daily newspaper of the year
Monday February 19 2024 | thetimes.co.uk | No 74335
Diary of Prince Harry,
aged 39½
Thousands of foreign care workers ‘are breaking UK visa rules’
Matt Dathan
A quarter of foreign care workers are
breaking UK visa rules by working
illegally in other industries, the chief
inspector of borders and immigration
has said.
David Neal has revealed findings
from his inspection of the Home
Office’s handling of the social care visa
Star trio Emily Blunt, Emma Stone and Margot Robbie at the Baftas ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall in London last night. Stone was named best actress.
Schools will get greater
powers to ban mobiles
Teachers allowed to search pupils’ bags for phones under new guidelines
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor
Mobile phones will be banned in
schools across England under guidance
issued to head teachers today in an
attempt to minimise disruption and
improve behaviour in classrooms.
The nationwide rules will give
backing to teachers in prohibiting the
use of mobile phones throughout the
school day, including at break times.
Pupils who breach the ban face
detention as well as having their
route since it was introduced two
years ago to help to plug chronic labour
shortages in the industry. He found that
the Home Office had issued 275 visas to
a care home that did not exist and 1,234
to a company that stated it had only four
staff when given a licence to operate.
These two examples had led to more
than 1,500 migrants being allowed to
move to Britain under the guise of
phones confiscated for as long as the
head teacher deems necessary.
The guidance also gives teachers the
power to search rucksacks and the legal
protection from being sued by parents
for loss or damage to confiscated devices.
The rules, for primary and secondary
schools, come days after an intervention
by the mother of Brianna Ghey, who
called for her daughter’s murder to be a
“tipping point” in fixing “the mess” of
the internet and social media.
Schools are offered four different
£2.80 £2.00 to subscribers
As imagined
by Hilary Rose
having a job in the social care sector.
Neal submitted his report this month
but it is one of 13 reports that he has
compiled in the past year that remain un-
published by the Home Office. The
department can decide when to publish
his reports.
Neal, who was appointed in 2021, will
leave his role on March 21 after his re-
appointment was blocked by Downing
policies to enforce the guidance, which
is published nearly three years after
ministers first promised a phone ban.
The most “straightforward” option is
a total ban on phones on school
grounds, with pupils told to leave them
at home or with parents. This policy
provides “a very simple boundary” that
means pupils could be punished if a
phone were found on school property.
A second option would require pupils
to hand in their devices to school staff
on arrival and collect them at the end of
INSIDE
TIMES2
Street, a decision that breaks with con-
vention after his predecessors were all
given two three-year terms.
Home Office sources said that his
successor would not be appointed for
between six and nine months, meaning
that the department will have no inde-
pendent oversight of its implementa-
tion of the Rwanda scheme.
Rishi Sunak has said he is aiming to
the school day. Lockers that cannot be
accessed until the end of the school day
have also been offered to allow children
to store phones while in lessons. A
fourth, more liberal, policy would put
trust in pupils by allowing them to keep
hold of their phones but only on the
“strict condition that they are never
used, seen or heard”. Consequences for
breaching this policy would need
to be “sufficient to act as an effective
deterrent”, the guidance states, and it is
(based on a 7 Day Print and Digital Subscription)
Deluded
England
humiliated
by India
Mike Atherton, page 54
start flights this spring after his Rwanda
bill has passed its remaining stages in
parliament, which is expected by
March 26, five days after Neal leaves.
Neal said: “It’s scandalous that such a
critical position at a time of such
importance for the country is being left
vacant, while the government is
expected to implement one of the most
Google chief:
AI fakes pose
serious threat
to democracy
Oliver Moody Munich
An explosion of artificial intelligence-
powered “deepfakes” and other dis-
information poses a “very serious”
threat to democracy in a momentous
year of global elections, one of Google’s
senior executives has warned.
Alongside Amazon, Twitter/X, Tik-
Tok, Meta and 15 other heavyweight
technology corporations, the company
is launching a scheme to automatically
identify and eliminate suspected
“malicious” fake videos and audio clips
designed to distort public opinion.
Britain, the United States, India,
Germany and Indonesia are among 64
countries holding, or to have already
held, elections this year in a climate of
insecurity and upheaval. There is
concern about the risk of AI-generated
videos tilting the outcomes of some of
the closest and most important races.
During the Democratic Party pri-
mary in New Hampshire on January 23,
as many as 25,000 households received
phone calls with a manipulated recording
of President Biden’s voice calling on
them to refrain from voting.
Since Thursday fabricated footage of
a French broadcast report about a
supposed assassination attempt on
President Macron has spread across
the internet. There are suspicions that
it may have originated in Russia.
At the Munich security conference,
Vera Jourova, vice-president of the
European Commission, warned that
the combination of AI and concerted
disinformation campaigns could bring
about the “end of democracy” in the EU
and US if left unchecked.
In an interview with The Times, Kent
Walker, Google’s president for global
affairs, said that given the breakneck
pace of AI development there was a
danger of “micro-targeted” deepfakes
being customised to influence small
but decisive parts of the electorate
through some social media platforms,
although these techniques are restricted
on YouTube and other Google products.
“We have learnt a lot over the past
2 2GM
News
Today’s highlights Call for action over 50% fall in
7.15am
7.50am
11am
Gillian Keegan, education secretary,
Wes Streeting, shadow health secretary,
The Exit Interviews: Matt Chorley speaks
benefit claimants finding work
to MPs leaving parliament at the election —
today the Tories’ Dehenna Davison, right Jack Barnett
Economics Correspondent
3.45pm Tim Key, comedian and actor, on
his new book of poetry, Chapters The number of benefit claimants who
8.25pm The political activist Tariq Ali, find a job each year has more than
who has edited the book halved since 2015, prompting experts to
In Defense of Julian Assange urge an overhaul of how the govern-
ment gets people back into work.
Too much focus is placed on unem-
ployed people complying with the rules
DAB RADIO l ONLINE l SMART SPEAKER l APP
rather than helping them into suitable
roles, and has driven down the amount
of workers rejoining the labour market.
T O D AY ’ S E D I T I O N In 2015 some 30 per cent, about
600,000, of claimants moved into work.
This fell to 20 per cent, or 250,000, in
2020, according to data from the Insti-
NEWS SPORT TIMES2 tute for Social and Economic Research.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation,
the economic think tank that identified
the trend, said “the dominance of ‘com-
pliance’ over ‘support’, and the exalta-
tion of ‘any job’ employment entry over
helping claimants find sustained
employment in productive job match-
es” had constrained people from re-
entering the labour market.
Politicians’ “desire to look tough” to
demonstrate to voters that they are
PERFECT PET UNITED VICTORY MIDLIFE RAGE clamping down has fashioned a system
that steers claimants away from finding
The goldendoodle Rasmus Hojlund Fleur Britten asks if
is the most wanted scores twice an anger workshop
dog in Britain against Luton could help continued from page 1
PAGE 10 THE GAME, PULLOUT PULLOUT, PAGE 7 Phone ban in schools
“important that schools enforce this
327 days since Wall Street Journal policy vigorously, consistently and visi-
bly”. If this policy is adopted, schools
reporter Evan Gershkovich must make clear that phones must be
switched off and placed at the bottom of
was detained in Russia the school bag and that any breach
#FreeEvan would result in on-the-spot confiscation.
The school office should be the first
port of call for parents when getting hold
COMMENT 19 BUSINESS 29 SPORT 48 of their children during the school day.
LEADING ARTICLES 23 REGISTER 41 CROSSWORD 56 The Department for Education
WORLD 24 LAW REPORT 43 TV & RADIO TIMES2 document states that confiscation can
be an “effective deterrent” for individual
Stories of our times pupils or as a “general deterrent for all
pupils at the school”.
One in three secondary school pupils
Is ADHD over-diagnosed? Times report that phones are used in most
lessons without permission. The
Radio’s Darryl Morris investigates education department cited Ofcom
figures that show that by the age of 12,
An overwhelming demand for diagnoses has left the NHS 97 per cent of children have their own
struggling to keep up. What’s behind the rise? We hear from a phone. It also cited a call by Unesco, the
UN’s education, science and culture
consultant psychiatrist and people living with the condition arm, for phones to be banned from
Available free from wherever you get your podcasts schools after evidence linking their use
to lower educational performance.
Esther Ghey has called for a total ban
FOLLOW US on social media access for children
thetimes timesandsundaytimes thetimes under 16 and said her daughter Brianna
had become vulnerable after spending
too much time online, lacking real-life
OFFER contact with friends. She believes that
Save up to 30% with a subscription to Brianna would be alive if her two killers
had not had access to violent content
The Times and The Sunday Times on the internet.
THETIMES.CO.UK/SUBSCRIBE The guidance is designed to ensure
THE WEATHER continued from page 1
Care workers ‘break visa rules’
controversial immigration policies of
6 this era with the Rwanda policy.”
As part of his findings, Neal said that
21
his inspectors encountered migrants
7 25 with care visas working illegally in two
out of eight enforcement visits between
August and October last year. He said it
10
was representative of the proportion of
11
11 migrants on care visas working in
11 Britain more broadly, meaning that
13
about 25,000 of the 101,316 people
15 granted a social care visa in the year to
September last year would have been
working in other sectors illegally.
Increasing amounts of sunshine The terms of the care visa allow an
but the risk of showers from individual to work for an additional 20
thicker cloud. hours in a non-care job only if it is on
and staying in stable employment, it
said.
Those on universal credit must agree
to look for work for 35 hours a week and
accept any job after four weeks. Before
2022 claimants could spend three
months looking for roles similar to their
previous job. In the autumn statement
sanctions were tightened on those not
securing a job quickly enough.
This results in work coaches making
sure claimants are “doing just enough
to make sure the commitment is met,
rather than working together towards
the goal of finding the claimant a job
that is a good fit for them”, the founda-
tion said. “Jobcentres have become
factories for large volumes of job appli-
cations of varying quality which em-
ployers are reluctant to wade through”,
it added, citing research showing that
one in six employers used the Jobcentre
to recruit over the past two years.
A cut in funding for the Department
for Work and Pensions has resulted in
resources becoming overstretched,
with work coaches expected to oversee
an average of 125 claimants.
In real terms the department’s
spending budget has been halved over
the ten years to 2020, resulting in
more consistency across all schools in
England but the power to decide on a
school’s phone policy will remain with
the head teacher.
Gillian Keegan, the education secre-
tary, said that the guidance would give
teachers the “tools to take action to help
improve behaviour”, adding: “Schools
are places for children to learn and
mobile phones are, at a minimum, an
unwanted distraction in the classroom.”
However, teachers’ unions said that
the crackdown was misguided because
most schools already imposed a ban.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of
the Association of School and College
Leaders, branded the reform a “non-
policy for a non-problem” and said min-
isters should focus on limiting children’s
access to social media platforms.
He said: “Compulsive use of these
devices is not something that is hap-
pening in schools, where robust policies
are already in place, but while children
are out of school. Most schools already
forbid the use of mobile phones during
the school day or allow their use only in
limited and stipulated circumstances.
“The government would be far better
off putting its energies into bringing to
heel the online platforms via which
children are able to access disturbing
and extreme content.”
Parents have also expressed concern
that banning phones on school
premises would put children’s safety in
danger as they would not be able to call
for help in an emergency on their way
to and from school.
the shortage occupation list. Neal said
his inspection of the social care visa
system had “echoes of previous
inspections” that have highlighted the
consequences of the Home Office’s
failure to make accurate forecasts, such
as small-boat arrivals.
As a result, the number of migrants
and employers taking advantage of the
relaxation in the visa rules was far
higher than expected. More than
123,000 foreign care workers were
granted visas in the first 18 months and
an additional 145,000 family members
came with them. The changes, designed
to help to fill the 150,000 vacancies in
the sector, have allowed care homes to
recruit from abroad on salaries of as
little as £20,960, or £10.75 per hour.
Neal said the original decision to use
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
spending on employment support fall-
ing to £300 million from £1.3 billion.
The government’s public finances
are under intense strain from higher
borrowing costs, increased healthcare
spending amid an ageing population
and low economic growth. In total, the
UK is forecast to spend £361.7 billion on
welfare provision in five years, up from
last year’s £261.5 billion spend.
Britain is struggling with a sharp rise
in disengagement with the labour
market, with the share of people termed
economically inactive, neither in work
nor looking for a job, up to 21.4 per cent.
This rise has been attributed to in-
creased sickness after the pandemic.
Britain slipped into recession after
figures showed GDP contracted by
0.3 per cent in the final quarter.
A government spokesman said:
“There are four million more people in
work than in 2010 with the unemploy-
ment rate more than halved. We’re
going even further with reforms fore-
cast to reduce the number of people
who would otherwise have been placed
in the highest tier of incapacity benefits
by over 370,000, while our back to work
plan will help over a million people
start, stay and succeed in work.”
continued from page 1
Action against deepfakes
decade and we take the risk of
misinformation or disinformation very
seriously,” Walker said. “For the elections
that we have seen around the world we
have established 24/7 war rooms to
identify potential misinformation.”
The Munich accord, the joint big-
tech initiative, envisages using AI
systems and other algorithms to
“watermark” authentic content and
automatically detect audio or video
that has been falsified or doctored. It
has been welcomed by political leaders
on both sides of the Atlantic.
“The real risk is that by the end of the
year no one will believe anything that
they see, because everything can be a
lie,” said Kersti Kaljulaid, a former
president of Estonia, which has been
targeted by Russian disinformation for
two decades. “I think the tech companies
are the only ones that can help.”
The most potentially controversial
elements of the plan involve assessing
the apparent intent behind social media
posts and identifying cases where
genuine information has been taken
out of context to make it misleading.
“In many cases the disinformation
we’re seeing today is not AI-generated;
it’s repurposed imagery,” Walker said.
“For example, coming out of Gaza we’re
not seeing AI-generated misinfor-
mation so much as pictures of Syrian
children from a decade ago that are
being described as coming out of Gaza.”
the existing skilled worker route for care
workers was “wholly inappropriate”
because the nature of the poorly paid
sector made it ripe for abuse. He added
that the Home Office has one compli-
ance officer for every 1,600 employers
licensed to sponsor migrant workers.
From March 11, care workers will be
barred from bringing family members
and only employers registered by the
Care Quality Commission will be able
to sponsor visas. A Home Office
spokesman said: “Immigration is not
the long-term answer to our social care
needs. That is why measures due to be
laid in parliament will cut the rising
numbers of visas granted to overseas
care workers and address significant
concerns about high levels of non-
compliance [and] worker exploitation.”
the times | Monday February 19 2024
Oppenheimer blows away all rivals
Dark biopic dominated
Bafta’s glittering night
as Barbie and Saltburn
left empty handed,
writes David Sanderson
The “destroyer of the world” helped
Christopher Nolan to finally conquer
the Baftas as his Oppenheimer biopic
continued to storm through the film
awards season.
Nolan, who had never won a major
Bafta or Oscar despite being recognised
as one of Britain’s greatest film-makers,
was named best director while Oppen-
heimer won best film.
Cillian Murphy’s role as Robert
Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic
bomb”, earned him the leading actor
statuette and Robert Downey Jr, his
co-star, picked up the accolade for sup-
porting actor.
In total Oppenheimer won seven
Baftas to go with the five Golden
Globes it picked up last month. It is now
the favourite to triumph in the Oscars
next month.
In his acceptance speech, Nolan , 53,
thanked his film studio for “letting us
take on something dark”, adding that
the production had ended on “what I
think is a dramatically necessary note
of despair”.
He disclosed in the podcast Stories of
our Times, which has just been released,
that the ending for the film, as with
many crucial scenes in his previous
works, came to him when he was “fall-
ing asleep”.
He also paid tribute last night to the
various groups who “have fought long
and hard to reduce the number of
nuclear weapons … they show the
necessity and the potential for peace”.
Emma Thomas, Nolan’s wife and a
producer on all his films, collected the
best film statuette and paid tribute to
her “inspired and inspiring and brilliant
and often infuriating and always right”
husband.
Murphy described the pair as “the
most dynamic, decent, kindest produc-
er-director partnership in Hollywood”.
2GM 3
News
Gracing the red
carpet were, above,
from left, Rosamund
about innocent people being killed in
Mariupol and Israel or anywhere else.
Thank you for recognising a film that
Lessons for the
Pike, Andrew Scott,
Margot Robbie,
Emma Stone (with
asks us to think in those spaces.”
Little room was left for other con-
tenders in what Sara Putt, the Bafta
beancounters
her best actress chairwoman, described as the “most
Bafta), Emily Blunt, talked-about awards season in years”. Kevin Maher
Ryan Gosling, Claire Barbie and Saltburn joined Maestro
Foy and Emma and Killers of the Flower Moon in the
Comment
Corrin. The Prince of “snubbed” category, with their stars
A
Wales was seated Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Barry grimly predictable
next to Cate Keoghan and Rosamund Pike among awards season stuck
Blanchett in his those forced to remain seated. mostly to script, as the
wife’s absence It was one of the starriest Bafta nights Oppenheimer wave swept
in recent memory with the Prince of through the Baftas with a
Wales seated beside Cate Blanchett in seven-trophy haul, including wins
The winners the absence of his wife, the Princess of for best film, best director
Wales, who is recuperating. (Christopher Nolan), and best actor
Best film Oppenheimer film The Zone of Film not in the English The prince apologised to Elaine (Cillian Murphy).
Interest language The Zone of Bedell, chief executive of the South- It makes the prospect of an
Best director
Interest bank Centre where last night’s ceremo- “Oppenheimer Oscars” a near
Christopher Nolan Original screenplay
(Oppenheimer) Anatomy of a Fall Casting The Holdovers ny was held, for his “last minute” certainty when the season climaxes
Editing Oppenheimer decision to attend alone amid his next month. Things looked shaky for
EE rising star Adapted screenplay family’s health scares. He said he had Team Nolan early on, when they
Mia McKenna-Bruce American Fiction Cinematography watched fewer films than usual this were passed over for the best
Special visual effects Oppenheimer year because of his wife’s recovery from adapted screenplay gong, and it was
Leading actor Cillian Poor Things
Documentary 20 Days abdominal surgery. rightfully handed to Cord Jefferson
Murphy (Oppenheimer)
Animated film The Boy in Mariupol He later told a BBC executive that he instead, for his brilliant work on the
Leading actress Emma and the Heron was a “big fan of Christopher Nolan” racial satire American Fiction.
Stone (Poor Things) Original score and that he would be pleased if Then, soon after, Oppenheimer
British short film Oppenheimer Oppenheimer took the awards. The also lost in the technical categories
Supporting actor Jellyfish and Lobster academy duly obliged. for production design (again to the
Sound Zone of Interest
Robert Downey Jr Blanchett was joined by a galaxy of rightful winner, Poor Things) and
British short animation Production design
(Oppenheimer) stars to present the awards, including sound (to The Zone of Interest)
Crab Day Poor Things
Supporting actress David Beckham, Andrew Scott, Idris making it seem as if Bafta was about
Da’Vine Joy Randolph Outstanding debut by Costume design Elba, Hugh Grant and Michael J Fox, to perform one of its famed upsets.
(The Holdovers) a British writer, Poor Things who was given one of the evening’s big But Oppenheimer soon found its
director or producer Make up and hair cheers when he emerged with this form, scooping up big wins for a
Outstanding British Earth Mama Poor Things wheelchair to announce best film. movie that has been loved and
The speech of the evening, however, praised by the industry, perhaps
went to Downey, whose film career — slightly more for what it did than for
He added in a gesture to Nolan: “Thank ter in the adaptation of the novel by and life — was at one point threatened what it is. It showed Hollywood
you for always pushing me and deliver- Alasdair Gray, the Scottish writer and by his drug use. “When I was 15 I beancounters that audiences could
ing excellence because that is what you artist. Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of wanted to be Peter O’Toole,” he said. be tempted into cinemas for a three-
deliver time after time.” Interest made history by becoming the “When I was 25 I worked for Richard hour history lesson.
The success of Oppenheimer left first production to win an award as both Attenborough with Anthony Hopkins. The second biggest winner of the
other titles in its wake, including Killers outstanding British film and film not in When I was 35 I finally understood why night, Poor Things, couldn’t have
of the Flower Moon by Martin Scorsese the English language. The dialogue in Dickie thought Tony would be a better been more different. It won five
and Maestro, directed by Bradley Coop- the Holocaust drama was largely Ger- role model for me than Peter.” awards, including a well-earned best
er who also plays the lead role of Leon- man and Polish. Downey then added that after mak- actress trophy for Emma Stone, who
ard Bernstein. Both films were left James Wilson, the film’s producer, ing films with Guy Ritchie and for the praised the boundless invention of
empty-handed. used his speech to urge support for the Marvel Cinematic Universe “Chris its Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos
Poor Things, directed by Yorgos Lan- people of Gaza. He said: “It seems stark Nolan suggested that I attempt an (beaten by Nolan) in her speech. It
thimos, picked up four technical awards right now that we should care about understated approach as a last-ditch was a welcome reminder that film
while Emma Stone was named best innocent people being killed in Gaza effort to perhaps resurrect my dwind- can be unashamedly daring as well
leading actress for her role as Bella Bax- and Yemen in the same way we think ling credibility.” as grand and, well, long.
4 Monday February 19 2024 | the times
News
Waiting in the wings Specimens are readied for an exhibition at London’s Natural History Museum on the evolution of birds. Birds: Brilliant & Bizarre opens on May 24
Threats for peer in ‘Islamophobia’ row
George Greenwood, Matt Dathan
A peer suspended as chairman of a
housing association after complaints
about one of his social media posts has
faced an avalanche of abuse, including
death threats.
Lord Austin of Dudley, the cross-
bench peer who quit Labour over
Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of anti-
semitism in the party, was suspended by
Midland Heart over his social media
activity.
The row began when the Israel
Defence Forces claimed to have found
a shaft near a school that led to a tunnel
used by Hamas beneath the UN Relief
Works Agency headquarters in Gaza,
of which the agency denied knowledge.
Austin responded to the denial by
tweeting: “Everybody, better safe than
sorry: before you go to bed, nip down
and check you haven’t inadvertently
got a death cult of Islamist murderers
and rapists running their operations
downstairs. It’s easily done.”
Some left-wing and Muslim groups
accused Austin of Islamophobia, citing
his use of “Islamist”. Muslim Engage-
ment and Development, a group
known for its campaign to scrap the
Prevent anti-extremism programme,
which it says promotes harmful stereo-
types, urged people to complain about
Austin to the House of Lords Commis-
sioner for Standards.
Austin deleted the tweet and apolo-
gised, but was later suspended by the
housing association. He has since re-
ceived abuse, including being told: “I
hope you have a cruel death” and “You
should be in hiding.”
At least one of those calling for his
resignation had a history of posting
antisemitic content, comparing Israelis
to Nazis, analysis of posts shows.
A source with knowledge of the Mid-
land Heart review said that although
Hardliners
have got to
be opposed,
not appeased
Lord Austin
of Dudley
Comment
P
olitical opponents and
extremists have mounted a
campaign to accuse me of
Islamophobia because I
used the word Islamists.
I think this is not just completely
false, but an absolute disgrace.
Islamists refers not to Muslims in
general, but to extremists. In fact,
the word was coined to distinguish
clearly and carefully between them.
It means an ideology which
demands that every aspect of life,
especially government, should
be determined by a strict and
oppressive version of the Muslim
faith. Islamism is about politics
much more than religion.
Governments, academics, expert
think-tanks and the world’s leading
media organisations all use the
word. The government’s list of
proscribed organisations uses it
17 times.
It is a disgrace to suggest all
Muslims are Islamists and
therefore extremists. To do so
would, in fact, be racism. This is
why it is those who say that my use
of the word Islamist applies to all
Muslims who are the real racists.
The reason Islamists want to
prevent the rest of us using the
term is because they want to
pretend that Islamism doesn’t exist
and that there is no difference
between the vast majority of
Muslims who are just as appalled
by racism and extremism as anyone
else and extremist fundamentalists
like them.
Look at the number of Muslims
murdered by Islamists in Iraq,
Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Islamist extremists in Britain want
to hide the truth that they are
closer to fascists than they are to
mainstream Muslims.
The hardline organisation
Muslim Engagement and
Development arranged a campaign
against me. This is a group
whose chief executive signed a
statement calling for Israel to be
dismantled, supported “armed
resistance” and said Hamas should
not be accused of terrorism. They
are so far from mainstream debate
that the government refuses to
meet them.
A leading figure in the housing
world called Lara Oyedele
commented on my tweet by saying,
“imagine if someone else wrote this
and replaced Islamist with Jewish!”
which suggests that all Jewish
people are extremists.
A campaigner called Gary
Spedding, who was deported from
Israel over his involvement in
violent protest in Belfast, led the
campaign on social media.
The deliberate misrepresentation
of my words resulted in huge abuse
and threatening messages. Midland
Heart and its staff were harassed,
too. Its senior managers asked me
to delete the tweet. I agreed to do
so and to post a clarification. I did
not do so to apologise or because I
thought I was wrong, but to try to
prevent further criticism of the
organisation.
Despite that, the board met on
Thursday and I was shocked to be
told they had decided my position
was untenable. On Friday I was told
the board would meet to remove
me. I saw later on Twitter that I
had been suspended.
I want to thank Michael Gove
and so many others for their
support. It is really shocking to
see hard-left campaigners and
extremists trying to drive people
out of their jobs — and it is terrible
that serious organisations let
themselves be forced into it. This
madness has to be stopped.
We have to be clear about what
constitutes extremism. It must be
opposed, not appeased. Mainstream
politicians must give a lead, taking
on the extremists and giving the
moderate majority of Muslims the
confidence to do the same.
Israel is the front line in the war
against Iranian-sponsored Islamist
extremism and terrorism and if
Israel does not prevail, our way of
life will be under threat too. This is
why we must ensure that Israel has
all the support it needs to win and
stand up for our values of
democracy and freedom too.
I accept I might not have a career
as a comedy writer, but I can’t quite
believe I face the prospect of losing
my job over this.
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and smart
speaker
media coverage had focused on a
specific tweet made on February 10, the
decision to suspend Austin was based
on “an escalating pattern of posts”.
Internal staff and the wider audience,
including company tenants, had found
these deeply offensive, the source said.
“Our assessment of Lord Austin’s posi-
tion will take into account his history of
tackling racism and antisemitism, both
of which were key reasons behind his
appointment as our chair. We must also
consider the extent to which these
posts and any in future would continue
to damage [our] reputation.”
It is understood that another post
from Austin prompted complaints, in-
cluded his sharing of a meme about
“Ben and Jerry’s Terror Misu”, a flavour
he joked was introduced to Gaza after
the ice-cream firm ended sales in the
Palestinan Territories. The post includ-
ed what appear to be Hamas fighters
hiding in the ice cream beneath a build-
ing flying a Palestinian flag.
Michael Gove, the housing secretary,
said he would write to the board to
“demand a meeting and explanation”.
He added: “Not only is Ian a champion
for affordable housing, he has spent his
career fighting racism.”
Austin, who was adopted and
brought up by a Holocaust survivor,
was MP for Dudley North before re-
signing from the party in 2019. He was
ennobled by Boris Johnson.
Austin’s comments have got him into
trouble in the past. In 2012 he apolo-
gised for suggesting that a Palestinian
human rights group had denied the
Holocaust happened, mistakenly refer-
ring to material from another group. In
2022 he apologised to Laura Murray, a
former Corbyn aide, after calling her an
“anti-Jewish racist” and part of the “vile
antisemitism of Corbyn’s Labour” in
The Daily Telegraph, which paid Mur-
ray £40,000 for libelling her.
the times | Monday February 19 2024 5

Beckham’s investment in cannabis oil firm goes up in smoke
Tom Howard
David Beckham appears to have accep-
ted that he scored an own goal by in-
vesting in a cannabinoid product group
by quietly selling his shares.
Cellular Goods, which sold cannabi-
noid (CBD)-infused creams, lotions
and oils, including a £99 face serum,
enjoyed a blazing stock market debut
three years ago, with shares almost
quadrupling on their first day from the
5p launch price. Days before the
launch, DB Ventures, the brand-
Beckham vehicle, bought 5 per
cent of the shares, some 25 mil-
lion, for a penny each and was
allowed two representatives on
the board. But Cellular Goods,
since rebranded Cel AI, has
not lived up to the hype
David Beckham owned
25 million 1 penny shares
and its shares ended last week at less
than a half penny after it failed to
achieve the level of sales had original-
ly hoped for. Neither Beckham nor
Cel AI would comment.
Beckham’s board appointees, Dave
Gardner, one of his best
friends, and Ross Connolly,
DB Ventures’ former com-
mercial director, left ab-
ruptly in May 2022. A few
months later, Beckham
sold 10 million of his shares for about
1.2p each, making a 20 per cent profit on
that portion of his investment. It is not
clear why, or when, Beckham sold the
rest of his Cel AI stake, although it has
been suggested that the sale of a 55 per
cent stake of DB Ventures to Authentic
Brands Group in 2022, for a reported
$248 million, may have been a factor.
Barely a year after listing, Cel AI had
to scrap its line of CBD-infused food
supplements following a ruling from
News
the Food Standards Agency. It is not
the only Beckham investment to have
faltered. Shares in Guild Esports, an
online gaming group he co-owned,
have fallen 54 per cent in the past year.
Despite the setbacks, brand Beck-
ham has been thriving. The consumer,
media and fashion empire he shares
with his wife, Victoria, generated sales
of more than £130 million last year.

Woman held
on suspicion
of murdering
three children
George Sandeman
A woman has been arrested on suspi-
cion of murder after the deaths of three
young children at a house in Bristol.
Police were called to Sea Mills in the
northwest of the city early yesterday
when concerns were raised about the
welfare of people inside the property.
Three children were found in the
house on Blaise Walk at about 12.40am
and pronounced dead a short time later.
No details regarding the cause of their
deaths were disclosed.
A 42-year-old woman was arrested
and is being held in police custody at a
hospital. Avon and Somerset police said
Police were called to Blaise Walk in
Bristol after concerns were raised
it believed that the deaths were an
isolated incident and that there was no
wider risk to the public.
Police officers, vehicles and a foren-
sic team were seen outside the house
and part of the road was cordoned off.
According to local reports the family
were Sudanese and had been living in
Bristol since 2017. A 42-year-old taxi
driver said he had last seen the mother
and her three children — who he
believed were aged eight, four and one
— two weeks ago. He said: “She was
happy. Her kids were all happy.”
A woman, who did not wish to be
named, described the arrested woman
as “lovely”. She said she believed the
youngest child to be about six months
old.
“She was so happy when she had that
little boy,” she said. “We were so happy
for her, we came round and gave gifts.
I’m very surprised because she was
really gentle, really lovely. She always
had a smile on her face. After the baby
she was having a really hard time.”
Avon and Somerset police said that
because it had been in contact with
people at the property earlier this
month, it had notified the Independent
Office for Police Conduct.
An IOPC spokesman said: “We have
requested a paper referral with further
information about the prior contact
and once received, we will assess it to
determine whether further action is
required from us.”
Chief Inspector Vicks Hayward-
Melen of Avon and Somerset police
said: “This is an incredibly tragic and
heartbreaking incident. My sincere
condolences go to the children’s loved
ones and we will be ensuring they are
offered support through our family
liaison unit.
“Officers will remain at the scene to
provide reassurance to anyone who has
any questions or concerns. Over the
coming days, residents can expect to
see an increased police presence and
we thank them for their co-operation
during this time.”
Mark Shelford, the Avon and Somer-
set police and crime commissioner, de-
scribed the deaths as “heartbreaking”.
He said: “There are questions to be
asked about how such an appalling
event has occurred and what could
have been done to prevent it, but for
now, I ask that people allow the police Rain over us The King and Queen arriving at the Church of St Mary Magdalene on a soggy Sandringham estate yesterday.
to investigate.” Charles is believed to have been travelling to London for cancer treatment before returning to Norfolk to recuperate

Scientists crunching numbers to predict extreme weather a month ahead

Katie Gibbons
Scientists are working on ways to make
weather forecasts so accurate that they
will be able to predict conditions up to
a month in advance.
A £30 million research programme
based at the University of Reading aims
to significantly improve the accuracy of
long-range weather forecasts.
In partnership with the Met Office
and other major research bodies the
Advancing the Frontiers of Earth
System Prediction programme is set to
benefit industries such as agriculture,
fishing and energy.
The new project includes a 15-year
doctoral training programme and
multiple cycles of funding for five-year
research projects. Meteorologists can
at present make accurate forecasts only
a week or so ahead.
Pier Luigi Vidale, a professor of
climate system science at the Univers-
ity of Reading, said: “As well as deliver-
ing trustworthy extended-range
weather forecasts, underpinned by
solid understanding of the physical
processes governing hazardous
weather worldwide, this programme
will leverage the latest advances in
exascale supercomputing to unleash
the power of science to benefit society.”
Professor Rowan Sutton, the uni-
versity’s research dean for the environ-
ment, said: “The broader aim of this
research programme is to improve risk
assessments, planning and resilience so
that communities vulnerable to
extreme weather will be much better
prepared for what is to come.”
The European Centre for Medium-
Range Weather Forecasts and the
National Centre for Atmospheric
Science are also involved in the
university’s partnership.
Professor Simon Vosper, a director of
science at the Met Office, said:
“Through fundamental scientific
understanding and next-generation
high-resolution modelling of severe
weather, the research will ultimately
improve our ability to forecast hazards
further ahead, helping people to stay
safe and thrive in a changing world.”
6 2GM Monday February 19 2024 | the times

News
News Politics

Gaza fighting must stop now, says

Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor
Kieran Andrews Scottish Political Editor
Sir Keir Starmer has declared that
fighting between Israel and Hamas
“must stop now” as Labour signalled a
shift in its official stance on a ceasefire
in Gaza.
The Labour leader is under pressure
to back an immediate ceasefire before a
key vote in the Commons this week.
He has previously called for a sus-
tainable ceasefire after previously
backing a “humanitarian pause” in the
conflict but yesterday he appeared to
harden his position as he moved to-
wards backing an immediate ceasefire.
David Lammy, the shadow foreign
secretary, also signalled a shift as he
said that the party was considering
backing a motion from the Scottish
National Party that will be brought to a
vote in the Commons on Wednesday
and calls for “an immediate ceasefire in
Gaza and Israel”. He told BBC1’s Sunday
with Laura Kuenssberg: “We will scruti-
nise that motion ... and we will take it
from there.
Starmer’s team is determined to
find a way through that can avoid re-
opening divisions. In November, 56
Labour MPs rebelled against Starmer’s
instructions to abstain by backing a
ceasefire, leading to nearly a dozen res-
ignations from the front bench.
He came under more pressure before
his speech at the Scottish Labour
conference, which passed a motion
calling for an immediate ceasefire on
Saturday.
In his speech yesterday, Starmer said
that he backed a permanent ceasefire
but insisted it “cannot be one-sided”
and “must stop all acts of violence on
both sides”. He said it must be followed
by putting a two-state solution “back
on the table” that ensured a “safe and
secure Israel” and a “viable Palestinian
state” that was not beholden to Israel.
Starmer said he had spoken to world
leaders at the Munich Security Confer-
ence on Saturday, where conversations
were dominated by the question of
“what we can do, practically, to deliver
what we all want to see, now”.
He said there was agreement on the
need for “a return of all the hostages
taken on October 7, an end to the killing
of innocent Palestinians, a huge scaling
up of humanitarian relief and an end to
the fighting — not just for a pause, but
permanently. A ceasefire that lasts,
conference, that is what must happen
now. The fighting must stop now.” He
added: “Any ceasefire must stop all acts
of violence on both sides and it must
lead to a genuine peace process,
because the offensive threatened on
Rafah, where 1.5 million people are
cramped together in unimaginable
conditions with nowhere else for them
to go, this cannot become a new theatre
of war. That offensive cannot happen.”
The hardening of his language on a
ceasefire comes after lobbying from
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour
leader, who has been calling for a cease-
fire for months and has described the
SNP’s motion as “perfectly reasonable”.
Yesterday he said he was “happy to
work with the SNP about the motion
that’s tabled”.
Talks have taken place behind the
scenes between Starmer and Sarwar’s
teams and Sarwar believes that he has
pulled Starmer towards calling for an
immediate ceasefire. Senior figures in
Scotland now believe that there is no
difference in the pair’s position. Sarwar
has repeatedly called for an immediate
ceasefire.
Starmer has tried to end the weeks of
quarrelling in his party over its position
on the bombardment of Gaza. Critics
accused him of responding too slowly
over the decision to suspend Azhar Ali
as the Labour candidate in the Roch-
dale by-election last week after he was
recorded making antisemitic remarks
at a community meeting.
However, he was also criticised for
acting too fast in suspending Graham
Jones, the party’s candidate in Hynd-
burn, who had also been at the meeting,
when more of the tape was released in
which he suggested that British citizens
fighting for the Israel Defence Forces
should be jailed.
Critics believe that Starmer has low-
ered the bar for what is acceptable to
say about the conflict in Gaza, an issue
that many Labour MPs and core voters
feel strongly about.
Shadow cabinet ministers are pri-
vately calling on Starmer to make a
clear statement on where the line is for
criticising Israel. One shadow minister
said: “Keir needs to clarify where that
line is. Ahead of [this week’s] vote people
will want to know what you can and
can’t say. Sensible people know where
that line is, most people don’t need to be
told, it’s just some people around the
fringes but that can be blown up and
cause a problem for the party. But
people who have been in politics long keep it strong for the I’m trying to do is show
enough to be a candidate should know
this stuff and if they don’t know there
should be serious questions marks over
Labour vows to future, we need a party
that can compete in every
part of our country, and
voters in rural
communities that Labour
has changed. And we will
their suitability to be a Labour MP.”
end fox hunting that is the Labour Party.”
While rural seats have
treat the countryside with
a greater respect.”

Netanyahu attacks Lula’s for good and win

traditionally been among
the Conservatives’ safest
bastions, a poll last week
Last week, Labour
overturned an 18,000
Conservative majority in

‘disgraceful slur on Israel’ over rural voters

showed a collapse in Tory
support, with Labour
ahead among voters in
Wellingborough, and
Reed argued that the
“fantastic result … shows
the countryside. In an rural communities want

Gabrielle Weiniger Tel Aviv
Binyamin Netanyahu has called Presi-
dent Lula da Silva of Brazil a disgrace
for comparing Israel’s actions in Gaza
to Hitler’s genocide of the Jews in the
Second World War.
“Comparing Israel to the Nazi Holo-
caust and Hitler is crossing a red line,”
the Israeli prime minister said. “The
words of the president of Brazil are dis-
graceful and grave — trying to harm
the Jewish people and Israel’s right to
defend itself.”
Lula told reporters in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, where he was attending an
African Union summit, that what was
happening in the Gaza “isn’t a war, it’s a
genocide”.
“It’s a war between a highly prepared
army and women and children,” he
said. “What’s happening hasn’t
happened at any other moment in
history. Actually, it has happened: when
Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
Lula, whose country holds the rotat-
ing presidency of the G20, previously
condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack
on Israel as a “terrorist” act but he has
since grown critical of Israel’s military
response.
The foreign ministry in Jerusalem
said that it would summon the Brazilian
ambassador to be issued a reprimand.
Israel says that it is only targeting
Hamas militants and doing all it can to
protect civilians.
Other Israeli ministers hit back at the
Brazilian president’s remarks, includ-
ing Yoav Gallant, the defence minister,
who said that Lula had brought shame
to a country that had been an ally to
Israel for years. “President Lula sup-
ports a genocidal terrorist organisation
— Hamas,” he said, “and violates the
values of the free world.”
L
abour has vowed
to eliminate fox
hunting within its
first term after
polls showed that
most voters in the
countryside support a ban
on the sport (Chris Smyth
writes).
The party insists that it
is moving on from a smug
urban mindset to attract
rural voters. Steve Reed,
the shadow environment
secretary, said it was a
source of shame that
Labour had ignored the
countryside, but argued
that it could win up to 60
rural seats.
Farmers will also be
given greater freedom to
build wind turbines and
solar arrays on their land.
Reed said that aesthetic
concerns could not
override the need to boost
the rural economy and
ensure energy security.
Labour won only two of
the 120 most rural
constituencies at the last
election. Reed said there
was a “moral imperative
as well as an electoral
imperative” for Labour to
attract countryside voters.
Arguing that the
Conservatives had been
“driven out” of cities and
much of Scotland and
Wales, Reed said: “If we
want to strengthen the
United Kingdom, and
interview with The Times,
Reed said: “In 1997 and
2001, we won a majority
of rural seats. We will do
our best to win a majority
of rural seats again.”
On a visit to a farm in
Northamptonshire, Reed
said that under Jeremy
Corbyn, Labour had been
“narrowly urban, and
people in the countryside
felt we did not respect
their way of life”. He said
his party had “projected a
quite self-satisfied urban
mindset” and this is “a
huge source of shame”.
He added: “We’d alienated
a lot of people who live in
the countryside and work
in the countryside. What
change and are ready to
listen to Labour”.
He pledged: “Labour
will not be telling rural
communities, ‘This is
what you’re going to get,
put up with it’, which is I
think how Labour has
come across in the past.”
As evidence of this,
Reed ruled out a
Scottish-style right to
roam, a prospect that
alarms farmers. “You
don’t want kids walking
through where there’s
large agricultural
machinery that can cause
them harm, and you don’t
want people wandering
through fields full of
valuable crops, where
the times | Monday February 19 2024
Starmer as ceasefire vote looms
damage can be caused.”
Instead he promised to
work with farmers on a
“model of responsible
access” that allowed more
people to enjoy the
countryside by, for
example, opening up
paths along river banks.
Reed would refuse to
tell people to eat less meat
to help the climate — “it’s
up to people to take their
own decisions” — and
promised to leave some
rural pastimes alone.
“Labour supports the
rights for shooting as long
as it’s done within the law.
Why wouldn’t we?”
Fox hunting is the big
exception. Although
the practice was
ostensibly banned
in 2004, animal
rights campaigners
claim that hunts
are using the legal
alternatives of trail
hunting or drag
hunting, where dogs
Sir Keir Starmer’s party is
said to have corrected its
“self-satisfied urban” view
2GM
follow a scent, as a way of
allowing dogs to kill
animals without being
prosecuted.
Reed is adamant that
Labour will ban this.
“People have seen the
images of packs of hounds
getting into private back
gardens, killing cats,
ripping flocks apart.
Fox hunting was ostensibly
banned in 2004 but animal
rights campaigners say that
hunts are allowing their
dogs to kill under the guise
of trail or drag hunting
There’s not a majority in
any part of the country
that wants to see that
continue,” he said.
“The hunting ban was
passed under the last
Labour government and it
has been maintained
under this Conservative
government. So that
seems fairly settled to me.
But there are loopholes in
it. Drag hunting for
instance, that allows
hunting to continue, and
foxes — and domestic cats
and other mammals —
are still getting killed as a
result of those loopholes
and we will close those
loopholes.”
Reed pledged a full ban
on trail hunting and drag
hunting and said: “This is
something we’ll do in the
first term of a Labour
government.”
However, pointing to
polls showing three
quarters of rural voters
support a ban, he insisted:
“This isn’t to do with
urban people telling
country people how to
live their lives. This is
something country people
want brought in.”
Wellingborough was
the latest rural seat to be
won by Labour from the
Tories, after recent
by-election victories in
Mid Bedfordshire and
Selby and Ainsty, which
Reed argued showed the
party’s progress in the
countryside.
“People were prepared
to listen perhaps for the
first time in a decade or
more to what Labour’s
saying,” he said. “They
hear Labour talking about
the issues that concern
them, and like the rest of
the country people are
concerned about the cost
of living, the national
health service and crime.”
He insisted that Labour
could make a specific
pitch to rural voters on
core policies such as its
green investment plan,
despite a scaling back of
the party’s pledge to
spend £28 billion on it.
“A lot of farmers are
very interested in
generating green energy,
whether that’s solar or
wind, a problem they’ve
got is it can take them ten
years to plug that energy
into the national grid. So
they want Labour to
speed up the planning
process. It helps their
business diversify, it
helps climate, helps
recover nature —
there are so many
reasons why we
should be doing
this.”
While some are
alarmed by the prospect
of covering farmland with
turbines and solar panels,
Reed insisted that these
concerns could not be
allowed to stop green
energy infrastructure in
rural areas: “We need to
work with communities so
they can have some input
into this. But ultimately,
we need that energy, and
we need it to get it to
households so we can cut
people’s energy bills.”
Reed, who was a
councillor in Lambeth,
south London, for years
before becoming the MP
for Croydon North, might
be accused of being the
personification of
Labour’s urban mindset.
He said: “I don’t think I’m
being judged on the seats
I represent but on what
Labour is offering voters.”
Pointing to the
creation of national parks
under the Clement Attlee
government in the 1940s,
Reed said that “some of
the very earliest people
who called themselves
socialists were advocates
for greater access to the
countryside, which is our
shared inheritance. So
Labour, I would argue,
has always been
connected with pride in
our countryside.”
Criticising Conservative
management of the
countryside, he suggested
that Labour was now the
“small C” conservative
party. “We want to
conserve what is best
about our shared
inheritance,” he said.
“Labour has always been
proud of our countryside
and our countryside is a
central part of our
self-identity as a country.”
Recalling his own
childhood in St Albans,
“in a house that was
facing open fields and
woodlands”, Reed said: “I
used to go into those
fields and woodlands to
play and I want other
people’s kids to have the
same benefit that I had, of
enjoying our landscape,
our countryside, our open
space, to run around in it,
to explore it, to enjoy it.”
Even for urbanites, the
British countryside is
“part of who we are as a
country”, Reed said.
“If you’ve been abroad,
in the Mediterranean let’s
say, and you’re flying
back, once you come over
England,” he said. “That
landscape is so unique.
You can recognise it, and
I always get a little tingle
of pride in that, because
our sense of connection
and belonging is with our
countryside, as much as
any other aspect of what
we are as a country.
“Whether we live in
urban areas or rural
areas, we all feel that
sense of pride in our
countryside.”
Citizens’ juries ‘to
bypass Whitehall
on big decisions’
Oliver Wright Policy Editor
Labour is drawing up plans to bypass
Whitehall by using “citizens’ assem-
blies” to make key decisions, Sue Gray,
the chief of staff to Sir Keir Starmer, has
announced.
Gray, who is in charge of the party’s
preparations for government, said in
her first interview in the role that plans
were being worked on to involve the
public directly in deciding contentious
issues such as constitutional reform,
devolution and where new houses
should be built.
She cited the “transformational”
success of citizens’ juries in Ireland that
had built consensus for constitutional
changes including ending the ban on
abortion and allowing gay mar-
riage. But she said acknowledged that
the plans were likely to face resistance
from her former civil service col-
leagues, saying: “Whitehall will not like
this because they have no control.”
The plan is described in a biography
of Starmer by Tom Baldwin, who was
given access to the Labour leader and
his most senior advisers.
Gray told him that Labour wanted to
take a new approach to government by
directly consulting with voters on some
of the most vexed questions on Britain’s
future. Starmer hopes that it will help
overcome the country’s institutional
inertia and build consensus on issues
often left unresolved because of the
confrontational nature of politics.
In Ireland, citizens’ assemblies are
typically made up of 99 randomly
selected members of the public and one
appointed moderator.
They are asked to take evidence and
deliberate on matters of national im-
portance. They then examine studies
and hear from ordinary people affected
by the issue. Their conclusions culmi-
nate in recommendations to parlia-
ment or sometimes a referendum.
Gray said the assemblies could be
used to get agreement on House of
Lords reform, giving more pow-
ers to directly elected mayors
as well as drawing up regional
development plans to support
housebuilding.
Starmer has said that a La-
bour government would aim
to build 1.5 million homes in
five years. He told Baldwin
the party was “deep in the
detail” of the reforms. He
said: “I don’t want a dis-
cussion in the first hun-
dred days if we win the
election that we could be
having now.”
Gray said that citizens’ assem-
blies could help overcome opposi-
tion to such changes. “This is one
way we can help resolve these ques-
tions by involving communities at
an early stage,” she said.
The book also reveals that Gray
is drawing up detailed plans for an in-
dependent ethics commission that
will bring together Westminster’s
patchwork system for standards
Sue Gray is in charge of Labour’s
preparations for government
7
News
News
bodies including those that oversee
public appointments and the award of
peerages and enforce a beefed-up
version of the ministerial code.
Gray signalled that she wanted to
draw a line under her investigation into
the scandal of the parties in Whitehall
during the pandemic and some of her
former colleagues’ anger that she took
a job with Labour. “It’s really important
for me to say loud and clear that I love
the civil service,” she said.
“The majority of them are absolutely
people with the right values, they live by
their values and they’re in public ser-
vice for those values. It was heartbreak-
ing, really, to see the behaviour during
‘partygate’. That wouldn’t have hap-
pened a few years ago. The whole
culture just became very informal.”
She warned her former colleagues,
however, of serious change ahead, in-
cluding bringing in outside expertise
and experience. She insisted that La-
bour would go into government with a
clear policy framework that it expected
to be implemented rapidly.
“I know Whitehall and it will try to
mould the new government and minis-
ters into its way of working,” Gray said.
“What I’m trying to do now in opposi-
tion is establish our way of working so
we can walk in and start delivering …
Even so, there’ll still be some depart-
ments who’ll struggle with that.”
Reports have emerged recently of
tension between her and some of
Labour’s campaign team. Baldwin’s
biography reveals that Gray has started
to attend Starmer’s regular meetings
with them and has been involved in
policy discussions.
Some of those present have de-
scribed how, in a discussion on crime
when someone suggested locking up
more offenders, she asked where all the
new prisons that would be needed were
going to be located.
Gray said she saw her role as ensur-
ing that the party’s desire to have an at-
tractive offer for voters did not mean
making promises that would be im-
possible to fulfil in government.
She said: “Keir’s absolutely
clear that we have always got
to be focused on what we
must do to win. But if we
win, we’ve also got to have
a plan for the first day, for
the first hundred days
and for the first year of
the first term, if we’re
going to have any
chance of getting a
second term. He
doesn’t want us to
forget about what
we’ve got to do if we get to
walk up that road in
Downing Street.”
Keir Starmer: the Biography by
Tom Baldwin (William Collins,
£25) is published on February 29.
To order a copy for £22.50 go
to timesbookshop.co.uk. Free
UK standard P&P on orders
over £25. Special discount
available for Times+ members
8 2GM
News
Post Office chief
lied about ousting,
claims Badenoch
Will Humphries
Kemi Badenoch has hit out at the
former Post Office chairman after he
alleged that he was told by a senior civil
servant to “stall” spending on compen-
sation to sub-postmasters before the
Show fizz Champagne flows at the climax of the 32nd St Andrews University charity fashion show, attended by 2,000 guests next general election.
Henry Staunton, who was sacked by
the business secretary last month, used
an interview with The Sunday Times to
suggest the alleged request was linked
to concerns about the cost of compen-
sation heading into the election.
He also said Badenoch had told him
that “someone’s got to take the rap” for
the Horizon scandal in which more
than 900 sub-postmasters and others
were wrongly prosecuted between 1999
and 2015 based on flaws in the Post
Office’s accounting software.
The publication of the interview
prompted a denial from the govern-
ment, with Badenoch using social
media to accuse the former chairman
of “disgraceful misrepresentation” of
the reasons he was ousted.
Badenoch posted on X/Twitter: “Far
from ‘taking the rap’, I dismissed Staun-
ton due to very serious allegations
about his conduct while chair of the
Post Office, including blocking an
investigation into that conduct. My
department is responsible for whistle-
blowers and I wouldn’t ignore the
allegations.
“My call with Staunton was with offi-
cials. They took a complete record. He
has given an interview full of lies about
our conversation during his dismissal.
“The details will emerge soon
enough as I won’t let the matter rest
here, but will be discussing [it] with gov-
ernment lawyers. Henry Staunton had
a lack of grip getting justice for post-
masters. The serious concerns over his
conduct were the reasons I asked him
to step down.”
Badenoch said that the government
would be making a statement today
“telling the truth”.
Staunton, 75, who became Post
Office chairman in 2022 after nine
Cleaner sues after being fired
‘for eating a leftover sandwich’
Jonathan Ames Legal Editor
A City law firm that earns £46 million a
year has been accused of having a
cleaner sacked for eating a leftover
sandwich while tidying a room.
The cleaner, a single mother from
Ecuador, has launched an employment
claim after having worked for an
agency that was contracted to
Devonshires, the corporate law firm.
Representatives of the United Voices
of the World, a union that supports
migrant workers, said the cleaner, who
had worked at the company for two
years, was sacked just before Christmas.
The woman, named as Gabriela, was
said to have been fired for the “theft” of
a tuna sandwich, “which was left over
from a lawyers’ meeting and was due to
be discarded”.
RollOnFriday, the legal news website
which first reported the dispute, said
that the cleaner had submitted an
employment tribunal claim.
Union officials pointed out, however,
that proceedings “can take years to
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
years chairing WH Smith, told The
Sunday Times: “Early on, I was told by
a fairly senior person to stall on spend
on compensation and on the replace-
ment of Horizon and to limp, in quota-
tion marks — I did a file note on it —
limp into the election.
“It was not an anti-postmaster thing,
it was ... straight financials. I didn’t ask,
because I said, ‘I’m having no part of it.
I’m not here to limp into the election.
it’s not the right thing to do by postmas-
ters’.”
A source at the Department for Busi-
ness told the BBC Staunton’s claims
were “rubbish”, saying: “He received a
letter from a senior civil servant early in
his tenure requesting he prioritise get-
ting compensation to postmasters.
“This sort of blame-passing was a
feature of Mr Staunton’s time in the
Post Office and emblematic of his lack
of control over the organisation and
why the board needed new leadership.”
Staunton said he stood by the accusa-
tions made in The Sunday Times.
More than 700 branch managers
were prosecuted by the Post Office
between 1999 and 2015 after faulty
Horizon accounting software made it
look as though money was missing
from their shops.
Until Kevin Hollinrake, the postal
affairs minister, intervened last Sep-
tember and offered £600,000 upfront
to those wrongly convicted, the Post
Office operated three separate com-
pensation schemes. The main one, the
Horizon shortfall scheme, had paid an
average of £36,000 to more than 2,400
people by the end of last year.
The recent ITV drama Mr Bates vs
The Post Office unleashed a tidal wave
of public anger, prompting Rishi Sunak
and Hollinrake to promise unprece-
dented legislation to overturn all con-
victions related to the Horizon scandal.
A government spokesman said: “We
utterly refute these allegations. The
government has sped up compensation
to victims and consistently encouraged
postmasters to come forward with their
claims.”
conclude and she needs a job and an
income now”.
Devonshires, which recorded a pre-
tax profit last year of nearly £21 million,
describes itself as “a law firm with per-
sonality”. Its partners have tried to dis-
tance the firm from the decision, claim-
ing it was a matter for its contractor.
The Times understands that the firm
had contacted bosses at the company,
Total Clean, to complain that sand-
wiches left after meetings were not
being returned.
United Voices of the World, which
describes itself as a campaigning union,
said: “Sacking cleaners on grounds like
this — treating them like the dirt they
clean — is not uncommon.”
A spokesman for Devonshires said
the firm had not made a “formal” com-
plaint against the cleaner and had told
the company not to take any action.
Total Clean said in a statement that
“trust and honesty” was of paramount
importance. It added that all steps
taken “have been in accordance with
UK employment law”.
the times | Monday February 19 2024 9

News

Head: Teach girls

to be less polite

G
irls need
lessons in
being less
polite and
how to take
up more space in the
workplace, according to
a new book (Nicola
Woolcock writes).
It says that girls
flourish at single-sex
schools because they
can be taught to be
more assertive and
forthright in their
careers, as well as
excelling academically.
Head teachers of
single-sex and faith
schools were
interviewed about
different approaches to
education for the book,
Schools of Thought,
written by Jane Lunnon
and David James, the
head and deputy head of
two private schools in
London.
Contributors included
Clare Wagner, who was
head of Henrietta
Barnett, a selective girls’
grammar school in
north London. Despite
its outstanding results,
she said: “While we still
have a gender pay gap
and women are still
under-represented in the
top jobs in the FTSE 100,
there is still a battle to
be fought and won.
“This is not just about
addressing inequity in
society, it’s also about
how girls and women
see themselves and
carry themselves.
“We talk to them a lot
about how they need to
hold themselves and
present themselves; how
to be confident in
speaking out, because
they will absolutely need
that self-assurance.”
The school
concentrated on
generating debate so
that girls could speak in
class, she explained.
“In lessons they have
to come up to the board
a lot. We require them
to explain their thinking
precisely and accurately
to others.
“This is about a
confident articulation of
learning and ensuring
that students are using
appropriate technical
terms and language. We
want them to articulate
and justify their ideas.
“We definitely
recognise the need in
some of our girls to
develop more
confidence in the way
they articulate and
present themselves.
They are apt to be very
polite and to express
themselves too gently, Clare Wagner, the former head of Henrietta Barnett grammar, believes it’s important for girls to have the confidence to face challenging environments
and we need to ensure
that as women they can about not having to accepted truth which “Being single sex ... gives “Moving from bravado unreasonable to expect
be forthright.” worry about what they may not be everyone’s the opportunity to work to brave resilience is a that in 20 years or so
Wagner, who was looked like at school. truth, but those who hard on breaking the constant focus for the there will be few single-
head of the school until There was a wider don’t subscribe to it feel view that ‘boys will be pastoral team.” sex schools in the UK.
September, conceded issue across education, that they can’t speak up boys’, challenging the More private schools “The key question for
that some girls find with pupils feeling they and that is troubling.” Andrew Tate style of are going co-educational any newly co-ed school,
all-female environments have to keep quiet if In the book, Peter misogynistic, toxic to shore up numbers. is: ‘Are the sexes equal
too intense and that their viewpoint is not in Broughton, the head of masculinity, In the book, Jenny in every way, or is this
friendship groups can be line with the majority, Westminster City encouraging boys to Brown, the head of City still a single-sex school
tricky to navigate, but she added. “It feels as School, a boys’ school in share emotion rather of London School for which has brought in
said most were relieved though there is an central London, wrote: than bottle it up. Girls, said: “It is not the other sex?’”

Dispute over using trans milk for babies

Katie Gibbons can. A child’s welfare must always take
Behind the story precedence over identity politics and
Milk from transgender women who contested belief systems that are not

were born male is as good for babies as
a mother’s breast milk, an NHS Trust
said.
A leaked letter from the medical
director of University Hospitals Sussex
NHS Foundation Trust defends the
practice of using drugs to induce lac-
tation and enable trans women to feed
babies.
Sent on behalf of the chief executive
in response to complaints from a
campaign group, the letter states that
“human milk” is the “ideal food for
infants”.
The document, disclosed in a report
by the Policy Exchange think tank, was
sent in August to Children of Trans-
itioners, who had complained about the
trust’s policy on perinatal care for trans
and non-binary people.
Dr Rachael James, medical director
of the trust, wrote: “Medications are
sometimes used to induce lactation,
similar to the natural hormones which
encourage lactation to develop when
the baby is newly born although occa-
sionally some people are able to induce
lactation without hormonal treatment.
The evidence which is available
demonstrates that the milk is compar-
able to that produced following the
birth of a baby.”
She added that “staff further clarify
that the term human milk is meant to
W
omen through hormone use over a month or every transgender evidence-based. The NHS should not
naturally supplementation and longer enables the newly- woman, and the amount be indulging in this nonsense.”
make the breast tissue stimulation formed breasts to start of milk produced can Maya Forstater, the director of the
hormone using a pump. milk production, as for vary widely. Very few campaign group Sex Matters, said it
prolactin Similar methods are biological women. transgender women was “deeply disturbing” for NHS exec-
after giving birth, which also used to help However, domperidone manage to exclusively utives to “prioritise trans identities over
triggers the activation of biological men wanting to carries the risk of causing feed a baby with their what is best for mothers and their ba-
milk producing alveolar produce milk and feed a heart arrhythmias, milk alone and must bies”.
cells (Katie Gibbons baby. They must first take particularly when supplement with formula, Milli Hill, an author and maternal
writes). testosterone suppressants administered in higher but say the experience is and childbirth expert, said: “Male
The baby suckling at in conjunction with doses to stimulate worth it nonetheless. people, however they identify or de-
the breast produces more oestrogen and prolactin secretion. A paper in the Journal scribe themselves, cannot breastfeed.”
prolactin and the “love progesterone hormone Caution is advised, of Human Lactation University Sussex Hospitals Trust,
hormone” oxytocin, treatment, which especially for people with earlier stated that: “For which has been a member of Stone-
which causes milk to be develops breast tissue. a genetic predisposition transgender women ... on wall’s diversity champions programme,
released. Drugs such as the to heart conditions. oestrogen-based, gender- was the first NHS trust to use gender-
Women who have not anti-nausea treatments Little research has been affirming hormone inclusive language for its maternity ser-
experienced childbirth domperidone or done on the transference therapy, the ability to vices, including terms such as “chest-
but wish to breastfeed, metoclopramide are of high doses of these nourish their infants feeding” and “birthing parent”.
such as adoptive mothers then taken as they are drugs to babies through through production of The specific policy on drug-induced
or those whose partners found to stimulate the milk. their own milk may be a lactation for trans parents has been re-
have carried the baby, production of prolactin as Inducing lactation may profoundly gender- moved from the trust’s website, which
have been able to do so a side-effect. Continued not be successful for affirming experience.” now links to a document produced by
the breastfeeding organisation La
Leche League on transgender and non-
be neutral and is not gender-biased”. experiments on babies. Breast milk centrations were under 1 per cent with binary parents. It states that it “sup-
The Labour MP Rosie Duffield accused made by a baby’s biological mother is “no observable side effects” in babies ports everyone who wants to breast-
the trust of using babies as “guinea pigs tailor-made for that baby.” fed from induced lactation. feed or chestfeed in reaching their
for someone else’s lifestyle choice”. Defending its position, the trust cited Lottie Moore, the head of quality and goals. We do not discriminate based on
“When a man has not and cannot five scientific studies and guidance identity at Policy Exchange, said: “This sex, gender or gender identity.”
grow a baby, why on earth are we pan- from the World Health Organisation, letter is unbalanced and naive in its as- A spokesman from the foundation
dering to this? Who does it benefit? Not that extol the benefits of breast milk sertion that the secretions produced by trust said: “We stand by the facts
the children,” she told The Mail on Sun- over formula. It also referenced a 2022 a male on hormones can nourish an in- of the letter and the cited evidence sup-
day. “We wouldn’t do any other medical study that found milk testosterone con- fant in the way a mother’s breast milk porting them.”
10
News
Goldendoodle
is the biggest
draw for a
family pet
T
he goldendoodle, a
cross between a
golden retriever
and a poodle, was
the country’s most
sought after dog last year
(Will Humphries writes).
A study of sales and
adverts placed on the
Pets4Homes website, the
UK’s largest marketplace
for pets, found that people
with children born during
the pandemic were looking
for calm and sociable pets.
The survey also found
that the era of the celebrity
handbag dog was coming to
an end. Sales of toy breeds
such as chihuahuas and
French bulldogs fell by
almost half last year.
Data from the site, which
lists about a third of all
puppies advertised, found
that the goldendoodle, or
groodle, was the nation’s
favourite dog last year, with
995 potential buyers for
each dog advertised. They
sell for up to £1,600 —
expensive but much less
than during the pandemic.
Their hypoallergenic coats
make them easy to care for
and families are attracted
to their calm temperament,
though they need up to two
hours of exercise a day.
The favourite cat last year
was the Maine coon, a large
sociable breed said to have
a dog-like disposition. It
had 582 potential buyers
per pet advertised.
Axel Lagercrantz, the
chief executive of
Pets4Homes, said many
families were seeking child-
friendly dogs after the
pandemic baby boom, when
for the first time since 2012
the fertility rate rose from
one year to the next.
“Goldendoodles are
typically very good with
children and other pets,” he
added. “It is no surprise
cross-breeds are in highest
The goldendoodle, a golden
retriever crossed with a
poodle, has become a
favourite for families after the
pandemic as well as leading
performers such as Usher,
top left, who appreciate its
calm and friendly nature
demand, giving an owner
the best of both worlds.”
Lagercrantz said other
popular cross-breeds
included Maltipoos, a mix
between the Maltese and
poodle; labradoodles, a mix
of a labrador and poodle;
2GM
and cavapoos, a Cavalier
King Charles spaniel
crossed with a poodle.
Goldendoodles are a
favourite with performers
such as Adele and the top-
selling American R&B
musician Usher.
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
Top judges
criticised
in ‘bias’ row
Jonathan Ames Legal Editor
Catherine Baksi
Senior judges are facing criticism for
their silence in a row over possible bias
in the sentencing of three women con-
victed of displaying terrorist images.
The Times understands that promi-
nent legal figures have expressed “con-
cern and worry” over the lack of public
comment from Baroness Carr of
Walton-on-the-Hill, the lady chief
justice, and Paul Goldspring, the chief
magistrate, in the controversy around
Tan Ikram, the sentencing judge.
Heba Alhayek, 29, Pauline Ankunda,
26, and Noimutu Olayinka Taiwo, 27,
were found guilty last week of an off-
ence under the Terrorism Act after
displaying images of a paraglider at a
protest in London seven days after the
October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.
In passing sentence, Ikram told the
women he had “decided not to punish”
them and gave them each a 12-month
conditional discharge. It later emerged
that Ikram had liked a LinkedIn post by
a barrister that branded Israel a “terror-
ist” and called for a “free Palestine”,
although Ikram later said he “didn’t
know that I’d liked that post”.
Two Jewish campaign groups have
complained to the Judicial Conduct
Investigations Office about Ikram.
Stephen Parkinson, director of public
prosecutions, is “carefully considering”
an application for a judicial review.
the times | Monday February 19 2024 11

Phillip Schofield pays ‘six-figure’ sum over affair with colleague
Charlotte Wace
Phillip Schofield has made a substantial
payment to a young crew member he
had an affair with in a deal that came
with a non-disclosure agreement, it has
emerged.
The arrangement allegedly prevents
the man, who is 34 years younger than
Schofield, from talking about the rela-
tionship and covers his financial losses.
Schofield, the former co-host of This
Morning, resigned from ITV last year
after he admitted lying to bosses about
his “unwise but not illegal” affair with
the junior crew member.
The younger man was 15 when he
met Schofield, who helped him secure
work experience on the show at the age
of 19. The pair are said to have first
embarked on a romantic relationship
when the man was 20, by which point
he had been given a job as a runner. It
took place before Schofield publicly
came out as gay and while he was still
married to his wife, Stephanie Lowe.
Lawyers acting for Schofield
confirmed that a deal had included
payment to compensate the man for
financial losses he suffered as a conse-
quence of the media coverage of their
relationship. This was incorporated in
an agreement which included a mutual
non-disclosure provision, they said.
Details of the agreement were
reported by the Mail on Sunday, which
The deal agreed by
Phillip Schofield’s
lawyers includes a
non-disclosure
agreement
claimed that the man had been paid a
six-figure sum. A source told the news-
paper: “There was a payment made for
various matters ... and as part of that, an
NDA was arranged and signed.
“It means that Phil knows that his
young ex will not ever be able to speak
about their relationship, so he can
probably sleep a lot better at night now
... if the full details came out, it would be
pretty cataclysmic for him.” Schofield
had denied the rumours when they first
surfaced in 2020.
He stepped down from This Morning
last May following reports that his
relationship with Holly Willoughby, his
co-host, had come under strain. The
rumours of difficulties between the pair
had emerged during a tumultuous
period for Schofield after his brother,
Tim, was convicted of sexual activity
with a child in May. Schofield, who had
taken a leave of absence while the trial
was ongoing, said after the verdicts that
he was disowning his brother.
Later in May he quit ITV altogether,
having been due to present the British
Soap Awards, as he finally confirmed
News
having a “consensual on-off relation-
ship with a younger male colleague”.
Schofield, who was also dropped by
his agency, said in a statement to the
Daily Mail that he was “deeply sorry”
for lying about the relationship.
“While I met the man when he was a
teenager ... it was only after he started to
work on the show that it became more
than just a friendship ... That relation-
ship was unwise but not illegal. It is now
over,” the statement added.
Willoughby later confirmed that
Schofield had personally lied to her,
writing on Instagram: “I asked Phil
directly if this was true and was told it
was not. It’s been very hurtful to now
find out that this was a lie.”

Weight-loss
drugs may help
addicts kick
fentanyl habit
Rhys Blakely Science Correspondent
A cheap weight-loss treatment could be
a powerful weapon against drug
addiction, with a study suggesting that
it can reduce cravings for powerful
opiate pain killers as much as staying at
expensive rehab clinics.
Ozempic, Liraglutide and other so-
called GLP-1 weight-loss drugs have
soared in popularity, with celebrities
such as Elon Musk and Oprah Winfrey
describing how they have used them to
slim.
New data has raised hopes that they
could also help addicts kick fentanyl, a
synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times
stronger than heroin, which the
Department of Health says caused
surges in drug-related deaths in
England in 2017, 2021 and 2023 and
which caused tens of thousands of
fatalities in the US last year.
People who had become addicted to
opioids who were given Liraglutide —
which works in the same way as
Ozempic but must be taken more often
and is cheaper at $10 a day — reported
a 40 per cent reduction in cravings,
compared with a control group who
were given a placebo. Most had been
taking fentanyl.
The effect was seen within a few days.
According to the researchers, the
reduction was about the same as if a
person had intensive treatment at a
high-quality residential addiction
centre for a fortnight, which would cost
more than $1,000 a day. In the US,
where the trial was held, Liraglutide
costs about $300 for a month.
recovery when they might say, ‘No, I’m
actually not craving this at all’,” said
Professor Sue Grigson, director of the
addiction centre at Penn State College
of Medicine in Hershey, who co-led the
research.
“This work started because of the
huge increase in overdose deaths due to
opioids, which have accelerated follow-
ing Covid. In the United States, we’ve
lost over 112,000 people this past year
— that’s one person every five minutes.
We have a real sense of urgency as a
consequence of that. Some of us on the
research team have lost people — that
pushes us.”
She explained that the work was built
on the idea that some individuals are far
more vulnerable to addiction than
others. “They’ll do anything, basically,
to get the drug. They’ll not take care of
themselves or their family, they’ll take
big risks,” she said.
“We started to think about that as
being driven by need — something like JW Anderson
a desperate need for food, water or salt. freshened up
So that’s what led us to GLP-1 — it’s a retro classics, left;
satiety agent that is able to reduce Emilia Wickstead
motivated behaviour for ‘needed’ reworked vintage
substances.” designs
The trial participants were asked a
set of questions four times a day via pin-curled wigs. If that the New Zealander has
their smartphones, including whether
they were feeling an urge to use drugs.
Comfy chic sounds too Mrs Merton,
there were also tailored
become a regular in the
Princess of Wales’s
Cravings were measured on a four-
point scale. The average for the control
your gran FitFlops at Roksanda
Ilincic’s show at the
trousers, trenchcoats,
suede shorts and striped
rotation. Known for
vintage silhouettes in
group was 1.5. For those given Liraglu-
tide it was 0.92.
would surely weekend and Crocs —
strewn with pearls,
crewnecks. Imaginative
knits were festooned with
zingy shades and fabrics,
her collection was one of
Scott Bunce, associate professor of
psychiatry at Penn State University,
approve of admittedly — at Simone
Rocha, and autumn 2024
loops and trompe l’oeil
tie-waist sleeves.
her most streetwise.
Inspired by the Teddy
who also co-led the study, said: “That is looking more homely Anderson, 39, who girls and beatniks, she

The findings were presented at the
annual conference of the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science in Denver.
The study, which involved 20 people,
is the first to look at using a GLP-1 drug
such as Liraglutide or Ozempic to treat
opioid-use disorder.
It also found that some of those who
used the diet drug experienced periods
where they reported being entirely free
of cravings for opioids — something
not seen in the control group.
“That was surprising. We were really
excited to find that there could be any
time in anyone’s day that early in treat-
ment, within days of starting their
T
amount of reduction is the equivalent he phrase
of spending two weeks in a very high- “statement shoe”
quality treatment centre, which would usually refers to
cost around $15,000.” bejewelled
He said that the results had to be brogues or high
treated cautiously because of the small heels, but London Fashion
number of participants, but there was Week offered up comfier
no sign of any dangerous side-effects. versions for next season
“It’s a small sample, but it’s very encour- (Harriet Walker writes).
aging,” he said. At JW Anderson
“The safety profile of this class of yesterday models wore an
medication has been tested in thou- ironic take on your
sands of individuals, and is well known. granny’s favourite fleece-
We wanted to know if it was safe when lined bootie slippers. The
used as an opioid treatment medication designer preferred to call
— and it appears to be safe, as well as them “housewife flats”.
effective.” Add to this the clog-like
than haute. Not that the
front row had dressed
down: Rosamund Pike,
Ruth Wilson, Minnie
Driver and Keeley Hawes
were all present before the
Baftas ceremony.
On the catwalk,
Jonathan Anderson
emphasised the gran-
friendly trend by pairing
those toasty toe-warmers
with retro thermal undies.
These were reimagined as
clinging T-shirts,
camisoles and hotpants
and worn by models in
heads LVMH’s luxury
leather goods brand
Loewe as well as his own
label, has blended high
concept and cosiness to
gain an arty audience.
Tracey Emin nodded
approvingly from the front
row at mini-dresses made
from giant cable-knit
loops, but Anderson
knows the sales will come
from having the purled
pattern on Instagram-
friendly dinky handbags.
Since Emilia Wickstead
started her brand in 2009
gave deliberately drab
denim and navy leather
the couture treatment in
circle skirts paired with
workwear jackets. Pink
ballgown silk became a
cheeky, low-cut playsuit
with matching opera coat,
while pencil skirts and a
car coat in a zeitgeisty
shade of oxblood added
femme fatale smoulder.
Whether HRH orders the
stand-out chocolate brown
trouser suit remains to be
seen, but no doubt fashion
editors will.
12
News
Minister to say SAS lied about Afghan killings
Larisa Brown Defence Editor
Johnny Mercer, the veterans minister,
will tell a judge this week that he be-
lieves senior SAS commanders lied to
him when they disputed claims that
elite soldiers engaged in a policy of exe-
cuting Afghan men during the war.
Mercer is expected to tell an inquiry
he raised “serious concerns” in govern-
ment in 2019 over the decision to close
an investigation into the behaviour of
UK special forces in Afghanistan.
He wrote to Ben Wallace, the then
defence secretary, saying he was pri-
vately concerned that war crimes alle-
gations against British forces were true.
Claims surfaced in 2017 that members
of the SAS had killed unarmed Afghan
men of fighting age in cold blood and
falsified mission reports during bet-
ween 2010 and 2013. In one 2011 case,
special forces soldiers were alleged to
have handcuffed and hooded civilians
before shooting them dead. The allega-
tions emerged in a classified Royal Mil-
itary Police investigation, Operation
Northmoor, which was run from an un-
derground bunker in Cornwall.
Mercer, who served in a Special Boat
Service (SBS) task force in Afghanistan
from 2008-2009, was a minister in the
Ministry of Defence when he was asked
by Wallace to “get to the bottom” of
what had happened. The Times under-
stands that after investigating the
matter himself, Mercer did not believe
what he considered to be “implausible
accounts” that the SAS regiment had
acted lawfully in Afghanistan. Despite
his concerns, one source said there was
no new evidence and although Mercer
pushed for a judicial inquiry into the
claims, the case was closed.
When it was announced that the in-
vestigation had ended, Mercer, who
spent years fighting to protect British
troops from relentless legal investiga-
tions, publicly backed the decision.
Two families then took the British
government to court and an independ-
ent public inquiry was granted. The
Afghan inquiry, which began last
October, is looking into night raids
carried out by UK special forces
between mid-2010 and mid-2013 and is
examining allegations of killing and
subsequent cover-ups. Mercer is sched-
uled to give evidence to the inquiry
tomorrow, the first minister to do so.
On the first day, Oliver Glasgow KC,
the counsel to the inquiry, told the High
Court: “The central allegation at the
heart of this inquiry is stark.” Raids on
family compounds, intended to target
Taliban commanders, “were abused by
elements within UK special forces”, he
said. In December the inquiry was told
Purr excellence Rupert, an exotic shorthair, was named Best Household Pet at
the GCCF Coventry and Leicester cat show, at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire
‘New Schindler’ creates list
to help artists flee Taliban
Larisa Brown Defence Editor
Mohsen Makhmalbaf has spent more
than two years trying to help hundreds
of Afghan artists escape the Taliban
who have effectively criminalised crea-
tive expression.
He has been jailed in Iran and
bombed in Afghanistan. But the Iranian
dissident and filmmaker, who lives in
Britain, does not fear death. What mat-
ters is how he uses the time he has left.
In August 2021 as British and Amer-
ican troops put on evacuation flights for
Afghans as they withdrew from the
country, Makhmalbaf drew up a list of
800 poets, dancers, filmmakers, musi-
cians, journalists and others whose
lives were at risk. He and his family
were able to help 385 artists to safety
and is trying to help 300 more.
His efforts have earned him the repu-
tation as the modern-day “Schindler”,
in reference to Oskar Schindler, the
German industrialist who sheltered
some 1,100 Jews from the Nazis.
Makhmalbaf, 66, is originally from
Tehran but has lived in London for over
a decade. He and 13 MPs are appealing
to the UK government to help rescue
artists who remain in Afghanistan.
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
that a special forces computer server
had been “forensically wiped” as part of
a cover-up to prevent military police
from recovering evidence relating to
the suspected killings of civilians.
Information was deleted in such a
way that it was “irreversible” and im-
possible to determine what it was, ac-
cording to a log entry written by a
senior investigating officer. The server
was considered likely to have contained
“highly relevant” emails and other
documents, explained Glasgow.
Much of the inquiry is being held
without members of the public or press
present. Mercer’s office declined to
comment on the inquiry.
Makhmalbaf, whose efforts to save the
artists are documented in a film The
List, which will premiere in London this
week, said those who remained were
under constant threat. “Those who are
still in Afghanistan have gone into hid-
ing, some of them are in prison. I’m
worried they will be arrested or
tortured or even killed,” he said.
One person he helped was an artist
A film about the
efforts of Mohsen
Makhmalbaf will
premiere this week
who the Taliban tried to catch, but as
she tried to escape they killed her
father. Another made a film about
LGBT rights and was jailed. Footage
from The List showed an artist whose
eye appeared to have been pulled out.
In August 2021 Fawad Andarabi, a
folk singer, was dragged from his home
and shot in the head. “We are trying to
touch the heart of the UK government.
Maybe this film will persuade them to
help,” Makhmalbaf said.
the times | Monday February 19 2024 2GM 13

News

Don’t let climate

activists occupy
MPs’ homes,
police are told
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor
Ali Mitib, Dominic Kennedy
Government ministers have called on
the police to take an “extremely robust”
approach to Just Stop Oil activists who
are planning to occupy MPs’ homes
before the general election.
The campaigners, notorious for
blocking roads, attacking artworks and
interrupting sporting events, are pre-
paring to target elected politicians.
Their tactics have been tested already,
with protests before Christmas outside
the homes of Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir
Starmer.
A Just Stop Oil source said visiting
MPs at home was “not off the cards by
any means” but reaffirmed a commit-
ment to non-violence. “Our homes will
be visited by flood waters if politicians
won’t end our addiction to oil, so it’s
only fair that we pop by to remind them
of this,” the source said. “It’s about
people in their community and in their
regions trying to take the power back
and exercise their autonomy to political
actors that don’t represent them.”
A minister said the police must protect
politicians’ homes from campaigners.
“These unhinged zealots are unable to
win rational arguments and unable to
“The target is Labour MPs” although
they “might just be targeting Tories’ too”.
Another activist said: “What this is
going to mean is probably ... bothering
politicians, interrupting speeches, party
conferences and being a bit shouty.”
Just Stop Oil confronted Labour last
week by delivering letters to the offices
of MPs and candidates demanding that
they resign unless a Starmer govern-
ment revoked oil and gas licences.
Two ministers have written to chief
constables urging them to protect MPs’
homes after a heated anti-Israel protest
last week outside the Dorset home of the
Tory MP Tobias Ellwood. The police let
campaigners stage a rally while holding
placards depicting the Bournemouth
MP’s face beside bloody handprints and
the slogan “Complicit in genocide”.
Ellwood wrote: “We are witnessing a
growing trend where public servants
increasingly face intimidation and
threats. Look at a parliamentarian’s
email inbox and there is now a constant
barrage of hate messages, not least
against female MPs.”
Greenpeace protesters occupied the would be prepared for the Wright was “a Steve Wright had a heart
roof of the prime minister’s Yorkshire
home last summer. Mike Freer, the MP
Wright ‘hid coroner.
Mark Wells, a friend of
hypochondriac” who was
“never healthy” and did
bypass operation “about 14
or 15 months ago” which
for Finchley & Golders Green and a
supporter of Israel, is resigning because
ill health’, Wright, told the Behind
The Scenes with Colin
not eat properly.
“Every meal I had with
seemed to have gone well

win elections, so instead they resort to

intimidation and harassment,” they
of threats to his safety, including nar-
rowly escaping being murdered by the
old friend Edmonds podcast that he
had the surgery about 14
him was an unhealthy
one,” he said. “He didn’t
the show was still
extremely popular, there
said. “We cannot allow democratically
elected representatives of any party to
man who went on to kill his fellow Tory
MP Sir David Amess. Jonathan Gullis,
discloses or 15 months ago after his
long-running afternoon
drink much but he
certainly used to smoke
had been no drop in the
number of listeners that

be targeted by these mindless thugs,
and we expect the police to be extremely
robust in dealing with it.”
On Friday The Times revealed that
Just Stop Oil would be targeting Labour
MPs and candidates and encouraging
them to sign a pledge to resign if a
Labour government agreed any new oil
and gas licences.
A subsequent investigation by The
Mail on Sunday revealed that the group
aims to target MPs’ offices and occupy
them. “What our strategy is, at least in
the short term, is that we’re going to be
occupying Labour MPs’ offices, their
houses, disrupting their speeches, etc,”
an activist told an undercover reporter.
S
Tory MP for Stoke on Trent North, told teve Wright had show had been axed. cigars. And we would he was reaching.”
GB News that he had “bulletproof heart surgery at Wells, the former often walk around the “He felt the show was
clingfilm” on his windows of his home least a year ago controller of ITV block smoking cigars. I still hot. He was still
and panic alarms in his bedroom. and had been entertainment, said: “He think in time that took its working as well as ever ...
Tom Tugendhat, the security minis- “more ill than he had a bypass operation toll.” the show felt as good as it
ter, and Chris Philp, the policing minis- had been letting on”, a which had gone well but I Wells added that his ever felt.
ter, told chief constables that elected friend has claimed think he had been more friend was “extremely “So he couldn’t
representatives must “feel safe in their (Charlotte Wace writes). ill than he had been surprised” to leave his rationalise why suddenly
homes, free from fear and harassment”, The DJ, who presented letting on to that point. Radio 2 afternoon show there was this desire to
according to The Sunday Telegraph. Sunday Love Songs on “The recovery ... had in 2022, when he was make any change.”
“The government has … confirmed Radio 2, was found dead gone pretty well, though replaced after 23 years by The DJ’s brother,
that, where the facts support it, section at the age of 69 at his the events of the last Scott Mills. Laurence, has said
42 of the Criminal Justice and Police home last week. Police couple of days would “It came as a bolt from Wright “was aware that
Act 2001 can be used by the police to confirmed that his death suggest that was probably the blue,” he said. “And he could have looked
direct protesters away from a residen- was not being treated as what, in the end, came that’s what he couldn’t after himself better, in his
tial dwelling, in order to prevent harass- suspicious and a report for him.” Wells said understand. He felt that lifestyle choices”.
ment alarm or distress to the resident.”

