE Professor William Morris
(Bill), formerly of Bahrain, London and
Somerset. Passed away peacefully at home,
after living a full and happy life, in
Edinburgh on 11th August 2021, aged 99.
Husband to the late Isabel (née Miller),
father to Brian, Binty, Eva, Grandpa to
Becky, Holly, Amber, Peter and Great-
Grandpa to Isabella. Dearly loved by all his
family and Caroline. Private funeral in
Edinburgh. Memorial service in London to
be arranged.
BUSHELL Lorna Marguerite died on
11th August 2021, aged 76. A beloved wife,
mother and grandmother, she passed away
peacefully at home and will be greatly
missed by all. A private family burial will be
held on the morning of 31st August,
followed by a service of thanksgiving at St
Mark’s Church, Woodcote, at 1pm, to which
all are welcome.
LOVEGROVE Janet (née Bourne), on 18th
August 2021, widow of Geoffrey, beloved
mother of Philippa, Kate and James,
grandmother and great-grandmother.
Funeral to be announced.
PIERONI Peter MBE on 28th July 2021,
aged 87. He will be greatly missed by his
beloved wife, Anne, and also Margaret,
Christopher, Caroline, Olivia, Isobel, Antonia
and all his family and many friends.
Reunited once again with his son John.
Donations to Wimbledon College via
Ashton’s Funeral Directors, 140 Alexandra
Road, Wimbledon, SW19 7JY.
Tel: 0208 946 1051.
PREECE Arthur Patrick James (Pat) died
on August 19th, after a very long illness
courageously born. Loved dearly by his
family, his patients and everyone who
knew him. Thanksgiving service at St
Mary’s, Sedgeford, on Friday 3rd
September at 2 o’clock. Donations if
desired to cureparkinsons.org.uk
STEVENSON Harry died peacefully on
18th August 2021 aged 94, in
Chiselborough, Somerset. Much-loved
father to Val and Bob.
WHITTY
Jonathan “Jon”, 21-06-1978 to 19-08-
2021, of Stafford, York and Brighton.
Beloved son, awesome nephew,
adored cousin, loving partner and a
great friend to many. Free at last from
the pain he endured with great
courage, stoicism and humour. Now
painting, illustrating and strumming
his guitar complete with beard, Reds
shirt and a melting smile. Loved,
missed but never far from our hearts
and minds. Miss you “Knees”.
The simple way to place your
announcement in The Times.
Available 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
newsukadvertising.co.uk
LEGAL, PUBLIC, COMPANY &
PARLIAMENTARY NOTICES
To place notices for these
sections please call
020 7481 4000
Notices are subject to
confirmation and should be
received by 11.30am three
days prior to insertion
552 1GM Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

Weather
Today The odd spot of drizzle in the east, but generally dry with warm sunny spells. Max 24C (75F), min 9C (48F) Weather Eye
Paul Simons
Around Britain Five days ahead Wind speed Sea state Orkney
ney Shetland
Sh
Key: b=bright, c=cloud, d=drizzle, pc=partly cloudy Spots of light rain or 34 Calm
du=dull, f=fair, fg=fog, h=hail, m=mist, r=rain, (mph) 7 16
sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, t=thunder drizzle in the east at Slight 13
*=previous day **=data not available times, but mostly dry Temperature Moderate
Rough
Temp C Rain mm Sun hr* with sunny intervals 28 (degrees C)
16
midday yesterday 24 hrs to 5pm yesterday
14 12
17 DU 0.0 5.9
Tomorrow Flood alerts and warnings
Aberdeen
For most places it will be another dry
Aberporth 17 S 0.0 7.0
and bright day with variable amounts At 17:00 on Monday there were no 15
Anglesey 17 DU 0.0 4.2 of cloud and sunny spells, although flood alerts or warnings in England, 19
Aviemore 18 DU 9.8 1.5 the odd spot of light rain or drizzle is Wales or Scotland.
4

V
possible in eastern areas.
Barnstaple 21
19
PC
PC
0.0
1.0
**
**
For further information and updates Aberdeen
C F ery strange things can
Bedford Max 25C, min 9C 35 95
Belfast 19 PC 0.2 2.9
in England visit flood-warning-
30 86
erupt from the tops of
information.service.gov.uk, for Wales
Birmingham 18 B 0.0 **
naturalresources.wales/flooding and 25 77 thunderclouds. Fantastic
Bournemouth 18 DU 0.0 9.4 24 NORTH jets of blue lightning can
18 DU 0.0 **
for Scotland SEPA.org.uk 20 68
Bridlington SEA 15 59 shoot upwards into the
Bristol 17 B 0.0 7.5
Camborne 17 B 0.0 7.6 21 10 50
upper reaches of the stratosphere to
21 Edinburgh
Cardiff 18 DU 0.0 8.5
21
9 Glasgow 5 41
heights of 50km in a split second,
Edinburgh 17 DU 0.0 2.1 0 32
Eskdalemuir 19 PC 0.0 1.4
20 6 -5 23 fanning out into a large blue cone.
Glasgow 19 DU 0.0 2.4
22
-10 14 This weird and exotic form of
Hereford 17 B 0.0 **
Herstmonceux 21 PC 0.2 3.9 ATLANTIC
Londonderry -15 5 lightning is called a blue jet and has
Ipswich 18 B 1.0 1.4
Newcastle been seen for years from aircraft
OCEAN Carlisle
Isle of Man 18 B 0.0 6.7
Thursday Belfast and occasionally from the ground.
Isle of Wight 18 DU 0.0 ** 20
Jersey 21 PC 0.2 9.2 Some light patchy rain in the east 22 19 Blue jets are big electrical
at times and maybe the odd spot 21
Keswick 22 PC 0.0 ** of drizzle from any thicker cloud Yorkk discharges from the tops of
Kinloss 19 C 0.0 5.1 elsewhere, but generally a dry day thunderclouds, and although
with patchy cloud and sunny spells.
2
Leeds 17 PC 3.8 **
Lerwick 14 FG 1.0 0.0 Max 25C, min 6C Manchester Hull
ordinary lightning excites a medley
Leuchars 17 DU 0.0 3.0 ooo
Liverpool 22 of gases in the lower atmosphere to
Lincoln 18 PC 0.2 1.1 Galway IRISH 13
21 PC 0.0 ** 21
glow white, blue jets excite mostly
Liverpool SEA 22 Sheffield
London 18 DU 0.0 4.2 Dublin
LLlandudno
stratospheric nitrogen.
Lyneham 18 C 0.0 0.0 It is difficult to tell exactly what
Manchester 20 PC 0.0 2.9
Margate 19 B 0.0 0.3
23 19
Shrewsbury
Nottingham causes blue jets because the
15 phenomenon is so fleeting. In 2019,
Milford Haven 20 PC 0.0 **
i h
Norwich
Newcastle 18 B 0.0 ** 10 19 however, the International Space
Nottingham 19 B 3.0 0.9 Birmingham
Orkney 17 PC 0.0 7.1 22
Cork
Cambridge Station was able to record how a
Oxford 18 B 0.0 ** 18 burst of five intense blue flashes
Swansea Oxford 21
Plymouth 20 PC 0.0 ** erupted from the top of a
Portland 18 B 0.0 ** Cardiff
Scilly, St Mary’s 18 PC 0.0 **
Friday Channel Islands CELTIC 0
20 thunderstorm over the Pacific island
Shoreham 18 B 0.0 6.9 Light showers or spots of rain possible
SEA Bristol London of Nauru. “The whole thing starts
in eastern England, but elsewhere
Shrewsbury 18 DU 0.2 5.9 21
Snowdonia 18 C 0.0 **
another dry and bright day is expected
with patchy cloud and plenty of sunny Southampton
with what I think of as a blue bang,”
0
20 said Torsten Neubert, an
Southend 20 PC 3.2 1.3 periods. Exeterr
South Uist 14 M 0.2 ** Max 24C, min 5C 20 Plymouth Brighton atmospheric physicist at the
Stornoway 18 C 0.0 1.4
Tiree 17 PC 0.0 11.3
Technical University of Denmark.
Whitehaven 18 B 0.4 1.2 18
21 That bang was a ten-microsecond
CHANNEL 24
Wick 16 B 0.0 ** 21 flash of bright blue light near the top
Yeovilton 18 B 0.0 8.5
of the cloud, about 16km high. From
19
19 General situation: Some mist, fog and ximum 24C (75F),
north. Maximum (75F minimum with patchy cloud and plenty of sunny that flash point a blue jet shot up,
The world low cloud at first, clearing most places 9C (48F). spells. Light easterly winds, moderate climbing to about 52km in just
All readings local midday yesterday
to leave a largely dry and sunny day. E Mids, E Anglia, E Eng: Thicker cloud at times in the south. Maximum several hundred milliseconds.
Alicante 31 S Madeira 28 PC 21 Channel Is, SW Eng, Cen S Eng, SE Eng, may bring spots of rain at times, most 24C (75F), minimum 10C (50F).
Amsterdam 22 PC Madrid 34 S
The blue bang may be created by
London, W Mids, Wales, IoM, NW Eng, likely in north Norfolk and Licolnshire, Scotland: Areas of low cloud, mist and
Athens 30 S Malaga 30 PC
Cen N Eng, NE Eng, Lake District: but for most places it will stay dry fog possible at first, especially over a giant spark between different parts
Auckland 15 PC Mallorca 31 S
Some low cloud, mist and fog at first, with a mixture of variable cloud and high ground and near coastal areas, of the thundercloud — a positively
Bahrain 41 S Malta 32 PC Saturday
Bangkok 32 PC Melbourne 14 SH Further spots of rain or drizzle possible
clearing to leave a largely dry and sunny intervals. Light to moderate where it may linger for some time. charged upper region and a layer of
Barbados 31 SH Mexico City 22 C in the southeast, but mostly dry with bright day with patchy cloud and plenty northeasterly winds. Maximum Otherwise, most places will be dry negative charge below. Neubert
changeable cloud cover and sunny of sunshine, especially across southern 23C (73F), minimum 11C (52F). with variable amounts of cloud and
Barcelona 26 B Miami 33 B
spells elsewhere. areas. Light east to northeasterly N Ireland, Republic of Ireland: Some sunny spells. Light winds, changeable
speculated that the violent
Beijing 31 S Milan 29 PC
Beirut 31 PC Mombasa 29 PC Max 23C, min 6C winds, moderate at times in the south mist, fog or low cloud at first, clearing in direction. Maximum 24C (75F), turbulence inside the thunderstorm
Belgrade 33 S Montreal 31 B and turning variable in direction in the to leave a largely dry and bright day minimum 9C (48F). created the chance for these
Berlin 16 B Moscow 20 S oppositely charged regions to come
Bermuda 30 PC Mumbai 30 S 19
Bordeaux 25 S Munich 19 PC Tides Noon today within half a mile of each other,
Brussels 19 B Nairobi 27 PC Tidal predictions. short-circuiting into a powerful
Heights in metres LOW 1016
Bucharest 29 S Naples 29 PC
20
HIGH LOW burst of current that created the
Budapest 20 B New Orleans 33 S Today Ht Ht 1000 1024
Buenos Aires 18 S New York 23 R 19 Aberdeen 03:07 4.4 15:46 4.2
1024 1016 blue bangs. The study was
Cairo 33 S Nice 26 PC Avonmouth 09:27 13.2 21:44 13.5
1008
published in Nature
Calcutta 34 S Nicosia 33 S Belfast 00:56 3.6 13:23 3.3 [https://go.nature.com/3y1SbxD].
Canberra 20 PC Oslo 18 S 21 1008
Cardiff 09:16 12.2 21:33 12.5
Cape Town 18 S Paris 20 SH 08:01 5.3 20:10 5.6
1000 HIGH To complete this fantastic picture,
Devonport
Chicago 27 B Perth 16 S
Dover 01:09 6.6 13:18 6.8 the flashes recorded over the
20 S 16 SH LOW 1032
Copenhagen
33 PC
Prague
16 B Sunday Dublin 01:10 4.2 13:50 3.8 LOW thunderstorm in the Pacific also
Corfu Reykjavik
Delhi 32 M Riga 16 PC A continuing risk of patchy rain or Falmouth 07:25 5.0 19:37 5.3 HIGH unleashed another phenomenon —
drizzle in the east, perhaps slightly Greenock 02:21 3.6 14:52 3.2
Dubai 41 S Rio de Janeiro 27 S
more widespread than previous days,
1016
1024 Cold front “elves” in the ionosphere, rings of
19 B 42 S Harwich 01:40 4.2 13:54 4.1
Dublin
Faro 28 S
Riyadh
Rome 29 PC
but still most places are expected to
Holyhead 00:03 5.8 12:32 5.4 Warm front glowing blue light that expand
be dry with sunny intervals. 1024
Florence 32 PC San Francisco 21 PC Max 23C, min 6C Hull 08:12 7.8 20:55 7.3 HIGH 1016 Occluded front outwards for up to 500km.
Frankfurt 21 PC Santiago 14 S Leith 04:27 5.7 16:58 5.5 Trough
Geneva 23 PC São Paulo 27 S Liverpool 01:02 9.6 13:29 9.2
Gibraltar 26 PC Seoul 24 R 20 London Bridge 03:56 7.2 16:13 7.0
Synoptic situation Highs and lows Hours of darkness
Helsinki 13 B Seychelles 28 PC Lowestoft 11:21 2.7 --:-- -- 24hrs to 5pm yesterday Aberdeen 20:56-05:26
Hong Kong 32 PC Singapore 30 B Milford Haven 08:21 6.9 20:39 7.2 With high pressure centred Belfast 21:05-05:48
Honolulu 31 PC St Petersburg 13 SH over Scotland, much of Britain Warmest: Keswick, 23.4C
20 Morecambe 01:05 9.6 13:31 9.2 Coldest: Altnaharra, Birmingham 20:43-05:37
Istanbul 29 PC Stockholm 16 PC and Ireland will have a dry and Sutherland, 6.1C
19 Newhaven 01:00 6.7 13:24 6.8 Cardiff 20:46-05:44
Jerusalem 31 PC Sydney 24 S sunny day, although some mist Wettest: Aviemore, 9.8mm
Newquay 07:11 6.9 19:30 7.1 Exeter 20:46-05:47
Johannesburg 18 S Tel Aviv 31 PC and fog patches are possible Sunniest: Tiree,
Oban 07:49 3.8 20:05 4.2 Argyll, 11.3hrs* Glasgow 21:01-05:38
Kuala Lumpur 31 PC Tenerife 28 PC at first, while some thicker
21 Penzance 06:44 5.4 19:01 5.6 Liverpool 20:50-05:39
Kyiv 23 S Tokyo 26 PC cloud in the east may lead to
28 PC 20 B Portsmouth 01:01 4.6 13:43 4.7 Sun and moon London 20:34-05:32
Lanzarote Vancouver the odd spot of drizzle. Similar For Greenwich Manchester 20:47-05:36
Las Palmas 27 PC Venice 24 PC Shoreham 01:13 6.3 13:38 6.4 Sun rises: 06.00
The Times weather Southampton 00:36 4.4 13:15 4.5
conditions are expected over Newcastle 20:48-05:30
Lima 15 DU Vienna 22 PC Sun sets: 20.04
the next couple of days as Moon rises: 21.17 Norwich 20:31-05:24
Lisbon 31 S Warsaw 18 R page is provided Swansea 08:29 9.3 20:45 9.6
high pressure continues to be Moon sets: 09.11 Wed Penzance 20:53-05:57
Los Angeles 23 PC Washington 29 B Tees 05:32 5.6 18:07 5.4
39 S 20 PC
by Weatherquest centred close to Scotland. Third quarter: August 30 Sheffield 20:44-05:33
Luxor Zurich Weymouth 09:07 2.1 21:21 2.3
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
Sport
Is Flo-Jo’s record
about to fall? And
that could be just
the start of it . . .
Thompson-Herah at
forefront of a group
chasing down athletics’
‘untouchable’ records,
writes Rick Broadbent
W
hen Elaine
Thompson-Herah
flew down an
American track on
Saturday she did not
only record the second-fastest 100m
time in history; she also showed that
athletics’ “untouchable” records are
now within reach. Marks that have
stood the test of time while often
attracting the taint of suspicion now
look realistic goals. Nothing is safe.
The Jamaican sprinter, 29, clocked
10.54sec at Hayward
Field in Eugene,
Oregon, aka Track
Town, USA. This
was a mere 0.05sec
outside Florence
Griffith Joyner’s
1988 world record.
Until this year
nobody had run
under 10.70 for more than a
decade. On Thursday in
Lausanne, the woman who
repeated the 100m and 200m
Olympic double in Tokyo will
run against her compatriot
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the
Olympic 100m champion in
2008 and 2012 and the
mother who stunned athletics
by running 10.63 in June. Is
Flo-Jo’s record about to fall
after 33 years?
Some will be happy if it does.
The flamboyant American
never failed a drug test but her
improvement in 1988 after her
mid-career break fuelled
widespread scepticism. She
retired in 1989, aged 29, to have a
family. That was also the year
Record prize pot of £42m at US Open
Tennis
Stuart Fraser
The 2021 US Open will become the
richest grand-slam tournament in his-
tory after it was confirmed that a record
£41.9 million will be on offer to players.
There was a reduced prize-money
pot of about £38.9 million at last year’s
event behind closed doors, but the
return of 100 per cent crowds in New
York has allowed organisers more flexi-
bility in determining the financial dis-
tribution across the singles and doubles
draws at this year’s tournament, which
begins on Monday. Relaxed Covid-19
protocols have also helped to decrease
1G M
when the IAAF, the governing body,
introduced random out-of-
competition drug-testing. Her training
partner, Britain’s Lorna Boothe, once
said that a nurse had told her that
Griffith Joyner regularly visited a
Californian hospital to receive steroid
cocktails. Griffith Joyner’s family,
including her sister-in-law and
heptathlon world record holder Jackie
Joyner-Kersee, have always defended
her reputation.
Many in athletics believe that
Thompson-Herah is already faster
than Griffith Joyner regardless of the
nods and winks. In 1988, at the US
trials in Indianapolis, the wind gauge
by the triple jump read 4.3 metres per
second. The permissible sprint
tailwind is 2m/sec. The gauge when
the record was set was at zero,
prompting many to believe it had
malfunctioned. The next day, with a
legal wind, Griffith Joyner ran
10.61. At the Olympics
that year she clocked a
wind-assisted 10.54.
Until Thompson-
Herah ran that same
time on Saturday
nobody had got within
a tenth of a second of
Flo Jo’s fastest time. Some
athletics coaches have
suggested that the new
super sprint spikes are worth
that much. You can argue about
the respective influence of
myriad factors — brilliant
athleticism, shoe and track tech,
a year without having to peak
for a championships and
evolution — but the fact is some
ancient records are on the cusp
of disappearing.
If you take the best women’s
100m times from each of the past
20 years, this latest leap is an
outlier. In 2001 Zhanna Block
clocked 10.82. In the next two decades
the best time of the year dropped by
more than a tenth of a second from
the previous one on only three
occasions. The biggest fall was 0.14sec.
the costs involved as a strict biosecure
bubble is not required by local health
authorities this year.
The main benefactors will be lower-
ranked players. First-round losers will
still receive a cheque for £54,600, an
increase of £6,600 on the amount
offered at Wimbledon. This is possible
because the playing group as a whole
along with tour officials have agreed to
reduce the singles champions’ prize
money from £2.1 million to £1.8 million.
Wimbledon paid £1.7 million to their
winners and £38 million overall.
“Last year was a very difficult year for
all of us, and the pandemic had a pro-
found impact on the USTA’s financial
Thompson-Herah ran the second-fastest 100m in history on Saturday, 0.05sec outside the record set by Griffith Joyner, inset
Best women’s 100m times by year
10.49s
Florence Griffith Joyner
1990 1995 2000 2005
Thompson-Herah’s time on Saturday
was 0.31sec faster than last year’s best.
It is not only the 100m where the
wind of change is being ratified.
Griffith Joyner’s 200m world record is
21.34sec. Thompson-Herah ran the
second-fastest time ever in Tokyo
with 21.53. Gabby Thomas, the fastest
epidemiologist on the planet, ran the
third-fastest time in June.
The 400m world record dates back
to 1985, but Shaunae Miller-Uibo, of
the Bahamas, is closing and is now
0.76sec away from Marita Koch’s
mark, which some have linked to East
Germany’s doping regime, allegations
that Koch denies. Jarmila
Kratochvilova’s time of 1min 53.28sec
has been the 800m record for 38
years. On Saturday Athing Mu, a
health,” Mike Dowse, the chief execu-
tive of the United States Tennis Asso-
ciation, said. “We are proud to return
our player compensation to pre-
pandemic levels.”
Meanwhile, Andy Murray, 34, made
a winning start at the Winston-Salem
Open against an unexpected opponent
late on Sunday night. The three-times
grand-slam champion was scheduled
to face Nick Kyrgios but the Australian
pulled out at the 11th hour with a left
knee injury. Instead, Murray played
lucky loser Noah Rubin, the world
No 306, whom he beat 6-2, 6-0 to set up
a second-round showdown today with
Frances Tiafoe, ranked No 51.
Seconds
11
10.9
10.8
10.7
10.6
10.54s
Elaine Thompson-Herah 10.5
10.4
2010 2015 2020
19-year-old American sensation, ran
1:55.04. Only Caster Semenya and
Pamela Jelimo have dipped below 1:55
this century. Mu will surely get better.
Another athletics prodigy is Jakob
Ingebrigtsen, the 20-year-old who
won the Olympic 1,500m title. He is
still 2.32sec off Hicham El Guerrouj’s
record set in 1998, but it is hard to
think the Norwegian is at his peak.
Already this year one ancient track
record has gone. Kevin Young’s 400m
hurdles record of 46.78sec was one of
those “untouchables”, almost 29 years
old. Nobody else, not even Edwin
Moses, broke 47sec until 2018. Then,
in July, Karsten Warholm, another
Norwegian, broke Young’s record. He
did it again at the Olympics. Suddenly
Young is only the fourth-fastest man
I deeply regret using offensive nicknames, says Boucher
Cricket The South Africa head coach
Mark Boucher has apologised for
singing offensive songs and
nicknames during his playing days in
a 14-page affidavit submitted to
Cricket South Africa’s social justice
and nation-building committee.
Boucher was responding to
allegations levelled against him by
Paul Adams, the former wrist spinner
who last month said at the hearings
that he was subjected to racial
discrimination and name-calling, one
allegedly being “brown shit”, during
his career with South Africa.
While Boucher, 44, the former
South Africa wicketkeeper batsman,
denied giving Adams the racist
moniker, he did “apologise
53
in history. Where sub-47sec once
seemed remarkable, Warholm has
already gone under 46.
Usain Bolt has the 100m and 200m
world records and has given his
thoughts on the new sprint spikes,
calling them “weird”, “laughable” and
“unfair on some athletes”. He says he
would definitely have run under
9.5sec for the 100m in those spikes,
but had to make do with a best of
9.58. By Paris 2024 the argument may
have moved on from shoes to
whether Bolt or Thompson-Herah is
the greatest of all time.
In the meantime the sprint women
have gazumped the men for the
spotlight. Three of the six fastest ever
— Thompson-Herah, Fraser-Pryce
and Sha’Carri Richardson — are now
running against each other, with no
margin for error and little love lost.
The men’s 100m record has been
broken 11 times since Griffith Joyner
set her mark, not including those now
erased from the record books, but the
Jamaican rivalry could spark an
astonishing season finale. Griffith
Joyner died in 1998, aged only 38.
This summer her husband, Al Joyner,
recalled his late wife’s words on
record progression. “I never want
anybody to be like me,” she had
said. “I want them to take bigger
footsteps.” Thompson-Herah is within
touching distance.
unreservedly for any offensive
conduct, real or perceived”.
“We thought it was playful banter
within a team environment in which
we all participated,” Boucher, who
played 147 Tests and 295 one-day
internationals, said.
“I deeply regret the part I played by
joining in with singing offensive songs
or using offensive nicknames.
“We, the team, coaching staff,
selectors . . . should have created an
environment where all members of
the team could talk about these issues
without allowing them to fester.”
Temba Bavuma, the Test captain,
confirmed that Boucher had spoken
to the team, providing “clarity and
context” on the charges against him.
554 1G M Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

