Wednesday October 6 2021 | thetimes.co.uk | No 73595
45 to subscribers
Returning holidaymakers face filming their own Covid tests
Steven Swinford Political Editor
Holidaymakers will be required to film
themselves taking a coronavirus test
after returning to the UK under plans
being considered before half-term.
Ministers are planning to scrap the
requirement for vaccinated travellers
to take a PCR test, costing about £75,
two days after their return. The govern-
PM to reveal
minimum
wage rise in
a few weeks
Lowest earners could receive £9.42 an hour
Henry Zeffman
Chief Political Correspondent
Steven Swinford Political Editor
Boris Johnson will announce a
significant rise in the minimum wage
within weeks as he pledges to end the
“broken” model of a low-wage, low-
growth economy.
The Times has been told that the
prime minister will accept the
recommendations of independent
advisers that are likely to boost the pay
of the lowest earners to about £9.42 an
hour.
The announcement will mean the
annual earnings of someone on the
“national living wage” — the minimum
wage paid to people over the age of 23
— increasing by 5.7 per cent. To
someone working 35 hours per week,
the increase would be worth an extra
£928 a year before tax.
The prime minister will use his
conference speech today to say that
unlike his Conservative predecessors
he has the “guts” to change the
direction of Britain and level up the
country. “After decades of drift and
dither, this reforming government, this
can-do government that got Brexit
done, is getting the vaccine rollout done
and is going to get social care done,”
Johnson is expected to say.
“We are dealing with the biggest
underlying issues of our economy and
society; the problems that no govern-
ment has had the guts to tackle before.”
Ministers see the impending boost to
Minis are back
Hem lengths get high
ment will replace them with lateral flow
tests, which cost as little as £25.
However Sajid Javid, the health secre-
tary, is understood to be concerned that
relying on people to declare their results
could encourage lying about positive
tests. He has proposed that people take
lateral flow tests in video conferences
while supervised by a health adviser
from a private firm. The approach was
the minimum wage, which would take
effect in April, as a way to help tackle
what Johnson believes is a “low-wage,
low-cost approach” across the eco-
nomy. A new minimum wage of £9.42
would represent the third biggest
annual rise since the financial crash.
Speaking 11 years after the
Conservatives entered Downing
Street, Johnson will say that his
government is “embarking now on the
change of direction that has been long
overdue in the UK economy” and that
“we are not going back to the same old
broken model with low wages, low
growth, low skills and low productivity,
all of it enabled and assisted by
uncontrolled immigration”.
He will contrast his government with
those that decided to “reach for the
same old lever of uncontrolled
migration to keep wages low” and will
promise “not to use immigration as an
excuse for failure to invest in people, in
skills and in the equipment or machin-
ery they need to do their jobs.
“That is the direction in which this
country is going — towards a high-
wage, high-skill, high-productivity
economy that the people of this
country need and deserve, in which
everyone can take pride in their work
and the quality of their work.”
Addressing the Tory conference in
person for the first time since winning
swathes of traditionally Labour territo-
ry in the Midlands and north, Johnson
will also promise to “take the pressure
Continued on page 2, col 3
used for pre-departure tests, which were
scrapped at the weekend. Other
ministers want lateral flow tests
scrapped entirely. A senior source said
that Javid’s proposals were at the “ex-
treme end” of the government’s plans.
Ministers will open up travel to red-
list destinations including Mexico and
Indonesia tomorrow as they ease curbs.
The number of countries on the list is
Carrie Johnson arrives at the Conservative Party conference, where she spoke
about being “moved to tears” by the abuse LGBT+ people still faced. The prime
minister’s wife, 33, is due to give birth to their second child at Christmas. Page 9
£2.20 £1.
INSIDE
TIMES2
expected to be cut from 54 to about a
dozen.
The government has scrapped its
three-tier traffic light system in favour
of a simpler green and red-list system.
As of this week, travellers who were
double-jabbed in the UK, EU or US and
who are arriving from green countries
do not have to quarantine but must still
pay for a PCR test after arriving in Brit-
MATT CROSSICK/EMPICS ENTERTAINMENT/PA
(based on 7 Day Print Pack)
Carol Midgley
Darling,
I’m too tired
for an open
marriage
ain. People who are not fully vaccinated
will still need a pre-departure test and a
PCR test on days two and eight after
they return, and must self-isolate for
ten days at home. Travellers from red-
list countries must spend 11 nights quar-
antining in a hotel at a cost of £2,285.
The travel industry wants post-
arrival tests to be scrapped entirely.
Get off your Pelotons, pages 12-13
Empty-nest
ordeal even
harder after
lockdowns
Nicola Woolcock Education Editor
Packing off a teenager to university can
be a moment of relief. Peace and quiet
returns after 18 years of tantrums,
parties and a raided fridge.
But now parents are increasingly
turning to alcohol, pets or cleaning to
fill the void created by an empty nest,
research suggests. After living so close-
ly together with their teenagers during
lockdowns, more parents are struggling
to cope with them going to university.
Unite, a provider of purpose-built
student accommodation, has produced
a guide to help. It commissioned re-
search by Censuswide that showed al-
most a third of parents were drinking
more to ease the transition. A similar
proportion are considering buying a
pet, or allowing an existing one to sleep
on their bed. A third have also been
channelling their energy into cleaning.
Some 93 per cent said being closer to
their children through the pandemic
had made the situation worse.
The poll of 1,000 parents found a
sixth had cried uncontrollably while
others feared depression or had suf-
fered physical symptoms of grief in-
cluding panic attacks and sleeplessness.
A fifth of parents felt guilty for not
making the most of the time they had
with their child and a similar number
wished they could have that time again.
A third have struggled to adjust the
amount of food they buy and a similar
proportion missed the mess their child
left around the house and were more
clingy towards their younger children.
However a quarter felt excited about
the new experiences their child would
have and one in six enjoyed boasting to
others about their child going to uni-
versity. Some were considering bring-
ing in more money by taking a lodger.
Dr Dominique Thompson an expert
on empty nest syndrome and co-author
of How to Grow a Grown Up, said:
“Empty nest syndrome can feel very
similar to bereavement. In extreme
cases, it can absolutely trigger marital
discord. Support is available. Above all,
however, parents should take pride
from what their child has achieved.”
2 2GM Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times

News

Today’s highlights French threaten power cuts and

7.20am Dominic Raab, justice secretary
11.30am Live coverage and analysis of Boris Johnson’s
keynote speech to Conservative conference
Christmas chaos in fishing row
2pm The Booker prize-winning author John
Banville on his new mystery, April in Spain Charles Bremner Paris UK, and we will stop all British products with the UK.” Castex told the French
reaching Europe. Unless Boris backs parliament yesterday: “Britain does not
4.45pm John Pienaar chats to Nadhim Zahawi, France may announce within days that down, the Brits will not have so many respect its own signature. Month after
right, the education secretary it is cutting electricity supplies to Brit- nice things to eat this Christmas. I hope month, the UK presents new condi-
10.35pm MPs’ Panel: Conservative Laura Farris ain in retaliation for the refusal to issue it doesn’t come to that.” tions and delays giving permanent
and Labour’s Rupa Huq discuss the licences for French boats to fish in Beaune noted that Britain was suffer- licences. This cannot be tolerated.”
day’s political news British waters, the Élysée Palace said. ing from a shortage of fuel, which he France will bring the matter before a
Clément Beaune, the minister for said was a direct consequence of leaving council that oversees the implementa-
Europe, threatened to reduce energy the EU. “We could imagine, on the sub- tion of the Brexit trade agreement.
supplies to Britain as Jean Castex, the ject of energy — the Channel Islands France promised retaliation last week
DAB RADIO l ONLINE l SMART SPEAKER l APP prime minister, said France was ready and the United Kingdom depend on the after Britain rejected the majority of ap-
to throw into question all aspects of the supply of energy and our ability to plications from smaller French vessels
EU post-Brexit trade deal, which was export it,” he said. “The United King- to fish in inner-British waters. Jersey al-
concluded last December, because of dom thinks it can get along all by itself so drew French ire by refusing permits
T O D AY ’ S E D I T I O N Britain’s “failure to comply with its and then bash Europe. Since that to a large number of French boats.
commitments” on fishing access. doesn’t work, they escalate their aggres- Boris Johnson backed down last year
Beaune said: “Along with my Euro- siveness. We will not be pushed around.” on his refusal to allow access to French
Boots service to London hit by A little wine pean counterparts, we have decided Beaune said France had demanded craft, after the EU pointed out that Brit-
that within days we will take European action from the European Commission ain was seeking far more concessions
rival your GP flash flooding isn’t harmful or national measures to put pressure on after Britain’s refusal to abide by its fish- from Brussels. The connection to
Boots is trialling Knightsbridge, one of There is no need to the United Kingdom.” ing commitments. “If that is not suffi- French electricity supplies was worth
GP-style appointments London’s most affluent feel guilty about the Last night it was reported that the cient, we will apply to the arbitration far more than the value of all the fish Eu-
for minor conditions neighbourhoods, was occasional glass of French fishermen were threatening to panel contained in the accords to make ropeans were catching in British waters,
under a plan that hit by flash floods after wine with supper, disrupt Christmas for Britons by cut- the British keep their word,” he said. Michel Barnier, the EU’s negotiator,
could ease pressure on downpours on Monday experts have said after ting off crucial supplies. Olivier Lepre- “We will put into question all the con- told Lord Frost, his British counterpart.
the NHS. Pharmacists night, with even discovering flaws in a tre, head of the powerful northern ditions of the execution more generally “There is no reason that you should get
who have had heavier rain bringing landmark paper France fisheries committee, said: “If ne- of the accords concluded by the Euro- access to our electricity market and at
additional training will the threat of flooding published in The gotiating fails, we will stop all French pean Union and also, if necessary, the the same time deny our fishermen
prescribe medicines, as in northern England. Lancet in 2019 that and European products reaching the bilateral co-operation that we have access to your waters,” he said.
well as dispensing More than an inch of suggested even a small
those recommended rain fell on London in amount of alcohol was
by doctors. Page 4 under an hour. Page 5 harmful. Page 11
University essay-writing Schools ‘must
COMMENT
The conference talk about high-wage jobs companies to be outlawed act’ over futile
needs to have substance Nicola Woolcock Education Editor threatening to tell universities that the
TV watershed
DANIEL FINKELSTEIN, PAGE 25 customer’s work is not their own.
Essay cheating companies will be made Chris Skidmore, the former universi- Nicola Woolcock Education Editor
illegal under new legislation, the gov- ties minister, called for essay mill Holly Papworth
Cash cut for Beijing warns of Gas costs surge ernment has announced. websites to be outlawed in February
It said that essay mills would be this year. The television watershed is meaning-
Biden project Taiwan trigger to new high banned in England under plans to re- He told The Times yesterday: “I’m de- less because of YouTube, so schools
President Biden has China has warned that Gas prices in the UK form post-16 education. lighted that the government has lis- have a duty to teach teenage boys not to
conceded that his war with Taiwan “may surged by more than a This would make it a criminal offence tened to the academic community and send intimate images to girls, the head
signature bill on social be triggered at any fifth to all-time highs to provide, arrange or advertise essay- students whose powerful testimony of of Ofsted said.
care and climate time” after it deployed as Europe’s energy writing services to university and col- how corrosive essay mills are influ- Asked at a session of The Times
change could be cut 56 military aircraft, crisis deepened. Oil lege students for financial gain and fol- enced me to introduce my essay mills Education Commission what Ofsted
almost in half as he including 38 J-16 prices globally also lows similar legislation in Australia, prohibition bill earlier this year. should do to help schools tackle sexual
sought to unite fighter jets, into the hit three-year highs of New Zealand and Ireland. “This should be the real culture war abuse among young people, Amanda
warring factions of his self-governing island’s more than $83 a barrel Making essay mills illegal will help to in universities — against a culture of Spielman said there were enormous
Democratic party and air identification zone. on fears of a supply protect students from falling prey to the cheating that has only grown much cultural pressures on young people but
salvage his “Build Back It raises this month’s shortfall, threatening “deceptive marketing techniques of worse since the pandemic,” he said that did not mean there was a “massive
Better” domestic number of incursions the economic contract cheating services”, the De- “This is an important milestone in crisis in schools”.
agenda. Page 30 to 149 flights. Page 31 recovery. Page 35 partment for Education said. promoting academic integrity and pro- The chief regulator said that there
It is one of a several measures being tecting the value of a UK degree.” was a “much wider cultural problem”,
introduced to the Skills and Post-16 In June the government pledged to adding: “In a society where pro-
COMMENT 25 MARKETS 47 SPORT 58 Education Bill, which aims to trans- work with politicians on proposed grammes like Naked Attraction [the
THUNDERER 26 REGISTER 51 CROSSWORD 68 form further and technical education, legislation to ban essay-writing ser- Channel 4 programme] are broadcast
LEADING ARTICLES 29 COURT CIRCULAR 53 TV & RADIO TIMES2 including stronger careers education vices. Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, a for all to see and watersheds mean
in schools. Tory frontbencher, told peers that there nothing in a world of television on de-
FOLLOW US
Alex Burghart, the skills minister, is a “strong case” to support institutions mand and YouTube, it’s not surprising
thetimes timesandsundaytimes thetimes said: “Essay mills are completely uneth- in dealing with the rising number of es- that a lot of teenage boys, for example,
ical and profit by undermining the hard say mills. are thoroughly confused about why
OFFER work most students do. We are taking Additional amendments to the sending girls ‘dick pics’ is not an accept-
steps to ban these cheating services.” Skills and Post-16 Education Bill, which able thing to do.
Save up to 33% with a subscription to Essay mills make money by encour- enters its report stage in the House “So schools have got a truly educa-
aging students to cheat in assessments, of Lords on October 12, include allow- tional role to play to help teenagers who
The Times and The Sunday Times by providing ready-made or bespoke ing more faith school providers to are at the mercy of their hormones as
THETIMES.CO.UK/SUBSCRIBE essays to pass off as their own. Some open post-16 academies with a religious well, learn to behave like decent adults
companies then blackmail students by character. by the time they leave school.”

THE WEATHER © TIMES NEWSPAPERS LIMITED, 2021.

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continued from page 1
Minimum wage boost
off parts of the overheating southeast”
and instead “offer hope and opportuni-
ty to those areas that have felt left
behind”. But he will insist that there are
“all kinds of improvements you can
make to people’s lives without dimin-
ishing anyone else, and they are the
tools of levelling up”.
In an attempt to define the much-
criticised slogan, Johnson is set to say:
“If you want the idea in a nutshell, it is
that you will find talent, genius, flair,
imagination, enthusiasm — all of them
evenly distributed around this country.
But opportunity is not and it is our
mission as Conservatives to promote
opportunity with every tool we have.”
Recommendations on the rate of the
minimum wage are made each year by
the Low Pay Commission (LPC), an
independent expert advisory body. It
will submit its proposals for next year to
the government by the end of this
month. In a report in April the LPC
estimated that its 2022 recommend-
ation would be an increase to £9.42 an
hour. Sources believe the final recom-
mendation could rise to £9.45 but not
significantly higher than that.
A government source said that
Johnson, as other prime ministers had
done, was likely to accept the commis-
sion’s recommendations in full.
The increases are part of a govern-
ment-set target for the national living
wage, which is not the same as the
voluntary living wage set by the Living
Wage Foundation, to reach two thirds
of median earnings by 2024.
A significant increase to the
minimum wage could hit some small
businesses as they emerge from the
pandemic and prepare for increased
national insurance contributions to
fund health and social care.
The anticipated recommendation
falls short of Labour’s demand that the
government immediately increase the
minimum wage to £10 an hour.
Tory conference reports, pages 6-9
High wages are fine but how do we pay
for them? Daniel Finkelstein, page 25
Never mind the dog whistle,
David Smith, page 39
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021 2GM 3

News
News
ANDY GOTTS/SWNSS

who was pictured with Fiona Bruce Gotts include Martin Pam White, the
Ready for their his border terriers Bert
and Ernie, said: “My
dogs mean everything to
with her Irish
terrier Molly
and Dion
Clunes, with his cocker
spaniel called Bob
Jackson, Imelda
national community
fundraising campaigns
manager, said: “As we’ve
close-ups, the me so I can only
imagine the incredible
Dublin with
his bullmastiff
Staunton and Jim Carter
with their rescue dog
grown, so have our
services, provided by
bond a person has with Molly and Dion Dublin, brilliant and dedicated
stars’ best friends their guide dog.”
The charity is
Maggie. Top
right, Martin
Clunes with
the former footballer
who rescued a stray
people working
alongside our fantastic
encouraging supporters Bob Jackson, from a dual carriageway dogs.

C
elebrities are (Sam Tobin writes). to raise money to fund a cocker three years ago, with his “Sight loss isn’t going
not known for Dozens of A-listers life-changing services spaniel. Jim bullmastiff Maggie. away. But neither are
their including Simon Cowell, for people with sight loss Carter and The UK’s first guide we. We plan to double
willingness to David Walliams, Tilda with “90-themed” Imelda dog partnership the amount of people we
share the Swinton and Fiona fundraisers such as a 90s Staunton, left, qualified in October 1931 help by 2023, helping
limelight, but a host of Bruce, have posed with party, walking 90km or with Molly, a and Guide Dogs is now them to help people with
household names have their pets to celebrate baking 90 cakes. rescue dog responsible at any one sight loss live actively,
made an exception for the 90th anniversary of Other stars time for 8,400 puppies live independently and
their most loyal fans Guide Dogs. Walliams, photographed by Andy and dogs. live well.”

Who’s a clever dog, then? It’s a collie

Kaya Burgess Science Reporter
Rhys Blakely Science Correspondent
They say you can’t teach an old dog new
tricks — yet it seems some of our canine
friends are much more intelligent than
first thought.
It turns out a dog’s vocabulary can be
extended far beyond the usual com-
mands, with some breeds able to learn
the names of a dozen toys in a single
week and still recall them two months
later, a study has found.
The ability to learn so many object
names is rare, however, and often seen
only in “gifted” dogs, with border
collies particularly talented, according
to scientists who ran the Genius
Dog Challenge.
Some German shepherds, Pekinese
and mini Australian shepherd dogs may
also have the knack, scientists believe.
Shany Dror, from the ethology de-
partment of Eotvos Lorand University
in Budapest, who led the research, said:
“We know that dogs can easily learn
words that are linked to actions, such as
‘sit’ or ‘down’. But very few dogs can
learn the names of objects.”
The challenge was launched last
November to find the world’s smartest
canines, following tip-offs from local
media and members of the public.
“For more than two years we
searched around the world for dogs
that had learnt the names of their toys,
and we managed to find six,” Dror said.
The dogs recruited for the study
all knew more than 28 toys by name,
with some able to recognise more
than 100.
Some dogs have been found to have
“cognitive skills that are functionally
similar to those of human infants”,
according to the study, which was
published in the Royal Society Open
Science journal.
The dogs in the study were all border
collies: Max, from Hungary; Gaia from
Brazil; Nalani from the Netherlands;
Squall from Florida; Whisky from Nor-
way; and Rico from Spain.
Their owners were asked to teach the
dogs the names of six toys in a week and
then 12 toys the following week. They
included toy animals such as stuffed gi-
raffes and puffins or rubber hedgehogs,
sports items such as balls and Frisbees,
and other items such as a soft Spider-
man figure.
During the teaching process, the
owners “selected one of the new toys,
presented it to the dog and, while
repeating its name, encouraged the dog
to bite the toy, tossed it in the air, and
asked the dog to fetch it from a pile
of other objects or retrieve it from
another room”.
On the seventh day, the dogs were
given a vocabulary test. The new toys
were scattered on the floor mixed up
with several of the dogs’ old toys. The
owners, who had to be seated in a differ-
ent room, then called the name of the
new toys in a random order, asking
their dogs to retrieve them.
The experiment was conducted
online, with cameras watching the
dogs and their owners to monitor the
results and to ensure that there was
no cheating.
Dror said: “It turned out that, for
these talented dogs, this was not much
of a challenge. They easily learnt
between 11 and 12 toys.”
The dogs were tested again one
month later with six of the new toys and
two months later with the other six
toys.
After a month, five of the six dogs
were able to recall all six of the new toys.
After two months, three of the six
dogs successfully retrieved every toy
requested and one dog retrieved
five out of six, with the other two
failing to perform better than they
would have done if they were picking
at random.
The researchers had found in a previ-
ous study that the dogs could learn the
name of a new toy after hearing it only
four times, but found that “with such
short exposure, they did not form a
long-term memory of it”.
Dror said: “Originally border collies
were bred to work as herding dogs,
so most of them are very sensitive
and responsive to the behaviour of
their owners.
“However, although the ability to
learn names of toys appears to be more
common among border collies . . . we
found that even among this breed, it is
very rare.”
Ádám Miklósi, head of the depart-
ment of ethology at Eotvos Lorand
University, said: “Such rapid learning
seems to be similar to the way human
children acquire their vocabulary
around two-three years of age.”
4 2GM Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times

News
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

Quintagram® No 1126
Solve all five clues using each
letter underneath once only
1 Bear in The Jungle Book (5)

-----
2 Start (5)

-----
3 Delicious (7)

-------
4 Shorten, truncate (7)

-------
5 Spell of wintry weather (4,4)

--------
A A A B B B C C
D D E E G G I I
L L M M N N O O
O P R R S S U Y
Solutions MindGames in Times2
Cryptic clues Page 10 of Times2

Vet sacked unfairly

A vet has won her claim of unfair
dismissal after she was fired for
challenging her boss when he told
staff to ignore Covid restrictions.
David White said the pandemic
was “over hyped” and his practice
in Hertfordshire was to “open as
normal” after the first lockdown
was announced last March.
Charlotte Rendina refused to
carry out procedures because
they would have breached the
Steady as she goes A painting of the Battle of Trafalgar is edged up the stairs at the Foundling Museum in London. It will take pride of place in Fighting Talk, an rules. The tribunal at Bury St
exhibition about George King, a foundling from the hospital who became a sailor and wrote a first-hand account of the battle. The exhibition opens on October 15 Edmunds said she was entitled to
negotiate compensation.

Boots trains pharmacists Probation

failings left
Insulate Britain is sorry
Insulate Britain apologised for
the disruption it had caused but
warned it would continue its

for GP-style appointments child to die

Kat Lay Health Editor
Boots is trialling GP-style appoint-
ments for minor conditions with some
of its pharmacists in a move that could
reduce pressure on NHS services.
The scheme involves pharmacists
who have undergone additional train-
ing allowing them to prescribe medici-
nes as well as dispensing those recom-
mended by doctors.
The high street chemist already
offers private online doctor services
providing help with conditions includ-
ing acne and other skin complaints,
erectile dysfunction and oral contra-
ception. Charges start from £15.
Seb James, Boots chief executive, said
the services meant that “rather than
wait two weeks to see a GP, people can
get immediate diagnosis, treatment and
medication for the price of a Nando’s”.
In comments reported by The Sun, he
said: “The NHS is under a lot of pressure
with the pandemic, and that will only
get worse when the winter wave hits. We
have this incredible resource — highly
trained pharmacists in hundreds of
stores around the country — which isn’t
being used to its full potential.”
Many patients complain they have
struggled to get face-to-face appoint-
ments with their GPs in recent months
after a switch to online and telephone
prompted by the pandemic.
About 58 per cent of GP appoint-
ments are now in person but this is
down from almost 80 per cent in the
first week of March last year.
Family doctors say they and their
teams are in fact busier than ever, with
25.5 million appointments recorded in
August this year compared with
23.3 million in August 2019.
The government has promised an
extra 6,000 GPs by 2024, with 50 mil-
lion more appointments in GP surger-
ies each year. Experts say this is urgent-
ly needed as there are 1,904 fewer fully
qualified full-time GPs than in 2015.
Boots has 2,336 stores across the UK
with 6,600 registered pharmacists.
Pharmacists have been able to train
as independent prescribers since 2006,
allowing them to prescribe without a
doctors’ oversight for any condition
within their clinical competence. Some
controlled drugs for the treatment of
addiction are excluded. The courses
typically take six months, including at
least 12 days in a practice environment.
A spokeswoman for Boots said: “In
stores our pharmacists offer appoint-
ment-free consultations that can offer
general advice, sign-posting and rec-
ommendations for over-the-counter
remedies, free of charge.
“Additionally, more pharmacists are
becoming pharmacist independent
prescribers (Pips) who are qualified to
prescribe certain medicines. By 2026
all newly qualified pharmacists will be
able to prescribe.
“There are currently a small number
of Pips working with Boots and in the
coming years we hope to have one in
each store. We are currently running a
trial to look at how we can scale up this
service to offer appointments to all our
patients on a more formal and sustain-
able model.”
actions if the government did not
meet its demands for all homes in
the UK to be insulated by 2030.
More than 100 protesters have
been served with injunctions. The
Neil Johnston Extinction Rebellion splinter
Midlands Correspondent group has blocked roads and
motorways around London.
A toddler was murdered after the
authorities failed to share information Duchess praises study
that her babysitter posed a risk to child-
ren, a serious case review has found. The Duchess of Cambridge has
The Probation Service admitted that hailed a new study which will
its failing “contributed” to the death of track the progress of children
Lilly Hanrahan, who was 21 months old. over their first five years. The
Lilly was murdered in Birmingham in “Children of the 2020s” research,
November 2017 by Sean Sadler, who led by University College London,
inflicted brain injuries and did not seek will examine a range of factors
medical help for three hours. that affect a child’s development.
Sadler, now 32, was jailed for at least The duchess launched the Royal
20 years in March this year. Birming- Foundation Centre for Early
ham crown court was told that the Childhood in June.
murder had been the culmination of a
string of offences arising from Sadler’s Sewage hits beaches
“uncontrollable” temper. He had four
previous convictions for battery. Sewage spilt on to beaches across
Lilly was put in the care of her mater- the southeast last weekend
nal grandmother shortly after her birth despite campaigners’ calls for
and then a special guardianship was tighter regulations on disposals.
made, putting her in the care of another Southern Water, which says it
woman. Lilly’s guardian started a rela- supports the calls, discharged
tionship with Sadler in early 2017. waste at more than half of its
The review, by the Birmingham Safe- outlets on the coast with some
guarding Children Partnership, found disposals lasting more than

One in ten Britons ‘diabetic by 2030’ that a probation worker became aware
that Sadler’s new partner was Lilly’s
guardian two months before Lilly died.
Protocol to inform the probation officer
63 hours after heavy rain flowed
from surface drains into sewers.

Uber algorithm ‘racist’

Kat Lay
The UK is at a “tipping point” with dia-
betes and faces a public health emer-
gency, as one Briton in ten is expected
to have the disease by 2030, a charity
has warned.
Diabetes UK said that without
urgent action 5.5 million people would
be living with the condition within a
decade, risking devastating complica-
tions such as heart attacks, kidney fail-
ure, stroke, amputation or blindness.
The trend has been fuelled by rising
obesity levels, experts said.
By 2030 there will be more than
87,000 hospital admissions a year in
England for the condition if the num-
ber of people with diabetes continue its
current rise, the charity said. This
would be an increase of 14 per cent from
2020-21 and more than 50 per cent
higher than in 2006-07.
Chris Askew, the charity’s chief exec-
utive, said: “We’re at the tipping point of
a public health emergency.” He said
that with “will, grit and determination
from government” the prediction could
be avoided.
The forecast is based on Public
Health England and the Association of
Public Health Observatories’ diabetes
prevalence projection models. Analysis
by Diabetes UK suggests one in three
UK adults could be at increased risk of
developing type 2 diabetes by 2030.
on the phone and confirm by email was
not followed and the guardian’s support
worker was not told.
“The Probation Service failed to fol-
low their own procedures,” the review
said. It also criticised the guardian or-
der by Birmingham Children’s Trust.
Sarah Chand, head of West Midlands
Probation Service, said her “heartfelt
sympathies” were with Lilly’s family. “I
would like to apologise to them for the
failure which contributed to her death.”
An Uber driver is suing the
taxi-hailing app over allegations
that its facial recognition system
resulted in racial discrimination.
The ID check is used to confirm
drivers are not sharing the app.
Mohamed Yusuf will argue at an
employment tribunal that it is
more likely to cause the company
to sack darker-skinned workers.
Uber says the claim is unfounded.
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021 2GM 5

News
LUCY YOUNG/EYEVINE

Floods hit Diana designer

as storms sweep Britain
Sam Tobin, Peter Chappell which disrupted parts of the Tube and and three flood warnings across En-
London Overground networks on gland. Katharine Smith, the agency’s
One of London’s most affluent neigh- Monday, demonstrated “once again flood duty manager, warned that flood-
bourhoods was hit by flash floods after that the dangers of climate change have ing in the north of England could per-
torrential rain on Monday night. moved closer to home”. sist into Wednesday.
Azagury Designs in Knightsbridge, He also urged the government to de- The Scottish Environment Protec-
one of the favourite dressmakers of volve more funding and powers to local tion Agency issued two flood alerts: the
Diana, Princess of Wales, was damaged leaders to help them deal with flooding, Scottish Borders, and Edinburgh and
by floodwater after more than an inch adding that Cop26 was an opportunity Lothians.
of rain fell on the capital in less than to show “global leadership” against cli- Natural Resources Wales issued a
an hour. mate change. flood alert for the north Wales coast.
Jacques Azagury, who opened his He tweeted: “Once again, we’re see- Full forecast, page 57 Parts of Knightsbridge flooded after more than an inch of rain in under an hour
flagship store in the capital in 1987 and ing the impact of the climate emer-
has also designed items for Dame Hel- gency on our doorstep.
en Mirren and Sheridan Smith, said the “In London we’re leading from the
flooding “ruined” almost all of the gar- front to tackle this crisis, and I’ll con-
ments on the ground floor, with a wed- tinue to urge other politicians here and
ding dress estimated to be worth around the world to take the action
£12,000 said to have been destroyed. that’s desperately needed.”
He told the BBC the flooding was a Last month, research by the London
disaster for his business: “I don’t know Green Party revealed that flooding in
how long the clean-up will take or when the capital had caused a record 141
we will be able to reopen again. hours of Tube closures this year.
“It depends on how much help we Zack Polanski, a Green member of
get,” he said. the London Assembly, tweeted: “It’s a
However, responding to an offer of problem that is getting worse. We need
assistance on Instagram, Azagury said: to both adapt & reduce our emissions.”
“We’ll be OK.” b
Heavy rains battered other
estaurant
An Egyptian restaurant areas of England on
gury’s
next door to Azagury’s Monday. Storrington,
rced
shop was also forced We Sussex, had
in West
to close yesterday ay 30mm between
as a result of thee mid
midnight and
floods and has 6am and Market
had to throw Bo
Bosworth, in
out all of its Le
Leicestershire,
food. Elias Sa- h
had 29mm. Cars
waya, the head co
could also be
chef at Al se
seen ploughing
Basha, told th
through deep
The National:: ffloodwater
loo on the
“Things were get- t- rroads
oad in Whitley
he
ting better after the B ay, North Tyne-
Bay,
pandemic. Now we sside.
ide.
have to throw the he food The M Meteorological
out.” O ffice issue
Office issued a yellow
ere called after
Firefighters were w arning for rain in those areas
warning
St James’s Park was hit with 35mm — until 10pm yesterday
yesterday. Gr Grahame Madge,
over an inch — of rainfall in only six of the Met Office, said the main down-
hours. A spokesman for Sadiq Khan, pours were “converging over the north-
the mayor of London, said the flooding, east”, which could experience up to
50mm of rain.
Jacques Azagury assesses the As of 8pm yesterday, the Environ-
damage at his store, Azagury Designs ment Agency had issued 41 flood alerts

stream and cause expect to see more of

Why the storms to move more
slowly, meaning
as the climate warms
up. Heavier rainfall
rain won’t places receive much
more rain over a
from slower-moving
weather systems are
go away given period.
British summers
likely to be one of the
causes of more
over the past decade surface water floods
Analysis have been about 10 per due to climate
cent wetter than the change.”

T
he flash period between 1961– She said it was
flooding in 1990, according to the essential to focus on
London Met Office. reducing the impact
cannot be Six of Britain’s ten rather than just
categorically wettest years on blaming global
linked to climate record have occurred warming.
change but scientists since 1998 and the “We need
say such events have amount of rain from government, councils,
become more intense extremely wet days businesses and
due to man-made has increased by individuals to work
greenhouse gases 17 per cent when together to see how
(Ben Webster writes). comparing the period they are at risk and
The global average from 2008 to 2017 how decisions can be
temperature has with 1961 to 1990. taken now that
increased by about Records from 1,500 reduce the impacts of
1.1C since pre- river gauging stations floods that will occur
industrial times and a show there has in the future.
warmer atmosphere generally been an “This means
can hold more increase in river flow preparing properties
moisture, leading to across most of the UK for floods and making
heavier rainfall. in the past 50 years. infrastructure more
The Arctic is Hannah Cloke, a resilient, so homes,
warming twice as fast hydrologist at the roads and shops can
as the global average University of Reading, get back to normal
and studies suggest said such floods were more easily after
this may alter the jet “exactly what we flooding happens.”
6 2GM
News
News Conservatives
Met chief feels heat as Patel sets
Fiona Hamilton Crime Editor
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor
The head of the Metropolitan Police
faced fresh questions about her judg-
ment last night after Priti Patel
announced an independent inquiry
into “systematic failures” that allowed
PC Wayne Couzens to rape and murder
Sarah Everard.
Senior figures suggested that Dame
Cressida Dick was wrong to think that
the government would let the Met
“mark its own homework” and pre-
empt the home secretary by announc-
ing an internal inquiry.
They said Patel’s setting up of an in-
quiry to first examine why Couzens was
not identified as a sexual predator, and
then look into wider issues of policing
culture, eclipsed Dick’s announcement
on Monday of a standards review.
Patel said the non-statutory inquiry
would examine the “unimaginable fail-
ures in policing” that enabled Couzens,
48, to abuse his power to kidnap Ever-
ard, 33, as she walked home in Clap-
ham, south London, in March. Speak-
ing at the Conservative conference,
Patel refused to publicly name Couzens
but described him as a “monster”.
The Met has been plunged into crisis
over revelations that the officer, who
worked in the parliamentary and diplo-
matic protection command, falsely ar-
rested Everard under the guise of coro-
navirus restrictions. He handcuffed her
and drove her 80 miles to Kent, where
he raped her before strangling her with
his police-issued belt.
Couzens, who was given a whole-life
jail term last week, was apparently
known as “the Rapist” by colleagues at
a former force while The Times re-
vealed that a group of serving officers,
including three from the Met, are being
investigated for sharing misogynistic
and racist messages with him. Sepa-
rately another Met officer was charged
with rape at the weekend.
The Couzens case has prompted an
outpouring of allegations of misogyny
and sexual misconduct by officers
across the police service.
The person chairing the inquiry and
its terms of reference are expected to be
announced later this month and the
government is understood to favour a
lawyer. Police sources said that a
former judge was an option while Sir
Tom Winsor, HM chief inspector of
constabulary, could also be considered.
Quentin Letts
Priti’s stare is worse than
a piranha in your trunks
Political Sketch
P
riti Patel versus Angela
Rayner would be quite a
bout. Frank Warren should
book the Albert Hall and
make it happen. The two
pugilists have different styles and
Rayner, with her long arms,
undoubtedly has better reach. But
the compact Patel offers sustained,
smoulderin’, lower middle-class
aggression. She delivers it with a
fruity smirk. Unlike her Labour
Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times
Analysis
I
t was only on how Wayne Couzens’s do so adequately.
Monday that colleagues missed Instead senior officers
Dame Cressida the sexual predator put forward the
Dick, the and murderer in their suggestion that any
beleaguered midst. woman who felt
commissioner of That is surely right. concerned about an
Scotland Yard, The force had the best approach from a lone
announced her own part of seven months, officer should call 999
independent review between the murder or hail a bus. Setting
of the Met’s “culture” of Sarah Everard and aside the nonsensical
in an effort to shore Couzens’s sentencing logistics of the
up public confidence last week, to provide a suggestion, senior
(Fiona Hamilton coherent public officers should have
writes). response to how it been emphasising
Priti Patel’s would address the exactly what they
announcement of failings that allowed were doing to rid the
a separate, one of its own officers force of such officers
wider-ranging inquiry to use police powers in the first place.
eclipses that and to carry out such a The Home Office is
will be seen as a heinous crime. yet to reveal all the
rebuff to the forces’s Couzens’s crimes details of its inquiry,
attempt to regain were always going to and has left open the
trust through its own raise wider issues of option of turning it
measures. misogyny and sexual into a public inquiry
Patel will not allow misconduct in the if witnesses are
the Met to mark its police that Met reluctant to come Priti Patel told the Conservative Party conference in
own homework in leaders would need to forward. Let’s hope Manchester that an independent inquiry would examine
the examination of address. They did not that it delivers. the “unimaginable failures in policing” that let Wayne
Couzens abuse his power to murder Sarah Everard
Patel also asked Winsor to carry out his continued employment as a police
an inspection of vetting and counter- officer. We need answers as to why this
corruption procedures in policing was allowed to happen. I can confirm
across England and Wales, including today there will be an inquiry, to give
forces’ ability to detect and deal with the independent oversight needed, to
misogynistic and predatory behaviour. ensure something like this can never
Labour questioned why Patel had not happen again.”
ordered a full public inquiry, with the Dick welcomed the announcement
power to compel witnesses to attend. in a statement: “We absolutely recog-
The Home Office favours a non-statu- nise it is important for the public to see
tory inquiry because it will be quicker to the full details about what happened.
report. Sources also expressed concern We will work closely with the inquiry
that Couzens could become a core par- team and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate to
ticipant in a public inquiry, giving him a provide every support to them across
platform. However, it can be converted all parts of their wide-reaching and im-
to a statutory inquiry if witnesses are portant mission.
not forthcoming. “This will include ensuring the re-
The inquiry’s first part will examine view into our culture and standards
Couzens’s predatory behaviour, what that I announced yesterday, to make
his colleagues knew about him and how fast time progress rebuilding trust and
he was able to abuse his authority as a confidence in us, is closely linked into
policeman to target Everard. The this work.”
second part will look at any specific A police source said Dick’s interven-
issues raised, which could include wider tion on Monday appeared to be “naive”.
issues across policing including vetting “The home secretary was never going
practices, professional standards and to let the Met mark their own home-
discipline, and workplace behaviour. work after this controversy.”
Patel said: “The public have a right to Stronger leadership needed to change
know what systematic failures enabled police culture, leading article, page 29
them like a rural motorist trying to
bag a pheasant for supper.
Rayner is tattoos, bovver boots,
council-estate brass. Patel is
Tight energy from the start.
None of that Rishi Sunak pause-for-
effect baloney for this one. Why
mention Sunak? Because it is not
Crikey. That stare. Worse than a
piranha in your bathing trunks.
Television viewers may have
wondered why the home secretary
aspirational Essex, with all the
forced, angry neatness of the
suburban lawn. She isn’t much
fussed about freedoms.
impossible, were Boris Johnson to
be vapourised, that the Tory
leadership could come down to an
all-Asian contest. Liz Truss looks
kept darting her gaze towards the
clerestory. Reason: the autocue had
been placed an inch too high for
her. It would have been worse
What she stands for is everyone
abidin’ by the same constraints.
Libertarian, to Priti, would be an
overpriced.
Patel spoke briskly about the
Sarah Everard murder, announcing
without those stiletto heels.
The prime minister, who was
absent, received only a cursory
insult a little higher up the candle an inquiry. Some of today’s mention. Patel preferred to
counterpart, she is always sober. than socialist. She is a militant politicians have become artful accentuate the personal: “I” this
Terrifyingly so. You worry what grinder, addicted to denial. about expressing soft concern. and “I” that, “my plan” for this, “my
would happen if Priti ever did take Except perhaps when it comes Patel is not one of them. She trots bill” for that. And yet she spoke of
to drink. We might have a to chocolate biscuits. out the “all our thoughts are “service before self ”.
bloodbath on our hands. She had dressed theatrically: an with . . .” routine but it sounds like a “My responsibility,” she said,
There were points during her outfit of dazzling white, pleated to police officer giving evidence in giving three little nods of
conference speech when it seemed the neck, a dramatic contrast to the court. She is more natural when affirmation, almost Clintonesque.
she might be about to declare war blue of the back wall. The style was spitting out words such as “vile” “My service.”
on France, banish lawyers and Home Counties catalogue, looking and “monster”. She referred to Another defiant glare. Another
decapitate Dame Cressida Dick, all your best, respectable discipline. Sarah’s murderer but would not bowing of the lips as she savoured
in a fifteen-minute burst. She had arrived at the conference utter his name. Pond life. Not worth her authority. Yet still those little
zAs for those sticky-bottomed centre in gold-bling flatties but by the oxygen. Her eyes flashed. She inflatables chug across the English
eco-protesters who keep the time she stepped on stage — a thrust forward her jaw. Channel. And so, she said, there
supergluing themselves to the M25 clopping tread, heavy as a deep-sea I was sitting on a raised section of would have to be “new sea tactics”,
— all Lib Dems, by the look of them welder’s boots — she was in high the auditorium and my eyeline with which may have been a euphemism
— they mightn’t be so quick to heels. If fixed horizontally to Queen Patel was directly through one of for wave machines.
squat on a motorway if they knew Boadicea’s chariot, those heels the transparent paddles of her Unless. Good grief, you don’t
Patel was at the wheel of the would have caused terrible damage autocue. It had the effect of suppose she means to use
nearest juggernaut. She’d aim for to the Romans. magnifying her blazing gaze. torpedoes, do you?
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
up inquiry into police failings
PM won’t make hating women a crime Forces urged to stamp out
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor
Boris Johnson refused to back a change
in the law to make misogyny a hate
crime yesterday, insisting that existing
laws should be enforced to crack down
on abuse against women and girls.
He said tackling domestic violence
and rape was his “number one issue” in
policing and the way that the criminal
justice system handles crimes of vio-
lence against women was “just not
working”.
The prime minister added the “anger
over Sarah Everard’s murder is a symp-
tom” of a “wider frustration that people
feel”. Everard’s murder in March
sparked a nationwide debate on how
police, government and general society
can better protect women and girls
from male violence and abuse.
Campaigners and Labour MPs have
demanded an offence be created to
make misogyny a specific crime.
Ministers this year instructed police
forces to record misogyny as a hate
crime in order to improve their under-
standing of what drives behaviour as
well helping to increase sentences as a
crime that has been motivated by
hatred can be an aggravating factor.
However, asked if he believed
misogyny should be made a specific
offence by itself, Johnson told BBC
Breakfast: “I think that what we should
do is prosecute people for the crimes we
have on the statute book.
“That is what I am focused on. If you
widen the scope of what you ask the
police to do, you will just increase the
problem. What you need to do is
get the police to focus on the veryy
real crimes, the very real feel-
ing of injustice and betrayal
that many people feel.”
So far only a handful of
police forces, including Not-
tinghamshire, North York-
shire, Avon and Somerset,
have adopted misogyny
or gender as a form of
hate crime for record-
ing purposes, with
dozens of forces yet to
Sarah Everard
was murdered by
a police officer
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL; STEFAN ROUSSEAU/PA; NEIL HALL/EPA
Raab promises final
say on human rights
to top British judges
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor
Dominic Raab promised to overhaul
the “nonsensical” Human Rights Act to
ensure the UK’s Supreme Court will
have the last say over Strasbourg.
The justice secretary said that Boris
Johnson had given him the task of re-
writing the act, which enshrines the
European Convention on Human
Rights (ECHR) into domestic law.
It is understood that Raab wants to
resurrect plans to replace the Human
Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights,
which was a Conservative manifesto
pledge in 2015 but was dropped after
the Brexit vote.
Asked if he was planning to complete
the “unfinished” job, Raab said: “The
prime minister was clear when he ap-
pointed me as justice secretary that he
wants this done.”
The Ministry of Justice is due to com-
plete a consultation by the end of the
year, with the aim of having the new
human rights legislation on the statute
book by the end of next year.
He used his speech to the Conserva-
tive Party conference to say an over-
haul of human rights legislation was
needed to restore “common sense” to
the justice system.
Raab said the “big change” was
needed to stop the Human Rights Act
being exploited by dangerous foreign
criminals to avoid deportation, limit
judges straying into politics and to pro-
tect freedom of speech.
He stopped short of committing the
government to withdrawing from the
ECHR and said that the problem was
the powers that the Human Rights Act
had given to judges.
He said the reforms would “straight-
en out the constitution” to ensure the
separation of powers between the gov-
ernment, parliament and judiciary.
Raab said the UK Supreme Court
should be the primary arbiter of whe-
follow. Loretta Trickett, Associate Pro-
fessor of Nottingham Law School, co-
misogyny in their ranks
authored a report which analysed
levels of misogyny and hate crime two Fiona Hamiton Crime Editor
years after the policy was brought in by
Nottinghamshire Police. Misogynistic attitudes have been
She said: “Boris Johnson’s comments tolerated in policing and some officers
display an unwillingness to listen to are attracted to the job because it
women’s experiences and to recognise gives them power, a chief constable has
that crimes against women are driven acknowledged.
by misogyny. The fact that our prime Sir Dave Thompson, who leads West
minister does not see the relevance of Midlands police, called on male officers
misogyny to violence against women to “identify, challenge and report con-
and girls is deeply troubling.” cerns” about their colleagues in the
MPs have been lobbying to make wake of the Sarah Everard case.
misogyny a hate crime over the The abduction, rape and murder of
past few months. In July, Liberal Everard, 33, by Wayne Couzens, a serv-
Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse ing Met officer, has prompted an outcry
told the House of Commons that about the culture of police forces amid
the Police, Crime, Sentencing concerns that misconduct by officers is
and Courts Bill should “en- not properly addressed.
shrine misogyny as a hate In a message that he said was intend-
crime” during a debate on ed for his male colleagues, Thompson
the prospective legislation. said that viewing Couzens as a bad ap-
The bill, which contains ple was the “wrong lens through which
measures aimed at over- to see these events”.
hauling the justice system, is He wrote in his blog: “Police officers
making its way through the have extraordinary powers and the fact
House of Lords. these powers have been used to commit
7
News
News
ther an individual’s human rights have
been breached, rather than the court in
Strasbourg.
He told an event hosted by The Spec-
tator magazine: “The problem is not the
convention, it’s the way it has been in-
terpreted and in particular the licence
given to the courts in this country
under the Human Rights Act to adopt,
through judicial legislation, ever more
elastic interpretations of rights . . . I’m
proud that we’ve got a British Supreme
Court and I don’t think it should take
orders from ECHR.”
Raab highlighted the case of a drug
dealer “convicted of beating his ex-
partner” who claimed the right to
family life to avoid deportation.
“It is absolutely perverse that some-
one guilty of domestic abuse could
claim the right to family life to trump
the public’s interest in deporting him
from this country,” he told Tory dele-
gates in Manchester. “We’ve got to
bring this nonsense to an end.
“Under this prime minister and
before the next election, we will over-
haul the Human Rights Act to end this
kind of abuse and restore some com-
mon sense to our justice system.”
In his first speech as justice secretary,
a position that was seen as a demotion
in last month’s reshuffle, the former for-
eign secretary warned that it could take
up to a year to clear the backlog in the
courts to pre-pandemic levels.
David Lammy, the shadow justice
secretary, said Raab had more pressing
problems.
He said: “Court backlogs have
reached record levels, violence and self-
harm in prisons have soared, rape con-
victions have plummeted . . . Yet instead
of addressing any of these problems,
the new justice secretary chose to focus
on vague threats to take away ordinary
people’s rights.”
Raab can save money and cut
reoffending, Alice Thomson, page 27
these crimes has damaged public trust.
There is a deep concern, highlighted
through media coverage, that col-
leagues did not challenge and concerns
may not have been acted upon.
“This case indicates that misogynis-
tic attitudes to women are tolerated
in policing.”
He said that male officers needed to
do more to make policing an “exemplar
for the right attitudes and approaches
to women”. He added: “Some individu-
als are attracted to policing because it
gives them power, access to vulnerable
people, an ability to coerce others to get
their own way.
“Vetting and other safeguards try to
catch these people. There is no place
for them and we all have an obligation
to identify, challenge and report con-
cerns where we see them. We cannot sit
on concerns.”
Thompson said Couzens’s crimes
were the “end of a continuance of a
curve of misogynistic behaviour that
women experience”.
8 2GM Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times

News
News Conservatives

I can’t fix everything

for you, PM tells bosses
Oliver Wright, Louisa Clarence-Smith
Ashley Armstrong, Dominic Walsh
Boris Johnson clashed publicly with
business leaders yesterday as each side
blamed the other for the recent
economic upheaval.
In a series of interviews the prime
minister insisted that it was not his job
to “fix every problem in business”,
dismissing claims of labour shortages
and supply chain problems that are
fuelling inflation.
He told the BBC that the disruption
had been caused “very largely by the
strength of the economic recovery”
and that industry was “getting to
grips with it, finding the staff that
they need”.
In a blunt message he told busi-
nesses to pay their staff more
to help with the rising cost of
living and warned that there
was “no alternative” to
breaking Britain’s reliance
on imported workers.
The phrase was an
echo of Margaret
Thatcher’s famous say-
ing, “There is no alter-
native”, which was asso-
ciated with her economic
policy in the 1980s and gave
rise to her nickname “Tina”.
In the most significant bud-
get of her government in
March 1981, Geoffrey Howe,
the chancellor, announced
that he would raise taxes,
despite the recession gripping
the country.
Many of Thatcher’s sup-
porters, including members of
her government, demanded a
change of policy but she
refused and the country’s eco-
nomic recovery followed.
However, business leaders
accused Johnson of having “no
idea of what’s going on”, and one sug-
gested that inflationary pressures were
as bad as in the 1970s.
Gary Grant, chief executive of the
Entertainer, the toy store chain,
warned that costs across his business
were rising faster than at any time in the
past 40 years and consumers would
have less choice at Christmas.
He said: “[Johnson] has got no idea
what’s going on on the ground. ‘Invest
in your people, train your people.’ Yeah,
we’re doing all of that. But we want
more people.”
David Page, chairman and co-
founder of Fulham Shore, which runs
the Franco Manca and Real Greek res-
taurant chains, said Johnson had never
“driven a truck, made a pizza, picked a
root vegetable in the winter in the rain”.
He added: “He knows nothing of the
above. It’s going Pete Tong and he’s
in denial. Let’s hope he’s well
advised and does a U-turn regard-
ing lengthy visas. Are the cabinet
all brainless? Or are they nod-
ding donkeys?”
The Times reported
yesterday that only 27
lorry drivers had ap-
plied for emergency
visas to alleviate the
fuel crisis. No 10
confirmed the figure
and said that John-
son had misspoken
when he said the
number was 127.
Government sources
said that the prime min-
ister was frustrated by
public calls to relax post-
Brexit immigration rules
to address labour shorta-
ges. Downing Street be-
lieves that Johnson’s tough
stance is popular with
Brexit supporters because
of his pledge to tackle un-
controlled immigration.
On the penultimate day of the
Conservative Party conference
in Manchester, Johnson ac-
knowledged that rising costs had
made it “tough” for poor people, but
added: “What I think should happen
is that organically business and
industry should be paying people a
Boris Johnson said the reliance
on foreign labour must be broken
little bit more in order to help them.”
He told the BBC: “What you can’t do,
and must not do is, simply go back to the
old, tired, failed model of the UK eco-
nomy that has led to a relative under-
productivity by comparison with all our
major competitors for decades, and has
held wages down, held growth down
and held productivity down.”
Johnson dismissed a call from Lord
Wolfson of Aspley Guise, the pro-Brex-
it chief executive of the fashion retailer
Next, for a “demand-led” immigration
system under which businesses could
recruit workers from overseas provided
that they paid a visa tax.
The approach had “extreme limita-
tions to put it mildly”, Johnson said,
adding that low-wage, low-cost immi-
gration had resulted in the “suppres-
sion” of pay and workers’ conditions.
However, business leaders said that
Johnson underestimated the scale of
the problems they faced and the impact
they will have on inflation and growth.
Mike Cherry, chairman of the Feder-
ation of Small Businesses, said: “Wage
growth, without economic growth, will
add to inflationary pressure. If the
government wants to see more high-
quality job creation it needs to remove
barriers to recruitment and upskilling.
As things stand, it’s adding to them.
“A hike in employers’ national insur-
ance, which essentially serves as a jobs
tax, in the spring will leave a lot of small
businesses with tough decisions to
make as they grapple with inflation and
cash reserves seriously depleted by
months of Covid-linked disruption.”
Roger Whiteside, chief executive of
Greggs, which warned yesterday of dis-
ruption to its supply of staff and ingre-
dients, told The Times: “There are so
many black swans, a flock of black
swans . . . every morning you have to
wake up and expect the unexpected.”
At a fringe event at the Tory party
conference, Ben Wallace, the defence
secretary, said there was a “perfect
storm” of supply chain issues, delays in
driving tests and surging demand as the
UK emerges from the pandemic.
High wages are fine but how do we pay for
them? Daniel Finkelstein, page 25 Boris Johnson preparing in Manchester for his conference speech. He dismissed

The relentless focus must be on delivery Tory anger as
Sir Michael Barber BBC host asks
more than 1,000 days away. We can
do the maths; to eliminate the
Comment waiting list by then he needs to
Johnson to
remove 5,600 from it every day. The
whole cabinet will be feeling the
scolded. Johnson ended the interview
by telling his interrogator: “Very kind of
you to let me talk. I thought that was the
point of you inviting me on your show.”
rewarded. All of them need to learn
from the best. If some hospitals still
It follows anger over Johnson’s
appearance on The Andrew Marr Show
don’t deliver, then intervention is on Sunday, during which the presenter
the only option.
Even if they do everything right,
accused the prime minister of not tell-
ing the truth about wage growth. John

I
n the first meeting of his newly
reshuffled cabinet, Boris
Johnson summed up the central
stop talking
challenge for his government
now in a single word: Delivery.
It is a word he will repeat in his
conference speech today and a word
on which, behind the scenes in
Whitehall, ministers and officials
will be judged.
And nowhere is delivery more
important than in health. With a
massive 5.6 million on waiting lists,
including several thousand needing
cancer surgery, it is a critical issue
for both the prime minister and
Sajid Javid, the health secretary.
Though we are only just emerging
from the pandemic, the prime
minister knows that time is already
running out. Very soon, he needs to
show results that people across the
country can see and feel. And the
“delivery challenge” is why he has
re-established a No 10 delivery unit
which I helped set up.
The next election is probably no
delivery heat, but none more so than
Javid. Hence his comments about
holding NHS managers to account.
Yet there is much more to
delivering than making a speech.
Getting the policy right isn’t easy
but it’s no more than 10 per cent of
the task. The other 90 per cent is
relentlessly getting it done.
Javid must mobilise the entire
delivery chain that connects his
office to hospitals, operating
theatres and patients in every far-
flung corner of the country. That
means hospital chief executives
must share the heat; hence the
pressure he has started to apply.
The challenge for Javid — and his
colleagues in education, housing
and policing — is to apply this
pressure at every level. But the
pressure needs to be combined with
the necessary support; the funding
needs to be spread efficiently across
the system; staff need the skills and
the motivation to deliver; successful
hospitals should be recognised and
there will inevitably be an
implementation dip; that’s the gap
between getting the delivery chain
in good shape and the results
coming through. They will need to
hold their nerve.
Javid should set up a “war room”
next to his office. Unannounced, he
can then check in with the relevant
officials between his meetings. They
can routinely examine the weekly
data from hospitals around the
country. Some will be on track;
others might need a timely nudge.
One or two will be seriously
underperforming and require firm
intervention. Javid shouldn’t flinch;
he should show early on that he
means what he says.
Delivery must not only be central
aim of this government — but also
its relentless focus.
Sir Michael Barber was head of
delivery for Tony Blair and is author
of Accomplishment: How to Achieve
Ambitious and Challenging Things
Jake Kanter Media Correspondent
Tory hostility towards the BBC intensi-
fied yesterday after senior party figures
criticised Boris Johnson’s treatment on
Radio 4 and the justice secretary again
raised the spectre of decriminalising
non-payment of the licence fee.
No 10 is said to be unhappy with the
BBC for devoting significant coverage
to the Pandora Papers during the Con-
servative Party conference, while ten-
sions have been compounded by two
testy interviews with the prime minis-
ter on high-profile shows.
In what was Johnson’s first outing on
BBC Radio 4’s Today in two years, Nick
Robinson, the presenter, asked him to
“stop talking” as he expounded on
solving the UK’s lorry driver shortage.
“We are going to have questions and
answers — not where you merely talk,
if you wouldn’t mind,” Robinson
Redwood, MP for Wokingham, said
BBC interviewers “seem to want to
impose their view” rather than allow-
ing room for answers. During an
appearance on LBC, Nadine Dorries,
the culture secretary, went further in
querying the impartiality of Marr.
Radio 4 presenter
Nick Robinson
scolded Boris
Johnson in an
interview on Today
In her first significant remarks since
becoming culture secretary last month,
Dorries also questioned if the corpora-
tion would still exist in a decade amid
growing competition from streaming
platforms, such as Netflix.
Separately, Dominic Raab, the justice
secretary, said switching from a crimi-
nal to a civil enforcement system for the
licence fee was an “attractive idea”. He
told an event for The Spectator that he
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
claims from industry that supply-chain problems and labour shortages could cause inflation at levels last seen in the 1970s
planned to raise the issue with Dorries.
The threat of decriminalisation has
been dangled numerous times by the
government. The BBC has said axing
the criminal sanction would cost it
£300 million a year.
Johnson rowed back slightly from
Dorries’s comments during an inter-
view with GB News yesterday, telling
the station: “It is a great national insti-
tution. I have no doubt it will be around
for a long time to come.”
Tensions between ministers and the
BBC come at a delicate moment for the
corporation, which is in the latter
stages of negotiations over its funding
for the next five years. Dorries told the
Tory conference that the BBC would
not get a licence fee settlement until it
had produced plans showing how it
would improve regional and class
diversity among its workforce. She said
the BBC was full of “people whose mum
and dad worked there”.
Corporation employees bristled at
the broadside. Huw Edwards, the BBC’s
highest-paid news presenter, Tweeted:
“I know one spectacularly successful
@BBCNews presenter whose parents
were never on the BBC’s books and who
made it ‘despite’ his state and non-Ox-
bridge education. Fancy that!”
The BBC itself has declined to com-
ment on the debate. Sources said the
corporation does not wish to get mired
in rows with ministers at conferences.
Being treated as a woman is
dehumanising, says Truss
George Grylls Political Reporter
Liz Truss said she finds it “dehumanis-
ing” to be treated as a woman as she hit
out at box-ticking diversity schemes.
The foreign secretary, who is also the
minister responsible for women and
equalities, said she preferred to be
viewed as an individual rather than “as
part of an identity group”.
Truss, 46, attacked the culture of
identity politics at a fringe event at the
Tory party conference organised by the
Conservative Home website.
“I very much believe in the principle
of individual humanity and dignity,”
she said. “What is dehumanising is to be
treated as a woman rather than a per-
son, as just a box ticked rather than
somebody with your own talents and
ideas and hard work.”
She added: “Rather than seeing
people as part of an identity group, we
need to see them as individual humans.
I want people to be treated the same
regardless of their sex or their sexuality
or their race not because of it.”
Truss resisted calls for the govern-
ment to make it easier for people to
STEFAN ROUSSEAU/PA
change their gender and said it was not
transphobic to say only women have a
cervix.
It comes following outrage in the
Labour party over comments made by
Rosie Duffield, the MP for Canterbury.
Last week, Duffield was branded a
“dinosaur” by members of the shadow
cabinet for saying only women have a
cervix. Asked if Duffield’s statement
had been transphobic, Truss said: “No”.
The foreign secretary later described
the relationship with the United States
as “special but not exclusive” and she
said Britain was not “some teenage girl”
waiting to be asked to dance at a party.
“We’ve got other close allies as well,”
she said.
She hit back at Tory MPs who have
argued against deeper ties with China,
saying it was important to trade with
Beijing.
She said: “It is important we trade
with China. But that trade has to be
reliable and it can’t violate intellectual
property rights or involve forced tech-
nology transfer.”
“What we don’t want to end up with
is strategic dependency on China.”
Javid urges families to
care more for elderly
Chris Smyth Whitehall Editor
People need to take responsibility for
looking after their elderly relatives and
stop looking to the state to provide, the
health secretary has said.
Sajid Javid said that people needed to
ask “what I can do to help my own
family” before calling on government
provision, as he attempts to get the
most out of the billions of pounds given
to the NHS and social care sector.
He also put NHS chiefs on notice,
stating that “business as usual cannot
be good enough” as doctors attacked
his plans for radical changes to man-
agement, including getting rid of failing
bosses more quickly.
Javid is under pressure from the
Treasury to ensure that a £16 billion
budget boost handed to NHS England
last month delivers tangible results in
bringing down waiting times.
In his speech at the Conservative
party conference in Manchester, he in-
sisted on the importance of “family
first” as he stressed the expanded role
for the state seen during the pandemic
could not become permanent.
He is said to be concerned that high-
profile promises on social care will en-
courage more people to come forward
for help that would otherwise be pro-
vided by relatives.
“Government shouldn’t own all risks
and responsibilities in life,” he stressed.
“We as citizens have to take some re-
sponsibility for our health too.”
Speaking later at a fringe event, he
said that the “default position” should
not be that government was responsi-
ble for all care.
“I think we should all also step back a
bit sometimes and just think, ‘What can
I do about it? What can what can I do to
Carrie’s tears for LGBT
people still facing abuse
George Grylls Political Reporter
Carrie Johnson made a rare public
intervention last night at the Conserva-
tive Party conference, saying that she
has been “moved to tears” by the abuse
LGBT+ people still face.
Watched by her husband, the prime
minister’s wife gave a speech to a fringe
event organised by LGBT+ Conserva-
tives and the charity Stonewall.
After a young Tory activist called for
more protection for trans people, John-
son said her husband was committed to
advancing LGBT+ rights, and it was
“illogical” to suggest the Tories
were not the party of equality.
Rachel Johnson, the prime
minister’s sister, and Liz
Truss, the women and
equalities secretary, who
kept the brief when she be-
came foreign secretary,
were at the event.
“The LGBT+ com-
munity still faces
stigma, harassment
and discrimination
with hate crimes still a
fact of life,” Johnson,
33, said. “I heard my-
self from the victim
of such a crime at
the Pride reception
we held in Downing
Street . . . and I have
to say I was moved
to tears.”
Carrie Johnson
backed trans rights
9
News
News
help my loved ones and my own
family?” he said.
The Times revealed yesterday that
Javid is considering fresh powers to
sack managers at hospitals that are
under-performing as he seeks to bring
down waiting lists quickly.
“I’ve seen examples of areas that are
demographically, in terms of health
challenges, quite similar, but the out-
comes from two comparable NHS
Trusts are just completely different. I
think it has to come down to the leader-
ship,” he said.
He said that the public expect the
NHS to “deliver for them” and pledged
that “2022 will be a year of renewal and
reform,” insisting: “At a time like this,
business as usual cannot be good
enough.”
But the British Medical Association
accused Javid of a “very dangerous”
scapegoating of managers. “While
more clearly needs to be done to tackle
the enormous backlog of care it is un-
acceptable that the health secretary is
blaming NHS managers and punishing
hospitals already under strain,” said
David Wrigley, its deputy chairman.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of
the managers’ group NHS Providers,
said that while it was “understandable”
that Javid wanted to ensure extra
public money was well-spent, manag-
ers were already help to account by “ro-
bust” inspections.
“The small number of trusts who are
currently subject to formal regulatory
intervention usually face a range of sig-
nificant structural difficulties such as
operating on multiple dispersed sites,
inadequate capital investment and dif-
ficulty in recruiting staff.
“These issues are not solved by
changing senior leaders,” he said.
She added: “We can now say with
huge pride that it was a Conservative
prime minister who delivered equal
marriage in England and Wales . . . we
now have a prime minister who is com-
pletely committed to protecting those
gains and extending them further.”
Johnson said her husband had asked
her to remind people that he had worn
a pink hat at a Pride parade when he
was mayor of London and that she
would be attending an LGBT+ Con-
servative club night. “I hope to see some
of you on the dancefloor,” she said.
It comes amid heated Tory debate on
LGBT+ issues. Some backbenchers
have expressed frustration at delays in
banning so-called gay conversion
therapy and disappointment at
Truss’s refusal to let people change
their legal gender without a diag-
nosis of gender dysphoria.
At another fringe event, or-
ganised by the Centre for
Social Justice think tank,
Sajid Javid, the health secre-
tary, said debates over
trans rights should be con-
ducted with “compassion
and sensitivity” but
added: “I think biology
matters. Someone
biologically, if they are
born a man or woman,
will have to some ex-
tent different health
needs.” He said the NHS
must talk about “women”
when sending invita-
tions for cervical
screening.
10
News
News Conservatives
MAX WILLCOCK/BNPS
Back British pork,
plead farmers as
pig crisis grows
Andrew Ellson, Neil Johnston
Pig farmers have urged supermarkets
to prioritise British pork over cheap im-
ports to help ease the culling crisis that
could see tens of thousands of healthy
animals sent to landfill or incinerated.
Robert Shepherd is closing his business in Hampshire. He and other farmers have been hit by a range of issues in the industry The National Pig Association has
written to retailers to warn them that
British pigs face being wasted because
high volumes of low-cost EU pork are
taking up capacity at processing facili-
ties that are already overstretched due
to a shortage of butchers.
The letter says a cull of the 120,000
British pigs awaiting slaughter would
be “an incredible waste” and “financial-
ly ruinous” as well as doing long-term
damage to the supply chain.
Hundreds of pigs have started to be
culled to ease overcrowding on farms
after abattoirs were unable to find
enough workers to maintain produc-
tion levels. Farmers report that the de-
lays mean their animals are too large to
fit on slaughter lines.
The food industry wants the govern-
ment to relieve the crisis by easing visa
restrictions for overseas butchers and
meat factory workers. The government
has so far ignored their calls, saying that
labour shortages are for industry to re-
solve by paying higher wages.
On Times Radio yester-
layed
day Boris Johnson played
down the significance nce
of a cull, saying pigsgs
die anyway for “ba--
con sandwiches”.
His comments
infuriated industry
leaders who said
the prime minister
either did not care
or did not under-
stand the difference ce
between animals being ing
slaughtered for the food
chain and being culled lled and
put into landfill.
Kate Morgan, 39, a second genera-
tion farmer from Driffield, in the East
Shoppers gobble up festive
favourites unseasonably early
Nadia Brooks
Christmas shopping has started early as
people stock up to ensure they have
everything they need for the season. In
the midst of supply chain strains, shop-
pers are buying up festive food, drinks
and all the trimmings.
Customers are also already booking
their Christmas delivery slots to
ensure they get produce in time for
December 25.
Waitrose has 112,000 customers
already booked in for Christmas deliv-
eries, which is about double the amount
of the same time last year.
Other retailers, including Marks &
Spencer and Iceland, have also report-
ed an increase in demand for seasonal
items, including artificial trees and
fairy lights, as shoppers appear to
eschew Halloween and Bonfire Night
this month and opt straight for the fes-
tive range.
Customers are being urged not to
panic buy amid warnings that pressures
on the supply chain due to staff shorta-
ges could last for months.
Aldi has revealed it is selling 1,500
Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times
Riding of Yorkshire, accused Johnson
of disrespecting farmers and said she
would quit the industry if she had to cull
her animals. “Boris just doesn’t get it,”
she said. “I don’t know why he doesn’t
get it. It’s just disrespectful.”
Morgan’s farm sells about 90,000
pigs a year but 25 per cent less than
usual have been going to slaughter for
the last 11 weeks. “They are piling up at
the farm,” she said. “We are doing
everything in our power to make sure
that we don’t have to slaughter on the
farm but it’s getting to the point now
where it is getting close.”
David Kemp, who runs a pig farm in
Wiltshire, was “incandescent” with the
prime minister. “What a way to run a
country, never mind a food supply,” he
said. “A guy I spoke to said his pigs were
so big he can’t shut the gate on them.”
Phil Stocker, chief executive of the
National Sheep Association, said he
was “left reeling” after listening to
Johnson’s “crass and insensitive” com-
ments. “To raise animals and then have
them disposed of as ‘rubbish’ when
supermarket shelves are bare or filled
with imported products is morally in-
comprehensible.”
Wholesale pig prices have fallen
sharply this week. A senior figure in the
retail trade said supermarkets
w
might be willing to support
British farmers in the
short term if it helped
main
maintain supply
cha but low prices
chains
we the priority.
were
“Retailers don’t
ta
take sides except
th
the consumer’s
sid and, on the
side
wh
whole, consumers
don
don’t really care
w he
where their meat
ccomes
ome from,” he said.
““However,
Howev they do care
h ow much it costs.”
how
Hundreds of pigs hav
have already been
culled to ease overcrowding on farms
turkey crowns a day, which is four times
the usual amount at this time of year. It
said Christmas pudding sales are also
up by 45 per cent.
Giles Hurley, chief executive of Aldi
in the UK and Ireland, said shoppers
should not worry as he doesn’t antici-
pate any stock disruption in the run-up
to the season and that the chain was
determined to give customers a “bump-
er Christmas”.
“Supply is clearly a concern for the
industry given the current challenges,
but our teams have been planning this
Christmas since the start of the year
and we’re not concerned at present
about supply issues,” he said.
Nick Allen, chief executive of the
British Meat Processors Association,
said Christmas turkeys are likely to
be from the continent this year due
to labour shortages in Britain as a result
of Brexit.
Aldi predicts that shoppers will want
to treat themselves this year and will
spend more on its luxury ranges. It has
ordered 250,000 of its “chocolate or-
ange bombes” to rival the Terry’s choc-
olate orange, a stocking-filler favourite.
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021 11

News

A little tipple with dinner is fine after all

Kat Lay Health Editor
There is no need to feel guilty about the
occasional glass of wine with dinner,
experts have said, after discovering
flaws in a landmark study that suggest-
ed even a small amount of alcohol was
harmful.
A paper published in The Lancet in
2019 caused a stir when it reported that
even light drinking patterns increased
blood pressure and the chances of
having a stroke. The study, based on
500,000 people, used analytic tech-
niques based on genetics to overturn
previous claims that one or two drinks
a day could in fact be protective.
At the time, Richard Peto, one of the
study’s authors, said: “Claims that wine
and beer have magical protective ef-
fects [are] not borne out.”
However, in a new paper to be pub-
lished in the International Journal of
Epidemiology Sir Nicholas Wald, of
University College London, and Chris
Frost, of the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine, claim that the
2019 analysis was flawed.
“One cannot now say any amount of
alcohol is harmful in the same way as
one can say any amount of smoking is
harmful,” Wald said.
While the precise safe amount of al-
cohol consumption was difficult to de-
fine, “the occasional glass of wine or no
more than a glass of beer, say, every
other day would be acceptable
given our current state of know-
ledge. One need not feel that the
only safe alcohol intake is zero.”
The UK chief medical offi-
cers’ guidelines, last updated in
2016, say that it is safest to not
drink regularly more than 14
units per week, spread over three
days or more.
Many epidemiological studies over
decades have shown a so-called
J-shaped relationship between alcohol
and stroke risk, in which people with
low intake appear to have a lower risk
The occasional glass of wine
every other day ‘is acceptable’
than non-drinkers. The risk then
rises as drinking becomes heavi-
er. When those risks are plotted
on to a graph, the curve takes
the shape of a letter J.
Wald and Frost created a hy-
pothetical population in which
there was a genuine J-shaped
relationship, and then applied
t genetic epidemiological ana-
the
l
lysis used in the 2019 paper. It failed to
uncover the J-shaped relationship.
The document warns: “The risk of
developing a range of illnesses increas-
es with any amount you drink on a reg-
ular basis.” Wald said the message that
should be taken was “not to encour-
age drinking, but to recognise
that a study that concluded there was
no safe limit in alcohol consumption
has a flaw in the analysis”.
“That is,” he said, “a little alcohol is
acceptable but a lot is harmful.”
Iona Millwood, of Oxford University,
who authored the 2019 paper, said the
team had in fact done modelling of the
type presented by Frost and Wald. “We
found that stroke risk increased contin-
uously across the range of predicted al-
cohol intake, from very low to high in-
take,” she said.
“Our findings are consistent with a
causal effect of higher alcohol intake
increasing stroke risk, and no substan-
tial protective effect of moderate alco-
hol intake.”

AMAZON/PA

The store in Kent will sell

about 2,000 products that
have been ranked at four
stars or more from
thousands of reviews

author of a book on
Amazon, said that while
“Amazon is a disruptor,
the 4-Star concept has
the potential to be a bit
underwhelming. They
are trying to do the best
of online shopping and
replicate that in a
physical setting, but I’m
not sure what their USP
[unique selling point] is
in this.”
Berg said that

A
Amazon shop where
Amazon had focused on
convenience and speed
and the 4-Store launch
it’s all rated four stars was not “about shifting
more product, it’s about
getting more shoppers

A
mazon is
making a
further
assault on the
British retail
landscape by opening its
first 4-Star shop in the
UK (Ashley Armstrong
writes).
The 3,500 sq ft store,
which opens at 10am
today in Bluewater
shopping centre, in
Greenhithe, Kent, will
mark Amazon’s first
non-food shop in
Britain. The shop will
sell around 2,000
products ranging from
toys, books and
electronic devices that
have been ranked four
stars or more by
Amazon’s online
customers.
The £1.21 trillion
retailer first launched its
4-Star concept in the
United States three
years ago and has
expanded it to 30 stores
across North America.
After opening its first
cashierless shop in the
UK in March, Amazon
now has six Fresh stores
that feature its “Just
Walk Out” technology,
one hair salon and seven
Whole Foods shops.
Andy Jones, director
of Amazon 4-star,
revealed that he had
been working on the UK
launch since 2019 and
said the shop was
designed to be “for our
customers by customers
featuring the best of the
best of our products”.
Items have an average
4.6-star rating out of five
from thousands of
customer reviews.
Natalie Berg, analyst
at NBK Retail and
into the ecosystem”.
Amazon did not
disclose how many 4-
Star shops the business
expected to open in the
UK but it recently hired
a Tesco veteran, Tony
Hoggett, to run its
physical stores business
and industry sources
expect the company to
be even bolder.
Last year Amazon’s
UK sales rose by 50 per
cent to £20.63 billion in
the online shopping
surge, and it paid £492
million of direct taxes.