Wooden satellite goes against grain Trigger warnings? Art is

Richard Lloyd Parry Asia Editor
Japanese scientists are building the
world’s first wooden satellite in an
attempt to reduce the pollution of space
with metal junk.
The LignoSat, which will be made of
magnolia wood and is the size of a
kitchen mug, is expected to be
launched on a US rocket as early as the
summer. The project, by a team from
Kyoto University and the commercial
company Sumitomo Forestry follows a
successful experiment in 2022, when
samples of wood were exposed to the
rigours of space for nine months on the
International Space Station.
Wood does not burn in space because
of the lack of oxygen, and the absence of
micro-organisms means it does not rot
either. The ISS tests revealed that it is
also remarkably resistant to extremes
of temperature and does not change in
structure in a zero-gravity vacuum.
“Building in space with futuristic,
space-age materials might seem to be
the obvious choice: lumber’s fragility
and combustibility might seem
counterintuitive by comparison,”
Kyoto University said in a statement.
“Therein lies the rationale for wood:
as a natural, economical, carbon-based
material, its production is considerably
more sustainable than advanced alter-
natives, and its disposal, especially
when dropped from orbit into the upper
atmosphere, is complete and without
harmful byproducts.”
It added: “Despite the extreme envi-
ronment of outer space involving sig-
nificant temperature changes and ex-
posure to intense cosmic rays and dan-
gerous solar particles for ten months,
tests confirmed no decomposition or
deformations, such as cracking, warp-
ing, peeling or surface damage.”
A wooden satellite will burn to biode-
gradable ash when re-entering the
atmosphere. By contrast, aluminium
satellites break up into small particles
considered a dangerous pollutant, cap-
able of causing damage to other space
vehicles and potentially the ozone lay-
er. Wood is also more easily penetrated
by radio waves, meaning that the satel-
lite’s communication equipment,
which will still be made of metal, can be
carried inside the magnolia shell.
There are close to 10,600 satellites
orbiting the earth, 3,000 of them
defunct, a total mass of more than
11,000 tonnes. About 2,500 new satel-
lites are expected to join them every
year over the next seven years.
meant to shock, says actor
Charlotte Wace
Matt Smith says trigger warnings in
theatre should be scrapped because art
is “meant to be dangerous”.
The actor, best known for his roles in
Doctor Who and The Crown, was
asked on BBC1’s Sunday With Laura
Kuenssberg about comments by
Ralph Fiennes who said audiences
should be “shocked and disturbed”.
Smith, 41, who is starring in the
West End play, An Enemy Of
The People, said: “I agree
with Ralph utterly and
completely. That’s why
Matt Smith joined calls
to end the warnings
we go to the theatre isn’t it? To be
shocked, to be arrested out of ourselves.
“But I worry that we’re ... stripping
the danger and the invention and the
ingenuity out of everything. Isn’t art
meant to be dangerous?
“I always thought that was one of
the great things of doing Doctor
Who is that you scare children but
in a controlled way. But you did
scare them. Imagine going to kids
watching Doctor Who [and saying],
‘By the way this might scare you’.
No, I’m not into it.”
Sir Ian McKellen, 84,
has called the warnings
given at theatres about
potentially distressing
content “ludicrous”.
14 2GM
News
Anti-psychotic
drug reviewed
after 400 deaths
Sean O’Neill
A prescription drug linked to hundreds
of deaths each year is to be reviewed by
Escape act A replica of a tunnel built by PoWs at the Stalag Luft III camp in Nazi-occupied Poland has been created at the the medicines watchdog after a Times
Eden Camp museum near Malton, North Yorkshire. Patrick Flint, a descendant of Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, who was investigation highlighted failures in the
murdered by the Gestapo after masterminding the “Great Escape” almost 80 years ago, was one of the first to try it out monitoring of its use.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists
has also called for a new approach to
the anti-psychotic clozapine, saying it
had “contributed to deaths which could
have been prevented”.
Clozapine is supposed to be one of
the most tightly controlled drugs avail-
able on the NHS and is used in difficult
cases of paranoid schizophrenia and
psychosis in Parkinson’s disease.
About 37,000 people in the UK are
prescribed clozapine and it is regarded
by psychiatrists as highly effective in
reducing suicidal thoughts. But it
comes with multiple high-risk side-
effects, including excessive weight gain,
heart problems, severely weakened
immune systems and interactions with
other substances, notably those in ciga-
rettes, which can trigger toxicity. A
crown court judge recently described it
as “a drug of last resort”.
The Times reported last month that
data collected under the Medicines and
Healthcare Products Regulatory
Authority (MHRA) yellow card
scheme linked the drug to more than
400 deaths and thousands of severe
adverse drug reactions every year.
The investigation revealed that
health chiefs failed to act on a series of
warnings from coroners about inad-
equate monitoring of patients’ drug
levels and a lack of understanding by
frontline staff of the potentially fatal
side-effects. Patients and their families
were often in the dark about the dan-
gers of the medication.
One patient died while on a cloza-
pine trial in 2016 despite her family
pleading with psychiatrists to stop
giving her the drug because of the
severe impact it was having on her.
Louise Hunt, the Birmingham coro-
ner, complained that mistakes she
Families of stabbing victims
‘sickened by police voyeurs’
George Sandeman
The families of three people who were
stabbed to death have said they were
sickened to learn police officers had
shared graphic details of the injuries
suffered by their loved ones in a
WhatsApp group.
Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-
Kumar, who were both 19, and Ian
Coates, 65, were killed in Nottingham
by Valdo Calocane, 32, in June last year.
Calocane was convicted of man-
slaughter by reason of diminished re-
sponsibility and sentenced to indefinite
detention in a high-security hospital.
Speaking on behalf of the victims’
families, Emma Webber, Barnaby’s
mother, said officers sharing such
details sickened them.
“What an abhorrent way to conduct
an investigation,” she told the Daily
Mail. “To learn that there has been
internal needless voyeurism of the
vicious knife attacks on our loved ones
is unforgivable. We were not, at any
point, made aware of this [data breach].”
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
identified in a clozapine death in 2020
had been repeated in a fatal case involv-
ing the same NHS trust in 2022.
In a letter to Kate Northcott Spall,
whose brother, William Northcott, 39,
died with high levels of clozapine in his
bloodstream in 2021, the MHRA prom-
ised a “thorough review” of clozapine-
related deaths.
The MHRA said it was gathering
data from drug manufacturers and
patient-monitoring schemes. A spokes-
man said: “We will carefully assess the
data as soon as it is received and consid-
er whether additional risk minimisa-
tion measures are needed to raise
awareness and reduce the risks further.
Patient safety is our top priority.”
Dr Lade Smith, president of the
Royal College of Psychiatrists, said she
had had a positive meeting with North-
cott Spall and was committed to raising
awareness of the risks of the drug.
“We need to ensure medical profes-
sionals, patients and their loved ones
are aware of how clozapine works, the
risks associated with it and how its use
should be managed effectively,” Smith
said. “There also needs to be greater
awareness of the fact that people with
mental illness frequently have physical
health problems too. People with
severe mental illness die up to 20 years
younger than the rest of the population,
many from preventable physical illness.
It is therefore important that treat-
ments are tailored towards all of a per-
son’s needs, their psychological state,
yes, but also their physiological state
and social environment.”
Northcott Spall said she was delight-
ed with the MHRA and the Royal Col-
lege’s response. “Lade Smith was genu-
inely open to my ideas and we found
common ground and a commitment to
the ‘William protocol’ to create real
change: safer clozapine monitoring,
reducing the fatalities, a renewed ap-
proach to physical health, leading to a
more holistic rounded approach to
patient care and tackling the prejudice
of schizophrenia and psychosis.”
PC Matthew Gell, of Nottingham-
shire police, was found guilty of gross
misconduct last month after he was
found to have forwarded a “distasteful”
message about the injuries suffered by
the victims to his wife and a friend. A
disciplinary hearing was told that the
message was written by another officer
Valdo Calocane
killed three people
in Nottingham
in June last year
and shared in a WhatsApp group used
by colleagues, including Gell. By for-
warding the message Gell was found to
have breached professional policing
standards.
He also accessed police files about
Calocane without authorisation and by
doing so breached data protection rules
as he had no role in the investigation.
He was given a final written warning.
the times | Monday February 19 2024 15

News

Trump’s wall inspires Tory pretender

Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor
Hugh Tomlinson Washington
Looking out over the US-Mexico
border at the port of Eagle Pass in Texas
last week, Robert Jenrick saw the kind
of physical infrastructure that he
believes is necessary to tackle the
small-boats crisis in the Channel.
Britain’s former immigration minis-
ter watched the latest phase of con-
struction of the border wall initiated by
Donald Trump — and the drastic
temporary measures that are being
installed before it is completed — in
hopes of stopping the thousands of mi-
grants who attempt to cross the border
every day.
Gigantic buoys line the Rio Grande
to block migrants crossing the river that
divides Mexico and Texas. Coils of
razor wire meet those who do manage
to get across, with shipping containers
stacked up on top of each other to act as
a temporary wall before the permanent
structure is in place.
Jenrick was also shown one of the
nine facilities that Texas has built to
process the migrants who do make it on
to American soil. The enormous centre
was put up in barely a month and pro-
cesses up to 6,000 people in a day.
For Jenrick the measures being taken
by Greg Abbott, the Republican gov-
ernor of Texas, highlight the sense of
urgency that he be-
lieves the American
and British govern-
ments should be
adopting to combat
illegal migration. Migrants who cross the Rio Grande face razor wire. Robert Jenrick, left, thinks Britain can learn from “robust” US action
That will certainly
happen if Trump suc- aspect of our nation’s safety and the election. He has remarked to col- border as well. Very few political leaders
ceeds in being re- national security is being jeopardised,” leagues that his political career so far in the UK have been to the southern
elected as president in Morgan told the Newsmax network. has been a reverse of the typical path of border, so his views on that have at-
November, as the “This is not about immigration. What’s an MP, having spent all but 18 months tracted a lot of interest here.”
polls predict, and it’s happened at our southwest border is of his eight years in parliament serving Jenrick is determined not to become
what Jenrick believes about our national security and our in government. a one-trick pony who only talks about
the Conservatives too nation’s safety.” One MP said they fully expect him to immigration. He plans to speak out on
must do if they are to Jenrick’s trip to America and his stand. “He’s held several high-profile a range of other fundamentally Con-
have any chance of meetings with senior figures in the Re- jobs in government so what’s the point servative issues over the coming weeks,
winning the UK gen- publican Party have prompted ques- of wanting to be in a shadow cabinet which will do nothing to cool talk of his
eral election this year. tions in Britain over his political unless you’re the leader? You have the leadership ambitions.
“There are areas we can learn from ported tens of thousands of asylum ambitions, aided by a neat new haircut, power to frame the future direction of He intends to speak out more about
Donald Trump and the Republican seekers while their applications were something that always triggers talk of a the party and also wield quite a lot of the “drastic” need for more housebuild-
Party, one of which is illegal migration,” processed; and reinvoke his controver- leadership campaign. He also spoke at influence still on government policy.” ing in the UK, more radical policies to
Jenrick said. “Trump understands the sial Title 42 statute, which allows the an event in Washington hosted by the Asked directly by GB News last boost home ownership and changing
salience of this issue to the American authorities to expel migrants without right-wing Heritage Foundation, a month whether he would run for the the law to tackle extremism. He will
public and treats it as a national secur- legal process by citing a public health favourite for visiting Thatcherite party leadership, he replied: “I’m not also urge his party to adopt a more
ity emergency. That’s exactly the way emergency. Conservatives. ruling it out.” “pragmatic and realistic” approach to
we must treat it. It is a sign of how enamoured Jenrick He brushed away suggestions that His trip to America has also started to net zero.
“The only places I’ve seen succeed- is with a Trumpian pursuit of border his trip was organised with one eye on give him a profile with some senior But his love-in with the Republicans
ing — whether Australia, Greece or control that his most insightful meeting the Conservative leadership, adding Republicans. Nile Gardiner, director of has potentially done more to further his
Texas — are those who have taken the during his week-long trip to America that he was invited to speak at the Heri- the Margaret Thatcher Center for own leadership ambitions than any in-
most robust steps. Otherwise we are was with Mark Morgan, the former tage Foundation about his experiences Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, tervention on other topics, as it has
consigning ourselves to decades of commissioner of the US Customs and of serving as immigration minister, a who served as Thatcher’s foreign policy given him face-time with senior figures
illegal migration.” Border Protection agency and the man post he quit in December. adviser after she had left government of the party who are likely to form the
Trump has announced plans to in- tipped to be appointed by Trump to He said that he wanted to use his visit and is now an influential voice among next US government than most of his
troduce even more hardline measures manage the migration crisis on the to Texas to highlight the “portent of American conservatives, said that likely leadership rivals. It will enable
than the “zero tolerance” policy he pur- southern border. what is to come in the UK if we don’t Jenrick had endeared himself to him to pitch himself as a figure who has
sued during his first presidency. He On Wednesday Morgan took to the grip the illegal migration crisis”. But it Republicans during his visit. already established links with those
aims to complete the border wall, of airwaves to vent his frustration at what has not stopped his colleagues, and “He’s a very impressive figure,” Gar- close to Trump.
which a quarter of the 2,000-mile he described as President Biden’s “open some allies, speculating that the Tory diner told The Times. “The American And, as he says himself: “The US is
length of the US-Mexico border was border” policy on immigration, using leadership is exactly what Jenrick has audience was very receptive and also our foremost ally so it’s critical that we
built during his presidency; reinstate very similar language to Jenrick’s about in his sights if and when the Conserva- Americans are keen to hear from a Brit- build the most constructive relation-
his “remain in Mexico” policy that de- the threat of illegal migration. “Every tives go in search of a new leader after ish politician who had been to the US ship possible.”

How Irish veterans from Napoleonic Wars reshaped London

Jack Blackburn History Correspondent
Immigration from Ireland to Britain in
the 19th century began earlier than
thought and was caused by British
neglect of veterans after the Napoleon-
ic Wars, new research has shown.
Irish soldiers who were wounded or
disabled were left in such a poor finan-
cial state after they returned from
service that they had little choice but to
remain in Britain, and London in parti-
cular.
“When these men finished their ser-
vice for the Crown, tens of thousands of
them were dumped in London ... where
they had to attend a medical examina-
tion if they hoped to qualify for their
pension,” said Dr Adam Crymble, of
University College London, whose
paper has been published in the journal
Irish Historical Studies.
Servicemen from wars against
France and America who were seeking
a pension were examined to avoid
fraud, with soldiers being tested at the
Royal Chelsea Hospital, while sailors
were examined in Greenwich.
This drew those who were seeking to
claim a pension to London, but the
money they were given was only
enough to stave off destitution. They
did not have the means to get home and
there were no plans to aid their travel.
This stranded the many Irish soldiers,
upon whom the army and navy had
come to increasingly rely.
Under those circumstances, many
remained there and the research sug-
gests that they permanently changed
the demographics of the capital. While
Irish communities developed in the
Docklands and Central Saint Giles, the
soldiers settled across the capital.
Others may well have left London to
seek work elsewhere in Britain. Some
may even have been able to have their
families join them. Crymble said that,
while passage to Ireland was expensive,
Irish people could get across to Britain
more cheaply as empty ships required
passengers for ballast.
This wave of migration would have
long-term consequences. In the
decades that followed, the potato fam-
ines in Ireland would become a far big-
ger driver of immigration, but the idea
of emigrating to Britain now had a firm
precedent. Those who later managed to
travel home spread the idea of immi-
gration, while those who did move to
Britain knew they could join estab-
lished Irish committees.
This also increased tensions: the job
market became oversubscribed and in-
jured veterans made up a considerable
proportion of the city’s beggars. Crime
rose and Irish people were scapegoated
for many troubles in Britain at the time,
creating a poisonous stereotype.
16
News
‘Poison seller posed as doctor on forum’
James Beal Social Affairs Editor
A Canadian chef might have posed
online as a retired doctor to direct
suicidal young people to his website
that sold poison, police suspect.
Relatives of those who took a
substance sent to them by Kenneth Law
told investigating officers that their
loved ones were approached by a mys-
terious character known as “Green-
berg” before they died.
The character had created an
account on an online suicide forum,
claiming to be a retired New York medi-
cal examiner and disclosed the name of
Law’s website among its members.
The Times has established that
Greenberg supplied the website
title to at least four people on
the suicide forum, two of
whom later died.
The National Crime
Agency, which is investi-
gating Law in the UK, is
trying to determine
whether he was posing
as Greenberg to
shepherd vulnerable
people to his poison
business. At least 93
Britons died after Law
sent 288 packages of
poison to the UK.
Canadian prosecutors upgraded 14
charges against Law to first-degree
murder last month after finding
new evidence.
He also faces 14 charges of aiding
suicide. Law’s lawyer said that his
client, who is in jail after being
arrested last year, would plead
not guilty to the charges.
The Times disclosed
potential links last
October between
Greenberg and Law, a
former aerospace engi-
neer. The newspaper has
since spoken to others who said
they, or their loved ones, were
V2
approached by Greenberg about Law’s
website through a direct message on
the suicide forum.
Daniel Tucker, a biology student
from Bilsthorpe, Nottinghamshire,
died in April 2022 after Greenberg sent
him the name of Law’s website and he
bought the poison.
A 20-year-old Briton, whom we are
not naming, also died in July 2021 after
receiving a direct message of the
suicide forum from Greenberg and
buying Law’s poison.
Emma Morrison, 23, from Blairgow-
rie in Scotland, said that Greenberg
sent her the name of Law’s website
three times to three different accounts
she created.
He messaged her directly on the
forum with a link to Law’s site, she said.
She added: “He wanted to know when it
arrived and when I’d taken it.”
Morrison, a veterinary science stu-
dent, ordered the poison from Law. She
took it in August 2021 but survived after
being taken to hospital and given an
antidote.
She now believes that she had actual-
ly been communicating with Law on
the forum. She added: “I think Green-
berg and Law are the same person.”
Morrison has since deactivated her
account on the forum. She said: “My
mental health has been a lot better re-
cently and speaking out about it has
helped.”
Posts seen by The Times show that
Greenberg first mentioned Law’s
poison on the forum on May 25, 2021. It
was also the same day that Law put the
substance up for sale on his own web-
site.
Writing on the forum that day,
Greenberg said: “I came across a new
source in Canada. PM [personal mes-
sage] me if you like the link.”
Almost 300 US retaliates
car thefts a after Houthi
day unsolved drone attack
George Greenwood
Three quarters of car thefts were
unsolved last year amid concerns about
police capacity to handle the volume of
crime, records show.
More than 100,000 cases of motor
vehicle theft were unsolved in England
and Wales in the year to September,
equivalent to 282 per day, House of
Commons Library analysis commis-
sioned by the Liberal Democrats
shows. The figures, based on analysis of
Home Office data for the outcomes of
reported crimes, show that only 2 per
cent of car thefts recorded led to a
suspect being charged or summonsed.
The number of thefts has been rising,
up 8 per cent year on year. Overall,
76 per cent of car thefts were not solved
last year. The Metropolitan Police was
the worst performing force, with 86 per
cent in London going unsolved.
The Lib Dems said the figures
showed that the government had failed
to resource police forces properly,
pointing to cuts of 4,500 police commu-
nity support officers since 2015.
Alistair Carmichael, the party’s
home affairs spokesman, said: “It’s little
wonder that car theft is on the rise,
given the fact that thieves can operate
with virtually no consequences.”
A Home Office spokeswoman said:
“Vehicle crime is down 39 per cent since
2010 and we have introduced provi-
sions in the Criminal Justice Bill to ban
electronic devices used in vehicle theft.
We expect police to take vehicle crime
seriously and investigate thoroughly.”
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
Many of Greenberg’s posts on the
suicide forum were signed off with the
word “cheers”, which was the same
term Law used in some emails to cus-
tomers.
Greenberg also appeared to have
some culinary knowledge and, like
Law, was a fan of Star Trek, the long-
running American science fiction tele-
vision series.
Five public Facebook posts from Law,
who previously worked as a cook at an
upmarket hotel in the Canadian city of
Toronto, are about Star Trek.
During this newspaper’s first investi-
gation into Law last year, he denied to
an undercover reporter that he had
Emma Morrison
thinks Kenneth
Law, far left, used
the alias Greenberg
posted messages on the suicide forum.
Greenberg also ran a separate pro-
suicide blog, using the online “Blogger”
content management system, owned
by Google.
When questioned about the blog last
year, Google would not comment on
any possible connection between
Greenberg and Law. The tech giant has
revealed that on April 26 last year, a day
after a Times investigation exposed
Law’s poison selling, Greenberg’s blog
was “deleted”.
Google would not comment on the
reasons for the deletion when asked by
The Times last week or explain why it
had not divulged the information when
questioned last year.
Law’s lawyer in Canada was ap-
proached for comment.
Alistair Dawber Washington
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor
Houthi rebels in Yemen have
attempted to attack US interests in the
Red Sea using an underwater drone, a
move that prompted five airstrikes on
sites controlled by the militant group.
US Central Command said that the
drone was destroyed before coming in-
to contact with American vessels. The
airstrikes also hit an unnamed surface
vessel and three mobile anti-ship mis-
sile sites in areas of Yemen controlled
by the Iran-backed group. It is believed
that British forces did not take part.
“These actions will protect freedom
of navigation and make international
waters safer and more secure,” the US
military said in a statement.
A report by the think tank Policy
Exchange has warned that the Houthis
and Hezbollah are planning to broaden
their response to the Hamas-Israel war
to the “subsea domain”. It said there are
growing fears that the Houthis will
begin targeting cables laid under the
Red Sea as part of their disruption to
global maritime systems.
One of the report’s authors said there
were crucial British commercial inter-
ests in the region, including British Tel-
ecom, and that damage to these cables
would disrupt digital connectivity
between the UK and other continents.
The Houthis say their attacks are in
solidarity with Palestinians as Israel
strikes Gaza. But the US and its allies
say that they are indiscriminate and an
attempt to disrupt global trade.
the times | Monday February 19 2024 2GM 17

News

millions of funding in
Do or die 2003. Now it needs a
grant or it will crumble.
moment for The 18th-century
house was a stunning
a precious and early example of the
Roman-style villa that
now or never,” said commission for William Mavisbank, just outside
Anna Keay, director of
the Landmark Trust,
Adam, who became the
premier Scottish
Edinburgh, is now on the
brink of collapse and in
which hopes to restore
the house as a holiday
architect of his day.
In 1815 the Clerks sold
need of £7.5 million to
restore it to its stunning
let. “We’ve done a drone
survey by a structural
the house and it later
became an asylum
18th-century heyday

mansion became wildly popular

in Britain. However, it
engineer, and it’s really
on the edge. It’s amazing
before a man called
Archie Stevenson took
untraceable individuals
in the United States.

T
wo decades ago
the BBC’s
Restoration
series salvaged
one historic
building, but for one of
the runners-up there
was only decay (Jack
Blackburn writes).
Mavisbank, a country
house near Edinburgh,
just missed out on
has fallen victim to a
cocktail of neglect, fire
and apparently fictitious
owners. Months after its
300th anniversary, the
category A listed
building, the equivalent
of grade I in England
and Wales, faces a
do-or-die moment.
“It’s a completely
existential moment; it’s
that it’s still there.”
The trust is applying
to the National
Memorial Heritage
Fund for a grant of
£5 million, but this
would be only two thirds
of the cost of saving the
house. It is hoped that
an initial grant would
encourage other donors.
The house, at
Mavisbank, just south of
Edinburgh, has failed to
get national lottery
funding on two
occasions, despite being
listed as one of the seven
most endangered
heritage sites in Europe.
Built for Sir John Clerk,
a leading member of the
Scottish Enlightenment,
it was the first full
ownership of it in the
1950s and used it as a
car park for used and
scrap cars. In 1973 the
house was gutted by fire.
Stevenson, whose
family lived in caravans
on the site, was evicted
in the 1980s while
claiming that the
property had been split
up and sold to three
It could all have been
so different. Mavisbank
made it to the final
round of Restoration,
where listed buildings
competed in a public
vote for a lottery grant.
The winner, the Victoria
Baths in Manchester,
received £3 million for
restoration works and is
now an events space.

Sewage spills are a stinker Timely treatment for cancer

depends on where you live
for Tories in marginal seats
scandal” was a result of “Conservative
age releases are often a result of geo-
Jessica Rawnsley
Cancer patients face a “stark postcode
lottery” in NHS treatment, with
postcode lottery of cancer care across
the country”. She called the findings a
“shameful indictment of [the govern-
ment’s] neglect of our health service”,

Clean it up
campaign of the year
failure”.
wat e r cofa6,000
Polling m paadults
i g n by Surva-
tion found that 56 per cent of people
graphy and water company infrastruc-
ture. Having a high number of spills in
their constituency can leave MPs
analysis revealing significant dispari-
ties in waiting times for different
regions in England.
adding: “We know how important it is
to find and treat cancer early to give
people the best chance of survival.
would consider raw sewage discharges vulnerable to criticism, however. In some areas fewer than one in four Sadly, under this Conservative govern-
George Willoughby when they voted in the next general The Lib Dems attribute their victory cancer patients were treated within the ment this is happening far too little.
Adam Vaughan Environment Editor election. The number for those who in the 2021 Chesham & Amersham by- government’s 62-day target last year. “Behind every single one of these
voted Tory in 2019 is 51 per cent, where- election to their concentration on pol- This stipulates that 85 per cent of numbers is a story of fear, discomfort
Battleground seats held by the Con- as for Labour voters it is 66 per cent. luted local chalk streams. One of patients given an urgent GP referral and anxiety for thousands of families
servatives have the highest number of The high number of spills in Tory- the marginal seats in the party’s sights is should begin receiving treatment with- up and down the country. This Con-
sewage spills of any marginal constit- held marginal seats appears to be a Cheltenham, held by Alex Chalk, the in two months. servative government has failed to
uencies, The Times has found. result of the party’s gains in “red wall” justice secretary, with a majority of 981. The target has been a government prioritise cancer treatment times so
The figures show how exposed Tory areas in 2019. About 25,000 spills in Tim Farron, the Lib Dem environ- pledge since 2000 but has not been met people are simply not getting the care
MPs are to attacks over the party’s 2022 were in marginal constituencies ment spokesman, said the Tories’ fail- since 2015 and there is a widening gulf they need in time.”
record on water pollution. Seats won in the party gained from Labour. About ure to tackle the sewage crisis would between the treatment times for The Lib Dems reiterated calls for a
the 2019 general election by a margin of 14,000 sewage discharges were in mar- cost them seats at the next election. patients in different areas, according to legal right that guarantees that 100 per
less than 10 per cent will be crucial ginal seats the Tories held in 2019. “Lifelong Conservative voters are plan- House of Commons library research cent of cancer patients begin treatment
when people next vote. The Welsh constituency of Carmar- ning to vote Liberal Democrat for the commissioned by the Liberal Demo- within two months. At present the tar-
The Times can reveal that of the then East & Dinefwr, held by Jonathan first time because of this,” he added. crats. get is merely a pledge rather than a law.
79,015 sewage spills in marginal con- Edwards, the former Plaid Cymru MP Labour is yet fully to set out its stall At Liverpool Women’s NHS Trust — The figures, based on analysis of
stituencies in 2022, nearly 39,000 were who is now an independent, had the on how it would tackle water pollution. where waiting times are among the NHS trust annual figures for last year,
in Conservative seats, more than those most sewage spills of all marginal seats, The Tories recently pinched one of the worst — only 23 per cent of patients revealed that almost 100,000 cancer
held by any other party. Labour mar- with 7,103 dumps. Edwards holds a 4 per party’s headline ideas: ending self- were seen within two months. At the patients in England did not start their
ginal seats were second at little more cent majority. monitoring of water companies. Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital treatment within two months, with
than 24,000. The Arfon constituency, held by Rebecca Pow, an environment minis- NHS Trust in London 93 per cent were only 62 per cent of patients receiving
The Liberal Democrats have made Plaid Cymru, had the second most spills ter and MP for Taunton Deane, said: treated within the designated time treatment within the intended time.
sewage one of their top campaign for a marginal seat, followed by three “We have a plan and it’s already in frame and at Calderdale and Hudders- At 31 NHS Trusts, four in ten patients
issues, with Sir Ed Davey, the party Tory consituencies: Ynys Môn, North place. The water companies have to be field NHS Trust 88 per cent of patients were not treated within 62 days. At
leader, saying Tory voters were “very, West Durham and Aberconwy. taken into account.” waited less than two months from Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge
very angry” over spills. The drier weather last year is be- Reed said: “This Conservative gov- referral. only 38 per cent of patients received
Since being appointed last Septem- lieved to have led to a slight fall in the ernment has meekly sat back ... while Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the their first treatment less than two
ber, Steve Reed, the shadow environ- number of sewage spills. Discharges toxic sewage pollutes our waterways.” Liberal Democrats and its health and months after referral and at the Royal
ment secretary, has also concentrated happen mostly during heavy rain when social care spokeswoman, said it was Wolverhampton NHS Trust it was
on water quality, saying the “sewage sewer capacity is overwhelmed. Sew- “heart-wrenching to see such a stark 44 per cent.
the times | Monday February 19 2024
Fragile royal family
requires reinforcements
Jenni Russell
Page 20
Beware pitfalls of the first lukewarm landslide
A huge parliamentary majority built on an absence of enthusiasm is a novelty and will test a Starmer government
Philip
Collins
@pcollinstimes
T
he metaphor of the
landslide invites a picture
of the ground giving way to
a rockfall. A natural
landslide is a spectacular
event, as erosion defeats the land
mass and the hydrostatic pressure
opens the cracks and fissures in the
stable ground beneath. In its transfer
to politics, the landslide implies
vigour and heat and excitement. To
say that a party can expect a
landslide is to say that the country
has fallen rapidly and
overwhelmingly in its favour.
Political landslides seem to be born
of love. After handsome Labour
victories in the Kingswood and
Wellingborough by-elections on
Thursday, we can see that the
metaphor is misleading. It is time to
prepare for the lukewarm landslide.
The primary force in any natural
landslide is gravity but each specific
event is always triggered by a local
cause. No party defies gravity for
ever. It is hardly surprising that,
14 years in, the nation has tired of
the Conservative Party. But the
extent to which rejection is likely to
be meted out has been triggered by
the arrogant foolishness of Kwasi
Kwarteng and Liz Truss. Look at the
charts of public opinion. After the
various indiscretions of Boris
Johnson, the Tory numbers were
certainly drifting down, but from a
vantage point they would now be
grateful for. Then, on September 23,
2022, the brief chancellor Kwarteng
announced £45 billion in tax cuts.
There was a market landslide; Tory
hopes of electoral victory were done.
A lot of the current political
commentary is struggling to make
sense of the clash of two evident
facts. The Tories have slid
irretrievably but there seems little
positive enthusiasm for Labour. What
happens when a resistible force
meets a moveable object? John
Curtice, the grand potentate of
British by-elections, attributed
Kingswood and Wellingborough to
disillusionment with the Tories
rather than enthusiasm for Labour.
There was much talk of Labour’s
vote in Kingswood falling by 32 per
cent from the last general election.
The verdict for Labour appeared to
be: rely on the shop-soiled, worn-out
Tories at your peril. The 1997
veterans, Peter Mandelson and
Alastair Campbell, have both podcast
the same message. No complacency,
the vote is soft, the deal still unsealed.
The best comparisons
for this year’s election
may be 1955 and 1959
The answer to the paradox of what
happens when the resistible force
meets the moveable object is that
there is no longer an object there.
The by-elections on Thursday were
not, as Rishi Sunak forlornly
pretended, the usual mid-term
difficulty; they were a drastic
thrashing in an election year.
Wellingborough turned with a swing
of 28.5 per cent, the second-best
performance in the history of the
Labour Party. The pollster Peter
Kellner observed that during John
Major’s premiership in the prelude to
1992 the numbers voting
Conservative in by-elections fell by
32 per cent. Under Rishi Sunak the
Tory vote has fallen almost 70 per
cent. The recent by-elections have
been a succession of landslides.
We are witnessing something
unusual in politics, and therefore
easy to misinterpret. When one
party has fallen apart (1979 and 2019
for Labour, 1997 until 2005 for the
Conservatives), the other party has
appeared ready for office. The shifts
were emphatic and constituted an
endorsement of the new as well as a
repudiation of the old. These were
conventional swings of the
pendulum, and they were easy to
follow. So was a change such as 2010,
which was marked by a loss of faith
in the incumbent but continued
doubts about the replacement. The
Tory victories of 1992 and 2017 were
similar; no love of the status quo but
not enough of a warrant to change.
The current state of politics owes
little or nothing to these precursors.
The elections within living memory
all point in the wrong direction. The
closest comparison may lie with 1955
and 1959. The 1955 election, called by
Anthony Eden after the retirement
of Winston Churchill, was
notoriously boring. Princess
Margaret’s romance with Peter
Townsend got more coverage. The
result was a 60-seat majority for the
Conservative Party over a Labour
Party made up of warring disciples of
Nye Bevan and Hugh Gaitskell that
had been presided over too long by a
weary Clement Attlee. Only 25 seats
changed hands. It was as though the
electorate had disdained the need for
a vote at all. The Tories won
handsomely — but with no display
of enthusiasm.
The general election of October
1959 was more intriguing. Labour
had realistic hopes of winning under
Gaitskell but the new Conservative
prime minister, Harold Macmillan,
Comment
Harold Macmillan defied Labour’s
optimism to win by 100 seats in 1959
who had replaced Eden after Suez,
won by 100 seats, conventional
landslide territory. The Labour Party
was severely undone during the
campaign on the perennial issue of
its spending plans. Not that there is
too much comfort in the historical
comparison for the Conservative
Party. Macmillan’s recovery after
Suez isn’t really a story of a dynamic
young leader restoring party
fortunes. The crucial backdrop was a
rapidly recovering economy after the
recession of 1958. The slippage into
recession this week is a political
disaster for the government. As long
as there is no growth that will turn
up in the pay packet, the Sunak
government is heading down the
slippery slope.
That said, the comparison does
only go so far. Both 1955 and 1959
were examples of the government
19
extending its lead over the opposition.
Neither is an example of an
opposition winning a lukewarm
landslide to take office for the first
time. Sir Keir Starmer is, in this sense,
a pioneer yet all it takes is for enough
people to decide that, on balance, it is
time for a change. A landslide is a
measure of how many such people
there are, not how enthusiastic they
feel. There are, in the mountains, both
deep-seated and shallow landslides,
Winning power and
exercising power are
two different skills
and this could be one of the latter, the
first shallow landslide from the
opposition we’ve seen.
Whenever Starmer’s leadership is
identified as being too cautious the
criticism is always framed as an
electoral imperative. But the risk of
saying too little is probably not about
the election. It is about the nature of
the government to come. New
governments need the benefit of the
doubt. They need a reserve of
goodwill on which to draw while
they settle and when unexpected
traumas are visited on them, as they
always are. Winning power and
exercising power are different skills
and the Starmer government will be
one that will have to learn on the job.
The question, in time, will be how
much patience we have with a
government to which we’ve awarded
a lukewarm landslide.
red box
For the best analysis
and commentary on
the political landscape
20
Comment
Fragile royal family requires reinforcements
Instead of pruning his team the King needs back-up to provide reassurance in divisive times
Jenni
Russell
@jennirsl
I’
ve changed my mind. Five
years ago I believed that the
royal family should shrink. The
monarchy was popular and
required its heirs but it was
anachronistic to have tiers of dusty
dukes and princesses on the royal
payroll too. A modern Britain didn’t
need this extensive clan. Even before
his disgrace, Prince Andrew looked
like a man without sufficient purpose.
There were already rumours of
Prince Harry’s discontent. It would be
far better to liberate all those outside
the line of succession from royal
expectations and allow them their
own careers and independent lives.
The future king and his advisers
thought the same. Even before his
accession it was understood that
Charles intended to cut the number
of working royals. Frankly, both the
King and I were wrong.
The royal family suddenly looks
fragile and thinned out. With both
the King and the Princess of Wales
seriously unwell, it’s abruptly
apparent how few working royals
there are. Most are in their seventies
and eighties. Of the 11 currently
working members, only four — the
prince and princess of Wales and the
duke and duchess of Edinburgh —
are under 60; two will soon turn 90.
Nobody from the next generation is
being lined up for the working roster
Emma Duncan Notebook
Writing an
obituary has
taught me a
lesson in life
M
y mother-in-law,
Eleanor Fazan, died a
month ago and I’ve
been writing her
obituary. She worked
for 68 — yes, 68 — years in theatre,
and brought her son up alone. I have
been contacting friends, relations
and colleagues and going through
memoirs and letters and am left with
a sense of both admiration at her
achievements and shame that I
didn’t find out more about them
when she was alive. Of course I knew
in a broad sense what she had done;
but the anecdotes and details have
brought the drama — and humour
— of her career to life for me.
When she was alive, I saw her
mostly as a mother, mother-in-law
and grandmother. Now she’s gone
I’ve come to appreciate her in many
other dimensions: the 15-year-old
who arrived by herself on a boat
from Kenya during the war, the
chorus girl living in London on a
until ten-year-old Prince George
comes of age.
A fortnight ago Prince William held
an investiture, on duty for the first
time since the family illnesses. On
arrival he was bleak, distracted,
swaying on his feet. He looked a man
bearing too much alone. Even Prince
Harry, who rejected his royal role,
has spotted the gap and offered to fill
in while his father is ill, although it is
improbable his family would welcome
such an unreliable member back.
This denuding of the team matters
for one reason alone. Britain wants
its royals. It wants their presence. It
wants them on charity letterheads and
at celebratory dinners, congratulating
lifeboatmen in Dorset or NHS nurses
Every country needs a
system that recognises
those who help society
in Carlisle, giving awards for wildlife
campaigns, attending Scotland’s
Interfaith Week, visiting almshouses
or agrifood institutes or community
dance charities in Cornwall.
Buckingham Palace is overwhelmed
with requests for royal attention.
Already it cannot meet demand. The
death of the Queen has left hundreds
of organisations without the royal
patron they were proud of. Those
patronages are not automatically
transferred; a request can be made to
a new sovereign, as the Royal Society
of Portrait Painters has done, but
because a patronage entails time and
obligation it may well be refused.
Rationalists and republicans are
bewildered by this. Why, they
pittance, the abandoned young
mother, the director who was the
toast of the West End. I suspect that’s
how it often is with family members,
especially of an older generation.
One sees them in relation to oneself,
as part of the furniture of the family
rather than as people in their own
right. In future I intend to ask the
living to tell me their stories, rather
than dig them up after their death.
I must’ve been potty
F
eeling rather bleak as I
picked my mother-in-
law’s ashes up
from the funeral
director, I saw
the perfect thing
to cheer me up:
a kitchenware
shop across the
road with a sign
saying CLOSING
DOWN SALE
EVERYTHING
MUST GO.
Heavy-bottomed,
high-quality pots
make such a
difference to
cooking, and
since it was my
twins’ birthday
the next day, and they
are now old enough
to appreciate good, useful
things, I thought I would get them
wonder, should anyone feel uplifted
by proximity to the members of a
hereditary family, there by accidents
of conquest, battle, infertility, religious
disqualification and premature
death? I once felt the same. I didn’t
appreciate the triple appeal of
recognition, history and mystique.
Every country needs systems for
recognising people’s contributions to
their society, from the outstandingly
brilliant to the vital but unsung. In
republican nations such as France, it
might be through presidential
awards. In Britain, royal attention is
one of the principal mechanisms
we’ve evolved for letting people
know they’re seen and respected.
Even the quarter of Britons who
would prefer a republic can
understand that royal endorsement
is a signal of wider social value.
Added to that is the powerful sense
of history and mystery that
monarchs and their families carry.
Awe and connection are deep
desires, alongside opportunities for
gossip, speculation and outrage. The
royals provide all these. Charles III is
a living embodiment of Britain’s past,
a direct descendant of William the
Conqueror, Henry VII, and Mary
Queen of Scots. The dukes of
Suffolk, York and Gloucester are
familiar to us from Shakespeare.
These people grow up among
ancient palaces and traditions with
servants and courtiers, are key
figures in national rituals from state
openings to monarchs’ funerals, and
acquire added fascination because
they meet so many significant or
interesting people. At Queen
Elizabeth’s death we marvelled at the
fact that she had known Khrushchev
some pots. The shopkeeper had an
air of failure about him that spoke of
desperation and therefore bargains.
Among the items stacked chaotically
on shelves, I spotted some German
casserole dishes. Even with
handwritten labels yelling
“20% off” crossed out and
replaced with “40%
off!!!”, the prices were
pretty high but they did
not put me off, for they
implied I must be saving
huge sums. So, feeling
very pleased with
myself, I bought some
and headed off.
Only when I got
home did it occur to me
to check how much they
cost elsewhere. It
turned out that I
would have paid
rather less had I
bought them
from a fancy
retailer I’ve always
shunned on the grounds
that it was too expensive.
Several lessons may be
drawn from this slightly
embarrassing story. One
is that a magic marker,
accompanied by a
plausibly hangdog air, can
be as effective as a
marketing campaign
costing millions. A
V2
and the Kennedys and worked
alongside 15 prime ministers, from
Churchill to Truss. It is a thread no
term-limited president could match.
A man I know recently witnessed
the royal appeal in action at a large
cultural dinner in London. The guests
were all wealthy patrons of the arts
or leading figures: actors, artists,
designers, politicians, newspaper
editors. There was also a guest of
honour; the quiet, modest, 79-year-
old Duke of Gloucester. Among so
many powerful and achieving people
my friend did not expect him to
stand out and yet, to his amazement,
“there was no question he was the
person everyone was excited to meet;
there was a buzz around him — just
because he’s royal”.
It’s a mistake for Britain to prune
the royal roster to its core when its
members can perform this unique
unifying function across its nations
and classes, generating excitement,
validation and pride simply by
showing up. The dutiful King is
cutting back because he wants to
retain public support by being leaner
and smaller. The opposite is true:
Britons living in hard and divisive
times are badly in need of a calm,
apolitical, supportive presence.
Harry may be beyond redemption
but the King should enlist his nieces
and nephews: the princesses Beatrice
and Eugenie, Lady Louise, Viscount
Severn, if they will serve, to
strengthen the family team.
Society is short of people who are
prepared to spend decades looking
delighted at the opening of a fire
station in Sunderland on a wet
Tuesday in November. Let’s make
the most of those who will.
second is that price-checks should be
performed before, rather than after,
purchases are made. A third is that
there’s one born every minute.
Feat of the furniture
W
hen I first set up house,
antiques were beyond my
reach, although I was lucky
enough to inherit a couple of pieces
from my grandmother. Forty years
later, I find you can get solid Victorian
mahogany furniture in auctions for
less than the price of flimsy modern
plywood or pine stuff. This seems odd
given the old ones have passed the
test of time and their net contribution
to global warming is zero. Leaving
aside the cosy warmth of old wood,
you’d have thought environmental
awareness would have brought the
old stuff back into vogue. Perhaps it
will, eventually; and, as I have found
with clothes, if I stick to the same
style for long enough, I’ll once more
be in the vanguard of fashion.
Currying favour
I
see that an American private equity
company is trying to buy Currys. I
hope it succeeds. I was in a branch
last week in which the few, poorly
trained staff were struggling to deal
with a queue of dissatisfied customers.
Rotten management does a disservice
to shareholders, staff and customers
alike: if the Americans think they can
do a better job, good luck to them.
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
Conservative grip
on rural Britain is
at breaking point
Victoria Vyvyan
I
n one of my first meetings as the
president of the Country Land
and Business Association, a
farmer asked: “Why does no one
care about me and my
community?” People in the
countryside, whether young, working
or running a business, have faced a
generation of neglect. Despite
covering 85 per cent of the UK’s
land, rural communities feel unseen.
The Conservative Party’s roots run
deepest in rural Britain. Churchill
said the party’s “bond with the
countryside is unbreakable” but,
according to our polling with
Survation, it could be about to break.
Labour has overtaken the
Conservatives in England’s 100 most
rural seats, polling 37 per cent to the
Tories’ 34 per cent. Labour has
surged 17 points since 2019, while the
Tories have collapsed by 25. Only a
quarter of rural residents feel the
Tory party “understands rural
communities and their way of life”.
Labour should be under no
illusion: it has done little to earn
these votes. Traditionally, it has
shown little to no understanding of
our communities and not much has
changed. We are practical people and
we want practical solutions not empty
promises. And no political party has
a plan for our biggest challenge.
The rural economy is 19 per cent
less productive than the national
average. This translates to £43 billion
of missed opportunity — missing
innovation, missing jobs and, in some
cases, avoidable poverty. Rural
England doesn’t want to be treated
like a museum. Like anywhere, we just
want policies that match our ambition.
The CLA has launched six
missions designed to unlock the
potential of rural communities for
the good of our country as a whole.
We need at least £4 billion a year to
invest in a world-class agriculture
policy so our farmers are no longer
trying to create a sustainable future
on a shoestring budget.
Let’s build enough housing to
encourage lifelong communities.
Without places for young people to
move into, or for older people to
downsize to, our communities die.
We must stop crime blighting rural
neighbourhoods. And we must fund
and maintain public rights of way
properly, so everyone can respect
and enjoy our beautiful countryside.
And let’s commit fully to economic
growth in rural communities. We
need more than coffee shops, we
need dynamic businesses generating
wealth and attracting the best talent.
The electoral map has a habit of
redrawing itself. Last time it was the
“red wall”, this time it could be the
“rural wall”. The countryside is
politically homeless and its votes are
up for grabs. The so-called “Shire
Tories” are free agents.
the times | Monday February 19 2024
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Navalny’s courage is a challenge to us all
Unconquerable soul of the Russian opposition leader offers hope but little comfort unless others are willing to follow
Libby
Purves
@lib_thinks
H
ow brave would any of us
ever be? We live in a
culture that expects
comfort, fascinated by
self-care and individual
rights. We scatter the word “hero”
around freely, from Marvel-movie
grotesques to well-padded
philanthropists and skilful athletes.
We talk, justifiably, about “courage”
in those who endure illness,
disability or repeated failure. We
admire, albeit cautiously, nerve and
cheek and risk-taking. We applaud
have-a-go heroes who plunge into
action to save a life, although
curiously often those who survive
will tell you that they were
unthinkingly compelled by an
adrenaline rush of shock and pity,
shaking incredulously for days
afterwards at their own lack of
reasoning. In ordinary life we are
all Hamlets, dithering about
whether to suffer the slings and
arrows or risk doing something
about them.
But sometimes a stern, iron-clad
display of raw bravery hits us and it
feels as if the hero is of another and
nobler species. A revenant from the
classical world or a Victorian ideal: a
Kipling figure forcing heart and
nerve and sinew to hold on in
extremis with never a thought to his
mental health issues. Or the
tubercular amputee WE Henley,
writing almost gleefully as he
contemplated his physical decline
towards death, “I am the master of
my fate. I am the captain of my
soul.”
On Robben Island, Nelson
Mandela read that poem, Invictus, to
fellow captives. In these last few
days it felt as if that stark and
demanding kind of courage was laid
before us again in the life and death
of Alexei Navalny.
Going back was the
last roll of the dice in a
near-unwinnable game
The day before his death in a
Siberian prison camp we saw him
briefly on a court video link,
laughing about the fines imposed on
him, offering the judge his bank
account number for a contribution.
He looked gaunt, but in manner
no different from the man who
made a film with Daniel Roher in
2022 after recovering in Germany
from an attempt to kill him with
novichok. With almost mischievous
chutzpah he tracked down his
assassins and spoke directly to fellow
Russians once more about Putin’s
corruption and brutality: “If they
decide to kill me it means that we are
incredibly strong. We need to utilise
this power to not give up, to
remember we are a huge power that
is being oppressed by these bad
dudes. We don’t realise how strong
we actually are.”
When that was done, Navalny
promptly flew back to Moscow for
his inevitable arrest.
In a CNN interview at the time, he
made the decision sound simple: “I
don’t want this group of killers [to]
exist in Russia. I don’t want Putin
ruling Russia ... He is the reason the
whole country is degrading, why
people are so poor; the whole system
is degradation — fortunately for me,
including the system of
assassination.” Always a joke, defiant
black humour. “I want to go back
and try to change it,” he added.
His was the rawest kind of
courage: he could have become one
of the many expatriate dissidents
living in western comfort, lionised,
interviewed, expressing to admiring
media his acute political analysis of
the mess that Putin has made of his
country. But he had been saying it all
for decades.
So, in a calculation as intelligent
as it was brave, the last roll of the
dice in a near-unwinnable game
was his own freedom and life.
Prison would demand the cooler,
even harder courage of ongoing
stoicism, the “unconquerable soul”
of Invictus. He never stopped his
focused, angry jeering: after his
hunger strike two years ago another
video link from prison sees him
calling for his wife, Yulia, to stand
up in court so he can see her, and
noticing her Covid mask, then
joking about his own skeletal
Putin was often called
an ‘insane tsar, a thief
and a fraud’ in court
appearance, before continuing
his remarks about Putin’s crown
“slipping over the naked king’s
ears”, and a Ukraine war that has
been “built on lies”.
Every time the obedient judiciary
loaded sentences on him — two and
a half years, nine years, nineteen
years — he would repeat in court
that Putin was an “obviously insane
tsar, a thief and fraud on a great
nation”.
Moscow, of course, denies killing
him, a spokeswoman even claiming
that with the presidential election
coming — next month — doing so
was against the Kremlin’s interests. It
may well have been; some of his
21
Comment
compatriots at least have shown that
on the streets. Unflagging nerve
astonishes us, cowers us, challenges
our soft daily pragmatism. Navalny
offered his followers hope, but no
comfort: “Everything has a price and
now we must pay this price. Fill the
prisons, fill the paddy wagons.”
In Siberian misery his thoughts
soared free. A shared message to
Yulia is heartbreaking: “We have
between us cities, the take-off lights
of airfields, blue snowstorms and
thousands of kilometres. But I feel
that you are near every second.”
That moment of poetry, that edge
of vast Russian sensibility, dwarfs
the kleptocratic Putin and his
scared, venal entourage. It may yet
animate his countrymen to real
resistance. If there is any greatness
at all left in the West — Europe and
America — it should certainly
animate that too.
Yulia Navalnaya knew what to say
on Friday. “I call upon the entire
world community to unite and
defeat this evil; the terrifying regime
that is now in Russia.” Roher, who
filmed with Navalny over months,
said sadly: “If he were here right now
he would say, ‘OK, everyone stop
crying. We’re going to take a shot of
vodka and we’re going to move on.
Because the work continues’.”
But it will take a lot of courage —
political, economic and personal —
to complete it.
22
Letters to the Editor
By-election losses
Sir, Your leading article (“Double
Defeat”, Feb 17) rightly dismisses as
spin the idea that contextual factors
explain the scale of the Conservative
by-election defeats in Kingswood and
Wellingborough. These landslide
victories for Labour seem paradoxical
given that the party has no recent
record of government performance,
and given that the incumbent prime
minister and chancellor are making
laudable progress in bringing down
inflation. A clue to this paradox may
lie in your preview (Feb 17) of
Breathtaking, the ITV production
based on experience in a Covid ward
during the pandemic. Your reviewer
predicts that viewers will be enraged.
It seems likely that Conservative
voters who have abandoned their
party have long harboured a sense of
moral outrage at the staff parties held
in Downing Street during the
pandemic and the dishonesty of Boris
Johnson while NHS staff struggled
valiantly with inadequate equipment
and families were unable to see their
dying loved ones.
Professor Ian Kunkler
Edinburgh
Sir, Your columnists (Feb 17)
predicting a Labour win at the next
general election based on the
Wellingborough and Kingswood
by-election results overlook key facts.
Neither was a “safe” Conservative seat
and the turnout was abysmal, which of
course affects the “swing” calculation.
Wellingborough was won by Labour in
1997 and narrowly regained by the
Conservatives only in 2005. Despite
the unsuitable Tory candidate this
time, the Labour candidate polled only
107 more votes than in the 2019
general election. Kingswood returned
to Labour in 1992 and was regained
by the Conservatives only in 2010. The
Labour candidate this time polled
5,316 fewer votes than in 2019. The
lesson for Rishi Sunak? Nil
desperandum.
David Martin
Conservative MP for Portsmouth
South 1987-97; Lyneham, Wilts
Going underground
Sir, Rather than naming London
Overground stations after here today,
gone tomorrow political and sporting
subjects (letter, Feb 17; news, Feb 16),
surely it would be better to name
them after London’s long-established
but now largely hidden rivers, such as
the Walbrook, Stamford, Effra, Fleet,
Tyburn and Ravensbourne.
Andrew Luff
London NW1
Corrections and
clarifications
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content seriously. We are committed to
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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
Universities’ duty of care to their students
Sir, I disagree with your leading
article “Support on Campus” (Feb 16).
Universities cannot be in effect the
prime bearers of liability for the
mental health of their students. They
are already under pressure to run
their own legal, police and justice
services to manage sexual consent on
campus. The distracting legal burden
of pursuing diversity, equity and
inclusion goals, with their chilling
effects on free speech, is well
documented. The result is an
explosion of non-academic support
and managerial staff, a by-product of
the need to deflect litigation. In some
universities this non-academic
spending now exceeds the total spent
on direct teaching (sadly, no one ever
sues for bad teaching). No wonder
many students regard their degree
courses as poor value for money.
Universities cannot be wholly legally
responsible for all the ills of society
that occur on campus.
Nicholas Joint
University non-academic employee
(ret’d); Glasgow
Sir, Dr Harpreet Singh Arshi (letter,
Feb 17) makes some important points
about student (and sometimes
parental) anxiety. Having taught,
Disappearing banks
Sir, Ross Borkett, the Post Office
banking director, advises Libby
Purves to use the local post office for
all of her banking needs after the
closure of Leiston’s last bank (letter,
Feb 17). My town, Cobham, has also
lost all its high-street banks. Our local
post office, once a large and spacious
dedicated facility but now crammed at
the rear of a tiny shop, often has long
queues. The wonderful postmaster is
already hugely overworked — I fail to
see how he would deal with the influx
of many more locals seeking banking
services in an area growing in size by
the day from all the housing infill.
Helen Dracup
Cobham, Surrey
Sir, As treasurer of a small local
charity in a town with no banks now,
I took a £10 note and a £5 note into
the post office to ask for £15 worth of
50p pieces. I was firmly told “We are
not a bank” and had to pay the £15
into my charity’s account, then
withdraw £15. Even that did not work.
“No, you will have to withdraw £20
because 50p coins come in bags
containing £10 and we are not
8-1 WIN FOR
TOTTENHAM
VS OXFORD
from the times february 19, 1924
Tottenham Hotspur beat Oxford
University in a match played for the
benefit of the Prince of Wales
Hospital at Tottenham, on the
White Hart Lane ground, by eight
goals to one. The Prince of Wales
was present, and as so far recovered
from his recent hunting accident as
to be able to shake hands with his
right hand, though his right arm
was still, of course, in a sling. £185
were taken at the gates and, with
the sale of covered seats, the
hospital will benefit to the extent of
over £200. All expenses were paid
by the directors of the Tottenham
tutored and researched for more than
30 years at Bristol University, may I
state that students do not have contact
with “the university” but with their
lecturers and tutors. It is essential that
face-to-face contact takes place and
not just by email or social media. For
most of my time as lecturer, reader
and professor we were allocated four
to six tutees each year and were
expected to see them regularly. If
students had a problem tutors were
the first port of call; if help beyond our
personal skills was needed, we knew
where to send them. But you have to
make time for personal contacts.
Sadly, universities have become a
business and the time spent on
personal contact has been squeezed.
Professor RD Adams
Oxford
Sir, While I agree with Dr Harpreet
Singh Arshi that universities cannot
be held totally responsible for
specialist care and assessment of
those with severe anxiety and
depression, I disagree that they
should be denied a university
education if they have the academic
aptitude and desire to study. There
are several routes to consider. The
first is a period of time out from
allowed to split them. We are not a
bank.” That is not easy “everyday
banking”, as Ross Borkett claims.
Claire Nicholson
Church Stretton, Shropshire
Sir, Maggie Fraser (letter, Feb 16)
contends that we would not expect
the government to demand that a
supermarket be moved to a particular
town, so why a bank? The difference
is that we do not have an automatic
right to a packet of biscuits, whereas
the money in a bank belongs to us.
Bobbi Wilson
Portishead, Somerset
Sir, Libby Purves’s thoughts on
banking deserts (Feb 15) are real and
serious. Three of the five banks in our
village have closed, two of them
recently. Since then the footfall for
the shops in the village has fallen by
at least 20 per cent. A fourth bank
closed last week. Banks have
obligations not only to their clients
but also to the community they claim
to serve. High streets have already
suffered grievously and the uncaring
self-interest of the banks adds to the
jeopardy affecting us all.
Gordon Stirrat
Westbury-on-Trym, Glos
Hotspur Club. The Prince went on to
the ground to meet the two teams
before the match. The game itself he
watched with great interest, and, one
must record, with a knowledge of the
finer points of the game with which
he is not universally credited. He was
sorry, of course, that Oxford did not
do better. They were unlucky to be
without F H Barnard, their captain;
one hears that he is down with
influenza. In a game played on a
treacherous ground and with a ball
which became not only greasy, but
heavy, Oxford were unable to stand
the pace. The backs played stout,
defensive football, and N M Archdale,
although he was unable to save eight
goals, did some remarkable work. The
spectators were pro-Oxford after the
first five minutes, and at the end of
the match, when the players were
leaving the field, the stentorian shout
of one of the onlookers, “And one for
the goalie,” was honoured by loud
applause. In the finer touches of the
Letters to the Editor should be sent to
letters@thetimes.co.uk or by post to
1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF
studies for treatment and recovery
(these are treatable conditions) before
returning to university. The second is
studying from home through distance
learning such as offered by the Open
University, and the third is to study at
a local university and live at home.
In this way, motivated and capable
young people can achieve the
qualifications and education they
need for their future.
Dr Rachel Turner
GP specialising in addictions,
Overton, Hants
Sir, In response to your report
“Clean-living students blamed for
nightclub closures” (Feb 17), as an
operations manager in the hospitality
sector for the past ten years I do not
think the under-25s are to blame. I
have seen a seismic shift in drinking
culture since 2020. People are
working from home so are reluctant
to come to city centres; weekday
trade used to be propped by post-work
diners, drinkers and partygoers but
this has run dry. City-centre
hospitality businesses have had to
dramatically change their culture —
it has become survival of the fittest.
Emily Millington
Newcastle upon Tyne
Zero-hours model
Sir, The CBI, presumably fortified by
recent policy U-turns, is lobbying the
Labour Party to soften its plans on
workers’ rights (“Don’t rush to rewrite
staff rights, Labour told”, Feb 16;
letter, Feb 17). Removing practices
such as zero-hours contracts, it
argues, would damage business at a
time when many of its members are
struggling with recessionary
pressures. These contracts pass
business risk and employer costs on
to individuals who are in no position
to bear them. Trying to access decent
housing, buy food, bring up a family
and pay bills becomes almost
impossible when one’s income is
variable and insecure. If zero-hours
contracts are the only way a business
can secure its bottom line, it needs to
find a new model that creates a
sustainable society, or shut up shop.
Tony Wilson
Biron, Dordogne
Letters to the Editor must be exclusive
to The Times and may be edited. Please
include a full address and daytime
telephone number.
game Tottenham Hotspur were very
easily superior. Both of the Oxford
backs and A H Chadder, at centre
half-back, got through an enormous
amount of work. It was only in
kicking to clear that they showed
real weakness. Their forwards were
not quick enough for the Tottenham
Hotspur defence. How Oxford
managed to be only two goals down
at half-time seemed almost
incredible on the run of the play.
Archdale had been saving
dangerous shots at the rate of about
one a minute. Then followed the
Oxford goal. The Oxford players
were very tired men at the finish of
the game, for the pace and
cleverness of the Tottenham
Hotspur side all through were
brilliant. Some of the close passing
between the forwards and half-
backs was quite delightful to watch.
thetimes.co.uk/archive
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
Death of Navalny
Sir, Alexei Navalny has not been
silenced (“A Martyr to Freedom”,
leading article, Feb 17). His genius was
to use social media to send Russia
graphic messages about corruption,
striking a chord with Russians of all
persuasions. One quarter of the
population saw his YouTube video on
“Putin’s Palace” within a month. The
evidence Navalny has embedded of
the regime’s monstrous corruption
will not die with him. If Putin’s elderly
gang, scared of any opposition,
struggling with the costs of the war
and increasingly dependent on the
whims of the Chinese superpower
next door, cannot get out of the
Ukrainian war within a year and have
little to show for it except heaps of
Russian corpses, their prospects will
be increasingly bleak. Europe is
spending less on support for Ukraine
than on energy subsidies and Britain
is spending half as much on defence
as we did at the end of the Cold War.
We need to maximise pressure on
Russia to make Putin’s prospects
even bleaker.
Sir Roderic Lyne
British ambassador to Russia 2000-04,
London SW14
Three’s company
Sir, To continue the rule of three
raised regarding naval vessels and
spotless wards (letters, Feb 14 & 16),
when I attended a girls’ boarding
school in the late 1960s the sixth form
were allowed into the local village on a
Saturday afternoon but had to go in
threes. The head’s reasoning was: “One
to be attacked, one to stay and help,
one to run for help.” We all looked
forward to this scenario but in my four
years at the school it never happened.
Jane Lambourne
Longton, Lancs
Bark-dwellers’ club
Sir, As an enthusiastic Groucho Club
member, who regularly works there in
the mornings, I was delighted to be
labelled by Giles Coren (Eating out,
Magazine, Feb 17) as a “weird
malformed nocturnal bark-dweller”.
On behalf of the U35 committee, I
encourage any young creatives who
identify with this definition to put
forward an application.
Alice Loxton
TV presenter and author, Eighteen:
a History of Britain in 18 Young Lives
Pointless artefacts
Sir, In his rant about washing-up
bowls, Giles Coren (Feb 17) asks what
is the point of Swiss Army knives. I
was given one for my 40th birthday.
Soon afterwards we were on holiday
on a Greek island, on a walk, when
my daughter’s flip-flop broke. The toe
flange that goes down through a hole
between the big toe and the “index”
toe came loose. Using the hook on my
Swiss Army knife I was able to pull
the flange back through the hole and
the walk was saved. I have taken it on
holiday with me ever since. The
corkscrew came in useful as well.
Adrian Holroyd
Kingswear, Devon
Sir, Giles Coren asks what is the point
of, among other things, the basket
that people put behind their
letterboxes. My Jack Russell would lie
in wait for the postman and, with a
great growling and gnashing of teeth,
destroy everything that dropped on
the mat. A wire basket was obligatory.
Peter Gamble
Cirencester, Glos
the times | Monday February 19 2024
Daily Universal Register
UK: Breathtaking, a three-part drama series
on the pandemic, begins on ITV at 9pm;
Rightmove house price index; penultimate
day of London Fashion Week.
Nature notes
Badger droppings
are fascinating.
They are often left
in shallow scrapes,
or latrines, which
occur in a line
marking the border
of a clan’s territory; this commonly coincides
with a path, ditch or fence line, making their
territories quite easy to demarcate. As
omnivores — albeit ones who rely on
earthworms for a very large part of their
diet — badgers’ droppings are highly
variable, and excellent indicators of both the
time of year and local conditions: grey with
baby rabbit fur in spring and summer, dotted
with wild cherry stones in June and July,
purple from blackberries in August, full of
maize kernels in September and October,
and glittering with beetle casings, in areas
with healthy ecosystems, at other times of
year. melissa harrison
Birthdays today
Sir Tim Hunt, pictured,
biochemist, Nobel prize
in physiology or
medicine (2001), 81;
Leslie Ash, actress, Men
Behaving Badly (1992-98),
64; Leonhard Birnbaum,
chief executive, E.ON
(energy company), 57; Millie Bobby Brown,
actress, Stranger Things (2016-22), 20; Pat
Crerand, footballer, Manchester United
(1963-71) and Scotland (1961-65), 85; Benicio
Del Toro, actor, Traffic (2000), 57; Prof
Jennifer Doudna, biochemist, Nobel prize in
chemistry (2020, “for the development of a
method for genome editing”), 60; Helen
Fielding, writer, Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996),
66; Prof David Gross, particle physicist,
Nobel prize in physics (2004), 83; Sophie
Hicks, founder and chief executive, Sophie
Hicks literary agency, 59; Les Hinton,
executive chairman, News International
(1995-2007), and chief executive, Dow Jones
(2007-11), 80; Christopher Hunter, Herchel
Smith professor of organic chemistry,
University of Cambridge, 59; Tony Iommi,
guitarist, Black Sabbath, Paranoid (1970), 76;
Joseph P Kerwin, astronaut, science pilot for
the Skylab 2 mission (1973), 92; Jeff Kinney,
children’s author and illustrator, Diary of a
Wimpy Kid (2007), 53; Cristina Kirchner,
vice-president of Argentina (president
2007-15), 71; Gyorgy Kurtag, composer and
pianist, 98; Jonathan Lethem, writer, Gun,
with Occasional Music (1994), Brooklyn Crime
Novel (2023), 60; Erin Pizzey, founder (1971),
refuges for victims of domestic violence, 85;
Beth Rigby, political editor, Sky News, 48;
Smokey Robinson, singer, Tears of a Clown
(1967), 84; Keith Scott, UK high
commissioner to Papua New Guinea (2018-
23), 55; 72; Ben Taylor, editor of The Sunday
Times, 53; Gwen Taylor, actress, Barbara
(1995-2003), 85; Prof Selina Todd, historian
and writer, Snakes and Ladders: The Great
British Social Mobility Myth (2021), 49; Daisy
Waugh, journalist and novelist, Bed of Roses
(2005), 57.
On this day
In 1845 Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton MP, a
leading abolitionist who campaigned to end
slave trading by African tribes, died aged 58.
The last word
“When one door of happiness closes, another
opens; but often we look so long at the closed
door that we do not see the one which has
been opened for us.” Helen Keller, US writer
and activist, We Bereaved (1929)
Dark Days for Nato
The warning that Ukraine could be defeated unless given western aid and arms
immediately comes as Nato reels from threats in the US to abandon the alliance
Nothing perhaps could better underline the
challenge to western democracy and unity than
the gloomy mood of the weekend’s security
conference in Munich. At the start of what has
become an important annual meeting of Nato and
other experts on global threats, the news of the
death of Alexei Navalny, the brave and almost sole
political challenger to President Putin, brought
home to delegates the brutal descent of Russia
into crude dictatorship. This was underlined by
the speech by President Zelensky, in which he
warned the West, and in particular Washington,
that Ukraine was now living the darkest days of
the war that began almost two years ago. Unless
the promise of western support was fulfilled with
the immediate delivery of aid, ammunition and
crucial air defences, his country would find it
impossible to hold out long against Russia, let
alone push the aggressors out of his country.
His warning came with the worst news yet from
the Ukrainian front line. After a long, brave and
bloody defence of Avdiivka, Ukraine’s military
commanders ordered a pullback from a city
crucial to stopping further Russian advances into
Donbas. The reason given was blunt: there was no
more ammunition and no air defences left to
defend the encircled city, nor could Ukraine
False company claims on ethical investment help neither the planet nor shareholders
It is a startling commentary on the success of
the push towards so-called ethical, social and
governance (ESG) investing that between 2020
and 2022 more than six times as much capital was
earmarked for funds which claimed to have high
ESG standards than for other equities. Last year,
companies listed in the US S&P 500 index
mentioned ESG an average of nine times a quarter
in earnings calls — compared with a maximum of
just once in 2017. The drive to ESG compliance had
started to seem unstoppable. But it is not. According
to the latest analysis, more than $10 billion was
withdrawn last year from ESG-associated funds,
having once attracted a total of $51.2 billion. This
is good news for investors generally — and for
those who, for whatever reason, are in search of an
alternative to the basic notion that funds should
seek to maximise returns for their investors.
The fundamental problem with the label ESG is
that it means both nothing and everything. There
is no consistent definition of any of its three
constituent parts and no accepted criteria against
which claims for conformity can be verified, so it
can be defined almost at will. ESG ratings are
Magnolias in Space
Could wooden satellites save the upper stratosphere from more dangerous junk?
There is something almost comical in the notion
of a satellite made of wood. The idea that botanical
material could stand up to the rigours of whirling
around the earth, its innards filled with high-tech
communications or scientific instruments, seems
preposterous. Yet Japan has built, tested and is
about to launch a satellite, made of magnolia wood
and no larger than a kitchen mug, which its
scientists claim will not only be well suited to life
in space but will prove an ingenious way to save the
upper stratosphere. Burning up in a quick bonfire
as it falls to earth at the end of its life, it will not add
to the huge collection of dead satellites and other
sacrifice yet more troops, however effective they had
been in inflicting high casualties on the Russians.
It was a bitter and also symbolic defeat. Mr Putin,
seen smirking in public over the death of Navalny,
was triumphant over the capture of Avdiivka — a
valuable piece of propaganda for his coming re-
election “campaign”. He sent effusive congratula-
tions to the Russian troops (ignoring figures sug-
gesting that some 1,300 were killed in the last 24
hours of this battle) and beat the nationalist drum,
saying that the continuing conflict in Ukraine was
a “life and death” struggle for his country.
President Biden directly blamed Ukraine’s critical
shortage of ammunition for the fall of Avdiivka, in
an attempt to put more pressure on Republican
intransigence in Congress for refusing to sanction
the $60 billion earmarked by the administration
for immediate aid. But his pleas have been over-
shadowed by the campaign rhetoric of Donald
Trump, the Republican rival almost certain to
capture his party’s nomination. Mr Trump’s recent
remark that he would encourage Russia to “do
whatever the hell they want” in Nato countries
refusing to pay full dues has been denounced by
almost everyone as dangerous and delusional. But
it has sent shockwaves through the entire alliance.
The prime minister of Latvia told The Times at the
Greenwashing
unaudited and the data on which they are based is
often incomplete. A recent study found that more
than 70 per cent of those responsible for compiling
the data said they did not have confidence in the
reliability of their own non-financial reporting.
One consequence of this is “greenwashing”,
whereby companies create and meet their own
ESG compliance criteria. In 2021 the Commons
Treasury select committee rightly called for action
against this. But the practice of funds making
“exaggerated, misleading or unsubstantiated
claims” is endemic to ESG. As the financial analyst
Calastone wrote in its report last week: “A Japa-
nese car manufacturer that has improved its gov-
ernance standards — governance in Japan is a
bugbear for international investors — might
qualify for an ESG fund. But an investor might
imagine that she is choosing ESG funds to match
her environmental values and so would be
disappointed to find she owns a lot of legacy
industries like carmakers, doing not very much
differently at all.”
The problem with ESG is not just that some
investors will not like the complexion of the funds;
space debris that is becoming a serious threat to
future satellite launches and manned flight.
Notions of a pretty spacecraft, made of bamboo
and exquisitely decorated, must be set aside. One
made of magnolia will be robust and will not crack,
warp, decompose or shrink. It will be resistant to
extremes of temperature and will not change
structure in a zero-gravity vacuum. In short, what
is sustainable and disposable on earth will prove
equally friendly to a space environment.
Space is now severely overcrowded, especially
the belt above the stratosphere, where some 10,600
satellites help our cars to navigate, connect our
23
Leading articles
weekend that Nato’s European members would have
to make sacrifices to raise defence spending, if the
US was to stay committed to protecting Europe.
The warning is timely. Nato celebrates its 75th
anniversary soon, but the transatlantic strains have
rarely been as tense. Only a few members spend the
recommended 2 per cent of their Gross Domestic
Product on defence. Britain is one, but France, Italy,
Germany and others still fail to put in more than
a tiny percentage of what the US pays for Nato.
Little wonder the Trump isolationist rhetoric is a
vote-winner. If there is one benefit to his intemper-
ate tone, it is to be hoped that it galvanises recalci-
trant states to spend more on collective defence.
The choice is now stark. Ukraine faces defeat
unless Europe does more to make up the shortfall
in arms and aid. It will be costly and painful for
services each country must cut. But Mr Putin has
shown what is at stake. His nationalist belligerence
is not only a tragedy for the few brave Russians
challenging the Kremlin; it is a threat to all countries
in Russia’s cross-hairs, especially the Baltics. Lord
Cameron of Chipping Norton, the foreign
secretary, urged the Republicans not to show the
weakness displayed against Hitler in the 1930s.
His message must be addressed to Europe also, as
Munich in 1938 and now, has shown.
it is that these funds work against the efficient
allocation of resources by distorting investment
priorities without any worthwhile gain. ESG ratings
are useless as a guide to measuring a company’s
effect on the planet or even society. An article in
the Harvard Business Review in 2022 outlined the
problem: “It’s hard to blame casual observers for
believing that investing in an ESG investment fund
is helping to save the planet. Marketing materials
of ESG funds often make lofty statements about
social or environmental aspirations, but the fine
print reveals that the real goal is to assure share-
holder profits.” This doublespeak is at the heart of
ESG, which is why fossil fuel companies can have
better ESG ratings than makers of electric vehicles.
The move away from ESG is to be welcomed —
not least because of the high fees associated with
the funds. One report estimates that the fees are
some 40 per cent higher than traditional funds,
despite no benefit in better returns. Last year’s
move away from ESG is almost certainly the start of
a trend, as investors now realise the flaws inherent
in the notion — and no longer feel pressured into
conforming to a false and misleading concept.
phone calls and spy on our enemies. Some 3,000
of them are defunct. They will be joined each year
for the next seven years by 2,500 new ones. And
the problem of their disposal has become acute.
Those made of aluminium don’t just burn up to
nothing as they are brought home to die; they
form tiny particles, a dangerous pollutant, that
add to the ever bigger graveyard of space junk.
So serious is this whirling belt, like a ring of
Saturn, that scientists and politicians, including
the current Lord Mayor of London, have called for
effective capture and disposal. Maybe that’s why
Japanese magnolia mugs may prove the answer.
24
World
Nato states must spend
more, says Baltic leader
Latvia
Oliver Moody Munich
Nato countries will have to make sacri-
fices to raise their military spending
and keep the United States committed
to protecting Europe, the prime minis-
ter of Latvia has said.
Evika Silina was responding to
Donald Trump’s recent suggestion that
he would encourage Russia to “do
whatever the hell they want” with Nato
members that had not “paid their bills”.
Several European leaders at the
Munich security conference over the
weekend agreed that the continent
urgently needed to increase its defence
budgets and expand its arms industry
amid concerns that the US may no
longer be an entirely reliable ally.
The Biden administration’s struggle
to get a $60 billion aid package for
Ukraine through a divided Congress
has also raised concerns that even US
governments that are well disposed to-
wards the alliance could be hamstrung
by hyper-partisan political stand-offs.
Silina, 48, said that Nato members
had to show America that they were se-
rious about taking on more responsibil-
ity for their defence. “Everyone is talk-
ing about this famous speech from Do-
nald Trump and I believe there will be a
lot of rhetoric before the [US] elections.
“Sometimes that rhetoric can be very
rude and harsh. But I believe that Nato
is the strongest military alliance [that
has existed in] 75 years. We have to un-
derstand that the United States has
been in the alliance for a very long time,
and yes, everyone is concerned about
the political changes and shifts. But
that’s why it is very important that poli-
ticians around the table tell the US
loudly what will be their political will in
the next two, three, four years.”
Silina said that while she recognised
that “every country has its struggles”, it
was important for Americans to realise
how much is at stake for them in
Europe. “We have to understand that
we are not isolated, each country from
Bruising on Navalny’s body consistent with seizure
Russia
Aliide Naylor
Medical workers found bruising on
Alexei Navalny’s body consistent with
him being restrained while having a sei-
zure, Russian journalists have reported.
Novaya Gazeta Europe, an inde-
pendent Russian newspaper, said yes-
terday an inmate at IK-3, the Arctic
penal colony, told reporters of a “myste-
rious commotion” the night before
Navalny’s death was disclosed.
The inmate said: “We heard cars
drive on to the prison grounds late at
night but couldn’t see through our cell
windows what they were.”
The newspaper also cited an anony-
mous paramedic who said the body of
Navalny, 47, was taken to the Salekhard
district hospital on Friday night.
“Usually the bodies of those who die
in colonies are delivered directly to the
forensic medical examination bureau ...
Biden: Avdiivka
lost in Congress
Aliide Naylor
Russia’s first big battlefield gains in
Ukraine in months were possible
only because of “congressional
inaction” in the United States,
President Biden has said.
He contacted President Zelensky
personally on Saturday after the
Ukrainian forces that had defended
the town of Avdiivka were finally
forced to pull back. The US Senate
has approved $95 billion in funding
for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, but
the measures are being held up by
Republicans in the lower House
who want more funding for security
on the US southern border.
Battlefield images show that what
was once a thriving town of 30,000
people has been reduced to rubble.
the other, and if someone as big as the
United States will fail to keep [their]
promises it can shake the international
order.
“That’s why even the people within
America [to whom] Europe and Russia
seem somewhere far away — it can
shake them in a very different way, not
known to anyone today, even the
United States itself.”
Over the three-day summit a num-
ber of world leaders warned that Nato
was not yet in a position where it could
be confident of deterring a Russian in-
vasion. Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-
general, said there were “serious gaps”
in the alliance’s defences, singling out
the limited supplies of ammunition and
spare parts at its disposal.
President Zelensky of Ukraine told
the delegates that the West was not
“psychologically ready” for the possi-
but for some reason they were taken to
the clinic,” the paramedic said. “As an
ambulance worker ... such injuries
appear as a result of convulsions.”
The accuracy of the reports could
not be independently confirmed or de-
nied. Interfax, the Russian state news
agency, said doctors tried for “more
than half an hour” to revive Navalny.
An anonymous doctor at the Labyt-
nangi city hospital cast doubt, however,
on claims of resuscitation attempts. He
told MediaZona, another independent
Russian media outlet, the closest am-
bulance team was 35km from the pris-
on. Navalny would have been dead by
the time resuscitation attempts started.
Information about the cause of his
death has been patchy and contra-
dictory. The prison service said at first
that he felt unwell while taking a walk.
Before a post-mortem examination,
Kremlin-backed channels claimed that
his death was the result of a blood clot.
President Putin “congratulated the
Russian military on this success, an
important victory”, according to the
Kremlin. However, the Russian side
has paid a high price, with 47,000
personnel killed or injured, Ukraine
said.
There were claims yesterday that
Russian forces had shot six injured
Ukrainian soldiers in Avdiivka.
Other Ukrainian soldiers were said
to be holding out in a Soviet-era
chemical plant.
Russia also launched an offensive
near Zaporizhzhia at the weekend,
but with little success. “The defence
forces crushed Russians’ offensive
yesterday,” Ukraine’s western
operational command said, adding
that it had destroyed “18 units of
equipment, three of them tanks”
and killed 70 Russian troops.
The US Institute for the Study of
War warned that Russia might start
deploying its successful aerial tactics
on a wider scale if the West
continued to delay military aid.
bility that Russia might launch an
attack on Poland or the Baltic states.
Fiona Hill, a British Russia expert and
former adviser to the Trump adminis-
tration, said that Europeans had failed
to heed Trump’s warnings for years and
finally needed to take them seriously.
“His view is very much that Nato is a
protection racket and you basically
have to pay your dues,” she said. “There
is a very large cohort of people in the
United States who really do say, ‘Why
should the United States be paying for
European defence after all this time?’ ”
Silina said that her country was
already “in a very fit shape”, spending
2.4 per cent of its GDP on defence and
planning to join Estonia and Lithuania
in building a line of fortifications across
their frontiers with Russia and Belarus.
However, she said that more effort
needed to be put into deterrence, ac-
Alexei Navalny was smiling in a court
video link the day before his death
Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila, 69, and
his lawyer were handed a notice of
death stating he died from “sudden
death syndrome” — a term for cardiac
failure. They could not see his body.
Two minutes after the official report
of his death the prison service put out
what appeared to be a prepared press
release. Four minutes later, a state-
2GM Monday February 19 2024 | the times
knowledging that the EU’s failure to de-
liver the one million artillery shells it
had promised Ukraine had highlighted
some of the gaps in its capacity.
“Even if Russia will lose in the war
with Ukraine — and I know they will
lose — they will have some time to re-
shape their own economy, their own
military industry,” she said. “And then
we have to be ready to react to their new
threats, what they can [do] to Europe.
Maybe this will not be Ukraine. It could
be any other country.”
Pouring more money into defence
would entail higher taxes, cuts to public
spending or additional borrowing at a
time of higher interest rates. Silina said
this required political leaders to be
frank with their electorates about the
need to accept changes, although some
larger Nato states could afford to put
more funding into their armed forces
without “such big sacrifices”.
Last month Estonia added 2 percent-
age points to its VAT and income tax
rates to raise its military budget to
3.2 per cent of GDP. Nato leaders
pledged in 2014 to commit at least 2 per
cent of their GDP to defence spending,
but only 11 of the 31 member states were
expected to reach the target last year.
Latvia has also recently unveiled
higher taxes on lenders and certain cat-
egories of imports as it aims to spend
3 per cent of GDP on defence by 2027.
“We Baltics are making these sacrifi-
ces,” Silina said. “It’s like if you’re going
to the Olympics: you need to train, oth-
erwise you will not be fit enough.
“It is the same with spending and
planning your budget expenditures and
explaining to people how important it is
to be secure and to be strong, because
there are some countries outside
Europe, outside Nato, that will [only]
understand the language of strength,
not the language of diplomacy. “They
will need to see us as a strong Europe, a
strong Nato, not only on paper but also
in reality, in its military capabilities.”
controlled channel on Telegram
claimed the cause of death was a blood
clot. After a further seven minutes
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman,
spoke of Navalny’s death.
Gulagu.net, the human rights group,
said: “Everything was pre-planned and Trump sells
co-ordinated ... minute by minute,
second by second.” It added that intelli-
gence services appeared to have discon-
trainers ‘to
nected some of the security cameras at
the camp shortly before the death.
The St Petersburg court service said
pay rising
on Telegram that 154 people had been
jailed for up to 14 days for breaching legal bills’
anti-protest laws.
F
OVD-Info, the human rights media acing fines and legal costs
outlet, said that by last night, 387 people of more than half a billion
had been detained in 39 cities for dollars, Donald Trump
tributes, such as laying flowers at spent part of his weekend
monuments to victims of repression. trying to raise money by
selling a $399 pair of trainers
(Alistair Dawber writes). As he
the times | Monday February 19 2024
appeared at “Sneaker Con” in
Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon
before making a campaign speech in
Michigan, the former president, 77,
was greeted by a mixture of boos
and chants of “USA!” as he stood on
a podium to flog “The Never
Surrender High-Tops”.
The shoes, which are sprayed gold,
are described as “your rally cry in
shoe form. Lace up and step out
ready to conquer.” They are “bold,
gold and tough, just like President
Trump”, a website set up to sell the
shoes said.
One man paid $9,000 for a signed
pair, but even that will hardly make
any difference to the mountain of
cash Trump needs to find to pay off
2GM
his various legal debts. On Friday a
New York court fined him
$354.9 million for business
malpractice. With interest and other
costs, that sum is likely to rise to
more than $450 million.
He has also been ordered to pay
the writer E Jean Carroll
$83.3 million for defamation after
being found liable for sexually
assaulting her in the 1990s.
Not included in that ledger are the
legal costs he needs to pay for these
cases and the four criminal cases he
faces, which together mean he is
answering 91 charges.
Speaking in Michigan, Trump
dismissed Friday’s decision as a
“sham” and argued that businesses
The former president with his
Never Surrender High Tops. The
tally of fines and damages he faces
already exceeds half a billion dollars
with interest included and he still
faces 91 criminal charges
would be queueing up to leave
New York.
He will appeal against Judge
Arthur Engoron’s ruling, which
also barred Trump from
borrowing money in the state for
three years.
His business empire spans about
500 companies, most of which are
involved in property,
entertainment or licensing the
Trump brand.
Forbes estimates that his wealth
stands at about $2.6 billion, easily
enough to cover what he owes.
Most of his assets are not easily
converted to cash, however, and
their values could fall if potential
buyers know that the former
president is under pressure to sell
them.
In a sworn legal statement last
April Trump said he had about
$400 million in cash at the bank,
but this, too, would fall short of
what he needs to cover his fines.
It is not all gloom for Trump,
however. Despite his troubles, the
Republican primary process has
been a breeze for him. On average
he has a more than 30-point lead
in South Carolina over his only
rival, Nikki Haley, and it is
possible that a victory in the state’s
primary on Saturday would knock
her out of the race.
He could then divert even more
of his campaign money to his legal
costs before the starting gun in the
general election race was fired.
His bank balance could also
receive a windfall if he sells his
stake in Truth Social, the social
media platform he helped to set up
after being banned from Twitter/X
in the wake of the January 6 riots
at the US Capitol in 2021.
The value of the platform has
soared as his attempt to return to
the White House gathers steam.
Trump’s stake in the company
Trump Media & Technology
Group is worth about $4 billion,
based on the value of an
acquisition vehicle that has agreed
to merge with it. If the deal is
completed, Trump would be able
to sell his shares in the combined
company six months later.
Financial regulators approved the
deal last week.
If relying on the sale of trainers
alone, however, Trump would have
to shift more than 1.25 million
pairs to cover his legal costs.
South Africans give up on
the ‘British hamster wheel’
and head for home
Page 26
Holy smoke, but
no fire, as Vatican
reveals its secrets
Vatican City
Philip Willan Rome
Conspiracy theorists will be dis-
appointed: there are no Martian skulls,
no Jewish candelabrum looted from
Jerusalem under Vespasian or nails
from the Crucifixion in what used to be
known as the Vatican Secret Archive.
All are items rumoured to have been
squirrelled away in vaults underneath
the Vatican. Instead, Massimo Franco,
an Italian author granted unprecedent-
ed access, was able to peruse a letter
from English noblemen begging Pope
Clement VII to dissolve Henry VIII’s
marriage to Catherine of Aragon, docu-
ments recounting the trial of Galileo
and papers that illuminate Pius XII’s
Holocaust dilemma.
His book, Secretum, is based on inter-
views with the director of the institu-
tion, Sergio Pagano, a down-to-earth
monsignor who has been in charge of
the Vatican’s information “hard disc”
for the past 25 years. The title reprises
the official Latin name of the Pope’s pri-
vate archive, Archivum Secretum Vati-
canum, founded by Paul V in 1611.
In the book, due out in Italy tomor-
row, Franco explains why in 2019 the
Pope changed the name from “Secret”
to “Apostolic”, to escape the sinister
connotations of the word — signifying
private — that inspired authors such as
Dan Brown.
On one of Franco’s early visits his
host pulled out a parchment laden with
red wax seals and titled Sanctissimo in
Chris from a cupboard in his private
office: an appeal for an annulment on
behalf of the English King, written in
Latin, and backed by 81 dignitaries.
Some of the seals are missing, how-
ever, representing people who decided
to withhold their support and were
either executed or imprisoned, Pagano
explained. Clement was unmoved by
the 1530 plea, opening the door to the
Anglican schism.
The document escaped being looted
by Napoleonic troops when it was
rolled up and concealed inside a wood-
en throne that still stands in the ante-
chamber of the director’s office.
The French emperor carried off the
entire archive in 1810, transporting it to
Paris in convoys of wooden carts drawn
by oxen. A year earlier Bonaparte had
captured Pius VII and carried him off to
France as well. He was eager to get his
hands on the document formalising his
excommunication — a punishment
meted out by the Pope for Napoleon’s
annexation of papal territories.
The document is now safely back in
the archive, but not all the papers were
recovered following Napoleon’s defeat
at Waterloo. Some, relating to the here-
sy trials of the Inquisition, ended up
being recycled, while others found their
way to Trinity College Dublin.
Researchers are poring over newly
released documents from the pontifi-
cate of Pius XII to try to understand his
failure to denounce the crimes of Nazi
Germany. The files show that the Vati-
can received information on the exter-
mination of Jews as early as 1941. Pius’s
25
Megachurch pastor
has a positive message
after shooting
Page 27
Pius VII at the coronation of Napoleon,
who once stole the archive contents
failure to speak out was motivated by
the need to protect Vatican sources
within the German resistance and to
avoid provoking reprisals against Cath-
olics in Germany and Poland.
Critics have argued that Pius was
influenced by antisemitic instincts and
a fondness for German culture ac-
quired when he served as papal nuncio
in Germany before the war.
Pagano acknowledged that it was
harder to explain his silence after the
war had ended. The Pope had received
Holocaust survivors, expressing “words
full of humanity and closeness, but he
never mentioned the Shoah”, he said.
Concerns over the creation of the state
of Israel in Palestine and a perception
that the new enemy was communism
might explain his caution, Pagano said.
Pagano, 75, a Barnabite priest, joined
the Vatican archive in 1981, only a
decade after electricity was introduced
in its 53 miles of shelving. Staff used
candles and torches for fear that wiring
might produce a short circuit.
He described in detail how its diplo-
matic papers illuminated the Holy See’s
delicate relations with China, Japan
and the United States in Asia as they
evolved over the past century.
In 2018 the Holy See entered into a
secret pact with the Chinese govern-
ment to jointly administer the Catholic
Church in China, seen by some as a be-
trayal of underground Catholics who
remained faithful to Rome under Chi-
nese Communist Party persecution.
Despite the pact being renewed
twice, the climate of trust between the
two sides does not appear to have im-
proved. Pagano revealed that the Vati-
can had secretly removed its archive
from Hong Kong in September 2019,
spiriting it to Rome via Manila.
The director said he had been ad-
vised to remove the documentation by
a member of the local hierarchy, whom
he could not name for safety reasons.
“The demonstrations had recently be-
gun in Hong Kong against Beijing. And
perhaps they already feared that it
would end badly,” Pagano said.
Franco’s book offers a sweeping ac-
count of hundreds of years in the life of
the Catholic Church, ranging from the
names of Pius XII’s tame goldfinches —
Hansel and Gretel — to religious geo-
politics and espionage, under the gui-
dance of the archive’s surprisingly can-
did director.
26
World
MI6’s quest for the ‘Holy Grail’ thwarted by a Spanish cleaning lady
Spain
Simon Hunter Madrid
It is a story, in the words of the research-
er who has uncovered it, that would
serve for “three or even four Hollywood
movies”. A tale that takes place in Civil
War-era Spain, featuring a heroic
female protagonist, British spies and an
ancient cup considered by some to be
the Holy Grail.
In 1939, as Spain’s fratricidal conflict
was reaching its conclusion, militias
were regularly looting churches and
cathedrals for items of value. There
Wild ride Prompt action saved a young cowboy whose hand got caught in a rope at Panaewa Stampede Rodeo, Hawaii. The ring safety team soon caught and slowed the calf and the rider was freed unharmed
South African expats fly
home despite high crime
South Africa
Jane Flanagan Cape Town
South Africa is experiencing a new
wave of white flight, unlike any before,
in which expats return from the hard-
ships of the developed world.
The rocketing cost of living under
grey skies in Britain and Europe with
wars in Ukraine and the Middle East
has led many South African profession-
als abroad to reconsider their choice.
Richan Schwellnus, of Tax Consul-
ting South Africa, reported a “signifi-
cant” rise in overseas inquiries about
the implications of coming home,
which appeared to be a reversal of an
established pattern. Estate agents said
they were selling to “droves” of expats
deciding they could, after all, live with
the drawbacks that pushed them to
leave.
Fearful of the future, hundreds of
thousands of South Africans from the
minority white population left when
the first all-race vote in 1994 brought
Nelson Mandela’s African National
Congress (ANC) to power. Since then,
during periods of calm and crisis, the
exodus has ebbed and flowed. A broad
trend of white, and increasingly black,
professional flight has become the
norm.
Those who left cited fears about
safety, government corruption, eco-
were also many German and British
spies operating in the country as the
tensions that would lead to the
outbreak of the Second World War
escalated.
The unlikely hero of this story is
Sabina Suey, the cleaning lady at Valen-
cia Cathedral in the eastern Mediter-
ranean city. The cathedral was — and
still is today — the home of the Santo
Cáliz de Valencia, an agate cup that is
believed to be the Holy Grail that was
used by Jesus during the Last Supper.
Given the chance that the relic could
be stolen by militias, Suey risked her life
James Davey and his family celebrate
nomic mismanagement and policies on
land restitution and black empower-
ment. The yearning to return is not
explained by the eradication of those
concerns since data on crime, employ-
ment and economic growth are worse
than ever. A rolling schedule of almost-
daily power cuts has added to the
scourges. For many, however, the grass
now appears less green on the other
side.
David Burger, an agent for Lew
Geffen Sotheby’s International Realty
in Cape Town, said: “South Africans liv-
ing in the UK and Europe are becoming
more miserable every day with wars on
their doorstep, uncontrolled immigra-
tion and the increasing cost of living. At
the end of the day we all aspire to a
better lifestyle and will seek it out.”
Rory O’Hagan, of Chas Everitt prop-
by smuggling it to her home, where she
hid it among the springs of a sofa.
This part of the story is well known in
Spain, but thanks to previously unseen
documents and photographs, the re-
searcher Dr Ana Mafe García has un-
covered a twist.
Her work has revealed that the Brit-
ish secret services, specifically MI6,
offered Suey and her family safe pas-
sage to the United Kingdom if she
would bring the holy chalice with her
and hand it over.
“Sabina was literally being pursued
by the secret services to go to England
erty group in Johannesburg, said South
Africans were returning in their droves
to set up in businesses in the economic
hub, bringing their savings, skills and
international experience.
A general election this year could re-
sult in the ANC being forced into a
coalition government, a first for the
country and an arrangement that has
been chaotic at municipal level.
James Davey, 47, who moved back to
Cape Town recently, said the cost of liv-
ing crisis in Britain, “the worst weather
in the world” and what he saw as curbs
on free speech became too much.
“I could not face another day on the
British hamster wheel,” he said. Dav-
ey grew up in a coastal village outside
Cape Town but in 1990, a year of high
tension after Mandela’s release from
jail, his British parents moved home.
The pull of South Africa remained
strong as he finished his education,
built his career and started a family.
Davey said learning the latest systems
and business practices was invaluable
but life in Worcestershire, where he ran
his own firm, became “claustrophobic”.
He and his partner drew up a list of
the pros and cons of life in Britain,
South Africa or elsewhere. South
Africa came top.
“I wanted my 11-year-old daughter to
have the outdoors childhood I’d had,”
he said. “ We feel alive and free.”
with her family by ship,” García told the
Cadena SER radio network. “She was a
very advanced woman for her time,
however. She didn’t trust them and
refused the offer.”
The British, García explained, were
interested in the grail for its historical
value at a time when many artworks
and relics were being looted from Spain
to be sold in countries such as the
United States.
García is chairwoman of the Inter-
national Scientific Committee for Holy
Grail Studies, and is preparing an
exhibition dedicated to the story of
Queen Elizabeth had dim
view of Australian leaders
Australia
Bernard Lagan Sydney
Queen Elizabeth’s private fears about
some Australian prime ministers have
been revealed in leaked letters, parts of
which its government tried to suppress.
The letters, obtained by The Austra-
lian newspaper, disclose that the
Queen was worried that William
“Billy” McMahon, who led the country
from 1971 to 1972, was improperly
recommending peerages and honours
to satisfy local political leaders who
demanded titles.
A letter in 1972 from Martin Charter-
is, the Queen’s private secretary, to Paul
Hasluck, the Australian governor-
general at the time, expressed alarm at
efforts by McMahon to elevate to the
House of Lords Henry Bolte, the
former Victoria state premier,
and Alick Downer, who was Aus-
tralia’s high commissioner to
London.
Charteris referred to the
“seductive” roads McMahon had
taken and “the lack of under-
standing” of how the system
worked. He told Hasluck: “Your
letter was of the greatest inter-
est, and not a little concern, to
the Queen, who, I need hardly
say, is very grateful to you for
what you are trying to do to keep
those concerned with making
recommendations walking along
the straight and narrow path.”
Members of the Lords are
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
Sabina Suey, including these recent
discoveries.
The documents that will go on dis-
play in October in the Valencian
municipality of Massamagrell include
hand-written notes by María Suey, who
was Sabina’s sister, as well as personal
photographs, diaries and testimonies of
direct relatives who had knowledge of
the rescue plan.
“These pages and testimonies reveal
the network of collaborators that Sab-
ina managed to gather, demonstrating
the importance of solidarity and shared
courage in times of crisis,” García said.
appointed by the monarch on the
advice of the British prime minister.
Life peers must be British, Irish or
Commonwealth citizens with UK
residency.
Charteris’s letter was heavily redac-
ted when it was released in January
2022 by Australia’s National Archives.
In another letter, Hasluck explained
to Charteris how McMahon had
approached Edward Heath, the prime
minister, to secure peerages for Bolte
and Downer.
The newspaper also disclosed that
the Queen had expressed little confi-
dence in John Gorton, McMahon’s
predecessor as prime minister. It re-
ported that she was concerned about
his “lone ranger” ways, his
critics within the govern-
ment and the close election
in which his Liberal-Country
Party coalition clung to
power.
The Australian noted
that Gorton was an un-
orthodox leader who
regularly slept in and
drank too much.
The Queen said
through her private
secretary that she
hoped “stability and
harmony” would prevail.
Her hopes were in vain.
Gorton resigned in 1971.
The Queen, alarmed
by pleas for peerages
the times | Monday February 19 2024
Show must go on for megachurch
The pastor at Lakewood
Church is determinied
to put a positive spin on
a shooting scare, writes
Will Pavia in Houston
The church where Alan Guity worships
on Sunday has seats for 16,000 people,
a vast stage that fills with Grammy-
award winning musicians and a likeable
pastor named Joel Osteen who offers a
message of personal empowerment
that is broadcast around the world.
The music makes him cry and mid-
way through the service, the arena
echoes with the sound of 10,000 voices
chanting: “I am blessed, prosperous, re-
deemed, forgiven, healthy, whole, tal-
ented, creative, confident.” They are
victors and not victims. Their lives are
full of purpose.
“We say positive things about our-
selves,” said Guity, 36, a carpenter and
welder. “Joel builds our spirits.”
Last Sunday he found himself hiding
between the pews as gunshots echoed
through the church. “I said: ‘I’m done.
I’m going to heaven today’. We lay flat
on the ground and we began to pray.”
In the Lakewood megachurch where
everything happens for a reason, a
woman with a history of mental illness
had entered with an assault rifle and
opened fire. In an airy lobby, close to a
curving wall where congregants are
encouraged to write down their vision
of what they will do with their lives, she
engaged in a gunfight with two off-duty
police officers working as guards and
was shot dead.
Her seven-year-old son, whom she
had brought along with her, was struck
in the head and is still in a critical condi-
tion.
The attack put the megachurch in the
spotlight, an institution that grew up in
the era of shopping malls and big-box
stores, and one that continues to thrive
even as polls indicate the steady decline
of religion in American life. It also
raised the question of how Lakewood’s
relentlessly sunny pastor would re-
spond to an event that seemed to lack
rhyme or reason.
“He is saying what I thought he might
say,” said Michael Emerson, a sociology
and religion specialist at Rice Univers-
ity in Houston. “He’s saying it could
have been so much worse, it was a bless-
ing that we had off-duty police as
guards, it was between services, so
there were fewer people, so God was
protecting us.”
Emerson, who has studied mega-
churches, arrived in Houston in time to
see Lakewood grow so large that it
moved into a sports arena that had
been the home of the Houston Rockets
basketball team in 2005, after renova-
tions that cost $100 million. “It was con-
troversial,” he said, and it only added to
the doubt that some felt, over whether
Lakewood was really a church at all.
It stands beside a motorway. Outside
it there are 14 giant American flags
planted like palm trees on a lush green
lawn. An army of volunteers is on hand
each Sunday to usher the faithful from
one of the car parks to the arena.
“It’s so well organised,” Emerson said.
“There are people from the parking all
the way, getting you in and seating you.
Then they have to get you to efficiently
leave so they can have the next service.”
There are three every Sunday — two
in English, one in Spanish — and also
an online service in the evening. Be-
sides going himself, Emerson has inter-
viewed regulars who talk about the
music “which is just incredible” and
which brings “a sense of excitement”.
He added: “There are TV cameras, the
Worshippers at the cavernous church arena, formerly home to the Houston Rockets, support a “prosperity gospel”. Cash collections can sometimes top $1 million
pastor and his wife are performing and
they are like rock stars.”
The sheer size of the congregation
throws up logistical issues unlikely to
bother most parish churches. The col-
lection, for instance, requires more
than a plate. “Nowadays more people
are giving online but still when you
have an offering and it’s over a million
dollars in cash, how do you safely trans-
port that to the bank?” Emerson said.
“They had to hire a security company.”
A financial statement from 2017
showed that the church raised
$82 million in dona-
tions in a year. Last
month the pastor an-
nounced that the
$100 million borrowed
to renovate the arena had
now been paid off, thanks
to “the faithfulness of God”.
Osteen’s parents founded
Lakewood Church in 1959 with
a congregation of 90, starting in a
building that had been a livestock
feed store. Osteen, the fourth of five
children, went to Oral Roberts Univers-
ity, the Christian college in Tulsa, but
phoned his father, John, after a year
there, in 1983, and asked if he could
come back and start a television station
that would broadcast sermons. “That
was always my passion,” he said, during
a service in 2019. “These cameras and
the production and lighting.”
Every so often his father would sug-
gest that he preach a sermon and Os-
teen always declined. But one Monday
evening in 1998, when his father was
suffering from kidney failure, he asked
Osteen again and “something told him
to say yes”.
There followed “the most miserable
week of my life”, he said. “I was so nerv-
ous.” Mounting the stage, he clung to
the lectern. His father, who had gone
into hospital, listened over the phone.
Osteen and his wife, Victo-
ria, went to visit him
there afterwards
and “the nurses
stopped me in
the hall and said:
“Joel, we never
seen your dad so
proud,” he said. “Little did I know that
would be the last Sunday of my father’s
life.”
This was how he stepped up, event-
ually, to take his father’s place. It was a
process that taught him “that you can
either talk yourself out of your dreams
or you can talk yourself into your
dreams”, he said.
There is a broad audience for this
kind of message. “It’s like a TED talk,”
said Netra, 41, who is vice-president at a
quality assurance company and de-
clined to give her last name. She de-
scribed going to Lakewood with a group
of friends, none of whom were particu-
larly religious. “It was very positive. The
energy was amazing.”
Osteen wrote a book, Your Best Life
Now, which sold so well that he stopped
drawing a salary in 2005. He and his
wife live in an enormous mansion,
guarded by a high fence and a security
gate in Houston’s most expensive
neighbourhood.
But this “is perfectly in line with what
he preaches”, said Emerson, the sociol-
ogist. He preaches what is known as the
“prosperity gospel”. The congregation,
seeing his splendid house, would say:
“Look how blessed our pastor is.”
Nationwide, there are about 1,800
churches with a congregation of more
than 2,000, and those that have con-
tinued to grow have often done so in the
manner of
Pastor Joel companies in
Osteen’s book, a consolidat-
Your Best Life ing market
Now, sold so well place: by swal-
that he stopped lowing up
taking a salary smaller ones.
in 2005 “They can offer
more children’s
programmes, more
services,” Emerson
said. They accounted
for only 1 per cent of
congregations in the country, but
20 per cent of the church-going popu-
lace.
Alongside megachurches like Lake-
wood, there are those that offer more
traditional, gospel-led services. Albert
Mohler, president of the Southern
27
World
Baptist Theological Seminary in Louis-
ville, Kentucky, felt that the future was
on the side of the second group.
Megachurches like Lakewood are
offering something “religion-ish, or re-
ligion-like,” he said. “There are fewer
‘Christian-ish people’.” He felt that the
other problem, for prosperity gospel
megachurches, was that “it’s just not
true that the people who believe in it get
rich, at least not those in the pews”.
Nor did they appear to live longer.
Nor could they offer a ready explana-
tion “when something horrible hap-
pens”, Mohler said.
It’s still unclear why the shooter,
identified as Genesse Moreno, 36,
sought to attack Lakewood Church, an
hour’s drive from her home in Conroe,
Texas. Her mother may have been a
member of the church, according to
Rabbi Walli Carranza, who was
Moreno’s mother-in-law, and recalled
once trying to contact her via the
church a few years ago after losing con-
tact with her and her grandson. She was
not sure if anyone tried.
“When you have 46,000 people in
the congregation, it’s a little difficult,”
she said. She also felt it was a mistake to
seek any rationale for the shooting. Her
daughter-in-law suffered from severe
mental illnesses and should never have
been able to acquire guns, she said.
Osteen addressed what had hap-
pened in a video message on Wednes-
day, standing by the stage, the cavern-
ous arena of his church empty behind
him. “It’s been a difficult week, some-
thing we never dreamt we would have
to deal with,” he said. “But we look back
and we see the faithfulness of God, how
he protected and watched over us.”
Yesterday he appeared on stage
flanked by two siblings and his wife and
thanked the heads of security for the
church. Houston’s mayor, John Whit-
mire, spoke too, sounding like a Lake-
wood preacher himself. “I know what
the holy spirit feels like and I feel it! I’m
going to leave here a better father, a
better Christian and a better mayor.”
Even Olsteen seemed astonished. “I
didn’t know you could preach!” he
exclaimed. “I love that!”
28 Monday February 19 2024 | the times