Sport Formula One

Expect season to carry on in bonkers fashion JERRY ANDRE/MOTORSPORT IMAGES

Rebecca Clancy details certainly be given a one-year contract

extension to remain at Red Bull next
the intriguing subplots season but he will need to improve.
That may seem harsh given that he
to look out for as the has won a race this season but he lies
fifth in the drivers’ championship,
campaign resumes this which is not really good enough when
it is clear he is driving a car capable of
weekend in Belgium more than that. The Mexican is only
four points behind Bottas but if Pérez
Christian Horner has predicted that had been on top form at more races,
the second half of the Formula One Red Bull would not be lagging behind
season will be “just as fruity” as the Mercedes by 12 points in the
first half, with his Red Bull driver Max constructors’ battle.
Verstappen taking the fight to the It is an almost impossible job being
world champion Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen’s team-mate and Pérez has
Verstappen opened up a certainly done better than the two
33-point lead over his rival rookies before him but he needs to
heading into the British
Grand Prix, while Red Belgian GP make the podium more consistently.
If he can do that, Red Bull still have
Bull had a lead of more Circuit de Spa- a good chance to dethrone
than 40 points over Francorchamps, Stavelot Mercedes this year.
Mercedes, but after Sunday Verstappen has crashed twice in the past two races to slip behind Hamilton, inset, in the title race
two thrilling and, at car regulation changes
times, bonkers races at TV: Sky Sports F1 the calendar another option, on a revised circuit of expected before the summer With huge regulation
the end of the first half of Radio: BBC 5 Live The season is due to end the one that hosted the season break, then during the changes coming over
the campaign, the tables on December 12 in Abu opener. break and then before the winter, teams
have turned. Dhabi but how many races this weekend but will start to shift
Returning from the summer and where they will be is still who will be hamilton’s wingman? Wolff has now told their focus to next
break, Hamilton, 36, goes into this unknown. With Japan following Valtteri Bottas was described by Toto German media that it year’s car, which
weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix with an Australia in cancelling their race, Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, will be in September, could have an
eight-point lead over the Dutchman, there are big gaps in the schedule and as the perfect wingman for Hamilton, which shows just how impact on the
who is 13 years his junior. one suspects that at least one more but his recent string of difficult the decision championship this
As well as surrendering his huge will also be called off, namely Mexico underwhelming performances has put is. A hungry Russell season. If teams
lead, Verstappen also knows that or Brazil, because of the pandemic. into question his future with the could rock the boat, switch too early, they
Hamilton tends to finish the season Formula One is still keen to hold team. His contract expires at the end whether he means to risk being left behind this
strongly. the scheduled 23 races, though it is of this season and George Russell has or not, but could also year, but too late and they
The fight between these two will understood that 21 is now more likely. been tipped as his replacement. The ensure that Mercedes risk falling behind next
dominant the narrative over the A double header in Austin is on the Mercedes protégé is biding his time at remain champions. season. This will be a hot
next few months but there are cards, as is an inaugural race in Qatar Williams but is understandably eager topic of conversation
several other stories to keep an eye on the same track that MotoGP has to make the move to the top team. red bull’s second driver among the teams in the
out for. raced for many years. Bahrain is also An announcement had been Sergio Pérez will almost coming months.