Terror charge for man who disappeared Nurse ‘told to remove cross
John Simpson Crime Correspondent while patient was on table’
A former Home Counties grammar
school pupil who allegedly joined Isis
after vanishing from a family holiday
more than seven years ago has been
charged with terrorist offences.
Shabazz Suleman, 25, went missing
while on a family holiday to Turkey in
2014 after completing his A-levels at the
Royal Grammar School in High Wyc-
ombe, Buckinghamshire, and securing
a place at Keele University.
Suleman, who had travelled to Syria
the previous summer as part of an aid
convoy, is accused of returning to the
war-torn country to join Isis and of
undergoing weapons training while
with the group.
After The Times revealed he was
feared to have travelled to Syria, his
school released a statement saying that
Suleman was “a very engaging and ami-
able student who fitted in well, forming
good relationships with his peers and
staff”. Suleman said at the time that he
had become embroiled in a clandestine
mass prisoner swap between the
Turkish government and armed groups
after being picked up near the Turkish
border with Syria during a period in
which a number of militant groups
were fighting to overthrow President
Assad.
Officials in Ankara secretly arranged
the transfer of more than 200 prisoners
over the border into Syria, none of
whom were formally charged or tried
for any offence while in Turkey, in ex-
change for the safe return of 49 diplo-
mats based in Mosul, Iraq.
Afzal Suleman, his father, is a me-
chanic still based in High Wycombe. He
has previously said that he knew his son
“was thinking of going there [Syria] and
helping people”.
Suleman was captured by a Turkish-
backed militia called Liwa al-Shimal in
Syria in October 2017.
He spoke to The Times to say he was
safe and being treated well and pleaded
to be allowed to return to the UK to face
any allegations against him.
He was later freed by a court in Jarab-
ulus, Syria, which said there was not
enough evidence to convict him. The
court is not internationally recognised,
however.
His whereabouts have not been clear
since, with one report suggesting he
had reached Pakistan, his parents’
home country.
Officers from counterterrorism po-
licing southeast announced last night
that charges had been secured against
the alleged jihadist.
He is accused of having prepared for
acts of terrorism, membership of a pro-
scribed organisation and receiving
weapons training.
Suleman was arrested last Wednes-
day at Heathrow airport under the Ter-
rorism Act and has been remanded in
custody. He is due to appear at West-
minster magistrates court today.
Jonathan Ames Legal Editor
A senior matron at a London hospital
disrupted a theatre operation to tell a
nurse to remove or cover up her cross
necklace, a tribunal was told yesterday.
Mary Onuoha is suing Croydon
Health Services NHS Trust over alle-
gations that officials discriminated
against her on the grounds of religion
by attempting to force her to remove
the jewellery.
The 61-year-old devout Christian
told a tribunal sitting in south London
that in 2018 a theatre matron disrupted
an operation while a patient was being
prepared for a procedure on the table.
Onuoha said in evidence that she
was in charge of the operating theatre
when Jan Edmondson, the matron,
“tried to start a conversation with me . . .
next to the operating table, but I said
‘we can’t talk here’, so we moved to the
prep room”.
“She then instructed me to remove
my cross or cover it,” Onuoha told the
tribunal in a witness statement.
She added: “I told her that I have been
wearing the cross since I was employed
17 years ago. She replied: ‘I am in
charge’, and ‘I am not interested’.”
Campaigners backing the nurse have
predicted that her legal challenge “will
bring into question the freedom of
Christians to manifest their faith in the
workplace, especially in comparison to
members of other faiths”.
Onuoha, who is originally from Ni-
geria, came to the UK in 1988 and
worked at the Croydon University Hos-
pital in London for 19 years. She said she
felt bullied by management and was
treated “like a criminal”. The tribunal is
due to sit for the rest of the week.
12 2GM Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times

News
News Coronavirus

Get off your Pelotons and back

to the office, civil servants told
Chris Smyth Whitehall Editor
Civil servants have been told to “get off
their Pelotons” and go back to the office
as ministers become increasingly confi-
dent that further Covid restrictions will
not be needed this winter.
Boris Johnson warned staff they
would be “gossiped about” if they
carried on working from home, insist-
ing young people needed the stimulus
of the office. “You need to be there and
you need to have the stimulus of
exchange and competition,” he said.
Unlike last summer’s ill-fated back-
to-work drive, after restrictions were
lifted this July Johnson urged a gradual
return to the office.
But with cases still lower than they
were at the start of the summer and no
sign of an autumn surge, ministers have
been emboldened to take a tougher
line. Sajid Javid, the health secretary,
said that “so far our vaccine wall of
defence has held firm” as he told the
Conservative Party conference in Man-
chester that the Tories would “always
be the party of freeing things up, not
locking things down”.
There is increasing confidence in the
government that the present stable
case numbers will persist for the next
few months and that a “plan B” involv-
ing vaccine passports and more work-
ing from home is unlikely to be needed.
Johnson told LBC: “The data that I see
at the moment is very clear that we are
right to stick to plan A, which is what
we’re on and that means opening up.”
He said: “We are certainly encourag-
ing people to get back to work in the
normal way.” And he told workers:
“You’ve got to know what everyone is
talking about, otherwise you’re going to
be gossiped about and you’re going to
lose out.”
The prime minister said that not all of
his Downing Street staff were back in
the office but “the cabinet secretary has
written a pretty good letter some weeks
ago to everybody telling them to get
back to their desks”.
Oliver Dowden, the Conservative
Party chairman, was blunter, saying:
“People really want the government to
lead by example, they want civil ser-
vants to get back to work.” He said there
were “a lot more desks occupied” in
Conservative campaign headquarters
than in Whitehall departments as he
took issue with the top civil servant he
worked with as culture secretary.
Sarah Healey, permanent secretary
at the Department for Digital, Culture,
Media and Sport, told a conference last
month that working from home was a
“very, very, good thing”, that allowed
more efficient use of her time. “I have a
Peloton and I can just get on my bike
whenever I have a teeny bit of time.
That has been a huge benefit to my
wellbeing,” she said.
Dowden told a Daily Telegraph fringe
event that while he liked Healey “I’m
disagreeing with her on this one. People
need to get off their Pelotons and get
back to their desks.”
In practice, civil servants say depart-
ments have been free to set their own
plans on returning to the office, with
numbers at their desks gradually in-
creasing, but some degree of remote
working was accepted as permanent.
Dave Penman, general secretary of
the FDA union, which represents civil
servants, said: “Oliver Dowden is in-
sulting the hundreds of thousands of
public servants who have performed in-
credible feats during the pandemic and
is dismissing a quiet revolution in work-
ing practices for the sake of a quick
headline. What’s more he is singling out
a civil servant for public derision who
loyally served him, safe in the know-
ledge she cannot answer back.” Power of three John Byrne, a Chelsea

Rethink school Surgery delays

rules, say heads ‘risking lives’
Nicola Woolcock Education Editor
Head teachers are urging the govern-
ment to revise self-isolation rules as
figures showed one in ten children
missed school last week due to rising
Covid-19 infections.
Attendance in England dropped to
89.5 per cent from 91.5 per cent two
weeks earlier, according to the latest
government figures. Some 102,000
pupils were absent because of a con-
firmed case. Children must come to
school even if everyone else in their
household has the disease, if they
themselves have tested negative.
Heads wrote to Nadhim Zahawi, the
education secretary, to ask the govern-
ment to revise its guidance. In a survey
of more than 1,000 members, the
National Association of Head Teachers
found that more than half want stricter
rules if there is a further rise in cases.
Kat Lay Health Editor
One in seven cancer patients missed
out on potentially life-saving opera-
tions during Covid-19 lockdowns last
year, according to research.
Deaths could have been prevented
had surgery taken place on time, the
global study led by a team at the Uni-
versity of Birmingham suggests.
James Glasbey, co-lead author, said
health officials needed to act to make
planned care more resilient, such as by
“protecting elective surgery beds and
operating-theatre space, and properly
resourcing ‘surge’ capacity for periods
of high demand on the hospital”.
The study, published today in The
Lancet Oncology, involved collabora-
tion by almost 5,000 surgeons and an-
aesthetists from around the world, us-
ing data from 20,000 patients with the
15 most common solid cancer types.
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021 13

News
News
DOMINIC LIPINSKI/PA

Portugal nears
full vaccination
Charlie Devereux Madrid
World update
Portugal has vaccinated virtually
every adult in the country, giving the Global cases Global deaths
rest of Europe a glimpse of what a post- 235,408,082 4,809,149
pandemic world might look like.
The country of ten million people re- Most new cases
cently achieved the milestone of fully 1 US 169,207
vaccinating 84 per cent of its popula- 2 UK 33,869
tion, leaving children under 12 years old
3 Turkey 28,810
as the largest remaining unprotected
cohort. 4 Russia 25,150
Aided by an efficient campaign run 5 India 18,346
by Henrique Gouveia e Melo, an ex-sol- 6 Iran 14,607
dier, Portugal has avoided the drop-off
seen in other parts of the developed Countries reporting most deaths
world, including in the UK, where 67 1 US 703,278
per cent of adults have had both doses. 2 Brazil 598,152
As a result the Portuguese infection 3 India 449,260
rate has fallen to 88 people per 100,000
4 Mexico 279,106
over 14 days and daily deaths are in
single digits. 5 Russia 207,056
While steering clear of declaring the 6 Peru 199,485
pandemic over, Pedro Simas, executive 7 Indonesia 142,261
director of the Católica Biomedical Re- 8 UK 137,152
search Institute in Lisbon, said that the 9 Italy 131,068
results are highly encouraging and 10 Colombia 126,425
paint a picture in which Portugal can
look forward to a near future where Deaths per million population
Covid-19 becomes an endemic virus
that remains under control. Rank Now Jan 31
“What gives me optimism is the fact 1 Peru 6,050 1,234 (16)
that, as we virologists predicted, this 2 Bosnia & Herz. 3,269 1,431 (7)
coronavirus is behaving in much the 3 N. Macedonia 3,225 1,367 (10)
same way as the other coronaviruses,” 4 Hungary 3,129 1,296 (14)
Simas said. 5 Bulgaria 3,053 1,299 (13)
“That is that once you achieve a per- 6 Czech Rep. 2,846 1,523 (5)
7 Brazil 2,814 1,048 (24)
centage of the population with immu- 8 Argentina 2,551 1,057 (23)
nity then the virus will move from a 9 Colombia 2,485 1,047 (25)
pandemic into an endemic virus.” 10 Slovakia 2,322 836 (37)
The country will next week begin 11 Georgia 2,273 797 (40)
giving a booster shot to people over 65, 12 Paraguay 2,272 378 (68)
after a study suggested immunity 13 Belgium 2,212 1,833 (3)
among the elderly begins to wane after 14 Slovenia 2,204 1,836 (2)
three months. 15 Italy 2,168 1,460 (6)
The research, conducted by the Gul- 16 Mexico 2,165 1,214 (18)
benkian Institute of Science, analysed 17 US 2,125 1,309 (11)
260 nursing homes residents in Al- 18 Croatia 2,116 1,225 (17)
19 Tunisia 2,110 565 (51)
meirim, 50 miles north of Lisbon. 20 UK 2,020 1,555 (4)
Their data, gathered over a period of
Data supplied by Johns Hopkins University. US data
six months, confirmed that “the de- fluctuates because of irregular reporting by different
crease in antibodies generated by vac- states. Figures as of 6pm yesterday.
cination is faster in the older popula- Source: Our World in Data, selected countries
tion,” with 15 per cent of participants
experiencing a drop. The UK has an infection rate nearly
Simas said giving the elderly booster ten times that of Portugal after lifting
shots is a prudent step but that he restrictions far sooner. But Simas ar-
doesn’t necessarily expect vaccines to gues that a higher infection rate is no
be a necessary measure every year, as longer the primary concern.
they are for the flu, since influenza has “The risk is no longer that of infec-
a capacity for mutation that so far tion but rather of dying or being hospi-
pensioner, is given his booster shot by Vanessa Sloane, the deputy chief nurse, at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea yesterday hasn’t been seen in Covid-19. talised,” he said.

The national picture

How many people have Covid-19?
There were 33,869 new cases reported
yesterday, bringing the total to 7,967,985
or 119.3 for every 1,000 people
Daily cases
How many have died?
How Britain compares
Percentage of population who have
Chinese spending on PCR
Yesterday, there were 166 deaths reported,
bringing the total number in the past seven
days to 777. The rolling average number of
daily deaths is 111, down from 131.4 a day a
received at least one vaccine dose
(total doses administered in brackets)

UAE 93.7% (20.2m)

tests ‘hints at earlier spread’
2.3% decrease from seven days ago week ago china
(based on seven-day moving average) Deaths Portugal 87.8% (16m) People Orban, the prime minister, was
Seven-day 1,500 vaccinated Spending on tests used to detect among the first European leaders to
National 60,000 in UK coronavirus soared in China months make the jab compulsory for hospital
Seven-day average Malta 81.7% (819k)
average R number 40,000 1,000 First dose before official reports of Covid-19 staff when Hungary recorded the
0.8 to 1.1 Chile 80.8% (32.5m) 49m emerged, raising suspicions the virus fourth highest death rate in the world.
20,000 500 Second was spreading in the summer of 2019, Some medical professionals have
Spain 80.7% (70.2m) 45m
0 0 well before China’s public admissions, warned the dismissals could cause
Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct Daily according to an Australian report. serious disruption because many of
China 76.2% (2,174m) (Oct 4)
How many are in hospital? How does 2021 compare? Internet 2.0, a cybersecurity firm, said those affected were frontline workers
First dose
There are 6,747 patients in hospital being There were 10,684 deaths from all causes Italy 75.3% (85.4m) 37,671 spending on PCR tests leapt to 67.4 such as nurses or surgical assistants.
treated, of whom 769 are on ventilators. An recorded in England and Wales in the week million yuan (£7.7 million) in 2019,
additional 642 patients have been admitted, to September 24, of which the coronavirus France
Second from 36.7 million yuan in 2018. David russia
74.6% (95.3m) 29,337
down 7.1 per cent in seven days to Oct 01 accounted for 8.3 per cent. The number of Robinson, its co-chief executive, said The Kremlin admitted that the rate of
when this data was last updated weekly deaths was 1,420 higher than the UK Boosters
five-year average for the same time of year
72.1% (94m) that the timing and the agencies vaccination was too slow to stop the
in England
Hospital admissions
(daily) behind the purchases suggested spread of coronavirus. State TV
Seven-day 20,000 Brazil 71.2% (241.6m)
4,000 2020/21 122,358 officials were investigating a new accused ordinary people of “not
g
average 15,000
3,000
Sweden Total
disease during the latter half of 2019. giving a damn” about their own
70.5% (13.8m)
2,000 10,000
1,420,970 health or that of others. Russia’s death
1,000 5,000 hungary toll since the start of the pandemic is
Five-year average Germany 67.6% (108m)
0 0 As many as 3,000 healthcare workers more than 211,000, the highest in
Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct Apr Jul Oct Jan Apr Jul Source: Our World in Data (latest figures available) and gov.uk who have refused to get vaccinated Europe. Fewer than one in three
Note: Selected countries. Figures as of 6pm yesterday
are expected to be sacked. Viktor adults have been fully inoculated.
14
News
Tory co-chairman’s company benefited from £120k tax credits
Ben Ellery
The Conservative Party co-chairman
jointly owned a secret offshore film
financing company that indirectly
benefited from more than £120,000 of
UK tax credits.
Ben Elliot, who faced criticism
recently for his courting of political
donors, owns the British Virgin Islands-
based company with Ben Goldsmith,
the brother of the Tory peer and minis-
ter Zac. The firm was created to fund
Fire in Babylon, the 2010 documentary
about the West Indies cricket team of
the 1970s and 80s.
Green’s wife bought a string of
luxury homes as BHS collapsed
Ben Ellery
Lady Tina Green, the wife of the retail
tycoon Sir Philip, bought four multimil-
lion-pound properties as BHS, the
chain of department stores she owned
with her husband, headed for collapse.
The London portfolio, worth
£37.5 million, was bought secretly using
offshore companies and left a huge hole
in its pension fund.
It includes a £10.6 million townhouse
in Belgravia, refurbished as a home for
their daughter Chloe, a £7 million
duplex apartment in Eaton Place, and
flats in Mayfair valued at £15 million
and £4.95 million.
BHS was sold to the twice-bankrupt
former racing driver Dominic Chappell
for £1 in March 2015. The high street
chain collapsed into administration in
2016 with a pension deficit of £571 mil-
lion and the loss of 11,000 jobs.
The revelations, contained in leaked
financial documents and reported by
the BBC, detail how the Greens bought
a flat in Mayfair for £4.95 million weeks
after Chappell took control.
It was followed by a purchase of a
£15 million apartment in Mayfair. In the
year BHS collapsed, a new home was
bought for their daughter, near Buck-
ingham Palace, for £10.6 million.
Another luxury flat was purchased in
Belgravia for £7 million.
The leaks reveal that the Greens
owned the BHS headquarters in
London offshore before they sold it
back to their own company Arcadia for
£53 million in 2015, the year BHS was
sold to Chappell. There is no suggestion
any laws were broken.
The purchases have been revealed in
a leak of financial documents, known as
the Pandora Papers, detailing the secret
financial transactions of world leaders,
politicians and billionaires.
The Greens, through their lawyers,
declined to answer questions, suggest-
ing that these were private matters.
Green agreed to pay £363 million in-
to the BHS pension fund in 2017.
His wife’s identity as the buyer of
properties was previously hidden
because they were purchased using off-
shore companies set up in the British
Virgin Islands.
The two-storey flat in Eaton Place
where Chloe, 30, lived was sold last year
for £7 million.
The sales listing said the property fea-
tured “2,485 sq ft of luxury living space”,
onyx marble bathrooms and a first floor
“dedicated to entertaining”. It is part of
the exclusive Grosvenor Estate, one of
the most sought-after addresses in
London, with residents including the
actress Dame Joan Collins, 88.
Chloe Green then lived in the
£10.6 million four-storey townhouse
across the road that has a rooftop bar,
The leaked documents, report-
ed by The Guardian, suggest
that a British subsidiary re-
ceived a £600,000 loan from the
BVI parent as well as £121,000
from a government scheme
designed to incentivise film
production in the UK
between 2009 and 2011.
The film made a small
loss and without the tax
credits, the subsidiary
would not have been
able to fully repay its
offshore creditors, the
largest of which was
Lady Tina Green with Sir Philip and their daughter, Chloe, right, who was given a flat in Eaton Place valued at £7 million
A £10.6 million townhouse in Belgravia
was refurbished for Chloe Green
Elliot’s and Goldsmith’s BVI company,
E&G Productions, which had loaned
the UK business most of its funds.
The arrangement does not appear
to have breached any tax regulations
or laws but raises questions about
whether government film
schemes should be helping
to fund projects that are
controlled in a tax haven.
Elliot, an Old Etonian
and nephew of the
Duchess of Cornwall, is
Ben Elliot’s aunt is the
Duchess of Cornwall
super-sized basement and a glass roof.
Yesterday The Guardian also re-
vealed that Ben Elliot, co-chairman of
the Conservative Party, jointly owned a
secret offshore film financing company
that indirectly benefited from more
than £120,000 of UK tax credits.
Elliot owns the company based in the
British Virgin Islands, with Ben Gold-
smith, the brother of Zac, the Tory peer
and minister.
The company was created to fund the
making of Fire in Babylon, the 2010
documentary film about the great West
Indies cricket team of the 1970s and 80s.
The documents suggest a British sub-
sidiary received a £600,000 loan from
its parent company in the British Virgin
Islands in 2008, plus £121,000 from a
government scheme designed to incen-
tivise film production in the UK
between 2009 and 2011. The film made
credited with raising a record £37 mil-
lion for the Tories’ general election
campaign in 2019.
Elliot and Goldsmith, who were
credited as “executive producers” on
the film, said the project was never
expected to make a profit and so the
choice of the BVI was not intended to
avoid taxes.
A spokesperson for the pair said:
“The film was made by a UK company
and subject to UK taxation. All taxes
have been correctly and transparently
declared to the relevant authorities.”
Mohamed Amersi, a leading Tory
donor, has suggested the party hold a
DAVID M. BENETT/GETTY IMAGES
a small loss, and without the tax credits
the subsidiary would not have been
able to fully repay its offshore creditors,
the largest of which was E&G Produc-
tions, Elliot’s and Goldsmith’s company
in the British Virgin Islands.
The arrangement does not appear to
have breached any tax regulations or
laws but raises questions about whe-
ther government film schemes should
be helping to fund projects that are con-
trolled in a tax haven.
In July last year Elliot screened Fire
in Babylon for the prime minister and
his wife at their Downing Street flat,
with the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and
Ben Goldsmith also present.
A spokesman for Elliot and Gold-
smith said: “All taxes have been correct-
ly and transparently declared to the rel-
evant authorities.”
Party funding, letters, page 28
Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times
“special investigation” into the potential
conflicts of interest surrounding Elliot.
According to Amersi, in 2013, Elliot’s
firm Quintessentially arranged for
him to fly to meet Prince Charles over
“an intimate dinner” at Dumfries
House in Scotland.
He later became a trustee of one of
the Prince of Wales’s charities and has
since donated more than £1.2 million to
causes supported by the future king.
Amersi, who has this week denied
involvement in a corruption scandal
after his name appeared in the Pandora
Papers, said the Conservatives should
look into “lapses” in governance.
Steel tycoon’s
‘links to firm
he owes a
debt of £1bn’
David Brown
A former steel tycoon who became the
UK’s biggest bankrupt faces investi-
gation into reports he is linked to the
offshore company he claims to owe
£1 billion. Pramod Mittal, 65, was de-
clared bankrupt last year over a busi-
ness debt of almost £140 million, seven
years after spending £50 million on his
daughter’s wedding.
Mittal, who lives in Mayfair, central
London, later said that he owed a fur-
ther £1 billion to a British Virgin Islands
company called Direct Investments
Ltd. He added that his total debts were
more than £2.5 billion, including £190
million to his father, meaning he could
only pay his creditors 0.18p for every
pound owed.
The Indian Express newspaper has
reported that leaked Pandora papers
documents from companies hired by
wealthy clients to create offshore struc-
tures show that Mittal is a beneficiary
of Direct Investments.
They also reportedly show that
Meadswell Estates Limited, another
British Virgin Islands company that
Pramod Mittal was
declared bankrupt
last year
Mittal claimed owns his Mayfair man-
sions, also belongs to a trust of which he
is a beneficiary.
The allegations are likely to lead to
challenges to the arrangement for his
bankruptcy and demands for a full in-
vestigation of his assets.
The origins of Mittal’s bankruptcy
date back to 2006 when he acted as a
guarantor for the debts of a Bosnian
company that failed to repay $166 mil-
lion of financing in 2013. That money is
now owed to London-based Moorgate
Industries, which is challenging the
bankruptcy agreement.
Opus Restructuring, Mittal’s nomi-
nee for the financial agreement, said
last year: “We have not seen any evi-
dence to suggest that the debtor’s liabil-
ities are not accurately presented.”
Richard Viegas, Pramod Mittal’s law-
yer, said last year that a “complex cor-
porate matrix” had led to the bankrupt-
cy order and he was pursuing an appeal.
Pramod is estranged from his older
brother Lakshmi Mittal, 71, Britain’s
fifth richest person with a £14.68 billion
fortune, according to The Sunday
Times Rich List.
Mittal and Opus Restructuring did
not respond to requests for comment.
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
diary@thetimes.co.uk | @timesdiary
Star’s dog dies
another day
A memorial service was held at
St Bride’s in Fleet Street yesterday
for Paul Callan, the flamboyant
tabloid journalist who was described
by a former editor on the Mirror as
“the very best of exuberant rascals”.
Many tall tales were shared, some of
them even true, but Jeremy Deedes
scotched one. Callan did not kill
Doris Day’s dog during an interview,
he said: he merely showed her how
to do it. The interview was in her
penthouse and as the photographer
snapped away, Callan entertained
Day’s dog by bouncing a rubber ball
for it to jump and catch. Two days
later a tearful Day, above, called
him. She had tried to recreate the
trick but in catching the ball her dog
had leapt out of the window and
fallen 21 floors to its death. Seeing in
all tragedy an opportunity, Callan
took her out for a drink to
sympathise and they ended up in a
bar singing Que Sera Sera as a duet.
When William Shatner boldly goes
into space next week, it will be on a
rocket called New Shepard, named
after the first American to explore
that final frontier. Asked what he had
been thinking as he waited to launch
TMS
in 1961, five years before Shatner’s first
voyage in Star Trek, Alan Shepard
replied: “That every part of this ship
was built by the lowest bidder.”
the pun stops here
The Tory social media team,
saddled with a dire conference
slogan of “build back better”, has
filmed the prime minister getting
the words wrong. First they posted
a video of Boris Johnson drinking a
pint and saying “build back bitter”.
Then he was eating fish and chips
(“build back batter”), followed by
him putting spread on toast (yes,
“build back butter”). Let us please
hope this does not end with him
pledging to “build back buttocks”.
cover notes
The historian Tim Bouverie wrote
his latest book, a primer about great
pieces of classical music called
Perfect Pitch, as a lockdown project.
“It was my equivalent of baking
banana bread,” he says. He and his
editor struggled to find a good title,
though. “We are quite glad Bach to
the Future never made it out of the
stalls,” he says. Play-Liszt was his
choice until they did some market
research and found no one these
days has heard of him. Cockney
rhyming slang has lost its power.
Yesterday’s item on Donald Wolfit
going “from tour de force to forced
to tour” reminded our own Rose
Wild of when the cleric and writer
William Inge got a job in journalism
after he stopped being dean of
St Paul’s. “I used to be a pillar of the
Church,” he liked to say. “Now I’m a
column in the Evening Standard.”
hot potato
The London-based American actor
Stanley Tucci has written a memoir
based on his love of food. He told a
Fane event at the Palladium that
the British delicacy he most adores
is roast potatoes. The first time he
encountered them, however, he was
bewildered by that rigmarole of
boiling, shaking and drowning them
in goose fat. His future wife told
him to trust her, and thus won his
heart. He should have known better
to question her. “She was a lawyer
and is now an agent,” he said, “so
what is the point of arguing?”
patrick kidd
City gardens are
honeypots for bees
Rhys Blakely Science Correspondent
Honeybees in urban areas have easier
access to food than their country
cousins thanks to the work of city
gardeners, a study suggests.
By decoding “waggle dances” — a
kind of shuffle honeybees perform to
tell the rest of their colony where to find
nectar — researchers found that those
in agricultural areas travel further
while foraging than those in central
London.
The study looked at more than 2,800
waggle dances from 20 honeybee
colonies in London and surrounding
countryside.
The dance is unique to honeybees
and is used to communicate the
location of flowers. When a honeybee
returns to its hive with news of where to
find food, it will repeat a figure of eight
movement on the honeycomb. The
duration of the central run of this dance
tells other bees how far to fly; the angle
tells them which direction to fly in.
The researchers were able to deduce
that city bees travelled an average dis-
tance of 492 metres to find pollen and
nectar. For bees living in the country-
side, it was 743 metres.
The researchers found no significant
difference in the amount of sugar
collected by the urban and rural bees,
indicating that the longer foraging
distances in rural areas were not driven
by far away, nectar-rich resources.
Instead, urban areas seem consistently
15
News
to provide honeybees with more avail-
able food.
Professor Elli Leadbeater of Royal
Holloway University, who led the study,
said: “Our findings support the idea
that cities are hotspots for social bees,
with gardens providing diverse,
plentiful and reliable forage resources.
In agricultural areas, it is likely harder
for honeybees to find food, so they have
to go further before they find enough to
bring back to the hive.”
The researchers warn that because
urban areas constitute only a small
percentage of total land cover, they are
unlikely to be sufficient to support bee
populations across a landscape domi-
nated by intensive agriculture.
Leadbeater said: “Conservation
efforts should be directed towards
increasing the amount of non-crop
flowers in agricultural areas, such as
wildflower strips. This would increase
the consistency of forage available
across the season and landscape as well
as minimise bees’ reliance on small
numbers of seasonal flowering crops.”
The researchers cautioned that the
findings will not apply to all bee species,
many of which are in decline. Leadbeat-
er said: “While we can potentially ex-
trapolate our results to some wild bees,
such as generalist bumblebee species,
our results should not be used to imply
that this pattern will hold for all.”
The findings are published in the
British Ecological Society’s Journal of
Applied Ecology.
16
News
Cut Facebook down to size, says EU
Peter Chappell, Tom Knowles
A Facebook outage that left billions of
people without access to the social net-
work, Instagram and WhatsApp shows
that large tech firms should be broken
up, the EU’s competition commissioner
has said.
Margrethe Vestager said that the
incident on Monday highlighted the
risks created when individual firms
hold such dominant positions.
“We need alternatives and choices in
the tech market, and must not rely on a
few big players, whoever they are,” the
Danish politician wrote on Twitter.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief
executive, apologised after the six-hour
outage affected billions of users, wiping
an estimated $40 billion (£29 billion)
off the company’s value. It is believed to
be the most widespread loss of service
in its history, affecting many businesses
that use Facebook’s platforms to reach
customers and fulfil orders.
The disruption demonstrated that
Facebook has become a key part of how
people across the world conduct their
daily lives, particularly in dozens of
countries across Africa, Asia and South
America where the company’s prod-
ucts act as a gateway to the internet.
More than 3.5 billion people use Face-
book’s services.
Vestager added that the incident
showed it was also sometimes good to
step away from social media and talk to
people “offline”.
The dependence many have on social
media was further highlighted by West
Yorkshire Police, which said it received
some 999 calls from the public about
the outage. The force urged people not
to get in contact with the emergency
services over such incidents.
According to The New York Times,
Facebook staff brought in to fix the
issue could not access the company’s
offices because the outage had
rendered their internal passes useless.
Zuckerberg said on his Facebook
page: “Sorry for the disruption today —
I know how much you rely on our ser-
vices to stay connected with the people
you care about.”
Users could not load Facebook,
send or receive messages on
WhatsApp or
refresh their
Instagram feeds
from about 4pm
on Monday until
services started to
resume at about
10.45pm.
“It was as if
someone had
‘pulled the cables’
from their data cen-
tres all at once and disconnected
them from the internet”, Cloud-
flare, the internet infrastructure
company said in a blog post.
Many people flocked to Twitter
to discuss the incident, with the
social media company jokingly
tweeting: “Hello literally every-
One in three users of video apps have seen ‘harmful’ content
Tom Knowles
Technology Correspondent
One in three users of video-sharing
platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat
have been exposed to harmful content,
Ofcom research has found.
The UK’s broadcasting watchdog has
announced a crackdown on such con-
tent, as part of its new powers to regu-
late such services.
The regulator is publishing guidance
today on how video-sharing websites
and apps in the UK can better protect
Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times
DREW ANGERER/AP
Q&A
How did this happen?
Facebook said a fault in the internet
infrastructure that co-ordinates
traffic between its data centres had
interrupted communication.
Cloudflare, a company that helps
to manage large amounts of the
world’s internet traffic, wrote in a
blog post: “It was as if someone had
‘pulled the cables’ from their data
centres all at once.”
Cloudflare said there had been
problems with the Border Gateway
Protocol (BGP) and Domain Name
System (DNS). The DNS converts
words typed into a browser into an
IP address that directs the request
to the right servers. A BGP finds the
most efficient route across the
internet to those servers. Facebook
appears during its updates to have
told the BGP that routes to
Facebook no longer existed, as if it
had removed itself from the map.
How was the issue resolved?
Facebook has given little detail, but
there have been reports of a
technical team sent to its servers in
California to manually reset them.
above, a former product senators. “Facebook year’s presidential Could it be a hack?
Ex-manager: manager who left the
group with tens of
should not get a free pass
on choices it makes to
election, in a move that
she suggested enabled
Facebook thinks not, adding that it
has no evidence that user data was
Zuckerberg thousands of internal
documents, told a US
prioritise growth and
virality and reactiveness
those who stormed the
US Capitol on January 6
compromised. Insiders told The New
York Times that the might of a
puts profits Senate hearing yesterday
that its platforms “harm
over public safety.
They’re paying for their
to use its platform.
Haugen alleges that
nation state would be needed to pull
off a hack on this scale.
over safety children, stoke division
and weaken our
profits right now with our
safety.”
documents she provided
to the US Securities and Has this happened before?
F
acebook has democracy.” Haugen leaked Exchange Commission Facebook has had outages before,
been accused of She accused Facebook documents to The Wall indicate that Facebook but the scale of this incident is very
putting of a lack of transparency. Street Journal before lied about the rare. Mike Proulx, an analyst at
“astronomical “The core of the issue is being interviewed on effectiveness of its Forrester, said that Facebook had
profits before that no one can television at the weekend, actions. The White House consolidated its apps into one
people” by a understand Facebook’s contributing to said on Monday that back-end infrastructure in recent
whistleblower who says destructive choices better Facebook’s worst day on Haugen’s allegations years. This is more efficient, but
that the world’s largest than Facebook, because the stock market in show self-regulation “is means that one thing going wrong
social media company only Facebook gets to 11 months on Monday as not working”. can create “a cascading effect, like
is damaging the young look under the hood,” its platforms, including Facebook said it was old-school Christmas lights where
and destabilising Haugen, 37, said. She WhatsApp and “just not true” to suggest one goes out [and] they all go out”.
democracy argued that Mark Instagram, suffered a that the group
(Callum Zuckerberg, the founder widespread outage. encouraged harmful What was the financial impact?
Jones and chief executive, was She has accused the content or did nothing in Facebook lost an estimated
writes). not being held to company of easing up on response. It did not $100 million in advertising sales and
Frances account. “The buck stops efforts to stop immediately respond to its shares fell 5 per cent, wiping
Haugen, with Mark,” she told misinformation after last her latest comments. $40 billion from its market value.
one”. Downdetect- bulk of its revenue from selling adverts. a faulty configuration change on its
or, which tracks Monthly users The outage is estimated to have cost it network had interrupted the traffic
website outages, $100 million (£73 million) in lost ad flowing between its data centres. This
Facebook 2.9bn
said that it received sales. Shares in the company also fell by had a “cascading effect”, bringing its
more than 10 million YouTube 2.3bn about 5 per cent, a drop that meant services to a halt. Internal systems were
reports about Facebook the WhatsApp 2bn Zuckerberg suffered a $7 billion fall in also hit, making it difficult for its engi-
most it has ever had about Instagram 1.4bn his paper wealth. neers to identify and fix the problem.
the social media giant. FB Messenger 1.3bn Santosh Janardhan, Facebook’s vice Folly of digital life, letters, page 28
Facebook makes the TikTok 732m
president of infrastructure, said: “To all Outage shows Facebook’s weakness,
the people and businesses around the leading article, page 29
Mark Zuckerberg said Snapchat 514m world who depend on us, we are sorry Facebook and the profits made from hate,
sorry to Facebook users Twitter 397m for the inconvenience caused.” He said page 2, Times 2
their users, especially teenagers. Dame exposed to videos or content that en- require platforms which host any “The platforms where these videos
Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief execu- couraged racism. pornographic material, such as the app are shared now have a legal duty to take
tive, said: “Online videos play a huge The body was made responsible for OnlyFans, to be placed behind robust steps to protect their users. So we’re
role in our lives now, particularly for video-sharing platforms, such as Tik- age-verification systems or demon- stepping up our oversight of these tech
children. But many people see hateful, Tok, Snapchat,Vimeo and OnlyFans, strate they have found a way to filter companies,” Dawes said.
violent or inappropriate material while where users can upload and share vid- material that can protect under-18s. Ofcom will not have the power to
using them.” eos, in November last year. It has been Ofcom also said that tech companies regulate Google’s YouTube or Face-
Ofcom says that its research shows developing a regulatory framework by will have to make sure it protects users book’s Instagram however, as these
that a third of users say they have wit- which such platforms must now abide. of any age from videos that are likely to companies fall under the jurisdiction of
nessed or experienced hateful content The new rules state that these plat- incite violence or hatred, as well as cer- the Republic of Ireland in Europe.
on a video-sharing platform. forms must protect under-18s from ma- tain types of criminal content. It will be The new powers are seen as a test run
A quarter of users claim that they terial that might “impair their physical, able to issue fines of 5 per cent of turn- for the regulator ahead of the introduc-
have been exposed to violent or dis- mental or moral development”. over or £250,000, whichever is higher, tion of the Online Safety Bill, which is
turbing content and a fifth have been Ofcom said that this meant it will also to the companies that fail to do this. expected to come into law in 2023.
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021 17

Rising ocean temperature wipes out 14% of coral reefs in a decade
Ben Webster
The world has lost some 11,700 sq km of
coral reefs over the past decade mainly
due to climate change, more than all the
living coral in Australia, a study found.
The largest analysis of global reef
health revealed that 14 per cent of the
world’s coral was lost between 2009
and 2018, largely due to rises in sea sur-
face temperatures that turn reefs white.
The Global Coral Reef Monitoring
Network, a UN-funded programme,
analysed data from 300 scientists
across 12,000 sites in 73 countries.
It found that the loss was mainly due
to coral bleaching, which happens
when corals, under stress from warmer
water, expel the colourful algae living in
their tissues. One severe bleaching
event in 1998 killed 8 per cent of the
world’s corals, the study said. These
events have been happening more
often in the past decade, leaving reefs
unable to recover.
The worst affected areas are south
Asia, Australia, the Pacific, east Asia,
the western Indian Ocean and the Gulf
of Oman. Overfishing, unsustainable
coastal development and poor water
quality are other damaging factors.
While coral reefs cover only 0.2 per
cent of the ocean floor, they support
more than 25 per cent of marine bio-
diversity.
The study also found the amount of
algae on reefs had grown by 20 per cent
since 2010. Algae can smother reefs and
growth is accelerated by pollution from
human sources and overfishing of spe-
cies that eat it. “Almost invariably, sharp
declines in coral cover corresponded
with rapid increases in sea surface tem-
peratures, indicating their vulnerabili-
News
ty to spikes, which is a phenomenon
that is likely to happen more frequently
as the planet continues to warm,” the
authors wrote.
There was a recovery in 2019 with a
2 per cent growth in coral cover. The re-
port said this indicated that if pressures
on coral reefs eased they “have the
capacity to recover, potentially within a
decade, to the healthy, flourishing reefs
that were prevalent pre-1998”.

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

The chicken-sized dinosaur
was identified from fossils
retrieved from a museum
drawer by Angela Milner,
after whom it is named

specimen in her mind’s

eye from when she had
previously looked
through that drawer.
This paper would not
have been possible
without her.
“Angela was really
important in the
museum for many years.
She was not only the
premier dinosaur
researcher but also in a

W l ‘dragon’ was the

Welsh
senior administrative
position as deputy
keeper of palaeontology
first British meat-eater when women didn’t
generally occupy such
roles in the museum. For

A
fossil found in dragon’ in Middle Welsh me as a student it was
south Wales and milnerae in honour really important. She
has been of Dr Angela Milner, went out of her way to
identified as who was deputy keeper show me the ropes, and
Britain’s of palaeontology at the that goes for so many
earliest known meat- Natural History Museum others.”
eating dinosaur (Rhys in London for more than It is possible that the
Blakely writes). 30 years and who died in relatively small size of
The metre-long August. Pendraig milnerae was
carnivore was a Pendraig milnerae due to it living on an
theropod, a group that would have had a body island. “Species which
also includes not much larger than a discovered in the village described in a the museum’s extensive live on islands often tend
Tyrannosaurus Rex and modern chicken, a long of Pant-y-ffynnon in 1983 thesis but collections. to become smaller than
today’s birds. It lived tail, and its prey may Carmarthenshire. That a fresh analysis Dr Susannah those on the mainland,”
between 200 million and have included reptiles part of Wales is thought led to it being Maidment, a senior Dr Stephan Spiekman, a
215 million years ago and insects. It would to have been a small reclassified as researcher in research fellow at the
during the Late Triassic have walked on two legs island set in a tropical a new species. paleobiology at the museum who led the
period. and, like T. rex, it is sea. At the time the UK It was Milner museum, said: “Angela study, said. The specimen
It has been named thought to have been would have been much who managed found it in a drawer with is described in the
Pendraig milnerae — covered in feather-like closer to the Equator. to retrieve the crocodile material. She journal Royal Society
Pendraig meaning chief tufts. The fossil was The dinosaur was first specimen from must have had the Open Science.

The squid’s off . . . or we risk a High costs hit

scientists at
calamari calamity, diners told Cop26 summit
Ben Webster

Ben Webster Environment Editor
Diners should avoid calamari made
from UK-caught squid because the
species could collapse due to rapid and
uncontrolled expansion of fishing, a
report says.
There are no catch limits for squid,
unlike species such as cod and haddock,
so fishermen who have run out of quota
are increasingly targeting it.
The Marine Conservation Society
(MCS) has placed British-caught squid
on its red list of “fish to avoid” on its up-
dated Good Fish Guide. UK catches of
squid in the northeast Atlantic have
increased by 40 per cent from 2,362
tonnes in 2015 to 3,315 tonnes in 2019.
“We don’t know enough about squid
species in UK waters, which is worrying
because it means we don’t know if they
are able to withstand being fished at
current levels,” Charlotte Coombes, the
guide’s programme manager, said.
North Sea cod remains on the red list
due to low stock levels and fisheries
ministers in Britain and the EU setting
quotas above the level recommended
by scientists, the MCS said. As a cold-
water species, cod is also being affected
by rising sea temperature which redu-
niles.
ces the survival rate of juveniles.
The charity said two of
Britain’s other cod popula--
tions, in the Celtic Sea
southwest of England and
west of Scotland, were al-
so red listed. It added that
the UK’s only other cod
n
stock, in the Irish Sea, was in
a poor condition and amber ber
rated, meaning buyers are urged
option
to seek a more sustainable option.
“Populations [of cod] are so low that
they may not be able to reproduce and
keep the population going,” Coombes
said. The charity recommends buying
Icelandic cod or Arctic cod certified by
the Marine Stewardship Council.
Hand-dived scallops from Lyme Bay
in Dorset have been added to the char-
ity’s “best choice” list, joining farmed
scallops from England and Scotland.
The charity is calling on the govern-
sensors. The MCS said cameras would Leading scientific bodies have been
Food for thought help detect bycatch of seabirds, por- forced to scale back their presence at
poises, and sharks. The Fisheries Act next month’s pivotal climate confer-
Red list: European eel; 2020 contains a target for Britain to col- ence in Glasgow due to the spiralling
British squid, below right; lect more data on catches but the MCS costs of setting up pavilions.
British cod;
Britis said the government had failed to use The Intergovernmental Panel on Cli-
Wild Atlantic salmon;
Wil powers in England to require vessels to mate Change (IPCC), which issued a
Trawled cuttlefish
Tr use remote electronic monitoring. “code red warning for humanity” in
Green list: Hake, left;
G The MCS said the recovery of Euro- August, is sharing a pavilion at Cop26
Dover sole from the Bristol
D pean hake since the early 2000s, when with the World Meteorological Organi-
Channel
Ch and western stocks were at an all-time low, showed zation (WMO) and the UK Met Office.
English
En Channel; the benefits of imposing catch limits But after being told they would be
Plaice
P lai from North Sea;; cha
and changes to fishing methods. charged more than £500,000, the orga-
Brown
Brown crab certified by Nets used to catch hake now nisations have reduced the size of the
the
th Marine
th Marin Stewardship car
carry pingers, which are temporary structure and the number of
Council; ac
acoustic alarms that deter events they were due to hold.
Haddock from North Sea m
marine mammals from ap- A UN source described the situation
Source: Marine pr
proaching and reduce by- as “frustrating”. The price quoted was
Conservation Society ca
catch risk. double what the organisations had ex-
The Department for pected based on previous climate con-
E nv
Environment, Food and Rural ferences. They believe the increase is
ment to use Brexit freedomsms Affair said: “This government is
Affairs due to labour and materials shortages.
nd be
“to show real leadership and committe to developing world-
committed A Cop26 spokesman said: “There has
rld to set a
the first nation in the world class sustain
sustainable fisheries management been unprecedented demand for pavil-
course to deliver sustainable fisheries”. to address the impacts of climate ions at Cop26 and the impact of Covid
It said catches should be fully docu- change and support the long-term on the supply of essential goods and
mented and verified by cameras and resilience of our fishing industry.” materials has increased cost.”
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021 19

News

Vuitton has style

The funereal tones of
Louis Vuitton’s show,
interrupted by a protest,

to die for but life’s

contrasted with sequins
and pastels at Chanel’s

a party at Chanel around each other as if

the catwalk were a
dance floor. They were
“Overconsumption = even, on occasion, to be
Anna Murphy Extinction” made it on seen smiling, one more
fashion director to the runway, almost unprecedented
eventually to be hustled phenomenon at a
off by a security guard. French fashion show.

S
epulchral seemed
to be the vision of
Nicolas
Ghesquière for
his Louis Vuitton
catwalk show in Paris
last night. Outsize black
dinner jackets,
panniered midi ball
gowns and ruff collars
were the order of the
day.
They were presented
under vaulted ceilings
hung with dozens of
chandeliers, to a
soundtrack best
described as funereal. It
was all rather Miss
Havisham, albeit with
some logo-ed denim to
keep things commercial.
Commercial is a dirty
word for some these
days, and the brand’s
artistic director got
more than he bargained
for in terms of
apocalypticism when a
protester brandishing a
banner stating
That’s an unusual The tweed suiting
happening in the heavy- that is another Chanel
security world of the touchstone came
modern catwalk. The sequin-strewn in
last time anything black with a gold
similar happened was trim. Then there
two years ago at a were the sweet-shop
Chanel show when a hues, from lemon
“professional gate- sherbert to strawberry
crasher” turned up bonbon. Another point
dressed like one of the of difference: a mini
models. skirt with similarly
Everything went to truncated train, perfect
plan for Chanel for that 2021 variety of
yesterday. That the princess who doesn’t
intent of Virginie Viard, like her regal get-up to
the creative director, impede her moves.
couldn’t be more As for the Chanel
different from quilting, that too was
Ghesquière’s was clear present and correct,
from the opening looks. rendered over leather
Joie de vivre was the dungarees, and tiny bags
name of the game, and that dangled from the
a series of maillots wrists. Did the show feel
branded with Chanel’s like a box-ticking
signature chains and endeavour? Definitely.
“CC” logo were Chanel knows what the
rendered disco-ready Chanel customer wants.
with the addition of But it was also an
spangled mesh skirting. enjoyable one.
The models sashayed The mini is back, Times2

Marines chief ‘hit hard by Afghan exit’

Larisa Brown Defence Editor
The former head of the Royal Marines
had told colleagues he was struggling to
cope with the withdrawal from Afghan-
istan in the weeks before he died in a
suspected suicide, according to one of
his friends.
Major General Matthew Holmes was
found dead on Saturday after he split
from his wife and lost his job as Com-
mandant General Royal Marines, the
professional head of the force.
Speaking after the news of his death,
Leo Docherty, minister for defence
people and veterans, revealed that all
troops will have to undergo mental
health checks every year to ensure they
are coping with service life.
He told a Forces in Mind Trust fringe
event at the Tory party conference in
Manchester that the checks would be
like an “annual MoT” and part of gov-
ernment efforts to ensure the wellbeing
of troops is taken seriously.
Holmes, 54, was awarded the Distin-
guished Service Order for his leader-
ship on the front line in Afghanistan in
2007. At the time he was commanding
officer of 42 Commando.
Speaking yesterday, one of his friends
said that in the aftermath of Britain’s
departure from the country in August
Holmes had raised concerns that “all
that sacrifice and all that service might
have been in vain because we had to get
out of Afghanistan”.
The friend added: “It had affected a
lot of people, him in particular. You are
talking about commanders who sent
people into harm’s way.” The friend said
that the First Sea Lord, Admiral Tony
Radakin, and Lieutenant General Rob
Magowan, who replaced Holmes as
Commandant General Royal Marines
after he was removed from the position
Major General
Matthew Holmes
was found dead
on Saturday
early, were “personally, actively and
energetically supporting Matt over the
past weeks”.
Navy sources said this week that
Holmes had recently split from his wife,
Lea, with whom he had two young
children, and was in a “bad place”.
Holmes’s family said that he was on a
three-month transition period to
prepare him for his new life in the
civilian world and “had no work lined
up and didn’t know what he’d do”.
His estranged wife said in a state-
ment that he was a “kind, generous
man”, adding: “He was courageous and
had committed his life to serving in the
Royal Marines; he was selfless to such
an extent that this was more important
than his own career progression.”
Docherty said Holmes’s death was a
tragedy as he revealed the government
would bring in mental health checks for
all service personnel from November.
He said the culture surrounding
mental health problems had changed
although it was still a “constant battle”,
adding: “We need to ensure there is a
culture of collective care.” He said the
issue was “particularly personal” for
those who went through “the most
intense combat operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan”.
Stuart Anderson, the Tory MP and
British Army veteran who has spoken
of his own struggles with mental health,
said soldiers had to pass a range of tests
each year. “To add in a mental health
check is the most logical thing and will
make soldiers accustomed to speaking
out if they have a problem,” he said.
An MoD spokesman said: “We are
always looking for new and innovative
ways to ensure our personnel receive
the gold standard of proactive mental
healthcare provision.”

Troops check on refugees living in hotels British officials open talks

Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor
The military has been called in to
collect data on Afghan refugees living
in hotels amid claims that the Home
Office has lost control of numbers.
Over the next week hundreds of
soldiers will visit more than 80 hotels
still being used as “bridging accommo-
dation” to house thousands of Afghans
evacuated to the UK in August.
They are living in temporary accom-
modation while the Home Office finds
permanent homes but concerns have
been raised about the lack of essential
items for families and support owing to
a lack of accurate information on them.
The Home Office requested military
help in improving and gathering data
on how best to find and move individu-
als and families into settled housing.
This includes information on the ar-
rivals’ levels of English and needs, such
as finding any local connections they
may have in the UK. More than 8,000
Afghan citizens were evacuated to the
UK in August under the Afghan Reloca-
tions and Assistance Policy.
A source involved in the care of those
relocated to the UK said the data gath-
ering exercise was undertaken because
the Home Office had “lost control” of
numbers and details due to the chaos
and speed of the evacuation. Within a
fortnight in August, 15,000 people were
flown from Kabul to the UK.
The Home Office denied it had lost
control of numbers but there are seri-
ous concerns over the lack of support
for Afghans in hotels. The Refugee
Council warned that many had no ac-
cess to essential items such as sanitary
products, toothpaste, nappies or medi-
cines. They had no information about
what was going to happen to them and
little understanding of the situation or
the process. Children had little or no re-
sources such as toys or craft materials
and limited access to outside play space.
One family in a hotel in Lancashire
said they had been left without any help
because they were not given a reference
number needed to call a Home Office
hotline to support the refugees.
The government said the army’s
data-gathering exercise was on behalf
of the Home Office to enhance cross-
government integration work to wel-
come Afghan refugees into communi-
ties across the UK, and would be shared
with the “relevant authorities”.
A spokesman said: “A significant
cross-government effort is under way to
ensure the thousands of Afghans who
were evacuated receive the support
they need to rebuild their lives.”
with Taliban leadership
Catherine Philp
Diplomatic Correspondent
British officials travelled to Kabul to
meet with senior Taliban leaders for the
first time since the group seized power
in Afghanistan last month in an effort
to open channels of communication.
Government sources denied the
talks amounted to official recognition
of the Taliban but said Britain needed
to take a pragmatic approach to
co-operation with the group.
The delegation, led by the prime min-
ister’s special representative for the
Afghan transition Sir Simon Gass, dis-
cussed how Britain could work with the
Taliban on preventing the country be-
coming a sanctuary for terrorism and
evacuating those who wish to leave.
One of those, Ben Slater, the former
British soldier arrested by the Taliban
last month while trying to evacuate
hundreds of Afghan civilians, was
flown out of Kabul with the delegation
after his release was secured.
Britain abandoned its embassy in Ka-
bul days before the Taliban took over in
August and now operates it from Qatar,
headed by Martin Longden.
The Foreign Office said: “Sir Simon
and Dr Longden discussed how the UK
could help Afghanistan to address the
humanitarian crisis, the importance of
preventing the country from becoming
an incubator for terrorism, and the
need for continued safe passage for
those who want to leave the country.”
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021 21

We bumped into Stephen Fry — it was excruciating, says Ed Balls
David Sanderson Arts Correspondent
Ed Balls has revealed details of an
“excruciating” encounter on the French
Riviera between Gordon Brown and
Stephen Fry after the writer famously
fled a West End theatre production.
Balls had been given the task of
ensuring that Brown, then the shadow
chancellor, took a proper holiday so de-
camped to the Mediterranean with
Brown and his girlfriend, the journalist
Sheena McDonald.
Balls told the Henley Literary Festi-
val that during the holiday in 1995
McDonald had been keen to visit the
renowned Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc
in Antibes so the three of them,
with Balls playing “gooseber-
ry”, dropped in for lunch.
Unfortunately, Balls said,
the hotel was accepting cash
only, and they had just
enough francs to buy a cof-
fee each and an omelette
Ed Balls played gooseberry
at the lunch in France
between them. “Suddenly there was
this “hallo” and coming towards us
was Emma Thompson and Stephen
Fry both with entirely blonde
hair,” Balls told the festival.
Fry had sought shelter on the
Riviera after quitting the play
Cell Mates three days into its
run in the West End of
London, apparently after one
critical review of his perform-
ance.
As the play’s producers and
journalists attempted to track
him down, Fry had enlisted Thompson
and the two of them had dyed their hair
in an attempt to evade detection.
Balls told the festival yesterday: “It
was the time Stephen Fry had escaped
London and they were in hiding but not
sufficiently in hiding not to say hallo to
us. So they came bounding over and as
they came towards us Gordon says,
‘Christ, we’ve got no money’.
“This is the shadow chancellor sitting
on a table with an omelette and three
forks and we can’t say to them, ‘Would
you like to join us’. “The only thing we
News
could have done is ask for two new forks
which would have been really, really
bad.
“So we had this very awkward con-
versation and I think they got the mes-
sage we couldn’t have lunch together
and off they went.”
Balls, 54, said he had not put the inci-
dent in his new book Appetite, because
it was so “excruciating”.
And had he met Fry again?
“I have but have never mentioned it,”
Balls said. “To be honest I don’t think he
would want to be reminded of the hair.”

ADELE/INSTAGRAM
Berlin, the Nemo
Adele shared a video clip Museum in Amsterdam
on social media, left, and the Empire State
teasing her new song Building in New York.
Easy on Me, the first Fans have speculated
since her album in 2015 that 30 will be the name
of Adele’s new album,
mirroring all three of her
previous studio albums,
which have been named
after the milestone ages
she hit during the
creative process.
Adele has not released
an album since 25 in

Say hello to my first

2015 but has confirmed
she is working on a new
record. She previously
new music in six years, hinted that her fourth
album would follow the

Adele tells the world same pattern, joking in a

2019 Instagram post: “30
will be a drum and bass

A
dele has
shared a clip
of her new
single after
rising
speculation that the
award-winning singer
was about to release her
first album in six years
(Ben Ellery writes).
She shared a 21-second
video on Twitter
containing the opening
bars of her latest single
Easy on Me, which is
released on October 15.
In the black-and-white
clip, Adele is seen
putting a cassette into a
car stereo and driving
down a country lane
while pieces of paper fly record to spite you all.”
out of the windows of her She has won numerous
car. The snippet stops awards, including 15
before any singing. Grammys, nine Brits, an
Adele, 33, had hinted Academy award and a
new music was on the Golden Globe.
way by updating her Adele is thought to be
Twitter and Instagram dating Rich Paul, an
pages to display blue and American sports agent
turquoise cover art, and founder of the
which was also seen on management company
billboards worldwide Klutch Sports Group,
with the number “30”. which represents high-
Not long afterwards, profile basketball stars
#Adele30 began including LeBron James,
trending on Twitter. Anthony Davis and John
Mysterious projections Wall. She has an
were also spotted on the eight-year-old son
Eiffel Tower in Paris, the named Angelo with
Colosseum in Rome, the Simon Konechi, her
Brandenburg Gate in ex-husband.