World
said. “It was an ideal connecting
FROM OUR piece.”
The site’s new owners began to

CORRESPONDENT deforest it until the government told

Conservationists in Belize are racing to
buy up a fast-vanishing ribbon of forest
that is vital to the survival of wildlife
worrying about deforestation when
Ben Cooke very few countries have as many
trees left as we do,” Steven Dyck, a
BELIZE
farmer who recently bought part of
the corridor, said. “We need the
wildlife, it’s beautiful. But we need to scenario” is that the Mennonites cut
build an economy.”
Dyke is a member of a Mennonite
community in the west of the
country called Spanish Lookout.
The forefathers of the conservative
Christian group migrated from the
them to stop. To get permission to
deforest it further, they need to tell
the government how they will
reduce the environmental impact.
Kay hopes they can be convinced
to leave a portion of the property
forested, to keep the corridor intact.
“They knew they were buying land
in an ecologically sensitive area, so
it’s only fair,” she said.
The Mennonites have offered to
sell a strip of Tiger Sandy Bay to
Kay’s Maya Forest Corridor Trust.
But Kay described their offer as
“price gouging”, saying her coalition
could not afford it. The “worst-case
down the entire 6,000 acres,
severing the corridor.
Letkeman said his community
would “maybe” deforest the entire
property and lease its hills for
mining. “It depends what

A
few miles inland from
Belize’s Caribbean coast
lies a thin stretch of land
known as the Maya
Forest Corridor. After a
decade of agricultural expansion in
the surrounding area, it is the last
thread connecting Belize’s northern
rainforest with the southern Maya
Mountains and it has become the
focus of a dispute over the nation’s
future.
Conservation groups such as
Re:wild, championed by the actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, argue that the
corridor is vital for wildlife. Without
it, they say, jaguars, pumas and
tapirs would be stranded in the
mountains. Unable to travel in
search of mates, they would steadily
lose genetic diversity and resistance
to disease. And as climate change
dries the region, they would be
unable to move to watering holes in
the north.
But many farmers feel that
Belize, with 40 per cent of
its land in conservation
zones, has already set
aside enough land for
wildlife. Eager to expand
their acreage, they feel
hemmed in by the
conservationists’ attempts
to protect more.
“I don’t see why
Belize should be
Elma Kay and
other activists
are squaring up
to farmers
Russian Empire in the 19th century opportunities come our way. It is not
and arrived in Belize in the 1950s at for the government or any NGO to
the invitation of the British colonial dictate how private property gets
government. They own many of the used.”
country’s agribusinesses, He described Kay as a
and according to Harry “puppet of an
Letkeman, the international elite”
chairman of MEXICO who follows “a cult
Spanish Lookout, 20 miles of the green agenda
they feel “close to Tiger and who want to
God on the Sandy Belize City bring about one
farm”. Bay Maya Forest world
But they have San Corridor government
a bad name Ignacio Belmopan globalism”.
among Caribbean He added: “The
conservationists BELIZE Sea green agenda will
for buying Protected
destroy society
rainforest and areas and only the elite
cutting it down. In will benefit. Orwell
2021 they were in had his date wrong. It
negotiations to turn was not 1984, it was 2024.” Slow news day A three-toed sloth takes a break from its hectic lifestyle hanging
236,000 acres of the Not all the Mennonites from a branch in a rainforest in Limon, Costa Rica, to pose for the camera
northern Maya forest into farmland, agree. Lesley Pinner, Spanish
but the Nature Conservancy, an Lookout’s conservation liaison, said
NGO, hastily outbid them for it.
Elma Kay, a Belizean biologist,
rallied Re:wild and a host of other
that the best thing would be for his
community to conserve more forest
on their land, and for the
EU border chief turns right
conservation organisations in an conservationists to cease buying up
effort to purchase as much of land in return. France of immigration. The party wants asy-
the Maya Forest Corridor as Kay believes the debate over Tiger lum seekers to be forced to make their
Adam Sage Paris
possible, securing a Sandy Bay points to the need for her claims before they reach EU borders.
30,000-acre tract in December government to institute a land-use France’s hard right National Rally has “Our aim is to take back control of bor-
2021. To thread a continuous framework that would set out which recruited the former head of the EU’s ders, both of the EU and of France,” Leg-
conservation zone from north parts of the country should be border agency to stand in this year’s geri told Le Journal du Dimanche. He
to south they needed only conserved and which farmed. European elections. said Brussels “could not be trusted”.
one more property, a “That way, we would not have this Fabrice Leggeri, 55, said he quit the Leggeri resigned from the agency in
6,000-acre site called argument of conservation versus agency after being told by Ylva Johans- 2022 after a European Anti-Fraud
Tiger Sandy Bay. But agriculture. Conservationists are not son, the EU’s home affairs commission- Office report said “he did not follow
the Mennonites got against agriculture. We all have to er, that his job was to allow migrants in. procedures and was dishonest with the
there first. eat. It’s where the agriculture is and National Rally wants to modify the EU”, according to French media. The
“It was really what type of agriculture it is, that’s constitution to give French law prece- report was ordered amid claims that the
disappointing,” Kay the nuance.” dence over EU law, notably on matters agency was too tough on migrants.
the times | Monday February 19 2024
world markets (Friday’s close. Change on the week)
FTSE 100
7,711.71 (+139.13)
8,500
8,000
7,500
7,000
Jan 19 26 Feb 2 9 16
Threat of last orders looms over thousands of licensed premises
Dominic Walsh
Thousands of Britain’s pubs, restau-
rants and hotels have run out of cash
reserves, leaving them in a “perilous
state”, according to research.
A joint survey by the hospitality
industry’s biggest trade bodies found
that a quarter of venues had exhausted
their cash, making them “extremely
vulnerable to the slightest shock”.
It warned there was a risk that any
Currys faces
fresh bid
from Elliott
New takeover offer under consideration
Tracey Boles Deputy Business Editor
Elliott Advisors is considering making a
new cash bid for Currys after the
activist investor’s initial offer of
£700 million was rebuffed on Friday.
The British division of the American
investment firm offered 62p a share for
the electricals retailer, which repre-
sented a 32 per cent premium on the
chain’s share price when it closed at 47p
at the end of last week.
However, after considering the “un-
solicited, preliminary and conditional
proposal”, the retailer’s board rejected
the proposal, which “significantly
undervalued the company and its
future prospects”. This position will be
confirmed to the stock market today.
Elliott, which owns Waterstones
bookshops, is considering making a
fresh offer. It said that it “confirms that
it is considering a possible cash offer for
Currys. There can be no certainty that
an offer will be made for Currys, nor as
to the terms on which any offer might
be made.”
Under the City code on takeovers
and mergers, Elliott must announce a
firm intention to make an offer for
Currys by March 16, or confirm that it
does not intend to make one. City
experts think its interest could set off a
bidding war. Clive Black, vice-chair-
man at Shore Capital, the broker, said:
“Currys is now in play.”
Mike Ashley, the retail tycoon who
founded Sports Direct, which sub-
sequently became Frasers Group, is set
to be a beneficiary of any successful bid.
He owns 11 per cent of Currys. If a bid
from Elliott were to succeed, it would
commodities
Dow Jones Gold
38,627.99 (-43.70) $2,011.77 (-13.06)
40,000
37,500
35,000
32,500
Jan 19 26 Feb 2 9 16 Jan 19 26
such shock could have dire conse-
quences for operators, forcing them to
shut their doors for good and depriving
communities of a valuable asset.
The roll-call of casualties from the
pandemic, soaring energy and wages
inflation and the cost of living crisis
continue to push businesses to the
brink, threatening the existence of
thousands more.
Between December 2019 and last
December, the number of licensed
give the activist investor another foot-
hold on the high street. Currys has 300
stores in the UK and employs more
than 15,000 people. It also has a
presence in eight countries.
Currys’ share price has been
depressed in the face of the company’s
poor performances in the Nordic
countries and weak sentiment towards
British discretionary consumer stocks.
However, it has turned a corner of late,
with Christmas trading said to show an
improvement despite a 3 per cent fall in
like-for-like sales at group level.
Richard Hyman, a retail commenta-
tor, said: “Given Currys’ weak share
price, they were bound to attract some
attention from people who perceive it
to be undervalued.
“And Currys’ board has rightly deter-
mined that it materially undervalued
the business. It’s a difficult retail market
and Currys has faced a number of seri-
ous headwinds, but it definitely has the
potential to trade much more strongly.”
Ashley has stakes in several retailers,
including Boohoo, Asos and AO
World. Black said: “It does look like he
feels that a number of UK-listed retail-
ers are too lowly rated.
“His view may be gaining some vindi-
cation. Quite whether Frasers would
bid for Currys is a different question, es-
pecially if the shares are marked up on
Monday.”
In 2021, Currys merged the brands it
operated, which included PC World,
Dixons and Carphone Warehouse, into
one master brand. Last November,
Currys announced a deal to sell its
Greek business, which trades under the
Kotsovolos brand, for £175 million.
Brent crude (6pm)
$ $83.35 (+1.35)
2,200
2,000
1,800
1,600
Feb 2 9 16 Jan 19 26 Feb 2
premises fell from 116,203 to 99,113, a
net loss of 17,090 venues.
The survey, conducted by CGA by
NIQ for UKHospitality, the British
Beer and Pub Association, the British
Institute of Innkeeping and Hospitality
Ulster, found that on top of the 25 per
cent that had run out of cash, a further
29 per cent were sitting on less than
three months’ worth of ready reserves.
In a joint statement, the organisa-
tions said: “We’ve seen too many good
Fight club Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook chief, greets Alexander Volkanovski, his friend and occasional mixed martial
arts sparring partner, before the Australian featherweight’s shock defeat to Ilia Topuria at UFC 298 in Anaheim, California
Chinese challenger takes to the skies
Tracey Boles
China’s state-backed aerospace
company showcased its narrow-body
passenger jet at the Singapore Airshow
yesterday, marking the first time that
Comac’s C919 aircraft has ventured
beyond Chinese territory.
The C919 has a twin-engine narrow
body seating up to 192 passengers,
meaning that it could compete directly
with Airbus’s A320neo and Boeing’s 737
Max 8 models.
After many delays, it began flying
with China Eastern Airlines last
year. Only four C919s are in service in
China, but there are believed to be more
than a thousand on order.
China has invested heavily in its
attempt to break the hold of the
Business
currencies
£/$
$ $1.2588 (-0.0038)
120
100
80
60
9 16 Jan 19 26 Feb 2 9 16
businesses shut up shop. That has left
cities, towns and villages without a vital
community asset where people can
meet, host events and share enjoyable
experiences. It’s clear that practically
no business has been immune to the
relentless price increases that have
plagued the sector and can absorb costs
no longer, with many already forced to
pass these on to customers.”
To avoid further inflationary price
rises to customers and further closures
Comac’s C919 aircraft has made in
international debut in Singapore
dominant two western aircraft makers
on the global passenger market, but the
aircraft is certified only within China.
With industry-wide production chal-
lenges and a crisis at Boeing, the
aviation industry is watching closely if
29
£/€
$ €1.1693 (-0.0018) ¤
1.400 1.300
1.300 1.200
1.200 1.100
1.100 1.000
Jan 19 26 Feb 2 9 16
across the hospitality industry, they
said it was vital for government to “act
now” before the budget on March 6.
They urged Jeremy Hunt, the chan-
cellor, to address the looming increase
in business rates and to cut excise duty,
but said the top priority, with 94 per
cent of those surveyed, was for a lower
rate of VAT for hospitality.
Kate Nicholls, 53, chief executive of
UKHospitality, said that unless
the Comac C919 can prove to be a viable
alternative.
Comac plans to invest tens of billions
of yuan over the next three to five years
to expand C919 production capacity,
according to reports in the Chinese
media. Last month China’s aviation
authority said it was seeking European
Union Aviation Safety Agency valida-
tion for the C919.
The C919 is one of two models of-
fered by Comac. The other, ARJ21, is a
regional jet. Brunei GallopAir has
placed an order worth $2 billion for 15
C919s and 15 ARJ21 jets. Once com-
pleted, the deal would make GallopAir
the second international operator of
Chinese-made aircraft after Trans-
Nusa, the Indonesian low-cost carrier,
which operates a small fleet of ARJ21s.
30 Monday February 19 2024 | the times

Business

Need to know
1
David Beckham may have had
the magic touch on the football
Nvidia puts Appetite for chips

talk of tech
pitch, but one of his business
investments has fared less well. He
has quietly sold his shares in a
cannabinoid product group.
Cellular Goods, which has
rebranded as Cel AI, was launched

bubble at
at 5p a share in London three
years ago, but last week the shares
were worth less than ½p.

2
Elliott Advisors is considering
making a new cash bid for

centre stage
Currys after the activist
investor’s initial offer of
£700 million was rebuffed on
Friday.

3
Thousands of Britain’s pubs,
restaurants and hotels have
run out of cash reserves,
leaving them in a “perilous state”.
A joint survey by the hospitality
industry’s biggest trade bodies
found that a quarter of venues had
exhausted their cash, making
them “extremely vulnerable to the
slightest shock”.
Katie Prescott, Emma Powell
Jensen Huang told a conference in
Dubai last week: “This is the beginning
of a new industrial revolution. This is
about the production, not of energy, not
of food, but of intelligence. And every
country needs to own the production of
their own intelligence.”
ambitions in AI, so they have come
knocking at Nvidia’s door: Mark
Zuckerberg said recently that his Meta
Platforms group would be buying
350,000 Nvidia cards by the end of
2024, estimated to cost billions of
dollars.
Such an appetite for the chips is
reflected in investors’ hunger for the

4
China’s state-backed
aerospace company has
showcased its narrow-body
passenger jet at the Singapore
Airshow. Comac’s C919, which had
never ventured beyond Chinese
territory until now, could compete
directly with Airbus’s A320neo
and Boeing’s 737 Max 8 models.
Crucially, Nvidia, the Taiwanese-
born billionaire’s company, has posi-
tioned itself at the heart of this “revo-
lution”. It makes the powerful graphics
processing units that are used to train
and run artificial intelligence models
and demand for its wares has been
insatiable, pushing its stock market
valuation within touching distance of
$2 trillion. Moreover, there is the
promise of more where that came from:
stock. Nvidia’s share price has risen by
225 per cent in the past year. It is now
worth more than Amazon and Alpha-
bet, the owner of Google, cementing its
place in the so-called Magnificent
Seven technology heavyweights of
Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta,
Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. These
stocks in turn have driven the recent
outperformance of America’s stock
market, which ended last year substan-

5
The government is holding
talks with EDF to take control
of land at a site in Lancashire
as part of plans to roll out mini-
nuclear power stations in Britain.
Great British Nuclear is in early
discussions with the French state-
owned energy group over buying
land adjacent to its existing
nuclear plants at Heysham, with a
view to potentially giving the
green light for a private developer.
Huang promised that in the next six
weeks he would reveal “a whole bunch
of things we’ve been working on, the
next generation of AI”.
Yet the company’s latest earnings
announcement on Wednesday is set to
be a key test of the Wall Street bet on
continued demand for AI. Will Nvidia,
as it has done so often already, deliver
again? Or are some analysts right to
warn that a bubble could be developing
in the technology sector?
Started in 1999 by Huang, 61, Nvidia
tially higher, despite gloomy economic
conditions and a sharp rise in interest
rates to historic highs.
Last year the S&P 500 share index
generated a total return of 26 per cent.
The Seven contributed almost two
thirds of those gains, according to an
analysis by Howard Silverblatt, a senior
index analyst at S&P Dow Jones
Indices.
What the Big Seven share is not only tinue to power earnings of the entire revenue of $18 billion for the quarter, up
the weight of high earnings expec- S&P 500”, yet he also warned that as the 206 per cent year-on-year. This time
tations but also a claim to being able to sector’s earnings dominance grows, so the company is predicting revenue of

6
The value of reported fraud in
the UK increased to
£2.3 billion last year, more
than double the total recorded in
2022 and the second largest
annual amount recorded by BDO,
the accounting group, in 20 years.
initially focused on graphics, putting
pixels on screens in a sophisticated way.
It was particularly dominant in the
desktop computers graphics card
market, serving customers such as Dell,
HP and Lenovo, as well as Pixar, the
animation studio. Later on, scientists
realised that the cards could be used to
capitalise on the rush to adopt AI by
consumers and businesses. And since
the start of this year Nvidia has been
pushed to the forefront, driving almost
half of all gains in the S&P 500 and off-
setting tumbles in the share prices of
Tesla, Apple and Intel.
Venu Krishna, head of US equity
does its “concentration risk. We wonder
to what degree the Street’s expectations
for margin expansion [in the 2024
financial year], which remains fairly
aggressive, will come to depend on just
a handful of names carrying the
broader US equity market.”
For its part, Nvidia has stunned the
$20 billion, plus or minus 2 per
cent. Analysts are confident that Nvidia
can continue its strong run. The shares
trade at 34 times forward earnings,
which puts the chipmaker at a higher
rating than the likes of Apple and
Microsoft.
That valuation might look punchy,

7
Britain’s runaway rental power AI. And as other technology strategy at Barclays, said that “upward market again and again with its earn- but it could be less so if Nvidia can
growth may have peaked, groups have pursued their own earnings revisions for Big Tech con- ings figures, in November reporting achieve the level of earnings growth
research suggests. The pace of
rental growth in the UK slowed
last month to its weakest level in
more than a year, according to
Hamptons, as tenants resisted
steep increases to bills.
EDF considers site for small modular reactor
Emma Powell modular reactors can be factory-built,

8
Elevated interest rates are set
to keep bank lending subdued
this year, with consequences
for business investment. The EY
Item Club, the forecasting
consultancy, suggests that bank
lending to businesses will rise by
only 0.8 per cent this year, albeit
reversing a 2.1 per cent contraction
last year.
take up the space of one or two football
The government is holding talks with pitches and have a capacity of up to 500
EDF to take control of land at a site in megawatts.
Lancashire as part of plans to roll out EDF declined to comment on the
mini-nuclear power stations in Britain. talks. However, the company has said
Great British Nuclear is in early previously that Heysham would be
discussions with the French state- “well suited” to the development of
owned energy group over buying land both small modular reactors and
adjacent to its existing nuclear plants at advanced modular reactors.
Heysham, with a view to potentially The development comes after
giving the green light for a private reports that Great British Nuclear is

9
The crowdfunding industry is
calling on the City regulator
to review the impact of
investor protections introduced a
year ago amid concerns that the
flow of funds to promising
companies is being undermined.
developer to build a small modular
reactor there.
The 255-acre site is one of eight in
Britain approved for new nuclear
development and is the location of
EDF’s Heysham 1 and Heysham 2
nuclear power stations. Almost 109
acres has a nuclear site licence, while
the rest is being used for other
involved in initial negotiations with
Hitachi, the owner of land at Wylfa on
Anglesey, over taking control of the
site, another earmarked for new
Small modular reactors can take up the space of one or two football pitches nuclear development.
A spokesman for the Department for
ment decision on the first small plants are set to close by the end of the Energy Security and Net Zero, said:
modular reactor until 2029. decade, including the two at the “We’ve ended the stop-start approach
The government set up Great British Heysham site. EDF is building Britain’s to nuclear and recently launched a road

10 Cambridge Mechatronics,
a start-up that develops
shape-memory alloy
technology used in sectors
including spacecraft and robotics,
has raised $40 million in a funding
round.
purposes.
Britain’s first small nuclear plants are
due to be awarded government
contracts this summer after six designs,
including one from Rolls-Royce, were
selected to compete for up to £20 billion
in taxpayer funding. The government
does not expect to make a final invest-
Nuclear last year as an arm’s-length
body to drive the deployment of the
technology as it pursues a goal of
increasing Britain’s nuclear capacity to
24 gigawatts by 2050, up from only
6GW at present, including by deploy-
ing small modular reactors.
All bar one of the nation’s existing
only new nuclear power station,
Hinkley Point C in Somerset, which
would generate 3.2GW. The French
group is also involved in developing
Sizewell C, a proposed nuclear power
station on the Suffolk coast near the
Sizewell B reactor.
Unlike conventional plants, small
map setting out the biggest expansion
of the sector in 70 years. Heysham and
Wylfa are among a number of potential
sites that could host civil nuclear
projects. While no decisions on sites
have yet been taken, we are working
with Great British Nuclear to support
access to potential sites.”
the times | Monday February 19 2024
Share performance compared
Amazon.com Tesla
Alphabet Apple
Meta Platforms Microsoft
NVIDIA
2023
Q1 Q2 Q3
that Wall Street expects. Factor in the
earnings growth forecast for Nvidia
over the next two years and it has a
price-earnings growth ratio of 0.8,
easily below the golden ratio of 1, below
which a stock is generally considered
good value by the market.
Not everyone is convinced that AI is
a safe bet. The ever-rising technology
stocks have led some critics to make the
comparison between today’s AI-fuelled
boom and the dotcom era, when
technology stocks were driven to
continued from page 29
Last orders loom for thousands
changes were brought in, the closure
rate in the hospitality sector could
increase from 2.9 per cent last year to
5 per cent to 6 per cent this year.
“However good the top line is, it’s
never been harder to turn a bottom-line
profit because of the cost pressures,”
she said. “You can see the demand is
there, but the profit is diminishing. For
an increasing number of independents,
in particular, you’re seeing business
failures and closures coming through.”
Sir Tim Martin, 68, the chairman and
founder of JD Wetherspoon, the
national pubs chain, said he felt too
many people were focused on “micro
issues”, such as the latest energy, labour
or excise duty costs. The bigger picture
was that in the 1970s pubs, clubs and
restaurants had 90 per cent of the beer
trade, dropping to just over 40 per cent
today. “The driver of the change is the
price differential between pubs and
supermarkets,” he said.
UKHospitality, the industry’s lead-
ing trade body, represents more than
130,000 venues. The sector contributes
£93 billion a year to the economy, gen-
erating £54 billion for the Treasury, and
employs more than 3.5 million people.
V2
250
%
200
150
100
50
0 technology sensation, over copyright
2024
-50
Q4 Q1
stratospheric levels between 1998 and
2000, only to crash back down to earth
in the three years that followed. Some
argue that the results could prove to be
the monster under Wall Street’s bed
and that a surprise shock from Nvidia
could send the market into retreat.
“Markets are pricing the technology
as if it is a paradigm shift, whereas it is
really a continuum of what has gone
before. It is a bit boring and should be in
everything,” one investor said.
Albert Edwards, a veteran equity
Online crime helps to double
the value of reported fraud
Tracey Boles Deputy Business Editor
The value of reported fraud in the
UK increased to £2.3 billion last year,
more than double the total in 2022 and
the second largest annual amount
recorded by BDO in 20 years.
The number of high-value cases —
those over £50 million — in BDO’s
FraudTrack report increased by 60 per
cent, while the total number of cases
rose by 18 per cent to a three-year high.
The true level of fraud is likely to be
much higher, BDO said, as some
organisations choose not to report
incidents. The latest Crime Survey for
England and Wales revealed that fewer
than one in seven fraud offences were
reported to the police or Action Fraud,
the national fraud and cybercrime
reporting centre.
The increase was driven by a large
rise in online scams, phishing and
system breaches and a huge increase in
authorised push payment transactions,
whereby fraudsters trick the unwary
into transferring money to them.
analyst with Société Générale and a
former Bank of England economist,
said that valuations of American
technology stocks were now at
extremes last hit as the Nasdaq bubble
burst. “I never thought we would get
back to the point where the value of the
US tech sector once again comprised
an incredible one third of the US equity
market,” he said. “This just pips the
previous all-time peak seen on July 17,
2000, at the height of the Nasdaq tech
bubble. I cast my mind back to 2000,
where the narrative around the IT
bubble was incredibly persuasive, just
as it is now.”
While the hype curve around AI
soared in 2023, caution has emerged in
2024 in three areas, copyright infringe-
ment, misinformation and regulation,
which could curb enthusiasm around
the stocks. Just before Christmas, The
New York Times launched a lawsuit
against Microsoft and OpenAI, the
company behind ChatGPT, last year’s
infringement, alleging that the power-
ful technology companies used its
information to train their artificial
intelligence models and to “free-ride”.
Other content makers such as Getty
Images have followed.
Since then, at the start of the global
elite’s annual shindig at Davos, the issue
of the technology being used to disrupt
elections has been listed as one of the
key global threats in the year
ahead. Part of that discussion centred
on regulation, “a balancing act and key
risk”, according to analysts at Barclays.
They argued that “for businesses
looking to benefit from AI, significant
hurdles to unfettered rollouts may arise
on the back of these policy inter-
ventions. Governments may also need
to intervene in the labour market if AI
starts to impact the jobs market more
substantially and quicker than antici-
pated.”
In addition, American export restric-
tions on sending high-tech chips or
equipment to China would cause Nvid-
ia’s sales to “decline significantly”, the
company said in November.
Krishna warned that AI should be
treated with caution, “given prior
episodes of excessive tech-related exu-
berance”, but added that the techno-
logy was more than simple hype. “Over
the long term, it is easy to see existing
business being disrupted and new busi-
ness models being created by AI.”
Like the breakout stars of technology
that have gone before, Nvidia’s lofty
valuation creates a high bar to surpass
to provide further fuel for the stock’s
rally. Most investors continue to bet
that it will be a winner.
According to BDO, the professional
services group, one particularly
concerning development is the rise in
online fraud factories, or cyberfraud
centres, with reports of hundreds of
thousands of individuals being traf-
ficked to work for crime syndicates.
The United Nations has estimated that
such fraud factories are generating
billions of dollars in revenue.
BDO warned that the trend of rising
crime was likely to continue as fraud-
enabling technology and AI present
new opportunities for fraudsters.
Kaley Crossthwaite, a BDO forensic
accounting partner, said: “We are not
surprised by this increase in report-
ed fraud numbers, which is consistent
with the surge in frauds that our
forensic investigations teams are seeing
on the ground. Many people choose not
to report fraud because of shame or
embarrassment. Businesses are also
reticent about coming forward because
of fears around negative publicity,
reputational damage and a lack of faith
that the authorities will take action.”
31
Business
The week ahead
Barclays leads the parade of Britain’s
biggest banks reporting results this
week, with City analysts tomorrow
expecting a fall in annual pre-tax
profit to £6.7 billion from £7 billion in
2022, knocked by restructuring
charges that the lender is likely to
suffer as part of a highly anticipated
overhaul. Coimbatore Sundararajan
Venkatakrishnan, its chief executive,
will set out his revamp alongside the
results and his plan will be studied
closely by analysts and investors.
HSBC will publish its figures on
Wednesday, when the Asia-focused
lender is forecast to unveil record Barclays will lead some of Britain’s
annual profits of $34 billion thanks biggest banks in unveiling results
to higher rates.
Lloyds Banking Group, Britain’s
biggest domestic lender, will report into motor finance, an area where
its results on Thursday and it is Lloyds is a big player. There is
expected to have enjoyed a rise in speculation that motor finance
profits to £7.4 billion. It will be providers will face fines or
boosted by a loan writeback after compensation bills as a result of the
the Barclay family repaid their debts inquiry.
to the lender last year to regain The emerging markets-focused
control of The Daily Telegraph. Standard Chartered will round off
However, investors will likely grill the earnings season on Friday, when
bosses on the bank’s potential it is expected to report pre-tax
exposure to a new regulatory review profits up by a fifth to $5.1 billion.
tomorrow
Those seeking clues on figure for 2024 and expect a similar focus
annual results from that could improve if on its balance sheet
InterContinental Hilton is right in strategy: M&A or
Hotels Group probably thinking that inbound share buybacks?
can look to recent tourism to the United Interims Springfield
numbers from Hilton, States should recover Properties
a key rival. Analysts this year. IHG, with its Finals Antofagasta,
are forecasting fourth- Holiday Inn brand, Barclays,
quarter growth in would be a beneficiary. InterContinental
revenue per available With Hilton said to be Hotels, Plus500
room of about 2 per targeting two Trading update
cent and a similar acquisitions, IHG can Cushman & Wakefield
wednesday
Given the global political names in American space
environment, BAE Systems is development, which received
expected to announce a strong set regulatory approval last week. The
of annual results. The defence deal will be funded through
company, which was created existing cash and new
in 1999 by the merger external debt. There is
between British some concern among
Aerospace and investors that in the
Marconi Electronic short term at least
Systems, is forecast the new purchase
to report a 6 per may put pressure
cent rise in revenue on the group’s
to £24.6 billion with cashflow, so they
sales between 5 per will be keen to hear
cent and 7 per cent any updates on its
higher than 2022. £1.5 billion share
However, most
attention will be on what
the company says about its
buyback scheme
announced in July 2022.
Finals BAE Systems, Glencore,
$5.5 billion acquisition of Ball
Aerospace, one of the great heritage
Heathrow Airport, HSBC, Rio Tinto
Trading update Tate & Lyle
thursday
When WPP reports its production forecasts in December.
full-year results, investors will be The miner’s warning caused its
watching for commentary from the shares to suffer their worst one-day
world’s biggest advertising business fall since the financial crisis.
on the impact of artificial Analysts have forecast revenue of
intelligence, which the group billed $32.3 billion and adjusted earnings
as a huge opportunity when it set of $9.95 billion for the year, up from
out plans to invest more than $35.1 billion and $14.5 billion,
£250 million a year in data and respectively, in 2022.
technology. Mark Read, the chief Interims Hargreaves Lansdown,
executive, has emphasised that the Hays, Pantheon International
technology will support creativity Finals Anglo American, Hikma,
rather than threaten the sector, as Indivior, Lloyds Bank, ME Group
some have predicted. Although International, Mondi, Morgan
WPP has forecast that 2024 will be Sindall, Rolls-Royce, WPP
another tough year, it expects like- Trading update Safestore
for-like growth to be up by about
1 per cent, above market
expectations of a decline of 0.3 per friday
cent to 0.5 per cent.
The pressure will be on when Finals Afarak, Coca-Cola
Anglo American unveils its full-year Europacific Partner, Jupiter Fund
results after a shock cut to Management, Standard Chartered
32
Business
High interest rates set to keep a lid on bank lending, EY forecasts
Jack Barnett
Elevated interest rates are set to keep
bank lending subdued this year, with
consequences for business investment.
The EY Item Club, the forecasting
consultancy, suggests that bank lend-
ing to businesses will rise by only 0.8 per
cent, albeit reversing a 2.1 per cent
contraction last year.
Weak demand for credit among
corporations is expected to be driven by
sluggish domestic economic growth
and by borrowing costs remaining
Number one Brussels is set to impose its first fine on Apple for allegedly breaking European Union law over access to its music streaming services, according to the
Financial Times. The fine, said to be about €500 million, follows a European Commission investigation into whether Apple has used its own platform to favour its
services over its competitors. Among the most streamed artists on Apple Music are Post Malone, who performed at this year’s Super Bowl, Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish
Rent rises may have peaked as
growth falls to single figures
Jack Barnett Economics Correspondent
Britain’s runaway rental growth may
have peaked, research suggests.
The pace of rental growth in the
UK slowed last month to its weakest
level in more than a year, according to
Hamptons, as tenants resisted steep
increases to bills.
The estate agency found that average
rents for newly let properties nation-
wide had risen by 8.3 per cent over the
year to January, the slowest increase in
13 months and down from a little over
10 per cent in the previous month. It
was a significant step down from the
peak rental increase of 12 per cent in
August.
A sharp reduction in rental growth
in London dragged on the national
figure, with Hamptons estimating that
rents in the capital had increased by
8.1 per cent in January, down from a
rate of 17.1 per cent last summer. How-
ever, rents in the capital are by far the
restrictive for much of the year. Gross
domestic product in Britain is expected
to increase by 0.7 per cent, after rising
by only 0.1 per cent last year.
While the Bank of England is likely to
lower its base interest rate three times
from 5.25 per cent, starting in June, it
would still end the year at a much
higher level compared with the past
decade, when the rate was held at rock-
bottom levels.
The EY Item Club said: “UK firms
appear apprehensive about taking on
debt in a still-uncertain economic envi-
highest in the country, at £2,315 per
month on average.
The slowdown also was driven by a
smaller share of landlords being able to
increase rents when new tenants
moved into their property. Nearly
60 per cent were able to raise bills in
January for new tenants, compared
with 79 per cent in the same month last
year and down from a peak of 81 per
cent in January 2022. However, the
proportion of landlords able to achieve
a higher rent is firmly above the pre-
pandemic average of 49 per cent.
Rents have risen sharply over the
past two years as landlords have sought
to offset a sharp increase in interest
rates on their buy-to-let mortgages. In
addition, landlords are now unable to
deduct mortgage interest from their
rental income when calculating how
much tax they owe, squeezing returns
on their investments.
High demand for properties has
collided with weak supply, enabling
ronment at home and abroad, especial-
ly while borrowing costs remain high.”
Anna Anthony, UK financial ser-
vices managing partner at EY,
said: “Business investment and borrow-
ing appetite is expected to be restrained
for much of 2024 as firms continue to
take a cautious approach to managing
their balance sheets. However, as the
economy improves, firms’ confidence
to invest and grow should rise and bank
lending to UK businesses is expected to
lift substantially from 2025.”
Default rates are expected jump as a
landlords to push up rents and still find
tenants. Hamptons said there were
43 per cent fewer rental properties on
the market compared with 2019.
Prospective tenants have been
seeking out smaller properties that
typically require lower monthly rental
payments in order to minimise their
living costs. In turn, landlords have
capitalised on this increased demand
for smaller properties. Hamptons said
that 83 per cent of one-bed homes
had been re-let at a higher price, com-
pared with 67 per cent of four-bed
houses.
Aneisha Beveridge, head of research
at Hamptons, said: “Last summer looks
like it may have been the high water
mark for rental growth. Since then,
fewer landlords have been putting up
the rent.”
Separate figures from Rightmove,
the property search site, found that the
average asking price for a property in
the UK had risen by 0.9 per cent to
result of borrowers struggling to meet
obligations owing to tighter financial
conditions.
The forecaster expected the write-off
rate on business lending to jump to
0.22 per cent from 0.14 per cent last
year, although this would be well below
the average of the 1 per cent to 1.5 per
cent rate in the aftermath of the 2008
financial crisis.
Anthony said: “This will be another
tough year for UK businesses and
households. However, there are signs to
suggest that momentum in the
£362,839. Rightmove also said that the
number of sales agreed in the first
six weeks of the year was 16 per cent
higher than in the same period last year
and was up by 3 per cent on 2019,
indicating that falling mortgage rates
and expectations for better economic
conditions this year have convinced
potential buyers to push ahead with
purchases.
Tim Bannister, director of property
science at Rightmove, said: “The
market appears to be operating at two
speeds. Some agents report that
properties that are accurately and
competitively priced are being snapped
up by budget-conscious buyers who are
keen to make 2024 their year to move,
having paused during the uncertainty
of 2023.
“However, properties that are over-
priced will immediately stand out
against more competitively priced
neighbours and are being left on the
shelf by price-sensitive buyers.”
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
economy will build following a weak
2023.”
All bank lending to households and
businesses is poised to expand by
2.2 per cent from 0.6 per cent last
year. Bank lending to homebuyers
contracted by 0.1 per cent last year,
reflecting interest rates reaching a 16-
year high.
However, the EY Item Club believes
mortgage lending will grow by 2.2 per
cent this year, by 3.4 per cent next year
and by 3.3 per cent in 2026 as official
interest rates are lowered.
Abrdn issues
warning on
UK saving
in pensions
Jack Barnett
The government should double the
minimum contribution rate in pension
pots to prevent a wave of people
entering retirement without enough
financial resources to live comfortably,
a leading City investment firm has
recommended.
The minimum share of a workers’
salary that is set aside in their pension
pot each month and topped up by their
employer should increase from the
present level of 8 per cent, Abrdn has
said, as part of a package of measures
that it suggests are required to boost
Britons’ financial resilience in later
life.
Stephen Bird, the London-listed fund
manager’s chief executive, said that
such a move would be a “critical step to
building the savings culture” needed in
Britain to avoid millions of people
struggling to cover basic necessities in
retirement.
Bird said: “With the state pension age
edging up, pressure on how far
governments can go to support an
ageing population and retirement
provision increasingly resting on the
individual, we are now looking at a
future where peoples’ finances fall far
short of what is required to give them
the retirement they desire.”
He added: “In that context, we
need to think about how we might
develop enthusiasm for a ‘savings
ladder’, where people can see the
benefits of starting early, building their
pot, investing to grow it and ultimately
delivering the retirements they want
and deserve.”
He said that a “national obsession”
with the property market had led to
people focusing far too heavily on
achieving their home ownership
ambitions at the expense of fortifying
their finances for their lives after work
was over.
A survey of 2,000 UK adults by
Opinium, the pollster, found that
only one in six adults think that pen-
sions are a better investment strategy
than property.
The recommendation to increase the
minimum contribution rate in pension
pots came as part of a “manifesto” being
launched by Abrdn to nurture a better
culture around savings in Britain.
The company also argues that the
government should step up its advertis-
ing campaign around the upcoming
sale of shares in NatWest, of which the
state still owns about 35 per cent.
Improving financial literacy levels,
simplifying the Isa system and scrap-
ping stamp duty taxes on UK shares
and investment trusts would “encour-
age more people to get on the savings
ladder”, Bird said.
the times | Monday February 19 2024
Gerard Lyons
Geopolitical risk and the end of
cheap money is the new normal
‘‘
What is the new
normal? Globally,
financial markets
are coming to terms
with a new
geopolitical, economic and policy
landscape. The most dramatic change
is geopolitical uncertainty and the
risk of a further-splintering world
order. Many possible paths exist, and
the multiple elections this year add to
these.
One necessity is increased defence
spending, particularly in western
Europe. How this can be
accommodated with debt levels that
are already high remains to be seen.
Another geopolitical consequence is
bouts of market volatility and
increased risk premium in energy
prices when tensions rise.
In terms of economic outcomes,
last year confirmed a shift from
globalisation towards fragmentation.
Firms replaced cost-control with
security and risk concerns in making
global decisions. Friendshoring and
onshoring has been the result. The
shift is towards partial protectionism,
with more countries following
America’s lead towards industrial
policies. Meanwhile, in China, a
legacy of the trade tensions from
Donald Trump’s presidency has been
a shift towards self-sufficiency in
food, fuel and technology. Chinese
supply chains across east Asia are also
expanding.
Alongside fragmentation, western
economies have shown remarkable
resilience in their jobs market. It has
been a job-friendly downturn.
Overall, we appear to be heading
for a disinflationary environment,
with modest global growth. As
inflation falls, this will allow financial
conditions to ease and will provide a
boost to real incomes.
Thankfully, the two factors that
triggered the global surge in inflation
have been reversed, namely
previously lax monetary policy in the
west and supply-side problems after
the pandemic and the war in
Ukraine. Yet it is still unclear where
inflation will settle globally. There are
certain factors that are more
inflationary than before the
pandemic, namely fragmentation and
the rising share of wages, although
much depends upon productivity.
Some companies are also using their
market power to boost their margins.
Workers and firms have more pricing
The war in Ukraine helped to trigger a worldwide surge in rates of inflation
power across many western
economies than previously, although
mitigated still by technological
change. In Britain for instance,
inflation looks set to undershoot its
2 per cent target by this summer,
before rising slightly.
That leads to the issue that markets
are already focusing on: where in this
new landscape will interest rates
settle? Rates must fall, but when and
by how much? The danger in the UK
is a pyrrhic victory over inflation,
with the economy very weak if
monetary policy stays too tight.
It is not only interest rates, but also
the pace at which the Bank of
England shrinks its balance sheet by
selling gilts to reverse quantitative
easing. This will leave the taxpayer
with a huge bill as the Bank sells gilts
at a loss and it will keep yields and
thus borrowing costs across the
economy higher than they need be.
Although UK policy rates rose too
far last year, it seems unlikely that
they will be cut imminently. With
services sector inflation edging up to
6.5 per cent in January and wage
growth above 6 per cent, the Bank
will keep rates on hold. While the US
Federal Reserve has a dual mandate
on jobs and inflation, the Bank’s sole
inflation target may lead to a bias to
keep rates too high. Incredibly, two of
the nine monetary policy committee
members still want to hike.
Monetary policy should be
forward-looking as it may take more
than 12 months for policy changes to
feed through fully. Yet in Britain it is
now coincident, driven by the latest
economic data.
Ahead of the pandemic, central
banks in western economies accepted
that rates would be low for long and
thought that this could continue. This
fed inflation. Their counterparts
across emerging economies were
more prudent, so much so that the
present easing in global monetary
policy is led by Chile, Brazil and
China, with others joining in, too.
Markets wonder what to take from
r*, or r-star. This is the neutral level of
real, or inflation-adjusted, policy
rates. While it did not determine
policy, central banks were keen to cite
it when rates previously were
low. Before the pandemic, r-star was
seen as being close to zero in the
United States, Britain, the euro area
and Japan. In the US, recent
estimates now put it higher, but still
at low levels. It is a similar story here.
The trouble is that r-star is
unobservable and is a theoretical
concept. Many factors have led to a
low r-star, such as weak trend growth
and demographics. While these
structural factors have not changed,
the markets are now mindful of the
problems caused by cheap money
polices. The reality is that a focus on
a low r-star may lead monetary policy
astray, a point made previously by the
Bank for International Settlements.
Here in the UK, low rates fed
financial instability as markets did not
price properly for risk. Cheap money
contributed to a misallocation of
capital and so did not help
productivity to recover. It also fed
asset prices inflation and greater
wealth and inter-generational
inequality, as well as contributing to
inflation.
We shouldn’t rely on monetary
policy to be the shock absorber for
the economy in the way it has been
since the 2008 financial crisis. Ideally,
more heavy lifting should be done by
other policy levers, whether fiscal,
regulatory or macro-prudential. To
facilitate growth, there are many
levers that can be pulled, but they are
not always politically feasible. For
example, implementing credible and
ambitious planning reform to build
more homes and business sites.
Given this, the danger is that
pressure will mount for interest rates
to fall too far. The market expects
UK rates to fall from 5.25 per cent to
4.5 per cent by the year’s end. This
seems a fair assumption. Rates may
settle subsequently at about 4 per
cent, in line with the growth in
money GDP. There is a need to avoid
’’
rates returning to previous lows, but
this should not
prevent necessary
easing in monetary
policy as the year
progresses.
Dr Gerard Lyons is chief economic
strategist at Netwealth
33
Business
‘ESG must
move from
box-ticking
to action’
Dominic Walsh
Companies, regulators and stock
markets have been advised to change
their approach to environmental, social
and governance issues to prevent the
subject from becoming a “tick-box”
exercise.
ESG is at risk of losing its purpose
and potential to be useful because of an
over-reliance on data rather than
action, according to new research. It
could fail to drive the impact it was
intended to have on climate change and
on society, it is claimed, and both
existing and pending regulations are
failing to take into account small and
medium-sized businesses because they
have been designed by and for large
companies.
The research also suggests that
declining engagement from capital
markets makes boards question the
financial sector’s balance between ESG
and value creation. The report asks that
companies, the government, regulators
and the capital markets change their
approach to ESG so that it becomes
more defined to corporate action.
Non-executive directors perceive the
British and other governments to be
failing in their leadership role on cli-
mate and social challenges, simply on
passing the responsibility to corporates
without any support or understanding.
The research, which is looked at from
the boardroom perspective of small and
mid-cap companies, identifies “cyni-
cism from board members towards
ESG”. It says this is partly because of the
wider economic environment creating
a short-term approach.
Drawing on comments gathered
from companies during the research, it
is said a gap has appeared between
those that genuinely deploy ESG
because it is good for their business and
those that tick the box saying they have
an ESG policy before ignoring the issue.
Regulation is regarded as having “by-
passed reality for the small and mid-cap
market, putting an undue cost and
compliance burden on smaller corpo-
rates to keep up”. The research says the
term ESG itself needs to evolve, argu-
ing: “It needs to be better-defined and
set within the specific context of indi-
vidual businesses’ corporate strategy
and purpose in order to drive value.”
The research was conducted by Sifa
Strategy, a specialist ESG consultancy,
in conjunction with Peel Hunt, the
broker. It conducted 31 senior board
interviews that gave an insight into
more than 70 countries.
34
Business
Venkat’s big shot at Barclays’ revamp
Ben Martin Banking Editor
The last time that Barclays formally
unveiled a new strategy to the City,
Antony Jenkins was in charge. It was
May 2014 and Jenkins was under
pressure to boost the bank’s flagging
stock market valuation and to over-
haul its culture after the Libor-
rigging scandal. In what he described
as a “bold simplification” of the group,
he set out a plan to dramatically slim
down its investment banking division
as part of a wider overhaul that would
result in 19,000 job losses.
His shake-up proved short-lived.
Barely a year later Jenkins was gone,
ousted by a board that had decided a
“new set of skills were required”.
A decade on, Coimbatore Sundara-
rajan Venkatakrishnan faces a similar
set of challenges. Tomorrow the
Barclays boss, 58, who is known as
Venkat, will hold the bank’s first
formal investor update in ten years to
set out how he plans to tackle them.
Like Jenkins before him, the
strategy refresh, which will be
revealed alongside the lender’s
annual results, is likely to be a pivotal
moment upon which the rest of
Venkat’s tenure in charge of the
Coimbatore Sundararajan Venkatakrishnan has already revealed that Barclays will seek to reduce its “structural costs”
FTSE 100 bank will hinge. The up-
date is set to take four and a half
hours, underscoring its significance.
“It’s a crunch period where he has
to say what he’s going to do and then
he has to do it,” said a fund manager
who owns Barclays shares, arguing
that Venkat had yet to “put his stamp
on the business. If you asked me,
‘What has he done over his tenure so
far?’, I’d struggle to point to anything
particularly meaningful that has his
name on it.”
Venkat, a thoughtful, amiable
leader who in November 2022 re-
vealed he had been given a diagnosis
of cancer, was seen originally as a
continuity chief executive. He was
promoted to the top job suddenly in
November 2021 when Jes Staley,
Jenkins’ successor, stood down to
contest the findings of a regulatory
investigation into his past links to Jef-
frey Epstein, the sex offender.
Staley and Venkat had worked
together previously at JP Morgan
and Staley had poached him from the
American bank in 2016, shortly after
taking charge at Barclays. Indeed,
Venkat had helped Staley to devise
the latter’s strategy for the bank.
When Venkat himself took over, he
stuck with Staley’s vision and told
staff “the strategy we have in place is
the right one”.
Since then, Barclays’ share price
has fallen by 27 per cent. The valua-
tion of the group lags those of many
of its rivals in the United States and
Europe and questions remain about
the size and structure of its invest-
ment banking business.
In the same way that Jenkins
wrestled with the shadow of the
Libor-rigging furore, Venkat is seek-
ing to move the bank on from a series
of self-inflicted debacles that have
impeded its progress. They include
the scandal over Staley’s links with
Epstein and a blunder discovered in
2022 in which the lender found it had
accidentally issued almost $18 billion
more securities than it had permis-
sion for from American regulators.
Venkat has already warned that his
revamp will involve some pain. When
he presented the lender’s third-quar-
ter results last October, he revealed
that it would seek to reduce “struc-
tural costs”; since then, it has
emerged that 5,000 jobs were cut last
year from the group’s 84,000-strong
workforce. Pushing through this
shake-up may result in “material
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
additional charges” in the fourth-
quarter figures, the bank said last
October. As a result, City analysts
have forecast that the bank will take a
hit of about £825 million.
These charges are likely to drag on
its full-year results and will offset the
boost that Barclays, along with other
lenders, has enjoyed recently from
higher interest rates. City analysts
expect the bank to report a slight dip
in annual pre-tax profits to £6.7 bil-
lion for last year from £7 billion in
2022. This would contrast with its
rivals, with NatWest last Friday
unveiling a 20 per cent increase in
annual profits to £6.2 billion, HSBC
expected on Wednesday to say that it
enjoyed record earnings of $34 bil-
lion in 2023 and with Lloyds Banking
Group forecast to report a rise in
profits to £7.4 billion on Thursday.
Venkat may soften the blow by
announcing share buybacks and
dividends worth billions of pounds.
An analysis by JP Morgan suggests
that Barclays can afford to pay £9 bil-
lion over the next three years.
His plans for the corporate and
investment banking division will be
another key focus. While Jenkins had
sought to pare back this business to
reduce the group’s exposure to riskier
trading activities, Staley took the
opposite approach and championed
the division. Staley’s argument was
that the investment bank was a
Barclays has struck a deal to buy the majority of Tesco’s retail banking unit
counterbalance to the group’s retail
operations, particularly during times
of broader turbulence. He was proved
right during the pandemic, when a
trading and dealmaking boom boost-
ed the investment bank and offset the
pressure faced by its retail division.
Yet investors remain uneasy about
the investment bank’s volatile
earnings and the capital-consump-
tive nature of the division. “Ask a
hundred investors what they want
Barclays to do with its investment
bank and you’ll get a hundred differ-
ent answers,” a second institutional
shareholder in the lender said.
While Barclays boasts one of the
top investment banking businesses in
Europe, investors believe it is sub-
scale when compared with the
powerhouses of Wall Street. This
limits the returns that Barclays gen-
erates from the business.
“The investment bank is a decent
investment bank with some reason-
able market positions, but it’s not
particularly high-return, it’s never
going to compete with JP Morgan,
Goldman Sachs and Morgan
Stanley,” one investor said. “The
problem is you can’t scale down the
[corporate and investment bank]
without destroying value.”
A third City shareholder in
Barclays said the bank needed to cap
the capital allocated to the corporate
and investment bank business “to
allow better capital flow to share-
holders. Over time, we need to see
other businesses picking up the
baton.”
Venkat has already sought to bulk
up the consumer side of the bank.
This month Barclays revealed it had
struck a deal to buy the majority of
Tesco’s retail banking operations for
£600 million. The acquisition will
add £6.7 billion of deposits and
£8.3 billion in credit card and unse-
cured personal lending balances to
Barclays. Last year Barclays also
completed a £2.3 billion deal to buy
Kensington Mortgages, bulking up
its presence in the British home loans
market.
Yet investors believe more could be
done. “Barclaycard, in particular,
needs to be reinvigorated,” one said.
“Management also needs to invest
more in fee businesses such as wealth
management. They have a good
platform here now, but are not capi-
talising on it.”
Expectations are high before
Venkat’s presentation to the City
tomorrow, as are the stakes. As one
shareholder put it: “It’s probably the
last investor update of significance he
will do at Barclays if it doesn’t work.”
the times | Monday February 19 2024 35

Business

Lush settles dispute

over share transfer

L
ush has settled
a legal dispute
with one of its
investors over a
blocked transfer
of shares (Isabella Fish
writes).
The ethically minded
bath-bomb maker was
plunged into a row last
year with a business set
up by Andrew Gerrie, its
former chief executive,
over the sale of his stake
in the company.
Silverwood Brands, a
special-purpose
acquisition company
that lists Gerrie as a
director, sought to
acquire a 19.8 per stake
in Lush, worth
£216.8 million, from
Gerrie, 60, and his wife
Alison Hawksley, 57.
Lush blocked the
transfer of shares to
Silverwood from Gerrie
as it said they did not
match those previously
offered to the remaining
shareholders, also
claiming that “the
separation of legal and
beneficial interests in
the shares is not
permissible”. In addition,
it stated that the price
paid for the shares was
required to be paid in
cash, whereas compliance with the under the settlement Lush, seen by many as the founded in 1995 by Mark massages and various
Silverwood’s payment company’s articles and and had agreed to co- home of the bath bomb, Constantine, 71, his wife other treatments. It
allegedly was not. the sale is not now operate with Gerrie and has 855 shops worldwide Mo Constantine and recently opened its first
Now Lush has said proceeding”. Hawskley’s objective of and nine spas in Britain four other founders, sells hairdressing salon in
that the legal dispute VSA Capital Group, achieving an “unwind hair and skincare Brighton, offering
has been settled as the London-based transaction”. and Hawksley to products made using chemical-free, natural
“Gerrie and Silverwood broker that held the The terms of the Silverwood for legal natural ingredients. It henna hair dye
Brands have accepted shares during the settlement include a costs incurred. has 855 shops in 48 treatments.
Lush’s position that the dispute, said it had cash payment of Lush, the hand-made countries and nine spas Silverwood Brands
transaction was not in returned them to Gerrie £300,000 from Gerrie cosmetics retailer across Britain, offering declined to comment.