2 4-PP6 PERCY 33 (T) M Sheppard 7-11-12 S Sheppard 2.50 Handicap (£2,862: 1m 1f) (9) 3.00 Handicap (£4,590: 7f) (8)
Bangor-on-Dee 3 3-644 THEOCRAT 28 (T,V) N Hawke 4-11-10 K Buckley (7) 1 (2) 50222 ZEIMAAM 13 (P) E Bethell 4-9-7 P J McDonald
Yarmouth 1 (5) 512 FARHH TO SHY 19 (C) G Margarson 3-9-7 T P Queally
Rob Wright 4 362-0 EL JEFE F85 (H,BF) A B Hamilton 4-11-8 S Coltherd 2 (6) 46601 MARKAZI 18 (CD) Liam Bailey 7-9-7 D Nolan Rob Wright 2 (3) 53022 SIR BENEDICT 16 (H) C Fellowes 3-9-5 L Steward
5 35-0P LOST IN MONTMARTRE 91 (W,T) A Ralph 5-11-8 3 (7) 03115 MERRICOURT 29 (P,C) I Jardine 5-9-4 A Mullen
N Scholfield 3 (4) 24213 DASHING DICK 13 (P,BF,CD) W Stone 3-9-4
1.40 She’s A Novelty 3.10 Tanarpino 1.00 Kodi Gold 3.00 Asmund Laura Pearson (3)
4 (4) 44121 MIKMAK 12 (P) T Easterby 8-9-2 D Allan
2.10 Outonpatrol 3.40 Pencreek 6 6065- PERFECT CITY 134 Jonjo O’Neill 6-11-8 K Brogan (5) 1.30 Five Stars 3.30 Jakacan
5 (9) 33034 CABALLERO 17 (C) K Dalgleish 5-9-0 C Beasley 4 (8) 1-050 YORKSHIRE PIRLO 15 (T) Darryll Holland 3-9-0
2.40 Wigglesworth 4.10 She’s All In Gold 7 4/U0- PRINCE KHURRAM 135 (P,T,CD) D McCain 11-11-5 2.00 Oriental Art 4.00 Stage Lights (nb) S Cherchi (3)
P J Kavanagh (10) 6 (8) 14163 CLAY REGAZZONI 18 (V,BF,CD) K Dalgleish 4-9-0 S James 2.30 Mystic Dragon 4.35 Available Angel
Going: good, good to soft in places 5 (7) 3-230 IMPEACH 20 (H) C Allen 3-8-12 N Callan
8 -4111 PILLAR OF STEEL 28 (P) J Spearing 6-11-4 Jamie Moore 7 (3) 62644 ENGLES ROCK 18 L Russell 5-8-11 T Eaves
Sky Sports Racing Going: good 6 (2) 02423 BOBBY ON THE BEAT 12 (V) M Bell 3-8-10 W Buick
9 -6112 EASKEY LAD 37 (P) D Burchell 6-10-13 B R Jones 8 (1) -5431 ROYAL REGENT 15 (P,D) R M Smith 9-8-11 P Mathers
10 -U021 PASS RUSHER 25 (P,CD) G Bewley 6-10-10 J Bewley (3) 9 (5) 000-3 POWER PLAYER 20 R Carr 5-8-9 JP Sullivan Draw: no advantage Sky Sports Racing 7 (6) 03232 ASMUND 15 D Carroll 4-8-8 H Shaw
1.40 Mares’ Maiden Hurdle 7-2 Zeimaam, 4-1 Mikmak, 9-2 Markazi, 13-2 Royal Regent, 8-1 Merricourt, 8 (1) 31500 BOND ANGEL 120 (P,D) S Dixon 6-8-7 K O’Neill
11 42/35 G’DAY AUSSIE 25 (P,T,D) Dave Roberts 8-10-10 L Edwards 1.00 Handicap (3-Y-O: £2,700: 6f) (15)
(£4,084: 2m 1f) (12) 12 0630B LITTLE STEVIE 10 Mrs Stella Barclay 9-10-9 K Woods Clay Regazzoni, 10-1 Caballero, 14-1 Power Player, Engles Rock. 11-4 Farhh To Shy, 10-3 Dashing Dick, 9-2 Asmund, 5-1 Sir Benedict, 13-2
1 335-4 ESME SHELBY 25 D McCain 6-11-0 B Hughes 1 (7) 34-60 ENCHANTED NIGHT 14 (H) C Dunnett 9-9 S Cherchi (3) Bobby On The Beat, 10-1 Bond Angel, 16-1 Yorkshire Pirlo, 25-1 Impeach.
13 000-3 ETOILE REBELLE 32 (T) M Harris 6-10-7 M Bastyan (3)
2 0-223 GINGER DU VAL 28 (H,T,BF) M Rowley 5-11-0 Mr B Bromley (7) 14 22 BOUNDSY BOY 44 (T) O Greenall 3-10-1 H Brooke 3.20 Classified Stakes (£2,592: 7f) (11) 2 (4) 22413 BREEZYANDBRIGHT 13 (T,BF) M Murphy 9-8 D Muscutt
3 36 GO ON GAL 28 S Humphrey 8-11-0 N Scholfield 3-1 Pillar Of Steel, 9-2 Pass Rusher, 5-1 Easkey Lad, 13-2 Boundsy Boy, 1 (6) 45033 CLOTHERHOLME 25 (H,P,BF) Mrs A Duffield 4-9-5 D Allan
3 (9) 04205 IESHA 21 (P) C Wallis 9-7 L Morris 3.30 Handicap (£2,700: 7f) (13)
4 30-64 KITTY HALL 44 (P,D) N Richards 7-11-0 D McMenamin 4 (6) 4630 POLAM LANE 47 T D Barron 9-7 S W Kelly
10-1 Theocrat, 12-1 El Jefe, G’day Aussie, Pencreek, Perfect City, 16-1 others. 2 (9) 00-00 HEER ME 25 D Whillans 4-9-5 S James 1 (13) 22040 GARTH ROCKETT 109 (P,T,CD) M Murphy 7-9-9
5 326- MISTY MANI 246 P Niven 6-11-0 C Bewley 5 (2) 05606 GOT NO DOLLARS 98 (T) S C Williams 9-6 M Ghiani D Muscutt
3 (10) 00100 JESSIE ALLAN 17 J Goldie 10-9-5 P Mulrennan
6 0P/P MS INTRIGUE 41 (P,T) S-J Davies 6-11-0 W T Kennedy 6 (1) 42400 ALEHANDRO 21 (T,V) M Bell 9-6 C Shepherd 2 (8) -4006 SIBERIAN NIGHT 13 (C) E Walker 4-9-7 W Buick
7 0-55P ROQUE ANGEL 28 (H) M Rowley 5-11-0 A Edwards (3)
4.10 Handicap Hurdle 4 (4) 63140 LUCKY VIOLET 17 (H,CD) Miss L Perratt 9-9-5 G Lee
7 (14) 60000 KODI GOLD 75 P Evans 9-6 D Keenan
5 (3) 63450 MO HENRY 8 (P) A Keatley 9-9-5 Ryan Sexton (7) 3 (3) 034-0 SMART CONNECTION 229 (W) Alice Haynes 4-9-6 K O’Neill
8 65-44 SHE’S A NOVELTY 92 (T,BF) F O’Brien 6-11-0 L Harrison (5) (£2,342: 2m 4f) (15) 8 (10) 000 ELJAYTEE 55 J Berry 9-4 N Callan 4 (10) 26506 CHLOELLIE 66 (D) J R Jenkins 6-9-6 M Ghiani
6 (11) 60625 MONAADHIL 18 (P) R Carr 7-9-5 JP Sullivan
9 021/ SWEETTOWATCH 726 (D) Dr R Newland 7-11-0 1 -4336 YOU NAME HIM 23 (T) T Lacey 5-11-12 K Brogan (5) 9 (13) -0600 BRAZEN ARROW 13 C Dunnett 9-4 E J Walsh 5 (7) 00320 JACK RYAN 11 (B,D) J Ryan 4-9-4 Tia Phillips (7)
S Twiston-Davies 7 (8) 00-40 NO CIVIL JUSTICE 22 D Thompson 6-9-5 C Murtagh (3)
2 4-663 CALVINIST 56 (P) K Frost 8-11-12 J J Burke 10 (8) -0160 SNOW BERRY 14 (P,D) M Appleby 9-3 Erika Parkinson (7) 6 (9) 33532 EYES 13 Jessica Macey 3-9-3 L Edmunds
10 INCE F373 F O’Brien 4-10-11 P Brennan 8 (5) 00002 RAIN CAP 8 (V,D) J Riches 4-9-5 K Schofield (5)
3 460P- KENNACK BAY 133 (W) B Pauling 6-11-10 K Woods 11(12) 44503 LADY AMALTHEA 8 J Chapple-Hyam 9-2 W Buick
7 (2) 00061 PURPLE POWER 3 (D) M Quinn 4-9-3 Laura Pearson (3)
11 LE MUR F O’Brien 4-10-11 C Brace 9 (1) 03005 AVIOR STAR 7 I Jardine 3-9-0 A Mullen
4 -3U36 MYSTIC COURT 42 M Young 8-11-10 C Hammond 12(11) 36606 NEEDWOOD BLOSSOM 14 (B) A Carson 8-13
10 (7) 01045 ODD SOCKS HAVANA 5 (P,T) D O’Meara 3-9-0 J Watson Laura Pearson (3) 8 (12) 03062 JAKACAN 8 (T) D Carroll 3-9-2 H Shaw
12 640-P LUNAR BOUNTY F10 (H,T) L Morgan 4-10-11 A Wedge 5 12-43 ARMATTIEKAN 75 (B) D McCain 7-11-8 B Hughes
11 (2) 00040 PORTH DIANA 18 B Smart 3-9-0 G Sanna (7) 13(15) 00065 SWISS FLAMINGO 19 (P) M Attwater 8-12 W Carson 9 (6) 00204 ALETOILE 19 C Dwyer 3-9-1 N Callan
10-3 Sweettowatch, 9-2 Misty Mani, 11-2 She’s A Novelty, Ginger Du Val, 6 4-664 SOPAT 5 (BF) P W Middleton 8-11-8 Doubtful
13-2 Esme Shelby, 15-2 Lunar Bounty, 12-1 Kitty Hall, Ince, 14-1 others. 4-1 Odd Socks Havana, 9-2 Clotherholme, 6-1 Avior Star, Monaadhil, Jessie 14 (3) 00500 MAGNA OF ILLUSION 12 (H) C Dunnett 8-12 K O’Neill 10(11) 00000 SPARKLING DIAMOND 5 (B) Frank Bishop 4-8-12 W Carson
7 14U SHE’S ALL IN GOLD 8 (P,T) O Greenall 4-11-7 H Brooke
Allan, 13-2 Lucky Violet, 10-1 Mo Henry, Rain Cap, 14-1 others. 15 (5) 60600 DILLY ROSA 15 (P) J Feilden 8-12 S Feilden (7) 11 (1) 0-004 EMOJIE 5 J Chapple-Hyam 7-8-12 R Tart
8 60-05 POTTLERATH 28 M Sheppard 6-11-6 S Sheppard
15-8 Breezyandbright, 5-1 Lady Amalthea, 15-2 Alehandro, 8-1 Iesha, 12 (4) 54103 MISS TRIXIE 18 Steph Hollinshead 3-8-10
2.10 Handicap Chase (£5,882: 3m) (8) 9 3P-33 STORM ARCADIO 44 L Horsfall 5-11-5 H Bannister
3.50 Classified Stakes (£2,592: 7f) (10) Josephine Gordon
10-1 Snow Berry, 14-1 others.
1 -1032 HAVANA HERMANO 25 (P) S Edmunds 7-11-12 10 F-340 CHRISTOPHER ROBIN 33 (B,D) T R Gretton 6-11-2 J Dixon (7) 13 (5) 00463 PIRANHADRAMA 19 J Feilden 3-8-7 H Turner
C Gethings 11 0/015 MOSSING 64 (CD) H Evans 9-10-12 B Poste 1 (6) 00040 CHARLEMAINE 19 B Haslam 4-9-5 A Mullen
3-1 Purple Power, 4-1 Eyes, 6-1 Jakacan, 15-2 Miss Trixie, 10-1 Aletoile, Jack
2 0/PP- SOME BUCKLE 224 (P) Deborah Cole 12-11-10 12 0P00- MAURICIO F240 Mrs Stella Barclay 7-10-9 F Gregory (3) 2 (10) 56600 ETIKAAL 53 (D) G Tuer 7-9-5 S James 1.30 Fillies’ Novice Stakes Ryan, 12-1 Piranhadrama, Garth Rockett, Siberian Night, 16-1 others.
F Gregory (3) 13 0-310 BLACK LIGHTNING 51 (B,BF) Georgie Howell 8-10-7 3 (7) 05655 FIRMDECISIONS 19 (D) N Tinkler 11-9-5 R Scott (2-Y-O: £5,400: 1m) (9)
3 0-142 OUTONPATROL 50 A King 7-11-10 A Thorne (5) Tabitha Worsley (5) 4 (9) 0-000 GARNOCK VALLEY 43 (T) R M Smith 4-9-5 D Allan
AIMING HIGH D M Simcock 9-0 C Shepherd
1 (9) 4.00 Handicap (£2,700: 7f) (13)
4 /0F-3 ORGANDI 30 R Phillips 9-11-8 D Hiskett (3) 14 03-03 COSHESTON 25 (V) J Candlish 8-10-6 Sean Quinlan 5 (2) 06600 GUIDING STAR 8 (P,T) Ewan Whillans 7-9-5 C Murtagh (3) CROMARTY D M Simcock 9-0 J P Spencer
2 (3)
5 -5536 OCEAN COVE 30 (P,D) F O’Brien 9-11-7 P Brennan 15 005-0 AKKAPENKO 82 (P,T,D) D Burchell 7-10-6 B R Jones 6 (3) 0-000 JOYFUL STAR 15 (D) F Watson 11-9-5 J Hart
DELPHINUS J & T Gosden 9-0 W Buick 1 (7) 00324 ROCKESBURY 13 (V,C,D) P McEntee 6-9-8 Grace McEntee (5)
3 (6)
6 00-40 FINGERONTHESWITCH 54 (P,D) N Mulholland 11-11-4 3-1 Armattiekan, 6-1 Cosheston, 7-1 Storm Arcadio, 8-1 She’s All In Gold, 7 (1) 00300 MAC MCCARTHY 25 (B,D) R Carr 4-9-5 JP Sullivan 2 (1) 65000 SORBONNE 15 (B,D) T D Barron 5-9-7 S W Kelly
4 (8) 506 DOVES CRY 33 C Dunnett 9-0 E J Walsh
S Twiston-Davies Mossing, Black Lightning, 10-1 Calvinist, You Name Him. 8 (8) 0000 BELLEVUE LAD 27 D Thompson 3-9-0 C Beasley 3 (4) /0-03 OKAIDI 25 A Carroll 4-9-6 L Morris
5 (5) 03 EPHRATA 32 (BF) J & T Gosden 9-0 R Havlin
7 44221 WISHFULL DREAMING 8 (B,T,CD) S England 10-11-1(7ex) 9 (5) 30646 COOL DANDY 7 K Dalgleish 3-9-0 B Garritty (3) 4 (11) 06500 LOVE SENSATION 29 (W,B,T) Alice Haynes 3-9-4 K O’Neill
J England 6 (2) FIVE STARS M Johnston 9-0 J Fanning
10 (4) 05006 LITTLE GEM 4 (D) A Berry 3-9-0 Z Wheatley (7)
4 LA DUCHESSE 21 M Botti 9-0 M Ghiani 5 (13) 20014 LITTLE SUNFLOWER 20 (CD) W Stone 3-9-3 Laura Pearson (3)
7 (7)
8 24040 FLYING VERSE 26 (B,T) David Dennis 9-10-6 B Hughes
5-4 Wishfull Dreaming, 7-2 Outonpatrol, 9-2 Havana Hermano, 8-1 Organdi,
Musselburgh 3-1 Cool Dandy, 7-2 Firmdecisions, 4-1 Etikaal, 7-1 Mac Mccarthy,
8-1 Charlemaine, Bellevue Lad, 10-1 Little Gem, 25-1 others.
8 (4) 4 MY SILENT SONG 38 E Dunlop 9-0 D Muscutt 6
7
(9) 10064 AMAL 12 (D) J R Jenkins 3-9-3
(12) 12220 ALMADRINA 21 (BF) G Boughey 3-9-3
A Farragher (5)
W Buick
10-1 Ocean Cove, 14-1 Flying Verse, 20-1 Fingerontheswitch, 100-1 Some Buckle. Rob Wright 9 (1) 00 NIAMH AND OONAGH 11 D P Quinn 9-0 G Ashton (5)
8 (8) 303 STAGE LIGHTS 19 S Pearce 3-9-2 J Mitchell
7-4 Delphinus, 2-1 Ephrata, 6-1 My Silent Song, 8-1 Five Stars, 10-1 Cromarty,
1.50 Rosie’s Return 3.50 Charlemaine 4.25 Handicap (£4,752: 1m 4f 104yd) (8) 14-1 Aiming High, La Duchesse, 100-1 Niamh And Oonagh, Doves Cry. 9 (6) -0363 RACY STACEY 13 Steph Hollinshead 4-8-13
2.40 Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap 2.20 Coaxing 4.25 Arch Moon (nap) 1 (2) 4010- BEECHWOOD JUDE 290 (C,D) K Dalgleish 5-9-9 G Lee
Josephine Gordon
Hurdle (£3,159: 2m 7f) (6) 10 (2) 20050 RINTY MAGINTY 20 (P,D) P Chamings 5-8-12 G Rooke (3)
2.50 Royal Regent 5.00 Zoom Star 2 (8) 2-300 PEARL WARRIOR 59 (W,P,T,D) I Jardine 5-9-7 A Mullen
3.20 Clotherholme
2.00 Handicap (£3,240: 1m 3f 104yd) (6) 11 (5) 00300 CHICKENFORTEA 21 (D) D Carroll 7-8-12 H Shaw
1 /0-64 MORRAMAN 8 D McCain 8-12-1 T Gillard (3) 3 (5) 364/6 TAXMEIFYOUCAN J150 (D) K Dalgleish 7-9-7 B Garritty (3)
1 (4) 30-42 GOLD ARCH 10 P Evans 5-10-0 S W Kelly 12(10) 43020 GENTLY SPOKEN 19 S Dixon 4-8-12 J Fisher (5)
2 P-221 WIGGLESWORTH 25 (B,CD) Dr R Newland 6-11-12 Going: good 4 (1) 31032 GREENGAGE 14 (H,D) T Davidson 6-9-6 J Hart
C Hammond (3) 2 (2) 043- ACE ROTHSTEIN 326 M Bell 3-9-6 D E Hogan (3) 13 (3) 600 JONATHANS PRINCESS 13 (H) C Dunnett 3-8-7 S Cherchi (3)
Draw: 5f, high numbers best Racing TV 5 (6) 0-405 ARCH MOON 46 M Dods 4-9-5 P Mulrennan
7-2 Almadrina, 9-2 Rockesbury, Little Sunflower, 8-1 Okaidi, 10-1 Stage
3 P0-P2 BLACK ANTHEM 32 (B,T) T Lacey 9-11-10 K Brogan 3 (3) 34252 SILVESTRIS 7 M Johnston 3-9-5 W Buick
6 (3) -1561 BLISTERING BARNEY 34 (H,P,D) C Kellett 5-8-11
4 62045 VOODOO DOLL 25 (C) E Williams 8-11-10 P Mathers 4 (1) 32260 COQUETA 7 (V) G Kelleway 4-9-3 R Havlin Lights, Racy Stacey, Amal, 12-1 Sorbonne, 16-1 others.
Isabel Williams (3) 1.50 Maiden Stakes (2-Y-O: £2,861: 7f) (5) 7 (7) 0004- EMARATY HERO 287 G Tuer 4-8-9 S James 5 (6) 02524 ORIENTAL ART 23 D M Simcock 3-9-1 J P Spencer
5 0-054 DAMUT I’M OUT 25 (D) A Ralph 11-11-0 A Edwards 1 (3) 5350 BUNGLE BAY 41 A Keatley 9-5 Ryan Sexton (7) 8 (4) 6-230 SARVI 30 (B) J Goldie 6-8-2 C Hardie 6 (5) 55660 PRISMATIC 13 (H) M Attwater 4-8-13 W Carson 4.35 Handicap (£2,700: 1m) (16)
6 6-P31 PRESENTING YEATS 37 (P,T) M Harris 5-10-0 M Bastyan (3) 2 (4) MINTNTHAT I Jardine 9-5 A Mullen 3-1 Arch Moon, 10-3 Blistering Barney, 7-2 Greengage, 5-1 Beechwood Jude, 9-4 Silvestris, 11-4 Gold Arch, 10-3 Oriental Art, 7-2 Ace Rothstein, 10-1 others. 1 (15) 0-032 LADY DAUPHIN 19 (BF) Tom Clover 5-9-7
11-8 Wigglesworth, 3-1 Presenting Yeats, 5-1 Black Anthem, 15-2 Morraman, 3 (5) 02 REVOQUABLE 34 T Easterby 9-5 D Allan 6-1 Emaraty Hero, 12-1 Taxmeifyoucan, 25-1 Sarvi, Pearl Warrior. Laura Pearson (3)
10-1 Damut I’m Out, 12-1 Voodoo Doll. 4 (2) 322 ROSIE’S RETURN 7 (BF) K Burke 9-5 P-L Jamin (5) 2.30 Handicap (£2,700: 1m 2f) (14) 2 (12) 51105 VITESSE DU SON 19 M Pattinson 4-9-6 T Greatrex (3)
5 (1) 43 WHITCLIFFE 41 M Johnston 9-5 C Beasley 5.00 Handicap (£2,592: 5f) (14) 1 (6) 50241 SHYJACK 19 (V,C) C Dunnett 6-9-9 E J Walsh
3 (4) 20004 RAHA 31 (P) J Feilden 5-9-5 D E Hogan (3)
3.10 Handicap Chase (£5,882: 2m 4f) (8) Evens Rosie’s Return, 4-1 Revoquable, 9-2 Bungle Bay, 5-1 Whitcliffe, 1 (3) 44043 COOL SPIRIT 11 (CD) D C Griffiths 6-9-11 A Mullen 2 (13) 04/00 TIME ZONE 11 L Allan 7-9-9 T P Queally
4 (3) 05003 KRAKA 126 (P,C) C Dunnett 6-9-4 Jefferson Smith
14-1 Mintnthat. 5 (1) 00545 MILLICENT 24 G L Moore 4-9-2 Alexander Voikhansky (7)
1 -1042 ASOCKASTAR 40 (P,D) Daniel Bourne 13-12-2 2 (7) 40643 LOLA REBEL 17 C Teague 3-9-7 J Hart 3 (9) 40500 SHIFTING GOLD 85 (P) J Feilden 5-9-8 S Feilden (7)
Shane Quinlan (5) 6 (8) 00230 LOWNDES SQUARE 27 (BF) E Walker 3-9-2 W Buick
3 (1) 00006 MRS BAGERRAN 8 T Waggott 3-9-7 T Eaves 4 (14) 5-500 MOTAHASSEN 15 (T,D) D Carroll 7-9-8 H Shaw
2 -3131 TARDREE 23 (H,T) L Morgan 7-11-12 A Wedge 7 (13) 06643 ASK THE WIND 19 (P) A Carroll 3-9-1 L Morris
2.20 Nursery Handicap 4 (9) 00260 DANDY’S MAX 21 (B) Mrs Stella Barclay 3-9-5 J Peate (7) 5 (1) 10600 HEADLAND 20 (B) S Dixon 5-9-7 J Fisher (5) 8 (10) 30224 HABANERO STAR 8 G Kelleway 4-9-0 R Havlin
3 0-022 NO COMMENT 36 (T) P Hobbs 10-11-12 T J O’Brien
(2-Y-O: £2,592: 5f) (8) 5 (13) 6-005 SCARBOROUGHDEBUT 17 (P) M Dods 3-9-4 C Beasley 6 (12) 46621 MYSTIC DRAGON 20 (T,CD) Mrs I G-Leveque 5-9-4 G Wood 9 (14) 40043 TILSWORTH TAIBO 24 J R Jenkins 4-8-13 K O’Neill
4 250/1 CENOTICE 28 D McCain 7-11-11 B Hughes 6 (8) 00521 TRIPLE JAYE 9 (H,P,D) T Easterby 3-9-4(6ex) D Allan
1 (6) 50654 ZWIFT 13 (V) D O’Meara 9-10 J Watson 7 (11) 00640 VOI 16 (T,CD) C Allen 7-9-4 Laura Pearson (3) 10 (5) -5000 CASH N CARRIE 11 (P) M Appleby 7-8-12
5 5-600 DR SANDERSON 41 (D) B Haslam 7-11-10 R McLernon 7 (2) 20624 SIXCOR 19 Miss L Perratt 3-9-3 JP Sullivan Karen Kenny (7)
2 (8) 46455 HOT DIGGITY DOG 25 (V) K Dalgleish 9-9 S James 8 (2) /30-0 SEABOROUGH J58 D Shaw 6-9-3 D Muscutt
6 -3054 TANARPINO 25 (V,D) J Candlish 10-11-6 Sean Quinlan 8 (10) 04032 ZOOM STAR 11 B Smart 3-9-1 G Lee 11 (6) 30200 HARLEQUIN ROSE 14 (V,D) P Chamings 7-8-12 G Rooke (3)
3 (5) 005 COAXING 42 T D Barron 9-7 C Beasley 9 (8) 0-643 MANFADH 71 (T) K Frost 6-9-0 W Buick
7 2P-64 ON A PROMISE 28 (BF,D) K Dalgleish 9-10-10 Craig Nichol 9 (12) 44334 LORD OF THE GLEN 17 (B,CD) J Goldie 6-9-1 P Mulrennan 12 (7) 00223 AVAILABLE ANGEL 23 J Mackie 3-8-8 M Ghiani
4 (2) 00504 WONDROUS THINGS 7 (P) T Easterby 9-6 D Allan 10 (3) 25344 FLOWER OF THUNDER 13 C Dunnett 4-8-12 K O’Neill
8 1-552 SHENTRI 30 (T) D Skelton 4-10-6 H Skelton 10 (6) 43040 ROSE ALL DAY 18 R Barr 3-9-0 H Russell (3) 13 (9) -6660 BABY BOO 33 (H) A Murphy 3-8-7 G Wood
5 (3) 4466 JUSUMI 25 K Burke 9-6 P-L Jamin (5) 11(10) 00004 HARBOUR PROJECT 12 (P) A Carroll 4-8-12 L Morris
11-4 Tardree, 4-1 Cenotice, 5-1 No Comment, 11-2 Shentri, 6-1 On A Promise, 11 (4) 46456 CORTON LASS 17 K Dalgleish 6-8-13 S James 14 (2) -0060 LOUBY LOU 19 D Carroll 3-8-7 H Shaw
6 (4) 46640 LITTLETIMYHOULIHAN 12 A Berry 8-8 G Lee 12 (4) 000 LANCERO 30 (B) W Haggas 3-8-10 N Callan
15-2 Asockastar, 10-1 Tanarpino, 25-1 Dr Sanderson. 12(14) 05000 ANGEL EYES 70 J Riches 6-8-13 K Schofield (5) 15(11) 00-50 MISSED ILLUSION 88 P Chapple-Hyam 3-8-6 Doubtful
7 (1) 0000 LILYWHITE 18 T Waggott 8-7 T Eaves 13 (5) -0500 POET’S PARK 21 C Wall 3-8-8 Josephine Gordon
13(11) 00000 GRIFFIN STREET 29 (B) Ewan Whillans 8-8-13 R Scott 16(16) 000- TOLSTOY’S TALE 279 (P) P Charalambous 3-8-6
8 (7) 60040 ELEGANT EMBRACE 24 (P) N Tinkler 8-7 R Scott 14 (7) 00-50 MISSED ILLUSION 88 (B) P Chapple-Hyam 3-8-5G Rooke (3) Jimmy Quinn
3.40 Handicap Hurdle (£3,159: 2m 1f) (14) 14 (5) 00060 GLEN LOMOND 17 (P) J Goldie 3-8-11 C Hardie
9-4 Wondrous Things, 3-1 Zwift, 10-3 Hot Diggity Dog, 5-1 Jusumi, 4-1 Zoom Star, 9-2 Triple Jaye, 5-1 Lola Rebel, 11-2 Cool Spirit, 7-1 Lord Of 10-3 Shyjack, 7-2 Mystic Dragon, 11-2 Lancero, 6-1 Manfadh, 15-2 Flower Of 4-1 Lowndes Square, 9-2 Lady Dauphin, Habanero Star, 6-1 Tilsworth Taibo,
1 3330- PENCREEK 216 (T) B Pauling 8-12-1 Luca Morgan (5) 6-1 Coaxing, 33-1 Littletimyhoulihan, 50-1 Elegant Embrace, 66-1 Lilywhite. Thunder, 10-1 Seaborough, 14-1 Voi, Harbour Project, 20-1 others. 13-2 Available Angel, 14-1 others.
The Glen, 10-1 Sixcor, 12-1 Scarboroughdebut, 16-1 others.
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 1G M 55