Met officers face questions over Man charged

serial killer’s spree, inquest told
Katie Gibbons
Police face questions over whether
“missed opportunities” allowed a serial
killer to prey on young gay men over 16
deadly months, an inquest was told.
Opening the long-awaited hearings
into the deaths of four men killed by
Stephen Port, Sarah Munro, the coro-
ner, said yesterday that the “compe-
tence and adequacy” of Metropolitan
Police officers would be examined.
During the ten-week hearing, a jury
will decide whether “lives might have
been saved”, she added.
Port was found guilty of murdering
Anthony Walgate, 23, Gabriel Kovari,
22, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and Jack Tay-
lor, 25, and handed a whole life order.
He killed them at his flat in Barking,
east London, with overdoses of the
drug GHB then dumped their bodies.
Munro said that the criminal trial
“did not answer the important question
of whether the deaths might have been
prevented” and it was their duty to see
if “opportunities were missed”. She said:
“If you consider things may have gone
wrong, think about the extent to which,
if at all, that made a difference to the
outcome of the investigation. We will
have to consider, had the investigations
into the earlier deaths been conducted
differently, the lives of those who died
later might have been saved.”
The court will hear evidence from
witnesses including police officers. A
recently retired senior officer will pro-
vide her independent expert view on
how the cases were handled.
Munro told the jury that they must
resist the temptation to look for scape-
goats. She stressed that responsibility
for the four men’s murders lay with Port
and to “beware the wisdom of hind-
sight” when considering what the
police knew at the time of each death.
After the first three deaths it was de-
cided that the cases would be left to the
local police and not be led by the Met’s
specialist homicide command, the in-
quest was told. Relatives of the victims
attended in person and via video at
Barking town hall, close to where their
bodies were discovered.
Walgate, 23, a fashion student from
Hull, died on June 19, 2014 and his body
was dumped outside flats in Cooke
Street, Barking, where Port lived. Police
questioned Port after tracing the 999
Stephen Port was
linked to the first
death but killed
three more before
he was caught
call to him but he lied about knowing
Walgate. Port was convicted of pervert-
ing the course of justice but was not jail-
ed until March 2015, the inquest was
told. By then he had killed two more
young men — Kovari, from Slovakia,
and Whitworth, a chef — in the space of
three weeks.
Their bodies were both discovered in
St Margaret’s churchyard by the same
dog walker, 300 metres from Port’s flat.
At the time, Kovari’s death was treat-
ed as unexplained but not suspicious,
and toxicology tests found that he had
GHB in his system. Whitworth was
found holding what appeared to be a
suicide note, which claimed he was re-
sponsible for Kovari’s death. Munro
said the note was written by Port in an
attempt to cover up the death but that
became clear only “much later”.
Inquests into the deaths of Kovari
and Whitworth in 2015 were set aside at
the High Court after the murder trial.
During the first inquests the question of
a possible link to the earlier death of
Walgate was raised but a police officer
said no link had been established, the
jury was told.
The first three cases were not official-
ly linked until Port killed Taylor on Sep-
tember 14, 2015, and a multiple murder
investigation was launched. He had
been released from prison that June.
The hearing continues.
with murder
of pensioner
John Simpson Crime Correspondent
John Reynolds
A suspect charged with the murder of a
wealthy missing woman from Highgate
was “a nice person”, a shocked neigh-
bour said yesterday.
Serkan Kaygusuz, 41, is accused of
two counts of theft and one of murder
after Norma Girolami, 70, from High-
gate, north London, went missing in
mid-August.
At Kaygusuz’s home in nearby Isling-
ton, a neighbour who asked not to be
named said: “Serkan is a nice person
who seems down to earth. We saw him
last week and he was hugging my mum
and they were enjoying the nice wea-
ther together. He asked why she was
not having a coffee. He moved between
temporary jobs and keeps himself to
himself. He is very respectful.”
Daniel Sternberg, the district judge,
remanded Kaygusuz in custody until
his next court appearance at the Old
Bailey for a bail hearing tomorrow.
A plea and trial preparation hearing
was fixed for November 2.
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
Passion, rage, joy . . . Patti Smith
is a true battle-hardened punk
Punk Will Hodgkinson
Patti Smith
Royal Albert Hall
HHHHI
To roars, standing ovations and just
generally a lot of excitement from the
crowd, the woman credited as the
literary voice of New York’s Seventies
punk revolution came on to the stage
of the Royal Albert Hall and recited
her 1974 poem Piss Factory. It
describes the teenaged Smith’s less-
than-delightful conditions in a New
Jersey factory, where as a “moral
schoolgirl, hard-working asshole” she
annoys the other workers with her
productivity and ambition to escape
to New York City to be a star.
All these years later, not much has
changed. Smith’s long black hair may
have turned grey, she may now have
her daughter Jesse on piano and son
Jackson on guitar, but at a
fantastically urgent concert she still
came across as moral, hard-working
and, if not exactly an asshole, then at
Tunnel protesters cost
HS2 £3.5m, court hears
Arthi Nachiappan
The environmental campaigner known
as Swampy and a group of other
anti-HS2 protesters cost the company
building the high-speed railway line
£3.5 million when they built and
occupied a tunnel under the develop-
ment, a court has been told.
Daniel Hooper, 48, otherwise known
as Swampy, Dr Larch Maxey, 49, Isla
Sandford, 18, Lachlan Sandford, 20,
Juliett Stevenson-Clarke, 22, and Scott
Green are on trial for offences linked to
tunnels built in January this year.
The six protesters, all part of a group
I N T H E T I M E S T O M O R ROW
THE TABLE
PUSH THE BOAT OUT!
The A-list restaurant you have
to reach by water
PULLOUT
COMMENT
James Marriott
Why being good is in the eye of the beholder
MAIN PAPER
2GM 23
News
MARILYN KINGWILL
least someone not to be trifled with. especially not during a shimmering
“You ain’t even funny,” she shouted climax of Land, Smith’s tribute to
back at a heckler, but this was all part William Burroughs, which turned
of the show: Smith as a battle- into her famous take on Van
hardened 74-year-old who is at her Morrison’s Gloria with its immortal
best when combining her poetry with line: “Jesus died for somebody’s sins,
basic, garage band-style rock’n’roll. but not mine.” Throughout, Smith
Free Money, an early tale of her had a way of combining singing with
financially compromised mother screaming that evoked anger, passion,
dreaming of winning the lottery, rage, joy and empathy; all the
sounded as urgent and impassioned qualities we go to her for. Not
as it did on Smith’s masterpiece debut withered by age in the slightest,
from 1975, Horses. “I’d like to dedicate Smith was an inspiration. Patti Smith, with son Jackson on bass, is as inspiring and passionate as ever
this to Mr Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry,” she
said of Redondo Beach, a rare example
of a white artist pulling off reggae,
while a cover of the Rolling Stones’
I’m Free, dedicated to Charlie Watts,
morphed into Lou Reed’s Walk on the
Wild Side as Smith, dressed all in
black, danced about the stage and lost
herself in tribute to these three late
figures.
The energy dipped when Smith
became a bit earnest, as she did on
her 2000 song Grateful, but for the
most part the set was a lesson in
going your own way and taking your
fans along for the ride. “I love you but
you’re wearing me out,” she said at
one point. But it didn’t seem it,
called HS2 Rebellion, lived in the
tunnels under Euston Square in north
London for a month, Highbury magis-
trates’ court was told yesterday.
Sarah Gaby, for the prosecution, told
the court that contractors had found
the tunnel network on January 26. HS2
issued a warrant ordering protesters off
the site two days later but the last pro-
tester did not leave until February 26.
Simon Natas, a chartered surveyor
for HS2, said the protesters had cost the
company £3.5 million.
All the protesters deny disrupting a
person engaged in lawful activity. The
trial is expected to run until Friday.
BUSINESS
SIMON
DUKE
Fate of tech
shares is tied
to inflation
MAIN PAPER
SPORT
WHAT’S
IT LIKE
TO PLAY
RADUCANU
Owen Slot
talks to her
opponents
MAIN PAPER
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
Inmates need better work
than the chain gang
Alice Thomson
Page 27
High wages are fine but how do we pay for them?
Ministers have so far failed to offer a plan for economic growth, without which bigger pay packets will be unaffordable
Daniel
Finkelstein
@dannythefink
O
n this, Mrs Thatcher
was certainly right. As a
country, you can’t buy
what you can’t pay for.
And you can’t — for
long, anyway — pay for things with
money you don’t earn.
This statement is, extraordinarily,
rather controversial. Whenever I
make it I attract furious missives
from people who can’t understand
how I could believe something so
unsophisticated. These same critics
are frustrated that so much of the
public shares my naivety, which
they attribute to political sorcery that
has cast a spell from which voters
will one day wake.
Yet the idea that what you earn
determines what you can afford to
buy seems so obviously true as to be
banal. I’m not surprised voters
support it and I think they will not
easily be persuaded otherwise. Mrs
Thatcher’s comprehension of this
was the heart of her appeal.
So it is ironic that the lesson it
teaches — that economic growth is
central to all policy-making — is
now leading Tories away from some
of the practices of Thatcherism. But
that is the implication of much of
what we have heard this week at the
Conservative Party conference.
Since its creation in 1948, spending
on the National Health Service has
increased by more than ten times.
And overall spending on public
services, including education and
welfare, has increased by more than
seven times. This is accounting for
inflation. The cash amount spent on
the NHS is more than 340 times
bigger than it was originally.
These figures show that while
political arguments about how much
national income to spend on this or
that clearly matter, the size of our
national income matters more. And
most of the discussion about how
things are being cut or starved of
resources fails to account for how
growth makes us richer and ensures
that services are better financed.
The figures also show the effect if
growth slows. As it has. The annual
average growth over the last 20 years
of about 1.25 per cent is about half
the rate in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
Take almost any subject of bitter
controversy over the last 20 years —
the rise of populism, China, Trump,
Corbyn, the Brexit vote — and behind
each lurks the relatively slow rate of
growth in advanced western countries.
Some blame our more rancorous
political debate on social media, and
Thatcher had a growth
strategy that involved
getting out of the way
it has definitely played a role. But
the growth rate is more important.
When the economy is growing
weakly or not at all, improvements
to one person’s income or services
must come from those enjoyed by
someone else. Politics inevitably
becomes angrier.
Thatcher had a growth strategy.
One that involved cutting taxes,
reducing regulation and getting out
of the way. It was based partly on
observation and partly on theory.
The observation was that in practice
industrial intervention had been
worse than useless. Sometimes it
wasn’t even clear what the
intervention was for. To make
businesses more successful or force
them to meet social targets? To help
promising companies grow or save
failing ones? To create new jobs or
preserve old ones?
The practice of trying to pick
winners, to create national champions
in, say, computing, has almost always
been a failure. Since Thatcher’s rise
there have been any number of failed
projects in other countries to
confirm this view. For example,
Jacques Chirac’s failed attempt to
make the French-backed search
engine Quaero into a Google-killer.
These lessons were accompanied
by economic theory. As economics
became increasingly mathematical
and purist in the 1970s, free-market
economists lent support to the idea
of markets adapting to allocate goods
in an optimal way. The meddling of
politicians seemed unlikely to help.
No Conservative seriously believes
that a planned economy will work or
that picking winners is a good idea.
But whether the alternative — just
cutting taxes and regulation and
then hoping — can work is much
more widely questioned.
Apart from anything else, the
government has responded to its
various challenges by raising taxes,
not cutting them. And leaving the
EU, whatever the hope for the future
might be, has inevitably involved
increased burdens for businesses.
After all, Thatcher regarded joining
the single market as an obvious
consequence of her views.
The conference talk about
high-wage jobs needs to have
substance. Sustainable high-wage
jobs result from workers being
employed more productively and
adding more value to the economy.
They don’t just appear because you
stop migrants entering the country.
So something else, both practically
Comment
MATT CROSSICK /ALAMY
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng
hates the term ‘industrial strategy’
and theoretically, is required. A
number of Tories have been reading
the new book by David Sainsbury,
the supermarket chief executive and
Blair science minister, Windows of
Opportunity: How Nations Create
Wealth. It has led few to abandon the
quest for (and fewer still the rhetoric
of) lower taxes and regulations, but it
has led some to believe that
government needs to be more
serious about industrial strategy.
Sainsbury argues that the key to
growth isn’t perfect competition,
which as a businessman he
encountered rarely; it is innovation.
He argues that historically, in the
first stages of rapid innovative
growth, government often intervenes
successfully, moving to less active
policies only later, as the economy
coasts. He goes back to the 15th
century and Henry VII’s help for
25
woollen textile production to prove
his point. He also refers to Alexander
Hamilton’s activist policies to create
a capitalist United States of America.
He is arguing that Britain should
be engaged in a “race to the top” by
promoting higher skills, empowering
local leaders, financing university
and other research, and using the
government’s buying power. This
should be in the service of an
industrial strategy that identifies
Sainsbury argues that
we should be engaged
in a ‘race to the top’
sectors (not individual companies)
that look promising, from quantum
computing to pharmaceuticals.
The government and in particular
the prime minister — not remotely
an orthodox Thatcherite — is open
to much of this. But it still holds
back, wondering if belief in industrial
strategy is really all that “sound”. The
business, energy and industrial
strategy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng
hates the term, is considering
changing his department’s name and
has abolished the industrial strategy
council.
Yet if the government doesn’t
commit, doesn’t make a financial and
political reality of phrases such as
“science superpower”, what does all
this week’s talk about a high-wage
economy actually amount to?
daniel.finkelstein@thetimes.co.uk
red box
For the best analysis
and commentary on
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26
Comment
Eastern Med tensions are coming to the boil
Putin and Erdogan are calling the shots while the US and EU fail to assert their authority
Roger
Boyes
@rogerboyes
T A
here’s trouble brewing in
the eastern Mediterranean.
The Greek lyric poet
CP Cavafy understood the
region better than most,
writing more than a century ago of
“the secret roaring of coming events”.
Today’s multiple conflicts — the
scramble for undersea gas deposits,
the growing stress of a new
migration wave, a shake-up of
military alignments, the instability
of Lebanon, the open scars of Syria,
the ancient feuds between Greece
and Turkey — all add up to a secret
roar, a civilisational hotspot that is
coming to the boil.
It’s happening on the doorstep of
the European Union but Brussels has
contrived not to notice. That
changed a few weeks ago when the
freebooting French president
Emmanuel Macron sold three new
frigates to Greece, a move that will
shift the balance between the Greek
and Turkish navies. Two dozen
Rafale warplanes are already on
order. Crucially, though, the weapons
are accompanied by a mutual
defence clause whereby each side
agrees to defend the other if attacked
by a third party. So, watch out in
Ankara: Macron has found a way of
testing what he insists on calling
Europe’s strategic autonomy.
As Recep Tayyip Erdogan flexes
Matthew Parris Notebook
Seven sellers,
two buyers
and one
unsold house
I
t’s a bit like Mary and Joseph
having to travel to their
birthplace in Bethlehem for the
Roman census. Last Monday I
flew to Barcelona and last
Tuesday I flew back, because,
unbelievable as in 2021 it may seem,
buyers and sellers of real estate in
Spain must attend in person,
assembled in the presence of a
notario who must read out to
everyone what is being agreed. I had
to travel because, Britain having left
the EU, it now seems impossible to
create a “power of attorney” for
someone to represent you, except —
again — in Spain itself, in the
presence of a notary.
We’re selling our parents’ home
there, my father being dead, my
mother having died during
lockdown. Of us six siblings one has
died, so his own two children inherit
his share. Thus seven vendors, plus
the couple who are buying. And you
can guess what comes next. The
his muscles in the neighbourhood
and beyond, so an informal
anti-Turkey club has taken shape. It
includes not only Greece, Israel
(upset by Turkish proxy dealing with
Hamas in Gaza), Egypt and the
United Arab Emirates but also,
now, France.
There is a reason, of course, that
Greece is particularly pleased with a
bilateral pact with Paris. Nato’s
Article Five, whereby allies are
supposed to stand shoulder to
shoulder if a member state is
targeted by an enemy, no longer
seems to count for much. Its
obligation on allies to take “such
action as necessary” leaves plenty of
wiggle room. And it depends heavily
America prefers to
focus on the three Cs:
China, Covid, climate
on a US president ready to threaten
military action against an aggressor.
Moreover, what happens when the
aggressor is a fellow Nato member?
Since Joe Biden’s abrupt retreat
from Afghanistan, smaller allies
have wondered about the US
commitment. Even in better days,
Nato and the US were notably
unwilling to get involved in a spat
between two neighbouring allies.
Both Greece and Turkey were
admitted to Nato in 1952 as a way of
channelling support against a
communist takeover and smoothing
over Greco-Turkish tensions. That
worked for a while but the 1974
Turkish intervention in northern
Cyprus put paid to it. Alliance
notary spotted something missing:
authentication of my late brother’s
will. Authentication must be done
through an English solicitor, then
certified by an EU authority, then
translated into Spanish by a certified
translator and then authenticated by
a Spanish notary.
So we all gathered, heard the bad
news, shared a coffee and dispersed.
Round we go again, in another
circle. Never again shall I complain
about our English system of offer,
acceptance, exchange and
completion. It seems by comparison
positively space-age in its speed
and simplicity.
Moved by a Micra
A
sudden and unexpected
pang when my brother
Mark arrived in our
mother’s car. He’s taken it
over: old, now rather
battered and worth very
little. But the lump in my
throat on seeing that dear
little car took me quite by
surprise. I had forgotten
how close, how visceral
the association
between a person and
their car can feel to
others. Or perhaps I
thought it was only a
childish thing, because to
me as a boy the two-tone
Humber Snipe and my
partner or not, Erdogan is Greece’s
number one security problem. Now,
it seems to the Greeks, Nato and the
US would prefer not to fret about
what’s going on. And Turkey too
feels unloved by Washington,
Erdogan having been snubbed by
President Biden at the UN general
assembly last month.
America prefers to focus on the
three Cs — China, Covid, climate —
and not sweat the small stuff. But
there are no vacuums in a world of
predatory autocrats. If the EU lacks
the will to press for a settlement on
Cyprus, it will inhabit a strange
limbo with Turkey calling the shots
in the north of the island and
Russians using the banking system
to wash and hide their assets. If the
US treats Syria as someone else’s
problem, Russia will run the country
as a client state. If no one wants to
upset Turkey because it is holding
millions of Syrian refugees who
would otherwise make their
way into Europe, Erdogan can feel
free to recklessly carve up maritime
rights in the Mediterranean
with Libya.
The result is that the eastern Med
is becoming, by default, a duopoly
between Putin and Erdogan. Russia,
because it has established a warm
water port in Syria, controls its air
space and can tell Assad what to do
— which in the eyes of many in the
region is preferable to Iran being in
charge. Turkey meanwhile has
shown it has a special power: the
ability to operate across alliances
rather than loyally within them. A
recent summit between the two
leaders suggested that Putin may
have the upper hand in the
father were almost inseparable in my
mind. I can see it as I sit here: blue
and grey; and hear the sound of its
engine, and smell my father’s
cigarette smoke. And now Mum’s
little blue Nissan Micra, and her
smile, her wave, and her intent look
as she drove. It was too much.
Vax chat
O
n Friday at a panel event in
Leeds’s extraordinarily over-
the-top city hall, I chatted
beforehand to a BBC presenter,
exchanging reports of some of the
otherwise sane people we knew
who have become anti-vaxers.
“What I’d like to hear,” I said,
“is a civil, in-depth interview
with an ordinary, articulate and
normally rational member of
the anti-vax minority. I
want to understand how
they can have reached
their conclusions.”
“I doubt you’ll ever
hear such a thing,” he
replied. “It would
probably be deemed
against the public
interest to broadcast
such a conversation.”
What a mistake! This just
feeds anti-vaxers’ fears that
there’s an establishment
conspiracy to suppress
debate. And even if airing
another opinion did help
relationship, but also that he is afraid
of Erdogan turning on a sixpence.
The Turkish president certainly
has the ability to irritate the Russian
leader. He kicked off the summit by
boasting that he had many more
antibodies than Putin, apparently the
new locker-room banter between
strongmen rulers. Erdogan said he
was pressing ahead with his orders
for Russian air defence systems,
despite US threats to withhold a
delivery of F35 jets. “If they don’t
give me the planes, I want my money
back,” he was reported to have said.
“The point we have reached with the
United States is not a good one.”
The splintering and reforming of
alliances is accelerating. Macron’s
deal with Greece is part of his
politics of pique but more seriously
it may end up magnifying dissent in
Nato (which he has already called
brain-dead) and a distaste for
American leadership of any kind.
Erdogan is already drafting plans
for co-operation with Russia on joint
aircraft engine and shipbuilding
projects. Putin wants to stop Turkey
building drone factories in Ukraine.
Erdogan in turn wants to prevent
Putin from giving Assad the green
light for a full-out attack on Idlib, the
last stronghold of Turkish-backed
forces in Syria.
These are all conversations
that bypass America and Nato.
Rumours circulated in the US
foreign policy establishment last
week that Erdogan is concealing a
serious health condition. He
promptly released a video clip
showing him very active on a
basketball court, as if to say: you’re
not getting rid of me that easily.
boost that opinion, what right has
anyone to censor its expression?
Can I whistle it?
T
o me, music always meant
“tunes”. I’ve been a Now That’s
What I Call Music sort of bloke.
Nothing you could whistle? Then it’s
just a noise. I like Verdi, Puccini, stuff
with arias. At Wagner I falter, at
Britten I wander away. Tuneless
“modern” classical music enrages me.
But last week found me in the cheap
seats above the orchestra at the
Royal Opera, bracing myself for the
19th/20th-century Czech composer
Leos Janacek’s opera Jenufa. And it
just blew me away! I do realise
musicologists will insist there’s folk
melody beneath Janacek’s score, but
I honestly couldn’t hum a tune from
it. Yet the texture of the sound! The
leaps and dives! The thrilling
dissonances and screaming
harmonies! Seventy-two is a bit late
to realise you’ve been missing
something all your life — but I have.
Marathon man
C
ongratulations to the fastest
MP in Sunday’s London
Marathon. Alun Cairns
achieved a creditable 3hrs 33 mins.
As the holder, still, of the Commons
record I’ve been worried at
Cairns’s form. Seconds faster and
he’d have come within an hour of
my own time. Heh-heh.
Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times
Local media need
protection from
the predatory BBC
Owen Meredith
lthough the devastating
effects of the pandemic
and plans to “build
back better” are front
of mind at the
Conservative Party conference this
week, many will be pondering how
the party can hold on to the fragile
coalition of new Tory voters in
red-wall seats.
Aimed at doing just that, Boris
Johnson’s focus on levelling up also
highlights the importance of strong
local media. Some observers believe
that the BBC needs to break free of
the Westminster bubble to better
reflect the diversity of our nation.
Nadine Dorries’s appointment as
culture secretary is perhaps the
clearest sign yet that Johnson is
determined to reshape the BBC, but
those demanding change must be
careful what they wish for.
The BBC can and must do more
to reflect diverse viewpoints but,
in doing so, it must not crowd out a
cornerstone of our democracy —
the nation’s press — that is forced to
compete with the might of the
licence fee.
The corporation has shifted from
being our national broadcaster to
being its largest online publisher,
ploughing huge resources into its
websites and digital services. It now
publishes daily a vast number of
articles, human interest stories,
celebrity gossip, recipes and more, all
cross-promoted by its broadcast
channels, drawing away audiences
and revenues from commercial news
providers in the process.
Now, in its BBC Across the UK
plans, the Beeb reveals ambitions
to use its privileged position to
encroach further into local news in
an unprecedented assault on the
space already well-served by
commercial news media.
Despite challenges, 900 local
media titles bring quality journalism
to 40.6 million people every month
via print and digital channels. It’s the
local newspaper journalists who
spend time scrutinising councils,
courts and businesses on behalf of
their readers, not the BBC, which is
often accused of taking stories from
the local press without proper
attribution.
It’s difficult to see how the BBC’s
planned assault on the local press
squares with its charter requirements
to avoid adverse impacts on
competition and plurality. The
argument that it needs to step into
local news to fill a democratic deficit
simply doesn’t hold water.
By increasing its local news
footprint, the BBC would create a
democratic deficit by putting local
publishers out of business. That does
nothing to enhance the voice of the
overlooked, hold the powerful to
account, or sustain media plurality
and access to high-quality journalism.
Owen Meredith is chief executive of
the News Media Association
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
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Inmates need better work than the chain gang
Dominic Raab could save money and cut reoffending if he sought to rehabilitate prisoners rather than humiliate them
Alice
Thomson
@alicettimes
‘Y
our room is tiny and
you’re in that room
24/7, you’ve had your
dinner in there, you’ve
slept in there, you’ve
done everything in there, and
then. . . it’s just demotivating, those
same four walls.”
While the rest of the country
emerges from lockdowns, prisoners
have been locked in their cells for
23 hours a day for months in often
appalling conditions. They
sometimes haven’t been able to
shower for days, let alone exercise to
stretch their limbs, or attend
workshops and classes. It’s often
worse at weekends. They can be
forced to remain in their cells —
most of them shared, poorly
ventilated with unscreened toilets
— for up to 30 hours at a time.
They had no visitors for months,
and when they were finally allowed
to see their partners, siblings or one
of the 200,000 children who have
parents in jail, they still couldn’t hug
them. Many lived in fear of dying,
alone and forgotten, from the virus.
According to a report by HM
Inspectorate of Prisons this year,
inmates have become chronically
lonely and exhausted, often sleeping
most of the day, discombobulated
without a routine. They describe
being “drained, depleted and lacking
in purpose”. Self-harming and
obesity have rocketed, as well as
drug-taking. “The most disturbing
effect of the restrictions was the
decline in prisoners’ emotional,
psychological and physical
wellbeing,” writes Charlie Taylor, the
new chief inspector.
They frequently compared
themselves to caged animals, feeling
both hopeless and helpless. As one
prisoner said: “It’s being imprisoned
while you’re in prison.” Many have
Low-category inmates
could pick fruit, cook,
paint, collect rubbish
begged to be allowed kitchen jobs, or
to join the wing-cleaning rota.
It’s their fault, you say, but it will be
our problem if more than 80,000
adults become dehumanised. It’s vital
that as many as possible re-engage
with society. Retribution isn’t enough,
they need to be rehabilitated or
everyone suffers when they reoffend.
Dominic Raab, the new justice
secretary, sounded a familiar note
at the Tory party conference
yesterday, saying that he wants more
offenders working in the community.
His aides spoke of chain gangs in
hi-viz jackets fishing shopping
trolleys out of canals, clearing up
rubbish, chiseling off chewing gum
and scrubbing graffiti, much of
which echoes Boris Johnson’s own
oft-repeated rhetoric.
It sounds draconian, but Raab is
half right. Getting out, doing exercise
and feeling purposeful is vital for
self-esteem. It should apply to as
many offenders as is safe, with an
important proviso. It should be
done not to humiliate, or to garner
cheap applause at a party
conference, but to help rehabilitate.
To have any chance of leading a
successful, crime-free life when they
leave custody, inmates need to
believe that they can find a job and
reintegrate on release.
With the shortage of farm labour
so acute that farmers are offering £30
an hour to vegetable pickers, there is
an obvious opening for low-category
inmates. They could pick fruit as well
as cook, paint, decorate, put up
scaffolding and collect rubbish.
It is easier and cheaper, though,
just to keep confining prisoners to
their cells all day, and it’s less hassle
for staff. Natasha Porter, who set up
Unlocked Graduates which trains
future leaders to become prison
officers, admits that the pandemic
has benefited inmates and staff in
some ways. With fewer corridor
interactions, prisons have become
safer. More landlines have been
installed in cells and family video links
have been created. One man hadn’t
seen his living room for 30 years.
“It’s less chaotic if everyone is
locked away,” she says, “but the cost
of allowing them to stagnate has
been enormous, particularly for the
young whose only human contact
may have been hearing the sound of
‘The prospect of work
is a huge incentive
for good behaviour’
their prison officers’ footsteps.” One
17-year-old passed his time by
counting his fingers and toes,
another would shout out to make
sure his voice still worked.
Raab is right to focus on jobs,
although he should fight harder for
more funding for prison education.
Re-skilling has been shown to stop
reoffending, particularly when
40 per cent of inmates have a
reading age under ten.
In HMP Brixton, which I visited
before the pandemic, many were
desperate to get back to work,
signing up to bake sourdough in the
prison bakery and fold napkins in the
Clink restaurant, where they are
27
Comment
trained for the hospitality industry,
or to begin carpentry courses.
One prisoner on day release
explained the importance of learning
to reintegrate before he left jail. “The
first day of work was hard, I’d been
in so long I’d never used an Oyster
card on the Underground, I had no
idea what to wear or how to walk
along a crowded street any more, but
at least I could come home [to
prison] at night to a bed until I’d
acclimatised.”
Mark Day, head of policy at the
Prison Reform Trust, believes many
inmates in closed prisons could also
work or volunteer on day release in
the communities. “There’s a real
variety in prison we need to utilise,”
he explains. “The prospect of getting
out to work would provide a huge
incentive for good behaviour and
give them back the confidence to
find a job when they leave.”
It’s the same for tagging. It’s better
to keep less serious offenders out
of jail and being productive than
locked up at a cost of £40,000 a
year. There are far too many
prisoners languishing for months
on remand, waiting for a trial, part
of a huge backlog of cases.
Monitoring them and day release
workers will, in the long run, be
cheaper and more humane than
incarcerating tens of thousands in
their cells all day. There may even
be some lorry drivers in there.
28
Letters to the Editor
The longer view
Sir, We can all have a wry smile at
Lord Stern’s hope that declining
renewable energy costs will free us
from fossil fuel volatility “in the
medium term” (letters, Oct 5). Not
only at present do we have the precise
opposite, with oil, gas, and coal prices
going through the roof, and electricity
prices with them, but we have the
likelihood that with the continuation
of present policies this kind of extreme
disruption will persist, undermining an
orderly energy transition to a
decarbonised world and making that
medium term ever more distant.
Meanwhile, we face the prospect of
growing political resentment at
soaring energy bills, making it harder
to impose carbon prices in addition
and delaying still further the solution
to the intermittency problem. The
globalisation of the gas market,
turning gas into a commodity, will not
help. Nor will the prospect, as forecast
by the International Energy Agency, of
Opec regaining dominance of a
shrinking, but still large, world oil
market. A more balanced approach to
the extremely complex business of
changing the fuel mix, plus a very
much higher degree of international
co-operation, and funding, directed at
capturing ever-rising carbon from the
world’s big emitters, would stand a
much better chance of checking
climate change –— which, after all, is
meant to be the main purpose behind
all these endeavours.
Lord Howell of Guildford
Former minister for international
energy policy
Too many bosses
Sir, Having worked in the NHS under
numerous practice managers, I found
that every one had their own ideas and
we changed things around at quite an
expense each time (“NHS bosses face
sack for failing to cut waits”, Oct 5)
Surely it is clear — well, it is to me and
the majority of the population so why
not Sajid Javid? — that there are far
too many managers in the NHS, all
with their own agenda and all paid
vast salaries. The whole system needs
reform. Money saved could help with
things the NHS really needs such as
doctors, nurses and people on the
front line — not managers thinking up
ever more expensive ideas.
Lesley Charnock
Long Crendon, Bucks
Corrections and
clarifications
6 A photograph of the changing of
the guard at Buckingham Palace
showed a member of the Scots
Guards, not the Coldstream Guards
as we wrongly said (News, Oct 5).
The Times takes
complaints
about editorial
content seriously. We are committed to
abiding by the Independent Press
Standards Organisation (“IPSO”) rules
and regulations and the Editors’ Code of
Practice that IPSO enforces.
Requests for corrections or
clarifications should be sent by email to
feedback@thetimes.co.uk or by post to
Feedback, The Times, 1 London Bridge
Street, London SE1 9GF
Levelling up, localism and paying better wages
Sir, William Hague is absolutely right
to argue that local leadership and
participation is key to the success of a
national strategy to level up the less
prosperous regions of England
(Comment, Oct 5). This must include
the revival of local government. The
powers and financial resources of local
government across England have been
significantly reduced over the past 40
years — most sharply since 2010.
Substituting metropolitan mayors with
marginally more authority to bargain
with central government does little to
redress the balance. Far too many
detailed decisions about regional and
local matters are now made in
London, hence the increasing
concentration of civil servants in
London. Real devolution will require
No 10, the Treasury and Whitehall
transferring powers and financial
autonomy back to England’s regions,
cities, counties and towns.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire
House of Lords
Sir, Libby Purves provides sensible
solutions to the problem of levelling up
(“The workers we depend on deserve
better pay”, Oct 4). She makes a telling
point when referring to the fact that
over a third of those drawing universal
Best of British
Sir, In her first interviews as culture
secretary, Nadine Dorries accuses the
BBC of being snobbish, lacking
impartiality, excluding working class
people from employment, showing a
left-wing bias in its political coverage,
discriminating against presenters with
regional accents and nepotism
(“ ‘Snobbish’ BBC may not exist in a
decade, Dorries predicts”, Oct 5).
None of these accusations have any
basis in fact and with these inaccurate
comments she confirms the
pre-judgmental bias that she is
bringing to this important department
of government. The lockdown-based
success of the subscription television
channels Netflix, Amazon Prime and
others, with their narrow populist offer
of thin gruel, will soon pall, even
among younger viewers, as they
mature to appreciate the wide and
multifaceted scope of the BBC’s
programming. Our public broadcasting
service is rightly globally envied. It
must be cherished, funded, supported
and defended from “here today, gone
tomorrow” politicians.
Anthony Ratcliffe
London W1
TOO
MUCH
SUNSHINE?
from the times october 6, 1921
A summer of extraordinary heat,
unparalleled for over half a century,
has been followed by an early
October at least as abnormal. For
more than a year now the mean
temperature has been above normal
in every single month. Yesterday, at
the Camden Square Observatory,
where a shade temperature even as
high as 75 has only been recorded on
eight October days in the last 64
years, the thermometer reached 84
degrees Fahrenheit. That was too
much for the most ardent of sun-
worshippers. The glare of the sun,
and still more the stifling breeze, like
credit are employed. Policymakers
have forgotten the Speenhamland
guardians of the poor who, around
1800, instituted a system of wage
subsidies to farm labourers when the
price of bread rose to stated levels. The
only results were the pauperisation of
the population and the incentive it
provided to employers to keep wages
at starvation levels. What Purves says
about chancellors today is as it was
then — they may enjoy “the power of
having a client population . . . but it is
unhealthy”. It is a moral duty for
employers to pay wages that allow a
decent standard of living.
John Bunch
Eastleigh, Hants
Sir, Politicians are wrestling with the
conundrum of how to turn a political
catchphrase — levelling up — into
practical measures with observable
outcomes, ideally before the next
election. If a Conservative consensus is
emerging, it appears to be that
levelling up should provide greater
opportunity for business and
employment in areas of deprivation
and among disadvantaged groups.
Community development finance
institutions (CDFIs) are lenders with a
well-documented record of success.
Sir, The BBC celebrates its centenary
of educating, informing and
entertaining next year. Perhaps it will
not if Nadine Dorries, the culture
secretary, has her way. She brings up
old shibboleths such as regional
accents, which have been much more
evident on the BBC in recent years —
including dropped Gs on Football
Focus, not just by the home secretary.
Has Ms Dorries yet realised that she is
no longer a backbencher looking for
column inches? As we say oop ’ere,
she’s plenty ter ga at as is.
Chris Crowcroft
Hesket Newmarket, Cumbria
Wake-up calls
Sir, A lecturer was sacked for throwing
cardboard at a sleeping student (news,
Oct 5). Cardboard? We had a
woodwork teacher who used to throw
the board rubber at dozing pupils.
That was, you may remember, two
thirds solid wood. Later, as a teacher,
I used to ignore one sleeping pupil as I
suspected that she was working long
hours out of school. Rudely awakening
her did not seem kind.
Pauline Jordan
Southwell, Notts
puffs of hot air from an engine,
affected nerves already overstrung
by an unusually prolonged and
torrid summer. It is possible, as Dr
Benjamin Moore suggested in the
much-discussed article on “Summer
Time” which we published the other
day, that too much sunshine may
have a bad effect on people who are
not used to it. In excess it may parch
animals, as it obviously does plants.
But there is another factor. Too little
rain may be even more harmful to
the vegetable world than too much
sun and, though human beings, who
wear clothes and live in houses, are
not exposed in the same way as
plants to rain, they unquestionably
suffer from too dry an atmosphere.
In the summer which is, in defiance
of the almanac, still with us, the
drought has been just as abnormal as
the excessive heat, and has probably
had a stronger effect. In an ordinary
year the mischievous consequences
which Professor Moore attributes to
Letters to the Editor should be sent to
letters@thetimes.co.uk or by post to
1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF
They create opportunities for those
with few assets but good ideas. The
chancellor should take note in his
spending review of what Janet Yellen,
the US finance secretary, has done to
support CDFIs in America.
Peter Udale
Director, Responsible Finance
Sir, I think Hugo Rifkind sums up the
economic situation we find ourselves
in (“Who will do the jobs that nobody
wants?”, Oct 5). As he points out, we
are on “the cusp of panic about too
little immigration”. History would say
that we found ourselves in this same
situation after the Second World War,
when we invited the Windrush
generation. Look how we treated
them. No wonder only 27 fuel drivers
(news, Oct 5) accepted HGV visas.
Tim Kerin
London E7
Sir, Far be it from me to suggest that
the government’s “pay them more”
motto is a cynical attempt to deflect
blame from self-inflicted Brexit
wounds, but I can’t help wondering
whether it will apply it to public sector
workers — NHS staff, for example.
Richard Black
London E3
Folly of digital life
Sir, The temporary collapse of
Facebook (news, Oct 5) should serve
as an alarm to all those who are
sleepwalking into having their very
existence made digital. Why risk being
locked out of your life, or worse, it
being seized and sold to a third party?
The value of privacy, maintaining your
own genuinely secure, physical
identity could not be clearer.
Hamish Hossick
Dundee
Sir, We are being taught that the
organisations that control our lives are
not in control of themselves and can’t
be relied upon. Personal transport
relies on fuel but the fuel suppliers
can’t ensure its supply. WhatsApp,
Facebook and Instagram evaporated
without explanation, leaving us
unexpectedly incommunicado. The
police advise that when confronted by
an officer we should confront them.
These are just some of the
consequences of the loss of
responsibility and answerability that
pervades modern life.
Richard Hayes
Abingdon, Oxon
the institution of summer time
would certainly have been less
pronounced. For that reason — until
the system has been tested over a
greater number of years — it does
not seem desirable that its
undoubted advantages in the way of
economy and increased daylight
should be hastily thrown away by a
return to the old summer timetable.
The disadvantages may prove less
formidable than Professor Moore
fears. In any case they need not all
be placed to the account of the sun.
Such as they are, they have certainly
been aggravated this summer by the
scarcity of rain. There may be as
much virtue in rain-baths as there is
in sun-baths, and from time to time
it might do human beings all the
good in the world to stand out in a
heavy shower without the artificial
protection of clothes.
thetimes.co.uk/archive
Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times
Funding politics
Sir, If we wish to preserve our
democracy and protect it from the
perceived corruption that can come
through large donations (“Pandora
leaks put spotlight on finances of Tory
donors”, Oct 5), it is time political
parties were funded by the state. The
three main parties, plus the main
nationalist regional parties, should all
receive sufficient funds to run their
respective organisations plus funds for
election expenses, thus removing their
agendas from any potential or
perceived corrupt influences. Smaller
parties could still be funded by
donations until they achieved 5 per
cent of the vote, when they too would
become eligible for state support.
Neil Vokes
Wokingham, Berks
Good for a laugh
Sir, I was disappointed by the tone
of Lord Bragg’s letter (“German
bragging”, Oct 4). Personally, I enjoyed
Peter Tiede’s article (“Oh, the delicious
schadenfreude! Germans grin at
Britain’s misery”, Oct 1; letters, Oct 2).
It’s good for us to laugh at ourselves
from time to time and we British like
to think of ourselves as being much
better at this than the Germans. Lord
Bragg cannot have forgotten already
the schadenfreude that our media and
many of us indulged in when the EU
got off to such a slow start with its
Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Robin Adams
Leamington Spa, Warks
A token measure
Sir, Trevor Phillips continues the
debate over the next James Bond
(“We don’t need Bond to be black or
female”, Oct 4). Might I suggest that
cinemas offer each person going to
see the film a token stating their
preference for male, female, black,
white, gay etc. This could then be put
in a box on exiting the performance.
That way the people who are truly
interested in the franchise get a say in
it, not people like Mr Phillips who, by
his own admission, has not seen the
latest Bond film.
Liz Bolas
Wolverhampton
Name confusion
Sir, With reference to the excellent
interview by Julia Llewellyn Smith
with Rory Kinnear (“I know that grief
is a lifelong event”, Weekend, Oct 2),
I thought I ought to clarify
something. I am an actress, but while
there are few greater admirers of
Rory Kinnear, I am not, in fact, his
partner. Pandora Colin is the
formidable actress with whom I have
been confused.
Pandora Clifford
London SW8
Still keeping fit
Sir, Rose Wild refers to possible
exercises for the over-90s (“Fitness for
all ages”, Feedback, Oct 2). At 95,
I usually exercise for about ten
minutes every day. I do such things as:
the cat, kneeling, hands on floor,
arching back up and down; the dog,
feet and hands on floor; and the plank,
prone, balanced on forearms and toes.
Barbara Bowen
Guildford, Surrey
Letters to The Times must be exclusive
and may be edited. Please include a full
address and daytime telephone number.
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
Daily Universal Register
UK: Boris Johnson speaks at the
Conservative Party conference; end of the
temporary weekly uplift to universal credit
and working tax credit payments.
Nature notes
At this time of year,
tawny owls can
sound so loud in the
dead of night that
you might think
they’ve stolen in
from the woods and
are perched on the dressing table. This
too-whit, too-woo call is probably the most
famous and easily identifiable of all bird
calls. Though it sounds like one individual, it
is actually a duet not a solo: tawny owls are
one of the few bird species to sing to each
other. The female supplies the sharp too-
whit, the male contributes the lingering too-
who, often humorously written as: You-idiot,
whooo? Perched in their favourite trees,
owls sing loudest on dry, bright, moonlit
autumn nights. jonathan tulloch
Birthdays today
Penny Junor, pictured,
writer, The Duchess: The
Untold Story (2017), 72;
Lord (Melvyn) Bragg,
presenter, The South
Bank Show (since 1978),
controller of arts,
London Weekend
Television (1990-2010) and author, Love
Without End: A Story of Heloise and Abelard
(2019), 82; Lez Brotherston, production
designer, Tony and Olivier award winner,
60; Bill Buford, editor, Granta (1979-95), and
author, Among the Thugs (1990), 67; Richard
Caborn, Labour MP (1983-2010), sports
minister (2001-07), 78; Mario Capecchi,
molecular geneticist (Nobel prize, 2007), 84;
Dame Bobbie Cheema-Grubb, High Court
judge, 55; Major General Patrick
Cordingley, DSO, Gulf War commander, 77;
Gareth Davies, comptroller and auditor-
general, head of the National Audit Office,
66; Lord (Bob) Edmiston, chairman, IM
Group, 75; Britt Ekland, actress, Get Carter
(1971), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974),
79; Adam Gemili, sprinter, captain of Great
Britain’s athletics team at the 2016
Olympics, 28; Prof Huon Gray, national
clinical director for heart disease, NHS
England (2013-19), 67; Ioan Gruffudd, actor,
Fantastic Four (2005), Forever (2014-15),
Harrow (2018-21), 48; Sir Michael Hardie
Boys, governor-general of New Zealand
(1996-2001), 90; Ricky Hatton, boxer, held
multiple light-welterweight world
championships, 43; Iain Livingstone, QPM,
chief constable, Police Scotland, 55; David
Morgan, president, Marylebone Cricket
Club (2014-15), International Cricket Council
(2008-10), 84; Niall Quinn, footballer,
Republic of Ireland (1986-2002) and
Manchester City (1990-96), 55; Admiral Sir
Derek Reffell, flag officer Third Flotilla in
charge of amphibious ships and aircraft
carriers during the Falklands conflict, 93;
Elisabeth Shue, actress, Leaving Las Vegas
(1995), Hollow Man (2000), 58; Lieutenant
General James Swift, chief of Defence
People (Ministry of Defence), 54; Geraldine
Van Bueren, QC, professor emerita of
international human rights law, Queen
Mary, University of London, 66.
On this day
In 1981 Anwar Sadat, the president of Egypt
since 1970, was assassinated by rebel soldiers
during a military parade in Cairo.
The last word
“I am I plus my surroundings, and if I do not
preserve the latter I do not preserve myself.”
José Ortega y Gasset, Spanish writer and
philosopher, Meditaciones del Quijote (1914)
Lost Confidence
Priti Patel is right to order an inquiry into the Met’s failure to spot a sexual predator
in its midst. But the key to changing police culture lies in stronger leadership
Priti Patel’s decision to order an independent
inquiry into the culture of the police is both neces-
sary and welcome. As recently as Sunday, Boris
Johnson had ruled out an inquiry into the system-
ic failures by the Metropolitan Police that had
enabled a serving officer to kidnap, rape and
murder Sarah Everard. But the sheer volume and
gravity of stories of misogynistic behaviour and
allegations of sexual crimes committed by serving
officers that emerged since Wayne Couzens was
handed a full-life jail sentence have threatened to
destroy public confidence in the police, particular-
ly among women. They have also made demands
for an independent investigation impossible for
the home secretary to resist. An internal police
review into the Met’s culture, announced on
Monday by Dame Cressida Dick, the Met
commissioner, was never going to suffice.
True, the review announced by Ms Patel at this
stage falls short of a full public inquiry with statu-
tory powers to compel witnesses to give evidence.
The government says that this is necessary to
allow the review to begin work quickly, though it
could be handed statutory powers at a later date if
they are needed. The history of reviews into polic-
ing failures suggest that they will be. Baroness
Nuala O’Loan, who led the inquiry into the
A global outage shows the weakness of the world’s largest social network
It is easy to survive without Facebook so long as
you don’t rely heavily on services provided by
Facebook. The problem for Facebook is that it
does. On Monday a technical glitch knocked Face-
book, WhatsApp and Instagram into darkness for
six hours. Less obviously to the billions of users
affected worldwide, it also knocked out most in-
ternal systems used by the company itself. By
some reports, employees found they could no
longer open office doors with keycards, nor con-
tact colleagues. Systems were eventually brought
back online by a team of specialist engineers man-
ually accessing the company’s servers in Santa
Clara, California. Presumably somebody had tele-
phoned them.
For the rest of the world, Facebook’s collapse
was less of a catastrophe and more of an inconven-
ience. Certainly the impact was lessened by the
happy chance that it was already evening for most
users in Africa and night across Asia. In parts of
South and Central America, where reliance is
heavy (98 per cent of smartphones in Brazil have
WhatsApp), the disruption to businesses and local
services will have been considerable. Yet, by defi-
An Indian plan to replace horns with music is delightful, but mad
Is it George Harrison during his Sgt. Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club Band phase? Or is it, in fact, an
ambulance? In Delhi it may soon be the latter.
Nitin Gadkari, the Indian roads minister, has a
plan to replace horns and eventually sirens with
sounds more melodic. Instead of a cacophony of
tuneless noise, the typical Indian street could be
transformed into a cacophony more like that of an
orchestra, admittedly before it picks a tune.
From a British perspective this may seem a
strange decision. Here the sound of a horn is the
sound of an emergency. It is not meant to sound
nice. It is meant to feel like a cold bucket of water
murder of Daniel Morgan which reported this
year eight years behind schedule, accused the Met
of deliberate obstruction, some of it on Dame
Cressida’s watch. Whoever leads the new inquiry
will soon discover that nothing defines police cul-
ture so much as an instinct to circle the wagons.
The first stage of the review will rightly focus on
what Ms Patel called the “unimaginable failings”
that allowed Couzens to become a police officer in
the first place. Why were opportunities to identify
him as a potential sexual offender missed, includ-
ing two reports of indecent exposure, one three
days before he murdered Everard? How was it
possible that a man whose predilections for
violent pornography were sufficiently well known
that he was nicknamed “the rapist” by colleagues
could have been considered suitable to serve in the
Met? What does it say about Met culture that
three serving officers were allegedly sharing
misogynistic and racist messages with Couzens?
But while there are clearly specific lessons to
learn from the Met’s mistakes over Couzens, there
are unquestionably wider lessons for the police re-
lating to vetting practices, professional standards
and workplace discipline that will be addressed in
the second stage of the inquiry. In an interview
with The Times yesterday, Sue Fish, the former
After Facebook
nition, any user of Facebook will also have other
means of communication. Apps such as Signal and
Telegram, which offer some of the same services,
saw dramatic boosts in signups. Had Mark Zucker-
berg’s empire disappeared for ever, the world may
have adjusted surprisingly quickly.
In many respects, Facebook functions as a
monopoly, and its dominance gives it immense
power. Frequently this power is misused, or at
least misgoverned. For the past fortnight the com-
pany has been rocked by the revelations of Fran-
ces Haugen, a former employee turned whistle-
blower who gave evidence to the Senate yesterday.
Secretly the company has applied different rules
when policing the speech of prominent individu-
als. It has been weak on combating fake news and
anti-vaccine misinformation, and it has obfuscat-
ed in the face of clear internal evidence that, via
Instagram, it was helping to spread misery and
body image disorders among young girls. Most
damningly, it also appears to have been searching
for new ways to ensnare children, describing them
internally as a “a valuable but untapped audience”.
Disturbingly, researchers had openly pondered
Car Radio
to the face. In Indian cities, by contrast, the horn
is more conversational. The blare of the truck co-
joins with the toot of the car and the petulant buzz
of the motorised rickshaw. There is so much noise
that it all coalesces into a solid continual head-
ache, perhaps defeating the point of a horn in the
first place. By some estimates this makes Delhi the
noisiest city in the world. Early onset deafness is
common. In 2014 the city introduced fines for
horns near hospitals and schools, but compliance
is limited. What, after all, to do if somebody honks
when they should not? Honk back at them?
Numerous cities in China have banned horns, as
29
Leading articles
chief constable of Nottinghamshire, spoke of
pockets of policing that are “deeply toxic” and has
previously said she would think carefully before
going to the police if she was sexually assaulted. It
is a measure of the lack of trust that the latest alle-
gation of rape against a serving officer was report-
ed to the police only at the weekend, after Couzens
had been sentenced, more than a year after the
alleged attack took place.
An independent inquiry can help to restore
public trust only if its recommendations are acted
upon. That will depend on determined leadership.
Again, history does not inspire much confidence.
Sir Richard Henriques has complained that years
after he delivered his excoriating report into police
failures in the handling of Operation Midland, the
investigation into an alleged VIP paedophile ring,
his recommendations have not been taken up. The
decision to extend Dame Cressida’s term as
commissioner for two years despite a string of
controversies reflects not so much confidence in
her as a lack of confidence in the alternatives.
Meanwhile previous efforts to recruit new senior
leadership from outside the police have foundered
on a near-complete absence of willing candidates.
Fixing the culture of the police must start with
identifying the right leadership.
whether there was a way to “leverage playdates”.
Yet Facebook’s monopoly is also a strangely
fragile one. Behind all of this lurks a palpable fear
of declining relevance, particularly among the
young. For many millennials and younger people,
the platform is regarded as a place that their
parents go to be busybodies or to share reaction-
ary politics. Increasingly youthful tastes veer to-
wards the Chinese micro-video site TikTok, and
the messaging service Snapchat. The inability or
unwillingness to rein in misinformation, political
extremists and irresponsible celebrities stems
from a fear that they too can easily go elsewhere.
None of this stops the company, used in its vari-
ous forms by about a quarter of people each day,
being a dauntingly powerful and often worrisome
entity, capable of doing untold harm through cor-
porate avarice and Mr Zuckerberg’s jejune incom-
petence. “A part of me feels like I’m interviewing
the head of a tobacco company right now,” began
a CNN anchor to Sir Nick Clegg, a Facebook vice-
president, this week. Sir Nick winced, as well he
might. After Tuesday’s outage, an internet with-
out Facebook is no longer unimaginable.
have Kathmandu and Lima. None have had last-
ing success. New York briefly introduced a hefty
fine for inappropriate honking and covered the
city in “Don’t Honk” signs, before more or less giv-
ing up the fight about a decade ago. Depending on
the exact noises settled upon, the Indian proposal
could either work far better or far worse. Restraint
could turn the city into 19th-century Vienna, but
brinkmanship could swiftly lead to bagpipes or
techno music. In this country, intriguing as the
idea may be, such developments seem unlikely.
Should a nightingale ever actually sing in Berkeley
Square, feel safe to assume it is not a van.
30
World
Biden backtracks
on $3.5trn plan to
Build Back Better
United States
Hugh Tomlinson Washington
President Biden attacked his oppo-
nents for being “complicit in America’s
decline” as he fought to save signature
bills on social care and infrastructure
and unite warring factions in his
Democratic party.
As brutal negotiations went on in
Washington, Biden flew to Michigan to
promote his $3.5 trillion “Build Back
Better” plan to the public.
Hours earlier, however, he had con-
ceded that the budget for his landmark
project could be cut almost in half. In a
virtual meeting with left-wing Demo-
crats late on Monday, he said the bud-
get could be slashed to only $1.9 trillion
to appease moderate senators.
Biden’s plan, touted as a historic in-
vestment in America to rank alongside
Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal and
Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, is set
to be cut back. As the brinkmanship
within his own party deepens, Biden is
also in a standoff with Republicans over
how to raise the US debt ceiling, risking
catastrophic default in a matter of days
that could plunge the US into recession.
In his call with left-wing Democrats,
Biden acknowledged that Build Back
Better would be pared back to bring the
senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten
Sinema onside. The two Democrats,
who represent West Virginia and Ari-
zona, Republican-leaning states, have
blocked the bill in its present form.
With the Senate split 50-50, Biden
needs both to pass the bill in Congress.
Left-wing Democrats have threaten-
ed to retaliate by bringing down a sepa-
rate bill to invest $1 trillion in infra-
structure, forcing the White House to
delay a vote on that package last week.
With the fate of his presidency in the
balance on Capitol Hill, Biden shifted
strategy yesterday, flying to Michigan
to promote his plans to the public in an
effort to win over moderate Democrats.
“We risk losing our edge as a nation.
Our infrastructure used to be the best
in the world. Today . . . we rank 13th.
We’ve taken our foot off the gas, [and]
the world has taken notice,” Biden
said at an engineering training
centre in Howell, west of Detroit.
“That’s why I proposed two
critical pieces of legislation being
debated back in Washington. To
support these investments is to
support a rising America . . . to
oppose these investments is to
be complicit in America’s
decline.”
Seeking to reframe
the debate after days of
drama and deadlock in
Washington, Biden
President Biden’s
ratings fell after
the withdrawal
from Afghanistan
A mint idea to avert disaster
Hugh Tomlinson
As the US teeters towards a
catastrophic default, economists
have proposed unusual remedies.
The most eye-catching is for the
US Treasury to mint one or more
$1 trillion (£730 billion) platinum
coins to deposit with thehe
wing
Federal Reserve, allowing
the government to
sidestep Congress.
The idea hinges on a
loophole in US law
that allows the
Treasury to mint
platinum coins of
any denomination it
chooses.
The $1 trillion coin
scheme first emerged
around the 2011 crisis, when
Republicans blocked President
Obama’s attempts to raise the debt
ceiling. Dismissed as absurd at the
time, the idea has gained currency
as US partisan politics has grown
ever more toxic and entrenched.
At least two congressional
Democrats are reported to have
said his two bills were a “blue-collar
blueprint for how we restore America’s
pride”. As his approval slumps after the
chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan,
White House aides are said to be con-
cerned that Biden is bogged down by
party infighting in Washington. The
president is said to be eager to move the
conversation on to the benefits of his
spending plan for ordinary Americans,
and away from the price tag.
“These are the sort of investments
that get America back in the game, that
give our workers a chance. That’s what
my plan will do,” he said last night “We
haven’t passed an infrastructure bill for
decades in this country. It used to be a
normal thing to do. It used to be a
bipartisan thing to do.”
The phone call on Monday
offered hope of a break-
through, however, as Demo-
crats are resigned to cuts to get
Biden’s package through rather
than risk squandering a
chance while the party has
control of both
houses of Con-
gress. “Some-
thing is better
than nothing,”
one Democrat
official told
CNN after the
meeting.
Pramila
Jayapal, a under Donald Trump’s presidency.
2GM Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times
proposed minting the coin to
outflank Republicans, and although
the White House insists the idea is
not being considered, it no longer
appears as far-fetched as it once did.
This is the third time in a decade
that the US has flirted with a debt
default. Once unthinkable, it no
see implausible that
longer seems
Ameri
America’s partisan politics
coul drive the US
could
eco
economy over a cliff.
Supporters of the
co argue its very
coin
a
absurdity is its
st
strength. If the
go
government can
sim
simply ignore
Con
Congress to raise its
spend
spending power, it might
convinc the two parties to
convince
scrap the debt
d ceiling, or to
matt of course as they
raise it as a matter
did for decades, without the political
showboating, they argue.
Opponents say the coin would set
a disastrous precedent if the White
House were able to discard financial
checks on its powers, threatening
the foundations of US democracy.
representative for Seattle who leads the
left-wing Democrat faction, thanked
Biden for his “leadership” after the call,
and issued a statement vowing to get
“the full Biden agenda back on track”.
Biden also spoke with moderate
Democrats before leaving for Michigan
yesterday, seeking to bring the two
sides closer together. The White House
said the talks were “productive” and
that senators had “renewed their com-
mitment to getting each bill passed”.
Despite the concessions from the
left, however, Manchin and Sinema
Sitars and flutes could drive
appear reluctant to relinquish the up-
per hand. Manchin has refused to com-
mit to the new October 31 deadline set
out India’s sirens and horns
by party leaders to reach a deal, while
Sinema has infuriated fellow Demo- India ministers pass by, the sirens are used at
crats by declining to say which parts of full volume. This also harms the ears.”
Amrit Dhillon Delhi
the $3.5 trillion bill she objects to at all. He added: “I am soon planning to make
On top of his standoff with fellow The interminable din of honking horns a law that the horns of all vehicles
Democrats, Biden faces a showdown and shrill sirens on Indian roads may be should be in Indian musical instru-
with Republicans in Congress over rais- silenced under official plans to fit cars ments so that it is pleasant to hear.”
ing the national debt limit. The US is and emergency service vehicles with Gadkari, 64, has led India’s rapid re-
poised to breach the debt ceiling within the sound of flutes or sitars. development of roads, accelerating the
two weeks, risking a catastrophic Nitin Gadkari, the roads minister, construction of highways to about 25
default for the first time in its history. said the noise of a harmonica, violin or miles a day, drawing praise from even
Mitch McConnell, the Republican even a conch shell could also be used as his political opponents.
leader in the Senate, has barred his long as they are Indian in origin. India has some of the most danger-
members from voting to raise the debt The idea came to Gadkari when he ous roads in the world, with drivers us-
ceiling as he tries to force Democrats to was doing yoga in his 11th-floor flat in ing their horns frequently. Though it
take a complex legal route and carry the Delhi. He said the traffic below had dis- only has about 1 per cent of the world’s
responsibility alone. Democrats argue turbed his equilibrium. “I am thinking vehicles, it accounts for 11 per cent of
that the limit must be raised not only for of using [a] tune for ambulances so that the world’s deaths from road accidents.
Biden’s plans but for debts that soared people feel pleasant,” he said. Replacing horns with music is delightful,
“It is so irritating, especially after but mad, leading article, page 29
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
The Queen
Elizabeth II,
second right,
joined the USS
Carl Vinson, left,
Ronald Reagan,
right, and the
Japanese ship Ise
on naval drills, as
military
helicopters fly
a Taiwanese flag
before national
day celebrations.
Chinese planes,
left, have entered
Taiwan’s airspace
almost 150 times
this month
Orc mask ‘made to look like Weinstein’
Bernard Lagan Sydney
The creative team behind The Lord of
the Rings film trilogy disliked Harvey
Weinstein so much that they modelled
one of the movies’ orcs on him.
Weinstein, who was one of Holly-
wood’s most powerful figures and is
now serving a 23-year sentence for rape
and sexual assault, held the initial
rights to the films through his Miramax
production company.
Elijah Wood, who played Frodo Bag-
gins in Peter Jackson’s films, has re-
vealed the director’s dig at Weinstein by
creating an orc in his likeness.
Wood, 40, said it was payback for
Weinstein giving Jackson an almost im-
possible set of conditions to have The
Lord of the Rings trilogy made by
another studio instead of Miramax.
Not only did Weinstein set Jackson a
Weinstein initially held the film rights
time frame in which to find another stu-
dio, he also stipulated that Miramax’s
replacement must make all three films.
Wood told the Armchair Expert pod-
cast yesterday: “The window of time
was insane. Peter [Jackson] made a
pitch video that’s pretty impressive,
taken to a variety of places. Most people
were balking at the notion of doing
more than one film. The popular opin-
ion was, ‘No, you have to see how [the
The World at Five
How the US Supreme Court
is about to make history
In depth and online today at 5pm
thetimes.co.uk
ROYAL NAVY; CHEN SONG/VCG/GETTY IMAGES; ZUMA PRESS/ALAMY LIVE NEWS
150 miles
CHINA
Senkaku
Islands
TAIWAN
Pacific
Ocean
War over Taiwan
Paracel
Islands
South
China
Sea
Philippine
Sea
PHILIPPINES
Guam
could start at any
Borneo
time, Beijing warns
Taiwan
Didi Tang Beijing
Richard Lloyd Parry Asia Editor
China has warned that war with Tai-
wan “may be triggered at any time”
after it deployed a record number of
fighter jets into the self-governing
island’s air identification zone.
The government in Beijing sent 56
military aircraft, including 38 J-16
fighter jets, into Taiwan’s air defence
identification zone, raising the number
of incursions to 149 flights this month.
This has raised concerns that tensions
in the region could escalate and turn
into a military conflict.
The mass foray yesterday coincided
with a joint drill by the United States
and its allies in the Philippine Sea,
where HMS Queen Elizabeth was spot-
ted with two US aircraft carriers.
The British aircraft carrier later
sailed through the Bashi Channel to en-
ter the tense and disputed waters of the
South China Sea.
The number of the sorties by the Chi-
nese military was the highest since such
operations began last September.
Taiwan’s president has warned of
catastrophic consequences if the island
falls to China, which claims the island
as its own.
An editorial in the Global Times, one
of the most nationalistic of the Chinese
state-owned newspapers, said: “The sit-
uation across the Taiwan Straits has al-
most lost any room for manoeuvre, tee-
tering on the edge of a face-off, creating
a sense of urgency that the war may be
triggered at any time.
“The secessionist forces on the island
will never be allowed to secede Taiwan
from China . . . and the island will not be
allowed to act as an outpost of the US’s
strategic containment against China ...
If the US and [Taiwan] do not take the
initiative to reverse the current situa-
tion, the Chinese mainland’s military
punishment for ‘Taiwan independence’
secessionist forces will eventually be
triggered. Time will prove that this
warning is not just a verbal threat.”
I tortured Uighurs, admits
initial movie] does and then invest the
rest of your money’.”
Chinese whistleblower
But Jackson struck a deal with New
Line Cinema which agreed to make all China
three Lord of the Rings films. “An in-
Catherine Philp
credible risk. Miramax thought there
was no chance in hell,” Wood said. A former Chinese detective turned
Wood said that Sean Astin, who whistleblower has spoken about his
played Samwise Gamgee, spotted the involvement in the abuse of Uighur
Weinstein orc mask when he arrived on Muslims detained in Beijing’s sprawling
the set in New Zealand. internment camp system in Xinjiang.
“He had seen these orc masks. And The man, identified as Jiang, who is
one of the orc masks — and I remember in exile in Europe, described how he
this vividly — was designed to look like was ordered to hang men, women and
Harvey Weinstein as a sort of a ‘f*** children from the ceiling and torture
you,” Wood said, adding: “I think that is them. He was told to beat, sexually
OK to talk about now, the guy is f***ing assault and electrocute detainees, and
incarcerated. F*** him.” use waterboarding to force confessions
The series was a huge financial of terrorist acts.
success and is among the highest- None of them had committed a
grossing of all time, with $2.991 billion crime, he told Ivan Watson in a three-
in worldwide receipts. hour interview on CNN, and all were
31
China claims Taiwan as part of its ter-
ritory and threatens to take it back by
force if necessary. The US, however, op-
poses forced unification and has a
security pact to supply the island with
sufficient hardware and technology to
deter any mainland invasion.
As China is leaning more on the is-
land, the US is strengthening its ties
with Taiwan and forming alliances in
the region, including the recent Aukus
pact, to which the UK is a party. The
partnership will allow Australia to ac-
quire nuclear-powered submarines
The US has given $2.4 billion to Tai-
wan for 400 anti-ship cruise missiles in-
cluding associated radars, road-mobile
launchers, and technical support.
Tsai Ing-wen, the Taiwanese presi-
dent, has published an article warning
of the wide-reaching consequences if
China did succeed in seizing the island
by force. “If Taiwan were to fall, the
consequences would be catastrophic
for regional peace and the democratic
alliance system,” she wrote in Foreign
Affairs magazine.
She expressed hopes for peaceful co-
existence with China, but insisted that
“if its democracy and way of life are
threatened, Taiwan will do whatever it
takes to defend itself.”
Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for
China’s foreign ministry, said that the
US had sent “wrong and irresponsible”
signals by selling weapons to the island,
deepening its military ties with Taiwan
and sailing its warships through the
Taiwan Strait.
“Taiwan is China’s Taiwan. Any at-
tempt to seek Taiwan’s independence is
doomed,” she said.
Meanwhile, Malaysia summoned the
Chinese ambassador to its capital, Kua-
la Lumpur, to protest against the “en-
croachment” of Chinese ships in waters
off Borneo.
President Biden has also called
Japan’s new prime minister, Fumio Kis-
hida, to congratulate him on his elect-
ion and to assure him of America’s
support in defending the Senkaku Is-
lands, which are claimed by China.
detained in mass arrests, underscoring
accusations about the arbitrary nature
of Beijing’s campaign of persecution.
“They are ordinary people,” he told
CNN. “We took [them] all forcibly over-
night. If there were hundreds of people
in one county in this area, then you had
to arrest hundreds of people.”
Beijing’s detention of up to two mil-
lion Uighurs and its persecution of the
minority has been condemned around
the world as a gross violation of human
rights. China denies the accusations.
Jiang said he believed initially that he
was defending his country against an
extremist threat but quickly became
horrified by the violence. “Some people
[officers] see this as a job, some are just
psychopaths,” he said.
32 Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times

World

Mixed race couple reunited after 40 years

United States
Will Pavia New York
One day last summer Jeannie Gustav-
son arrived at a nursing home in Illinois
and asked to see a man she had not laid
eyes on in 42 years. They had fallen in
love in the 1970s but he was black and
she was white and her family disap-
proved. After dating secretly for seven
years, she ended the relationship and
has regretted it ever since.
His name was Steve Watts. A director
of the home examined a graduation
photograph she provided and then
went to get him. “The minute he rolled
into the visiting room and uttered the
sweet nickname he gave me, 42 years
melted away,” she wrote recently.
“He and I were 18 and 21 again. We
cried, we laughed, we held each other.
And most wonderfully we realised we
were still in love.”
Now, after pooling her savings and
raising more through an online fun-
draiser, Gustavson has brought Watts,
71, out of the nursing home to her house
in Portland, Oregon, to pick up where
they left off half a lifetime ago.
“He was my first love,” Gustavson,
now 68, told the Portland television
channel KGW. “That doesn’t go away.”
They had met at Loyola University
Chicago. “He was very handsome,” she
told the station. “He was 6ft 4in — I like
tall guys. He was extremely intelligent,
well-spoken. He was very caring, he al-
ways treated me like a lady.”
Her mother did not approve of inter-
racial relationships and for years they
dated secretly, while she became a
nurse and he taught German and pur-
sued a masters in linguistics, she said.
But they were living on opposite sides
of town and when she began working
odd hours as a nurse, it became harder
to see him. One day she called him dur-
ing a break and ended the relationship.
They broke off all contact, they mar-
ried other people, they divorced, and
while he lived in Chicago, Gustavson
moved to Portland. It was only when
she retired from nursing that she began
trying to trace him. It proved a difficult
search for he seemed to have vanished.
Eventually she found the address of his
niece, in Iowa, who wrote back explain-
Jeannie Gustavson dated Steve Watts
secretly for seven years in the 1970s
ing that Watts was in a care home on
the edge of Chicago.
He did not respond to a letter she sent
and when she contacted the home staff
told her he could not write back, they
could only tell her that he was “alert and
orientated”. After writing another letter
she flew to Chicago and waited in the
visitors room with butterflies in her
stomach.
“She was so beautiful, I couldn’t take
my eyes of her,” Watts told The Wash-
ington Post. “We knew we loved each
other still.” Gustavson told the paper
that her college sweetheart “looked to-
tally different than the guy I knew 50
years ago”. He had suffered two strokes,
was bedridden and had lost his left leg.
“[But] at the core of it, we are still the
same people,” she said. “He is still won-
derful, he is still funny.”
He had been in the home since 2004.
Staff told her she was his first visitor in
ten years. She told the paper that since
arriving at her home Watts had “im-
proved in leaps and bounds”. She added:
“He makes me feel like I’m 18 again.”

MARCOS DEL MAZO/ALAMY LIVE NEWS; NASA

The eruption
has allowed how animals behave
scientists to during a long eruption.
observe rare Manuel Nogales, a
phenomena scientific investigator at
the Spanish National
Research Council, and
his team have used
drones and boats to
observe how the island’s
animals have adapted.
They were surprised
by how quickly animals
adjusted. Birds of prey
started hunting small
birds after many lizards
were buried under lava.
Nogales said that some
younger lizards had
survived and were
venturing on to the
warm lava to sunbathe.
Small birds stopped
singing in the first week
of the eruption but have
now started again. They
stayed in their
territories until the last
moment before the lava
flow reached them.

T
he volcanic observed concentric troposphere, in which a highest parts of the at AEMET, the Spanish Scientists expect the
La Palma eruption on
La Palma is
bands of cloud above the
volcano, like the ripples
layer of hot air sits over
a layer of cooler air.
atmosphere and warms
as it descends.
state weather forecaster,
said: “You needed the
biodiversity of the sea
around La Palma to
eruption creating
opportunities
for scientists to study
caused by a pebble
thrown into a pond. In
this case, the pebble was
Thermal inversions
are common above the
Canary islands, caused
When the rising air
from the volcano meets
the thermal inversion, it
confluence of various
factors. On the one hand
the power of the volcano
suffer for two to three
years as lava warms the
water and releases gases,
makes rare phenomena
including cloud waves
the volcano propelling
air upwards to meet a
by the Azores High, a
large subtropical centre
causes the air to spread
outwards and clouds
acting as the pebble and
on the other a thermal
but the effect should be
temporary and could
waves in and changes in animal
behaviour (Charlie
thermal inversion — a
reversal of the normal
of semi-permanent high
atmospheric pressure in
formed by rising air
make the ripple visible.
inversion.”
The volcano has also
ultimately be beneficial
as the lava brings more
the sky Devereux writes).
Meteorologists have
behaviour of
temperature in the
the Atlantic that brings
air down from the
Juan Jesús González
Alemán, a meteorologist
allowed biologists to
observe for the first time
nutrients into the water,
Nogales said.

Strike threatens to halt action in Hollywood Pallbearers take the strain

Nina Lloyd
Nearly all film and television produc-
tion could grind to a standstill in the
United States after a union that repre-
sents Hollywood’s off-camera workers
voted overwhelmingly to strike.
The International Alliance of Thea-
trical Stage Employees said that almost
99 per cent of registered members, or
53,076 people, had supported industrial
action.
The union is demanding a new con-
tract from leading studios that will
guarantee longer rest periods between
shifts for employees, wage parity
between streaming and traditional pro-
ductions, and higher wages for co-ordi-
nators and assistants. The workers
include camera operators, cinema-
tographers, script co-ordinators, set
decorators, make-up artists, editors and
behind-the-scenes specialists.
Films in development that could be
delayed by the strike action include two
sequels in the Mad Max franchise,
right, and Christopher Nolan’s untitled
as Dutch pile on pounds
new Second World War epic. “I hope
that the studios will see and understand
livelihoods of these workers, but also
their family members who rely upon
the resolve of our members,” Matthew work in your industry, sending shock-
Loeb, the union’s president, said. “The waves throughout the US economy,” Netherlands Van Wijk funeral caskets, in the un-
ball is in their court. If they want to the letter said. dertaking business since 1925, has
Bruno Waterfield
avoid a strike, they will return w
Crews last walked off set in added an inch to the width of its coffins
ble and
to the bargaining table 1945 in a mass protest Increases in the size and weight of “due to increasing demand”. The bigger
make us a reasonable able known as Hollywood’s Dutch people are forcing the country’s coffins and larger corpses are increas-
offer.” Black Friday. The funeral industry to introduce bigger ing the weight with implications for fu-
Within hours off dem
demonstration coffins, more pallbearers, wider crema- neral corteges with the number of pall-
the announcement, tur
turned violent, toria ovens and longer cremation bearers rising from the traditional six to
studios agreed to w
with workers and times. eight more frequently.
take part in further st
studio represent- A study by the NRC Handelsblad Extra pallbearers means extra costs,
negotiations and a
atives clashing newspaper has found that the Dutch usually €100 per funeral, which are not
those started yes- o
outside the gates funeral is changing as people in the covered by most death insurance plans.
terday. of Warner Bros. Netherlands get fatter. Overweight or obese people also take
It comes after 120 Shorter seasons Official health statistics show that longer to cremate. “We generally count
members of Con- for TV shows and half of Dutch people are too heavy, with 15 minutes longer,” said the Dela funer-
gress, includingg the b
boom in stream- 35 per cent moderately overweight and al company, which manages 22 crema-
Chuck Schumer, the iing
ng ha
have further exac- about 15 per cent classed as obese. toria across the Netherlands.
Democratic enate
Senate erbated the impact of In England, 36 per cent of adults are Obese Dutch people, frightened by
majority leader, sentt a letter llower
ower wage
wages. overweight and a further 28 per cent the higher risks posed by Covid-19,
on Friday to the Alliance of On Monday, the Alliance of are classed as obese. have increasingly undertaken gastric
Motion Picture and Television Produc- Motion Picture and Te Television Produc- In recent years most coffin makers bypass surgery. The number requesting
ers urging the negotiation of a “fair” ers said that it hoped to reach an agree- have made caskets bigger to, as one the operation has risen from 7,000 to
deal for workers. “Failure to reach an ment for a contract that would “keep maker put it, match “the average stat- 8,050 since September 2020, De Tele-
agreement would threaten not only the the industry working”. ure of the contemporary Dutchman”. graaf newspaper reported.
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021 2GM 33

World
DAVID NIVIERE/ABACA PRESS/ALAMY; RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

French church Princess Charlene has

called on the royal family to
end its succession battles
after the death of King
Goodwill Zwelithini

shamed over for almost 50 years, there

have been claims of
poison plots, a faked will
and enemy households.

300,000 child At his funeral, Charlene

was seated with his wives
and children, later saying
that she shared “many
special moments over the

abuse victims years” with the king.

Prince Misuzulu Zulu,
the eldest son of the late
leader and his regent
queen whose death
France hear, or to detect the signs [of abuse],” followed only weeks later,
Sauvé added. was named the
Charles Bremner Paris
The French report echoed investiga- designated heir, but some
The French Catholic church systemati- tions into sexual abuse in the Catholic relatives have rejected his
cally covered up sexual abuse by clergy- churches of Germany, the United succession.
men and lay personnel against 330,000 States, Australia and other countries. Charlene was last seen
children over the past seven decades, The Vatican has been worried that the in Monaco in January at
an investigation concluded yesterday. French findings — the first from one of an official event with her
The long-awaited findings of the 18- the faith’s historically major members husband, and has been in
month inquiry were even more devas- — would be devastating. This year the South Africa at least
tating than expected, Jean-Marc Sauvé, Pope described the church’s global since the royal funeral.
who led the investigation, said. record of sexual abuse of children as a She cited a sinus infection
“Until the early 2000s the Catholic disaster. after treatment for dental
church showed a profound and even While some senior church figures in implants for her failure to
cruel indifference towards the victims,” France voiced hope that the painful fly home. Last month her
he said. The “failures and silence” of the report would mark a turning point, departure was delayed
church were “systemic”. enabling Catholics to draw a line under further after she
The Vatican said that the Pope had years of scandal, Monsignor Éric de collapsed with
learnt “with pain” of the report’s con- Moulins-Beaufort, head of the confer- complications linked to
tents. “His thoughts turn first to the vic- ence of French bishops, said the find- her condition and was
tims, with great sorrow for their ings were “truly unbearable” and that admitted to hospital.
wounds and gratitude for their courage “the time of ambiguity and naivety is Albert has denied talk
in speaking out,” a spokesman said. over for the church”. of divorce. The couple
Sauvé, a retired senior civil servant, He added: “I express my shame, my have twins — Prince
said the investigation had found that horror, my determination to act. To the Jacques and Princess
“the Catholic church is, after the circle victims, some of whose names I know, I Gabriella — aged six.
of family and friends, the environment say that my wish today is to ask your Sh didn’t leave
“She
that has the highest prevalence of forgiveness.” Mona in a huff. She
Monaco
sexual violence”. Sauvé and his 21-strong team, all un- didn’t leave because she
The church must financially com- affiliated with the church, conducted was m mad at me or at
pensate all the victims of the paedo- in-depth interviews with 250 people any
anybody else . . . It was
phile crimes whether or not they could among 6,000 who had come forward as ab
absolutely just a
be proven and “must not view the pay- victims. The team passed about 40 m
medical problem
ments as a gift but as a duty”, he added. cases to prosecutors. The rest were Flanagan writes). w
which had to be
He said the church had shown “cruel
indifference” towards the 216,000 vic-
covered by the statute of limitations.
The inquiry had access to police files as
Princess Charlene, 43, has
called on the ruling
tr
treated,” Albert told
People magazine.
P
tims of priests and the estimated
114,000 victims of teachers and other
well as church archives. “If the veil of
silence covering the acts committed
wades into family of South
Africa’s largest po
The princess has
posted images on
personnel in church institutions
between 1950 and 2020.
has finally been torn open . . . we owe it
to the courage of these victims,” Sauvé
Zulu power ethnic group to halt
their succession
Ins
Instagram
stay.
during her
stay The most recent
A minimum of 3,000 priests and
church officials had performed crimi-
wrote.
Among a series of recommendations,
struggle battles “for the sake of
he
unity”, according to the
post sshows her wearing a
rosar bead necklace in
rosary

P
nal acts, he said. the panel urged the church to recognise rincess Charlene country’s national front of an open Bible,
About 60 per cent of the victims were “its systemic responsibility and exam- of Monaco has broadcaster. and ccaptioned “God
boys but members of the investigating ine the factors which led to its institu- volunteered to The former Olympicc that she has separated Bless” followed by a heart
committee, who included psychologists tional failure”. In calculating compen- mediate in the swimmer has spent most from Prince Albert. emoji. Charlene
and legal experts, said they believed sation, it said the church should take power struggles of the year in South Since the death in converted to Catholicism
that fewer women than men had come into consideration “the harm suffered of another royal family, Africa where she grew March of King Goodwill shortly before her
forward to report their childhood abus- rather than referring to categories of the warring Zulus (Jane up, triggering rumours Zwelithini, 72, who ruled wedding in 2011.
ers. “The church was unable to see, to crime committed”.

Far-right pundit keeps fans Bavarian berries still unsafe after Chernobyl
guessing about Élysée run
Adam Sage Paris
The 3,700-seat Palais des Congrès was
full for Éric Zemmour, the far-right
pundit who is threatening to transform
the French political landscape just as
Donald Trump did in the US.
Monday’s event had been billed as an
intellectual debate between Zemmour,
63, and Michel Onfray, 62, a philoso-
pher with nationalistic opinions. Yet it
often felt more like an election rally
with Zemmour’s supporters cheering as
he denounced the decadence of west-
ern civilisation, the threat of Islam and
the risk of a civil war in a French society
split along religious lines.
Shouts of “Zemmour, président,”
rang around the arena as the news-
paper columnist made his entrance.
The chants may be a little premature.
Zemmour, a political neophyte, has yet
to confirm that he will run for the presi-
dency next year. Yet his intrusion is
already rocking boats across the
French political spectrum.
Marine Le Pen, 53, leader of the far-
right National Rally, is worried that
Zemmour, who is attracting 15 per cent
of the vote in recent polls, could elimi-
nate her in the first round of next year’s
election. The Republicans, the main-
stream right-wing opposition, have
similar concerns as Zemmour eats into
their support, too.
As for President Macron, 43, he is
said to be unsure whether to denounce
the pundit as a racist and a populist or to
ignore him altogether.
The risk for Macron if he tries to stay
above the fray is that Zemmour will
continue to impose immigration and
Islam as the two main campaign
themes, to the exclusion of the health
crisis, the economy, the environment
and almost everything else.
Germany
Oliver Moody Berlin
Mushrooms, berries and wild boar in
the forests of southern Germany are
still partially contaminated with dan-
gerous levels of radioactive material
from the Chernobyl disaster 35 years
ago, scientists have said.
Those who may be tempted to forage
in parts of the countryside around
Munich have been warned to avoid
blueberries, cranberries and certain
fungi because of the high concentra-
tions of caesium-137, an unstable iso-
tope with a half-life of 30 years.
Researchers have also recommended
that children and breastfeeding moth-
ers should eat farmed mushrooms and
berries instead.
In April 1986 the Soviet nuclear
power plant at Chernobyl in Ukraine
exploded, sending a dense plume of ra-
dioactive particles into the atmosphere.
Winds carried these particles to west-
ern Europe, where rainstorms dumped
Radiation Kilobecquerels per sq m
Less than 2 10-40 185–1,480
may have penetrated as deeply as 50m
below the forest floor in some cases. It
2-10 40-185 is taken up from the loam by fungi,
plants and the animals that eat them.
Bavarian wild boar, which rootle
Chernobyl around in the undergrowth for food,
have been found to carry radiation
GERMANY levels up to a hundred times higher
UKRAINE than the safe level set out by the EU.
Munich “Unfortunately the contamination in
AUSTRIA the affected woodlands is only very
slowly decreasing,” Hauke Doerk, a
Source: Le Monde Diplomatique, 2000 physicist at the institute, told the Süd-
deutsche Zeitung newspaper.
significant quantities over Austria and The problem is particularly bad in
southern Bavaria. In Munich the radia- conifer forests, where trees trapped the
tion levels rose to more than ten times radioactive ions in their needles and
their normal level. then shed them into the underlying hu-
The Munich Environmental Insti- mus over the years after the disaster.
tute, founded after the catastrophe to Some edible mushrooms, such as the
measure the danger to public health, bay bolete and the wood hedgehog, are
said the consequences were still being more dangerous than others.
felt, particularly around popular day- The institute calculated that eating a
trip destinations such as the Starnberg 500g dose of contaminated mush-
and Ammer lakes. rooms delivers a dose of radioactivity
Experts estimate that the caesium roughly equivalent to a chest x-ray.
34 2GM Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times

World
Taliban allows women’s radio station to stay on air
Afghanistan
Charlie Faulkner Kabul
A radio station run by women for
women is continuing to operate under
Taliban rule and hopes to improve girls’
access to education across Afghanistan.
Radio Begum 90.1 FM, part of the pri-
vately run Awaz Media Group, fell quiet
and its staff fled as reports of the Tali-
ban entering Kabul emerged in August,
amid fears the new government would
want to stop it from broadcasting.
However, the organisation ap-
proached Taliban officials two weeks
ago and permission was given for the
female employees to return to work
and for it to continue broadcasting.
“I was very worried about the situa-
tion. We stopped broadcasting for a lit-
tle while because we didn’t know what
the Taliban’s policy would be,” Hamida
Aman, the founder of Awaz Media
Group, told The Times from Switzer-
land. “We were received very positively.
The officials said they had not had
many media organisations come to in-
troduce themselves.”
Radio Begum was launched on Inter-
national Women’s Day in March and
broadcasts shows about health, current
affairs relevant to women, counselling
services and educational modules.
Lessons across various subjects in-
cluding mathematics are delivered and
children are invited into the studio for
an interactive experience. Although
the station is only broadcasting from
Kabul and Ghazni, a city about 90 miles
southwest of the capital, it aims to ex-
pand its reach across all 34 provinces.
“I had anticipated the Taliban taking
control of the country and thought a
radio show for ladies would respond to
a need, particularly for women and girls
in remote areas because they have less
access,” Aman, 48, said.
“We don’t have any choice but to
Duterte will fight any
charges at the Hague
Philippines President Duterte will
communicate with the Taliban. They defend himself against any charge
are the authorities. We are not here to of crimes against humanity
judge them but just to keep going and brought in the International
delivering information to our audien- Criminal Court, he said, also
ces,” Aman said. “We shouldn’t fear promising to protect police
them. What we’re doing, it’s not against officers imprisoned for their part
religion, it’s just for the good of people, in his campaign against drugs.
and women in particular. If we as ladies Duterte withdrew the country
stay at home and hide ourselves, they from the ICC in 2019 but the
win the battle. We need to keep going court claims jurisdiction up to
with our normal life.” then. Officially 6,200 drug
Gulalai Babakarkhil, 25, one of the suspects were killed in the “war
presenters, said: “We’re trying to re- on drugs”, which has been
main hopeful but we’re all still very Duterte’s central policy since
worried. We don’t know what the future being elected president in 2016.
holds for us.” Human rights groups say twice
that number have been killed,
VIRUNGA NATIONAL PARK; MATHIEU SHAMAVU/AP along with hundreds of innocent
bystanders, including children.