Stronger investor protection rules B&Q owner

‘are hitting funding for companies’
James Hurley
The crowdfunding industry is calling
on the City regulator to review the
impact of investor protections intro-
duced a year ago amid concerns that
the flow of funds to promising compa-
nies is being undermined.
The UK Crowdfunding Association
has asked the Financial Conduct
Authority to investigate whether rules
to protect vulnerable retail investors
may go too far and could threaten the
viability of business models in the
sector.
The association represents 25 British
investment crowdfunding and peer-to-
peer lending platforms that collectively
connect tens of thousands of individual
investors with companies seeking
finance.
A year ago new financial promotion
rules for retail investments came into
force that were designed to introduce
“frictions” that would deter people
from making investments where
crowdfunding may not be not appro-
priate for them because of the high risk
it poses. They include a prominent,
standardised risk warning on equity
and debt-based crowdfunding websites
that people should not invest “unless
you’re prepared to lose all the money.
This is a high-risk investment and you
are unlikely to be protected if some-
thing goes wrong.”
The regulator also has demanded
that platforms give investors a “cooling-
off period” to reconsider their invest-
ments and has banned “inducements”
to invest. Investors already had to
complete a survey designed to test their
understanding of the risks involved in
crowdfunding and in peer-to-peer
investing.
The FCA implemented changes after
it found that “too many consumers are
investing in high-risk products that are
not aligned with their risk tolerance
and are unlikely to meet their needs”.
There have been several contentious
failures of crowdfunded companies,
often accompanied by accusations of
due diligence and disclosure failures by
platforms. Several peer-to-peer plat-
forms have collapsed, causing signifi-
cant losses to investors.
The association wants the regulator
to conduct a review to determine
whether the approach strikes the right
balance between protecting investors
and promoting competition in sources
of small company funding.
Bruce Davis, chairman of the group,
said: “As City minister Bim Afolami has
said, there is little point in creating the
safest graveyard. Retail investors have
shown a willingness to lead the charge
in backing promising new companies
and industries.
“They deserve appropriate protec-
tions, but we want the FCA to check the
current regime isn’t going too far by
choking off a key source of finance for
small businesses and at the same time
pushing away investors who are cap-
able of understanding the risks.”
Davis said the industry was strug-
gling under a “constant flow” of new
rules. Platforms have been warned that
they may need separate authorisation
as a trading platform, for example
because they operate a secondary
market for investments.
The UK Crowdfunding Association
has warned that the rules have resulted
in a “very worrying, immediate and
potentially long-term damaging im-
pact on the ability of firms to operate
without significant changes to our busi-
ness model, including withdrawing
from retail investment altogether”.
An FCA spokesman said: “In setting
our rules, we’ve kept in mind a history
of failures that took with them inves-
tors’ money. People should be told
clearly about the risk before they invest.
That’s what our rules ensure. We’ve
been working closely with industry to
help them to implement the changes.”
looks east for
new tech hub
Isabella Fish Retail Editor
The owner of B&Q and Screwfix has
opened a second technology hub in the
“Silicon Valley of eastern Europe” as it
seeks to strengthen its in-house data
science and software engineering
capabilities.
Kingfisher, which also owns
Castorama and Brico Dépôt in France
and operates in Poland, Iberia and
Romania, opened the new hub in Cluj-
Napoca, Romania, this month. It has
another technology site, in Krakow,
Poland, which was opened in Decem-
ber 2022 and employs about 80 staff.
The London-based DIY retailer said
its eastern European hubs were helping
it to “grow our in-house engineering
talent, alongside our teams in the UK
and other markets. Having more
capability in-house means we are less
reliant on outsourced providers and
can be more agile and innovative to
create the best possible experiences for
our customers.”
Romania has been called the Silicon

Cambridge Mechatronics raises $40m in funding Valley of eastern Europe because of

Tom Saunders
A start-up that develops shape-
memory alloy technology used in sec-
tors including spacecraft and robotics
has raised $40 million.
The funding round in Cambridge
Mechatronics was led by Atlantic
Bridge. Intel Capital and Supernova
acted as co-leads in the oversubscribed
process, with further participation
from the Sony Innovation Fund.
Shape-memory alloys were first
properly developed in the United States
in the 1960s. The unique properties of
the metals, which allow them to reliably
alter their shape based on their temper-
ature, have many uses. The alloys are
used to create extremely lightweight
robots, to make quieter and more effi-
cient jet engines and to move fingers in
bio-engineered robotic hands.
Cambridge Mechatronics is a pio-
neer in the design of actuators (a
machine or part of a machine that
moves or controls another part) and
controllers using shape-memory alloys
and has shipped more than 70 million
products. Many of these have been
used in smartphone cameras for tech-
nology such as in-built image stabil-
isation and autofocus, which requires
fast and precise adjustments. It is hop-
ing to expand into other areas, such as
miniature drug delivery devices in
healthcare and tactile feedback found
in smartphones and game controllers.
The engineering company was
founded in 1995 as an audio business by
Tony Hooley, 74, a Cambridge aca-
demic. It has fewer than 150 employees
spread across three continents. It has
filed more than 700 patents, or roughly
five per employee, and is ranked 22nd in
the UK for the number of patent filings.
Jörgen Lantto, 60, chairman of
Cambridge Mechatronics, said: “We
are delighted to welcome such a promi-
nent group of global investors. Their
expertise and experience together with
the capital raised will enable us to
accelerate our plans for growth.”
Cluj-Napoca, an IT hub dominated by
multinational technology and services
companies. Microsoft, Google and
Amazon have sites in the country.
Kingfisher, which has more than
2,000 stores and 80,000 employees
worldwide, has been developing its
digital and technology capabilities as
part of its turnaround strategy. The
FTSE 100 company, which has issued a
string of profit warnings since the
lockdown DIY boom, created an AI-
powered supply chain visibility tool to
help to improve its product availability
by giving a real-time view of the
journey from factory to store.
36 Monday February 19 2024 | the times

Business Times Enterprise Network

Business

Cannabis-based industry
waits for clarity to emerge
O
Guidelines from the
enterprise
T Food Standards Agency
network
regulation over CBD worry the
recommended daily intake of
emerging sector, reports cannabidiol, Holland & Barrett pulled
31 products from its shelves.
Hannah Prevett
n October 13 last year, the
day after the food
regulator issued new
guidance that drastically
revised down its
Although the move proved to be
temporary (Britain’s best-known
health and wellness retailer insisted
the move had been taken to revise
staff training to ensure that people
were equipped to answer questions
from customers), the optics of the
decision dealt another blow to an
industry that was already fighting for
its survival.
A slew of fast-growing companies
making cannabis-based oils, drinks
and other wellness products have
sprung up in recent years. They claim
to be able to help with ailments from
insomnia to arthritis, but new
guidelines published by the Food
Standards Agency in October cut the
recommended daily intake of
cannabidiol, or CBD, the active
ingredient, from 70mg a day to only
10mg, citing potential risks of damage
to the liver and thyroid.
Although the FSA has said that
products containing more than 10mg
of CBD do not need to be withdrawn
from sale, nor are any changes
required for labelling, industry
sources suggest that brands may
asked to add a warning to their
packaging, similar to the “traffic light”
system in place to help people to
identify products with high levels of
salt, sugar and saturated fats. The
agency has confirmed that it is
reviewing labelling requirements.
Many of the products sold by some
of Britain’s best-known CBD brands
contain more than 10mg in a single
serving. Soft drinks sold by Trip, the
London-based brand, contain 15mg
per can. According to Nielsen data,
Trip is the fastest-growing soft drinks
company in Britain.
Goodrays, a rival, sells cans
containing 30mg of CBD, three times
what is now the new recommended
daily allowance. Eoin Keenan, 31, its
founder, described the ruling as a Jade Proudman’s products are exempt
“bump in the road”, but noted that
neither consumers nor retailers for the best-performing brands on the
seemed unduly concerned about the market, not the worst.”
guidance. He said that the company, Other business owners worry about
which has 12 employees and sells the future of the industry. Jade
“millions” of cans a year, had enjoyed Proudman, the founder of Savage
its best ever month in January and Cabbage, which sells CBD oils and
had new retailer listings going ahead tinctures to customers in 40 countries
as usual. Its drinks are sold in worldwide, criticised the FSA for
Waitrose, Tesco and WH Smith. issuing “inaccurate and confusing
Even so, he admitted that the FSA’s new guidelines”.
guidelines had created “a level of A technicality means that her
complexity that we need to navigate, products are exempt from the ruling,
particularly on the PR side. I’m but nonetheless she believes it has
having to have this conversation quite stoked fear among consumers
a lot to put customers at ease, but I because the regulator has not
wouldn’t have got into CBD if I was identified the difference between
afraid of complexity. It’s not an easy “full-spectrum” products, which
industry.” Despite his products contain other ingredients from
containing more than the new the hemp plant, and those that
recommended daily limit, he contain CBD as the sole active
insisted that they remained ingredient.
“100 per cent legal” and he was “The FSA is needlessly
confident the guidelines would damaging my business and
be tweaked. causing my customers
“The 10mg daily unnecessary anguish.
intake advice comes It’s also harming an
from research industry that
based on poor- provides customers
performing CBD with natural
brands. The alternatives to
recommend- products that
ations are can cause
temporary addiction and
and we harm,”
believe that as Proudman, 44,
the market said. “Every
research comes flippant
out about the wide comment that
gamut of CBD
available, they will Snoop Dogg is among
regulate and legislate stars investing in CBD
the times | Monday February 19 2024
from the agency’s ruling, but she blames the warning for a fall in sales of her company’s range of CBD oils and tinctures
comes out of a regulator’s mouth, the
impact is significant and there is a
ricochet effect.” She said sales of her
products had slowed in response to
watchdog’s action.
It remains to be seen if the ruling
will have an impact on investors’
appetite for CBD start-ups. In the
United States, celebrities including
Jane Fonda, the actress and fitness
guru, Gwyneth Paltrow, the actress
and wellness entrepreneur, and
Snoop Dogg, the rapper, have
clamoured to invest in cannabis-
related brands. In Britain, Trip raised
£10 million in 2022 from investors
including Maria Raga, the former
chief executive of Depop, the fashion
reselling site, and Christian
Angermayer, the founder of Apeiron
Group, the family office and
merchant banking business. Goodrays
has raised £4 million since its launch
in 2020.
However, Nick Morland, who
started his career at PwC, the
accountancy firm, and who now owns
and invests in several CBD brands
under the Tenacious Labs umbrella,
said that cannabidiol start-ups in the
UK were likely to be attracting “less
than 1 per cent” of the money they
could if it wasn’t for overly stringent
British rules and regulation. He is not
investing in UK companies, but
chooses to back rivals in America and
European countries such as Germany,
where cannabis use among adults will
become legal on April 1.
The UK daily intake warning
comes hot on the heels of several
years of uncertainty for CBD brands
after a ruling in 2018 that they would
be classified as “novel foods” and
would need to apply for
authentication in order to sell their
products to British consumers. The
Food Standards Agency has
confirmed that no CBD companies
have yet been authorised. The process
so far has been arduous and many
small companies have gone out of
business while waiting for the green
light, according to Proudman.
“I welcome regulation because
what it does bring is quality and
consistency to consumers,” she said,
“but when I think that we are where
we are, we’ve been grandfathered into
a system that’s been delayed with
timelines that have been pushed and
pushed and pushed and we’ve seen a
lot of businesses hit the wall. You
About TEN
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can’t innovate, you can’t bring out a
new product, you can’t keep it juicy
and sexy and all those things when
you’re standing in a queue waiting
very politely for somebody to give us
permission.”
Proudman founded her business in
2016 after finding that CBD products
had a transformative effect on a
number of chronic health conditions
that had left her suicidal. She was at
her lowest ebb and had asked her
husband to help her to end her life
when she tried CBD oil for the first
time.
“Within 48 hours, it was like
somebody hoovered the fog from my
head, cleaned my eyeballs with
Windolene and I sat and cried
because I had my first conversation
with my children in 18 months. They
got their mum back,” Proudman said.
receive the inside
track on key issues
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thetimes.co.uk/ten
Our electric fleet
is steering us in
the right direction
Simon
Morrish
I’
ve been driving my electric
car for more than eight years
and still firmly believe that
their widespread adoption is
critical to our goal as a
country of achieving net zero.
That’s why it was so disappointing
when the government pushed the
ban on the sale of new internal
combustion engine vehicles back
five years to 2035. It sent completely
the wrong message. Time is not on
our side, and having a realistic,
achievable target (which 2030 was)
is important.
However, we are where we are.
And while there are mixed signals
when interpreting the progress
being made, there are some
positives. For one thing, in January
this year we saw the one millionth
electric vehicle (EV) registered in
the UK. That’s quite a landmark.
EVs now account for 14.7 per cent of
new car sales. It’s far off where we
need it to be but at least they have a
proper foothold in the market.
Then there is another
key part of the puzzle —
“
charging infrastructure.
The positive here is that
the number of publicly
available chargers in the
UK has grown 46 per
EV fleets are
cent (to just over 55,000)
compared with a year
economical
ago. That puts us on
course to hit the
once you’ve
government’s target of
300,000 charge points
got the
by 2030.
However, the bulk of
system
charge points are slow
chargers (less than
running
8kW). Although the
numbers are increasing,
we need to see more fast
(8-49kW), rapid (50-149kW) and
ultra-rapid (150kW+) chargers.
Charging anxiety is still a problem
for some, although personally I have
found that I have spent less time
being inconvenienced when
charging my EV than I did filling up
at petrol stations. It just takes a bit
more planning.
Unfortunately the sales of electric
vans, which frequently need to do
considerable (and unpredictable)
mileage, lag behind those of cars —
only 5 per cent of new van sales in
January this year were electric,
well behind the government’s target
of 10 per cent.
Part of this might be the charging
infrastructure, but there are also
fewer options and at Ground
Control we have struggled to
upgrade our fleets as quickly on the
commercial side as we have on the
passenger side, mostly because the
capabilities of the vehicles did not
fully match the requirements we
had for carrying loads or towing.
Cost is an issue too. There has
been a significant increase in the
cost to charge vehicles publicly and
37
Business
Business
this is undoubtedly having a
negative impact. With the average
cost to charge an electric vehicle on
the public network increasing to 81p
per kWh (as at December 2023),
this can mean drivers are paying a
substantial 22p per mile to use their
EV. With the government holding
firm on a reimbursement rate for
EVs of 9p per mile, this can see
many drivers out of pocket for using
them at work. Only when a driver
has the opportunity to install a
charger at home do they see the real
benefits of driving electric — it costs
as little as 7.5p per kWh to charge a
vehicle on an EV tariff from
Octopus, equating to 2p per mile.
We have seen a number of
government grants reduced or
withdrawn over the past two years
for EV purchases and charging
infrastructure costs. That said, there
are some positive examples of new
funding and grants being introduced
this year that will help those
industries in the toughest financial
positions keep momentum with
their sustainability objectives.
Funding of £381 million is being
provided to local authorities and
there is a new grant scheme for
schools, covering up to 75 per cent of
charging infrastructure costs. Local
authorities and schools could
monetise their installations for
public and business use.
At Ground Control,
our entire fleet of nearly
300 company cars is
electric. Our employees
love them, and we pay to
have home chargers
installed where that’s
feasible. Compared with
petrol and diesel
vehicles, our fleet has
been cheaper to run and
the vehicles have kept
their value better than
budgeted.
We are also
supporting our
customers with EV
services. We have a
business that helps
companies reduce their direct CO2
emissions by using efficient energy
systems and EV charging
infrastructure. We’ve developed a
highly automated system to install
home charging for thousands of
employees for our customers. This
has been particularly effective for
customers with large fleets.
To anyone running a business, my
message would unequivocally be:
take a serious look at moving to EVs
now. We have found that the
benefits have far outweighed the
drawbacks. Yes, it’s not perfect and
there are snags and barriers to
overcome. But EV fleets are
economical and high performing
once you’ve got the system running.
You’ll be playing your part in
protecting the planet too — no small
detail when, according to the EU’s
climate service, the world has just
exceeded 1.5C warming for a full
year for the first time.
Simon Morrish is a serial
entrepreneur and chief executive of
Ground Control in Billericay, Essex,
which made a £12 million pre-tax
profit on sales of £197 million in 2023
38 Monday February 19 2024 | the times

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the times | Monday February 19 2024
Obituaries
Nicola Trahan
Bilingual Special Operations Executive courier who, at 16, was parachuted into Nazi-occupied France to engage in sabotage and subversion
In June 1940, after the fall of France and
at Churchill’s bidding, the Special Op-
erations Executive (SOE) was set up “to
co-ordinate, inspire, control and assist
the nationals of the oppressed coun-
tries who must themselves be the direct
participants” in sabotage and subver-
sion. Or, as the new prime minister put
it, to “set Europe ablaze”.
Nicola Trahan was only 13 and at
school in France when the Germans in-
vaded, but on rejoining her parents in
England she told them that she wanted
to help the war effort, just as soon as she
was old enough to drive an ambulance.
Churchill had set no age limit for SOE
operatives, but women were not to be
employed in the field. However, in part
because of the activities of the Amer-
ican Virginia Hall in occupied France,
where she had helped to set up escape
lines for allied airmen, in 1942 Church-
ill gave approval for women to be sent to
Europe as couriers, as they were con-
sidered less conspicuous to the Gestapo
than men. Then the following year,
with the Allies’ invasion of occupied
Europe at last in prospect, women were
sent as full “agents” — wireless opera-
tors and organisers, trained in use of
weapons and unarmed combat. The
She talked her parents
into allowing her to be
air-dropped into France
search for suitable French-speaking
women was at once broadened.
Nicole (anglicised, “Nicola”) Pauline
Marie Trahan was born in the Pas de
Calais in 1926, the only child of André
Trahan with perhaps a little Scots
blood, and Jeanne Marie (née Bourzes),
an English teacher. Some time later, the
family moved to England, living in
Cheshire and Lancashire.
She was educated at Le Collège-Ly-
cée Cévenol International, in Le Cham-
bon-sur-Lignon, département of
Haute-Loire, south-central France.
The school had been founded just two
years before the German invasion by
André Trocme and Pastor Edouard
Theis, both pacifists, and was shaped
from the outset by the region’s historic
resistance to political and religious per-
secution. The commune of Le Cham-
bon-sur-Lignon would save many hun-
dreds of Jews when the collaborative
Vichy government ordered their
round-up on the orders of the German
authorities in Paris. Trahan appears to
have been thoroughly steeped in the
school’s ethos.
At school in England, probably on the
Fylde coast, she continued to pester her
parents about helping the French re-
sistance. Eventually they gave in and,
by some means not recorded, but which
says much about how effective SOE re-
cruitment was, while still only 15 she
was interviewed by a “Major Tom” in
Manchester. Bilingual, young and
knowing the country, she was evidently
ideal courier material.
After her 16th birthday — still prob-
ably against the rules, but the SOE was
never known for playing by any rule-
book — she began parachute training
at RAF Ringway (now Manchester air-
port). Years later she recalled having no
fear of it, and supposed it was because
Cricketer who lost his
Test career to apartheid
Mike Procter
Page 42
Trahan during the 1950s and, right, receiving an honour for undercover work
that she would rarely speak about, even decades after the Second World War
she was so young. Almost as hazardous
was practising emplaning and deplan-
ing at night with the RAF’s Westland
Lysander, the short take-off and land
aircraft used for clandestine missions to
improvised airstrips in France. On
landing, the Lysander’s engine was
never stopped, the propeller kept feath-
ering and the wheels kept rolling. The
pilot could not risk hanging around.
Not long after parachute training, in
late 1943 — probably the first week in
December, with the full moon on the
11th — Nicola Trahan, codename “Ted-
dy”, was sent on her first operational
mission. The insertion was by Lysander
from RAF Tempsford in Bedfordshire,
the most secretive of all the RAF sta-
tions, home to 138 and 161 Special
Duties Squadrons (nicknamed the
“Moon squadrons”). The landing strip
was near Valençay, between Poitiers
and Orléans, on the northwestern edge
of the Maquis’s (French resistance)
“Wrestler” operational area. “Wres-
tler” had originally been just inside Vi-
chy France’s unoccupied zone, but in
November 1942 German and Italian
troops had taken direct military control
of the whole of metropolitan France.
While enemy troops may have been
thin on the ground, their radio moni-
Register
toring and intercept was extensive, and
they frequently had the co-operation of
the French gendarmerie.
In later years Nicola had no recall of
what she carried — and perhaps never
knew at the time — but typically it was
codebooks, messages too long and com-
plex for sending by Morse, and money.
She was on the ground for two weeks —
a week either side of the full moon for
safe insertion and extraction — and
home in time for her 17th birthday.
Her second mission came some six
weeks later. Having spent several
weeks at home in Blackpool “on holi-
day, unpaid”, she or her parents re-
ceived a telephone call for “Teddy”.
Later that day, in a pattern to be repeat-
ed several more times during the war,
she met her contact at the given place
— a street corner, or outside a public
house not too far from home — and
then that evening was collected by a
vehicle at another rendezvous. The
long journey to “an airfield” followed,
not knowing it was Tempsford until
after the war, all road signs having been
removed in 1940.
The pilots called SOE operatives
“Joes”, male and female alike. “When we
parachuted agents into the field we
never, or only rarely, knew who they
were,” Air Chief Marshal Sir Lewis
Hodges, who flew both pickup and air-
drop missions as a squadron leader at
Tempsford, said years later. “We perhaps
knew their codenames but that was all.”
The agents were brought to Tempsford
“at the last moment from a special hold-
ing unit, a country house in the vicinity,
and they were brought on to the airfield
with as much secrecy as possible”.
It was at the “country house” that
41
Nicola would receive her briefing and
whatever messages and packages she
was to take to France, before being kit-
ted up and thoroughly checked to en-
sure that her clothing and accessories
were entirely French.
The insertion for her second mission
was by parachute, probably by the Han-
dley Page Halifax bombers of 138
Squadron, modified to provide a para-
chute hatch called the “Joe hole”. “We
sometimes dropped agents in the dark
period with no moon, and these were
often what we call blind drops,” said
Hodges. “There was no reception com-
mittee on the ground and this method
had security advantages, but there was
always the risk of injury in the para-
chute landings.”
“Teddy” dropped near Champagno-
le, some 250 miles east of the Wrestler
area and close to the Swiss frontier,
where she was involved in the smug-
gling of Jews into Switzerland.
Two further insertions followed, but
things changed after D-Day, when the
allies married up with the Maquis on
the ground. Trahan became more in-
volved in sabotage and offensive action,
and on at least one occasion used her
Sten (submachine) gun to effect.
In the recommendation for her Croix
de Guerre (with palm), the commander
of the Wrestler area wrote that Trahan
carried out “numerous dangerous mis-
sions. Despite very dense enemy occu-
pation, [she] provided regular twice-
daily liaison between two command
posts. Notably distinguished herself at
Valençay from 20 to 30 August 1944 by
bringing valuable information, which
she gathered at the heart of enemy op-
erations, to her commander.”
She would also be awarded the Méd-
aille de la Reconnaissance Française,
the now discontinued honour institut-
ed in 1917 to recognise the French gov-
ernment’s gratitude to those who, with-
out legal or military obligation, had
come to the aid of the nation.
After the war — of which in all she
spoke very little — her story becomes
even more opaque. Her SOE “P” (per-
sonnel) file in the National Archives at
Kew has not yet been found, which is
not unusual, due to postwar weeding
and a fire at SOE headquarters in 1945.
At some stage she studied philosophy at
the Sorbonne, but gave it up because, as
she said in so many words, philosophy
does not cure toothache. She trained as
a nurse in Manchester, working in
Cheshire and for three years at the
American hospital at Neuilly near
Paris. In 1958 she joined SSAFA (the
Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Airmen’s Families
Association) as a health visitor in Ger-
many, Belgium and Hong Kong for 30
years, and for which she was appointed
MBE in 1989. She never married, and
when it came time to put down roots
said “it had to be in army country after
such a long relationship with the ser-
vices”. She chose Orcheston, the most
tucked-away village on Salisbury Plain.
As a civilian, with no uniform, “para-
chute wings” had been superfluous. In
2017 they were finally presented to her
by a former commander of the SAS.
Nicola Trahan MBE, SOE courier and
military social worker, was born on
December 21, 1926. She died on January
18, 2024, aged 97
42
Register
Mike Procter
South African cricketer who was a destructive all-rounder in the English county game after his Test career was ended early
As he was one of the most talented all-
round cricketers ever to play the game
and yet took part in only seven Test
matches, Mike Procter could well have
been forgiven for becoming embittered.
Instead, when quizzed in retirement
about his regrets, he surprised his audi-
ences by stating, “I didn’t do enough. I
allowed apartheid to go on around me.”
Procter, a flaxen-haired fast bowler
and punchy and stylish batsman, was
coming into his prime years when
South Africa’s tour to Australia in 1971-
72 was called off owing to its govern-
ment’s policy of segregation of races.
Other members of an exceptionally
strong side — Clive Rice, in particular
—resented not having a proper cricket-
ing career for the rest of their lives.
Procter was pragmatic and instead
poured his considerable energies into
English county cricket.
In this endeavour, he was so success-
ful at Gloucestershire that the club was
often referred to as “Proctershire”. It
was often supposed that Procter
bowled off the wrong foot amid a whir-
ring chest-on flurry of arms and legs,
yet that was not the case. A stocky, rum-
bustious figure with one of the fastest
arms in the game, he delivered the ball
before his front foot hit the ground, and
his open body would assist his inswing,
which could be prodigious. If he rolled
his fingers across the seam, he could
make the ball move off the surface. All
this was delivered at rapid pace, his long
hair blowing back in the wind.
And if he never quite achieved his goal
of winning the County Championship
when Gloucestershire came second in
1969, aided by more than 100 wickets by
Procter, he went on to provide some of
the most entertaining moments of
county cricket in the Seventies.
In 1977 and by now captain, he scored
a century before lunch and took 13
wickets for 73 runs as Worcestershire
were routed. In the Benson and Hedges
Cup semi-final against Hampshire at
Southampton in the same year he took
four wickets in five balls, including the
prize scalps of the West Indian Gordon
Greenidge and Procter’s fellow South
African Barry Richards. He took four
hat-tricks for Gloucestershire in the
Championship and in three of those
matches he added a century for good
measure.
“Of all the overseas cricketers who
Richard Gaddes
Music impresario who rose from a working-class background in northeast England to manage opera companies in America
Nothing in Richard Gaddes’s back-
ground suggested a stellar career in op-
era. Born and raised in Wallsend, Tyne
and Wear, he grew up at a time when
there were still jobs to be had in the
shipyards, where his father worked.
His life, however, took him in a very
different direction. Both his
parents sang in local choirs, and from
an early age it was clear their son had
inherited a musical talent. Like the Billy
Elliot of ballet fame, he went south to
study music, encouraged by his mother,
though against his father’s wishes. Nei-
ther could have imagined it would lead
to him becoming one of the most influ-
ential figures on the operatic scene in
America. As artistic administrator of
the Santa Fe Opera, he brought the
young Kiri te Kanawa from London to
sing the role of the countess in The Mar-
riage of Figaro, marking her American
debut in 1971. He encouraged the ca-
reers of artists such as the conductor
Edo de Waart, and the mezzo-soprano
Frederica von Stade, who would go on
to become a star of the Metropolitan
Opera in New York.
have decorated our domestic game, I
know of none who has identified him-
self with his adopted county more
whole-heartedly than Procter,” wrote
Alan Gibson of The Times. “In Glouc-
estershire he is regarded as a native. At
first he was a little shy and withdrawn,
but he was naturally a friendly man and
soon responded to the friendliness
about him.” Procter finished his career
with 1,417 wickets and 21,936 runs in all
first-class cricket and along the way
downed plenty of pints.
Michael John Procter was born in
1946 to Woodrow Procter, who, while
still at school, played for Eastern Prov-
He co-founded the Opera Theatre of
Saint Louis, and became its general
director. He introduced new audiences
and new artists to opera, offering
discounted tickets to New Mexico resi-
dents when he was at Santa Fe, and
staging a production of The Beggar’s
Opera at the city’s El Museo Cultural —
an arts and culture market — using
mostly local performers.
The conductor Leonard Slatkin said
of his time at the St Louis company, that
Gaddes had made it “a destination
point for those starting careers”.
Richard Gaddes, the youngest of
three sons, was brought up in Wallsend,
near Newcastle. His father, Thomas,
worked in the shipyards; his mother,
Emily (née Rickard) looked after the
family home. Educated at Wallsend
grammar school, he showed an early
aptitude for music. Aged four, he had
listened, entranced, as a friend of his
parents, a fine operatic soprano, sang in
the front room. His mother, defying his
father’s wishes, paid for his ticket to
London to audition at Trinity College
of Music (now the Trinity Laban Con-
Procter took a hat-trick and scored a century in the same match three times
ince against MCC in 1938-39, and Lor-
raine (née Robertson). Mike’s elder
brother, Anton, preceded him in the
strong Natal side, but it was soon appar-
ent that Mike was the most talented
member of the family. This was demon-
strated when, as a 12-year-old at High-
bury Preparatory School, he hit five
centuries, including an unbeaten 210
against an under-13 Transvaal side. The
coach, John Saunders, experimented
with him as an opening bowler and he
remained one at his next school, Hilton
College, where he made the first XI at 15.
In South African domestic cricket he
later represented Rhodesia, scoring six
centuries in succession, which equalled
the achievements of CB Fry and Sir Do-
nald Bradman. All his seven Tests for
South Africa in 1971-72 were against
Australia and he made quite an im-
pression: his 41 wickets were taken at
Gaddes was keen to promote opera
servatoire of Music and Dance), where
he was accepted; his father never ap-
proved, but accepted, on his deathbed,
that he might have been wrong. “I knew
he was only concerned for my welfare,”
Gaddes recalled. “We were reconciled
at the end.”
Graduating in 1964, he worked at
Wigmore Hall. “I opened the doors for
performers, and turned pages for many
the exceedingly frugal average of 15.02
apiece and he contributed 226 runs.
Procter would later play for Kerry
Packer’s unofficial World Series Cricket
in the late 1970s and appeared at the
High Court hearing in 1977, when he
and other players successfully claimed
that banning them from county and
international cricket amounted to re-
straint of trade.
He also played in the unofficial
matches between South Africa and
rebel touring sides during the years of
isolation. When his country was re-ad-
mitted to international sport in 1991,
Procter was their coach. In 1994, on the
eve of their first Test match at Lord’s for
29 years, he gave his backing to players
such as Geoffrey Boycott and Graham
Gooch, who had abandoned England
for a big rand payday.
“I never saw them as rebels: to me
great accompanists, including Gerald
Moore,” he said in 2008. “I sat at the pi-
ano during the cycles of singers such as
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fis-
cher-Dieskau. An amazing, amazing ex-
posure to music that you couldn’t buy.”
Gaddes embarked on a management
career, and was spotted by the conduc-
tor John Crosby, founder of the Santa
Fe Opera in New Mexico, who invited
him to become its artistic administra-
tor in 1968 at the age of 25.
As co-founder of Opera Theatre
Saint Louis he presented a diverse rep-
ertoire, including Britten’s Albert Her-
ring and The Beggar’s Opera. He
stepped down in 1985, and in 1994 re-
turned to the Santa Fe Opera as asso-
ciate general director and second gen-
eral director from 2000. Determined to
introduce new audiences to opera, he
launched a two-for-one ticket scheme
for anyone who had never been to an
opera. Expecting interest in about 500
tickets, he ended up selling 6,500, and
when his tenure came to an end eight
years later, more than 50 per cent of his
audience were locals.
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
they were brave men, supportive of
multi-racial cricket in South Africa and
they were right to make a stand against
the hypocrisy that hangs round the
whole question of sporting links with
each other. Those tours were the best
thing that could have happened to all
South African cricket at that time.” The
applause for his speech was led by black
members of President Mandela’s new
multi-racial government.
In later years Procter devoted much
time to his own foundation, which sup-
ported children (many HIV positive)
who attended a school in a settlement
near his home city of Durban.
While a referee, Procter
was hurt by accusations
of racism from India
Procter is survived by his wife, a
former tennis player who as Maryna
Godwin reached the third round in the
women’s singles at Wimbledon in 1967
and 1968. He is also survived by their
son Gregg, who lived with his parents in
Durban; Tammy, who settled in the US;
and Jessica, who settled in Amsterdam.
In later years, when acting as a Test
match referee, the easygoing Procter
was criticised by the International
Cricket Council after the cancellation
of the 2006 Test at the Oval when Paki-
stan refused to take the field after tea
following allegations of ball tampering
by an on-field umpire. Not long after-
wards Procter banned the India spinner
Harbhajan Singh for three matches in
the wake of Australia complaining he
had racially abused one of their players.
This was subsequently overturned.
The criticism, notably from Sunil
Gavaskar, their former captain who
questioned whether his sympathies lay
with the Australian team due to his
race, stung him owing to his long-stated
opposition to apartheid and his charity
work. Indeed, Procter was to say of Nel-
son Mandela, the totemic opponent to
him having a long Test career, that “he
was the greatest individual I ever en-
countered”.
Mike Procter, cricketer, was born on
September 15, 1946. He died of
complications after heart surgery on
February 17, 2024, aged 77
Gaddes’s dedication to the arts
earned him numerous honours, includ-
ing the Opera Honours Award from the
National Endowment for the Arts in
2008. Opera News cited him as one of
the “25 Most Influential People” in the
world of American opera.
For all his success in America, Gad-
des never forgot his northern roots. A
fellow-Northumbrian, Sir Humphry
Wakefield, remembers a distinguished
gathering at a London club, which in-
cluded Gaddes, the great tenor Sir
Thomas Allen, and Lord Terry Burns,
the economist. As they got together,
they all began speaking to each other in
the broad accent of their native county.
Wakefield recalled: “It is not often you
hear a Geordie accent in the Cavalry
and Guards Club.”
Richard Gaddes, music impresario,
was born on May 23, 1942. He died after
a brief illness on December 12, 2023,
aged 81
Email: obituaries@thetimes.co.uk
the times | Monday February 19 2024
Law Report
Law applicable to claim by person subject
to torture when interrogated abroad
The law applicable to a claim for per-
sonal injuries by a person who had
been detained by the security ser-
vices of the United States in secret
“black-site” facilities across the
world, where he alleged he had been
tortured to extract information and
some of that information had been
requested by the security services of
the United Kingdom, was the law of
England and Wales.
The Supreme Court so held (Lord
Sales dissenting) in dismissing the
appeal of the defendants, the Foreign
Commonwealth and Development
Office, the Home Office and the at-
torney-general for England and
Wales, against a decision of the Court
of Appeal (Dame Victoria Sharp,
President, Lady Justice Thirlwall and
Lord Justice Males) ([2022] 4 WLR
40) reversing the decision of Mr Jus-
tice Lane ([2021] 4 WLR 39) in deter-
mining a preliminary issues as to the
law applicable to the action brought
by the claimant, Zayn Al-Abidin Mu-
hammad Husayn (also known as Abu
Zubaydah).
Sir James Eadie KC, Jonathan
Glasson KC, David Blundell KC,
Melanie Cumberland and Andrew
Byass for the defendants; Richard
Hermer KC, Ben Jaffey
KC and Edward Craven for the
claimant.
LORD LLOYD-JONES and
LORD STEPHENS, with whom
Lord Burrows and Lord Kitchin
agreed, said that the claimant had
been detained without trial by United
Readers’
Lives
Executive who changed
fortunes in the car trade
JAMES TYRRELL, WHO DIED AGED 60, APPEARED IN
THE TIMES ON AUGUST 27, 2022
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States authorities since March 2002.
He alleged that the security
services and the Secret Intelligence
Service (together, the UK services)
knew that he was being arbitrarily
rendered to, detained in, and subject-
ed to extreme mistreatment and tor-
ture by the United States’ Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) at secret
black sites, but nevertheless from at
least May 2002 until at least 2006, the
UK services sent numerous
questions to the CIA with a view to
the CIA eliciting information from
him.
The claimant alleged that in send-
ing those questions, the UK services
expected and intended (or at any rate
did not care) that the claimant would
be and was in fact subjected to ex-
treme mistreatment and torture by
the CIA during those interrogation
sessions or those parts of interroga-
tion sessions that were conducted for
the purpose of attempting to obtain
answers to the UK services’ ques-
tions.
The claimant’s claim for damages
against the UK services was limited
to those personal injuries sustained
while he was being mistreated and
tortured by the CIA to elicit answers
to the UK services’ questions.
The claimant had no contempora-
neous knowledge of the countries
where he was detained and tortured
but he now alleged, based on publicly
available materials, that his injuries
were sustained in CIA “black-site” fa-
cilities situated in (a) Thailand; (b)
Poland; (c) Morocco; (d) Lithuania;
(e) Afghanistan; and (f) Guantánamo
Bay (the six countries).
The claimant had pleaded his
claims under the law of England and
Wales or, alternatively, under the law
of the country that he was in when he
sustained personal injuries. Accord-
ingly, on the claimant’s alternative
pleading, Thai law was the applicable
law in relation to mistreatment or
50%
discount for
subscribers
torture resulting in personal injuries
in Thailand, Polish law was the appli-
cable law in relation to mistreatment
or torture resulting in personal inju-
ries in Poland, and so on.
Both parties proceeded on the
basis that the law applicable to the
claimant’s claims as a whole was ei-
ther the law of England and Wales or
the law of each of the six countries.
The court would do the same.
For national security reasons, the
position of the defendants had been
neither to confirm nor to deny the al-
legations, whether against the UK or
US authorities.
Section 11 of the Private Inter-
national Law (Miscellaneous Provi-
sions) Act 1995 laid down a general
rule that the law applicable to a claim
in tort was the law of the country in
which the events constituting the tort
had occurred and, where elements of
those events occurred in different
countries, the law applicable for a
claim in respect of personal injury
was the law of the country where the
injury was sustained.
However, section 12 of the 1995 Act
provided for displacement of the
general rule where, after comparing
the significance of the factors con-
necting the tort with that country
and the significance of the factors
connecting that tort with a different
country, it was substantially more
appropriate for the law of the other
country to apply.
On the alleged facts the signifi-
cance of the connection between the
torts and each of the six countries was
massively reduced by the following
factors, which also showed the inap-
propriateness of applying the laws of
each of the six countries to the claims
against the defendants.
First, the claimant had been un-
lawfully rendered against his will to
each of the six countries in succes-
sion, which had been part of a deliber-
ate plan to disorientate him; conse-
quently, his involuntary presence in
any of the six countries could not
constitute a meaningful connection
with that country and he could have
had no reasonable expectation that
the law of whichever country he was
in should apply to his situation.
Second, there was no suggestion
that the UK services were aware, or
ever took steps to find out, where the
claimant was and, in those circum-
stances, they could not have consid-
ered that they were submitting them-
selves to the laws of the relevant
country or ever expected or intended
their conduct to be judged by refer-
ence to those laws.
Third, the claimant was rendered
to and held in each of the six coun-
tries without any reference to the
laws of those countries and was held
and interrogated within insulated en-
vironments in which he could be de-
nied any access to the local law or re-
course to local courts and it was an
appropriate inference that those lo-
cations had been selected with that
purpose in mind.
Fourth, the fact that the claimant
was held in six secret detention facili-
ties in six different countries dimin-
ished the significance of the law of
any one of them and made it highly
improbable that the claimant would
be able to say in which country which
injury had been sustained.
Fifth, the claimant’s captors and
interrogators were not agents of any
of the six countries but agents of the
CIA operating in secret locations.
The CIA’s black sites in each of the six
countries operated as “de facto ex-
claves” where the laws and jurisdic-
tion of those countries did not run.
That served further to diminish the
significance of the place of his deten-
tion and ill-treatment as factors con-
necting the torts to each of the six
countries.
Turning to consider the other side
of the coin, there were substantial
factors that connected the torts with
the UK:
First, while it was correct that the
claimant was not a citizen of the UK,
had no right of entry or residence in
the UK or, so far as was known, any
other personal connection with the
UK, he was suing in respect of torts
that he alleged were committed by
agents of the UK services, and for
which it was alleged that the UK gov-
ernment in the person of the defend-
ants was vicariously liable.
Second, the events that constitut-
ed the torts alleged against the UK
services were committed in part by
the UK services in England and
Wales and in part by the CIA in the
six countries. The judge accepted that
the relevant acts and omissions of the
UK services in requesting informa-
tion from the CIA were more likely
than not to have taken place in En-
gland. He also accepted that they
were committed by the UK services
for the perceived benefit of the UK.
Third, the actions were taken by
UK executive agencies acting in their
official capacity in the purported
exercise of powers conferred under
the law of England and Wales (given
the known location of the UK ser-
vices in London). The defendants
were all emanations of the UK gov-
ernment and were at all material
times subject to the criminal and
public law of England and Wales.
The claimant had established a
compelling case in favour of the dis-
placement of the general rule in the
unusual circumstances of the case.
On the basis of a comparison of the
significance of the factors connecting
the alleged torts with the six coun-
tries and with England and Wales, it
was substantially more appropriate
for the applicable law to be the law of
England and Wales. Lord Sales deliv-
ered a dissenting judgment.
Solicitors: Treasury Solicitor;
Bhatt Murphy Solicitors.
Politics with no boring bits
Listen to Matt Chorley on
Times Radio, Monday to
Friday at 10am
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Births, Marriages
and Deaths
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THEN afterwards I will pour out my Spirit
on all flesh; your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy, your old men shall dream
dreams, and your young men shall see
visions. Joel 2.28 (NRSV)
Bible verses are provided by the Bible
Society
Deaths
WILSON Alexander Giles died on 6th
February 2024, aged 60. Much-loved by his
family and wife Jane, greatly respected
classics teacher and undermaster at St
Paul’s School, London, passionate cricketer
and fives player. Funeral at St Giles Church,
Durham, at 1pm on Friday 8th March.
Acknowledgements
THANKSGIVING SERVICE Marchant
Col (rtd) Kenneth James, at St Mark’s Wyke
Church, Normandy, GU3, on 12th March
2024 at noon.
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Court Circular
Sandringham, Norfolk
18th February, 2024
Divine Service was held in
Sandringham Parish Church this
morning.
The Reverend Canon Dr Paul
Williams preached the Sermon.
Kensington Palace
18th February, 2024
The Prince of Wales, President,
British Academy of Film and
Television Arts, this evening
attended the British Academy Film
Awards at the Royal Festival Hall,
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road,
London SE1.
the times | Monday February 19 2024 45

Weather
Today Increasing amounts of sunshine but the risk of showers from thicker cloud. Max 13C (55F), min 1C (34F) Weather Eye
Paul Simons
Around Britain Five days ahead Wind speed Sea state Orkney Shetland
Key: b=bright, c=cloud, d=drizzle, pc=partly cloudy Unsettled with outbreaks 34 Calm
du=dull, f=fair, fg=fog, h=hail, m=mist, r=rain, (mph) 26 7
sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, t=thunder of rain, turning to sleet, Slight 19
*=previous day **=data not available snow or small hail as it Temperature Moderate
Rough
Temp C Rain mm Sun hr* becomes cooler 28 (degrees C)
9
midday yesterday 24 hrs to 5pm yesterday
7 18
12 PC 2.8 0.0
Tomorrow Flood alerts and warnings
Aberdeen
Dry and mild with sunny spells in
Aberporth 10 FG 15.6 0.1
southeastern England. Rather cloudy At 17:00 on Sunday there were 8
Anglesey 11 C 5.0 0.0 elsewhere with a band of cloud and 259 flood alerts and 64 warnings 6
Aviemore 9 C 0.2 0.0 rain spreading eastwards, heavy in in England, 15 flood alerts and no
Barnstaple 11 D 27.4 ** places. 21

B
12 C 16.0 **
warnings in Wales and no flood alerts Aberdeen
C F ritain invaded Corsica 230
Bedford Max 13C, min -1C 35 95
or warnings in Scotland. years ago to establish a
Belfast 11 C 0.6 0.0
For further information and updates 30 86
Birmingham 13 C 16.4 **
in England visit flood-warning- Mediterranean base in the
Bournemouth 15 C 24.4 0.0 9 NORTH 25 77
fight against Revolutionary
information.service.gov.uk, for Wales 20 68
Bridlington 11 C 9.4 **
naturalresources.wales/flooding and SEA 15 59 France. The British vice-
Bristol 12 C 18.4 0.0
11 FG 11.8 0.0 for Scotland SEPA.org.uk 8 10 50
Camborne
11 Edinburgh admiral Lord Hood planned to land
Cardiff 10 D 30.2 0.0
13
22 Glasgow 5 41
at San Fiorenzo in Corsica, but in
Edinburgh 12 PC 0.4 0.4 0 32
Eskdalemuir 11 B 8.0 0.0
8 16 -5 23 January 1794 his ships were battered
Glasgow 12 PC 3.2 0.0 -10 14 by a gale as they neared the coast
14 D 7.8 ** 13
Hereford Londonderry
Herstmonceux 12 C 19.0 0.0 ATLANTIC
-15 5 and he retreated. The invasion force
Ipswich 12 C 24.2 0.6
Newcastle returned the next month and landed
OCEAN Carlisle
Isle of Man 11 B 1.2 0.0
Wednesday Belfast troops at San Fiorenzo Bay ready to
Isle of Wight 14 C 0.6 ** 10
Jersey 11 FG 8.8 1.2 Cloudy and blustery with outbreaks 10 8 attack a formidable fort, Mortella
of rain spreading eastwards over 10
Keswick 11 C 6.6 ** England, Wales and Scotland, heavy rk
York Tower, above the bay. The next day
Kinloss 12 PC 0.8 1.6 over high ground. Wintry in Scotland. two ships used a sea breeze to move
Sunshine and showers across Ireland.
17
Leeds 10 C 6.0 **
Lerwick 8 R 8.8 0.0 Max 12C, min -1C Manchester Hull
in and bombard the tower’s thick
Leuchars 12 S 1.4 0.0 Liverpoo
Liverpool 11 walls but failed to make a
Lincoln 12 C 15.2 0.0 Galway IRISH 19
breakthrough. Only when heated
Liverpool 10 M 12.6 ** 9 SEA 11 Sheffield
London 14 C 18.6 0.0 Dublin shot was fired down on the fort from
Llandudno
Lyneham 12 C 25.8 0.0 a hill above was the garrison forced
Manchester 12 C 14.4 0.5
14 C 14.0 0.4
12 11 Nottingham to surrender. So impressive was the
Margate Shrewsbury
11 fort’s defence that the British later
Milford Haven 10 D 14.2 **
Norwich
Newcastle 11 PC 3.6 ** 19 copied the design for what was
9
Nottingham 12 C 18.6 0.0
11
Birmingham Cambridge called the Martello tower forts built
Orkney 10 C 4.2 0.1 Cork
Oxford 14 D 23.2 ** 12 along the coast of England to resist
Swansea Oxford 12
Plymouth 12 R 30.4 ** any invasion by Napoleon.
Portland 11 PC 22.4 ** Cardiff
Scilly, St Mary’s 12 M 8.8 **
Thursday Channel Islands CELTIC 12 Hood followed the victory with an
Shoreham 14 C 20.8 0.0 Cloudy with outbreaks of rain in
SEA Bristol London assault on the town of San Fiorenzo,
eastern Britain during the morning.
Shrewsbury 12 PC 19.4 0.3 Sunny spells and scattered wintry 13
Snowdonia 11 R 22.2 ** showers elsewhere, perhaps thundery Southampton
but suffered another storm forcing a
9 further delay. With the weather
Southend 13 C 14.4 0.2 in places. eter
Exeter
South Uist 10 M 0.8 ** Max 11C, min -4C 20 Plymouth Brighton stalling the advance, the French
Stornoway 11 C 2.2 0.0
Tiree 11 M 1.0 **
retreated to a new heavily gunned
Whitehaven 12 PC 7.8 0.0 6
10 fortification, which the British
CHANNEL 27
Wick 10 D 2.4 ** 18 pounded away at for 36 hours
Yeovilton 13 C 18.2 0.0
followed by hand-to-hand fighting
4
General situation: Cloud and rain in W Mids, Cen N Eng, NW Eng, Wales, small risk of a shower in northern before the enemy abandoned San
The world 10
southern and eastern Britain at first, Lake District, SW Scotland, IoM: areas, otherwise it will be a dry day Fiorenzo on February 19.
All readings local midday yesterday
otherwise a mainly dry day with The risk of a shower in the morning, with sunny spells and patchy cloud, The French then retreated to the
Alicante 19 S Madeira 20 PC 11 sunshine and a few showers. otherwise it will be a dry day with becoming thicker later. Light to fort at Bastia, where a young
Amsterdam 9 R Madrid 14 PC SE Eng, E Anglia, SW Eng, Cen S Eng, sunny spells and areas of cloud. Light moderate westerly wind. Maximum
Athens 15 PC Malaga 19 PC
E Eng, London, E Mids, Channel Is: to moderate westerly wind. Maximum 12C (54F), minimum 6C (43F). Captain Horatio Nelson volunteered
Auckland 25 S Mallorca 18 PC to lead a bombardment. He had
Friday Cloudy with showery rain during the 12C (54F), minimum 4C (39F). Cen Highland, NW Scotland, Glasgow,
Bahrain 23 S Malta 17 PC
Bangkok 32 PC Melbourne 21 PC Sunny spells and a scattering of
morning, then turning sunnier and Edinburgh and Dundee, Aberdeen, NE Scotland, N Isles, Argyll: Sunny previously scouted out the fort but
Barbados 30 PC Mexico City 15 C blustery, heavy and thundery showers, drier from the west in the afternoon. Borders, NE Eng, Moray Firth: A spells and a scattering of showers, deliberately kept secret that the
Barcelona 15 S Miami 27 C falling as sleet or hail in places. Light to moderate northwesterly dry day with sunny spells. Light to turning cloudier later with the risk of a
Max 8C, min -4C wind, perhaps fresh near the coast. moderate westerly wind. Maximum longer period of rain. Moderate to fresh
enemy troops were three times the
Beijing 6 R Milan 15 S
Beirut 18 B Mombasa 35 PC Maximum 13C (55F), minimum 10C (50F), minimum 5C (41F). westerly wind. Maximum 10C (50F), number previously thought. Despite
Belgrade 11 PC Montreal -8 PC 3C (37F). Republic of Ireland, N Ireland: The minimum 1C (34F). this, Nelson led the bombardment
Berlin 9 S Moscow 1 PC and on May 23 Bastia surrendered.
Bermuda 20 SH Mumbai 33 ** 5
Bordeaux 15 S Munich 11 S Tides Noon today The French now fell back to their
Brussels 10 B Nairobi 30 PC Tidal predictions. last defence, the fort of Calvi. Nelson
Bucharest 4 M Naples 17 S Heights in metres
6
HIGH 1008 had guns hauled over rough terrain
Budapest 10 B New Orleans 9 DU Today Ht Ht 1016 HIGH
Buenos Aires 28 PC New York 1 C 8 Aberdeen 09:38 3.4 22:27 3.4 facing enemy gun batteries, but on
Cairo 19 B Nice 16 S Avonmouth 02:11 9.4 15:13 9.4 LOW July 12 he was wounded in his right
Calcutta 28 ** Nicosia 18 B Belfast 07:00 2.9 19:55 2.8 LOW eye by stones shot up by an enemy
8
1016
Canberra 29 PC Oslo -5 B Cardiff 01:54 8.7 14:57 8.5 960
Cape Town 29 S Paris 9 R 00:53 4.2 13:49 4.1 968
LOW shell and he eventually lost sight in
Devonport
Chicago -3 PC Perth 37 B
Dover 06:42 5.2 19:36 5.1
952 976
1024
the eye. However, the British
Copenhagen 4 R Prague 10 PC 984
17 S 6 B Saturday Dublin 07:51 3.1 20:34 3.2 LOW
992
bombardment forced the surrender
Corfu Reykjavik
Sunny spells and a scattering of Falmouth 00:32 3.8 13:29 3.7 1000 LOW of Calvi on August 10 and the
Delhi 26 ** Riga 2 S
showers, turning heavy and thundery Greenock 07:06 2.8 21:13 2.7 1008
Dubai 26 S Rio de Janeiro 29 B
in places. Wintry showers over 1024 Cold front French were expelled from Corsica,
Dublin 12 PC Riyadh 20 S Harwich 07:09 3.2 19:55 3.0 1016
Faro 18 S Rome 16 S
Scotland and high ground in Wales and
Holyhead 06:32 4.4 19:18 4.4 Warm front bringing Nelson to prominence for
northern England.
Hull 01:32 5.9 14:19 5.7 1032 HIGH Occluded front his outstanding leadership.
Florence 16 S San Francisco 13 C Max 7C, min -3C
Frankfurt 10 B Santiago 30 S Leith 10:39 4.3 23:28 4.4 Trough
LOW
Geneva 13 PC São Paulo 26 S Liverpool 07:00 7.2 19:45 7.3
Gibraltar
Helsinki
18
-2
PC
PC
Seoul
Seychelles
9
30
C
PC
4 London Bridge
Lowestoft
09:10
05:22
5.9
2.2
21:56
17:57
5.6
2.1
Synoptic situation Highs and lows
24hrs to 5pm yesterday
Hours of darkness
Aberdeen 17:46-06:55
Speak directly to one
32 B An area of high pressure will
of our forecasters on
Hong Kong 27 PC Singapore Milford Haven 01:40 5.1 14:30 5.1
Warmest: Shoreham, Belfast 18:08-07:04
Honolulu 25 PC St Petersburg -3 S
6 Morecambe 07:14 7.1 19:58 7.2 ridge across the British Isles West Sussex, 16.5C Birmingham 17:56-06:44
Istanbul 8 C Stockholm 0 S bringing drier and sunnier
Jerusalem
Johannesburg
17
28
PC
S
Sydney
Tel Aviv
28
17
PC
PC
7 Newhaven
Newquay
06:47
00:38
5.1
5.2
19:39
13:27
5.0
5.2 conditions from the west as
any low pressure or fronts will
Coldest: Cairngorm, 0.7C
Wettest: Gogerddan,
Dyfed, 35.4mm
Cardiff
Exeter
18:03-06:47
18:06-06:47 09065 777675
Oban 01:28 2.8 15:31 2.8 Sunniest: Kinloss, 1.6hrs* Glasgow 17:58-07:01
Kuala Lumpur 34 PC Tenerife 25 S clear into the North Sea and
** ** 14 PC 7 Penzance 00:09 4.2 12:57 4.1 Liverpool 17:58-06:50 8am to 5pm daily (calls are charged
Kyiv Tokyo northern Europe. Low pressure
23 S 8 B Portsmouth 07:14 3.8 19:59 3.7 Sun and moon London 17:51-06:35 at £1.55 plus network extras)
Lanzarote Vancouver near Iceland will push a set of For Greenwich Manchester 17:55-06:47
Las Palmas 24 PC Venice 15 S Shoreham 06:42 4.7 19:47 4.6 Sun rises: 07.06
The Times weather page Southampton 06:07 3.6 18:48 3.5
fronts into northern Britain and Newcastle 17:49-06:48
Lima 23 S Vienna 10 PC Sun sets: 17.21
Ireland into tomorrow before Moon rises: 11.34 Norwich 17:43-06:31
Lisbon 17 S Warsaw 4 PC is provided by Swansea 01:32 6.8 14:29 6.8
further fronts bring rain on Moon sets: 05.48 Tue Penzance 18:15-06:54
Los Angeles 16 C Washington 2 B Tees 11:51 4.3 --:-- --
Luxor 21 S Zurich 11 B
Wednesday more widely. Full moon: February 24 Sheffield 17:52-06:44
Weymouth 01:57 1.3 14:57 1.2 weatherquest .co.uk
EVERY BALL
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EXCLUSIVE FREE LIVE COMMENTARY OF THE 4TH TEST
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48
Sport
‘The Secret
to 50 years
together?
Not marrying
each other’
Duo return to Sarajevo
to reflect on Olympic
glory, fame and decision
to hang up their skates,
writes Elgan Alderman
When Jayne Torvill and Christopher
Dean pose outside Coffee Barcelona in
Sarajevo, it causes a stir among the pro-
prietor and his customer. The two
friends from Nottingham are instantly
recognisable to Zahid Dzambegovic
and Dragana Tiric, who pop outside for
an autograph. Dzambegovic is in his
late thirties, not even born when Torvill
and Dean created the standout mo-
ment of the 1984 Olympics in this city,
but says “everyone knows who they
are”. Tiric, a teenager at the time, cer-
tainly remembers.
It was on February 14, 1984 that Tor-
vill and Dean performed their famous
free dance to Maurice Ravel’s Boléro,
creating a cultural touchpoint for the
world. It was artistry in a time of discord,
coming three weeks before the miners’
strike began, in a year when the IRA’s
Brighton hotel bombing took place.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the
Sarajevo Winter Olympics, Torvill, 66,
and Dean, 65, returned to the capital of
Bosnia-Herzegovina to announce that
2025 — 50 years since they first skated
together — would be their last, signing
off with a final arena tour. Torvill, the
daughter of a Raleigh Bikes worker and
a Lace Market machinist who later
became sweet-shop owners, and Dean,
the son of a miner and supermarket em-
ployee, are now two veterans whose
names are incomplete without the
other.
The prevalence of ice skating in Brit-
ish sporting culture 40 years ago is a
compelling quirk. For three successive
Olympic years, Britons won gold on ice
and then became BBC Sports Personal-
ity of the Year: John Curry in 1976,
Robin Cousins in 1980 and Torvill and
Dean in 1984. The past 40 years have
brought little success for British skat-
ing. Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson have
had some joy, taking silvers at the past
two European Championships. “They
should get a medal at the Olympics,”
Dean says.
Even if they win Olympic gold, their
fame would not reach the levels of Tor-
vill and Dean, who inhabited a world
that brought together Princess Anne,
supporting them in Sarajevo, and
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
Michael Crawford, the Some Mothers
Do ‘Ave ‘Em and West End actor who
helped choreograph their Barnum rou-
tine of 1983.
Having met as children, they became
world champions in 1981 and were
overwhelming favourites for Olympic
gold. “It was all about the moment, that
dance, and none of the bigger pictures,”
says Dean, who usually acts as spokes-
man for the duo. “You have to remem-
ber the Eighties, there was not
the social media. There wasn’t that out-
side pressure or distraction, whatever
you might want, however you feel that.
And so to some degree, we lived in our
own bubble as well.
“It was only when we eventually got
back to England that we realised the
popularity of it and people’s impression
of it. Whenever a national team or
somebody does something, we all stand
a bit taller. It had that feeling and I think
we felt that when we were at home.”
They had given up their jobs as an in-
surance clerk and policeman to work
towards the Sarajevo Games thanks to
£53,000 in sponsorship from Notting-
ham council. To avoid early-morning
starts before the public took over Brit-
ish ice rinks, they trained in Oberstdorf,
Germany, where they had free rein.
At the Olympics, they were in first
place with only the free dance to go.
Wearing dip-dyed purple silk chiffon,
Torvill and Dean took to the Sarajevo
ice and dropped to their knees. This was
an unusual start, typical of their will- On their return, they were paraded with them admitting to a kiss in the safer than ten years earlier, depriving
ingness to push the envelope. They had around Nottingham in what Torvill back of a bus as teenagers but no more, them of “content and feeling”. “The
used Boléro as their warm-up music in dubs a “Popemobile”. “We just thought and marriage came elsewhere. British public were so upset that we
1983, electing to use it in competition people would congregate in the square, With Olympic gold and fame guar- didn’t win [but] we’d already planned to
the next year (neither can agree whose but they lined the whole route and we anteed, Torvill and Dean renounced do a tour following the Olympics, and I
idea it was). felt like, ‘Woah,’ ” she says. “It was daunt- their amateurism and embarked on a think it was one of the most successful
This in itself was novel: skaters per- ing, wasn’t it?” Dean chimes in. Back to world tour. They have resided in the tours that we did,” Torvill says.
formed to more than one piece of music Torvill: “Because we’d been out of the commercial world ever since, touring As part of their reminiscences in the
with changes in tempo, but Torvill and country we didn’t realise what it meant and acting as trainers or judges on former Yugoslavia, Torvill and Dean
Dean used just Boléro, a composition to everyone.” And Dean to finish: “It ITV’s Dancing On Ice, save for an Olym- returned to the spot where their Olym-
with enough variation and crescendo so launched us.” Often they talk as one. pic return at Lillehammer in 1994. They pic fame began, coached junior skaters
as to be accepted, despite complaints That December they beat Sebastian could win only bronze, yet the appetite from Klizacki Klub and KSL Unity,
from other nations. At 17 minutes long, Coe, Steve Davis and Daley Thompson among the British public was enor- were fêted at the Olympic Museum
it had to be cut down to 4min 10sec, but to Sports Personality of the Year, and on mous: with 23.95 million viewers, it was with the British ambassador and mayor
the arranger could get no lower than Christmas Day a one-hour special the fourth-most watched show of the of Sarajevo, and performed a ceremo-
4min 28sec. Realising that the routine about their best routines was on ITV decade, behind the funeral of Princess nial Boléro at skating’s Sarajevo
did not officially begin until skates before the Queen’s address. Diana, the Only Fools and Open. They have already been invited
touched ice, Torvill and Dean were on They faced persistent questions Horses Christmas special when the back for the 50th anniversary in 2034
their knees for the first 18 seconds. about their relationship — beyond Trotters become millionaires and and for next summer’s film festival, a
At the dance’s end, up flashed the whether they were a couple, they were the EastEnders episode of January 2, rare visit to the city outside winter.
scores: 12 maximum 6.0s out of 18 asked outright if they were going to 1992. The 1998 World Cup match The secret to a half-century together,
scores. Cafes in Sarajevo have Boléro in marry each other. Spitting Image pre- between England and Argentina encompassing every stage of life?
their name, Nottingham has Bolero miered a fortnight after their gold trailed in fifth. “Don’t get married to each other, and a
Square and the duo refer to February 14 medal, and in a first-season episode The duo regarded Lillehammer as a lot of tolerance,” Dean says. Some
as Boléro Day. David Owen and Shirley Williams ad- disappointment, “letting everyone themes never change.
The victory was the photograph on dressed the duo’s sex lives with the down”. There was a feeling that, as re- 6 Torvill & Dean: Our Last Dance UK
the front page of The Times on February song What Torvill Does With Dean. The turning professionals, their cards were Tour, April 12 to May 11, 2025,
15, and the Queen congratulated them. questions continued down the years, marked, and they were advised to be tickets: TorvillandDean.com
the times | Monday February 19 2024
McIlroy: 80-man elite tour is pie in the sky for now
Golf
Rick Broadbent
Rory McIlroy admitted his hopes for an
80-man Champions League-style cir-
cuit were “pie in the sky” after reiterat-
ing calls for an elite tour to unite golf.
In recent months McIlroy has
ditched his unbridled LIV Golf anti-
pathy to urge the PGA Tour to broker a
deal with the Saudi Public Investment
Fund (PIF). And after a frustrating
three rounds at the Genesis Invitation-
al at Riviera in Los Angeles, the four-
time major winner again turned his at-
tention to the longer term.
A post-pact calendar remains a co-
nundrum, but McIlroy added some
detail to his idea for a one-tour solution.
“I think you would just create a tour for
the top 80 players in the world. Then
everything feeds into that one. It would
be like the Champions League in Euro-
pean football. It sort of sits above the
Torvill and Dean
winning gold in
1984 and, inset,
marking the 40th
anniversary in
Sarajevo last week
rest of the leagues and the best of the
best play against each other.”
McIlroy no longer sits on the PGA
Tour board, but is well-informed on the
progress, or lack of it, regarding the
PGA Tour-PIF negotiations. The influx
of an initial $1.5 billion (about £1.2 bil-
lion) from an American consortium,
the Strategic Sports Group, means
there is a belief in high places that the
PIF money is unnecessary.
Hence, McIlroy said the idea of a
global tour was “pie in the sky” at
present but stressed that Saudi Arabia
should be involved. “There has to be a
component of the southern hemi-
sphere — Australia, South Africa,” he
said.
“There has to be a component of the
Far East whether that be Korea, Japan
or China. Obviously, the Middle East as
well. Dubai, Saudi and then sort of
working our way from east to west and
back into the United States for the
Sarajevo wears its resistance
and Olympic pedigree proudly
Elgan Alderman Sarajevo
Mirsada Buric remembers Tor-
vill and Dean dancing to gold at
the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo,
inspiring a 13-year-old towards
her sporting dreams. She also re-
members eight years later, when
she ran around those Bosnian
streets in a hail of sniper fire, risk-
ing her life as the city lay under
indiscriminate siege. In the space
of two Olympiads, Sarajevo went
from paragon to warzone.
Buric and Janko Gojkovic
were among the ten athletes that
competed under the independ-
ent flag of Bosnia and Herzego-
vina at Barcelona 1992. Now liv-
ing abroad, they recall the sense
of promise when the citizens of
cosmopolitan Sarajevo clubbed to-
gether, only to come crashing down. “It
was a time I remember with fondness
and sorrow,” Buric, 53, says from Cali-
fornia. “What happened afterwards
was just too brutal, too tragic, too sad.
“When you are in it, you just don’t
even believe it’s happening. It’s just like
somebody with common sense will tell
these crazies to stop, this cannot be
happening. How could they be shoot-
ing at us, killing us, shelling us, destroy-
ing everything around them?”
Sarajevo is inextricably linked to
three global events. By the Latin Bridge
that crosses the Miljacka river, Gavrilo
Princip assassinated Archduke Franz
Ferdinand in 1914, precipitating the First
World War. Seventy years later, it host-
ed the Olympics. And between 1992 and
1996, this capital nestled within moun-
tains was under siege as post-Yugoslavia
served up civil war on ethnic lines.
The 1984 Winter Olympics embod-
ied what the movement should be. The
United States boycotted Moscow 1980,
and the Soviet Union repaid the disfav-
our at Los Angeles 1984, but everyone
came to Sarajevo. By every measure, it
was a success. Yet the fate that befell this
city endures longer even than Bolero,
the wounds still visible. While you stroll
and your stomach yearns for baklava,
you notice bullet holes in buildings.
The siege of Sarajevo began on April 5,
1992, waged by the Bosnian Serb Army
on the Bosniak Muslims and Croats
who comprised 60 per cent of the popu-
lation. Over 1,425 days, 11,541 citizens
spring [and] summertime.” He
said at least half of the events
would be in the US. “Right
now it’s just trying to get
everyone singing off
the same hymn sheet.”
The LIV Golf chief
Greg Norman has long
called for a global tour and
could argue that McIlroy is
merely reworking what LIV
is already doing.
Although criticised for its
team element, gimmickry and
disruptiveness, LIV Golf also has
limited fields and visits the likes of
Australia, Europe, Hong Kong,
Singapore, Saudi Arabia and the US.
Meanwhile, the DP World Tour will
go to five continents and 24 countries
in 2024. “I don’t think it will look too
McIlroy wants one global
tour to sit above all the others
After her release from a concentration
camp, Buric trained for the Barcelona
Olympics on the streets of Sarajevo
were killed and an average of 329 shells
fell every day, exacerbated by snipers,
turning Sarajevo into rubble. The
Olympic Museum was bombed on April
27; Zetra Olympic Hall on May 25, and
what was left became a morgue, its seats
used to make coffins. In August more
than two million items were lost in a fire
when the national library was targeted.
Buric became an emblem of defiance.
She was captured in her village, Bojnik,
and taken to a concentration camp.
After 13 days, she was released and
within two months she was competing
at Barcelona 1992 over 3,000m. She was
spared; the male Bosniaks were not.
Her brother, Mensud, went to fight and
was found in a mass grave. “There was
so much anger in me that from that
point on, I decided I will do whatever it
takes to get to the Olympics, and I
understood the importance of us being
there,” Buric says. “We would be
representing for the very first time an
independent country.”
For training, Buric took to the streets.
Some applauded her courage, others
shrugged in disbelief. She recalls
stretching against a tree in a park. “I
could see the sniper was working that
day pretty hard on that street,” she says.
“I just heard this sound, I turned
around and I saw the bullet went above
my head and lodged into the tree.”
Buric, having moved to the US, did not
dissimilar to what it
is right now, but
maybe the front end
of the year and back
end might look a lit-
tle different,” McIl-
roy said. “I don’t
think we need to blow
everything up but there’s
definitely some tweaks.”
The Genesis Invitational
has not provided the story-
lines the PGA Tour chiefs
wanted from one of its
high-profile events. Ti-
ger Woods was strug-
gling to make the cut
when he withdrew
from his much-vaunt-
ed appearance, citing
flu as the cause. Jordan
Spieth signed an incor-
rect scorecard and was
disqualified.
49
compete at Atlanta 1996. Goj-
kovic did after moving to Shef-
field, winning the 100m butter-
fly at the 1994 British Champi-
onships. He is now director of
swimming at Brighton College.
His parents — Mira Marija, a
Croat, and Cedomir, a Serb, to
whom he pays emotional
tribute — stayed in Sarajevo
during the siege, and his
85-year-old mother keeps
going. “She has gone through
all of it, the Second World War,
this war,” Gojkovic, 50, says.
Sarajevo will for ever wear its
resistance and Olympic pedi-
gree proudly. As you leave the
airport, a sign welcomes you
with the five rings and under
that: 1,425 days under siege.
Barcelona Place, formerly the Olympic
Village, is named in honour of the
Spanish city that supported Sarajevo in
its reconstruction. The support goes
both ways: on one wall is a mural of a
colourful salamander called Draco with
the Spanish inscription “Barcelona,
Sarajevo is with you”, after the 2017
terror attack in the city.
Torvill and Dean visited these sites
last week. They walked to where they
began their gold-medal routine in the
rebuilt Zetra Hall, now a cavernous
auditorium of green, scuffed with
white, black and a mishmash of tennis
court lines, with Vucko, the amiable
wolf mascot of 1984, on the wall.
You can also find Vucko on the aban-
doned bobsleigh track, a seven-minute
cable car from the city. From there, you
can see every chamber and vessel of Sar-
ajevo’s heart. It is a gorgeous vantage
point to spy the streets you walked min-
utes ago. The Serb forces planted artil-
lery here to rain down on the city below.
In this 40th anniversary, Paris 2024
nears. With wars ongoing, the Olympic
Truce will be tested again. Bosnia and
Herzegovina is not fighting itself, but
the leader of the Serb Republic that
comprises half of the country has long
threatened secession. Buric still feels
the pain of her brother’s justice-free
death, that tensions linger. “Those are
some of the things that follow you
throughout life,” she says. “Sarajevo is
beautiful. Bosnia has been rebuilt. But
that layer underneath is there, still ex-
ists. The wounds are really, really deep.”
F1 wants Horner clarification
Motor racing Formula 1 has called
for Christian Horner’s Red Bull future
to be “clarified at the earliest
opportunity”. Horner’s role as Red
Bull team principal remains in the
balance after a claim of “inappropriate
behaviour” by a female colleague.
An F1 spokesperson said last
night: “We have noted that Red
Bull has instigated an independent
investigation into internal allegations.”
The season starts on March 2.
Sinner wins Rotterdam title
Tennis The Australian Open
champion Jannik Sinner powered
to his first Rotterdam Open title
yesterday, breaking down a
determined defensive effort from
Australia’s Alex de Minaur to win
7-5, 6-4. The win extended the Italian
top seed’s unbeaten streak to 15 —
including his run to glory in
Melbourne — and takes him to a
career-high third in the rankings.
50
Sport Rugby union
New-found power
has made imperious
Ireland even better
Sam Warburton
Ireland. Wow. Just wow. How good
have they been in this Six Nations so
far? Truly outstanding.
And the next question I would ask is
not whether anyone can cope with
them in this tournament, but whether
anyone can cope with them for the next
few years. With France experiencing a
dip and Ireland demonstrating such
depth to their squad that they could
make a bevy of changes against Italy
and still win 36-0, it is looking very omi-
nous for the other five countries.
There are obviously a couple of cave-
ats from Ireland’s two matches in this
year’s tournament. France underper-
formed against them and Italy are not a
top-ten nation (they are ranked 11th).
But there is something noticeably
different about Ireland now, compared
even with the World Cup last autumn. I
have watched their two matches and
one thought has consumed me
throughout: they look so much more
powerful than before. In the past it has
been a criticism thrown at them, and
indeed Leinster, that they could be
overpowered, but not now.
In the hope of backing up my real-
time observations, I thought I would
check out some statistics to confirm.
And I was not disappointed.
I have looked at five matches —
against France in last year’s Six
Nations, the World Cup matches
against South Africa and New Zealand,
and then the two Six Nations matches
Carlisle
Rob Wright
2.00 Maiden Hurdle
(£4,084: 2m 1f) (8 runners)
2.30 Novices' Hurdle (£4,084: 2m 3f) (5)
3.00 Handicap Chase (£5,677: 2m 4f) (7)
so far this season — and I have concen-
trated upon three pivotal indicators:
post-contact metres, time in attack and
lineout percentage. Post-contact me-
tres is a clear demonstration of power,
time in attack is vitally important to
Ireland because they are unusual in
that they always spend a lot of time with
the ball, and lineout percentage is an
obvious source of possession.
Against France in the 2023 Six
Nations Ireland had 23½ minutes in
attack. That is a massive number.
Teams normally have between 15 and 17
minutes in attack.
Some games only have that amount
of time (23½ minutes) for ball-in-play
time in the whole match. Ireland’s post-
contact metres were only 105, and their
lineout was down at 72 per cent.
In the World Cup against South
Africa, this was undoubtedly the blue-
print of how to play against Ireland.
South Africa managed to bring Ire-
land’s time in attack down to 13 min-
utes. That is very low for them. Their
lineout success rate was only 67 per
cent, which starved them of possession,
and as a consequence, their post-con-
tact metres were only 88.
I know Ireland won 13-8, but South
Africa could quite easily have snatched
it. That is how you get close to Ireland.
Against New Zealand at the World
Cup, Ireland’s time in attack was back
up to 21 minutes, nearly 22, which is
what they want. Their lineout was 86
per cent and their post-contact metres
were 129, which is decent, but ideally
they want that figure up near 200.
Which is where they were against
Italy last weekend, when that figure was
211, with the time in attack being 22
minutes, and the lineout 100 per cent.
Against France this year the time in
attack was 18 minutes, the lineout was
3.30 Handicap Hurdle (£4,093: 2m 1f) (10)
4.00 Handicap Chase
(£9,770: 3m 110yd) (8)
4.35 Handicap Hurdle (£7,922: 2m 3f) (6)
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
Ireland’s progression
Metres
after contact
v France 2023 23
Mins in Lineout
attack success
72%
v South Africa 2023
88m
v New Zealand 2023
v France 2024
105m
13
21
129m
18
67%
86%
100%
v Italy 2024 22
161m
100%
211m
100 per cent, and the post-contact me-
tres were 161, which is a high number
against a team that are usually very ag-
gressive. This match alone tells us
everything about Ireland’s increased
power. They had less time in attack
than against France a year ago, but they
made 55 more post-contact metres.
Post-contact metres are not about
line breaks from smart plays or a full
back running a ball back with no one in
front of him. They mean you make con-
tact, and you keep going forward. It
shows that you are being physically
dominant, and Ireland are certainly
being that, aided by a lineout that is
drastically improved too.
Everyone has upped their level of
physicality, with the lock Joe McCarthy
a brilliant addition, but the likes of Bun-
dee Aki, Robbie Henshaw, Tadhg Beir-
ne and Dan Sheehan have noticeably
increased their effectiveness in contact.
Normally Ireland have beaten teams
on speed and handling ability — and I
do think that only New Zealand rival
their handling skills — but they have
added some serious power.
This is taking them to another level,
one which I don’t think any team in the
Six Nations can cope with. Yes, England Given the importance of time of attack for Ireland, the likes of the powerful Aki,
at Twickenham will be a challenge,
because by then their defence under Baird and James Ryan in reserve. They easy behind a pack not offering that
Felix Jones, who helped mastermind are all worthy of being British & Irish same dominance.
South Africa’s success at the World Lions, with the squad for the tour to How to stop Ireland, then? Try to
Cup, of course, will have been fine- Australia in 2025 looking as if it will be starve them of ball in attack, chiefly by
tuned, so that will be fascinating, as En- more than half-full of Ireland players. disrupting their lineout, and compete at
gland at home always seem to have one Jack Crowley is a top-class No 10 and the breakdown. If you do not do that,
big performance in them. But you just has been spoken about for a few years you are knackered.
look at the depth of Ireland’s squad and while learning his trade alongside Co- You have to slow the ball down and be
there is so little that can go wrong. nor Murray at Munster, but he is get- able to get off the line and into their
Maybe they have not quite got the ting a wonderful platform from a pack faces, otherwise it will be one long game
depth they would like at prop, but look that is so dominant. That has allowed against them, as France found in the
at their second rows — you have him to settle in so nicely. You compare opening round.
McCarthy and Beirne, and then you that with the Wales fly halves coming Ireland scored a nine-phase try by
have still got Iain Henderson, Ryan through and their task is not quite as Beirne in that match when five of those
3.47 Classified Stakes
(Div II: £4,711: 1m 2f) (8)
5.10 Handicap Hurdle (£4,093: 3m 1f) (7)
2.17 Handicap (£6,281: 1m 2f) (12)
4.20 Novice Stakes (3-Y-O: £5,757: 7f) (7)
Lingfield Park
Rob Wright
2.47 Handicap (3-Y-O: £4,711: 5f) (6)
4.50 Classified Stakes (£5,757: 1m) (12)
1.17 Handicap (3-Y-O: £4,711: 1m) (7)
3.17 Classified Stakes
(Div I: £4,711: 1m 2f) (8)
1.47 Handicap (£7,328: 1m) (9)
Blinkered first time: Carlisle 4.00 No But I
Will. 4.00 East Street. 5.10 One Fer Mamma.
the times | Monday February 19 2024 51

Sport

Result, not performance, is all

that matters at Murrayfield
England will be back How they stand
game, fans could be forgiven for
thinking they are improving in terms
to square one if they of performance. They have not put
performances together but they have
P W D L F A T B Pts
suffer a fourth straight Ireland 2 2 0 0 74 17 11 2 10 the two victories they usually manage
England 2 2 0 0 43 38 4 0 8 in the Six Nations.
defeat by Scotland, Scotland 2 1 0 1 43 46 4 1 5 Victory at Murrayfield is one step
further than the team have gone in
writes Stuart Barnes France
Wales
2 1 0 1 37 54 4 0 4
2 0 0 2 40 43 6 3 3 years. It won’t turn them into world
Italy 2 0 0 2 24 63 3 1 1 beaters overnight but a third win

left, are critical for the 2023 Six Nations champions to gain metres after contact
nine rucks were under two seconds.
The average over the nine was two sec-
onds. That is astonishing. Three sec-
onds is quick ruck ball, under three sec-
onds is rapid.
Jonathan Danty, the centre, was ex-
posed trying to defend a huge space
because France had only competed at
one of the nine rucks. Really, you have
to compete at a minimum of 50 per cent
of rucks. France were down at 35 per
cent in that match, which is unusual for
a Shaun Edwards-coached defence. Yet
if the ball is that quick, especially with a
team as accurate in attack as Ireland,
they are going to score sooner or later.
When I watch Ireland in attack, I am
always in awe of how quickly they re-
load into shape. Attacking is so tiring
but I don’t see many teams working as
hard as Ireland do off the ball. You have
to be very fit to play the way they do.
They obviously know how to get their
training week right because they are al-
ways so fresh going into games. But
then Ireland seem to know how to get
everything right at the moment. They
are that good.
R
esult or performance? If all
a team worry about is the
scoreboard, they will never
maximise their potential,
however lofty or lowly that
ambition might be. Ireland always
talk up the consistency of
performance over the straightforward
matter of the result. It has taken them
into an orbit where other European
countries cannot breathe.
Yet Andy Farrell, their head coach,
knows there are games when
performance counts for nothing.
When winning is all there is. A World
Cup knockout match tops the list.
Ireland didn’t play badly against New
Zealand last year but they came out
the wrong side of the scoreboard. In
pursuit of having a side capable of
winning the next World Cup, he is in
the process of rebuilding the greatest
Irish team of them all.
Paradoxically, that is why it doesn’t
matter how poorly they perform
against Wales in Dublin on Saturday
— as long as they win. The first back-
to-back Six Nations grand slam this
century would be one of European
rugby’s mega achievements. Ireland
coasted past Italy, having produced a
performance to rank among their
most magnificent efforts when they
defeated France on the opening night
of this tournament.
Wales are a plucky side but short on
power and class. Ireland will not have
to be anywhere near their best to take
a third step towards the slam. What
they must do if below their best is —
here’s one of Steve Borthwick’s more
favoured sayings — find a way to win.
When you are at the top, looking
down, you have paid your dues in the
developmental stakes. If Ireland are
This weekend’s fixtures
Saturday
Ireland v Wales (2.15pm; ITV);
Scotland v England (4.45pm; BBC 1).
Sunday
France v Italy (3pm; ITV).
anywhere near their best, Wales could
be on the wrong end of a rout. If
Ireland are not as switched on as they
were in France, a win will suffice.
As for Warren Gatland’s team, a
win would be a stunning reversal of
all known form lines. Nothing is
impossible but the Wales head coach
knows that an improved performance
would be a step in the right direction.
In contrast, England, their narrow
and unconvincing conquerors at
Twickenham, cannot afford to lose to
Scotland on Saturday. Not in the
context of the 2024 Six Nations or the
broader perspective of any long-
awaited evolution. It is a long time
since England have beaten a Test team
rated above them. To make a virtue of
winning ugly becomes a hollow boast
when the wins are against teams you
are expected to beat.
Scotland have fallen below England
in the official ratings but one English
victory in six years over these rivals,
and three straight defeats, adds an
edge to this game. It is set to be a
pressurised occasion for both sides.
February in Edinburgh can throw up
nasty conditions. Forget the wins
against Wales and Italy. If these are
followed by a fourth successive defeat
against Scotland, it leaves England
stuck in rugby Groundhog Day.
If the team had been producing an
impressive array of attacking and an
imperious defensive side to their
would lay a platform from which they
can focus on the quality of their
performance against Ireland and
France. To free themselves to play the
unfettered sort of rugby probably
necessary to give Europe’s “big two” a
real test, the cushion of three wins is
required. It may be an awful game but
this is one of those occasions when
the scoreboard is the only thing that
matters. Any way, any how.
The same can be said for Scotland,
who were outclassed by both South
Africa and Ireland in the World Cup
before being pipped by France in
controversial circumstances in the
2024 Six Nations. Defeat at the hands
of an England team they usually beat
cannot be seen as anything but a
retrograde step. This is an old-
fashioned Test match. For once I
agree with my friend, Stephen Jones;
only the result counts. Look at the
scoreboard.
It was interesting to hear Grégory
Alldritt’s take on France’s victory over
Scotland. “One of the best wins of my
time with France,” was how the No 8
described one of the scruffiest French
efforts in years. The difference
between winning and losing in
Edinburgh was blades of grass, but
the result — not the shambolic
performance — enables Fabien
Galthié to approach the rest of the
tournament in a more positive
mindset, picking youngsters such
as Nolann Le Garrec and Louis
Bielle-Biarrey with the eyes on the
future rather than the memory of
what proved not to be.
Performance is more important
than result for France. This reads
preposterously at first take, but if
France click, Italy will be blown away.