Golf Sport
ANDREW REDINGTON/GETTY IMAGES

Europe take punt Rai claims his

PGA Tour card
on three rookies in despite error
bid to defend title England’s Aaron Rai secured his PGA
Tour card for next season despite a
disappointing finish to the Albertsons
Boise Open.
Cathy Harris ites to reclaim the cup on September 6. Rai held a one-shot lead on the final
“It was pretty tricky,” Matthew said hole at Hillcrest Country Club but ran
Europe face a tough task to retain the after narrowing down her options. “I up a double-bogey six after his chip
Solheim Cup in Ohio next month after think we had most of our picks set but from just off the green ran off the put-
the team captain, Catriona Matthew, with so many of our players doing so ting surface.
named a 12-strong team that includes well at the Open [last week] there were The tournament was part of the Korn
four rookies. so many different scenarios. Ferry Tour finals, a three-event series
Matthew yesterday announced three “There were a few difficult conversa- to determine the second set of 25 PGA
debutants, all 26, among her six cap- tions with those who missed out. I don’t Tour cards for next season.
tain’s picks. Ireland’s Leona Maguire think it matters how many picks you Players who finish in the top five at
and Matilda Castren, the American- have, the last one is always tricky. I’m each of the three tournaments are
born player from Finland, will be glad it’s over.” projected to finish inside the top 25.
the first representatives from For the US, the world No 1, Rai, who defeated Tommy Fleet-
their respective countries, Nelly Korda, heads the nine wood in a play-off at the 2020 Scottish
with Nanna Koerstz automatic qualifiers and Open to win his second European Tour
Madsen, of Denmark,
completing the trio.
Solheim Cup is joined by her sister
Jessica and the major
title, said: “It definitely hasn’t set in yet.
“When I was playing I was obviously
Germany’s Sophia Saturday, September 4 to winners Danielle Kang just focusing on the win. And the over-
Popov, last year’s AIG Monday, September 6 and Lexi Thompson. riding emotion right now is disappoint-
Open champion, is the Inverness Club, Ohio, US Jennifer Kupcho, 24, is Maguire, main, the first Irish player in Solheim Cup history, will be joined by ment after finishing that way. It was
fourth rookie after quali- TV: Sky Sports Golf one of three rookies, three Englishwomen in Team Europe, pictured top to bottom: Hall, Hull and Reid very tough.
fying automatically alongside the captain’s “But to have status on the PGA Tour
through the Rolex World picks Mina Harigae and after the first event of the finals is
Rankings, where she is 30th. Yealimi Noh. Meet Matthew’s Team Europe incredible really if I take a step back.”
Among the European team — Brittany Altomare, the other Australia’s Lucas Herbert, 25, and
winners at Gleneagles in 2019 by 14½ wild-card pick will make her second Emily Kristine (Germany; 28; 30) (Finland; 26; 47) Austria’s Matthias Schwab, 26, are on
points to 13½ — only England’s Georgia appearance in the cup. Hurst added Pedersen (Denmark; Charley Hull Nanna Koerstz Madsen course to secure their PGA Tour cards
Hall is higher, up to No 29 after finish- that just because Harigae and Noh are age: 25; world No 68) (England; 25; 39). (Denmark; 26; 48) after finishing a shot behind Rai in a tie
ing in a tie for second at the Women’s rookies, it does not mean they lack the Georgia Hall Carlota Ciganda Madelene Sagstrom for fourth alongside Stephan Jaeger.
Open on Sunday. required experience. (England; 25; 29) (Spain; 31; 41) (Sweden; 28; 46) The Scotsman Robert MacIntyre,
Eight of the 12 US players are Team USA Nelly Korda (world No 1), Danielle Kang Anna Nordqvist Leona Maguire Celine Boutier seeking to build on an impressive
ranked above Hall, which, coupled with (7), Lexi Thompson (12), Lizette Salas (14), Jessica (Sweden; 34; 16) (Ireland; 26; 43) (France; 27; 65) season, did not make the weekend,
the advantage of home support, Korda (17), Ally Ewing (22), Austin Ernst (27), Jenni-
fer Kupcho (28), Yealimi Noh (31), Megan Khang
Sophia Popov Matilda Castren Mel Reid (England; 33; 53) missing the cut, with an opening round
makes Pat Hurst’s team strong favour- (36), Brittany Altomare (54), Mina Harigae (61). of 74 largely to blame.

5.35 Fillies’ Novice Stakes 4 -6501 ON THE RIGHT TRACK 32 M Usher 4-9-11 C Bennett 9 (4) ROYAL SHOWQUEEN S C Williams 9-0 D Probert 6.45 Handicap (3-Y-O: £3,942: 1m 4f) (6)
Salisbury (2-Y-O: £5,400: 6f) (10) 5 63244 IDILICO 71 (V) I Williams 6-9-11 David Egan 10 (5) 2 SENSE OF DUTY 18 W Haggas 9-0 T Marquand 1 (5) 4-542 MUSHIRIF 15 (BF) R Varian 9-9 A Atzeni
Rob Wright 1 (2) 41 MINNAMOOLKA 10 (D) M Channon 9-4 6 02420 FLYING STANDARD 20 (BF) C Wall 4-9-7 H Doyle 4-5 Sense Of Duty, 7-1 Brides Bay, Heredia, 10-1 Chepchik, 12-1 Me Next, 2 (6) 3-613 SKYTREE 29 (D) W Haggas 9-7 T Marquand
T Hammer Hansen (3) 7 32332 LAWMANS BLIS 7 (B,BF) H Dunlop 3-9-6 J Crowley 14-1 Royal Showqueen, Be Glorious, 25-1 Infinite Appeal, 30-1 others. 3 (1) 12014 NELLIE MOON 25 (H,CD) A Perrett 9-7 R Kingscote
4.30 Only The Brave 6.35 East Asia 2 (1) ALWAJD C Hills 9-0 J Crowley 8 0/1R0 RAHMAH 121 (B) G Deacon 9-9-4 H Crouch 4 (3) 51002 MICKYDEE 4 (P,D) R Hannon 9-5 James Doyle
5.05 Dark Swansong 7.05 Suns Up Guns Up 3 (9) AN ANGEL’S DREAM R Hannon 9-0 L Browne (7) 9 60005 NOAFENCE 8 (P) A West 4-8-10 W Humphrey (7) 5.15 Handicap (3-Y-O: £4,347: 7f) (6) 5 (2) 05233 NIGHT MOMENT 16 M Johnston 9-3 F Norton
5.35 Breezy Storm 7.35 Eagle One 4 (7) BLACKBIRD POWER A Balding 9-0 S De Sousa 5-2 On The Right Track, 7-2 Suns Up Guns Up, 4-1 Sulochana, 11-2 others.
6.05 Jumby 1 (5) 2-115 NINE TALES 12 (BF,D) R Varian 9-12 A Atzeni 6 (4) 6-666 SARATOGA GOLD 13 C Hills 9-1 R L Moore
5 (4) 6 BREEZY STORM 26 G L Moore 9-0 H Crouch
Wright choice: Suns Up Guns Up beat a subsequent winner 2 (6) 03562 FANGORN 11 (D) M Channon 9-7 R Hornby 6-4 Mushirif, 4-1 Skytree, 11-2 Nellie Moon, 6-1 Night Moment,
Going: good 6 (10) 0 CLONSILLA ROSE 71 Seamus Mullins 9-0 G Downing
at Windsor last time Dangers Lawmans Blis, Sulochana 7-1 Saratoga Gold, 8-1 Mickydee.
3 (3) 524-3 MUMMY’S BOY 130 C Hills 9-6 R L Moore
Draw: 5f-1m, high numbers best Racing TV 7 (8) 3 COMMANDMENT 11 E Dunlop 9-0 H Doyle
8 (6) KEEPING HOPING C Cox 9-0 A Kirby 4 (4) 10420 ELOQUENT ARTHUR 17 R Hannon 9-5 S M Levey
7.35 Handicap (£2,700: 1m 6f) (9) 5 (1) 65-40 BELOVED 31 (H) E Walker 9-2 T Marquand 7.15 Handicap (3-Y-O: £3,942: 1m 2f) (9)
4.30 Handicap (£2,566: 1m) (10) 9 (3) PLAGIARISE H Morrison 9-0 O Murphy
6 (2) 5-53 BREAKFASTATIFFANYS 117 S Kirk 9-0 D O’Neill
10 (5) 20 PRISM 74 R Varian 9-0 David Egan 1 50-24 FLAT TO THE MAX 223 S Hodgson 6-10-3 W Carver (3) 1 (7) 46430 GREYSTOKE 26 (D) M Channon 9-7 G Bass (5)
1 (10) 12265 TAKEONEFORTHETEAM 26 (D) M Loughnane 6-11-0 2 54212 EMBOLDEN 37 C Hobson 4-10-0 C Hutchinson (5) 5-2 Fangorn, 3-1 Nine Tales, 4-1 Mummy’s Boy, 5-1 Beloved, 2 (1) 4325 CHEEKY AZ 174 R Varian 9-6 C Noble (3)
Miss M Wingrove (5) 7-2 Prism, 9-2 Commandment, 5-1 Blackbird Power, 6-1 Minnamoolka,
13-2 Alwajd, 8-1 Keeping Hoping, 10-1 Plagiarise, 12-1 others. 3 63-36 PROMISES 12 Suzi Best 4-9-13 H Doyle 13-2 Eloquent Arthur, 10-1 Breakfastatiffanys. 3 (3) -3411 BEOWULF 21 (B,D) E Walker 9-5 A Atzeni
2 (8) 21555 DISCOMATIC 13 (D) A Balding 3-10-8
Miss Claudia Metaireau (7) Wright choice: Breezy Storm was hampered when a staying- 4 25323 MASTER GREY 13 (P,CD) B Millman 6-9-11 R Coakley 4 (6) -2044 ESCOBEDO 32 R Hannon 9-2 S M Levey
3 (5) 00161 ORDER OF ST JOHN 52 (P,D) D J Jeffreys 4-10-7 on sixth at Goodwood Dangers Prism, Minnamoolka 5 33410 GIVEPEACEACHANCE 21 (BF,D) D Coakley 6-9-7 O Murphy 5.45 Handicap (£10,260: 1m) (12) 5 (5) -2424 JUST JACOB 13 (BF) W Haggas 9-2 T Marquand
Miss Fern O’Brien (5) 6 30451 EAGLE ONE 68 (P,D) A Perrett 3-9-6 K Shoemark 6 (4) 4445 MODESTUS 13 (P) R Charlton 9-1 R L Moore
1 (10) 3560- AFAAK 332 (D) C Hills 7-9-13 D O’Neill
4 (4) 05246 SIR RODERIC 24 (D) B Millman 8-10-4 7 2560- DEREK LE GRAND J40 R Stephens 4-9-5 T Heard (5) 7 (8) 0-000 THE HOOD 61 (H) A King 8-13 M Harley
Miss Becky Smith 6.05 Conditions Stakes (£8,370: 6f) (6) 2 (12) 221-0 CHANCE 208 (H,D) S & E Crisford 5-9-12 James Doyle
8 (2) 4502 HELLUVABOY 61 A Stronge 8-12 R Kingscote
8 06322 WHERE YOU AT 21 S Kirk 3-9-1 David Egan 3 (6) 56-03 KING OTTOKAR 101 (V,C) C Fellowes 5-9-11 Rossa Ryan
5 (1) -0466 GHAZAALY 29 B Millman 3-10-3 Mrs Jo Buck (3) 1 (2) 31003 JUMBY 10 (D) E J-Houghton 3-9-7 O Murphy
9 00-0 TELEFINA 25 A West 3-8-0 W Humphrey (7) 4 (7) 00301 POWER OF DARKNESS 11 (P,D) M Tregoning 6-9-9 9 (9) 10600 LIBERATED LAD 36 (T,D) I Williams 8-8 D Probert
6 (9) 04-02 ONLY THE BRAVE 22 (V) A Watson 5-10-3 Ms B Hampson 2 (1) 12404 MIGHTY GURKHA 23 (B,D) A Watson 3-9-7 H Doyle D Costello
7-2 Givepeaceachance, 4-1 Embolden, 5-1 Where You At, Flat To The Max, 6-1 2-1 Beowulf, 5-1 Just Jacob, 6-1 Modestus, 13-2 Cheeky Az, 7-1 others.
7 (2) 0/05- CATCH THE CUBAN J43 (P,T) C Tizzard 5-9-13 3 (3) 103-0 ROULSTON SCAR 104 (T,D) S & E Crisford 5-9-6 K Shoemark 5 (9) -4144 TURN ON THE CHARM 52 (BF,D) J Fanshawe 4-9-7 T Marquand
Miss Megan Bevan (7) Eagle One, 13-2 Master Grey, 12-1 Promises, 25-1 Telefina, Derek Le Grand.
4 (5) 126- ALBASHEER 318 Owen Burrows 3-9-3 J Crowley 6 (5) 0-514 YOU’RE HIRED 17 (D) A Perrett 8-9-6 S Osborne (5) Blinkered first time Bangor-on-Dee 3.40 Theocrat. Mus-
8 (6) 06500 BROUGHTONS FLARE 136 M Loughnane 5-9-12 Wright choice: Eagle One is up just 2lb for his Chelmsford
Miss Jodie Wingrove (7) 5 (4) 21 PROP FORWARD 20 (D) C Cox 3-9-3 A Kirby 7 (11) 6-046 BEAR FORCE ONE 17 (P,C,D) R Teal 5-9-6 R L Moore selburgh 2.20 Hot Diggity Dog. Salisbury 7.05 Tamaris.
6 (6) 3-220 SAINT LAWRENCE 94 R Varian 3-9-3 David Egan
success Dangers Where You At, Givepeaceachance Yarmouth 1.00 Needwood Blossom. 2.30 Missed Illusion;
9 (3) 0-460 CELTIC FORCE 11 B J Llewellyn 5-9-7 8 (1) 03-45 KING CARNEY 93 (D) A Carroll 4-9-6 R Dawson
Miss Jessica Llewellyn (5) 5-4 Albasheer, 9-2 Saint Lawrence, 5-1 Roulston Scar, 6-1 Jumby, 9 (2) 2106- IMRAHOR 279 (D) H Palmer 4-9-4 M Harley Lancero; Headland. 4.00 Sorbonne; Love Sensation. 4.30
10 (7) 50400 NEMINOS 21 G L Moore 3-9-0 Miss Sophie Smith (3) 8-1 Mighty Gurkha, 10-1 Prop Forward. 10 (3) 2-434 ITKAANN 23 (P,D) Owen Burrows 4-9-3 D Probert Only The Brave.
5-2 Order Of St John, 7-2 Only The Brave, 5-1 Takeonefortheteam, Wright choice: Jumby shaped as though returning to form Newbury 11 (4) 12-64 PERCY’S LAD 115 (D) E J-Houghton 3-9-3 C Bishop
8-1 Sir Roderic, 10-1 Ghazaaly, Catch The Cuban, 12-1 others. when third at Newmarket Danger Albasheer Rob Wright 12 (8) 21-1 TROLL PENINSULA 146 (D) R Varian 4-9-2 A Atzeni
Rob Wright’s choice: Only The Brave was given too much to 7-2 Troll Peninsula, 5-1 King Ottokar, 6-1 Turn On The Charm, 7-1 Power of Course specialists
do when second at Carlisle Dangers Celtic Force, Sir Roderic 4.40 Sense Of Duty 6.15 Gaius Darkness, Chance, 12-1 Itkaann, 14-1 others.
6.35 Handicap (£6,210: 1m 6f) (5) 5.15 Fangorn 6.45 Skytree
Bangor-On-Dee: Trainers Dr R Newland, 6 from 25
runners, 24.0%; F O’Brien, 9 from 38, 23.7%. Jockeys
1 1-130 C’EST NO MOUR 17 (C,D) S Hodgson 8-9-7 H Doyle 5.45 Itkaann 7.15 Greystoke
5.05 Novice Stakes (2-Y-O: £5,400: 6f) (9) 2 21003 BRASCA 38 (C,D) R Beckett 5-9-5 H Crouch
6.15 Nursery Handicap A Edwards, 5 from 17 rides, 29.4%; P Brennan, 12 from
Going: good, good to soft in places (2-Y-O: £3,942: 7f) (10) 44, 27.3%; K K Woods, 10 from 38, 26.3%.
1 (6) 1 BOAFO BOY 13 (T,CD) J Osborne 9-7 David Egan 3 11035 BLOW YOUR HORN 32 (D) C Fellowes 4-9-4 K Shoemark
Draw: no advantage Racing TV Musselburgh: Trainers G Tuer, 9 from 39, 23.1%;
2 (5) 1 HIERARCHY 15 (D) H Palmer 9-7 O Murphy 4 5-053 EASTERN SHERIFF 23 (P) H Palmer 4-9-3 O Murphy 1 (7) 444 CROUPIER 27 S & E Crisford 9-9 James Doyle
M Johnston, 35 from 189, 18.5%. Jockeys S James,
3 (2) ACCOUNT M Meade 9-0 C Fallon 5 11055 EAST ASIA 17 I Williams 6-9-2 David Egan 2 (3) 2303 GAIUS 16 R Hannon 9-9 S M Levey
13 from 64, 20.3%; P J McDonald, 10 from 56, 17.9%.
4 DARK SWANSONG 38 C Cox 9-0 A Kirby 9-4 East Asia, 3-1 Eastern Sheriff, Brasca, 11-2 C’Est No Mour,
4.40 Maiden Fillies’ Stakes 3 (4) 330 SILKS DREAM 37 (BF) Darryll Holland 9-7 A Villiers (5)
4 (1) Newbury: Trainers C Fellowes, 6 from 32, 18.8%;
5 (4) KITAAB M Tregoning 9-0 J Crowley 6-1 Blow Your Horn. (2-Y-O: £4,860: 6f) (10) 4 (2) 041 BRILLIANT NEWS 48 R Hughes 9-7 R L Moore
W Haggas, 33 from 177, 18.6%. Jockeys James Doyle,
6 (3) 0 KLIP KLOPP 32 G L Moore 9-0 K Shoemark Wright choice: East Asia drops in class after a fair fifth at 1 (10) 0 BE GLORIOUS 109 Harry Eustace 9-0 James Doyle 5 (8) 534 PENYWERN TAVERNER 44 (P) W Haggas 9-6 38 from 188, 20.2%; R L Moore, 27 from 180, 15.0%.
2 (9) 0 BELLA CAELIA 31 B Meehan 9-0 G Buckell (3) T Marquand
7 (8) LEUVEN POWER R Varian 9-0 S De Sousa Ascot and looks well treated Danger Eastern Sheriff Salisbury: Trainers A Watson, 9 from 40, 22.5%; R
3 (7) BRIDES BAY R Hughes 9-0 R L Moore 6 (1) 63440 MOUNT SNOWDON 21 R Hannon 9-6 Rossa Ryan
8 (9) OLYMPIC EAGLE C Cox 9-0 H Crouch Varian, 15 from 74, 20.3%. Jockeys O Murphy, 30 from
7 (10) 640 BOX TO BOX 38 T Dascombe 9-4 R Kingscote
9 (7) 60 PNEUMATIC 10 M Channon 9-0 H Doyle 7.05 Handicap (£2,700: 1m 6f) (9) 4 (1) CHEPCHIK C Hills 9-0 A Atzeni 128, 23.4%; H Crouch, 17 from 83, 20.5%; J Crowley,
8 (5) 54330 WROUGHT IRON 25 J Osborne 9-4 S Osborne (5) 21 from 128, 16.4%; S De Sousa, 8 from 49, 16.3%.
3-1 Hierarchy, 4-1 Leuven Power, 9-2 Boafo Boy, 5-1 Dark Swansong, 5 (6) 6 DEBBIE’S CHOICE 16 J Bridger 9-0 R Dawson
1 01-50 TAMARIS 47 (B,D) G L Moore 4-10-4 R Clutterbuck (5) 9 (6) 020 MYSTICAL MUSIC 13 R Beckett 9-2 R Hornby
7-1 Kitaab, Account, 14-1 Olympic Eagle, 25-1 Pneumatic, Klip Klopp. 6 (3) HEREDIA R Hannon 9-0 S M Levey Yarmouth: Trainers W Haggas, 35 from 140, 25.0%;
2 -1152 SULOCHANA 34 (BF,CD) H Morrison 4-10-3 O Murphy 10 (9) 000 GREATNESS AWAITS 11 M Channon 8-9 D Probert C Wall, 26 from 118, 22.0%. Jockeys J P Spencer,
Wright choice: Dark Swansong shaped well when fourth of 7 (8) INFINITE APPEAL J Portman 9-0 R Hornby
3 62531 SUNS UP GUNS UP 22 (B) A Perrett 4-10-0 7-2 Croupier, 4-1 Penywern Taverner, 5-1 Brilliant News, 13-2 Gaius, 8-1 Silks 39 from 170, 22.9%; R Havlin, 21 from 94, 22.3%.
17 on his debut at Salisbury Dangers Hierarchy, Boafo Boy Georgia Dobie (3) 8 (2) 05 ME NEXT 42 E J-Houghton 9-0 C Bishop
Dream, 10-1 Wrought Iron, Mystical Music, 12-1 others.