Sad farewell PM ousted after split

for gorilla who in Romanian coalition
Romania Florin Citu was ousted
was selfie star as prime minister after MPs
overwhelmingly backed a

A
mountain gorilla
who became an
internet star
after appearing
in a selfie taken
in Africa’s oldest national
park, has died in the arms
of the ranger who rescued
her as an infant (Jane
Flanagan writes)
The picture of Ndakasi
taking her last breath while
being cradled by Andre
Bauma shows the bond
between the endangered
apes and those risking their
lives to guard them.
Ndakasi and Ndeze, who
appeared in the selfie shot,
were the first orphans to be
cared for at Senkwekwe
centre for orphaned gorillas
managed by Bauma, 49, in
Virunga national park.
Ndakasi regarded Bauma
as her surrogate mother
after he scooped her up
from the floor of Africa’s
largest rainforest in 2007
when she was weeks old.
More than 200 of the park’s
rangers have been killed in
Virunga over the past 20
years protecting the
dwindling population of
apes in the war-torn east of
the Democratic Republic of
the Congo. The 14-year-old
female died last week after
a prolonged illness.
“Ndakasi took her final
breath in the loving arms of
her caretaker and lifelong
friend, Andre Bauma,” a
statement said. Bauma
discovered Ndakasi clinging
to her dead mother, who
had been shot in the back
of her head. She weighed
5lb 8oz (2.4kg) and was 18in
long. Few thought she
would survive, but she grew
no-confidence motion in his
government. The three-party
coalition split last month when
Citu, of the National Liberal
Party, sacked the justice minister,
Stelian Ion, of USR-Plus, in a row
over regional development. Citu
could be reappointed if MPs fail
to agree on a replacement. (AP)
Ship’s anchor may have
cut California oil pipe
United States The pipeline that
leaked tens of thousands of
gallons of oil into the sea off
southern California was split and
apparently pulled more than 100
feet, possibly by a ship’s anchor,
officials said. The dragged
segment was three quarters of a
mile long, and the gash was over
Andre Bauma a foot wide, the Coast Guard said.
with Ndakasi, The break was five miles offshore
who is on the and at a depth of 100 feet. (AP)
left of the
famous shot
Speaker is removed in
to be a healthy 65kg and clash over oligarch law
always viewed Bauma as Ukraine President Zelensky’s
her parent. “Whenever she Servant of the People party voted
sees me she climbs on my to remove the parliamentary
back like she would with speaker. Dmytro Razumkov, 37,
her mother,” he said. was suspended after he opposed
laws intended to limit the
influence of oligarchs. Critics say
the law, passed last month, gives

Mossad agents ‘snatched Iranian

Zelensky too much power and
could aid corruption. A further
vote on Razumkov’s removal will
be held tomorrow. (Reuters)

general in hunt for Israeli airman’
Israel
David Rose Beirut
Anshel Pfeffer
Israeli spies abducted an Iranian gener-
al last month in an effort to discover the
fate of an Israeli serviceman who went
missing in Lebanon 35 years ago, it was
claimed yesterday.
The unidentified general was alle-
gedly taken from Syria to a country in
Africa where he was interrogated by
agents from Mossad, the spy agency,
and then released, according to an
Arabic news report.
Naftali Bennett, Israel’s prime minis-
ter, revealed that Mossad operatives
had completed a “complex, wide-scale
and daring” recent mission to discover
the fate of Ron Arad, an Israeli air force
navigator who was captured by militant
groups and last heard from in 1988.
Bennett did not go into detail about
the recent mission and was criticised by
opposition parties and intelligence
sources for announcing a supposedly
covert operation in a speech to the
Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
But the Rai al-Youm newspaper,
which is based in London, claimed the
mission involved abducting the Iranian
general and would not go unnoticed,
potentially forcing the prime minister
to go public.
“It is likely that the Iranians followed
the operation after it occurred, and dis-
covered where and how it was man-
aged,” the report said, without elaborat-
ing further.
Other reports claimed that Mossad
agents had allegedly examined a corpse
in a northern Lebanese village and
extracted DNA from it, to see if it was
the remains of the missing navigator.
Arad bailed out of his F-4 Phantom
fighter jet when it was damaged by a
malfunctioning bomb on a mission
over southern Lebanon in 1986.
His pilot was rescued but the 28-
year-old air force captain was captured
by members of the Shia Amal organisa-
tion, who later defected to Hezbollah,
the Iran-backed militant group.
Previous Israeli investigations have
suggested that the navigator may have
been handed over to the Iranian Revo-
lutionary Guards and taken to Tehran
but concluded that he likely died under
torture or after falling ill in Lebanon.
Israel has never officially declared
him dead, and has continued to search
for clues about Arad or to find his re-
mains, including by capturing members
of Hezbollah and offering a $10 million
reward.
Opening the Israeli parliament’s new
session, Bennett said Mossad agents
had undertaken a renewed search for
information last month.
“It was a complex, wide-scale and
daring operation. That’s all that can be
said right now,” he said. “We made fur-
ther efforts on the path to understand-
ing Ron’s fate.”
According to Israeli security sources,
Trump off rich list for
first time in 25 years
United States Donald Trump has
dropped out of the Forbes 400 list
of America’s richest people for the
the operation failed to yield much new first time in 25 years. At a net
information of any value. worth of $2.5 billion, the real
The prime minister’s office defended estate mogul and former
his reference to a Mossad operation, president missed the cut by about
which would normally be kept secret, as $400 million. Five years ago he
“expressing the great effort and com- was worth $3.7 billion, but since
mitment to return our sons to their bor- the pandemic big city properties,
ders, even many years after they were which make up the bulk of
captured by the enemy”. Trump’s fortune, have languished.
It described the mission as a
“successful operation carried out while Ancient limestone loo
meeting exceptional operational objec-
tives”. That was reportedly contradict- gave relief to the rich
ed by David Barnea, the director of Israel Archaeologists in Jerusalem
Mossad, who was quoted by Israel’s have found a rare lavatory more
Channel 12 news as telling an internal than 2,700 years old. It was carved
meeting: “It was a courageous, daring, from limestone and designed for
complex operation, but it was a failure. comfort, with smooth surfaces
We failed.” and a deep septic tank dug
Other unnamed officials accused underneath. Private lavatories
Bennett of trying to make political gain were a luxury in the holy city and
by mentioning the mission, and told only the very rich could afford
local media: “It was better not to publi- them. This one was in a cabin
cise it. There was unfortunately no attached to a mansion overlooking
breakthrough here.” what is now the Old City. (AP)
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
world markets (Change on the day)
FTSE 100
7,077.10 (+66.09)
7,500
7,000
6,500
6,000
Sept 6 14 22 30
Chip shortage blamed as new car sales hit wall in September
James Hurley
The UK’s new car market has recorded
its weakest September in 23 years, ac-
cording to figures from the industry’s
trade body.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers
and Traders said the figure of 215,312
cars registered last month was more
than a third down on September last
year, when pandemic restrictions were
curtailing economic activity.
September is typically the second
busiest month of the year for the indus-
try, but a global shortage of computer
Brent Crude
2020 2021
Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jul
Gas prices surge to record high
Rise in oil costs amid supply shortage adds to inflation fears
Emily Gosden Energy Editor
Gas prices in the UK surged by more
than a fifth to new all-time highs yester-
day as Europe’s energy crisis deepened.
Oil prices globally also jumped to
fresh three-year highs of more than $83
a barrel on fears of a supply shortfall,
threatening to hamper the fragile
economic recovery and compound a
growing cost of living crisis.
Soaring energy prices have increased
inflationary pressures, sending the
yield on 10-year UK government bonds
to 1.09 per cent, the highest since May
commodities
Dow Jones Gold
34,314.67 (+311.75) $1,758.71 (-9.37)
36,000
34,000
32,000
30,000
Sept 6 14 22 30 Sept 6
chips has limited availability. Last
month’s “desperately disappointing”
figures were 44.7 per cent down on the
pre-pandemic ten-year average for the
month and the lowest number since
September 1998, the organisation said.
Overall registrations in 2021 so far
are only 6 per cent ahead of last year.
There was a particularly large fall
among commercial car buyers, with
registrations among large fleets down
43.1 per cent to 90,445 units, while pri-
vate demand was down 25.3 per cent,
with 120,560 new registrations.
However, sales of electric cars are
$100
80
60
40
20
Jul Aug Sept
2019. Markets believe there is a one in
four chance that the Bank of England
will be forced to raise rates next month.
Household energy bills could jump
by as much as a third or £420 to almost
£1,700 a year from April if wholesale gas
prices do not abate in coming months,
experts warned.
Rising wholesale energy costs have
already fed through to a 12 per cent rise
in the energy price cap, which limits
tariffs for 15 million households or just
over half of all UK homes. The cap in-
creased by 12 per cent to £1,277 a year
last week and is due to be updated again
Brent crude (6pm)
$ $82.73 (+1.07)
2,000
1,800
1,600
1,400
14 22 30 Sept 6 14 22
rising rapidly and September was the
best month ever for new battery elec-
tric vehicle uptake, the SMMT said.
The 32,721 electric cars that joined
the road last month, a market share of
15 per cent, reflected “the wide range of
models now available and growing con-
sumer appetite”, the group said.
Market share for plug-in hybrid cars,
which can be recharged from external
power sources as well as an on-board
conventional engine, rose to 6.4 per
cent. Hybrid electric vehicles, which
combine a conventional engine with an
electric propulsion system, grew their
ICE UK Natural Gas Electronic
2021
Jan Feb Mar Apr May
in April. Deals cheaper than the cap
have disappeared from the market and
some suppliers are now marketing
fixed-priced tariffs at as much as £2,000
a year.
UK benchmark month-ahead gas
prices surged by more than a fifth to
trade at more than 300p per therm for
the first time ever yesterday, more than
double their level less than a month
ago. Such prices have only previously
been seen briefly for day-ahead gas de-
livery during extreme cold spells.
Phil Hewitt of EnAppSys, the con-
sultancy, said: “The last time gas was at
35
Business
currencies
£/$ £/€
$ $1.3637 (+0.0032) $ €1.1747 (+0.0063) ¤
85 1.450 1.200
80 1.400 1.175
75 1.350 1.150
70 1.300 1.125
30 Sept 6 14 22 30 Sept 6 14 22 30
market share from 8 per cent last year to Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist
11.6 per cent, with 24,961 registered. at Pantheon Macroeconomics, was op-
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the timistic that sales would improve once
SMMT, said the overall figures offered consumer confidence had rebounded.
“further evidence of the ongoing im- “Households now have excess savings
pact of the Covid pandemic on the sec- equal to 8.3 per cent of 2020 GDP, with
tor”, adding: “Despite strong demand much of that held by high-income
for new vehicles over the summer, households who are most likely to buy
three successive months have been hit a new vehicle,” he said.
by stalled supply due to reduced semi- Alex Buttle, director of the used car
conductor availability.” marketplace Motorway.co.uk, said the
Hawes called for a “massive invest- production line disruption was likely to
ment in public charging infrastructure” continue well into next year.
to ensure the “rocketing uptake” of Melrose feels ripple effect from global
electric vehicles continued. chip shortage, page 42
300p
250
200
150
100
Source: Refintiv
50
0
Jun Jul Aug Sept
this level was for a few days in March pipeline gas supplies are also lower
2018. This price level is currently the than expected, leaving Europe compet-
price for the whole of winter. This is ing with Asia for scarce cargos of
extreme pricing.” liquefied natural gas.
Month-ahead gas prices are now Experts said colder weather and
more than eight times higher than they further supply constraints had driven
were a year ago while electricity prices the latest rally.
are more than five times higher than a Thomas Rodgers of Icis, the price re-
year ago, Hewitt said. porting agency, said: “With the Euro-
A global shortage of gas has pushed pean market entering the winter with
up prices the world over as demand record low stocks, margins for the heat-
bounces back from the pandemic and ing season are exceptionally tight. Over
supplies remain constrained. A cold the past few days we’ve had weather
winter last year has left stock levels in forecasts in Europe turn colder and
Europe unusually low while Russian Continued on page 38, col 1
36
Business
Need to know
1
A Facebook outage which left
billions of people without
access to the social network,
Instagram or WhatsApp shows
that large tech firms should be
broken up, the EU’s competition
commissioner has said. Margrethe
Vestager said that the incident
highlighted the risks created when
individual firms hold such
dominant positions. The social
media company has also been
accused by a whistleblower of
putting profit before people.
Page 16
2
Gas prices in the UK surged
by more than a fifth to new
record highs as Europe’s
energy crisis deepened. Oil prices
globally also jumped to three-year
highs amid fears of a supply
shortfall, threatening to hamper
the fragile economic recovery and
compound a growing cost of living
crisis. Pages 35, 38
3
The UK’s new car market had
its weakest September in 23
years, according to figures
from the industry’s trade body. The
Society of Motor Manufacturers
and Traders said the figure of
215,312 cars registered last month
was more than a third down on
September last year, when
pandemic restrictions were
curtailing economic activity.
Page 35
4
America will fall into
recession if Congress fails to
address the federal debt
ceiling within a fortnight,
according to Janet Yellen, the US
Treasury secretary.
5
Deepmind, Google’s London-
based artificial intelligence
lab, has moved into the black
for the first time after the Silicon
Valley giant used more of its
discoveries in its commercial
products.
6
Businesses raised prices at the
fastest pace on record last
month as they continued to
grapple with staff shortages and
supply chain problems, the closely
watched IHS Markit/CIPS
composite purchasing managers’
index suggests. Page 38
7
Greggs, the bakery chain, has
raised its full-year profit
expectations and outlined
plans to double its annual revenues
within five years despite warning
about supply chain pressures and
shortages. Pages 40-41
8
Edi Truell, the serial
dealmaker, has unveiled plans
to raise as much as
£125 million for a blank cheque
investment company that will
target a takeover in the financial
services industry. Page 40
9
Melrose Industries, the FTSE
100 engineering conglomerate,
says it is being hit by a worse
than expected crunch in the global
supply of semiconductors, which is
causing turmoil for car
manufacturers. Page 42
10 Great Portland Estates,
one of London’s biggest
landlords, which controls
a portfolio of central London
offices and retail property, has
recorded its best quarterly rent
collection since before the
pandemic as workers return to
offices and footfall picks up on
high streets. Page 43
Economy
feels pain
of missing
EU workers
Businesses will have
to adapt by investing
in productivity or
improving pay, writes
Gurpreet Narwan
It would be impossible to tell the story
of Britain’s labour market without
acknowledging the outsized role that
migrant workers have played in recent
decades.
In 1996, just 5 per cent of Britain’s
workers were born outside the UK but
by 2019 this figure had more than
trebled to 17 per cent. Overseas workers
accounted for 60 per cent of the UK’s
net employment growth during that
period, a figure that rose to 67 per cent
in the southeast, 74 per cent in the West
Midlands and 107 per cent in outer
London.
A robust economy, good comparative
wages and the expansion of free move-
ment drew workers to the UK, while
high unemployment on the Continent
in the second decade of the new millen-
nium encouraged many to look here in
search of better opportunities.
However, Brexit and the pandemic
are bringing this chapter to an end. The
value of the pound slid after Britain
voted to leave the EU in 2016, lowering
the value of remittances home by for-
eign workers and making low-paid jobs
in Britain — disproportionately filled
by overseas workers — less appealing.
Since the referendum, the number of
EU workers coming to the UK has been
Congress risks recession, says Yellen Bitcoin rallies
Callum Jones
US Business Correspondent
American markets rebounded sharply
yesterday after Monday’s sell-off, de-
spite a warning from Janet Yellen, the
Treasury Secretary, that the world’s
largest economy would fall into reces-
sion if Congress fails to address the fed-
eral debt ceiling within a fortnight.
It was the fourth consecutive trading
day in which the broadly-based S&P
500 recorded a move of more than 1 per
cent in either direction. The last time
the index saw that amount of volatility
was in November 2020, when it rose or
fell 1 per cent or more for seven straight
sessions. It closed up 1.1 per cent at
4,345.72 in New York last night.
Technology stocks led yesterday’s
rise with the Nasdaq up 1.3 per cent at
14,433.83. Apple was 1.4 per cent higher
and Amazon shares gained 1 per cent.
The Dow Jones industrial average
rose 0.9 per cent to 34,314.67.
The US Treasury secretary issued
her direct warning yesterday over the
in decline, a trend that accelerated
dramatically when job opportunities
dried up during the pandemic.
Data on migration is difficult to col-
lect and notoriously unreliable but offi-
cial estimates suggest that the number
of EU citizens in the UK fell by 100,000
last year. The consequences of this are
being felt now that the economy has
reopened and demand has returned.
Sectors that disproportionately employ
overseas workers, such as the hospitali-
ty and food manufacturing sectors, are
now feeling the pain. Many roles in
these sectors, such as chefs or meat
packers, have a higher than average
turnover rate and fall outside the gov-
ernment’s list of eligible occupations
for the skilled worker visa, making re-
cruitment even more challenging.
Points of tension are appearing
across the labour market, forcing
policymakers to loosen rules in order to
allow businesses to fill key positions.
On its own, however, this is not enough.
The government recently made 300
visas available for HGV drivers in the
fuel industry but only 27 fuel tanker
drivers from the EU have applied to the
scheme.
Rod McKenzie, director of policy at
the Road Haulage Association, said:
“People don’t want to come unless it is
a really attractive alternative. You don’t
give up a well-paid job for a better-paid
job if it will only last a few months.”
Economists accept that businesses
will have to adapt to the decline in over-
seas workers by either investing in pro-
ductivity-enhancing technologies or
improving pay and working conditions
in order to attract workers. “Improve-
risks posed as political wrangling con-
tinued on Capitol Hill.
It would be catastrophic if the gov-
ernment cannot pay the bills, she said,
declaring it “utterly essential” for the
ceiling to be lifted by October 18 to
avoid an unprecedented default.
Congress has been setting a debt
limit for a century, restricting the
amount that the US may borrow. Rais-
ing the limit was once considered rou-
tine but has become caught up in
high-stakes political battles
over unrelated matters.
Since the summer, the US
Treasury has been using so-
called extraordinary meas-
ures to save cash and meet
its financial obligations.
It does not believe these
actions will tide it over
for much longer, how-
ever, and Yellen has
Janet Yellen said it
was essential to lift
the debt ceiling
2GM
New jobs landscape
Migrants account for the majority of the recent increase in employment
Net change in employment among those age 16 and older
UK
Rest of world
EU
2000 2005
ments in conditions would be very wel-
come given the poor record that many
migrant-dense industries currently
have when it comes to labour market
rights,” the Resolution Foundation
wrote in a recent report. It found that
between 2015 and 2019, 15 per cent of
workers in the hospitality sector said
they received no paid holiday.
In a politically expedient move, the
government has also emphasised this
point. Speaking at the Conservative
Party conference in Manchester, Boris
Johnson said: “What I think should
been increasingly vocal about the
potential consequences.
But congressional leaders have yet to
make progress. Yellen called on them
urgently “to figure out” how to pass an
adjustment to the debt ceiling, in a new
intervention yesterday. In an interview
with CNBC, the former chairwoman of
the US Federal Reserve said she fully
expected that failure to do so “would
cause a recession”.
“Once decisions are made, we have to
pay the bills that come from those deci-
sions,” Yellen told the financial news
network. “And so to place an arbitrary
ceiling on our debt and to create peri-
odic crises, manufactured crises
that really place our economy
and financial system at risk,
especially now that we’re
recovering from the pan-
demic in a fragile way, I
consider this irrespon-
sible. I believe both
parties have a respon-
sibility to get this
done.”
Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times
+ 9m
+ 8m
+ 7m
+ 6m
+ 5m
+ 4m
+ 3m
+ 2m
+ 1m
2010 2015 2020
happen is that organically business and
industry should be paying people a little
bit more in order to help them.”
Higher wages could go some way
towards attracting UK citizens to take
on jobs formerly filled by migrants.
Britain’s labour market is smaller than it
was before the pandemic, not only
because of a fall in the number of
migrants, but also because of high
levels of economic inactivity.
Many older workers who left the
labour market last year opted for
retirement and students opted to stay in
after Wall St
warm words
Callum Jones
US Business Correspondent
Bitcoin has crossed the $50,000 level
again after analysts declared that
cryptocurrencies have become “too
large to ignore”.
The world’s largest digital currency
has rallied by a fifth over the past
week as more Wall Street institutions
plunged into the wider crypto-space.
Smaller assets, including ethereum,
binance and dogecoin, have also risen.
Heightened interest lifted bitcoin by
3.9 per cent to a four-week high of
$50,940.36, its latest recovery during a
year of volatile trading.
Bitcoin was created in 2008 as strings
of computer code with no physical form
by a software developer using the name
Satoshi Nakamoto. Intended as an
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
100,000
ONS estimate for the number of EU
migrants who left during the pandemic
Job searches for work in the UK (compared to pre-pandemic average)
France Germany Spain
-49.4% -45.8%
-58.4%
education instead of entering the world
of work. Millions of people were also
still on furlough before the scheme
came to an end last week. Higher wage
rates could draw some of these people
back into work.
Sanjay Raja, senior UK economist at
Deutsche Bank, said: “The eventual
return of students should support the
labour force, and a resumption of cross-
border labour flows will also be helpful.
Our base case, however, is that the
labour market may take some time to
get back to where it was prior to the
alternative means of payment for goods
and services, its main use so far has
been in speculative trading.
Signs of a shift from the fringes of
global finance to the mainstream
boosted it to a record high of over
$63,000 in April. Concern over its envi-
ronmental impact and doubts over its
potential led to its value halving.
Bank of America this week became
the latest firm to launch specialist cov-
erage of cryptocurrencies and other
digital assets. The space has become
“too large to ignore”, its strategists told
clients. The coverage will be led by
Alkesh Shah, who said the ecosystem
was “so much more” than bitcoin.
Yesterday US Bancorp launched a
cryptocurrency custody service for
institutional investment managers.
Gunjan Kedia, who leads its wealth
management and investment services,
cited interest from clients which had
“grown strongly” over recent years.
Gary Gensler, chairman of the Secu-
rities and Exchange Commission, said
yesterday that the US would not follow
China’s lead in banning digital tokens.
“Our approach is really quite different,”
he said, adding that any ban would
probably need legislation by Congress.
2GM
Poland Europe
-48.1%
-53.2%
pandemic, given lingering health
concerns, the slow rise in immigration,
and a perhaps somewhat more
permanent jump in inactivity owing to
the rise in retirement.”
As businesses continue to point out,
higher wages alone will not address the
problem. It is impossible to train up
butchers and lorry drivers overnight
and many argue that the government is
not doing enough to attract workers to
come to the UK. Wage rates in these
sectors have already started to rise and
European workers are resuming their
Google’s intelligent British
ally makes its first profit
Simon Duke
Google’s London-based artificial intel-
ligence lab has moved into the black for
the first time after the Silicon Valley
giant used more of its discoveries in its
commercial products.
DeepMind’s maiden annual profit
draws a line under many years of heavy
losses and suggests that its parent is
starting to generate significant revenue
from its intellectual property.
Sales at DeepMind leapt from
£266 million in 2019 to £826 million last
year after Google and related compa-
nies in the Alphabet group harnessed
its technology in a range of projects.
The company declared a £46 million
pre-tax profit for the period, compared
with a loss of £461 million the previous
year. In 2019, Alphabet waived a £1.1 bil-
lion loan to DeepMind.
“During this reporting period we
made significant progress in our mis-
sion of solving intelligence to accelerate
PM rejects
foreign staff
rules plea
Times Business Reporter
Boris Johnson has hit back at
comments made by the Next boss who
has called on the government to relax
immigration rules and allow compa-
nies to fill labour shortages across
sectors from haulage to farming.
In an article for the Evening Standard
on Monday, Lord Wolfson of Aspley
Guise, chief executive of Next and a
prominent Brexiteer, called on minis-
ters to allow businesses to hire the staff
they needed in return for paying a visa
tax of perhaps 7 per cent.
“Whitehall must be under no illusion:
labour shortages are a real problem,”
Wolfson said. “The dearth of HGV
drivers is just a very visible example of
a chronic problem affecting thousands
of restaurants, care homes, small busi-
nesses, hospitals, fruit farms, ware-
houses and more.”
The prime minister rejected this plan
as allowing potentially unlimited
immigration which “was not the way
forward”. He told Today on BBC Radio
4: “I have read what Lord Wolfson has
said and . . . that approach has extreme
limitations, to put it mildly. What Lord
Wolfson is saying is he doesn’t want any
kind of control or restraint on the
number of people he can access from
abroad to run his business.
“I don’t think that is the way forward.
What you saw in the last 20 years or
more, almost 25 years, has been an ap-
proach where business of many kinds
was able to mainline low wage, low cost
immigration for a very long time. In
some ways that worked well . . . the
people who came did a wonderful job,
but what that resulted in was the sup-
pression of pay but also conditions.”
search for jobs in Britain but interest
from the Continent is still far lower
than it was before the pandemic.
According to the job search platform
Adzuna, the number of EU residents
seeking work in Britain was 48 per cent
lower in August than it was in the same
month in 2019, but the trend has risen
since hitting a floor in April 2020. In
January, when the UK was in the mid-
dle of lockdown, searches were 66.7 per
cent below pre-pandemic levels, ac-
cording to Adzuna.
David Smith, page 39
scientific discovery,” DeepMind said in
a statement.
Last year the company developed
software that visualises and predicts
the structure of proteins in a break-
through acclaimed by independent
scientists.
The British lab has developed
advanced artificial intelligence tools,
used by Alphabet to improve services,
such as Google’s voice assistant and its
digital advertising services. A collabo-
ration with Google Maps helped to
improve the accuracy of estimated
arrival times by up to 50 per cent, ac-
cording to DeepMind.
The company was founded in 2010 by
Demis Hassabis, a former chess prodi-
gy turned games developer, Shane
Legg and Mustafa Suleyman. Four
years later Google bought the business
for a reported £400 million and has
funded its research ever since. Hassa-
bis, 45, is its chief executive. DeepMind
employs 1,000 people worldwide.
Boris fails to grasp
labour problem
business commentary Alistair Osborne
C
risis, what crisis? It’s Boris
Johnson’s big conference
speech today. So, on the
eve of that, no way was he
going to be taking any
blame for barren Britain: the sunny
upland short of everything from fuel
to food.
No, far better to rock up on the
Today programme, and slag off Lord
Wolfson, falsely claiming that he’s
advocating “uncontrolled
immigration”. Not just the Next
boss, either, but all of British
business: a bunch who’ve been able
to “mainline low-cost migration for
a very long time”. Yes, mainline, like
a junkie. As the PM, now back in
“F*** business” mode, put it, UK
productivity has “undershot our
major competitors” because “we
have a low-wage, low-cost approach
where business does not invest in
skills . . . capital or facilities”.
It’s hard to know where to start
with any of that. But one simple
observation: if the PM wanted to
have a pop at one of Britain’s most
thoughtful, forensic and successful
business leaders, it would be better
if he’d first read Simon Wolfson’s
piece in the Evening Standard. True,
it was 735 words long: a bit much for
Boris’s attention span. But the key
thing it didn’t advocate was
“uncontrolled immigration”.
Instead, Brexit-voting Wolfson
came up with the most pragmatic
idea so far for tackling what he
called the “chronic problem” of
labour shortages, affecting not just
HGV drivers but “thousands of
restaurants, care homes, small
businesses, hospitals, fruit farms,
warehouses” and “seasonal work”.
For him, “the only thing Brexit
decided was that the UK must
determine its own immigration
policy”. His idea for that? To take
the post-Brexit job of deciding what
skills Britain needs away from
Whitehall and create a “demand-led
system”. It would allow businesses to
“sponsor as many work visas” as
they need with two crucial caveats.
First, overseas workers must get the
same pay as UK colleagues. Second,
businesses must pay a visa tax for
overseas hires — 7 per cent of
wages, he suggested — to encourage
them to employ UK workers.
Contrast the government’s
alternative: a kneejerk plan to issue
5,000 temporary visas to foreign
truckers, even though the UK is
short of 100,000 HGV drivers. Plus,
some prize economic illiteracy,
claiming the problem would go
away if only business jacked up
wages. As Wolfson noted, “cash
alone cannot conjure up more
people”. And raising nominal wages
could “only result in a Seventies-
style inflationary spiral”.
Yes, long-term Johnson has a
point that UK companies need to
invest more in skills and capital. On
figures from the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and
Development, Britain ranks bottom
of 36 countries assessed for private
investment as a share of GDP. But,
for now, the twin effects of Brexit
and the pandemic have cut foreign-
born workers by 1.3 million,
according to the Economic Statistics
Centre of Excellence. How can
business magic up replacements?
Besides, controlled immigration is
37
Business
a good thing. As a report last month
from TheCityUK, EY and the City
of London Corporation spelt out,
there are also labour shortages
among the high-paid. The study
called for Britain to “modernise its
immigration processes”, noting that
“skilled, multinational and
multilingual workers are key to the
success” of the City.
Quite. Britain’s most troubling
shortage, then? A lack of political
will to tackle the labour problem —
as Boris keeps proving.
Greggs still hungry
S
till on a roll. Roger Whiteside
has long proved his skills at
adapting a business for
changing tastes. Since the Greggs
boss took charge in February 2013,
the baker once “stuck in a past of
salt, sugar and saturated fat” has
morphed into a “cool and credible”
food-to-go brand — to quote Shore
Capital’s head of research Clive
Black. But that’s not sated the
ambitions of Whiteside, 63.
He says he’ll retire by the time
he’s 65. But he’s still cramming in a
five-year plan to eat his rivals’
breakfast, lunch and dinner. He’s
shooting for a doubling of sales to
£2.4 billion to 2026, built on such
things as cranking up new stores
from 100 to 150 a year (half the
extra sales), taking a bite out of Pret
a Manger in London and opening
up in the evening for both walk-in
customers and home delivery.
True, as he admits, Greggs will
have to beef up the evening hot food
menu. Pizza slices, chicken goujons
and pasties can lose their appeal
eaten every night, even after six
pints of lager. But that won’t faze
the man who brought us the vegan
sausage roll. And a tie-up with Just
Eat brings delivery clout.
Whiteside reckons “freshly made,
quality food at low prices” has mass
appeal: a point driven home by a
third quarter update nudging up the
full-year profits forecasts — 6.5 per
cent higher to £143.4 million pre-tax
on Investec estimates. And even
labour and food shortages haven’t
dented his optimism, as he told staff:
“If we can cope with Covid, we can
cope with this.” The shares, up 11 per
cent to £31.92, have gone up about
seven times on his watch and trade
on 28 times earnings. Not all that’s
quality comes cheap.
Hut is leaking
A
nother day, another 5 per
cent drop in The Hut Group’s
shares — down to 418½p, the
ninth successive day of falls. Much
more of this and there’ll be even
more questions for Citigroup, JP
Morgan, Barclays and Goldman
Sachs. Who they? The “global co-
ordinators” for the Hut’s £5-a-share
float in September last year.
In January, they partially waived
the “lock-up arrangements” so that
Balderton Capital, West Coast
Capital and other big investors
could sell 32.9 million shares — at
760p. And all via a placing, bringing
extra fees to the same four banks.
alistair.osborne@thetimes.co.uk
38
Business
Shoppers pay the price for supply crisis
Gurpreet Narwan
Economics Correspondent
Businesses raised prices at the fastest
pace on record last month as they con-
tinued to grapple with staff shortages
and supply chain problems, a closely
watched survey suggests.
After several months of falling mo-
mentum, the IHS Markit/CIPS com-
posite purchasing managers’ index
(PMI) rose slightly from 54.8 to 54.9 in
September, the first expansion since
May. Although the index is firmly above
the 50 mark that separates economic
growth from contraction, the report
suggests that businesses are still strug-
gling with supply chain problems that
are starting to affect demand.
Tim Moore, economics director at
IHS Markit, said: “Another spike in
Big Apple’s
high-end
property
heats up
A
partment
sales in
Manhattan
have risen to
their highest
level in over 30 years as
the New York real estate
market continues to
bounce back from its
Covid-19 slump (Callum
Jones writes).
More than 4,500 sales
were closed in the third
quarter, triple the level
in the same period of
last year, amid an
accelerating recovery.
The surge in sales has
been driven by the
higher end of the
market, according to
research released by
Douglas Elliman, a US
estate agent chain.
It cited “rising vaccine
adoption, low mortgage
rates and improving
economic conditions”
for the best quarter of
sales since records when compared with the
began 32 years ago. same period.
Sales of properties The average sale price
above $4 million were up hit $1.87 million (£1.37
some 132 per cent on the million) in the quarter,
third quarter of 2019, or $1,523 per square
while sales of properties foot. Properties spent an
below this threshold average of 152 days on
were up 73 per cent the market.
continued from page 1
Gas prices at record high
more settled, so this means more de-
mand for heating and power genera-
tion on the way. With traditional
sources of flexibility seemingly ex-
hausted, industrial users are being
priced out of the market to ensure
households can be heated this winter.”
James Huckstepp, gas expert at S&P
Global Platts, said: “The main factor
behind the continued rally over the past
two days is lower Russian flows, drop-
ping even further into the start of Octo-
ber as Russian production is impacted
by outages and Gazprom continues to
prioritise their domestic market.”
Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist
at Pantheon Macroeconomics, warned
that “electricity and natural gas futures
operating expenses was reported in
September, even though this data is yet
to fully reflect the inflationary impact
of the UK fuel crisis and surging energy
prices at the end of the month. Higher
wages were also a key reason for in-
creased cost burdens in September.”
“Tight constraints on business capa-
city and rampant supply chain uncer-
tainty meant that service providers
have become more willing to pass on
higher costs to customers.”
Input costs rose sharply for service
businesses, with half of all respondents
reporting an increase in their average
costs and only 1 per cent signalling a re-
duction. This pointed to the second-
fastest rate of cost inflation since the
survey began 25 years ago. Mounting
costs forced businesses in both the
service and manufacturing sectors to
However, the market
still has some way to go
before fully catching up
after the damage
inflicted by coronavirus
disruption.
There remained an
inventory of 7,694 active
listings in Manhattan in
prices now point to around a 33 per cent
increase in Ofgem’s default tariff price
cap in April”, implying an increase of
£421 to £1,698 a year.
Cornwall Insight, the energy con-
sultancy, said its latest indicative view
suggested an increase of 30 per cent to
£1,660 a year. That is up from a previous
forecast of £1,455 just two weeks ago.
Gas is now trading at the equivalent
of more than $200 a barrel of oil in
Europe. Saudi Aramco has already said
that some customers in Asia are switch-
ing from burning gas to burning oil.
Despite this the Opec+ alliance on
Monday opted to stick to its plan of only
a modest increase in supplies from
November. That sent Brent crude, the
global benchmark, above $83 a barrel
for the first time since October 2018 at
one stage yesterday. Last night it was
trading up 1.9 per cent at $82.81 a barrel.
raise prices at the fastest pace since
records began in 1999.
Businesses in Europe are facing
similar challenges. IHS Markit’s final
composite purchasing managers’ index
54.9
Composite purchasing managers’
index for September, up from 54.8
IHS Markit/CIPS
fell from 59 to 56.2 as companies con-
tinued to pass on rising input costs,
which rose at a record pace. The
composite output prices index rose to
59.1 from 58.3.
New orders in the UK expanded at
their weakest pace since the winter
the third quarter, almost a catch-up. All the
a fifth above the average suburbs were booming
for that point in the year while Manhattan was
over the past decade. seeing sales at half the
Jonathan Miller, a normal rate last year.
consultant who worked Now we’re seeing this
on the report, told The massive surge.”
New York Times: “What
we’re seeing right now is pandemic effectively
Painful rise — and worse lies ahead
Behind the story
If this month’s £139-a-year rise in the
energy price cap wasn’t painful
enough for consumers, it now seems
likely that worse is to come. The cap,
which limits tariffs for 11 million
households on standard tariffs and
four million with prepayment meters,
will be updated again in April. It will
take a dramatic reversal of soaring
wholesale gas prices to avoid a far
greater increase then, with the latest
forecasts pointing to a rise of as much
as a third or about £400 a year.
Ofgem sets the cap based on its
assessment of the costs suppliers face.
It assumes they buy wholesale gas
Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times
lockdown as prices continued to rise. tion to hit a record 4 per cent. However,
“The latest increase in new business policymakers and some economists are
volumes was the slowest since order sanguine about the inflationary spike
books returned to expansion in March. and expect inflation to fall back to-
Staff shortages, supply issues and the wards target over the coming years.
end of the stamp duty holiday were Martin Beck, senior economic
among the most commonly cited rea- adviser to the EY Item Club, said:
sons for softer demand,” the report said.
Backlogs of work also increased as
firms struggled to fill their vacancies,
and job creation slowed as some busi-
nesses started to make redundancies
“Inflation is continuing its short-term
acceleration, which is squeezing living
standards. But, as market forces re-
spond to imbalances between demand
and supply, and consumer spending
before the end of the furlough scheme. patterns continue to rotate back to pre-
Slowing growth and rising prices are Covid norms, supply constraints should
fuelling fears that the country could be gradually ease.”
heading for a period of “stagflation”, He said that the closure of the fur-
which describes a combination of high lough scheme on September 30 could
inflation and stagnant demand. help to alleviate shortages of workers,
The Bank of England has already adding: “Overall, the recovery is un-
lowered its growth forecasts for the re- likely to be brought to a halt by supply-
mainder of the year and expects infla- side pressures.”
DOUGLAS ELLIMAN
Sales of high value
properties such as this
$30 million seven-bedroom
apartment on West 21st
Street, New York, more
than doubled in the third
quarter of the year
such as New York with
big questions over their
future.
As such cities now
recover as hubs for
business, for many their
appeal as a place of
residence has also
endured.
Homebuyers have
rushed back to the
market in significantly
large numbers.
“Since the spring of
2020, the market has
largely inverted in
performance,” the
report said.
“The higher end of the
market saw more sales
gains than the lower
end, reflecting the
greater pandemic
damage experienced by
lower-wage earners.”
Industry leaders have
expressed confidence
that the robust pace of
sales will continue over
the coming months as
the catch-up effect
brought activity in the continues, although a
real estate sector to an resurgence in Covid-19
abrupt halt as tight cases or higher interest
restrictions were rates could suppress
imposed to curb the activity.
spread of coronavirus. Luxury sales jumped
The ensuing remote by a third, at an average
The onset of the working boom also price of $7.45 million, or
presented vast cities $2,561 per square foot.
and electricity in advance, purchasing between this August and January.
forward contracts gradually over That means that the high prices seen
time, according to a published in August and September are baked
hedging formula. ne cap level and
into the next
he
To set the level of the prices aare showing little
cap from October to signs of easing.
March, Ofgem’s T
There could be more
formula looked at pa on top: the high
pain
the next 12 months w
wholesale costs have
of forward prices tr
triggered a raft of
that were seen su
supplier failures,
during a six-month le
leaving behind costs
“observation period” fo other suppliers
for
between February tha sooner or later,
that,
and July. The cap will be recovered from
level from April will ho
all households on their
similarly be based on the bills. Th
bills. The price cap may need
forward prices observeded to rise even further to reflect this.
to
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
David Smith
Never mind the dog whistle, higher
‘‘
wages require higher productivity
At times like this
you have to feel
some sympathy for
cabinet ministers.
What do they do
when they hear the prime minister
spouting nonsense? Do they, like
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business
secretary, just go along with it? Do
they, like other unnamed cabinet
ministers, turbocharge it, accusing
businesses of having become “drunk
on cheap labour”?
Boris Johnson took to the airwaves
at the weekend and, when he wasn’t
demonstrating that he did not know
much about animal husbandry — you
might call it pig ignorance — blamed
“uncontrolled” immigration for the
fact that the UK was not a high-wage,
high-skilled economy.
As diversionary dog whistles go,
this was new territory. The prime
minister was at it again yesterday,
saying on the BBC that this had been
a problem for 25 years, which was
odd. That was nearly a decade before
the EU admitted eight countries from
eastern Europe. Workers from the
countries who were members a
quarter of a century ago, the EU14,
earn more on average than UK
citizens in this country.
I say nonsense, and it was
recognised to be so even by
economists who strongly supported
Brexit. I don’t need to spell it out. A
shortage of HGV drivers may result
in higher wages for them, and indeed
is doing so. But the more such
shortages there are, because of a
supply shock, the more costs will rise
and, particularly following a huge
monetary stimulus, the more inflation
will become a problem,
squeezing the real wages of
everybody else. The idea
that these shortages
were part of a
masterplan is
laughable.
We will soon
move beyond the
distortion in
average earnings
caused by the furlough
scheme. When we do we
will find that pay
increases have not
undergone a post-Brexit
revolution. For the
Harold Wilson’s answer
was the “white heat” of
new technology
majority, earnings will struggle to
keep up with the rise in prices.
The government is straining every
sinew to deflect the blame for some of
the present problems away from one
B-word, Brexit, by blaming another
B-word, business. The missing
ingredient in all this, of course, is a P-
word, productivity. Pay rises without
an accompanying rise in productivity
will push up unit wage costs.
Stagnant productivity explains why
real wages did so badly in the 2010s.
Adjusted for inflation, the average
weekly wage was £501 in December
2019, spookily similar to its £500 level
in the first quarter of 2010. It has gone
up a bit since, on admittedly distorted
figures, but remains below the pre-
crisis level achieved in early 2008. For
comparison, real average earnings
and productivity rose strongly in the
2000s, even though there was a deep
recession at the end of the decade.
Aren’t businesses to blame for the
productivity stagnation of the past
decade? Shouldn’t they have invested
more rather than, as ministers
suggest, gorging themselves on cheap
labour? This is an enduring myth.
EU enlargement and the opening
up of the UK labour market to
eastern European workers from the
new member states occurred in 2004.
Over the following four years UK
business investment rose by a healthy
21 per cent in real terms until the
financial crisis hit. When the crisis
began to lift, business investment
again rose strongly, by 43 per cent
between early 2010 and the second
quarter of 2016. This is what happens.
Employment and investment are not
alternatives; they go hand in hand.
Then business investment
stagnated. The Brexit vote acted as a
bucket of cold water. Businesses
were concerned about what lay
ahead and, it seems, were right to
be. Investment was lower in real
terms at the end of 2019 than in
mid-2016. Had the recovery
in business investment
persisted, productivity
might have shrugged off its
torpor. Instead, it faded
away.
As for employment, in
the period leading up to
the pandemic, the
employment rate for
working-age UK citizens
rose to a record level, up from
73.5 per cent at the start of
2004 to 76.7 per cent at the
end of 2019. The evidence on the
effect of immigration on wages, as
summarised by the Migration
Observatory, shows a very small
impact at the bottom of the income
scale, one that affects other migrant
workers disproportionately, but a gain
for those on middle and higher
incomes.
There is no “lump of labour” — the
mistaken idea that there is only a
certain number of jobs to go around
— to describe the fallacy exposed by
economists more than a century ago.
Migrants boost the economy’s size
and generate incomes for others.
The die is cast. Temporary visas on
unattractive terms will not attract
many EU workers. Free movement of
labour, an important ingredient of
UK labour market flexibility, is over.
That means we need, more than
ever, to solve the dilemma of stagnant
productivity growth. Rishi Sunak,
who avoided blowing the dog whistle
in his conference speech, though he
did burnish his Brexit credentials,
touched on this. His vision of turning
the UK into a kind of California, built
on technologies such as artificial
intelligence, capable on its own of
delivering a £200 billion annual boost
to the economy, was attractive. It is
right to be ambitious about these
things but politicians should also
beware of being dazzled by
technology. Ever since Harold
Wilson’s “white heat of the
technological revolution” nearly 60
years ago, they have been prone to it.
The route to higher wages is higher
productivity and that means
hundreds of thousands of small
changes in businesses across the
economy, to raise productivity levels
in the long tail of poor performers in
every region and every sector to
those of the best. It requires co-
operation between government and
business. That becomes harder when
businesses are being loaded with
’’
extra taxes, in the form of national
insurance and corporation tax, and
are being used by ministers as a
convenient scapegoat.
Many firms believe this is an
anti-business
government. That is
not healthy. Neither
is a government
that tries to
perpetuate economic myths.
David Smith is Economics Editor of
The Sunday Times
david.smith@sunday-times.co.uk
Katherine Griffiths
Hard-nosed approach
is needed to oversee
banking competition
I
t is infuriating when bosses
“retire” if they are actually
being forced out. In a similar
vein, the official body
responsible for boosting
banking competition looked feeble
last week when it thanked its
departing leader as an independent
review criticised a “toxic workplace
culture where bullying was
commonplace”.
Imran Gulamhuseinwala, a former
EY accountant who has run the
clunkily named Open Banking
Implementation Entity since 2017,
leaves after a drumbeat of
allegations about harassment and
poor oversight within the quango.
Alison White, a corporate
governance expert commissioned to
investigate complaints made to the
Competition and Markets Authority,
which oversees the banking body,
Open banking volumes
Source: OBIE Data
2020
2018 2019
Jun Jan Jun Jan
found that a lack of proper
management had allowed “a culture
of bullying and intimidation”.
Just as infuriating as the corporate
cowardice when bosses leave are
investigations that do not give the
full picture. That is what seems to
have happened with White’s review,
not through her own fault, but due to
the terms of her investigation.
White did not look directly at the
role of the CMA or the big banks
that were under the open banking
body’s oversight. Yet as White says,
there was tension between all three.
The banks also paid for the
investigation. For a full picture of
what has gone on inside a body
meant to make banks’ customers
lives better, the spotlight should be
turned on them too.
Questions should go back to the
way the open banking body was
created in 2016 after a CMA
investigation found poor treatment
of customers by big banks because
of a lack of competition. Rather
than break up the big players, as
some had wanted, the CMA came up
with the idea of open banking, a
39
Comment Business
term hardly known then, to use new
technology to reduce barriers to
entry into the banking market.
The aim was to get people to move
to new providers by making it easier
and safer for them to shift their data
from the UK’s nine biggest banks to
challengers.
From the outset there were clear
conflicts. The banks being penalised
paid the new body’s bills, which have
amounted to £100 million in four
years. It also relied on contractors, a
factor at the heart of many of the
complaints due to the frequent
internal upheaval and lack of proper
processes.
That suited the banks, as using
contractors meant avoiding adding
pensions and other tax burdens of
permanentr staff to their bill. They
may have also liked the apparent
effect that multiple personnel
changes held back the effort to force
through changes with the banks.
White highlights a lack of
800
m oversight. Open Banking has only
600 one director, Gulamhuseinwala. The
CMA chairman Jonathan Scott said
400 in response to White’s review that
new independent directors would be
200
appointed, but the mystery is why
that did not happen years ago.
Jun Dec Some believe open banking has
been a flop, but it is too soon to tell.
Volumes rose to 700 million in
December (see chart).The Revenue
has signed up to allow people to pay
directly from their bank account into
an HMRC one. About £1 billion in
tax payments have been made, saving
tens of millions for the public that the
department would previously have
been paying banks in card processing
fees.
The CMA has launched its own
investigation to learn lessons. The
chief one should be that to fulfil its
pledge to take on meatier subjects
and to move into dynamic
monitoring of competition as it
plans to do with Big Tech, it needs to
move out of its academic comfort
zone to take a more commercial and
hard-nosed approach.
If it does not, its overlords in the
business department should step in,
as banking and tech are areas where
consumer rights must be paramount.
A lack of straight-talking should not
be excused, and that applies to the
competition authority too.
Katherine Griffiths is Banking Editor
of The Times
40
Business
software sales by
partnering with some
of the biggest electronics
Greggs looking to
T manufacturers in
the world. Bakery chain eyes
ambitious expansion
Doing good that could extend to
Impact investing should overseas, writes
be about identifying Ashley Armstrong
where value is being
Enterprise
se Greggs raised its full-year profit
lost
ost from
o companies expectations and outlined plans to
Network and doing double its annual revenues within
five years despite warning about sup-
something
so ply chain pressures and shortages.
Cracking The bakery chain, which is based in
about
a it, Newcastle upon Tyne, said efforts to
markets says
s Martin broaden its appeal with more healthy
options and a wider vegan menu, as
Paola Hobson, L
Leuw of well as expanding its delivery busi-
ness with Just Eat, were paying off
right, of InSync G
Ground with sales rebounding higher than
Technology has Con
Control. pre-pandemic levels.
Greggs posted a 3.5 per cent rise in
expanded the Sign up now for The Times
third quarter sales compared with
2019 as it was boosted by Britons on
employee-owned firm’s Enterprise Network’s staycation holidays visiting its shops
weekly newsletter in August, while the return of office
TV hardware and thetimes.co.uk/newsletters workers in September helped sustain
like-for-like growth at 3 per cent.
The company’s delivery business,
which only became available nation-
wide last year, is on track to make
about £170million in sales this year,
out of an expected £1.2 billion total
revenue.
The bakery chain added that it had
“not been immune” to pressures on
staffing and supply chains and said
that it had “seen some disruption to
the availability of labour and supply
of ingredients and products in recent
months”.
However, Roger Whiteside, 63,
chief executive, said there was “no
chance of sausage rolls” being in
scarce supply as Greggs was focused
on protecting its most popular lines
and reducing options that were on
the “fringes of its catalogue”. White-
side said pork supplies might have
been at risk had the carbon dioxide
shortage had not been fixed. Carbon
dioxide is used as a humane way to
stun animals in the slaughter process.
Veteran dealmaker Truell goes
Dutch to join the Spac brigade
Ben Martin
Senior City Correspondent
The serial dealmaker Edi Truell has
unveiled plans to raise as much as
£125 million for a blank cheque in-
vestment company that will target a
takeover in the financial services in-
dustry.
Truell, 58, yesterday announced
his intention to list a special purpose
acquisition company, or Spac, in Am-
sterdam to raise funds for a deal.
He said he was looking at “unfash-
ionably boring businesses” to buy
with the shell vehicle, possibly in the
insurance sector, and that he had a
long list of 30 targets and a short list
of four, of which three were in the UK
and the other in Germany.
“I would like to find a legacy insur-
ance company or something like that
with lots of assets on the balance
sheet and lots of legacy customers,”
the entrepreneur said.
Truell is a veteran dealmaker who
rose to prominence in the City by
founding Duke Street Capital, the
London-based private equity firm, in
2GM
Feast for the eyes
Number of fast-food shops in the UK
Costa
Greggs
McDonald’s
Starbucks
KFC
1,025
950
Burger King 505
Pret A Manger 373
1984
Greggs floats
at 135p-a-share
Mar 28, 2011
Opens
1,500 shop
Jan 2010 2011 2012
Greggs also flagged that it expect-
ed costs to increase towards the end
of this year and next year, as it would
face inflationary pressures from in-
gredient prices rising. Other retailers
have noted a jump in costs of dairy
and sugar used in baking. However,
Whiteside said that there were no
immediate plans to raise prices.
Despite the supply chain pressures,
Greggs said that its performance in
the third quarter gave it confidence to
predict that full year profits would be
ahead of previous expectations, with
the caveat that this could be subject
to “unexpected Covid disruption”.
1998. His current business interests
span a range of sectors, including his
Pension Superfund that he hopes
to use to consolidate retirement
schemes, and a planned project to
run a subsea power cable between
Britain and Iceland. Both initiatives
have hit obstacles.
He is seeking to join the wave of
Spacs just as the craze for blank
cheque acquisition companies
wanes. A boom in Spacs began last
year on Wall Street, where entrepre-
neurs ranging from Richard Bran-
son, the Virgin tycoon, to Tidjane
Thiam, the former boss of Credit
Suisse and Prudential, have
rushed to list acquisition vehicles.
Managers of Spacs look for pri-
vate businesses to buy, which
they then bring to the
stock market via a re-
verse takeover. Cazoo,
the British online
used car retailer, list-
Edi Truell said that
he had a list of
targets for takeover
Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times
2,467
2,146*
1,270
*Greggs plans to get to 3,000 outlets
Feb 4, 2013 Jan 9, 2014
Roger Whiteside Shuts all in-store
becomes chief bakeries to focus
executive on food-to-go
2013 2014 2015 2016
Analysts at Investec are predicting
the business will report full year pre-
tax profits of £142 million this year.
Shares in Greggs rose by 319p, or
11.1 per cent, to close at £31.92, valuing
the business at £3.2 billion.
Greggs was founded as a delivery
business on Tyneside by John Gregg,
who opened his first shop in Gosforth
in 1951. The business now has about
20,000 employees and 2,115 shops.
Alongside the third quarter results
Greggs detailed ambitious plans to
double its annual sales to about
£2.4 billion by 2026 and revealed that
it was exploring international expan-
ed in New York in August through
this route.
Amsterdam has proved to be the
most popular destination for Spacs in
Europe, although Britain’s Financial
Conduct Authority overhauled its
listing rules in the summer to boost
the appeal of the London market to
the vehicles.
Yet enthusiasm for Spacs has
cooled in recent months after a
number of the companies underper-
formed on the stock market follow-
ing acquisitions and the craze
drew the scrutiny of the
Securities and Exchange
Commission, the American
regulator.
Truell said: “There’s been
some absolute garbage
done, particularly in
the States, if I could
be so rude, which
has actually given
Spacs a bad name.
But equally in
Europe there have
been some very
good examples.”
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
double revenues
Mar 16, 2021
Reports first
loss in public
history due to
pandemic
Jan 2, 2019
Launches vegan
sausage roll
2017 2018 2019
sion by setting up a small team to
consider where it could open stores.
After adding 68 shops to its net-
work this year, the business said that
it believed it could grow to at least
3,000 shops in the UK and would in-
crease its rate of opening to 150 shops
a year from 2022. Greggs is expected
to take advantage of falling shop
prices, caused by a number of retail
casualties and a slump in footfall dur-
ing the Covid-19 pandemic.
Whiteside said that shops in city
centres were starting to recover as
people came back to the office, but
were climbing from a low base. He
Asda’s new owners agree Tesla worker
sale of 27 petrol stations wins $140m
over racism
Times Business Reporter
The Issa brothers’ EG Group has
agreed to sell 27 petrol stations to Park
Garage Group to address the concerns
of the competition regulator relating to
the brothers’ acquisition of the British
supermarket Asda.
Zuber and Mohsin Issa and the pri-
vate equity group TDR Capital, who
jointly own EG, agreed undertakings
with the Competition and Markets
Authority (CMA) in June to divest the
sites. That enabled the brothers and
TDR to avoid an in-depth inquiry into
the Asda deal.
They completed their purchase of a
majority stake in Asda from Walmart,
the American retail giant, in Feb-
ain
ruary in a deal valuing the chain
at £6.8 billion.
In a separate deal in Feb-
ruary, EG Group agreed to
buy Asda’s 323 petrol sta-
tions for £750 million.
EG said that all existing
The Issa brothers had to
sell some petrol stations
because Asda also sells fuel
2GM
Behind the story
F
Oct 5, 2021
Doubles sales
targets for next
five years and
says profits will
beat expectations
Aug 3, 2021
Rebounds
to record
£55 million
half-year profits
£30
£20
£10
0 growth. However, its recovery has
2020 2021 Source: Refinitiv
added that expansion would be fo-
cused on central London, where
shops are cheaper than before the
pandemic and Greggs continues to
be under-represented.
The company said that it wanted to
increase sales it makes in the evening
to maximise its revenue potential,
helped by its delivery business receiv-
ing orders after usual opening hours.
Greggs said that it was in the pro-
cess of re-establishing its dividend
policy after the pandemic and saw the
“potential for additional distributions
in the near term and beyond the
investment phase of our plans”.
staff at the petrol stations to be divested
will transfer to Park Garage Group.
In a statement, the Issa brothers said:
“We received significant interest in the
sites we marketed, reflecting how these
high-quality assets have been acquired,
developed and invested in by EG Group
over the last few years. We are pleased
that the sites will be going to an estab-
lished industry operator in Park Garage
Group, a family-run business that is
growth orientated.”
Park Garage Group, founded in 1975,
operates 50 sites in the UK as Park &
Shop. It is led by the brothers Balraj
Tandon, chairman, and Sunil Tandon,
managing director, and their sons
Manoj Tandon and Hemant Tandon.
Balrajj and Sunil Tandon said:
“The acquisition underlines
our commitment to
gr
growth and innovation,
an will enable our sons,
and
M
Manoj Tandon and
H
Hemant Tandon, to fur-
th build our industry
ther
foo
footprint. We would like
t
to thank EG Group for
worki seamlessly with us
working
on this aacquisition.”
or now, Greggs sausage rolls
have been spared from the
UK’s supply chain
nightmare (Ashley
Armstrong writes). It’s just
as well, as somewhere along the way
the Newcastle-based bakery chain
has acquired national treasure
status, resulting in even Boris
Johnson once claiming that he was
“made of Greggs”. The phenomenon
of the retailer’s success continues to
perplex many in the City but in
further signs that the brand behind a
95p flaky pastry bake is cutting
through Britain’s class divides, this
week it opened a shop in the Canary
Wharf financial district.
Since joining the business eight
years ago, Roger Whiteside, chief
executive, has presided over a
500 per cent increase in the share
price. During that time he has
expanded the business beyond steak
bakes into sandwiches and even
porridge, won new young customers
with its vegan sausage roll and
launched a delivery service with Just
Eat for those who wanted baked
treats to come to them.
At the start of the year Greggs
suffered its first ever loss as a public
company as lockdowns stunted its
been dramatic with sales rebounding
above pre-pandemic levels and
profits now on track to beat
expectations, compared with the
annual loss it was pencilling in at the
start of the year.
While it might not have seemed
like it during lockdowns, the crisis
may prove to be a fillip for Greggs,
with Whiteside declaring that it will
sort the winners from the losers. By
doubling revenue forecasts,
accelerating store openings to take
advantage of cheaper rents and
considering an international
expansion, it ensures there is still
plenty to keep Whiteside busy.
Joshua Thurston, Simon Duke
Tesla has been ordered to pay nearly
$140 million in damages to a black
former contract worker who was
subjected to a “racially hostile work
environment”.
Elon Musk’s electric car company
failed to take reasonable steps to pre-
vent Owen Diaz, a lift operator hired in
2015 through an agency, from being
racially harassed, a federal jury con-
cluded. Lawyers for Diaz claimed that
use of racial slurs was “pervasive and
virtually everywhere” at the Tesla
factory in Fremont, California.
Diaz testified that he had suffered
weight loss and sleepless nights and
told the jury: “Some days I would just sit
on my stairs and cry.”
A jury awarded Diaz, 53, punitive
damages of $130 million for having to
endure racial slurs at work in 2015 and
2016. He will receive a further $6.9 mil-
lion in compensatory damages.
Tesla said it had made changes since
Diaz worked at the factory, including
creating teams dedicated to investi-
gating employee complaints.
Fraud trial spotlight
falls on romance of
Holmes and deputy
Callum Jones
US Business Correspondent
Text messages between Elizabeth
Holmes and her long-time deputy have
drawn their former romantic relation-
ship into the spotlight at the Theranos
founder’s criminal fraud trial.
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani was em-
ployed at the collapsed blood testing
start-up between 2009 and 2016, work-
ing in several capacities including as
president and chief operating officer.
He was also Holmes’s boyfriend for
much of his tenure, although this was
not widely known at the time.
Their relationship appeared to be
deteriorating as scrutiny of Theranos
intensified during 2015. “I am sad at
where you and I are,” Balwani wrote to
Holmes in one message that summer.
In another, he added: “U need me.”
“It’s just hard to transition,” Holmes
replied. “Was emotional but am ready.”
The messages, revealed by court
records and filings, were first reported
by The Wall Street Journal, which said
the couple broke up in the months that
followed. Balwani’s lawyer declined to
comment. A representative for Holmes
did not immediately respond.
Theranos, founded in 2003, promised
to revolutionise healthcare with tech-
nology which it said needed a few drops
of blood from a pinprick on a finger to
conduct hundreds of tests. At its peak, it
was valued at more than $9 billion. It
closed in 2018 amid one of the biggest
corporate scandals in recent memory.
Holmes, 37, faces a dozen charges of
wire fraud and conspiracy to commit
wire fraud. She has pleaded not guilty. If
convicted, she could face 20 years in jail.
The former Theranos chief execu-
tive’s lawyers have alleged in a court fil-
ing that Balwani, 56, abused her emo-
tionally and psychologically in a rela-
tionship spanning more than a decade.
Balwani’s lawyers said in a filing he “un-
equivocally denies” these allegations.
Furniture group enjoys
bounce back to profit
Times Business Reporter
ScS Group has hailed a “strong year of
recovery” as it returned to profitability.
The specialist upholstered furniture
and floorings retailer based in Sunder-
land reported an annual pre-tax profit
of £22.7 million to the end of July, after
falling to a £3.1 million loss the previous
year.
Revenue rose by 21.6 per cent to
£310.6 million, with online sales up by
146 per cent to £46.9 million.
Steve Carson, chief executive, also
reported a “strong” start to trading in
the new financial year but cautioned
that the business faced supply chain
challenges. “We are delighted with the
strong orders performance since the
start of the new financial year,” he said.
He noted the challenges facing many
businesses in respect of the supply
chain, including driver shortages, raw
material increases and shipping costs
and delays.
The company declared a final divi-
dend of 7p a share, lifting the full year
payout to 10p a share.
This followed repayment of the
£3 million in furlough grants that it
41
Business
Some of their text messages, which
underline how their relationship was
both personal and professional, have
been read out in court since Holmes’s
trial started a month ago.
Yesterday her lawyers continued to
cross-examine Adam Rosendorff, a
former laboratory director at Theran-
os, who took the stand for a fifth day.
Last week he testified that his concerns
about the accuracy of the company’s
test results — which he had raised with
Holmes — had been ignored.
Yesterday Lance Wade, a lawyer for
Holmes, challenged Rosendorff, who he
said had stated during a different case
that Theranos’s number of anomalous
test results was no greater than those of
Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh Balwani
had a relationship while at Theranos
other laboratories at which he had
worked. Rosendorff agreed the state-
ment “seems to be different” from what
he had told Holmes’s trial last week.
Holmes’s trial is taking place in San
Jose, California, and is expected to run
until mid-December. Balwani faces the
same fraud charges as Holmes and is
due to go on trial in the new year. He
has also pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors have accused Holmes of
making misleading statements about
Theranos’s financial health, its proprie-
tary testing device, military contracts
and pharmaceutical work. “The
defendant’s false and misleading state-
ments were enormously successful,”
Robert Leach, assistant US attorney,
told the trial last month.
claimed under the coronavirus job
retention scheme during the year.
ScS began trading in 1894 under the
name Suite Centre Sunderland as a
family-owned business running eight
stores in the northeast of England. It
was rebranded Sofa Carpet Specialist in
2012 and floated on the stock market
three years later.
The company said that its latest like-
for-like orders for the nine weeks to
October 2 were up 11.9 per cent com-
pared with the same period two years
earlier.
However, it said orders had fallen by
21 per cent against the same period last
year, when it had seen a “significant
bounce” driven by pent-up demand.
The company reported a 21 per cent
rise in gross sales to £324.5 million for
the year, compared with a year earlier.
Carson said: “We have demonstrated
throughout the pandemic that we have
a flexible and resilient business model
which is able to adapt to changes in the
macro-environment whilst still deliver-
ing for our customers.”
Shares in ScS closed down 2p, or
0.7 per cent, at 270p, valuing the com-
pany at £103 million.
42 Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times

Business

Melrose feels ripple effect Magdalen

College, inset,
is selling a
40 per cent
stake in Oxford
Science Park

from global chip shortage for £160m

Ben Martin Senior City Correspondent
Melrose Industries, the engineering
conglomerate, says it is being hit by a
worse than expected crunch in the glob-
al supply of semiconductors, which is
causing turmoil for car manufacturers.
The FTSE 100 group said that both its
automotive arm and its powder metal-
lurgy business were being hampered by
the “frustrating” shortage of chips.
“At present the timing and duration
of these constraints is uncertain, but
recently the consensus view is that they
have lengthened,” Melrose said.
While the company told investors
earlier in the year that it was being af-
fected by the semiconductor crisis,
Simon Peckham, the chief executive,
had said last month that it anticipated
constraints would “start to ease over
the balance of this year”.
Its warning yesterday that the
disruption was likely to last for longer
than previously forecast rattled inves-
tors, sending the shares down 1¾p, or
1.1 per cent, to 169p.
For months carmakers have been
wrestling with a shortfall in chips after
the Covid-19 crisis forced parts of the
semiconductor industry to halt produc-
tion. The problem was compounded
during lockdowns by a surge in demand
for consumer electronics such as games
consoles, and by severe weather this
year in Texas, the hub for American
chip production, that led to the closure
of manufacturing sites. Disruption in
the shipping industry has exacerbated
the issue.
The ripple effects of the shortages are
hurting Melrose, a leading supplier to
the motor industry through GKN, the
engineering company it bought for
£8 billion in 2018. GKN’s automotive di-
vision is one of the biggest suppliers of
driveshafts, while its powder metallur-
gy business makes small components
used in bodywork and door fastenings.
Melrose said that while demand from
automotive customers was strong, they
were cancelling orders as the shortage
of semiconductors elsewhere in the
supply chain stymied car production.
“This is best illustrated by ‘in month
cancellations’ from customers rising
from a normal rate of circa 1 per cent
each month experienced in Q1 this year
to a current rate of approximately 20 to
25 per cent,” it said.
An “in-month cancellation” refers to
an order that is submitted and then
withdrawn in the space of a month.
The chip crisis is an obstacle to
Melrose’s efforts to overhaul GKN,
which also has an aerospace division.
Magdalen in
Peckham, 59, and his team are turn-
around specialists, who use Melrose — the money
after sale
which has a stock market value of about
£7.3 billion — to buy underperforming
companies. He insisted the semicon-
ductor crunch was not delaying man-

agement’s restructuring initiatives, of
which “many are ahead of plan”.
He said: “We are very pleased with
the internal progress being made.
Tightened supplies of semiconductors
to the automotive industry are frustrat-
ing and difficult to plan for, but don’t
impact long-term value, as cash is well
controlled and debt reduced.”
Melrose kept alive the prospect of a
cash return to investors, saying it would
review a distribution in March.
T
he University of Oxford’s
Magdalen College has
cashed in on the booming
market for laboratory
space by selling a 40 per
cent stake in its Oxford Science
Park for ten times what it was
worth five years ago (Tom Howard
writes).
The stake is being bought by the
GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth

Coal miner flotation will see

if City really is going green
Tom Howard
An American coal miner is to test the
City’s commitment to environmental,
social and governance guidelines after
lodging plans to float on Aim, London’s
junior market, later this month.
Bens Creek owns a 10,000-acre plot
of land on the West Virginia-Kentucky
border, on which sits an old coal mine,
as well as a wash plant and a rail loading
facility. Historically, the mine has pro-
duced metallurgical coal, or coking
coal, an essential ingredient in the
steelmaking process.
The company hopes to raise £7 mil-
lion from its initial public offering by
selling new shares at 10p apiece. As-
suming it can get the float away
successfully, it expects to be valued at
about £35 million.
Bens Creek will use the cash injection
to restart the mine, refurbish the coal
preparation plant and the railway,
improve the infrastructure and buy
mining equipment. It will also repay
loans provided by MBU Capital, a
Mayfair-based investment house and
the company’s largest shareholder.
Bens Creek believes that its mine has
2.34 million tonnes of coal that it is al-
most certain that it can dig out. There is
another 17.2 million tonnes that the
company believes it might be able to ex-
tract from the mine, which lies in the
Appalachian Basin, one of the biggest
coal-producing regions in the world.
It is expected that Bens Creek shares
will start trading on Aim on October 19.
Allenby Capital and Optiva Securities
are the brokers working on the float.
While stock selectors are increasing-
ly keen to burnish their green creden-
tials, the listing could still prove popular
in the City. A South African coal miner,
Thungela Resources, which was spun
out of Anglo American, debuted at 150p
in June and closed yesterday at 485p.
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
fund, which has a £300 billion
investment portfolio. It has paid
about £160 million, according to the
Financial Times, citing people
familiar with the transaction.
The deal values the Oxford
Science Park at about £400 million.
In 2016, when Magdalen bought
back a 50 per cent stake from its
partner M&G Real Estate for
£18.1 million, the entire park was
valued at just over £36 million.
Magdalen founded the 75-acre
science park in 1991 and it has
grown to become one of the
foremost in Europe. Oxford
Nanopore, the gene sequencing
group that made its stock market
debut last week and is now valued
at £4.5 billion, is among the tenants.
In total, the Oxford Science Park is
Another developer on brink as
China’s property woes continue
Tom Howard
Hard on the heels of the Evergrande
crisis, another Chinese developer has
failed to make a bond repayment on
time in the latest sign of stress in China’s
volatile property market.
Fantasia Holdings, a mid-sized build-
er which is listed on the Hong Kong
Stock Exchange, told investors that it
was due to repay a $206 million bond
on Monday but admitted that it was
unable to make the payment.
In a stock exchange filing, the com-
pany said: “The board and the manage-
ment of the company will assess the
potential impact on the financial condi-
tion and cash position of the group
under the circumstances.”
Investors have been prevented from
trading Fantasia shares since Septem-
ber 29 and the company said that the
halt would continue “until further
home to 130 businesses employing
about 2,700 people.
The college, which hired agents
at Cushman & Wakefield to find a
buyer, announced in May that it was
looking for a partner to help fund at
least another 500,000 sq ft of
development. Construction work is
due to start later this year.
Rory Maw, chief executive of the
park and bursar at Magdalen, said:
“As well as being an enormous
demonstration of confidence in the
UK, and Oxford in particular, as a
leading location for international
life science and technology, this is a
transformational investment for the
Oxford Science Park. It enables us
to meet unprecedented demand for
high-quality laboratory and office
space and to support the ambitious
notice”. The stock has fallen 59 per cent
so far in 2021.
Such payment difficulties have been
a feature across China’s real estate
sector this year. Property companies
have been pressured by Beijing to
reduce their leverage after decades
of debt-fuelled expansion that has
contributed to the country’s rapid
economic growth.
Fantasia’s default will add to fears
that the crisis at Evergrande will spread
to other Chinese property developers.
However, industry experts would not
expect Fantasia’s troubles to have the
same kind of effect on global markets as
Evergrande, whose demise triggered a
sharp sell-off in global stock markets
last month.
Evergrande is the world’s most in-
debted property developer with a debt
pile of more than $300 billion. By
contrast, Fantasia’s debts total about
OXFORD SCIENCE PARK
growth of new and existing
occupiers from the UK and abroad.”
The investment from GIC comes
amid surging interest in Britain’s
life sciences industry, one of the
country’s leading sectors, which
produces about £80 billion in
revenue a year and employs more
than 250,000 people.
The sector’s popularity among
property investors has boomed
during the pandemic, partly
because of the nation’s increased
awareness of healthcare but also
because of the reliability of income
from tenants; lab technicians can’t
work from home as easily as the
average office worker. Because of
this, life sciences space is seen as
more attractive than other
traditional property sectors such as
$13 billion, according to its first-half
statement released in August.
Other developers have also been
scrambling for cash and this has left
traders speculating about the health of
the wider Chinese economy, which has
consistently been one of the top per-
formers in recent years.
The country’s real estate sector
makes up as much as 15 per cent of its
total gross domestic product. Fears of a
slowdown have dented metals prices of
late, given China’s status as the world’s
biggest consumer of raw materials.
The Asian high-yield bond market, of
which Chinese property developers
make up a large portion, has also taken
a hit. Over the past month an ICE index
which tracks China’s high-yield bonds
is down 10 per cent and now yields 17.1
per cent, compared with about 13 per
cent in late August, with higher yields
indicating greater risk.
offices and retail, with the futures of
both up in the air.
The “golden triangle” between
London, Oxford and Cambridge is a
particular attraction for investors in
life sciences. Of the seven funding
rounds in the UK this year greater
than £50 million, all but one of the
companies are based in the area,
according to JLL, the property
agent.
Blackstone, one of the world’s
largest investment groups, recently
confirmed plans to spend
£850 million building 800,000 sq ft
of laboratory and office space in
Cambridge, while Brookfield Asset
Management paid £714 million in
June to acquire life science sites in
the golden triangle from TPG, the
US private equity firm.
Electrical retailer plans
to list after sales boom
Robert Miller
An online retailer selling sinks, washing
machines, fridges and other home
appliances has announced plans to list
on London’s junior Aim market later
this month after benefiting from a
boom in business during the pandemic.
Marks Electrical, which was founded
in Leicester in 1987 by Mark Smithson,
a former Rumbelows executive, is
planning to boost its digital marketing
strategy to build up brand awareness
after expanding into new product
categories, including air conditioning,
boiling water taps and gaming.
The company has become a nation-
wide online retailer reporting revenue
of £56 million in the 12 months to the
end of March, up 78 per cent compared
with the previous year.
Growth has remained strong since
March as well, with revenue rising at a
rate equal to last year, the company
43
Business
Office rents
provide lift
for landlord
Tom Howard
One of London’s biggest landlords has
recorded its best quarterly rent
collection since before the pandemic as
workers return to offices and footfall
picks up on high streets.
Great Portland Estates, which con-
trols a portfolio of central London offi-
ces and retail property, has collected
84 per cent of all the rent due at the end
of last month, the most it has recovered
since December 2019, before the coro-
navirus forced most businesses to
temporarily shut down. That compares
with 73 per cent a few days after March’s
quarter-end and 76 per cent shortly
after the June collection date.
Great Portland became a quoted
company in 1959 after the acquisition of
the property holdings of Basil and
Howard Samuel, cousins of Lord
Samuel, the founder of Land Securities.
Two thirds of its assets are central
London office buildings, including
18 Hanover Square in Mayfair, home of
KKR, the private equity firm, which has
a 5.4 per cent stake in its landlord.
The absence of tourists and office
workers in central London for much of
the past 18 months has weighed on
businesses and their landlords.
However, Great Portland painted a
rosier picture in its latest quarterly up-
date. Over the past three months, it has
signed up new tenants who, between
them, will pay £14.3 million in rent each
year. That is 10.4 per cent more than
bosses had expected when they jotted
down their estimates in March. A fur-
ther £3.3 million of lettings, 7.3 per cent
above forecasts, are also under offer.
Colm Lauder, a real estate analyst at
Goodbody, said the “impressive” new
lettings highlighted the “further re-
bound in the London office market”.
Toby Courtauld, chief executive of
Great Portland, said: “We have had a
strong quarter, maintaining our leasing
momentum as central London contin-
ues to reopen and people return to the
office. Occupier demand is robust,
focusing on prime grade A space and
flex office products, both of which play
to our strengths.”
The group said it had sold an 11-sto-
rey office block on Old Street, central
London, for £181.5 million, 5 per cent
more than management had expected.
Shares rose 4½p, or 0.6 per cent, to 754p.
said. Underlying earnings came in at
£7.5 million.
Smithson, 56, the chief executive,
who is likely to receive a windfall from
the stock market flotation, said: “This is
an important step in our growth
journey as we continue to scale the
business and deliver premium
electrical items to the growing number
of consumers buying electricals online.
“We see significant opportunities to
continue to grow our market share,
improve our brand awareness, and
further build on our strong trading
momentum.”
Marks Electrical has hired Marnie
Millard, a former chief executive of
Nichols, best known for the fruit cordial
Vimto, as non-executive chairman. The
company has also recruited David
Wilkinson, a former Ernst & Young
senior partner, and Alyson Fadil, chief
people officer of the online clothing
retailer N Brown, as non-executives.
44 2GM Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times

Business Markets
Emma Powell Tempus news in brief
Buy, sell or hold: today’s best share tips
GFG fights for smelter
The GFG Alliance owned by the

Customer is king for energy group

commodities tycoon Sanjeev
Gupta will seek to unwind a
transfer of ownership of a GFG
aluminium smelter in France that
American Industrial Partners
announced last week. GFG said it
centrica that go bust. And a cold snap could would take legal action against
Powering up see Centrica come unstuck because it the private equity firm, which
Market cap: Pre-tax profit: would need to purchase more energy said it took over Europe’s largest
£3.41 billion £907 million share price Revenue and pre-tax profits
60p to fulfil demand at higher spot rates. primary aluminium producer in
Revenue Pre-tax profits Existing shareholders might find Dunkirk after a debt default by a

A
dding a raft of new 2018 comfort in a repaired balance sheet. GFG unit. GFG is trying to
customers must be a £29,686m The tremendous debt pile had been refinance its steel, aluminium and
novel experience for the 55 £575m cut to just under £100 million by the energy businesses after Greensill,
energy supplier Centrica, 2019 end of June, from almost £3 billion the finance firm, filed for
although it’s taken an £26,825m the same time the previous year, insolvency in March.
energy crisis to beef up the billing 50 −£1,104m
after the sale of its North American
list. The British Gas owner, which supply and services business. Borrowing overstated
last month announced it would take 2020 But investors should not bank on
on more than 400,000 consumers £24,432m the return of the beefy dividends of The UK government borrowed
45
from defunct energy companies, has −£577m the past. The dividend was scrapped less during the Covid-19 pandemic
been losing core UK energy 2021 (estimated) last year and there was no interim than first estimated due to an
customers for the past decade due to payment either. The dividend for this error made by the Office for
Source: Refinitiv

fiercer competition from smaller
rivals and customer service problems.
That’s not good when you are
pivoting away from production and
increasingly towards being a
consumer-facing business. It explains
why the shares are still in the
doldrums, despite progress on
mending the balance sheet. In fact,
with an enterprise value of just 3.8
times forecast earnings before
interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortisation (ebitda) for next year,
sentiment remains near a record low.
Switching has been made easier for
customers thanks to aggressive
pricing by competitors on price
comparison websites, which provided
a bigger lure when the default price
cap tariff rose in April. The result
was a further 2 per cent fall in British
Gas Energy’s consumer and small
business customers in the first half of
this year. Competition also took its
toll on the repair and maintenance
great portland estates
Dividend yield: Rent collection
2.2 per cent 84 per cent
2020 2021
Q4 Q1 Q2
ADVICE Avoid
WHY A track record of losing
UK energy customers does
not inspire confidence that it
can sustainably grow earnings
arm, where customer service
suffered due to strike action among
British Gas Services engineers and
pandemic-related disruption.
Increasing the number of
customer-facing employees has been
one attempt to win over consumers.
The jury is still out on whether it can
stem customer losses, but its track
just a weak 2020, but the 220,100 sq
ft achieved in 2019. Importantly,
leases are also being agreed ahead of
the valuers’ assumptions, at an
average 10.4 per cent up on March
£17,079m
40
£397m
2022 (estimated)
£16,185m
35
Q3 Q4 £458m
record hardly inspires confidence.
Still, that restructuring, which will
also result in 4,000 jobs being cut by
the end of this year, should net
£100 million in annual cost savings.
Consolidation within the sector
could be a positive in the long-term.
Centrica has hedged its exposure to
wholesale price rises for customers
on both fixed and standard variable
tariffs, after all. For the upstream
business there could be big gains, but
those will take time to flow through;
it typically hedges its generation
output for around the next two years.
But just because competitors might
be fewer in number doesn’t mean
they won’t also gain strength by
picking up customers from providers
structurally declining retail sector,
compared with London peers
including Helical and Derwent.
It might let space in some prime
London spots, including sites on
year is forecast to come in at only National Statistics. Public sector
1.92p, which might constitute a borrowing, excluding state-owned
potential yield of 3.3 per cent at the banks, was overstated by
current dismal share price, but that’s £4.6 billion in the 2020/21
dwarfed by what’s on offer from financial year that ended in
fellow UK-listed energy group SSE. March, the ONS said. The new
The remaining unknown is how estimate is £320.5 billion.
much it will have to stump up to help Borrowing in the 2021/22 financial
plug the pension deficit. Some of the year to August was overstated by
proceeds from the Direct Energy sale £2.5 billion, bringing the year-to-
might be allocated to the scheme, but date total to £91.3 billion.
it has until the end of June next year
to decide the size and shape of any Global growth lowered
repair plan. There’s also the question
of whether it will find a buyer for its The International Monetary
North Sea oil and gas business Spirit Fund expects global economic
Energy. At least a spike in wholesale growth this year to fall slightly
energy prices might mean it gets a below its July forecast of 6 per
better price for the assets. cent, its boss Kristalina Georgieva
Inflated wholesale energy prices said, citing risks linked to debt,
might also provide a shorter-term lift inflation and divergent economic
to profits. But if the group sees its trends in the wake of the
future in supply and services, it has pandemic. Georgieva said the
to show it can do a better job of pandemic continued to limit the
retaining customers. recovery, with the main obstacle
posed by the “great vaccination
divide” that has left too many
rental income. Still, the commercial countries with too little access to
landlord is forecast to swing back to Covid-19 vaccines.
a profit this year and pay a dividend
of 13.12p a share. But the shares have Christmas price rises
also recovered to trade broadly in

I
n the depths of the sell-off, when
lockdown forced workers to
decamp to the kitchen table,
London’s prime office landlords
pushed the case hard that demand
for space would survive amid a flight
to quality.
For Great Portland Estates, a
recovery in the level of new leases
signed has given that argument some
more credibility. It agreed new leases
on around 358,800 sq ft of space
during the six months to the end of
September. That was ahead of not
estimates during the second quarter. Bond Street and Oxford Street, but line with forecast net asset value at Hotel Chocolat has added to the
After the collapse in investment the estimated rental values for its the end of March, which leaves concerns about price rises in the
volumes last year, the prime office units were still in decline even prior Helical and Derwent looking like run-up to Christmas after
landlord’s sale of a mixed-use to the pandemic. While rental values better value. revealing it is increasing prices
building in Old Street, central for the office portfolio stabilised across its chocolate range. Angus
London, for £181 million or a 5 per during the second half of last year, Thirlwell, the group’s co-founder
cent premium to the March ending last year 0.5 per cent higher, ADVICE Hold and chief executive, told the PA
valuation, is also reassuring. retail worsened to a 16.7 per cent WHY The shares are worth news agency that the luxury
But of the further £38 million in decline. chocolate retailer was raising
new leases under negotiation, pretty Great Portland has no plans to holding for likely recovery in prices in response to increased
much all of that space is prime reduce its retail exposure, which rental income, which could costs, higher lorry driver wages
offices. What complicates the means that while the worst of the fall drive price gains and investment in its cocoa
investment case for Great Portland is in rental values might be over, store farmers. He said that prices of
its higher weighting towards the space could continue to drag on some items would rise for the
first time in five years.