8.00 Handicap (£5,757: 7f) (12)

Wolverhampton
Rob Wright
7.00 Handicap (3-Y-O: £7,731: 1m 1f) (6)

Course specialists
6.00 Handicap
5.00 Handicap (Div I: £4,187: 6f) (8) (3-Y-O: £4,187: 1m 1f 104yd) (6)
Carlisle: Trainers Mrs A Hamilton, 5 winners
from 15 runners, 33.3%; D McCain, 31 from 125,
24.8%; M Walford, 6 from 29, 20.7%; N Richards,
21 from 102, 20.6%. Jockeys P J Kavanagh,
6 winners from 22 rides, 27.3%; J O'Neill Jr, 14
7.30 Handicap (£5,548: 1m 1f 104yd) (9) from 55, 25.5%; Charlotte Jones, 4 from 20, 20%.
Lingfield Park: Trainers H J Evans, 10 from 35,
28.6%; R Varian, 40 from 156, 25.6%; D Cunha,
7 from 29, 24.1%; A Balding, 54 from 253, 21.3%.
8.30 Handicap (£5,757: 5f) (11) Jockeys J Gilligan, 4 from 12, 33.3%; J P Spencer,
20 from 75, 26.7%; J Leavy, 5 from 23, 21.7%.
6.30 Novice Stakes (£6,156: 1m 1f 104yd) (6) Wolverhampton: Trainers J Tate, 32 from 161,
19.9%; G Scott, 21 from 113, 18.6%; H Palmer, 29
from 166, 17.5%; D Simcock, 34 from 202, 16.8%.
5.30 Handicap (Div II: £4,187: 6f) (8) Jockeys B Loughnane, 49 from 272, 18%;
S Levey, 19 from 122, 15.6%; D Swift, 16 from 111,
14.4%.

Yesterday’s racing results

Musselburgh
Going: soft
1.45 (2m 3f 171yd hdle) 1, Micks Jet (Joe
Williamson, 8-15 fav); 2, Josie Alice (9-2);
3, Miss Arabella (10-1). 8 ran. 15l, 3 l. P A
Kirby.
2.15 (2m 7f 138yd ch) 1, Whosmydaddy (Ryan
Mania, 100-30 fav); 2, Dr Shirocco (13-2);
3, Frankie Faulkner (4-1). 9 ran. 7l, ns. A M
Thomson.
2.45 (2m 7f 180yd hdle) 1, Balkardy (Isabel
Williams, 13-2); 2, Jem In Em (13-2); 3,
Cardamon Hill (33-1). 8 ran. NR: Headscarf Lil.
Nk, 12l. Evan Williams.
3.20 (2m 7f 138yd ch) 1, Captain Quint (Craig
Nichol, 7-2); 2, Massini Man (100-30 fav); 3, So
They Say (4-1). 7 ran. NR: Domandlouis, Hold
Onto The Line. l, nk. R Dobbin.
3.50 (2m 3f 171yd hdle) 1, Everyonesacritic (B
S Hughes, 11-1); 2, Donso Star (25-1); 3, Beat The
Retreat (7-1). 11 ran. NR: Sanosuke. l, 3 l.
Evan Williams.
4.20 (2m 4f 68yd ch) 1, Coolkill (Ryan Mania,
7-2 fav); 2, Limerick Leader (9-2); 3, Halfway
House Lad (10-1). 9 ran. 3l, l. A M Thomson.
4.50 (1m 7f 124yd hdle) 1, Bashful (C O’Farrell,
6-4 fav); 2, La Quarite (25-1); 3, Cancan (9-2). 10
ran. NR: Jet Patrol. Nk, 8 l. I Jardine.
Placepot: £193.80. Quadpot: £82.60.
Southwell
Going: heavy
1.55 (3m 60yd ch) 1, William Ewart (Nick
Scholfield, 7-4 fav); 2, Wonder Of The Seas
(100-30); 3, Bignorm (4-1). 7 ran. NR: Mackie
Dee, Supasunrise. 1 l, 5 l. Christian Williams.
2.25 (2m 4f 88yd ch) 1, Noche Negra (Lewis
Dobb, Evens fav); 2, Royal Mer (9-4); 3, Out On
The Tear (100-30). 4 ran. NR: Rafferty. 2 l, 11l.
L Morgan.
2.55 (2m 4f 88yd ch) 1, Imperial Bede (Jonjo
O’Neill Jr, 15-8); 2, Sageburg County (6-4 fav);
3, Family Business (4-1). 4 ran. NR: Heartbreak
Kid. 13l, 80l. Jonjo O’Neill.
3.30 (1m 7f 182yd Flat) 1, Stavvy (Bryony
Frost, 4-1); 2, Rockchoeur (7-2); 3, Moor End
(100-1). 10 ran. 9l, 3l. Jane Chapple-Hyam.
4.00 (1m 7f 182yd hdle) 1, Nick The Greek
(Fergus Gregory, 40-1); 2, Rumoursareflying
(5-4); 3, Backbyjet (14-1). 9 ran. NR: Dunworley,
Mount Gallion, Nothinelsematters, Snow
Forecast. l, 3l. J Coulson.
4.30 (3m 60yd hdle) 1, Innisfree Lass (Charlie
Hammond, 5-1); 2, It’s Maisy (15-8 fav). 6 ran.
NR: Young At Heart. 16l, S Edmunds.
5.00 (1m 7f 182yd hdle) 1, Call Me Jack (Jamie
Hamilton, 100-30); 2, We Got Your Back
(3-1); 3, Jumbo Veste Verte (4-1). 4 ran.
NR: Churchman. l, l. M Walford.
Placepot: £97.10. Quadpot: £28.70.
Kempton Park
Going: standard/slow
4.55 (7f) 1, Roberto Caro (Oisin Murphy,
Evens fav); 2, Jolty Jem (100-1); 3, Beau Gars
(5-1). 13 ran. NR: Aljezur. 2 l, l. Ollie Sangster.
5.30 (6f) 1, White Mist (George Wood, 9-2);
2, Araifjan (9-1); 3, Miss Moonshine (7-2 fav).
12 ran. Nk, 2 l. Mrs I G-Leveque.
6.00 (6f) 1, Man On A Mission (L Morris,
8-1); 2, Diamondsinthesand (100-30 fav);
3, Holbache (12-1). 11 ran. 1 l, l. P
Charalambous & J Clutterbuck.
6.30 (6f) 1, See You Tonight (Daniel Muscutt,
11-1); 2, Arctic Dawn (9-2); 3, Ribal (4-1). 8 ran.
l, 1l. J R Fanshawe.
7.00 (6f) 1, Fire Demon (Oisin Murphy, 15-8
fav); 2, Media Shooter (13-2); 3, Betties Bay
(66-1). 10 ran. 1 l, l. A M Balding.
7.30 (6f) 1, Just A Spark (Oisin Murphy, 100-
30); 2, Al Farabi (2-1 fav); 3, Al Barez (11-2).
11 ran. NR: Tremblant. Sh hd, l. B R Millman.
8.00 (1m) 1, King’s Code (Rossa Ryan, 100-30
jt-fav); 2, Plantadream (12-1); 3, Rhythm N
Rock (100-30 jt-fav). 11 ran. Nk, 4l. P D Evans.
8.30 (1m 3f 219yd) 1, Dubawi Time (K
Shoemark, 5-6 fav); 2, Sun Dancer Girl (5-1); 3,
Rubio De Oro (8-1). 6 ran. 3l, 13l. J & T Gosden.
Placepot: £68.10. Quadpot: £31.00.
52
Sport Athletics
Muir and Reekie in
fine fettle for Glasgow
Rick Broadbent
This time last year Laura Muir and
Jemma Reekie were heading towards
the eye of a storm. Amid reports of con-
trolling behaviour and being told to
walk a mile in searing African sun, they
split from their long-term coach and
mentor. Fast-forward and the smiles on
their faces as they dominated races and
landed British indoor titles whetted ap-
petites for a happy Olympic year.
That parting with Andy Young also
meant the friends had to go their sepa-
rate ways. Muir, who had won an Olym-
pic silver, World Championship bronze
and seven European titles with Young,
started coaching herself in Glasgow
then teamed up with Steve Vernon.
Reekie moved south to join Jonathan
Bigg and his wife, the Olympic cham-
pion Sally Gunnell, in Brighton.
The pair had mixed results last sum-
mer. Reekie was fifth in the 800m at the
World Championships in Budapest.
Muir was sixth in the 1,500m. Now the
duo will spearhead the British team at
the World Indoor Championships in
Glasgow next week before looking
ahead to the Olympics.
“I really want to get my first senior
medal, as I have been so close,” Reekie
said. “I will take any medal, but of
course my eyes are on the gold. And I
have been waiting for my time to come
since Tokyo [in 2021], so after Glas-
gow it’ll all be about Paris.”
Reekie, 25, has been striving to get
back to her Tokyo best, when she was
0.09sec off the podium. The 800m is
hugely competitive, with talents such
as Athing Mu and Keely Hodgkinson,
but Reekie clocked a UK Indoor Cham-
pionships record yesterday with 1min
58.24sec. It was also the second fastest
in the world this year. “I wasn’t especial-
ly trying to run fast so it shows what
shape I am in,” she said.
The British team for Glasgow is
named today and Muir’s presence in
the 3,000m will be welcome as plenty of
big names are skipping the event.
Short of being tripped or injured,
Muir was never going to lose in Bir-
mingham. After a pedestrian early
pace, she bided her time before blitzing
the rest. The time of 8:58.8 was irrele-
Basketball’s unlikely underdog story
Ian Whittell on how a
former Sheffield Sharks
coach turned a team of
also-rans in Minnesota
into NBA contenders
Twenty-five years on from coaching in
the British Basketball League All-Star
Game at Newcastle Arena, Chris Finch
did the same in the NBA version in
Indianapolis last night, the latest
chapter in an underdog story that is
starting to captivate American sport.
Since entering the NBA in 1989, the
Minnesota Timberwolves have been a
byword for inept performances, peren-
nial failures with two play-off round
victories, both in 2004, to their name.
Finch, who started his career with ten
years as player and coach with the Shef-
field Sharks and coached Great Britain
at the 2012 Olympics, has changed that
perception, aided by some daring
player trades by the team’s general
manager, Tim Connelly, regarded as
vant, but the consequence was a spot on
the team. “The new training group and
new programme have been challenging
after 12 years, but it is going really well,”
she said afterwards. “I take the pressure
as an indicator of my success and try to
use it to my advantage.” Muir con-
firmed she would be staying in the team
hotel rather than at home in Glasgow.
“When it’s a straight final it’s better not
to be coming from my sofa,” she said.
The men’s races provided two febrile
finishes. Jack Higgins tracked the fa-
vourite Guy Learmonth and beat him
with the dip in the 800m. They were
given the same time but 1:47.91 was a big
personal best for Higgins. The 1,500m
was also a cracker with Piers Copeland
sneaking through on the inside to gaz-
ump Callum Elson and Adam Fogg.
Elsewhere, Katarina Johnson-
Thompson, the double heptathlon
world champion, started her season
with an indoor best in the shot put, but
it was only a cameo and she will not be
in Glasgow. “It’s just a decision to throw
everything into Paris,” she said.
Saturday had been dominated by old
and new. Dwain Chambers, 45, made it
to the semi-finals of the 60m and said
he would be happy to warn young ath-
letes about the perils of doping. Cham-
bers, booed by home crowds after re-
turning from his drug ban almost 20
years ago, proved a popular figure in
Birmingham this time.
At the other end of the spectrum, one
of the great new hopes of British athlet-
ics continued to rise. Molly Caudery,
23, cleared 4.85m in the pole vault, a life-
time best that meant she regained the
world lead. “I need to re-evaluate my
plans as 4.80m
was my tar-
get,” she said.
Over at the
Dutch Indoor
Champion-
ships, Femke
Bol was also
resetting her
sights in the
400m after
breaking her
own world in-
door record
with 49.24.
one of the sharpest minds in the sport.
Minnesota entered All-Star Week-
end with the best record in the Western
Conference, 39-16, second only to the
Boston Celtics in the league, hence
Finch being named to coach last night.
“There are not many moments when
you get nervous any more but there will
be a few nerves going into practice with
all these guys, first ballot Hall of
Famers,” he said before the game.
“I’m just looking forward to having a
good time, taking a mid-season break
and enjoying the atmosphere with the
organisation and their families.”
Finch was accompanied by 17 coach-
ing staff in Indianapolis, a far cry from
his time in charge of Sheffield where he
had an assistant and two part-time staff.
But the hard yards travelled in Brit-
ain, plus spells in Germany, Belgium
and the NBA’s reserve G-League, have
formed an invaluable part of the level-
headed approach that has won him
widespread accolades in three years in
Minnesota. “The zaniness of it all, if you
coach enough places and minor lea-
gues, then you develop an ability to take
everything in your stride,” Finch said.
Reekie wins the 800m final in Birmingham in 1:58.24 and
Muir, left, celebrates victory in the 1,500m with 8:58.8
“Two teams I was on, Sheffield and
Bree in Belgium, went bankrupt mid-
season. That made for interesting team
talks with guys who weren’t getting
paid, trying to convince them that the
only way to get paid was to play the
game so the team had gate money.
“I took over the GB national team job
and found out within 72 hours that
there were no flights booked for our
away games because of a dispute
between England Basketball and GB.
“In European competition, teams
have to host their visitors and I remem-
ber Alba Berlin coming over for a game
and sending us a 25-page ‘rider’ that
spelt out how they wanted the
salt and pepper shakers laid out
and what type of ketchup they
wanted. I remember thinking,
‘What happens if we give you
the wrong ketchup?’ ”
In a superstar-driven
league, where Wolves’ top
earner, Rudy Gobert, will
make $41 million (about
£32.5 million) this season,
and Karl-Anthony Towns
and Anthony Edwards,
2GM
their two All-Stars, have recently signed
long-term contracts worth $257 million
and $218 million respectively, Finch has
proved popular with players despite an
approach that verges on tough love.
After a recent loss and collapse
against the Charlotte Hornets, Finch
labelled the performance “disgusting”,
earning criticism from some sections of
the national media who accused him of
throwing his players under the bus.
“One of the things I’ve tried to
do is be honest with the public,
the fans, the media,” he said. “I
don’t think we need to dispar-
age anybody and I don’t think I
throw anybody under the bus,
but we’re not going to run
away from a problem that’s
there for everybody to see.
“It starts with having
good people, and I
think we have good
people. We all talk
about it but a lot of
Finch is known
for his ‘tough
love’ coaching
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
Mitchell
injury blow
for England
Rugby union
Alex Lowe Rugby Correspondent
England’s injury bulletin for the Calcut-
ta Cup was a double-edged sword as
Alex Mitchell was ruled out of the trip
to face Scotland at Murrayfield on
Saturday but Ollie Lawrence was
declared fit for selection for the first
time in this Six Nations.
Mitchell, the Northampton Saints
scrum half, will undergo further in-
vestigation on a knee injury this week
amid fears he could be sidelined for
more than one game. The absence of
England’s first-choice No 9 will open
the door for Danny Care to start at
Murrayfield, with Ben Spencer now in
line to win his first cap since the 2019
World Cup final via the bench.
Harry Randall, the Bristol Bears
scrum half, has been promoted from
the England A camp to join a squad of
36 players who gathered on Sunday
night. The Bath wing Will Muir has
dropped out of the senior squad to ac-
commodate the return of Lawrence.
Lawrence, the Bath centre, missed
England’s opening two victories with a
hip injury but his return to fitness at the
same time as Manu Tuilagi, George
Martin and Luke Cowan-Dickie
changes the complexion of a squad that
was short on power.
Steve Borthwick, the head coach,
must now decide how best to deploy his
returnees. Fraser Dingwall and Henry
Slade forged a ball-playing midfield
partnership for the wins against Italy
and Wales. It seems likely that Borth-
wick will opt for a more physical pres-
ence at inside centre, which could mean
a start for either Tuilagi or Lawrence
with the other on the bench.
It is feasible that both could start but
Slade has been important in helping to
embed England’s new blitz defence
given his experience of operating a sim-
ilar system with Exeter Chiefs.
Martin, the Leicester Tigers lock, was
injured for most of the World Cup but
England kept him in France because
they knew how destructive he could be
once fit, a decision that was vindicated
against South Africa in the semi-final.
teams will sacrifice what it really means
in favour of pure talent.
“We have a saying around here called
‘brutal truths’. We just speak the truth.
It’s not always fun or pleasant but it
normally gets you to where you need to
be faster.”
And, in this case, faster than anybody
realistically expected. Minnesota has
not celebrated a major sports champi-
onship since 1991 — the longest such
drought of any US city with teams in all
four major sports — but a populace
defined by their hospitality and resil-
ience to freezing winters is backing the
team with an enthusiasm Finch knows
all too well from his years watching
United and Wednesday in Sheffield.
“When you look at the history of the
team and supporters in the city, there
has been a lot of disappointment, things
they will tell you about on the street,
part of their shared struggle,” he said.
“The last five years, there have been
five different champions in the NBA.
Why can’t there be a sixth? We might
not strike fear into the hearts of any-
body right now, but there isn’t anybody
who strikes fear into our hearts, either.”
the times | Monday February 19 2024 53

India v England: Third Test Sport

New Sehwag sets template for openers

Yashasvi Jaiswal is one
of the sport’s exciting
disruptors who can
change a game quickly,
writes Simon Wilde
This Test match was studded with three
outstanding centuries by opening bats-
men: Rohit Sharma on the first day and
Ben Duckett on the second, while on
the third and fourth days Yashasvi Jais-
wal put together a stunning double
century that involved him scoring 104
not out on Saturday before adding
another 110 on Sunday. Duckett’s and
Jaiswal’s innings rank among the finest
of the modern Test era.
These performances typify the
modern game in that openers no longer
see their job as being to carefully con-
struct a platform on which the rest of
the side can build. They view them-
selves as disruptors, hitting bowlers off
their lengths and messing with the field
placings of opposing captains. They
score at such speed that they can swing
the momentum of a game in a session.
Of Test openers with 850 runs, no
one has scored faster than Duckett, at
88 runs per 100 balls, and Jaiswal, who
made his debut only last year and has
played only seven games, already lies in
sixth spot on 69 per 100 balls, surely
with the power to add. Jaiswal is an
Indian player in the mould of Virender
Sehwag, who scored at 83 per 100 balls,
a staggering rate for a career spanning
99 Tests as an opener.
Sehwag began playing Tests in
2002 and was the first to regard his
role as that of offensive weapon,
blazing a trail which Tillakaratne
Dilshan, David Warner and Shikhar
Dhawan would follow. Of these three,
only Warner sustained it over a lengthy
career, striking at 70.19 across 112 Tests
before his retirement last month.
It is hard to imagine that there will be
many, if any, old-school openers going
forward. White-ball strokes, and white-
ball mentalities, will be brought into the
Test arena with increasing readiness.
Jaiswal, only two months past his
22nd birthday and only 20 months into
his regular first-class career, could put
everyone in the shade. He marked his
Test debut against West Indies in Do-
minica last year with a score of 171 and
in this series struck 80 off 74 balls in Hy-
derabad before producing a match-
winning 209 in Visakhapatnam, a per-
formance that won the admiration of
the England camp in a game in which
only two other players managed to
Flying start to his Test career
Most sixes in a Test innings
Player Opposition
Wasim Akram Zimbabwe 1996
Yashasvi Jaiswal England 2024
Nathan Astle England 2002
Matthew Hayden Zimbabwe 2003
Brendon McCullum Pakistan 2014
McCullum Sri Lanka 2014
Ben Stokes South Africa 2016
Kusal Mendis Ireland 2023
Most sixes in a Test series
Jaiswal has broken the record with two
Tests still to play in this series
Player Series Sixes
Yashasvi India v
Jaiswal England 2024 22
Rohit India v
Sharma S Africa 2019
Shimron West Indies v
Hetmyer Bangladesh 2019
Ben Stokes England v
Australia 2023
Jaiswal took England’s toiling attack apart on the fourth day, hitting 12 sixes in his double century, his second of the series
make even 50. His innings here, dred before their 23rd birthday. Jaiswal ing. Born in a remote village in Uttar
though, was arguably the best of all, does not turn 23 for another ten months Pradesh, he made the near-1,000 miles
showcasing his talent for boundary hit- so there is scope for him to rival Brad- journey to Mumbai at around the age of
ting but also for occupying the crease; man’s tally. ten to pursue his dream, and the dream
he has an insatiable appetite for batting His 12 sixes equalled the record for a of his father, of becoming a cricketer. It
and it says a lot that despite retiring Test innings and his 22 for the series is was difficult to find him proper accom-
with cramp on Saturday he came back already more than any other batsman modation in the big city and he ended
the next day and got stuck in again. has hit in one series, and there are still up living in a tent with a groundsman
The only person to score a faster dou- two matches to go. Little wonder that at on the Azad Maidan where he helped
ble century for India than his off 231 the end of the game Jaiswal quietly out with jobs to get the chance to play.
balls is Sehwag (five times), and only helped himself to one of the stumps to He spent three years there. One of his
Don Bradman (four), Graeme Smith keep as a memento. tasks was cooking street food but there
(three) and Vinod Kambli (two) have What makes all this even more re- often wasn’t enough to feed himself and
also scored more than one double hun- markable is his impoverished upbring- he would go to sleep hungry and home-
Sixes Runs
12 257*
12 214*
11 222
11 380
11 202
11 195
11 258
11 245
Most Test double-hundreds before
23rd birthday
Don Bradman (254, 334 and 232
v England 1930; 223 v West Indies 1931)
4
Graeme Smith (200 v Bangladesh 2002;
277 and 259 v England 2003)
3
19
Yashasvi Jaiswal* (209 and 214*
v England 2024)
15 2
Vinod Kambli (224 v England and 227
v Zimbabwe 1993) *Jaiswal is
15
2 22 years 52 days
sick. Zubin Bharucha, Rajasthan’s di-
rector of cricket, who spotted Jaiswal at
a trial when he was 13, believes
that Jaiswal’s hard upbringing has left
him playing catch-up in terms of nutri-
tion.
If a lack of stamina is an issue — and
was behind Jaiswal cramping up on Sat-
urday and summoning the medical
staff at times during his innings yester-
day — then it is astonishing he keeps
going the way he does. In 22 first-class
matches, in which he averages 77, he
has scored 12 centuries, of which he has
converted five into doubles. Ten of his
12 hundreds have been in excess of 140.
When Jaiswal began attending Ra-
jasthan Royals training camps, what
struck Bharucha most was his desire to
improve. “His dedication to practise
and play is second to none and I’ve seen
Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid
closely,” he said. “This guy is even a
notch above in his willingness to go
where other players don’t want to go.”
He strengthened his arms by range-hit-
ting with different weighted bats.
Before an Irani Trophy match last
March between the Rest of India and the
champion state Madhya Pradesh — a
game which led to him being selected for
the West Indies tour — Jaiswal practised
at the Mumbai Gymkhana against ten
bowlers armed with 25 new balls on a
grassy pitch, to get him used to the mov-
ing ball. He scored 213 and 144 in the
game. “I haven’t found a more dedicated
student,” Bharucha said.

Results
1, J Reekie (Kilbarchan) 1:58.24; 2, I Boffey and Ireland unless stated): 270 P Tavatanakit P W D L F A B Pts 4:10.40; 3, D Seto (Japan) 4:12.51. 4 x 100m
Athletics (Enfield & Haringey) 2:00.27; 3, E Wallace (Tha) 66, 70, 69, 65. 277 E Henseleit (Ger) 74, Rugby union Leinster 10 8 0 2 304 179 7 39 medley relay 1, United States 3:29.80; 2,
British Indoor Championships (Giffnock North) 2:01.35. 1,500m 1, G Bell 69, 65, 69. 279 C Hull 74, 67, 68, 70; M Katsu Premiership Cup semi-finals Glasgow 10 7 0 3 284 199 8 36 Netherlands 3:31.23; 3, Italy 3:31.59. Women:
(Belgrave) 4:09.66; 2, R Walcott-Nolan (Japan) 74, 69, 71, 65. 280 C Wannasaen (Tha) Ealing Trailfinders 21 Leicester Tigers 29 Bulls 10 7 0 3 349 220 7 35 Freestyle: 50m 1, S Sjostrom (Swe) 23.69; 2, K
Utilita Arena, Birmingham: Finals: Men: Benetton 10 7 1 2 210 208 2 32 Douglass (US) 23.91; 3, K Wasick (Pol) 23.95; 6, A
(Luton) 4:10.48; 3, S McDonald (Birchfield) 69, 72, 70, 69. 281 E Pedersen (Den) 71, 72, 66,
200m 1, R Akinyebo (Be Fit Today Track Ealing: Tries Goodrick-Clarke, Willemse. Con Edinburgh 10 7 0 3 224 217 2 30 Hopkin (GB) 24.51. Breaststroke: 50m 1, R
4:12.92. 3,000m 1, L Muir (Dundee) 8:58.80; 2, 72. 282 A Hewson 71, 71, 71, 69; Y Saso (Japan) Twelvetrees. Pens Twelvetrees 3. Leicester:
Acad) 21.28sec; 2, S Nguie (Trafford) 21.38; 3, Stormers 10 6 0 4 238 184 6 30 Meilutytė (Lith) 29.40; 2, Tang Qianting (China)
H Nuttall (Charnwood) 9:01.94; 3, K Axford 75, 69, 67, 71; Lee So-mi (S Kor) 72, 72, 68, 70. Tries Cokanasiga 2, Theobald-Thomas, Scott.
H Taylor (Harrow) 21.47. 400m 1, L Ospreys 10 6 0 4 222 194 5 29 29.51; 3, B Pilato (It) 30.01. Individual medley:
(Belgrave) 9:08.03. 3,000m race walk 1, A Other British: 284 G Hall 73, 69, 69, 73. Cons Shillcock 3. Pen Shillcock. HT 6-12.
Thompson (City of Sheffield) 46.69; 2, B Ulster 10 6 0 4 231 227 5 29 400m 1, F Colbert (GB) 4:37.14; 2, A Gorbenko
Jennings (Aldershot Farnham & District)
Higgins (City of Sheffield) 46.79; 3, I Osei-Tutu
14:09.22; 2, G Griffiths (Pembrokeshire) Rugby league Gloucester 17 Exeter Chiefs 14 Munster
Connacht
10
10
5
6
1
0
4
4
226
231
160
227
7 29
4 28
(Isr) 4:37.36; 3, S Franceschi (It) 4:37.86.
(Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow) 48.21. Gloucester: Tries Ludlow, Llewellyn, 4 x 100m medley relay 1, Australia 3:55.98; 2,
800m 1, J Higgins (Tonbridge) 1min 47.91sec; 14:12.62; 3, A Hughes (Taunton) 14:19.09. High Betfred Super League Castleford Tigers 4 Lions 10 4 0 6 268 230 8 24
jump 1, M Lake (WSE & H) 1.85m; 2, K Anson Hathaway. Con Barton. Exeter: Tries Sweden 3:56.35; 3, Canada 3:56.43.
2, G Learmonth (Lasswade) 1:47.91; 3, J Davies Wigan Warriors 32; Catalans Dragons 16 Vermeulen, Vintcent. Cons Skinner 2. HT 17-0. Cardiff 10 3 1 6 239 220 8 22
(Liverpool) 1.82; 3, L Walliker (Exeter) 1.78. Warrington Wolves 10. Zebre 10 1 1 8 213 343 7 13 Leading final overall medals table
(Bath) 1:49.44. 1,500m 1, P Copeland National League One Birmingham Moseley Gold Silver Bronze Total
(Pontypridd) 3:48.43; 2, C Elson (Cambridge & Triple jump 1, L Hulland (Thames Valley) P W D L F A Pts Scarlets 10 2 0 8 155 352 4 12
13.06m; 2, A Omitowoju (Harrow) 12.94; 3, A 32 Darlington MP 28; Blackheath 10 Chinnor Dragons 10 2 0 8 149 346 2 10 1, China 23 8 2 33
Coleridge) 3:48.54; 3, A Fogg (Coventry St Helens 1 1 0 0 40 4 2 31; Plymouth 24 Cinderford 3; Rams 33 2, United States 9 6 8 23
Godiva) 3:48.63. 3,000m 1, J West Warre (WSE & H) 12.88. Shot 1, A Campbell Wigan 1 1 0 0 32 4 2 Sharks 10 1 0 9 194 231 6 10
(Thames Valley) 17.74m; 2, S Vincent (City of Leicester Lions 12; Richmond 31 Sale 19; 3, Australia 7 12 5 24
(Tonbridge) 7:51.09; 2, C Wheeler (Milton
Keynes) 7:52.19; 3, Z Seddon (Bracknell) Portsmouth) 16.69; 3, S McKinna (Great
Hull KR
Huddersfield
1 1 0 0 22 0 2
1 1 0 0 16 8 2
Rosslyn Park 38 Taunton 14; Sedgley Park 14 Snooker 4, Netherlands 5 4 0 9
Bishop’s Stortford 22. 5, Great Britain 4 5 9 18
7:53.52. 3,000m race walk 1, C Snook Yarmouth & District) 16.55. Catalans Dragons 1 1 0 0 16 10 2 BetVictor Welsh Open
Women’s Allianz Premiership Gloucester-
(Aldershot Farnham & District) 11:45.68; 2, T
Golf Leeds 1 1 0 0 22 16 2 Hartpury 29 Sale Sharks 3. Venue Cymru, Llandudno: Final (best-of-17
frames): G Wilson (Eng) bt M O’Donnell
Tennis
Partington (Manx) 13:04.21; 3, L Legon Salford 1 0 0 1 16 22 0 P W D L F A BPts
(Bexley) 13:05.05. High jump 1, T Hewes Warrington 1 0 0 1 10 16 0 (Eng) 9-4 (frame scores; Wilson first: 98-1 (98 ATP ABN AMRO Open
US PGA Genesis Invitational Gloucester-H 10 10 0 0 311 174 8 48
(Chelmsford) 2.18m; 1 W Grimsey (Woodford Leigh 1 0 0 1 8 16 0 Saracens 10 9 0 1 423 146 9 45 break), 74-44 (52), 102-0 (55), 106-5, 23-73 Rotterdam: Final J Sinner (It) bt A de Minaur
Pacific Palisades, California: Leaders after (66), 67-4 (52), 59-45, 1-92 (92), 24-59, 101-12 (Aus) 7-5, 6-4.
Green & Essex Ladies) 2.18; 3, A Coward three rounds (United States unless stated): Hull 1 0 0 1 0 22 0 Exeter Chiefs 10 7 0 3 373 206 10 38
(Shaftesbury Barnet) 2.12. Long jump 1, A Castleford 1 0 0 1 4 32 0 Bristol Bears 10 6 0 4 276 167 7 31 (100), 21-101 (85), 68-44, 82-0). ATP Argentina Open
199 P Cantlay 64, 65, 70. 201 X Schauffele 70,
Farquharson (Birchfield) 7.46m; 2, S Khogali
(WG & EL) 7.41; 3, S Danson (Trafford) 7.40.
66, 65; W Zalatoris 66, 70, 65. 202 L List 65, London Broncos 1 0 0 1 4 40 0 Loughborough
Harlequins
9 4 0 5206 256 6 22
10 3 0 7 242 286 8 20
Swimming Buenos Aires: Final F Díaz Acosta (Arg) bt
N Jarry (Chile) 6-3, 6-4.
69, 68. 203 J Day (Aus) 65, 69, 69; H English 1895 Cup: Group one Workington Town 22
Shot 1, S Lincoln (City of York) 20.08m; 2, P 69, 69, 65. 205 C Conners (Can) 70, 65, 70; H Whitehaven 28. Group two Keighley Ealing Trailfinders 9 2 0 7 196 308 5 13 World Aquatics Championships ATP Delray Beach Open
Swan (Cornwall) 18.33; 3, A Knight Matsuyama (Japan) 69, 68, 68; J T Poston 68, Cougars 18 Bradford Bulls 26. Group three *Leicester Tigers 10 2 0 8 183 368 5 8 Doha: Leading final positions: Men: Freestyle:
(Southampton) 17.28. Women: 200m 1, A Pipi *Sale Sharks 10 1 0 9 119 418 4 3 Delray Beach, Florida: Semi-finals T Paul
71, 66. 206 A Hadwin (Can) 69, 70, 67; T Hoge Newcastle Thunder 0 Wakefield Trinity 110. 1,500m 1, D Wiffen (Ire) 14min 34.07sec; 2, F (US) bt F Tiafoe (US) 6-2, 6-2; T Fritz (US) bt
(Enfield & Haringey) 23.29; 2; S Eduan (Sale) Group four Oldham 38 Rochdale Hornets 12. * deducted 5pts for administrative errors Wellbrock (Ger) 14:44.61; 3, D Aubry (Fr)
66, 70, 70; B Hossler 68, 70, 68; M Hughes M Giron (US) 7-6 (10-8), 6-2.
23.41; 3; B Ironside (Bournemouth) 23.68. (Can) 69, 65, 72; A Svensson (Can) 67, 72, 67. Group five Hunslet 0 Batley Bulldogs 36. United Rugby Championship Cardiff 12 14:44.85. Backstroke: 50m 1, I Cooper (Aus)
400m 1, Laviai Nielsen (Enfield & Haringey) Group six North Wales Crusaders 14 Widnes Connacht 16; Glasgow Warriors 40 Dragons 24.13sec; 2, H Armstrong (US) 24.33; 3, K Masiuk WTA Qatar TotalEnergies Open
51.54; 2, Lina Nielsen (Shaftesbury Barnet) Women’s Aramco Saudi International Vikings 30. Group seven Midlands 7; Leinster 47 Benetton 18; Lions 10 Bulls 25; (Pol) 24.44. Individual medley: 400m 1, L Doha: Final I Swiatek (Pol) bt E Rybakina
51.95; 3, J Knight (WSE & H) 52.79. 800m Riyadh: Leading final scores (Great Britain Hurricanes 16 Sheffield Eagles 30. Ospreys 19 Ulster 14; Sharks 21 Stormers 25. Clareburt (NZ) 4:09.72; 2, M Litchfield (GB) (Kaz) 7-6 (10-8), 6-2.
54
Sport India v England: Third Test
England’s self-delusion laid
Mike Atherton
Chief Cricket
Correspondent
India v England
Rajkot (fourth day of five): India beat
England by 434 runs
“The more the better. They can have as
many as they want and we’ll go and get
them.” One can admire the positivity
and playfulness of Ben Duckett and this
England team — such were his com-
ments on the third evening — while
also questioning their self-delusion.
You wouldn’t want them in charge of
the family exchequer, even so: spend as
much as you want my spendthrift wife/
son/daughter (delete as applicable) and
we’ll earn enough to pay off the debt!
Careful husbandry of resources is not
the Bazball way. They have been profli-
gate in the extreme in this match, wast-
ing a golden opportunity to build on
Duckett’s brilliant second-day hundred
and to achieve parity or more on first
innings, and they were forced to take
some bitter medicine as a consequence
on a stifling and totally demoralising
fourth day in Rajkot. They went down
in flames by the massive margin of 434
runs.
Duckett had also talked of breaking
records on the third evening, and we
are, indeed, in record territory. This was
India’s biggest victory by runs. En-
gland’s biggest defeat by runs was in the
timeless Test at the Oval in 1934 against
Australia when the margin was 562.
Over five days, the biggest came at Old
Trafford against a rampant West In-
dies, when England’s batsmen were
bruised black and blue, and lost by a
mere 425 runs. Ben Stokes’s boys just
pipped Tony Greig’s lot. Trebles all
round.
Here, it was not pace like fire and a
threat to heart and head that put En-
gland into a shell-shocked state, but re-
lentless pressure from spinners, with a
huge cushion of runs to lean on, and a
wearing pitch to assist. That is an old
and familiar tale in these parts. Ravin-
dra Jadeja is as difficult as anyone in
such circumstances and to his ten-over
spell, which produced the key wickets of
Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow and Joe
Root — none of whom will be sorry to
leave Rajkot — no answer came. After
his first-innings century, Jadeja finished
with five wickets in a dozen overs, and
kissed his home turf in celebration.
The medicine had a familiar, if bitter
taste, given that England were ran-
sacked in the afternoon session, much
as they have ransacked others over the
past two years. Yashasvi Jaiswal is a
hungry young buck from the maidans
of Mumbai and is keen on carving his
name into the record books. He made
the second double-century of a nascent
Test career, equalling the record for the
number of sixes (12) in a Test innings
and, in doing so, he splattered England’s
greatest bowler, James Anderson, all
over the park.
Having retired hurt on the third day,
Jaiswal had resumed his innings on the
fourth morning, with the dismissal of
Shubman Gill, nine runs short of a
second hundred in the series. The signs
had been ominous from the start with
England out of ideas and Gill and the
nightwatchman Kuldeep Yadav adding
50 untroubled runs in the first hour,
before Gill was run out by Stokes at
mid-on after a yes-no mix-up with
Yadav.
It was only when Sarfaraz Khan,
another from the maidans and hungry
for an opportunity, joined Jaiswal in the
second hour of the morning that the
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
Falling short
England's lowest all-out totals of the Bazball era
Opposition Ground Date Runs
India Rajkot Feb, 2024 122
New Zealand Lord’s Jun, 2022 141
South Africa Lord’s Aug, 2022 149
South Africa The Oval Sep, 2022 158
South Africa Lord’s Aug, 2022 165
Australia Headingley Jul, 2023 237
India Hyderabad Jan, 2024 246
England’s heaviest defeats (by runs) in Test history
Opposition Ground Date Margin of defeat (runs)
Australia The Oval Aug, 1934 562
India Rajkot Feb, 2024 434
West Indies Old Trafford Jul, 1976 425
Australia Lord’s Jun, 1948 409
Australia Lord’s Jul, 2015 405
Australia Adelaide Jan, 1895 382
West Indies Barbados Jan, 2019 381
Australia Brisbane Nov, 2013 381
Australia Sydney Dec, 1920 377
Source: CricInfo
punishment began. Built like a young uled 131 overs to save the game. Would
Mike Gatting, and occasionally run- they be interested in the latter? Of
ning between the wickets like him, Sar- course not.
faraz actually had a look for 15 balls, It was not immediately obvious what
before belting two fours and a six in the England’s approach was, though, as
next half-dozen. That prompted Jais- they began their mammoth task. They
wal into action, smashing Root for his must have been stinging from Jaiswal’s
first six of the day down the ground. assault and the temperatures which
Stokes shuffled his pack, but it felt like had risen into the mid-30s. Tired bodies
he was playing deuce high to a full and scrambled brains? It looked so
house. It was in the third over after when Duckett set off for a sharp single
lunch, Anderson’s second of his spell to mid-wicket only to be sent back by
and his 13th of the innings, when Jais- Zak Crawley, with Dhruv Jurel, the
wal decided it was time to gear up for wicketkeeper, doing superbly to sprint
the Indian Premier League in a month’s to the stumps and gather the throw.
time. In response to a defensive off-side Crawley went on the point of tea, leg-
field, Jaiswal hit Anderson for three before to Jasprit Bumrah, and then
consecutive sixes, the first flicked to leg; came Jadeja, quick through the air, ac-
the second, over extra cover, and the curate and finding some sharp spin.
third hammered down the ground with Pope cut to slip; Bairstow, whose place
rare ferocity. must be in question now, fell sweeping,
Having taken 21 runs from the over as did Root. The sweep shot has worked
off his own bat, Jaiswal finished it with a for all these players in the past, and how,
single, just so that he could cock an ear but if you miss Jadeja, you will pay the
to Anderson’s sweet nothings, and the penalty. Root trudged off having en-
Lancastrian must have felt every one of dured one of his worst matches as an
his 41 years at that point. There were 19 England player, spilling Rohit on the
years between them in this mini-duel, first day, when India were wobbling,
and it was youth that won the day con- and sparking off the first-innings col- India celebrate the wicket of Root while Stokes watches on as England slipped to
vincingly. Anderson conceded 37 runs lapse with his attempted reverse-scoop.
in three overs after lunch, and can never
have been treated with such disdain
during his long and glittering career.
The third six was Jaiswal’s tenth of
Stokes followed suit sweeping, to
Yadav this time, and the lower order
was exposed to a kind of cricket some
won’t have seen. Still, the only way to
‘We didn’t want it to
the innings, and there were two more to
follow off Root, who by now must have
been regretting, if he hadn’t the day
before, his own impetuousness with the
learn is to stay out in the middle, and
Rehan Ahmed’s dismissal for a fifth-
ball duck, taking on Yadav and caught
at long-on by a man placed with great
end up a boring draw’
bat in the first innings. In a nod to Root, deliberation there, was a crass piece of
Jaiswal had scooped a six of his own im- cricket. Ravichandran Ashwin had re- continued from back from the point at which Root got out
mediately after lunch but the situation turned to duty at tea after his family playing a reverse-scoop to Jasprit
was very different with his team ram- medical emergency and he duly picked disappointment but use it in a positive Bumrah on Saturday morning.
pant and in control. Jaiswal’s dou- up wicket number 501, bowling way. I’ve played 100 Tests and I know The former England captain
ble hundred was celebrated with Tom Hartley. that thinking too deep into certain Michael Vaughan said: “I’m afraid
his arms outstretched and his face England’s heaviest de- things can send you on a downhill Bazball has been exposed this week.
radiant. All glory. feat by runs since the spiral.” The first Test was a pitch that did all
In combination with Sarfaraz, Jais- Second World War was a He denied that Root’s bowling was sorts, so I get Bazball on that pitch,
wal added 116 runs in 16 brutal given, although Mark affecting his batting: “That would be a but not the last two, where the pitches
overs after lunch, to allow Ro- Wood helped take the total cop-out,” Stokes said. “By no means have been absolutely fine to just play
hit Sharma to become the first into three-figures and semi- do I think him bowling more overs is with positive intent but more so
captain to declare against respectability. The ending, the reason why he’s not getting the common sense.” He said the defeat
Stokes. The target, such as it with Wood holing out in the runs he’d like. You would never hear should be a “wake-up call”.
was? The small matter of 557 deep in the penultimate over him say that either.” Of Root’s shot, Stokes admitted:
to win at a scoring rate of of the scheduled day (India Another way England could lighten “Because he got out to it, definitely [it]
4.25 an over, or — on the would have taken the extra Root’s load would be to bring in Dan was a turning point. Joe’s scored
tenth anniversary of Bren- half-hour, even so) was en- Lawrence for the out-of-form Jonny nearly 12,000 runs, I think we can
don McCullum’s epic near- tirely fitting: Jaiswal, the bril- Bairstow, as Lawrence does bowl leave the decision-making and ‘why’
13-hour match-saving tri- liant young batsman, was the somewhat exotic off-breaks. with Joe. I can understand why there
ple hundred against India catcher; Jadeja, who enjoyed The batsmen are facing intense would be frustration around that
at Wellington — a sched- a great all-round match, was criticism from former players because of how good a player Joe is.
the bowler, and England’s and hundreds of fans in India “Joe was looking good and sensed
Anderson was made to self-delusion in this game watching the series for the manner in that as a time to put something
feel his age by Jaiswal was laid out for all to see. which they lost 18 wickets for 217 runs different back on to Jasprit. What that
the times | Monday February 19 2024 55

Sport

bare in record humiliation

Full scoreboard from Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium

INDIA First Innings R B 6/4 INDIA Second Innings R B 6/4

Y B K Jaiswal 10 10 0/2 Y B K Jaiswal 214 236 12/14
c Root b Wood not out
*R G Sharma 131 196 3/14 *R G Sharma 19 28 0/3
c Stokes b Wood lbw b Root
S Gill 0 9 0/0 S Gill 91 151 2/9
c Foakes b Wood run out
R M Patidar 5 15 0/1 R M Patidar 0 10 0/0
c Duckett b Hartley c Ahmed b Hartley
R A Jadeja 112 225 2/9 K Yadav 27 91 1/3
c and b Root c Root b Ahmed
Sarfaraz Khan 62 66 1/9 Sarfaraz Khan 69 72 3/6
run out not out
K Yadav 4 24 0/0 Extras 11
c Foakes b Anderson (lb 9, w 2)
@D C Jurel 46 104 3/2 TOTAL (4 wkts dec, 98 overs) 430
c Foakes b Ahmed
R Ashwin 37 89 0/6 Fall of wickets 1-30, 2-191, 3-246, 4-258.
c Anderson b Ahmed Bowling Anderson 13-1-78-0; Root 27-3-111-1;
J J Bumrah 26 28 1/3 Hartley 23-2-78-1; Wood 10-0-46-0; Ahmed
lbw b Wood 25-1-108-1.
Mohammed Siraj 3 21 0/0
not out
Extras
(b 2, lb 4, w 1, nb 2)
TOTAL (130.5 overs)
9

445
130
Sarfaraz Khan’s Test
batting average, having
Fall of wickets 1-22, 2-24, 3-33, 4-237, been dismissed only
5-314, 6-331, 7-331, 8-408, 9-415.
once while scoring
Bowling Anderson 25-7-61-1; Wood
27.5-2-114-4; Hartley 40-7-109-1; Root 60+ twice on
16-3-70-1; Ahmed 22-2-85-2. debut

ENGLAND First Innings R B 6/4 ENGLAND Second Innings R B 6/4

Z Crawley 15 28 0/2 Z Crawley 11 26 0/2
c Patidar b Ashwin lbw b Bumrah
B M Duckett 153 151 2/23 B M Duckett 4 15 0/0
c Gill b Yadav run out
O J D Pope 39 55 1/5 O J D Pope 3 14 0/0
lbw b Siraj c Sharma b Jadeja
J E Root 18 31 0/2 J E Root 7 40 0/1
c Jaiswal b Bumrah lbw b Jadeja
J M Bairstow 0 4 0/0 J M Bairstow 4 3 0/1
lbw b Yadav lbw b Jadeja
*B A Stokes 41 89 0/6 *B A Stokes 15 39 0/1
c Bumrah b Jadeja lbw b Yadav
B T Foakes 13 37 0/2 @B T Foakes 16 39 0/2
c Sharma b Siraj c Jurel b Jadeja
R Ahmed 6 13 0/1 R Ahmed 0 5 0/0
b Siraj c Siraj b Yadav
T W Hartley 9 17 0/2 T W Hartley 16 36 1/2
st Jurel b Jadeja b Ashwin
M A Wood 4 3 0/1 M A Wood 33 15 1/6
not out c Jaiswal b Jadeja
J M Anderson 1 3 0/0 J M Anderson 1 9 0/0
50 for seven en route to a humbling defeat in Rajkot yesterday — a collapse that began with Duckett’s early run-out, inset b Siraj J M Anderson
Extras 20 Extras 12
the bat,” he said. “The ball starts (b 6, lb 5, nb 4, p 5) (b 5, lb 4, nb)
Get rid of umpire’s call on DRS, urges Stokes spinning and bouncing out of
TOTAL (71.1 overs) 319 TOTAL (39.4 overs) 122
nowhere. That just comes from being
Ben Stokes said he was three [Decision Review on top of the game. The pressure of Fall of wickets 1-89, 2-182, 3-224, 4-225, Fall of wickets 1-15, 2-18, 3-20, 4-28, 5-50,
in favour of removing System] umpire’s calls batting last does things and it gives 5-260, 6-299, 7-299, 8-314, 9-314. 6-50, 7-50, 8-82, 9-91.
“umpire’s call” after this game,” Stokes said. bowlers confidence. Bowling Bumrah 15-1-54-1; Siraj Bowling Bumrah 8-1-18-1; Siraj 5-2-16-0;
England’s batsmen were “You just want a level “Did we go into our shells a little bit 21.1-2-84-4; Yadav 18-2-77-2; Ashwin Jadeja 12.4-4-41-5; Yadav 8-2-19-2;
on the wrong end of playing field. If the ball because of the situation? That’s not 7-0-37-1; Jadeja 10-0-51-2. Ashwin 6-3-19-1.
several such lbw is hitting the stumps, it what we do. I don’t think we need to Umpires Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and Joel Wilson (Trinidad and Tobago).
decisions in the third is hitting the stumps. temper anything, we need to look at Match referee Jeff Crowe (New Zealand). TV umpire Rod Tucker (Australia).
Test including one They should take away our execution. Was it how we Series details all Tests start at 4am GMT
against Zak Crawley the umpire’s call.” On executed the shots that led to our First Test England won by 28 runs (Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad).
that on the HawkEye speaking to Crowe, downfall? A lot of us would say yes, I Second India won by 106 runs (ACA-VDCA Stadium, Visakhapatnam).
projection appeared to Stokes added: “We didn’t execute well enough.” Fourth: Friday-Feb 27 (JSCA International Stadium, Ranchi).
be missing the stumps spoke to match referee wanted clarity around India’s captain Rohit Sharma said: Fifth: March 7-11 (Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala).
(pictured right). Stokes Jeff Crowe about it after Zak’s DRS … The ball is “Each wicket has given us different
and the head coach the game. “We’ve been clearly missing the challenges. The ball turned in the first
Brendon McCullum both on the wrong end of stump on the replay.” Test and it was slow. In Vizag it was Solid start collapses
low and as the game went on it England’s first three partnerships in this Test were worth more runs (224)
became slower. Here it played well on than the other 17 (217)
shot does for Joe is it makes fields we needed to press the game on so it the first two or three days and today
First innings Second innings
change, makes bowlers’ mindsets didn’t just peter out to a boring draw. we saw that the ball was turning and
change. He got out to it, and it’s not a We’ve got the wrong end of the stick, staying low. This is the nature of Crawley and Duckett 89 Crawley and Duckett 15
shot you necessarily see Test-match but I won’t look back with regret.” India. If we get a rank turner, we’ll Duckett and Pope 93 Crawley and Pope 3
players playing. But who am I to Asked if England would be play on that too.” Duckett and Root 42 Pope and Root 2
question? He knows what he’s doing.” tempering their methods, he added: Duckett and Bairstow 1 Root and Bairstow 8
Stokes admitted that scoring fast on “Not at all.” But tellingly, while Ben Duckett and Stokes 35 Root and Stokes 22
Saturday, when England resumed on Duckett had said the previous mike procter obituary
Stokes and Foakes 39 Stokes and Foakes 0
207 for two and 238 behind, was part evening that “they [India] can have as Bowler who became a hero Foakes and Ahmed 0 Foakes and Ahmed 0
of the plan. “I wanted us to get up to many as they want and we’ll go and
their score as quickly as we could . . . get them”, Stokes conceded how at Gloucestershire after Test Ahmed and Hartley 15 Foakes and Hartley 32
I did want to be bowling at the back tough it was batting fourth in India. career halted by Apartheid Hartley and Wood 0 Hartley and Wood 9
end of yesterday. That’s how we felt “They are able to put men around Wood and Anderson 5 Wood and Anderson 31
 2GM Monday February 19 2024 | the times

Sport The Game

Best football writing including
interview with Sean Dyche
Ireland ominously good
They’re getting better and
could dominate for years

Jonny Bairstow is trapped

leg-before during England’s
collapse to a 434-run defeat
Lockyer: I felt
— a low point under the Test
captaincy of Ben Stokes, inset
I was dying
Tom Lockyer thought he could be
dying after collapsing on the pitch for
the second time in eight months in
December.
Lockyer, 29, collapsed off the ball in
the 59th minute of Luton’s Premier
League match against Bournemouth.
His heart stopped for two minutes and
40 seconds and the defender needed a
defibrillator to be shocked back to life.
“I remember I was a bit disorientat-
ed,” he said. “I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t
move, and I was just trying to work out
what was happening. I remember
thinking, ‘I could be dying here.’
“I was running and went really light
headed. I thought I’d be OK in a second
but I wasn’t. I woke up and the para-
medics were there. I knew it was differ-
ent to my collapse in [the Champion-
ship play-off final] May. Last time it felt
like I woke up from a dream, and this
time I woke up from nothingness.”

Ashworth can
leave for £15m

Stokes may bowl in India

Captain hints at change of mind after crushing 434-run defeat puts series on the line
Simon Wilde Rajkot
Ben Stokes said he is considering defy-
ing doctor’s orders and bowling in the
last two Tests as England scramble for
ways to get back into their series with
India after a massive defeat in the third
Test left them 2-1 down.
England lost by 434 runs in Rajkot
after they were bowled out for 122 yes-
terday, their lowest all-out total since
Stokes assumed the Test captaincy two
years ago. The 32-year-old had previ-
ously insisted that he was not ready to
bowl after knee surgery in November,
but he recently resumed training and
there are concerns over the fitness of
Joe Root, who damaged his bowling
hand taking a slip catch, as well as his
low output of runs. Root has got
through 107 overs in three Tests while
scoring only 77 runs.
Asked if he was ready to bowl, Stokes
said: “I’m not saying yes, I’m not saying
no. I have progressed a lot faster than I
thought. I’m always very optimistic.
That will be a more detailed chat with
the medical team about what workload
I have done to pass me off as not being
a massive risk. I managed to bowl at 100
per cent in one of the warm-up days
here. I felt like I could have bowled in
the game, but that would have been
stupid. It’s a work in progress.”
Two days before the third Test,
having bowled 18 balls at what he
termed “70 per cent”, he said: “I still
won’t bowl in this series. I’ve ‘pinky-
promised’ my physio I won’t be loosen-
ing up, even if everything is feeling well.
It’s just a risk that’s not worth it.”
Sitting in the press room at the
Niranjan Shah Stadium after two days
of unremittingly bad cricket from
England in sweltering heat, Stokes said:
“Losing a Test match always hurts.
India completely outplayed us this
week, I’m man enough to say that. It’s
disappointing, but I mentioned in the
dressing room to make sure all the
emotion and disappointment is left in
there and all the focus goes into the
fourth Test. We’ve got two games left
and all I’m thinking about is winning
3-2. You’ve got to learn from
Exclusive Martin Hardy
Newcastle United will tell Manchester
United they want £15 million to release
Dan Ashworth from his 20-month
gardening leave period to become the
new sporting director at Old Trafford.
Ashworth told his bosses at Newcas-
tle yesterday that he wanted to leave
the club after the approach by Sir Jim
Ratcliffe to move to Manchester
United. Newcastle responded by
placing Ashworth, the former technical
director of the FA, on gardening leave.
Newcastle officials are furious at the
manner of Manchester United’s
approach and have blocked any access
the 52-year-old had to the club’s com-
puter programmes and scouting re-
ports. Ashworth joined Newcastle from
Brighton & Hove Albion in 2022 after a
three-month spell of gardening leave.

Times Crossword 28,843 across down Prize solution 28,836

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 Some fancy a nice greenish-blue 1 Grain, bivalve mollusc, and CH A S E R R E D ES I GN

O U A E R P R
colour (4) roadside plant (10) MUMBO J U M BO L E E R
9 3 Wet blanket left with proceeds of 2 Check uranium in mine entrance R N A A P A N
robbery, say (10) (5) P I ROS H K I S KY L A B
R S N H D
10 11 10 Deliver post, including notes 4 Took part in parade, urged to S P AM S N OW S U I T
identifying roof timber (9) protect commander (9) L A E T T A E
11 Apply pressure to withdraw from 5 Leader of Italy no longer with us C A L L I S T O L A RD
T C B C I
specialist (5) provided with inspiration (5) F I E S T A E VO L V I NG
12 US composer defending old times 6 Furtiveness shown by duck in T A P S N A O
12 13 in country dwelling (7) south (7) E U A N A B E RR A T I ON
13 Water down cement mix used by 7 Practise too hard in cricket period, D T D E A E S
C E T A C E A N DU S T E R
14 inspector (6) having a number of coaches (9)
Check today’s answers by ringing 0905 757
15 Unrealistic hopes of rooks in flight? 8 Expression of disapproval over 0141 by midnight. Calls cost £1 per minute
15 16 17 (7,2,3,3) universal ballet wear (4) plus your telephone company’s network
18 He painted a dancer and extremely 9 Happen to live well at last, having access charge. SP: Spoke 0333 202 3390.
old violin, originally (8,2,5) crossed Cornish river (6)
The winners of Prize Crossword No 28,836 are
21 Young male wolf, perhaps, meeting 14 Intelligence of supporter on good MR Amey, London NW10
18 19 20 a Trojan queen (6) terms with current head (10) SA Edouard, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex
23 Unexpected role Garland’s taken 16 Duck coming across large person P Hadfield, Thatcham, Berkshire
A Kerr, Wantage, Oxfordshire
on — a siren (7) wielding spadelike tool (9) P Weisner, Weston Turville, Buckinghamshire
26 Source of heating abandoned by 17 Land due to turbulence? That’s
British tanker (5) knotty (9) Newspapers
21 22 23 24 27 Concentrated way we count 19 Where fish may be kept, as in part support recycling
decimally: it’s very easy at first (9) of opera (7) The recycled paper content of
25 28 Fish markets principally in Scottish 20 Where two gentlemen were putting UK newspapers in 2020 was 67%
island, and German one (10) up an old cleric (6)
26 27 29 Sounds made by seagulls in stable 22 Valediction from a girl at Brussels
yard (4) (5)
24 Suppressing anger, see water
flowing through Nantes (5)
28 29
25 Search jazz group, missing nothing
(4) y(7HB7E2*OTSNLS( |||+"!:'
 February 19 | 2024

As imagined by Hilary Rose

2 Monday February 19 2024 | the times
times2
Of course Stallone had
Navy Seals train his
girls — he’s a Mad Dad
Shane Watson
W
e may
think
nepo
babies
get an
extra
leg up
in life
and wish that we had been the
fortunate child of a sporting hero
or a Hollywood legend. But
imagine, for example, being the
child of Sylvester Stallone, the
man who brought us Rocky and
Rambo.
Stallone has three daughters,
two of whom — Sophia, 27, and
Sistine, 25, — moved to New York Stallone with his daughters,
last year, but not before Stallone Sistine, Sophia and Scarlet
had recruited a team of US Navy
Seals to train them in self defence. Arnie”, because there are a lot of
Of course he did. These days a mad dads out there, beasting their
civilian concerned dad would children or bundling them in
probably track their movements cotton wool or chasing after them
using an iPhone app (the girls’ on gap years, all with the
mother does that). He might insist intention of making them better,
they chose an apartment in a safe stronger people in the long run —
neighbourhood and then install or just really good skiers.
security lights and an alarm. So if Here are some of the Mad Dad
he’s “a classic overprotective dad”, types you may recognise:
as Sistine told the New York Post
her father definitely is, and the Sporty Dad
man who brought us the two That would be Schwarzy and any
most famous action heroes of the dad who loves a sport and
twentieth century, then gruelling believes that his children’s lives
training sessions with elite special will be poorer for not loving it too.
forces instructors, including We’re familiar with Touchline
chicken chasing, is going to be on Dads but Ski Dads are the ones
the cards. Stallone “went full you want to watch: well meaning
Rambo” when they brought boys men, determined to give their
home, apparently, so Sophia and children the opportunity they
Sistine expected nothing less. had, who then — principally
Arnie Schwarzenegger’s because of the exorbitant cost of
children reported similarly high it all once you’ve hired the skis
physical fitness expectations on and got the passes and bought the
childhood ski trips. When the pommes frites — turn into
other kids stopped for a hot Richard Williams crossed with
chocolate before coasting home Bear Grylls.
down the nursery slope, whistling
tunes from The Sound of Music,
It happens so easily. On the
plane Sporty Dad is picturing
the little Schwarzeneggers were
side-stepping their way up to the
blue skies, wholesome fun and his
little ones learning a skill that will
next lift so Arnie could take them
to the top of the run, again, again,
enhance their lives into old age
(global warming notwithstanding).
again. Then, before you can say “How
Probably more people will much?” you’re straight into “We
identify with this style of dad Have To Get Our Money’s Worth”
parenting than think “that crazy territory. Up down, up down, time
mixed, in which case, if Hurlingham Club. One
you are an averagely member (oh dear)
My sauna inhibited female, you made “inappropriate
have to throw caution comments of a sexual
joy — gone to the wind and remind nature to a fellow
yourself that you are in member” in the sauna
in a flash civilised northern (yuk) and that’s it for
Europe where saunas me.
—
Talking of skiing, this is are part of life and no I had been just about
usually where Brits first one, but no one, is there on saunas (still
experience sauna life, ogling another’s body. always wearing a small
in their alpine hotel. Well now there’s been towel, obviously, even
Sometimes there’s one a scandal in the (mixed) when others were
for men and one for sauna at that bastion of starkers or at least
women, sometimes it’s propriety, The topless). After thirty
for one more run.
Can’t afford lunch up
the mountain, eat
your bread roll (from
the breakfast buffet). If
you’ve lost your gloves
you’ll have to manage
without. White out,
what white out? What
do you mean numb?
Ski faster! This is a
normal skiing holiday
in my experience.
Sporty Mums are just
as bad.
Buddy Dad
Buddy Dad has no conception
that his children think of him as
much, much older than their
chums. He’s pretty good for his
age, well travelled (so he could
show them a few spots off the
beaten tracks), he has drunk the
worm in the mescal, seen the
Rolling Stones in five capitals, was
once at a party with Lynsey de
Paul and he’s expecting to join his
boys in Oaxaca. You can spot a
Buddy Dad fastest by watching
the expression on his children’s
faces: affection mixed with pity
and a certain weariness.
Victorian Dad
This dad is Overprotective Dad
but also he’s somehow erased the
last hundred odd years of women’s
emancipation, even if he’s married
to a Spice Girl. Pink and dolls and
sleepovers are the order of the
day for his princess. And when
she brings someone home they’ll
have to be very clean. What
happens with Victorian Dad
generally is that his children are
one person with him, and another
altogether when he’s not around.
He’s confident they don’t smoke
or do drugs, that they are reading
Middlemarch, that when they stay
out it’s at Sweet Susie’s (not some
rando from the club night). He
has lots of rules which he believes
have made them the people they
are but he is, usually, mistaken.
Kevin Maher is away
odd years I could finally
say that the word sauna
was no longer
conjuring up an image
of British blokes
leaning forward,
gawping at their
neighbour’s breasts
through the steam.
Now, though, years of
telling myself that it’s
my problem not theirs
— get over yourself!
— has been undone in
a jiffy. Sad really.
‘We will not be
After dropping in to see Pa with an
offer to do a few royal jobs — balcony
stuff only — it’s off to Canada with
Meg. Hilary Rose peeks in Harry’s diary
P
a calls to say he’s got
cancer, so I fly over
immediately to talk
about me.
“Everything’s going to
be fine,” I tell him,
“because I’m prepared to
start working for the
family firm again, as a huge favour,
because then you owe me. This is how
forgiveness works and rifts are healed.
Also you need to apologise but I
forgive you.”
“For what?” says Pa and Camilla
raises an eyebrow, but I ignore them
both and carry on talking.
“So I’ll help out while you and Kate
are ill,” I say, “but this will only be a
temporary cessation of hostili ... ” I
start to say, then stop, check my notes
and start again. “Temporary
arrangement,” I tell them, “until it gets
boring, or starts to rain. Or until
someone offers us money to do fun
stuff.
“Also,” I say, “I’ll just be doing a few
carefully chosen gigs here and there.
Big state events. Trooping the Colour,
Remembrance Sunday, that sort of
thing, leave the ribbon-cutting to
Anne.
“I’ve discussed it with Meg and she’s
hugely supportive and helped me to
realise that the test of whether I do a
job or not will be whether it ends on
the balcony of Buckingham Palace,
with cheering crowds and a flypast.
You see,” I say, leaning forward and
gazing at him and Camilla with love
and empathy, (“If it helps, pretend
she’s Oprah,” said Meg when I was
practising). “I am focused on
reconciling with my family. I want to
heal the rift, at least until the
alternative pays more. What do you
think? Great idea, right? You’ll soon
wonder how you ever managed
without me. Meg says you’ve barely
managed at all, and we all know that
nobody cares about the royal family
without us,” and Camilla raises an
eyebrow and Pa says that he’ll think
about it.
“I think it went well,” I tell Meg
when I get back. “I had 30 minutes
with him, but apart from that I saw no
one, went nowhere, spoke to nobody,
spent the night in a hotel and flew
home.”
Meg’s busy with her wardrobe for
the Invictus thing we’re doing in
Vancouver. “I’m thinking high/low,”
she told me. “Beautiful cashmere
beanies, really textural, and soft,
Hermès padded jackets. The gold
jewellery will be stealth-luxe to
indicate humility, and available to buy,
link in bio.”
“What about me?” I asked her,
“what should I wear?” and she said,
“You’re the low part, if you fetch your
anorak I’ll get someone to brush the
dog hair off.”
I love our life here. The sun always
shines. If only there were flypasts and
everyone cheered it would be perfect.
Before we go to Canada, I have a
Zoom call with the guys at Travalyst
about how we make travel more
sustainable.
“I want to help people — you —
make better travel choices,” I say. “I
want to change the way we — you —
travel, for good. For the sake of the
planet.” And they nod, or maybe bow,
it’s hard to tell on Zoom but either is
fine. “This is why we pay you the big
bucks,” they say. “Insights like that,”
and I nod and feel wise. Then Meg and
I catch a private jet up the coast to
Vancouver. To be clear, I only ever
travel private when I have to, when it
really can’t be avoided, but it’s amazing
how often it’s unavoidable. This makes
me sad, I tell my therapist, and he
says, “Whatever. . . About your
mother?”
So now Meg and I are in Vancouver
to publicise next year’s Invictus games
for wounded warriors. It’s all super-
casual, super-informal, because we
reject all the flummery of royalty. It’s a
distraction, which gets in the way of
our valuable work.
“Out of interest,” I asked Meg this
morning, opening my wallet, which is
empty, “exactly how valuable IS our
work at the moment? To the nearest
50 bucks?” But she said she’d have to
get back to me on that and besides,
Queen Elizabeth never carried cash
and I say yes, that is true, so that must
clinch it. “My love,” I tell her, “you are
so clever and wise. And also hot.”
Just then the press woman comes in,
to say that the press are reporting
things we haven’t authorised them to
report. Journalists have written
articles, she says, without offering us
copy approval, picture approval,
I gaze at Camilla.
‘If it helps,
pretend she’s
Oprah,’ said Meg
anything, and it’s a disgrace. They’ve
said we’re a busted flush, she says, and
nobody cares what we do any more.
“We’ll sue,” I tell her, shrugging. “If
nothing else, it passes the time.”
“You go out there and tell them we
will not be broken!” Meg yells, but in a
loving way. “You tell them we’ve been
constantly challenged and criticised
but we’re still here, still pursuing what
we believe in, still working. We will not
be broken! Also tell them to stop
writing things we haven’t specifically
authorised them to write,” and the
press woman says, “Yes ma’am, of
course ma’am, whatever you say
ma’am,” and hurries away.
Anyway, now we’ve arrived at the
venue and the organiser guy comes
out to greet us.
“You can call me Sir,” I tell him,
the times | Monday February 19 2024
broken, I yell!’ The crowd cheers
‘Meg says if I fetch my
anorak she’ll brush
the dog hair off’
because that’s how informal I am now
we live in California, and he bows and
I feel good. “We want everything to be
super-casual, so the competitors feel at
home,” says Meghan, “I’m Meg, but
you can call me ma’am.”
So I’m giving a motivational speech
to a crowd of the Invictus competitors,
extraordinary men and women who
have overcome terrible adversity.
“We will not be broken!” I yell and
the crowd cheers. “Time and time
again we’ve been told that this is make
or break for us,” I continue and there’s
a murmur of puzzlement through the
crowd and the organiser guy standing
next to me says, “Er, sir, you realise
this is supposed to be about them,
don’t you? Not about you?” And I tell
him don’t be ridiculous, it can’t be
about them. It never is. It’s always
about us.
“And so I want to say we’re still
here!” I shout, punching the air
triumphantly as the Invictus
competitors gaze up at me. “We will
not be broken!” And there’s a confused
silence and beside me Meg does a
three-quarter smile and tilts her head
just a fraction and the lighting guy
gives her the thumbs up.
A journalist from American
breakfast TV has been following us
because I’m giving him an interview.
He talks about “the Dook of Sussex” a
lot and I try not to care but really I do.
Why can’t he say Duke? I say to Meg.
Dook sounds like a duck. Nobody
called Elvis the dook.
“That’s because Elvis was the king,”
she says, and I stop what I’m doing,
which might be very important but
realistically isn’t, and say, “But Pa is
the king ... isn’t he?” and she rolls her
eyes, but lovingly, and says that Elvis is
off message today anyway, and also
dead, and Michael Bublé is going to
sing me a song about what a visionary
I am, even when I haven’t taken any
mind-altering drugs. I put my anorak
on and head out for my interview.
“It’s lucky that I’m such a devoted
son that I’ve seen Pa recently,” I say to
Meg as I leave. “The journalist might
want to ask about him, don’t you
think?” And Meg says “might” is
possibly not the word she would use.
“I wouldn’t want to look like the sort of
son who trashes his father heartlessly
and repeatedly,” I say, “or doesn’t
speak to him for months on end, or
only goes to see him because he’s got
‘It’ll just be a
few carefully
chosen gigs’
Meghan and Harry cancer, because that doesn’t reflect
at the One Year to Go who I am, or my values, which are
Invictus Games event in hopefully ... valuable?” I look hopefully
Whistler, Canada, main at Meg, who stares out of the window
and bottom right. and hums, and I get in the car with my
Top right, with the interview preparation notes. “I am a
King watching devoted son keen to forgive my family
Trooping the Colour and heal the rift,” I read. “Unless the
from Buckingham alternative pays more.”
Palace in 2018 I tell the breakfast TV guy that I
love my family and may well be flying
over the UK in the coming years. “Or
if not over it, then near,” I add, “and if
they’ve got the red drapes on the
balcony at Buckingham Palace I might
even land.”
He asked if I feel American, but my
therapist says I should never talk
about feelings before I’ve run them
past him, because they might be the
wrong feelings, so I say, “No,” instead.
“Have you considered becoming a
US citizen?” he says, and I say yes,
which is true, but it’s not a priority,
which is also true, because it’s never
going to happen. When we looked into
it we realised that if I took US
citizenship I’d have to give up my titles
and where would that leave me? I
asked my therapist. “As a balding
middle-aged ginger with a hot wife?”
3
times2
‘I tell the TV
guy that I love
my family’
he replied, but then he snapped his
fingers and said, “Wake up now!” So I
must have dreamt it.
Then the journalist asked me:
“What’s your outlook on your father’s
health?” And I said “that stays
between me and him,” and when we
watched the footage back later Meg
said, “My love, you said that with a
straight face! High five!”
I tell him I’ve always lived a life of
service, which is true, apart from when
I haven’t, for example many of the past
39 years and all of the past four years.
I’ve been building a new life, you see,
with no friends or family, Meg has
been building a new brand with no
friends or family, and the PR people
have been building a new website and
a slogan with no mention of friends or
family, because we haven’t got any.
They unveiled the slogan last week:
“Show up, do good.”
I tell them that rings a bell, there’s
another family which does that
already, I say, but without the slogan ...
‘“Show up, do good” ... who can it be?
I scratch my head. The Presidential
First Family? The Addams Family?
Meg says hush now, honey, and kisses
me and I forget.
4 Monday February 19 2024 | the times

life
Ask Professor Tanya Byron
Have I passed on my vomiting phobia to my daughter?

N N
Since childhood, I’ve Emetophobia, the fifth Yourself from Emetophobia: A CBT behaviour and create an appropriate

Q A
been emetophobic, most common phobia, If you would like Self-Help Guide for a Fear of Vomiting response. Given that your son has
which is the is an intense fear of Professor Tanya by Alexander Keyes and David Veale). learnt to control and manipulate a
catastrophic fear of vomiting or seeing Byron’s help, email In the situation you describe, it is situation by creating the mayhem,
vomiting. It is others vomit, and is proftanyabyron@ clear that you become paralysed for help him to unlearn it. This means

< <
debilitating and it highly co-morbid with
affected me into my teens. I was a other anxiety conditions, including
picky eater (refusing what I thought obsessive-compulsive disorder and
would make me vomit) and I was late panic. Typically starting in childhood
to relationships as I’d be so afraid of and more commonly reported in
thetimes.co.uk two reasons. First, you’re triggered by
your son’s retching, which increases
your anxiety and reduces your ability
to think rationally. You will also be
triggered by your daughter’s panic as
not giving him the response he wants
and instead ignoring him. Operant
conditioning underpins this approach:
the response that follows the
behaviour determines whether the

st
kissing someone and catching a
vomit-inducing bug.
This is behind me. I am now 34 and
the mother of two children — my
daughter is eight and my son is
st
women, it is estimated to affect up to
8 per cent of the population.
Emetophobia is not a “pull yourself
together” problem. Because of its
profound effect on the sufferer, it can
you see her struggle with the same
condition as you. Your anxiety results
in you behaving in a way that neither
calms nor manages the situation and,
for your son, inadvertently reinforces
behaviour is strengthened (ie via
attention) and continues, or is
extinguished (ie via no attention).
I advise you to move your daughter
away from the situation and then help

o o
almost five. In my early twenties I be understood as an anxiety disorder, the effectiveness of his strategy. her to implement the strategies you
had cognitive behavioural therapy often restricting function. This To begin with, go back to what you have been using moments earlier. Get
(CBT) to manage my phobia and debilitating condition is characterised have mastered so well previously — down to her level and encourage her
when I found pregnancy difficult, as by intrusive and irrational thoughts the ability to self-soothe and reduce to breathe steadily either by imagining
I had bad morning sickness, I had a related to vomit and associated actions your physiological anxiety. As you she is blowing out candles or by giving

ri
few booster sessions and got through.
I felt that I had cracked it and, even
when the children were babies, with
reflux, I was able to cope.
However, I am now worried that
ri
(such as food restriction, avoidance of
places associated with being sick or
becoming ill with a vomiting bug, and
avoidance of enclosed places such as
theatres, trains and planes), which
know, thinking is unhelpful when in
panic as the most active parts of the
brain at that time do not generate
logic or rational thought. What have
you found most useful: cold water,
her a balloon to blow up. Help her to
feel her heartbeat and together count
the beats (this can slow the heart rate).
If she is extremely anxious, some cold
water can help (eg a wet flannel on her

es
my daughter has emetophobia as she
becomes anxious if she thinks she or
someone else is going to be sick.
When there was a stomach bug
outbreak in her class she refused
es
then reinforce the emetophobic beliefs.
Causes aren’t always clear but there
can be links to a previous extreme
illness where vomiting was terrifying
and accompanied by panic. This
paced breathing, counting your pulse?
Have some practice sessions and
remind yourself of the effectiveness of
these methods to reduce the physical
symptoms of anxiety (search for Panic:
neck). She might be articulating her
intrusive thoughts so model the
cognitive strategies — such as getting
her to distract herself by talking about
something else, or to tell herself that

h h
to go to school — I did get her to go anxiety then becomes associated with An NHS Self-help Guide online). she is safe and no harm will occur.
but it was awful to see her upset. the possibility of vomiting again. As you breathe/count your anxiety When she calms, congratulate her
I feel equipped to help her with her There is a genetic predisposition to down, you can then engage your brain for managing her anxiety. When you
phobia, but the problem is between anxiety (you see yourself in your as the more rational, “wise” areas return to your son, hug him when he’s
her and my son. I’m pretty sure that daughter). However, nature is also become functional again. This is when calm and ask him if there is anything

re
he has picked up on his sister’s fear
and uses it to his advantage.
He play-acts retching, which
causes mayhem. I begin to feel
anxious and my daughter starts to
re
accompanied by nurture and while
you have been doing a good job
supporting your daughter with her
phobia (ie not enabling avoidance),
the situation you describe risks
you need to manage the intrusive
thoughts, which may be related to
your son being sick or your daughter
having a panic attack (or both).
Remember your learnt strategies.
he wants to talk to you about — you
can’t ignore the fact that his retching
is a communication, and so you want
him to see how best to get your
attention and feel seen and heard,

f=
panic. What follows — usually
screaming and tantrums from both
children — is exhausting. I end up
shouting and sometimes even crying.
The problem only happens when
f=
worsening her condition given the You can talk back to the thoughts ie putting his feelings into words.
“mayhem” you describe. and offer a rational response built To help with the process of change,
Emetophobia can be a great around the question “what’s the worst make sure you attend to your son
challenge for motherhood, with thing that could happen?” — your son when he speaks rather than acts; this
many women avoiding or dreading might vomit (unpleasant but not way he will learn that he doesn’t have

”/
I am around. He doesn’t do it in
front of my husband who, while
supportive, thinks I am a big part of
the problem and he’s not wrong —
my emetophobia is beginning to get
”/
the thought of being pregnant catastrophic), your daughter might to revert to retching. Build on this
because of fears of morning become more upset (ditto) but no one experience for your daughter by
sickness and also living with the is in grave danger and whatever teaching her the CBT skills you have
constant fear that their child will happens, you can deal with it. learnt — I recommend a wonderful
vomit. You have done really well As all this physiological and children’s book by Dawn Huebner,

U U
in the way of my parenting. Do I to learn to manage your psychological self-management is Facing Mighty Fears about Throwing
need more CBT? What do I do? emetophobia via CBT, the going on, you’ll also need a strategy. Up. For more information, see also:
Rose evidence-based therapy (see: Free My advice is to assess each child’s emetophobiahelp.org.

se se
rs rs
/ /
m m
m m
ci ci
the times | Monday February 19 2024 5

life

I’m married with two children.