Yesterday’s racing results

Brighton 7-2); 2, Whistling Sands (14-1); 3, I’m Mable

Going: good to firm (good in places)
1.45 (5f 215yd) 1, Summer’s Day (W Buick,
4-7 fav); 2, Tadita Twitch (13-8); 3, Sense Of
Security (16-1). 5 ran. NR: No More Tiers.
4Nl, 1l. C Appleby.
2.15 (6f 210yd) 1, Porterinthejungle
(K Shoemark, 3-1); 2, Kendergarten Kop (11-2);
3, Aweemaweh (11-4 fav). 7 ran. Kl, 3l.
R Brisland.
2.45 (7f 216yd) 1, Dashing To You
(Laura Pearson, 11-8 fav); 2, Twistaline (5-2);
3, Pretty Green (5-1). 6 ran. NR: Fille De La Lune.
Hd, 3Kl. W Stone.
3.15 (1m 1f 207yd) 1, Thunderoad (Marco
Ghiani, 7-2 jt-fav); 2, Cap D’Antibes (8-1);
3, Teemlucky (12-1). 10 ran. NR: Mahanakhon
Power. 2Ol, nk. A W Carroll.
3.45 (5f 215yd) 1, Jack Ryan (Darragh Keenan,
(10-3 fav). 8 ran. Nk, hd. J Ryan.
4.15 (5f 215yd) 1, Dusky Lord (Andrea Atzeni,
8-15 fav); 2, Tawaazon (10-3); 3, Imperial Force
(6-1). 6 ran. 3l, 1l. R Varian.
4.47 (5f 60yd) 1, Batchelor Boy (Callum
Hutchinson, 6-1); 2, Shamshon (11-4); 3, Boom
The Groom (15-8 fav). 4 ran. ns, 1l. J Gallagher.
Placepot: £21.40.
Quadpot: £7.90.
Chepstow
Going: good to soft (soft in places)
1.00 (5f 16yd) 1, Blue Moonrise
(Gina Mangan, 5-4 fav); 2, Toptime (5-1);
3, Bluebird Day (11-2). 5 ran. NR: Glamorous
Breeze, Mahale. 1Kl, nk. P D Evans.
1.30 (7f 16yd) 1, Arcadian Nights (Tom
Marquand, 9-1); 2, Mountain Ash (9-4);
3, Almost An Angel (5-4 fav). 4 ran. NR:
Marselan. Kl, Kl. M R Channon.
2.00 (1m 14yd) 1, Mujtaba (Jim Crowley,
10-11 fav); 2, Rani Of Jhansi (Evens); 3, Ruby
Lily (50-1). 8 ran. 4N, 11l. W J Haggas.
2.30 (7f 16yd) 1, Miquelon (Joanna Mason,
15-2); 2, Fieldsman (25-1); 3, Bolly Bullet
(11-10 fav). 6 ran. NR: Cold Stare. Nk, nk.
A Watson.
3.00 (6f 16yd) 1, Russco (Jim Crowley, 11-4
fav); 2, Wudashudacuda (15-2); 3, Shrara (20-
1). 6 ran. Kl, 6l. D McCain Jnr.
3.30 (5f 16yd) 1, Handytalk (R Coakley, 15-2);
2, Atty’s Edge (5-1); 3, Bellevarde (11-4 fav).
8 ran. NR: Edge Of The Bay. Nk, Kl.
B R Millman.
Placepot: £390.20.
Quadpot: £22.50.
Ripon
Going: good (good to soft in places)
5.25 (1m) 1, Liberation Point (Kevin Stott, 3-1);
2, Angel Amadea (30-100 fav); 3, Colleague (28-
1). 6 ran. NR: Willard Creek. 1l, 4Kl. M Appleby.
5.55 (5f) 1, Harrogate (G Lee, 5-1); 2, Dapper
Man (17-2); 3, Wade’s Magic (11-4 fav). 9 ran.
Hd, Kl. P T Midgley.
6.25 (2m) 1, Land Of Winter (D Allan, 7-2); 2,
Nakeeta (7-1); 3, Au Clair De Lune (6-1). 7 ran.
NR: Dance To Paris, Let Me Be. Kl, Kl. Rae
Guest.
6.55 (1m) 1, Challet (Connor Beasley, 7-2 fav);
2, Six Strings (11-2); 3, Safran (13-2). 11 ran.
1Ol, 1Kl. M Dods.
7.25 (1m 4f 10yd) 1, Hellenista (D Allan, 9-2); 2,
Out Of Sight (5-2 jt-fav); 3, King Viktor (5-2 jt-
fav). 6 ran. 2l, 3l. T D Easterby.
7.55 (6f) 1, Miss Bella Brand (George Wood, 15-
2); 2, Blazing Son (14-1); 3, Ginato (7-1). 13 ran.
Nk, hd. Mrs Ilka Gansera-Leveque.
Placepot: £120.70 Quadpot: £56.10
Stratford
Going: good
3.55 (2m 2f 148yd) 1, Percy’s Word (Harry
Skelton, Evens fav); 2, Edinburgh Castle (10-3);
3, Ottavio (12-1). 11 ran. NR: Alioski. 1Nl, 6Kl.
D Skelton.
4.30 (2m 4f 205yd) 1, Goa Lil (Sam Twiston-
Davies, 5-1); 2, Fat Sam (5-1); 3, Royal Ruby
(2-1 fav). 6 ran. NR: Umndeni. 1Ol, 1Nl.
N A Twiston-Davies.
5.05 (2m 70yd) 1, Fred Bear (M Goldstein, 6-5
fav); 2, Scots Gold (3-1); 3, Aliomaana (12-1).
11 ran. 3Nl, 10l. Miss S West.
5.35 (2m 70yd) 1, Caramelised (Tom Cannon,
4-9 fav); 2, Addosh (15-2); 3, Crane (14-1).
11 ran. 19l, 16l. A King.
6.05 (2m 3f 98yd) 1, Chapati (Fergus Gregory,
7-1); 2, Air Hair Lair (2-1 fav); 3, This Breac
(8-1). 7 ran. NR: Makety. 4l, 2Kl. J Coulson.
6.35 (3m 2f 83yd) 1, Wbee (S Bowen, 9-4);
2, The Bull Mccabe (11-2); 3, Tel’art (2-1 fav).
5 ran. 11l, nk. G Hanmer.
7.05 (2m 213yd) 1, Captain Cobajay (Callum
Bewley, 9-5 fav); 2, Costly Diamond (5-1);
3, Babytaggle (4-1). 8 ran. NR: Steeles Terrace,
Trio D’ecajeul. 2Ol, 14l. Justin Landy.
7.35 (2m 70yd) 1, Puffin Bay (J J Burke, 4-1);
2, Shantou Champagne (11-4 fav); 3, Tearaway
Tilly (11-2). 10 ran. NR: Splashing Wave. 5l, Ol.
O Sherwood.
Placepot: £17.40
Quadpot: £4.20
556
Sport Paralympics
‘I’m fitter than when all of me worked’
Emma Wiggs tells
Elgan Alderman she
tried Paralympic sport
only to satisfy nagging
family and friends
S
itting in the stands of London’s
Olympic Stadium as the
Paralympians came out for the
opening ceremony Emma
Wiggs’s sister forgot herself in
a manner that was wholly acceptable.
As Wiggs entered, her sibling ran
down the steps and screamed: “That’s
my sister!” By day, she is a “very
serious doctor and very reserved” but
in that moment, she had been swept
up by 2012 euphoria.
Wiggs was in GB’s sitting volleyball
team at the time. Nine years on, she is
heading to Tokyo as the KL2 200m
paracanoe sprint champion, aged 41
and with an MBE in tow, looking to
defend her title and achieve victory in
the VL2 as well. Despite having
entered her fifth decade, in sporting
terms she is much younger.
When she was 18, Wiggs went on a
gap year to Australia and contracted a
virus that damaged the nerves in her
legs. She succeeded in
qualifying as a PE
teacher but did little to
no sport herself.
Wiggs is perplexed
reflecting on 12 inactive
years. “Having gone from
someone who was so
sporty to not doing it, still
it puzzles me slightly,” the
former hockey player
says. “I knew about the
Paralympics but I didn’t
make the connection that
I could do it, or at least
have a go. Now, if people
have a life-changing
incident and they find
themselves with a disability,
Paralympic sport is front and centre.
“It blows my mind that I’m
physically stronger and fitter than I
ever was when all of me worked.
That’s quite a powerful thing to say.”
This initial reluctance to return to
sport was not for the want of trying
on the part of her brother and best
friend. She says she was “bullied” (in
an affectionate way) into attending a
talent ID day in 2010. “They’d been
hassling me to go to these events and
I just thought, ‘No, I’ll be rubbish, it’s
pointless,’ ” she says. “In the end I did
it just to shut them up, because if I go
and I’m rubbish at least I can say, ‘I
told you so.’ It turns out that I wasn’t
quite as rubbish as I thought.”
Simmonds thrilled to follow the ‘greats’ as Britain’s flagbearer
Elgan Alderman Tokyo
Ellie Simmonds has lived half her life as
a Paralympian. Being a flagbearer for
her country at today’s opening ceremo-
ny is the latest landmark in a 13-year
career in which she’s won five gold med-
als and promoted acceptance for all.
Simmonds, 26, will share the honour
today with John Stubbs. The 56-year-
old archer is the oldest member of the
ParalympicsGB squad; 13 years ago
Simmonds was the youngest, winning
two swimming golds in Beijing.
She was emotional at being nominat-
ed a few weeks ago, let alone at being
asked to do the job. “I’ve seen the greats
like Chris Hoy carrying the flag in
London 2012 and Lee Pearson in the
past in the Paralympics and all those
amazing athletes,” Simmonds said.
1G M Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times
ADAM DAVY/PA
British canoeists . . . and the sports they did first
Jeanette Chippington London 2012; world Emma Wiggs
(KL1 and VL2), age 51 champion in KL2 (twice) (KL2 and VL2), 41
Two swimming golds at and VL3 Sitting volleyball at
Atlanta 1996; Paralympic London 2012;
champion in KL1
Laura Sugar
(KL3), 30 Paralympic champion in
Charlotte Henshaw T44 100m silver at 2016 KL2, eight-times world
(KL2), 34 Europeans; KL3 silver at champion in kayak and
Swimming silver at 2019 worlds va’a
Wiggs was sporty when she was younger but had 12 inactive years after a virus damaged the nerves in her legs. Now,
after competing in sitting volleyball at London 2012, she is seeking to defend her KL2 title and win gold in the VL2
s
sights on a new high-performance KL2 and Anne Dickins in KL3. Wiggs says. “In the canoe category,
e
environment. “After the Games, Chippington and Dickins were in their I’m higher up. For me, mainly, it’s that
i a little bit like a transfer
it’s forties at the time, showing Wiggs has stability so without any glute function
m
market,” she says. “Sports time on her side. Similar success is it’s quite tricky in waves.”
aapproach you and see whether possible in Tokyo, with Chippington At the start of the pandemic, she
y
you’ve got what it takes to excel. returning and Wiggs perhaps GB’s was off water for almost four months.
“I just saw something in the second-best chance of a medal in the Novel training environments taught
[
[canoeing] staff’s eyes and the KL2 behind Charlotte Henshaw, the her she need not train to exhaustion
prog
programme manager’s eyes that said world champion and a “phenomenal six days a week, nor travel for every
Wiggs tried five
fi sports, all of which he wanted to build the best athlete” in her team-mate’s view. session, thus improving her recovery.
showed an interest in her. Sitting Paralympic team in the world and he Wiggs will be attempting the kayak “Certainly 15 weeks off the water was
volleyball was her decision. “It felt thought I could be part of that. I (two blades) and va’a (one blade) catastrophic for stability, which has
incredibly like sport as I remembered doubt myself in quite a number of double. At the Hungarian 2019 World taken a while to come back,” she says.
it,” she says. “It was sweaty, dirty, areas in my life but there was Championships, she won VL2 gold “It’s going to be probably the most
hard, energetic, technical, and it was something in his eyes that made me and KL2 silver. Splitting her time unpredictable Games because you
out of my chair. It set something think, ‘Maybe this guy knows what between two vessels is a challenge just don’t know what the weather’s
alight inside of me. This is what I’ve he’s talking about.’ and something she may not be able to going to do. Particularly with the
been missing without realising it. I’d “He said, ‘It’s going to be hard, it’s continue for much longer, but for now Paralympics, the different disabilities
just focused on my recovery and six days a week training and there’s she is hoping to pinch two medals. are so affected by weather.”
getting on with life in a wheelchair, no excuses.’ I was living in Glasgow at The breezy Sea Forest Waterway When she returns from Tokyo, the
and this made me realise I was the time and I thought, ‘Of course I’ll conditions pose more difficulties in biggest race of all may still be ahead
missing sport and I could do sport.” commute, that will be all right.’ A year one classification than the other. “I’m of her. Wiggs’s wife, Gemma, works
The British women finished eighth and a half later I was thinking, ‘This quite low down in the kayak class, so for British Canoeing as head of events.
out of eight in London. The team had commute’s quite a long way from there are people that are a lot more “She likes to pretend that she could
been put together and given just over Nottingham.’ ” able, that might have glutes or they beat me if we had a canoe race,” she
two years to go from novices to In Rio, the eyes had it. All three might be single-leg or double-leg says. “Her only evidence is that she
Paralympians, and Wiggs regards the women’s champions were British: amputees, but they’ve got more to was once a canoe coach in 1998. I’ll
result as disappointing. She had her Jeanette Chippington in KL1, Wiggs in utilise below the pelvis than I have,” hold her to a race after the Games.”
“In Beijing, I was 13, I was a kid; I look lympians having appeared on Strictly village. All were offered a pre- Covid test among the British swim-
back at 13-year-olds now and think, Come Dancing in the increased show- Games vaccination and about 99 ming squad, of which Simmonds is an
‘Wow, you’re young,’ so for me to go to case for the sports. What would she like per cent are reported to have athlete representative, ten days ago.
China and do what I did . . . As an to see? “The acceptance of every- taken that up. “The mood in the The staff member affected is fit and
older woman now, I feel the one, no matter what you look camp is extraordinary,” she well, Briscoe said, as are the rest
pressure more, I feel all like, no matter your skin said. “It’s a mix of excite- of the set-up.
those aspects.
“As a 13-year-old, as a Paralympic colour, your size,” she said.
“There’s so many differ-
ment, anticipation, a bit of
athletes pinching them-
“As a team, we followed the
same protocols as Team GB,”
17-year-old, you just do Games opening ent people there.” selves. One of the shooters she said. “We’re testing daily
swimming, you don’t
really think of all the ceremony Simmonds will be the
first woman to carry
said, ‘I didn’t believe it
until I touched down in
and are following robust
protocols that have kept
outside bits. I’m more Today, 12pm GB’s flag at the opening Tokyo.’ ” athletes and staff so well for
aware of those types of TV: Channel 4 of the summer Paralym- We were reminded of the past 16 months. We have
challenges now and I pics since Maggie McEle- the complexities of taken those protocols into
work with the psychologist ny in 2000. Like many of her taking part in a pan- environment with us”
really well.” team-mates, she is delighted demic Paralympics by The British set-up has
Simmonds, who has achondro- simply to have arrived in Japan — the news of a positive been following the lead of
plasia, a form of short-limbed a theme reiterated by Penny Briscoe, its Olympic counterparts in that
dwarfism, has been central to the soar- the ParalympicsGB chef de mission. The 26-year-old will be respect; now to follow them in
ing Paralympic movement. In addition Briscoe said more than half of the going for a sixth gold winning medals. And Simmonds
to her own profile, she cites three Para- squad’s 227 athletes had arrived in the medal in the pool knows all about that.
558 2GM Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