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London Jun 22 99.405 99.410 99.335 99.355 33543 280186
Tokyo FTSE 100 7077.10 (+66.09) Brent Physical 83.00 +1.72
Sep 22 99.295 99.295 99.225 99.240 54129 377155 LIFFE
Nikkei 225 27822.12 (-622.77) BFOE(Dec) 81.96 +1.35
FTSE 250 22730.65 (+75.73) Dec 22 99.225 99.225 99.160 99.170 63591 518135 BFOE(Jan) 82.67 +1.30
3-Mth Euribor Dec 21 100.55 100.55 100.54 100.55 33061 451739 WTI(Dec) 78.09 +1.21 Cocoa
Hong Kong FTSE 350 4059.89 (+33.60)
Mar 22 100.53 100.53 100.52 100.53 42463 285662 WTI(Jan) 78.57 +1.24
Hang Seng 24104.15 (+67.78) FTSE Eurotop 100 3307.96 (+42.08) Jun 22 100.50 100.50 100.49 100.50 25367 340499
Dec 1882-1879 Mar 1733-1725
Mar 1873-1870 May 1734-1718
FTSE All-Shares 4044.05 (+32.96) Sep 22 100.47 100.47 100.45 100.46 53093 460179 May 1931-1855 Jul 1716-1710
Amsterdam
FTSE Non Financials 4861.51 (+29.69) Dec 21 100.44 100.44 100.43 100.43 43020 450944 Products ($/MT) Jul 1897-1834
AEX Index 771.19 (+13.99) 3-Mth Euroswiss Dec 21 100.77 100.77 100.77 100.77 1700 59672 Sep 1801-1790
techMARK 100 7121.30 (+59.49) Dec 1760-1752 Volume: 67817
Mar 22 100.73 100.73 100.72 100.73 3117 50485 Spot CIF NW Europe (prompt delivery)
Sydney Bargains n/a Jun 22 100.71 100.71 100.70 100.71 1940 33024
AO 7536.50 (-40.30) US$ 1.3634 (+0.0028) Sep 22 100.67 100.68 100.66 100.67 1014 34048 Premium Unld 746.00 747.00 +13.00 RobustaCoffee
FTSE100 Dec 21 7021.5 7058.0 6976.5 7053.0 75423 595719 Gasoil EEC 715.00 717.00 +22.75
Frankfurt Euro 1.1753 (+0.0041) 3.5 Fuel Oil 471.50 472.25 +42.00
Mar 22 7008.0 7008.0 7008.0 6983.0 1 114 Nov 2111-2109 Sep 2071-1900
DAX 15194.49 (+157.94) £:SDR 0.98 (+0.00) FTSEurofirst 80 Dec 21 5596.5 Naphtha 747.00 748.00 +10.00 Jan 2110-2103 Nov 2075-1900
Exchange Index 81.22 (+0.91) May 2180-2034
Mar 22 5579.5
Singapore Jul 2067-1923 Volume: 16870
Bank of England official close (4pm)
Straits 3068.12 (-21.53)
CPI 112.09 Aug (2015 = 100) ICE Futures
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the times | Wednesday October 6 2021 45

Markets Business
STEVE TULLEY/ALAMY

Wincanton races ahead by

steering clear of crisis
Jessica Newman Market report

T
he disruption caused by the
UK’s lorry driver shortage retail
has wreaked havoc among
many businesses, especially
those in the haulage
industry. But for Wincanton, Britain’s
JD Sports opts for share split
largest logistics outsourcer, the crisis
looks more like a bump in the road. JD Sports has “The board believes
The company enjoyed its best single- recommended a five- that the proposed sub-
day rally in nearly nine months as for-one stock split division would reduce
shares rose 24p, or 7.3 per cent, to which it said would the company’s share
355p after it told investors it remained improve liquidity of price to a level where
on track to deliver full-year profit in the shares. small sized dealings in
line with expectations. After the the shares would be
In a trading update before its announcement, the more efficient and
interim results, the Chippenham- sportswear retailer’s may improve the
based company said revenues shares rose 34½p, or liquidity and
continued to grow in the first half of 3.3 per cent, to £10.69. marketability of the
the year, including contributions from The company said it Sales at JD Sports rose company’s shares,” it
all four of the group’s sectors, which would split each online and again when said in a statement.
are digital and fulfilment; grocery and ordinary share worth their shops reopened Last month JD
0.25p into five new Sports lifted its
include a shortage of the three months to ordinary shares of valuation of the forecast for the year.
Pepsi gives Gatorade bottles and a September 4. Wall Street report 0.05p. company and the It reported a 52 per
price rise lack of lorry drivers
(Robert Miller writes).
Hugh Johnston, chief
financial officer, said Investors took heart from the fact
In a share split a
company issues more
value of each stake
remains the same.
cent jump in sales to
£3.9 billion for the 26
warning The beverage and
snacks maker has
there would probably
be some price rises “in
that business activity continued to
grow in the private sector last
shares of stock to its
current shareholders
JD Sports said it
decided on the split as
weeks to the end of
July, after a boom in
already raised some the first quarter of next month, albeit at its slowest pace in a and lowers the value it believed the share online sales while

P
epsiCo warned prices as rising raw year as well”, as the year. The Dow Jones industrial of each share. But as price had risen to a shops were shut and a
yesterday that it is material prices hit company absorbed the average rose 311.75 points, or 0.9 per the number of shares point where it was subsequent rush back
likely raise prices profit margins. impact of commodity cent, to close at 34,314.67. changes, the overall appropriate to do it. to the high street.
early next year, as it PepsiCo reported inflation.
looks to overcome ever third-quarter net Shares in PepsiCo
increasing supply revenue up by 11.6 per were up 0.6 per cent at consumer; general merchandise; and Reversing Monday’s slide, the FTSE 33p, or 1.9 per cent, to £17.51 while
chain challenges that cent to $20.2 billion in $151.09. public and industrial. 100 rallied 66.09 points, or 0.9 per Melrose, the engineering group
Wincanton, whose customers cent, to 7,077.1 and the FTSE 250 dropped 1¾p, or 1.1 per cent, to 169p as
include Sainsbury’s, WH Smith and index recouped 75.73 points, or 0.3 per it also warned that its automotive
Results in brief Tesco, also said its pipeline of new cent, to 22,730.65 business was being hit by customers
Name Pre-tax figure Dividend contracts and extensions of existing Heavyweight banking stocks delaying orders due to the shortage of
Profit (+) loss (-) agreements “remains encouraging”. buoyed London’s premier index after computer chips.
AMTE Power (technology FY) -£3.9m (-£2.1m) nil The group has recently completed the positive notes from analysts. Barclays Investors continued to steer clear of
Hotel Chocolat (consumer FY) £7.8m (-£7.5m) nil £23.9 million acquisition of Cygnia rose 7½p, or 3.9 per cent, to 194¾p The Hut Group, which slid for a
Inspiration Healthcare (health HY) £2.5m (£1.1m) 0.205p p Dec 29 Logistics, an ecommerce and while Lloyds Banking Group added ninth straight trading session. THG
MySale Group (retail FY) -Aus$5.4m (-Aus$3.4m) nil e-fulfilment provider which works 1¾p, or 3.9 per cent, to 46½p. Analysts closed down by a further 21¾p, or
ScS Group (retail FY) £22.7m (-£3.1m) 10p f 7p p Dec 10 with the likes of Moonpig and at Credit Suisse said recent weakness 4.9 per cent, to 418½p following a
Thorpe (FW) (engineering FY) £20.1m (£15.9m) 5.80p f 4.31p + 2.20p p Nov 25 BrewDog, and has secured a five-year in the Lloyds share price was a 10 per cent slump last Friday that
6 Results in brief are given for all companies valued at more than £30 million. f = final p = payable extension to its contract with BAE “buying opportunity” and were also knocked the stock below the 500p
Systems, which will see Wincanton upbeat about Barclays’ third-quarter listing price set last year.
The day’s biggest movers provide transport, warehousing and
inspection services to the aerospace
update, increasing its target price to
220p and reiterating an “outperform”
Despite a warning about continuing
supply issues for its business,
Company Change and arms company. rating. investors tucked into Greggs after the
Greggs Investors cheer upbeat trading update 11.1% The company said it was “working The UK’s automotive industry took baker raised its full-year profit
Darktrace Finds buyers again after last week’s sharp falls 6.3% closely” with customers to mitigate a hit after the Society of Motor expectations. The company closed up
Restaurant Group Traders find faith in the stock after recent wobble 5.4% the impact of the driver shortages. Manufacturers, the industry’s trade 319p, or 11.1 per cent, to £31.92 — its
Virgin Money UK Investors flock to stock after five-day losses 4.8% Last month James Wroath, chief body, said new car registrations dearest price on record.
Barclays Analysts recommend “outperform” rating 3.9% executive, said it was negotiating with slumped 35 per cent compared with Elsewhere, Darktrace, the
SSP Group Price falls for a second day in a row -2.9%
customers to pass on extra costs to the same month last year — its lowest cybersecurity specialist, saw its shares
Playtech Makes back-to-back losses -3.1%
Babcock International Group Price falls to its lowest since mid-August -3.5% hire and retain drivers. The company levels in September for more than rise 50p, or 6.3 per cent, to 840½p,
Endeavour Mining Analysts cut target price on the stock -3.5% added that the recent fuel shortages two decades. Aston Martin Lagonda, after buyers flocked to the stock
Elementis Continues three-day losing streak -4.0% did not affect its profitability. London’s only listed carmaker, shed following last week’s sell-off.

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
1.3715-1.3716
1.2571-1.2576
Bid Change
LIFFE Wheat (close £/t) Halifax Mortgage Rate 3.74 Denmark 6.4056-6.4081 Australia $ 1.871
Because of a technical issue, the gold fix Canada $ 1.712
prices are from Monday. Euro 0.8613-0.8615
Nov 200.00 Jan unq Mar 197.00 Denmark Kr 8.740 +0.04
May 207.00 Jul unq Volume: 835 Treasury Bills (Dis) Buy: 1 mth 0.019; 3 mth 0.001. Sell: 1 mth 0.000; 3 mth -0.015 Hong Kong 7.7847-7.7852
Bullion: Open $1768.06 Japan 111.41-111.42 Euro ¤ 1.175
London Metal Exchange Close $1758.45-1758.96 High $1768.20 Malaysia 4.1775-4.1800 Hong Kong $ 10.605 +0.01
1 mth 2 mth 3 mth 6 mth 12 mth Norway 8.5309-8.5334 Hungary 420.025 +1.95
(Official) Low $1749.47 Interbank Rates 0.0485 0.0709 0.0830 0.1660 0.3724 Singapore 1.3562-1.3572 Indonesia 19417.463 +10.58
AM $1853.60 PM $1852.70 Sweden 8.7284-8.7314 Israel Shk 4.405 +0.02
Cash 3mth Dec 22 Eurodollar Deps 0.05-0.25 0.06-0.26 0.07-0.27 0.10-0.30 0.40-0.55 Switzerland 0.9269-0.9272
Krugerrand $1740.00-2834.00 (£1275.97-2078.22) Japan Yen 151.956 +1.15
Copper Gde A ($/tonne)
9091.0-9091.5 9085.0-9090.0 9000.0-9010.0
Platinum $968.50 (£710.22)
Silver $22.58 (£16.56)
Sterling spot and forward rates Other Sterling New Zealand $
Norway Kr
1.958
11.618 -0.04
Poland 5.418 +0.05
Lead ($/tonne) Palladium $1930.00 (£1415.30) Mkt Rates for Range Close 1 month 3 month Argentina peso 134.86-134.87
Russia 98.709 -0.04
Australia dollar 1.8702-1.8704
2185.0-2185.5 2152.0-2154.0 2110.0-2115.0 Copenhagen 8.7012-8.7458 8.7350-8.7400 55ds S Africa Rd 20.529 +0.06
European money
175ds Bahrain dinar 0.5107-0.5177
Sweden Kr 11.902 +0.03
Zinc Spec Hi Gde ($/tonne) Euro 1.1760-1.1704 1.1748-1.1743 5pr 16pr Brazil real 7.4524-7.4545
3011.0-3011.5 3022.0-3024.0 2963.0-2968.0 deposits % Montreal 1.7103-1.7168 1.7142-1.7145 1pr 2pr
Euro
Hong Kong dollar
1.1745-1.1748
10.615-10.617
Switzerland Fr
Turkey Lira
1.265
12.088
+0.01
+0.02
New York 1.3583-1.3647 1.3636-1.3637 1pr 3pr USA $ 1.362
Alum Hi Gde ($/tonne) Currency India rupee 101.64-101.64
1mth 3mth 6mth 12mth Indonesia rupiah 19387-19387 Rates supplied by Morningstar
2894.0-2894.5 2911.0-2912.0 2788.0-2793.0 Oslo 11.607-11.697 11.633-11.637 30pr 117pr
Dollar Kuwait dinar KD 0.4102-0.4125
Nickel ($/tonne) Stockholm 11.870-11.913 11.903-11.907 24ds 97ds Malaysia ringgit 5.6967-5.7001
0.13 0.20 0.29 0.55
17795.0-17800.0 17800.0-17810.0 17685.0-17735.0 Sterling Tokyo 150.74-152.02 151.93-151.94 3ds 12ds New Zealand dollar 1.9574-1.9578 Data as shown is
0.05 0.08 0.17 0.37 Singapore dollar 1.8498-1.8502 for information
Tin ($/tonne) 15mth Zurich 1.2570-1.2656 1.2642-1.2643 10ds 29ds
Euro S Africa rand 20.469-20.482 purposes only. No offer is made by
36395.0-36400.0 35125.0-35175.0 32340.0-32390.0 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.50 Premium = pr Discount = ds U A E dirham 4.9950-4.9977 Morningstar or this publication
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021 47

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 HALIFAX INVESTMENT FUND MGRS LTD Global Special Situations A Inc ‡@225.94 … -2.29 … JUPITER UT MGRS LTD Glob Bal Inc F I Acc ‡ 991.12 … -2.77 … Cautious A Inc ‡@ 109.81 … -0.16 0.92
Inv Serv: 020 7065 1400 Helpline: 0800 317 573 01296 386 386 Managed Growth A Acc ‡@282.79 … -0.81 0.31 020 7581 3020 Glob Bal Inc F I Inc ‡ 978.88 … -2.74 … Dynamic A Acc ‡@ 366.94 … -2.82 0.28
Gilt Yield A ‡@ 206.01 … +0.27 … Authorised Inv Funds Monthly High Income A Acc ‡@245.89 … -0.88 3.49 Absolute Return ‡@ 39.53 … +0.20 0.50 Glob Bal Sust F F Acc ‡@ 996.24 … -5.75 … Dynamic A Inc ‡@ 332.99 … -2.56 0.28
Strategic Bond Fund ‡@ 192.58 … -0.98 1.07 Share Class `C Monthly High Income A Inc ‡@64.39 … -0.22 4.91 Distribution and Growth ‡@103.78 … -0.67 2.48 Glob Bal Sust F F Inc ‡@ 993.58 … -5.73 … Growth A Acc ‡@ 379.91 … -2.37 0.26
UK Corp Bond C ‡@ 104.79 … -0.78 … Corporate Bond ‡@ 39.87 … … 1.69 Multi-Asset Protector A Acc ‡@173.58 … -0.37 … Emg Euro Opps ‡@ 264.14 … +1.94 2.31 Glob Bal Sust F I Acc ‡ 995.97 … -5.75 … Income A Acc ‡@ 273.80 … -1.18 …
UK Eqty C ‡@ 6317.26 … -14.91 3.28 Ethical ‡@ 112.10 … -1.60 … Strategic Bond A Acc ‡@ 244.54 … +0.19 1.96 Euro Special Sits @ … … … … Glob Bal Sust F I Inc ‡ 993.56 … -5.74 … Sterling Bond Acc ‡@ 242.37 … -0.28 …
UK Eqty Inc A ‡@ 322.24 … -0.18 3.66 European ‡@ 107.60 … -0.60 0.61 Strategic Bond A Inc ‡@ 119.47 … +0.09 3.32 European ‡@ 3074.25 … -25.51 … Glob Br Eq Inc Fund F Inc ‡@1294.16 … -16.18 … Sterling Bond Inc ‡@ 97.00 … -0.11 …
UK Gwth A ‡@ 7836.49 … -21.69 … Far Eastern ‡ 117.90 … … 1.21 Target Return A Acc ‡@ 102.03 … +0.44 0.82 Financial Opps ‡@ 898.40 … -7.63 … Glob Br Eq Inc Fund I Acc ‡@1707.05 … -21.37 3.66
UK Index A Inc ‡@ 1423.81 … -5.83 … Fund of Inv Tst ‡@ 147.80 … -0.80 0.43 Target Return A Inc ‡@ 87.63 … +0.01 0.87 Income Trust ‡@ 472.42 … +0.67 3.20 Glob Br Eq Inc Fund I Inc ‡@1391.65 … -17.42 3.76
UK Mid Cap A ‡@ 6032.55 … -40.94 0.05 Intl Gwth ‡ 116.60 … -1.20 0.69 UK Alpha A Acc ‡@ 2660.80 … -16.30 0.94 Merlin Bal (Acc) ‡@ 225.55 … +1.13 1.74 Glob Br Fund I Acc (PH) ‡@12678.14 … -160.07 0.79 THREADNEEDLE INVESTMENTS
Japanese ‡ 70.00 … -0.89 0.52 UK Blue Chip A Acc ‡@ 770.11 … +3.15 … Merlin Gwth (Acc) ‡@ 528.49 … +4.27 … Glob Br Fund I Acc (PH) ‡@1599.94 … -16.13 0.77 Client Serv: 0800 0683000
North Amer ‡ 136.80 … -1.70 0.31 UK Smaller Companies A Acc ‡@7247.67 … -20.60 … Merlin Inc (Acc) ‡@ 348.58 … +0.80 2.06 Glob Br Fund I Inc (PH) ‡@3515.88 … -44.39 0.79 Intermediary Serv: 0800 0684000
Smaller Cos ‡@ 131.70 … -2.50 0.10 UK Smaller Companies A Inc ‡@6500.72 … -18.48 … Merlin Wwide (Inc) ‡@ 386.89 … +2.85 … Glob Br Fund I Inc (PH) ‡@1547.63 … -15.60 0.78 Institutional Shares (Class 2) (163500,000 min)
ARTEMIS FUND MGRS LTD Special Sits ‡@ 50.83 … -0.48 1.35 UK Growth ‡@ 249.37 … -1.15 0.23 Glob Ins Fund F Acc ‡ 999.76 … -28.43 …
UK Special Situations A Acc ‡@1359.97 … -3.54 … UK Oseas Earns ‡@ 121.76 … -0.28 0.84
0800 092 2051 UK Equity Inc ‡@ 85.60 … +0.05 3.31 UK Special Sits (Inc) ‡@ 187.30 … +0.43 1.09 Glob Ins Fund F Inc ‡ 999.76 … -28.43 …
UK Special Situations A Inc ‡@497.54 … -1.29 …
Authorised Inv Funds UK FTSE 100 IT ‡@ 62.49 … +0.14 2.03 Glob Ins Fund I Acc ‡ 998.70 … -28.41 …
Capital R Acc ‡@ 1980.88 … +14.22 2.23 UK FTSE All-S IT ‡@ 73.91 … +0.06 1.83 Glob Ins Fund I Inc ‡ 998.71 … -28.41 …
LEGAL & GENERAL (UT MGRS) LTD Glob Sust Fund F Acc (PH) ‡1238.39 … -15.36 0.56 Managed Funds
Euro Opps R Acc ‡@ 91.26 … -0.48 1.29 UK Growth ‡@ 79.30 … +0.01 2.15
Euro Opps R Inc ‡@ 85.36 … -0.46 1.30 Enquiries: 0870 050 0955 Dealing: 0870 050 0956 Glob Sust Fund F Inc ‡@ 1226.04 … -18.21 0.58 Def Eqty & Bd Acc @ 128.00 128.00 +0.10 0.74
European Growth R Acc ‡@371.08 … -0.08 1.83 Glob Sust Fund I Acc ‡@ 1232.55 … -18.31 0.50 Eqty & Bd Acc @ 179.90 179.90 +0.50 0.73
Equity Acc @ 2616.00 2639.00 -8.00 …
HSBC GLOBAL ASSET MGMT (UK) LTD Glob Sust Fund I Acc (PH) ‡@1240.51 … -15.39 0.44 Mgd Income @ 77.80 77.80 +0.13 3.19
Global Energy R Acc ‡@ 29.67 … +0.59 1.90 Equity Dist @ 893.80 902.00 -2.70 …
Enq: 0845 745 6123 Dlg: 0845 745 6126 Mon-Fri 8-6 For ISIS Asset Mgmt see F&C Fd Mgmt Ltd (OEICS) Glob Sustain Fund F Acc ‡@1236.52 … -18.37 0.58
Global Growth R Acc ‡@ 336.21 … -1.55 1.43 Euro Ind Acc ‡@ 502.10 … -2.50 1.31
HSBC Index Tracker Investment Funds (OEIC) Stg Corp Bond F F Acc ‡@ 140.65 … -0.13 2.37
Global Income R Acc ‡@ 148.24 … -0.57 2.34 JANUS HENDERSON INVESTORS Euro Ind Inc ‡@ 337.00 … -1.70 1.33
Global Income R Inc ‡@ 98.43 … -0.38 2.38 Amer Ind Acc ‡@ 857.52 … -12.99 0.98 Stg Corp Bond F F Inc ‡@ 115.53 … -0.11 2.40 Retail Shares (Class 1)
Fixed Int Acc ‡@ 157.90 … -0.10 1.59
Global Select R Acc ‡@ 154.27 … -2.35 … Amer Ind Inc ‡@ 695.87 … -10.54 0.94 Investors Serv: 0800 832 832 Dlng: 0845 946 4646 Stg Corp Bond F I Acc ‡@2997.34 … -2.95 2.21
Fixed Int Dist ‡@ 75.95 … -0.03 1.61 Stg Bd Ret Inc ‡@ 58.89 … +0.05 0.52
High Income R Inc ‡@ 73.55 … -0.09 4.58 Euro Ind Acc ‡@ 1135.66 … -7.83 1.72 Stg Corp Bond F I Inc ‡@1639.48 … -1.61 2.27
Glob Gwth Acc @ 243.90 243.90 -1.30 1.15 Strat Bd Ret ‡@ 48.00 … -0.03 2.22
Income R Acc ‡@ 477.40 … -0.63 3.37 Euro Ind Inc ‡@ 744.00 … -5.14 1.68 All Stks Credit A Inc ‡@ 140.00 … … 1.51 Sust Fixed Inc Opps F F Acc ‡997.95 … -0.77 …
Glob Health Acc ‡@ 98.97 … +0.32 0.70 UK Corp Bond ‡@ 65.34 … … 1.71
Income R Inc ‡@ 222.16 … -0.30 3.46 FTSE 100 Ind Acc ‡@ 244.80 … +0.59 2.55 Asian Div Inc U Trst Inc ‡@86.44 … -0.72 8.24 Sust Fixed Inc Opps F F Inc ‡985.86 … -0.76 …
Glob Tech Acc ‡@ 94.22 … -0.91 0.08 UK Corp Ret ‡@ 65.24 … … 1.38
Monthly Dist R Inc ‡@ 69.66 … -0.20 3.32 FTSE 100 Ind Inc ‡@ 116.89 … +0.29 2.12 Cautious Man Fd A Acc ‡@293.50 … +0.10 3.14 Sust Fixed Inc Opps F I Acc ‡996.33 … -0.78 …
Gwth Tst Acc @ 106.00 106.50 -1.00 … UK Eqty Inc Ret ‡@ 97.59 … -0.08 2.99
Strategic Assets R Acc ‡ 77.92 … -0.59 … FTSE 250 Ind Acc ‡@ 327.51 … -1.76 1.41 Cautious Man Fd A Inc ‡@151.00 … … 3.20 Sust Fixed Inc Opps F I Inc ‡985.75 … -0.77 …
High Inc Acc ‡@ 143.00 … -0.50 4.66 UK Gwth & Inc Ret ‡@ 93.67 … -0.12 …
Strategic Bond R M Acc ‡@106.37 … -0.10 1.80 FTSE 250 Ind Inc ‡@ 207.03 … -1.11 0.41 China Opp Fund A Acc ‡@1493.00 … -9.00 0.13 US Adv F F Acc ‡@ 2558.05 … -92.63 …
Japan Ind Acc ‡@ 71.64 … -1.09 1.28 UK Hi Yld Bd 1 ‡@ 42.46 … -0.05 3.57
Strategic Bond R M Inc ‡@ 58.09 … -0.06 1.82 FTSE All-S Acc ‡@ 651.81 … +0.62 2.44 Emg Mkts Opps Fd A Acc ‡@232.00 … -2.40 0.03 US Adv F F Acc (PH) ‡@ 1652.88 … -55.46 …
Pacific Ind Acc ‡@ 200.70 … -1.20 2.11 UK Inst Acc ‡@ 175.09 … +0.07 1.30
Strategic Bond R Q Acc ‡@106.18 … -0.10 1.86 FTSE All-S Inc ‡@ 346.02 … +0.33 2.43 Erpn Grth Fund A Acc ‡@ 287.40 … -1.30 0.40 US Adv F I Acc ‡@ 2732.90 … -98.98 …
UK 100 Ind Acc @ 180.90 180.90 +0.90 3.19 UK Mnthly Extra Inc ‡@ 83.26 … -0.06 2.80
Strategic Bond R Q Inc ‡@ 58.17 … -0.05 1.87 Jap Ind Acc @ … … … 1.41 Erpn Sel Opps Fd A Acc ‡@2177.00 … -8.00 0.28 US Adv F I Acc (PH) ‡@ 1736.17 … -58.27 …
UK Active Opps Acc @ 249.90 252.90 -0.10 … UK Mnthly Inc Ret ‡@ 69.20 … -0.07 3.54
UK Growth R Acc ‡@ 729.61 … -3.99 0.32 Jap Ind Inc ‡@ 118.49 … -1.37 1.15 Fix Int Mnthly Inc Fd Acc ‡@34.76 … -0.05 4.09 UK Index Acc ‡@ 320.90 … +0.20 2.20 UK Retail ‡@ 134.02 … -0.43 1.33
UK Smaller Cos R Acc ‡@2023.07 … -17.76 … Pac Ind Acc ‡@ 499.44 … -3.97 2.07 Global Equity Fund Acc ‡@4622.00 … -63.00 … UK Index Dist ‡@ 162.60 … +0.20 2.25 SANTANDER UNIT TST MGRS
UK Sel Retail ‡@ 122.44 … -0.36 1.74
UK Special Sits R Acc ‡@ 725.50 … -4.08 0.79 Pac Ind Inc ‡@ 322.68 … -2.57 0.45 Global Equity Income A Inc ‡@62.49 … -0.20 3.07 US Ind Acc ‡@ 777.10 … +2.10 0.69 08457 413002
UK Smaller Cos ‡@ 499.63 … -0.53 …
Global Tech A Acc ‡@ 3231.00 … -82.00 … Worldwide Acc ‡@ 366.50 … -1.00 0.38 Bal Pfolio Inc ‡@ 110.50 … +0.40 …
Instl UK Idx Opps A Acc ‡@107.07 … +0.10 2.44 Bal Port Gwth Acc ‡@ 239.50 … -1.30 1.28
HSBC Investment Funds (OEIC) - Retail Share Class
M-Asset Abs Ret A Acc ‡@154.60 … -0.10 1.69 Equity Inc Inc ‡@ 227.10 … +0.30 4.50
AXA FRAMLINGTON UNIT MGMT LTD Balanced Acc ‡@ 243.66 … -1.21 0.54 M & G SECURITIES For Resolution see Ignis
M-Man Active Fd A Acc ‡@266.20 … -0.20 … N&P UK Gwth Inc ‡@ 182.80 … +0.10 3.09
Dling: 0845 602 1952 Priv Clients: 0845 777 5511 Balanced Inc ‡@ 151.95 … -0.14 … Enq: 0800 390 390 Dealing Line: 0800 328 3196 TU FUND MANAGERS LIMITED
M-Man Inc Grth A Inc ‡@ 160.00 … -0.40 1.74 Stkmkt 100 Tkr @ 232.50 232.50 +0.80 1.41
Equity Inc ‡@ 572.40 … -2.70 … Corp Bd Acc ‡@ 317.00 … -0.12 2.35 M-Man Inc Grth Fd A Acc ‡@198.30 … -0.50 1.72 Authorised Inv Funds UK Growth Acc ‡@ 500.40 … +1.30 2.41 British 948.90 948.90 … …
Gilt Acc @ 201.30 211.80 +0.10 … Corp Bd Inc ‡@ 128.60 … -0.05 2.39 Sterling Bond U Trst Acc ‡@246.40 … -0.10 1.14 Charifund Inc ‡ 1521.96 … +3.86 4.42 UK Growth Inc ‡@ 280.90 … +0.70 2.46 European 210.70 219.40 +1.00 …
Gilt Inc @ 74.35 78.24 -0.39 … Gilt & Fd Int Acc ‡@ 497.78 … +1.62 … Sterling Bond U Trst Inc ‡@68.76 … -0.01 1.14
Health Acc ‡ 2697.00 … -43.00 … Gilt & Fd Int Inc ‡@ 74.17 … +0.24 …
Strategic Bond A Inc ‡@ 130.40 … -0.10 3.32 SCOTTISH MUTUAL INV MNGRS LTD * Yield expressed as CAR (Compound Annual Return);
Jap Smlr Co Ac @ 62.56 66.09 -0.19 0.30 Income Acc ‡@ 642.70 … +4.49 2.88 Sterling Class A Investment Funds 1 † Ex dividend; ‡Middle price; . . . No significant data. #
UK Abs Ret Fd A Acc ‡@ 167.30 … +0.10 … 0141 248 6100
Managed Inc ‡@ 138.30 … … … Income Inc ‡@ 281.10 … +1.96 2.99 Periodic charge deducted from capital; @ Exit charge
UK Alpha Fund A Acc ‡@ 172.20 … -0.50 0.27 Euro Smlr Cos Acc ‡ 540.56 … +2.35 … European Inc 1777.00 1873.48 +4.40 …
Monthly Inc Inc ‡@ 254.40 … -0.10 3.85 Monthly Inc Acc ‡@ 307.18 … +0.31 2.98
UK Growth Inc ‡@ 256.40 … -0.70 0.42 Monthly Inc Inc ‡@ 132.79 … +0.59 3.03 Far Eastern Inc 584.69 617.09 -0.73 …
Intl Growth Inc 380.56 400.59 +0.02 …
British funds
UK Select Opps Inc ‡@ 2158.00 … -2.00 0.62 UK Grth & Inc Ret B Acc ‡@133.99 … +0.11 2.75
UK Sml Cos Inc ‡@ 424.50 … -2.60 … UK Grth & Inc Ret B Inc ‡@62.89 … +0.44 2.82 Japanese Inc 41.85 41.85 +0.43 0.56
UK Gth & Inc Acc ‡@ 133.99 … +0.11 2.75 Mutual European 2704.09 2850.36 -16.25 0.80
UK Gth & Inc Inc ‡@ 62.89 … +0.44 2.82 Mutual Far Eastern 1022.30 1078.94 -9.11 0.67 12 month Price Int Yld Grs rd
Mutual North Am 1983.00 2092.88 +6.23 0.24 High Low Stock (£) +/– % yld
AXA FUND MANAGERS LTD Mutual UK Eq 1298.27 1370.21 +1.45 2.23
Admin & Enq 0117 989 0808 HSBC Specialist Investment Funds (OEIC) Nth American Inc 1227.65 1295.67 -7.28 … Index-linked
AXA Trusts American Index Retail Acc ‡@857.52 … -12.99 0.98 UK Equity Inc 561.50 592.61 +0.63 2.27 110.67 107.69 Tr IL 1Y% 22 108.78 + .16 1.77 –5.56
366.48 354.43 Tr IL 2K% 24 * 366.48 + .58 1.48 –3.69
Gen Acc ‡@ 2101.00 … +6.00 … American Index Retail Inc ‡@695.87 … -10.54 0.94 111.71 108.92 Tr IL 0V% 24 110.72 + .13 … –3.98
Gen Inc ‡@ 1079.00 … -2.00 … Asian Gth Acc ‡@ 147.77 … -0.07 … SCOTTISH WIDOWS UNIT TRUST MGRS 119.56 115.34 Tr IL 0V% 26 117.43 + .20 … –3.46
Asian Gth Inc ‡@ 130.99 … -0.06 … 0845 300 2244 331.31 240.40 Tr IL 0V% 68 286.45 –2.17 … –2.18
Chinese Eq Acc ‡@ 513.81 … +0.27 0.40 135.50 128.69 Tr IL 1N% 27 131.30 + .19 1.04 –3.31
Authorised Inv Funds (OEICs) 129.22 122.67 Tr IL 0V% 28 125.66 + .17 … –3.20
Chinese Eq Inc ‡@ 434.76 … +0.22 0.34 OEIC A Class 131.37 123.92 Tr IL 0V% 29 127.01 + .14 … –3.07
UK/Global Investment Companies Euro Gth Acc ‡@ 973.97 … +4.05 0.41 Managed Investment Funds 137.56 130.97 Tr IL 0V% 31 134.64 + .18 … –2.89
Euro Gth Inc ‡@ 817.05 … +3.39 0.44 389.95 366.57 Tr IL 4V% 30 * 383.59 + .43 1.68 –2.93
Euro Acc A ‡@ 234.70 … … 1.18 Bal Port A Acc ‡@ 237.60 … +0.80 0.01 162.42 149.94 Tr IL 1N% 32 153.79 + .14 0.81 –2.83
Extra Inc Inc B ‡@ 86.74 … +0.24 1.16 Caut Port A Acc ‡@ 207.10 … +0.30 … 160.01 146.68 Tr IL 0O% 34 151.45 + .13 … –2.70
Global Gwth Acc R ‡@ 285.10 … … … Caut Port A Inc ‡@ 152.00 … +0.30 … 310.21 284.82 Tr IL 2% 35 * 304.00 + .42 0.80 –2.64
IGNIS ASSET MGMT 158.96 143.91 Tr IL 0V% 36 150.89 + .06 … –2.60
Japan Acc A ‡@ 176.60 … -3.00 1.38 Dlg: 0141 222 8282 Opps Port A Acc ‡@ 280.20 … +1.30 … 185.58 167.60 Tr IL 1V% 37 174.92 + .04 0.68 –2.59
Pac Gwth Acc A ‡@ 523.00 … -2.90 1.82 Prog Port A Acc ‡@ 266.60 … +1.10 … 163.67 151.90 Tr IL 0V% 39 156.85 – .08 … –2.46
American Gth Inc @ 322.55 340.42 -3.34 …
181.84 162.72 Tr IL 0X% 40 172.31 – .13 … –2.45
Balanced Growth @ 262.17 276.69 -0.93 … 173.66 153.83 Tr IL 0V% 41 165.29 – .21 … –2.42
Balanced Growth Acc @ 393.13 414.92 -1.40 … Overseas Growth Investment Funds 193.09 170.46 Tr IL 0X% 42 182.89 – .29 0.34 –2.37
Corporate Bond ‡@ 99.69 … -0.89 … Eur Sel Gth A Acc ‡@ 3466.00 … -29.00 0.33 182.97 158.61 Tr IL 0V% 44 171.57 – .42 … –2.29
CIS UNIT MANAGERS LTD 191.46 163.05 Tr IL 0V% 46 177.58 – .68 … –2.24
08457 46 46 46 European Growth @ 403.88 426.26 -3.57 2.18 223.92 190.09 Tr IL 0O% 47 207.10 – .80 0.37 –2.24
European Growth Acc @ 475.71 502.07 -4.21 2.24 Tracker and Specialist Investment Funds 203.74 169.38 Tr IL 0V% 48 187.07 – .87 … –2.23
European Gwth ‡@ 203.50 … -1.10 0.19
Glob Gwth @ 331.53 349.90 -3.09 … 226.58 187.79 Tr IL 0K% 50 207.47 –1.01 … –2.20
Sus Leaders ‡@ 797.70 … -0.60 0.66 UK Trkr A Acc ‡@ 338.30 … -0.70 2.01 226.04 183.97 Tr IL 0N% 52 205.25 –1.10 … –2.17
Higher Yield @ 83.98 88.64 -0.29 …
UK Growth ‡@ 657.50 … -1.30 0.94 UK Trkr A Inc ‡@ 175.40 … -0.40 2.05 301.36 243.63 Tr IL 1N% 55 272.91 –1.35 0.50 –2.15
Higher Yield Acc @ 275.04 290.28 -0.92 … 244.19 192.25 Tr IL 0V% 56 218.50 –1.24 … –2.13
UK Income ‡@ 211.10 … +0.10 3.85
Japan @ 49.06 51.78 -0.03 … 252.84 196.27 Tr IL 0V% 58 224.89 –1.36 … –2.13
Managed @ 130.89 138.15 -0.06 … UK and Income Investment Funds 294.28 223.37 Tr IL 0W% 62 259.42 –1.66 … –2.10
Managed Trust @ 71.96 76.96 +0.17 … 305.91 224.55 Tr IL 0V% 65 266.27 –2.00 … –2.13
Corp Bond A Acc ‡@ 350.60 … +1.70 0.97
CLOSE FUND MANAGEMENT LTD Mngd Pfolio Inc @ 95.54 100.84 -0.11 … Corp Bond A Inc ‡@ 133.60 … +0.70 0.98 Longs (Over 15 years)
0870 606 6402 Pacific Grth @ 498.71 526.34 -2.81 … Envir Invtr A Acc ‡@ 384.20 … -4.00 0.52 155.96 138.96 Tr 4N% 36 138.96 –1.35 3.06 1.28
Smaller Comp @ 756.24 798.14 +1.64 0.15 Hi Inc Bond A Ac ‡@ 259.70 … +0.70 3.94 119.09 105.53 Tr 1O% 37 105.53 –1.25 … 1.36
Beacon Inv ‡ 84.88 … +0.35 0.01
Smaller Cos @ 628.94 663.79 +1.36 0.21 Hi Inc Bond A Inc ‡@ 82.48 … +0.22 4.03 172.61 152.26 Tr 4O% 38 152.26 –1.66 3.12 1.33
Hi Res A Acc ‡@ 376.80 … -0.90 3.40 103.54 95.48 Tr 1V% 39 95.48 –1.22 … 1.42
165.61 145.63 Tr 4N% 39 145.63 –1.64 2.92 1.37
Hi Res A Inc ‡@ 123.20 … -0.30 3.47 168.69 147.77 Tr 4N% 40 147.77 –1.77 … 1.40
INSIGHT INVESTMENT FDS MANAGEMENT LTD
Dealing: 020 7426 6232 Safety Plus A Acc ‡@ 40.49 … … … 111.54 96.71 Tr 1N% 41 96.71 –1.41 … 1.44
Client Servs: 0207 163 4000 155.06 134.11 Tr 3N% 44 134.11 –1.86 … 1.45
Strat Inc A Acc ‡@ 225.20 … -1.50 1.71
Winchester ‡ 3756.55 … -1.70 0.68 Insight Investment Multi-Manager Funds 179.20 156.15 Tr 4K% 42 156.15 –1.94 2.88 1.42
Strat Inc A Inc ‡@ 103.10 … -0.70 1.73 162.58 140.33 Tr 3K% 45 140.33 –1.98 … 1.45
Well Bldr Bal Acc ‡@ 96.05 … -0.32 … UK Gwth A Acc ‡@ 186.80 … -0.60 1.51 184.75 158.59 Tr 4N% 46 158.59 –2.31 2.68 1.46
Well Bldr Gwth Acc ‡@ 93.79 … -0.36 … UK Sel Gwth A Acc ‡@ 2338.00 … -20.00 0.88 101.07 87.69 Tr 0Y% 46 87.69 –1.57 … 1.48
119.35 100.72 Tr 1K% 47 100.72 –1.77 … 1.47
EDENTREE INV MGMT LTD 126.89 106.49 Tr 1O% 49 106.49 –1.93 … 1.46
0800 358 3010 INVESCO FUND MGRS LTD OEIC B Class 193.66 164.71 Tr 4N% 49 164.71 –2.64 2.58 1.45
Amity European A ‡ 306.90 … +0.40 0.83 Dling: 0800 085 8571 Inv Serv: 0800 085 8677 Tracker and Specialist Investment Funds 97.84 80.40 Tr 0X% 50 80.40 –1.73 … 1.45
214.55 175.21 Tr 0V% 51 195.15 –1.03 … –2.17
Amity International A ‡ 362.50 … -0.10 … Brkr Serv: 0800 028 2121 UK Trkr B Acc ‡@ 372.90 … -0.90 2.42 107.88 94.63 Tr 1N% 51 94.63 –1.93 … 1.47
UK Irsh Sm Co Fd A Acc ‡@742.50 … -1.70 … Euro Smlr Cos Inc ‡ 475.95 … +2.07 0.66
Amity Sterling Bond A ‡ 103.70 … -0.10 3.40 INVESCO Funds UK Trkr B Inc ‡@ 174.40 … -0.40 2.48 187.60 157.19 Tr 3O% 52 157.19 –2.72 … 1.44
UK Property A Acc @ 244.58 257.23 +0.01 2.62 136.30 109.73 Tr 1O% 57 109.73 –2.36 … 1.40
Amity UK A Inc ‡ 264.80 … … 0.38 UK Str Inc N/Trl ‡@ 323.57 … -0.12 … UK Property A Inc @ 99.04 104.16 … 2.67 217.37 178.19 Tr 4% 60 178.19 –3.50 … 1.37
Higher Income A ‡ 130.80 … +0.20 3.53 UK and Income Investment Funds 96.18 73.62 Tr 0K% 61 73.62 –2.10 … 1.36
UK Equity Growth A ‡ 357.10 … +0.70 … US Growth Fund A Acc ‡@1898.00 … -48.00 … Sterling Class A Investment Funds 2 174.06 138.14 Tr 2K% 65 138.14 –3.28 … 1.34
INVESCO PERPETUAL Funds Corp Bond B Acc ‡@ 370.70 … +0.90 … 128.57 104.79 Tr 1X% 54 104.79 –2.21 … 1.44
Extra Income Inc ‡ 720.45 … +1.84 4.17
Corp Bond B Inc ‡@ 136.30 … +0.30 … 149.84 113.18 Tr 1X% 71 113.18 –3.22 … 1.27
Childrens Acc ‡@ 469.74 … -6.96 1.28 Gilt & Fxd Int Inc ‡ 98.63 … -0.49 0.76
UK Gwth B Acc ‡@ 205.60 … -0.30 … 220.73 175.53 Tr 3K% 68 175.53 –4.09 … 1.33
Corp Bond Acc ‡@ 225.86 … -0.12 2.15 Gl Hi Yd Bd Inc ‡ 47.29 … -0.01 4.37 212.62 176.54 Tr 4N% 55 176.54 –3.14 2.41 1.42
F & C FUND MANAGEMENT LTD (OEICS) UK Sel Gwth B Acc ‡@ 2481.00 … … 1.09
High Income Inc ‡@ 315.69 … -8.05 2.86 Index Linked Bd Inc ‡ 164.81 … +0.51 …
Enqs: 0870 601 6183 Dealing: 0870 601 6083 Index Trckr Inc ‡ 74.31 … +0.23 2.79 Mediums (5-15 years)
Income & Grth Inc ‡@ 414.31 … -4.97 2.67
Share Class 1 - Retail Short Dated Corp Bd Inc ‡ 25.93 … -0.01 1.26 OEIC C Class 102.40 100.75 Tr 0O% 23 100.75 – .11 … 0.33
Income Inc ‡@ 1262.29 … -42.15 2.29 JP MORGAN ASSET MGMT
Corporate Bd ‡@ 59.63 … -0.02 1.63 UK Select A Inc ‡ 3259.20 … +3.64 1.94 UK and Income Investment Funds 106.84 103.65 Tr 2N% 23 103.65 – .13 … 0.34
Money Acc ‡@ 90.95 … … …
OEIC 100.64 99.23 Tr 0V% 24 99.23 – .14 … 0.46
Emerging Mkts ‡@ 133.60 … -0.50 … Monthly Inc Plus Inc ‡@ 107.27 … -0.71 5.26 UK Gth C Inc ‡@ 128.50 … -0.40 2.27 103.93 101.43 Tr 1% 24 101.43 – .16 … 0.44
Euro Gwth & Inc 1 ‡@ 1253.00 … -11.00 … UK Aggressive Inc ‡@ 154.28 … -0.24 3.15 UK Sel Gwth C Acc ‡@ 2598.00 … … … 111.16 106.64 Tr 2O% 24 106.64 – .19 … 0.46
Extra Inc Bond ‡@ 49.92 … -0.02 1.65 UK Growth Acc ‡@ 742.02 … -8.40 1.30 Asia A Acc ‡@ 297.20 … -1.80 … 122.49 115.18 Tr 5% 25 115.18 – .24 4.34 0.52
Emerging Mkts ‡@ 310.70 … -4.40 … Sterling Class A Investment Funds 3 103.31 100.38 Tr 0X% 25 100.38 – .23 … 0.52
FTSE All-Shr Track ‡@ 415.40 … +0.30 2.08 UK Sml Cos Eqty Acc ‡@ 1820.53 … -19.90 … STANDARD LIFE INVESTMENTS
Eur Dyn (ex-UK) A Acc ‡@279.40 … -1.10 0.54 Corp Bd A Inc ‡ 40.54 … -0.09 2.63 110.30 105.66 Tr 2% 25 105.66 – .26 … 0.54
Global Gwth SC1 ‡@ 335.60 … -5.50 … UK Sml Cos Gwth ‡@ 82.54 … +0.04 … 0845 279 3003 100.90 97.94 Tr 0V% 26 97.94 – .28 … 0.61
High Inc Trst @ 12.50 13.16 … 5.02 Euro Smllr Cos ‡@ 1056.00 … -9.00 … Dividend Inc ‡ 54.25 … +0.22 4.54 Investment Funds (OEIC) - Retail Shares 109.07 104.22 Tr 1K% 26 104.22 – .32 … 0.61
Max Inc Bond ‡@ 49.89 … -0.06 … Europe A Acc ‡@ 1798.00 … -9.00 1.57 Recovery A Inc ‡ 120.66 … -0.09 … 108.49 103.04 Tr 1N% 27 103.04 – .44 … 0.71
INVESTEC FUND MGRS Sml Cos Inc ‡ 477.40 … -0.81 1.34 AAA Inc CAT Acc ‡@ 99.99 … +0.02 0.96 130.36 121.15 Tr 4N% 27 121.15 – .52 3.51 0.74
Multi Man Caut ‡@ 70.41 … … 3.18 Gbl Hi Yld Bd A Acc ‡@ 130.00 … -0.10 4.33
Broker Support and Dealing: 020 7597 1900 AAA Inc CAT Inc ‡@ 57.12 … +0.01 0.96 100.62 95.90 Tr 0V% 28 95.90 – .46 … 0.79
Multi Man Distr ‡@ 60.44 … … 3.37 Gbl Hi Yld Bd A Inc ‡@ 35.99 … -0.02 4.44 112.63 105.60 Tr 1X% 28 105.60 – .56 … 0.81
OEIC Series i,ii,iii, & iv AAA Income Acc ‡@ 108.30 … +0.10 1.36
North Amer ‡@ 763.60 … -12.20 … Gl ex-UK Bd A Acc ‡@ 288.60 … -0.10 … 147.96 136.00 Tr 6% 28 136.00 – .67 4.41 0.82
Amer Eq Gth Acc ‡@ 214.50 … -4.00 … 99.77 97.11 Tr 0K% 29 97.11 – .58 … 0.91
Pacific Gwth ‡@ 521.40 … -0.60 … American A Acc ‡@ 659.00 … -15.43 … Gl ex-UK Bd A Inc ‡@ 221.10 … -0.10 … Sterling Class A Investment Funds 4 Corp Bond Acc ‡@ 187.20 … … 2.49 106.70 99.65 Tr 0Y% 29 99.65 – .65 … 0.92
Strategic Bd ‡@ 211.50 … -0.10 0.65 Asia ex Japan A Acc ‡@ 823.15 … -8.58 … Glb Fins A Acc ‡@ 1077.00 … +1.00 1.03 101.85 94.43 Tr 0W% 30 94.43 – .72 … 1.02
Episode Allocation A Inc ‡@142.26 … -0.09 1.98 Corp Bond Inc ‡@ 64.99 … -0.01 2.52
UK Equity ‡@ 3299.00 … -20.00 … Capital Accumulator A Acc ‡@231.48 … -3.81 … 145.97 132.80 Tr 4O% 30 132.80 – .90 3.58 1.00
Global A Acc ‡@ 2299.00 … -59.00 … Euro Eq Gth Acc ‡@ 262.40 … -1.10 0.33
UK Gwth & Inc Acc 1 ‡@ 658.50 … … … Cautious Managed A Acc ‡@406.15 … -2.37 1.67 99.94 92.19 Tr 0N% 31 92.19 – .77 … 1.09
Japan A Acc ‡@ 669.10 … -15.20 … Glb Advtg CAT Acc ‡@ 160.40 … -1.10 0.65 145.27 131.44 Tr 4N% 32 131.44 –1.02 3.23 1.12
UK Gwth & Inc Dist ‡@ 234.70 … … … Cautious Managed A Inc ‡@261.59 … -1.52 1.69
Multi-Man Tst A Acc ‡@ 1426.00 … -8.00 0.70 Glob Advtg Acc ‡@ 211.90 … -1.50 0.62 100.24 96.96 Tr 0Y% 33 96.96 – .94 … 1.15
UK Smaller Cos ‡@ 1231.00 … -6.00 … Diversified Growth A Acc ‡@136.82 … -0.51 0.55 MARKS & SPENCER UNIT TRUST LTD 155.36 139.03 Tr 4K% 34 139.03 –1.23 3.24 1.22
Multi-Man Tst A Inc ‡@ 1274.00 … -7.00 0.72 Glob Eq Uncstrd Acc ‡@ 162.40 … -3.50 …
Diversified Growth A Inc ‡@145.76 … -0.54 0.57 0808 005 5555 101.77 91.31 Tr 0X% 35 91.31 –1.01 … 1.31
Nat Resources ‡@ 712.10 … +5.60 1.89 Higher Inc Acc ‡@ 153.60 … -0.20 3.85
Diversified Income A Acc ‡@330.25 … -0.88 2.48 High Income 109.10 109.10 -0.40 3.86
New Europe A ‡@ 270.30 … +1.80 1.81 Higher Inc Inc ‡@ 50.53 … -0.06 3.95 Shorts (under 5 years)
Diversified Income A Inc ‡@74.07 … -0.20 3.96 High Income Acc 286.80 286.80 -1.20 3.77
FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL Portfolio ‡@ 323.10 … -1.00 1.06 Japan Eq Gth Acc ‡@ 126.80 … -2.10 … 117.13 108.58 Tr 3O% 21 115.83 – .08 … 1.24
Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Acc ‡@125.70 … -0.82 3.44 UK 100 Comp Acc @ 401.40 401.40 -2.90 0.44
Private Clnts 0800 414161 Broker Dlgs 0800 414181 Stg Corp Bd A Acc ‡@ 103.20 … … 1.07 Managed Acc ‡@ 332.40 … -3.70 0.43 142.92 135.65 Tr 8% 21 141.44 – .10 5.66 1.19
Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Acc Gross ‡@125.82 … +0.20 … UK 100 Cos @ 205.40 205.40 -1.40 0.87 101.03 100.24 Tr 0K% 22 100.24 – .02 … 0.20
Select Inc Acc ‡@ 97.96 … -0.06 2.08
Amer Spec Sits ‡@ 1960.00 … -10.00 … Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Inc ‡@78.84 … -0.51 5.18 Stg Corp Bd A Inc ‡@ 58.84 … -0.01 1.07 UK Select Pflo @ 322.20 322.20 -2.70 2.01 103.44 101.39 Tr 1O% 22 101.39 – .03 … 0.24
Select Inc Inc ‡@ 55.99 … -0.04 2.11
American ‡@ 5848.00 … -142.00 … Emerging Mkts Equity A Acc ‡@168.88 … -0.94 0.21 UK Act 350 A Acc ‡@ 199.00 … -2.20 … UK Selection Port Acc @ 635.70 635.70 -5.50 2.02 105.71 101.66 Tr 4% 22 101.66 – .03 3.93 0.05
UK Eq Gth Acc ‡@ 358.30 … -0.10 1.39 100.44 99.79 Tr 0V% 23 99.79 – .08 … 0.29
Euro Opps ‡@ 583.10 … -4.90 … Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt A Acc ‡@185.39 … -1.34 3.83 UK Dynamic Acc ‡@ 207.30 … +0.60 1.29 Worldwide Mgd Acc @ 956.90 956.90 -1.00 0.28 UK Eq Hi Alpha ‡@ 221.80 … … … 100.26 98.99 Tr 0N% 25 98.99 – .21 … 0.56
European ‡@ 3123.00 … -18.00 0.28 Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt A Inc ‡@79.09 … -0.58 4.17 UK Dynamic Inc ‡@ 151.60 … +0.40 1.24 Wwide Mgd @ 568.70 568.70 -0.60 0.85 100.41 98.45 Tr 0W% 26 98.45 – .33 … 0.69
UK Eq Hi Inc Acc ‡@ 250.40 … +0.30 3.65
Extra Income ‡@ 28.09 … -0.02 3.32 Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt Gross I Acc ‡@220.49 … -0.05 … UK Equity A Acc ‡@ 401.90 … +0.60 … UK Eq Hi Inc Inc ‡@ 72.00 … +0.10 3.76
Glob Spec Sits ‡@ 5504.00 … -79.00 … Enhanced Natural Resources A Acc ‡@134.24 … -1.25 … UK Equity A Inc ‡@ 46.44 … +0.07 … * maturities having n eight-month indexation lag.
UK Ethical Acc ‡@ 241.00 … -0.60 0.45
Global Focus ‡@ 3024.00 … -45.00 … Global Bond A Acc ‡@ 139.30 … +4.03 … UK Eqy & Bd Inc Acc ‡@ 167.10 … -0.20 … UK Opps Acc ‡@ 338.90 … +0.30 0.03
International ‡@ 149.50 … +0.20 0.08 Global Bond A Inc ‡@ 109.33 … +3.00 …
UK Eqy & Bd Inc Inc ‡@ 90.29 … -0.48 …
MORGAN STANLEY INVESTMENT MGMT LTD This is a paid for information service. For
Enquires: 0800 0961 962 UK Opps Inc ‡@ 308.00 … +0.30 0.03
Japan ‡@ 542.50 … -3.70 0.20 Global Bond I Gross Inc ‡@1167.00 … +29.78 1.25
UK Higher Inc A Acc ‡@ 1132.00 … +7.00 … The Morgan Stanley Funds (UK) UK Smlr Cos Acc ‡@ 1129.00 … -6.00 … further details on a particular fund, readers
Moneybldr Bal ‡@ 46.54 … +0.03 3.11 Global Dynamic A Acc ‡@ 200.53 … -2.95 0.24
UK Higher Inc A Inc ‡@ 531.30 … +2.00 … Class A Shares should contact their fund manager.
Moneybldr Glob 327.60 327.60 -0.10 0.21 Global Energy A Acc ‡@ 170.97 … -1.14 …
Moneybldr Gwth ‡@ 76.12 … -0.95 … Global Equity A Acc ‡@ 218.99 … -2.36 0.04 UK Sm Cos A Acc ‡@ 743.70 … -1.30 … Equity SVS BROWN SHIPLEY FUNDS
Moneybldr Inc ‡@ 37.34 … -0.01 3.01 Global Franchise A Acc ‡@302.04 … -4.45 … UK Str Eq Inc A Acc ‡@ 195.60 … +0.20 … Dev Opp Fund F Acc ‡ 973.24 … -22.50 … Enquiries: 0141 222 1151 Data as shown is
Moneybldr UK Ind ‡@ 119.35 … +0.11 2.14 Global Free Enterprise A Acc ‡@1270.65 … -15.83 0.10 UK Str Eq Inc A Inc ‡@ 102.70 … +0.20 … Dev Opp Fund I Acc ‡ 970.92 … -22.45 … Balanced A Acc ‡@ 154.02 … -0.11 0.57 for information
Special Sits ‡@ 4394.00 … -2.00 0.90 Global Gold A Acc ‡@ 169.99 … +2.08 … US A Acc ‡@ 1036.00 … +25.00 … Glob Bal Inc F F Acc ‡@ 991.34 … -2.77 … Balanced A Inc ‡@ 139.09 … -0.10 0.57 purposes only. No offer is made by
Wealthbuilder 69.75 72.18 +0.53 … Global Special Situations A Acc ‡@292.11 … -2.96 … US Sm Cos A Acc ‡@ 1094.00 … -29.00 … Glob Bal Inc F F Inc ‡@ 979.10 … -2.73 … Cautious A Acc ‡@ 124.70 … -0.19 0.91 Morningstar or this publication
48 Wednesday October 6 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 50 26K Lloyds Bkg Gp 46K + 1X … 18.6 342 264 Billington Hldgsv 270 … … 10.3 7K 5 Secure Propertyv 7K + V … … 2710 940 Dewhurstv 1830 – 20 0.7 31.8
divided by the last month’s ending share price 37O 27X LMS Capital 34 … 2.6 14.7 290 234 Boot (Henry)‡ 283 + 3 1.2 31.8 1306K 871V Segro 1193K + 5K 1.8 5.5 380 238 Dialight 370 + 17 … …
12 month high and low Please note the 12 month high 9910 6914 Lond Stk Ex Gp 7468 + 56 1.0 68.8 112O 68K Breedon Groupv 96 … … 22.8 63K 23X SIG 46W – 1K … -1.9 2215V 1559W Electrolux 'B' 1559W + 21O 5.9 7.4

and low figures for shares supplied by Morningstar are 248K 144O M&G 199Y + W 9.1 83.3 544O 340W Br Land 492O + 6N 1.7 -4.4 113 43O SigmaRocv 102 – K … 32.8 1W K Feedbackv O … … -4.7

based on intra-day figures, not closing prices. 219 107K Man 203K + 3X 3.7 12.5 152K 110K Caledonian Tstv 145 … … …
135V 73 Sirius Real Estate 129W + 1V 2.3 10.8 1550 972 Gooch Hsegov 1275 + 10 … …
131K 111K Smart (J) 128K … 2.5 13.1 3935 2790 Goodwin‡ 3480 + 130 2.3 39.1
9N 7 Manx Finv 8K … … 6.8 186N 99 Cap & Count Prop 160X – K … -3.7
61 25K Steppe Cementv 43 – 1 8.9 11.5 3137 2194 Halma 2805 + 37 0.6 52.3
12 month Price 12 month Price 6V Y Marechale Capv 2N + N … 6.4 92 34Y Cap & Regnl 60 + 1K 18.3 -0.3
High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E 191X 105O Taylor Wimpey 153 + W 2.7 11.1
11902 7635N Marsh McLn 11403V + 264Y 1.1 32.4 1925 1720 Cardiff Prop 1875 … 0.9 12.5 1902 1170 Hill & Smith 1700 – 20 1.5 67.1
145N 81K Town Centre 129 – 4 3.8 -2.5
825 625 Mattioli Woodsv‡ 815 … 2.4 22.1 47K 28 Carecapitalv 36K … … -4.1 98K 37K Holders Techv‡ 92K – 1 0.5 …

Automobiles & parts 338

58N
263K Direct Line Ins
52K Downing ONE VCT
285O +
57 …
V 7.7 10.8
5.7 14.2 32K 19 Metal Tigerv 21 + N … -0.3 183 80Y Clarke T 167K + 3K 2.6 18.7
1900N 989W Travis Perkins‡ 1518K + 9K … 21.8
4N 1Y Image Scanv 2O … … …
239K 154X Tritax Big Box REIT 210K + 1 3.0 4.9
O W Drumzv K … … -1.5 1827 1034 IMI 1649 + 18 2.9 24.8
149Y 58 Metro Bank 110Y + V … -0.9 262 191 CLS Hldgs 224K + 4 3.3 14.1
2273 965K Aston Martin Lag 1750K – 33 … -6.4 507 225 Tyman 402 + K 1.0 15.4
123K 90V EFG-Hermes Hldg 117W + 5V … 7.4 V … Inspirit Energyv … … … -3.7
1546 936Y Nat Aust Bk 1484K – 1 2.2 17.6 571K 330K Countryside Prop 482K – 8K … …
435 206 EPE Special Oppsv 348 – 17 … 2.9 98W 51K U + I 87 – K … -1.2

Banking & finance 790O

90
501Y FBD
65 Fiskev
660N –
75 –
5Y
2K
…
…
8.6
…
229O 107K NWG 229O + 6O 1.3 15.2 77O 30W Craven Housev 35Y – 4O … -0.2 1237 809K Unite Group‡ 1093K – 6K 1.1 51.5
8000

96K
4970 Judges Scientificv

60K LPAv
7570

60K –
– 10

13
0.6 58.8

… 14.2
398 286K Numisv 346 – 2 3.4 7.3 3921 2636 CRH‡ 3380 – 30 2.4 24.5 1346K 540 Vistry Group 1168 – 29 … 33.6
75 41 Frenkel Toppingv‡ 73 … 2.7 71.5 839V 262K Meggitt 743O + O … 99.1
331 218 abrdn 250 + 1K 5.8 3.8 509K 276V Onesavings Bank 503K + 5X 2.8 8.1 3802 2594 Derwent London‡ 3425 + 2 2.1 74.3
720 370 Georgia Capital 600 – 12 … 0.9 167K 105 Warehouse REITv 146W – 1 4.2 4.1
3688 2642 Admiral 3146 + 19 3.7 14.0 207K 129K Melrose‡ 169 – 1O … …
83 11 ADVFNv 71K … … 42.8 955 730 Gresham Housev 907 … 0.5 … N … Origo Partnersv V … … -0.4 4K 2Y Dolphin Capitalv 4 … … -2.2 971 552 Workspace Grp 819K – 11 2.9 -6.2
475 386V AJ Bell 386V + 1W 1.2 46.3 1725 980 Gresh Hse Stratv 1700 … 1.4 3.5 412K 232K Morgan Advanced 343 – 4 1.6 22.7
721 497 PayPoint 706 + 3 4.4 32.2 40 28K First Propv 30K … 5.4 11.3 735 565 Wynnstay Propsv 725 – 10 2.1 5.3
223 148 Amryt Pharmav 180K + 1 … -5.0
325 198 H&T Groupv 282 – 2K 3.0 9.0 647 327K Mpacv 535 + 4 … 33.0
22187Y 13346X Aon Corpn 21425K + 485V 0.6 32.4 30K 18K PCF Groupv# 24 … 1.6 10.4 50 32K Fletcher Kingv 50 … 3.0 …
65 30X Hansard Global‡ 52 – O 8.5 15.7
46
1175
25V Appreciate Groupv
607K Arbuthnot Bkgv
28K –
902K + 5
K 1.4 61.9
… 51.8 1788 1348K Hargreaves L‡ 1408K + 2 2.7 22.5 786V 623W Phoenix Gp 641W + 4O 7.4 … 74V 32V Foxtons Group 48N – 1 … … Consumer goods 240

178
107K MS Intlv

66K Northbrdg Indv

219

178 –
…

K
1.6 31.2

… -6.3
22 10K Arden Partnersv 22 … … 5.5 213Y 111W Helios Underv 152K – 2K … 98.3
360O 184 Provident 332V + 4K … -7.6 182K 70 Galliford Try 172W – 3K … -4.6
23K 18K Argo Groupv 19 … … 8.7 1108K 770 Hiscox 840 + 10W … … 2680 1524 Oxford Inst‡ 2265 + 75 0.1 31.5
479K 329W Ashmore Gp 329W – 3 5.1 11.7 6V 4N Agriterrav 5X + W … -0.5
1585K 934W Prudential 1473K + 34K 0.7 20.4 801 430 Genuit Group 682 + 8 0.7 44.0
455K 296K HSBC 393 + 8O 2.7 12.0 4369 3194K Philips El nv 3194K + 26W 2.2 33.5
1582 915 Aus New Z 1487N – 10X 2.2 16.2 36 27 Aireav 29K + K … 13.1
426V 256K Aviva‡ 403X + 8Y 6.6 13.4 952K 750 IG Group‡ 797 – 8K 5.4 7.9 3O V Quantum Blockchain techv1W … … -9.0 900 518 Gleeson (MJ) 764 – 26 … 44.2
724 467K Anglo-Eastern 636 + 30 0.1 5.8 16N 5X PipeHawkv 16N – 1 … …
300K 134K Banco Santander 278N + 16N … -6.9 1314 495 Impaxv 1072 + 4 0.8 64.5
168Y 120O Quilter PLC 141 – V 3.2 39.1 1412 667K Grafton Gp Uts 1263 + 15 2.1 15.0
1670 860 Bank of Georgia 1600 + 30 … 5.4 2340 1171 Intermed Cap 2036 + 36K 2.5 12.9 420 152K Animalcarev 420 … 0.4 … 113K 58 Pressure Techv 78 … … -0.8
194K 97X Barclays 194K + 7N 0.5 9.8 155W 45K IPF 137 … … 16.1 191 155 Randall & Quilterv‡ 172K … 2.2 15.5 335 259K Grainger 301V – O 1.7 21.2
2494 1639K AB Foods 1826K + 10 … 36.1 6900 4502 Renishaw‡ 4502 + 60 … 72.2
421K 293W Beazley 379O + 5W … 30.8
176K 161 Intl Public Pntshp‡ 161W – 1O 4.5 42.9 2065 1414 Rathbone Brs‡ 1948 – 14 3.7 24.3 803K 571K Gr Portland 754 + 4K 1.6 -9.4
N V Blue Star Capitalv V … … 2.6 140V 57O Bakkavor Group‡ 130 + V … 22.4 28K 10 Renoldv 26N + N … 16.4
335 225 BP Marsh&Ptnrsv 315 … 0.7 8.2 323K 143N Investec 323K + 10 1.7 12.9
2N O RiverFort Global Oppsv 1W … 1.4 6.2 44N 16 Hammerson 33O + O 1.1 -1.9
128K 16K Braveheart Invv 32O – 1 … 0.9 316 270 Investment Co 300 – 1 2.2 -6.5 582 451 Barr (AG) 534 + 4 … 31.1 147W 38Y Rolls-Royce 144 + 1Y … 3.1
406 233 Brewin Dolphin 371K – K 4.4 23.3 155V 77N IP Group 136 – W 0.7 5.1 2950 1640 S & U 2910 + 20 3.7 24.1 183 86O Harworth Gp‡ 176 + 2 0.1 22.0
13 1X Bidstack Groupv 1O … … -1.0 4 1 Ross Gp 3N … … -4.9
569 452 Bridgepoint 498K + 13K … …
365 170 Jarvis Securitiesv 282K + 7K 4.6 19.5 3O 2V Sancus Lending Grpv 2O … … -0.6 385 245 Heath (Samuel)v 375 … … 24.1
94 45 Cenkos Secsv 82K … 2.4 25.0 200 115 Brand Architektsv 164 – 1 … -6.8 376K 279K Rotork 339V + 4V 3.0 30.8
306K 225O Jupiter Fund Mgmt 243W + 1K 7.0 10.6
515 224 Charles Stanley 512K … 1.7 25.6 53 30V Schroder REIT 49V + X 3.2 54.6 497 304 Helical Bar 457K + 15K 1.9 31.5 2924 2448 Brit Amer Tob‡ 2550 – 17 8.3 9.4 215 62V SDI Groupv 178K … … 38.9
314 258K Chesnara‡ 285 + 2K 7.7 9.3 111W 41X Just Group 92N + 1N … -6.4
90K 70W City of Lon Gpv 76 … … -3.3 763 558K Lancashire Hdgs 558K + 2 2.1 22.6 3871 2603 Schroders 3490 … 3.2 17.6 885 610 Highcroft Invs‡ 875 – 5 5.4 … 1006 728 Britvic 890 + 3 2.4 26.8 181 44W Senior 169W + 5N … …
560 390 City Lon Inv Gp 543 – 7 5.5 19.7 296W 182N Legal & Gen 284O + 6N 6.1 8.4 2735 1770 Schroders N/V 2485 + 30 4.5 12.5 390 272V HK Land 356 – X 4.4 -6.8 2264 1356 Burberry Grp 1886K + 27 … 20.3 82K 53W Severfield 74 – 1O 3.9 13.1
1685 1019 Close Bros 1557 + 30 2.5 21.4
46623X 454O Liberty Group 454O – O … 24.1
538 268K CMC Markets 278 + K 7.6 4.5 1692 885K St James Place 1478K + 5K 3.3 39.1 242W 147O Ibstock 200W – K 0.8 25.0 298 135X C&C Grp 234O + 2V … -8.5 16K 8N Six Hundredv 14 – N 1.8 …
589V 342O Commerzbk 498W + 14V … -2.2 2485 1185 Liontrust 2020 + 20 1.7 43.6
47O 34 Livermore Invsv 45 + 1V 5.5 … 521K 345 Stand Chart‡ 441O + 13 1.4 22.0 578 438 James Halsteadv 536 – 2 2.6 31.9 20O 9 Capital Metalsv 11 + W … … 2179K 1544K SKF B 1782 + 47Y 3.0 14.5
1077K 610N Deutsche Bk 939X + 32K … 17.5
167K 94O Carr's Grp 155K + K 3.0 17.2 270 190 Slingsby (HC)v 190 … … 3.1

Investment companies 705

2025
310 Character Grpv

1020 Churchill Chinav

510

1840
+ 13

…
0.9 13.7

0.5 38.4
1661 1329 Smiths 1456 + 19K 2.4 77.4

1165 560 Solid Statev 1165 – 35 1.0 25.4

12 month Price Yld Dis(-) 12 month Price Yld Dis(-) 2784 1755 Coca Cola HBC 2405 + 22 … 19.4
560 231 Somero Enterv‡ 510 + 20 2.4 21.1
High Low Company (p) +/- % or Pm High Low Company (p) +/- % or Pm
675 400 Colefaxv 645 … … 25.1
4083 2415 Spectris 3837 + 82 2.9 19.3
4148 3200 Cranswick 3508 – 16 1.7 19.9
1350K 946K 3I Group 1265 + 13 3.6 20.1 425 292 Invesco Asia Tr 335 + 7 3.9 -14.0 16600 10710 Spirax-Sarco 14790 + 215 0.7 62.9
325K 283 3i Infrastructure 305 – 4K 3.7 17.5 203 168K Invesco BondInc 196K + 2K 5.2 -1.5 227K 146W Devro 214 – 1K 7.1 13.1
79 41X Surface Trsfmsv 62K – 2 … …
103K 87O Abrdn Div I&G 100 – 1 4.5 -15.3 170 138V IPST Bal 167K … … -1.8
3635K 2499 Diageo‡ 3538 + 18K 1.9 31.2
1622O 830 Aberforth Smlr 1500 + 16 1.9 -12.2 237Y 175 IPST Gbl Eq 235 … 2.9 -1.3 3W 1Y Tanfieldv 2N … … -5.2
1048 797 Alliance 1000 + 8 1.3 -5.9 104Y 101 IPST Managed 103K … 0.9 -3.3 3 1V Distilv 2 … … 30.0
520 286 Thorpe FWv 435 + 1 1.3 38.1
604 415W Asia Dragon Tr 491 + 2 0.8 -11.3 190 136 IPST UK Eq 185K + K 3.4 -4.4 846 550 Evans (M.P.)v 846 + 18 1.9 31.0
260 155 Athelney Trust 245 … 3.4 -13.5 664 373 IP UKSmallerCos 605 + 9 0.5 -13.8 7N 3V TP Groupv 4Y … … -7.7
1026O 726K AVI Global Trust 997 – 1 1.4 -7.1 700X 499 JPM American 679 + 5 0.9 -3.4 96 51V Finsbury Foodv 95 … … …
116 49K Transense Techv 92 – 6 … …
658 363K Baillie Gifford Ch Gr 368K + 4 1.8 -5.9 550 404O JPM Asia 412 + 5K 4.1 -9.7 12220 9135 Games Workshop‡ 9750 – 75 2.4 26.3
171 115K Baillie Gifford Eu Gr 148V + 2K 0.2 -3.6 875Y 487O JPM Chinese 498 + 5 4.0 -10.5 3370 1856 Ultra Electrncs 3242 + 12 2.9 23.7
952 515 JPM Claverhs 738 + 16 4.0 -2.3 1310O 669K Glanbia 1165O … 1.9 23.5
1136 891 Baillie Gifford Jpn Tr 993 + 11 0.4 -3.4
590 390 Vesuvius 471W – 1W 3.6 20.7
274K 215O Baillie Gifford SN 230 – 3K … -0.9 105 100 JPM Elect Mg C 102K … 0.3 -0.7 170O 89V Greencore 136V – O … …
257 179K Baillie Gifford UK Gr 230 + 5 1.0 -3.7 1098 790 JPM Elect Mg G 1035 – 10 1.4 -1.5 1615 680 Vitec‡ 1470 – 15 0.3 44.2
536 251 Headlam 485 + 1 … …
119O 97K Bankers 110 + O 1.8 -5.3 111 76K JPM Elect Mg I 104K … 4.3 -2.1
152Y 110W JPM Em Mkts 126O + 1O 1.0 -9.4 493K 182 Volexv 418K + 5K 0.7 24.1
3730 3139V BH Macro 3530 – 100 … 6.7 1240 996 Hilton Food 1144 + 4 1.9 23.8
1750 1130N Biotech Growth 1220 + 6 … -6.8 375 254 JPM Eur IT Gth 351 – 2 1.3 -10.4 2107 1272 Weir 1654 + 15K … 28.2
71K 34 Hornbyv 43 – 1K … 53.7
110 59 BlckRck Com Inc 94K + Y 4.1 -5.3 161 107W JPM Eur IT Inc 149O – O 3.8 -9.4
559 368Y JPM Euro disc 515 – 2 1.1 -11.2 1674 1219 Imperial Brands 1553K – 3K 11.9 9.8 5700 3960 XP Power‡ 4930 – 20 1.8 26.3
130 92V BlckRck Fro Inv 124 + K 3.7 -10.3
712 431 BlckRck Grt Euro 640 + 4 0.9 1.4 162 113K JPM GEMI 140 + 1 3.2 -9.1 180 112K Zytronicv 170 … … …
1K W J Lewis Hfordv 1 – V … -3.2
200 148 BlckRck Inc & Gwth 191 + 2 3.6 -4.5 457 332 JPM GG&I 441 + 7 3.2 1.6
845 580 JPM Indian 832 + 7 … -15.7 11122W 8621V Kerry Gp 9913X … 0.7 36.0