Why I had an abortion at 45
One mother on
how the decision
to terminate her
pregnancy didn’t I felt gratitude for
lead to the feelings living in a country
she’d anticipated where I could
make this choice

W
alking
slowly up
and down
the
toiletries
aisle of
Waitrose, I
spotted the
pregnancy tests and slipped one into
my basket, tucking it surreptitiously
under my groceries. I was worried
about seeing somebody I knew, mainly
because they would assume I was
buying it for my teenage daughter.
But the test was for me and, one
week before Christmas, it told me that
I was pregnant at the age of 45.
Summing up my situation perfectly,
just as the bright blue lines appeared,
my daughter banged on the bathroom
door asking to borrow my hair
straighteners.
I knew almost immediately that I
wouldn’t — that I couldn’t — keep it. I
called my husband at work to tell him
that the reason my period was over Right: pro-life and miscarriage was about the noisy return from
two weeks late wasn’t because I was pro-choice groups 50 per cent, with an school.
perimenopausal (although I’m during a demonstration increased risk of In the days and weeks
probably that too), and there was an in London last year gestational diabetes, that followed I didn’t feel
immediate understanding between us preeclampsia and the guilt I expected to feel.
about what we were going to do. stillbirth. There were risks The only thing that came
I was 30 when we had our first child, for the baby too, and they close was when I thought
34 when we had our second. I loved all seemed too high. about a friend whose nine-
the baby years, loved watching them When I saw my GP year-old daughter was
grow into chubby, curious toddlers, and told her I was born after several rounds
and I made some of my closest friends pregnant she said, of IVF; at 49 my friend still
at the school gates and sitting on “Congratulations!” until feels pangs of sadness that
dusty floors at local baby groups. But I I told her that, at 45 she’ll never have another.
was done with all that. I am done with and with a teen and a And my sister’s friend who
all that. My youngest started tween already, I didn’t at 46 knows she’ll probably
secondary school last September, want to be. She was kind never be a mother (she
which meant I finally became free of and understanding. The few close married at 41 and has since
school runs after ten years. The friends I told were too, including one had several miscarriages). But as sad
thought of having to go right back to who, when I again launched into my as those stories are, those are their
the very beginning felt bizarre and explanation, said it would still be OK if stories. They’re not my story.
overwhelming. I was 30 and childless. I also don’t feel any sadness when I
I also knew that I couldn’t be the I opted for a medical abortion — in I braced myself see a baby. The day after it happened,
kind of mother I want to be —
hosting a houseful of teenage girls at
other words, the “pills by post”
method — which arrived shortly after for the inevitable I went for a walk and passed a young
mother pushing her baby in its pram. I
the weekend, guiding them through
GCSEs, listening to their friendship
New Year’s Eve. I took the first pill,
which blocks the hormone needed for
pang of sadness smiled and said hello, taking in the
baby’s tiny features and gummy smile,
dilemmas right before bedtime —
with a newborn and then a toddler
the pregnancy to develop. Two days
later I waved my youngest child off to
or guilt and braced myself for the inevitable
pang of sadness or guilt. It never came.
in tow. school before taking four more, this about my choice of words I went to I loved pushing my own children
The Times columnist Caitlin Moran time to cause contractions that would find my husband and said, “I’ve through that park when they were
once wrote this about her decision to expel the pregnancy. I lay nervously passed the baby.” To my surprise he babies, but now I enjoy watching them
have an abortion after having two in bed with painkillers, a hot water cried. I did too, and we hugged. While hanging out in it with their friends,
daughters: “I knew I would see my bottle, and a steely resolve to get we couldn’t see this baby in our future, their teenage years ahead of them,
existing daughters less, my husband through this before the children it was still our baby. We’d made the with me there to guide them.
less, my career would be hamstrung, arrived home from school and started right decision for our family, but we Or as Moran put it when describing
and, most importantly of all, I was just asking for snacks. For a few hours, I understood the gravity of what we had her decision: “I would like abortion to
too tired to do it all again.” experienced what felt like early labour done. I also felt relief, and gratitude be considered as, perversely, one of the
Too tired, yes, and in my case too pain and period cramps, along with that I live in a country where I could ultimate acts of good mothering.” It
old. At 45 I knew the health risks bleeding, and I passed the pregnancy make this choice. I showered, dressed certainly felt that way to me.
were significant. The chance of a just before midday. Without thinking and dosed up on pain relief, ready for The writer wishes to remain anonymous
6 Monday February 19 2024 | the times
times2
How I tackled
Britain’s poo
problem with
toilet humour
The comedian and TV host Joe Lycett
tells Julia Llewellyn Smith why his new
documentary is devoted to ‘slagging off’
the CEOs of the UK’s water companies
C
omedians and
lavatory jokes;
comedians and
(almost invariably
left-wing) politics —
both have a time-
honoured
entanglement. Yet
making a documentary about sewage
was still a challenge for the comedian
turned inadvertent activist Joe Lycett,
who needed to devise a ruse to make
audiences laugh while being outraged
at the amounts of sewage being
discharged into our rivers and seas.
“I was reticent when the [sewage]
idea was presented to me because I
feel like I’ve done a lot of poo-based
stuff,” says Lycett, who over the past
four years has morphed from mildly
edgy yet cuddly host of The Great
British Sewing Bee into one of the
loudest voices of our nation’s collective
conscience in a bizarre group that
includes Carol Vorderman and Gary
Neville. “I like a scatological joke, but I
felt I’d perhaps reached my limits.”
After all, his last documentary about
Shell’s greenwashing practices
involved a stunt where Lycett, dressed
as its chief executive, appeared to have
excrement pour out of his mouth. “But
when I started looking at the sewage
research, I got angry,” he says.
The statistics are incontrovertibly
shocking. As documented by The
Times Clean It Up campaign in its
recent first-anniversary report, raw
sewage was dumped more than 800
times a day into English rivers and
coastal areas in 2022. In England
60 per cent of inland bathing sites
monitored didn’t meet minimum
safety requirements for water users.
“Basically it’s not safe to swim in any
body of water that’s not your local
baths,” Lycett, 35, says.
Yet in the year ending March 2023,
water companies in England paid their
chief executives £11 million, while
shareholders received £1.4 billion in
dividends. In the documentary Joe
Lycett vs Sewage, on Channel 4
tomorrow, Lycett calls it “the biggest
environmental scandal in decades”.
The documentary contains serious,
whistleblowing stuff, with former
water company employees revealing
how bosses are financially incentivised
not to report discharges for fear of
damaging their bonuses. He
investigates the industry’s incestuous
nature, with executives moving
frequently between regulatory bodies
such as Ofwat, environmental
agencies and water companies (all
deny conflicts of interest).
Yet the overall tone is larky, with
Lycett sitting on the lavatory, talking
whimsically about his “ploppy
pinecones” and culminating in an
elaborate ruse where he records a
podcast for a fictitious series, Turdcast,
which features Gary Lineker gamely
describing when he succumbed to
diarrhoea on the pitch during the 1990
World Cup England v Ireland match.
In a stunt for said (non-existent)
podcast, Lycett “accidentally”
discharges what appears to be sewage
into Liverpool’s Royal Albert Docks.
Yet so inured is the public to
effluence in our water, this doesn’t
catch fire in the way Lycett hopes. In
the end, his campaign goes viral after
posting a YouTube clip where Lycett
tucks into a cake in the shape of a
large poo, allegedly baked by Paul
Hollywood. It was this that inspired
more than 20,000 people to write
complaints to their water companies.
What does it say about our society
when the only way to spur the public
into action is by pretending to eat
faeces? “It’s depressing that’s the case
but that’s the world we live in,” says
Lycett, who is dressed in a trademark
multicoloured jumper, when we speak
over Zoom from his studio (he’s also
an artist) at his home in his native
Birmingham. “You have got to get
something trending to get people to
engage with the issue. But my least
favourite part of these things is
coming up with the idea [for stunts]. I
start to feel like a marketing executive.
This is not a role I saw for myself.”
Still, it’s a role in which he triumphs.
Lycett’s parents — his father’s a
teacher and mother a graphic designer
— often spoke about workplace
injustices. As a teenager, his favourite
film was Erin Brockovich, starring Julia
Roberts as the paralegal leading a case
Joe Lycett
against a utility company that is
poisoning groundwater.
“The film had a real influence, it
When I instilled in me the glamour of
activism. But I’m still a reluctant
started activist. I wince slightly when I’m
called that because I worry people
looking at probably find it annoying — it
sometimes is annoying if you’re a
the sewage water company CEO. But a lot of us
research, I don’t have a choice but to be activists
now. When I was younger, it felt like
got angry politics carried on in the corner and
didn’t affect me. But now you’ve got to
be opinionated because everyone’s
lives are being affected by what’s going
on in the news in a way they weren’t
so much before.”
Early in his career Lycett used his
fights with bureaucracy as material.
One about a surreal (yet real) email
exchange with York city council over a
parking ticket went viral. “People
relate to small injustices, so this fell
into my lap as a comedic device.”
In 2019 Channel 4 commissioned his
show, Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, a
Gen Z version of Watchdog, with one
critic describing Lycett as “a younger,
less camp Anne Robinson”. “I’ll take
that,” he says, with a grin.
The show made headlines after
Lycett changed his name by deed poll
to Hugo Boss, in protest at the fashion
Clean it up firm’s aggressively litigious pursuit of
wat e r c a m with
companies pa i g“boss”
n in their name.
campaign of the year In 2022 he asked David Beckham
why he didn’t step down from his
reported £10 million ambassadorial
role for Qatar, a country where
homosexual sex is still nominally
punishable by death. If he stayed,
Lycett, who describes himself as
pansexual (attracted to people
regardless of gender identity), said he’d
shred £10,000. Beckham issued a
woolly statement defending the role
after Lycett shredded what turned out
to be fake cash and revealed that he’d
already donated the money to
LGBTQ+ charities. (He did also shred a
copy of Attitude magazine with the
former footballer’s face on the cover.)
This garnered worldwide attention,
but privately Lycett was worried by the
lack of public support he received
from the gay community. “I felt like I’d
got it wrong. I worried I was pissing off
my people by focusing on one
individual. But from what I gather now
I didn’t [annoy them]. They were
quietly cheering me on.”
Before that he’d captured the
nation’s disillusionment, during the Liz
Truss-Rishi Sunak leadership race, by
eviscerating Truss on BBC1’s inaugural
episode of Sunday with Laura
Kuenssberg. Clearly, the producers
booked Lycett as light relief and for
possibly “lefty, liberal wokey” jibes. But
that was too predictable. Instead he
adopted the damning persona of Truss
fanboy, echoing her soundbites. Asked
to comment on one pronouncement,
he replied: “Well, as Liz said there, it
would be wrong to predict the future.
the times | Monday February 19 2024
Even though loads of people have
predicted we’re going to have real
issues with paying energy bills. I think
she’s right to say, basically, let’s not
predict. Let’s just see what happens
next week.” As she finished, he could
be heard whooping: “Fantastic, Liz! I
loved it! Well done, Liz!”
His contemptuous attitude was
fuelled by his fury at the government’s
“consistent lying” over partygate. In
comparison, Lycett had spent
lockdown unable to visit his best
friend, who was dying of bowel cancer,
and who — because of restrictions —
had “a tiny, insufficient funeral”.
The chance to be in a studio with
the two candidates (Sunak was also
present) was a golden opportunity.
“But I wasn’t intending to do anything
newsworthy. I certainly didn’t think it
would be a defining moment in my
life. I was intending to flog tickets for
my tour. [What I did] was very much
an on-the-day thing.”
The enormity of what he’d done hit
him on the way home, when he had a
panic attack. “I was tired and I was
suffering from panic attacks anyway
after my friend’s death. Some sort of
chemical went and it was a release.”
He slipped in a jibe at Sunak,
although his chances of winning the
leadership were by then zero. “[He] is
not going to be prime minister, so you
might as well have interviewed Peter
Andre,” he told Kuenssberg.
“He seemed like a little boy on a day
trip, he knew he wasn’t going to win so
it was just a bit of fun for him,” he says
now. “I didn’t engage with him — I
was angry with all the cabinet but he
seemed very well-mannered. Who
knew then he would be arguably
worse than she was from a policy
point of view.”
Lycett thinks Sunak’s a worse PM
than Truss? “Yes, he’s been a bad
prime minister. He presented well, as
someone in control, but you only need
to look at the Rwanda policy and how
desperately they’re clinging on to see
there aren’t adults in charge. It seems
like chaos, a real mess.”
I presume he’ll vote Labour. “I’m not
sure. It might be fun just to vote Tory.
I’m not aligned to any political party
and I don’t want to tell people how to
vote — who am I to tell anyone what
to do? I do feel nervous about the
[election]. Whatever the results I don’t
think it’s a cause for elation. We’ve got
big problems and I don’t envy whoever
wins as well because they’ve got a real
shitshow to deal with.”
Inevitably, he is now asked if he
fancies entering politics. “I’ve no
interest in that level of intrusion. And
you know what? I’m selfish. I don’t
want to deal with someone’s bin issues,
I want to get on with my bin issues.”
Yet Lycett knows he’s found a
calling. The injustices he is asked to
investigate keep growing (he was
approached about the Post Office
scandal but felt he couldn’t treat the
subject with humour) and “hopefully”
will highlight many more.
Still, he’s hoping for some light relief
with his forthcoming Channel 4
variety show Late Night Lycett. “I read
Maggie Nelson’s book On Freedom,
which talks about how there’s so much
violence in the world that to make art
is in and of itself a form of rebellion.
The line is ‘You can’t punch someone
whilst thinking.’ I do think there’s
value in making art and being silly, but
I’ve found myself on a trajectory
where I’m slagging off water CEOs.”
Joe Lycett vs Sewage is on Channel 4
tomorrow at 9pm
Could an anger workshop
help with my midlife rage?
What it’s like to
spend two hours
(and £40) venting
your inner fury.
By Fleur Britten
I
am in a low-lit wellness space in
a Shoreditch basement with
about 30 other — mostly female
millennial — attendees. We’re
all screaming at the tops of our
voices to Rage Against the
Machine’s Killing in the Name,
stamping our feet, shaking
our heads and letting out some
bloodcurdling screeches as the band
repeatedly yell, “F*** you, I won’t do
what you tell me ...”
This is not some weird rock fan club
but a “sacred rage” workshop at the
spiritual emporium Fire + Alchemy in
east London. It is, says our facilitator,
Rachael Morley, a direct channel for
releasing emotions held in the body —
and, boy, is everyone going for it. “I’m
giving you all permission to have that
f***ing tantrum, because seriously, we
all need it,” she shouts above the din.
“This is your space to be too much.”
Honestly, if a passer-by looked
through the window, they’d definitely
call the police.
As a single working parent to two
adorable wind-up merchants, aged 12
and 8, I don’t mind admitting that my
mum rage is pretty close to the
surface. Mornings go a bit like this:
“How many times do I have to tell
you? Ugh, just stop fighting. Look, if
you don’t stop, I’ll, I’ll ...” Then,
inevitably, I lose my temper and suffer
the guilt and shame all day. I’m one of
the many mothers who took comfort
in an essay that the American writer
Minna Dubin wrote for The New York
Times in 2020, which went viral on
social media: “The rage mothers
don’t talk about.” Its standfirst was:
“Mothers are supposed to be patient
martyrs, so our rage festers beneath
our shame.” Hard relate.
So I was curious to try Morley’s
promise of “emotional release without
judgment”. Her workshops (£40 for
two hours) are, she says, beneficial for
those who suppress their negative
emotions or fear they are “too much”
or, equally, for those who are prone
to angry, uncontrolled outbursts that
they later regret. Morley says the
practice “helps you process your
emotions, frees up space within” and
prevents the “long-term damage
that comes with pushing down
negative feelings”.
If you remember the Seventies,
you may recall the Californian
psychotherapist Arthur Janov and his
primal therapy. He believed that
screaming could release repressed
childhood trauma. Despite
endorsement from, among others,
John Lennon and Yoko Ono, it fell out
of favour owing to a lack of scientific
support. Today’s spiritual set, however,
holds no truck with science — who
needs hard evidence when it’s sacred?
Morley says her workshop, which
she’s been running for a couple of
years, is her own design, and combines
scream therapy with breathwork,
physical movement, shamanic
drumming and gongs to help to “move
that stuck energy” — and all in a safe
space. She also hosts events at festivals
such as Wilderness and Soul Circus.
Others have clearly had similar ideas
— you can find sacred rage workshops
(or “ceremonies”) across Europe, the
US and online.
In Shoreditch, Morley guides us
through waves of stompy, shouty
peaks and quieter breathing exercises.
I tire quickly of faking my rage and
feel surprisingly peaceful (if hoarse)
after all the yelling. Several of my
neighbours are now wailing and
blubbing, raw emotion spilling out of
them. They have evidently reached a
point of genuine catharsis. Morley says
being able to release emotion in a
controlled setting like this is a muscle
that needs practice: “We’re not used to
activating that noise and letting it take
you,” she says. The few men in the
room are noticeably quiet.
When Holly Brown, 25, a reiki
teacher, tried Morley’s workshop, she
found herself sobbing with “noises
coming out of my throat, and even
really coughing — there was so much
release. It’s like I went into a trance
and released years of anger.” Her
sense of peace was longer lasting.
“I felt lighter and more accepting of
the world for weeks afterwards,” she
7
times2
says. Morley says that if tension arises
with her boyfriend, they put on some
punk and “scream and punch the air
together. I allow the emotion to come
forwards and afterwards feel less
anxious, more clear.” She advises me
to do the same with my kids: “Children
need a safe place to express their
emotions. They can’t do that at
school.” The next time I get angry, I
consider this — and then the slime
that’s freshly embedded in the carpet
— and frankly feel too indignant to
care about their emotions.
So what do the experts think? “It
can be profoundly cathartic,” says the
psychotherapist Mike Fisher, author
of Beating Anger and co-founder
of the British Association of Anger
Management, which has been offering
courses since 1997. “Anger is better out
than in. If you can access that space
of rage and fury, you’re going to feel
lighter and liberated, like you’ve got
something off your chest.”
As a culture, he adds, “We’re so
repressed. It’s all about sucking it in,
then people act it out with drugs,
alcohol and a whole range of
addictions until they explode and end
up in workshops like ours. When
we’re socially conditioned to believe
anger is a massive no-no, being
allowed to go apeshit can be healthy.
People feel the relief of not having
to carry that fury.”
While Fisher says he can base his
approval on “empirical evidence from
Fleur Britten the work I’ve been doing for many,
many years”, the scientific community
does not agree.
“This is such a prominent myth, it
even has a name,” says Dr Ryan
Martin, a psychology professor at the
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
and author of Why We Get Mad (he
also has 257,000 Instagram followers).
“We call it the catharsis myth.” He
says the research shows “that catharsis
like this not only doesn’t work to
decrease anger, people who [do it]
regularly are more likely to be
angry and aggressive afterwards.
Psychologists are pretty unanimous
that these ideas are not just ineffective
but dangerous.”
So what’s going on psychologically?
First, Martin says, there’s the idea that
“practice makes permanent” — in
other words, “you’re not really ‘letting
anything out’, you’re just practising
what you’ll do later”. Second, “you’re
keeping your angry thoughts right at
the surface, instead of trying to do the
If you can opposite, which is to relax, distract,
rethink, reframe”.
access that This is unlikely to deter the sacred
ragers. These women are, they say,
space of reclaiming their right to fulminate —
rage and for them it’s a feminist act.
“I used to cry a lot,” Brown says.
fury, you “It’s more socially acceptable [now].
But this helped me accept my anger,
are going and it feels supportive to my life.”
So, boyfriends, take those bins out
to feel — you’ve been warned.
Rachael Morley’s Sacred Rage
lighter and Ceremony is at Fire + Alchemy,
Shoreditch, London,
liberated rachaelmorley.com
8 Monday February 19 2024 | the times

first night
classical dance
LPO/Gimeno Royal Ballet New Works
Royal Festival Hall Royal Opera House (135min)
{{{{( {{{{(

T T
he Spanish took charge of
this fascinating London
Philharmonic concert,
supplying conductor, soloist
and world premiere: a “not
quite” piano concerto called Ciudad sin
Sueño (City That Does Not Sleep) by
the 39-year-old Francisco Coll. I have
enjoyed Coll’s extrovert, energetic
pieces in the past but sometimes felt
their structure a bit random. This
20-minute piece, although described as
a “fantasia”, is much more organised.
A bright, brittle opening and
stomping, syncopated finale enclose a
slow, emotionally charged central
section. The whole piece exudes
Spanishness, from the title (from a
Lorca poem) and the evident
flamenco influences in the twisting
lines and stamping rhythms to its
obvious conception as a companion
piece to Manuel de Falla’s piano and
orchestra piece, Nights in the Gardens
his season the Royal Ballet
has packed all its new work
into one Festival of New
Choreography taking place
this month. Four world
premieres by four choreographers in
one night — that’s New Works, a
programme alive with incredible
variety and creative vigour, performed
by dancers at the top of their game.
It begins with Boundless, Gemma
Bond’s playground for 12 dancers set to
Joey Roukens’s vivacious score for two
pianos (Kate Shipway and Robert
Clark) and orchestra. Bond’s classical
choreography — spontaneous, sparky
Akiya Henry as Goneril, Danny Sapani as Lear and Faith Omole as Regan in a revelatory production and full of surprises — keeps the
dancers on their toes, while in a pause
for reflection there’s a lovely duet for
Almost a masterpiece Yasmine Naghdi and Ryoichi Hirano
that looks as if he is trying to keep her
from flying away.
Joshua Junker eschews the classical
(his dancers wear socks) in Never

of Spain, which followed it here.
But Coll isn’t in the business of
supplying kitsch Spanish postcards in
music. His material may draw
obliquely on folk traditions, but his
idiom is hard-edged contemporary. A
former protégé of Thomas Adès, he
shares with the Englishman a liking
for busy counterpoints at the top
and bottom of the sound spectrum but
not much in the middle, which makes
for very clear textures. That even goes
for the piano writing. It’s rarely
chordal and much more likely to be
sending single lines spiralling and
pirouetting above the orchestra.
There are also ironic touches —
rude trombone glissandos and bangs
and shimmers of percussion — as well
as an atmospheric middle section of
rising string lines and tremolandos
evoking a strumming guitar. And it
was superbly delivered here by the
pianist Javier Perianes and an
orchestra clearly well prepared by
Gustavo Gimeno.
I liked Gimeno’s unfussy way of
conducting Stravinsky too. The early
Scherzo fantastique was delivered with
a beguiling, light touch, and the suite
from The Firebird showcased
immaculate playing all round. Gimeno,
once principal percussionist of the
great Concertgebouw Orchestra in
Amsterdam, is now rising up the
conducting world. British orchestras
should employ him more often, before
he becomes too pricey.
Richard Morrison
T
Yaël Farber’s he first half is not just one of
the best King Lears I’ve ever
Shakespeare seen, but one of the best
staging hits the Shakespeares I’ve seen. The
heights — in last 90-odd minutes are …
pretty good. So let’s stick with the
the first act, revelatory, feels-like-a-new-play
says Dominic opening half of Yaël Farber’s
production for now. It’s a grim yet
Maxwell gorgeously lucid place I would happily
revisit again and again.
theatre We are in a modern Albion with
smart workwear for courtiers. The
King Lear king — Danny Sapani, a great theatre
Almeida, N1 (210min) actor who deserves to be better known
{{{{( — stages the splitting of his kingdom
as a miked-up public declaration of
love. Two daughters stiffly play ball.
One does not. Society crumbles with
one toddler tantrum from her father.
And yet, garish as the conflict gets,
Farber makes time first for us to
glimpse the real affection that almost
all parties will soon let go of.
Everything makes sense. Everything
grips. Sapani’s decline comes slowly
and with a struggle as he moves from
smart blue suit to parka to prison
overalls. He is tremendous. Akiya
Henry’s priggishly supercilious Goneril
and Faith Omole’s elegantly vindictive
Regan do their best for a while, but
Dad isn’t an easy guy. Then they do
their worst.
If evil Edmund can be an eye-
gouging pantomime villain, Fra Fee
lends him an arresting alpha-male
vitality with a sincere hunger for
sensation. Matthew Tennyson as his
half-brother, Edgar, starts off as a
nerdy nice guy and later dons grey
underpants and crazy-clown face
paint to go mock-mad in the country.
Now, as usual, that “Tom’s a-cold”
sequence is a test of endurance both
for him and for the audience, but he
gives it a good go.
In fact, everyone puts a twist on
their character in a production that
grasps how this is a story full of
dissembling. The victims are those
who aren’t true to themselves and
those who can’t find a role for
themselves. I’ve never seen wiser,
wittier counsel than Clarke Peters’s
laconic Fool.
The staging is Spartan deluxe: a
spare set by Merle Hensel framed with
spotlights and smoke and constant
ambient music. That works, but it
wouldn’t mean much without
language that feels intimate, not
ancient. Amplifying the cast helps, but
you’d buy into these relationships even
in mime form.
Perhaps it’s the interval, almost
two hours in, that breaks the spell
slightly. Or maybe it’s the way that
Shakespeare sidelines his leading man.
Yet latterly the awful infighting doesn’t
grip quite the same way, even with
superb acting and singing from a
guerrilla-outfitted Gloria Obianyo as
Cordelia. The first half feels like a
masterpiece. The second feels like an
elegant extended epilogue to that
masterpiece.
To March 30, almeida.co.uk
Known, a dark piece that for the most
part treats its 19 dancers as a single
beast. Themes of friendship and
community can be read into their
loose and flowing moves, while hints
of an unsettling doom are resolved by
the peaceful ending for two dancers.
It’s set to a recorded score by Nils
Frahm (techno, metronomic) and
Vikingur Olafsson (melodic piano).
After the interval comes the biggest
hit: For What It’s Worth, a burst of
sunshine by Mthuthuzeli November.
It’s inspired by his background in
South African street dance but to that
he adds a joyous classical sheen — all
the dancers glow. The music (by
November and Alex Wilson, superbly
orchestrated by George Morton) and
the costumes (by Yann Seabra) are as
vibrant as the dance, which swings and
sways deliriously. It’s fronted by an
extraordinary Mayara Magri, whose
solo is like a beautiful prayer and
whose deep-bodied fluidity and kinetic
exuberance are off the charts.
Jessica Lang ends the evening with a
touch of romance and a little flirty
humour in her well-mannered,
classical romp Twinkle. Shipway plays
Brahms’s famous lullaby and then
Mozart’s 12 variations on Twinkle,
Twinkle, Little Star. William Bracewell,
alone in the night-time at the start,
leads a playful pack of ten with his
handsome dancing, while Fumi
Kaneko soars elegantly.
Debra Craine
To Feb 21, roh.org.uk

O
pera North likes staging
opera unlikely double bills. This
is another. Mascagni’s 1890
Cavalleria masterpiece Cavalleria
rusticana/Aleko rusticana is probably the
Grand, Leeds (155min) world’s favourite one-act opera,
{{{{( whereas Aleko — first performed three
years later and composed by the
19-year-old Rachmaninov — is a
rarity, despite offering an hour of lush,
tuneful and potent music.
They fit well together if you want a
double dose of adultery, heartbreak
and murder. And this ingenious
staging by the Polish director Karolina
Sofulak makes even more explicit
links. The superb baritone Robert
Hayward adds to his extensive
repertoire of psychopaths, thugs and
broken losers with not only the
betrayed and vengeful Alfio in the
Mascagni but also the betrayed and
vengeful Aleko in the Rachmaninov.
One consequence is that he gets to
shoot dead the Uruguayan tenor
Andrés Presno (playing
Turiddu in one opera and
the Lover in the other)
twice in the same
evening. That’s harsh.
Presno may have his
volume control set
permanently at triple
forte but he has a terrific
voice and exudes
brooding gloom.
Having decided that Aleko
is actually Alfio 20 years later,
Sofulak and her designers Charles
Edwards (sets) and Gabrielle Dalton
(costumes) give the operas very
different locations. Cavalleria rusticana
(based on her 2017 Opera North
production) is set in a grim Seventies
Poland of food queues, hardboard
buildings, clapped-out cars and
hatchet-faced people whose
emotions find outlets in
religious fanaticism or
jealous rage. Both at
once, in the case of
Giselle Allen’s
wonderfully unhinged
and venomous
Santuzza, who turns
the Easter Hymn into a
pervy adoration and then
crucifixion of Turiddu.
In stark contrast Aleko is
taken out of the Gypsy camp
envisaged by Rachmaninov and placed
in a trippy Nineties hippy commune
where peace and love reign — until
they don’t. That point comes when the
outsider Aleko, haunted by characters
from his former life, sees history
repeating itself when his new wife,
Zemfira (the excellent Elin Pritchard,
left with Presno) takes a lover.
Sofulak’s directorial style is like a
slow-motion ballet supercharged with
anguish. It won’t appeal to all, but it
gripped me. And the conductor
Antony Hermus plays his part,
encouraging impassioned orchestral
playing and stonking chorus singing,
not just in Mascagni’s Easter Hymn
but in the extraordinarily baleful
music Rachmaninov gives the chorus
in his finale — a glimpse of where his
dark imagination was heading.
Richard Morrison
To February 24, then touring,
operanorth.co.uk
the times | Monday February 19 2024
From Four Weddings to sci-fi maestro
He found fame as
Bernard in the
classic film. Now
David Haig is
adapting a classic
for the stage, says
Dominic Maxwell
‘Y
ou’ve got me at the
right moment,”
says David Haig,
the actor who for
decades cornered
the market in
playing affable but
uptight Brits with
frayed comic brio. And there we
were thinking he was easing into
retirement, aged 68. He smiles at the
thought. He hasn’t been on TV much
— a recurring role in Sky’s thriller
series COBRA aside — and hasn’t
appeared on stage since 2017. Yet,
with a growing career as a playwright,
he’s never had more going on. Some
of it not remotely what you’d expect
from him.
For immediate proof: we are talking
in the rehearsal room for Minority
Report, his adaptation of the Philip K
Dick story that became a 2002 Steven
Spielberg film starring Tom Cruise.
“It couldn’t be more off-piste for me
to write a sci-fi thriller,” says the man
whose previous plays have been
historical, rather than futuristic;
My Boy Jack was about Rudyard
Kipling and son, while Pressure told
the story of a maverick meteorologist
who urged the Allies to delay the
D-Day landings.
He has another two plays ready to
be staged. He is planning a film
version of Pressure. And, the subject
of international attention after
starring in the first series of Killing Eve
in 2018 (and closer to home too, with
people stopping him in his local park
in southeast London to discuss his
character’s fate), he’s now signed up
for two series of Étoile, a Prime Video
drama about ballet by the makers of
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. That will
keep him busy for two years, although
he will have a few months off around
Christmas. Maybe that will give him
the time to act in one of his new plays;
one about the fractured friendship
between Arthur Conan Doyle and
Harry Houdini, the other a sequel to
an earlier play, The Good Samaritan.
But let’s rewind. Minority Report. A
sci-fi exploration of crime, freedom of
choice and destiny. He admits it is new
terrain. He didn’t know much about
Dick, the prolific American writer
whose work has also been adapted
into films such as Blade Runner and
Total Recall. Yet once the producer
offered Haig the job, his love of a
challenge took over.
“I found it incredibly exciting,” he
says. “Dick’s characters aren’t always
profoundly 3D, but the stories are so
provocative and beautifully structured,
it helped a lot.” He had to keep the
premise of Dick’s short story, which is
about a police chief whose department
can see into the future and arrest
criminals before they offend, but
People beyond that, the Dick estate allowed
shout lines him to change whatever was needed.
He wrote it without worrying much
from The about how it might be staged. “We
haven’t got millions of dollars to do
Thin Blue car chases, so we have used the
limitations as a positive. We’ve
Line at me developed a physical language nearer
to something like War Horse than an
across the explosion of effects.”
He changed the protagonist from a
road. Not man (Cruise, in the film) to a woman
always (Jodie McNee). He also made use of
information that he and the director
seemly Max Webster gathered from their
research into neuroscience and AI.
lines “The route to predicting crime is
absolutely plausible,” he says. “There is
a route via AI that you could predict a
criminal intention. Which then leads
to the question: what is the price of
eradicating crime? The old
conundrum of doing good for the
majority versus the price of the
freedoms you remove.”
Minority Report is at He catches himself, wary of
the Nottingham sounding too academic. “It’s hopefully
Playhouse, to March 9 a blend of the political and the
(nottinghamplayhouse. philosophical which never loses sight
co.uk); Birmingham of the fact that it is a popular thriller.”
Rep, March 22 to Haig is still best known for his
April 6 (birmingham- acting, in films (Four Weddings and a
rep.co.uk); Lyric Funeral, Two Weeks Notice) and TV
Hammersmith, (the sitcoms The Wright Way and The
London, April 19 to Thin Blue Line, and the TV film of My
May 18 (lyric.co.uk) Boy Jack). His favourite work, though,
Left: David Haig. From
top: Roseanna Frascona
and Jodie McNee in
Minority Report;
Sophie Thompson and
Haig in Four Weddings
and a Funeral
is writing or stage acting. “Writing is
good for age. I’m 68 now so I like that
privacy, that quietness.” The writing
has made it hard to find time for stage
work. Still, he looks back fondly on his
decade or so of almost flat-out theatre
work, “most often doing comedy born
of anger, frustration and mania. I don’t
know why,” he says, before giving a
smile. “I think my family would know.”
He made his acting debut at the age
of 11 in a production of Oedipus Rex at
his boarding prep school in Kent. His
background was a mixture of the
military and the artistic; his mother,
Shirley, was an opera singer who gave
up her career when she married his
father, Francis, an army officer. Haig
and his two younger sisters hardly
ever heard their mother sing.
He sometimes locked horns with his
father, who went on to run the
Hayward Gallery in London. “He had
an artistic sensibility, and that’s why I
wrote My Boy Jack. I was fascinated by
this man [Kipling] who was an
apologist for empire, who had this
tyrannical zeal about him, but also
this extraordinary artistic sensibility.
My father in his way incorporated
some of that paradox.”
He hated his independent school,
Rugby, and was expelled during sixth
form for what he says was a collection
of small rebellious acts. The school
wrote to his parents to say that he
would be allowed back if he cut his
hair and stopped wearing zipped boots
and flares. “Completely impossible,” he
9
arts
told them, and instead
finished his A-levels
at a crammer in
Oxford.
His period of
dropping out
continued, and he
went to a kibbutz in
Israel, where he met a
Danish girl. He went
to live with her in
Denmark for two
years off and on,
before returning to
study drama at
Lamda. He started his
career in repertory theatre, breaking
through in the mid-Eighties in shows
at the Royal Court, including Tom and
Viv and Our Country’s Good.
He’s always been able to earn a
living as an actor. Playing Bernard in
Four Weddings and a Funeral “changed
things”, though, and led to his role in
The Thin Blue Line opposite Rowan
Atkinson. “Which of everything I’ve
done is still the thing that people shout
lines from at me across the road. Not
always seemly lines.” He was easy to
spot thanks to being one of the
country’s best-known owners of a
moustache. “I said to [one director],
‘Shall I shave my moustache off for
the role?’ and he said, ‘I’m worried
there is going to be a hole in your
face.’” Still, if there were a David Haig
doll … “It would have a ’tache,
definitely. But I haven’t had it for a
long while now.”
Did his wife like it? “I’ll ask her.” He
has been with Julia Gray since 1979,
but they only married in 2010. They
have five children, ranging in age from
23 to 38, and two grandchildren, with
another on the way. And yes, he says,
having five children is part of what
propelled such a furious work rate for
so long.
Someone from Minority Report
comes in to wrap things up: Haig is
needed to inspect a fight scene. Sci-fi?
Fight scenes? A role in a big American
series? We had better get used to
David Haig off-piste. “There has been
this perception that I am winding
down. Actually I’ve been working on
several things and suddenly they all
explode in one year. So I’m
knackered.”
Knackered, but still not the retiring
type. “I’m in a profession where you
can keep going until you keel over.
And that’s what I hope to do.”
10
times2
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Samurai easy
Fill each grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9.
Where the puzzles overlap, the rows and columns do not go beyond their usual length.
Suko
Place the numbers 1 to 9 in
the spaces so that the
number in each circle is
equal to the sum of the four
surrounding spaces, and
each colour total is correct
Mini
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Fill in the grid so that
every column, every
row and every 3x2
box contains the
digits 1 to 6
Solutions in
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Monday February 19 2024 | the times
More
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Train Tracks
Lay tracks to enable the train to travel
from village A to village B. The numbers
indicate how many sections of track go in
each row and column. There are only
straight sections and curved sections. The
track cannot cross itself.
Killer deadly
Fill the grid so that every column, every row and
every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. Each set of
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Futoshiki
Fill the blank squares so that every row and
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once only. The symbols between the squares
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Solve Times puzzles interactively with
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Codeword Thursday’s solutions SUKO MINI
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Every letter in the
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right, is represented by
a number from 1 to 26. TRAIN TRACKS
Each letter of the
alphabet appears in
the grid at least once.
Use the letters already
provided to work out
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until all 26 letters of
FUTOSHIKI
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SUDOKU KILLER CODEWORD
the times | Monday February 19 2024 11

television & radio

Striking tales of beatings and back scrubs

money to bury his child he had to It wasn’t all doom and gloom,
Carol accept the offer of a stranger that the
baby go in the coffin with their dead
though. Little insights into the miners’
sense of community brought texture.
Midgley relative. Just imagine that.
Roper and his wife didn’t attend
because people might think, “That’s
“The laughter, the humour, the
comradeship — it were brilliant.” I
liked the anecdote about the post-shift
TV review them who can’t afford a funeral.”
“That’s what gets me,” he says. “They
showers. Men would, without a word,
scrub each other’s backs, a “deep,
could have given me a loan.” unconscious act of friendship”.
Heartbreaking. The Congo must have felt quite
I wondered if this film may have congested recently, and that’s just with
missed its moment, coming in the British TV presenters. A month after
wake of Channel 4’s recent series Simon Reeve took a camera crew to
about the events that led to Margaret the jungle, here was Ben Fogle with
Thatcher branding striking leaders the his own, and doing a bit of awkward
“enemy within”. But it had a different dad dancing when villagers welcomed
Miners’ Strike: A Frontline set of interviewees, who were every bit him with a carnival-like celebration,
Story as fascinating: two brothers divided which visibly moved him.
BBC2 because one was striking and one Into the Congo with Ben Fogle was
{{{{{ wasn’t; soup kitchens for villagers but a touch more meditative, philosophical
new fridges for police officers bought and personal than Reeve’s show. It felt
Into the Congo on their overtime. One miner was as if Fogle never wanted to leave. He
with Ben Fogle beaten so badly by a police officer at confided that the Mbendjele people’s
Channel 5 Orgreave that the truncheon broke in philanthropic community, where
{{{{( half. We saw the beating on film. nothing was coveted, everything was

I
have heard some shocking stories
about the miners’ strike, but the
one about Dave Roper’s dead baby
in Miners’ Strike: A Frontline
Story almost beggars belief.
Roper was a striking miner in South
Yorkshire, whose wife went into labour
in the summer of 1984. Their son,
Adam, died a week later. But when
Roper applied for a funeral grant he
was informed he didn’t qualify —
because he was on strike. With no
A former Nottinghamshire police
officer was surprisingly candid, saying
that the police were “used” by the
government, presumably to break the
miners’ spirit. “If you were ever to say
to yourself that you weren’t being
used as a political pawn, you were a
fool,” he says. We were reminded that
even though the trial against miners
at Orgreave collapsed because the
police evidence was unreliable, no
officer has been investigated.
shared and total respect was paid to
the environment was “what I’m
looking for in life — simplicity,
harmony, peace, happiness.”
And he compared the daily “taking
only what you need” from the forest to
our lonelier habit of having someone
drive our groceries to the front door.
They don’t worry about property
prices and school catchment areas,
that’s for sure. They don’t commission
Police clash with miners outside the NUM HQ in Sheffield, 1984 three-part travel series either.

Radio choice Times Radio 2.00 Afternoon Concert

Ben Dowell
One Person Found
This Helpful
Radio 4, 6.30pm
Frank Skinner, above,
oversees this new comedy
panel show that mines the
weird world of online
reviews. The panellists are
given a review and have to
guess the product, which
can be a culinary utensil, a
holiday let or anything else.
We also hear a real online
review and the comedians
have to deliver a wittily
imagined response before
we hear the actual one. It’s
a wild and wacky dive into
the not-always-pleasant
world of the internet. The
guests (of admittedly
varying comic talent) in the
first of six episodes are
Simon Evans, Jessica
Fostekew, Amy Gledhill
and Ahir Shah.
our tv newsletter
Digital, web, smart speaker, app
5.00am James Hanson with Early Breakfast
6.00 Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell with
Times Radio Breakfast 10.00 Matt Chorley
1.00pm Mariella Frostrup 3.00 Jane Garvey
and Fi Glover 5.00 John Pienaar with Times
Radio Drive 7.00 Pienaar and Friends 8.00
The Evening Edition with Kait Borsay
10.00 Carole Walker 1.00am Stories of
Our Times 1.30 Highlights from Matt
Chorley 2.00 The Best of Times Radio
Radio 2
FM: 88-90.2 MHz
6.30am The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show 9.30
Vernon Kay. A session by Paloma Faith in the
Radio 2 Piano Room. Plus, the actor Martin
Compston chooses his Tracks of My Years
12.00 Jeremy Vine 2.00pm Scott Mills 4.00
Sara Cox 6.30 Sara Cox’s Half Wower 7.00
Jo Whiley’s Shiny Happy Playlist 7.30 Jo
Whiley 9.00 The Blues Show with Cerys
Matthews. With guest Bob Hall 10.00 Trevor
Nelson’s Magnificent 7. Seven of Rhythm
Nation’s biggest hits, uplifting tunes and
essential throwbacks 10.30 Trevor Nelson’s
Rhythm Nation 12.00 OJ Borg 2.30am
One Hit Wonders with OJ Borg 3.00
Pick of the Pops (r) 4.00 Owain Wyn Evans
Radio 3
FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz
6.30am Breakfast
Petroc Trelawny presents. Including 7.00,
8.00 News. 7.30, 8.30 News headlines
9.00 Essential Classics
Georgia Mann presents music and features
12.00 Composer of the Week:
Maddalena Sirmen (1745-1818)
and Her World
Donald Macleod explores the life and music
of the Italian composer, violinist, and singer,
beginning with her early years and her
education at one of Venice’s orphanages.
Sirmen (Violin Concerto No 3 in A, Op 3
No 3 — excerpt; Trio Sonata No 5 in G, Op 1
No 5 — Allegro Moderato; Trio Sonata No 5
in G, Op 1 No 5 — Rondo Allegro; String
Quartet No 5 in F; and Violin Concerto No 3
in A, Op 3 No 3); and Bertoni (Veni Creator
— excerpt; and Orfeo — excerpt)
1.00pm Live Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
Hannah French presents a live recital from
London’s Wigmore Hall with the Leonkoro
Quartet. Janácek (String Quartet No 1 —
Kreutzer Sonata); and Schumann
(String Quartet in A, Op 41 No 3)
Penny Gore introduces a recent recording of
Walton’s Violin Concerto performed by
soloist James Ehnes and the BBC
Philharmonic, under the conductor John
Storgards. Including — Albéniz, arr. Joan
Trayter (The Magic Opal Suite — Prelude);
Tchaikovsky (Valse-scherzo in C, Op 34,
for violin and orchestra); Rachmaninov
(Vespers —All-Night Vigil, Op 37); Mozart
(Symphony No 4 in D, K 19); Walton (Violin
Concerto); Purcell (Welcome to All the
Pleasures — Ode for St Cecilia’s Day, Z 339);
and Gershwin (Porgy and Bess suite)
4.30 New Generation Artists
The pianist Tom Borrow plays Janácek, the
violist Timothy Ridout and the pianist James
Baillieu perform Tertis. Janacek (Sonata 1
X.1905 in E flat minor — Z ulice From the
Street); Tertis (Hier au soir — Pensée
Musicale); Stenhammar (I Jag horde din rost
— I Heard Your Voice from Hennes ord —
Her Words); and Fergus McCreadie
(Snowcap with Improvisation)
5.00 In Tune
Music and arts news
7.00 Classical Mixtape
A selection of classical favourites mixed with
jazz, folk and music from around the world
7.30 Radio 3 in Concert
The Berlin Philharmonic is joined by the
soloist Alexandre Kantorow for Liszt’s Piano
Concerto No 2, and perform Shostakovich’s
Symphony No 4 in C minor. Liszt (Piano
Concerto No 2); and Shostakovich
(Symphony No 4 in C minor, Op 43)
9.30 Compline
A reflective service of night prayer for the
first week of Lent from All Saints Church in
Tooting, south London with words and music
for the end of the day. Introit: Christe qui lux
es et dies (Byrd); Blessing of Light: Phos
hilaron (Plainsong). Preces (Plainsong).
Hymn: Before the Ending of the Day
(Plainsong). Psalm 32 (Plainsong).
Reading: Luke 4 vv.1-4. Responsory:
Into Thy Hands, O Lord (Plainsong). Canticle:
Nunc dimittis (Plainsong). Anthem:
In manus tuas (Judith Ward).
Siglo de Oro, Patrick Allies (conductor)
10.00 Music Matters
Tom Service explores musical theatre
over the past three centuries (r)
10.45 The Essay: Adrian Edmondson
— Signs of Life
The actor and comedian considers
moments of personal and social change (r)
11.00 Night Tracks
A soundtrack for late-night listening
12.30am Through the Night
Radio 4
FM: 92.4-94.6 MHz LW: 198kHz MW: 720 kHz
5.30am News Briefing
5.43 Prayer for the Day
5.45 Farming Today
5.58 Tweet of the Day (r)
6.00 Today
With Mishal Husain and Justin Webb
9.00 Start the Week
Tom Sutcliffe discusses how the arts can
help challenge and change the world
9.45 (LW) Daily Service
9.45 Book of the Week:
James and John — A True Story
of Prejudice and Murder
By Chris Bryant (1/5)
10.00 Woman’s Hour
Topical conversation with Emma Barnett
11.00 The Gatekeepers
Jamie Bartlett examines how the dream of
social media soon started to fall apart (3/8)
11.30 The Bottom Line
Evan Davis discusses how businesses
cope with the misalignment between
consumers’ intentions and actions (5/8) (r)
12.01pm (LW) Shipping Forecast
12.04 You and Yours
1.00 The World at One
1.45 Blood Matters
The controversy behind a revolutionary
medicine administered in the 1970s (1/5)
2.00 The Archers (r)
2.15 Drama: Sabine
By Mark Healy. When Sabine’s body is found
at Beachy Head in an apparent suicide, her
sister is convinced she was murdered.
Mystery starring Sorcha Groundsell (1/5)
2.45 The Chronicles of Burke Street
BoyBoy’s Story by Ingrid Persaud (1/5) (r)
3.00 Counterpoint
The second semi-final (11/13)
3.30 The Food Programme
Exploring the world of bitter tastes (r)
4.00 The Infinite Monkey Cage
Brian Cox and Robin Ince explore the
science of Ancient Egypt (1/6) (r)
4.30 The Artificial Human
Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong answer
important questions about AI (1/6)
5.00 PM
5.54 (LW) Shipping Forecast
6.00 Six O’Clock News
6.30 One Person Found This Helpful
Frank Skinner hosts a panel game based on
online reviews. See Radio Choice (1/6)
7.00 The Archers
Jolene comes to a decision, and Ed has
reason to celebrate
7.15 Front Row
8.00 Investigating Russia’s War Crimes
James Jackson follows the work of refugees
documenting war crimes in Ukraine
8.30 Analysis
How autocrats manipulate the law and
bureaucracy to take democracies apart (3/8)
9.00 Young Again
Kirsty Young asks Peter Capaldi what advice
he would give his younger self (1/6) (r)
9.30 Start the Week (r)
10.00 The World Tonight
With James Coomarasamy
10.45 Book at Bedtime:
What You Can See from Here
By Mariana Leky (1/10)
11.00 Lent Talks
Reflecting on the theme of Friendship (1/6)
11.15 The Kids Are Alt Right?
Investigating the role of young people in
radical right wing politics (1/5) (r)
11.30 Today in Parliament
12.00 News and Weather
12.30am Book of the Week:
James and John — A True Story of
Prejudice and Murder (1/5) (r)
12.48 Shipping Forecast
1.00 As BBC World Service
Radio 4 Extra
Digital only
8.00am Steptoe and Son 8.30 The
Wordsmiths at Gorsemere 9.00 Wordaholics
9.30 Sneakiepeeks 10.00 Antique Silver
10.45 The Reconstruction Job 11.00 The
Toff on the Farm 11.30 Agatha Christie’s
The Mysterious Affair at Styles 12.00 The
Warlow Experiment 12.15pm Rachel’s
Cousins 12.30 Welcome to Our Village,
Please Invade Carefully 1.00 Steptoe and
Son 1.30 The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere
2.00 Wordaholics 2.30 Sneakiepeeks 3.00
Antique Silver 3.45 The Reconstruction Job
4.00 The Toff on the Farm 4.30 Agatha
Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles
5.00 The Warlow Experiment 5.15 Rachel’s
Cousins 5.30 Welcome to Our Village, Please
Invade Carefully 6.00 Steptoe and Son 6.30
The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere 7.00
Wordaholics 7.30 Sneakiepeeks 8.00 The
Moth Radio Hour. Last in the series 8.55
Inheritance Tracks. With Gabrielle 9.00
A Good Read 9.30 Fahrenheit 451. By Ray
Bradbury 9.45 24 Kildare Road. By Katie
Hims 10.00 Comedy Club: Just a Minute.
With Tony Hawks, Eleanor Tiernan, Heidi
Regan and Paul Merton. Last in the series
10.30 Flight of the Conchords. Comedy
with Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement
11.00 The News Quiz 11.30 Concrete Cow
Radio 5 Live
MW: 693, 909
5.00am Wake Up to Money 6.00 5 Live
Breakfast 9.00 Nicky Campbell 11.00 Naga
Munchetty 1.00pm Nihal Arthanayake
4.00 5 Live Drive 7.00 5 Live Sport 9.00
5 Live Sport: 5 Live Cricket 10.00 Gordon
Smart 1.00am Dotun Adebayo
talkSPORT
MW: 1053, 1089 kHz
5.00am Early Breakfast 6.00 Breakfast with
Jeff Stelling 10.00 Jim White and Simon
Jordan 1.00pm Hawksbee and Jacobs 4.00
Drive with Andy Goldstein and Darren Bent
7.00 Live Monday GameNight: Everton v
Crystal Palace (Kick-off 8.00). At Goodison
Park 10.00 Sports Bar 1.00am Extra Time
TalkRadio
Digital only
5.00am James Max 6.00 Talk Today
with Jeremy Kyle and Rosie Wright 9.30
Kev and Alex 10.00 Julia Hartley Brewer
1.00pm Kevin O’Sullivan and Alex Phillips
3.00 Ian Collins 4.00 Vanessa Feltz 6.00
The Talk. Debating hot topics 7.00 Prime
Time with Rosanna Lockwood 8.00 The
Independent Republic of Mike Graham
10.00 Petrie Hosken 1.00am Paul Ross
6 Music
Digital only
5.00am Emily Pilbeam 7.30 Lauren Laverne
10.30 Mary Anne Hobbs 1.00pm Chris
Hawkins 4.00 Steve Lamacq’s Teatime
Session 7.00 New Music Fix Daily 9.00 Riley
& Coe 11.00 Artist in Residence 12.00 In
Their Own Words: Depeche Mode 1.00am
Festival: Depeche Mode 2.00 Depeche Mode
Live 4.00 The Depeche Mode Playlist
Virgin Radio
Digital only
6.30am Jayne Middlemiss 10.00 The Ryan
Tubridy Show 1.00pm Kate Lawler 4.00
Dick & Dom 7.00 Bam 10.00 Amy Voce
1.00am Sean Goldsmith 4.00 Steve Denyer
Classic FM
FM: 100-102 MHz
6.30am Dan Walker 10.00 Alexander
Armstrong 1.00pm Requests 2.00
Anne-Marie Minhall 4.00 Margherita Taylor
7.00 Relaxing Evenings 10.00 Calm Classics
1.00am Bill Overton 4.00 Early Breakfast
12 Monday February 19 2024 | the times

television & radio

Viewing Guide important one, written height of the pandemic. conspiracists later start more than just an water bottle outside a
with precision, panache We see most of the claiming that it is a unpleasant brush with
Curb Your polling booth. Larry
Ben Dowell and some anger by Line action through the eyes scam. When one of her the virus, especially in Enthusiasm “involvement” David,
Sky Comedy/Now,
of Duty’s Jed Mercurio, of Joanne Froggatt’s nurses falls ill, you want a scene that deals with as an approving Bruce
Breathtaking the former doctor Dr Abbey Henderson, to know if she will pull a cardiac patient who
3am/9pm
Springsteen calls him,
ITV1, 9pm
Prasanna Puwanarajah who begins her shift through. So too for the cannot be resuscitated Larry is keen to revel in is so beloved of the
A drama set and palliative doctor at a fictional London cancer patient who because the team his status as a latter-day lib-left showbiz pack
Top in a Covid Rachel Clarke, on hospital with dark needs an operation. doesn’t have the right Rosa Parks, especially that when he bumps
pick ward shown whose Covid memoir it stories already The camerawork under equipment. All the after last week’s saga into Sienna Miller at an
over three draws. It’s packed with emerging from Italian Craig Viveiros’s assured stories are based on over the racially airport he is convinced
consecutive nights? Do jeopardy, dramatising wards. Her concern and direction makes this real events. As with offensive “lawn jockey” she is flirting with him.
we really want to relive scenes that feel anxiety are obvious, feel like a war zone for the superb ITV drama statue. He faces court “Keep in touch,” she
those dark times? uncomfortably close to even behind a much of the time. It Mr Bates vs The Post over electoral violations says. They are words
Well, this is not an easy what it was like inside substandard facemask, may be too much for Office this might from when he gave that he is determined
watch but it’s an a Covid ward at the especially when those who experienced enrage you. Leon’s Auntie Rae a to take literally.

BBC1 BBC2 ITV1 Channel 4 Channel 5

6.00am Breakfast 9.30 Morning Live. Gethin Jones and 6.30am Bargain Hunt (r) 7.15 Clean It, Fix It (r) 8.00 6.00am Good Morning Britain. Morning magazine 6.10am Countdown. Tim Rice is in Dictionary Corner (r) 6.00am Milkshake! 9.15 Jeremy Vine. The broadcaster
Early

Michelle Ackerley present 10.45 Animal Park. Kate helps
with keepers to analyse the lions’ social structure (r)
(AD) 11.15 Homes Under the Hammer. Terraces in Derby
and Stoke and a shop with space for a trio of flats in
Margate (r) (AD) 12.15pm Bargain Hunt. Natasha
Raskin Sharp has a mystery to solve at Newark antiques
fair 1.00 BBC News at One; Weather 1.30 BBC Regional
News; Weather 1.45 Doctors. A student hides a secret
that could change his relationship (AD) 2.15 Clean It, Fix
It. The team is in Middlesex to help a homeowner with
limited mobility 3.00 Escape to the Country. Steve Brown
helps a couple to find a home in the Fens with at least an
acre of land 3.45 The Repair Shop. Will Kirk is entrusted
with the restoration of a cherished family crib, while
Dominic Chinea hopes to rejuvenate a rusted pogo stick
that’s lost its spring (r) (AD) 4.30 Antiques Road Trip.
Dealers Irita Marriot and Mark Hill set out on their first
trip together. Irita buys a very rare tea-set, while Mark
invests in mid-century Italian ceramics (r) 5.15 Pointless.
Presented by Alexander Armstrong (r) 6.00 BBC News
at Six; Weather 6.30 BBC Regional News; Weather
Sign Zone: The Hairy Bikers Go West (r) (AD, SL) 9.00
BBC News 12.15pm Politics Live 1.00 Impossible (r)
1.45 The Tournament. Knockout quiz hosted by Alex Scott
(r) 2.30 The Farmers’ Country Showdown. Two sheep
farmers compete in Lambeth Country Show (r) 3.00
Saved and Remade. Transforming unused treasures into
functional items (r) 3.30 Murder, Mystery and My Family.
Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein investigate an infamous
Victorian poisoning case in which a woman was sentenced
to death for killing her husband with arsenic (r) (AD)
4.15 Animals with Cameras. Close-up footage of brown
bears in north-east Turkey, and finding out whether dogs
are an effective way of protecting sheep from wolves in
southern France (r) (AD) 5.15 Flog It! Thomas Plant and
David Fletcher are at Norwich Cathedral to select items to
take to auction, including a Masonic watch and a sought
after commemorative mug by Eric Ravilious (r) 6.00
Richard Osman’s House of Games. Previous winners
Mark Chapman, Will Kirk, Amanda Lamb and Rachel
Parris return 6.30 Rick Stein’s Food Stories. Rick tries
rhubarb pizza and goes coracle fishing in Wales (AD)
featuring a lively mix of news and current affairs, plus
health, entertainment and lifestyle features 9.00
Lorraine. Entertainment, current affairs and fashion news,
as well as showbiz stories and gossip. Presented by
Lorraine Kelly 10.00 This Morning. A mix of chat,
lifestyle features, advice and competitions. Including
Local Weather 12.30pm Loose Women. Studio discussion
from a female perspective 1.30 ITV News; Weather 1.55
Regional News; Weather 2.00 Dickinson’s Real Deal.
David Dickinson and the team visit Peterborough, where
Fay Rutter is impressed by a military chess set and a
cockpit control panel lands on James Layte’s table (r)
(AD) 3.00 Lingo. A husband and wife from Essex, London
sisters, and a Newcastle couple compete (r) 4.00 Tipping
Point. Ben Shephard hosts the arcade-themed quiz in
which contestants drop tokens down a choice of four
chutes in the hope of winning a £10,000 jackpot 5.00 The
Chase. Bradley Walsh presents as contestants from
Stowmarket, Nottingham, London and Sunderland work
as a team to take on one of the ruthless Chasers 6.00
Regional News; Weather 6.30 ITV News; Weather
6.50 Cheers (r) 7.40 3rd Rock from the Sun (r) (AD) 8.30
Everybody Loves Raymond (r) (AD) 10.00 Frasier (r) (AD)
11.00 The Great House Giveaway. An electrician and an
estate agent buy a property together in Rugby (r) 12.00
Channel 4 News Summary 12.05pm Sun, Sea and Selling
Houses. Manuel’s doctor challenges him to find a relaxing
hobby (r) 1.05 Find It, Fix It, Flog It. Henry Cole and
Simon O’Brien head to Dumfries and Galloway (r) (AD)
2.10 Countdown. Sara Davies is in Dictionary Corner
3.00 A Place in the Sun. Ben Hillman helps a software
developer and a property manager find their dream
Portuguese home on a budget of £235,000 (r) 4.00
A New Life in the Sun. In Spain, two British B&B owners
try to bounce back after the pandemic, while in Italy, two
high-flyers try to turn a derelict vineyard into a fruitful
business (r) 5.00 Château DIY. Julia may have bitten off
more than she can chew in putting on a Mad Hatter’s
tea party in her grounds (AD) 6.00 Come Dine with Me.
The first host on a week in and around Norwich is a
mind reader and magician 6.30 The Simpsons. Homer
questions the behaviour of his fellow man (r) (AD)
and guests discuss the issues of the day 11.15 Storm
Huntley. Debate on the day’s talking points continues
with Storm Huntley 12.45pm Alexis Conran & Friends.
The actor, writer and broadcaster examines the important
stories of the day 1.40 5 News at Lunchtime 1.45
Home and Away. Roo is thrown in the deep end at the
Surf Club but struggles to fill John Palmer’s shoes.
Leah turns on those closest to her. Justin’s desperation
leads him to danger (r) (AD) 2.15 FILM: A Date with
Deceit (12, TVM, 2023) A woman recently released
from prison tries to prove her innocence by tracking down
her ex-husband, who framed her for fraud. Thriller
starring Hannah Jane McMurray, Rib Hillis and Kia Dorsey
(AD) 4.00 Shoplifters: Caught Red Handed. Late one
night in Manchester, a shop owner suffers a shocking
experience when five men armed with baseball bats burst
into his store (r) 5.00 5 News at 5 6.00 Susan Calman’s
Grand Day Out. Susan discovers some of the most
beautiful parts of Northern Ireland’s coastline, beginning
in Belfast and heading to the Antrim coast, before
moving to Lough Neagh (r) 6.55 5 News Update

7.00 The One Show Alex Jones and Lauren 7.00 SOS: Extreme Rescues Multiple 7.00 Channel 4 News 7.00 Police Interceptors A dog handler
7PM

Laverne present topical stories
7.30 EastEnders Stacey tries to help when
Denise starts having hallucinations
of Keanu. Meanwhile, Johnny reels
following Linda’s revelation (AD)
teams join forces to find a missing
person, and a coincidence aids a
walker who has collapsed (6/12)
7.30 Mastermind The first semi-final,
with questions on Charlie Chaplin,
the Sydney Harbour Bridge, TV drama
Happy Valley and Billie Jean King
chases down a boy racer in a Skoda on
a dual carriageway, a young man is
pulled over in a Vauxhall that is
7.30 Emmerdale Ruby approaches Kim suspected of having cloned plates, and
with an offer, Suni misleads Jai, and officers are dispatched to rein in a
Tracy urges Nate to let her return (AD) runaway shire horse on the A453 (r)
7.55 5 News Update

8.00 Hamas’ Secret Financial Empire 8.00 Only Connect Specials: Champion 8.00 Coronation Street Maria takes Liam 8.00 George Clarke’s Old House, New 8.00 Traffic Cops Officers clamp down
8PM

— Panorama John Ware investigates
Hamas’ network outside Gaza
8.30 Scam Interceptors The team takes
on a bunch of fraudsters in real time,
and also battle against a scammer to
regain control of a mobile phone (r)
of Champions 2009 The winners of
the first and second series compete.
Victoria Coren Mitchell hosts (9/9) (r)
8.30 University Challenge Amol Rajan
hosts as Birkbeck, London take
on the University of Sheffield
to see Dr Gaddas, Steve makes an
effort to impress Tracy, Alya grows
suspicious of Joel, and Sean receives a
wake-up call from Dylan’s phone (AD)
Home George visits Manchester to
bring an arts and crafts-inspired
Edwardian home into the modern day.
In London, he meets a first-time buyer
whose flat needs a rejig (1/4) (r) (AD)
on dangerous and illegal drivers.
Derbyshire’s road crime team goes
on a high-speed pursuit of a reckless
disqualified driver who fails to stop,
while police respond to a call from
a member of public about a crash in
which two cars have collided head on

9.00 The Way New series. Drama set in 9.00 The Space Shuttle That Fell to 9.00 Breathtaking New series. Drama 9.00 24 Hours in Police Custody A CID 9.00 Killer Crocs with Steve Backshall
9PM

the aftermath of a violent uprising in
Port Talbot, and following a family
forced to flee the ensuing violence.
Directed by and starring Michael
Sheen. See Viewing Guide (1/3) (AD)
Earth Nasa engineers analysed film
footage of a piece of debris striking
the space shuttle. An analysis team
concluded the piece of foam did not
represent a safety risk to the vehicle or
the mission, so the 16-day orbit went
ahead. See Viewing Guide (2/3) (AD)
highlighting the sacrifices made by
NHS staff during the Covid-19
pandemic, revealing the reality of
hospital life in the face of momentous
challenges. Joanne Froggatt stars.
See Viewing Guide (1/3) (AD)
detective investigates a burglary at a
country estate in which antiques worth
£250,000 have been reported stolen.
The man reporting the crime is an
orthopaedic surgeon who seems very
anxious to make an insurance claim
on the stolen property (r) (AD)
Documentary in which the naturalist
gets up close and personal with
crocodiles — one of nature’s most
fearsome predators — immersing
himself in their world to reveal what
makes them so deadly (1/2)

10.00 BBC News at Ten 10.00 Our Flag Means Death Stede 10.00 ITV News at Ten 10.00 First Dates The first guests in the 10.00 Casualty 24/7: Every Second
10PM

10.30 BBC Regional News and Weather
10.40 Have I Got News for You Victoria
Coren Mitchell hosts the satirical
current affairs quiz, with the
comedian Maisie Adam and the
journalist Helen Lewis (6/11) (r)
11PM
resorts to desperate measures to
bring back Blackbeard (3/10) (AD)
10.30 Newsnight Analysis of the day’s
events presented by Kirsty Wark
10.30 Regional News
10.45 Ukraine’s War: The Other Side
Sean Langan journeys into the heart
of Putin’s war in occupied Eastern
Ukraine to deliver an intimate look at
the lethal reality of war. He meets
20th series get off to a rocky start
when a 39-year-old drops the
bombshell that he has three children
— all with different mothers (r) (AD)
11.05 Embarrassing Bodies Dr Jane treats
Counts A junior doctor urgently
assesses a man who has arrived with
a 13cm-long laceration on his thigh
from a DIY accident with an angle
grinder, and a four-year-old is brought
in with severe sickness (7/10) (r)
11.05 999: Critical Condition The medics

11.10 Domino Day Domino is thrown by the
reappearance of her dangerous ex who
wants to pick up where they left off,
while the coven comes to terms with
the truth about her (3/6) (r) (AD)
11.55 The Graham Norton Show With
guests including Jodie Foster (r)
12.45am Pointless Celebrities Alexander Armstrong
Late
11.15 The Keeper (15, 2018) The true
story of Bert Trautmann, the German
PoW who became a footballing legend
for Manchester City. Biopic starring
David Kross and Freya Mavor. See
Viewing Guide
1.05am Sign Zone: Countryfile Matt Baker and
with Russian soldiers where drones
loiter over trenches amid the steady
barrage of artillery and rocket fire.
Sean travels through the Russian-
occupied Donbas where he is greeted
with suspicion and speaks with the
civilians living under siege (AD)
12.35am Shop on TV 3.00 Martin Clunes: Islands of
a young female tattoo artist who
wants to repair a lifelong chest
impairment. Dr Tosin helps a man who
is desperate to cure the agonising skin
condition on his head (4/8) (r) (AD)
12.05am Who Shot Sasha Johnson?: Untold (AD)
act fast to remove a blood clot from
a man who has suffered his second
heart attack in two weeks, a woman is
brought in after being hit by a car,
and A 72-year-old man is brought in
after falling off a shed roof (8/8) (r)
12.05am Traffic Cops Officers investigate a suspected

and Richard Osman present a star-studded version of
the general knowledge quiz. With contestants Debbie
Wiseman, Alan Titchmarsh, Sarah Stevenson, Ashley
McKenzie, Scarlette Douglas, Stuart Douglas, Pandora
Christie and Toby Tarrant (r) 1.35-6.00 BBC News
Charlotte Smith visit Ashdown Forest in East Sussex (r)
(SL) 2.05 Waterloo Road. Year 11 run riot around the
school while the teachers are away (r) (AD, SL)
3.00-4.00 Great British Menu. Four chefs who reside in
Scotland cook canapés, starters and fish dishes (r) (SL)
the Pacific. In Vanuatu, Martin climbs an active volcano
and meets a tribe who worship Prince Philip. In Tonga, the
presenter meets a third gender leiti and a princess. (r)
(AD, SL) 3.50 Unwind with ITV 5.05-6.00 Ainsley’s
Fantastic Flavours. Making a brunch dish (r) (SL)
12.40 24 Hours in A&E (r) (AD) 1.30 Ramsay’s Kitchen
Nightmares USA (r) (SL) 2.20 Couples Come Dine with
Me (r) 3.15 Grand Designs (r) (AD) 4.10 Kirstie and
Phil’s Love It or List It (r) (AD) 5.00 House of Craft (r)
5.15-6.10 The Pennines: Backbone of Britain (r) (AD)
hit-and-run on the outskirts of Derby city centre (r) 1.00
PlayOJO Live Casino Show 3.00 Britain’s Favourite 90s
Songs (r) 4.40 House Doctor (r) (SL) 5.05 Wildlife SOS
(r) (SL) 5.30 Entertainment News on 5 5.35 Fireman
Sam (r) (SL) 5.45-6.00 Paw Patrol (r) (SL)
the times | Monday February 19 2024 13

television & radio

whose community — smiles here”. The despite the corruption
The Way and the steelworks that
The Space Shuttle Nasa photo analysis
True Detective: and obstacles thrown
Film The Keeper
BBC1, 9pm That Fell to Earth Night Country BBC2, 11.15pm
is its lifeblood — engineer Bob Page is in their way. There are
BBC2, 9pm Sky Atlantic/Now, 9pm
A blend of the suddenly fall apart. also beaming about jumps, revelations and The extraordinary
scriptwriter James Expect the unexpected The second part of all the wonderful The Alaskan-set thriller tension, and — let’s be true story of the
Graham and co- with this three-parter, this mesmeric imagery of the shuttle’s is given a fittingly epic honest — a slight whiff German footballer
creators Adam Curtis knowing full well that documentary about the take-off coming from finale. There was a of moralising. But it is Bert Trautmann
and the actor Michael the Welsh super-cast, 2003 space shuttle his many cameras. huge cliffhanger in the epic and satisfying (David Kross), who
Sheen (who also including Steffan disaster opens with the However, his face last episode and a storytelling that holds went from prisoner of
directs), this Port Rhodri, Luke Evans voices of the crew of darkens when he clean-up is required. the line between a war to star goalkeeper
Talbot-set drama is as and Sheen, will hold Columbia’s 28th describes seeing an Danvers (Jodie Foster), gripping procedural for Manchester City,
beguiling and unusual together the many mission: “Great orbit object fall off the Navarro (Kali Reis) and and showing the gets a warm if corny
as you would expect. traumatic, witty, yesterday.” And “we external fuel tank. co remain determined otherworldly forces retelling in Marcus H
It follows a group of surprising and surreal just want to report “My reaction was, oh to find the truth from that hold sway in Rosenmüller’s drama.
ordinary local people moments with aplomb. that everybody is all shit,” Page says. Quite. the icy darkness, these parts. (15, 2018)

Sky Max
6.00am NCIS: Los Angeles (r) 7.00 DC’s
Legends of Tomorrow (r) (AD) 8.00 Supergirl (r)
9.00 Stargate SG-1 (r) 11.00 NCIS: Los Angeles
(r) 12.00 Supergirl (r) 1.00pm MacGyver (r)
3.00 Hawaii Five-0 (r) 4.00 S.W.A.T (r) (AD)
5.00 DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (r) (AD)
6.00 Stargate SG-1. Daniel and Vala visit
Atlantis hoping to find the Sangraal (r)
7.00 Stargate SG-1. Ba’al strikes a deal (r)
8.00 Hold the Front Page. Nish Kumar and Josh
Widdicombe work for local newspapers (r) (AD)
9.00 FILM: A Walk Among the Tombstones
(15, 2014) An ex cop helps a drug trafficker
find the men who murdered his wife, and
discovers a link to several previous killings.
Crime thriller starring Liam Neeson
11.00 Rob & Romesh vs F1. Rob and Romesh
enter the world of Formula 1 (r)
12.00 Freddie Fries Again. Visiting the wilds of
Northumberland (r) (AD) 1.00am From (r) (AD)
2.00 Road Wars (r) 3.00 Hawaii Five-0 (r)
4.00 S.W.A.T (r) (AD) 5.00 Highway Patrol (r)
Sky Atlantic
6.00am Urban Secrets (r) 7.55 The Sopranos
(r) 10.05 The Wire (r) 12.20pm Game of
Thrones (r) (AD) 1.25 Gomorrah (r) 3.25
The Sopranos (r) 5.40 The Wire (r)
7.55 Game of Thrones. Daenerys makes an
offer to the Lords of Westeros, while Jon heeds
Bran’s warning about white walkers (r) (AD)
9.00 True Detective: Night Country. As the truth
about what happened to Annie unfolds, Navarro
and Danvers each confront the demons from
their past. See Viewing Guide (6/6) (r)
10.30 Mare of Easttown. The case takes a
devastating turn and Mare’s family and friends
process the fall-out while she tries to find her
own way forward. Last in the series (r) (AD)
11.45 The Gilded Age. An unfortunate
development finds George’s new rail station
under threat, and Marian continues to see Mr
Raikes despite Agnes’ warnings (3/9) (r) (AD)
12.50am Perry Mason. Thriller series (r) (AD)
1.55 The Outsider (r) (AD) 3.05 Game of
Thrones (r) (AD) 4.15 Urban Secrets (r)
Sky Documentaries Sky Arts
6.00am The Sixties (r) (AD) 7.00 Discovering:
Tony Curtis (r) (AD) 8.00 The Directors (r) (AD)
9.00 100 Foot Wave (r) (AD) 10.00 The Comedy
Store (r) (AD) 11.05 Escobar by Escobar (r)
12.00 FILM: Steve McQueen — The Lost
Movie (12, 2021) Documentary exploring an
unfinished movie starring Steve McQueen (AD)
1.50pm My Icon: Leon Pryce (r) (AD) 2.00
Hurst: The First and Only (r) (AD) 3.50 My Icon:
Chris Hughton (r) (AD) 4.00 The Directors (r)
(AD) 5.00 Discovering: Tony Curtis (r) (AD)
6.00 100 Foot Wave (r) (AD)
7.00 The Comedy Store (1/5) (r) (AD)
8.05 Escobar by Escobar (1/4) (r)
9.00 FILM: The Beatles: Eight Days a
Week — The Touring Years (12, 2016)
Charting the band’s time on the road (AD)
11.00 The Man Who Stole The Scream (r) (AD)
1.00am Great Photo, Lovely Life: Facing a
Family’s Secret (r) (AD) 3.00 FILM: Assassins
(12, 2020) Documentary starring Siti Aisyah
5.00 Discovering: Tony Curtis (r) (AD)
6.00am Rachmaninov: Rhapsody/The Two
Pigeons 8.00 The Joy of Painting (AD) 9.00
Tales of the Unexpected 10.00 Alfred Hitchcock
Presents 11.00 Discovering: Jean Harlow (AD)
12.00 The Joy of Painting (AD) 1.00pm Tales of
the Unexpected 2.00 Cold War & Cinema (AD)
3.00 Van Gogh: An Exclusive View — From
Tate Britain 4.00 Discovering: Lee Marvin (AD)
5.00 Tales of the Unexpected (AD)
6.00 Alfred Hitchcock Presents
7.00 The Joy of Painting (AD)
7.30 The Joy of Painting (AD)
8.00 André Rieu: Gala Concert.
A 2002 performance in Hamburg
10.10 Classic FM Live A Film Music Spectacular.
The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
perform movie music at the Royal Albert Hall
12.10am FILM: Janine Jansen — Falling
for Stradivari (U, 2021) The musician plays
12 of the world’s greatest violins in 10 days
(AD) 1.55 Shakespeare: Hamlet 5.10
Auction 5.35 Auction: Jackie Kennedy Special
Sky Main Event
6.00am Sky Sports News 7.00 Live Tennis: The
Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Coverage
of day two of the WTA 1000 event, a hard court
tournament at Aviation Club Tennis Centre
6.30pm Live MNF: Everton v Crystal Palace
(Kick-off 8.00). Coverage of the Premier
League encounter from Goodison Park
11.00 Live Tennis: The Rio Open presented by
Claro. Coverage of day one of the ATP 500 event,
a clay court tournament that takes place at
Jockey Club Brasileiro in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. Players representing the host nation
will hope for more success than their
compatriots at last year’s competition, which
saw three of the four entrants eliminated in
the opening round, while Thiago Monteiro
only made it as far as the second round
2.00am Live Tennis: The Mifel Tennis Open by
Telcel Oppo. Coverage of day one of the ATP 250
event, a hard court tournament at Cabo Sports
Complex in Los Cabos, Mexico 5.00 Sky Sports
News. Analysis and comment, plus interviews
Variations
BBC1 N Ireland
As BBC1 except: 8.00pm The Chronicles of
Armagh 8.30-9.00 Hamas’ Secret Financial
Empire — Panorama 10.40 Roy Walker: Beyond
a Joke (r) 11.40 Standup from the Sunflower
12.05am Have I Got News for You (r) 12.35
Domino Day (r) (AD) 1.20-6.00 BBC News
BBC1 Scotland
As BBC1 except: 11.10pm Sportscene: SWPL
Highlights (r) 11.55 Domino Day (r) (AD)
12.40am The Graham Norton Show (r)
1.30 Pointless Celebrities (r) 2.15 Weather
for the Week Ahead 2.20-6.00 BBC News
BBC1 Wales
As BBC1 except: 7.00pm-7.30 SOS: Extreme
Rescues 8.00 Wynne’s Welsh 80s. A look back
at 1982 8.30-9.00 Weatherman Walking (r)
10.40 Hamas’ Secret Financial Empire —
Panorama 11.10 Have I Got News for You (r)
11.40 Domino Day (r) (AD) 12.30am The
Graham Norton Show (r) 1.20-6.00 BBC News

BBC2 N Ireland
As BBC2 except: 10.00pm-10.30 Saolta’s
Gaolta 11.15 Our Flag Means Death (AD)
11.50 FILM: Benediction (2021) 2.00am-2.05
Wild on Water — Greyabbey Mud Flats (r)

BBC2 Wales
As BBC2 except: 7.00pm-7.30 The One Show

ITV1 Wales
As ITV1 except: 10.45pm Sharp End 11.40
Big Zuu’s 12 Dishes in 12 Hours (r) (AD)
12.10am-12.35 Face to Face (r)

STV
As ITV1 except: 10.30pm STV News 10.40
Scotland Tonight 11.05 Ukraine’s War: The
Other Side. With Sean Langan (AD) 12.50am-
TalkTV BBC4 Talking Pictures Film4 More4 3.00 Shop on TV 3.50-5.05 Night Vision