Sport Premier League

Antonio tears into ten-man

Henry Winter
Chief Football
Writer

West Ham United

Fornals 26, Benrahma 56, Antonio 80, 84 4
0
2
Leicester City
Tielemans 69 1
There were so many moments here at
the London Stadium that summed up
why West Ham United are top of the
nascent Premier League table. There
was Michail Antonio giving a master-
class of centre-forward play, creating,
scoring and bullying the Leicester City
defence. There was Declan Rice, the
captain, screening the defence diligent-
ly and always looking to push on and
supply an assist. There was also Vlad-
imir Coufal storming down the flank
late on, the game won, but determined
to create another a goal.
There was David Moyes organising
from the dugout, and Stuart Pearce, the
assistant manager, underlining the
commitment levels required of repre-
senting West Ham.
There was Pablo Fornals drifting
between the lines, deceiving Leicester
with his clever movement. There was
Aaron Cresswell always looking to
provide width down the left. Above all,
there was a togetherness in their goal
celebrations that indicated West Ham’s
team spirit. Antonio’s team-mates
Referee right to
loved it when he marked his first goal by
running to the dugout, lifting a full-
sized cardboard cutout of himself and
show red card
waving it as if he were a trophy. Peter Walton
Antonio revealed afterwards that the Former referee
celebration was taken from the film
Save the Last Dance — “the only person The referee’s first duty is the safety
you need to be is yourself” — and his of players and Pérez’s challenge on
was certainly a unique performance. Fornals was a clear example of one
His movement was relentless, always that endangered his safety and has
making himself available for the ball. to be clamped down on. VAR did its
His finishing was clinical and he even job and Pérez was, rightly, the first
provided an assist. As he was inter- Premier League player to be sent
viewed pitchside afterwards 300 West off this season. Pérez lunges into Fornals. Oliver, the referee, goes to the monitor, centre, and sends off Leicester forward,, right
Ham fans stayed on to serenade him.
These are good times at West Ham
but their squad still needs deepening. up as a football ground, this seemed Fornals, who had continued his run showed that VAR was in progress, look- back blindly towards Schmeichel with
Surely Kurt Zouma will want to join the almost a new start for the club. Moyes’s into the penalty area, judged the bounce ing for possible serious foul play. Antonio lurking. Schmeichel ran out to
Moyes revolution here? The players men were engaged and flooding well and steered his shot left-footed The still picture looked particularly try to rescue the situation but Antonio
work so hard, turning Moyes’s plans forward from the first whistle. This was across Kasper Schmeichel and in. bad, showing Pérez’s studs catching calmly cut the ball back to Benrahma,
into reality, but they are clearly enjoy- what West Ham fans had been waiting Leicester were soon a man behind as Fornals. The moving images displayed who swept it home.
ing it. This was a special night. to see: their team playing with such well as a goal. Challenging Fornals, Pérez falling off balance towards and Yet there is a resilience to Brendan
The game was preceded by a poign- conviction and taking a deserved lead Ayoze Pérez was knocked off balance then into Fornals. Oliver decided that Rodgers’s men, and they pulled a goal
ant, scrolling montage of home after 26 minutes. and stumbled forward, his left foot bur- excessive force was involved, and raised back with 20 minutes remaining. Vardy
supporters who had died in the 18 Rice was too sharp for Jamie Vardy rowing into Fornals’s left ankle. Cress- his red card towards a stunned Pérez. and James Maddison combined on the
months since fans were last at the when Caglar Soyuncu stroked the ball well was near by and immediately threw As West Ham fans sent him on his way left and Maddison’s skimmed cross was
London Stadium. The respectful out from the back. Rice immediately both hands in the air in anger, appealing with various gestures, Pérez threw driven past Lukasz Fabianski by Youri
applause was gradually replaced by released Jarrod Bowen down the inside- for action from Michael Oliver. down a water bottle in disgust. Tielemans at the second attempt.
rising sound of hopeful supporters, right channel and there was a blur of The referee initially decided against Leicester fought valiantly but West But Leicester simply could not han-
urging Moyes’s side to maintain the claret and blue racing upfield. Bowen calling Pérez to account but then the Ham had the lead, the extra man, and a dle Antonio, who struck twice in the
form they had shown in their absence. slipped the ball back inside to Fornals, VAR, Darren England, advised him to second goal was inevitable. Schmeichel final ten minutes. Rice claimed the
Given all the tensions with the co- who helped it on to Said Benrahma. have another look. Oliver signalled he had no chance when West Ham came assist for the first, whipping the ball in
owners, and lingering frustration with The Algeria attacker returned the was going to the monitor, and Leicester calling 11 minutes after the restart. to his No 9, who turned Soyuncu and
residency in an athletics arena dressed ball perfectly, directly into the path of began protesting. The big screen Soyuncu erred badly, playing the ball drilled his shot past Schmeichel. If that

Van de Beek’s international future uncertain in new Dutch regime

Paul Hirst
On Friday morning one suspects that
Donny van de Beek will not be too far
away from his phone.
Not long after he wakes, Louis van
Gaal will call the 25 players that he
selected last week in his provisional
squad for Holland’s World Cup qualifi-
ers against Norway, Montenegro and
Turkey. Van Gaal, 70, likes to work with
a small number of players, so he will
trim his squad to 22 or 23 and Van de
Beek may not make the cut.
Van Gaal’s predecessor, Frank de
Boer, had a soft spot for Van de Beek. De
Boer was one of Van de Beek’s youth
coaches at Ajax so the 24-year-old
midfielder was more or less guaranteed
a place in his squad last season, despite
not playing regularly for Manchester
United. De Boer picked Van de Beek in
his Euro 2020 squad but the midfielder
withdrew because of injury.
Van Gaal, on the other hand, is
not so charitable. He is
known as the “Iron
Tulip” for a reason. He
is headstrong and ruth-
less. Just ask Robin van
Persie, who was told in 2015
by Van Gaal on the golf course
that he had no future at United.
The new coach has grand ambi-
tions for his third spell in charge.
“My goal is to become world cham-
pion,” he said last week. The former
Ajax manager made it clear that he
wants only the fittest and sharpest
players. He claimed that the only
reason he picked Donyell Malen,
the barely used Borussia Dort-
mund striker, was because he
is short of centre forwards.
“I need to select fit
players because we must
perform immediately,”
Van Gaal said.
Van de Beek is fit in
the physical sense —
he spent a month training in
Van de Beek’s lack of game
time could cost him a place
an Amsterdam gym this summer — but
he did not feature in United’s first two
Premier League games.
Van de Beek’s statistics show why Van
Gaal is considering dropping him. Last
Sunday was the 20th time he has been
an unused substitute since his £40 mil-
lion move from Ajax last summer. Last
season he started 15 matches, only four
of which came in the Premier League.
Why is that so? The noises coming
out of Old Trafford last year suggested
that Van de Beek was not physically
robust enough. He has remedied that
problem by bulking up.
Some speculated that Van de Beek
was not Solskjaer’s choice but that
cannot be the case as the United
manager has a veto on all signings.
Even Van de Beek’s selection in the
provisional Holland squad drew criti-
cism from the Dutch media.
“I see Donny van de Beek has been
picked, but he never plays, does he?”
Willem van Hanegem, a 1970 European
Cup winner with Feyenoord, wrote in
his column in Algemeen Dagblad.
Van de Beek seems determined to
win over Solskjaer. That’s likely to
annoy Van Gaal, who predicted tough
times ahead for the player last year. “I
hope his time will come, but I don’t
think he made a good choice,” Van Gaal
said eight months ago. “If you have
Pogba and [Bruno] Fernandes, what
position should Van de Beek be in?”
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 2GM 59

Sport

Leicester How Arteta’s system has

How they stand
West Ham..................2 2
P W
Chelsea ...................... 2 2
Liverpool...................2 2
Brighton.....................2 2
Tottenham................2 2
Man United...............2 1
Everton......................2 1
Brentford...................2 1
Man City .................... 2 1
Aston Villa.................2 1
Watford......................2 1
Leicester....................2 1
Southampton...........2 0
Crystal Palace..........2 0
Leeds..........................2 0
Wolves ....................... 2 0
Burnley.......................2 0
Newcastle.................2 0
Arsenal.......................2 0
Norwich.....................2 0
contributed to poor start
Antonio fires
his first goal of
the night past
Pérez fouled
Schmeichel to
restore West
before dismissal, A lack of defensive defensive three — think how many
times we saw Manchester City flex to
channel. Both Chelsea’s goals came
from Tierney being put in an
cover down the left and this back-three shape last season impossible two-on-one situation like
Ham’s two-goal
advantage claims Rodgers a mediocre press have
when Oleksandr Zinchenko pushed
forward. But none of Arsenal’s right
this. Arsenal need to find a more
stable structure that allows the team
backs are defensively secure enough, to be secure in transition, without
Gary Jacob
hurt Arsenal, writes and Pablo Marí is much more leaving Tierney to defend this
comfortable centrally than pushing enormous amount of space.
The Leicester City manager Brendan James Gheerbrant out into the left half-space.
Rodgers felt that Ayoze Pérez was The other option is for the left- pressing problems
fouled before the midfielder was sent In their first two games of the season, sided central midfielder to rotate into When Arteta took over, the
off for a stamp on Pablo Fornals. Arsenal have suffered consecutive 2-0 the back four. Granit Xhaka can do expectation was that he would instil a
Rodgers said Pérez was pushed off defeats by Brentford and Chelsea. this, and indeed played as a makeshift pressing identity, similar to the City
balance and the tackle on the West Only Burnley have conceded a higher left back at times last season, but his teams he had coached under Pep
Ham United midfielder looked worse expected-goals figure from open play lack of dynamism means that he only Guardiola. That hasn’t really
on television replays. Pérez was shown in their opening two matches than does so erratically. There are obvious materialised: last season, Arsenal
a red card after the challenge was Mikel Arteta’s team. All is not lost, but problems with this too: it leaves were only the 11th most active
reviewed by VAR and will be suspended here are two tactical problems that Arsenal light in midfield, especially defensive team in the Premier League
for three matches. Arsenal need to address. when they’re playing a 4-2-3-1 rather with 14.3 passes per defensive action,
“If you look in isolation at the contact than a 4-3-3. and after two games this season they
it doesn’t look good,” Rodgers said. “But the left-sided quandary When Xhaka does drop back, again find themselves in the middle of
if you look back there’s a foul on him We all know that Kieran Tierney he also has a te
tendency to drop the pack.
[Pérez], he gets clipped. If he goes down is one of Arsenal’s best players. into the centr
centre of defence, It’s not that Arsenal don’t press; it’s
he gets a free kick. He tried to stay on In the first game of the defending the edge of the box, that they’re not smart or organised
his feet. Because he’s clipped he’s season, against rather than mo
moving laterally to enough in how they do it. A good
stretching and makes the tackle. It Brentford, he created d cover the wider channel where pressing structure has players on
doesn’t look great slowed down. When seven chances. tthe left back different horizontal and vertical lines,
it goes to VAR, it’s only going one way.” Arsenal are reliant would be. cutting off passing lanes. Arsenal are
Rodgers suffered defensive problems on creating So Tierney too often guilty of being caught flat.
before kick-off. He was missing Jannik overloads on the left o
often finds With little pressure on the ball, it’s far
Vestergaard, the new £15 million sign- side of the pitch to him
himself racing too easy for Mount to play through
ing from Southampton, who felt an create chances, which h back in transition to the lines of Arsenal’s defensive
injury in his knee during training. Two means Tierney often recover hi
his defensive structure to the feet of Lukaku.
scans have not shown an issue and he on.
occupies a high position. try
position, trying to fill a big Another issue with Arsenal’s
hopes to return this week. Wesley Fofa- But this puts pressure on Arse
hole in Arsenal’s defensive pressing structure concerns the role
D
0
L
0
F
8
A GD Pts
3 5 6
na suffered a knee injury this month a defensive system that at is C
structure. Chelsea of the wide forwards. Often, the best
0 0 5 0 5 6 and is out until the new year. Daniel not well equipped to copeope exploited ththis brilliantly: pressing forwards will work in concert
0 0 5 0 5 6 Amartey, a full back, filled in last night. with the knock-on effectect Romelu Luk
Lukaku would to try to pen opponents by the
0 0 4 1 3 6
0 0 2 0 2 6 Meanwhile, David Moyes, the West of his raiding forward. eff
pin Marí, effectively touchline. Not only does Arsenal’s
1
1
0
0
6
5
2 4 4
3 2 4
Ham manager, said that some strong Arteta still has not taking him o out of the press lack cohesion, but the wide
1 0 2 0 2 4 words at half-time had had the desired ble
developed a truly reliable T
game, and Tierney was forwards — in this case Bukayo Saka
0
0
1
1
5
4
1 4 3
3 1 3
effect on Antonio, who scored twice in cover-defence system. constantly le
left having to and Nicolas Pépé — tend to go infield
0 1 3 4 -1 3 the second half to seal the victory. One option to cover for wheth to go with
decide whether in their pressing movements.
0
1
1
1
2
2
4 -2 3
4 -2 1
“We were playing a top team so it is a an adventurous left back k Mason Moun
Mount in the This is much easier to escape and
1 1 0 3 -3 1 good win for us,” Moyes said. “We’re is for the right back to channe or Reece
inside channel, it means that when the ball is
1
0
1
2
3
0
7 -4 1
2 -2 0
really pleased for him [Antonio]. He tuck in, à la Kyle o
James in the outside passed out wide, Arsenal’s full backs
0 2 1 4 -3 0 got a few choice words at half-time and Walker, and for the left- are on their own, faced with the
0 2 2 6 -4 0 he certainly knew how to shut the sided centre back to push h Chelsea gave Arteta his invidious choice of engaging their
0 2 0 4 -4 0
0 2 0 8 -8 0 manager up. If we can keep him in good out into a slightly wider 20th league defeat in his opposite numbers up high or
condition he’ll always be a threat.” channel, forming a 60th Arsenal game dropping off.

took Antonio past Paolo Di Canio’s

mark as West Ham’s record goalscorer
in the Premier League, he soon moved
to 49. Coufal made that late run, putting
in a cross that Antonio guided past
Schmeichel. “We are top of the league,”
reverberated around the stadium.
West Ham United (4-2-3-1): L Fabianski 6 —
V Coufal 7, C Dawson 7, A Ogbonna 7,
A Cresswell 7 — D Rice 7, T Soucek 7 — J Bowen 7,
S Benrahma 8 (M Noble 88), P Fornals 7 —
M Antonio 8 (A Yarmolenko, 88).
Leicester City (4-2-3-1): K Schmeichel 6 —
R Pereira 5, D Amartey 5, C Soyuncu 4,
L Thomas 5 - Y Tielemans 6, W Ndidi 5 — A Pérez
4, J Maddison 5 (B Soumaré 81), H Barnes 5
(P Daka 64, 5) — J Vardy 5 (K Iheanacho, 81)
Booked Pereira Sent off Pérez (40)
Referee M Oliver Attendance 59,901
Moyes wants Zouma and
Lingard before deadline
David Moyes remains keen to sign
Kurt Zouma if personal terms can be
agreed with the Chelsea defender.
West Ham agreed a fee of
£20 million for Zouma, 26, but he
turned down moves to both the east
London club and Seville. He has two
years left on his contract at Chelsea
and is said to want about £100,000 a
week, a fee that would make him one
of West Ham’s highest earners.
West Ham want another centre
back after letting Fabián Balbuena,
30, leave and are also expected to try
to seal a deal for Jesse Lingard.
Arsenal squad strengthened for cup
Gary Jacob
Mikel Arteta plans to field a strong
Arsenal line-up against West Brom-
wich Albion in the Carabao Cup second
round tomorrow to try to ensure a
straightforward win and relieve the
pressure on him.
Arteta will be able to pick the mid-
fielder Martin Odegaard, a £30 million
signing from Real Madrid, and Alexan-
dre Lacazette, the forward who has re-
turned to training after missing the first
two games of the season with Covid-19.
Odegaard, who was on loan at the club
last season, has been granted a visa to
complete his move. The missing paper-
work meant the 22-year-old could not
play in Sunday’s 2-0 defeat by Chelsea.
Arsenal are backing Arteta and are
sympathetic to his problems at the start
of the campaign. He has been unable to
field five players because of Covid-19,
while Thomas Partey, the midfielder
who cost £45 million last year from
Atletico Madrid, has been out with an
ankle injury.
Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aub-
ameyang, the strikers, tested positive
before the 2-0 defeat by Brentford in
their opening match. Ben White, who
arrived for £50 million this summer, has
also contracted the virus and will be
absent against West Brom and Man-
chester City on Saturday. Héctor Bel-
lerín, the right back, missed the loss to
Chelsea with a tight thigh and is expect-
ed to leave the club this month.
The midfielder Lucas Torreira is
close to a loan move to Fiorentina and
the winger Willian is in talks with the
Brazilian side Corinthians, his first club.