Health
427O 297 BlckRck Latin Am 338 … 5.3 -11.8
204 142K BlckRck Sustain Amer 185K + 1K 4.0 -7.4 569Y 431 JPM Jap Sml Co 497 – 1 3.8 -10.5 94K 58Y McBride 74 … 1.4 10.4
2230N 1226 BlckRck Smlr 2010 – 10 1.5 -5.2 744 577 JPM Japan# 649 – 1 0.7 -7.3
1585V 892 JPM Mid Cap 1330 + 20 1.9 -11.0 407 140 Mulberry Groupv 310 … … 38.6
1046 587K BlckRck Throgmorton 916 … 1.0 -0.8
699V 390O BlckRck Wld Min 517 + 2 4.2 -6.6 110N 80K JPM Multi-Ass G&I 105K … 4.7 -0.5 1640 982 Nicholsv 1250 – 50 2.9 45.5 1719 1188 Abcamv 1508 + 46 0.2 …
864X 535 JPM Russian 864 + 34 6.5 -9.8
33 19 Blue Plan Int Fn# 24K – K 1.7 -13.0 336 140 Norcros 290 … … 15.5 317K 200 AdvancedMedicalv‡ 317K + 7K 0.4 80.5
478W 245O JPM Smllr Co 386 – 2 1.2 -10.3
341 235X BMO Cap&Inc 320 – 3 3.5 -1.5
375 244 Keystone IT 328 + 1 3.1 -0.5 341X 280O Origin Entsv 280O … 0.9 17.2 38K 12O Allergy Therapv 37K … … 38.6
101Y 58X BMO Comm Prop 96Y – 1K 3.2 -18.6
813 490K Law Debenture 767 – 1 2.6 -0.2
173O 119 BMO Glbl Smaller 160O – 3W 0.9 -8.2 72 37 Pittardsv 63 – 5 … -3.5 110 73 Allnce Pharmav 100K – 2 0.5 66.1
1450 888 Lowland 1315 + 20 5.1 -8.1
500 269O BMO Priv Eq Ord 454 – 1 3.0 -17.6
253V 175 Majedie 223 + 6 4.0 -21.9 700 365 Portmeirionv 685 … … … 139 39O Anglev 130 + 1K … …
81K 51W BMO Real Estate 75 + 2K 3.5 -29.0
428W 334 M Currie Port 385 + 1 1.0 1.0
101 72K BMO UK HIT 97 … 5.3 -2.3 1 K Provexisv O … … … 715 400 Anpariov 615 + 15 1.2 34.5
130 99 Marwyn Val In 123K + 1K 3.7 -32.9
108 74V BMO UK HIT B 101K – K … 2.6
294K 179O Mercantile IT 262K + K 2.2 -8.7 32K 14K Starvestv 16 … … 0.9 1028 506 Keller 930 + 5 6.1 12.7 274K 220 PZ Cussons 224K – 1 2.5 46.2 … … Aqua Bounty … … … …
408 285 BMO UK HIT UNIT 388 … 3.9 -2.3
555 330K Merchants 543 + 7 4.9 0.1 37K 26 STM Groupv 34K + K 3.7 12.7
1470 931N Brown Advsr US Smlr1345 + 5 … -10.8 8406N 4551V Kingspan Group‡ 7394O + 153V 0.2 33.5 67K 50 REA 59 … … -2.6 8856 6794 AstraZeneca 8856 + 30 2.3 42.6
838 640 Mid Wynd 778 + 14 1.2 0.5
1110 732X Brunner 1010 + 10 1.7 -10.6 3951N 3037V Sun Life Can 3951N + 58Y 3.2 11.9
1490 1128 Monks Inv Tst 1352 + 16 0.1 -1.2 750K 505 Land Sec‡ 700O + 6W 2.5 -3.7 4O 1K Real Gd Fdv 2N + N … -0.1 44X 21K Circassia Groupv 44X – V … -6.3
3490 2118 Caledonia Inv 3380 + 10 1.4 -23.7
2170 193W Montanaro Eur Sml 197K + 1K 0.4 1.8 4Y 1N Tavistock Invv 4K … … -4.5
203 168K Invesco BondInc 196K + 2K 5.2 -1.5 396 208 Stock Spirits 374K + K 2.2 42.4 262K 174Y Convatec Group‡ 205W – K 1.9 41.7
959K 694 Murray Income Trust 873 – 2 3.6 -6.5 18K 7K Lon & Assoc 18K + K … -2.3
404 304V City of Lon IT 385K + 2K 5.0 0.8 1452 907 TBC Bank Group 1452 + 6 … 5.3
1240 904 Murray Int 1084 + 4 4.7 -7.0 705 395 Tandemv 540 + 4 1.1 8.3 134 46 Creighton 108 + K 0.6 18.3
117 73K Crystal Amber Fd 109K – 2 3.6 -19.9 30N 5O Ternv 19N + K … 64.1 265V 206V London Metric Prop‡ 241K + 1K 3.5 8.4
90O 75O Nb Global Floating 89K + W 5.3 -6.5 815O 595V Tate & Lyle 679 – 8V 4.3 12.6
444W 278 Dunedin Entp 435 + 1 0.4 -12.6 31O 15O Time Financev 22N – K … … 73 53 Macau Prop Op 53K – 1 … -2.9 5405 3174 Dechra Pharma 4828 + 106 0.7 …
376 267X Pacific Assets 349 – 1 0.6 -7.5
647 430V Edinburgh IT 603 + 3 4.3 -9.2 1225 586 Treatt 1020 … 0.5 56.8
3713 2036 Pantheon Int 2945 – 5 … -24.0 262K 150 TP ICAP PLC‡ 150 – 3V 10.0 9.9 2N 1 Deltex Medicalv 1K … … …
425 215 Edin Wwide 300 + 2K … -4.2 845 628 Marshalls 707 – 4K 0.6 29.8
2845 2025 Pershing Sq 2645 + 25 0.7 -28.7 5O 4O Ukrproduct Gpv 4O … … -1.6
674 165 Electra Pte Eq 598 – 8 … 17.8 215W 73X Virgin Money UK 198Y + 9 … … 35 12K e-Therapeuticsv 34O – N … …
49650 43840O Personal Assets 48500 + 100 1.1 0.8 239 176 McKay Secs 225K + K 3.1 …
300 239 EP Global Opp 278 + 4 1.8 -14.5 1500 1275 Volverev 1285 … … … 5322 4305K Unilever (NV) 4604 – 17K 2.3 26.0
2593 2015 Polar Cap Tech 2380 + 40 … -9.3 395 202K Eco Animal Hlthv‡ 307K … … 25.4
152 98O European Assets 138K + 1 5.3 -3.9 162K 87N Michelmershv 124 – 1 … 25.0
206 116 Prem Glb & Inf 186K … 4.2 -8.1 58K 36 WH Irelandv 53 … … 25.6 4892 3733 Unilever 3918K – 30 3.7 22.1
878 594 European Opp Tr 795 + 2 0.3 -11.1 85 58K EKF Diagnosticsv 80O + W 1.2 33.3
139O 118O Renewables Inf 123W – V 6.0 8.0 2685 1096 Morgan Sindall 2345 + 15 2.6 14.6
904 680 F&C Investment Tr 852 + 7 1.2 -9.6 36K 25K Walker Crips Grp 31 … 1.9 … 1190 297K Victoriav 940 + 10 … …
3635N 1786 RIT Cap Ptnr 2520 – 5 … -6.9 67K 12K Futura Medicalv 35 – 1N … …
510 324 Fidlty Asian Val 476 – 4 1.6 -3.9 494V 243W Riverstone 487K + K … -28.7 3793K 1567O Wells Fargo 3535O + 84W 0.8 13.0 14350 10300 Mountview 13750 – 150 2.9 17.3

Engineering
503 233K Fidelity China Sp 308K + 5K 1.3 -10.4 551 430 Schroder TotRt 491 + 6 1.4 -0.8 6070 3834 Genus 5310 + 55 0.5 72.1
1443N 887X Westpac 1379N – 7W 1.2 21.3 106O 50K NewRiver REIT 83O – X … -1.7
331K 243K Fidlty Euro Val 308 + 2K 1.9 -7.0 686N 510 Schrd Asia Pac 567 + 2 1.2 -10.2
31K 24K Worsley Investors Ltd 30V – K … 94.3 1525O 1190O GlaxoSmKline‡ 1388 + 3V 5.7 16.0
268W 198W Fidlty Jap Tru 240 + 1 … -6.9 323 228 Schrod Inc Gwth 303 + 4 4.2 -1.0 298 117K NMCN# 117K … 7.6 3.2
312 172X Fidlty Spec Val 285 … 2.0 -3.4 231 172 Schrod Jap Gwth 218 + 1 1.9 -11.8 32604W 23930K Zurich Fincl 30142V + 102O 5.2 12.9 2K Y Gunsyndv 1 … … -6.4
273 182 Palace Capital‡ 230 – 8 4.3 … … … Ass Br Eng# 15 … … -0.2
928 774 Fins Gwth & Inc 875 + 7 1.8 -4.6 809 460 Schrod UKMid 704 … 1.7 -8.9 2695 2193 Hikma Pharms 2316 – 68 1.5 15.9
141W 88V GCP Infrastructure 102 … 7.1 -0.3 4625 1763 Avon Rubber 1877 – 34 1.4 94.5
Construction &
39Y 24Y Schroder UK PP Tr 34 – W … -15.1 280 175 Panther Securitiesv 275 + 20 2.1 18.4
216 107V GCP Student Living 212 – K 0.3 8.8 528 416V Scot American 492 + 1K 2.4 1.8 624 352 Hutchmed Chinav 502 + 6 … …
380V 199 Babcock 355 – 12O … -1.0

property
950 753 Gen Emer Mkts 869 – 9 1.3 -6.0 3238 2314 Persimmon 2574 – 16 9.1 10.4
847V 657N Scot IT 734 + 2 3.4 -13.9 380 182 Immunodiag Sysv 378 … 0.5 …
65V 38 Gldn Prosp Prc Mtl 38Y – 1O … -13.0 1468O 947N Scot Mtge 1375 + 23 0.2 3.4 582K 397 BAE Sys 565 + 1 6.6 10.2
17K 3N Pires Investmentsv 6Y – V … …
143W 124K Greencoat UK Wind 131K + 1 5.7 4.1 219 183X Secs Tst Scot 209 + 1 2.7 -1.8 13O 7V ImmuPharmav 7K … … -2.2
984K 592 Bodycote 827K – 2K 3.9 46.2
248 156 Hansa Investment 220 … 0.9 -32.9 114K 102 Sequoia Eco 108W … 6.1 5.5 425 20 Plaza Cent 75 – 305 … -0.1
277K 79 Alumascv‡ 242K + 2K 0.8 17.9 218 94K Indivior 215 + K … 16.5
238 159 Hansa Inv Co 'A' 218 … 0.9 -33.5 2400 1340 Braime A N/Vv‡ 2400 … 0.4 40.5
1182 654K Temple Bar 1068 + 16 3.1 -9.1 169K 138O Primary Hlth 152K + W 3.0 14.3
2725K 1375O Hbrvest Glbl Pt Eq 2335 – 5 … -25.0 25V 22 Aseana Props 22 – X … -1.8 150 62 Inspiration Healthv 127 + 9K 0.1 25.0
216 165 Tplton Emg Mkt 175O + O 2.9 -10.3 2500 1575 Braime Groupv‡ 2420 – 80 0.4 40.8
1666O 1196K Hend Euro Foc 1562K + 22K 1.8 -10.0 Y V Tiger Royal and Invv N … … 20.6 79O 70Y Assura Grp‡ 72V + W 3.9 17.6 36 23O Raven Property 32K … … …
525 270 Caffyns 500 … … 9.6 123K 62K IXICOv 78K … … 29.2
189K 122K Hend High Inc 162 + 1 5.7 -4.7 511X 287X TR Property 468K – 1K 3.0 -0.7 2 1V Aukett Swankev 1Y … … -4.6 122 106K Raven Property Gr 118 + K … … 344K 269K Mediclinic Int 309 + 3V … 33.5
1378 758 Hend Smlr 1210 + 14 1.7 -9.4 79K 67 Troy Inc&Gth 76V + K 2.1 -1.7 13O 4V Cap XX Ldv 5X … … -7.9
322O 208O Balfour Beatty 276 + 1 0.5 30.3
2670 1640X Herald 2315 – 10 … -12.1 286O 150 Utilico Ord 265 – 1 2.0 -29.9 42O 27 Real Estate Invsv 40K … 6.1 -3.5 12K 5N N4 Pharmav 7O – W … -8.1
420 302 Castings 354 + 10 4.2 37.2
412K 276K HgCapital Trust 392 – 2 1.3 5.9 229 166 Utilico Emerging Mkt 217 + 3 3.2 -12.7 794O 482K Barratt Devs‡ 643W – 6 … 16.2
718O 407V Redrow‡ 641 + 4O … 17.4 13O 7 Chamberlinv 7X + V … -0.5 97.30 77.56 Novartis CHF82.14 – 0.35 3.9 21.0
180K 158X HICL Infra 165V – 1O 5.4 9.5 141X 126O UtilFin RdZDP 2022 140K … … 2.0 3712 2317 Bellway 3205 – 13 1.5 21.6
278 206Y Highbridge Tactical 270 … … -1.8 726 448K Vietnam Ent Inv 708 – 3 … -14.8 1189 735K Safestore 1055 + 7 1.7 9.0 107 42 Omega Diagsv 48K – 2 … …
5352W 4226 Berkeley 4226 – 45 2.7 12.7 66 44 Checkitv 54K … … -6.5
1270 781 ICG Ent Tr 1172 – 8 1.7 -22.4 324O 186Y Witan 241K + 3 2.0 -8.1
548 356V Impax Env Mkts 500 – 10 0.4 7.8 3965 3401X Ww Health 3565 + 35 0.6 -3.1 1573 1033 Big Yellow Group 1371 – 4 2.4 9.0 1399 793K Savills‡ 1319 – 3 1.2 16.9 678 494 Cohortv 559 – 15 1.8 24.8 13N 8O Ovoca Biov 12N … … -4.8
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021 49

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

1634 783 Oxford Biomedica 1488 + 24 … … 250 137K DCD Mediav 185 … … 92.5 2 Y Europa Oil&Gasv 1K … … -2.7 N … UK Oil & Gasv V … … -0.5 696K 523 RWS Hldgsv 606 – 1K 1.4 43.9 88N 43N IQEv 47 + W … …
9N 5V Physiomicsv 5Y – N … … 61 18N Ebiquityv 55 – 2 … … 698V 340K Evraz 578W + 6K 8.7 7.6 535 205 URU Metalsv 255 – 5 … -1.7 490 235 Science Groupv 450 – 20 1.3 19.4 217 86 K3 Business Tchv 178K … … -3.0
9Y 3V Proteome Sciesv 5W … … 41.7 1112 806 Euromoney In Inv 1088 – 20 2.0 37.7 18K 6 Vast Resv 6 … … -1.5 145O 106K Serco Gp‡ 131O + 1V 1.0 5.5 2877K 1001V LG Electronics 1835 – 73W 2.1 5.3
501 168W Ferrexpo 310O + 6K 4.6 2.4
7706 5519 Reckitt Benck 5571 – 85 3.1 … 6W 2 Victoria Oil&Gasv 3K – V … -1.3 45W 24K Smiths News 37W – 1O 2.6 7.6 Y N Location Sciencesv K … … -2.1
3910 1634 Future 3620 + 30 … 56.3 1357K 745V Fresnillo 778 – 4 2.3 12.9
176K 117K RUA Life Sciencesv 151 + 1 … … 4305 2904 Smurfit Kappa‡ 3818 + 24 4.4 19.4 587K 211O Micro Focus Intl 400 – 2 2.8 -0.8
1660 1175 GlobalDatav 1425 – 25 1.1 3.1 28 … G3 Exploration# 28 … … -2.6 18 6N W Resourcesv 6Y … … -1.5
9V O Sareum Hldgsv 6 – N … … 92O 22O Staffline Gpv 64K + 1W … -0.9 91K 43 MTI Wirelessv 67K – K 2.6 22.9
152 49Y Hyve Group 112W + 1K … -2.4 22 7O Westmount Engyv 10 … … …
43 14 Galantas Goldv 23 … … -4.9
649 339 Silence Therapv 536 + 6 … … 602 241 SThree 573 + 7 0.8 26.4 29O 8O Nanoco Gp 19 + W … …
646 397 IG Design Grpv‡ 482 – 8 1.7 79.1 360K 202K Wood Grp (J) 230X + 1W … -9.4
15N 4N GCM Resourcesv 4K … … -2.6
1668K 1283 Smith & Neph‡ 1283 + 18 2.0 28.0 4 1V NAPSTER GROUP PLCv 1V … … -1.1
7X 2V Woodboisv 4K … … 17.6 150 90 Synecticsv 107K … … -5.4
40K 12X Immedia Grpv 13W … … -1.8
253 96 Spire Hcare 214 + 2K … -3.6 78W 34K Gem Diamonds 55 + 3 … 6.3 87 37 Netcallv 85K … 0.2 72.4
8K 1V Xtract Resourcesv 4K – V … … 28V 20O Thruvision Groupv 20O … … …
598K 381W Informa 582O + 12V … …
224X 77 Synairgenv 143 + 9 … … 43N 10W Getechv 22K + 1 … -5.1 77 51K Northamberv 59K … 0.5 39.6
7 K Zephyr Energyv 5Y … … … 110 60O Tribalv 95 … 1.1 28.7
132K 68X ITV 106 – 1W … 11.7
O N Tissue Regenixv K … … -2.8 367K 155K Glencore 367K + 12K 1.1 31.7 106K 17 Online Blockchainv 38K … … …
58 22K Zoltav Resourcev 27 … … -3.9 6W 3V Universe Grpv 4V … … …
204 50K Tiziana Life 51K + 1Y … -4.2 16K 2N Jaywingv 11N … … -1.2
1K W Global Petrolv K … … -0.5 112 74 Oxford Metricsv 104K + 1K 1.7 46.8
117K 60K Vianetv 107K … … …
43N 17 Totallyv‡ 34O – W 1.4 … 10N 3W Live Company Gpv 3Y – W … -0.4

Professional &
106177W 603 Gold Fields 603 – 11Y 3.7 7.8 13K 6N Parityv 6N … … -7.2
1060 604 Vp 1000 – 22K … …
680 480 Tristelv 605 … 1.0 54.1 V … Mediazestv … … … -2.3 51K 26 Pennant Intlv 30K … … -4.2

support services
8O 6X Goldplatv 7 … … 4.2 7K 3Y Westminsterv 4Y – V … -5.9
38O 17O ValiRxv 33N – O … -8.7 75 57K Merit Grpv 57K … … -3.3 514V 331Y Playtech 452V – 14W … …
14K 7N Goldstone Resv 10X … … …

Retailing
173 99X Vectura Grp 164K – W … 8.1 85 60 Miradav 65 … … -9.1 356 236W QinetiQ 319K + 2K 2.0 14.8
37N 15O Greatld Gldv 15O + V … …
89K 54K Mission Groupv 72 – 1K … … 3170 1744 4imprint Grp 2980 – 30 … … 255 164 RM 230 … 1.3 16.5

Industrials 305W 205O Moneysupermarket 205O – O 5.6 19.6

153K

212K
58K Griffin Miningv

68 Gulf Keystone‡
80O –

212K +
2V

7K
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…
8.9

…
625 490 Andrews Sykesv 542K + 7K 4.1 14.6
433K 158K AO World 158K + V … 43.0
756K 558K Sage Gp 713W + 15K 2.3 25.3

2049Y 961Y News Corp A 1748 + 26O 0.8 43.1 6162 2774 Ashtead 5638 + 134 0.7 41.1 12V 4 Seeing Machinesv 9 + N … …
5918 2875 Asosv 2875 – 70 … 15.9
188 85 Accsys Techv 160K + 3 … … 647V 225V Harbour Energy 373 – 1V … … 215 129 Shearwater Grpv 140K + 1K … …
1924K 955N News Corp B 1737W + 27V 0.8 42.8 74 21K Asimilar Groupv 39 – 1K … 2.4
601 461K B&M European 579W + 8 1.6 13.5
6241 4007K BASF 5498 + 6O 5.1 30.2 51W 16Y Harland & Wolff Group Holdingsv17N + Y … 1.3 2300 393 AssetCov 1775 … … 5.5 6K 4O SimiGonv 4O … … -1.6
1200 438 Next 15 Commsv 1135 + 10 … …
79Y 46N Brown (N)v 47W – Y … 18.0
4925V 3469 Bayer DM50 3928W – 37O 4.3 -5.9 270W 130N Hochschild 130N – 2W 3.5 15.0 51 26 Avisenv 41K … … … 182K 81 Smartspace S'warev 110 … … …
869W 499K Pearson 720V + 2V 2.7 19.5
84 48 Cambria Autov 82K … … 7.5
505 155 Biome Techv 432 … … -8.4 9Y 5X Horizonte Minrlsv 7Y … … … 2240 1100 Softcat 2010 + 46 0.8 45.0
78O 43X Photo-Me 65K + 4W 12.8 7.3 148K 82 Begbies Traynorv 135 + 1O 2.1 …
95K 30K Card Factory 51K + K … …
8W 4N Byotrolv 4X … … 10.3 303 228K Spirent Comms 275 + 2K 1.5 28.5
39K 15K Hummingbird Resv 15K … … … 292 190 Blancco Techv 262K … … …
5 3 Primorus Invv 4V … … 1.3 2770 1190 CVS Groupv 2410 + 55 … …
6O 5 Camb Gbl Timberv 6 … … -7.4 45 30 SRT Marinev 38K – K … -8.2
105 46K Quarto 97K … … 5.3 289K 122 Hunting 230K – 1K 1.8 -8.7 2700 2150 Bunzl 2447 + 26 2.1 19.0
79O 54W Coats Grp 67K + 1 1.3 16.1 359X 243X Dairy Farm Intl 243X – 1W 4.9 26.4
1022W 805V Tele. Ericsson 838 + 13K 1.7 16.7
420 72X Reach 353 + 11 1.2 … 28O 7Y IGas Energyv 16N – K … -0.4 52O 23X Capita 49Y + V … 3.3
9304 5860 Croda‡ 8440 + 36 1.0 46.7 300 172V DFS Furn 260 + 8K … …
90 37 Touchstarv 82K … … 80.1
1W N Independ Resv K … … -0.6 51 22K CEPSv 51 … … -9.2
1475 815 Cropper (James)v 1315 – 15 … 80.1 3X Y REACT Grpv 2N … … 57.5 1561 1141 Dunelm‡ 1365 + 45 … 25.3
1100 505 Tracsisv 930 – 20 … …
235 186 Indus Gasv 228 … … 11.7 136 65K Christie Groupv‡ 124 – 1 … -6.4
161X 72V Elementis 139 – 5O … 96.0 2226 1527K Relx 2163 + 24 2.1 31.2 701K 347K Frasers Group 630K + 10K … 28.0 24K 13K Trakm8v 20 … … -8.1
1N N Ironveldv K … … -4.7 1646 1055 Compass 1530 + 14 … …
42K 23K Hardidev 31 … … -7.0 746O 555O Rightmove‡ 680 + 11 0.6 38.4 29V 5K French Conn 29V + V … -1.4 150 24 Triad Grp 105 … … 24.7
717 227 ITM Powerv 386 – 6O … … 567K 239 CPPGroupv 427 + 1 5.8 …
4998X 2952K Jardine Math 3809K – 13Y 3.2 78.5 16K 4 SpaceandPeoplev 9W … … -0.6 3192 1222 Greggs‡ 3192 + 319 … 38.1 540 260 Wandiscov 320 + 5 … -7.3
3300 2149 Johnson Math 2598 – 12 1.9 24.4 89K 59 Croma Securityv 89K – 1 2.1 …
377K 244Y STV Group‡ 377K + 7K … 21.5 52 16K JKX Oil & Gas 52 + 2W … 4.2 435 219 Halfords 297W + 1W … 11.2 1340 415 Water Intelv 1105 – 40 … 80.3
2068 1463 Mondi 1812 + 5 4.3 17.6 6614 5006 DCC 6146 + 16 2.4 20.7 975K 595K Howden Join 865O – 10W 1.0 20.1
358 109K System1 Groupv 255 + 1 … 19.4 21Y 5V Jubilee Metalsv 15V … … 10.3 258K 110 Xaar 157K + K … …
169 91K Robinsonv‡ 91K … 9.2 … 207 133K De La Rue 167W – 1 … 45.2 933 451 Inchcape 800 – 5K 0.8 43.0
3276K 1877 21st Cent Fox Inc A 3063O + 19 1.0 11.7 6K 2W Karel Diamd Resv 3W … … -4.7 21N 11Y Yourgenev 14N … … -7.9
462N 277 Smith (DS) 402K – N 0.9 30.4 940 430K Dignity 697 + 12 … … 14Y 4N IQ-AI 6Y – W … …
3073W 1855K 21st Cent Fox Inc B 2823O + 16V 1.1 10.8 2W Y KEFI Gold and Copperv Y … … -4.4 151 53K Zoo Digitalv 117 – 1K … …
610X 336N Swire Pacific 449N + 4V 4.9 -6.5 3166 2050 Diploma 2840 + 30 0.7 65.2 1151 691 JD Sports 1069 + 34K … 46.3
V … Vela Techv … … … -0.9 466 252 Kenmare Res‡ 428 – 2 1.6 12.5
27O

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230 123 Wilmington 229 + 6 … 33.9 82W 26O Lamprell 33V – 1O … -2.9
1262 560 Discoverie PLC 1048 – 4 0.3 80.6 376W 260N Kingfisher 330Y + 3X … 11.8 Telecoms
61 44K Driver Groupv‡ 51K … 1.4 28.6 72W 33O Lookers 60X + 2N … …
1017K 599O WPP 1003K + 19Y 2.3 25.4 39O 18O Landore Resv 22N … … -7.4
2862V 2153 Takeda Pharm 2347W – 30Y 5.0 13.1 119 67K DWF‡ 110 + 1 2.0 -9.2 192O 88X Marks Spencer 185X + 1O … … 315 196 AdEPT Technologyv 277 – 8 … …
1445 870 YouGov PLCv 1150 – 80 0.4 … 2K X Lansdowne O&Gv X … … …
11 4 Velocysv 5N … … -5.0 1119 679K Electrocompnts 1069 + 21 1.4 38.8 296 161O Morrison (W) 285K – N 2.3 26.2 205K 98X BT Group 151N … … 10.3
74 52K Zinc Mediav 64K … … -0.9
2706 1830 Victrex 2338 – 24 1.9 37.7 29K 11 Leeds Groupv 25K … … …
182O 99V Equiniti Group 179O + 1 … 77.2 18 10N Mothercarev 17 – W … -3.0 159V 10 Currys plc 124N + 1X … 5.8
592 282K Wynnstay Groupv‡ 545 … 2.6 17.3 5Y 2K Lexington Goldv 3O … … -8.8
494 360 Zotefoams‡ 370 … 1.7 22.2 Natural resources 8K 5 MC Miningv 6 … … -1.5
332K

3388
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2273 Experian
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Leisure
10765 7722 Ferguson 10435 + 235 1.4 29.3 2883 1668K Ocado Gp 1669K + 14 … …
6K 2V ADM Energyv 2V … … -0.5
X N Nostra Terrav W … … -1.7 265 200 FIH Groupv 215 … 0.8 -4.5 21 7O Pendragon 18 … … … X V Mobile Streamsv K … … -3.1
3K 2 Advance Energyv 3K … … -5.0
15 7K Nostrum O&G 9 – K … … 272 44 Gattacav 208 … … … 519 369 Pets at Home 480W + 6 1.5 24.7 5Y 2Y Mobile Tornadov 2Y … … -9.9
478 251 888 Hldgs‡ 421 + 6V 1.0 … 85 17 AFC Energyv 45 – 4O … …
244O 135 Oil Search 237N + 5N 0.1 65.4 2131V 120K Saga 346K – 1K … -5.1 1494 1010 Telecom Plus 1246 + 28 4.5 30.1
8N 4 Grafeniav 5K – V … -3.0
992 250 Accesso Techv 905 – 15 … … … … Afentra PLC … … … …
340 190N Sainsbury J 299W + 5N 1.0 … 142W 101X Vodafone Gp 114X + Y 6.6 …
W … Oilexv V … … -5.5 568 200 Hargeaves Servv‡ 410 – 9 1.1 …
3440 615 Best of the Bestv 615 – 15 0.4 5.0 K V Alba Mineral Resv V … … -4.3
1X N Oriole Resourcesv W … … -3.4 1267 858 Homeserve 858 – 12 2.8 93.2 2016 930K Smith WH 1717 … … -6.4
1865W

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2Y X Alien Metalsv O … … …
2Y X Ormonde Miningv 1 … … -4.8 400 220 Impellam Grpv 400 … … 22.7 36 13X Sosandarv 24K – 3 … -6.8 Transport
119X 72N Alumina 119X + K 3.4 36.7
88V 19 Ince Gv 60 + 5K … 3.2 4V 2K Stanley Gbbnsv 3V … … -3.3
122 24N Cineworld 75X – W … -0.9 39 13W Orosur Miningv 15O – Y … …
1K W Aminex X … … -5.7 99V 60W Air Partner 95K – 1W 0.8 10.2
6440 4792 Intertek‡ 4792 – 3 2.2 29.1 315 234 Studio Retail Group 259 – 2 … 6.9
431K 301K Domino's Pizza 389K – 2 3.7 19.4 26K 15V Pan African Resv 15V – W 4.4 6.3
2Y 1N Amur Mins Corpv 1Y … … … 310 123 Braemar Ship 235 – 3 2.1 9.2
383K 252V IWG 292 – 7W … -4.9 212W 85 Ted Baker 138V + K … -2.4
2377 933 Entain 2132 + 11 … 79.5 87 22X Pantheon Resv 87 + 5 … …
1104646Y 6513X Anglo Amer Plat 6513X + 17Y 3.5 4.8 4010 2000 Clarkson 3790 + 90 3.4 …
180W 86 Johnson Srvcev 139W – 2 … … 312K 219N Tesco 253 + 1N 4.8 33.5
16915 11860 Flutter Ent 14580 + 80 … …
3444 1788 Ang Am 2601K + 11 2.7 6.6 60Y 26W Parkmead Grpv 60Y + 2W … … 921Y 396N easyJet 693W – 5K 6.3 -2.6
954 550 Fullr Sm A 686 + 16 … -7.8 137 43K Journeov 116K … … 51.5 75K 43 Topps Tiles 62K – 1O 3.6 …
177 108 Anglo Asian Mngv 124 – 1 5.2 8.3 Y W Pathfinder Minsv X … … -3.8 37X 12 Esken Limited 13O – K … -0.5
47 17O Gaming Realmsv 31 + W … … 133 37V Kier Gp 118K – V … -1.7
430 300 Heavitreev 300 – 3 … …
1925 980K Antofagasta 1356 + 6K 0.7 36.6 2N

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1365 800 Latham (J)v 1060 – 30 1.4 14.1 Technology 97V

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8V 3 Arc Mineralsv 3O … … 2.7
300 200 Heavitree Av 200 – 10 … … 845 510 Lok'n Storev 745 – 15 1.7 61.0
1435 551K Go-Ahead 805K + 14 … -7.5
6 4V Ariana Resv 4V … … 9.3 8K 2N Petro Matadv 2X … … -7.4 156K 77 Access Intellv 147K – 1 … …
105 90 Hermes Pacificv 90 … … … 2600 2020 Lon Securityv 2600 … 2.3 17.8 217O 91 Intl Cons Air 186W – 1K … -1.9
5312 3870 Intercont Htls 4881 + 43 … … 1Y X Arkle Resourcesv O … … -1.7 178O 91W Petrofac 178O – 3V … -4.5 170 115 Aferian plcv 163 … 1.1 54.6
490 204 LSL Prop Services 426 – 6 … 11.8 425N 276N Irish Cont Uts 370K … … …
158X 123 Mandarin Orntl 154V – 1W … -6.7 6N 3 Armadale Capv 5 … … … 4K K Petroneft Resv 3X … … -9.0 193 115 Alfa Financial 180 – 2 … 26.5
145 79K Macfarlane‡ 134 + 2 1.9 15.9 1564K 696 Jet2v 1277 – 13K … -7.6
1K Y Minoan Gpv Y … … -6.9 6 2 Asiamet Rsrcsv 2X … … … 33O 18Y Petropavlovsk 19Y … … … 41N 19K Allied Minds 22O + W … -1.4
410 221 Maintel Hldgsv 333 … … … 328V 141X Natl Express 235V + 2 … -5.0
337K 119 Mitch & Butlers 239W + 1V … -7.0 360 151 Atalaya Minev 320 + 3 … 5.7 8 4 Phoenix Globalv 5K + W … -1.0 725 436K Aptitude Software 664 – 10 0.8 50.3
N … Malvern Intlv V … … -2.2 1135 620 Ocean Wilson 980 … 8.1 4.9
504 210 On The Beach 383K – 7K … … … … Baron Oilv … … … -3.1 609W 420 Avast‡ 562 + 5 2.0 27.7
24 9N Plexus Holdingsv 12N … … -3.8
224 105K Mears Group 200 … … 46.1 1504V 977X Ryanair 1489K – 7V … …
1774 928 PPHE Hotels 1350 + 76 … -7.0 6X 3X Beowulf Miningv 5 … … … 4220 3107 Aveva Gp 3516 + 28 1.1 …
1883K 1233 Polymetal Intl 1240K … 7.5 7.2 353 102W Menzies (John) 295K – 2K … -1.9 108 36O Stagecoach 83K – Y … 13.9
207 86 Rank Grp 167 – 2W 1.6 -8.4 235 151 Bangov 187K – 2K … …
W V Bezant Resv V … … -2.6 690 485 Porvair 654 + 40 0.7 30.1 27K 15K Sutton Harbourv 25 … … …
77N 27N Mitie Gp 67 – 1Y … …
139K 40 Restaurant Gp 105W + 5W … -4.9 122K 78 BATM Adv Coms 86Y – X … 26.3
2375K 1490V BHP Group 1861 + 12W 4.7 18.5 4N 1W Prospex Energyv 3N – N … -1.5 470 206 Wincanton 355 + 24 0.8 10.7
45 8N MobilityOnev 14 – O … 18.3
36 19 Rotalav 30 … … 26.3 42K 12K Berkeley Res 15O – K … -1.7
2K K Border & Sthn Petv O … … -3.6 5565 3124 Wizz Air Hldgs 5018 – 102 … -8.8
125 24K Proton Motor Power Sv 24K – K … -0.4 1W Y Newmark Secv Y … … …
40V 16O Sportechv 38 – V … -7.0
38 13W Bougainville 19V … … … 40 17K Blackbirdv 32O – 2N … …
346 147N SSP Group 274V – 8V … -2.8 8W 3 Providence Resv 3K … … -3.0 172K 72K Norishv‡ 172K + 2K … 26.3

7Y 1N Tastyv 7V … … -0.7
8N 3K BowLevenv 4N … … -6.7
6N 1O Quadrise Fuels Intlv 3Y + N … -8.4 10N 4 Norm Broadbentv 6X … … …
115

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350X 193W BP 350X + 6V 4.3 11.3
87K 35 Tintra PLCv 70 … … -1.3 90 19K Rambler Met&Minv 19K – K … -2.6 59 48 Northern Bearv 49K – K … -5.1
3030 2086 Computacenter‡ 2650 + 16 0.4 19.8
31 10Y Cadence Minv 17Y + X … 1.8 58O 37V Centrica 58O + W … 4.2
452O 170K TUI 326O – 6W … -1.8 O V Reabold Resourcesv V … … -5.2 230 180 NWF Grpv 192 – 1 3.5 12.0
114 80 Concurrent Techv 86K … 2.9 23.1
5K 2W Cadogan Petrol 3K … … -1.6 219 187K ContourGlobal 190O – V 6.3 …
6K 1N Webis Holdingsv 3Y – V … 32.5 651 356W PageGroup‡ 612K + 4K … 56.7
1N K Red Rock Resv K … … 1.0 16 7X Corerov 10X … … …
251X 125K Cairn Energy 190V – W … … 503 268W Drax Group‡ 499K – Y 3.4 …
1404 773K Wetherspoon JD 1032 + 13 … -6.2 117K 38K PCI-PALv 67 – K … -9.0
7200V 4873 Rio Tinto Ltd 5190X – 19O 6.4 6.2 2830 1370 Cranewarev 2370 – 30 1.0 50.8 600 482 Jersey Electricity 600 + 5 2.6 15.8
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the times | Wednesday Octo
October 6 2021
Playwright known for his
parodies of Shakespeare
Perry Pontac
Page 52
Obituaries
Allen Gardner
Pioneering ethologist who in the late 1960s became the first human to have a conversation with a chimpanzee using sign language
“Please,” she said. “What do you want?”
asked Allen Gardner, a psychology re-
searcher at the University of Nevada,
Reno. “Out. Come,” she replied. “What
do you want?” Gardner repeated.
“More.” “More what?” “More tickle.” It
might not have been an in-depth con-
versation, but it represented possibly
the first two-way dialogue between a
human and a member of another
animal species.
Washoe, a female chimpanzee born
in west Africa in 1965, had been cap-
tured by the US air force for research on
the country’s space programme, but
was acquired by Gardner. Previous re-
searchers had tried to teach chimpan-
zees to speak, but Gardner and his wife,
Beatrix, suspected that their mouths
and throats were not anatomically built
for speech. “But chimps can learn to do
almost anything with their hands,” he
said. Beginning in 1966, when Washoe
was ten months old, the Gardners
taught her to use American Sign Lan-
guage, or Ameslan.
“Monkey business,” scoffed the
newspaper headlines, while critics bris-
tled at the idea of treating “lower
animals” like humans. Yet the Gardners
were not the first to ponder if primates
could communi-
cate like us. Samu-
el Pepys was intro-
duced to a baboon
in 1661 and felt
sure it “already un-
derstood much En-
glish”.
Washoe, who
was named after
the county in Neva-
da where the Gard-
ners lived, was pro-
vided with a fur-
nished trailer to
sleep in, a yard to
play in and a collec-
tion of nursery-
school toys. “She was
particularly fond of
dolls, kissing them,
feeding them and
even bathing them,”
Gardner said. “She
was attracted to pic-
ture books and maga-
zines almost from the
first day and she would
look through them by
herself or with a friend
who would name and explain xplain th i
the pic-
tures and tell stories about them ... She
was fascinated by household tools,
eventually gaining a creditable level of
skill with hammers and screwdrivers.”
The family setting was necessary, he
added, insisting that research with
caged animals was not only inhumane
but also produced inaccurate results.
“Caging is stressful,” he said in a 1995 in-
terview. “And stress will affect research
results in animals as well as in humans.”
The couple and their associates spent
up to 13 hours a day with Washoe, but
never spoke a word. All conversation,
whether with Washoe or with other
humans close by, was in sign language
and visitors from the deaf community
using Ameslan were welcome.
This sign-language-only rule re-
quired a degree of isolation. “On drives
through town, we drove through traffic
like undercover agents,” Gardner
wrote. “We could stop at a Dairy Queen
or McDonald’s fast-food restaurant,
but only if they had a secluded parking
lot in the back. Then one of Washoe’s
companions could buy the treats while
another waited in the car. If Washoe
was spotted, the car drove off to return
later for the waiting passenger and the
treats, when the coast was clear.”
At first Washoe mimicked one-word
signs to ask for food, much like a dog
learns to bark for its supper. However,
Gardner told the American Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science
that in 1967 she had started combining
signs. Her first phrase was “Gimme
sweet”. Soon she added “You tickle me”
to her repertoire. In Teaching Sign Lan-
guage to Chimpanzees (1989), the Gard-
ners and their colleagues described
Washoe’s accomplishments in the man-
ner of doting parents relating the
achievements of their children, reveal-
W
Washoe the chimpanzee with Allen Gardner and his wife, Beatrix, in
1976.
1 Left: with Gardner’s protégé Roger Fouts and his wife, Debbie
in that she could drink from
ing
a cup, brush her teeth and eat
a a table with forks and
at
s
spoons. “She also learnt to
s and clear the table and
set
e
even to wash the dishes, in a
c
childish way,” they added.
With about ten signs in
h
her repertoire Washoe
b
began to invent combina-
t
tions, using them in appro-
priate ways: open flower (to
p me”. Washoe eventually went to live at
b
be let through the gate to a
g
garden), or water birds (for
a pair of swans). Roger
B
Brown, a Harvard psy-
cchologist, described this
d
development as equiva-
le
lent to “getting an SOS
fr
from outer space”. Wash-
o
oe also used signs to tell
tthe Gardners about
things they did not know such as a
The Gardners never
spoke out loud when
Washoe was in earshot
hole, previously unknown to them, into
which one of her toys had fallen.
By the time she was five, Washoe was
using 130 signs. “The final total in her
vocabulary may include hundreds,
even thousands of signs,” Gardner said
in 1971. She learnt to name her friends
and herself, to ask for things such as
sweets and to apologise when she failed
to reach the lavatory in time. She even
talked to herself when she thought no
one was looking, much the same as
young humans.
In the early 1970s Washoe’s care
passed to Roger Fouts, Gardner’s
former PhD student, at the Institute for
Primate Studies in Norman, Oklaho-
Register
AP; PA
ma, but the Gardners kept up with her
progress and in 1974 she starred in The
First Signs of Washoe, a PBS docu-
mentary. By the end of the decade she
had twice given birth, though both in-
fants died. Wanting to see how she
would use sign language with young-
sters, the researchers presented her
with Loulis, an adopted ten-month-old
male, whom she taught to use a vocabu-
lary of signs starting with “Come, gim-
the Chimpanzee and Human Commu-
nication Institute in Ellensburg, Wash-
ington, where she died in 2007 aged 42.
The publication of the Gardners’
work led to invitations from around the
world to give lectures about signing
chimpanzees. Jane Goodall, the British
primatologist, invited them to Gombe
Stream national park in Tanzania, giv-
ing them an opportunity to see chim-
panzees in the wild. Yet some critics
claimed that their work was either
fraudulent or self-deceiving, arguing
that the couple’s evidence was as scant
as that which persuades some doting
new mothers that their infants’ first
gurgles are evidence of genius. Even
when the Gardners replicated it with
four more chimpanzees, Moja, Pili,
Tatu and Dar, their critics were uncon-
vinced. “Somebody even asked for a
congressional investigation,” Gardner
laughed. “We were very flattered. Mon-
key trials are so rare.”
Robert Allen Goldberg was born in
Brooklyn, New York, in 1930, the elder
of two sons of Milton Goldberg, an in-
dustrial engineer who during Prohibi-
tion made a living as a bootlegger, and
his wife May (née Klein); by 1940 the
family had changed their name to
Gardner. His younger brother, Herb
Gardner, became a successful cartoon-
ist and playwright and died in 2003.
Their father owned a tavern on the
51
lower east side of Manhattan, on Canal
Street, where the brothers spent many
hours soaking up the atmosphere and
listening to the older men talk. They re-
called being taken on illicit alcohol de-
liveries with their parents, who believed
the police would not stop a car carrying
small children.
He was educated at New York Uni-
versity and Columbia University before
taking a psychology doctorate on
learning theory at Northwestern Uni-
versity, Illinois. After serving in the US
army he was studying rats at Wellesley
College, Massachusetts, when he met
Beatrix “Trixie” Tugendhut, an Austri-
an-born, Oxford-educated ethologist
— someone who studies the behaviour
of animals in their natural environ-
ment. They crossed paths during a lec-
ture on love, or more precisely on the
negative behavioural results of rearing
rhesus monkeys without any monkey
or human companionship. They mar-
ried in 1961 and joined the University of
Nevada two years later.
By 1976 the chimpanzee project had
outgrown the Gardners’ trailer in Reno
and they moved to a secluded former
guest ranch that proved ideal for their
He described Washoe’s
achievements as if he
were a doting parent
research. Chimpanzees lived in cabins
once occupied by ranch hands; the barn
was turned into a playroom with ropes,
tyre swings and hay bales; and human
family, including students and research
assistants, lived in the ranch house.
Beatrix died from a central nervous
infection in 1995 and the couple had no
children as such, save for the adopted
chimpanzees with whom they shared
so much of their lives. Tatu, the sole sur-
viving participant of their studies, now
lives at a chimpanzee sanctuary in
Quebec. Gardner continued with his
research and teaching until retiring in
2010.
In the 1970s Herbert Terrace, profes-
sor of psychology and psychiatry at Co-
lumbia University, tried to train a
chimp named Nim Chimpsky, a pun on
Noam Chomsky whose theories of how
language is acquired by human child-
ren is relevant to the debate. Terrace
concluded that the Gardners were
wrong and that the chimpanzees had
been mimicking, not learning human
language. Gardner was unimpressed,
insisting that Terrace had not created a
comparable living environment and,
with all the restraint that has character-
ised this debate, described his research
as “the shoddiest piece of work I have
ever seen in this area”.
Whether or not chimps can actually
learn human language is a question
that probably only one of their number
can settle. For now, they have nothing
to say on the subject, except for the one
anonymous chimpanzee quoted by
Science magazine in 1980, who warned
the researchers: “Those who live in the
academic jungle shouldn’t ape the law
of the jungle.”
Allen Gardner, ethologist, was born on
February 21, 1930. He died on August 20,
2021, aged 91
552
Register
Perry Pontac
Playwright who won plaudits from actors and fellow writers alike for his radio dramas and talent for parodying Shakespeare
The iambic pentameter seemed to be
the first language of Perry Pontac. As a
playwright he specialised in parodying
the tragedies of Shakespeare, a prodi-
gious gift he exercised most notably in
Hamlet Part II, in which a diplomat re-
turns to Elsinore after a three-year ab-
sence and asks innocently, “And how is
Hamlet, Denmark’s dear delight?”
The response (“Hamlet, my lord, is
dead”) is followed by protracted ac-
counts of the deaths of Laertes, Ophe-
lia, Polonius, Queen Gertrude, her hus-
band Claudius, Hamlet’s father, Osric
and Fortinbras. From radio beginnings
this became a hilarious coup de theatre,
guaranteeing laughter from audiences,
notably in Harriet Walter’s summation,
ending: “And others too have ta’en their
loyal lives/ With swords and bodkins,
cannons, spears and knives; / Marcellus
and Bernardo and a priest,/ Reynaldo
and Francisco and the Players,/ A gen-
tleman, a Captain and two clowns/ ‘The
Dramatis Personae’, as it were.’’
The only person left alive, she report-
ed, was the Ghost.
Pontac’s skills were revered not only
by actors but by fellow playwrights
Alan Bennett and Michael Frayn.
“Reading Perry Pontac’s Shakespeare, I
am (only slightly) mortified to find that
he can write cod Shakespeare much
better than Peter Cook, Jonathan
Miller, Dudley Moore or myself,’’ wrote
Bennett in his foreword to Pontac’s
book Codpieces.
An American by birth, Pontac was
driven by his literary anglophilia to
cross the Atlantic and spend the next
40 years in south London, writing in the
style of Shakespeare, Wordsworth,
Chekhov and Wilde. He was a gentle,
Lars Vilks
Controversial Swedish artist whose depiction of the Prophet Muhammad with a dog’s body sparked death threats from al-Qaeda
Lars Vilks’s crudely drawn cartoon of
Muhammad was intended for a local
exhibition in Tallerud, a small town in
western Sweden, in July 2007. It depict-
ed the Prophet’s head on a dog’s body in
a street surrounded by traffic, a type of
street-art installation known in Swe-
den as a “roundabout dog”.
When the gallery got cold feet and
cancelled his invitation, citing security
concerns, he tried unsuccessfully to
have the work displayed in other Swed-
ish galleries. Eventually Nerikes Alle-
handa, a newspaper in the city of Ore-
bro, published it with an editorial warn-
ing galleries against self-censorship.
The national newspaper Dagens Nyhet-
er did the same.
From there, matters escalated quick-
ly. Iran summoned a senior Swedish
diplomat in protest, describing the pub-
lication of the cartoon as “an insult
against the Prophet”, while the Swedish
telecoms giant Ericsson removed the
country’s flag from its offices in several
countries including Iraq. Vilks claimed
not to understand the fuss. “I had drawn
Muhammad earlier, walking in Copen-
hagen with Hans Christian Andersen
after visiting the Carlsberg brewery,” he
recalled. “Yeah, you can see the Prophet
has probably tasted a few beers . . . There
were no reactions to it.”
The row echoed the one that began in
Denmark in September 2005, when
one of the country’s daily papers, Jyl-
lands-Posten, printed 12 cartoons by
Kurt Westergaard depicting the Proph-
et. That led to the burning of the Danish
embassy in Damascus and the consu-
late in Beirut in 2006. After Charlie
Hebdo, the French satirical magazine,
reprinted them, its offices in Paris were
attacked in January 2015 and 12 people
were killed and 11 injured.
reserved and mischievous man of
slight, boyish build who seemed, in his
black velvet jacket, jeans and gym shoes
to have wandered into the room from a
vanished epoch.
Perry Pontac was born in 1937 in
Glendale, California, the grandson of
Russian immigrants, and grew up in a
happy, assimilated and non-religious
family. His parents, Lester and Edythe,
had Tom, Perry, then Ellen, who all at-
tended North Hollywood High School.
An uncle in the film industry was one of
the writers on the Wizard of Oz.
Pontac developed a passion for En-
glish verse and an encyclopaedic know-
ledge of Shakespeare and Wordsworth.
Lipman directed his
ingenious play about
Handel and Hendrix
(His son Christopher, a computer archi-
tect, is named after Christopher Mar-
lowe.) Pontac had no interest in the
American Dream, although he was once
in the same room as Gregory Peck who
had “the most beautiful male bottom lip
I ever saw” and later with Bobby Kenne-
dy, whom he overheard in the mêlée say-
ing angrily, “Can it, Ethel!”
In 1961, Pontac met and married San-
dra Sheff, whose work he graded at Los
Angeles Valley College. He gave her an
“A” and she gave him her phone num-
ber. The pair were Sixties hippies, who
decided after a trip to Europe to move to
the UK, possibly just ahead of the Viet-
nam draft. After one job teaching En-
glish to German students, Pontac com-
mitted himself to writing plays while
Vilks in 2012 with his sculpture Nimis, which caused a row with local authorities
Vilks began to receive death threats,
including one from an al-Qaeda faction
in Iraq offering $150,000 for his murder.
“I was in Germany, guiding a big exhibi-
tion, when a phone call came, saying,
‘We have bad news for you. There is a
fatwa on your head: $100,000 for killing
you and $50,000 extra if they butcher
you like a lamb’,” he told Esquire maga-
zine, adding that he began sleeping with
an axe by his bed.
Several people, including an Amer-
ican woman known as Jihad Jane, were
arrested in 2009 in connection with a
plot to kill him that was hatched in Ire-
land. The following year his glasses
were broken when he was attacked at
Uppsala University while showing the
film Allah ho Gay Bar by the Iranian art-
Sandra, who trained to be a barrister,
co-supported the family.
Kenneth Tynan discovered his play
The Old Man’s Comforts in 1970 and it
ran at the Open Space, directed by
Charles Marowitz, starring Fenella
Fielding and Malcolm Storry. It would
be another 24 years before his writing
once again played in the West End, in
the RSC’s joyous Shakespeare Revue,
but on radio, under the direction of the
BBC producer Richard Wortley, his
pastiches began to flourish.
Another play in the Codpieces selec-
tion was Fatal Loins, portraying Romeo
and Juliet 20 years after their marriage,
had they survived. It reveals Juliet crab-
by and obese, their countless children
out of control, and Romeo realising that
his true love was not actually Juliet but
the bumbling Friar: “Thy tonsure —
that sweet circle past compare, / Like a
pink lotus in a sea of hair.” In the King
Lear prequel Prince Lear, produced by
Richard Wortley, John Shrapnel played
the basso profundo Duke of Kent diffi-
dently revealing to John Moffatt’s King
Lear that he was, underneath, a dainty
woman who had cross-dressed because
she wished fervently to be alongside
Lear in the military.
Then there was Incurable Romantics,
in which Keats, Shelley and Byron meet
in an old people’s home in Florence.
When Keats’s old flame, the now rad-
dled Fanny Brawne, visits after the death
of her Texan husband, she says: “I’m
sweatin’ like a weasel in a waffle-iron.”
In The Bards of Bromley, the setting
was a workshop for creative writing in
which the would-be scribes George Eli-
ot, Goethe, Wordsworth, Strindberg and
AA Milne are lectured by one Mrs Swer-
IBL/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
ist Sooreh Hera. Four days later he was
out when a petrol bomb was thrown at
his home, for which two Swedish broth-
ers of Kosovar descent were jailed.
“They got the petrol all over themselves
and suddenly they were burning —
they panic, run away, and forget their
driver’s licence outside my house,” he
laughed.
A month after the Charlie Hebdo
attack, Vilks was speaking at a café in
the north of Copenhagen when a gun-
man burst in and opened fire, killing the
film director Finn Norgaard and injur-
ing three police officers. The suspect,
who then attacked a synagogue killing
another man, was himself killed in an
exchange of gunfire with the police.
Vilks then went into hiding.
Pontac’s book Codpieces includes a
play of a married Romeo and Juliet
dlow (played by Julia McKenzie) who
describes Daffodils as “a bit sing-songy”
and tells Strindberg his play The Dance
of Death is “not likely to attract the pass-
ing trade of Shaftesbury Avenue”.
Actors including Samuel West,
Simon Russell Beale, Pam Ferris, Bren-
da Blethyn, Geraldine McEwan and
Maureen Lipman queued up to appear
in Pontac’s radio plays. “We probably
rather overenjoyed ourselves in these
rare productions,” said Lipman,
“because it gave us such opportunities
to teeter on the edges of farce and the
classics.”
In 2007 Lipman directed Timothy
West in another ingenious play, inspired
by her husband Jack Rosenthal, who
casually let slip that Jimi Hendrix and
Yet long before challenging Islamic
sensitivities, Vilks had been a thorn in
the side of the Swedish establishment.
In 1980 he built Nimis and Arx, two
nine-storey ramshackle sculptures
made of rock, nails and driftwood in a
remote seashore nature reserve. When
the local authority found out, it ordered
their removal.
Vilks tried his best to frustrate the
Swedish authorities. He sold them, lost
various appeals and was convicted of
breaching planning laws. Fines were
dished out, vandals attacked them with
chainsaws, arsonists tried to set fire to
them and the sea took its toll. But Nimis
is still there, getting bigger and taller all
the time, and was owned by the concept
artist Christo until his death last year.
In 1996 Vilks declared the land
around the statues, an area of about one
square kilometre, to be the independ-
ent micronation of Ladonia. The joke
backfired in 2002 when he received
more than 3,000 asylum applications
from Pakistan.
Lars Endel Roger Vilks Lanat was
born in Helsingborg, Sweden, in 1946,
to a Latvian father and a Swedish
mother. Although trained as an art the-
orist, he was largely self-taught as an
artist and started to paint in the 1970s.
He completed his PhD at Lund Uni-
versity and in 1988 joined the Oslo
National Academy of the Arts. A
decade later he was appointed profes-
sor of art theory at Bergen National
Academy of the Arts.
Vilks did not confine his provocative
cartoons to Islam, whose adherents
make up about 8 per cent of the Swedish
population. One drawing was a gro-
tesque caricature of “a modern Jew,
swollen by capitalism”, according to the
caption, while another depicted Christ
Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times
George Frideric Handel had lived in the
same house in Brook Street, Mayfair.
The result was Pontac’s play When
Handel Met Hendrix. West and Joseph
Mydell played the musicians, with Lau-
rence Cummings on harpsichord, set in
the actual Brook Street house. It fea-
tured Handel, frustrated by his inability
to finish his Messiah, and Hendrix
knocking on his door in the middle of
the night to complain about the noise.
Hendrix laconically corrects Handel’s
missing chord.
Alan Bennett wrote of Pontac’s plays:
“So skilful and silly they are a gift to ac-
tors and a tonic for audiences. Nobody
else is doing this. They should be seen.”
Lipman echoed this sentiment.
“They should have been a staple of our
theatrical repertoire. A season at the
Globe, a curtain-raiser at the RSC, a
platform at the National.”
His contribution to The Shakespeare
Revue — which began at the RSC in
1994 and is still touring — was a sketch
entitled Othello in Earnest, a combina-
tion of the Moor and The Importance of
Being Earnest. In it, Othello is inter-
viewed as a prospective son-in-law by
Desdemona’s mother.
Othello: “I was born in a small mili-
tary fortification as it happens, a simple
hut made of mud and dung. My nappy
a banana leaf, my rattle a quiver of poi-
soned arrows, my cradle a sandbag . . .”
Lady Bracknell (after a long pause of
building laughter): “A saaandbaaag?”
Lipman said she had seldom heard in
the theatre a laugh as loud and long.
Perry Pontac, playwright, was born
November 26, 1937. He died of cancer on
September 28, 2021, aged 83
as a paedophile, a reference to the scan-
dal in the Catholic church. He also pro-
voked discussion on how art is defined
by entering himself as a piece of art for
an exhibition.
By his own admission Vilks’s artistic
skills were limited and the Swedish
press and galleries generally paid little
attention to his work. However, the
Moderna Museet (modern art
museum) in Stockholm owns several of
his pieces including Omphalos (1999), a
stone and concrete sculpture repre-
senting the centre of the Earth.
In 2013, 150 of his works were shown
in Malmo, with Vilks saying that he was
trying to “distance myself from the
story of Muhammad portrayed as a
dog”. He met his partner, who has not
been named, in 1989. They did not live
together because the authorities were
unable to provide round-the-clock pro-
tection to another person.
Vilks was travelling with two police
officers near Markaryd, in southwest
Sweden, on Saturday when their un-
marked car collided with a truck and
caught fire. All three died.
Back in 2007 he had made light of the
prospect of being killed. “I suppose you
could say I was an easy target,” he said.
“I know that there are some risks in-
volved but one should not exaggerate
them either . . . We must not give in.”
However, he felt that the bounty on his
head meant his art was being taken seri-
ously. “It is also good to know how
much one is worth,” he concluded.
Lars Vilks, artist, was born on June 20,
1946. He died in a traffic accident on
October 3, 2021, aged 75
Email: obituaries@thetimes.co.uk
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
Thanksgiving service Georg Mallinckrodt
The Queen was represented by
Brigadier Archie Miller-Bakewell
at a service of thanksgiving for
the life and work of Mr Georg
Wilhelm von Mallinckrodt, held
on Tuesday October 5, 2021 at St
Margaret’s Church, Westminster
Abbey.
The Rev Anthony Ball, canon
of Westminster and rector, St
Margaret’s Church, officiated,
gave the bidding and pronounced
the blessing.
The Rev Mark Birch, minor
canon and precentor, led the
prayers, assisted by Mr
Alexander von Mallinckrodt, Mr
Sebastian Rawe, Mr Hugo von
Mallinckrodt and Ms Marina
Fitzalan Howard, grandchildren.
Mr Philip von Mallinckrodt,
son, read the lesson: Isaiah LV, 3-
12, and Mr Edward von
Mallinckrodt, son, read:
Revelation XXI, 1-7.
Mrs Sophie Rawe, daughter,
read an extract from Travels in
Alaska by John Muir.
The Right Rev David Conner,
dean of Windsor, gave the
address.
Mrs Claire Fitzalan Howard,
daughter, paid tribute,
highlighting her father’s lifelong
encouragement to others in
pursuit of opportunities,
reflecting on his broad interests
in the promotion of
understanding across borders,
between faiths and through
philanthropy.
Sir Winfried Bischoff also paid
tribute, focusing on the
contribution Mr von
Mallinckrodt made to financial
services in the City, reflecting on
his international outlook,
leadership and judgment and the
values that he encouraged in
business.
During the service the choir of
St Margaret’s Church, conducted
by Mr Greg Morris, director of
music, sang and Mr Richard
Pearce played the organ.
Crown Prince Hassan of
Jordan was represented by
Princess Badiya El-Hassan. The
German ambassador in London
was represented by Dr Susanna
Frane, head of culture and
education at the German
embassy. The dean of St Paul’s
Cathedral attended.
Among others present were:
Mrs Georg von Mallinckrodt
Court Circular
Windsor Castle
5th October, 2021
The Queen was represented by
Brigadier Archie Miller-Bakewell
(Private Secretary and Treasurer to
the late Duke of Edinburgh) at the
Service of Thanksgiving for the Life
of Mr Georg von Mallinckrodt
which was held in St Margaret’s
Church, Westminster Abbey,
London SW1, today.
Clarence House
5th October, 2021
The Prince Charles, Duke of
Rothesay this morning visited
Amity Fishing Company, Unit 1,
Seagate, Peterhead Harbour, and
was received by the Marchioness of
Aberdeen (Vice Lord-Lieutenant of
Aberdeenshire).
His Royal Highness subsequently
visited Rora Dairy, Middleton of
Rora, Longside, Peterhead.
The Prince Charles, Duke of
Rothesay this afternoon visited
Glen Garioch Distillery, Distillery
Road, Oldmeldrum, Inverurie, and
was received by Her Majesty’s Lord-
Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire (Mr
Alexander Manson).
His Royal Highness afterwards
(widow), Mr Harry Fitzalan
Howard, Mr Timothy Rawe
(sons-in-law), Mrs Philip von
Mallinckrodt (daughter-in-law),
Mr George Fitzalan Howard, Mr
Milo Fitzalan Howard, Mr Luke
Fitzalan Howard, Miss Clara von
Mallinckrodt, Miss Anna von
Mallinckrodt, Miss Olivia Rawe
(grandchildren) with other
members of the family.
The Duke of Bedford, the Earl
and Countess of Balfour, the Earl
of Home, the Earl and Countess
of Kinnoull, Sylvia, Countess of
Limerick, Lord and Lady
Brennan, Lady Bruce-Gardyne,
the Right Rev Lord Carey of
Clifton and Lady Carey, Lord
Carrington, Lord and Lady Cecil,
Baroness Fall, Lord and Lady
Faringdon, Lady Farnham, Lord
Mark Fitzalan Howard, Lord
Howard of Penrith, Lord and
Lady Griffiths of Fforestfach
(Christian Responsibility for
Public Affairs), Lord and Lady
Kinnoull, Lord Mandelson, Lord
Margadale, Baroness Neuberger,
Baroness Rawlings, Lord and
Lady Robertson of Port Ellen,
Baroness Rock, Lord and Lady
Wakeham, Lord and Lady Woolf
(Woolf Institute), Lady Leeming,
the Hon Mrs Burnell, the Hon
Susannah Fiennes, the Hon Lady
Sarah Riddell, the Hon Susanna
Sitwell, the Hon Sir Richard
Storey, the Hon Dame Mary
Morrison, Sir Philip Augar, Sir
Victor Blank, Sir Leszek
Borysiewicz, Sir Michael Burton,
Lady Cubitt, Sir Guy and Lady
Darell, Lady Dent, Lady
Goodison, Sir Richard and Lady
Kleinwort, Sir John and Lady
Mactaggart, Sir Charles and Lady
Nunneley, Lady Riddell, Sir
Simon Robertson, Sir Thomas
and Lady Troubridge, Sir David
and Lady Verey, Lady Wade-
Gery, Sir Robert Worcester.
Mrs Richard Abel Smith, Ms
Marcia Abel Smith, Mrs Camilla
Adeane, Mr Richard Allen, Mr
Anthony Asseily, Mrs Richard
Astor, Mr Rupert Asquith, Mr
Jonathan Asquith, Ms Tessa
Bamford, Mr James Bardrick, Mr
Peter Barnes, Mr Udo Bauer, Mr
Edward Baxter, Miss Elizabeth
Baxter, Mr Andrew Beeson, Mr
Peter Barnes (chairman, British
German Association), Mr
Nicholas Bence-Trower, Mr
Mark Bogard, Mr Ian Boyce, Mr
visited Inverurie Farmers Market
and the Town Centre, Inverurie
Town Square.
The Prince Charles, Duke of
Rothesay later visited Garioch
Heritage Centre, Loco Works Road,
Inverurie.
Kensington Palace
5th October, 2021
The Duchess of Cambridge this
morning visited UCL Institute of
Education, University College
London, 20 Bedford Way, London
WC1.
Her Royal Highness, Joint
Patron, the Royal Foundation of
The Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge, this afternoon held an
Early Years Meeting.
The Duchess of Cambridge, Joint
Patron, the Royal Foundation of
The Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge, later spoke via
telephone to Dr Joan Lombardi
(Senior Scholar, Centre for Child
and Human Development, and
Senior Fellow, Georgetown
University Collaborative on Global
Children’s Issues).
Her Royal Highness, Joint
Patron, the Royal Foundation of
The Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge, afterwards spoke to Ms
Mandy Saligari (Co-founder and
Clinical Director, Charter Harley
Street) via telephone.
The Duchess of Cambridge, Joint
Patron, the Royal Foundation of
The Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge, subsequently spoke to
Mr David Glover (Co-founder, 72
Films) via telephone.
Roger Bramble, Mr Graham
Bourne, Mr and Mrs John
Brotherhood, Mr Adam Bruce-
Gardyne, Mr and Mrs Robert
Brudenell, Mr Thomas Brudenell,
Mr Bruno Bruderer, Mr Robin
Buchanan, Mr and Mrs David
Burns, Mr Ian Carnegie-Brown,
Mr Charles Cator, Mr David
Challen, Mr Roderick
Chamberlain, Mr Peter
Chapman, Mr Andrew Christie,
Mr Keith Clements, Mr and Mrs
Michael Coates, Mr Karl Dasher,
Mr Christian de Falbe, Ms Jane
de Salis, Mr Michael Dobson
(chairman, Schroders), and Mrs
Dobson, Mr Leon Dreher, Mr
Peter Edwards, Mr Alexander
Ercklentz, Mr William Egerton,
Mr Robin Faber, Mr and Mrs
Nicholas Ferguson, Mrs William
Fernie, Mr Patrick Frowein, Mr
and Mrs Richard Fitzalan
Howard, Mr Alexander and the
Hon Mrs Fitzalan Howard, Mr
and Mrs Alexander Galitzine, Mr
Stephen Geddes, Mr Neil
Girkins, Mr Geoff Goad, Mr
Winston Ginsberg, Mr and Mrs
Michael Giedroyc, Colonel and
Mrs David Gordon-Lennox, Mr
and Mrs Angus Gordon-Lennox,
Mr and Mrs Charles Gordon-
Lennox, Mr and Mrs Edward
Gordon-Lennox, Mr John
Govett, Mr Richard Green, Mr
Geoffrey Grime, Mr Gerry
Grimstone, Mr Dominic
Guinness, Mr Michael Gwinnell,
Mr James Hambro, Mr Nigel
Hanbury, Mr Robert Hardman,
Mr Guy Harington, Mr and Mrs
Simon Harrap, Mr and Mrs John
Harrap, Mrs Ian Hamilton, Mr
Peter Harrison (CEO, Schroders),
Mr Andrew Hay, Mr and Mrs
Hugo Heath, Ms Belinda
Henderson, Mr and Mrs Jeremy
Hill, Mr Robin Hindle Fisher, Mr
and Mrs Robert Hingley, Mr
Edward Hohler, Mr Richard
Howard, Mr Louis Jebb, Mr
Richard Keers, Mr James Kelly,
Mrs Fenella Kenyon-Slaney, Mr
Edward Kessler, Mr William
Knight, Mr James Kelly, Pastor
Lars Klehn (German
Christuskirche), Mr Christoph
Ladanyi, Mr Michael Ladenburg,
Ms Charlotte Landau, Mr
Richard Lazarus, Mr Anthony
Leschallas, Ms Marie Louise
Leschallas, Mr and Mrs William
Leschallas, Mr and Mrs Mark
Leveson-Gower, Mr Anthony
St James’s Palace
5th October, 2021
The Earl of Wessex and Forfar this
afternoon visited Broomlee Activity
Centre, West Linton, and was
received by Her Majesty’s Lord-
Lieutenant of Tweeddale (Professor
Sir Hew Strachan).
His Royal Highness, Honorary
Member, the Incorporation of
Coopers of Glasgow, this afternoon
presented The Earl of Wessex
Awards at the Trades Hall, 85
Glassford Street, Glasgow, and was
received by Her Majesty’s Lord-
Lieutenant of the City of Glasgow
(Councillor Philip Braat, the Rt Hon
the Lord Provost).
The Earl of Wessex and Forfar
this evening attended a Valedictory
Dinner at Merchants House, 7 West
George Street, Glasgow.
St James’s Palace
5th October, 2021
The Princess Royal, Patron,
Shipwrecked Fishermen and
Mariners’ Royal Benevolent Society,
this afternoon attended the Annual
General Meeting and Awards
Ceremony, Fishmongers’ Hall,
London Bridge, London EC4.
Her Royal Highness, Fellow,
Council for Awards of the Royal
Agricultural Societies, afterwards
attended the English Panel Awards
Ceremony at the House of Lords,
London SW1.
The Princess Royal, Colonel-in-
Chief, The Royal Canadian Hussars,
later received Lieutenant Colonel
Malcolm Day (Commanding
Officer).
Her Royal Highness, Patron, the
Loehnis, Mr Dieter Losse, Mr
Donald MacPhee, Mr Matthew
Maitland, Mr David
McDonough, Mr Hugh
McIlveen, Mr John Minoprio,
Mrs Theodora Mayer, Mr David
Mayhew, Mr Mortimer Menzel,
Mr and Mrs Michael Miles, Mr
and Mrs Lionel Mill, Mr and Mrs
Richard Morse, Mr Richard
Mountford, Mr Steven Murphy,
Mr Uwe Maynard, Mrs Robin
Murray-Philipson, Mr Hylton
Murray-Philipson, Mrs John
Newman, Mr James Neish, Mr
Derek Netherton, Mr Philip
Noel, Mr Adrian Nosberger, Mr
James O’Mahony, the Rev Canon
and Mrs John Ovenden, Mr
Nigel Pantling, Mr Guy Paterson,
Ms Amanda Pelham Green, Mrs
David Peake, Mr David
Pemberton, Mr Rupert Pennant-
Rea, the Right Rev Martin Poll,
Mr David Potter, Mr Charles
Prideaux, Mr Christopher
Prideaux, Ms Jessica Pulay, Mr
and Mrs Christopher Prideaux,
Mr Simon and Lady Julia Prior-
Palmer, Mr and Mrs Nigel Rich,
Mr Caspar Rock, Mr Peter Rona,
Mr Graham, Ross Russell, Mr
James Russell, Mr David
Salisbury, Mrs William Salomon,
Mr William Samuel, Mrs Ian
Mackeson-Sandbach, Mrs Valerie
Scriven, Mr and Mrs Peter
Sedgwick, Mr and Mrs William
Slee, Mr William Samuel, Dr and
Mrs Timothy Schroder, Mrs
Jessica Schroder, Mr Freddie
Schroder, Mrs Suzanne Schroder,
Ms Leonie Schroder, Ms Bettina
Schulz, Ms Valerie Scriven, Mr
Felix Seccombe, Mr Andrew
Sells, Mr Christopher Smiley, Mr
Charles Sinclair, Mr Lee Stamp,
Mr Graham Staples, Mr Michael
Sternberg QC, Mr Hugh
Stevenson, Mr Christopher
Sullivan, Mr Robert Swannell, Mr
Nick Swindells, Mr Andrew
Sykes, Mr Rupert Tate, Mrs
Sarah Tate, Mr Brian Tew, Mr
Ronald Thorburn, Mrs Rosie
Thorburn, Mr Robert Tomlin, Ms
Janis Tunaley, Mr Tijo van Marle,
Mr Stephen White, Mr Philip
Wright, Mr August von Joest,
Mrs Maria Zatarain together
with many more friends, former
colleagues and representatives of
the Bodleian Library, German
YMCA and many more
organisations having connection
with Mr von Mallinckrodt.
Wooden Spoon Society, this
evening attended a Reception at
Television Centre, 101 Wood Lane,
London W12, and was received by
Mr Kevin McGrath (Deputy
Lieutenant of Greater London).
The Princess Royal, Patron,
Sense and Sense International, later
attended a Dinner in London.
Kensington Palace
5th October, 2021
The Duke of Gloucester, Honorary
Air Commodore, this afternoon
visited Royal Air Force Odiham,
Hook, Hampshire.
St James’s Palace
5th October, 2021
Princess Alexandra, Patron, this
afternoon visited the Queen
Mother’s Clothing Guild Packing
Week on View Day at St James’s
Palace.
Social
After last year’s event was
cancelled, the annual luncheon of
colleagues from The Times past
resumed yesterday at the
Garrick Club. Attending were:
Michael Binyon, Fred Emery,
Michael Evans, Penny Fishlock,
Trevor Fishlock, Fiona Gorman,
Ron Gribble, Michael Hornsby,
Peter Jay, Michael Knipe,
Christopher McKane, John Mair,
Simon Pearson, Christopher
Warman and Philip Webster.
53
Register
Births, Marriages and Deaths 020 7782 7553
newsukadvertising.co.uk
THE message you heard from the very
TALBOT
beginning is this: we must love one
Derek Thomas
another. 1 John 3.11 (GNB)
sadly passed away on 20th September
Births 2021, aged 63, after a short illness at
Barnet Hospital. Beloved son, brother,
BELSHER on 22nd September 2021 to brother-in-law, uncle and godfather.
Helen (née Smith) and Morgan, a Former assistant chief constable of
daughter, Tabitha Alice. Northamptonshire police. He will be
deeply missed by all. A funeral service
will be held in Leicestershire on
Forthcoming Marriages Monday 11th October.
Inquiries to Chris Meynell and family,
MR G. A. HAINES funeral directors, Syston. Tel:
AND MISS M. R. MACLEAN OF 01162607954, e-mail:
ARDGOUR info@meynellfunerals.co.uk
The engagement is announced between
George, son of Mr and Mrs Richard Haines
of Farnham, and Miranda, daughter of Mr TOD Andrew Winton of North Devon
and Mrs Robin Maclean of Ardgour, passed away on 30th September 2021,
Lochaber. aged 92. Beloved husband of Erica.
Inquiries to Norman Lock & Son 01409
231281 enquiries@normanlockandson.co.uk
Deaths
DIBLEY Nicholas Kingsley Palliser on
WALTERS Sir Dennis Murray MBE, died
26th March 2020, aged 48, at home after
peacefully on 1st October 2021, aged 92.
a heart attack not treated as it was
thought he had the virus when the NHS Loving father to Nicholas, Lolly, Dominic,
was under stress. Loved by father, Hugh, Camilla and Oliver and grandfather to
husband, Erlend, twin sister, Natasha, and Benedict, Alexander, Jack, Sam, Luke and
Zach. No flowers. For funeral details or
family and very many others. A memorial
donations if desired (Asthma UK, Jack
service will be held at 2pm on Thursday
14th October 2021 at St James’s Piccadilly Winter Leg Up Legacy and map.co.uk)
and afterwards at the Travellers Club. Info c/o Chelsea Funeral Directors 020 7352
including streaming link at: tiny.one/ 0008
Nicholas-Memorial. Contact:
WILLIAMS Dr David J, formerly clinical
Hugh@Dibley.eu.com. Donations to the
Heart Foundation. director of accident and emergency
services at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital,
died peacefully at home on Sunday 3rd
ERSKINE Margaret Shepherd CA on 25th October. Beloved and devoted husband of
September 2021, aged 91, peacefully at Ann, brother of Mary, father of Jonathan
Drumconner Care Home, Lancing. Loving and Antonia, stepfather of Lucy and Martin,
aunt, great-aunt and great-great-aunt will and grandfather. A funeral service will be
held at St Mary’s Church, Wimbledon, on
be missed by her family in Scotland,
Monday 25th October at noon. No flowers
England and Australia and her many
friends around the world. Funeral to be please. Donations if desired to the MS
held at Kingston Cemetery and Society.
Crematorium on 15th October at 12:20pm.
Family flowers only. Donations in
Margaret’s name to RNID.
LEGAL, PUBLIC, COMPANY &
GIBBS Margaret Sheila (née Carlisle) died PARLIAMENTARY NOTICES
peacefully on 29th September 2021, aged
76. Late of East Preston, West Sussex. To place notices for these
Much-loved wife of Alan, mother and
grandmother. Inquiries to HD Tribe Funeral sections please call
Directors Tel: 01903 787188. 020 7481 4000
GOODMAN Angela Mary on 21st Notices are subject to
September 2021, aged 85, peacefully.
Much-loved sister, aunt and great-aunt.
confirmation and should be
Details of a gathering in Gloucestershire received by 11.30am three
will be forthcoming. Donations welcome to days prior to insertion
Action on Hearing Loss.
HOPE Daphne (née Boutwood) died on
9th September 2021, aged 94. Very loving
and very-much-loved mother of Tom, Jane
and Emma, grandmother of Rupert and
Sam and sister of Robert. Funeral at St John
the Baptist’s, Outwood RH1 5QF on Tuesday
19th October, at noon. No flowers please.
Donations to British Heart Foundation.
KENNEDY Nicholas John died suddenly
on 1st October 2021, aged 75. Much-loved
husband of Susan, father of William, Ralph
and Toby, and grandfather of Ella, Jamie,
Freddy, Felix and Bonnie. He will be
greatly missed.
LEACH Rosemary Isabel, aged 85.
Peacefully at home surrounded by her
children on 27 September 2021. Darling
wife of the late Peter, much-loved and
devoted mother and grandmother. Family
cremation, followed by a service of
Thanksgiving on Friday 22 October 2021 at
St Andrews Church, Aldringham IP16 4QT
at 2.30pm. No flowers please, donations if
desired to East Anglia’s Children’s Hospice.
Inquiries: Tony Brown Funeral Services
01728 603108.
LURY Jill Carol passed away peacefully on
Tuesday 28th September, aged 82. Private
family service only. All inquiries to
Peasgood & Skeates, Duxford (01223
833463)
MCISAAC Ian died on 24th September
2021, aged 76, dear husband of Debrah and
much-loved father of Miranda, Angus,
Catherine and Robert and loving
grandfather of Ruby, Matilda and Freddie.
Funeral service at 2pm on 26th October at
Mortlake Crematorium. No flowers please.
Donations may be made in his name to
CARE International UK or the Charterhouse
at thecharterhouse.org.
MERCIER Paul Jerome died peacefully on
21st September 2021, aged 99, at Oak Tree
Mews, Moreton-in-Marsh. A funeral service
Legal Notices
will take place at Banbury Crematorium on
Thursday 14th October 2021 at 3pm.
Donations for Cancer Research UK and
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution may
be left at the chapel or sent directly to
sullivanfunerals.co.uk/donations. Inquiries
to Julie Sullivan Funeral Directors, 01608
637430
PACKARD Veronica Susan (née Bird) on
24th September 2021, aged 74. Mother of
Rupert, Hugo and Elvira. Funeral at St
Mary’s Church, Kintbury, Berkshire, at
11.30am on 15th October. Family flowers
only.
RIDD Janine died peacefully at home on
24th September 2021. Devoted wife of the
late Allan and dear sister to Patricia.
Adored mother of David and Tessa.
Much-loved grandmother to Rosie, Edward,
Natasha and Nicholas. Funeral service to
take place at Putney Vale Crematorium,
London, on Friday 15th October at 10.45am
Cheerful dress code. No flowers.
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021 57