6.00am Talk Today with Jeremy Kyle and Rosie
Wright. News, weather and opinions 9.30 Kevin
& Alex. Hosts Kevin O’Sullivan and Alex Phillips
give their unique take on the front pages and
the latest news 10.00 Julia Hartley-Brewer.
The stories you need to know 1.00pm CrossTalk
with Kevin O’Sullivan and Alex Phillips.
Analysis, debate and humour 3.00 Ian Collins.
Hard-hitting monologues and debates 4.00
Vanessa Feltz. Your calls and guest analysis
6.00 The Talk. A panel of famous faces debate
the hot topics everybody’s talking about
7.00 Prime Time with Rosanna Lockwood. The
journalist gets inside the stories of the day
8.00 The Independent Republic of Mike Graham.
A run through the day’s breaking news
10.00 The Talk. A panel of famous faces debate
the hot topics everybody’s talking about
11.00 Prime Time with Rosanna Lockwood
12.00 Petrie Hosken. Bringing the very best and
latest news stories overnight 1.00am CrossTalk
with Kevin O’Sullivan and Alex Phillips. Analysis
and debate 3.00 Prime Time with Rosanna
Lockwood 4.00 The Talk 5.00 James Max.
An initial insight into the day’s top stories
ITV2
6.00am CITV 9.00 Chuck 10.00 One Tree Hill
12.00 Secret Crush 1.00pm Dress to Impress
2.00 Alan Carr’s Epic Gameshow (AD) 3.00
One Tree Hill 5.00 Dress to Impress
6.00 Celebrity Catchphrase. With Alex Brooker,
Vicky Pattison and Max Whitlock (AD)
7.00 Ant & Dec’s Limitless Win. Two brothers
return to take on the money ladder (AD)
8.00 Superstore. Amy does not feel ready to
start dating again so soon after her divorce (AD)
8.30 Superstore. Jonah tries to help Amy
secure a hot new video game (AD)
9.00 Love Island: All Stars — The Live Final.
Maya Jama presents as the first ever winners of
the series are revealed. Last in the series
10.35 Family Guy. Peter’s hair turns white
after a ghost-hunting adventure (AD)
11.05 Family Guy. Stewie invents a shrinking
machine to reduce him down in size (AD)
11.35 American Dad! Steve introduces
Stan and Francine to Barry’s parents (AD)
12.00 American Dad! (AD) 12.30am Superstore
(AD) 1.25 Olivia Attwood: Getting Filthy Rich
2.30 Unwind with ITV 3.00 Teleshopping
7.00pm Dynasties II. In Amboseli, Kenya, a rare
event pushes a struggling elephant family to its
limits. To save their dynasty, they must try to
overcome the challenge of a lifetime (AD)
8.00 Art of America. Andrew Graham-Dixon
charts the history of American art on a
cross-country journey, beginning on the east
coast, where he examines portraits of
Puritan settlers in Massachusetts (AD)
9.00 Mysteries of the Bayeux Tapestry.
Archaeologists, historians and scientists join
forces to unravel the mysteries of the
11th-century embroidery depicting the
story of the Norman conquest
10.00 Brian Cox: Seven Days on Mars. Professor
Brian Cox fulfils a childhood dream by going
behind the scenes at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, mission control for Mars 2020,
one of their most ambitious ever (AD)
11.30 Mars: A Traveller’s Guide — Horizon.
Experts discuss where they would go on Mars if
they had the chance. Narrated by Mark Gatiss
12.30am Dynasties II. An elephant family in
Kenya (AD) 1.30 Mark Lawson Talks to Michael
Parkinson 2.30-3.30 Art of America (AD, SL)
ITV3
6.00am Classic Emmerdale 7.00 Classic
Coronation Street (AD) 8.05 Where the Heart Is
(AD) 10.15 The Royal (AD) 11.25 Heartbeat
(AD) 1.30pm Classic Emmerdale 2.35 Classic
Coronation Street (AD) 3.45 Foyle’s War (AD)
5.55 Heartbeat. A seemingly straightforward
road accident soon leads to complications (AD)
7.00 Heartbeat. A respectable bank manager is
haunted by the past and Greengrass annoys
Blaketon by fixing a golf tournament (AD)
8.00 Rosemary & Thyme. The duo tackle a
murder mystery on Italy’s Ligurian coast
9.00 Long Lost Family. The stories of two people
trying to unravel family mysteries (AD)
10.00 Trial & Retribution. Part two of two. The
detectives try to find out who was in the house
with Emily Harrogate at the moment of her
death, while concerns over the behaviour
of DCS Walker’s son deepen (2/10)
11.30 The Ruth Rendell Mysteries. A landlady’s
security concerns lead to a tragic encounter
12.20am The Royal. Matron is attacked by a
thief (AD) 1.10 Where the Heart Is (AD, SL)
2.00 Unwind with ITV 2.30 Teleshopping
6.00am Stagecoach West (b/w) 7.00 FILM:
The Flanagan Boy (PG, 1953) Crime drama
starring Barbara Payton (b/w) 8.40 Turn of Fate
(b/w) 9.15 What’s On TPTV With Noel 9.25
FILM: Paul Temple’s Triumph (U, 1950)
Mystery starring John Bentley and Dinah
Sheridan (b/w) 11.00 Time to Remember
11.35 The Outer Limits (b/w) 12.40pm FILM:
Stagecoach (PG, 1966) Western remake
starring Bing Crosby 3.00 The Saint (b/w) 4.00
That Beryl Marston! 4.30 FILM: The Angry
Silence (PG, 1960) Drama starring Richard
Attenborough and Michael Craig (b/w)
6.30 Out of Town. One-off special from 1980
7.00 The Footage Detectives. Behind the
scenes of air traffic control in the 1960s
8.00 MR James: The Stalls of Barchester.
Robert Hardy stars in a 1971 ghost story
9.00 FILM: Night of the Demon (PG, 1957)
Horror starring Dana Andrews (b/w)
11.00 FILM: Genghis Khan (PG, 1965)
Historical adventure starring Omar Sharif
1.30am The Pale Faced Girl 2.00 Maigret
3.50 Look at Life 4.00 Justice 5.00
Breaking the Codes 5.30 Honey West (b/w)
ITV4
6.00am Minder (AD, SL) 7.00 The Professionals
(AD, SL) 8.05 The Saint 9.10 The Casebook of
Sherlock Holmes (AD) 10.20 Magnum, PI (AD)
11.20 The Saint 12.25pm The Casebook of
Sherlock Holmes (AD) 1.35 Kojak 2.35
Magnum, PI (AD) 3.35 Minder (AD) 4.40
The Professionals (AD) 5.45 BattleBots
6.45 Live Snooker: Players Championship.
Jill Douglas presents coverage of day one from
Telford International Centre, featuring
first-round matches in the second of three
tournaments in the Players Series
10.15 FILM: Assault on Precinct 13 (15,
2005) A police sergeant must rally the cops and
prisoners together to protect themselves on
New Year’s Eve, just as corrupt policeman
surround the station with the intent of killing all
to keep their deception in the ranks. Remake of
the 1976 action thriller starring Ethan Hawke,
Laurence Fishburne and Gabriel Byrne (AD)
12.20am The Professionals. Bodie and Doyle
investigate a crime dating back to 1953 (AD)
1.25 Auto Mundial 1.55 Motorsport Mundial
2.30 Unwind with ITV 3.00 Teleshopping
11.00am It Should Happen to You (U,
1954) Comedy starring Judy Holliday (b/w)
12.45pm Footsteps in the Fog (PG, 1955)
Period thriller starring Stewart Granger and Jean
Simmons (AD) 2.30 Three Hours to Kill (PG,
1954) Western starring Dana Andrews 4.05
Tora! Tora! Tora! (U, 1970) Fact-based Second
World War drama starring Martin Balsam
6.55 The Iron Lady (12, 2011) The elderly
Margaret Thatcher looks back on her political
career as she faces up to the death of her
husband. Biopic with Meryl Streep (AD)
9.00 Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation
(12, 2015) The agents of the Impossible
Mission Force become fugitives in order to bring
down a shadowy society of assassins. Spy
thriller sequel with Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner,
Rebecca Ferguson and Simon Pegg (AD)
11.40 Bad Boys (15, 1995) Two detectives
are forced to swap identities as they hunt for
a heroin consignment stolen by a drug kingpin.
Michael Bay’s action thriller starring Will Smith,
Martin Lawrence and Téa Leoni (AD)
2.00am-4.00 The Guard (15, 2011) Comedy
thriller with Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle
Drama
6.00am Teleshopping 7.10 All Creatures Great
and Small 8.00 Doctors 9.20 Classic Holby City
10.40 Classic Casualty 11.40 The Bill 12.40pm
Classic EastEnders 2.00 Monarch of the Glen
3.10 Kingdom 4.10 All Creatures Great and
Small 5.20 Terry and June
6.00 As Time Goes By
6.40 Last of the Summer Wine. The boys
discuss life, love and women — particularly the
unpleasant ones working in the cafe
7.20 Last of the Summer Wine.
Compo adopts a spiritual outlook on life
8.00 The Last Detective. Davies investigates the
death of a medical researcher, revealing the
cut-throat competition in the race to find
a cure for Alzheimer’s disease (3/4) (AD)
9.35 New Tricks. The detectives investigate
the murder of an immigrant (8/10) (AD)
10.55 New Tricks. Gerry Standing and Steve
McAndrew investigate the unsolved murder
of a bookie in Glasgow (9/10) (AD)
11.55 Spooks. Harry stops an extradition (9/10)
1.10am Hustle 2.25 Terry and June 2.55
Classic Holby City 4.00 Teleshopping
8.55am A Farmer’s Life 9.30 A Place in the Sun
10.25 A New Life in the Sun: Where Are They
Now? 11.25 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (AD)
12.30pm Come Dine with Me 3.10 Four in a
Bed 5.50 Heir Hunters. A substantial estate
6.55 The Dog House. A toy poodle tries to win
the hearts of a mother and daughter (AD)
7.55 Grand Designs. Kevin McCloud follows a
project to transform a classic 1920s cinema in
South Yorkshire into a family home, complete
with a hydraulic glass wall (1/12) (AD)
9.00 Car SOS. Fuzz Townshend and Tim Shaw
take on a rundown Renault Alpine GTA (AD)
10.00 Top Guns: Inside the RAF. A young pilot
encounters a Russian aircraft over Syria.
In Estonia, another broken jet risks leaving
NATO’s frontline undefended (4/6) (AD)
11.00 24 Hours in A&E. A 93-year-old man is
treated for life-threatening injuries after being
struck by a hit-and-run driver, while a man’s
finger is mangled by a machine at his
metal-working business (AD)
12.05am Emergency Helicopter Medics (AD)
1.05 Top Guns: Inside the RAF (AD) 2.10 24
Hours in A&E (AD) 3.15-3.45 A Farmer’s Life
Yesterday
6.10am Underground Worlds (AD) 8.00
Abandoned Engineering (AD) 10.00 War
Factories 11.00 Narrow Escapes of World
War II (AD) 12.00 Great American Railroad
Journeys 1.00pm Antiques Roadshow 2.00
Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics (AD)
3.00 Bangers & Cash 4.00 War Factories
5.00 The Buildings That Fought Hitler (AD)
6.00 Antiques Roadshow. On the Isle of Wight
7.00 Great British Railway Journeys. Michael
Portillo visits Scotland’s smallest railway station
7.30 Great British Railway Journeys
8.00 Secrets of the London Underground. The
hidden remains of Brompton Road (4/10) (AD)
9.00 Secrets of the London Underground.
Tim Dunn and Siddy Holloway explore the
disused parts of London Bridge (5/10) (AD)
10.00 Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics.
The team take on their biggest restoration
yet — a Series 1 Land Rover (AD)
11.00 Abandoned Engineering (12/12) (AD)
12.00 Great British Railway Journeys
1.00am Underground Worlds (AD) 2.00
Smoke & Steel (AD) 3.00 Teleshopping
UTV
As ITV1 except: 10.45pm View from Stormont
11.40 Big Zuu’s 12 Dishes in 12 Hours.
Last in the series (r) (AD) 12.10am-12.35
Rare Breed — A Farming Year (r)
BBC Scotland
2.00pm Sign Zone: The Forest (r) 2.30 Sign
Zone: Grand Tours of Scotland’s Rivers (r) (AD)
3.00-4.00 Sign Zone: Inside the Zoo (r) (AD)
7.00 Sportscene: SWPL Highlights 7.45
Sportscene Goals+ 8.00 Inside the Zoo (r) (AD)
9.00 The Nine 10.00 River City. Kim collapses
suddenly (AD) 10.30 What Next for the
Wellerman? (r) 11.15 Raiders of the Lost
Archive (r) 11.45-12.00 Rewind 1980s (r)
BBC Alba
6.00am Alba Today 5.00pm Treubh an
Tuathanais (Big Barn Farm) (r) 5.15 Na
Clangairean 5.30 AH-AH/No-No (r) 5.40 Su
Pic (Peek Zoo) (r) 5.45 Rita is Crogall (r) 5.55
Stòiridh (r) 6.00 Belle agus Sebastian 6.10
Alba Eagalach (r) 6.20 Bogaisean is Gumbalan/
Bottersnikes and Gumbles 6.35 Stri (r) 6.40
Na Dana-thursan aig Tintin/The Adventures of
Tintin (r) 7.00 Vets: Gach Creutair Beo (r) 7.30
SpeakGaelic 8.00 An Là (News) 8.30 Rathad
Ramsay 9.00 Trusadh — Bill Lawson — Sar
Shloinntear (The Genealogist). A look at the
work of Bill Lawson (r) 10.00 Bannan (r)
10.30 Macleod MP/Maclean KGB (r) 11.30
Glan Fhein (r) 12.00-6.00am Alba Today
S4C
6.00am Cyw 12.00 News; Weather 12.05pm
Wil ac Aeron: Taith Rwmania (r) 12.30 Heno
(r) 1.00 Caeau Cymru (r) (AD) 1.30 Dan Do (r)
2.00 News; Weather 2.05 Prynhawn Da 3.00
News; Weather 3.05 Stryd i’r Sgrym (r) 3.50
Bwyd Epic Chris (r) 4.00 Awr Fawr: Og y
Draenog Hapus (r) 4.10 Ein Byd Bach Ni (r)
4.20 Pentre Papur Pop (r) 4.35 Anifeiliaid Bach
y Byd (r) 4.45 Ne-wff-ion (r) 5.00 Stwnsh:
Siwrne Ni (r) 5.05 Byd Rwtsh Dai Potsh (r)
5.15 Lego Ffrindiau: Amdani Ferched! 5.30
Itopia (r) (AD) 5.50 News Ni 6.00 Cegin Bryn
(r) (AD) 6.30 Rownd a Rownd (r) (AD) 6.57
News 7.00 Heno 7.30 News; Weather 8.00 Y
Byd ar Bedwar 8.25 Y Fets (AD) 8.55 News;
Weather 9.00 Cefn Gwlad (AD) 9.30 Ralïo+
10.00 Sgorio 10.35-12.20am Clwb Rygbi:
Ospreys v Ulster. The United Rugby
Championship match at Swansea.com Stadium
14 Monday February 19 2024 | the times

MindGames
General Knowledge Crossword No 221 Codeword No 5141 Train Tracks No 2172

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Lay tracks to
enable the
train to travel
from village A
9 10 11 to village B.
The numbers
indicate how
many sections
12 13 of track go in
each row and
column. There
are only
14 15 16 straight
sections and
curved
sections. The
17 18 19 track cannot
cross itself.

20 21 22

Quintagram®
23 24
Challenge
Solve all five cryptic clues using each
Solveunderneath
letter all five cryptic
onceclues
only using your mind
each letter underneath once only
with these
25 26
1 Wildly enthusiastic grandma and
grandpa’s coats (4)
fiendish
word and
Across
1 Scientific study of human
25 West African country formerly
known as French Sudan (4) -2 Cockney
- - lifts
- part of the roof (5) number
populations (10) 26 Shropshire’s county town (10) puzzles
6 Protective surface of
a healing wound (4) Down
-3 Latin
- that
- -is absorbing
- learner
9 Beef or lamb, eg (3,4) 1 Devon port that is home doing the least work (6)
10 Roald Dahl heroine with to the Britannia Royal
telekinetic abilities (7)
12 US playwright whose works
Naval College (9)
2 Device connecting computers Every letter in this crossword-style grid is represented by a number from 1 to 26.
-4 Running
- - absorbing
- - - drug trial (7)
include Glengarry Glen Ross via a telephone line (5) Each letter of the alphabet appears in the grid at least once. Use the letters already
and American Buffalo (5)
13 Industrial city of
3 Large saline body of water in
northern Utah (5,4,4)
provided to work out the identity of further letters. Enter letters in the main grid
and the smaller reference grid until all 26 letters of the alphabet have been
-5 Conspicuous,
- - - -illustrious
- - person
northwestern Germany (9) 4 Brass instrument resembling accounted for. Proper nouns are excluded. Saturday’s solution, right
eating sorbet? (10)
14 First song to top the UK a small euphonium (7)
singles chart four times
with different artists (9,6)
5 Primate such as a human
or one of our ancestors (7)
Cluelines Stuck on Codeword? To receive 4 random clues call 0901 293 6262 or
text TIMECODE to 64343. Calls cost £1 plus your telephone company’s network ----------
access charge. Texts cost £1 plus your standard network charge. For the full solution A A A A A B C D
17 Conrad novella that inspired 7 Compound that forms plant call 0905 757 0142. Calls cost £1 per minute plus your telephone company’s network
E E E E E E G G
the film Apocalypse Now (5,2,8) cell walls, the main constituent access charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5.30pm).
20 Name for the puffin based on of paper and cotton (9) G H I I I L L N
thetimes.co.uk/
its likeness to another bird (3,6) 8 Cilla ---, singer who hosted Lexica No 7271 No 7272 N O R S S T T V bookshop
21 Piece of offal typically the TV shows Blind Date and
obtained from cattle (5) Surprise Surprise (5)
A I E H A G B R C A E
23 Technical term for theft (7) 11 Traditional pub game in Winning Move
24 Gel or emulsion, eg (7) which players swing a ball W R
Last week’s solution into small upright pins (5,8)
15 Habitat of dense shrubs and Black to play.
H E M P C A R L Y S I M O N A I A This position is from
A A R N U C O A bushes in southwest USA (9) Steinberg-Sambuev,
W E T S U I T T R O U P E R 16 Beatles song given the working M U N I Montreal 2024.
K T M O H T E A title Scrambled Eggs (9)
I N D E P E N D E N C E D A Y
18 Frederick ---, author of G M I S White has the familiar
N A P Y R H A
S A M O A N R A S P U T I N
The Day of the Jackal and problem of a weak
O R F N A R The Fourth Protocol (7) H E O R back rank. Without a
L O N G L E A T E N G E L S 19 Member of diplomatic staff bolthole for the king, a
I I U R C B P with specific expertise (7) I T N Y major piece landing on
M I C H A E L K I W A N U K A the back row can
O E M K V K C N
20 State capital of Oregon (5) prove decisive. 1 ...
22 Phillips ---, British athlete who N M T R I N L A O T V A
G A L L E O N E R E W H O N Qa1+ 2 Rd1 doesn’t
E L N E R S E E won triple-jump gold at the Slide the letters either horizontally or vertically back into the grid to produce a accomplish much but
S H O R T B R E A D S T A R 2009 world championships (5) completed crossword. Letters are allowed to slide over other letters what works better?

KenKen Easy No 6133 Futoshiki No 4681 Kakuro No 3640

Fill the grid

using the
numbers 1 to 9
only. The
numbers in each
horizontal or
vertical run of
white squares
add up to the
total in the
triangle to its left
or above it. The
same number
may occur more
than once in a
row or column,
but not within
the same run of
white squares.

All the digits 1 to 6 must appear in every row and column. In Fill the blank squares so that every row and column contains
each thick-line “block”, the target number in the top left-hand each of the numbers 1 to 5 once only. The symbols between
corner is calculated from the digits in all the cells in the block, the squares indicate whether a number is larger (>) or smaller
using the operation indicated by the symbol. (<) than the number next to it.
the times | Monday February 19 2024 15

MindGames
times2 Crossword No 9457 Brain Trainer Cell Blocks No 5024
Just follow the instructions from left to right, starting with the number given to reach an answer at the end.
Divide the grid

ANSWER ANSWER ANSWER

1 2 3 4 5
into square or
36
1/2
EASY –7 x2 +5 ÷7 SQUARE
IT
–7 OF IT
–9 3/4
rectangular
6 OF IT blocks, each
containing one
digit only. Every
block must
7 8 MEDIUM 171 +OF1/3IT x 4 – 72 90%
OF IT
+ 48 3/4
OF IT
+ 75 50%
OF IT
+ 97 contain the
number of cells
indicated by the
digit inside it.

9 10 11
HARDER 19 SQUARE
IT
x 2 + 992 + 1/2 x 3 – 873 80% + 984 75%
OF IT
OF IT OF IT

12 13 14 15 16 17
Polygon Set Square No 3643
From these letters, make words of
three or more letters, always including Enter each of
18 19 20 the numbers
the central letter. Answers must be in
the Concise Oxford Dictionary, excluding from 1 to 9 in
capitalised words, plurals, conjugated the grid, so that
verbs (past tense etc), adverbs ending the six sums
21 in LY, comparatives and superlatives. work. We’ve
How you rate 13 words, average; placed two
18, good; 23, very good; 28, excellent numbers to get
you started.
Saturday’s answers Each sum
comfit, comfort, comforting, coming, should be
Across 16 Quasi-religious group (4) confirm, conform, corm, crim, firm, form, calculated left
6 Having many different 18 Creature (6) from, gnomic, grim, groom, inform, micro, to right or top
micron, minor, mint, mongo, monic, to bottom.
aspects or features (12) 20 Inn, pub (6) monitor, mono, moon, moor, mooring,
7 Shared (6) 21 Adjustable stargazing moot, morion, morn, moron, moronic,
8 Be quiet! (4,2) maps (12) mort, motif, motion, motor, norm,
Please note, BODMAS does not apply
9 --- out, apportion (4) Down
omicron, omit, room, trim
10 Acts the part of (8) 1 Madame Bovary author (8)
12 Aggressive promotion of 2 Encouraging boost (6)
Killer Gentle No 9320 Solutions
political ideology (8) 3 Steep bend on a cycling or
Quick Cryptic 2600 Codeword 5140 Kakuro 3638
Solution to Crossword 9456 athletics track (6)
SHADES SHOE 4 In a good or pleasing
A O O G A X manner (4)
GAMB L ER R O 5 Aesthetic quality (6)
G I V UPDA T E 6 Pale pinkish-purple shade (5)
B L ENHE I M I 11 Return to health (8)
E I PA L ACE 13 Mild in temperament (6)
O A Y U 14 Piquant sauce or pickle (6)
G I ANT S K W 15 Inconsistent, sporadic (6)
N C A U S EWA Y
EVOL VE N W F 17 Slow-moving nocturnal
E O NOT HA L F primate (5)
Tredoku 1825 Square Routes Train Tracks 2171
S G T I R L 19 Le ---, French city associated 258
T ROT L UMB ER with motor sport (4)
N P S E I
Need help with today’s puzzle? Call 0905 757 0143 to check the A R E E N
answers. Calls cost £1 per minute plus your telephone company’s Z I MA C
network access charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm). N AY H L
U MS T E
Bridge Andrew Robson

My friend Barnet Shenkin showed Dealer: South, Vulnerability: North-South

me this brilliantly played 7♣ by Set Square 3641 Lexica 7269
Teams ♠-
the Ukrainian player Borys C
Shukhmeyster, the deal occurring ♥8 7 6 4
in an online Alt Invitational. ♦A 9 8 4
♣A K 8 7 5
Killer Tricky No 9321 G E L U

Ruffing West’s hopeful ace of ♠ AQ 8 6 4 3 N ♠ KJ52

L I S

spades lead (no lead defeats the ♥ J 10 9 5 3 W E ♥2 O L I T

grand slam), at trick two declarer ♦6 5 S ♦J 7 3 2 B R A O

cashed the ace of clubs, West dis- ♣- ♠ 10 9 7 ♣J 6 4 2 E C O M B
carding. The 4-0 club split compli- ♥ A KQ
cated matters for declarer — ♦KQ 10
although it was no great surprise. ♣Q 10 9 3 Cell Blocks 5023 Futoshiki 4679 KenKen 6132 Lexica 7270
West going on to 6♠ was highly J O U S T
suggestive of an 11th major-suit S(Shukmestver) W N(Dragan) E
C T S
card. 1♣ 2♣(1) 4♠ (2) 5♠
T A W N
At trick three, declarer crossed 5NT(3) 6♠ 7♣(4) End
to the king of diamonds and ruffed (1) Michaels, showing at least five-five in P A I R O

a second spade. There was only the majors. L V O W

one winning play now and declarer
unerringly found it. Declarer rea-
soned that West was probably 6♠ -
5♥ -2♦-0♣ for his 6♠ bid (not
5♠ -6♥ -2♦-0♣, for that would
mean East was void in hearts —
and would probably have made a
Lightner double, requesting an
unusual opening lead). The odds
were therefore two:one that East
held the jack of diamonds. At trick
five, declarer led a diamond to the
... ten (key play).
The finesse successful, declarer
could now cash the queen of dia-
monds, ruff a second spade and
cash the ace of diamonds, discard-
ing his third spade. All that
remained was to cash the king of
clubs, finesse the ten, cash the
queen (felling East’s jack) and
enjoy the last three tricks with his
top hearts. Thirteen tricks and
grand slam made.
Should East-West have found
the (extremely cheap) sacrifice in
7♠ ? It would go only three down
(2) Volodymyr Dragan makes a splinter bid
E Y
agreeing clubs, theoretically a void as a jump
to 3♠ was available to show a singleton.
(3) Grand slam try. Sudoku 14,690 Today’s solutions
(4) With two of the three top clubs and the
ace of diamonds, South can hardly do less. Concise Cryptic Suko 4042 Brain
Quintagram Quintagram Trainer
Auction altered to avoid artificiality, 1 Fast 1 Gaga Easy 21
its essence remaining 2 Ranks 2 Eaves Medium 436
3 Dancer 3 Idlest Harder 4,842
Contract: 7♣, Opening Lead: ♠ A 4 Through 4 Hearing
5 Take a break 5 Noticeable
(doubled) — cheaper than the
value of a North-South game (at Word watch Quiz
the prevailing vulnerability), let Dalmatic (a) A king’s 1 Berlin Wall 2 Coyote
alone grand slam. Killer 9319 coronation robe (Collins)
3 Australia 4 Rolls-Royce
It’s hard for West, having shown Isodomon (b) Masonry of
his hand and not knowing uniformly arranged bricks 5 Birmingham 6 Lola’s
whether East has ♣J109x as As with standard Sudoku, fill the grid so that every column, (Chambers) Cupcakes 7 Eight 8 David
every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. Each set Wheeple (c) To whistle Gray 9 Yonderland. They
opposed to ♣Jxxx. And it’s hard tunelessly or feebly (OED)
for East, with some hope of beat- of cells joined by dotted lines must add up to the target number are a collective known as
in its top-left corner. Within each set of cells joined by dotted Chess — Winning Move
ing 7♣ given his Jxxx holdings in Them There 10 Hamlet
both minors. At the end of day, lines, a digit cannot be repeated. 1 ... Re1+! 2 Nxe1 Qxf2+ 3 Kh1 11 Kit de Waal 12 Battle of
Qf1 is mate
declarer had to play the grand Lostwithiel 13 Anne Grant
slam very well in order to succeed. Cluelines Stuck on Sudoku, Killer or KenKen? Call 0901 293 of Laggan or Anne
Best is to congratulate declarer 6263 before midnight to receive four clues for any of today’s MacVicar Grant 14 1954
and move on to the next board. puzzles. Calls cost £1 plus your telephone company’s network World Cup in Switzerland
andrew.robson@thetimes.co.uk access charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm). 15 Johann Sebastian Bach

Word watch
David Parfitt
Dalmatic
a A king’s coronation
robe
b Spotted
c Pertaining to a
soothing resin
Isodomon
a A biblical city
b Masonry of uniformly
arranged bricks
c A compound present
in certain spices
Wheeple
a A part of a nun’s
headdress
b A limping gait
c To whistle tunelessly
Answers on page 15
The Times Daily Quiz
1 Demolition of which
barrier officially began
on June 13, 1990?
2 A coywolf is a canid
hybrid of eastern
wolves, grey wolves and
which wild animal?
3 In the 17th century,
which newly found
continent became
known as “New
Holland”?
4 The Ghost Extended
and Phantom Extended
are models by which
British luxury car
manufacturer?
5 The 1981 and 1985
Handsworth riots
took place in which
Midlands city?
6 Which London-based
cupcake company was
The Times Quick Cryptic
1 2 3 4
9 10
11 12
15 16
17
19
20 21
23
Sudoku Easy No 14,691
Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9.
Olav Bjortomt
15
started in 2006 by
Romy Lewis and
Victoria Jossel?
7 How many furlongs
are there in one mile?
8 Which British
singer-songwriter
had Top 20 hits with
Babylon, This Year’s
No 2602 by Alex
5 6
8 (5)
13
22
24
Difficult No 14,692
day adaptation of which
Shakespeare tragedy?
11 Born Mandy Theresa
O’Loughlin, who wrote
the 2016 debut novel My
Name is Leon?
12 Which battle, fought
in Cornwall in August/
September 1644, was
the greatest Royalist
victory of the Civil War?
13 In Memoirs of an
American Lady (1808),
who wrote: “Truth is
Love and Please the first victim to fear
Forgive Me? and policy”?
9 Which 2013-2016 Sky 14 What was the first
One fantasy comedy Fifa World Cup to be
was made by the shown live on the BBC?
troupe behind Horrible
Histories and Ghosts? 15 Who is this German
composer?
10 The 2014 Bollywood
film Haider is a modern- Answers on page 15
7 Across
1 Grip cold electrical appliance
4 Passenger bill includes rodent
(6)
9 Captain beginning to skin
smoked fish (7)
10 First of all merchants exchange
limes or nectarines for other
fruit (5)
11 Copy first of adult games (3)
14 12 Former railway employee is
one sending goods out (8)
15 Hoteliers lost stray cat perhaps
(13)
17 Oddly hear poet producing
musical (8)
18 18 Tack in three directions (3)
20 Reportedly vote against animal
noise (5)
22 Rotten team not in position to
score (7)
23 Cornered brick carrier holding
returned chicken product (6)
24 Lily left books with you and
me (5)
19.02.24
For extra
puzzles
See page 10
Fiendish No 14,693
Suko No 4042
Place the numbers 1 to 9 in the spaces so
that the number in each circle is equal to
the sum of the four surrounding spaces,
and each colour total is correct
For interactive puzzles visit
thetimes.co.uk
Down
1 Say a cult transformed injured
party (8)
2 Nimble US soldier drowning in
beer (5)
3 Seasoning on one sausage (9)
5 Wood regularly found in
vellum (3)
6 Trust from worker perhaps
covering cover up (7)
7 Guided around North in
advance (4)
8 In favour of job suggestion (11)
13 Bitter half seen in soothing
surroundings (9)
14 Perfect force having no rules
(8)
16 Fearing losing head studying
(7)
18 Change loose dress (5)
19 Part of foot in church (4)
21 First signs of horsefly’s
unwelcome, exasperating
appearance (3)
Friday’s solution on page 15
 PAGES 4-5 PAGES 8-9

thegame
MONDAY FEBRUARY 19 2024
Holgate sees red ‘Love is telling
as Brighton the whole truth’ –
thrash woeful Sean Dyche talks
Sheffield United to Matthew Syed
All the action
from the weekend

United on the charge

Hojlund’s double gives United fourth consecutive win
GLYN KIRK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

and offers hope of Champions League qualification

PAGES 2-3
2 1GG Monday February 19 2024 | the times

thegame

Hojlund and Mainoo carry

Luton Manchester
Town United

12
Morris 14 Hojlund 1, 7

POSSESSION

59% 41%
SHOTS ON TARGET

4 9
FOULS

7 21
RATINGS
Luton Town (3-4-2-1): T Kaminski 8 — T Mengi 6,
G Osho 6, A Bell 5 — C Ogbene 6, A-S Lokonga 8,
R Barkley 7, A Doughty 7 (L Berry 82min) —
T Chong 6 (A Townsend 68, 5) , C Morris 7 —
C Woodrow 5 (J Clark 68, 5) Booked Woodrow,
Townsend, Osho.
Manchester United (4-2-3-1): A Onana 7 — D Dalot
6, R Varane 6, H Maguire 4 (J Evans 46, 5), L Shaw
4 (V Lindelof 45+2, 5) — Casemiro 3
(S McTominay 46, 5), K Mainoo 7 — A Garnacho 5, Hojlund, above, takes contorting his body chest as Luton fight, however, and
B Fernandes 6, M Rashford 6 — R Hojlund 8 advantage of Bell’s expertly, below, and appealed in vain for responded through
(S Amrabat 86). Booked Shaw, Casemiro, Maguire,
Mainoo, Lindelof.
early lapse to round right, to divert offside. The home side Morris, below, to leave
Referee D Coote. Attendance 11,483.
Kaminski for a cool Garnacho’s wayward were never going to their illustrious
finish before effort home with his give up without a visitors hanging on

HENRY
WINTER
Chief Football Writer
At Kenilworth Road

Manchester United keep winning

games and keep giving their fans
palpitations. United’s fifth win on the
spin, their fourth in the league taking
them to within three points of fifth-
placed Tottenham Hotspur, seemed
inevitable when Rasmus Hojlund
struck like lightning, twice. But
United lacked control, lacked strength
in midfield beyond the outstanding
Kobbie Mainoo, and lacked the fight
that defines Luton Town. They held
on. Just.
The 1,389 travelling supporters who
squeezed on to the Oak Road Stand
doubtless gave thanks to the
youngsters, especially Hojlund and
Mainoo, and occasionally Alejandro
Garnacho, their shining lights. Having Sir Dave Brailsford looked on, his points deductions, then remember thinking I could be
only just turned 21, Hojlund is eagle eye surveying Ineos’s HOW THEY STAND fighting their way dying here” when suffering a
maturing into a terrific all-round acquisition. All looked promising P W D L F A GD Pts back in what the cardiac arrest at Bournemouth in
centre forward, showing a poacher’s early on when Hojlund dominated. Liverpool 25 17 6 2 59 24 35 57 fans’ banner hailed December. Luton fans accorded
knack, especially with his second goal The famous “Kenny” ambush seemed Arsenal 25 17 4 4 58 22 36 55 as “the most Lockyer a hero’s reception as
here, shaping his body quickly to a myth. In the opening minute, Man City 24 16 5 3 57 26 31 53 extraordinary story he walked across the pitch
Aston Villa 25 15 4 6 52 33 19 49
chest in Garnacho’s off-target effort Casemiro hooked a long clearance in the history of to the ad hoc studio in
Tottenham 25 14 5 6 52 38 14 47
and also demonstrating his hold-up downfield, bringing a horrendous loss Man Utd 25 14 2 9 35 34 1 44
English football”. the centre circle.
play. of concentration from Amari’i Bell. Brighton 25 10 8 7 48 40 8 38
Their starting line- That air of
The Dane withstood the rugged The defender turned the ball inside Newcastle 25 11 4 10 53 41 12 37 up cost less than £10 million. togetherness and
attentions of Luton’s centre backs. and three touches from the left foot West Ham 25 10 6 9 36 44 -8 36 Luton spent more getting defiance pervades this
Having taken time to settle in, and to of Hojlund did the rest. It was a gift Chelsea 25 10 5 10 42 41 1 35 Kenilworth Road ready for the small but raucous area. Luton’s
be fully fit after a back problem, the for the Dane, and he accepted it Wolves 25 10 5 10 39 40 -1 35 Premier League. Supporters mascot, Happy Harry, stood in
£72 million signing from Atalanta ruthlessly, rounding Thomas Fulham 25 8 5 12 34 41 -7 29 gathered around monitors in front of United fans, calling it
managed only five goals in his first 22 Kaminski and sliding the ball in. Bournemouth 24 7 7 10 33 46 -13 28 concrete concourses before on, even gesturing to one
United games, and since has eight in Luton were shocked, their fans Brentford 24 7 4 13 35 43 -8 25 kick-off, enjoying Sheffield visitor that he now knew who
eight. Even more improvement will momentarily silenced. United went Nottm Forest 25 6 6 13 32 44 -12 24 United losing to Brighton & ate all the pies. And so Luton’s
Crystal Palace 24 6 6 12 27 43 -16 24
arrive when United’s wingers, Marcus for them again, speeding forward Hove Albion. Every point a rival players were never going to
Luton 24 5 5 14 34 47 -13 20
Rashford and Garnacho, cross more after seven minutes. Garnacho’s *Everton 24 8 5 11 26 32 -6 19
drops is celebrated. But they are retreat meekly. They pulled a goal
consistently. volley looked to be whistling wide Burnley 25 3 4 18 25 55 -30 13 cautious. A board in the training back after 14 minutes. Tahith
The other most stirring positive for until Hojlund, reacting to its sudden Sheff Utd 25 3 4 18 22 65 -43 13 ground shows the Premier League Chong, formerly of United, drove
United was the composed arrival, deftly got his chest to it and * deducted 10pts for breaching financial rules table with Everton on 29 points, just forward, playing the ball left to
performance of 18-year-old Mainoo, a turned it past Kaminski. in case Merseyside club’s ten-point Alfie Doughty. His cross
beacon of hope and resistance in a Too much pride runs through Rob deduction is overturned. Luton are diverted back to Chong, who
midfield otherwise too often played Edwards’ side for them to go quietly one. This was the one Luton were leaving nothing to chance. turned and shot. The ball
through. Mainoo’s senior midfield into the Bedfordshire twilight. Too most waiting for. United in town, So they fought hard to get back into deflected up, and André
partner, Casemiro, came close to much emotion has built up among visiting for the first time in the league this game. The spirit of the team and Onana was too slow to claim
being a liability, lacking discipline in Luton’s staff and supporters, too. To since 1992, a reminder of how long club was embodied by Tom Lockyer, it. Carlton Morris threw
the challenge and lacking mobility. appreciate their response is to Luton have been gone. Their story is present on punditry duty and himself towards the ball,
Bruno Fernandes looks tired. understand the history. This was the well known, the relegations and telling Sky Sports how “I ignoring any possibility of
the times | Monday February 19 2024
fragile United over the line
taking a flying punch from Onana,
focusing solely on scoring and was
duly rewarded.
What a game this turned into, even
the sun came out to play. Including
added time, there was 86 minutes’
action after Morris scored, and there
wasn’t another goal, but it was
relentless, compelling theatre. Some
of the language from the fans drew
apologies from the broadcasters. The
ground is hemmed in by terraced
houses, the pitch is hemmed in by
febrile terraces, and Luton fans leant
across the hoardings to give United
players an earful, as well as urge their
own players on.
Ross Barkley came to the fore, a
driving run here, a flick there, looking
to release Chong, or Doughty or
make ground himself. The belief was
back. Chiedozie Ogbene tore down
the right, too quick for Luke Shaw,
who fouled him and went into David
Coote’s book. It was unfortunate for
Luton that they lost Elijah Adebayo to
a hamstring injury in the warm-up.
Cauley Woodrow stepped up, battled
gamely, but lacked Adebayo’s threat.
United still lost their composure.
2GG
Bell ran past Casemiro, who pulled
him back and was booked. Barkley
toyed with Fernandes. Casemiro, the
serial Champions League winner,
resembled a red card waiting to
happen. He dived in on Barkley, who
felt the contact. Coote showed
remarkable leniency. Barkley then ran
past Casemiro, who couldn’t risk a
challenge. Morris sped past Harry
Maguire, who blocked him. United
were a mess, leaders such as
Casemiro and Maguire giving no
direction. Heaven knows what the
watching Harry Styles thought.
Shaw then pulled up, and headed
straight to the tunnel, his face like
thunder. Victor Lindelöf came on at
left-back. Brailsford leant even
further forward in his seat. Can Dan
Ashworth play left back? Can Styles?
Erik ten Hag acted at the break,
sensibly withdrawing Maguire and
Casemiro for Jonny Evans and Scott
McTominay. United tried to add a
third, and Garnacho, Rashford and
Fernandes had chances but they still
had to survive a late scare when
Barkley’s header grazed the bar.
Another win, but hardly convincing.
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND; GLYN KIRK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
‘I thought I was dying – Ten Hag wants
but I’d love to play again’ clinical edge
DOMINIC AKIBOYE
Tom Lockyer, the Luton Town
captain, wants a return to professional
football despite having “literally died”
after collapsing on the pitch for the
second time in seven months.
Lockyer, 29, collapsed off the ball in
the 59th minute of Luton’s Premier
League match against Bournemouth
in December. His heart stopped for
two minutes and 40 seconds and the
Wales defender needed a defibrillator
to be shocked back to life.
“I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t move, I
was trying to work out what was
happening,” he said in an interview
with Sky Sports. “I remember
thinking, ‘I could be dying here.’
“I was running towards the halfway
line and I went really lightheaded. I
woke up and the paramedics were
there. I knew instantly it was different
to my collapse in May. Last time it felt
like I woke up from a dream, and this
time I woke up from nothingness.”
Lockyer collapsed during Luton’s
Championship play-off final victory in
May last year, but noticed more panic
among the medical staff this time. “I
literally died but I have been numb to
the whole thing since. I don’t know if
I have processed what happened.
“It was hardest on my family. My
old man was there [at the match] and
my girlfriend was seven months
pregnant at the time.”
He would like to return to the pitch
eventually. “Obviously we are going
to be dictated to by the medical staff
but what I would say is if there is a
chance that I could play again, then I
would love to,” Lockyer said.
“It’s far too early to say, there are a
lot more tests and things that need to
happen, but I wouldn’t write it off.”
3
thegame
Newcastle will
take £15m
for Ashworth
MARTIN HARDY
Newcastle United will tell Manchester
United they want £15 million to
release Dan Ashworth from his
20-month gardening leave period to
become the new sporting director at
Old Trafford.
Ashworth told his bosses at
Newcastle yesterday that he wanted
to leave the club after the approach
by Sir Jim Ratcliffe to move to
Manchester United. Newcastle
responded by placing Ashworth, the
former technical director of the FA,
on gardening leave.
Newcastle officials, furious at the
manner of Manchester United’s
approach for Ashworth, immediately
blocked any access the 52-year-old
had to the club’s computer
programmes and scouting reports.
The Tyneside club want
compensation of £15 million to allow
Ashworth to take the new role before
2025, which would be an
unprecedented figure for a director of
football. Newcastle’s ire has been
intensified by the fact Manchester
United have still not made an official
approach to them about Ashworth.
Ashworth joined Newcastle from
Brighton & Hove Albion in June 2022
after a three-month spell of gardening
leave. Newcastle paid £4 million to
end the gardening leave.
Eddie Howe said on Friday that he
was concerned about the fact
Ashworth had access to Newcastle’s
plans while he was ready to join a
Premier League rival. “He [Dan] is in
a position of power, with a lot of
intelligence and information [on
transfers],” the Newcastle head coach
said. “The concerns are relevant.
There has to be a line drawn and
things have to move forward.”
Manchester United sources have
said Newcastle will continue to pay
Ashworth’s salary until his gardening
leave has finished.
HAMZAH KHALIQUE-LOONAT
Erik ten Hag said that his Manchester
United team’s recent good form was
“fragile” and that they still required a
clinical touch. Their 2-1 win away to
Luton Town was their fourth league
victory in a row and leaves them sixth
in the table, three points behind
Tottenham Hotspur and five behind
Aston Villa in fourth.
“[The form is] fragile, because we
didn’t take the chances,” Ten Hag
said. “I think we should have scored
many more goals.”
Two goals in the opening seven
minutes from Rasmus Hojlund gave
United the advantage, but they then
allowed Luton back into the game.
“The only thing we didn’t do well
was be clinical. Today we easily could
have scored five goals,” the United
manager said.
4 1GG
thegame
Holgate horror lunge gives
Sheffield Utd Brighton
0 5
Buonanotte 20
Welbeck 24
Robinson (og) 75
Adingra 78, 85
RATINGS
Sheffield United (5-4-1): W Foderingham 5 —
J Bogle 5, M Holgate 3, A Ahmedhodzic 5,
J Robinson 5, Y Larouci 4 (A Brooks 62min, 5) —
B Osborn 6 (O Norwood 79), G Hamer 5 (T Davies
79), V Souza 4, J McAtee 7 (R Brewster 79) —
W Osula 5 (A Trusty 30, 4). Booked Davies. Sent
off Holgate
Brighton & Hove Albion (3-4-2-1): B Verbruggen 6
— JP van Hecke 7, L Dunk 6, A Webster 6 (I Julio
45, 5) — P Gross 7, F Buonanotte 7 (E Ferguson 66,
6), B Gilmour 7, T Lamptey 6 (J Moder 45, 6) —
S Adingra 6, K Mitoma 9 (A Fati 76) — D Welbeck 7
(P Estupiñán 81). Booked Lamptey, Buonanotte,
Gilmour, Verburggen.
Referee S Attwell. Attendance 29,522.
IAN WHITTELL
Mason Holgate, with a contender for
the worst foul of the season, is set to
be fined by his team after he helped
condemn Sheffield United to 80-plus
minutes with ten men and a defeat
that edged his loan club a step closer
to a likely relegation.
The defender, who is on loan from
Everton, also apologised to his team-
mates in the dressing room after a
third consecutive home defeat in
which Chris Wilder’s team have
conceded five goals.
Wilder said his feelings were
somewhere between anger and a
degree of understanding towards the
27-year-old, although he indicated he
would use “manager’s discretion” to
fine him.
“It’s a competitive sport, not a non-
contact sport, but there has to be a
balance,” Wilder said. “It was a very,
very strong challenge and the game
has moved on. Some people expect
physical contact, even excessive
contact, whatever you call it. But
winning the ball in that way is
deemed not acceptable so we have no
excuses, nowhere to hide.”
There was certainly nowhere to
hide for Wilder’s ten men for the
remainder of the game as they
conceded five goals at home against
Brighton & Hove Albion for the
second time this season.
In fact, Brighton’s trips to Bramall
Lane in the FA Cup and Premier
League in the past three weeks have
not only brought them ten goals in
three hours of football, but yesterday
also marked the first time they have
Foderingham is helpless to prevent Robinson’s own goal from Mitoma’s cross,
above, with Welbeck and Adingra, inset right, also among the Brighton scorers
scored five in a top-flight away game.
First-half goals from Facundo
Buonanotte and Danny Welbeck were
followed by a second-half Jack
Robinson own goal and two Simon
Adingra efforts, securing three
comfortable points and the biggest
win of the season for Roberto De
Zerbi’s side. But the game will be
remembered for the lunge by Holgate
on Kaoru Mitoma after 12 minutes
that may yet prompt the FA to take
action and add to the automatic
Holgate was
sent off after
cutting across
Mitoma and
hitting him on
the left thigh
NICK POTTS/PA
three-match suspension that straight
red cards carry.
The United defender launched
himself at Mitoma, missing the ball
completely and cutting across the
midfielder’s body, eventually making
contact high on his left thigh. The
response from Brighton players told
its story although the referee, Stuart
Attwell, inexplicably only issued
yellow before being urged to consult
his pitchside monitor, a move that
could only produce one outcome.
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
Holgate may have curried favour
with his parent club Everton for his
role in a result that stifled the
momentum his new side gained in
last week’s impressive away win
against Luton Town, but it continued
his own wretched season.
He has twice made loan debuts, for
Southampton and United, which both
ended in 5-0 defeats — against
Sunderland and Aston Villa
respectively — while also collecting a
third red card in his past 36 Premier
League appearances.
“Yes, it’s manager’s discretion,”
Wilder said when asked if he would
fine Holgate. “He apologised to the
boys, he understands it. He’s an
experienced professional but he’s got
it wrong. I want us on the front foot,
to be competitive, win tackles. But
Mason has to get that right. It was a
huge setback for us.”
Wilder had clearly set out with a
defence-first game plan that was
instantly rendered obsolete, all the
more so when the hosts found
themselves two goals behind within
12 minutes of the red card.
On 20 minutes, Pascal Gross’s
corner was headed back across goal
and forced over the line by
Buonanotte’s flick before being
the times | Monday February 19 2024 1GG 5

Brighton a gift
scrambled away, although home
supporters already unhappy at the red
card booed the decision.
Four minutes later, Gross found
Mitoma at the far post and, after the
initial shot from the Japan
international was well saved by Wes
Foderingham, Welbeck was on hand
to sweep in the rebound.
United supporters continued to boo
TONY
CASCARINO
Gregor Robertson
visits ???????????????
Weekend talking points
reflected Brighton’s 80 per cent
GOALS CONCEDED AFTER possession as Gross’s cross found the
25 GAMES unmarked Adingra, who finished
Premier League era
Sheffield United (2023-24)
65
from eight yards.
Adingra completed the rout five
minutes from the end of normal time
when his shot took an unkind
Hojlund fights back to
Barnsley (1997-98)

Leeds (2021-22)
61
deflection off Auston Trusty and
looped over Foderingham’s head.
It was a remarkable return to
prove detractors wrong
Mitoma’s every touch, a particularly 56 domestic duties for Adingra who, only Rasmus Hojlund didn’t get his
harsh response give his blameless and Blackburn (2011-12) seven days earlier, was helping Ivory first Premier League goal until TEAM OF THE WEEK
painful role in Holgate’s dismissal, but 56 Coast win the Africa Cup of Nations December 26 but since then he has
4-3-3
he was impressive in Brighton’s with two assists during the 2-1 win hardly stopped scoring. That tells E Martinez
predictably dominant conceded after 25 games (65), over Nigeria in the final. Given that you a great deal about not just his (Aston Villa)
performance thereafter. the only surprise was Mitoma, too, had also spent last quality as a player but also his C Bradley Chilwell
It might have been that the second month on duty for Japan at the Asian character. (Liverpool) (Chelsea)
different if half did not Cup, De Zerbi can certainly see the As Manchester United’s centre
United’s 43rd- produce even benefit of the pair having had that forward he was bound to get a great A Disasi C Dawson
minute “goal” more than three international experience. deal of attention from the moment (Chelsea) (Wolves)
had been for the visiting “Especially for Adingra, because he he first kicked a ball for the club.
allowed to stand team. won the Africa Cup of Nations,” the As the goalless games continued
but, after another It was left to Mitoma Brighton head coach said. “We have in the league so the pressure built. B Gilmour J Gomes M Odegaard
VAR check, Attwell to gain some measure suffered a lot of injuries and now we He was only 20 (he turned 21 at the (Brighton) (Wolves) (Arsenal)
determined that Ben of revenge on the are starting the crucial part of the start of this month) and he could
Osborn had been home supporters when season, I’d like to fight and compete easily have crumbled. Instead he
offside when forcing in his dangerous 75th- with a complete squad.” fought back. It is so difficult for S Adingra R Hojlund Hudson-Odoi
the ball from close minute cross was It was a relief, therefore, that strikers who go on a long run (Brighton) (Man Utd) (Nottm For)
range. deflected by Robinson Holgate had not inflicted far more without scoring. We’ve all been
Given that United into his own goal damage on Mitoma. “He feels good,” there, though I never went on a run
now hold the all-time from six yards. Three De Zerbi added. “He suffered a pain as long as his.
Premier League mark minutes later, the in the back so I changed him, not But it was much more difficult for
for the most goals scoreline finally because of the foul.” him, being new to the league and game. He reminds me of Mark
JAMES GILL/DANEHOUSE; ROBBIE JAY BARRATT/AMA/GETTY IMAGES with people questioning whether he Hughes.

Controversy would ever adapt. And there was no

one experienced at United, playing
the same position, to help him learn
Yesterday’s first goal, against
Luton Town, meant he was the
youngest player to score in six

but ref was the ropes. That made it even more

difficult.
But now his quality is shining
successive Premier League games.
There was an element of luck about
the second but all strikers know

right about through. He has been fantastic as he

battles to lead the line, he has
enough pace to threaten defenders
that when things are going well you
can get lucky. People questioned his
fee (about £64 million) in the

big decisions and there is a directness to his

Chilwell and Disasi part

autumn. No one is doing that now.

Chelsea may yet regret

The expert view
PETER
WALTON
Former Premier League referee
The first half didn’t pan out quite how
Sheffield United had planned. Mason
Holgate’s challenge after only 12
minutes ticked all the boxes for
serious foul play: force, height and out
of control. After the VAR
recommended that Stuart Attwell
should have another look, Holgate
was only going in one direction,
towards the dressing room.
OSBORN
of a team now on the up
I have been very critical of
Chelsea, both in these pages
and when appearing on The Game
podcast. But for the first time this
season I saw some genuine reasons
for optimism. This is not because
they got a point against the mighty
Manchester City, because that was
as much down to Erling Haaland
having a rare off day, but there were
smaller, more specific signs of
improvement. Axel Disasi had his
best game in a Chelsea shirt since
joining the club from Monaco last
season and I thought Ben Chilwell
showed all his experience and class
in the way he dealt with Phil Foden.
No one has handled the City
midfielder better all season.
Raheem Sterling, too, showed why
Chelsea had signed him with a
leading performance. Chelsea are
still a mid-table team but they are
one who can start looking up.
selling star on the cheap
Whether it’s younger players
in more recent years such as
Tammy Abraham or Fikayo Tomori
or signings that didn’t work out
such as Kevin De Bruyne and
Mohamed Salah, Chelsea have
often been accused of not getting
the most out of players with
potential. Two of those names are
global stars and the other two are
excelling in Italy but there is
another name that might show a
carelessness at Stamford Bridge:
Callum Hudson-Odoi. It wasn’t long
ago that he was wanted by Bayern
Munich and Chelsea were doing
everything to hold on to him. Now
he’s at Nottingham Forest and
rebuilding his career after a move
which went a little under the radar.
He was excellent against West Ham,
always wants the ball and can score
goals. Chelsea sold him to Forest for
only £5 million; they might regret it.

Sheffield United players Palace are right to line

United thought they had got back
into the contest after Ben Osborn
pounced after a corner kick. Attwell
blew for a foul but the VAR suggested
he have another look. No foul was
detected but Osborn was in an offside
position even though the ball had
come off Brighton’s Facundo
Buonanotte. Attwell decided it was a
deflection rather than a deliberate
play and rightly disallowed the strike.
must fight for futures
Sheffield United have been
terrible defensively all season
and they were terrible again
yesterday. Brighton & Hove Albion
just blew them away, as Aston Villa
had done a fortnight ago.
Chris Wilder will be thinking
already about the players who can
get them back up, already assuming
that they will be going down. He
has to. And that’s what his players
need to realise — that they are
playing for their futures at the club.
Because I reckon that is exactly
what Wilder will be thinking.
up replacement for Roy
I understand the sensitivity
around the Roy Hodgson
situation at Crystal Palace and, like
everyone, I wish him well with his
recovery. But I don’t think Palace
have done anything wrong — it’s a
bad coincidence but preparing a
managerial change is normal in the
ruthless world of football. Hodgson
knows that and, with his good
relationship with Steve Parish, I
can’t believe he won’t see it as that
too. His team have been struggling,
Palace are allowed to look at a
change and Hodgson knows that.
6 1GG V2
thegame The title race
Saka playing his
way into ‘league’s
best’ conversation
CHARLOTTE DUNCKER
When Bukayo Saka’s name was
mentioned in the same sentence as
Kylian Mbappé and Phil Foden on
Saturday evening Mikel Arteta had a
wry smile on his face. The question
posed to the Arsenal manager was
whether his 22-year-old forward was
motivated to become “world class”
like the other two.
“You’d have to ask him,” was
Arteta’s reply, and the Spaniard
probably does not care how Saka’s
talent is viewed externally when he is
in this form.
The topic was sparked by a
comment last week from Rio
Ferdinand that Saka, who scored
another two goals against Burnley on
Saturday, is not world class. Whatever
your view on the hierarchy of these
young, talented players, Saka is
certainly showing that he could have
the consistency to be placed in the
same bracket as the world’s best.
His penalty was confident and
ensured a personal milestone of
scoring in four consecutive league
games for the first time in his career,
but it was his second goal, on his
“weaker” right foot, that was the most
impressive.
Arteta and his staff have been
working with Saka on improving his
finishing with his right foot to take
away the inevitably of cutting inside
and hitting it with his left each time.
His emphatic finish into the roof of
the net proved that practice is paying
off — Saka is one of only five players
to score at least seven Premier
League goals with both feet since the
start of last season.
“We don’t really see it [in football],”
Arteta said. “Especially forward
players and wingers with that level of
consistency and numbers. At his age
it is something really strange to find
but it is not a coincidence when you
look at him every single day.
“The way he trains, the way he
applies himself, the qualities that he
has. And he can do more.”
More on Saturday would have been
securing that first Premier League
hat-trick, which he is so desperately
seeking, but in the long term, to end
all doubts about where he ranks, he
needs to maintain that consistency.
He is creating more chances and
taking more shots than at any point
in his career, and in a league with
Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland,
Saka is starting to put himself in the
same conversation.
His 44 league goal involvements
since the start of last season have
been bettered only by Salah and
Haaland, yet Saka’s qualities are still
overlooked. So much so that after he
went on a barren spell of one league
goal in 11 games before the new
year, the conversation was that
Arsenal would need to land a No 9 in
January if they were to keep pace in
the title race.
Yet here they are, five league games
into 2024, with five wins under their
belt and 21 goals scored. So what has
changed?
Monday February 19 2024 | the times
MATT MCNULTY/GETTY IMAGES
Saka’s work on his right-foot finishing paid off with his second goal on Saturday
PREMIER LEAGUE GOALS AND “I think we all trust ourselves and
ASSISTS SINCE LAST SEASON we know what quality we all have.
You know, we have to give trust to
Goals Assists each other and that’s what we’ve
E Haaland Total done,” Kai Havertz, who also scored
52 13 65 on Saturday, said. “It’s not only
M Salah because of the strikers that you
34 21 55 don’t score goals, defenders can score
B Saka goals for us and stuff like that. That’s
26 18 44 so important.
“You know it’s not the end now.
O Watkins
We keep being focused because I
28 16 44 know you guys after one game
S Heung-Min without five goals you’re going to
22 12 34 write that we need a strike. So we just
H Kane work hard, enjoy ourselves on the
30 3 33 pitch.”
M Odegaard Arteta’s side are playing with a
20 13 33 confidence and swagger that is
C Wilson making them appear unbeatable.
25 6 31 Martin Odegaard’s form in recent
weeks has been exceptional and the
P Foden
whole team are clicking at the right
19 12 31
D Solanke
20 10 30
REMAINING PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES
time as they resume their Champions
League campaign on Wednesday
with the first leg of their round-of-16
tie against Porto.
City’s form against
Liverpool
Wednesday Luton Town (h)
March 2 Nottingham Forest (a)
March 10 Manchester City (h)
March 17 Everton (a)
March 31 Brighton & Hove Albion (h)
“I think that [being clinical] is what
we were missing a little bit in the last
few weeks before the break — we
created so much but we didn’t score
top sides a concern
April 3 Sheffield United (h) the goals,” Odegaard said.
April 6 Manchester United (a) “But within the last few games, hands — but Saturday’s match
April 13 Crystal Palace (h) we’ve been brilliant in front of goal. PAUL HIRST against a resurgent Chelsea proved
April 20 Fulham (a)
April 27 West Ham United (a) We get so many people in the box It was a frenetic evening at the Etihad exactly what Guardiola was saying on
May 4 Tottenham Hotspur (h) and so many situations around the Stadium and no one was busier than Friday when his team were being
May 11 Aston Villa (a)
May 19 Wolverhampton Wanderers (h) box. So yeah, it’s been brilliant. We Keith Stroud, the fourth official. praised for winning their previous
Arsenal want to compete in every With 15 minutes of the match 11 matches.
Saturday Newcastle United (h) competition we play in. Of course the remaining, Stroud emerged from the “Remember this sentence: it looks
March 4 Sheffield United (a)
March 9 Brentford (a) Champions League is a massive one, mouth of the tunnel to urge Pep easy, but it isn’t,” the Catalan said at
March 16 Chelsea (h) so we are excited for it. Guardiola to step back into his his pre-match press conference.
March 31 Manchester City (a) “We just want to focus on technical area three times in the He preached a similar message on
April 2 Luton Town (h)
April 6 Brighton & Hove Albion (a) ourselves each game, keep improving space of a few minutes. With his team Saturday night. “The reality is what
April 13 Aston Villa (h) every game and we will see how it 1-0 down to Chelsea, Guardiola was we have done, it’s difficult to sustain it
April 20 Wolverhampton Wanderers (a)
April 27 Tottenham Hotspur (a) goes. We are in a good moment now. being sucked on to the pitch by the for a long time,” Guardiola said. “In
May 4 Bournemouth (h) We have to use that momentum, drama that was unfolding in front of this sport, in this competition, in this
May 11 Manchester United (a)
May 19 Everton (h) keep building on it and we will see.” him, and his own nervous energy. league, with these contenders, it’s
Manchester City
Momentum will be crucial if Finally, as Guardiola retreated to never easy. It looks like it for the
Tomorrow Brentford (h) Arsenal are to keep pace with the confines of his technical area, he people who are not involved in that.
Saturday Bournemouth (a) Manchester City and Liverpool at the apologised to the fourth official, who But that’s not true. It’s difficult. That’s
March 3 Manchester United (h)
March 10 Liverpool (a) top of the table while also tapped his watch, telling the why it’s nice. If it was easy, what sense
March 17 Brighton & Hove Albion (a) progressing to the last eight of the Manchester City manager that there would that make?”
March 31 Arsenal (h)
April 3 Aston Villa (a) Champions League, but they are was still time for more goals. City This is a message that Guardiola
April 6 Crystal Palace (a) showing that they have the ability. equalised in the 83rd minute through and his staff have been repeating in
April 13 Luton Town (h)
April 20 Tottenham Hotspur (a)
And with seemingly “world-class” Rodri, but could not find a winner. private for months — recording win
April 27 Nottingham Forest (a) players within Arteta’s ranks, It was only a minor setback — City after win is not a given.
May 4 Wolverhampton Wanderers (h) anything could be possible in the remain favourites for the title and The first half taught us a few things
May 11 Fulham (a)
May 19 West Ham United (h) final few weeks of the season. their destiny is still in their own about City. Erling Haaland, who
the times | Monday February 19 2024 1GG V2 7

thegame
JASON CAIRNDUFF/ACTION IMAGES/REUTERS

‘BIG SIX’ PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE

P W D
HOME
L F A W D
AWAY
L F A GD Pts
Van Dijk adds air of
1. Arsenal
2. Tottenham
5. Man City
3. Liverpool
6
6
6
7
3
2
0
1
1
0
3
2
0
1
0
0
9
5
5
5
4
5
5
2
0
0
1
0
2
3
1
2
0
0
1
2
3
7
7
4
3
7
5
7
0

0
5

missed all nine of his chances in the
match, is human after all. The sooner
that John Stones is fit enough to get a
run of successive games, the better,
because Manuel Akanji is not as
comfortable bringing the ball into
midfield as the England centre back.
It also reminded us that City are
still struggling to find a replacement
for Ilkay Gundogan. At times Julián
Álvarez played so deep that he was
collecting the ball off the centre
backs. “We knew we weren’t at our
standard in the first half,” Kyle
Walker, the full back, said. “The
manager came in, had words and we
all had words with each other and I
think in the second half we probably
could have gone and won it.”
City will, in all likelihood, bounce
back with a win over Brentford
tomorrow night that would cut
Liverpool’s lead to two points.
March will be a crucial month for
City. Seven days after hosting
Manchester United on March 3,
City travel to Liverpool and they then
play Arsenal at home on March 31.
Three weeks later, City play away to
Tottenham Hotspur. These fixtures
are likely to decide whether City can
become the first team to win the
Premier League title four times in
a row.
Their record against the established
4. Chelsea
6. Man United
7
6
top-six teams (United, Spurs, Arsenal,
Liverpool and Chelsea) has been
surprisingly disappointing this season.
Their only win over one of those
established rivals came at Old
Trafford in October. City have drawn
at home against Chelsea, Liverpool
and Spurs. On the road, they have
beaten United, drawn against Chelsea
and lost 1-0 to Arsenal in October.
“We’re up against two very good
teams in Liverpool and Arsenal,”
Walker, 33, said. “Liverpool have got
momentum. With their manager
leaving [at the end of the season]
maybe it’s given them a little bit of
enthusiasm. They’ve got now to
let him go out on a high, but we want
to do something that no one’s ever
been able to do and that’s win four
in a row.”
Jack Grealish should have
recovered from a groin injury
by the time United come to the
Etihad. “His injury is not as bad
as we expected,” Guardiola said of
the winger, who hobbled off in City’s
3-1 win in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
“It will be maybe [a layoff of] ten
days. We thought it could be three
weeks or a month but it is less, so it is
good news.”
There were positives to take from
Saturday’s match too. Kevin De
Bruyne and Phil Foden were at their
2
0
1
3
1
0
1
7
4
7
6
1
0
1
1
2
1
7
1
9
5
-1
-6
Haaland failed
to score from
any of the nine
chances he had
on Saturday
creative best, and Rodri again
showed his class with a strong
midfield display that was capped off
by his fierce strike.
Remarkably, Rodri has not lost any
of his past 56 games for City in all
competitions. His most recent loss
came on February 5, 2023, when
Spurs defeated City 1-0.
“He’s an unbelievable player,”
Guardiola said of Rodri, who joined
from Atletico Madrid for £63 million
in 2019. “He is the best midfielder in
the world by far because he’s able to
do everything, because of his tempo,
his character when the situation is
going wrong, his ability to play short
and long, he is always ready. What a
signing for Manchester City. It’s
difficult to understand but what we
have done in recent years without
him would have been difficult.”
It was announced yesterday
that the Turkish club Istanbul
Basaksehir had signed a partnership
agreement with the City Football
Group (CFG), the stable of clubs to
which City belong.
“The agreement will see CFG will
provide consultation across various
footballing projects — including long-
term football strategy, recruitment,
scouting and coaching methodology
— as IBFK aim to grow and strive for
success,” a CFG statement read.
12
9
7
7
calm authority to
5
7
Liverpool challenge
ALYSON RUDD
Had Liverpool failed to win, again, at
the Gtech Community Stadium there
would have been plenty of mitigating
factors, not least a raft of injuries,
which was exacerbated by Curtis
Jones and Diogo Jota being
withdrawn before the interval and
Darwin Núñez failing to reappear for
the second half.
Núñez afterwards strolled casually
to the team bus, but Jones had
hobbled out, his left foot in a
protective boot, and Jota had
followed him with his left knee in a
brace. And then Virgil van Dijk
appeared and any sense of an
impending crisis dissipated.
“There can be no questions about
the resilience of the team at this
point,” the Liverpool captain said and
even the most contrary of characters
would have baulked at the idea of
arguing with the Holland defender.
At this juncture of the season, the
title race feels more about tenacity
and strength of will than expected
goals or possession stats and the
influence of Van Dijk, who made his
250th appearance for Liverpool
against Brentford, cannot be
overestimated. The sky could have
fallen down in west London and he
would not have panicked.
“You have to stay calm,” Van Dijk
said. “Calmness is the most difficult
thing to have if you are under a lot of
pressure or being rushed. Last week
when we played Burnley, it was 1-1 at
home [until the 52nd minute] and the
crowd could get nervous a little bit,
but you have to stay calm because
there is so much time. That is the
big message.”
Easy to say, perhaps, but what is the
trick to remaining calm?
“It is to enjoy your football,” he
said. “You have to expect difficulties.
We play in the Premier League, we
play against difficult teams who want
to hurt you and want to kick you off
from first place. We have to be ready
to suffer. We are not a perfect team
but we have to keep going.”
He has a point. Last season Arsenal
were in first place for 248 days but did
not look as if they enjoyed all of them
and finally suffered something close
to a meltdown.
“I don’t want to speak about
Arsenal,” Van Dijk said. “They were
pushing until the very end, almost,
but obviously we have been there. It is
a very, very difficult league. You are
playing against teams like
[Manchester] City or Arsenal who
have so much quality, so anything can
happen. You have to win each game
that is in front of you and, by the
looks of things, that will definitely
be needed.”
As with most of their
lunchtime kick-offs, Liverpool
were slow to tap into their
excellence in what was a
peculiar sort of contest.
Brentford began the
brighter, brimming with
the confidence of a team
who know how to beat the
best in the division, having
drawn 3-3 and then
defeated Liverpool 3-1 in
their previous two meetings in
Van Dijk remained unruffled by
Liverpool’s growing injury list
JOTA FACES TESTS ON KNEE
Diogo Jota will undergo tests today
on the knee that he injured against
Brentford, with reports in Portugal
last night suggesting that he could
be out for up to two months.
The in-form striker was taken
off on a stretcher and, while the
initial diagnosis is that he has
avoided cruciate ligament damage,
he is facing a layoff for a crucial
period in Liverpool’s season.
the Premier League on home soil. It
was not quite enough to label them
Jürgen Klopp’s bogey team, but it was
enough to allow them to be
uninhibited and only flimsy finishing
prevented them taking the lead.
Eventually, though, Liverpool found
a way to exploit the press and did so
by bypassing it altogether with long
but aesthetically pleasing balls.
“If you see how they set it up,” Van
Dijk explained, “keeping only one
defender at the back and trying to
press us high up, we have the players
who can hold the ball or deflect it and
it was quite successful. We analysed
them well and they took the risk. We
had to try and make use of it and
after the first 20 minutes, we did
really well.”
One reason for Liverpool’s ability to
handle the pressure of being top of
the league is the overwhelming sense
of, well, gaiety. Where Arsenal gulped,
Liverpool grin. At the final whistle it
felt like a school fête. Klopp is in
effect on a farewell tour and chatted
at length to the Brentford players, all
of whom beamed at him, glad of the
chance to wish him well, happy
perhaps to think he will end his
nine-year stint with a second title.
Thomas Frank, his opposite
number, led the team on his
customary walk around the perimeter
to applaud supporters, holding back
as Klopp approached the away fans,
and in that moment it was possible to
see a glimpse of a not totally far-
fetched future where it is the Dane
who is in charge of the Merseyside
club, once Klopp leaves at the
end of a campaign in which he
secures four trophies. If he does end
on such a high it will only make the
transition that bit more difficult for
his successor, and anyone with a
modicum of self-awareness may well
stop to wonder if it is even desirable
to want the direct comparisons.
And why is Frank under
consideration at all, given that
Brentford are only six points above
the relegation zone? It is precisely
because he does possess self-
awareness and is a pragmatic,
highly intelligent coach who
squeezes more than anyone else
could from the resources
available. Brentford are far
from one dimensional and
can be an extremely
good watch. They were
unfortunate that
Mohamed Salah came
off the bench after most
recently being part of the
squad on January 1 and
befuddled a defence that is
usually more stoic, but the
Egyptian’s return to Klopp’s
side bodes well for that
Quadruple.
8 2GG Monday February 19 2024 | the times

thegame
Photograph
Marc Aspland

‘Love is shown by
telling the whole
truth. Sometimes,
the brutal truth’
Everton manager Sean Dyche talks to Matthew Syed about his
fears for modern society, how he learnt of Everton’s points deduction
and the health scare that led to him bingeing Game of Thrones

I’
ve met quite a few politicians down the “And I think love is shown by telling the truth.
years but I think I can say — truthfully The whole truth. Sometimes, the brutal truth.
and without condescension — that Sure, you need to say it respectfully. Sometimes,
nobody has more eloquently articulated you need to say it gently. But unless you are
the malaise in modern society than Sean prepared to say it how it is, you are
Dyche. Across a flowing interview, we range misleading someone. Maybe even lying to
across VAR, sin-bins, points deductions, head them. But this is the problem in the world
protocols, diving, 4-4-2, music, beer and the today: people prefer perception over reality.
relative merits of Inspector Morse and The “I see this as a coach all the time. At an
Sopranos — all of which I’ll come to — but it is elite club, it is impossible for everyone to
on the terrain of politics that I am most play in the first team. It is
transfixed by Dyche’s words. impossible for everyone to be the
We get there after a brief interlude on what best in the world. And yet if
may seem like an unrelated topic: love. What you tell a player that they qualifications at all. And to keep I said, ‘You’ve got to immediately WhatsApp
does it mean to care, to show compassion, to haven’t got a contract, their followers happy, they say the players because it’s not fair that they read
reveal empathy? Dyche offers his view by way of instead of parents whatever people want to hear. this on [the Sky Sports News] ticker tape or
a story about his relationship (clearly a strong accepting your judgment, But sometimes people need to whatever. We need to control the message, keep
and loving one) with his father, a man they say you are hear reality, not fluff.” it in the loop.’
who worked for British Steel and who, harming their I should perhaps provide the “Then when the players returned from
along with Dyche’s mother — a kids. So you footballing backdrop to this international break, I got them all into a room
craftswoman who made shoes by Everton v have to tell a conversation. Everton, where and put up the league table with the ten-point
hand — created a strong grounding weird version of Dyche has been manager for deduction. I said, ‘Here’s the league table. Here’s
for a young man full of ambition, Crystal Palace the truth; you the past year or so, were
passion and talent for football.
“I remember going over to
Premier League
Today, 8pm
have got to
sugarcoat it —
handed a ten-point deduction
in November for breaking
“The problem in the
France with Nottingham Forest TV: Sky Sports ‘Yeah, you are good financial rules, although the club world today? People
Main Event
when I was 16,” Dyche says. “I was a
youth player and it was at the time my
enough but we didn’t have
quite enough room.’ It is
are appealing against the verdict.
The judgment has put enormous prefer perception
O-level results came out. I was quite bright madness.” strain on Everton — the manager, over reality”
but — like a lot of talented players back then — How did we arrive at this curious the players, the fans — so I can’t help
obsessed with football and didn’t put the hours place, I ask? “I think the problem is wondering how Dyche reacted to it. what it’s going to take. Here are the facts. This is
in at school. So, frankly, I didn’t do that well in that we put feelings above truth, He grimaces. “I’m sitting in the bar our new goal. Yes, it’s difficult. Yes it’s a
my exams. You can picture the scene. I am in an perception above reality,” he says. having a beer with my mate and I get challenge. But we must not have any excuses.’
old-fashioned phone box in France, whacking “Maybe the internet has something to a message from Kevin Thelwell, the That is one thing that can be fatal for a football
coins into the slot, feeling very sorry for myself. do with it. You have people who are director of football, about half an club: constantly making excuses. Not many of
I am blaming the teachers, the coaches, you famous on social media — influencers hour before the news hit. the players spoke up but elder statesmen like
name it. I am probably shedding a few tears, too. — even though they have no “‘Are you sitting down?’ he said. Seamus Coleman were fantastic. We just had to
“And Dad says, ‘Son, stop making excuses. knowledge or talent. And people I said, ‘What do you mean, am I get on with it.”
Work harder. Don’t blame it on anyone else.’ admire them because they have these sitting down?’ We move on to the present state of the game
That may sound hard but you know what? It huge followings. It worries me ‘We’ve just been deducted ten points’. and, again, I’m struck by Dyche’s honesty and
was the truth. I didn’t feel a lack of love; quite with two children. You have ‘You’ve got to be kidding’. insight. “It’s a great game, so many good things,
the opposite. I thought, ‘It’s a fair point, Dad,’ teenage people offering advice “He said, ‘Everyone is completely but we are losing our soul,” he says. “There are
even if I didn’t want to admit it. about psychology without any shocked. We just can’t believe it.’ eight billion people on the planet and four
the times | Monday February 19 2024 2GG 9

thegame

Dyche’s football journey McCarthy in charge for Everton game

PLAYING CAREER Paddy McCarthy is preparing to take charge of
1987-1990, Nottingham Forest Crystal Palace’s game away to Everton tonight
0 appearances, 0 goals with Roy Hodgson expected to leave the club
1990-1997, Chesterfield (Gary Jacob writes).
231 appearances, 8 goals McCarthy and Ray Lewington, Hodgson’s
1997-1999, Bristol City assistants, have overseen training since
16 appearances, 0 goals Hodgson was taken ill during training on
1999, Luton Town (loan) Thursday and taken to hospital.
14 appearances, 1 goal Palace have to agree compensation with
1999-2002, Millwall Hodgson for the final four months of his
73 appearances, 3 goals contract. Oliver Glasner has agreed to take
2002-2005, Watford over on a contract until 2026 but will require a
78 appearances, 1 goal work permit and is likely to be in attendance at
2005-2007, Northampton Town Goodison Park. The Austrian, 49, might have
61 appearances, 0 goals four days to prepare for the match at home to
Honours Millwall: Second Division title, 2000-01 Burnley on Saturday. Glasner left Eintracht
MANAGERIAL CAREER Frankfurt at the end of last season after he
reached the Champions League round-of-16
2011-2012, Watford 49 games and a German Cup final. He led them to a
2012-2022, Burnley 425 games Europa League triumph a year earlier.
2023-present, Everton 48 games Palace are five points above the relegation
Honours Burnley: Championship title, zone with three wins since September.
2015-16; Second place promotion, 2013-14

“And what do you think happens in the last

few minutes of games? Do you think they are
passing it along the floor or are they loading the
box? They are loading the box and guess what
happens? More headers. Does anyone on these
committees say, ‘Hang on, guys. We need to
think this through.’”
What about sin-bins, I wonder? This time
Dyche is laughing. “Only someone who doesn’t
understand the game would come up with this. I
mean, think about it. You ask someone to go
and sit in a sin-bin for ten minutes and then run
back onto the pitch and play elite football
without a warm-up. Hamstrings will be torn,
injuries will happen more often.
“And where are the players supposed to sit?
What about the torrent of abuse from fans as
they are sitting there? Are they going to give
you headphones with fancy music to drown out
the insults and an exercise bike so you can stay
warm? Do me a favour. It’s completely
impractical — as any manager will tell you.”
This is the lovely thing about Dyche: his
unvarnished honesty, his straightforwardness. I