Nuno wants Traoré with him at Spurs Fixtures

Town v AFC Wimbledon; Queens Heath v Tuffley Rovers; Hertford
Cricket Park Rangers v Oxford United; Townv Little Oakley; Knaphill v
Gary Jacob a guaranteed sale — which could be also not expected to sell Lucas Moura Stevenage v Wycombe Wanderers; Ashford Town (Middx); Marine v
Vitality T20 Blast: first quarter-
a loan with an obligation to pur- or Steven Bergwijn, both wide attack- final Emirates Riverside: Yorkshire
Watford v Crystal Palace. Workington; Mildenhall Town v
EFL Trophy (all 7.0) Yaxley; Mossley v Lower Breck;
Nuno Espírito Santo is pushing Tot- chase next summer — if they are to ing players. v Sussex (6.30).
Exeter City v Chelsea U21; Reading City v Broadfields United;
tenham Hotspur to sign Adama sanction a move for Traoré, Tottenham’s proposed move to sign Football Scunthorpe United v Man City U21; Runcorn Linnets v Avro; Soham
Traoré but an offer to bring in who has two years left on Lautaro Martínez fell through after Carabao Cup (7.45 unless stated)
Lincoln City v Man United U21. Town Rangers v Corby Town;
Three Bridges v South Park;
Sky Bet League Two
the winger on loan has been his deal. He has an offer Inter Milan changed their mind about Oldham Athletic v Accrington Leyton Orient v Harrogate (7.45). Welwyn Garden City v FC Romania;
rejected by Wolverhamp- to extend his contract, selling the forward as Romelu Lukaku Stanley (7.0); Barrow v Aston Villa;
Blackpool v Sunderland; Hud-
National League North Westfield v Hythe Town.
ton Wanderers. Nuno but has not agreed completed his move to Chelsea. Spurs dersfield v Everton; Leeds United v
Chester v Curzon Ashton (7.45).
FA Cup qualifying
worked with Traoré at personal terms. had agreed an initial £60 million fee. Crewe Alexandra; Morecambe v
(7.45 unless stated): Ardley United
Wolves and wants to sign Traoré, 25, managed Tottenham are in advanced talks to Preston NE; Sheff Utd v Derby
v Royal Wootton Bassett Town Results
County; Shrewsbury Town v
(7.30); Easington Sports v
another attacker after win- only two goals and two assists sign Pape Matar Sarr, the 18-year-old Rochdale; Stoke City v Doncaster
Cinderford Town (7.30); Millbrook
ning both opening league in the league last season com- Metz midfielder, but face competition Rovers; Wigan Athletic v Bolton
Wanderers; Nott’m Forest v
v Willand Rovers; Croydon Athletic
v Erith & Belvedere; Portchester v
Tennis
games as head coach this pared with four goals and from several other clubs. Bernard Serin, Wolves (8.0); Norwich City v Blackfield & Langley; Alton v North Carolina Winston-Salem
season. nine assists in the previous the Metz president, claimed a deal Bournemouth (7.0); Swansea City v
Plymouth (7.0); Birmingham City v
Bradford Town; Arlesey Town v Open first round (selected)
Tottenham have been willing to campaign. Tottenham are worth more than £12 million had been Fulham; Brentford v Forest Green
March Town United; Ashford
United v Chatham Town; Burnham
Men’s A Murray (GB) bt N Rubin
(US) 6-2, 6-0.
pay £5 million with an option to make agreed. “Nothing is signed, but I have a Rovers; Cardiff City v Brighton & v Northwood; Carlton Town v Chicago WTA Chicago Women’s
Hove Albion; Gillingham v
the deal permanent next summer. Traoré has not agreed to verbal agreement with the president of Cheltenham Town; Millwall v
Maltby Main; Charnock Richard v Open (selected)
Eccleshill United; Colne v Trafford; A Bogdan (Rom) bt H Watson (GB)
Wolves turned that down as they want extend his time at Wolves Tottenham,” Serin said at the weekend. Cambridge United; Northampton Deal Town v Redhill; Flackwell 6-2, 1-0 retired.
60
Sport Football
Referees right to let
play flow and focus
on reckless tackles
Henry Winter
Chief Football
Writer
T
wo weekends into the
Premier League season and
few expected that Mike
Riley, head of the referees
and hitherto a stickler for
pedantic micro-officiating of games,
to be one of the stars of the show.
Captain Mainwaring has become
Captain Marvel.
Reasons abound behind Riley’s
belated but welcome conversion to
the “let it flow” credo, not least the
successful Euro 2020 finals in which
advantage was played, simulation
ignored, and referees applauded. Even
before the Euros, the clamour among
supporters, managers, players and
broadcasters in England was
deafening for more advantage, less
interference. Riley has listened.
Consistency is still required
throughout games and throughout all
the representatives of the
Professional Game Match Officials
Limited (PGMOL), Riley’s
organisation, as one man’s nudge can
be another’s shove, and dangerous
challenges must be sanctioned, but
the evidence so far is largely positive
about the lighter-touch refereeing.
Past officials, from Mark Halsey to
Keith Hackett, hardly Riley
cheerleaders, took to their newspaper
columns to praise the new approach.
It was also instructive listening to a
player as attack-minded as the
Leicester City and England midfielder
Harvey Barnes talk positively about
the changed emphasis. “It’s definitely
going to benefit the game,” Barnes
said at the weekend. “You saw last
year there were a lot of cheap fouls
that were being given away — and
some of them might be fouls — but a
lot of the time it’s frustrating, it breaks
the game up. You don’t want the game
to start becoming, ‘How can I get a
cheap foul?’ or ‘How can I nick a foul
here?’ ”
Certain players were looking for
any contact to go down in the penalty
area, knowing that VAR could detect
contact but not the level. Now that
referees are more inclined to wave
play on, the hope is that football’s
tumblers will stay on their feet more.
“If they stop giving the cheap fouls
then people will stop playing for
them,” Barnes argued. “It’s only going
to help the game flow.”
Of course there are dissenting
voices, such as Manchester United’s
manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and
Jürgen Klopp, of Liverpool. Solskjaer
complained about the lenient
officiating, arguing that
Southampton’s goal on Sunday should
have been ruled out for Jack
Stephens’s challenge on Bruno
Fernandes. “We can’t go from one
extreme, basketball from last year,
into rugby now,” Solskjaer said.
Not one of management’s natural
Spare Norwich
the cheap shots
Norwich City’s sporting director,
Stuart Webber, was looking at some
specialised equipment that he knew
would enhance players’ technique. It
was not cheap, just south of
£1 million, but the club budgeted for
it with the sale of a youth-team
player. This is what Norwich do,
balancing the books, not relying on
a wealthy owner, just being a
sensible business and club. So the
criticism of Norwich as naive seems
strange. They have values that the
Premier League could do with more
of: sound financial management,
community ethos, a commitment to
homegrown players, good football
and owners in Delia Smith and
Michael Wynn-Jones who care
about their club and their sport.
So senseless to
axe Arteta now
Mikel Arteta can be judged properly
only when Arsenal can start Ben
White, Gabriel, Thomas Partey,
Martin Odegaard and Pierre-
Emerick Aubameyang, blending
with such talents as Kieran Tierney,
Emile Smith Rowe, Bukayo Saka
and Albert Sambi Lokonga. Until
then the board has to hold its nerve
and resist the rising clamour for the
dismissal of its inexperienced
manager.
Arteta’s undoubtedly struggling,
failing to rejig his midfield to try to
cut out balls played through the
middle to Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku
on Sunday, and making the
questionable decision to appoint
Granit Xhaka captain after trying to
sell him, but it is pointless for the
board to back him in the transfer
market, especially after a strong
second half to last season, and then
sack him now. Arteta deserves at
least the three games immediately
after the international break,
Norwich City, Burnley (away) and
Tottenham Hotspur, and with what
he calls his “big, big players”
available, before any decision can
be taken. Spurs at home on
September 26 looks even more
seismic than usual.
Lacazette’s wailing prompted Match of
the Day to introduce a “scream-o-meter’
1G M Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times
19.7
Fouls per match in the
first 19 games of this
21.8
Fouls per match in
the Premier League
Premier League season, throughout last season,
after guidance that during which referees
referees should be were more strict when
more lenient assessing tackles
moaners, Solskjaer added: “I liked the
more lenient way, it’s more men’s
football but still it’s basically a foul.”
But was it? Football is physical and
Fernandes, no stranger to the gym, is
capable of holding off opponents.
United shouldn’t sound surprised.
Players and managers were informed,
in pre-season, of the PGMOL’s intent.
Managers cannot have it both ways:
indulgence for their team but not the
opposition. Solskjaer should be
welcoming the new stance, especially
for a team like United, who, at their
best, love counterattacking and hate
those who cynically halt them.
In this brave new world of
refereeing, officials also need to be
sharper in detecting the tactical foul,
the subtle nudge to ease a player off
balance and curtail a swift break, a
foul judged by an experienced player
like Fernandinho as just below the
threshold for triggering a booking.
Riley’s referees want to make the
game more honest, to keep games
moving, so need to address all issues
that vex onlookers, including
clamping down on dissent. Referees
are still surrounded and hounded and,
as any grassroots official will tell you,
what happens in the Premier League
gets copied in the Sunday League.
Games behind closed doors last
season highlighted what referees were
up against: the attempts to pressure Letting it flow
them, including squeals emitted when The number of free kicks awarded in
a player is challenged; the vocalised Premier League matches this
exaggerating of impact to influence weekend was down on the
the referee. Match of the Day corresponding fixture last season
introduced a “scream-o-meter” after Liverpool v Burnley
the Arsenal forward Alexandre 18 2021-22
Lacazette’s spectacular yelp (when 19 2020-21
tackled by Burnley’s Erik Pieters) Aston Villa v Newcastle
before rising and carrying on. 26
27
Klopp has an issue with Burnley.
Leeds v Everton
He spoke questioningly of challenges 19
by Chris Wood and Ashley Barnes on 24
Virgil van Dijk and Joël Matip on Southampton v Manchester United
Saturday, suggested that football 22
risked going back “10 to 15 years” with 24
tackles being let go, and advised those Wolves v Tottenham
16
who disagreed to “watch wrestling if 33
you like these kind of things”. This Arsenal v Chelsea
was actually the occasion when 14
Burnley set a Premier League record 23
of 95 games without a red card.
Klopp, understandably, may be
sensitive because injuries took such a
fierce toll on his defence last season.
Joe Gomez missed 39 games after
No return to 20 years ago
damaging his knee while jumping for
a header, with nobody around, during out-of-control challenges. Through
England training. Matip was out for Peter Walton the 1990s and the early 2000s that
22 games with an ankle injury evolved, but we went too far two or
sustained making a successful three years ago in penalising lighter
challenge on Son Heung-min, of fouls, which led to stop-start games.
Tottenham Hotspur. The referee’s view For Euro 2020 Roberto Rossetti,
Van Dijk was sidelined for 45 Uefa’s chief refereeing officer, advised
games after being on the end of a his officials to adopt a more lenient
reckless challenge from Jordan Football began changing its attitude to approach. Games flowed better as a
Pickford. Everton’s goalkeeper was physical contact when Marco van result and we enjoyed a far more
not even cautioned, although Michael Basten was forced into early entertaining tournament.
Oliver, the referee, later conceded he retirement in 1995 due to ankle Managers such as Jürgen Klopp
should have dismissed him for serious injuries partly caused by challenges and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer have
foul play. VAR was more interested in from behind. The game’s lawmakers, complained about the lighter touch
looking at whether Van Dijk was Fifa and Ifab, started to outlaw overly being employed. But I see it as a way
offside. The reckless needs to be the physical tackles to protect flair players. of turning back the clock five or six
referees’ focus, not the marginal During my career, I was told it was years. We will not be returning to the
infringements, and Riley’s staff paramount to protect player safety. 1980s and 1990s, and we have Van
increasingly appear to be getting the We were advised to clamp down on Basten to thank for that.
balance right.
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021 1G M 61

Sport
JAMES WILLIAMSON/GETTY IMAGES

Stephens’s challenge on
Fernandes, which led to
Southampton’s goal, was
described as a “clear foul”
Officials to Clubs accuse Fifa of
by Solskjaer but was not
given by referee Pawson stay lenient putting money first
despite anger continued from back their return to England. [Liverpool] also

of managers qualifiers is planned for both Septem-

continued from back
Limited (PGMOL), the body that is
responsible for elite referees,
changed its advice to officials at the
start of the season after consulting
clubs, players and fans. It also
advised referees not to award
penalties for incidents of minimal
contact.
A source close to PGMOL told The
Times: “We are very pleased overall
with how things have gone over the
opening two rounds and that has
been reflected by many comments
from pundits saying the game is
better for it.
“The players have also bought into
what we are trying to do to let the
game flow, so there is a feeling we
are in the right place. Some
managers may take time adjusting to
it, depending on their teams’ style of
play or decisions which have gone
against them.”
Solskjaer complained about a
challenge in the build-up to
Southampton’s goal in Sunday’s 1-1
draw, when Jack Stephens tackled
Bruno Fernandes.
“It’s a foul, [Stephens] goes straight
through Bruno, with his arm and
his hip across him,” Solskjaer said.
“We can’t go from one extreme, of
basketball last season, to rugby now.
I like the more lenient way, where
it’s more men’s football, but that’s a
clear foul.”
PGMOL’s stance has been
ber and October and the ECA has com-
plained to Fifa that its decision last
month, that players involved must be
released for 11 days, will lead to many
players missing domestic matches.
That is even without quarantine peri-
ods for those who have been to coun-
tries on the travel red list.
A letter from the ECA to its member
clubs, a copy of which has been seen by
The Times, reads: “These Fifa decisions
were taken unilaterallyy and
ion
against the explicit objection
of ECA and the rest of thee
stakeholders.
“ECA has made clear
that it will not accept
that a governing body
like Fifa abuses its regu-
latory function to place
its commercial interests
and those of its member er
hysi-
associations above the physi-
cal wellbeing of players and d legiti-
mate sporting interests off clubs.”
clubs ”
The Egyptian FA has announced on
its website that Liverpool are refusing
to release Salah, above, for the World
Cup qualifier against Angola. It is
thought that Liverpool would be happy
for Salah to play against Gabon but not
in Egypt, which is on the UK’s red list.
The statement read: “[Liverpool’s]
letter referred to the precautionary
measures applied in England to tackle
the outbreak of the coronavirus around
the world, which puts returnees from
some countries in compulsory health
isolation for a period of ten days upon
expressed its hope that the Egyptian
Federation would understand that it
was forced to do so.”
Brazil are due to play Argentina,
Chile and Peru next month and all four
countries are on the UK’s red list. A sim-
ilar triple-header series of internation-
als is planned for October too.
Fifa declined to comment but is
understood to be hoping that the
British government will offer exemp-
tions to players, as it did for Euro 2020.
However, Whitehall insiders believe
that such a step is unlikely.
Fifa and the South Amer-
ican confederation Con-
me
mebol had to postpone
in
internationals in March
af
after a similar stand-off
o
over the release of
p
players.
In its decision on South
Am
American qualifiers this
mon
month, Fifa said: “Taking
into account
into a the specific
circumstan
circumstances faced, the Bureau
of the Council decided exceptionally
and only for South America to facilitate
the playing of an extra match in each of
these windows by adding two addition-
al release days.
“The addition of two days will
ensure sufficient rest and preparation
time between matches, reflecting
the longer travel distances required,
thus safeguarding player welfare by
mitigating the negative consequences
of this more intense schedule, while
ensuring a fair competition as well as a
prompter return to their clubs of the
players involved.”

welcomed by former players who are
television presenters and pundits.
Gary Lineker responded to
Solskjaer’s comments by saying
on Twitter: “The constant free
kicks for minimal contact and
endless stoppages was making the
game dull, as well as encouraging
diving.
“Real fouls and dangerous play
are still punished, as they should be,
but it’s a much more enjoyable
spectacle when it’s a contact sport.”
On Match of the Day 2, Alan
Shearer and Ian Wright agreed
that Stephens’s challenge was
“never a foul”.
On Saturday Klopp claimed that
the officiating in Liverpool’s 2-0
victory against Burnley was “like
going back ten or 15 years”,
suggesting that those who were
happy with the way the game was
going should “watch wrestling if you
like those things”.
Q&A
where there is a
mandatory period of
quarantine or self-
isolation of at least five
days.”
Will clubs be open to
sanctions if they refuse What could Fifa do to
to release players? sanction clubs?
Theoretically yes, but the Importantly, Fifa can ban
European Club the player from taking
Association (ECA) part in his club’s matches
believes that Fifa’s for five days after he is
refusal to allow clubs to due to return from
keep players where international duty.
quarantines apply is
“unreasonable”. Its latest How much of a risk is it
guidance to clubs states: for clubs to challenge
“The ECA’s firm view is Fifa on this point?
that, even if Fifa has The ECA has told clubs
decided not to extend they believe Fifa are “not
the Covid temporary likely to impose any
exceptions, it would be consequences on the
unreasonable for clubs to clubs, particularly for
be forced to release fear of public opinion
players in circumstances backlash”. It adds that
“clubs would have a
good case to challenge
any such consequences”
and argue that their duty
of care as an employer
would require that the
club would instruct the
player not to travel. It
also believes a
quarantine of more than
five days “would
correspond to a de facto
release period which is
longer than that which
the club must comply
with”.
What is Fifa saying?
Nothing official so far. It
is still hoping that the UK
government will give
exemptions to players
travelling to red list
countries even though
that appears unlikely.