Weather
Today Many places dry with sunny spells, but cloud and rain will move into western areas. Max 17C (63F), min 4C (39F) 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 Mostly dry and sunny in 34 Calm
du=dull, f=fair, fg=fog, h=hail, m=mist, r=rain, (mph) 5 11
sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, t=thunder the south and east, but Slight 10
*=previous day **=data not available areas of cloud will bring Temperature Moderate

Temp C Rain mm Sun hr* rain elsewhere 28 (degrees C)

Rough
10
midday yesterday 24 hrs to 5pm yesterday
10 11
11 SH 8.4 5.9
Tomorrow Flood alerts and warnings
Aberdeen
Mainly dry and warm with sunny
Aberporth 12 PC 7.4 2.9
spells over England, Wales and At 17:00 on Tuesday there were 49 10
Anglesey 13 PC 19.6 6.4 southeast Scotland, but a few showers flood alerts and two warnings in 10
Aviemore 9 PC 2.4 1.6 in western areas. Cloudy with rain England, four flood alerts and no
15

T
elsewhere.
Barnstaple 13
12
PC
R
9.6
8.6
**
**
warnings in Wales and two flood Aberdeen
C F here is a dramatic
Bedford Max 20C, min 10C 35 95
Belfast 12 PC 2.2 3.6
alerts and one warning in Scotland.
30 86
turnaround in the weather
For further information and updates
Birmingham 11 R 13.4 **
in England visit flood-warning- 25 77 on the way for much of
Bournemouth 13 R 5.4 1.8 17 NORTH Britain. After days of fairly
14 PC 17.8 **
information.service.gov.uk, for Wales 20 68
Bridlington
naturalresources.wales/flooding and SEA 15 59 grim wind, rain and chilly
Bristol 13 C 17.8 6.2
Camborne 14 PC 24.8 0.8 for Scotland SEPA.org.uk 11 10 50
conditions, more peaceful weather is
18 Edinburgh
Cardiff 13 PC 10.6 3.2
20
23 Glasgow 5 41
expected to arrive over the coming
Edinburgh 9 R 12.4 4.9 0 32
Eskdalemuir 8 R 27.2 1.2
12 21 -5 23 days with drier, lighter winds and
Glasgow 11 PC 1.8 1.3
19
-10 14 brighter skies, and it will feel a
Hereford 13 PC 18.0 **
Herstmonceux 14 PC 19.2 3.1 ATLANTIC
Londonderry -15 5 good deal warmer. This return to
Ipswich 14 PC 29.2 6.3
Newcastle something more like summer is
OCEAN Carlisle
Isle of Man 13 PC 12.2 6.7
Friday Belfast thanks to the remains of what was a
Isle of Wight 14 B 16.8 ** 13
Jersey 14 PC 16.8 6.2 Warm and dry over England, Wales 13 11 powerful hurricane.
and eastern Ireland with sunny 14
Keswick 9 R 30.0 ** spells. Cloudy with outbreaks of rain Yorkk Hurricane Sam was a beast of a
Kinloss 11 PC 0.8 5.2 elsewhere. storm that raged in the central
11
Leeds 10 R 7.2 ** Max 21C, min 8C
Lerwick 11 PC 0.0 7.1 Manchester Hull
Atlantic for nearly eight days as a
Leuchars 10 R 8.0 4.2 ooo
Liverpool 14 major hurricane, with winds that
Lincoln 11 B 16.8 5.3 Galway IRISH 32
17
reached a peak of 155mph. That
Liverpool 12 PC 9.4 ** SEA 13 Sheffield
London 13 PC 12.0 4.4 Dublin
LLlandudno
made Sam one of the longest-lived
Lyneham 13 C 15.0 0.0 major hurricanes in records that go
Manchester 11 R 9.4 3.1
Margate 15 PC 15.0 2.9
17 14
Shrewsbury
Nottingham back to 1966, at the start of the
20 satellite era.
Milford Haven 13 B 18.8 **
i h
Norwich
Newcastle 10 R 35.0 ** 13 12 It was sheer luck that this beast of
Nottingham 11 DU 21.0 4.8 Birmingham
Orkney 11 B 1.8 8.3 18
Cork
Cambridge a hurricane did not strike land in its
Oxford 13 B 19.0 ** 14 odyssey of more than 3,000 miles
Swansea Oxford 13
Plymouth
Portland
14
13
PC
PC
18.8
4.2
**
** Cardiff
across the Atlantic. As the storm
Scilly, St Mary’s 15 PC 9.6 **
Saturday Channel Islands CELTIC 4
14 sped northwards it eventually
Shoreham 12 C 24.4 4.7 A band of cloud and showery rain will
SEA Bristol London weakened in the cooler northern
spread east across Ireland, Scotland,
Shrewsbury 12 PC 8.0 4.6 15
Snowdonia 11 C 27.8 **
Wales and northwest England. Dry
with sunny spells elsewhere. Southampton
waters of the Atlantic and lost its
4
14 hurricane credentials somewhere
Southend 14 PC 29.0 5.9 Max 19C, min 6C Exeterr
South Uist 11 PC 0.2 ** 17 Plymouth Brighton east of Newfoundland and south of
Stornoway 11 B 1.4 3.0
Tiree 13 S 0.2 2.7
Greenland. But Sam was not quite
Whitehaven 8 C 26.2 0.9 15
15 finished yet, and it then transformed
CHANNEL 24
Wick 11 DU 0.4 ** 16 into an Atlantic low-pressure system
Yeovilton 13 SH 17.4 3.5
that was captured by a depression
17
18 General situation: Cloud and rain at first, butt cloud soon inc
increasing to strong northwesterly wind, easing passing to the north. The two
The world clearing eastern areas to bring a dry bring a band of rain from the west. later. Maximum 14C (57F), systems then gave birth to a monster
All readings local midday yesterday
day over most of Britain, but cloud and Light increasing to moderate or fresh minimum 5C (41F). storm more than 1,200 miles across
Alicante 26 S Madeira 25 PC 19 rain will move into western areas. southerly wind. Maximum 17C (63F), SE Eng, Cen S Eng, Midlands, NW Eng,
Amsterdam 14 R Madrid 22 PC
spanning a large part of the North
SW Scotland, Glasgow, NW Scotland, minimum 9C (48F). Cen N Eng, London, NE Eng, Borders,
Athens 23 PC Malaga 23 S
Argyll, IoM: Dry and sunny at first, N Isles: Showers during the morning, Edinburgh and Dundee, Cen Highland, Atlantic. This offspring of Sam has
Auckland 19 B Mallorca 24 PC
then cloud increasing to bring showery turning dry in the afternoon with Moray Firth, Aberdeen, NE Scotland, inherited a mass of very warm
Bahrain 35 PC Malta 27 PC Sunday
Bangkok 33 PC Melbourne 13 D Dry with sunny spells over Ireland,
rain later. Light and variable winds, sunny spells. Moderate northwesterly Lake District: Any mist patches around tropical air and is also pulling up
Barbados 32 PC Mexico City 22 B Wales, western England and southern becoming moderate southeasterly in wind, easing later. Maximum at first will soon clear to bring a dry even more warm air from in the
Scotland. Cloud and rain clearing the afternoon. Maximum 13C (55F), 10C (50F), minimum 9C (48F). and sunny day. Light to moderate
Barcelona 23 S Miami 31 B
eastern England to bring a dry minimum 5C (41F). E Anglia, E Eng: Cloud and rain clearing northwesterly winds becoming light
southern reaches of the Atlantic.
Beijing 16 S Milan 17 R
Beirut 28 PC Mombasa ** **
afternoon. Rain in northern Scotland.
Republic of Ireland, N Ireland: Dry with eastwards in the morning to bring and variable later. Maximum 16C (61F), It is that mass of warm air that
Max 17C, min 5C
Belgrade 24 S Montreal 14 C some sunshine over eastern Ireland a dry and sunny afternoon. Fresh to minimum 4C (39F). will deliver a mild spell over the UK
Berlin 15 B Moscow 9 PC with temperatures forecast to reach
Bermuda 26 B Mumbai 34 S 14 LOW 1000
Bordeaux 19 B Munich 14 B Tides Noon today
HIGH 20C in the southeast tomorrow. As
1008
Brussels 13 R Nairobi ** ** Tidal predictions. an added bonus, the storm has also
Heights in metres HIGH
Bucharest 18 PC Naples 23 B
17
1040 injected highly energetic tropical air
Budapest 23 S New Orleans 27 S Today Ht Ht 1040
Buenos Aires 20 S New York 22 DU 16 Aberdeen 01:42 4.4 14:13 4.4 LOW into the jet stream, shoving it to the
1032 1032
Cairo 26 PC Nice 22 S Avonmouth 07:57 13.2 20:13 13.7 1000 north of the UK and allowing high
33 S 30 PC 1024
Calcutta Nicosia
17
Belfast 11:40 3.4 23:49 3.7 1008 1024 pressure to dominate the country
Canberra 13 PC Oslo 13 B Cardiff 07:42 12.2 19:59 12.7 LOW
Cape Town 24 S Paris 16 PC 06:28 5.4 18:41 5.7
by next week. That holds out the
Devonport
Chicago 23 B Perth 18 S
Dover 11:38 6.9 23:57 6.9 1016
promise of more warm, brighter
12 R 18 PC 992
Copenhagen
25 PC
Prague
8 S Monday Dublin 12:06 4.1 --:-- -- weather as well as staying calm and
Corfu Reykjavik 1008
Delhi 34 S Riga 13 S Rather cloudy with a band of showery Falmouth 05:51 5.1 18:04 5.4 LOW largely dry — although under clear,
rain moving south over Scotland, Greenock 00:36 3.6 13:24 3.4 1016
Dubai 36 S Rio de Janeiro 32 S
northern England and the north
984
LOW
HIGH
Cold front still skies this new weather pattern
12 PC 36 S Harwich 00:13 4.1 12:26 4.0
Dublin
Faro 23 S
Riyadh
Rome 23 PC
of Ireland. Dry with sunny spells
Holyhead 11:00 5.7 23:11 6.0
1000 1016 Warm front also carries the risk of fog and mist
elsewhere. 1024
Florence 20 B San Francisco 25 PC Max 17C, min 1C Hull 06:43 7.6 19:18 7.7 Occluded front forming at night.
Frankfurt 14 B Santiago 23 S Leith 03:03 5.6 15:27 5.7 1016 Trough
Geneva 15 PC São Paulo 24 PC Liverpool 11:49 9.4 --:-- --
Gibraltar 22 S Seoul 26 PC 17 London Bridge 02:18 7.1 14:39 7.0
Synoptic situation Highs and lows Hours of darkness
Helsinki 10 R Seychelles 29 PC Lowestoft 09:52 2.7 22:34 2.6 24hrs to 5pm yesterday Aberdeen 18:59-06:55
Hong Kong 34 PC Singapore 28 B Milford Haven 06:51 7.1 19:07 7.4 A ridge of high pressure will Belfast 19:17-07:07
Honolulu 29 PC St Petersburg 12 S build from western Europe to Warmest: Armagh,
16 Morecambe 11:59 9.6 --:-- -- Co Armagh, 16.2C Birmingham 19:03-06:49
Istanbul 20 PC Stockholm 12 B bring a dry and sunny day over Coldest: Altnaharra, -0.8C
16 Newhaven 11:48 6.9 --:-- -- Cardiff 19:09-06:53
Jerusalem 28 PC Sydney 21 S most of England, Wales and Wettest: Blencathra,
Newquay 05:42 7.1 17:58 7.4 Exeter 19:11-06:54
Johannesburg 18 PC Tel Aviv 28 PC Scotland. Low pressure in the Cumbria, 46.0mm
Oban 06:34 3.9 18:41 4.3 Sunniest: Kirkwall, 8.3hrs* Glasgow 19:09-07:02
Kuala Lumpur 32 PC Tenerife 27 PC northern Atlantic will push
17 Penzance 05:14 5.6 17:31 5.8 Liverpool 19:06-06:54
Kyiv 14 S Tokyo 28 PC a warm front with cloud and
25 PC 14 B Portsmouth 12:08 4.9 --:-- -- Sun and moon London 18:57-06:41
Lanzarote Vancouver outbreaks of rain across Ireland For Greenwich Manchester 19:03-06:51
Las Palmas 26 PC Venice 22 PC Shoreham 11:54 6.5 --:-- -- Sun rises: 07.09
The Times weather Southampton 11:19 4.7 23:33 4.7
and into western Scotland. High Newcastle 18:59-06:50
Lima 15 DU Vienna 24 PC Sun sets: 18.26
pressure will dominate over Moon rises: 06.46 Norwich 18:50-06:37
Lisbon 22 B Warsaw 18 S page is provided Swansea 06:57 9.5 19:12 9.8
most of Britain until the end of Moon sets: 18.49 Penzance 19:19-07:02
Los Angeles 24 B Washington 27 B Tees 04:02 5.6 16:33 5.6
31 S 13 R
by Weatherquest the week. First quarter: October 13 Sheffield 19:00-06:48
Luxor Zurich Weymouth 07:43 2.1 19:50 2.3
558
Sport
Never write off mercurial Willett
Yorkshireman proves
doubters wrong again
by pulling off his latest
triumph out of the blue,
writes Alasdair Reid
I
n April 2017, one year on from
his Masters victory, Danny
Willett returned to Augusta for
the first time since he had
entered the pantheon of major
winners. At his champion’s press
conference he was asked if his new
status had changed him, had made
him a better and more confident
player. His response was not what
many expected.
“The last 12 months has shown it’s
made me a little more impatient,”
Willett said. “It’s a difficult one. I
think achieving what I achieved last
year and performing under pressure,
as I did on Sunday — if you then
don’t do that every time, you get a bit
annoyed. You feel like you should be
able to, and you’ve done it once, why
can’t you do it every time you play?
“You’ve achieved the greatest
height in your game. You have got to
the pinnacle. You’ve climbed Everest
and you’ve put your flag in.
Unfortunately, you’ve got to either
climb down or stay up there, and it’s
incredibly difficult to stay up there.”
Even by then, Willett had made the
point with his play. Winning the
Masters in 2016 had moved him up to
No 9 in the world rankings; by the
time of his return he had dropped to
No 17. The defending champion
missed the cut and his game
continued to head south in 2017. By
its end he was the world No 114.
The slump continued over the next
year. He either missed the cut or
withdrew from eight of his first nine
tournaments in 2018. His status gave
him entry into all the top events but
his performances embarrassed him.
As he walked away from that year’s
BMW PGA Championship at
Wentworth, after yet another run of
missed cuts, Willett was only the
462nd best player on the planet.
At which point, golf’s professional
chin-strokers concluded that Willett
was finished, a busted flush, a one-
and-gone guy. To those American
commentators who had (a) dismissed
his Masters win on the basis that
Jordan Spieth had handed it to him
with his infamous quadruple-bogey at
Augusta’s par-three 12th, and (b)
resented him due to his brother’s lurid
(but largely accurate) descriptions of
Mistaken house attack involving Welsh international
Hill left woman fearing for her and her children’s lives
Rugby union Welsh international
Cory Hill has apologised after being
among a group of three men who
caused damage to a house of a
woman in Rhondda Cynon Taf
mistakenly believing it belonged to an
acquaintance of one of them.
The woman told BBC online she
feared for her and her children’s lives
during the episode which took place
in May but the attitude of the police
changed once they realised one of the
attackers was a Welsh international.
Hill, 29, who used to play for
Cardiff Dragons and now plays
for Yokohama Canon Eagles in Japan
Willett’s world ranking
Yorkshireman's standing has fluctuated over
past five years since Masters triumph
Masters win,
BMW PGA
April 2016
win, Sept 2019
Willett
dropped Dunhill Links
as low as
win, Oct 2021
No 462 as
he battled
injury
in 2018
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Willett had produced only one top-ten finish in 2021 before his win on Sunday at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
the US golf fans, Willett’s apparent
demise was no cause for grief.
As he struggled to find the game
that had seemingly deserted him, the
Yorkshireman changed his coach, his
caddie and his management company.
He was given dog’s abuse on social
media by idiots who thought the
glory had gone to his head, who had
no idea that the shoulder and back
injuries he had been battling had
drained him of confidence as well.
“I was up at five every day in the
gym trying to work out, trying to get
better, smashing my head against a
wall wondering why I wasn’t getting
better,” he said at one point. “I was
is alleged to have been under the
influence of alcohol during the
incident. His representative said:
“Three men, of which Mr Hill was
one, were involved in an incident in
that they mistakenly went to a
property they believed to be an
acquaintance of one of the men.
“Some damage to the property was
caused by one of the men, which was
fixed and paid for, and Mr Hill and
the other men sincerely apologise for
their genuine mistake in going to the
wrong property, for the damage and
any distress caused to the occupiers
of the property.”
1st
50th
100th
101st
150th
200th
working harder than ever and trying
to get back to that place. Working too
hard? Potentially. Every waking
minute you are looking at old swings,
new swings, how your body is
moving. Why does it do this? Why
am I not feeling very well?”
All of which made Willett’s
performance at 2018’s season-ending
DP World Tour Championship in
Dubai all the more remarkable.
Somehow, somewhere, the wounded
beast who seemed to be heading for
the golfer’s graveyard for most of that
year found the game to see off a
stellar field and record his first win
since Augusta, 30 months earlier.
Inside story of spot-fixing
scandal wins book of year
Sports books The Cricket Writers’
Club has named The Thin White Line
by The Sunday Times journalist Nick
Greenslade as its book of the year.
The book, about the Pakistan cricket
spot-fixing scandal of 2010, was
chosen from a shortlist of seven.
Paul Edwards, chairman of the
panel that selected the award, said:
“In a very strong year we decided that
Nick’s book was the worthiest of
winners. The Thin White Line tells a
story many of us thought we knew.
Thanks to Nick’s excellent book, we
now understand that our knowledge
was imperfect and incomplete.”
ROSS PARKER/SNS GROUP
That result propelled Willett back
into the world’s top 100. But again his
form was patchy through the first half
of 2019 — a period that included a
third consecutive missed cut at the
Masters — and again people
wondered if he had overreached
himself with his win in Dubai. At least
they did until he turned up at the
BMW PGA that September and won
again as leader of a top-ten pack that
included Jon Rahm, Patrick Reed,
Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy.
Willett’s performances drive a
coach and horses through the notion
that consistency is the key to success
in golf, the idea that a player who
Jaguars owner Khan slams ‘inexcusable’ behaviour of
head coach Meyer after lap dance bar videos emerge
American football Shad Khan, the
owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, has
publicly reprimanded his team’s head
coach Urban Meyer for his
“inexcusable” behaviour at an Ohio
bar over the weekend.
Meyer’s actions were captured on
video and have been widely seen on
social media. One clip shows a young
woman dancing close to Meyer’s lap
as he sits on a bar stool. A second
appears to show Meyer touching the
woman’s behind.
“I have addressed this matter with
Urban. Specifics of our conversation
will be held in confidence. What I will
Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times
grinds away, making decent
paycheques week after week, will be
rewarded with the occasional win.
Willett does it differently — all but
disappearing off the radar for months
on end before popping up to scoop
one of the sport’s biggest and most
prestigious prizes.
Which is exactly what he did, yet
again, at the Alfred Dunhill Links
Championship at the weekend.
Towards the tail end of a year in
which he had plummeted almost 100
places down the world rankings —
producing only one top-ten finish and
suffering from more medical issues
than you’d witness in a particularly
gruesome episode of Casualty —
Willett tuned up in Scotland, shot
sub-70 rounds at Carnoustie,
Kingsbarns and St Andrews, then
went round the Old Course on
Sunday in 68 to beat Sweden’s Joakim
Lagergren by two shots.
His reward — on the day of his
34th birthday — was a cheque for
£575,000. As the Masters win had
earned him £1.32 million, the DP
World Tour Championship brought
£954,000 and the BMW PGA title
was worth £771,000, it would be fair to
say that Willett picks his moments
wisely. He is, to borrow football
parlance, something of a big-game
player.
But what of the big game that is the
Ryder Cup? Willett’s solitary
appearance in the event was at
Hazeltine in 2016, when he was the
target of abuse from American fans
who, seemingly without any sense of
irony, took issue with his brother,
Pete, depicting them as a bunch of
boorish numbskulls. Willett looked
haunted that week and it was no
great surprise that he lost all three of
the matches he played, two of them
being 5&4 thumpings.
So how good would it be if this
master of redemption and recovery
could find his way into the European
team that lines up against the United
States in Rome in 2023?
For that to happen, Willett would
probably have to find the consistency
that has eluded him so far, but after
watching Europe’s trouncing at
Whistling Straits he certainly has it in
mind. “It wasn’t nice to watch the
guys get beat when you know that
you think you can add something to
the team,” he said. “But I wasn’t
playing well enough to get on the
team.
“But, yes, I think it will be really
nice now to try. I very rarely do
long-term goals, but I would
definitely love to be on that team in
two years’ time to try to help out.”
say is his conduct last weekend was
inexcusable,” Khan said. “I appreciate
Urban’s remorse, which I believe is
sincere. Now, he must regain our trust
and respect. That will require a
personal commitment from Urban to
everyone who supports, represents or
plays for our team. I am confident he
will deliver.”
On Monday Meyer, 57, apologised
to his family, team and Khan. He
called a team meeting and vowed to
“own it”, the motto he uses daily with
the team. “Just stupid,” Meyer said.
“Should not have put myself in that
kind of position.”
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
Nottingham
Rob Wright
1.55 Profit And Loss 4.15 New Pursuit
2.30 Future (nb) 4.50 Alternative Fact (nap)
3.05 Approachability 5.2 0 Good Regal
3.40 Arthur’s Realm 5.50 Crestwood
Going: soft, heavy in places Racing TV
Draw: 5f-6f, high numbers best
1.55 Novice Stakes
(2-Y-O: £3,780: 6f) (11 runners)
1 (3) 55501 ELDRICKJONES 13 (P,D) R Fell 9-9
2 (9) 1004 MISS CALCULATION 33 (D) R Menzies 9-4
3 (10) 60 ELYMAS 33 (H) J O'Keeffe 9-2
4 (8) 00 LEAP ABROAD 7 P & O Cole 9-2
5 (6) 55 LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY 15 N Tinkler 9-2
6 (4) 6 METHINKS 28 C Fellowes 9-2
7 (7) 30 OLYMPIC EAGLE 29 (BF) C Cox 9-2
8 (11) PARISIAC B Smart 9-2
9 (5) 434 PROFIT AND LOSS 20 P Evans 9-2
10 (1) 0 TILSWORTH ONY TA 29 J R Jenkins 9-2
11 (2) KRYPTON R Cowell 8-11
4-5 Eldrickjones, 13-2 Olympic Eagle, 8-1 Profit And Loss, 12-1 Miss Calculation,
Lucky Lucky Lucky, 14-1 Krypton, 16-1 Parisiac, 20-1 Methinks, Elymas.
Rob Wright’s choice: Profit And Loss, badly drawn at
Pontefract, can improve Dangers Eldrickjones, Olympic Eagle
2.30 Handicap (£4,860: 1m 6f) (9)
1 (1) 00615 NOTATION 12 M Johnston 4-10-7 O Stammers (5)
2 (5) 01534 MISS MULLIGAN 27 G Scott 4-10-0
3 (4) 64005 KEPALA 26 (P) E J-Houghton 4-9-9
4 (3) 4012- HER INDOORS J174 A King 4-9-9
5 (6) 4213 FUTURE 20 J & T Gosden 3-9-3
6 (9) 5341 SUMMERTIME ROMANCE 42 M Botti 3-9-2 A Atzeni
7 (2) 32214 SECRET SHADOW 82 A Balding 3-8-12
8 (8) -3514 HARSTON 21 (BF) Harry Eustace 3-8-10
9 (7) 32115 HESPERIS 23 (BF) H Morrison 3-8-10
3-1 Future, 4-1 Summertime Romance, 9-2 Secret Shadow, 11-2 Harston, 13-2
Her Indoors, 10-1 Hesperis, 12-1 Miss Mulligan, 14-1 Notation, 25-1 Kepala.
Wright choice: Future did not get the clearest of runs at
Yarmouth Dangers Summertime Romance, Her Indoors
3.05 Novice Stakes (2-Y-O: £11,596: 1m) (6)
1 (6) 1 APPROACHABILITY 13 (D) M Johnston 9-8
2 (5) 02 DARK MYSTERY 17 I Williams 9-2
3 (4) 0 FRANKLIN WILLIAM 54 (BF) A Balding 9-2
4 (1) 2 GRENOBLE 38 W Haggas 9-2
5 (3) ZAIN NIGHTS R Charlton 9-2
6 (2) DRILL TO DREAM Adrian Nicholls 8-11
13-8 Approachability, 2-1 Grenoble, 9-2 Franklin William, 8-1 Dark Mystery,
10-1 Zain Nights, 25-1 Drill To Dream.
Wright choice: Approachability made all the running at
Pontefract and should be tough to pass Danger Grenoble
3.40 Handicap (£4,860: 1m) (15)
1 (10) 0100- THE RAIN KING J197 (T,D) Alexandra Dunn 4-10-0
2 (1) 53246 FOX POWER 109 (B,D) R Hannon 5-9-13
3 (8) 13111 GWEEDORE 8 (D) K Scott 4-9-12
4 (3) 0110- WAR DEFENDER 302 (T,D) T Easterby 4-9-12
5 (6) 31243 ARTHUR'S REALM 19 (D) E Dunlop 3-9-11
6 (14) -0060 HUDDLETON MAC 18 (T) H Morrison 3-9-11 T Marquand
7 (13) 64614 LARADO 4 (B,BF) M Appleby 3-9-11(6ex)
8 (2) 134 ROGUE BEAR 33 Tom Clover 3-9-8
9 (5) 00312 SADIQAA 10 (P) C Cox 3-9-8
10(15) 00011 GREY FOX 54 (P,D) E Lavelle 4-9-8
11 (9) 04025 MASKED IDENTITY 34 (D) M Loughnane 6-9-7 S W Kelly
12(12) 1-406 GORDONSTOUN 13 (P,CD) P & O Cole 3-9-7
13(11) 04201 ELOQUENT ARTHUR 43 R Hannon 3-9-7
14 (7) 54540 ESPRESSO FREDDO 26 (V,D) R Stephens 7-9-2 D Costello
15 (4) 66320 GLENEAGLET 95 C Fellowes 3-9-0
4-1 Gweedore, 5-1 Sadiqaa, 6-1 Grey Fox, 15-2 Eloquent Arthur, 8-1 Larado,
Rogue Bear, 10-1 Arthur's Realm, 14-1 Fox Power.
Wright choice: Arthur’s Realm has his ideal conditions and
remains fairly treated Dangers Rogue Bear, Gweedore
4.15 Nursery (2-Y-O: £10,800: 1m 2f) (6)
1 (5) 61141 SANITISER 33 P & O Cole 9-7
2 (6) 25125 IMPLORE 28 (B) J & T Gosden 9-1
3 (1) 031 SHARVARA 17 R Hannon 8-10
4 (3) 143 NEW PURSUIT 29 (BF) K P De Foy 8-10
5 (2) 021 GORAK 20 R Fahey 8-9
6 (4) 441 TYPEWRITER 57 (C) A Balding 8-3
5-2 Typewriter, 3-1 Sharvara, 5-1 Sanitiser, Gorak, 6-1 New Pursuit, 7-1 Implore.
Wright choice: New Pursuit had plenty left at the finish at
Windsor; this longer trip will suit Danger Typewriter
4.50 Handicap (£4,860: 1m 2f) (13)
1 (3) 00605 ALTERNATIVE FACT 19 (D) A King 6-9-11
2 (11) 4132/ THISTIMENEXTYEAR J151 (BF,D) S Waugh 7-9-11
3 (13) 24541 BAD COMPANY 62 (CD) J Boyle 4-9-8
Miss A Waugh (5)
4 (8) 12 PURPLE RIBBON 24 (H,BF) C Fellowes 3-9-8 C Shepherd
5 (10) 46414 AWEEDRAM 14 (H,D) K Frost 5-9-7
6 (4) 25414 MOKTASAAB 31 (D) Owen Burrows 3-9-7
7 (5) -1550 ENTHUSED 26 (D) Joseph Parr 4-9-7
8 (6) 4-502 KATTANI 19 (T) M Appleby 5-9-6
9 (1) 00554 KALEIDOSCOPIC 25 (D) M Channon 4-9-6
10 (2) 3-005 LONDON ARCH 61 (T) C Fellowes 4-8-13
11(12) 01052 NATCHEZ TRACE 7 D Carroll 4-8-11
12 (9) -1306 RAINBOW JET 62 (D) J Mackie 4-8-11
13 (7) -0540 FINOAH 183 (D) Martin Smith 5-8-10
4-1 Bad Company, 5-1 Kattani, 11-2 Purple Ribbon, 6-1 Moktasaab, 10-1
Kaleidoscopic, Natchez Trace, Alternative Fact, 12-1 Aweedram.
Wright choice: Alternative Fact shaped better than the
result suggests at Newbury Dangers Kattani, Purple Ribbon
Yesterday’s racing results
Brighton
Going: soft
12.30 (5f 60yd) 1, Good Earth (Nicola Currie,
5-1); 2, Firenze Rosa (15-2); 3, Bama Lama (11-
2). 7 ran. NR: Ocean Wilde. 1l, 1l. J A Osborne.
1.00 (6f 210yd) 1, Pocket The Profit (F Norton,
4-1 fav); 2, Sport Mode (12-1); 3, Gilbert (20-1).
11 ran. 1l, Kl. G Boughey.
1.30 (6f 210yd) 1, Baileysgutfeeling (David
Probert, 8-11 fav); 2, Renegade Rose (8-1);
3, Marcelo’s Way (7-2). 6 ran. NR: Astrobrio,
Mystery Monarch. 1l, 1Ol. K P De Foy.
2.05 (7f 216yd) 1, Pitchcombe (D Probert, 4-1);
2, Voltaic (100-30); 3, Silver Bubble (14-1). 8 ran.
NR: Zafaranah, Zeyzoun. Kl, nk. P Chamings.
2.40 (7f 216yd) 1, Sobriquet (Darragh
Keenan, 10-1); 2, Maykir (10-1); 3, My Lady
Claire (7-2 fav). 9 ran. NR: Donnelly’s Rainbow.
Kl, 2l. E De Giles.
3.15 (7f 216yd) 1, Majalh (Dane O’Neill, 15-8
59
Racing Sport
5.20 Handicap (Div I: £2,700: 1m 2f) (11) 7.00 Conditions Stakes (£14,431: 6f) (6) Saffron Beach could be supplemented to Ascot finale
1 (4) 04/4- VISION CLEAR J107 G L Moore 6-10-2 Anna Gibson (7) 1 (3) 25211 STYLISH PERFORMER 24 K Burke 3-9-5 C Lee
2 (9) 10055 ENGRAVE 38 (P,D) J Feilden 5-9-13 S Feilden (5) 2 (4) 1-322 LIVE IN THE MOMENT 28 A West 4-9-2 R Havlin
3 (7) 01455 INTERCESSOR 36 (CD) J Gallagher 4-9-9 W Humphrey (5) 3 (5) 00503 ROYAL CRUSADE 11 (P,D) C Appleby 4-9-2 W Buick
Saffron Beach, an impressive winner of only real option is the QEII. I’ve been
4 (3) 66532 GOOD REGAL 21 (T) I Mohammed 3-9-9 H Burns 4 (1) -0402 SOLDIER'S MINUTE 18 (H,CD) K Dalgleish 6-9-2 R L Moore the group one Sun Chariot Stakes at getting a bit of ribbing from the other
5 (10) 63060 CHANNEL PACKET 118 (P,CD) M Appleby 7-9-7 5 (2) -4322 TABDEED 31 (D) Owen Burrows 6-9-2 J Crowley Newmarket on Saturday, could sign off trainers now I’ve finally won a group
Karen Kenny (3)
6 (8) 44431 MAC AILEY 16 (B,D) T Easterby 5-9-6 Ella McCain
6 (6) 1154- BAHRAIN PRIDE 362 (W,T,D) S & E Crisford 3-9-1
James Doyle
for the year in the Queen Elizabeth II one. It’s taken me 14 years so I don’t
7 (1) 00010 DAANY 12 (H,BF) A West 4-9-6 Elisha Whittington 11-8 Tabdeed, 9-2 Royal Crusade, 5-1 Bahrain Pride, 11-2 Live In The Moment, Stakes at Ascot on Saturday week. mind it.”
8 (5) 21562 LE BAYOU 15 (B,D) J L Eyre 4-9-3 O McSweeney (3) 7-1 Soldier's Minute, 12-1 Stylish Performer. Connections would need to pay a Tarnawa, who finished second to
9 (2) 50004 MOTAHASSEN 15 (T,D) D Carroll 7-9-1 Z Wheatley (3)
10 (6) 63066 NINE ELMS 15 S Bowring 6-8-12 A Beech 7.30 Handicap (£5,400: 7f) (10) supplementary fee to add the filly to the Torquator Tasso in the Prix de l’Arc de
11(11) 51500 DON'T JOKE 15 (CD) R Carr 4-8-10 A Brookes (5) 1 (7) 12265 PAXOS 18 (BF,CD) E Walker 4-9-11 O Murphy field but her trainer, Jane Chapple- Triomphe at Longchamp on Sunday,
M Crehan (3) 7-4 Mac Ailey, 4-1 Le Bayou, 13-2 Good Regal, 8-1 Intercessor, 12-1 2 (5) 0-133 FULL INTENTION 217 (P,CD) S Pearce 7-9-9 D Probert Hyam, said yesterday: “She came out of could also have one more run this year.
J Hart Motahassen, 14-1 Vision Clear, Nine Elms, Daany.
C Beasley Wright choice: Good Regal was a good second at Yarmouth
3 (2) 51665 ECHO BEACH 22 (V,C,D) H Palmer 3-9-8 James Doyle the race fantastic. I think the owners She won the Breeders’ Cup Turf last
4 (10) 00015 IVASECRET 57 (C,D) J Butler 3-9-8 W Buick
M Tabti (7) and this trip should suit Dangers Le Bayou, Motahassen 5 (4) 05460 FLAMING SPEAR 34 (P,C,D) D Ivory 9-9-7 L Morris
would like to roll the dice once more. year and could try to retain her crown
R Scott
6 (1) 66332 LOVE DREAMS 32 (BF,D) M Blake 7-9-7 M Ghiani “She’s a tough filly, to have been on in California next month.
B Curtis 5.50 Handicap (Div II: £2,700: 1m 2f) (11) 7 (8) 01211 VITALLINE 25 (CD) B James 3-9-6 T Greatrex (3) the go in the first weeks of the season to Dermot Weld, her trainer, said:
A Kirby 1 (1) 221-6 LEGAL RIGHTS J190 G L Moore 4-10-0 A Keeley (5) 8 (9) 02224 SIR BENEDICT 26 (H) C Fellowes 3-9-6 L Steward
G Sanna (7) 2 (2) 43335 DOLPHIN VISTA 27 (P,D) J Boyle 8-9-12 T Heard 9 (6) 40241 VICTORIOUS NIGHT 48 (D) R Hannon 3-9-3 L Browne (7)
then win a group one in October — it “We’ll see how she comes out of
T Marquand 3 (7) 00360 JACKAMUNDO 7 (CD) D Carroll 5-9-9 Z Wheatley (3) 10 (3) 60220 FIELDSMAN 18 (D) A Carroll 9-9-2 Emma Taff (7) tells you a lot about her constitution. the race. The Breeders’ Cup is a
S Donohoe
R Dawson
4 (3) 00143 CRESTWOOD 67 (D) Joseph Parr 3-9-8 H Burns 4-1 Vitalline, 11-2 Love Dreams, 6-1 Victorious Night, 13-2 Full Intention, Paxos, If there’s one more run this year, the distinct possibility.”
5 (9) 12/00 TIME TO SEA 63 (CD) J Butler 7-9-7 S Mooney (5) 8-1 Sir Benedict, 10-1 Echo Beach, Ivasecret, Fieldsman, 14-1 Flaming Spear.
6 (4) 0-506 THE NU FORM WAY 21 T Dascombe 3-9-6 L Catton (3)
7 (11) 01440 HY EALES 19 (D) J Spearing 4-9-4 C Howarth (5) 8.00 Handicap (Div I: £2,700: 6f) (12)
8 (8) 65105 YOUR LOVE IS KING 15 (V,CD) M Bell 3-9-2 A Jary (5) 2.05 Handicap Chase (£8,768: 3m) (5) 2.13 Handicap Hurdle
1 (11) 000-1 COOLAGH MAGIC 35 (D) R Brisland 5-9-9 E J Walsh
9 (6) 65000 LHEBAYEB 19 V Dartnall 3-8-13 C Hutchinson (3) (£3,159: 2m 4f) (8)
2 (4) 50556 LORNA COLE 27 (T,CD) C Wallis 5-9-7 Laura Pearson (3) 1 351-U SHOAL BAY 35 (P,T,CD) C Tizzard 8-11-12 B J Powell
10(10) 44250 FEN TIGER 62 J Feilden 3-8-9 S Feilden (5)
3 (8) 06504 RAINBOW MIRAGE 8 (CD) M Rimell 4-9-7 D Probert 2 43222 PINK EYED PEDRO 16 (T,D) D Brace 10-11-11 C Brace 1 02140 COULONCES 17 (D) P Gilligan (Ire) 6-12-3 A Cawley
11 (5) 06003 WILDCITYDIVA 37 (P,D) T Easterby 3-8-8 Ella McCain
4 (10) 60340 ENCHANTED NIGHT 6 (H) C Dunnett 3-9-6 S Cherchi (3) 3 1142- UNDERSUPERVISION 245 N Twiston-Davies 5-11-2 2 6213- KAUTO D'AMOUR 188 (D) Sue Smith 6-11-12 R Mania
4-1 Crestwood, 6-1 Your Love Is King, 13-2 Dolphin Vista, 7-1 Hy Eales, 5 (3) 00460 GLOBAL HOPE 16 (B,T,D) G Kelleway 6-9-6 R Havlin S Twiston-Davies 3 24/0- TRUE ROMANCE F64 (P) N Mulholland 7-11-11T Scudamore
B Curtis Jackamundo, 8-1 Wildcitydiva, Lhebayeb, 10-1 Fen Tiger. 4 21-10 FORGOT TO ASK 122 (T,D) T R George 9-11-0 J J Burke
6 (7) 30606 GHERKIN 24 (B,D) W Kittow 4-9-5 O Murphy 4 53P41 JUST CALL ME AL 8 (T,CD) G Boanas 8-11-9(7ex)
C Bishop Wright choice: Crestwood won on his only previous try at 7 (6) 0-011 BAMA LAMA 55 (D) B Millman 3-9-3 W Carver (3) 5 -1423 OUTONPATROL 43 (C) A King 7-10-12 A Thorne (5) Sean Quinlan
M Harley this distance Dangers Wildcitydiva, Your Love Is King 8 (1) 00P05 BLUE CABLE 18 (P,D) M Attwater 4-9-2 L Morris 7-4 Shoal Bay, 3-1 Outonpatrol, 4-1 Undersupervision, Pink Eyed Pedro, 10-1 5 4611- CASH AGAIN 202 (CD) B Haslam 9-11-6 R McLernon
C Fallon Forgot To Ask. 6 423 LOW PROFILE 11 (P) M Walford 6-11-4 J Hamilton
9 (9) 00000 MAKTER 7 (B) Andi Brown 4-9-0 D E Hogan
7 /00-2 MOORE CLOUDS 34 (H) A Wilson 6-10-9 C Bewley
H Turner Kempton Park 10(12) 05050 MONSIEUR FANTAISIE 28 (B) J G O'Shea 3-8-13 C McKee
11 (2) 02500 VALENTINE BLUES 123 (T) T Ward 4-8-12 R Kingscote 2.40 Novices' Hurdle (£4,357: 2m 5f) (4) 8 3-600 JOIE DE VIVRE F12 M Todhunter 6-10-9 D McMenamin
G Wood Rob Wright 12 (5) 06006 ELOQUENT CHARM 75 T Vaughan 3-8-11 K O'Neill 1 -24U3 FITZROY 53 (D) S-J Davies 7-11-5 W T Kennedy 9-4 Just Call Me Al, 4-1 Kauto D'Amour, 5-1 Cash Again, 6-1 True Romance,
David Egan 9-4 Coolagh Magic, 11-4 Bama Lama, 7-1 Rainbow Mirage, 8-1 Gherkin, 10-1 2 21 CANFORD LIGHT 82 E Williams 4-11-3 Isabel Williams (5) 7-1 Low Profile, 8-1 Coulonces, 16-1 Moore Clouds, Joie De Vivre.
4.58 Millennial Moon 7.00 Tabdeed Enchanted Night, 12-1 Valentine Blues, Blue Cable, 16-1 Lorna Cole, Global Hope. 3 FP-U0 FAMILY POT 12 Sheila Lewis 6-10-12 Sean Houlihan (3)
5.30 Swiss Mistress 7.30 Paxos
6.00 Night Eagle 8.00 Blue Cable 4 61P/0 SERIOUS MOOD 85 L Morgan 8-10-12 A Wedge 2.48 Handicap Chase
6.30 Thaler 8.30 Moonshiner 8.30 Handicap (Div II: £2,700: 6f) (12) 4-6 Canford Light, 11-8 Fitzroy, 25-1 Serious Mood, Family Pot. (£2,505: 3m 3f) (11)
1 (2) 05630 QUEEN OF BURGUNDY 11 (BF,D) Joseph Parr 5-9-8 1 -5453 CAGE OF FEAR 19 Christian Williams 7-12-7 J Tudor (3)
Going: standard to slow Racing TV
Draw: 5f, low numbers best
N Callan 3.15 Handicap Chase (£7,134: 2m 4f) (7) 2 -2121 JOEY STEEL 19 (P) Christian Williams 8-11-12 N Scholfield
2 (12) 00446 ACES 20 (B,T,CD) C Wallis 9-9-7 Laura Pearson (3)
1 0UP-2 FLASHING GLANCE 28 T Lacey 8-11-8 S Sheppard 3 0P1-0 CRANK EM UP 129 S G West 10-11-9 J Kington
J Fanning 4.58 Novice Stakes (2-Y-O: £3,780: 7f) (9) 3 (5) 30040 MAJOR VALENTINE 27 (B,CD) J G O'Shea 9-9-7 L Morris 2 1213- TORN AND FRAYED 175 N Twiston-Davies 7-11-7 4 P0-P0 FREDDIE DARLING 53 (P) P Bowen 6-11-9 S Bowen
B Curtis 61 MILLENNIAL MOON 21 (D) J & T Gosden 9-9 O Murphy 4 (3) 21354 MOONSHINER 13 T Ward 3-9-6 R Kingscote S Twiston-Davies 5 P-003 GREY ATLANTIC WAY 21 (P,T) D Brooke 8-11-3 H Brooke
1 (1)
C Fallon BAILEYS EMINENCE A Murphy 9-2 S Cherchi (3) 5 (4) 6-660 GLEN ROSA 42 (W) A West 3-9-5 S B Kirrane (5) 3 31312 TARDREE 43 (H,T,BF) L Morgan 7-11-4 A Wedge 6 0F-32 DUTCH CANYON 36 W Coltherd 11-11-0 S Coltherd
2 (6)
T Marquand 3 BAYRAQ 14 Owen Burrows 9-2 J Crowley 6 (11) 60300 LAURENTIA 84 D Ivory 5-9-4 R Winston 4 4-222 GOLDEN TAIPAN 97 (T) F O'Brien 7-11-0 P Brennan 7 5U561 SUPREME STEEL 5 (B) M Sowersby 10-11-0(7ex)
3 (4)
T Whelan 7 (6) 3030 STAGE LIGHTS 43 (B) S Pearce 3-9-3 J Mitchell 5 1P03- RUNSWICK BAY 183 E Lavelle 6-10-7 T Bellamy A Anderson (7)
4 (5) GORDONS AURA Sir M Prescott 9-2 L Morris
B McHugh 8 (9) 45540 SOLDIER'S SON 68 (P,T) G Harris 5-9-2 Rossa Ryan 6 611-P CREALION 151 (P) T R George 5-10-7 J J Burke 8 5602U LIGHT BULB 21 (P) N Mechie 8-10-12 B Hughes
5 (3) P KITAAB 43 M Tregoning 9-2 W Buick
9 (10) 00262 MR MONEYPENNY 26 (B) M Attwater 3-8-13 W Carson 7 3-F10 RAPID FLIGHT 101 (W) N Henderson 5-10-3 N De Boinville 9 60-00 BOBBIE THE DAZZLER 8 Kenny Johnson 7-10-11
6 (7) 4 NON STOP 27 C Tizzard 9-2 K O'Neill Alison Johnson (7)
0 PETITE JOE 49 B James 9-2 T Greatrex (3) 10 (7) 65044 RUBEE FORTY 42 J Bridger 4-8-12 D Probert 5-2 Tardree, 100-30 Torn And Frayed, 5-1 Golden Taipan, 13-2 Runswick Bay,
7 (9) 10 4-P65 CHAIN SMOKER 112 (P,T) Georgie Howell 8-10-4
0 THIS IS MY HALF 29 A Carroll 9-2 11 (1) 00-60 ALL IN THE GAME 11 J S Moore 3-8-11 J F Egan 7-1 Crealion, 8-1 Rapid Flight, 10-1 Flashing Glance. Tabitha Worsley (5)
8 (2) R Winston
9 (8) 0 ROCKADE 20 D Elsworth 8-11 D Probert 12 (8) 40000 HAVANA LADY 35 G Deacon 3-8-11 G Rooke (3) 11 P6P0P STRATEGIC 5 (B) M Sowersby 6-10-0 D McMenamin
8-13 Millennial Moon, 3-1 Bayraq, 10-1 Kitaab, 12-1 Gordons Aura, 25-1 This 3-1 Moonshiner, 9-2 Queen Of Burgundy, 5-1 Mr Moneypenny, 13-2 Aces, 8-1 3.50 Handicap Hurdle (£4,139: 2m) (7) 5-2 Joey Steel, 4-1 Supreme Steel, 9-2 Dutch Canyon, 5-1 Light Bulb, 10-1 Cage
Is My Half, Petite Joe, 33-1 Baileys Eminence, Rockade, 50-1 Non Stop. Rubee Forty, 10-1 Soldier's Son, Major Valentine, 14-1 Stage Lights. 1 -5P62 COURT ROYALE 31 (CD) E Williams 8-11-12 Of Fear, 12-1 Grey Atlantic Way, 14-1 Chain Smoker, 20-1 others.
Isabel Williams (3)
J Fanning 5.30 Maiden Stakes (£3,510: 1m 3f) (12) 2 64322 SEE THE SEA 35 (T,D) D McCain 7-11-11 P J Kavanagh (10) 3.23 Mares' Novices' Hurdle
S De Sousa
1 (9) 0-6 A LEGACY 40 R Beckett 3-9-0 H Crouch
Ludlow 3 3-635 FRASER ISLAND 99 (P,D) R Bandey 5-11-9 H Beswick
(£4,084: 2m 4f) (7)
J Hart Rob Wright 4 22311 EL BORRACHO 21 (T,D) O Greenall 6-11-8 R Turner (3)
2 (3) 22326 ATACAMENA 149 (P,BF) S & E Crisford 3-9-0 W Buick 1 511-3 DAZZLING GLORY 11 (H) D Skelton 6-11-5
D Allan 5 3313- GENEROUS DAY 190 (D) Henry Oliver 9-11-7 L Williams Bridget Andrews
3 (6) 50222 AT A PINCH 21 (BF) J & T Gosden 3-9-0 R Havlin
1.00 Saint Riquier 3.15 Tardree
B Curtis 6 2504- GETALEAD 337 (W) Claire Harris 5-11-4 D Prichard 2 312-3 MISS TARA MOSS 155 (BF,CD) O Greenall 6-11-5
4 (7) 40 CLARAKHANI 16 M Murphy 3-9-0 R Winston 1.30 Yeavering Belle 3.50 El Borracho
7 51-02 DUTCH ADMIRAL 22 (P,D) D Bridgwater 4-10-12 M Bastyan Toby Wynne (7)
5 (2) 0 DANITA 16 H Main 3-9-0 J Watson 2.05 Outonpatrol 4.25 Talk Of The Moon 3 -3B20 CALL THE FAIRIES 87 (BF) Dr R Newland 6-10-12
T Ladd (3) 15-8 El Borracho, 4-1 Court Royale, 9-2 Generous Day, 5-1 See The Sea, 8-1
6 (5) EDENS LAWN M Murphy 3-9-0 N Callan 2.40 Canford Light C Hammond
David Egan Dutch Admiral, 12-1 Getalead, 16-1 Fraser Island.
7 (8) 63 HANG UP 54 (H) J Fanshawe 3-9-0 D Muscutt 4 12P5- FAIRFIELD FERRATA 223 J O'Keeffe 5-10-12 H Brooke
A Kirby Going: good, good to firm in places Racing TV
8 (12) 06 LASSIE 19 (H) J-R Auvray 3-9-0 Jane Elliott 5 326-0 MISTY MANI 43 P Niven 6-10-12 C Bewley
H Turner
9 (4) MY JEANIE RAI P McEntee 3-9-0 L Morris 1.00 Maiden Hurdle (3-Y-O: £4,411: 2m) (8) 4.25 NH Flat Race (£3,268: 2m) (11) 6 3-240 PEGS THEATRE 13 (T) T Davidson 5-10-12 N Moscrop (3)
1 31- MARTHA WILLOW 169 J O'Keeffe 4-11-6 J Garritty
10 (1) 43003 PIROUETTE QUEEN 10 (B) D Elsworth 3-9-0 D Probert 1 ALLSET F161 E Williams 11-0 A Wedge 7 /U10- SHEILA NASH 207 (W,H) H Whittington 6-10-12 D Jacob
C Fallon
4 SWISS MISTRESS 131 P Chapple-Hyam 3-9-0 O Murphy 2 4 CAMEMBERT ELECTRIC 155 T Lacey 5-11-0 J J Burke
11(10) 2 EPIC PASS F38 B Barr 11-0 P Cowley (3) 9-4 Sheila Nash, 11-4 Call The Fairies, 4-1 Dazzling Glory, Miss Tara Moss, 6-1
S M Levey
00 UNDOMIEL 19 P Webber 3-9-0 W Carver (3) 3 0 LADY THISTLEDOWN 107 W Greatrex 5-11-0 G Sheehan Fairfield Ferrata, 66-1 Misty Mani, 100-1 Pegs Theatre.
12(11) 3 GENUFLEX F93 (T) M Harris 11-0 K Jones (3)
4 3-P1 PEERLESS BEAUTY 143 F O'Brien 5-11-0 P Brennan
5-4 At A Pinch, 5-2 Swiss Mistress, 6-1 Atacamena, 15-2 Hang Up, 8-1 4 MISTER ALLEGRO F35 A Honeyball 11-0 R Dingle
S Donohoe 5 F530- ROCKED UP 167 Jonjo O'Neill 5-11-0 Jonjo O'Neill Jr
Pirouette Queen, 16-1 A Legacy, 33-1 My Jeanie Rai, 50-1 Edens Lawn.
5 33230 ONEONECHOP 12 (T,V) D Pipe 11-0 F Gillard (3) 3.58 Handicap Chase (£3,594: 2m 3f) (7)
6 6 TINY TITCH 107 M Scudamore 5-11-0 R Patrick
6 SAINT RIQUIER F101 I Williams 11-0 C Todd (3) 1 6-125 TURBO 21 (T) J R Finn (Ire) 8-11-13 S Bowen
6.00 Handicap (£3,240: 1m 3f) (13) 7 AUSSIE MOON M Harris 4-10-13 M Bastyan (3)
7 22 SCOTS GOLD 11 (T) D Skelton 11-0 H Skelton 2 P-1PP LORD BRYAN 46 (P,T,D) P Bowen 10-11-11 J Bowen
8 FIRE LAKE (H) M Harris 4-10-13 K Jones (3)
1 (6) 2-106 NOTE BLEU 156 (B,CD) G L Moore 4-10-0 K Shoemark 8 UGGY UGGY UGGY W G M Turner 11-0 H Kimber (7) 3 -6000 DR SANDERSON 43 B Haslam 7-11-11 R McLernon
9 1-5 IF I SAY 145 C Longsdon 4-10-13 Mr Dylan Kitts (10)
2 (11) 54431 RAFIOT 47 (B,C) G L Moore 5-9-12 R Clutterbuck (5) 11-8 Scots Gold, 5-1 Oneonechop, 11-2 Allset, Saint Riquier, 7-1 Genuflex, 4 65U10 INSTANT REPLAY 8 (P,CD) B Ellison 9-11-9 B Hughes
10 6 SPORTING SCOPEY 118 N Twiston-Davies 4-10-13
3 (3) 222 TRES SPECIALE 26 R Beckett 4-9-12 H Crouch 10-1 Epic Pass, 33-1 Uggy Uggy Uggy, Mister Allegro. S Twiston-Davies 5 -0005 BLAZER 28 B Haslam 10-11-8 A Cawley
4 (13) 40240 LIBERTY WARRIOR 23 (P) D & C Kubler 3-9-8 R Kingscote 11 TALK OF THE MOON K Bailey 4-10-13 D Bass 6 P3-20 VICTORY ECHO 122 (T) M Barnes 8-11-5 R Chapman
M Tabti (7) 5 (2) 6-326 BASIC BEAUTY 16 (P) S bin Suroor 4-9-7 S B Kirrane (5) 1.30 Handicap Hurdle (£6,045: 2m 5f) (7) 7 -1631 NORTHERN BOUND 7 (P) B Pauling 7-11-0 K Brogan (3)
3-1 Peerless Beauty, 4-1 Rocked Up, 9-2 Martha Willow, 6-1 Talk Of The Moon,
M Harley 6 (1) -2042 LIGHTENING SHORE 15 (P,C) R Hughes 3-9-7 W Buick Camembert Electric, 14-1 Sporting Scopey, Lady Thistledown, 16-1 If I Say. 13-8 Northern Bound, 2-1 Turbo, 5-1 Instant Replay, 8-1 Victory Echo, 12-1
1 P-032 LITTERALE CI 46 (P,BF,C) H Fry 8-12-0
S M Levey 7 (9) 45145 KELMSCOTT 29 (P) D Menuisier 3-9-4 D Probert Miss A B O'Connor (3) Lord Bryan, 20-1 Dr Sanderson, 25-1 Blazer.
T Marquand 8 (7) 41133 BEOWULF 24 (B,BF) E Walker 3-9-3 O Murphy 2 06-54 CUBSWIN 94 N King 7-11-12 Bryony Frost
T Hamilton
David Egan
9 (8) 14432 GRAYSTONE 21 L Wadham 3-9-3 D Muscutt 3 0-2U3 YEAVERING BELLE 35 (P,T,CD) K Bailey 7-11-7 D Bass Sedgefield 4.33 Handicap Hurdle (£3,159: 2m 1f) (11)
10 (4) 35-02 SHIELDED 23 (V) S & E Crisford 3-9-2 J Mitchell 4 16146 COTTON END 83 (C) Sheila Lewis 7-11-6 Sean Houlihan (3) Rob Wright
1 -P012 LUCKY ROBIN 8 (CD) B Ellison 9-11-12 B Hughes
11(12) 04200 DESTINADO 62 A Carroll 3-9-2 J Watson 5 U43F- SACRE COEUR 174 (H) Jonjo O'Neill 5-11-4 Jonjo O'Neill Jr
2 P-433 FULL AUX ROIS 33 (H) N Mulholland 6-11-11 T Scudamore
12 (5) 30412 ALYARA 20 K Burke 3-9-1 C Lee 6 412-3 UNE DE LA SENIERE 143 (T,BF,D) F O'Brien 6-10-12 P Brennan 1.38 Punxsutawney Phil 3.58 Northern Bound
3 141-4 BLUE HAWAII 158 (W) T Collier 6-11-7 Sean Quinlan
13(10) 63311 NIGHT EAGLE 27 (T) G L Moore 3-8-10 R L Moore 7 46-14 GAVROCHEKA 92 (B,D) P Hobbs 5-10-7 T J O'Brien 2.13 Coulonces 4.33 Ottavio
2.48 Joey Steel 5.05 Raffles Gitane 4 043 OTTAVIO 44 (H) Dr R Newland 4-11-6 C Hammond
4-1 Tres Speciale, 5-1 Night Eagle, 13-2 Rafiot, 7-1 Alyara, 8-1 Shielded, 10-1 11-8 Litterale Ci, 11-2 Une De La Seniere, 6-1 Yeavering Belle, 7-1 Sacre Coeur,
3.23 Dazzling Glory 5 0-155 OAKMONT 39 (D) J Moffatt 8-11-4 J Hamilton
Graystone, Beowulf, 12-1 Lightening Shore, Basic Beauty. 8-1 Gavrocheka, Cotton End, 10-1 Cubswin.
6 026-0 SIMPLE RULES 81 M Todhunter 5-11-3 C Bewley
M Harley Going: good, good to soft in places
7 -0341 LORD CAPRIO 36 (T) B Haslam 6-10-13 R McLernon
6.30 Handicap (£7,731: 7f) (9) Sky Sports Racing 8 6000/ MISTAMEL F17 (P) I Jardine 9-10-12 C O'Farrell
C Bennett
1 (1) -2166 SKY COMMANDER 111 (CD) J Tate 4-9-11 James Doyle
2 (7) 11540 BOWMAN 11 (D) M Johnston 3-9-7 W Buick
Course specialists 1.38 Maiden Hurdle (£4,084: 2m 1f) (12) 9 R401R TREASURED COMPANY 8 (P) Sue Smith 5-10-12
T Willmott (5)
3 (2) 34000 SANAADH 14 (T,CD) M Wigham 8-9-7 F Norton
Kempton Park: Trainers C Appleby, 41 winners 1 F660- ARGENT ET OR 167 (T) M Barnes 8-11-0 S Mulqueen 10 4-240 BALRANALD 41 (W,P) Mrs A C Hamilton 5-10-11 R Chapman
T Whelan from 111 runners, 36.9%; J & T Gosden, 11 from 2 22 CIRQUE ROYAL 5 (T) Gerald Quinn 5-11-0 N McParlan (3)
4 (6) 05110 SUN POWER 17 (T,CD) Darryll Holland 4-9-7A Villiers (3) 11 P/0-0 BURNAGE BOY 79 M Hammond 5-10-6 A Cawley
36, 30.6%. Jockeys W Buick, 43 winners from 3 4P140 DAN'S CROSS 53 D Sayer 5-11-0 C O'Farrell
D O'Neill 5 (5) 6221 THALER 19 (T,C) Sir M Stoute 3-9-5 R L Moore 5-2 Lucky Robin, 4-1 Full Aux Rois, 5-1 Blue Hawaii, 6-1 Lord Caprio, 7-1
179 rides, 24%; James Doyle, 71 from 305, 23.3%.
B Curtis 6 (9) 30050 DIOCLES OF ROME 18 (CD) R Beckett 6-9-4 H Crouch 4 1/06- DOUBLEUBEE 268 Dr R Newland 7-11-0 L Edwards Ottavio, 10-1 Oakmont, 12-1 Treasured Company, 20-1 Balranald.
T Marquand
Ludlow: Trainers A Honeyball, 4 from 6, 66.7%; 5 0/44 FOILLAN 23 Dr R Newland 6-11-0 C Hammond
7 (8) 06104 PINNATA 27 (T,C,D) S C Williams 7-9-1 O Murphy
A King, 9 from 37, 24.3%. Jockeys D Bass, 19
S De Sousa 8 (3) 03040 MUSICALITY 19 (P) R Varian 4-9-0 J Mitchell
from 69, 27.5%; R Dingle, 4 from 16, 25%. 6 HECTOR'S HERE F38 J Candlish 5-11-0 Sean Quinlan 5.05 Handicap Chase (£3,594: 2m 1f) (6)
S Donohoe 9 (4) 13454 EVASIVE POWER 36 (CD) R Brisland 5-9-0 K Shoemark 7 30/ SCORCHIN 704 Sue Smith 7-11-0 T Willmott (5) 1 31331 JAMACHO 8 C Longsdon 7-11-12 B Hughes
6-4 Thaler, 11-2 Sun Power, 8-1 Bowman, Evasive Power, 10-1 Sky Nottingham: Trainers R Menzies, 3 from 7, 8 0000- WHATS THE MATTER 246 A Hamilton 5-11-0 D McMenamin
H Shaw 2 4342- COOPER'S CROSS 246 W Coltherd 6-11-12 S Coltherd
Commander, Pinnata, Musicality, Diocles Of Rome, 20-1 Sanaadh. 42.9%; J Boyle, 3 from 8, 37.5%. Jockeys A Atzeni,
J Fanning 9 0 CHEMICAL WARFARE 155 T Collier 4-10-13 T Dowson 3 5102- CRACK DU NINIAN 204 J Candlish 6-11-9 Sean Quinlan
21 from 86, 24.4%; S Levey, 14 from 59, 23.7%.
David Egan 10 14-32 PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL 13 B Ellison 4-10-13 H Brooke 4 5133- RAFFLES GITANE 174 (W) H Whittington 4-11-5 D Jacob
Sedgefield: Trainers C Williams, 5 from 10, 50%;
11 SPIRITOFTHENORTH F30 K Ryan 4-10-13 B Hughes 5 304-5 NAIZAGAI 22 (P,T,BF) F O'Brien 4-10-13 M Kendrick
C Longsdon, 3 from 7, 42.9%. Jockeys J Tudor,
Blinkered first time: Kempton Park 8.00 Monsieur 4 from 8, 50%; D Jacob, 5 from 15, 33.3%. 12 5 TOP ATTRACTION 36 C Fairhurst 4-10-13 J Kington 6 50400 MIRACULOUS GETAWAY 28 (T) S England 6-10-3 J England
Fantaisie. 8.00 Makter. 8.00 Gherkin. 8.30 Stage 6-4 Cirque Royal, 2-1 Punxsutawney Phil, 10-1 Spiritofthenorth, Hector's 9-4 Raffles Gitane, 5-2 Jamacho, 4-1 Crack Du Ninian, 9-2 Cooper's Cross, 8-1
Lights. 8.30 Mr Moneypenny. Ludlow 1.30 Gavrocheka. Here, Foillan, 14-1 Doubleubee, 16-1 Dan's Cross, Argent Et Or. Naizagai, 25-1 Miraculous Getaway.
fav); 2, Le Forban (8-1); 3, Dream Harder (4-1).
4 ran. NR: Whitefeathersfall. 4l, 6l. W J Haggas.
Sheppard, 9-4); 2, Island Nation (11-10 fav);
3, Bricklagger (15-2). 6 ran. NR: Galata Bridge. Leicester 2, Deputy (13-8 fav); 3, Lordsbridge Boy (9-2).
8 ran. NR: Dana Forever, Donya, Merry Secret.
6.00 (7f) 1, My Dubawi (Oisin Murphy, 100-30);
2, Odisseo (9-4 fav); 3, Jen’s Gift (33-1). 13 ran.
3.50 (1m 1f 207yd) 1, Wisper (David Probert, 7Kl, 41l. T Lacey. Going: heavy 2l, nk. P R Chamings. NR: The Embezzler. Sh hd, 1Kl. M Johnston.
3-1); 2, Sonnetina (4-1); 3, Angels Roc (5-2 fav). 3.40 (2m 7f 129yd ch) 1, Railway Muice (Nick 1.37 (1m 53yd) 1, Perseus Way (James Doyle, 5.05 (6f) 1, Willingly (Tyler Heard, 8-1); 2, 6.30 (1m 3f 219yd) 1, Spring Glow (Oisin
11 ran. NR: Billie’s Girl, He Can Dance, Pure Scholfield, 11-4); 2, Achy Breaky Heart (7-4 3-1); 2, Valsad (8-1); 3, Ar El Bee (85-40 fav). Stallone (16-5); 3, Some Nightmare (5-2 fav). 9 Murphy, 17-2); 2, City Tour (14-1); 3, War
Purfection. 3Ol, nk. J G Portman. fav); 3, Game In The Park (14-1). 6 ran. 2Nl, 21l. 7 ran. NR: Groundbreaker. Ol, 1l. C Appleby. ran. NR: Little Brown Trout. Nk, 1l. M D I Usher. Leader (8-1). 8 ran. 4Ol, ns. A M Balding.
Mrs S J Humphrey.
4.25 (1m 3f 198yd) 1, Global Wonder (Aiden 4.15 (2m 3f 137yd hdle) 1, Midnight Jewel 2.12 (1m 2f) 1, Possible Ambition (Jason Hart, 5.40 (7f) 1, John Clare (Christian Howarth, 7.00 (1m 3f 219yd) 1, Tazaman (S W Kelly,
Brookes, 5-2); 2, Temur Khan (2-1 fav); 3, Iconic (Tom Buckley, 6-4 fav); 2, Deputy Jones (6-1); 13-8); 2, Trusty Scout (Evens fav); 3, The 7-4 fav); 2, He’s Our Star (14-1); 3, Onaraggatip 4-1 jt-fav); 2, Sophosc (13-2); 3, Knight Of Kings
Mover (4-1). 6 ran. NR: Edgar Allan Poe, 3, Princess Ruby (13-2). 10 ran. NR: Lightning Bravest (11-2). 4 ran. Sh hd, 1Nl. J J Quinn. (10-1). 12 ran. NR: Central City, Eligible, Love (4-1 jt-fav). 14 ran. Sh hd, 3Nl. D M Loughnane.
Intoxication, Solent Scene. 2Nl, 4Ol. Suzi Best. Bug, Mi Laddo. 9l, 2Nl. C E Longsdon. 2.47 (1m 2f) 1, Pied Piper (R Havlin, 7-1); 2, Irish Dreams, Shoot To Kill, Sovereign Slipper. 7.30 (1m) 1, Astaroth (A Kirby, 8-1); 2, Fast
Placepot: £128.40. Quadpot: £7.20. 4.50 (2m 3f 137yd hdle) 1, Soul Icon (Mr F Legend (4-1); 3, Croeso Cymraeg (10-1). 9 ran. Nk, 1l. Mrs P Sly. Style (28-1); 3, Victory (28-1). 11 ran.
Procter, 66-1); 2, Salley Gardens (3-1); 3, Sixties NR: Alexander James, Kolisi, Mashhoor. 4l, 1l. Placepot: £223.40. Quadpot: £21.80. NR: Cabrakan, Shabbab. Kl, nk. J A Osborne.
Huntingdon Secret (11-2). 10 ran. NR: Mcgarry, No Worries. J T Gosden. 8.00 (1m) 1, Assembled (M Harley, 10-1); 2,
Going: good (good to soft in places) 2Ol, 2Ol. K Burke.
5.20 (3m 1f 10yd hdle) 1, Khan (Harry Reed,
3.22 (1m 3f 179yd) 1, Downsman (N Callan, Kempton Park Epic Express (9-1); 3, Prize Fighting (5-2 fav). 11
1.55 (1m 7f 171yd hdle) 1, Impulsive One (D A 9-2); 2, In The Breeze (5-1); 3, Forza Orta Going: standard/slow ran. NR: Espresso Freddo. Nk, nk. M R Bosley.
9-1); 2, Champagne Noir (5-2); 3, Neverbeen (5-2 fav). 6 ran. NR: Zhang Fei. 1l, 5l. J R Boyle. 8.30 (1m) 1@, Proclaimer (R Kingscote, 2-1 fav);
Jacob, 1-4 fav); 2, Aggagio (15-2); 3, Tarseem To Paris (8-1). 7 ran. NR: Presenting Yeats. 4.58 (6f) 1, Thaki (S De Sousa, 7-4 fav); 2, Got
(5-1). 7 ran. 10l, sh hd. N J Henderson. 3Ol, 12l. M Harris. 3.57 (5f) 1, Blue De Vega (Tom Marquand, No Dollars (11-2); 3, Manumission (17-2). 10 ran. 1@, Coverham (11-2); 3, Buckingham (6-1). 10 ran.
2.30 (2m 3f 189yd ch) 1, Larch Hill (B S 16-5); 2, Four Adaay (2-1 fav); 3, Ishvara (5-1). NR: Marionette, Vivency. Kl, Kl. C A Dwyer. NR: Across The Nile. Dh, 2½l. Miss J Camacho.
5.50 (1m 5f 148yd Flat) 1, Alazwar (G Sheehan,
Hughes, 11-4 fav); 2, Romanor (4-1); 3, Demon 5-2 fav); 2, Mamoon Star (7-2); 3, Legionar 6 ran. NR: Dream Composer, Just Glamorous, 5.30 (7f) 1, Laasudood (Jim Crowley, 5-2); Jackpot: Not won. Pool of £9,132.30 carried
D’Aunou (4-1). 7 ran. 4Nl, 11l. C A Pogson. (4-1). 11 ran. 3Ol, Kl. A Watson. Phoenix Star. 2Nl, 2Nl. R M H Cowell. 2, Sense Of Power (13-8 fav); 3, Blueberry Hill forward to Nottingham today.
3.05 (1m 7f 171yd hdle) 1, Argonauta (Stan Placepot: £10.80. Quadpot: £5.10. 4.32 (6f) 1, Coco Bear (Hector Crouch, 9-2); (16-5). 14 ran. Ol, Ol. Sir Michael Stoute. Placepot: £178.30. Quadpot: £124.00.
60
Sport Rugby union
‘I’m not that
desperate to
get back. Life
moves on’
Martin Johnson has
been out of professional
rugby for a decade but
as he tells Alex Lowe, he
has no hunger to return
On the deep red wall behind Martin
Johnson hung a gold disc by The
Stranglers, a punk band still touring
today who are famous for, among
other songs, the 1977 hit No More
Heroes. Next to the gold disc was a
picture of Ray Clemence, the former
Liverpool and England goalkeeper.
When Johnson brought up the recent
death of Roger Hunt, another
Liverpool and England hero, it all felt
strangely pertinent.
Johnson, England’s World Cup-
winning captain who would scoff at
the idea of anyone regarding him as a
hero despite all that he achieved, has
been out of rugby for almost a decade
and it is just over 20 years since he
captained Leicester Tigers to their
first European title in a 34-30 victory
over Stade Français in Paris.
The team gathered for a dinner last
week to mark the anniversary, one of
those occasions where the bonds
forged in the blood and thunder of
rugby — particularly during that era
at Leicester, when there was plenty of
both — feel more special, more
valuable than the trophy everyone
was there to celebrate.
“It was a chance for us to get out of
the house,” Johnson says, joking. “One
of the best heckles of the night
ith it before
was, ‘Get on with
one of us dies.’ ”
Whatever
happened to
those heroes off
2001? Richard
Cockerill, on
the bench
that day in
Paris, is now
England’s
forwards
coach.
Graham
Rowntree, a
previous
incumbent of thathat
role, is workingg for
Munster.
And Johnson? n? His hands-
on involvementt with
professional rugby ended
after coaching England to captained Leicester, a club
the quarter-finals of the 2011 record. They won 146 of
World Cup, a role he took them, while Johnson
out of a sense of duty. His played 362 games for
opinions on the game remain
strong, recently raising questions
over World Rugby’s plans to limit
contact training to 15 minutes a
week.
Johnson was reminiscing about
2001 and his own journey in Leicester
colours by way of contextualising
what lies ahead for the next
generation of Welford Road heroes —
the likes of Freddie Steward, George
Martin, Joe Heyes, Jack van
Poortvliet — who are top of the
Gallagher Premiership for the first
time since 2011 but still have it all to
prove.
“The spirit seemed really good and
hopefully long may it continue. I’m
biased but I think it’s good to have a
strong Leicester in English rugby,”
Johnson said.
“The good thing is the young
players coming through, and hopefully
they can be a solid core of players.
Every team that’s been successful has
had that, in most sports but certainly
in rugby. You look at all the teams that
have had a prolonged run of success:
Saracens, Exeter. It was us before
them, before that it was Bath. You
could name half a dozen players and
go, ‘That name is synonymous with
that club and success.’
“Leicester haven’t seemed to
produce those right players for ten
years, since the Youngs boys and Dan
Cole came through, and it would be
nice to have those players who fans
can hang their hat on.
“I was so fortunate. We had that
dinner last week and, yes, we won the
European Cup but actually just to
play with the guys for ten-plus years,
you have such a bond together, such
good memories.
“I played with some guys for 15
years. It is great. You have such a
common bond there. It is nice to be
able to do that and you wish that for
the players and for the club.
“They have to do it their way. We
were very different to the teams I
watched in the th 1980s but that
is great. It is a good start
but they have played
t
only three games. I am
talki long term.”
talking
The man in
T more times than I won them. If you
ch
charge of building
th new era at
this
L
Leicester, of trying
to carve out new
h
heroes for a city
st
starved of rugby
su
success for the past
dec
decade, is Steve
Bort
Borthwick, who was
capta of England
captain
under JJohnson from
2008 to 2010.
“H is a very, very
“He
202
Games Johnson
de
detailed
J
Johnson
guy,”
said.
“That Saracens
game [Leicester
won 13-12] could
have gone the
other way. It’s not
the club in total all going to come
straight away, there are
no guarantees you will get
what you want but the battle to
get there is what it is all about.
“You hear a lot of people talk at the
end of their careers about wins and
losses. They are great and special
days but it is more about the
Johnson was captain of the Leicester side who won their first Heineken Cup in
2001 but his last job in rugby was taking charge of England in the 2011 World Cup
togetherness of trying to achieve.
People say, ‘You won X, Y and Z,’ but I
played in all the competitions far
are in something where you have a
purpose and are fighting for it, that is
what you want.”
Johnson’s words epitomise the
Leicester that Borthwick is trying to
build. Those players who were not up
for the fight, those who looked for
contracts elsewhere or would not
accept a pay cut during lockdown,
were moved on.
It makes you wonder again whether
Johnson is lost to rugby. He has no
hunger to get back in. “You always
miss your playing days but not so
much. Life moves on. People ask if I
miss it and the answer is yes and no. I
am not desperate to get back and
scratch an itch. It is nice to watch a
few Test matches for the BBC and it
will be good to get crowds back in.”
Johnson is patron of the Joe
Humphries Memorial Trust, named
after the son of a friend who died
aged 14 after suffering a cardiac arrest
while out running.
“I have been campaigning for
awareness ever since,” Johnson said
and his appeal is for sudden cardiac
arrest training to be mandatory for
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND; JAMIE MCDONALD/GETTY IMAGES
anyone connected with sport and for
public buildings to be required to
have defibrillators just as commonly
as they have fire extinguishers.
When Johnson heard that Christian
Eriksen, the Denmark footballer, had
collapsed during Euro 2020 he knew
the player was in the safest place, bar
a hospital, because he was surrounded
by the right equipment and medical
expertise. Joe Humphries was not so
fortunate.
“I remember speaking to a
headmaster and said, ‘If a 15-year-old
kid hits the deck, what is happening?’
It’s a sobering thing. Every week 12
people under the age of 35 die of
sudden cardiac arrest. If effective
action is taken inside the first minute
their chances treble.
“If you can administer CPR and get
hold of a defibrillator quickly, the
chances of survival increase again
rapidly. So the simple message is,
these things can happen, and you
need to be prepared for it. You need
to learn CPR. And we need
defibrillators at sporting venues. We
need defibrillators in the community.”
UK Coaching offers a free eLearning
course on how to respond quickly in
the event of sudden cardiac arrest. Visit
www.ukcoaching.org/sca.
Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times
Agents’ dispute
halts player
recruitment
Alex Lowe Rugby Correspondent
A stand-off between agents and
Gallagher Premiership clubs has meant
that player recruitment for next season
and negotiations over new contracts
have been put on hold.
Clubs would ordinarily be trying to
get much of their business done for the
next campaign before Christmas but
none of that is happening, with agents
refusing to deal with the 13 sides.
The row is heading for mediation
next week, involving Premiership
Rugby (PRL), the RFU, the Association
of Rugby Agents (ARA) and the Rugby
Players’ Association. In the meantime,
the stand-off has left a window for
French and Japanese clubs to try to lure
players away from the Premiership.
The ARA was angered at the lack of
consultation when Premiership clubs
agreed in June to stop paying agents’
fees on behalf of the players.
The decision was taken after HMRC
issued new guidelines related to
football and dual representation, where
the agent is deemed to have worked on
behalf of the player and club. The tax
authorities no longer accept the default
of a 50-50 split, arguing that the service
is a benefit in kind to the player and
should be taxed accordingly.
Premiership clubs saw dual
representation as a “conflict of interest”
and decided to stop paying agents’ fees.
“The reality is an agent only ever acts
for one party,” Phil Winstanley, the
PRL rugby director, said. “[The player]
needs to be responsible for payment of
that fee. Our position is clear.”
Agents worked closely with the clubs
last year to restructure player contracts
after the league imposed 25 per cent pay
cuts, which meant lower commissions.
“I don’t think the new system works,” a
source said. “Most agents are not
prepared to enter into negotiations on
behalf of clients until this is resolved.”
Saracens can
relax rules as
jab target hit
Chris Jones
Social distancing and facemasks are no
longer compulsory at Saracens after
the club exceeded a target of fully vacci-
nating 85 per cent of players and staff.
The Professional Game Board laid
out the target in response to the impact
Covid-19 was having on the top flight,
with ten games cancelled last season.
It is understood that the majority of
Premiership clubs are either close to or
have surpassed the target, the reaching
of which means players can use the
same dressing room and share one
coach rather than two for away games.
“We are [at 85 per cent] and our medi-
cal team did a brilliant job to make sure
that is the case. We get tested twice a
week but there is not that dread that if
one person was to test positive it would
affect everyone,” Mark McCall, the Sar-
acens director of rugby, said. “It is a per-
sonal decision to get vaccinated but we
haven’t had to persuade too many.”
6 Liam Williams, the former Saracen,
is doubtful for Wales’s game against
New Zealand on October 30. The
back-three player, who now plays for
Scarlets, has had his appendix removed
and will not play this month. Wales are
already without English-based stars
Dan Biggar, Taulupe Faletau, Louis
Rees-Zammit and Callum Sheedy for
the All Blacks game.
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021 2GM 61

Cricket Sport

Final questions that need answering CAMERON SPENCER/GETTY IMAGES

Elizabeth Ammon on Australia celebrate

after winning the
what it will take for Jos 2017-18 Ashes 4-0.
England have not
Buttler to go and how held the urn since
many players England
will need down under
When will the tour be given the
official go-ahead?
The ECB board is expected to give it
the green light tomorrow, once it has
ironed out all the details with Cricket
Australia (CA). England are then
expected to name their squad on
Friday for the five-match series that
starts on December 8 in Brisbane.