“Billions access the

Premier League and
yet they are seeing
too much cheating”
ask him what he likes to do in the evening to
wind down and, rather marvellously, he says
that he loves beer and curry. He also talks about
his passion for music and television, particularly
shows like True Detective although I press the
merits of Inspector Morse.
What is your favourite box set, I wonder?
“Well, there’s a story,” he says, before recalling
his time at Burnley. “I had my fourth back
operation just after the pandemic and had a
CSF leak [where a tear in the membranes
surrounding the brain allows fluid to escape]
after the operation. You could feel the fluid
Right: Dyche but let me give one example. A couple of weeks in my back: it was like half a tennis ball
talks strategy ago, Ivan Toney moved the ball on a free kick sticking out.
with Coleman, when the ref wasn’t looking [for Brentford “We got to 39 points and played away at
who the manager against Nottingham Forest] and scored. And Bournemouth and I said to Woaney [Ian Woan,
says provided you know what? The pundits said, ‘Oh, that was assistant manager], ‘Is the lump getting bigger?’
“fantastic” clever; that was smart.’ He was lauded. That is He said, ‘If it gets bigger, you’ve got to get off
leadership after what’s wrong with football, right there. A billion the pitch.’ Anyway, it got to the end of the
Everton received kids are watching and thinking that it is clever match and I had to lie down for five days to
their ten-point to cheat, because that is what they are hearing let the fluid go back into my body and during
deduction. Left: from the people on TV.” that period, I watched the whole of Game of
Dyche in action Would you be willing to call out a player in Thrones, start to finish. It was superb, if you like
for Northampton your team who dived, I wonder? “Yes, I’d say that sort of stuff.”
Town in 2007. afterwards, ‘Lads, this isn’t the right thing to do.’ As the interview comes to an end, we
Above left: Dyche And it’s worth remembering that football has so discover that we love similar music and he
and Syed, who many things going for it. The game has mentions that his friend (the actress Vicky
plan to reunite improved with sports science, technical skill, McClure) organises club events called Day
and enjoy some diet, you name it. It’s a fantastic spectacle in so Fever, where they play Eighties music for an
Eighties music many ways. older crowd at cool venues between 3pm and
together once “If we could only rediscover mutual respect 8pm. So, when the season is over, we resolve to
the season ends and that old-fashioned attitude of playing hard get together with our other halves for an
but fair it would be a better game.” afternoon of dancing before heading off for a
billion access the Premier League and yet they been assaulted? That is black and white Dyche is also fascinating on head protocols. curry and a few drinks. And I honestly can’t
are seeing too much cheating. Why are Uefa cheating. They are lying to try to get other “Yeah, you have to put some rules in place wait. Because Dyche, 52, is one of those rare
and Fifa not dealing with this? players into trouble. Back in my day, we because of brain injuries,” he says. “But they people who combines fierce intelligence and a
“I don’t have a problem with gamesmanship, called it ungentlemanly conduct and we would never consider the unintended consequences. prodigious work rate with that sense of fun you
where a player is clipped and they go down. sort it out among the players, but now it’s They say that we need people to head the ball so often see in the best leaders.
That has always happened. But how it is right normal. A player who cheats will get back to the less, then they keep adding ten minutes to the “Life’s an adventure and you have to approach
that someone goes down without any contact at dressing room and people will say, ‘Well done, end of games, and adding more games to the it in the right spirit,” he says. It isn’t a bad
all? How is it right that a player brushes another get in there.’ In a way, it’s wrong to single out season, so people are heading the ball more summary of the philosophy of one of football’s
player’s head and they collapse as if they have any one player because it happens all the time, often anyway. most singular and impressive characters.
10 1GG Monday February 19 2024 | the times

thegame Saturday Rewind

Villa’s main man

staking claim as
Kane understudy
Fulham
Muniz 63
1 of Villa’s haul. It is hard to think
Aston Villa
Watkins 23, 56
2 fortunes.
GREGOR ROBERTSON
The most complete striker in the
Premier League? There are more
prolific forwards. Those who are
stronger in the air. A few more adept
with their back to goal. One or two,
perhaps, who are quicker, whose
movement is sharper or smarter
around the penalty box. Not many,
though. And do any have a broader
skillset than Ollie Watkins?
The Aston Villa striker is in the
form of his life. Watkins produced a
masterclass of centre-forward play at
Craven Cottage on Saturday, where
his double in a 2-1 win against
Fulham helped Aston Villa to emerge
from a shaky start to 2024 and
leapfrog Tottenham Hotspur back
into the top four.
Watkins’s 12th and 13th Premier
League strikes of the season, coupled
with ten assists, mean that only
Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, with
24, has registered more goal
involvements this season. No one
has scored more goals from open
play. On this form, Gareth Southgate
would be a brave man to leave
Watkins at home for Euro 2024.
Before that, Villa’s top-four
aspirations increasingly feel as though
they rest on Watkins’s shoulders. The
28-year-old has been directly involved
in 43 per cent of Villa’s 52 Premier
League goals — only Dominic
Solanke (51 per cent) has a higher
share of his team’s goal involvements,
and Bournemouth have scored 19
fewer goals this season. In all
competitions, Watkins’s 30 goal
involvements represent 52 per cent
of a player more central to his team’s
That’s because when Villa are at
their dynamic, incisive best, Watkins
is the focal point of their vertical
passing through the centre of the
pitch, their rapier on the counter and
their difference-maker in transitions.
Both Watkins’s goals on Saturday
demonstrated why he is the perfect fit
for Unai Emery’s team.
The first was purely instinctive.
Antonee Robinson’s kamikaze throw-
in was pounced on by Jacob Ramsey.
The ball fell to Watkins and in one
movement he turned, wrong-footing
Tim Ream and protecting the ball
from Issa Diop. The finish was
clinical, low and hard into the far
corner. Six seconds passed between
the turnover and the ball nestling in
the back of the net.
His second was a piece of centre-
forward play of the highest order. Pau
Torres — whose return to an injury-
hit defence was most welcome —
found Douglas Luiz, who moved the
ball on to John McGinn in the centre
of the pitch. When Watkins dropped
deep to show for the Villa captain,
drawing Diop out of the back four,
Villa’s trap was set. Instead of playing
to Watkins’s feet, McGinn picked out
Youri Tielemans between the lines,
then pointed to exactly where the ball
should be played.
Watkins had already checked and
darted into the space his angled run
had created, leaving the Fulham
defender in his slipstream. The pass
was weighted perfectly. Watkins
barely had to break stride before
smashing the ball past Bernd Leno
with the confidence of a striker at the
peak of his powers. “He’s clinical, he
works hard every day on it,” Matty
Cash, the Villa full back said. “He’s
showing his worth now, he’s a
fantastic professional as well as a
player. For me it’s not a surprise that
he’s scoring goals, I’ve seen it since he
came to the club. His work ethic and
what he does to get in those positions,
how he lives his life.”
Watkins’s development under
Emery has been remarkable, a point
underlined by Villa’s previous visit to
Craven Cottage 16 months ago, a
3-0 defeat that ended with Steve
Gerrard’s dismissal. Watkins had
scored one goal in Villa’s opening 11
games. Saturday’s return to west
London brought up Emery’s 50th
Premier League game, during which
time Watkins has been involved in
40 goals (26 goals, 14 assists).
Emery, meanwhile, registered his
30th win — five more victories and
nine more points than any other Villa
manager has managed in their first
half-century of league fixtures.
Watkins has started all but one of
those games.
He is now in elite company. The
intelligence of Watkins’s movement,
his ability to drop deep to link play
and create space for team-mates, and
a growing confidence in front of goal
arguably make Watkins the England
player whose profile most closely
resembles Harry Kane’s.
Watkins has earned nine caps since
his debut in March 2021, but only
three of those have been starts and
he was omitted from Southgate’s
squad for the delayed Euros in 2020
and the World Cup in 2022. Even if
Brentford’s Ivan Toney continues in
his rich seam of goalscoring form,
Watkins increasingly feels like the
most natural alternative to the
England captain.
But first, Villa hope his goals will
fire them into the Champions League. Boubacar Traoré, Toti Gomes, Mario Lemina, Kilman, Noha Lemina and Tawanda

Things will turn for me, vows Phillips Dawson is rock behind
Nott’m Forest
Awoniyi 45+5, Hudson-Odoi 90+4
2 enough to know if I get my head
West Ham Utd 0 right then things will turn.”
JAMES SHIELD
Kalvin Phillips’s move to West Ham
United was supposed to have a
rejuvenating effect on both the player
and his new club’s ailing season.
Four games, three defeats and now
one red card later, the England
midfielder could be forgiven for
wondering if he made the right call as
Gareth Southgate begins piecing
together a squad for this summer’s
that. But I’ve been in football long
down, grit my teeth and do the basics
Phillips’s second caution, one of 11
issued by the referee, Tom Bramall, at
the City Ground, in effect sealed West
Ham’s fate after Awoniyi’s opener.
They have taken only a point since
Phillip’s arrival from the Premier
League champions, conceding 12
times and scoring only once.
Already walking a tightrope after
pushing Nicolás Domínguez as
Moyes’s side chased an equaliser,
Phillips received a second yellow
with 19 minutes remaining after a
challenge on Morgan Gibbs-White.
take the free kick to make my point
but I was frustrated as we were losing.
With the second, I’ve not made any
contact with Morgan.”
Adding to the pressure on David
Moyes, the West Ham manager,
Forest produced exactly the kind of
display the Scot had urged his own
men to deliver after a 6-0 defeat by
Arsenal less than a week earlier.
After Hudson-Odoi’s strike deep
into added time there were calls, from
those West Ham supporters who
remained, for Moyes to be “sacked in
the morning”. Despite being
comfortably in the upper reaches of
the table, not even last term’s Europa
Conference League triumph has made
Tottenham
Kulusevski 46
1 Mario Lemina, who provided
Wolves
Gomes 42, 63
2 Dawson, 33, smothered Richarlison,
GARY JACOB
It was about this time last year that
Craig Dawson began to establish
himself as the defensive glue at
Wolverhampton Wanderers. He had
spent much of the season warming
the bench at West Ham United but
his experience told when he went on
to become one influential
reason for his new side
steering clear of the drop.
and the midfielders João Gomes and
industry, stamina and tenacity.
got in the way of Timo Werner’s
strikes and strode out and sprayed
diagonal passes towards Nélson
Semedo. “Sometimes you need these
kind of big players with this kind
of experience because he reads the
game quickly, talks to us, makes us
the shape the gaffer wants, it is really
impressive,” Lemina said. “Age is
nothing, if you stay in shape you
can play until 40 and at the moment
he’s unbelievable.”
Dawson’s one slip
proved costly as Dejan

European Championship. Yet Phillips
remains convinced, despite witnessing
Taiwo Awoniyi and Callum Hudson-
Odoi propel Nottingham Forest to a
deserved victory, that a change in
fortune is just around the corner.
“I wanted this to be a fresh start, to
really get my head down and go for
it,” he said. “It’s not gone as I would
have hoped. I think everyone can see
8
“I wanted to have a word but it them appreciate the 60-year-old’s Although Pedro Neto Kulusevski poked
was half an hour and he didn’t come pragmatism. “If you’ve managed the stood out in a deserved through his legs to
out,” Phillips, 28, said, describing an best part of 1,200 games, you’re going victory, which meant equalise, and it was
unsuccessful attempt to discuss the to have some tough periods,” Moyes Wolves have now João Gomes’ first goal that type of lapse in
matter with Bramall. “I didn’t want to said, reminding them of this season’s completed the double was Wolves’ eighth from concentration that
batter him. Just have a conversation. successes over the likes of Chelsea, over Tottenham a corner in the PL this was among the
“I’m annoyed with myself over Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester Hotspur this season, season; only Arsenal (11) reasons why he faded
the first booking. He’s got over my United. “Let’s be fair, West Ham have behind the winger there and Everton (9) have and lost his place at
shoulder and I’ve tried to push him had long periods of constant growth were eye-catching more in 23-24 West Ham after an
off. Perhaps next time I should just and, overall, we’re in one now.” displays from Dawson, 33, impressive early spell. He
the times | Monday February 19 2024
Chirewa celebrate in the away dressing room, after Wolves’ 2-1 win completed a league double over the north London side
resolute Wolves’ season of upsets
also wanted to return to the
Midlands for family reasons and
Wolves paid £3.3 million to make
it happen.
There have been those
types of mistakes in
defeats by Manchester
United and Brentford
in recent weeks.
Compared with other
centre backs in the
league none of his
statistics truly stand
out, apart from the
number of duels won,
in which he is tied in
13th. But Dawson has had a
wider influence. He has helped
his partner Max Kilman grow
in stature and confidence and
attract strong interest from
David Moyes at West Ham.
They were part of a back three
who helped to restrict Tottenham
to only four shots on target, all
Dawson, 33, has been a key
leader for Wolves this year
1GG
in the second half and of which two
were in the final seven minutes.
Dawson understood the realities
of a relegation dogfight when
he moved to Wolves,
having gone down
with West
Bromwich
Albion
and
Watford. He also helped
West Ham into the Europa
League where they reached
the semi-final stage in
2022. Wolves were tipped
by some to go down at the
start of the season and
Lemina highlighted the
irritation inside the club.
“A lot of people said that
we were going to be
relegated,” he said. “I don’t
care about it because I
knew what team we have
and if someone trusted us I
knew what we would achieve.”
Wolves have an outside
chance of a European place
JACK THOMAS/WWFC/GETTY IMAGES
via the league, depending on the
domestic cup winners. They did the
double over Chelsea, beat Manchester
City and gave Arsenal a late scare.
Wolves snapped at Tottenham trying
to play out to counter and also took
advantage of their reserve full backs.
“We have crazy attackers and we
know when we find them, they will
cause trouble,” Lemina said.
Tottenham struggled to break down
an organised defensive block and Son
Heung-min was kept quiet. “We
couldn’t find a solution in the first
half,” Kulusevski said. “It’s hard
because every time I got the ball
there were four [players] there. You
can always pass the ball back but that
will not help the team.”
Tottenham have a fortnight off
before playing Crystal Palace, whose
imminent new manager, Oliver
Glasner, was in the crowd, having
apparently bought his own ticket.
The outcome of Spurs’ season will be
heavily shaped in April when they
play Newcastle United, Manchester
City, Arsenal and Liverpool in a row.
Howe must brush
up on the dark arts
before Arsenal trip
Newcastle Utd
Gordon 58 (pen), Ritchie 90+2
2 concerns Newcastle fans is that little
Bournemouth
Solanke 51, Semenyo 69
2 the draw with Bournemouth had not
MARTIN HARDY
“Burnley 0 Arsenal 5,” read the big
screen inside St James’ Park as
supporters shuffled off into the drizzle
of a Tyneside evening, trying to make
sense of what they had just seen.
“Christ, how many chances will
they make next week?” a man in his
fifties said to his friend. He did not
get an answer. He did not want an
answer either. It is a mood shared.
Next Saturday is when the most
precarious of unbeaten runs (four
matches) will stand in front of Storm
Arsenal. There are not many among
Newcastle’s support who think a side
who have conceded 19 goals and
faced 124 shots (56 on target) in their
past seven league games are ready
for what lies ahead at the Emirates
Stadium, against one who have scored
21 times in less than a month.
It is an 8pm kick-off. There will be
no hiding places for a team with the
second-worst defence in the Premier
League’s top 12. There will be no
escape routes, either. The trains stop
heading back to Tyneside an hour
after kick-off. The mood feels as
brittle as that defence.
It is at this point that we need to
rewind just over 13 months. It was
January 3, 2023, and Newcastle were
emerging as a serious Premier League
force. They had managed five clean
sheets in the previous seven games,
conceding only two goals in that run.
They had a big defence that was
mean, well drilled and did not like
letting in goals. Arsenal fans would
have recognised something about
it if they had moved away from the
fury of shouting at Jason Tindall
for throwing the ball in the wrong
direction as an Arsenal player came
to collect it for a throw-in, or looked
beyond watching in yet more anger
as their manager had to be pulled
away by the club’s backroom staff
after confronting Eddie Howe on
the sideline.
It ended 0-0 and Howe was
suddenly drawing comparisons, for
the way his team had played,
to Atletico Madrid’s Diego
Simeone, whom he had spent
time with in Madrid before his
return to management with
Newcastle. The point kept
Newcastle third in the
table. They had
conceded 11 goals in
18 Premier League
games. There
was a direction
of travel. By the season’s finish
the goals-against column
read only 33. Newcastle were
called the masters of the dark
arts. They could speed a game
up, slow it down, wind up
opposition fans and get clean
sheets. They were solid.
That was not a word being
spoken as the big screen gave
warning of Arsenal’s latest
plundering, and conversations
went from Arsenal and then to
Burn was withdrawn by Howe
after struggles against Semenyo
11
thegame
the form of Bukayo Saka. What most
appears to be changing. Howe said
been as chaotic as the previous home
game, when his side drew 4-4 with
Luton Town after trailing 4-2. Yet
there were similarities, elements
where his team and the game were
stretched to near-breaking point.
There were shots cleared off the
line and balls booted clear from the
Newcastle penalty area when a game
was in its ninth minute of stoppage
time. The crowd’s nerves at that
moment were very real and it had
taken a 92nd-minute equaliser from
the 34-year-old Matt Ritchie, a
91st-minute substitute, to even
present the opportunity of a point.
There is no question that Joelinton
is a big miss (although he was playing
against Liverpool when their xG was
a record-breaking 7.27) and so is Nick
Pope (although Martin Dubravka is
saving plenty of shots).
Then there is the problem of the
Dans. Newcastle have still to receive a
formal approach for Dan Ashworth,
the sporting director Manchester
United want. He was at the game on
Saturday and there is a salient
question to be asked about how poor
last summer’s transfer window was,
when Newcastle spent £130 million. It
was the club’s worst window since the
takeover by Saudi Arabia’s Public
Investment Fund in October 2021,
and has thus far failed to strengthen
the team. It also meant there was
nothing left to spend in January.
Tino Livramento has been the only
one of the four players signed in the
summer — Sandro Tonali, Harvey
Barnes and Lewis Hall were the
others — to make any sort of impact
(for varying reasons) but thus far he
has been unable to remove Dan Burn
from the starting XI.
It was another uncomfortable
afternoon for Burn. Bournemouth
led through a Dominic Solanke goal
after a Dubravka slip before
Newcastle equalised through a
penalty — scored emphatically by
Anthony Gordon — that was
awarded when VAR ruled that Fabian
Schär’s shirt had been pulled by
Adam Smith.
But then, in the 69th minute, came
a familiar sight, that of Burn
struggling with the pace of a left
winger — Antoine Semenyo this
time — who ran down the
Newcastle left and crashed a
shot past Dubravka from 25
yards. Two minutes later
Burn was substituted.
“Of course we are trying
to find ways to make us
more solid,” Howe said
afterwards. “I’m well aware we
are not on full power. The
majority of those goals against
have come in the last couple of
months. I’m not blaming
anybody and I’m not making
excuses. That is just the facts.
“Nothing has changed in the
way we play and the way we
prepare, but we haven’t been as
solid defensively in the last few
weeks and that is certainly
something we need to try and
adjust and rectify as
quickly as we can.”
They have less than
a week to do it.
12
thegame
Liverpool’s
Holland gets
winner – and
a red card
WOMEN’S SUPER LEAGUE
DOMINIC AKIBOYE
The visiting captain Ceri Holland led
her Liverpool side to their first WSL
win of the year — but not before she
almost spoilt her hardworking
performance in yesterday’s 1-0 victory
away to Brighton & Hove Albion by
being sent off in stoppage time.
Liverpool started the match quickly,
putting Brighton under pressure, but
it was the home side who had the first
big chance when Elisabeth Terland
skipped past Niamh Fahey before her
shot from outside the box hit the post.
Both sides sent warning shots just
before half-time. First it was Liverpool
when Sophie Haug got on the end
of a wonderful corner from Marie
Hobinger, but the Norwegian’s header
fell narrowly wide of the post.
Moments later Brighton’s Poppy
Pattinson hit the crossbar with her
follow-up attempt after Veatriki Sarri’s
shot was blocked.
It was Holland who scored the
game’s only goal in the 53rd
minute. Brighton tried to play
out from the back but when
Maria Thorisdottir passed
the ball back to Sophie
Baggaley in goal, a sea of
red shirts converged to
close down the passing
options. Holland
nipped in to steal a
ball meant for Vicky
Losada before
steadying herself
and finishing
confidently.
GAME IN
NUMBERS
Bill Edgar on scoring streaks
and Harrogate’s Jekyll and
Hyde defensive efforts
Touchline turnaround
Premier League yellow cards are
being shown at a faster rate to
managers this season than they were
to players 30 years ago. Managers
have been booked on average 0.09
times every 90 minutes this season
(for dissent or aggressive behaviour),
whereas for players in the 1993-94
campaign the figure was only 0.07
times per 90 minutes. Arsenal’s
Mikel Arteta leads the way on four
cautions, while Nottingham Forest’s
Nuno Espírito Santo was the latest,
on Saturday.
Five-star Arsenal
Arsenal did not manage an away
league win by a margin of five or
more goals in 41 years from 1980 to
Holland’s showcase of leadership
was slightly dimmed when she was
sent off after a second yellow card,
but Liverpool’s win closed the gap
between them and fourth-placed
Manchester United to two points.
Brighton remain second from bottom.
Everton defeated West Ham
United 2-0 at Walton Hall Park, after
two late goals from the Italian duo
Aurora Galli and Martina Piemonte.
Piemonte came off of the bench in
the 74th minute and opened the
scoring nine minutes later, rising
highest to meet Galli’s free kick.
Piemonte returned the favour in the
86th minute, flicking the ball on for
the marauding wingback to run on to.
Galli cut inside on to her left foot
before bending a fantastic strike into
the top corner. The win moved
Everton three points above West
Ham into ninth place.
Tottenham Hotspur
were beaten 2-1 by
Aston Villa at the
Gaughan Group
Stadium after a
wonder strike from
Jordan Nobbs in the
60th minute.
Adriana Leon put Villa
ahead in the 23rd minute,
driving forward before
scoring at the near
post. Spurs struck
back 15
minutes later
through Amy
Turner, who headed
home Eveliina
Summanen’s delivery.
2021 yet they have just done so twice
in seven days, against West Ham
United and Burnley. In both games
Bukayo Saka put them 2-0 ahead by
directing a penalty to the right side
of the net in the 41st minute.
Battered by Brighton
Brighton also beat Sheffield United
5-2 at Bramall Lane in the FA Cup
three weeks earlier — it is the
shortest period in which a top-flight
team has scored five or more goals
away to the same opponents twice.
At the same time Sheffield United –
whose 5-0 loss to Villa occurred
between those matches against
Brighton — became the first top-
division side since 1888 to concede at
least five goals in three consecutive
home fixtures. The two players with
two Premier League own goals this
season are left-footed defenders
named Robinson: Antonee Robinson,
of Fulham, and Jack Robinson, of
Sheffield United.
Liverpool to the fore
Liverpool, seeking to win a first
league title in four years and to end
1GG Monday February 19 2024 | the times
JAMES BOARDMAN/ALAMY
53 MIN: GOAL
93 MIN: SENT OFF
Holland scored the goal that secured Liverpool’s first WSL win this year — but she was sent off in injury time for a second
yellow card against Brighton. Left: Nobbs, the match-winner, and Bethany England during Aston Villa’s victory at Tottenham
Villa’s winner came against the run Amalie Thestrup. Janice Cayman
of play. From a corner Mayumi HOW THEY STAND restored Leicester’s lead in the 54th
Pacheco took a touch to set up Nobbs P W D L F A GD Pts minute, with Jutta Rantala and Denny
and the former Arsenal midfielder Chelsea 14 11 1 2 41 13 28 34 Draper making sure of victory.
smashed the ball into the top corner. Man City 14 11 1 2 36 8 28 34 On Saturday Arsenal defeated
Leicester City had to come from Arsenal 14 10 1 3 32 14 18 31 Manchester United 3-1 at a sold-out
behind in their 5-2 win over Bristol Man Utd 14 7 3 4 31 18 13 24 Emirates Stadium, despite the
City at the King Power Stadium. Liverpool 14 6 4 4 18 19 -1 22 absence of Leah Williamson with a
Bristol City shocked the home side Tottenham 14 5 4 5 21 28 -7 19 hamstring injury. The defender has
when they opened the scoring 20 Leicester 14 4 4 6 21 26 -5 16 now withdrawn from England’s squad
minutes in through Ffion Morgan. Aston Villa 14 5 1 8 18 27 -9 16 for friendlies against Austria and Italy.
Leicester turned the game around Everton 14 4 2 8 12 25 -13 14 It was Williamson’s first call-up since
before half-time with goals from Yuka West Ham 14 3 2 9 15 29 -14 11 returning from a nine-month absence
Momiki and Saori Takarada. The Brighton 14 3 2 9 13 30 -17 11 with an anterior cruciate ligament
visiting side fought back at the start of Bristol City 14 1 3 10 17 38 -21 6 injury. Millie Turner, the United
the second half, equalising through defender, replaces her in the squad.
Manchester City’s pursuit of an
historic fourth successive crown, are
an away win by five or more
goals to nil: first Sheffield United 0,
four points clear of City after a
victory away to Brentford, right
next to the M4, in which they scored
Aston Villa 5; then West Ham 0,
Arsenal 6; and finally Burnley 0,
Arsenal 5 (and then, for good
four goals in the league for the measure, a second one of the
fourth time in 2024. Liverpool are weekend yesterday — Sheffield
unbeaten in their past 39 domestic United 0, Brighton & Hove Albion
matches in which they have not had 5). On Saturday home teams
a player sent off. averaged only 0.67 points per game
in the top two divisions, having
Town up and down recorded three wins, three draws
and 12 defeats; it is the lowest such
Harrogate Town, of League Two, are figure on a day of at least 18 matches
the first team since Chesterfield in for 8½ years. Moreover, all three
1932 to concede nine or more goals games in the top two tiers played
in a league game yet keep clean on Friday and yesterday were also
sheets in their league matches either away wins.
side: a 1-0 win at home to Colchester
United and then a 9-2 defeat away to Hojlund a six-hitter
Mansfield Town last Tuesday before,
on Saturday, a 0-0 draw away to Manchester United’s Rasmus
Crewe Alexandra. It was the first 9-2 Hojlund is the first player in the
win in the league since Tottenham Premier League era to have scored
Hotspur beat Nottingham Forest by in six top-flight appearances in a
that scoreline at home in 1962. row, having not scored at all in his
previous 14. West Ham’s results have
Motoring on the road been worsening in neat fashion in
the league — three wins to nil, then
For the first time since the top three draws, then three defeats to nil:
flight’s formation in 1888 three it is the first such nine-game run by
Nuno is booked by Thomas Bramall consecutive weekends have featured any team in top-flight history.
the times | Monday February 19 2024
POSTCARDS FROM THE PYRAMID
Clough’s veterans undone by debutant
MIKE WHALLEY
As his Mansfield Town team missed
the chance to go top of Sky Bet
League Two, Nigel Clough
acknowledged that they could do
with spreading their goals more
evenly. Clough’s players have scored
14 times in their past three matches,
but won only two of them. Saturday’s
2-1 defeat away to Walsall was quite
the comedown after a 4-0 thumping
of Forest Green Rovers and a 9-2
humiliation of Harrogate Town.
A point would have been enough
for the league leadership with
Stockport County losing 4-0 away to
Tranmere Rovers, but Mansfield
instead suffered multiple
disappointments. Clough, their
manager, was unhappy with the
defending that allowed Jamille Matt
and Emmanuel Adegboyega to score
the headed goals that brought defeat,
and frustrated that his team were not
more clinical with a glut of chances.
Yet there was annoyance too that
Aden Flint, his captain, was not given
a first-half goal when stretching to
hook back a George Maris cross at
the far post. The ball crossed the line
before Jackson Smith, the Walsall
goalkeeper, shovelled it out, but
neither the referee nor assistant saw
it, and goalline technology does not
stretch to League Two.
“I would have thought, with the
money in football, that they could
provide the [goalline technology]
watches for the officials, so that when
the ball goes over the line, everybody
knows,” Clough said.
“But we might say that we got our
breaks on Tuesday, scoring nine. I just
wish we’d saved a couple.”
As it was, the only buzzing watch at
the Bescot Stadium belonged to the
matchwinner Adegboyega, a 20-year-
old Dundalk-born defender making
his English league debut after arriving
on loan from Norwich City.
Dark days over for Gnonto Röhl’s Bannan
Wilfried Gnonto, the Leeds United
forward, admitted that the
frustrations he endured earlier in the
season are now behind him after his
fifth goal in five games set Daniel
Farke’s side on course for a 2-0 win
away to Plymouth Argyle.
Gnonto was limited to only seven
league starts before the turn of the
year but is now making the most of
an extended run in the side. “As a guy
I’m not really patient,” he said. “I had
moments this season when I was not
really happy, I was a bit down. I’m
grateful for the family, for my
Gnonto got Leeds’s first goal on Saturday and has scored five in his past five games
1GG
Adegboyega was swamped with
messages from friends and family
after his goal, a near-post header from
an Isaac Hutchinson corner.
“My phone’s been buzzing, my
watch has been buzzing,” he said. “I
team-mates, for the staff, everyone
who has been with me through all
these moments and now this is the
moment to give something back.”
An eighth successive league win
moved Leeds up to second in the
Championship before hosting
Leicester City on Friday. “I feel we
have the quality to keep this run
going,” Gnonto added. “Next week we
have a big game against the team you
can maybe say are the best team in
the league because they are first but
we know we can win and that’s what
we will try and do.”
ROBBIE STEPHENSON/PA
called my brother and had time for
maybe a one-minute call. But at times
like this, you have to enjoy it.”
Despite defeat, Mansfield look well
set to achieve the automatic
promotion target set by John Radford,
fears unfounded
Barry Bannan provided an assist for
Sheffield Wednesday’s second goal in
the 2-0 win away to Millwall,
underlining his importance to the
side. Danny Röhl, the manager,
admitted that he was uncertain
whether Bannan, 34, would be suited
to his high-energy style of play but
has been won over by the midfielder.
“I looked at the age of my players
and I wanted to play football with my
intensity,” Röhl said. “I was not sure if
it was immediately a match but Barry
is, for me, an absolutely key player.
He understands playing with the ball
but he has made a huge step forward
against the ball.”
Millwall are one place above the
Championship relegation places and
have earned one point from their past
seven league games. Their next game
is away to promotion-chasing
Southampton, who have won their
past 11 home matches, on Saturday.
“We’ll go to Southampton with
absolute belief and who knows?
Today was a ‘should win’ in many
people’s eyes and maybe the pressure
got to us,” Joe Edwards, the Millwall
head coach, said. “We are not going
there just to roll over and wait for the
next game. We have to go there and
try to find some belief.”
Mike Whalley and Ian Winrow on the
biggest stories from the EFL each weekend
Boro buoyed
by big upset
Leicester City’s lead over
Leeds United at the top of
the Championship was cut
to nine points after Enzo
Maresca’s side suffered an
unexpected 2-1 home defeat
by Middlesbrough.
Finn Azaz and Sammy
Silvera scored in the first
half for the away team, who
revived their hopes of
challenging for a place in
the play-offs with only a
second victory in seven
league games since the turn
of the year.
“I’m just happy the boys
had something go their way
for a change, they deserve
it because they’re an
unbelievable group to work
with, it doesn’t surprise me,”
Michael Carrick, the
Middlesbrough head
coach, said.
“The players are happy
without being overly happy
which is good, they’re eager
to bring on what’s next,
there was almost a feeling
we could have scored one
or two more and made it a
little bit easier.
“They had chances
towards the end, but
there’s a good sense that is
still not enough, we want
some more.”
the insurance company multi-
millionaire who has owned the club
for the past 14 years.
Radford, who runs Mansfield with
his wife Carolyn as chief executive,
has seen two near-misses in the past
Emotional win for Warne
Derby County’s League One
promotion challenge continues to
gather momentum after a 90th-
minute goal from Louie Sibley, below
right, sealed a 1-0 victory over
Stevenage. The win was Derby’s
fourth in five league games and
opened a three-point gap to third-
placed Bolton Wanderers, who were
held to a 3-3 draw at home by
Charlton Athletic.
“I spoke to some fans on the way in
and said, ‘Look, to get in the top two
in the league and go up, you deserve
it,’” Paul Warne, the Derby head
Challinor: I’m
embarrassed
Dave Challinor, the Stockport County
manager, described his side’s display
in the 4-0 defeat by Tranmere Rovers
as “embarrassing”.
“We spoke after the defeat to Crewe
on Tuesday about doing the basics
and once again we’ve not done that,”
he said, though Stockport are still top
of League Two.
“That’s an embarrassing
performance defensively. I could lie
and paper over the cracks but that’s
not the way I am.”
13
thegame
A TEAM TRANSFORMED
Cheltenham Town failed to score in their
opening 11 League One games this season
but have improved drastically in the 20
matches since
First 11 games Past 20 games
Goals 0 27
Goals
conceded 19 23
Wins 0 9
Draws 1 4
Losses 10 7
two seasons under Clough as they
were beaten in the play-off final by
Port Vale in 2022 and lost out on a
top-seven finish by one goal last May.
Clough has built a team with
experience — Saturday’s starting line-
up contained five players in their
thirties — that create plenty of
chances while being difficult to break
down. They did not lose a league
match this season until November 25.
Crucial to their durability was last
August’s signing of Flint, a centre
back who has played much of his
career in the Championship. But that
experience extends up the pitch too
— their equaliser on Saturday was
well taken by Stephen Quinn, the 37-
year-old former Ireland midfielder.
Ultimately, though, they were undone
by a younger Walsall side who may be
16th but have beaten all of League
Two’s present top four this season.
“Mansfield have a fantastic team,
100 per cent,” Mat Sadler, Walsall’s
head coach, said. “I hope they do get
promoted because Nigel and the staff
there are really good people.”
Clough, asked if Mansfield are good
enough for promotion, was less
forthcoming. “We won’t know that
until the end of April,” he said.
coach, said. “It’s not like the
Championship where everyone plays
the same way. There are loads of
different ways to play, I’m not saying
there is a right or wrong way to play,
and today we had to find a way.
“It was quite an emotional time
when Sibs scored, I quite enjoyed it.
And then at the final whistle there are
scenes you take with you for the rest
of your life. I told the lads that 10 per
cent of their lives is as a professional
footballer if they are lucky, so don’t
waste a minute. And I don’t think we
did. So I leave here very, very proud.”
14 1GG Monday February 19 2024 | the times

thegame
Premier League
Home Away
P W D L F A W D L F A GD Pts
W 1 Liverpool......................................25 10 2 0 33 10 7 4 2 26 14 35 57
Y 2 Arsenal ......................................... 25 9 2 1 30 11 8 2 3 28 11 36 55
Z 3 Manchester City........................24

BILL EDGAR’S
8 4 0 30 11 8 1 3 27 15 31 53
Y 4 Aston Villa...................................25 9 1 2 31 13 6 3 4 21 20 19 49
Z 5 Tottenham Hotspur.................25 9 0 4 26 18 5 5 2 26 20 14 47
W 6 Manchester United .................. 25 7 1 4 18 18 7 1 5 17 16 1 44
Y 7 Brighton & Hove Albion.........25
Z 8 Newcastle United.....................25
Z 9 West Ham United......................25
6
8
5
5
2
4
1
3
3
26
31
18
15
16
17
4
3
5
3
2
2
6
7
6
22
22
18
25
25
27
8
12
-8
38
37
36
DEEP DIVE INTO
NOT LOSING
W 10 Chelsea.........................................25 5 3 4 20 18 5 2 6 22 23 1 35
W 11 Wolverhampton Wanderers 25 5 3 4 19 20 5 2 6 20 20 -1 35
W 12 Fulham..........................................25 7 1 5 23 15 1 4 7 11 26 -7 29
W 13 Bournemouth ............................ 24 3 4 4 12 17 4 3 6 21 29 -13 28
W 14 Brentford.....................................24 4 3 6 22 27 3 1 7 13 16 -8 25
Y 15 Nottingham Forest...................25 4 3 6 19 20 2 3 7 13 24 -12 24
Z 16 Crystal Palace............................24 3 3 6 15 19 3 3 6 12 24 -16 24 Tottenham Hotspur then equalled
W 17 Luton Town................................24 3 2 8 19 22 2 3 6 15 25 -13 20 Our resident stats guru that run of 29 matches from January
W 18 *Everton.......................................24 3 3 6 13 14 5 2 5 13 18 -6 19 1967, but Nottingham Forest
W 19 Burnley.........................................25 1 2 10 13 32 2 2 8 12 23 -30 13 on the teams, players and destroyed the record by reaching 40
W 20 Sheffield United ........................ 25 2 2 9 12 36 1 2 9 10 29 -43 13
* deducted 10pts for breaching financial rules managers behind the games undefeated from March 1978.
That high mark has stood for nearly
longest unbeaten runs in 46 years, with United going closest
Sky Bet Championship English league history with a run of 34 matches in the
1993-94 season.
Home Away Ipswich Town have joined
P W D L F A W D L F A GD Pts Southampton’s club-record unbeaten Portsmouth and Southampton in
W 1 Leicester City ............................. 33 13 1 3 34 11 12 2 2 35 15 43 78
W 2 Leeds United .............................. 33 12 4 0 35 11 9 2 6 26 15 35 69
run ended at 25 games with their completing a club record this season,
W 3 Southampton.............................32 11 2 2 39 18 9 5 3 24 20 25 67 defeat by Bristol City on Tuesday, while Mansfield Town, Stevenage
W 4 Ipswich Town.............................32 10 4 1 37 23 9 5 3 24 18 20 66 but that is not even the longest and Barrow have all equalled their
W 5 West Bromwich Albion...........32 11 3 3 27 13 4 4 7 18 18 14 52 undefeated sequence produced by a best runs.
W 6 Coventry City.............................33 7 8 1 24 14 6 4 7 27 23 14 51 club from the south coast in the past Games decided by a penalty shoot-
W 7 Norwich City...............................33 11 2 4 31 18 4 4 8 27 32 8 51 12 months. Portsmouth did not lose out are counted as a draw whatever
W 8 Hull City........................................32 7 4 5 23 16 8 2 6 24 25 6 51
W 9 Preston North End....................33 9 3 5 27 29 5 4 7 17 23 -8 49
for 30 games in all competitions the outcome of the shoot-out; so, for
W 10 Sunderland..................................33 10 0 6 28 19 4 5 8 17 18 8 47 between March and October 2023, a example, Sunderland’s record
Y 11 Watford........................................33 5 5 6 26 21 6 6 5 23 24 4 44 feat beaten by only two league clubs sequence includes their play-off
Z 12 Bristol City...................................33 7 3 7 21 19 5 5 6 17 18 1 44 since league football began in 1888. defeat on penalties after a 4-4 draw
W 13 Middlesbrough..........................32 6 3 7 17 18 7 2 7 30 29 0 44 The chart, far right, shows the top against Charlton Athletic in the
W 14 Cardiff City..................................32 6 2 7 18 20 6 2 9 19 27 -10 40 ten longest unbeaten runs by English 1998 second-tier play-off final. In
Y 15 Birmingham City.......................32 7 6 3 23 18 3 2 11 14 30 -11 38 league clubs. addition, a defeat in one leg of a
Z 16 Plymouth Argyle.......................32 8 4 4 38 27 1 6 9 13 27 -3 37 Preston North End set a two-legged cup triumph would end
Z 17 Blackburn Rovers.....................32 6 2 8 23 27 5 2 9 24 32 -12 37 formidable standard when remaining an unbeaten run.
Z 18 Swansea City..............................33 4 5 8 18 25 5 4 7 23 29 -13 36 unbeaten for 28 games from the
W 19 Stoke City .................................... 33 5 4 8 12 21 4 4 8 18 25 -16 35 opening day of the Football League CLOUGH, ARSENAL AND RODRI
W 20 Huddersfield Town..................33 5 6 6 21 23 2 7 7 17 31 -16 34
W 21 Millwall.........................................33 4 4 9 14 27 4 5 7 17 19 -15 33
in September 1888. They did not lose Forest became league champions and
W 22 Queens Park Rangers.............33 3 5 8 17 24 5 3 9 13 20 -14 32 any of their 22 league fixtures that lifted the League Cup during their
W 23 Sheffield Wednesday..............33 5 4 7 17 20 3 1 13 9 32 -26 29 season nor any of their five FA Cup sequence of 40 unbeaten games,
W 24 Rotherham United....................32 3 6 8 17 23 0 4 11 9 37 -34 19 matches, thereby securing the which featured as many as 19 draws, with a 5-0 win over Ipswich Town in
double. They extended the run to 28 13 of them goalless. With only two the Charity Shield, Forest’s next five
at the start of the next campaign. points for a win and in an era when results were as follows: 1-1 at home to
Sky Bet League One Plymouth Argyle (25 matches),
Burnley (26) and Huddersfield Town
the gap between the top and bottom
teams was not quite as large, the
Tottenham, 0-0 away to Coventry
City, 0-0 away to Queens Park
Home Away (27) all went close to matching strategy of settling for a draw, Rangers, 0-0 away to Oldham
P W D L F A W D L F A GD Pts
W 1 Portsmouth.................................34 11 4 2 30 18 10 5 2 28 12 28 72 Preston’s feat in the 1920s but that especially away from home, was Athletic (League Cup) and 0-0 at
W 2 Derby County.............................33 9 4 3 28 15 11 2 4 30 14 29 66 was only achieved when Manchester often deemed acceptable for the home to West Bromwich Albion.
W 3 Bolton Wanderers.....................31 11 3 3 35 22 8 3 3 22 10 25 63 United played 29 games without leading sides. Having started the Five of Forest’s unbeaten 40
W 4 Barnsley.......................................32 8 3 5 30 20 9 6 1 28 16 22 60 defeat from February 1956. 1978-79 season, as league champions, matches were against Liverpool (two
W 5 Peterborough United..............32 8 4 3 34 17 8 4 5 26 24 19 56
W 6 Oxford United............................33 8 5 3 29 17 8 3 6 25 23 14 56
W 7 Stevenage....................................32 6 6 3 20 14 9 2 6 26 20 12 53
Y 8 Blackpool.....................................33
Z 9 Leyton Orient.............................33
10
7
4
3
3
6
34
19
16
24
4
6
4
6
8
5
16
21
23
17
11
-1
50
48
Results
Y 10 Lincoln City.................................33 6 6 4 20 13 5 6 6 15 19 3 45 Premier League Norwich (2) 4 Cardiff (1) 1 Portsmouth (1) 4 Reading (0) 1 LEADING
Y 11 Northampton Town.................32 8 4 5 24 19 5 1 9 19 29 -5 44 Brentford (0) 1 Liverpool (1) 4 Sargent 39, 54 Collins 19 Lane 36, Pack 49 Savage 89 GOALSCORERS
Z 12 Bristol Rovers.............................33 6 5 5 24 19 6 2 9 21 29 -3 43 Toney 75 Núñez 35 Gomes Sara 44 25,902 Lang 59, Bishop 84 20,113
Fassnacht 77
Y 13 *Wigan Athletic ......................... 33 9 1 6 23 16 5 5 7 24 26 5 40 17,193 Mac Allister 55 Shrewsbury (0) 0 Wigan (0) 1 Premier League
Z 14 Exeter City .................................. 34 5 5 7 10 16 6 1 10 15 31 -22 39 Salah 68, Gakpo 86 Plymouth (0) 0 Leeds (1) 2 7,206 Smith 57
16 E Haaland
W 15 Wycombe Wanderers.............32 5 6 5 22 21 4 5 7 19 22 -2 38 Burnley (0) 0 Arsenal (2) 5 16,818 Gnonto 10 Wycombe (0) 0 Oxford Utd (0) 0 (Man City)
Rutter 72 6,781
Y 16 Cambridge United.....................31 7 4 5 15 16 3 4 8 15 22 -8 38 21,311 Odegaard 4 15 M Salah
Saka 41 (pen), 47 (2) 2 (2) 2
Y 17 Burton Albion.............................32 6 4 5 16 15 4 4 9 13 26 -12 38 Trossard 66
Preston Blackburn League Two (Liverpool)
Z 18 @Reading......................................33 8 4 4 25 16 2 5 10 17 33 -7 35 Havertz 78 Brady 39, Riis 43
20,924
Szmodics 7
Gallagher 23
AFC Wimbledon (0) 1 Morecambe (0) 1 14 D Solanke
W 19 Shrewsbury Town....................33 7 2 8 16 20 3 3 10 7 24 -21 35 Fulham (0) 1 Aston Villa (1) 2 Bugiel 50 Stokes 74 (Bournemouth)
Rotherham (0) 0 Watford (0) 1 7,715 13 O Watkins
W 20 Charlton Athletic.......................33 6 4 7 29 25 1 8 7 18 27 -5 33 Muniz Carvalho 63 Watkins 23, 56
Y 21 Cheltenham Town.....................31 6 3 7 18 23 3 2 10 9 19 -15 32 24,401 10,143 Asprilla 58 Bradford City (0) 1 Sutton Utd (0) 0 (Aston Villa)
Z 22 Port Vale......................................30 5 2 8 19 20 3 5 7 13 28 -16 31 Luton (1) 1 Man United (2) 2 Stoke (0) 0 Coventry (0) 1 Kavanagh 54 16,697 12 B Saka (Arsenal)
W 23 Fleetwood Town.......................33 3 3 11 15 28 3 5 8 18 27 -22 26 Morris 14 Hojlund 1, 7 22,866 Simms 51 Colchester (1) 1 Accrington (0) 1 12 Son Heung-min
11,483 Chilvers 40 Harbottle (og) 80 (Tottenham)
W 24 Carlisle United ........................... 32 3 5 9 14 27 1 3 11 12 28 -29 20 Swansea (1) 1 Ipswich (2) 2
Man City (0) 1 Chelsea (1) 1 3,436 11 J Bowen
deducted *8pts/@4pts for breaching league rules Yates 31 Broadhead 13
Rodri 83 Sterling 42 16,647 Chaplin 35
Sent off: B Hills (Accrington) 46 (West Ham)
Crawley Town (1) 2 Forest Green (0) 0 Championship
Newcastle (0) 2 Bournemouth (0) 2 League One Orsi 39, Lolos 87 2,838 18 S Szmodics
Gordon 58 (pen) Solanke 51
Sky Bet League Two Ritchie 90+2
52,224
Semenyo 69 Bolton
Adeboyejo 19
(1) 3 Charlton
Small 22, Jones 40
(2) 3 Crewe
4,421
(0) 0 Harrogate (0) 0 (Blackburn)
17 M Whittaker
Nottm Forest (1) 2 (0) 0 Maghoma 51 Kanu 61 (Plymouth)
Home Away West Ham Bödvarsson 71 20,179 Grimsby (1) 1 Doncaster (2) 5
P W D L F A W D L F A GD Pts Awoniyi 45+5 29,490 Rose 19 (pen) Molyneux 6 16 A Armstrong
W 1 Stockport County.....................32 10 4 3 35 15 8 3 4 31 22 29 61 Hudson-Odoi 90+4 Carlisle (0) 0 Cambridge U (1) 4 7,424 Ironside 8 (Southampton)
W 2 Mansfield Town.........................32 8 6 1 27 10 8 6 3 35 18 34 60 Sent off: K Phillips (West Ham) 71 6,877 Kaikai 14 Maher (og) 51 15 J Clarke
Sheffield Utd(0) 0 (2) 5 Lavelle (og) 69 Craig 72, Hurst 82
Y 3 Wrexham......................................31 12 2 2 44 22 5 5 5 14 20 16 58 Brighton
Kachunga 72
(Sunderland)
29,522 Buonanotte 20 Newport Co (0) 1 Gillingham (0) 0 15 C Summerville
Z 4 Crewe Alexandra......................33 10 4 3 31 22 6 6 4 28 23 14 58
Welbeck 24
Bennett 83
Evans 61 4,724
Y 5 Milton Keynes Dons ................ 32 10 3 3 28 16 6 3 7 23 27 8 54 (Leeds)
Robinson (og) 75 Cheltenham (1) 3 Port Vale (1) 2 Salford (1) 5 Barrow (1) 3 12 J Rowe Norwich)
Z 6 Barrow..........................................33 7 6 2 18 13 7 5 6 29 26 8 53 Adingra 78, 85 Taylor 45+2 Smith 25 Hendry 26, 67 Stockton 42, 90
W 7 Harrogate Town........................32 6 2 7 19 21 8 4 5 21 25 -6 48
Sent off: M Holgate (Sheffield Utd) 13 Shepherd 69 Davies (og) 65 McAleny 57 Warren 47
League One
W 8 AFC Wimbledon........................32 7 4 4 31 20 5 7 5 16 17 10 47 Tottenham (0) 1 Wolves (1) 2 Ferry 73 5,600 Smith 77, 86 3,416 17 D Cole (Barnsley)
17 J Reid
Y 9 Notts County..............................32 10 1 4 37 23 4 4 9 28 36 6 47 Kulusevski 46
61,532
Silva 42, 63 Derby (0) 1 Stevenage (0) 0 Swindon (0) 1 MK Dons (2) 2
(Stevenage)
Y 10 Morecambe.................................31 6 6 3 21 15 7 2 7 26 33 -1 47 Sibley 90 27,055 Austin 89 Wearne 4, 8
16 C Bishop
Z 11 Gillingham...................................32 7 4 5 17 19 7 1 8 14 20 -8 47 Sky Bet Championship Fleetwood (1) 1 Barnsley (1) 2 8,789
Tranmere (1) 4 Stockport (0) 0
(Portsmouth)
Y 12 Accrington Stanley..................32 9 3 5 27 18 4 4 7 19 23 5 46 Birmingham (0) 2 Sunderland (1) 1 Lawal 32 Cosgrove 23 16 A May Charlton)
James 60 Clarke 22 3,850 Kane 59 Davies 30 7,882
Y 13 Bradford City..............................33 6 7 3 20 16 6 3 8 21 23 2 46
Miyoshi 80 27,449 Turnbull 55, 63 15 J Rhodes
Z 14 Newport County ....................... 32 8 6 3 30 23 5 1 9 17 26 -2 46 Leyton Orient (1) 1 Burton Albion (0) 2 Jennings 85 (Blackpool)
W 15 Crawley Town.............................31 9 1 7 29 22 4 3 7 18 27 -2 43 Bristol City (0) 0 QPR (1) 1 Moncur 43 (pen) Bennett 72
23,619 Chair 41 7,167 Nsiala 76 Walsall (0) 2 Mansfield (0) 1 League Two
W 16 Walsall...........................................31 7 5 3 19 14 4 4 8 26 32 -1 42 Matt 47 Quinn 50 22 M Langstaff
Y 17 Tranmere Rovers......................33 9 2 6 35 22 3 2 11 17 26 4 40 Huddersfield (0) 1 Hull (1) 2 Lincoln City (0) 1 Exeter (0) 0 Adegboyega 65 6,625 (Notts County)
Rudoni 90+2 Greaves 7, 90+4 Taylor 67 7,609
Z 18 Swindon Town...........................33 8 3 5 31 22 2 6 9 26 39 -4 39
19,947
Wrexham (1) 1 Notts County (0) 0 21 M Smith Salford)
W 19 Salford City.................................33 4 5 7 27 34 6 4 7 23 24 -8 39 Northampton (2) 3 Bristol Rovers (0) 1 Fletcher 20 12,532 19 W Evans
W 20 Doncaster Rovers.....................32 7 2 7 22 27 3 4 9 20 30 -15 36 Leicester (0) 1 Middlesbrough (2) 2 Brough 3 Martin 79 Vanarama National League (Newport County)
Vardy 85 Azaz 24 Pinnock 40 6,817 17 I Olaofe
Y 21 Colchester United.....................32 4 5 7 25 30 4 1 11 18 30 -17 30 31,487 Silvera 37 Leonard 84 AFC Fylde (2) 2 Barnet (2) 4
Z 22 Grimsby Town............................31 5 4 8 27 37 1 7 6 16 22 -16 29 Haughton 9 (pen), 30 O’Donkor 18 (Stockport)
Millwall (0) 0 Sheffield Wed (2) 2 Peterborough (1) 1 Blackpool (0) 2 Pritchard 26 16 D Keillor-Dunn
Y 23 Forest Green Rovers...............32 2 3 11 14 31 3 5 8 18 29 -28 23
17,041 Ugbo 31, Musaba 41 Kyprianou 39 Lavery 56 (pen) Hall-Johnson 60 (Mansfield)
Z 24 Sutton United.............................33 3 6 8 22 25 1 4 11 13 38 -28 22 Sent off: A Fletcher (Sheffield Wed) 90+2 Dembélé 90+1 Stead 73 16 J Young (Bradford)
the times | Monday February 19 2024
wins and three draws), who then
ended the run with a 2-0 win in the
league at Anfield in December 1978.
That latter defeat also halted Forest’s
record unbeaten league sequence at
42 (they had overtaken Leeds
United’s 34), a mark that has since
been passed by Arsenal (49 up to
October 2004) and Huddersfield (43
up to November 2011). Incidentally,
Aldershot (2) 2
Frost 44, Tolaj 45+4
Bromley (0) 4
Cheek 47, 63, 86
Woods 90+4
Ebbsfleet Utd (0) 3
Bilongo 48
Bingham 53, O’Neill 62
Halifax Town (2) 2
Summerfield 26
Hoti 33
Hartlepool (1) 3
Grey 45+3
Dieseruvwe 84
Waterfall 89
Kidderminster (0) 0
3,745
Maidenhead (0) 1
Beckwith 90+1
Oxford City (0) 0
1,854
Sent off: N Ralph (Southend) 79
Rochdale (1) 1
Hayes 17
Wealdstone (1) 2
Allarakhia 38
Mundle-Smith 66
1,108
York City (1) 1
Fallowfield 43
4,177
P W
Chesterfield.......33
Bromley...............33
Barnet..................32
Solihull Moors...32
Altrincham..........31
Oldham................32
Aldershot............33
Gateshead...........31
Halifax.................34
Hartlepool..........34
Dagenham & R.34
Rochdale.............32
Boreham Wood34
Maidenhead ...... 34
Eastleigh.............33
Wealdstone.......30
AFC Fylde...........33
York......................33
Dorking ............... 33
*Southend...........31
1GG 15
thegame
TOP 10 LONGEST UNBEATEN RUNS
Seasons Tier when
Club in league Run From run started
Nott’m Forest 123 40 Mar 1978 1st
Man Utd 123 34 Sept 1993 1st
Portsmouth 99 30 Mar 2003 3rd
Tottenham 107 29 Jan 1967 1st
Arsenal 122 28 Apr 2007 1st
Everton 127 28 Dec 1984 1st
Man City 123 28 Apr 2017; Nov 2020 1st
Preston 127 28 Septs 1888 1st
Scunthorpe 72 28 Nov 2013 4th
Huddersfield 105 27 Jan 1925 1st
All competitions; as a League club
Liverpool ended Forest’s record run, revenge two months later in the FA
that result proved to be one of only Cup final – and they did not lose in
four defeats in the latter’s next 45 their final 33 matches of their Treble-
matches, which meant they lost only winning campaign of 1998-99.
five times over 108 games from Jack Charlton played in 21 of
November 1977 to September 1979. Leeds’ record 26 unbeaten matches
from December 1967 and oversaw
TAKING SUCCESS EVERYWHERE Middlesbrough’s joint best
Some have contributed to records at undefeated sequence of 15 games
two clubs. Dave Mackay played in from September 1973 shortly after he
the first 28 of Tottenham’s 29 had begun his managerial career.
unbeaten games – his return from Phil Neal played in all 25 games
injury coincided with the start of when Liverpool set what is their joint
the run, which ended soon after he best unbeaten run from March 1982
suffered another injury. Then, a and was also the Bolton Wanderers
season later, at Derby County, he manager for their record 21 games
played throughout their record undefeated from March 1989.
24-match unbeaten sequence under Danny Wilson oversaw two clubs’
Clough, during which they were record runs as manager: Hartlepool
promoted to the top flight. United’s 21 games from December
Bryan Robson, winding down his 2006 and Sheffield United’s 24
Manchester United career, played in matches from April 2012.
12 of their record 34 unbeaten In total, 26 clubs have recorded
matches from September 1993 having two joint longest runs, and one,
appeared throughout West Brom’s Chelsea, have produced their record
From left: Robson, Clough and Colby sequence of 22 matches without record 19-game run 15 years earlier. sequence (23) on three occasions.
Bishop, the Portsmouth forward, who defeat: thus Brian Clough’s team lost The chart above just shows each The first of those ended in May 2007
all had major roles in team success only once in 63 games. Viv Anderson club’s best run among the overall top with a 1-0 defeat away to Liverpool in
missed that FA Cup defeat at the ten in English league history, but the Champions League semi-finals in
Arsenal lost six cup matches while Hawthorns so was able to build a United have in fact produced four of which the Merseyside club won the
compiling that record league run. personal run of 57 unbeaten games, the seven cases of at least 29 games ensuing penalty shoot-out.
Forest’s last defeat before a record until Chelsea’s Ricardo undefeated. Their 34-game run was Everton’s best run of 28 games
embarking on their 40-game run was Carvalho reached 58 (Rodri moved ended by Chelsea’s 1-0 win at Old started on Boxing Day 1984 and only
a 2-0 FA Cup quarter-final loss away up to 55 with Manchester City’s win Trafford in the league in March 1994 finished when they had clinched the
to West Brom, which itself ended a over Copenhagen last week). When – Sir Alex Ferguson’s side gained league title that season.
Fixtures
Altrincham (0) 0 Ebbsfleet.............34 9 8 17 43 58 -15 35 P W D L F A GD Pts Heidenheim.......22 7 6 9 31 38 -7 27 Kick-off 7.45 unless stated Cinch Scottish Championship Partick v
Woking................33 9 7 17 33 42 -9 34 Rangers...............26 21 1 4 56 13 43 64 Bochum...............22 5 10 7 26 41 -15 25 Today Dunfermline.
Kidderminster...33 8 9 16 29 41 -12 33 Celtic....................26 19 5 2 58 18 40 62 Wolfsburg...........22 6 6 10 26 34 -8 24 Women’s internationals Italy v Ireland
Chesterfield (1) 3 Oxford City........34 7 7 20 45 68 -23 28 Hearts..................26 16 3 7 35 22 13 51 Union Berlin.......22 7 3 12 21 35 -14 24 Premier League Everton v Crystal Palace
Grigg 31 (pen) Kilmarnock........26 9 10 7 29 27 2 37 (8.0). (5.15); England v Austria.
* deducted 10pts for breaching league rules Augsburg............22 5 8 9 31 40 -9 23
Banks 67, Naylor 72 North Boston 3 Bishop’s Stortford 0; St Mirren.............26 10 5 11 29 30 -1 35 B M’gladbach....22 5 7 10 36 43 -7 22 Tomorrow Kick-off 3.0 unless stated
Eastleigh (0) 0 Brackley 3 Peterborough Sports 1; Buxton 3 Dundee................25 8 8 9 35 39 -4 32 Cologne...............22 3 7 12 15 36 -21 16 Champions League: Round-of-16, first leg Saturday
Banbury 1; Chorley 3 Southport 0; Curzon Hibernian............25 6 9 10 31 41 -10 27 Mainz ................... 22 2 9 11 17 35 -18 15 (8.0): Inter Milan v Atletico Madrid; PSV v
1,617 Ashton 0 Warrington 3; Farsley 1 Chester 2; Aberdeen............25 6 9 10 31 41 -10 27 Premier League Arsenal v Newcastle (8.0);
Darmstadt..........22 2 6 14 23 51 -28 12 Borussia Dortmund. Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest;
Hereford 0 Tamworth 0; Rushall 3 Motherwell........26 5 11 10 35 41 -6 26
St Johnstone.....26 5 9 12 17 35 -18 24 Italian Serie A Atalanta 3 Sassuolo 0; Premier League Man City v Brentford (7.30). Bournemouth v Manchester City (5.30);
Woking (0) 1 Gloucester 3; Scarborough 0 Scunthorpe 0; Empoli 1 Fiorentina 1; Frosinone 0 Roma 3;
South Shields 0 Darlington 4; Spennymoor Ross County......25 4 7 14 20 43 -23 19 Sky Bet Championship Cardiff v Blackburn; Brighton v Everton; Crystal Palace v
Lewis 71 Hellas Verona 2 Juventus 2; Lazio 1 Ipswich v Rotherham; Southampton v Hull; Burnley; Manchester Utd v Fulham.
1,646 2 Blyth 0. South Bath 3 St Albans 1; Livingston..........26 3 7 16 16 42 -26 16 Bologna 2; Monza 4 AC Milan 2; Napoli 1
Braintree 1 Torquay 0; Dover 1 Dartford 2; Cinch Championship Airdrieonians 2 Ayr 3; Plymouth v West Bromwich. League One Sky Bet Championship Blackburn v
Boreham Wood (1) 1 Eastbourne 0 Chelmsford 3; Farnborough 3 Genoa 1; Udinese 1 Cagliari 1.
Dunfermline 1 Arbroath 1; Inverness CT 3 Oxford Utd v Northampton; Reading v Port Norwich; Cardiff v Stoke; Hull v West
Truro 2; Hampton & Richmond 0 Aveley 1; P W D L F A GD Pts Vale (8.0); Cambridge Utd v Bolton. League
Tshimanga 1 Partick 3; Queen’s Park 0 Morton 0. League Inter Milan..........24 20 3 1 59 12 47 63 Bromwich (12.30); Ipswich v Birmingham;
Hemel Hempstead 1 Weston-super-Mare 2; One Alloa 4 Cove 1; Annan 2 Stirling Albion Two AFC Wimbledon v Crawley Town;
Slough 2 Chippenham 2; Welling 2 Juventus.............25 16 6 3 38 17 21 54 Middlesbrough v Plymouth; QPR v
1; Edinburgh City 1 Queen of the South 1; AC Milan..............25 16 4 5 49 31 18 52 Gillingham v Stockport County; MK Dons v Rotherham; Sheffield Wednesday v Bristol
Tonbridge 2; Weymouth 1 Worthing 4; Falkirk 3 Hamilton 2; Montrose 4 Kelty 2. Wrexham; Walsall v Morecambe.
Dorking (0) 0 Yeovil 1 Havant & Waterlooville 0. Atalanta..............24 14 3 7 47 23 24 45 City; Southampton v Millwall; Sunderland v
League Two Bonnyrigg 0 East Fife 2; Clyde Bologna...............25 12 9 4 37 23 14 45 Bristol Street Motors EFL Trophy
Isuzu FA Vase: Fifth round Bridgwater 2 2 Dumbarton 0; Elgin 2 Stenhousemuir 2; Swansea; Watford v Huddersfield. League
Deal 2 (Deal won 6-5 on pens); Hallam 2 Roma....................25 12 5 8 45 30 15 41 Blackpool v Peterborough One Barnsley v Derby; Blackpool v Bolton;
Oldham (1) 3 Forfar 3 Peterhead 3; Stranraer 1 Spartans 2.
Lincoln Utd 2 (Lincoln Utd won 6-5 on Fiorentina...........25 11 5 9 37 29 8 38 Cinch Scottish League One Falkirk v Bristol Rovers v Carlisle; Burton Albion v
Garner 15 French Ligue 1 Brest 1 Marseille 0; Lille 3 Le Lazio.....................24 11 4 9 29 26 3 37
pens); Highworth 2 Great Wakering 3. Havre 0; Monaco 1 Toulouse 2; Montpellier 3 Montrose. League Two Clyde v Forfar; Northampton; Cambridge Utd v
Fondop-Talum 58, 88 Women’s Super League Arsenal 3 Napoli..................24 10 6 8 33 28 5 36 Peterhead v Bonnyrigg Rose. Peterborough (midday); Charlton v
Metz 0; Nantes 0 PSG 2; Reims 1 Lens 1; Torino..................24 9 9 6 23 20 3 36
Southend (0) 0 Manchester Utd 1; Brighton 0 Liverpool 1; Rennes 3 Clermont 1; Strasbourg 1 Lorient 3. Monza..................25 8 9 8 25 30 -5 33 Wednesday Portsmouth; Exeter v Fleetwood Town;
Everton 2 West Ham 0; Leicester 5 Bristol P W D L F A GD Pts Genoa...................25 7 9 9 26 31 -5 30 Oxford Utd v Leyton Orient; Port Vale v
City 2; Tottenham 1 Aston Villa 2. Champions: Round-of-16, first leg (8.0): FC
PSG........................22 16 5 1 53 18 35 53 Lecce....................25 5 9 11 24 39 -15 24 Porto v Arsenal; Napoli v Barcelona. Lincoln City; Reading v Shrewsbury;
P W D L F A GD Pts Brest.....................22 11 7 4 31 18 13 40 Udinese...............25 3 14 8 25 38 -13 23 Stevenage v Wycombe. League Two
Solihull Moors (1) 2 Chelsea 14 11 1 2 41 13 28 34 Nice.......................22 11 6 5 22 15 7 39 Frosinone...........25 6 5 14 32 52 -20 23 Europa Conference League: Knock-out
Man City 14 11 1 2 36 8 28 34 round play-offs, second leg Gent (0) v Accrington Stanley v Crawley Town;
Maycock 9 Lille.......................22 10 8 4 32 17 15 38 Empoli..................25 5 7 13 19 38 -19 22 Barrow v Bradford City; Doncaster v AFC
Campbell 51 Arsenal 14 10 1 3 32 14 18 31 Monaco...............22 11 5 6 41 32 9 38 Sassuolo..............24 5 5 14 29 45 -16 20 Maccabi Haifa (1) (5.0).
Man Utd 14 7 3 4 31 18 13 24 Lens......................22 10 6 6 28 21 7 36 Wimbledon; Forest Green v Tranmere;
Hellas Verona....25 4 8 13 23 34 -11 20 Premier League Liverpool v Luton (7.30).
Gateshead (3) 4 Liverpool 14 6 4 4 18 19 -1 22 Rennes.................22 9 7 6 34 26 8 34 Cagliari................25 4 7 14 23 46 -23 19
Gillingham v Wrexham; Harrogate Town v
Tottenham 14 5 4 5 21 28 -7 19 Bristol Street Motors EFL Trophy Bradford Walsall; Mansfield v Salford; MK Dons v
Jobe 5, Evans 12 Reims...................22 9 4 9 28 30 -2 31 Salernitana.........25 2 7 16 20 51 -31 13
Dinanga 17 Leicester 14 4 4 6 21 26 -5 16 City v Wycombe (8.0). Newport County; Morecambe v Grimsby;
Marseille.............22 7 9 6 29 24 5 30 Spanish La Liga Atlético Madrid 5
Storey 50 Aston Villa 14 5 1 8 18 27 -9 16 Strasbourg.........22 6 7 9 23 32 -9 25 Women’s Nations League B/C play-off, first Notts County v Crewe; Stockport County v
Everton 14 4 2 8 12 25 -13 14 Las Palmas 0; Celta Vigo 1 Barcelona 2; leg Montenegro v Northern Ireland (2.0).
Lyon......................22 7 4 11 23 34 -11 25 Swindon; Sutton Utd v Colchester.
Dagenham & R (1) 1 West Ham 14 3 2 9 15 29 -14 11 Le Havre..............22 5 9 8 23 28 -5 24 Granada 1 Almería 1; Mallorca 1 Real
Hessenthaler 11 Brighton 14 3 2 9 13 30 -17 11 Sociedad 2; Osasuna 2 Cádiz 0; Rayo Thursday Cinch Scottish Premiership Hibernian v
Toulouse.............22 5 8 9 22 30 -8 23 Europa League: Knock-out round play-
Bristol City 14 1 3 10 17 38 -21 6 Montpellier........22 5 8 9 24 27 -3 22 Vallecano 1 Real Madrid 1; Real Betis 0 Dundee; Kilmarnock v Aberdeen; Rangers v
Cinch Scottish Premiership Lorient.................22 5 7 10 31 43 -12 22 Alavés 0; Valencia 0 Sevilla 0. offs, second leg (5.45 unless stated): Hearts; Ross County v Livingston; St Mirren
D L F A GD Pts Freiburg (0) v Lens (0); Qarabag (4) v
26 3 4 82 42 40 81 Nantes..................22 6 4 12 22 34 -12 22 P W D L F A GD Pts v St Johnstone.
Aberdeen (1) 2 Hibernian (1) 2 Metz......................22 4 5 13 18 35 -17 17 Real Madrid.......25 19 5 1 53 16 37 62 Braga (2); Marseille (2) v Shakhtar (2) (8.0);
17 10 6 57 38 19 61 Cinch Championship Arbroath v Inverness
Devlin 15, McGrath 51 Boyle 12 Clermont.............22 3 7 12 16 36 -20 16 Girona..................24 17 5 2 52 29 23 56 Rennes (0) v AC Milan (3); Roma (1) v CT; Ayr v Raith; Dundee Utd v Queen’s
18 5 9 63 47 16 59 18,329 Marcondes 67 Barcelona...........25 16 6 3 52 34 18 54
15 8 9 50 43 7 53 German Bundesliga Bochum 3 Bayern Feyenoord (1) (8.0); Sparta Prague (2) v Park; Morton v Airdrieonians. League One
Celtic (1) 1 Kilmarnock (0) 1 Atlético Madrid 25 16 3 6 50 26 24 51 Galatasaray (3) (8.0); Sporting (3) v Young
14 10 7 57 40 17 52 Munich 2; Darmstadt 1 Stuttgart 2; Freiburg Athletic Bilbao..24 13 7 4 42 21 21 46 Cove Rangers v Annan Athletic; Hamilton v
14 10 8 50 41 9 52 Furuhashi 32 Watson 90+2 3 Eintracht Frankfurt 3; Heidenheim 1 Bayer Boys (1) (8.0); Toulouse (1) v Benfica (2). Alloa; Kelty Hearts v Falkirk; Queen of
Real Sociedad...25 10 10 5 34 23 11 40
15 6 12 58 62 -4 51 58,887 Leverkusen 2; Hoffenheim 0 Union Berlin 1; Europa Conference League: Knock-out South v Montrose (5.30); Stirling Albion v
Real Betis............25 9 12 4 28 25 3 39
14 8 9 58 43 15 50 Dundee (1) 2 Ross County (0) 0 Mainz 1 Augsburg 0; RB Leipzig 2 Borussia Valencia..............25 10 6 9 29 29 0 36 round play-offs, second leg (5.45 unless Edinburgh City. League Two Dumbarton v
13 11 10 41 39 2 50 Tiffoney 45, 65 5,846 Mönchengladbach 0; Wolfsburg 1 Borussia Las Palmas.........25 10 5 10 25 25 0 35 stated): Bodo/Glimt (2) v Ajax (2); Dinamo Stranraer; East Fife v Forfar; Peterhead v
13 5 16 53 60 -7 44 Dortmund 1. Getafe..................25 8 10 7 33 34 -1 34 Zagreb (1) v Real Betis (0); Eintracht Elgin; Spartans v Bonnyrigg Rose;
11 8 15 48 47 1 41 Hearts (0) 2 Motherwell (0) 0 P W D L F A GD Pts
Osasuna..............25 9 5 11 29 36 -7 32 Frankfurt (2) v Union Saint Gilloise (2) (8.0);
B Leverkusen....22 18 4 0 57 15 42 58 Stenhousemuir v Clyde.
11 8 13 49 49 0 41 Shankland 67 18,748 Alavés..................25 7 7 11 24 31 -7 28 Ferencvaros (0) v Olympiacos (1) (8.0);
9 13 12 43 56 -13 40 Vargas 90+2 Bayern Munich.22 16 2 4 61 25 36 50 Villarreal.............25 6 8 11 35 47 -12 26 Legia Warsaw (2) v Molde (3) (8.0); Sunday
9 12 13 34 44 -10 39 Livingston (1) 1 St Mirren (0) 0 Stuttgart..............22 15 1 6 51 28 23 46 Rayo Vallecano 25 5 10 10 22 33 -11 25 Ludogorets (0) v Servette (0); Slovan Carabao Cup final Chelsea v Liverpool (at
10 9 14 53 67 -14 39 B Dortmund.......22 11 8 3 44 27 17 41 Sevilla .................. 25 5 9 11 30 37 -7 24
Yengi 45+3 Bratislava (1) v Sturm Graz (4) (8.0). Wembley Stadium)
10 8 12 42 45 -3 38 RB Leipzig .......... 22 12 4 6 48 28 20 40 Mallorca..............25 4 11 10 22 33 -11 23
10 8 15 54 58 -4 38 St Johnstone (0) 0 Rangers (1) 3 E Frankfurt.........22 8 9 5 34 28 6 33 Celta Vigo...........25 4 8 13 27 37 -10 20 Friday Premier League Wolverhampton v
8 14 11 42 50 -8 38 6,986 Diomande 37 Werder Bremen 22 8 5 9 31 34 -3 29 Cádiz.....................25 2 11 12 15 35 -20 17 Sky Bet Championship Leeds v Leicester Sheffield Utd (1.30).
11 5 17 38 53 -15 38 Tavernier 79, 87 Freiburg..............22 8 5 9 29 40 -11 29 Granada .............. 25 2 8 15 27 49 -22 14 (8.0); Coventry v Preston. League One Cinch Scottish Premiership Motherwell v
13 6 12 44 33 11 35 (both pens) Hoffenheim........22 7 6 9 38 41 -3 27 Almería................25 0 8 17 23 52 -29 8 Wigan v Cheltenham. Celtic (midday).
16 2GG Monday February 19 2024 | the times

IAN
HAWKEY Third loss in
a row piles
European Football
pressure
on Tuchel
Mbappé is set to lead next Madrid BUNDESLIGA
DOMINIC AKIBOYE
A third defeat in a row for Bayern

dynasty . . . What could go wrong? CHRISTIAN HARTMANN/REUTERS

What price, at auction, that bespoke Paris Saint-
Germain shirt the club designed for Kylian
Mbappé 15 months ago? It has the player’s
surname across its back, alongside the number
2025. It was tailored to commemorate Mbappé
signing a three-year deal to keep him in Paris.
Only there was no asterisk, no small print on the
sleeves or cuffs explaining that the third year,
2024-25, was strictly optional.
PSG have now made public that they are
reconciled to Mbappé not choosing the option of
a third season and there can be no stopping him
joining Real Madrid, out of contract, this
summer. It makes that 2025 shirt and all the
photos of it look suddenly like a taunt at PSG, a
relic on a timeline of wishful thinking in which
the French club imagine themselves becoming, at
last, more than just a lucrative stepping stone for
any truly elite player. In years to come, that
special-edition shirt may even carry the same
resonance as the grainy old images of Alfredo Di
Stéfano, the finest player of his era, wearing
Barcelona kit for a 1953 photocall — shortly
before Real gazumped their rivals and won the
most impactful transfer tug-of-war in football
history.
The full Mbappé saga, with its two — not three
— years earning a hyperinflationary PSG salary,
with petrodollars staked against old money, may
read like a thoroughly 21st-century tale, but it has
shades of the Di Stéfano squabble. Like Mbappé,
Di Stéfano had been hard to recruit. In the early
1950s, he was playing in a league, Colombia’s
Dimayor, that was sneered at from abroad but
where established wage ceilings had been
shattered. It was known as El Dorado. A whiff of
Babylonian decadence surrounded the
diverse group of stars who went there.
Fifa outlawed the whole Colombian
enterprise because it broke rules
on fair business practice.
Some 60-odd years later,
while the Qatar-backed PSG
were smashing transfer
records by signing Neymar
and Mbappé, they had a touch
of El Dorado. They were
threatened with exclusion
from Uefa competitions for
perceived Financial Fair Play
violations. As for their actual
exclusion from anywhere beyond the
quarter-finals of Uefa’s top competition,
the players have mostly taken care of that,
eliminated at the first knockout hurdle four times
in the six seasons Mbappé and Neymar were in
tandem, with each exit prompting fans to protest
against a culture of decadence.
Funny how issues of sovereignty crop up too,
with these drawn-out Real transfer sagas. When,
two springs ago, they found themselves stymied
in their pursuit of Mbappé, with PSG hiking up
Mbappé’s income to seal the “2025” deal, Mbappé
reported that the French president Emmanuel
Macron had called him, advising that France
needed its best player to stay in Paris. Around
Barcelona, they still pick away at the idea that,
during the duel for Di Stéfano’s signature,
ministers in Franco’s government actively
resisted his joining the Catalan club.
It still rankles because of the outcome. Before
Real had Di Stéfano, they had won a single
league title in 20 years. With him, they won eight
of the next 11, all of the first five European Cups,
with Di Stéfano on the scoresheet in each final,
and he delivered the first of the dozen Ballons
d’Or that decorate the Bernabeu’s trophy
auditorium.
It is this legacy that Mbappé — still
Mbappé’s 2025 shirt looks a relic of wishful thinking on PSG’s part but as he plans a
Madrid move, Ancelotti, left, will have the task of fitting the star into a young side
negotiating details of his
contract and with both parties
observing an agreed silence about
the move until after any possible
Real-PSG tie in this season’s Champions
League — takes on. Any stellar newcomer to
Madrid does. The best kitemark so far on Jude
Bellingham’s fabulous debut season? It’s that he
has eclipsed, by a goal, Di Stéfano’s record of 13
goals in his first 15 matches.
And there is no greater draw to Madrid for the
Mbappés or Bellinghams than the club’s carefully
cultivated association with the European Cup, all
the way back to its origins, through to five more
in the past decade. “Madrid don’t pay you in
money as much as in glory,” as the club’s former
director of football, Jorge Valdano, put it, leaving
out the important caveat that the money there is
still pretty good.
Real’s annual wage bill ranks among the top
five of European clubs. This despite a first-team
squad that is conspicuously young, full of talents
still on an upward trajectory, with bigger
contracts ahead of them. The starting XI who
moved clear at the top of La Liga last weekend,
thrashing second-placed Girona 4-0, had five
players of 25 or under in the front six. It might
easily have been six out of six had Aurélien
Tchouaméni, 24, not been obliged to retreat to
central defence to solve an injury crisis.
That is part of the calculus Mbappé applies to
a desire, since childhood, to play for a team he
grew up associating with that included Zinedine
Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo. He can envisage a
developing Madrid dynasty, where, in five
seasons’ time, he may not have matched Di
Stéfano’s five successive European Cups but will
still be 30, Vinícius Júnior will still be lightning
quick and Bellingham still getting better, at 25.
He can sketch out a 2024-25 Real line-up in
which he’s already the senior man, along with the
dynamic midfielder Fede Valverde, 25, in a front
six in which Mbappé gets to take all the penalties
earned by Vinícius, 23, and Bellingham, and
where the dressing room could hardly be more
convivial, with the midfielders Tchouaméni and
Edu Camavinga, 21, settled into its upper
hierarchy. They are compatriots whom Mbappé
captains for France.
He will be leaving a PSG where there have
been five different head coaches in six years,
several of whom have wearily had to arbitrate in
spats over who of Neymar or Mbappé got first
dibs at striking a dead ball. He will be joining a
club where, with his contract recently renewed
and an offer to take over Brazil’s national team
declined, Carlo Ancelotti will, early next season,
reach a landmark 300th match in charge.
All Ancelotti needs to do is make Mbappé-at-
Madrid look worth the wait. If he doesn’t, you
wouldn’t bet on the same coach still being there
much beyond 2025.
Munich yesterday piled the pressure
on the manager Thomas Tuchel,
though the club’s chief executive,
Jan-Christian Dreesen, said he would
“of course” be in the dugout for
Saturday’s match against RB Leipzig.
Bayern fell eight points behind
Bayer Leverkusen at the top of the
Bundesliga after losing 3-2 to Bochum
at Vonovia Ruhrstadion, with Tuchel,
the former Chelsea manager, saying:
“Now [the title] does not look very
realistic. But last season we believed
until the end and we were rewarded.
So we will keep working at it.”
The defeat came after Bayern
were well beaten by Xabi Alonso’s
Leverkusen side last week and a loss
to Lazio in the Champions League on
Wednesday. Leverkusen extended
their lead by overcoming Heidenheim
on Saturday.
Acknowledging the growing
pressure on him, Tuchel said: “That
happens after every defeat. The ‘how’
we played is key. The ‘how’ was good
today and that’s why today’s 90
minutes are very different from the
second half at Lazio or the game
at Leverkusen.
“There is no point in worrying
about it,” Tuchel said, when asked
if his job was in danger.
Dreesen confirmed that Tuchel
would “of course” be in the dugout
again on Saturday. “I don’t believe in
making these huge statements of
support for the coach. I know what
people want to hear, but these oaths
of allegiance can be over after a
week,” he said. “[Tuchel’s firing] is
not an issue we’re considering.”
Jamal Musiala opened the scoring
for Bayern in the 14th minute but
Bochum hit back through Takuma
Asano and Keven Schlotterbeck’s
header Dayot Upamecano was sent
off for a second yellow card after
conceding a penalty, which Kevin
Stoger converted to make it 3-1.
Harry Kane scored in the 87th minute
but the England captain’s goal proved
only a consolation.
‘Alonso not
going to leave’
The former Bayer Leverkusen
sporting director Rudi Völler has
backed head coach Xabi Alonso to
stay beyond the summer amid links to
Liverpool and Bayern Munich.
After taking over with the club near
the foot of the table last season,
Alonso has Leverkusen eight points
clear of Bayern Munich and on
course for a first-ever league title.
Alonso’s Leverkusen are unbeaten in
32 games in all competitions this
season, with only four draws.
Völler told Bild, “I can’t imagine
him going anywhere else in summer,”
when asked about Alonso’s future. “It
could happen at some point that he
goes to another club, but I can’t
imagine it this summer.” Völler said
even if Alonso delivered the title to
Leverkusen, “it won’t be over, it
continues”. “I don’t think there will be
a big exodus. The majority [of players
and staff] will stay,” he added.