Protection of players had gone too far
Gregor
Robertson
The player’s view
My first close-up experience of the
physicality of English football came
at the Britannia Stadium — home
of Tony Pulis’s Stoke City — but,
thankfully, it was from the safety of
the substitutes’ bench.
I was 19, having recently made
my Championship debut for
Nottingham Forest, and 24 hours
before our trip to the Potteries
Paul Hart, the manager, called me
into his office. Stoke, he said, were
a big, physical side, which now
sounds like explaining that water is
wet, but to a callow 19-year-old did
not appear reason enough to
consign a 6ft defender to the bench.
By about 3.15pm the next day,
however, I had come to the
conclusion that maybe Hart was
right. As I watched, Carl Asaba,
Ade Akinbiyi, Gifton Noel-Williams
and various other characters from
the Land of the Giants scratched,
clawed and elbowed their way
towards goal. Wes Morgan, no
shrinking violet, came in at half-
time with a bandaged head and a
dazed look on his youthful face.
Those days — games against
Burnley included — are, thankfully,
a thing of the past.
Between that eye-opener in the
early throes of my career, in 2003,
and the day I hung up my boots in
2016, to fly into a full-blooded
tackle, raise an arm or grapple in
the box went from being common
practice to risking a yellow or red
card. Indeed, simply making
contact with an opponent changed
from being an intrinsic part of the
game to risking a foul.
Players are protected like never
before, for which the game and
spectacle have greatly improved.
But the interpretation of foul play
had gone too far and simulation is
the real scourge of the game.
Williams can help keep us
in top flight, says Farke
The Norwich City head coach Daniel
Farke believes on-loan Manchester
United defender Brandon Williams
can make an impact as his team battle
to stay in the Premier League — but
he will not expect too much too soon.
England Under-21 international
Williams, 20, could make his debut in
the Carabao Cup tie against
Bournemouth tonight.
Norwich lost both their opening
league games heavily, to Liverpool
and Manchester City, and Farke does
not want to put too much pressure on
Williams to hit the ground running.
“Brandon is a young player full of
potential, who has proved himself
already at this level for a top club,”
Farke said. “But like always with
young players, we are a bit careful.”
Nice and Marseilles facing
hearing over crowd issues
Nice and Marseilles face a
disciplinary hearing tomorrow after
their Ligue 1 match on Sunday was
abandoned because of crowd trouble.
The match at Nice’s Allianz Riviera
was abandoned in the 75th minute
after Marseilles players clashed with
home supporters, who pelted them
with missiles and stormed the pitch.
Dimitri Payet was struck by a bottle
thrown by Nice fans. He hurled the
bottle back at them and a brawl
ensued as fans rushed on to the field.
“Those fans should clearly never
have been allowed to get on to the
pitch,” the French sports minister
Roxana Maracineanu said, adding
that the trouble was all the more
regrettable given that venues had
been empty for several months.
62
Sport England v India: LV= Insurance Third Test
Malan is pragmatic pick
given paucity of options
Mike Atherton
Chief Cricket
Correspondent
It says something about the paucity of
options, the lack of first-class cricketers
boasting any kind of form and the bind
that Chris Silverwood finds himself in,
that the call has gone out to a man
already tried and averaging 27.84 in
Test cricket before being discarded
after 15 games. Nevertheless, the
selection of Dawid Malan is a
good and pragmatic one. It is
difficult to see where else
England could have turned.
Malan becomes the
third Yorkshire batsman
to join the squad for the
third Test against India.
Normally there would
be loud crowing in the
Broad Acres at such a
move — “when York-
shire are strong . . .” and
all that — but Malan’s
elevation comes at a
tense time, with the
yet-to-be-released
report into Azeem
Rafiq’s claim of in-
stitutional racism
hanging like a pall
over the club.
It may lead to
one of the gravest
crises Yorkshire
have known. The
club have already
apologised to Rafiq,
their 30-year-old
former off spinner,
and have been given the
hurry-up by the ECB to
publish the report.
Rafiq, for his part, has
been withering about
the nature of the apo-
logy and has called upon
those who have been in
positions of authority
for some time to resign.
And Malan thought he
was leaving a troubled
Root still smiling despite loss of Wood leaving him low on firepower
Elizabeth Ammon
Joe Root is remaining upbeat despite
Mark Wood being added to a long list of
injured players after a shoulder injury
ruled him out of the third Test against
India starting tomorrow.
Wood, 31, damaged his right shoulder
when diving to stop a boundary on the
fourth evening of the second Test and
joins fellow seam bowlers Stuart Broad,
Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes and Olly
Stone on the sidelines, while the star all-
rounder Ben Stokes is taking an indefi-
nite break to protect his mental health
and recover from a finger problem.
Despite England’s embarrassing
defeat in the second Test and the loss of
one of the key prongs of his bowling
attack, Root said that they were ready
for the fresh challenge at Emerald
Headingley this week and have all been
served well by a week-long break.
“It’s important to learn [from the last
match] but not to drag it into this Test,”
Does he return to Test arena as a more complete batsman?
Malan's Test average abroad 35.46
...and at home 20.23
However, since his latest Test
appearance, in August 2018, he has
become the world's best T20
batsman
Most ICC ranking points
Dawid Malan (Eng)
841
Babar Azam (Pak)
819
Devon Conway (NZ)
774
Aaron Finch (Aus)
733
Virat Kohli (India)
717
56.79 is his average in first-class
cricket in England since the start
of 2019
...and he has shown a knack for big
scores in only six first-class innings
s
since joining Yorkshire
Source: ICC, Cricinfo
club when he left Middlesex two
years ago.
Malan’s departure from London
was partly down to what he con-
sidered a lack of ambition, but it
was also an attempt to give his
career a reboot. At 31 (as he was when
he left Middlesex), he felt he had a lot
more to offer. Since then he has estab-
lished himself as part of Eoin Morgan’s
powerhouse T20 team — rising to No 1
in the world rankings — and now has
been offered another crack at Test
cricket.
If that suggests the move has worked,
then some context is necessary. Since
journeying north, Malan has played
only four first-class matches for York-
shire, belatedly coming good. His final
innings of 2020 was a double hundred
against Derbyshire and in his only
innings this year, in June against Suss-
ex, he fell one short of that mark. Both
innings were at Headingley and were
Bumrah’s bouncers riled Anderson at
Lord’s but are unlikely to faze Malan
the captain said. “We’ll have new chal-
lenges, a new surface and a new Test
match to deal with.”
After the loss at Lord’s, Root took
much of the blame for his tactical deci-
sions. Burdened by having to
take on a powerful India side
with a depleted squad and
feeling the weight of expec-
tation to score the lion’s
share of runs, Root insisted
that his
love for
the game
drives
him on.
“I’m playing for England, it’s
quite easy to stay positive,” Root
said. “I’m living my boyhood dream.
I’m constantly trying to remind
myself of that as well, when we are
having the odd tough day or things
Mahmood or Overton, right,
will replace Wood
Biggest scores since start of 2020
Bob Willis Trophy and County
Championship
David Bedingham
(Durham v Derbyshire) 257
Ollie Pope
(Surrey v Leicestershire) 245
Jordan Cox
(Kent v Sussex) 238*
James Vince
(Hampshire v Leicestershire)
Jack Leaning
(Kent v Sussex) 220*
Malan
(Yorkshire v Derbyshire) 219
Hashim Amla
(Surrey v Hampshire) 215*
Tom Westley
(Essex v Worcestershire) 213
Will Rhodes
(Warwickshire v Worcestershire) 207
Malan
(Yorkshire v Sussex) 199
*Not out
against modest attacks. His recall owes
much to the failures of others and the
lack of alternatives in the wasteland
that is domestic first-class cricket this
summer.
As well as plundering Sussex and Der-
byshire, Malan’s brilliant century at the
Waca during the 2017-18 Ashes showed
that he can handle the best the game can
throw at a batsman. Scoring Test hun-
dreds is hard enough in Australia, but
doubly so in Perth where the extra pace
and bounce can find out English players
groomed in different conditions. His 140
in the third Test was one of the few high
points of a dismal series.
In the 15 Tests Malan has played, that
performance stands out. It also helps to
mark Malan out as unusual, in that he is
a batsman with a better Test record
away from home. At home he averages
20 in eight Tests, a figure that rises to 35
away. Both smallish sample sizes, but
enough, when judged alongside the
way he plays, to confirm some strengths
and highlight some weaknesses.
Malan is notably a strong back-foot
aren’t always going our way. I’m a
cricket tragic at heart. I love the game.
I love batting.”
It is hoped that Wood will be fit for
the fourth Test, at the Kia Oval, which
begins on September 2. However, with
his history of injury, England do not
want to risk bringing the Durham bowl-
er, who took five wickets at Lord’s and
reached speeds of 94mph at
Lord’s, back too early. One
other bowler planning
on making a Test return
at the Oval is Chris
Woakes, who took
three for 34 in 15
overs for Warwick-
shire Second XI yes-
terday.
England will look to
either Somerset’s
Craig Overton or
Lancashire’s Saqib
Mahmood, who
would make his de-
1G M Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times
player — hence his relative success in
Australia — and is more comfortable
when the ball bounces above waist
height. He is a good cutter and puller/
hooker of the ball. He is a brave player
of pace bowling and someone who has
enough options to counterpunch
when the flak is flying. If Jasprit
Bumrah tries it on, as he did with
James Anderson at Lord’s, Malan will
not be unduly worried.
But it is unlikely that Bumrah will be
sucked in. That Malan is less comfort-
able with his footwork when the balls
reach him below waist height — in
231
other words when pitched fuller, to
attack the stumps — is well known. He
can get caught on the crease sometimes
and any movement becomes danger-
ous as a result. You can say that about
most batsmen, by the way, but the dif-
ference is accentuated with Malan.
After returning from the Ashes aver-
aging 42.55, Malan looked set for a long
run in the team, but the weakness high-
lighted above presented itself immedi-
ately. He struggled in New Zealand and
then against Pakistan and India at
home, before being discarded seven
Tests after his hundred in Perth. His
most recent Test came against India at
Edgbaston three years ago, when he
struggled with the bat, scoring eight
and 20, and dropped a crucial catch at
second slip.
He has fought tigerishly to refashion
an international career, taking himself
off to franchise cricket (he was one of
the few to accept the challenge of going
to Pakistan the first time the Pakistan
Super League went home), and grab-
bing his opportunity in short-form
cricket. The way he has done that says
a lot about his ambition and drive. Iron-
ically, his chance in Test cricket comes
at a time when the emergence of Liam
Livingstone threatens his place in the
T20 side.
England desperately need some
experience and toughness in their top
order, and Malan fits the bill. At 33, he
knows his game and knows that this
represents his last chance in Test crick-
et. He is said, by those who have played
with him, to be “difficult”, which, where
batsmen are concerned, usually means
a selfish streak. All batsmen need this
to some degree. With the Ashes on the
horizon, his selection is a sound one. Malan during England’s nets practice
but, to help to form a four-man seam
Depleted bowling stocks attack with James Anderson, Ollie
Robinson and Sam Curran.
England seamers with at least ten Overton is the favourite to come into
Test wickets in past three years: the side and is capable of generating
Stuart Broad (28 Tests, 97 wickets) good pace. After the fiery finale to the
Torn calf muscle, out for summer previous Test, the combative 27-year-
old is certainly not the type to take a
James Anderson (23, 69) Available
backward step.
Ben Stokes (27, 57) There will be a change at the top of
Finger injury, out indefinitely (to the order too after Dom Sibley and Zak
focus on mental wellbeing) Crawley were dropped. Haseeb Ham-
Jofra Archer (13, 42) eed is set to move up to open with Rory
Elbow injury, out for rest of year Burns, with Dawid Malan returning for
the first time since 2018 to bat at No 3.
Chris Woakes (12, 40)
“Dawid is a fine player,” Root said.
Bruised heel, out for third Test
“He has had to deal with different pres-
Sam Curran (20, 37) Available sures throughout his career and has
Mark Wood (9, 34) come through swimmingly. He is very
Jarred shoulder, out for third Test experienced and he will be wanting to
make that spot his own.”
Ollie Robinson (3, 16) Available
England squad Joe Root (capt), Moeen Ali, James
Olly Stone (3, 10) Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler
Back problem, out for rest of year (wkt), Sam Curran, Haseeb Hameed, Dan
Lawrence, Saqib Mahmood, Dawid Malan, Craig
Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson.
the times | Tuesday August 24 2021
STU FORSTER/GETTY IMAGES
at Headingley yesterday and with the captain Root, inset. The batsman, 33, last played a Test for England three years ago
‘We have to cope better’
Elizabeth Ammon
Joe Root has admitted that his England
side will need to cope better in the heat
of battle if they are to bounce back from
the embarrassing defeat in the second
Test against India at Lord’s.
Although the game produced an
enthralling finale, there were a number
of fiery exchanges in what became an
increasingly bad-tempered Test. Virat
Kohli, the India captain, who reported-
ly told his side to “give England hell”, led
the verbal barrage as his attack bowled
with hostility in dismissing England for
120, winning by 151 runs and gaining a
1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Root acknowledged that he and his
team needed to cope better with India’s
aggression when the third Test starts at
Headingley tomorrow, saying: “When
you’re out there in the middle and it
does get a bit heated, it’s a passage of
play you have to manage well and they
managed it better than us on that occa-
2GM
sion. It was a brilliant Test, it hurt but
what an advert for the greatest form of
the game. It shows the excitement, the
ebbs and flows of five-day Test cricket.”
England’s attempts to meet fire with
fire, after Jasprit Bumrah had peppered
James Anderson with short balls in the
first innings, backfired when the India
tailenders steered their side to an
unlikely 89-run partnership for the
ninth wicket in India’s second innings.
Kohli will not be calling off his attack
dogs at any point during the series and
Root, who is preparing to lead England
for the 55th time, said that his team
needed to play their own way without
getting distracted by Kohli’s aggression.
“The most important thing for us
with regard to the theatre is we’ve got to
make sure we play the game how we
want to play it and not get too distracted
by anything that is not us,” Root said.
“Virat and his team will play the way
they play and I just want us to go out
and be the best version of us.”
Captain upset by pain
friend Rafiq is suffering
Joe Root has said that he finds the
pain of Azeem Rafiq, his former
Yorkshire team-mate, “hard to see”
and has called on everyone involved
in cricket to play their part in making
the game more inclusive.
Rafiq, 30, said that “institutional
racism” at the club had left him close
to taking his own life. An independent
investigation, commissioned last
September, has upheld a number of
the former off spinner’s allegations,
for which Yorkshire apologised.
The report has yet to be published
and Root said: “I can’t really speculate
too much on a report I have not seen
but, as a friend, it’s hard to see Azeem
hurting as he is. It just shows that
there is a lot of work we have to do.
As a sport, we have got to keep trying
to find ways of making sure this isn’t a
conversation that keeps happening.
“We have got to find ways of
making our game more diverse,
educate better. There has got to be a
want to do that.”
Hundred success
a given – now look
after rest of game
Power of marketing
made tournament a hit
but the future of cricket
is far from certain,
writes Mike Atherton
A
bookseller sells two
editions of the same book.
The first he markets
strongly, places
prominently in his shop
window and charges a quid for it. The
second he puts in the recesses of the
shop and charges at a higher price. At
the end of the year, the published
accounts show far higher sales of the
first than of the second. The
bookseller congratulates himself on
his business acumen.
Welcome to the world of those who
run English cricket. Yesterday, Tom
Harrison, the ECB chief executive,
and Sanjay Patel, the managing
director of the Hundred, were on
hand to talk about the inaugural
season of the new tournament
designed to grow the game, to
centralise power and to
create an asset to sweat at
a time of declining England
interest in bilateral
international
v India
engagements. They Third Test
were in bullish mood. Tomorrow,
The competition, at Emerald Headingley
they announced, has TV: Sky Sports Cricket
surpassed expectations. Radio: BBC 5 Live
Engagement was high. Sports Extra
Sixteen million viewers tuned
in across the five weeks, more than
during the 2019 World Cup, over half
of whom had not watched cricket in
2021. More than half a million tickets
were sold, with in-ground capacity at
about 90 per cent. A quarter of a
million people downloaded the
competition’s app and clips were
viewed more than 34 million times on
social media. Spectators — and
players — clearly enjoyed it.
The executives’ sense of wonder at
the high levels of interest reveals a
lack of faith. Here’s the news: cricket
is a great game. Stage it in high
summer, charge reasonable prices,
give it the oxygen of free-to-air TV
allied to the muscle and expertise of
an established cricket broadcaster,
create a condensed tournament with
one match a night so that the
narrative is easily followed, then pour
all your love, attention and marketing
spend on it, and people — of all ages,
faiths, gender, backgrounds and
abilities — will come.
Unquestionably, women’s cricket
has taken a transformational leap in
five short weeks, creating a host of
role models for the next generation.
What a tournament it has been for
them; truly a game-changer. Patel
confirmed that the double headers,
which came about by accident, will
continue next year. The women’s
game has been the biggest winner of
all, and a pay rise for those involved
next season is, rightfully, coming.
Patel referenced the opportunity
created for young English cricketers,
such as Will Smeed, of the
Birmingham Phoenix. It was remiss of attention. After all, the bookseller
him not to mention that Smeed is a
product of the ECB’s own pathway
63
Sport
system. Smeed, 19, came through the
Somerset age-group sides and has
represented Young Lions (England
Under-19) and Somerset in 16 T20
Blast matches. Not, as some
breathless comment would imply,
emerging from thin air into the
Hundred, but an example of how one
tournament cannot exist in isolation.
Handed every possible advantage,
the success of the Hundred was a
given. The broader context and
whether there will be longer-term
casualties will only be revealed in due
course.
Quite how it fits into English
cricket’s increasingly complex and
crowded picture and what the future
holds brought fewer direct answers.
Harrison would not commit on
whether there would be an expansion
in the number of teams and,
consequently, the number of games.
History suggests, and the Indian
Premier League and Big Bash has
shown, that when administrators get
a sniff of something successful, they
find restraint impossible.
The usual line about Test cricket
being “the pinnacle” was trotted out.
How administrators continue to
convince themselves of this
is hard to know, when Test
cricket is clearly on the
retreat in some parts of
the world; when the
unfettered market is
11am leading the game’s top
players increasingly in
the direction of
domestic short-form
leagues; and when
decision-makers give that
generational shift a helping hand
along the way. Their actions and
words are not in sync.
So many questions, so few answers.
How will the fixture list look next
year? Can the schedule be tweaked to
allow England’s Test team a fair
crack? Can four formats survive? Can
those counties unaligned with the
Hundred flourish? Will the
engagement driven by the Hundred
migrate to other forms of the game,
or will it simply grow and expand at
the expense of everything else? There
is a lot of cricket to sustain and it is
hard not to see some collateral
damage down the line.
On Saturday, the Hundred’s social
media account tweeted a picture,
deleted 12 hours later, of two
downcast-looking cricketers with the
tagline: “When The Hundred is over
and you don’t know what to do with
yourself for the next year.” The
concluding stages of the Blast were
about to start, three Tests remain
against India, as well as the final four
rounds of the championship, with the
Bob Willis Trophy final to come. Will
there be migration to other formats?
We shall see.
For now, the response of any fair-
minded observer must be to
acknowledge a successful launch, no
small feat of imagination,
organisational resolve or flair. With it,
though, comes a caveat: that the
bookseller has a responsibility and
duty to the other books in his shop as
well. They, too, could do with a little
of the same promotion, love and
would surely want other editions to
be widely read as well. Wouldn’t he?
 2GM Tuesday August 24 2021 | the times

Sport ‘Fitter than I’ve ever been’

en’
Emma Wiggs’s long journey to
being a Paralympic champion
Page 56

SEBASTIAN FREJ/GETTY IMAGES

Antonio fires £2m bonus pot

West Ham for ECB chiefs
to the top Senior officials at the ECB will share a
£2 million bonus despite having made
Michail Antonio scored twice sweeping job cuts during the pandemic.
as West Ham beat Leicester Tom Harrison, chief executive of the
4-1 at the London Stadium. governing body, and Sanjay Patel,
Leicester’s Ayoze Pérez managing director of the Hundred, are
became the first Premier among six senior executives who will
League player to be sent off receive a bonus in 2022, dating from a
this season. Pages 58-59 financial incentive plan set up in 2017.
The ECB lost £100 million last year
through reduced sponsorship and
broadcast revenue and went through a
redundancy programme that led to the
loss of 62 jobs. Harrison took a salary
cut and was paid just over £500,000 last
year while many players and staff were
placed on furlough.
The incentive plan, set up by Colin
Graves, the previous chairman, was
always intended to be paid in 2022. The
success of the Hundred and a £1.1 billion
broadcast deal secured in 2019 were
part of the ECB’s strategy to reach a
wider audience.

Physical play
Antonio, who last night became West Ham’s all-time leading Premier League goalscorer and marked the feat with a cardboard cutout of himself, inset, enjoys the win
set to continue
Martyn Ziegler Chief Sports Reporter

Clubs won’t let players travel

City and Liverpool in Fifa stand-off over World Cup qualifiers
Martyn Ziegler, Paul Joyce
Liverpool and Manchester City are
refusing to release six players for inter-
national duty because of quarantine
restrictions in an escalating dispute
between European clubs and Fifa over
next month’s World Cup qualifying
matches.
Clubs are furious that many of their
stars could miss domestic matches if
they are released for international duty.
The European Club Association (ECA)
has already protested to Fifa over the
requirements for South American
players and has said it will not accept the
governing body “abusing its function”. It
also says that clubs should be confident
of avoiding Fifa sanctions because they
can argue they have a “duty of care” to
players and that the ten days of quaran-
tine would equate to a release period
longer than clubs must comply with.
Several clubs are threatening to
refuse to release players, and Liverpool
have told the Egyptian and Brazilian
football associations that they will
forbid Mohamed Salah (Egypt), Rober-
to Firmino, Alisson and Fabinho
(Brazil) to travel for any internationals
in red-list countries that will require the
players to quarantine afterwards.
It is understood that Manchester
City hold the same concerns as Liver-
pool and will prevent Ederson and
Gabriel Jesus from joining the Brazil
squad unless the authorities can find
a solution whereby the duo would not
have to quarantine for ten days in a
hotel upon their return to the UK.
Leeds United, whose winger
Raphinha was called up to the Brazil
squad this month, Chelsea and other
Premier League clubs with South
Americans are also monitoring the
situation closely.
A triple header of South American
Continued on page 61
Premier League referees chiefs will
continue to allow a more physical
approach by players after receiving
overwhelmingly positive feedback from
the first two weekends of the season —
despite criticism from Ole Gunnar
Solskjaer and Jürgen Klopp.
Solskjaer, the Manchester United
manager, claimed the game was be-
coming “like rugby” while Liverpool’s
manager Klopp said it was going back
ten or 15 years and would appeal only to
those who like “watching wrestling”.
There were two fewer fouls per
match awarded in the first two
weekends of this season compared to
last term — 19.7 per game instead of 21.8
— illustrating the desire of referees to
keep matches flowing.
Professional Game Match Officials
Continued on page 61

Times Crossword 28,064 across down Yesterday’s solution 28,063

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 Man’s one of four keeping tail on 1 Looking very bad — time for D A UN T A S I T COME S
R P U R N Y U H
president’s assassins (3,5) second retreat? (7) A S P A R AGU S P I S CO
9 5 Minister: a politician getting 2 Cheering cup side missing final (3) U E M O U R S O
makeover (6) 3 Strange of Irish to keep potential GO RGON F R E E POR T
H I S G S L F
10 10 An idea, alas, or odd composition worker in isolation (10) T I ME L A P S E S K I E R
that’s very much late! (4,2,1,8) 4 Fought to be heard in support of a S A U N N O
11 Weird blooming network with grant (5) MO N E T R E CON F I RM
A O I I Y O T
satellite receiver (10) 6 Old priest’s last letter discovered in N A ME DROP SME R S H
13 Passage which Cockney has to be time (4) S E D U D A O E
11 12 13 finished? (4) 7 Awfully mean, not embracing HO T E L SO URDOUGH
15 Windcheater? (7) players leaving (11) I E E L E I T I
PO R T RO Y A L CR E E P
14 17 Sat thus starting off sitcom? (7) 8 Exercise system of irrational
Check today’s answers by ringing 0905 757
18 Maybe went down the pub, then evening shifts? (7) 0141 by midnight. Calls cost £1 per minute
15 16 17 dropped round (7) 9 Load on vessel includes scraps plus your telephone company’s network
19 Woefully misled British politicians ultimately given to crow (8) access charge. SP: Spoke 0333 202 3390.
(3,4) 12 Explosive, overwhelming greeting
21 Widespread celebration? (4) offends volunteers right now (4,7) Newspapers
22 Copper receptacle put with waste 14 TV show one’s watching all the
18 19 20
(10) time? (3,7) support recycling
The recycled paper content of
25 Great disappointment, where you’d 16 Beer right after wine, when one’s UK newspapers in 2020 was 67%
stay single (10,5) ready for anything? (3,5)
27 Finish off expression in method 18 A few supposed greeting to be for
21 22 23 that’s far from neat (6) an unknown reason (7)
28 Article in papers concerning for 20 Shout I didn’t hear that’s upset poet
24 one potentially (1,4,3) (7)
23 Graceful runner with energy
25 26 — and light (5)
24 What might have wings for doing
bird flap (4)
26 That’s the case model has to lift (3)
27 28
y(7HB7E2*OTSKMS( |||+@!&