Have the players made it clear that

they are prepared to go regardless of
the Covid restrictions?
James Anderson and Stuart Broad
have both said they will go on the
tour even if their families are unable
to travel with them. Ben Foakes, the
reserve wicketkeeper, has recovered
from injury and has said that he
wants to tour. Ollie Pope, the 23-year-
old batsman, has also indicated that
because he doesn’t have a partner or
children, he is keen to travel. No
other players have said publicly that
they will go whatever the restrictions
and those with children are
understood to have the greatest England’s depth chart — Our first, second and third-choice Test picks for tour of Australia
concerns. Mark Wood and Chris Average: Batting / Bowling
Woakes have both taken their
families to the T20 World Cup in the First team Second team Third team
United Arab Emirates, which may Player Age Tests Avg Player Age Tests Avg Player Age Tests Avg
indicate that they are then happy to 1 Opener 29 32.30 Dom Sibley (Warks) 26 22 28.94 Chris Dent (Glos) 30 0 -
Rory Burns (Surrey) 31
travel to Australia without them.
The key turning point in the 2 Opener Haseeb Hameed (Notts) 24 6 35.90 Rob Yates (Warks) 22 0 - Tom Haines (Sussex) 22 0 -
discussions with the players was Joe 3 Batsman Dawid Malan (Yorkshire) 34 17 28.62 Zak Crawley (Kent) 23 15 28.34 James Vince (Hampshire) 30 13 24.90
Root committing himself to going
4 Batsman Joe Root (Yorkshire) 30 109 50.15 Josh Bohannon (Lancs) 24 0 - Tom Abell (Somerset) 27 0 -
when CA told the players that their
families would not have to put up 5 Batsman Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire) 32 78 33.70 Dan Lawrence (Essex) 24 8 27.23 Harry Brook (Yorkshire) 22 0 -
with hard quarantine rules on arrival 6 Batsman Ollie Pope (Surrey) 23 20 32.16 Sam Hain (Warks) 26 0 - Will Rhodes (Warks) 26 0 -
in Australia.
7 Wicketkeeper Jos Buttler (Lancashire) 31 53 33.33 Ben Foakes (Surrey) 28 8 31.53 James Bracey (Glos) 24 2 2.66
What about Jos Buttler? Is he still 8 All-rounder Chris Woakes (Warks) 32 39 27.78/ 28.73 Sam Curran (Surrey) 23 24 24.69/ 35.51 Tom Curran (Surrey) 26 2 33.00/ 100.00
undecided? 9 Seamer Ollie Robinson (Sussex) 27 5 19.60 Stuart Broad (Notts) 35 149 27.84 Craig Overton (Somerset) 27 6 33.58
The wicketkeeper-batsman is still
undecided on whether to go, having 10 Spinner Jack Leach (Somerset) 30 16 29.98 Dom Bess (Yorkshire) 24 14 33.97 Matt Parkinson (Lancs) 24 0 -
publicly expressed reservations at 11 Seamer James Anderson (Lancs) 39 166 26.62 Mark Wood (Durham) 31 21 33.10 Saqib Mahmood (Lancs) 24 0 -
being apart from his family for so Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Ollie Stone are likely to miss the tour and were not considered
long. However, there is a ray of hope
as it is understood that he is likely to Victoria, in the Yarra Valley, they will How big a squad will England take serious implications if the tour had had their itineraries finalised for the
travel if arrangements can be made have the freedom to roam their down under? been postponed for a year. next few months.
for his wife and two children to join accommodation for the whole of their It is likely that England will name a If it had been moved to next year,
him in the United Arab Emirates this 14-day isolation period. main squad of about 18 players and a CA would have stood to lose tens of What would England’s international
month where he will be playing in the The players are understood to have Lions party of about 15 that will travel millions of dollars but the ECB would schedule have looked like this
Twenty20 World Cup, before flying been given exemptions to come out of alongside the main squad and provide not have been liable because, under winter if there had been no Ashes
directly to Australia. their rooms to train. There is still cover for all the positions. The ECB the ICC’s regulations, Covid is a series?
believed to be some concern among has identified about 35 players with legitimate reason for cancelling a Unless a late replacement series could
What are the likely restrictions for some of the players about what whom it will discuss the tour and match or series without financial have been arranged, it would have left
England players and their families? happens if there are snap lockdowns likely restrictions. Finding 35 players repercussions. England without any cricket at all
Players, support staff and their in any of the states in which they are to tour down under is not expected to The tens of millions of dollars that between the middle of November and
families will all have to undergo a 14- due to be playing, with some fearing pose a significant issue as the Australia would have lost would have the third week in January. The T20
day quarantine on arrival. They that they may become stuck and majority of the fringe players do not pushed CA to the brink of bankruptcy World Cup starts on October 17 and
initially feared having to be confined unable to get home. want to refuse to travel in case it then amid fears that it would have left a lasts four weeks.
to their hotel rooms for 14 days, which It is believed that there are also jeopardises their international A$100 million-plus black hole in its The white-ball team are then due to
was proving to be a sticking point some remaining questions for CA to futures. finances. play five T20s in the West Indies at
with a number of the players. The answer about what happens if there is It would also have caused a big row the end of January, although the dates
reassurances from CA is that whether an increase in community cases in If the tour had been cancelled would with CA, who would have had to find are yet to be confirmed. The
families arrive at the start of the tour any of the host cities, and whether England have been liable to pay a last-minute opponent to replace Test team wouldn’t be back in
in Brisbane, where they will be put up that will mean a tightening of the compensation to Australia? England in their home summer. This action until March when they are due
in a hotel, or later on, when they will bubble, to try to prevent a An Ashes series trumps almost would not have been straightforward, to play three matches in the
be housed in a resort in upstate cancellation of any of the Tests. everything else but it would have had given that most other nations already Caribbean.

Jobs and millions of dollars at stake over Ashes, warns Border

continued from back
know — I start to wonder maybe if
some of these guys don’t fancy the
ultimate test,” he said. “You have to
start to worry about it. To play Test
cricket for England is the ultimate and
to play against Australia in Australia,
and win, is magnificent.
“I just wish that we could actually put
a positive spin on something and my
positive spin is: let’s get out there, let’s
see if we can beat the best in their own
backyard. Because Australia don’t lose
very often in their own backyard. It’s a
challenge and if I were in their boots, I’d
already have my bags packed.”
CA would stand to lose tens of mil-
lions of dollars if the tour were can-
celled, and Allan Border, the former
Australia captain, has echoed the com-
ments made by Botham in The Daily
Telegraph by calling for the Ashes to go
ahead and warning that there will be replaced by his older brother, yesterday and will remain in Oman
be job losses if the series is scrapped. Tom, whose place as travelling until October 16 after ending a quaran-
Meanwhile, England will have to reserve will be taken by Reece tine period.
try to win their second World T20 Topley, their Surrey team- They will head to their tournament
title without the services of mate. Curran will return home base in Dubai next Saturday before
Sam Curran after the all- in the next couple of days. starting their campaign on October 23
rounder was ruled out Those England players and against West Indies. England, whose
because of the lower-back management not at the IPL group also contains Australia, South
injury he suffered while arrived at their Muscat base Africa and two first-round qualifiers,
playing for Chennai will play warm-up matches against
Super Kings in the IPL on Sam Curran will be replaced India, on October 18, and New Zealand
Saturday. The 23-year-old will by his brother, Tom two days later.
62 Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times

Sport

Matthew Syed
Coaches’ tough love can inspire greatness ADAM DAVY/PA

A
month or so ago, I was lucky enough
to attend a live event featuring John
Cleese. It was an evening when the
co-creator of Fawlty Towers and Life
of Brian gave the audience a
fascinating insight into the nature of creativity
and comedy. The moment that made me sit up,
however, was on a different topic, and one that I
have been thinking about a lot recently: trust.
“Trust changes the meaning of words,” Cleese
said, leaning forward. “If you are going out of
the house and a really close friend says: ‘Don’t
wear that ridiculous jumper, it’s awful’, you will
probably thank him for his honesty. Only a true
friend could be so frank. If someone who wasn’t
a friend made such a pointed criticism, you
would probably take it very personally indeed.
You would, quite understandably, impute all
sorts of dubious motives.”
I think that Cleese’s remarks are of profound
significance, but for this column I would like to
apply them, in particular, to the crisis
enveloping British sport in terms of the
relationship between athlete and coach. Again
and again we are seeing stories of sportspeople
who have been emotionally bruised by coaches,
or bullied by coaches, or unjustly dropped by
coaches. Athletes talk of the lasting damage
caused by the hurtful things that coaches say.
I noticed something of this in the serialisation
of Tom Daley’s autobiography in The Times, but
the story extends far wider. It encompasses
swimming, cycling, rugby, football and more. It
is difficult to go a week without a story
emerging of how Premier League academies are
nasty institutions that shatter the dreams of
young people. Their crime, very often, is to drop
players who they don’t think are going to make
the grade.
This crisis has become so serious that a fair
proportion of my mailbox these days is from
coaches paranoid that they might say something
that will come back to bite them. Are they
allowed to criticise a player for being late for
training? Can they point out that an athlete
didn’t put in a shift during practice? Where do
we draw the line between a fair but critical
remark and one that is unnecessarily wounding?
This is a complex question and this column
won’t pretend to offer a comprehensive answer,
but I do want to examine the role of trust.
Consider my first table tennis coach, Peter
Charters, a man with a black moustache,
twinkly eyes and a willingness to occasionally
offer a sharp rebuke. He didn’t like it when
players went through the motions. He didn’t like
it when we turned up late for training. When we
let ourselves down, he didn’t hold back; indeed,
Daley revealed he went days without eating after a former coach told him he needed to lose weight
he occasionally raised his voice. But none of the
criticisms ever felt gratuitous or bullying.
Why? Because we trusted him. He took the
time to get to know us as individuals, to
understand our aspirations, to gauge our
personalities. We could see that, in the way he
invested his time and energy in our
development (not just sporting but as human
beings, too), he was “on our side”.
Over weeks and months, we came to
recognise that this wasn’t merely a coach but a
mentor. Later, as I progressed into my late teens,
he became one of my most trusted friends. And
this is why, when his words stung, I never
questioned his motives. I didn’t think: “Is he
trying to put me down to boost his own ego?” I
didn’t think: “Is he wounding me because he is
secretly hoping one of my competitors beats
me?” If he had dropped me from the team, I
wouldn’t have thought: “He is doing this to hurt
me.” Instead, I would have known that he had
come to the sincere conclusion that I didn’t have
what it takes to reach the top and would be
better off doing something else with my time. In
some circumstances, dropping an athlete isn’t
cruel, it is the kindest act of all.
In the end, it comes down to trust. It comes
down to the point made by Cleese that a
statement made in a trusting context has a
different imputed meaning than the same
statement made in an untrusting one. Many of
the most important pieces of advice I have
received have been highly critical. But they were
galvanising precisely because I trusted the
person — father, mother, wife, coach — who
made them.
I think you can apply this beyond sport, too.
Think about a meeting where everyone trusts
one another. In these circumstances, mutual
criticism isn’t destructive; it is conducive to good
decision-making. People recognise that the
criticism isn’t personal but a way of helping the
group come to the best judgment overall.
In an untrusting group, on the other hand,
criticism of an idea is taken personally by
whoever suggested it, leading to defensiveness,
mutual point-scoring and dysfunction.
I should say loud and clear that there are
occasions on which sports coaches abuse the
trust they are granted by athletes. Scandals in
gymnastics and beyond show that youngsters
need protection from such people.
In this column, however, I am seeking to
analyse a different question; namely, how it is
possible that a coach and athlete, each of whom
are decent people and each doing their best in
high-pressure circumstances, often have such
different interpretations of their interactions?
And doesn’t this often come down to trust? It
is only when trust has been established that we
can have the “difficult” conversations that are so
important to improvement.
It is only when trust is established that
candour becomes an asset rather than a liability.
This is why it is so important to establish mutual
good faith before moving on to higher-order
things such as seeking to win titles.
Trust, taken in this sense, isn’t merely the
cement of great relationships but of great
performances, too.

Stars’ jab refusal ‘not a good look’ ‘Football needs to decide

continued from back
become frustrated by the situation at
Old Trafford, though in some cases the
reluctance to be vaccinated is on
religious grounds.
For clubs with international players,
the requirement to quarantine for ten
days upon their return from a red-list
country is an additional worry. For
the Premier League as a whole, the
big concern is with the optics of footbal-
lers declining the opportunity to be
vaccinated when elite sports stars have
received special treatment throughout
the Covid-19 crisis. It jars with the
public support that players gave to
the NHS during the worst of the
pandemic.
Last week Jürgen Klopp, the Liver-
pool manager, said that he could not
Ronaldo’s United deal
done in Lineker’s garden
The deal to bring Cristiano Ronaldo
back to Manchester United was
completed in Gary Lineker’s garden,
the Match of the Day presenter has
revealed.
“Ed Woodward [United’s
chief executive, right] is a
good friend and lives next
door,” Lineker said. “When
he walked in he was on
the phone to Jorge
Mendes [Ronaldo’s agent].”
understand why there were so many
refuseniks in the Premier League. He
said that 99 per cent of his players had
been jabbed and did not need convin-
cing to do so. “I got the vaccination
because I was concerned about myself
but even more so for everyone else
around me,” he said. “If I get it and suf-
fer — my fault. If I get it and spread it
around to everyone else — my fault and
not their fault.”
Wolverhampton Wanderers and
Brentford are two other clubs report-
ing that the majority of their
pla
players have been jabbed.
The Premier League has talk-
e about introducing some form
ed
o reward system. A document
of
ci
circulated last week said: “Ac-
cor
cording to the data we have, only
seven clubs’ squads are more than
50 per ccent fully vaccinated . . . We are
50
id
considering if and how best we can ‘re-
ward’ those squads/players who are
most Covid-compliant and who have
opted to be vaccinated.”
if heading should remain’
continued from back
between needing to teach the skills of
heading but also being constrained in
how much they can do because of the
potential dangers, which is why virtual
reality could be a solution as you can
teach the skill without the impact.
“But the important question for us is
can VR actually improve the skills of a
player in a real-world setting? That’s
what we have been testing.”
The guidance for the adult grassroots
and professional game was introduced
before the start of the season, and limits
players to a maximum of ten “higher
force” headers a week.
Dr Willie Stewart, who led the field
study that demonstrated the increased
risk of death due to neurodegenerative
disease among professional footballers,
believes repeated heading is a key
factor in this.
Stewart said football needed to make
urgent decisions around whether
heading should still be part of the game
rather than rely on the possibility of
virtual reality in training.
He told The Times: “I welcome novel
and innovative ways of restricting
heading but I believe there are more ur-
gent challenges for football to address.”
A separate university study involving
the VR headsets will look at the impact
on the brain and how it communicates
with the muscles after a real-life head-
ing session compared with a virtual one.
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021 2GM 63

Sport

Defending champions prove that Winks eyes a

loan move in
Arsenal still have a lot to learn the new year
ERIC ALONSO/GETTY IMAGES Gary Jacob
Barcelona
Caldentey 31, Putellas 42, Oshoala 47,
Martens 84
4 Harry Winks is keen to leave Totten-
ham Hotspur on loan in January to try

1
to kick-start his career.
Arsenal The England midfielder has played a
Maanum 74
total of 61 minutes in two of seven
league matches this season but started
Women’s Champions League three of four matches in the Europa
Molly Hudson Barcelona
Conference League. He chose not to
Jonas Eidevall, the Arsenal manager, push for a fresh start in the summer
had refused to be daunted by the when Tottenham were open to offers
prospect of facing Barcelona, the free- and attracted interest from Aston Villa,
scoring Champions League holders. Everton and Brighton & Hove Albion.
“It’s 11 humans against 11 humans,” he He is open to moving abroad on a
said. “In Sweden, we say ‘a shovel is a temporary deal.
shovel’ — a football game is a football The 25-year-old started only nine of
game.” 15 league matches last season and lost
Over 90 exhausting minutes in his place in the England squad in the
Spain, it was clear that Barcelona’s new year, having previously been
shovel was rather more suited to the job picked regularly by Gareth Southgate,
than Arsenal’s as they triumphed 4-1 in who said he admired his calmness.
the group stage of the Women’s Tottenham are in talks with Argenti-
Champions League. na, Brazil and Colombia over releasing
Perhaps there was no better depic- their players early from international
tion of Barcelona’s European domi- duty next week. Giovani Lo Celso and
nance than the pre-match presenta- Cristian Romero are part of the Argen-
tion. As Arsenal stood waiting for the tina squad scheduled to play Peru a
game to kick off, Nadine Kessler, the week on Friday in the last of three 2022
Uefa chief of women’s football, was World Cup qualifiers. That would be
making a host of trophy presentations. very likely to rule them out of appear-
Four Barcelona players, all of whom ing for Tottenham against Newcastle
started this match, got awards. The United two days later. Emerson Royal,
Champions League goalkeeper of the the right back, faces a similar issue as
season went to Sandra Paños; the de- Brazil play Uruguay, also a week on
fender of the season was Irene Paredes; Friday. Davinson Sánchez’s Colombia
the midfielder of the season and Uefa play Ecuador a week tomorrow.
player of the year award was Alexia Pu- The four players are fully vaccinated
tellas; and forward off the season and can return to train and play for Tot-
was Jennifer Hermoso. so. tenham during a ten-day quarantine at
As the defending ding their training ground, under new rules
champions, Barcelona na for players who travel to red-list coun-
ft
are favourites to lift Caldentey calmly scores Barcelona’s first on a sobering night for Eidevall, Arsenal’s head coach, left
Cald tries during the international break.
the trophy again, not
just because of do
dominant domes- defensive line higher, but Oshoala is A late consolation from Arsenal’s Frida Abramovich may watch
those individual ti
tically, in last one of the quickest players in the game Maanum showed Barcelona were not
stars, but also se
season’s final, and soon capitalised, narrowly beating invincible, but it was soon cancelled out Chelsea while in London
because of the way w
winning 4-0 — the offside trap to progress down the by a chip from Lieke Martens before The Chelsea owner Roman
they have been al
all four of which right, cutting back for Putellas to tap in. Putellas had a penalty saved. Abramovich has made a rare trip to
moulded together, we
were scored in the Arsenal had hoped to use half-time “I’ve learnt that we have a team that London to visit family.
as Arsenal soon ope
opening 36 min- to recover, but instead found them- never gives up,” Eidevall said. “I can do The Russian-Israeli businessman
found at the Johan n utes
utes. Arsenal man- selves three goals down only two min- things better in preparing the team to could visit Chelsea while in London, it
Cruyff Stadium. They hey aged to hold off utes into the second half as Oshoala, find solutions quicker than they did.” is understood. Abramovich had issues
posi-
knew the level of opposi- B arcelo
Barcelona until the who played for Arsenal in the 2016-17 around his entrepreneurial visa in
acing —
tion they would be facing 331st
1st minut
minute, but with 13 season, outpaced Jennifer Beattie and 2018, after which the 54-year-old has
a glance at the Primeraera Division goal attempts tto Arsenal’s zero, calmly finished. Barcelona (4-3-3): S Paños 8 — M Torrejon 8, I not been spotted in London.
Paredes 8, M Leon 8, A-M Crnogorcevic 7 (F Rolfo
hes shows Barcelo-
table after five matches it felt like only a matte
matter of time. “How close can we be to the best in 76) — A Bonmati 9, P Guijarro 8, A Putellas 9 —
His spokesperson confirmed he had
na have scored 35 goals and conceded Playing against a team like Barcelona the world?” Eidevall had asked in the C Graham Hansen 9, A Oshoala 9 (L Martens 71), travelled to London as an Israeli
only once. If onlookers presume that is requires perfection and Manuela lead-up. As it progressed, it appeared M Caldentey 9 (B Vilamala 83). Booked Paredes. citizen, therefore entering the United
down to the lack of strength in depth of Zinsberger, the Arsenal goalkeeper, fell the gap between WSL dominance and Arsenal (4-3-3): M Zinsberger 5 — N Maritz 6, L Kingdom without the need for a visa.
Williamson 6, J Beattie 6, S Catley 6 — L Walti 5 (J
the Spanish league, Chelsea can attest short of that for the opener. She spilt that of European supremacy remains Nobbs 71), K Little 6 (M Iwabuchi 79), F Maanum The Chelsea owner did attend the
to the fact that it is more a result of Asisat Oshoala’s low strike into the path sizeable. “Barcelona are up in level than 6 — B Mead 6 (T Heath 55, 6), V Miedema 5 club’s Europa League final victory in
Barcelona’s fluid attack. of Mariona Caldentey, who finished what we’ve played [against] this (C Foord 55, 5), K McCabe 5 (N Parris 55, 6). Baku in 2019 and the Champions
Booked McCabe, Mead, Foord, Parris, Nobbs.
They thrashed Chelsea, who were clinically. Arsenal tried to push their season,” Kim Little, the midfielder, said. Referee J Adamkova (Cze).
League final win in Porto in May.

Results
Wrexham (0) 1 Chesterfield (1) 1 Wigan 0; Shrewsbury 3 Wolverhampton
Liverpool duo set to miss
Football Cycling
Vanarama National League
Altrincham (0) 2 Grimsby
Mooney 65 Bapaga 27
(1) 3
Mullin 84
9,147
Yeovil
2,031
Kerr 5

(0) 0 Maidenhead (0) 0

U-21 1. Group D Bolton 4 Liverpool U-21 1;
Port Vale 1 Rochdale 0. Group E
Rotherham 4 Scunthorpe 1. Group F
Lincoln 1 Sunderland 2. Group G
Women’s Tour of Britain
Leading postions: Second stage
(Walsall, 102km): 1, A Pieters (Neth, SD
Watford after appeal fails
Accrington 5 Leicester U-21 0; Barrow 1
Moult 75 Taylor 48 Sent off: J Mingi (Maidenhead Utd) 71 Fleetwood 3. Group H Harrogate 2 Worx) 2hr 38min 3sec; 2, C Copponi (Fr,
2,882 Clifton 55 Newcastle U-21 0; Mansfield 1 Sheff Wed FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope); Liverpool have failed in an attempt to pool often fly their international
P W D L F A GDPts
Sent off: W Bapaga (Grimsby) 57
Grimsby...........10 7 2 1 24 11 13 23 2. South: Group A Gillingham 0 Ipswich 3, S Gutiérrez (Sp, Movistar); 4, A Cordon move back the kick-off time of their players back to England on private jets,
2. Group C Burton Albion 2 Aston Villa Ragot (Fr, Trek-Segafredo); 5, P Georgi
Boreham Wood (1) 2 Torquay (0) 0 Boreham Wood 10 6 3 1 15 9 6 21
U-21 4; MK Dons 2 Wycombe 1. Group D (GB, DSM); 6, E Chabbey (Switz, Canyon- match away to Watford, which would but the quick turnaround means that
Smith 42 701 Halifax 10 6 2 2 18 10 8 20
Boden 46 (pen) Dag & Red.......10 6 1 3 24 14 10 19 Northampton 1 Walsall 1 (Walsall won SRAM Racing); 7, M Boogaard (Neth, Ale have raised the possibility of playing Fabinho, 27, and Alisson, 29, would have
BTC Ljubljana) all at same time. Overall
Bromley (2) 3 Weymouth (0) 0 Chesterfield...10 5 4 1 18 10 8 19 4-2 on pens). Group E Cheltenham 2
Exeter 2 (Exeter won 3-2 on pens). 1, Copponi 6:22:34; 2, Pieters same time;
the Brazilian duo Alisson Becker and no time to prepare properly. The Liver-
Cheek 10
Bromley.............8 5 1 2 18 10 8 16
Solihull Moors 10 4 4 2 16 15 1 16 Group G Charlton 4 Southampton U-21 1; 3, Gutiérrez 6sec; 4, D Vollering (Neth, Fabinho (Paul Joyce writes). pool striker Roberto Firmino was not
Bush 45+1, Alabi 77
Woking 8 5 0 3 18 10 8 15 Crawley 0 Leyton Orient 4. Group H SD Worx) 9; 5, J Labous (Fr, DSM) 10; 6, The club’s request to the Premier included in the squad as he only recent-
Dover (0) 1 Aldershot (1) 2 Oxford Utd 1 Stevenage 2. Chabbey; 7, A Biannic (Fr, Movistar) both
Altrincham.......8 5 0 3 16 12 4 15
same time. League to switch the game from 12.30pm ly recovered from a hamstring injury.
Cosgrave 50 Willard 23 Notts Co .......... 10 4 3 3 18 15 3 15 Pitching In Northern Premier Bamber
648 Edser 74 Stockport Co...9 4 2 3 8 11 -3 14 Bridge 3 South Shields 0; Basford 0 FC to 7.45pm on Saturday, October 16 was Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool manag-
Halifax (0) 3 Notts Co (1) 2 Wrexham..........9 3 4 2 12 11 1 13 United of Manchester 1; Buxton 4 rejected after consultation with Wat- er, has previously been critical of the
Slew 79, Waters 86 Rodrigues 30
Torquay...........10 3 2 5 16 20 -4 11
Yeovil.................7 3 1 3 8 7 1 10
Whitby 1; Lancaster 0 Stafford 1; Matlock
1 Mickleover 0; Morpeth 3 Radcliffe 1;
Fixtures ford, who submitted a statement that the inflexibility of the broadcasters. BT
Warburton 90
2,023
Lacey 57 Wealdstone....10 2 4 4 9 16 -7 10 Stalybridge Celtic 5 Grantham 0; Witton match had been scheduled for that parti- Sport announced that it would show the
Sent off: T Bradbury (Halifax) 60
Eastleigh...........9 2 3 4 12 16 -4 9
Maidenhead ... 9 2 2 5 11 15 -4 8
Albion 4 Hyde 2. Football cular slot since the middle of August and game live before the Brazil-Uruguay
Pitching In Isthmian Premier Bognor
King’s Lynn (1) 1 Barnet (1) 1 Southend..........9 2 2 5 7 12 -5 8 Regis Town 3 Leatherhead 1; Enfield Uefa Nations League: Semi-final Italy v that changing the time now would in- kick-off time had been confirmed.
Clunan 22 Widdowson 4 King’s Lynn .....9 2 2 5 11 17 -6 8
Weymouth .....10 2 2 6 13 21 -8 8
Town 2 Kingstonian 0. Postponed Spain (7.45). convenience some of their supporters. Meanwhile, Liverpool are preparing
1,007 Corinthian Casuals v Margate; SPFL Trust Trophy Hamilton v The availability of both Alisson, the a first professional contract for the
Aldershot..........9 2 1 6 11 16 -5 7 Hornchurch v Worthing. Aberdeen U-21 (7.45).
Southend (0) 1 Eastleigh (0) 0
Ferguson 69 3,342
Barnet..............10 1 4 5 11 21 -10 7
Women’s Champions League: Group C Women’s Champions League: Group A goalkeeper, and Fabinho, the midfield- winger Kaide Gordon, who turned 17
*Dover..............10 0 3 7 5 20 -15 -9
Wealdstone (0) 0 Solihull Moors (0) 0 * deducted 12pts for failure to fulfil fixtures Barcelona 4 Arsenal 1. Chelsea v Wolfsburg (8.0). er, at Vicarage Road is now in serious yesterday. He was signed from Derby
1,501 Papa John’s EFL Trophy: North: Group American football Cycling doubt. They are in the Brazil squad to County for an initial £1.1 million in Feb-
Woking (1) 1 Dag & Red (0) 0 A Hartlepool 2 Morecambe 2 face Uruguay in a World Cup qualifier ruary, a fee that could rise to £3.4 mil-
(Hartlepool won 4-2 on pens). Group B NFL Women’s Tour of Britain Third stage,
Kretzschmar 30 (pen) 2,226 Salford 0 Tranmere 2. Group C Crewe 2 Los Angeles Chargers 28 Las Vegas 14 time trial (Atherstone). at 1.30am on Friday, October 15. Liver- lion depending on his progress.
64
Sport Football
Can Italy crown a golden year?
James Gheerbrant assesses the four semi-finalists vying for the Nations League title. Italy — who have had a remarkable 2021
as a country, winning the Euros, the Olympic 100m and even Eurovision — will face Spain, with Belgium taking on France
p the Euros, conceding three goals across five
Italy v Spain
(7.45pm)
italy (world ranking 5)
strengths
Although Italy blew off some cobwebs in the
World Cup qualifiers, in which they drew 1-1
with Bulgaria and 0-0 with Switzerland, they
extended their remarkable unbeaten run, which
now stands at 37 games. They are playing with
supreme confidence and clarity, and in
Jorginho, Marco Verratti and Nicolò
Barella, have probably the best midfield
in the world.
weaknesses
Spain had success in the Euro
2020 semi-final playing through
the midfield press and dropping in a forward to
occupy Jorginho. The Azzurri lack an
outstanding centre forward, and with Ciro
Immobile injured, Roberto Mancini must
choose between Domenico Berardi, Moise Kean
and Giacomo Raspadori, who have ten goals for
Italy between them.
tactical style
The players know Mancini’s 4-3-3 system inside
out. They use lots of positional rotation to drag
defenders out of position and create a front five,
with Lorenzo Insigne tucking in on the left and
the left back flying up outside him. They can
also mix it up with direct long passes, as
they did to good effect in the Euros semi-
final.
key player
Federico Chiesa. Probably Italy’s best
player in the Euros semi-final and final. A
fast, irrepressible dribbler who can run at a
retreating defence or threaten the space behind
a high line, he combines beautifully with Barella
on the right.
missing men
Leonardo Spinazzola, the buccaneering left back
who impressed at the Euros, is injured, as are
Immobile, Alessandro Florenzi, Matteo Pessina
and Andrea Belotti.
new faces
Raspadori, the 21-year-old Sassuolo striker,
scored on his full debut in the 5-0 win against
Lithuania, Italy’s last game, and has a real
chance of starting. He’s not hugely prolific, with
only seven goals in 34 Serie A games since the
start of last season, but links play well. Federico
Dimarco has emerged for Inter Milan this
season and is vying with Emerson for the left-
back spot.
spain (world ranking 8)
strengths
Spain had the best expected-goals differential —
the gap between the quality of the chances they
created and those they conceded — at the
Euros, suggesting that their underlying
performance level was very good. This is a very
structured, well-coached team under Luis
Enrique, and like Italy, they have outstanding
individual quality in midfield.
weaknesses
La Roja are still prone to periods of sterile
domination, where they monopolise possession
but pass the ball laterally and struggle to
penetrate the box. The defence is unsettled, with
doubts over who partners Aymeric Laporte;
Spain have kept only three clean sheets, against
Slovakia, Georgia and Kosovo, in their past
eight games.
tactical style
Like Mancini, Enrique favours an attacking 4-3-
3. Álvaro Morata is injured, and with no centre
forward in the squad, Enrique is certain to play
a false nine, as he did against Italy at the Euros.
Spain love to create overloads in midfield. Out
of possession, they were by far the most intense
pressing team at the Euros, allowing only 8.1
passes per defensive action.
key player
With Morata and Dani Olmo both injured, the
emphasis falls on Ferran Torres, who seems
likely to play up front, as he has done for
Dani Olmo 23
Caps: 16 Goals: 3
Spain, midfielder
Paul Pogba 28
Caps: 87 Goals: 11
France, midfielder
Federico Chiesa 23
Caps: 33 Goals: 4
Italy, forward
Romelu Lukaku 28
Caps: 100 Goals: 67
Belgium, forward
Manchester City this season. He hasn’t quite
caught fire yet for City, but he has been very
good for Spain, with nine goals in 14 games. Belgium v France
missing men (Tomorrow, 7.45pm)
As well as Morata and Olmo, the brilliant
Barcelona pair of Jordi Alba and Pedri, two key
parts of Spain’s creative machinery on the left belgium (world ranking 1)
side, are both injured, as are José Gayà, who strengths
would ordinarily be Alba’s deputy, Thiago Belgium have been the world’s No 1-ranked team
Alcântara and Marcos Llorente. Adama Traoré for the past three years. They are an ultra-
has been dropped. experienced, battle-hardened outfit, with a
new faces world-class goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, and
Villarreal’s 18-year-old winger, Yéremi Pino, who playmaker, Kevin De Bruyne. Romelu Lukaku is
was superb in the Europa League final against simply a phenomenon at this level: he has
Manchester United and already has three assists scored 62 goals in his past 73 internationals and
in La Liga this season, could start on the right. 44 in his past 40
Gavi, the 17-year-old who has been filling in for weaknesses
Pedri at Barcelona, is an option in midfield. Central defence, for years the bedrock of this
Tottenham Hotspur’s Bryan Gil, and the team, has become its Achilles’ heel. Jan
Sporting Lisbon right back Pedro Porro, who Vertonghen is 34, Toby Alderweireld plays in
is on loan from Manchester City, are also in Qatar, and Jason Denayer is in and out of the
the squad. team at Lyons. The defence just about held at
Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times
games, but was besieged for periods against
Denmark, Portugal and Italy.
tactical style.
Roberto Martínez hasn’t wavered from his 3-4-
2-1 system since the 2018 World Cup. The
wing backs play high and have a big role in
attack, combining with the inside forwards to
create wide overloads and deliver cut-backs.
The defensive line tends to play quite deep, to
compensate for their lack of pace.
key player
Lukaku. His extraordinary goalscoring record
speaks for itself, but his value to the team
also lies in his ability to pin centre backs,
pull defences out of shape and create space
between the lines for the likes of De Bruyne.
missing men
Jérémy Doku, the 19-year-old Rennes winger
who was superb in the Euros quarter-final
against Italy, is injured. Martínez seems to have
moved on from Thomas Vermaelen and
Christian Benteke.
new faces
The 22-year-old wide man Alexis
Saelemaekers has been a key
player in AC Milan’s excellent
start to the season: he may
start at right wing-back
ahead of Thomas
Meunier. The attacking
midfielder Hans
Vanaken and striker
Charles De Ketelaere
have shone in Club
B
Bruges’s impressive
Champions League campaign.
france (world ranking 4)
strengths
France have an outstanding goalkeeper in Hugo
Lloris and a seasoned defensive unit, led by
Raphaël Varane, which is capable of containing
elite attacks. They have world-class expressive
players in midfield and attack and when they
click, they can be devastating. Theirs is not a
complicated formula, but it can be very
effective.
weaknesses
Of all the contenders, France are in the weakest
form, having drawn five of their past six
matches, against Hungary, Portugal and
Switzerland in the Euros, and Bosnia-
Herzegovina and Ukraine in World Cup
qualifying. They have elite individual quality in
almost every position, but under Didier
Deschamps, often lack tactical cohesion and
structure in build-up play.
tactical style
Unlike the other semi-finalists, France’s system
is in flux. In recent games, they’ve used a 4-3-3,
4-4-2 diamond and 3-4-1-2. They are not an
active pressing team, defending instead in a
compact block and looking to spring Kylian
Mbappé on the counter
key player
Pogba. France are at their best in transition,
when Mbappé can run at a disorganised defence
and Pogba can find him in space with his
sublime range of passing. The Manchester
United midfielder was France’s best player at the
Euros and has picked up where he left off, with
seven assists already this Premier League
season.
missing men
Clément Lenglet, Moussa Sissoko and Olivier
Giroud have been dropped from the squad
that went to the Euro 2020 finals, N’Golo
Kanté is in Covid isolation, Corentin Tolisso
and Marcus Thuram are injured, and
Kingsley Coman is recovering from a heart
operation
new faces
Theo Hernández has been superb for AC Milan
over the past 18 months and could displace his
older brother, Lucas, at left back. The former
Premier League players Jordan Veretout and
Mattéo Guendouzi are midfield options, along
with the Monaco standout Aurélien
Tchouaméni, while Bayer Leverkusen’s Moussa
Diaby is in line for a third cap.
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
England find
another star
at right back
Tino Livramento, 18,
has been a revelation
and aims to give Gareth
Southgate yet more
choice, says Tom Roddy
Valentino Livramento climbed to his
feet, brushed the mud from his knees
and turned to Stamford Bridge’s West
Stand to seek out two special support-
ers. For ten years the teenager had
hoped for this moment as an ambitious
member of Chelsea’s academy from the
age of seven and a season ticket holder
alongside Louis Sr and Louis Jr, his
father and brother, who watched on as
the dream played out in an unexpected
way.
Less than two months after deciding
to leave Chelsea, Livramento returned
in the colours of Southampton on Sat-
urday having unexpectedly emerged in
the opening weeks of the season as one
of the Premier League’s most impress-
ive performers. A marauding right back
for England Under-21s — yes, another
one, Gareth — the 18-year-old darted
down the wing, dropped a shoulder past
Ben Chilwell and earned the penalty at
the Shed End with which Southampton
equalised. In the end Chelsea won 3-1.
“I was at Chelsea for so long, grew up
a fan and never played at Stamford
Bridge in a competitive game,” Livra-
mento says ruefully. “It was a bit weird
but I just enjoyed it that bit more play-
ing against Chelsea and people I have
trained against . . . When I won the
penalty I tried to find my dad and
brother but I couldn’t see them.”
Livramento can certainly be seen
now. So unexpected was the decision by
Ralph Hasenhüttl, his manager, to give
him his debut at Everton a week after
signing that Louis Sr was instead at
Stamford Bridge watching Chelsea
beat Crystal Palace. Since then he has
not missed a match. “He’s gone to
Kane primed to break Rooney’s record Ward-Prowse gets call-up
Paul Joyce
Harry Kane may not have got his move
to Manchester City but on Saturday he
could get another chance to prove that
his career will be defined by milestones
if not, as yet, medals.
A game away to Andorra, on an
artificial pitch at the tiny Estadi
Nacional come the start of October,
would not have merited a second
thought when he was scanning the
season’s fixtures in the summer.
But in these rather inglorious
surroundings, history beckons for
the England captain.
To date, 36 of Kane’s 41
England goals have been
scored in competitive inter-
nationals. It is a remark-
able record that high-
lights his ability to shine
when it really matters.
In England’s history, only
Wayne Rooney (37) has scored
more goals in competitive
games. Kane’s goals in such
Depth of talent in position
Player Age Caps
Kyle Walker (Man City) 31 63
Trent Alexander-Arnold
(Liverpool) 22 14
Reece James (Chelsea) 21 8
Kieran Trippier
(Atletico Madrid) 31 34
Aaron Wan-Bissaka
(Man Utd) 23 0
Max Aarons (Norwich) 21 0
Tariq Lamptey
(Brighton) 20 0
James Justin (Leicester) 23 0
Tino Livramento
(Southampton) 18 0
* All players capped at England
Under-21 level
St James’ Park, the Etihad, and I’m sure
he’ll carry on going to the games all
season. It’s kind of that surreal moment
of playing there and coming back down
to Earth and seeing your dad after.
That’s what keeps you level-headed.
“I thought I would come on in a few
cup games as a late substitute when
we’re winning or whatever, but he’s just
thrown me in and I think it has been a
good test for me.
“When you’ve been dreaming of it
since a little boy, when it actually
happens you just want to take the
opportunity with both hands and that’s
what I like to think I’ve done.”
Livramento is sitting at a table full
of coffee cups in the futsal hall at
St George’s Park after his performances
led to a second England Under-21 call-
up to play in Slovenia tomorrow and
Andorra on Monday as part of the Euro
2023 qualifiers. His eyes widen and he
shakes his head as he attempts to
explain what his experience has been
like. “It’s crazy the way they chant my
name,” he says.
To understand how low Livramento’s
expectations were, we must rewind to
Most competitive goals*
Wayne Rooney (74 games)
37
Harry Kane (53)
36
Steve Bloomer (23)
28
Bobby Charlton (55) * for
27 England
Michael Owen (53) Source:
26 Opta
internationals have come at a rate of
one every 118 minutes; Rooney
scored once every 154 minutes.
Tammy Abraham may have
been rewarded for his eye-
catching form at Roma with a
belated call-up and Aston
Villa’s Ollie Watkins is back in
the squad, but a usurping of
the old guard is not immi-
nent — even if Kane is yet
to score a Premier
Kane has not scored in
the league this season
Livramento has been called up for England Under-21 after starring for Southampton, including winning a penalty at Chelsea
the first week of August, when South-
ampton had beaten Brighton & Hove
Albion to his signing. Chelsea had
reluctantly let go of another excellent
young talent, earning £5 million for the
transfer in a deal that has a £40 million
buy-back clause.
Hasenhüttl was at the training
ground to greet him. “Being 18 and
meaning that much that he came down
and saw me that day, it was like, ‘He
really does want me here,’ ” Livramento
says. “I went in to meet the boys the
League goal for Tottenham Hotspur
this season.
Gareth Southgate often has to field
questions about Kane’s state of mind or
his career choices. His answer seldom
wavers. Southgate smiles and says he
wishes all the problems he encounters
in this job were like his captain.
“Every couple of months I sit here
and have to answer similar questions
and then Harry goes out and scores a
load of goals for us,” the England
manager said last week. “Last month
we had three games, he played in all
three and scored a goal in each. He
continues to be such a critical part of
what we do.”
Kane, 28, is a hat-trick away from
matching Jimmy Greaves’ tally of 44
goals. That would move him into joint-
fourth in the list of England’s leading
scorers in all matches, with only Gary
Lineker (48), Sir Bobby Charlton (49)
and Rooney (53) ahead of him. Use the
measurement of competitive goals,
however, and soon enough Kane will be
staring down rather than up.
next day and it is a really nice family
environment where I know I can grow
and develop.”
It would take an extraordinary
growth spurt to be part of Gareth
Southgate’s seniors, due to the remark-
able number of right backs available —
even despite four being selected for the
European Championship squad in the
summer. Livramento has options, how-
ever. He was a winger and striker for
Roundshaw, the Sunday league team
where he grew up in Croydon, and he
to replace injured Phillips
Paul Joyce
Kalvin Phillips has become the latest
withdrawal from Gareth Southgate’s
England squad and has been replaced
by the Southampton captain James
Ward-Prowse.
The absence of the Leeds United
midfielder, who has a calf injury, means
that England must veer away from
what has become their tried-and-trust-
ed formula for the World Cup qualifiers
against Andorra and Hungary.
Southgate has pinned his faith on the
midfield axis of Phillips, 25, and Declan
Rice for the majority of the past 12
months, and while it is unlikely that the
duo would have faced Andorra on
Saturday, it is likely that they would
have been reunited for the visit of
Hungary to Wembley next Tuesday.
Jordan Henderson, the Liverpool
captain, should benefit from the
absence of Phillips, although the return
65
Sport
JAVIER GARCIA/REX
Slovenia U21
v England U21
Tomorrow, 7.15pm
Uefa U21 Championship
qualifying
TV: Sky Sports Premier
League
also qualifies to play for Portugal and
Scotland. Perhaps an indication as to
why Livramento has had such success
lies in his answer to the suggestion that
versatility could be beneficial in such a
congested position. “Yeah, definitely,”
he replies, “but you’ve always got to
back yourself. The quality at right back
that England have at the moment is just
ridiculous. They all complement each
other so well.” Where does he want to
play, then? “Anywhere that I’m on the
pitch,” he says.
of Ward-Prowse, 26, comes after he
failed to make the cut for the European
Championship finals in the summer.
Ward-Prowse was on standby for the
tournament but Southgate picked the
Arsenal centre back Ben White instead.
England reported to St George’s Park
yesterday where Rice, Ollie Watkins,
Bukayo Saka and Luke Shaw all missed
training but should be involved today.
They will fly to Andorra tomorrow for
a game in which Southgate is likely to
give chances to a number of squad
members who do not play regularly.
Training on Friday will take place on
the artificial pitch at the Estadi Nacion-
al, a surface that has been heavily criti-
cised in the past. Gareth Bale described
it as the worst he had played on when
winning there with Wales in 2014, add-
ing: “I can’t describe how bad, bobbly
and hard the pitch was.” England
Under-21 drew 3-3 with Andorra at the
venue in October last year.
66 2GM V2 Wednesday October 6 2021 | the times

Sport Tennis

Calm Raducanu in no hurry to

US Open champion will
‘wait to find the right
person’ as she returns to
action in Indian Wells,
writes Stuart Fraser
Emma Raducanu has insisted that she
would be comfortable without a full-
time coach in her corner for the
remainder of this season as she
prepares to play her first match as a
grand-slam champion at the Indian
Wells Open this week.
The 18-year-old is being assisted on a
temporary basis in the Californian
desert by Jeremy Bates, the former
British No 1, who is the national
women’s coach for the LTA. But it is
unlikely this arrangement will cover
the full duration of the tournament if
Raducanu goes deep because Bates has
other commitments as the main coach
of the British No 5, Katie Boulter.
Raducanu and her management
company, IMG, have been keeping an
eye out for potential replacements for
Andrew Richardson, who helped
Raducanu to an astonishing victory at
the US Open last month before being
Bates, the former
British No 1, is
helping Raducanu
in Indian Wells
tour outside the four grand slams,
with most of the top male and
female players in attendance.
“I am very excited to be here,”
Raducanu said. “It’s a beautiful place Raducanu, the
and I just can’t wait to get started, I
love the facilities. Everything is just
first qualifier to
win a grand
so nice to be around and I am looking
forward to playing.
slam, hugs the
US Open trophy
“I think people [her fellow players]
have been nice, as always, to be
honest, I haven’t really spent too
much time hanging around. I’ve just
been training, going about my
business and then leaving.”
Raducanu appeared a little jet-
lagged during her pre-tournament
press conference yesterday, which is
understandable considering that she is
in a time zone eight hours behind the
United Kingdom. While she took a rest
from competition after her run to the
title at Flushing Meadows 3½ weeks
ago, she has been busy off the court,
attending events such as the Met Gala
in New York and the world premiere
of the new James Bond film in London.
“It’s been a very cool three weeks,”
Raducanu said. “I got to experience
some great things that I probably never
would have got to do before.
“When I was at home I didn’t go to a
restaurant or anything. I was just at
home with my family. I got some really
cool invitations. It felt nice to receive
the support, everyone’s kind messages
and kind words, but I didn’t really get
too caught up in it. I just focused on my
tennis and my training.”

Emma’s three weeks

let go because he was deemed not to
have enough tour-level experience.
Darren Cahill, the prominent Austra-
lian coach who split with Simona Halep
last month, is one available option, but
Raducanu is content to remain patient.
“Jeremy is part of women’s tennis at
the LTA, so while he’s here he’s helping
me out,” Raducanu said. “But going
forward, I’m just going to wait and try to
find the right person. I’m not going to
rush into anything. I want to make sure
that I make the right decision.
“At the moment I’m confident that
even though I’m quite young, I’ve got a
lot of experience banked. At the end of
the day you’re out there on your own
and you have to be your own coach on
the court. I’m pretty comfortable but
I’m just looking for the general things in
a coach really — someone that you get
along with well and someone who can
push you.”
This is the first time that Raducanu
has travelled to Indian Wells, and so far
she has been revelling in the lush
surroundings. The small city in the
Coachella Valley hosts arguably the
most prestigious tournament on the
Life has very much changed for
Raducanu, but she prefers not to dwell
on it for too long. The savvy teenager is
aware that others before her have
struggled to handle being suddenly
thrust into the spotlight.
of glitz and glamour
“I don’t really want to change
anything,” Raducanu said. “What has September 11 Raducanu New York, known as the
got me to this point is not thinking wins the US Open final Oscars of fashion, in a
anything differently. If I put additional 6-4 6-3 against Canada’s black-and-white Chanel
thoughts in my head, then that will Leylah Fernandez, dress.
create a problem. I am just going to keep becoming the first Sept 15 The US Open
going on about my business and staying qualifier to win a grand- champion visits the New
the same.” slam title. York Stock Exchange,
This week Raducanu has focused on Sept 13 The 18-year-old which she describes as
adjusting to the challenging conditions gives an interview to “one of the places on my
in the desert. Since she started Good Morning America bucket list”, having
practising on site last weekend, on ABC in which she studied economics at
temperatures have regularly exceeded credits her “very hard to A-level.
30C with little humidity in the air. Her please” parents with her Sept 16 Raducanu arrives
first match on Friday or Saturday is triumph in New York. back in Bromley,
likely to make for a stiff test of her She posts a video on her southeast London, and
fitness. Instagram account smiles for pictures outside
“The air is very dry so it’s going to be showing her in front of her home with her father,
tough physically and it’s quite hot at the her own Nike billboard, Ian.
moment,” Raducanu said. “The courts accompanied by the Sept 17 The teenager gives
are slower and high-bouncing, so caption “never thought I her first interview since
there’s probably going to be long rallies. would see this… coolest returning home from New
I’m sure it’s going to be physical in all of thing”. York. She tells BBC
the matches, so it’s just a matter of Raducanu attends the Breakfast that her parents
trying to get in as best shape as possible star-studded Met Gala in will look after her
and keep fit and healthy.”
CLIVE BRUNSKILL/GETTY IMAGES

. . . and now it’s back to day

job for US Open champion
Stuart Fraser, Tennis Correspondent
Back to action in Indian Wells
Emma Raducanu has been given a
relatively kind opener in Indian Wells
this week as she returns to action less
than a month after her stunning US
Open triumph. As the No 17 seed she has
a first-round bye and will then take on
the winner of the match between María
Camila Osorio Serrano, the world No 71
from Colombia, and Aliaksandra Sas-
The teenager says “it’s been a very cool three weeks” since triumphing in New York novich, the world No 100 from Belarus.
Beyond this, her route through the draw
potentially contains some tricky
obstacles. The grand-slam champions
Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova are
possible opponents in the third and
fourth round respectively, while a first
ever match against a top-ten player
could follow in the quarter-finals
against Elina Svitolina, the world No 7.
Inexperience on the WTA Tour
Given that she is the US Open
champion, it is easy to forget how little
experience Raducanu has on the
regular WTA Tour, outside of the grand
slams. She has never even won a set at
this level, losing her only two previous
matches in straight sets, to her fellow
Briton Harriet Dart at the Nottingham
Open in June and to China’s Zhang
Shuai at the Silicon Valley Classic in
August. She adjusted well to the daily
grind of the professional circuit during
her trip to the United States in August,
winning eight of ten matches on the
lower tiers in the build-up to the US
the times | Wednesday October 6 2021
appoint new coach Whyte is losing
The 18-year-old
wore a black-and-
white Chanel dress
to Met Gala, ‘the
Oscars of fashion’
Open, but she is still a relative newbie in
the WTA locker room. The difference
compared with most other players her
age is that she already has a consider-
able target on her back.
A busy schedule
After a break of almost four weeks from
competition, Raducanu has lined up a
hectic finish to the season. Once she is
finished in Indian Wells, she will head
to Europe for three tournaments on
the indoor hard courts. First is the
Kremlin Cup in Moscow from October
18, before a trip to Romania, the
homeland of her father, Ian, for the
Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca
from October 25. She then finishes her
season on the WTA Tour at the Linz
Open in Austria from November 6,
although there will be a chance for
British supporters to see her in action
during an exhibition match at the
2GM V2 67
Sport
MIKE COPPOLA/GETTY IMAGES
hope of shot at
‘con artist’ Fury
Boxing
Ron Lewis
Dillian Whyte is paying less attention
to proceedings in Las Vegas this week
than most would expect. Whyte should
be next in line for the winner of the
third fight between Tyson Fury and
Deontay Wilder but he has spent so
long waiting he is not expecting either
boxer to do the right thing willingly.
Fury defends the WBC heavyweight
title that he won from Wilder 20
months ago on Saturday. As interim
WBC champion, Whyte should expect
to get the winner, particularly as Olek-
sandr Usyk’s win over Anthony Joshua
11 days ago has removed the possibility
of a fight for the undisputed title for the
Raducanu, foreseeable future.
with her father, But Whyte is in Portugal, training for
Ian, after his own bout against Otto Wallin at the
arriving back O2 arena, London, on October 30. Fury defends his WBC heavyweight
in the UK Having been made to hang around for title against Wilder on Sunday morning
his opportunity by both Fury and
Wilder, putting his own career on hold 2019, when Fury was cut so badly he re-
on a promise is not something he has quired 47 stitches.
ever been prepared to do. He has also been sounding confident
“They are both clowns, I have no idea of beating Whyte, something that has
who is going to win,” Whyte said. “I got Whyte’s juices flowing.
need to keep busy, because if I was going “He is the best guy out there, he is
£1.8 million prize money splits from her coach to wait for my shot, I’d have already saying the right things and has a good
and reveals that she was Andrew Richardson, been waiting three years. I have to have attitude,” Whyte said. “He’s not saying
welcomed with dumplings saying, “what I need is fights where I can get better, so in case he is coming for a good fight, he is say-
made by her mother, someone that’s had that a title fight comes along, I will be ready. ing he is going to take me to school and
Renee. professional tour It’s just taking a long time. knock me out. It’s a long time since I
Sept 20 Raducanu is experience, who has been “Tyson Fury says he will fight me in had that kind of energy in a fight. My
named a brand through it and seen December, so maybe I will get my shot last two have been business fights,
ambassador or of players in my in December. That’s what he said. But workmanlike, there wasn’t any needle.
luxury situation.
situation.” we all know the Gypsy Kid says a lot of It is good to feel like that again.”
jewellery Sept 28 The things but doesn’t do a lot of things.” Should he ever get his chance at Fury,
brand 18-ye
18-year-old Whyte, 33, spent more than 1,000 Whyte will have no worries about being
Tiffany & atte
attends the days as the WBC’s No 1 contender, a motivated. But he doesn’t believe such a
Co. In a pre
premiere position that should have earned him a task would be beyond him, even if he
post on of No world-title shot. After originally being would be regarded as a big outsider.
Instagr- T
Time To told he would get that shot at Wilder, “Tyson Fury talks like he is a ruthless
am she D the
Die, when the belt passed to Fury last year, killer,” Whyte said. “He talks like he is
says it la
latest he found himself shuffled down the Earnie Shavers, Mike Tyson, George
was an Ja
James pecking order as talk of a Fury-Joshua Foreman, but he’s not. Fury is just like a
“honour”” Bo
Bond film, fight topped most wish lists. fluffer. He just talks a lot. He’s bigger
to have Raducanu’s opening in LLondon Fury knows who Whyte is. The pair than everyone else, he finds a way to get
worn thee Indian Wells match is alon
along with a have exchanged insults on social media the job done and you have to respect
company’sy’s on Friday or Saturday h ost of
host and it was after one such tirade that Fu- that. It might not be the best way, but he
nce
pieces since celebriti
celebrities. ry dismissively talked of having a come- finds a way to get it done.
ory.
her victory. October 3 Radu
Oct Raducanu home fight against Whyte this Decem- “But he just fiddles his way through
Sept 24 Raducanu plays posts
sts an image on social ber, claiming it would be an easy fight. fights. Does Tyson Fury’s style excite
tennis with the Duchess media of her on a practice “He just talks shit,” Whyte said. you? His style is not exciting. OK, he
of Cambridge at a court saying, “hey from “That’s why I call him the Gypsy Kid. knocked out Deontay Wilder last time,
homecoming event at the the desert!” from Indian He’s like a kid. He has won every belt, but before that he just fiddled his way
National Tennis Centre in Wells — her first but has never defended one, why is this? through. He tried to do the same against
Roehampton, London. tournament since winning You strive to be the best in the world, Wallin and that’s why he got cut.
Later that day Raducanu the US Open. you beat Wladimir Klitschko and then “I don’t pretend to be the best fighter,
you throw your life down the drain. the strongest or the quickest, I just try
“Why would he give up the British my best. A lot of people think I am just
Champions Tennis event at the Royal Should we expect more success? title and not fight David Price? Tyson a brawler but I like to look at the bigger
Albert Hall on November 28. It can be challenging for new grand- Fury always runs from dangerous chal- picture. I’m trying to be a different
slam champions to return to action lenges. If he thinks he can beat you and fighter, you have to improve and adapt.”
Bidding for the WTA Finals after the emotional highs and time- he gets in your psyche like with Wilder, Fury-Joshua didn’t happen after an
The Linz Open may be removed from consuming commitments, but a look at he will take that. Does he 100 per cent American judge ordered Fury to face
her schedule if Raducanu plays well the record books shows that major- believe he can beat me and Joshua? No. Wilder instead, but Whyte blames Fury
enough over the coming weeks to qual- winning teenagers tend to carry “He’s got better feet than me and he is for leading people on.
ify for the WTA Finals in Guadalajara, forward the momentum. Martina a bit bigger than me. I have spent time “How could he abuse the fans like
Mexico, from November 10. She Hingis is one prime example, going on with Tyson Fury, we have sparred that?” he said. “Get everyone’s expecta-
presently stands at No 15 in the race, a 27-match winning streak after before, many times. Tyson Fury is a tion up, ‘It’s on, I’m going to smash
from which the top eight players will claiming her first grand-slam title, aged con artist. I call him Houdini, he Joshua up, I’m going to do this
secure a place at the season-ending 16, at the 1997 Australian Open. This will do a disappearing act. and do that,’ and then when
event. With several tournaments still to does not necessarily translate to “He said he will fight me Fury v it is time to sign he goes
be held, there are many mathematical immediate domination at the majors, two or three times, then missing. He must have
permutations, but in simple terms she is with Serena Williams taking more than he pulls out. And he’ll Wilder known the mediation
likely to need to win at least one more 2½ years to win her second title, at the pull out in December as Sunday (BST), Las Vegas was going on. It’s about
title to have a chance. It is possible that 2002 French Open, after triumphing at well. Guaranteed.” TV: BT Sport Box Office, time they start doing
the No 10 position may be enough the 1999 US Open. However, here is a Wallin is an interest- ringwalk expected at right by me. I’m not
because it is not certain that Ashleigh statistic that bodes well: Raducanu is ing choice of opponent 4.30am BST (£24.95) waiting any longer.
Barty and Naomi Osaka will take the eighth-youngest female grand- with a Fury fight on the Radio: talkSPORT They have to start think-
up their spots. Both have withdrawn slam champion in the open era; all possibly distant horizon. ing, ‘We have to give this
from Indian Wells and are on a break seven ahead of her went on to claim The 30-year-old Swede al- guy a title fight,’ or this issue
from the tour. multiple majors. most upset Fury in September is going to have to get forced.”

Sport
2GM
Ashes tour
likely to get
green light
Root ready to lead ‘strong’ squad to Australia
Elizabeth Ammon
The Ashes series down under is expect-
ed to be given the go-ahead tomorrow
by the ECB after Cricket Australia gave
assurances that the England players’
families would not be put under strict
quarantine conditions.
The families, whether those arriving
at the start of the tour in Brisbane or
later in a resort in upstate Victoria, in
the Yarra Valley, will not be confined to
their rooms for the 14-day isolation
period. CA had initially refused to guar-
antee exemption from a hard quaran-
tine period, which had cast doubt on the
likelihood of the tour going ahead.
When CA then gave an online brief-
ing to the England players reassuring
them that their families would be able
to move freely around their hotel
resort, many of the players, including
captain Joe Root were sufficiently
encouraged to commit to going on tour.
An ECB statement on Monday indi-
cated that it would not give the green
light for the tour to go ahead if a num-
ber of key individuals pulled out. It is
now understood that enough of the
first-choice squad will now accept the
conditions for the tour for the England
management team to feel comfortable
about the strength of the squad.
There are still some outstanding
issues relating to the strictness of the
biosecure bubbles in the event of any
nearby Covid outbreaks. CA has also
not been able to give all the assurances
the players asked for because it relies on
Times Crossword 28,101
1 2 3 4
9 10
11 12
13
16
17 18
21 22 23
25 26
27
decisions taken by state governments
and is therefore out of its hands.
The final decision will be taken by the
ECB’s board of directors tomorrow but
provided that it gives the green light, a
squad of about 30 players, which will
include a main squad and a back-up
Lions squad, will be named at the end of
the week.
England will be without Ben Stokes
who is taking a break from the game for
mental health reasons and Jofra Archer
who has not yet recovered from elbow
surgery earlier in the year.
The only fit player who is thought
unlikely to be part of the squad is Jos
Buttler, who is still weighing up whe-
ther to travel to Australia having ex-
pressed reservations about being apart
from his family for the 3½-month tour.
The positive news from the ECB
came after Ian Botham accused
England’s players of hiding behind
Covid restrictions because they “don’t
fancy the ultimate test” of contesting
an Ashes series in Australia.
The former England all-rounder said
that if he had been in the players’ posi-
tion he would have had his bags packed
already for this winter’s trip down
under.
Lord Botham, 65, who was recently
appointed as the government’s trade
envoy to Australia, said that he was sick
of talk of the tour being postponed or
cancelled and urged the England
players to get on the plane.
“It’s the ultimate test and — I don’t
Continued on page 61
5 6 7 8
14 15
19
20
24
28
Wednesday October 6 2021 | the
t times
Raducanu’s next step
US champion eager to play but
in no hurry to appoint coach
Pages 66-67
CARL RECINE/ACTION IMAGES/REUTERS
United lagging
on jab numbers
Matt Lawton, Martyn Ziegler
Manchester United are among the
Premier League clubs still trying to
persuade a number of their players to
get vaccinated against Covid-19.
It emerged last week that only at
seven of the 20 top-flight clubs had
more than 50 per cent of the players
received vaccinations.
Old Trafford insiders insist they are
not among one or two “outliers” who
have convinced only 20 per cent of their
squad to have the jabs, but The Times
understands that they are part of a
significant group still some way off
matching the likes of Liverpool and
Leeds United at close to 100 per cent.
As the biggest, most influential club
in the country — and among the most
powerful brands in the global game —
this is seen as problematic in Premier
League circles. Indeed rival clubs have
Continued on page 62
Virtual reality
heading plan
Martyn Ziegler Chief Sports Reporter
A university study could lead to foot-
ballers being able to practise heading in
training using virtual reality goggles,
which would potentially reduce their
risk of developing dementia.
Researchers at Manchester Metro-
politan University are trialling a system
to see if it can be used as a substitute for
actual heading during training.
Guidance restricting the frequency
of heading in training is now in place at
all levels of the game in England after
research found that professional foot-
ballers are 3½ times more at risk of
developing dementia compared with
the general population.
Dr Greg Wood, a senior lecturer in
sport and exercise psychology at the
university’s Institute of Sport, said: “At
Manchester City team-mates Jack Grealish, left, and Phil Foden enjoy a lighter the moment, coaches are caught
moment during England training yesterday. England find new right back, page 65 Continued on page 62
across down Yesterday’s solution 28,100
1 Came across old shot of just the top 1 Fail to include a line in service A CC OMP L I S H ME N T
D O O A I A E U
of a face (7) book (6) U N F A I L I NG EG G ON
5 Funny reason one can’t get into the 2 Adornments for horse carriage has L F S D N L L D
theatre for audition? (7) swine pinching some number (9) T R E A T B R A S S I E R E
E R A L T C R
9 Racer frantic in sailing dinghy for 3 Excuse pressure concerning words D I S GR A C E B R E T ON
bird repellent (9) used for speech (7) U E K B O O
10 Cleaner beginning to move 4 Australian bird dog walked off with C A S U A L F L A MB E A U
A C L T U N R
ornament (5) in piece of cloth (9) T UR P I T UD E T U T S I
11 More than enough length in inside 5 Flyer exercises intelligence (5) I E S S F H R S
of camper (5) 6 Old needing to bend when O V E R T S P I K E RU S H
12 Rank hat as being something that accepting seat mostly (7) N C I L S T S E
CH I C K E NH E A R T E D
may be made out of this? (9) 7 Female with whip showing off (5)
Check today’s answers by ringing 0905 757
13 Get corn nicely developed in 8 Complained about me interrupting 0141 by midnight. Calls cost £1 per minute
process vital for growth (8,5) dental working (8) plus your telephone company’s network
17 Bussing company nearly 14 Arab in English golf and athletic access charge. SP: Spoke 0333 202 3390.
employing one from another club is conceited individual (9)
branch that’s close (7,6) 15 Like melodious chorus of Newspapers
21 Burning lust in partially vacated Cambridge that is welcoming
part of eastern Europe (9) learner (9) support recycling
The recycled paper content of
24 Mother’s put in limitless cumin for 16 Leaping to pass over computer UK newspapers in 2020 was 67%
flavour (5) query? (8)
25 American article on where Queen 18 Big and obvious statement of
Victoria died (5) identity with Poles — European (7)
26 Remove liquid from one local dairy 19 Statuary: it ain’t oddly, depicting
farm’s Jersey, perhaps (9) reptile (7)
27 Practice of firing in large plant 20 Soldiers watching decide on film
losing a year (7) (6)
28 Plan musical performance with 22 Argue over a name for member of
piano for queen (7) the rose family (5)
23 Boleyn, Henry’s second to go,
treated not in this way! (5)
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